Check out some pictures from our Adventure!
Oklahoma Science Adventure Blog 2012
Day One
Hi Everyone! It was great to meet you all at the Sam Noble Museum today. We spent the afternoon getting to know each other and having fun at a ropes course. There we learned about how to work together as a team by overcoming some fun challenges together. Afterwards, we departed for Claremore where we will spend the next few days exploring the plants and animals of the Rogers County Conservation District. We’ll have a night hike and an opening day campfire with s’mores! Stayed tuned for more as we head into the field! -Jes & Brad
Days Two and Three
Hi Everyone! Yesterday was our first day to jump in and get our feet wet (literally!) We explored several pond ecosystems with John, a zoologist specializing in insects, April, a herpetologist and Robert, an environmental educator at Rogers State University. We explored several ecosystems as we explored the process of science. We found fish, frogs, cool insects and even deer. After cooling off with a swim, we spent the evening playing games, designing our research projects and seeing insects and frogs at night. Today we directed our own research and found out a lot about aquatic ecosystems and can’t wait to share. We’ll track some animals tonight and meet Dr. Nick Czaplewski, who will be our animal guide tomorrow. We’re having fun and staying cool! Tomorrow we’ll be canoeing on the river and will have a chance to upload some pictures and blog about our adventures. Stay tuned! -Jes and Brad
Day Four
Hi Everyone! Today was a great day! We woke up before dawn to explore the forest and hear the dawn chorus of birds canoed. Next we drove to Tahlequah to canoe six miles down the Illinois River with Dr. Nick Czaplewski as we explored the river ecosystem. We got to swim and have a picnic lunch out on a gravel bar. It was hard work, but we used our team work and sense of adventure to make it (through some brief rain!) to the end. Tomorrow we’ll head back to the Sam Noble Museum and start exploring paleontology and fossils! We had some technical difficulties uploading our pictures, but we’ll try our best to get some up tomorrow. Thanks for all your messages, we have so much to share with you this weekend! Check out what our Adventures had to say about their first few days on the “Team Member Perspectives” Post. -Jes and Brad
Melissa: Hello! We’ve done a few different, but all fun, things these past 4 days. On Saturday, we left the museum and went to Claremore, OK, to get to know each other better, and to also take a night hike. On Sunday, we played a few trust games, met two scientists named April and John, and after that, we got into four ponds in the RSU reserve, to take a few samples of animals and plant; we also learned what our pond projects were, and decided on questions we wanted answered. On Monday, we went to the ponds and got to perform our experiments. We made Power Points on our projects and the data, and presented to the rest of the group. On Tuesday, we woke up at 4:30 AM to take a morning hike, and listen to the night animals slowly quieting, and the birds and day frogs slowly waking up, and making noises. We left for Tahlequah, and started canoeing in the morning. Everything is very fun. Goodbye!
Kylie R.: HI!!! We have had awesome week. From night hiking to Canoeing we have down it all. I love studying the animals and I look forward to the fossils. We have made great friends and were like family. The ponds at RSU where really neat and canoeing was great. I will miss my friends that I have made very much at the end of camp. This is an awesome camp and very fun.
Dominique W.: Hi, we are having a lot of fun. The first day we went to a ‘ropes course’ and learned to work together, then, we went hiking through a forest at night. My new friend Chase and I saw lots of lightning bugs. We also heard cricket frogs, which are small frogs who sound like, well, crickets. The second day we went hiking through the forest in the day. We took samples in the 4 ponds and took them back to the classroom. We also worked on a small surprise. On the third day we worked on the surprise again. We also previewed it to our instructors. Today, we went canoeing at Diamondhead Reserve then checked in at Holiday Inn and ate at Chili’s. See ya soon!
