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Maple Syrup: Sweet and Sticky Science

In New England the sap buckets are going up on the sugar maple trees. As the thaw begins maple farmers are beginning to harvest sap for one of my favorite treats...maple syrup!

There is so much to learn in the process of maple sugaring. Science, math, botany, engineering, history! Here is some background on the process of making maple syrup and lots of learning resources. Whether you hail from an area that makes syrup or not, there is something here to help you teach kids about maple syrup.

When you are finished with the learning, may I suggest consuming some pancakes and syrup as a capstone to your maple syrup unit?

This post contains affiliate links, meaning I make a small commission from purchases made from these links at no additional cost to you. Please see disclosures for more information.

maple sugaring syrup science learning resources

Making Maple Syrup

Maple syrup is a versatile sweetener full of antioxidants. A secret treasure humans have borrowed from nature.

Maple syrup is a product made from the sap of a sugar maple tree. When winter begins to thaw into spring and temperatures fluctuate back and forth from warm to freezing the sap begins to flow.

Positive pressure builds in the tree when temperatures rise above freezing. This pressure forces the sap out of holes made in the tree for sugaring. Then as temperatures dip to below freezing again, negative pressure develops. This causes suction to draw water into the roots, replenishing the sap. The freeze-thaw cycle allows sugar farmers to collect sap during a short window of time as winter turns to spring.

Native Americans and European settlers collected the sap of sugar maples as it began to flow during early spring thaws. Much as we do today, they painstakingly boiled it down into a syrup. It was an excellent way to preserve food without refrigeration.

tap in a sugar maple tree collecting sap science education resources

Today trees are still tapped and sap is collected in buckets, as has been tradition for years. More modern methods include collecting syrup through a series of plastic tubing and utilizing methods like reverse osmosis to maximize the time spent harvesting and boiling sap.

Sap is boiled down into syrup. In general it takes 40 gallons of sap to make 1 gallon of syrup. It is a time and labor intensive process for a small yield. Remember to thank a maple farmer next time you are enjoying some glorious maple syrup!

Maple Sugaring Teaching Resources

If you are fortunate enough to live near a sugar bush, then perhaps you can take your class or children on a maple syrup field trip! If not, here are tons of other learning resources for learning at home or in the classroom.

A maple video and worksheet for each grade Kindergarten through Junior high from Cornell: Maple in the Classroom.

When will the sap run? A free printable math activity, identify which days the sap will run based on a month of temperature fluctuations.

For grades 4-5th, 26-pages of background and student activities for maple sugaring season.

Make your own maple candy from syrup in this Science Buddies activity.

boy collecting maple sap sugaring season

25-page digital download with videos, Maple Syrup Making Unit Study.

K-2nd grade activity, Be a Sugar Maker, students role-play the process of maple sugaring.

Maple sugaring picture book list.

3-5th grade activity, Nature's Factory at Work, build a model of a tree and learn the process of photosynthesis.

Tree rings activity, learn the age of a maple tree.

Maple Mini Study for PreK-2nd grade.

kids collecting maple sap science education

6th-12th grade, learn about Maple Sugar Molecules and Crystals while making your own rock candy.

Free, downloadable maple information posters.

Preschool and elementary Maple Syrup Study Unit, 8 activities.

Many more Maple Syrup learning resources here!

More Maple Syrup Fun

Use that maple syrup with these awesome maple syrup recipes for kids!

Some picture books to share with the kids on maple sugaring.

10 Must-Have Printable Downloads for Fall Science Class

Looking for just the right print out to go along with your hands-on science lesson? Or maybe spruce up an old lesson or unit with something new? Here are 10 fun printable downloads you will find useful year after year during the fall term. We have seasonal and nature topics for early childhood and elementary school aged students covered with: Apples, Pumpkins, Trees and Leaves, Hibernation and Migration. Find some inspiration and discover something new for the new school year!

This post contains affiliate links, meaning I receive a commission from purchases made through these links, at no additional cost to you. Please see disclosures for more information.

Apple Lesson Printables

Fall is the perfect time to study life cycles, especially those that result in some delicious treats, like the life cycle of an apple tree! Check out this apple tree life cycle wheel for young learners who are discovering the steps in an apple tree's life cycle.

After you take a trip to the orchard for apple picking, try this apple experiment and download the free printable science journal that goes along with it. Linked to a book in one of our favorite series, Zoey and Sassafras, it explores decomposition and food preservation using apples. It's a great student-led experiment because they have some freedom in what to use to try to preserve their apple slices.

