Thursday, August 6, 2009

Science serendipity

We happened to catch a flyer for a geological tour of our neighborhood which just so happens to be one of our subjects of study this year along with New York history, so...

Our guide, Sidney Horenstein



It was really a mixture of geological history, botany and New York history as Mr. H. detailed the life of Inwood from mastodon bones unearthed on Payson and glacial rolling stones from the palisades, to the development of the ferries, trains and subways in Manhattan. He also taught us the names of several local trees including this Mimosa. Mr. H. told us that the Palisades are flat because they used to be below sea level and were pounded flat by the waves. It might have been cool to do a math problem about the median age of the group before and after we joined the tour. ;) Each child is writing a narration, or in one case a short story, based on our adventures with Mr. H. We'll save those in our New York history file for future years. We also came home with several heavy samples of milky quartz.

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