I Read The Water Will Come Because I Wasn't Afraid Enough of Drowning (JK I Am The MOST Afraid of Drowning!)

Found a new-to-us creek access (and soooo many snakes) on the kid's college break!

The Water Will Come: Rising Seas, Sinking Cities, and the Remaking of the Civilized World by Jeff Goodell
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I actually read The Heat Will Kill You First: Life and Death on a Scorched Planet first, and loved it so much that I immediately checked out another of Goodell’s books-and two weeks later, I’m reviewing this one, too!

I don’t love this book, at least not for its writing style. In The Heat Will Kill You First, I feel like Goodell really cracked the pattern of vivid anecdote followed by elucidating science. The anecdotes WERE very vivid, which drew me into the science, which gave me the information, and then off I went to the next chapter. This book still has the science, but the anecdotes are a little less vivid and less interesting, or maybe I’m just less interested and don’t feel as much of a call to action reading about real estate as I was reading about migrant laborers dying in the fields. I don’t really feel sorry for the people who live on a narrow spit of land in Florida and want their shitty gravel road maintained AND I don’t feel sorry for the county government that has to spend all the county’s money yearly rebuilding a road that serves a whopping twenty people. 

Okay, I feel a little sorry for the county that raised its roads and got sued, anyway...

Other times, though, the real estate anecdotes worked. I’ve been interested in the Marshall Islands since my older kid studied it in AP Human Geography. My entrypoint was how cool stick maps are (I’ve since seen a real Marshall Islands stick map in a museum, and it’s just as cool in person!), and that same class also covered how the islands are being affected by global warming, but not in the vivid, anecdotal detail here. Goodell also showed me another unexpected point of connection to the Marshall Islands: many of the people there are leaving for my home state of Arkansas, of all places! I don’t love that for them, since they’re apparently mostly working at the chicken plant there. Fun fact: my high school chemistry teacher would threaten us with future employment at the chicken plant if we weren’t studying hard enough. The chicken plant is the WORST work, and I don’t wish that on anyone, much less people forced to leave paradise due in quite a large part to America’s actions.

On the trail down to the new-to-us creek access, we also found a lovely spot for a portrait!

This would have been a great book to read with my teenager when she was studying AP Environmental Science and AP Human Geography, and it’s also interesting to read it in today’s political landscape, when I can see connections between climate change and the COVID pandemic, Israel’s attempted genocide of the Palestinians, and Russia’s war on the Ukraine. Mostly, though, it makes me want to take a trip to Miami Beach. I’ve never been there, and it doesn’t seem like IT’s going to be there for very much longer, either…

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I Read The Heat Will Kill You First, and We're Definitely All Going to Die of Hyperthermia

It was an eclectic week!

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

My way into The Heat Will Kill You First was the author's discussion of the 2021 deaths of a family, including their dog, during a hike in the Sierra National Forest. I am high-key obsessed with the topic of People Dying on Public Lands, and when the news hit, I followed it for a couple of weeks, reading theories ranging from algae poisoning to the mafia, before the next crazy news story hit and I forgot about it.

Turns out, that family died of hyperthermia, and Goodell’s vivid description of how it happened was the perfect segue into the longer, more detailed topic of We Are All Going To Die From This Heat.

You guys, we are all going to die from this heat!

I often apologize to my kids about the state of the planet that I’ll be leaving them, as often as I irritatedly lecture them that it's the giant corporations killing the sea turtles, not plastic straws... but we still don't use plastic straws. Also, plastic recycling in general is a myth. 

The blogger's child, age five, at the Monterey Bay Aquarium

I think about the state of the planet that I'll be leaving them even more than that, how those fun, special activities that I've taken them on, all those trips to the Monterey Bay Aquarium, will one day have become once-upon-a-time adventures, never again to be repeated, since much of Monterey Bay has already died off due to warming temperatures.

Even corn, the roach plant of the Heartlands, will be negatively affected. I’ve been obsessed with how hateful corn is ever since reading The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals (EVERYTHING is made from it! It has very little nutritional value! Cows aren’t even built to digest it, and that’s why they have to give them so many antibiotics!), so maybe it’s not the worst thing that rising temperatures will eventually kill it off... except that, you know, by the time corn is killed off, most of the good stuff will have been LONG extinct.

