Lyda Hill Gems and Mineral Hall at the Perot Museum

The Perot Museum of Nature and Science is a frequent science destination for us and the Lyda Hill Gem and Mineral Hall is one of our favorite exhibits within the museum. 

The hall has recently received some updates and while we were checking it out we had the wonderful opportunity to hear Ms. Lyda Hill speak to the guests.  That is, THE Lyda Hill of the Lyda Hill Gem and Mineral Hall!  Ms. Hill is one of Dallas' biggest philanthropists and she is passionate about promoting a love of science especially in young people.  She remembers how she loved to pick up pebbles when she was young and she wants to inspire others to pick up pebbles and explore the world of gems and minerals.  

You see, gems and minerals are a "gateway science".  Kids who might not have much appreciation for formal science will still be fascinated by interesting or sparkly rocks.  As they develop a love for gems and minerals, other doors of interest might open for them into related sciences like chemistry, geology, art, geometry, art, etc.

The Lyda Hill Gem and Mineral Hall has four signature displays.  Their 5 foot tall amethyst geode has always been an impressive site.  The Eyes of Africa is a show-stopping fluorite found in the "Alien Eye" pocket in Namibia, Africa.  It has symmetrical black outer zones framing diamond-shaped vibrant green cores.  This beautiful piece is on loan from Lyda Hill.

Stibnite, also known as Antimony Sulfide, is one of Nicholas' favorite displays.  It is a robust cluster of crystal formations recovered from an industrial ore mine in Jiangxi Province of China.  It is an amazing piece.

And finally, the monthly birthstone case displays the rough and faceted forms along with a special display of beautiful jewelry featuring the current month's gem.

We admired the Aurora Butterfly of Peace, a 240 colored diamonds, some of which fluoresce under UV light.  This piece symbolizes "a spiritual connection to Earth for all humankind".

I am in love with this Ammonite fossil that has an iridescent coating of Aragonite.  It was found in Canada.

As we were admiring this amazing piece of Tanzanite, Ms. Lyda Hill came over to speak to us!!   This is one of her pieces that she has loaned to the museum.

She talked to us some more about her passion for inspiring children and adults to learn more about nature so that they will take care of this planet for the next generation.  We enjoyed hearing her stories about a few of her other pieces on display at the museum.

There are sections in the hall based on color, based on the country where the specimens were found, and based on the type of gem and mineral.  It makes it really interesting to look at the pieces this way.
 

For example, these three pictures below all represent rhodochrosite but look how different they look from each other.  

There are also several interactive screens where you can see what different minerals are made of or play a head-to-head game to test you gem and mineral knowledge.

Here are a few of our other favorite specimens in the hall.  I like the rich purple and turquoise of the Azurite/Malachite piece.  The stringy slivers of silver are one of Nicholas' favorites.

We love being inspired to learn something new every time we visit the Perot Museum!

As we were leaving the museum, Rachel proudly pointed out that we actually spoke to one of the founding donors of the Perot Museum of Nature and Science.  

Come check out the amazing new look of the Lyda Hill Gem and Mineral Hall but make plans to come back later in February for the museum's upcoming special exhibit, The Art of the Brick, featuring the world's largest display of LEGO art!  You can bet we will be back for that!

The Perot Museum of Nature and Science is located at 2201 N. Field Street in Dallas.  For more information, please visit their website at https://www.perotmuseum.org/.

Our Homeschool Electronics Class

One of the careers that Nicholas is interested in is Electrical Engineering.  He has always had a pretty strong knack for engineering.  He is always tinkering, creating, and building things.  It just seems to come naturally for him.  He enjoys working with electrical circuits and understands some basics about electricity but we wanted him to go a little deeper and learn more so he can really see if this is a field he would want to go into.  The beauty of homeschooling is that we have more flexibility in our schedule to let our children really explore their passions.  It also helps that our children are not allowed to have "screen time" during the school week so that allows for more free time for sparking their imaginations and interests.

One day when we were at Tanner's Electronics store just playing around with electrical components, we asked the owner if he happened to know of local classes or even curriculum to teach electronics to kids.  I'm so glad that we talked to him because we learned that they homeschool their children as well!  He gave us a great resource for a book which can be found for free on MIT's website.  It is called MAKE Electronics by Charles Platt.  It isn't a curriculum, per se, but it has lessons that build upon each other.  We even found kits that come with all of the supplies needed for the electronics lab exercises.  We even found a homeschool friend that wanted to do the course too so Stuart works through the book and the projects with Nicholas and his friend every Thursday night.  The two boys love this class and they get excited about the projects they do each week.  