Pumpkin Lesson Printables

Pumpkins are yet another super fun way to study plant life cycles. Here is a lovely pumpkin life cycle wheel that actually looks like a pumpkin when you are finished!

Pumpkins are an easy tool for teaching about decomposition. One of my favorite ways is to use the picture book Pumpkin Jack by Will Hubbell.

You can read about how I would integrate this story into a long-term lesson in observing the decomposition of a pumpkin here. Included in this post is a link to a free pumpkin observation printable. Or use this decomposing pumpkin study printable to not only set up a science experiment with your own pumpkin, but also integrate pumpkin learning through language arts.

My all time favorite elementary pumpkin lesson is a multi-day STEM observation of a pumpkin. Weighing, measuring, counting, floating (!?!) tons of science and math skills are used to learn more about a pumpkin. It's always a hit with the kids, especially if they have grown or picked out the pumpkins themselves. You can learn more about this pumpkin STEM lesson here, or find the instructions and observation worksheets in my Teachers Pay Teachers store here.

Tree and Leaf Printables

If you live in an area with deciduous trees, then fall is probably one of your favorite seasons for its rainbow of foliage colors. It is a fun time to learn why the leaves change color and study the diversity of trees and their life cycles.

Teach your kids or students tree identification with these simple fall leaf identification cards. They would also be great to take on a nature walk for a leaf scavenger hunt!

You will also want to check out this massive collection of tree printables from WildEarthLab, who creates some beautiful and useful environmental educational and science materials.

Migration Printables

Migration is one of the amazing and miraculous natural occurrences of fall. There are lots of opportunities to observe migration in nature, and also follow migration digitally.

If you live in the northeastern United States there are many excellent locations for hawk watching as they migrate south for the winter. Download this free guide for non-commercial use to help you identify the hawks you are seeing in the sky.

Monarch butterflies are migrators loved by many. Check out these ideas for studying Monarch migration in Preschool-12th grade. This is such a cool 3-D paper model download for learning about Monarch life cycles.

Hibernation Printables

What are animals doing in fall? Preparing for winter. Along with migration, hibernation is an interesting topic to delve into during the later fall months.

The illustrations are gorgeous in this Charlotte Mason hibernation lesson pack. It would be great to print and laminate for a think-pair-share (or in this case, "read-pair-share") activity in your science classroom.

Introduce what it means to hibernate and begin to discover the creatures that do so with this free hibernation printable pack.

Don't Miss These Printables!

If you are looking for other quality sources of printable nature or environmental science downloads, I would highly recommend these:

Tanglewood Hollow Digital and Printable Items

Mother Natured Nature Printables Club

Raising Butterflies at Home and School: Metamorphosis Before Your Very Eyes!

Each spring for the past 4 years we have seen a little bit of magic happen on our kitchen counter. Tiny caterpillars arrive in the mail and over the next week or so grow so quickly you can almost see it happening. One day they find a cozy place to hang and you blink and they are no longer caterpillars, but tiny chrysalides. The rest of the action takes place inside, and we wish we had x-ray vision to let us see. One day, out come butterflies!

Raising butterflies from an Insect Lore cup of caterpillars is a very easy and fairly fool-proof way to share this magical life cycle with kids at home or school. Read on to find out how simple the process is and my recommendation for purchasing what you need.

Please note, this blog post was not written in partnership with Insect Lore. My opinions about their products come from my experience with them and I was not compensated to review their products. This post contains affiliate and referral links, meaning I receive a small commission or points from purchases made through these links at no additional cost to you. Please see disclosures for more information.

Butterfly Kits

Raising caterpillars into butterflies is a very easy and foolproof process with Insect Lore's Butterfly Garden kit. We purchased our first kit from Amazon to save a few dollars, but have continued to buy our Painted Lady caterpillars each year directly from Insect Lore. If you want to purchase your butterfly habitat with live caterpillars rather than a voucher to get the caterpillars at a later date, you should buy directly from Insect Lore. I recommend signing up for their newsletter as well and you will find many opportunities for sales like BOGO cup of caterpillars, kits and bonus gifts. (Plus their newsletter is fascinating, it's one of the few company e-mails I receive that I actually read all the way through!)