It’s especially horrifying that, even in these ever-worsening conditions, America’s agriculture economy is still based primarily on individual manual field labor. It’s not quite as underpaid as it was when landowners literally enslaved people and forced them to do the work, but it’s still much closer to slave wages than it is to pay commensurate with skill, value, and experience. And just like when people were enslaved to do it, manual field labor is still causing heat-related deaths, just so we can have our strawberries and cabbages and almonds whenever we want them.

One of Goodell’s most interesting claims is that one reason why ever-worsening heat, particularly deadly heat waves, isn’t taken more seriously is that it’s invisible. The world has agreed on a Richter Scale, an EF rating, hurricane categories, etc., but the world hasn’t agreed on a scale upon which one can identify the danger level of a heat wave, nor is there a good universal graphic to illustrate one on a weather map. Part of that is that one’s experience of heat is somewhat subjective, so it’s less obvious when a heat wave strikes a place that isn’t prepared for it compared to the “normal” hot temperatures of a place where people know how to live with it--or at least have air-conditioning to avoid most of it.

Goodell also makes the point that part of the subjectivity of heat is its classism. Unlike tornadoes and, to a lesser extent, hurricanes, which strike where they will (it’s still a LOT better to be rich when there’s a hurricane coming, though!), heat affects the economically disenfranchised more than those with wealth and power. If a tornado hits, you’ve got to do something, but if a heat wave hits and you’re rich, you can just turn up the air-conditioning, or take a bonus vacation north.

 
In conclusion, maybe I should buy property in northern Canada so my descendants can perhaps eke out a few more generations on our greenhouse planet. Or plant some more trees on my back forty. Or maybe just take my kids to see a glacier so they’ll have a crazy-sounding, half-believed story to tell the orphans they help chaperone in the Survival Camp.

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Homeschool High School Biology: The ProtistsThat Live in the Local Lake

You will never want to even touch pond water again after completing this biology lab.

But you WILL want to have an aquarium full of pond water living in your home so you can keep hundreds of thousands of microscopic protozoa pets!

This lab is a companion to CK-12 Biology 8.4, which is the chapter on protists.

Observing prepared slides of protists is a good preliminary lab, because it allows your high schooler to review proper microscope usage and how to make microscope drawings, and to get an idea what the live protists might look like. 

Here are the lab instructions that I wrote for my teenager, and here are the materials that we used for the lab:

• packaged sterile sample container
• eyedropper
• microscope
• (optional) microscope digital camera and software
• protist diagrams
• blank microscope slide and blank slide covers
• lens cloth

There was a blast from the past on the package of microscope slides:

I used to shop in that independent educational toys and teaching supplies store ALL THE TIME when my children were wee. The dollhouse I bought one toddler to celebrate her toilet training came from there, as did the PlaySkool circus set that the other kid picked out for her sixth birthday present, about an hour before she broke her leg on the playground and it turned out that a huge Playskool set was absolutely the perfect thing for a kid with a cast on her leg to play with for a solid month!

Fifteen years after picking out that dollhouse, my teenager collected water from a local lake, brought it home, dropped a single drop onto a microscope slide, and put it under the microscope to see what lives there.

A lot, it turned out!

In the above video, I think I see an amoeba, but I think that all the larger creatures are perhaps nematodes? I haven't even looked to see what the teenager identified them as in her lab notebook, but I'm sure her guess is better than mine!

The next video is by far my coolest:

I'm pretty sure those are stalked ciliates! The teenagers and I have done this lab several times, and I've only seen these particular critters once! I'm think all the critters swimming around them are Euglenae. Or maybe Paramecia? 

Those two videos are taken at just 100x, so you can see how much you can see even at that low magnitude. 400x, below, gives you more detail, but we don't use any additives to slow down our protists, so anything speedier than that oozy amoeba at the bottom right is hard to see.

This is a different water sample on a different day. I think that might be another Euglenoid because of its chloroplasts, which perhaps makes the critters that I previously thought were Euglenae actually Paramecia. I should probably get off my butt and go see what the teenager identified everything as, because I'm sure that she did more research than I'm currently doing!

The identities might be a bit sketchy, but the point of this particular lab isn't specifically to correctly identify every protist. Think of how much the teenager learned about sample collecting, microscope usage, and protists in general, as well as the practice that she got writing a lab report, problem-solving in science, and making decisions about identification. 

And most importantly, she got to see all the magic that lives out of sight in our local lake!

This protist lab pairs well with this macroinvertebrate identification lab, as well as this larger Water unit. 