Nicholas gets so excited about tinkering with electronics that when our coffee maker broke, he wouldn't let me throw it out.  Instead the boys took it apart as part of their class work and learned about how it worked.

And, when this microwave was seen at the curb in front of a neighbor's house, I was asked to pick it up so the deconstruction and investigation of it could become another extension of Electronics Class!  Note: microwaves can be dangerous to take apart so you must do some research before you try to tackle this project.

We also have a big trunk under the school table that Nicholas is using to collect other dead or broken things that I would like to throw away like an old PC, a monitor, an electric pencil sharpener, a kid's version of a tablet, and much more.  The trunk is so full that we can no longer fully close the lid on it.  I think he has enough electronic projects now to last him an entire year!  But do you want to know something cool?  Nicholas doesn't just dive into taking everything apart.  Stuart has a great understanding of electronics so Nicholas always wants to wait until Stuart is available to do it with him so he can teach him about the components and what they do.

I love listening in on Stuart and the boys during Electronics class.  I smile as I hear the excitement in the boys' voices as they learn cool new things or they successfully make their electronic projects work correctly.  Stuart, thank you for pouring your time and energy into making this class so great for them, especially when you do it after a long day at work.

Media-Enhanced Digital Books from Weigl Publishers {Review}

Weigl Publishers offers an impressive array of media-enhanced digital books for students in grades K-12.  A student can read the book themselves or they have the option to have the book read aloud to them as well as using other multi-media features that enhance the learning experience.  Once the digital content has been unlocked for a book, your student will have access to those multi-media features indefinitely.  This is not a subscription that will expire in a year.
Rachel was most excited about the book called Glaciers which is part of the Earth's Water series through Lightbox. It is intended for students in grades 3-6.  

The digital content for Glaciers is amazing.  Each page of the book shows symbols for the types of features that are available for it.  Here is a picture of all of the different symbols that could appear on a page. 

They include audio, video, an activity, weblink, slideshow, transparency, Google map, quiz, and key words.  These features add so much more to the content than just what is included in the book.
Here are some examples below.  This picture is of a map of glaciers around the world.  You can see on the left hand side of the page that this page includes audio, an activity, transparency, and Google maps.

The transparency features takes a plain map and glaciers all around it along with some identified featured glaciers that appear in the boxes around the map.  What happens when you click on one of these boxes?  You get a screen that shows an actual Google map of that specific glacier so you can zoom in and out or look all around it.  It is like you are visiting the actual glacier from your home!

Rachel loves the video features on the pages.  The graphics are great and the information is presented in a clear, easy-to-understand way.  Here is part of a video she watched of glacier crevasses.


There is also a quiz feature.  If the student has read the book it will be a very easy quiz.  Rachel thought it was actually a fun quiz to take.

The second book we reviewed is A Lion's World which is part of the Eye Discover series (www.eyediscover.com).  This book is a great non-fiction easy reader that is intended for students in grades K-2.



Because A Lion's World is intended for younger students, it does not contain as much media content as Glaciers does.  However it does have amazing videos of lions on each page.  Rachel's favorite was listening to and watching the lion roar.




Finally, the last book we reviewed was There Once Was a Cowpoke Who Swallowed an Ant by Helen Ketteman.  This book is an AV2 Fiction Readalong.  It has sound effects and can read the book aloud for the student.  This particular one is a really cute spin on the classic book by a similar title.  There Once Was a Cowpoke Who Swallowed an Ant is intended for students in grades K-2.



Weigl Publishers has done a great job with their media-enhanced books.  Rachel has learned a lot while reading and exploring the digital content of the Glaciers book.  She wants to get more of their books so we looked at their list of the Lightbox Elementary books.  My son Nicholas will be starting high school this fall so I think I will get him some of the Lightbox Secondary books.  



If you would like to read additional reviews about these books from Weigl Publishers from other members of the Homeschool Review Crew, please click on the banner below:

Exploring Creation with Human Anatomy and Physiology {Review}

We have used the Young Explorer series from Apologia for homeschool science in the past so I was excited to have the opportunity to review their Exploring Creation with Human Anatomy and Physiology curriculum for the Homeschool Review Crew. Apologia sent us a textbook, an audio CD, an Anatomy Notebooking Journal, as well as a Junior Anatomy Notebooking Journal to try.


