Ice Age Exhibit: Only a few weeks before you'll be frozen out

While scientists and weathermen are discussing this week's polar vortex, hearken back to a time where a just a dozen degrees cooler temperatures would have been a blessing.

The Indiana State Museum's exhibit Ice Age Giants: The Mystery of Mammoths and Mastodons will be in Indianapolis only a few more weeks, so be sure to stop in and check out the Midwest back in time.

Our family visited the mastadons, mamoths and other Ice Age animals earlier this year, and it was a great treat for our paleontologist wannabe.
This exhibit gives your fossil-hunting, all-things-prehistoric-obsessed kids plenty of Pleistocene points of interest - regardless of their age.

The kindergartener loved digging for bones (no surprise, as he loves doing the same in the Children's Museum archaeology area).

His older sister loved exploring the exhibits

And there were opportunities to get hands-on!

Don't be frozen out of this experience. The exhibit closes Aug. 17, 2014.
You still have a few more weeks. The Ice Age exhibit is included with admission to the Indiana State Museum.

And don't forget to follow Fred the Mastodon on Twitter. Who knew a Mastodon could have a Twitter account! He has a great sense of humor - you won't want to miss his tweets! #IceAgeISM @FredIndiana

Brownie Senses Badge - Earn It At Camp

Earning the Brownie Senses badge is a great activity for day camp or troop campouts - very easy to fill in on those dead spots, like when it's too cold to swim!

Here's how we met the Brownie Senses badge requirements during our camp week:

SIGHT
We held a nature scavenger hunt throughout the campground. There are many nature scavenger hunt lists available online or on Pinterest if you are looking for ideas.

LISTENING
We did a listening hike for our early morning hike to breakfast. The goal was to listen for 10 different sounds. It was great for those sleepyheads who weren't quite up to singing yet! :-)

SMELL
We played the "smelly game." We lined the girls up while one of the leaders was in the leader meeting and asked the girls to pull their bandanas over their eyes.  Then we walked a small bottle of various essential oils down the line and asked the girls to guess the smell. Some of the essential oils we used included lemon , grapefruit, cinnamon, lavender, oregano, and peppermint .

I have to say, the faces were priceless on some of the girls. What I thought would be pleasant - like the evergreen trees in a holiday blend - created some of the most unusual reactions!

TASTE
We used the magnifying glasses from our bug kit to look at the taste buds on friends' tongues. We also talked about the different types of taste - salty, sweet, bitter, sour and umami.

TOUCH
We adapted the "feel wheel" idea from the requirements by reusing some of the lunch bags and putting small items, some found at camp, some from home, inside each one. The girls had to go to each bag and guess what was inside.

Note to leaders: The Senses Badge requirements are not included in the Girl's Guide to Girl Scouting. You do have to purchase the Wonders of Water badge insert to get the full sheet of requirements if you would like alternatives to these activities.

Follow Robbie @'s board Girl Scout Projects on Pinterest.

Looking for more Girl Scout ideas? Visit my new scout leader resource site, Use Resources Wisely. 

Excavating the Apple Mummy

Making mummies is not one of my usual fall activities for fun, but it made quite the splash for my family earlier this year.

Although my daughter's class learned about Egyptian mummies in mid-winter, I thought it was appropriate to share as Halloween approaches. It's a simple science project that's easy enough for curious kindergarteners and first-graders. My 4 year old even enjoyed the daily excavation of the mummy for his sister's homework:

How to make your "mummy:"

Slice one apple in half, and place in a bowl, covering it in salt (1-2 lbs.). You can check the apple daily to see its progress toward "mummification" as the water is drawn from the fruit. Here's how it checked out after a week:

Sweet way to introduce science - for less than $5

Science gifts for kids. Easy. There are scores of them on the internet, at children's museums and educational stores.

Ones under $5 that's not simply a piece of plastic junk? That's a different story.

Last week, we had the challenge of picking a school-age kid for the daycare gift exchange. We had a $5 limit, per our sitter's decision. And because of the way our schedule falls, I'd never met this child in my life.

She was eight and liked science. And that's all I had to go on.

I figured it'd be easy to find something science-oriented with a quick internet search and a jaunt to store, right? Wrong. The cheapest thing I could find was in the $15-20 range, and even from the web photo, it looked like it would break.

My solution? Hit the science fair project circuit.

After a quick search, I stumbled on a great website - education.com. There I found a project perfect for a wintery afternoon: Using chemistry concepts to create marshmallows. I printed the directions and packed the dry ingredients in a decorated shoebox. Ready to go, in less than 10 minutes and fewer than five dollars.

Yes, science is sweet. I just hope her parents can forgive me for the mess!