Julia: Hello everyone! <3 I miss you all, but I’ve been having an awesome time! We have gone out to eat every day for dinner this week so far. The first day we got started right away! We did a rope course by the museum and got to know everyone. Everyone is really nice. After that we went to Claymore and studied wildlife and pond animals. We stayed at RSU. Then we went on a night hike and ate s’mores. We did a presentation on any animal that was interesting to my partner, Brianna, and I. We did a project yesterday on deer tracks at ponds. It was really awesome! Today we woke up at 4:00 and went on a sunrise hike and listened to all the animals in the morning. After that, we went Tahlequah and went canoeing in the Illinois River. It was really cool and fun! Now we’re in a hotel in Tahlequah. Tomorrow we will go back to the museum and will study fossils. In Claymore, Brianna and I found a fossil, a turtle shell, and a golf ball on the reservation. There was a golf course right by it! So, that’s about it! Miss you and see you soon!
Alexis L.: This week has been very productive, and really fun. My two favorite activities was canoeing in the Illinois River and waking up at around 4:30 AM to go into Roger State University’s reserve to hear the birds waking up and the deer eating grass early in the morning. The river had pretty cool water, lots of rocks and many branches and logs sticking out of the water. We have learned so much this week and I enjoyed all of it. We learned about tracking footsteps, pond organisms and a lot more. Our group, also, has been working on a pond project to present on the last day. My favorite things I saw was a deer named Mrs. Mumps with a really big cheek and jaw, and all of the small and medium sized frogs that we could catch by the ponds. In the reserve, the aqua lab had lots of organisms that were very interesting. The aqua lab had a tortoise, a turtle, many small fish, tad poles, stick bugs, cockroaches, frogs, and skinks. We have recently went to Claremore and has traveled to Tahlequah and is currently staying there.
Chase M.: Hi everyone!!!!!! I’m having soooo much fun!!!! On day one we got to do the rope course then went to Claremore and went on a night hike. Day two we went in the ponds and got to collect water animals we used those to start our projects. Day three we went back in the pond to study the project we chose. Me and my partner, Zach, chose to study leeches and later did a report about them. We caught 28 total. Today woke up at 4 am and went on a morning hike then we went canoeing down the Illinois river with my other partner and new friend, Nevada. It was awesome!!!!!!! So I’m doing fine and can’t wait to see you again!!!!
Nicholas S.: This has been an awesome week so far! On the first day, we met everyone and got to know each other. Afterwards, we drove down to a rope course and practiced lots of team building exercises. After that, we drove to Claremore and went to a reserve called The Reserve. We saw a bunch of deer in the yard around The Reserve, and one of them was named Mrs. Mumps because her cheeks were big and jiggly. At night, we went hiking and listened to night sounds. After we left Claremore, we drove to Tahlequah and that’s where we are now. We went canoeing in the Illinois River and it was so awesome! We almost tipped over once, because of a strong current. It’s so awesome here and I wish it was longer! See ya’ll soon!
BriAnna T.: Hey everybody!! I have been having a great time, I had a couple of moments that I just wanted to go home. We went to Chili’s and Billy Sims and Golden Corral for dinner the last past three days. The first day we had pizza. Today, I got to go canoeing and swimming on the Illinois River. We have been in Claremore and right now we are inTalequah. We all get along well and we all make good friends. I have mosquito bites like crazy!!! I can’t wait to go home and see my loving family but I will miss my new friends. Julia and I found deer tracks and we did a report thingy on it too. Julia is my Lab Buddy and my bestest friend. Love you and miss you mom, dad, and my little bro!!! 😉
Nevada: Well so far so it’s been a blast. We have been doing a lot of hiking, swimming in these dirty lakes. I have made some new friends but there are only 5 boys and the rest girls. We had got a journal and kept all the information we have uncovered. Every day we go out to eat like today we went to Chiles, it was pretty tasty (July 10, 2012) I hope Chance, Sierra and the rest of the family are having a good time. But so am I, but it will never be the same without you here with me. When we go out on our hikes we do some tracking and some other cool stuff…well I LOVE AND MISS MY FAMILY AND HOPE I CAN SEE THEM SOON!!!!
Haley: Have fun looking at deer, frog, fish, and tadpoles. Going down river in a canoe. Good food.
Piper: Having so much fun and even though I am, I miss you mommy, daddy, and grandma. I think my favorite thing so far is canoeing. I also miss my kitty, my dogs and all other animals. Until today, we’ve been studying animal and plant life in ponds at RSU in Claremore, OK. If you love mud you’d love this. I love u family. P.S. I love domo panda kitty.