This curriculum is an introduction to human anatomy from a Christian perspective.  The hardcover text book is the heart of the curriculum.  It is divided into the following 14 chapters:

1. Introduction to Anatomy and Physiology
2. The Skeletal System
3. The Muscular System
4. The Digestive and Renal Systems
5. Health and Nutrition
6. The Respiratory System
7. Life in the Blood
8. The Cardiovascular System
9. The Nervous and Endocrine Systems
10. The Nervous System Extended
11. Your Senses
12. The Integumentary System
13. The Lymphatic and Immune Systems
14. Growth and Development

The MP3 audio CD is a recording of the author, Jeannie Fulbright, reading the text aloud.  Her voice is soothing and the kids enjoyed listening to her.  While the CD was playing, my kids read along in the textbook and looked at the graphics.  However, as with any read aloud we do, my children like to stop and discuss everything we read. It took a little longer for us to get through the material when we had to keep starting and stopping the CD so they could talk or ask questions.  My children prefer to just read the text aloud or have me read it aloud to them so we can more naturally discuss the material as we go along.  That is just the way we do read alouds together.  I think the CD would be great for other families, especially a student studying this independently or if you wanted to just play the CD in the car.

There are two Notebooking Journals available.  The regular one is intended for older children which I let Nicholas complete.  It contains more review questions and a vocabulary crossword puzzle.  The Junior Notebooking Journal contains some coloring pages for each lesson and less writing on most of the other notebook pages.  Rachel is in third grade and she likes the Junior version better although I think she is old enough to do fine with the regular version but it would definitely take her a little more time to complete.

For example, here is a crossword puzzle that Nicholas completed using vocabulary from lesson one.

But with the Junior version, Rachel just had to glue the vocabulary word on the definition to create a lift-the-flap page.

I just love that each lesson has a scripture copywork page that relates to the lesson in some way.  Both journals offer a sample copywork in both manuscript and cursive so your child can complete which ever one is a better fit for them.

But my favorite part of the Notebooking Journals are the mini-books.  Both the regular version and the Junior versions contain these.  Check out my video below to see two examples.

Each lesson in the textbook gives an easy-to-read explanation of the various systems along with several "Try This!" demonstrations and experiments.  The experiments are easy to follow and they use materials that you most likely already have at home.  Here are just a few that we did in the first couple of lessons.

As they learned about the history of the study of anatomy, they learned about how ancient Egyptians embalmed bodies with salts to preserve them because they believed the bodies would be needed in the afterlife.  So the kids did an experiments with various ratios of table salt, epsom salt, baking soda, and a control to see which mixture was the most effective at drying out apple slices.  This was a really fun experiment!

After learning about the invention of glass lenses and microscopes, they did an experiment with a drop of water to demonstrate how a magnifying glass works.

When they learned about the different organelles inside the human cell, they used jello and various kinds of candy to make an edible cell.  Yum!

To demonstrate the importance of our skeletal system, the children made clay people.  First they made one without any "bones".  He fell over right after I took his picture.  Second, they made one with a toothpick skeletal system and he is still standing today.

Did you know that your arm span is about the same width as your body is tall?  The children learned that and then did the "Try This!" demonstration to measure it for themselves.

In summary, we love this curriculum.  It is a great introduction to anatomy and the demonstrations make it a fun and more memorable way to learn.  I also appreciate that Apologia offers different notebooking journals for different ages.  We have also enjoyed the fact that the curriculum gives some additional projects and reading materials for each lesson in case your student wants to dive in deeper with a particular topic.


We have used the Apologia Young Explorer series for most of our science curriculum.  However, here are two other Apologia products that I have reviewed in the past:

• Internship for High School Credit
• What We Believe: Who Am I?

If you would like to read some additional reviews about the Apologia Exploring Creation with Human Anatomy and Physiology products from other reviewers on the Homeschool Review Crew, please click on the banner below:

American International Rattlesnake Museum - Albuequerque, New Mexico

We left Pimentel and Sons and found our way to the Turquoise Museum.  I love turquoise so I was pretty excited about this stop.  Unfortunately when we got there we saw a sign on the door that said they were closed for a private event and wouldn't open until later in the afternoon.  We would already be on the road out of town by then so we missed getting to see it.

