Reaching the Outer Limits

 Our first day of Biotech day camp had us reaching for new opportunities and learning new things while having fun.  We left the office at 8:30 this morning to head to Ocean Isle.  I bet that's not what you were expecting to read.  We found some opportunities that we thought might be worth exploring.  Our campers were able and willing to explore and figure out if it was worth the trip.

  Our first stop of the day was the Museum of Coastal Carolina.  This unique hands on learning center is located at the end of the inlet and near the beach.  It has the most unique collection of marine and wildlife features as well as topographical and technology learning.  The first room we walked into had fossils and skeletal remains from various types of marine life.  There was also a topographical sand box.  As the matter in the sandbox was moved around the lights redistributed the landscape and waterscape and gave you an idea of things that can happen during storms, such as a hurricane.  

  The next area had wildlife exhibits and a touch pond.  Thanks to the knowledgeable volunteers we learned about starfish, sea urchins, horseshoe crabs, and other marine life.  We had the chance to touch and hold many of the live creatures.  Everything except the fish.  If we touch the fish they might blow up and it could shorten their life so we appreciated them with our eyes.  Also in the same room we learned about the mineral properties of salt water and how it helps animals like the horseshoes crab grow a new shell as they grow, they shed their old shells similar to snakes shedding their skin.  From petting marine life to walking into a life size diaramhama of marine life with sea turtles, sharks, and fish, this museum has an interesting array of optical teaching methods.  

  One of our favorite things we found was in the children's area.  There was a rack with coloring pages of marine life.  Once colored, or designed you place in an area and it pops out digitally into a digital aquarium.  Figuring out the technology and how to make it was definitely on our minds as we finished up with the tour of this really unique and fun museum.

We headed to a local eatery for lunch where we were able to eat outside and enjoy the water and breeze over great food.  Then we masked up and headed back into the van three miles down the road to our next stop, the Ingram Planetarium.  There we saw a show on Mars and learned about the night sky.  Did you know you will never see a green star?  Ask one of our campers this week why not.

After the show we had a chance to explore their science center.  There we learned about aeronautics, Nano technology, and even hurricane force winds.  After having time to explore everything we loaded up and headed back.  According to our campers they had fun and learned more than they could tell us on the smart board (so they drew their dreams that included domes and NC State logo).  To see all of our fun from today check out this link with our photos.

Stay tuned tomorrow we are headed out on a new/old adventure.