Morgan B.: The first place we went on Saturday was the ropes course where we did challenges to test our teamwork. Later we rode to Claremore. We met our first scientist, Robert. He took us on a night hike to observe the sounds, smells, and appearance of the forest at night. The next day we met the other two experts, April (a herpetologist) and John (an entomologist). Afterwards we explored four ponds and recorded the things we saw at each site. We got very muddy in the process. Later we were paired with our research partners and decided on our question to research. My partner was Haley and our question was “What stages of life occur in the tadpoles in each pond?” On Monday we all went out to the ponds and studied them to test our hypothesis’s. We spent the rest of the afternoon working on our projects, taking a break to swim once. That evening we presented our projects. Everyone presented great projects. Before going back to our dorms we said bye to April and John. At our dorms we met Nick (a paleontologist), who showed us how to study animal tracks. The next day we got up at 4:30 a.m. to experience the forest waking up. I personally loved this because I really enjoyed hearing everything start to wake up and call back and forth. After this we said goodbye to Robert and we went back to the hotel and packed up. We rode to the Illinois River and started canoeing. The canoeing is my favorite thing we’ve done so far. That is what we’ve done so far. I am having loads of fun on this trip and I hope it never ends. I have made so many new friends and we always play lots of fun games. I am excited to see what other exiting things we will be doing.
Zach: Hi guys! How are you doing? I am doing really good. Today we got to go on a canoe trip down the Illinois River. It was a lot of fun. Before that though, we’ve been getting really dirty and muddy doing research. The only problem today was that we had to get up at four in the morning for a morning hike! I’ve met and made friends with some really good kids here. Nic and I were roommates when we were in Claremore. He is really funny. I’ve also met some other cool guys like Nevada and Chase. Chase was my research partner and he is really nice. Well, can’t wait to see you guys!
Day Five
Hi Everyone! Today we drive back from Tahlequah to the Sam Noble Museum to begin our exploration of Paleontology. We started by helping the Museum’s Vertebrate Paleontology department. We each sorted through coarse gravel found at an Cenozoic excavation site to look for “micro” fossils, or fossils that are very small. We used tweezers and magnifying glasses and found fish scales, turtle shells, crocodile teeth and even pieces of a tiny lizard jaw! It was neat to see something no other person has seen before-a true discovery! We learned all about the science of paleontology and even practiced our excavation and identification techniques before we depart tomorrow to our fossil field location. Thanks for all your messages! Check out what our Adventures had to say on the “Team Member Perspectives” post a little later tonight. -Jes and Brad
Julia: Hey err’body! Today was awesome! The first thing we did was leave the hotel we stayed at and headed back to the museum. It was about 3 hour drive! After we got here, we did micro-picking, which is pretty much finding tiny fossils mixed in with gravel. It was super cool. After that we looked though the museum and learned about big fossils and dinosaur bones. That was really cool too! 🙂 Love and miss you all! <3
BriAnna: Today, we got do micro picking with Kristi. We found gar scales, croc scales, and turtle shells. We are in Tahlequah and it’s really fun!!! Tomorrow we get to actually get to go and dig for cool things. I miss my family more than anything. I can’t wait to get home and pick on my brother!!! LOVE…
Melissa: Hello! Today, on Wednesday, we pretty much just woke up in the morning for the three hour drive back to the Sam Noble Museum (we spent the time playing games and singing random things). When we got to the museum, we went to a classroom to start micro picking, which is just finding little fossils in a pile of gravel and dirt. Later, we started to start our own little practice excavation in the classroom in the museum, ate dinner, and finished our excavation. Then, we went around the museum, taking a tour of all the dinosaur fossils. Tomorrow, we’re going to go to a place called White Mountain, to help excavate. Well, that’s all, goodbye!
Dominique W.: Hey guys! Today we Checked out of the hotel and started a long drive back to the museum. We stopped for some subway! We finally got back to the museum and went to the back to do some micro-picking, which is looking for really small fossils. After that we went to the classroom and ate and practiced our Paleontology. Finally we toured the museum.
