Peggy+Notebaert+Museum+activity+worksheet

PEGGY NOTEBAERT MUSEUM FIELD TRIP ACTIVITY

=Curiosity=
 * 1**) Write 10 questions about one topic that you observe today (i.e. bird flying, butterfly fluttering, flowing water, the landscape, reflected light)
 * 2**) Spend 10 minutes writing in stream of consciousness about one question from your list. Don’t lift your pen from the paper. Keep your pen moving. It may be jibberish. It may be repeated
 * 3)** Read through your writing and highlight words or phrases that connect most strongly with you.


 * The Senses** “All our knowledge has its origin in our perceptions.” Da Vinci
 * 1**) Note the markings on 3 different butterflies/moths in as much detail as you can. What purpose do those markings serve, in other words why are they there? Afterwards read the New York Times article I’ve given you.
 * 2)** As you explore the museum & its surroundings, select two **activities** from below to do. What did you discover? Why did you choose those activities?
 * 3**) Meet with another class member and share your perspectives to the above answer.

=ACTIVITIES= a. What were the sounds? b. What were the smells?
 * 4. Select one location**, indoors or out, from our outing and create a mind picture of the spot. Listen for the sounds of the spot, smell the scents and look at the colors, shapes, etc. of the spot. Then close your eyes and try to commit it to your mind’s memory.


 * ANTS**
 * 5**. What similarities are there between an ant colony and a human colony?
 * 6**. Watch the ants. What are the ants doing? Watch one ant. What happens when it meets another ant, a wall, food?

§ **Discover symmetries** in what you observe today. See the vocabulary sheet for help.


 * 7.** **Touch the textures** of nature. Feel the grass, the dirt, the flower petals, the snow, the leaves, the bark of the tree.


 * 8**. **Make a bark rubbing** by placing a piece of paper over the bark of a tree and rubbing over the paper with a crayon or chalk. Select three different trees. Note the differences between each. Is there any symmetry to be found?


 * SYMMETRY: DEFINITIONS & ACTIVITIES**
 * Symmetry**: two factors are in place – congruence and periodicity or you could say, **it is regularly repeated**.


 * Arrays**: regularly repeated along a line (i.e. bricks, scales on fish, kernels of corn)


 * 9.** Find one example of an array.


 * Rotations**: the components are laid out at regular intervals around a central point
 * Reflections**: components are a mirror image from the central point


 * Radial**: centered symmetry (like a flower)


 * Dorsiventrality**: the symmetry found in moving creatures as well as cars, boats, etc., a leaf, leaf arrangements
 * Left & right side are mirror versions of each other.
 * There is a front & back and a top & bottom.


 * 10.** Describe the dorsiventrality of one animal, insect you see today.

Instead of being static, now we are talking about the dynamic or movement.
 * Curvature & flow**: found in waves


 * 11.** Watch some waves to see if there is symmetry in the length of the wave and how often they roll in.


 * Spirals & helices**: curves found in spider webs, animal horns, sea shells, plants, DNA

Pair of hands that are similar except they are mirror-reversed A spiral has to decide whether to go left or right.
 * Enantiomorphy**: left & right-handedness


 * 12.** Which way does a vine curve? Right or left?


 * Fibonacci**: cumulative progression where each number is the sum of the preceding two numbers, i.e. 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34


 * 13**. Can you find that in a flower or plant? Look at the petals or seeds. Does it follow the Fibonacci?

Hidden symmetries within branching hierarchies concern the rates and ratios of bifurcation. There is a common pattern, 3 streamlets feed into a stream, three streams into each tributary, three tributaries into a river. The same concept is found in plants and in animal vascular systems.
 * Branching Systems:** patterns of distribution


 * 14.** Examine one tree today. Note the branching hierarchies. Do three branches lead into 3 larger branches and those 3 larger branches lead to a big branch and those three big branches lead into a huge branch?


 * Self-Organizing Symmetries**: regularities in non-linear systems
 * Scale invariant symmetries** appear in fracture patterns found in mud cracks and ceramic crackle-glaze. There is an overall consistency to be found in those cracks.


 * 15.** Did you find anything that displays a scale invariant symmetry today?

Harmonious relationship between the parts of the system and the whole were used in ancient architecture and continues today. Examine the architectural design of the building to identify symmetries. Remember symmetry results from proportion.


 * 16**. What symmetries do you see in the museum building?

=Nature's Tricks Help Moths Say 'Don't Eat Me' In Many Ways= The gaudy swirls of color on a butterfly's wing, the rococo curlicues on its riotously dressed caterpillars, may seem to be delightful examples of nature's artistry. But that is to miss nature's point. Every feature of a butterfly or moth, throughout its life from egg to adult, has been shaped over millions of years of evolution for specific purposes. Salient among these is escape from predators like birds, monkeys and the dreaded parasitic flies and wasps that lay their eggs inside the living caterpillar. People arrived far too recently on the evolutionary scene for moths and butterflies to have anything to say to them. But after nearly 30 years of studying these insects in the Guanacaste conservation area of Costa Rica, Daniel Janzen has become an adept translator of their body language. In two recent books, 100 Caterpillars and 100 Butterflies and Moths (Harvard University Press, 2006 and 2007), he and Winifred Hallwachs, his colleague at the University of Pennsylvania, explain the meaning of the exotic colors and camouflage patterns. The full-page color photographs of each specimen were taken by Jeffrey C. Miller of Oregon State University. The moth Calledema plusia never flies by day yet has learned how to imitate bright sunlight. A silvery gash on both sides of its brown wings, always folded over the body during daytime, mimics a shaft of light streaming through a dead leaf. Many butterflies have gashes of iridescent color splashed across their wings. Why risk such a conspicuous display? The flashes of color accentuate the speed of flight. Their message to birds, Dr. Janzen suggests, is, Don't even try to catch me. Other bold color patterns, however elegant they may seem to people, are just toxic warning labels, real but often feigned, to would-be consumers. Many butterfly and moth species try to pretend they are the least nutritious objects in the forest. This generally means imitating a piece of bird excrement if one is a caterpillar, and a dead leaf when one reaches adulthood. Another variation is for a caterpillar to sport a disconcerting pattern like a giant eye that can be winked at an aggressor. A moth on which evolution has lavished a remarkable degree of protective care is Oxytenis modestia. The first four stages of its caterpillar mimic a bird dropping, complete with mock seeds. The fifth caterpillar stage performs a brilliant impersonation of a green snake, complete with a bulging head and two menacing faux eyes. As an adult, the Oxytenis moth resembles a leaf, but even here evolution's inventiveness is not an end. The moth breeds twice a year, and each form is different. The moths that hatch in the dry season are light beige, to resemble dry dead leaves, and those of the rainy season are dark and moldy looking. Several butterflies practice a clever combination of camouflage and conspicuousness. Pieria helvetia has demure forewings and splashes of deep red on its hindwings. At rest, with its wings closed, it can hardly be seen. If disturbed by a predator, it darts into rapid flight, its red patches making it very visible. Then comes the disappearing act. It settles, quickly folds its wings and is invisible again. Why do birds and monkeys go to such lengths to consume these insects, stimulating such a rich array of evolutionary strategies to evade capture? The answer is simple. Moths taste like raw shrimp, if one should care to try, Dr. Janzen assures the reader.
 * May 29, 2007**
 * By NICHOLAS WADE**