Our caterpillars always come quickly and in good health. The only issue I've had is that once there were only 4 caterpillars in our cup instead of 5. Customer service was very responsive and easy to work with. Our problem was resolved very quickly. I have always been so happy with this company.

Be sure that when you order your caterpillars it is the right time of year and temperature in your region to release them safely and for their health. Your caterpillars will arrive promptly after ordering them and you don't want it to be too cold or too hot for them to be traveling in the mail. You might also want to investigate whether or not you have a natural food source available for Painted Lady Butterflies. Flowers in the mallow and thistle families are good choices. You can learn more about the habitat requirements of Painted Lady Butterflies here.

Observing Butterfly Metamorphosis

The caterpillars come in a cup that holds all of the food they will need to grow over the next 2-4 weeks. You can leave them enclosed in the cup until they have each made a chrysalis. My one caveat with this is that it doesn't really show children how a caterpillar feeds in the wild. Munching away at some brown gel in the bottom of a cup isn't like munching at a plant. However, since we have young kids this is a really easy way to raise the caterpillars, and it proves very successful. We've only lost 2 butterflies from the 30 or so we have raised. The caterpillars are fascinating to watch and they grow SO, SO QUICKLY. It is mind boggling. It really is kind of like The Very Hungry Caterpillar.

Raising the caterpillars in a cup is a great teachable moment to investigate native plants and host plants for insects. You can work on answering the questions: How is this different than the Painted Lady Butterfly's life cycle in nature? What is a host plant? What part of the plant does a caterpillar depend on? What part of the plant does an adult butterfly depend on?

One day the bigger caterpillars begin to hang from the top of the cup in a "j" shape, and that is when you know that they are getting ready to pupate. Soon after there are chrysalides hanging from the lid of the cup where the caterpillars once were.

Then it is time to move the critters to their butterfly habitat while they make their incredible transformation. We are "Waiting for Wings"!

The next 10 days or so will require a bit of patience, so this is an excellent time to learn more about butterfly life cycles. How cool is this 3-D Monarch life cycle printable download? You can try building your own DIY butterfly feeder in the meantime to attract even more butterflies to your yard or school yard.

Painted Lady Butterflies

One day, those butterflies will emerge from their chrysalides. We have only actually witnessed it a few times, it happens very quickly. We feed our adult butterflies sugar water from a sponge, orange slices, and watermelon. The butterflies love watermelon! It is so cool to see that curly proboscis unfurl and slurp up the sugary liquid. This is a great time to make some observations that would be difficult to observe in the wild.

After a few days we release our Painted Ladies. It's always a bit of a bittersweet moment as we really enjoy having them, but it is also exciting to see them fly away and be free!

Releasing an adult painted lady butterfly at home

Take an Insect Class!

If your kids are wild about insects like mine, maybe they would enjoy my "Invent an Insect!" online class on Outschool. Learn the parts of an insect through games, songs and more in a lesson that I've had success teaching for almost 2 decades! Check out the schedule here. If you are new to Outschool, use my referral coupon code: MSSARAH2020 to receive $20 credit towards your first Outschool classes. You can find other coupon codes here.

Butterfly Metamorphosis Before Your Very Eyes

Surviving Like a Shark Energy Transfer Game

Kids love sharks! In this post you will find a book recommendation for a hilarious, yet factual, children's book about sharks, and an active science modeling activity for exploring the lives of sharks and the movement of food energy through an ecosystem.

Both the kid's book and science activity are great for your upper elementary school-aged kids at home or the students in your classroom. The modeling activity will get kids moving while building understanding of trophic pyramids and food chains.

If you are a teacher aligning your lesson plans with the Next Generation Science Standards, you will also find links for standards that this activity will help you meet.

Shark Science Food Chain Energy Activity

This post contains affiliate links, meaning I will receive a small commission (at no additional cost to you) if you make a purchase after clicking a product link. Please see disclosures page for more information.

How to Survive as a Shark

First of all, a read-aloud of Kristen Foote's How to Survive as a Shark is a must. This funny children's book, illustrated by Erica Salcedo, includes science facts about the life of sharks, white sharks in particular, their important place in the ecosystem, adaptations and more.

This book is perfect for upper elementary students. They enjoy the humor and understand the science. Even the kids who think they are too old for picture books get a kick of this one! The end of the story includes some discussion on what was realistic and what was fictionalized for the sake of presenting the information in the style of a humorous picture book. It is an all around great book for home or the classroom!