Haley: We went micro picking; we found gar scales, croc scales, turtle shell, and croc teeth.
Chase M.: Today was awesome!!!!!! Yesterday we got to do a late night swim at the hotel pool. Today we woke up at 7 and went from Tahlequah to Norman and ate at Subway then in Norman we got to look at some real fossils! We also went micro-picking which is picking through rocks for tiny fossils and later we got to a little game where we dug up small fossils for fun. After that we went in the museum and got to see all the fossils and dinosaur skeletons, even the ones from China!!!!! Tomorrow we get to dig up fossils with scientist. It’s going to be fun! I can’t wait to see you on Saturday!!!!!
Zach: Hi guys! Today we went micro-picking. For all of you who don’t know what that means, it’s when you look for really, really tiny fossils. We also went to the museum today and learned some cool stuff. Tomorrow though, we get to go dig for fossils. It’s going to be a lot of fun! Can’t wait to see you guys!
Kylie R.: This camp is awesome. Today we went micro-picking and toured the Sam Noble Museum and I learned that the T-rex has a superior dinosaur called the Saurophaganax with longer arms. While micro-picking we found gar scales and croc teeth. Tomorrow we go to Sulphur to dig for dinos.
Piper: HIHI!!!! Today we dug for micro fossils. I found 2 croc scales and 7 gar scales. We get to study paleontology for the next 2 days. I can’t wait to get home though. I also can’t wait to see my babies* Chico, Loco, Tokyo, Killer, Onyx, Coyote, Sox, Salsa and the others. I miss you mom, dad, and grandma. P.S my new nickname is Domo Panda Kitty. 🙂
Alexis L.: Today was very fun learning about paleontology. I am kind of a paleontology rookie, although i am not a full paleontologist. Today we went to the Sam Noble Museum in Norman and saw the 1st floor exhibits and i went micro picking in v1404 coarse to find small fossils! In the museum we saw the dinosaurs and the new exhibit, “Chinasaurs”! We saw a dinosaur called a Demetrodon.
Nicholas S.: Hi guys! Today was an awesome day and tomorrow is gonna be even awesomer. Today, we learned about Iridium and how it is only naturally found in space, on asteroids, but the reason scientists believe an asteroid is what caused the K-T extinction, which caused the extinction of the dinosaurs, is because there are trace amounts of Iridium underground on Earth. We also went micro picking, which is looking through stuff called concentrate, which is basically minerals from an excavation site that may have micro fossils in it. Tomorrow, we are going to go to an excavation site different from the one we micro picked in, and we’re going to look for fossils that we can take home. It’s gonna be so fun, but I wish we were here longer. I don’t wanna leave.
Morgan B.: Today we came to Norman and we spent most of the day in the Sam Noble Museum. We met a paleontologist named Christie. She was really nice and she taught us how to micro pick. It was very interesting to know that in one little scoop of gravel you can find so many amazing little fossils. Afterwards we ate dinner. Then we met another paleontologist named Bill May. He showed us around the museum. I’m having lots of fun and I can’t wait to go uncover fossils tomorrow. 🙂
Nevada: Well it’s been a blast!!! Today we did some fun thing dealing with paleontology…we did a little crash course of how to find fossils. Its 8:00pm and we just got back from looking through the museum, I saw a lot of cool and interesting thing there. Tonight we will be staying at Sooner Sweets I GIVE LOVE TO ALL MY FRIENDS AND FAMILY.
Day Six
Hi Everyone! Today we traveled to Sulphur with Museum paleontologist Bill May to discover what fossils can be found right here in Oklahoma. We collected fossil shells, coral, crinoids and trilobites- all animals that lived in a shallow ocean over 400 million years ago! It was really hot, but we were sure to drink plenty of water and even got an ice cream treat on the way home to cool down. Tomorrow, we’ll go behind the scenes in the Museum collections and get to spend a night sleeping over in the Museum. Our Adventure is almost over, we will see you all in two days! P.S. Check out what our Adventures had to say on the “Team Member Perspectives” Post a little later tonight. -Jes and Brad
Zach: Today we had so much fun! We got to go to white mound which is in Sulphur OK. It’s a dig site that used to be underwater so we found lots of Brachiopods (sea shells) and trilobites. We even found some coral and some snails! After we were done digging we got to go Braum’s and get ice cream. I miss you guys so much and i can’t wait to see you!
