Field Trip

The other day Hyrum saw a depiction of DNA on TV and was asking what it was. We started talking about cells - you know, what they are, what they do, where they are, etc. Facinated he exclaimed, "Can I see one???" As I was thinking to myself, "Gee, I don't think I've even used a microscope in... how many years now," it hit me that my own cousin happens to be CAPTAIN CHEMISTRY! The scientist extrodinaire! Who just happens to have use of her own exclusive and all inclusive laboratory! (Okay, technically, it belongs to the school district who pays her to teach her budding science underlings correct laboratory procedure... among other things.) So I called Captain Chemistry herself and set up an appointment to explore my enthusiastic son's curiosity. That was today and it was so cool! We'd told Hyrum that we would scrape some of the cells off from the inside of his cheek and then look at it through the microscope. Hyrum and Jo, who we'd brought along for the experience, were rather scared as I'm sure they pictured their afterward shredded mouths. They were pleasantly surprised at how harmless it was to rub off some of their spit then see pieces of themselves suspended in blue dye on a slide. We got to see the tiny dark dot inside the cell where the DNA lives. She also had a prepared slide with blood and they thought that one was pretty cool, too. They also got to see the classroom pet snake, Peaches, who shed her skin last night. Talk about learning about the life of a cell!! Even the snake shared in the lesson with the topic of, "What happens when a cell dies?" It was an all around good experience. As the mom, I'm entitled to imagine that it also promoted how cool school can be and all that stuff, too, right?