Day 4 - Aullwood Audubon

Today in the intersession "To the woods", we went to the Aullwood Audubon Center and Farm. The Aullwood Audubon is a place where there used to be a farm located, but the ownership of 70 acres were donated to the Audubon society and is reserved as a wildlife area. 

At the Aullwood Audubon, we started by separating into four groups and then going off in those groups with a guide to take us bird-watching and talking to us about the plants, animals, and birds that lived there. We got to explore down paths, identify different trees and we saw and heard different birds with binoculars and we also got to see many things that I haven't seen before, like an insect that makes sap on tall grass and that's how it survives.

We also went to a small pond, where we used small baskets to surface up small insects, animals, and bugs from the pond. We caught dragonfly larvae, tadpoles, and very small water skiers among others. We also got to see bird houses, and we learned about the birds that inhabit that area and saw a couple of territorial neo-tropical birds that migrate every winter and how they're different from birds that stay in Ohio all year round.

We then went back to the center to look at some snakes, frogs, turtles and other wildlife that Ohio has. Afterwords, we went to the farm and looked 

at some massive horses that can't be ridden but are used for pulling things. There were also goats, sheep, and some donkeys there. After that, we packed up and went back to the school.

Massive horses that cant be ridden at farm

Snake at the Aullwood Audubon center

Day 3 - Cox Arboretum

On the 3rd day of the intersession "To the woods", we had a field trip to the Cox Aboretum. There, we saw many things on many trails, including different types of trees, flowers, and animals, as well as a ton of butterflies and bees. There were many flowers there in the main area around the carousel, but in the trails there were a lot fewer flowers but many types of grass and weeds located all around the trails we walked through. We also climbed a tree house that was around 24 feet high and were able to see trees for miles in one direction in wilderness that man hasn't taken down.

We were given an assignment to find at least 5 different types of trees and take pictures of them. This required us to travel around the aboretum and find all the different types of trees and even travel into some trails to find different types. The types of trees we found were: Blue spruce, evergreen, maple, oak, and pine trees. There were other types of trees but we didn't take pictures of them.

blue spruce tree

Maple tree

Oak tree

Pine tree

Young evergreen tree with more evergreen in background

We were also required to take pictures of a creature. We found many creatures, but took pictures of turtles, squirrels, geese, and bees.

Bee

Second day -- Our small small world

 Today was my second day of the "To the woods" intersession. For my second day, my class went to Delco Park and listened to Rob E. Boley talk about how to write poems and haikus from getting words from an article or song. After we created the poems and haikus, my class then went out to the park to observe a smaller world and to take notes. 

My small world was on the edge of the grass and a pond. It was surrounded by large rocks and had water at the bottom. I observed many bugs and spiders in the small ecosystem, and tons of plants and webs for spiders. I also observed turtles, dragonflies, geese, ducks, and other animals and bugs around my ecosystem as well.

It was very interesting because I saw more life than i expected in a small crevice beside a pond. I managed to see a mix of life with water adapted species and land adapted species, and a mixture of ecosystems in the same environment. It let me realize that a mixture of life in any place can survive and coexist, and the ecosystem would be even more beautiful at the same time.

Today was the first day of the To the Woods intersession. At the beginning of the day, we starting with introducing ourselves to the other people in the intersession. Then, we played a game where we pretended the floor was lava and we used wooden boards to cross (as shown above.) After we got smarties for finishing the game as a team, we listened to a guest speaker, Scott Giesel, talk about nature writing and how we can use methods to record when we go on field trips to observe nature. After we philosophized with the guest speaker, we went to lunch and recess, and then we tried to do yoga but the trainer didn't show up. So instead, we had more time to start working on the blogs.