Chase M.: Today was great! We got to stay in a suite then went out by Sulphur and got to be paleontologists and find fossils from 400 million years ago. We went to this ranch and down in a canyon we found fossils of brachiopods (they look like clam shells) and trilobites. We found some for an experiment and got to keep whatever else we found. Then we went to braums for some ice cream. It was delicious! I’m having a great time and cant wait to see you all soon!
Kylie R.: Today was so fun. We went fossil digging and found all sorts of cool stuff. Than we went to Braum’s which was delicious and then we came back to go to the Sam Noble for an epic cup launching project.
Piper: I love fossils! Today we went to white mound and dug for fossils. And we had Qdoba for dinner. We also got ice cream for a treat. I got a double dip rocky road and cookies and cream. I love u mom, dad, and grandma! <3 Can’t wait to get home!
Morgan B.: Today we drove out to White Mound. When we got to White Mound we observed everything around us. As a group we asked a question and made our own hypothesis’s to go out and study. We found lots of cool fossils and I found a Trilobite fossil along with many other amazing little fossils. It was very interesting but also very hot! After this we went to Braum’s for a little treat. Then we came back to the museum and learned how to make casts from the fossils that we found and then had dinner. I have made so many new friends. I am having an amazing time and I can’t believe that this experience will soon have to come to an end. I love you guys and I’ll see you soon. 🙂
Nevada: Today we did a lot of fun things. We went to a site where we were able to find some cool fossils…so mom and dad you should be expecting a cool present when i come home…trust me you will like it. I hope all my friends read these updates so they know how much i miss them…LOVE TO ALL MY FRIENDS AND FAMILY!!!!!
Nicholas S.: Yay today was way fun! We went to an excavation site called the White Mound, where we looked for fossils of trilobites, brachiopods, snails, and crinoids. I found a bunch of stuff, and we’re making plaster replicas of them now to take home. Also we ate at Subway 😀 I can’t believe it’s almost over. Gonna miss everyone here! P.S. Momma can you bring my phone on the presentation day? I need to give people my number lol.
Alexis L.: Hello!!!!! I had so much fun today in Sulfur, OK. We searched for fossils in a Limestone fossil site called White Mound. I found mostly fan-shaped brachiopods and coral. We found a spot, gridded it out, and started searching. All together, we found 127 Fan Shaped Brachiopods, 10 Heart-Shaped Brachiopods, 8 Snail Shells, 22 Corals, and 3 Trilobites.
Julia: Hey guys! <3 Today was great! First we woke up and went to the museum and ate breakfast. Then we left to go to Sulphur and find fossils at the Whitemound! It was really cool! We found mostly branchiopods and some trilobites. After that, we wrote a presentation on the fossils we found. It was Awesome! Miss you all! (P.S. Mom! Can you please bring me my phone on Saturday?! Love you!)
BriAnna: Today, we went to a dig site called White Mound. We all found a bunch of little things. It was REALLY REALLY HOT. We were in the sun the whole time we were searching for fossils. I miss my family and friends bunches. Everyone is going how in two days. WOW!!!!! This week has gone by “FAST.” I LOVE AND MISS EVERYONE BUNCHES!!! Love.
Dominique W.: Hi! Today we went to a place called White Mound and got to be Field Paleontologists. We dug up lots of fossels and when we came back we had ice cream and made molds. We then worked on a power point. Tonight we’ll go back to our suites.
Day Seven
Hi Everyone! Today is our last day together and we have been having a great time. Today we went behind the scenes in the Herpetology (reptile and amphibian) collection and the Vertebrate Paleontology collection. We met the scientists that work here in the Museum’s research collections and saw specimens from around the world. After putting the finishing touches on our research presentations, we’ll go out to dinner for a special farewell celebration and spend the night playing games in the museum, watching a movie and sleeping under the dinosaurs. We’re excited to see you tomorrow! -Jes and Brad