If you are reading How to Survive as a Shark as an intro to the activity outlined below, the strongest tie-in to the food chain and energy transfer is the discussion and illustration of the food pyramid (or trophic pyramid). In this story, white sharks are the apex predator. Depending on the species of shark, sharks may not always at the tippy top of their food chain. The food pyramid, discussion of the different levels of consumer and apex predators is a great introduction to the energy transfer activity below.

Shark Energy Activity

There are many food chains and food webs in any ecosystem, including the ocean. Energy moves through these ecosystems in the form of food. The active food chain activity outlined below allows students to model the transfer of food energy throughout a system and see it move first hand.

Shark Food Chain Science Activity NGSS aligned

For this activity you will need:

large open space, indoors or outside
paper lunch bag or envelope for each kid/student
bandanas for each kid/student (3 different colors)
lots of small, colorful paper squares (about 1 in x 1 in) to represent plankton
notepad or small white board and markers for data collection

Model Energy Transfer in the Ocean

Set up the game:

Split the group of kids into thirds. One group will be the "sharks", one group will be "large fish", and the last will be "small fish". [Note: if you are studying a specific type of shark, adapt the game to be specific to that species, i.e. "large fish" might be "tuna" or "seals" instead.]

Assign each of the groups a different color. This will be the color of the bandana that they will tie around their arm to denote their role in the activity.

Give each student a paper bag or envelope, which represents their stomach.

After assigning some boundaries for the play area, spread out the colored paper squares evenly throughout the area. These represent "plankton" in the activity.

How to Survive as a Shark illustrated by Erica Salcedo Science Activity

Game play:

The goal of the small fish is to collect as much plankton as possible and put it in their stomachs.

The goal of the large fish is to eat the small fish, by gently tagging them, and transferring all of the plankton paper squares from the stomach/bag of the small fish to their own.

Similarly, the sharks will eat the large fish by gently tagging them, and transferring all of the plankton paper squares from the bag of the large fish to their own. (In reality, sharks may also eat small fish, but for simplicity's sake they will not in this simulation.)

Give just a few minutes (no more than 5) for game play. In order to have survived the round, small fish must have 5 plankton in their stomachs, large fish must have 10 plankton in their stomachs, and sharks must have "eaten" at least one large fish with 10 plankton in its stomach.

Write down how many of each animal survived after each round for graphing and data collection extensions.

Wrap it up:

Be sure to discuss the results of the modeling activity.
Guide your discussions with questions such as:

What trends do kids notice?
How is this activity realistic or unrealistic?

Create a data table or graph the results. Introduce the idea of a trophic, or ecological, pyramid and show how the amount of energy changes as it moves through the ecosystem.

Extend the Energy Transfer Activity

To continue modeling important ideas around energy transfer and balanced ecosystems, see what happens when you change the rules of the game. Try these adaptations of the simulation and discuss the results with your kids or students:

Change the number of sharks / small fish / large fish
Set out more "plankton"
Release the small fish first, then the large fish, and eventually the sharks
Set up a "safety zone" for fish

Align with the Next Generation Science Standards

This activity fits with the following 5th grade science standards:

Additional Energy Transfer and Food Chain Book Recommendations

Teaching about ecosystems is one of my favorite topics. If you are looking for other great books to share on the subject of energy transfer and food chains, you will definitely want to get your hands on a copy of Pass the Energy, Please! and The World of Food Chains with Max Axiom: Super Scientist.

I love Pass the Energy, Please! because of it's rhyming text and beautiful illustrations. Although it is a rhyming picture book, the vocabulary used is at an upper elementary level. The World of Food Chains with Max Axiom: Super Scientist appeals to upper elementary readers because it is written and illustrated in a graphic novel style.

Ocean Learning Activities

If your kids love learning about the ocean, then you won't want to miss these other fun ocean-themed science activities!

Experiment with fizzing sea shells in this activity on the Teaching Without Chairs blog, and recreate the layers of the ocean with this density activity over on From Engineer to Stay at Home Mom.

More Shark STEM and Science

Can't get enough shark science? Same here. Check out these AMAZING shark eggs we saw at the Shedd Aquarium.

You'll find a bunch of shark STEM activities here, particularly fun for all of you "shark week" fans.

Want to know how sharks float? You'll find a cool hands-on shark experiment here.

Go visit some real sharks at an aquarium! Find out why we love the New England Aquarium and the Shedd Aquarium.