Every Council's Own Girl Scout Fun Patch Program That Your Girl Scouts Can Earn from Anywhere: Science

Welcome back to my very weird series in which I am listing, week by week, topic by topic, every single Council's Own Girl Scout fun patch program that your Girl Scouts can earn from everywhere!

My Girl Scout troop enjoys earning Council's Own fun patches, as well as official badges and retired badges. I usually look for a fun patch that they can earn in addition to a badge whenever we're planning a big project or a trip, etc. This list is essentially just my own research written down for easy reference.

This week's category: Science! This includes fun patches on all kinds of scientific topics, as well as fun patches devoted to hands-on activities. There are plenty of environmental stewardship and women's health fun patches, and several fun patches that could build context or add depth to badgework.

It turns out that Girl Scouts REALLY love biology! I could have separated out Biology into its own category and still had a couple of lengthy lists. As it is, there are a LOT of Science fun patches here, so many that I doubt that even the most science-loving Girl Scout troop could ever earn them all.

For this list, I only included fun patch programs that fit the following criteria:

1. Girl Scouts can earn this fun patch wherever they are. I did not include any fun patch programs that have site-specific criteria, unless I felt that those criteria would be easy to substitute and still maintain the point of the fun patch program. I also didn't include fun patch programs that require time-specific criteria that have already passed, such as patches programs designed for the 2020 COVID lockdowns. I noted in the description of each patch when substitutions would be required.
2. Girl Scouts can obtain the council's requirements to earn this fun patch. I found several instances in which the council still sells a specific fun patch, but has deleted all the requirements from its website. If I couldn't find an easy link to those requirements from another site, I did not include the patch.
3. Girl Scouts can obtain the physical fun patch. There were also several instances in which councils still host the requirements for a fun patch program, but no longer sell the patch (or, as in the case of a few GSAK patches, they have fewer than ten remaining). If it is unlikely for a Girl Scout to be able to obtain the fun patch, I did not include it. The link to purchase each fun patch is in the caption for its graphic.

SCIENCE

Albuquerque BioPark GSNMT

Albuquerque BioPark, Girl Scouts of New Mexico Trails. Learn about giraffes, their importance to their ecosystem, and how to conserve them. There are a couple of site-specific activities that you could substitute with a visit to a zoo or conservation park near you.

Amphibians and Reptiles GSNCCP

Amphibians and Reptiles, Girl Scouts of North Carolina Coastal Pines. Younger Girl Scouts complete activities to learn about amphibians and reptiles. This pairs well with any of the Outdoor badges, since you can combine it with a nature walk, hike, or camping trip. A state park nature center should have exhibits or animal encounters to further support this fun patch program.

Animals in Winter GSAK

Animals in Winter, Girl Scouts of Alaska. Learn how animals survive the winter months.

Archaeology GSACPC

Archaeology, Girl Scouts of Arizona Cactus-Pines Council. Explore archaeology and the native peoples of your location. The guide book references Arizona locations, but it would be easy to substitute research and activities in your own state.

Baking Science GSAK

Baking Science, Girl Scouts of Alaska. Explore STEM topics through baking. This fun patch program pairs well with any of the Cooking badges.

Bat's So Awesome GSWO

Bat's So Awesome, Girl Scouts of Western Ohio. Complete activities to learn more about bats.

Brain Health GSAK

Brain Health, Girl Scouts of Alaska. Learn about the brain while growing emotional resiliency. This fun patch program pairs well with the Junior Independence badge, the Senior Women's Health badge, and the Ambassador On My Own badge.

Butterflies GSSEF

Butterflies, Girl Scouts of Southeast Florida. Learn about butterflies, migration, and the butterfly life cycle. This fun patch program pairs well with the Brownie Bugs badge. 

Citizen Scientist GSOH

Citizen Scientist, Girl Scouts of Ohio's Heartland. Complete a Citizen Science project to earn this fun patch. This would pair well with any of the science-based badges or Journeys, or you could use it for a Girl Scout who participated in the Citizen Science part of a badge or Journey with the troop but didn't complete the rest of the requirements to earn that award.

Conservation Champions GSWCF

Conservation Champions, Girl Scouts of West Central Florida. Complete science activities to explore issues in conservation. This fun patch pairs well with any of the Eco badges. Some activities are Florida-specific, but the guide book is so meaty that it shouldn't be a problem choosing different activities. This is a great fun patch program for troops with a high interest in science, or to give Girl Scouts more context for future Citizen Science TAPs.

