Invertebrates are cool

Our science lessons this month have been revolving around invertebrates. I don't know about you but I am not all that keen on bugs. Butterflies are cool...the rest...nah....not so much. Unfortunately my children feel the same way about bugs as I do. I an attempt to spark some interest I thought a little field trip to the local bug museum was in order. 

First off who knew there were whole museums full of just bugs? That is it...an entire building full of all different types of beetles, ants, butterflies, walking sticks, and much much more. 

We loved these "windows" into different habitats scattered through out the museum. It was like a game of where is waldo as we tried to find all of the different types of moths, walking sticks and such scattered through the "picture". It was a great chance to talk about camouflage techniques and  native habitats.

Of course the butterfly displays were the coolest things in the entire museum according to my oldest two daughters. They were however very sad that so many butterflies had to die to make these displays. We did learn a great deal about them as we worked our way through the museum. We can now tell you all the ways a butterfly is different from a moth and why the blue morpho butterfly has "eyes" on the underside of it's wings.

The coolest part of the museum would have to be the touching section! We were able to hear a brief talk about several different invertebrates before being able to touch them! I touched a hissing cockroach, a millipede, a scorpion, and a tarantula.  Some of my children were brave enough to touch a few of the specimens. Most however declined. We did learn a great deal about each of the invertebrates before they were brought around for touching. For example if you see a scorpion with small pinchers you want to stay far far away, it has very toxic poison.

So was I able to instill a life long love of all things creepy crawly? Not on your life.  I did however get a little more knowledge into their little heads and I got bonus points for a field trip in the middle of the week. That is always a hit with my family. I am looking forward to studying something a little more cuddly in the future....panda bears anyone?