Buy a Book and Help a Good Cause

You may not be aware of this, but when you purchase a book published by The Innovation Press, like How to Survive as a Shark or How to Survive as a Firefly, you are not only getting a great book for the children in your life, but also helping others. For every 10 books sold, The Innovation Press donates one book to First Book, getting books into the hands of kids and schools in need.

Liking Lichen: A Nature Scavenger Hunt

http://www.onlypassionatecuriosity.com/liking-lichen-nature-scavenger-hunt/

Next time you're out on a walk, turn it into a nature scavenger hunt! No matter where you live, city or country, warm or cool climate, you're bound to be able to spot some lichen. Head on over to my guest contributor post on Only Passionate Curiosity to learn more about these amazing organisms and where you can find them!

Fall Nature Walks: Can You Spot a Bird's Nest?

Now that the leaves have fallen from the trees, there are a lot of natural wonders exposed and easy for the careful observer to find. I recently noticed a bird's nest high up in an oak tree while out for a walk. I continued to look up and noticed a big bunch of leaves that was most likely the handiwork of a squirrel.

Next time you are out for a fall or winter nature walk, look carefully in the bushes and up in the tree branches around you, I bet if you are observant and patient, you'll spot a bird or beast habitat too!

While you're out there, see what you can see for lichen, galls and fungus too!

See it? Share it! Beautiful Bird's Nest Fungus

I was almost giddy when I discovered some bird's nest fungus, or Nidulariaceae in one of our flower beds this fall. Giddy? Yes. I think these are some of the most beautiful little fungi around. Because they are small, they might go unnoticed during a walk in the woods. As the name suggests they look like little nests full of eggs shrunken by a shrink ray!

This post contains affiliate links, see disclosures for details.

Fungus comes in such a wide variety of forms with fun and quirky names. Witches butter, turkey tail and hairy curtain crust just to name a few. Although you should always err on the side of caution when it comes to investigating mushrooms and other fungus with kids, they are fascinating organisms to search for.

Why not go on a funky fungus scavenger hunt? Keep a "leave no trace" policy and rather than touch or pick the fungus, photograph it or sketch it with some colored pencils in a nature journal. How many different types can you find? Grab a field guide to help you identify and learn more about your discovery.

If you are exploring with adults or teenagers and there is no risk of anyone taste-testing something they shouldn't, you might want to try making spore prints from mushrooms. Not only can this help you identify your fungus, but they are also beautiful!

What type of funky fungus did you find? Share your pictures with us on Facebook or Twitter.

See it? Share it! American Trout-Lily

I love this time of year, as everything is beginning to leaf and sprout. It's fun to rediscover all of the treasures that lay dormant in the soil during the winter months.

I especially love to see the woodland flowers pop up. There is something a little more magical about these, as they have not been planted by human hands. One that is blossoming now is the American trout-lily, or Erythronium americium. You can find this plant in the forest or on rocky cliffs or ledges throughout most of the United States and parts of Canada. It needs moist, partly shaded locations to grow. It is also called Yellow trout-lily, Eastern trout-lily, Yellow dogtooth violet and Adder's tongue.

Trout-lily popping up under a log. ©SBF 2015

This pretty little yellow blossom resembles a miniature day-lily you might have growing in your flower garden. The mottled leaves of the flower are the giveaway that the plant is present. In fact, most often you'll see more leafy plants than flowering individuals.

The trout-lily is so named because of the white spotted pattern on the leaves that is thought to resemble the pattern of scales on a trout. Native Americans used the leaves in a tincture that was thought to heal wounds.

The speckled leaves are where the lily gets it's name! ©SBF 2015

The trout-lily can live for two years and has roots that are excellent for storage, tubers or bulbs. It blooms throughout the spring, in the months of March, April and May.

What native flowers have you spotted in your area lately? Perhaps the lovely trillium flower, that you can read about in another See it? Share it! post: See it? Share it! Red Trillium or the Jack-in-the-Pulpit, another of my favorites that pops up this time of year.

You can learn more about plants and wildlife through the other posts on the See it? Share it! page. What have you observed recently? Get out there and explore!

Animal Tracking Scavenger Hunt

A new dusting of snow is the perfect time to go on an animal tracking scavenger hunt! Once you learn a few track patterns it is not hard to piece together the mystery of what these critters have been up to.