Crazy for Chemistry GSC

Crazy for Chemistry, Girl Scouts of Citrus. Explore the field of chemistry through a variety of activities. 

Dairy Fun GSOSW

Dairy Fun, Girl Scouts of Oregon and Southwest Washington. Visit a dairy farm and learn about dairy production and nutrition. This fun patch program pairs well with any of the Cooking badges.

Dark Skies GSCTX

Dark Skies, Girl Scouts of Central Texas. Learn about the issue of light pollution and how it can be prevented. This fun patch pairs well with any of the Space Science badges. It would also be a good patch program to earn with a troop that's preparing to earn Journeys or Higher Awards and trying to understand the concept of a "problem that needs solving" or "underlying problem," etc.

Dolphins GSAK

Dolphins, Girl Scouts of Alaska. Explore simple activities to learn more about dolphins. This easy little patch program would be a good fit for a younger troop preparing for a field trip to an aquarium.

Endangered and Extinct Animals GSAK

Endangered and Extinct Animals, Girl Scouts of Alaska. Complete activities to learn more about extinct and endangered animals from all over the world.

Flipping for Dolphins GSDH

Flipping for Dolphins, Girl Scouts of Dakota Horizons. Learn more about dolphins and their biology.

Florida Manatee GSWCF

Florida Manatee, Girl Scouts of West Central Florida. Learn about manatees and how to protect them in the wild. This fun patch program pairs well with the Senior Voice for Animals badge and the Ambassador Water badge.

Fly Like an Eagle GSEIWI

Fly Like an Eagle, Girl Scouts of Eastern Iowa and Western Illinois. Learn fun facts about bald eagles. 

Fungus Among Us GSAK

Fungus Among Us, Girl Scouts of Alaska. Learn about mushrooms and other fungi.

Generation Rx GSOH

Generation Rx, Girl Scouts of Ohio's Heartland. Learn how to safely handle and properly dispose of prescription medications. This fun patch program pairs well with the Junior Independence badge and Senior Women's Health badge, and could be the basis for a community service project.

Geology GSSS

Geology, Girl Scouts of Silver Sage. Learn about geology through hands-on activities.

Girls Go to Mars GSNorCal

Girls Go to Mars, Girl Scouts of Northern California. Complete a variety of space science activities created in collaboration with the SETI Institute. This fun patch program pairs well with any of the Space Science badges.

Girl Scouts Love Sea Turtles GSSEF

Girl Scouts Love Sea Turtles, Girl Scouts of Southeast Florida. Learn about sea turtles and their importance to the ocean. This fun patch program pairs well with the Ambassador Eco Advocate badge. 

Habitat Detective GSC

Habitat Detective, Girl Scouts of Citrus. Learn about habitats and what types of creatures live where. 

Hurricane Awareness GSTF

Hurricane Awareness, Girl Scouts of Tropical Florida. Learn about hurricane prediction and tracking, and emergency preparedness. Depending on how many activities your troop wants to do, you might have to sub out a couple of the activities that would require living in a hurricane-prone area, but most troops should be able to do most activities as-is. This would be a great fun patch program to complete during hurricane season, when your troop can track and log live hurricanes.

Koalas GSAK

Koalas, Girl Scouts of Alaska. Complete activities to learn more about koalas. This fun patch program pairs well with a field trip to a zoo where Girl Scouts can see koalas.

Leaping Lemurs GSAK

Leaping Lemurs, Girl Scouts of Alaska. Learn about lemurs through this fun patch program. This patch program would pair well with a field trip to the zoo.

Maine Lobster GSME

Maine Lobster, Girl Scouts of Maine. Learn about the Maine lobster and how to conserve its habitat. You'll have to substitute for some site-specific activities, but I think this fun patch can still work as one that can be completed anywhere. It pairs well with the Senior Voice for Animals badge and Locavore badge. 

Monarch Propagator GSH

Monarch Propagator, Girl Scouts of Hawaii. Learn entomology, environmental science, and sustainability while raising and releasing monarchs.

Monk Seal GSAK

Monk Seal, Girl Scouts of Alaska. Complete activities to learn about the monk seal. This fun patch program pairs well with a field trip to a place where Girl Scouts can see monk seals.

The Night Sky GSAK

The Night Sky, Girl Scouts of Alaska. Learn more about the Aurora Borealis and the locations where it can be seen. This fun patch program pairs well with any of the Space Science badges and the Cadette Night Owl badge.

