When my older daughter decided she wanted "science" as the theme for her seventh birthday party, we all brainstormed up "experiment" contests for the kids to do. The kids had a blast doing things like geometry (constructions with gumdrops and toothpicks) and chemistry (who can get the biggest Mentos and soda explosion?), but my favorite was our biology experiment.
We called it "backyard naturalists", and I'd gotten a little USB "microscope" (really a
macro camera) so that the kids could go find interesting things in the garden and then look at their findings blown up huge on my computer screen.
There are wonderful things hiding in your yard, and even very little kids can become entranced with the intricacy and beauty of them, and all the new questions that can be revealed when you look at something up close and carefully. Here are some of the best of the things that all the backyard naturalists brought in and crowded around the screen to see. No animals were harmed in the making of these images: all were released safely into the backyard when their photo sessions were complete. Enjoy!
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| Petals on a clover flower |
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| A bird's discarded feather |
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| A small moth, gently contained within a plastic cup. |
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| The interior of a flower, including little white shrimp-like mites (one is particularly visible in the lower center) |
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| Japanese beetle, exploring possible food sources offered to it. |
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| Interior of a flower looking beautifully spiky and crystalline. |
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| Wolf spider, found scuttling along and hunting. |
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