A unique opportunity for students to create a COMET! Find out first-hand about these mysterious intergalactic bodies We turn your students into Astronomers who visit our solar system including the Oort Cloud to better understand how a comet is created! What better way to understand comet behavior than a true hands-on experience!

Astronomers Will:

• Travel to Deep Space

• Measure the ingredients believed to construct a comet

• Create a comet found in the Oort Cloud

• Learn the states of matter

Astronomers will be amazed as comets begin to appear right before their eyes! They will recognize how “cool” a comet really is and the important roll the sun plays in a comet’s orbit.

This unique experience provides students the opportunity to dig into a portion of authentic gem-bearing gravel in search for gemstones like rubies, sapphires , turquoise and more!. Students will act as if they are actually on a geology field trip.

Gemologists Will:

• • Understand the difference between a rock & mineral and the basic rock cycle where they come from

  • Sieve gravel for gems in the rough

  • Analyze & classify structural and characteristic differences between minerals

  • Create a jewelry charm from one of their gems

  • Geologists will have their own specimens to keep and carry out further research

  • Discover how to curate their “treasures“

Students transform from Geologists into Gemologists to Miners, and finally to Jewelers in this one-of-a-kind field trip. No where else is such an experience possible (except maybe in the gem mines of The Cowee Valley and Sapphire Mountain).

Like Digging Into Science, students transform from Geologists into Gemologists to Miners. This shorter version of the in-school program gives students the opportunity to understand the difference between rocks and minerals; sieve through the authentic gem-bearing gravel; and discover how to curate their own specimens that they will get to keep and carry out further research.

Rocks and mineral take on a new meaning in this exciting hands-on experience with rocks and minerals. Teams of geologists will classify and identify rocks and minerals using various characteristics and tests. After learning and practicing techniques, geologists will be given their own specimens to identify to keep!

Gemologists will:

• Characterize specimens using shape, color & luster 

• Use Mohs scale of hardness to classify specimens

• Use streak tests to classify specimens

• Use flow charts like dichotomous keys to identify and distinguish between specimens

• Identify their own unknown specimens applying the techniques and tests learned

• Complete a journal from the specimens found

This fun-filled, hands-on paleontology experience provides a unique opportunity to search through phosphate ore matrix of Bone Valley, Florida looking for fossils, like shark's teeth, gastropods, skate teeth and mammal bone! Students will act as if they are actually on a paleontology excavation.

Paleontologists Will:

• Understand the fossilization process of mineral replacement

• Realize the differences between a bone, "stone bone" (fossil) and phosphate pebbles

• Search through ore matrix for real fossils

• Analyze fossils by color, shape and pattern

• Identify shark species based on teeth shape

• Get/make a shark's tooth necklace with one of their specimens

• Learn how to curate their “fossil finds”

Like Find A Fossil, this unique experience provides students unique opportunities to search through a phosphate ore... but these special soils looking for fossils like shark's teeth, gastropods, skate teeth, mammal bone, sea lily stems and more comes from across North America! 

Paleontologists Will:

• Search Through “Ore Matrix" For Real Fossils

• Identify Fossils By Color And Shape

• Analyze Fossils Found In the Peleozoic, Mesozoic And Cenozoic Eras

• Curate The “Fossil Finds”

Fun filled, hands-on paleontology experiences! Students will act as if they are actually on a paleontology excavation. Students transform into Paleontologists in this one-of-a-kind field trip. No where else is such an experience possible (except in actual phosphate mines or fossil beds!).

After understanding the various fossilization processes and the importance of Law of Superposition, paleontologists will excavate fossils as they would in the field in-situ while at the same time understanding the importance of recording their finds as they unearth them. They will search for fossils like shark teeth (including megalodon), turtle shell, ammonites & more. Students will act as if they are actually on a fossil field trip excavating fossils from a quadrat.

Paleontologists will:

• Discuss the variety of fossilization processes

• Determine how fossils tell us the age of the Earth

• Excavate and identify authentic U.S. & African fossils

• Create a geologic timeline with the collected fossils

• Learn how to curate their fossils

An exciting experience with meteorology! An opportunity for young "meteorologists" to use genuine weather equipment to collect & analyze data, then forecast the weather! Meteorologists will be "blown away" by the practices to predict weather. They can then apply the knowledge they've learned to better understand Florida's weather patterns as well as unwanted hurricanes.

Meteorologists Will:

• Analyze temperature

• Measure precipitation

• Detect wind direction

• Interpret barometric pressure

• Identify air masses

• Understand the water cycle

• Analyze clouds

• Use the collected data to predict the weather for later that day

An exciting experience with meteorology! An opportunity for young "meteorologists" to use genuine weather equipment to collect & analyze data, then forecast the weather! Meteorologists will be "blown away" by the practices to predict weather. They can then apply the knowledge they've learned to better understand Florida's weather patterns as well as unwanted hurricanes.

Meteorologists Will:

• • • Analyze wind speed

    • Measure precipitation

    • Detect wind direction

    • Interpret barometric pressure

    • Identify air masses

    • Decipher relative humidity

    • Analyze and classify clouds

    • Use the collected data to calculate & predict the weather for later that day