October 25, Senior Center and Homeschoolers explore Lake Wallace/Foley Fields

It was another lovely afternoon, with the fall colors signalling the end of another growing season.

Members of the Belchertown Senior Center joined forces with homeschoolers to see how the fields and forests impact the vitality of the lake ecosystem.  ...  Pretty good!!

Old Monarch chrysalis ... looks like this one didn't make it

Nothing quite like an inter-generational excursion ... everyone has their perspective to share!

3rd grade takes a field trip to Lake Wallace

It was a gorgeous October day, and 180 3rd graders agreed!

8 BHS students, Mr. Clark and Ms. Levy hosted all of the 3rd graders in two "waves," exploring the life in the water, reveling in the colors of autumn leaves, and writing compelling letters with rich language to convince residents of the desert southwest to come to Belchertown to visit!

All agreed that we live in a beautiful place, worth celebrating (and that it was great to get out for some Science!)

Scooping for Science!

Sort and identify

Let's take a closer look at that one!

Scientists, getting right into their studies

Yep ... that's a snail

Choose, identify and sketch ... now that's documentation!

Ecomentors Thursday November 15th

Layer up, Ecomentors!  The forecast is for mid-forties and sunny, but the sun sets before 4:30.

This time, we'll be admiring the late fall landscape and checking out the great variety of leaves that have fallen around Lake Wallace.

all Red Oaks  from hort.purdue.edu

Let's see if we can come up with some great descriptions of our beautiful landscape ... great enough to convince Californians/Arizonans to take their vacation here!  Start thinking about how you would use fallen leaves in an Ecotourism Travel brochure

from crazywebsite.com  but that could just as easily be Lake Wallace!

Leonids meteor shower

This Friday-Saturday ... find a dark spot, bundle up, set up the lounge chair, point it south-eastish and get ready for a show!

from science.howstuffworks

The Leonids meteor shower gives us a celebration every November 17th ... and this year, the skinny moon won't wash them out  (hopefully, the clouds won't either!).  They are not predicting a meteor storm this year, so expect 15-20 meteors per hour ... enough to keep you interested, not so many that it becomes impossible to count.  And there are no mosquitoes (unlike the Perseids in August)!

Meteors are the debris from comets that have passed through our solar system.  Earth's orbit passes through the debris cloud once a year and we get a show from the dust!

So, dress like it's 20 degrees colder, set up after midnight (preferably between 2 and 5am), and enjoy.

Email Ms.Levy with your count ... how many meteors did you see?  Did you see any fireballs?  Did any meteors leave trace clouds?  Let me know if you hear any owls, coyotes or any other denizens of the night.  (why are are never denizens of the day?!)

Good source info =
http://earthsky.org/tonight/moonless-nights-for-november-leonid-meteors-in-2012