The best part about animal tracking is that you don't have to be on a nature hike to spot tracks. In fact, the tracks I observed this week at my home in a rural area are similar to those you might find in a park, or other more populated setting. Songbirds, squirrels and even dogs and cats leave footprints behind in different patterns. If you observe closely, you can figure out what they were doing while they were out and about.

animal tracking scavenger hunt wildlife tracking with kids

This post contains affiliate links, meaning I may make a small commission from purchases made from these links at no additional cost to you. See disclosures for more information.

bird tracks in the snow wildlife tracking

By Tony Hisgett from Birmingham, UK (Bird Tracks Uploaded by Magnus Manske) [CC BY 2.0], via Wikimedia Commons

Supplies for Wildlife Tracking with Kids

To prepare for an animal tracking scavenger hunt, you'll want to bring a few things with you. For winter, definitely bundle up, if you stay warm, the more fun you'll have! Some other items that are useful are a field guide, a ruler or tape measure and a notebook. (Weatherproof notebooks, like Rite in the Rain are great for snowy days!) You might also want to have a camera or a phone handy to snap some photos.

An excellent field guide to use outdoors, especially in winter, is Mammal Tracks and Scat: Life Size Tracking Guide by Lynn Levine and Martha Mitchell.

I would particularly recommend this guide if you are tracking with children. As the tracks are life-sized they are easier to identify. Sometimes it is difficult for children (and adults too!) to envision the difference in scale on a small tracking card and an actual animal footprint. This book also gives diagrams of animal tracking patterns. This is very important, because sometimes a track has melted a bit and may not be as easy to identify, but you can look at the overall pattern to determine what it is instead. The best part of this book is that it is made of weatherproof paper, so it will hold up to any outdoor adventure!

Your state's wildlife or conservation office may have a printable tracking guide for you. These can be laminated or sealed with clear packing tape to make them more useful for winter tracking. Here is an example from the state of Massachusetts.

A ruler or tape measure and a notebook are useful if you plan on making observations on your trip. A weatherproof notebook like those from Rite in the Rain can help withstand soggy mittens!

If you are exploring with smaller children, rather than carry field guides and notebooks you might just bring along a tracking bandana. These have labeled images of tracks on them and can be worn while you walk.

How to Identify Wildlife Tracks

There are three things to look for when tracking animals. The shape of the footprint, pattern of the track, and gait pattern. The shape of the footprint can give you some information about the exact species you are tracking. The conditions have to be just right to get a really nice print where you can count toes.

If you can't tell exactly what it is, you can use the track pattern to help you. A squirrel or rabbit's tracks for example usually have the two front paws in the back, and the large feet in the front. A mouse's track pattern often has a mark where the tail drags.

Squirrel Tracks- note the hind paw prints out in front.

By Jomegat (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0 or GFDL], via Wikimedia Commons

The gait pattern tells how the animal was moving. Was it running, walking or waddling? This can tell you a lot about the animal and what it was doing. For example, prey animals often move more quickly when they are out in the open. Do you notice the squirrels gait pattern changing as it moves between two bushes?

It is fun for children to explore their own gait patterns in the snow. What are your tracks like when you run? Skip? Walk? Tiptoe?

Try this science, movement, and math activity with kids while exploring animal tracks.

Other Animal Signs

Other animal signs you might see while you're outside are scat, feathers, evidence of foraging on plants and other prints in the snow other than tracks. For example, you can see here the four prints left behind by a bird's wing feathers as it swoops down to grab something.

animal tracking wildlife bird wing imprint in snow

If you find some scat, it's always a fun opportunity to sing the scat rap!

Books for Kids about Wildlife Tracks

A book to peruse with children before heading out into the "field" for your exploration is Tracks, Scats and Signs (Take Along Guides) by Leslie Dendy. This guide is written for children and gives some of the basics.

You might want to brush up on your skills with a field guide written for adults, like Scats and Tracks of North America.

My all time favorite book to read to kids during this time of year is Lindsay Barrett George's In the Snow: Who's Been Here? The illustrations are beautiful and it really inspires kids to search for clues in nature.

Another great picture book for animal tracking is Who's Been Here? A Tale in Tracks by Fran Hodgkins, the story of a dog who goes on a tracking adventure and spies many different animal tracks.

Have fun tracking! We'd love to hear about what you find! Comment below, e-mail us at shareitscience@gmail.com or leave a message on our Facebook page.

Who Are the "Underground Astronauts"?

