- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Stephen Lyn Bales, editor

Tuesday, November 22, 2016

Girls Outside with Ijams: A hike celebrating the best of fall


Last Sunday, nine girls and three women guides explored Ijams together on a lovely fall afternoon with Girls Outside (G.O.) with Ijams. 

After getting to know each other and a quick refresher on the principles of "Leave No Trace," we hit the trail. The girls enjoyed a snack break along the river, sunning like lizards on large boulders, and trying out a little nature obstacle course located along the greenway. While on the boardwalk, the girls spotted a bald eagle soaring over the Tennessee River, its white head and tail gleaming brilliantly in the autumn sunshine.

We were joined on the hike by two members of the Abby Gibson Memorial Foundation, and so we took a few minutes at the end of the hike to honor Abby, a girl who loved animals and the outdoors, by planting milkweed seeds in the meadow near Jo's Grove. The girls knew a lot already about why milkweed is important for monarch butterflies. 

Next summer when the girls return, they can look for the flowers from their scattered seeds and remember their fall hike!

This is G.O. with Ijams second hike since announcing our new partnership. Look for our next G.O. with Ijams hikes starting up again in early 2017!

- Kelly Sturner, Girls Outside with Ijams Founding Partner and Hike Leader

Saturday, November 5, 2016

Ijams Ed-Ventures home-schoolers complete second workshop




Our second Ed-Ventures @ Ijams homeschool class sessions held last month focused on the Invertebrates: insects, spiders and myriapods (centipedes and millipedes). 

In all there are eight natural science topics that will be covered during the 2016-17 school year. In October it was entomology.

After a short indoor formal class, we moved outdoors for our biological fieldwork with swept nets and little cups to hold our catches. Every student caught something to be proud of be it grasshopper, cricket or spider. OK, there was one wasp, caught by a Mom, and we were very very careful with it. We don't mess with the Hymenopterans, i.e. those with stingers.
 

This upcoming week we turn our attention to the birds for the future ornithologists in the classes, followed by geology in December.

Ijams Nature Center has been connecting kids and their parents with nature since 1968.

- Stephen Lyn Bales, your buggy host











And one reptile managed to stroll in to garner our attention