Next on our list was the American International Rattlesnake Museum.  This was mostly for Nicholas but we were all at least a little bit interested because this museum has the largest collection of live rattlesnakes in the world.

We arrived a little before the museum opened but we were entertained by two beautiful rescued African Spurred Tortoises in a stock tank outside.  This is the third largest tortoise species in the world.

The gift shop has a lot of great souvenirs.  Both of my children bought their own authentic rattlesnake fang to bring home with them.  They are small but very sharp looking.  I cringe at the thought of that piercing my skin.

Before I show you around the museum, did you know that all rattlesnackes are born live?  Vipers and boas also have live births.  They do not hatch from eggs like other snakes.  

Here is a Mottled Rock Rattlesnake.  It lives in the dry rocky lands of Mexico, New Mexico, and Texas so its mottled dull colors help it to camouflage with the rocks around it.

This guy below is a Royal Python or Ball Python.  He is called a Ball Python because if he gets scared, he will roll up into a ball shape and just roll away!  I would have liked to have seen him do this but I guess he is used to big human faces staring at him all day long.  Ball Pythons are non-venomous and they usually doesn't bite at all but they are constrictors.  These snakes live in Africa.  Their coloring is usually dark brown or black with tan markings.  

There are more than just rattlesnakes in the museum.  I was fascinated to see this platypus skeleton.  Did you know that a platypus is venomous?  Yes it is!  It has venom glands connected to spurs on his hind feet.  

Now this guy was one that Nicholas had hoped to find in the wild while we were hiking in the Sonoran Desert.  The Gila Monster!  It is the only venomous lizard in the United States.

Why would Nicholas want to encounter a Gila Monster in the desert?  Because he has seen Coyote Peterson find them there.  Check out Coyote's video below:


What I find really crazy though it that Nicholas has probably also seen the video below of the time that Coyote was bitten by a Gila Monster yet he still wanted to catch one on his own!


This next guy looks scary but he is harmless to humans.  He is a Vinegaroon or Whip Scorpion.  He is an arachnid but he doesn't have fangs like a spider or a stinger like a scorpion.  He doesn't contain any venom at all.  However, when he gets scared he will spray a vinegar-like substances to scare away the threat.

There are lots of unique historical snake items throughout the museum like the old sewing machine that looks like a snake and these antique bottles of snake oil and snake liniment.

Nicholas loves catching lizards and this display of 14 species of horned lizards was interesting to all of us.  

The last room in the museum has a seating area and a movie about snakes.  It also has the most snakes on display.  Nicholas was quite happy here.

I loved that the displays were made to include information that adults would appreciate as well as information that was easy for children to read on their own.

At the bottom of the display there was a card with the common name of the snake and a simple description of it.  It was down low so that small children would be able to read it.

Then above the display was more detailed information for adults and a map of where they could be found.

Ok, back to the snakes.  Snakes are not aggressive unless they feel threatened.  If you don't get too close to it, it will likely just slither away from you.  

This is the Costa Rican Rattlesnake.  He is found in South America and Mexico on the grasslands and savanna.  He is a pit viper which means he has a pit near each nostril that he uses to sense slight temperature changes which helps him locate his prey.  He has a neurotoxic venom.  He typically grows to about 3-6 feet.

Rachel and I spent some time looking at this next snake, the Western Diamondback Rattlesnake.  

The Western Diamondback Rattlesnake is a pit viper.  

It has a dark diamond pattern on his back and a triangular head.  There are black bands at the end of his body just before the rattle.  I didn't notice until Rachel pointed it out but you are actually looking at two snakes here.  Can you see the head of the second snake?

Most people think that a snake that is shaking its rattler is being aggressive.  However, in reality, the rattler is a sign that the snake is afraid and he is just trying to scare away whatever he feels is threatening him.  They can move their rattle up to 60 times per second!

The American International Rattlesnake Museum is located at 202 San Felipe Street NW in Albuquerque, NM, phone 505-242-6569.  Adults are $6.00 and children age 3-12 are $4.00.

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• Route 66: Cadillac Ranch {Texas}

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• Pimentel and Sons Guitar Makers - Albuquerque, New Mexico