Can you imagine finding the discovery of a lifetime, but not being able to retrieve it? When cavers found ancient hominid fossil remains while exploring in South Africa, they knew they were on to something. Problem was, they knew they didn't have the archaeological skills needed to excavate the find. The researcher who did have the skills was too big to squeeze into the ridiculously tight crevices that lead to the cave...what were they to do?

As you have most likely seen or read, the National Geographic Rising Star expedition team studying the "Cradle of Humankind" near Johannesburg, South Africa, put out a call for skilled archaeologists with caving skills who were petite enough to fit into these small spaces. 6 highly qualified candidates emerged to take on the task, and they all happened to be women. This crew of ladies painstakingly excavated the site in a once and a lifetime opportunity and brought to the surface the skeletal remains of several new members of our family- Homo naledi.

"Comparison of skull features of Homo naledi and other early human species" by Chris Stringer, Natural History Museum, United Kingdom (10 September 2015). "The many mysteries of Homo naledi". eLife 4: e10627. DOI:10.7554/eLife.10627. PMC: 4559885. ISSN 2050-084X.. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 via Commons

These women had to crawl through spaces so tight it prevented them from wearing safety gear. Some sections were only 10 inches high and required what they call the "superman crawl" with one arm down by the side and one outstretched in front like superman flying. They took 6 hour shifts underground, working for a few weeks and eventually retrieved 1,500 specimens from the cavern.

"Homo naledi 2" by Lee Roger Berger research team. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 via Commons

Let's find out more about each of these remarkable female scientists! When you have an adventure story like this it is a golden opportunity to inspire young scientists and adventurers. Who are the 6 "underground astronauts" of the Rising Star Expedition?

Elen Feuerriegel

Elen is a paleoanthropology PhD student at the Australian National University in Canberra, Australia. She is interested in how early humans used tools, and specifically the muscle and bone structure of those people. She has been interested in the human body and forensic anthropology since she was a teenager. She loves to inspire kids and hopes to teach as well as continue working as a paleoanthropologist.

Learn more about Elen here:

K. Lindsay (Eaves) Hunter

Lindsay has a passion for paleoanthropology but also science outreach. The focus of much of her research has been in the evolution of the trunk portion of skeletons in the genus Homo. During the Rising Star expedition Lindsay was a PhD student at the University of Iowa. Lindsay is also a writer and is very interested in introducing anthropology to young students. She has moved to South Africa to live with her husband, Homo naledi fossil co-discoverer Rick Hunter, and continue to research.

Learn more about Lindsay here:

Marina Elliott

Marina is a postdoctoral fellow in the Evolutionary Studies Institute at the University of Witswatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa. During the excavation Marina was getting her PhD at Simon Fraser University in Canada. She has taken part in several expeditions in inhospitable areas such as Siberia and Alaska, as well as her recent excursions into the treacherous cave in South Africa.

Her research focuses on the stories that human fossils can tell us about the life of that person and the archaeology of burial practices. As scientists believe the cache of Homo naledi fossils found by the Rising Star expedition were most likely intentionally left in the cave as part of a burial practice, her expertise will continue to be indispensable in studying this new branch of our family tree.

Learn more about Marina:

Alia Gurtov

Alia is a PhD student at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. She is trying to answer the question of whether people 1.8 million years ago were eating differently based on season. She examines animal teeth for scratches and wear which would indicate what season they were butchered during by our ancient relatives. Her love of playing in the dirt and ancient peoples made the Rising Star expedition a dream come true, but it is only one of the amazing excavations she has taken part in. She is a Leakey Foundation grant winner and has studied extensively at famed Olduvai Gorge in addition to many other sites.

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Hannah Morris

Hannah is a PhD student at the University of Georgia. She is an archaeologist who studies how humans interacted with plants historically. She has worked on archaeological digs with the American Museum of Natural History and founded a paleoethnobotanical consulting service called Chena Consulting Services. In addition to her archaeology work she also has taught workshops for middle school students.

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Becca Peixotto

Becca is a PhD student at American University in Washington D.C. She is an archaeologist who studies the Great Dismal Swamp, along the Virginia-North Carolina border. This is an area that became part of the Underground Railroad and where escaped slaves took refuge. Little is known about these settlements and Becca is interested in solving this mystery. In addition to her work as an archaeologist, she is also a wilderness and outdoor educator.

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These little blurbs just scratch the surface of these amazing women. I found myself enthralled as I learned more about them. I hope that they inspire you, your children and students as well!

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