Frogs and Insects

We are using Home Science Adventures Science Learning Kits from a publisher in Seattle.  (Just talking about what we like- no money or advertising involved, ever!)  We have just started our unit on Insects.  We are quick to hop on our topic before the insects go for the Winter.  So far we love this add-on to our science program. We just finished studying honeybees.  Here is a bumblebee perched on a Mountain Aster bloom.

You can see the bumblebee sipping flower nectar.  We have also been studying our only local frog, the Wood Frog.  It is interesting because it has a unique sugar in its' blood that allows it to overwinter under forest debris.  The frog goes through cryogenics and its' blood is rather like antifreeze.  They have found some mutations in the Wood Frog here near the Kenai National Wildlife Refuge adjacent to us.  The University of Alaska has an interesting factual page on Wood Frogs that can be printed out.http://aknhp.uaa.alaska.edu/herps/pdf/spec_acct_wood_frog.pdf  Here is Little N with a Wood Frog.

Happy learning!