Scavenger Hunt Photo

Part of our assignment was to take photos with 5 themes, something colorful, something important in nature, something extremely small, something gross in nature and finally camouflage.  I have to confess I had some trouble with this assignment, probably because I tend to be a little too left-brained about things.  Sometimes I struggle a bit to reach my "creative" self, so actually assignments like this are a good thing - makes me stretch.  Anyway, here are my photos.
Something colorful - try finding anything this time of the year that isn't just brown was a little difficult, but I really liked how the sunlight made this new grass seem to glow.

I've already shared what I thought was important in nature - boundaries (if so inclined, you can see that photo under my Safety and Ethics post).  Something extremely small was the detail on a dried blade of grass, I had never really noticed how the blade twisted itself into a helix.  Look at the lovely ribbing.

Gross was easier, I was walking on the back of my 10 acres and come upon this scat.  It may be from a dog, but we have a lot of coyotes in this area, I hear them singing to each other almost every night. So, I'm going with coyote scat.

Camouflage was the hardest.  I finally settled on this image of my cat outdoors.  She really does blend into the dried grasses at this time of year.  

Safety and Ethics

As part of an on-line class I'm taking, I am required to jump into the deep end of the pool and create a blog!  As someone old enough to remember the pre-computer world, creating a blog seems daunting.  But I also recognize that it can reflect many 21st Century Skills that are important to my science students, so here goes...

Our first assignment was to create a written safety and ethic plan for taking students out on a nature walk and to take a picture that reflects something important in nature.  I believe that respecting boundaries is of the utmost importance.  Boundaries may be a property line or fence.

Or they may be the more subtle boundary of a wild animal's comfort.  We are there to observe, not to interact.  We must be respectful of nature, keep our voices quiet, watch where our foot falls, think about how we may harm nature by our intrusion.  What may initial be dismissed as a weed can be a work of art if you observe it carefully and with an open mind.