Paper Scientist GSME

Paper Scientist, Girl Scouts of Maine. Covers activities on topics related to paper, from trees to paper manufacture to recycling. This would pair well with the Cadette Book Artist badge or with a fun field trip opportunity. If you don't have a paper manufacturing plant in driving distance, you probably DO have a recycling facility!

Penguin Patch GSAK

Penguin Patch, Girl Scouts of Alaska. Complete activities to learn about penguins. This fun patch program pairs well with a field trip to a place where Girl Scouts can see penguins.

Out of This World GSNCA

Out of This World, Girl Scouts of North Central Alabama. Learn about various space missions and the history of NASA. This would pair well with any of the Space Science badges. It would be especially fun to theme this fun patch program to a specific upcoming space launch or mission, so that you can follow it in real time!

Pollinators GSCTX

Pollinators, Girl Scouts of Central Texas. Complete activities to learn about pollinators and their place in the ecosystem. This fun patch pairs well with the Brownie Bugs badge and any of the Eco badges. 

Quake Safe GSOC

Quake Safe, Girl Scouts of Orange County. Learn the science of earthquakes, research historically-significant earthquakes, and learn disaster preparedness and first aid.

Rocks, Minerals, and Gemstones GSAK

Rocks, Minerals, and Gemstones, Girl Scouts of Alaska. Explore activities related to the science and identification of rocks, minerals, and gemstones.

Save a Bee GSCSA

Save a Bee, Girl Scouts of Southern Appalachians. Learn about bees and their role in the ecosystem. The requirements for this fun patch are few, so it's a good one to pair with a field trip to a honey farm, or to add onto one of the Eco badges.

Science GSNETX

Science, Girl Scouts of Northeast Texas. Try science activities and learn about careers in science.

Sea Turtles GSNCCP

Sea Turtles, Girl Scouts of North Carolina Coastal Pines. Younger Girl Scouts learn about sea turtles and why they need protection. This badge relies on games and meeting-based activities, so is quite doable even if you can't introduce your Girl Scout troop to a real, live sea turtle!

Sound Science GSAK

Sound Science, Girl Scouts of Alaska. Complete activities to experiment with sound.

Star Gazer GSNCA

Star Gazer, Girl Scouts of North Central Alabama. Explore activities related to astronomy. This pairs well with any of the Space Science badges at any level. 

Summer Solstice GSAK

Summer Solstice, Girl Scouts of Alaska. Complete activities to learn about and celebrate the Summer Solstice. This would make a good troop meeting on or around the Summer Solstice, or Girl Scouts could earn it independently over the summer.

Sustainability GSCTX

Sustainability, Girl Scouts of Central Texas. Try out different types of environmental science activities to earn this patch. Most of the activities are fairly quick and/or easy, so this fun patch program could make a good single-meeting plan to build context within one of the science-themed badges.

Think Pink GSNCCP

Think Pink, Girl Scouts of North Carolina Coastal Pines. Learn about breast health, breast cancer, and women's health advocacy. This fun patch program pairs well with the Senior Women's Health badge, or for activities related to Juliette Low, who died of breast cancer. 

Ultimate Ungulates GSAK

Ultimate Ungulates, Girl Scouts of Alaska. Learn more about the ungulates category of animals. This fun patch program pairs well with the Junior Horseback Riding badge or a field trip to see ungulates. 

GSSJC Urban Forestry

Urban Forestry, Girl Scouts of San Jacinto County. Explore forestry, tree science, and land management. This fun patch program pairs well with the Cadette Trees badge and any of the Eco badges. 

What's the Buzz About Bees GSSN

What's the Buzz about Bees, Girl Scouts of the Sierra Nevada. Complete this patch program to learn about bees and their place in the ecosystem.

Wild Horses and Burros GSSN

Wild Horses and Burros, Girl Scouts of the Sierra Nevada. Learn about feral horses and burros, their history, and their role in the ecosystem.

Wonder Why with Water GSLE

Wonder Why with Water, Girl Scouts of Louisiana East. Practice conservation while learning about water.

Here's a look at my complete fun patch series:

• Arts and Crafts
• Culture, Diversity, and Equity
• Games and Sports
• Geography/History
• Outdoors
• Practical Life Skills
• Reading and Writing
• Science
• Service Learning
• Social-Emotional Skills
• Technology, Engineering, and Math

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