DUDE! Can You Identify the Layers of the Grand Canyon?

Dude completely tells you how the Grand Canyon was made. Deposition, Uplift, Downcutting, and Erosion all have to work together to make a canyon and they have to work in the order listed below.

Deposition - layers of sediment and organic material
Uplift - when the oceanic plate pushed under the continental plate (Colorado Plateau)
Downcutting - downward erosion by rivers that deepen the channel
Erosion - weathering by wind and water

Identifying the Layers

1. Granite veins (pink) is called schist and is at the bottom of the canyon
2. Limestone is white but looks red because it is porous and iron collects in the holes and is later oxidized
3. Sandstone is the white ring called the bathtub ring
4. Mudstone is the sloping layer of the canyon because when mud gets wet, it slowly slides off in a slope

My Fish Camp Scholarship Application

Why do you want to go to Fish Camp this summer? (100-150 words)

Several years ago when I lived in Bend, I went to a summer festival. A local fly club had a booth and volunteers taught kids how to make a simple fly. I got to learn how to tie a wooly bugger and I just fell in love with fly tying.
  
I like to do many crafts. Fly tying is my favorite kind of craft, because it it sometimes tedious. It has small details and requires good eye-hand coordination.

Another reason I like fly fishing is because I really like nature. You get to learn about insects. The hooks use feathers and fur which I enjoy collecting when I go on nature walks with my family. You also get to learn some biology and ecology.  You also get to learn about different kinds of fish and where they live.  The flies are like little statues of nature.

What is it about fly fishing that is of interest to you? (100-150 words)

I have always wanted to learn how to fly fish and I think this is the perfect opportunity.  Years ago when I lived in Bend, our neighbor taught me how to cast.  I really enjoyed it.  It was both challenging and fun.

My friend is nervous about staying away from her family overnight.  I want to go to fish camp so that I can tell her how fun it was and all that I learned.  Then maybe next year she will have the courage and we can go together. I also want to meet new friends with the same interest as me.

I would like this camp because I want to be in the outdoors for long periods.  I really like camping out in the open.  I also want to find a life long hobby so I can teach my kids when I grow up.

Orange Jelly Fungi

I found this fungus at Empire Lakes. I was walking along the trail and my brother found it for me.  It was growing on a decaying Douglas Fir branch, I think.  My papa says he thinks it is Douglas Fir, too.The Orange Jelly fungus belongs to a family called Dacrymycetales. It is probably one of my favorite fungi. It lives mostly in moist climates, for example the Pacific Northwest Coast. It is edible, best steamed or boiled.

I learned that Dacrymycetales palmatus is very similar to two other jelly fungi, Tremella aurantia and Tremella mesenterica but those are usually more yellow and grow on hardwood trees which still have their bark, instead of dead conifers.  A year ago, we went on a family hike in the Trinity Mountains and we saw what I think now is Tremella growing on a pine tree.   

I'm trying to do this science experiment and I need a special slime mold, but unfortunately this is not the one that I need. So I ordered a kit from Carolina Biological, and I just got it in the mail yesterday. It was really exciting and the mold has already grown a lot.

This is my first submission to the Outdoor Hour Challenges at Handbook of Nature Study. 

Postage Stamp Collecting

I love to stamp collect. As you probably know you don't get postage stamps that often. So then how do you go about collecting stamps? You should start collecting just all the stamps that come in the mail.When you get really into it, you can then select a category or a certain topic and collect just stamps that fit into that topic. If you pick birds, for example, then you could collect birds stamps, cancellations with birds, and even envelops with bird artwork in the corner.  You could also  narrow it down and maybe collect only hummingbirds.

Then you probably would want to show it to other people so you can make a nice way to format it on a page and you should have a little information about the category. Then you can display your project or collection at a stamp show. A stamp show is basically is where a bunch of stamp collectors get together and show their stamp collections.  
 

I like to collect birds but now I am narrowing it down just to owls. I am getting some of my stamps from Ebay. Ebay is a really easy way of getting stamps. You can Learn a lot from stamp collecting.

Here is some pics of my stamp collection  

Happy collecting :) (:

My Snow Experiments

One day, there were snowflakes falling.  So I decided to get two plastic tubs.  I filled one of them with fresh new snow and the other with old snow.  I did not pack them down.  Then I took them inside and waited for each one to melt. I wanted to find out which one had the most water.  My hypothesis was that they would have the same amount of water.

I let it melt and later came back to look at them.  The fresh, new snow had the least amount of water.  The old snow had the most amount of water.  

While I waited, I took a black piece of paper outside and caught some snowflakes.   I could see many different kinds of snowflakes.  My favorite is the one at the top.  Here is a fun website to learn more about snowflakes.

Volcanoes

I made this by myself. It is two different kinds of volcanoes. One shoots out ash, the other oozes lava. I drew it so you can see the magma inside.
From My Mom:

Shield Volcano - A gently-sloping volcano that emits mostly basaltic lava that flows in long-lasting, relatively gentle eruptions - explosions are minimal. Shield volcanoes can be very big. An example is Mt. Kilauea (in Hawaii, USA).

Composite or Strato Volcano - A steep-coned volcano that explosively emits gases, ash, and pumice. This type of volcano can have eruptions accompanied by mudflows. Most volcanoes on Earth are of this type. Strato Volcanoes kill more people than any other type of volcanoes - this is because of their abundance on Earth and their powerful mudflows. Examples are Krakatoa in Indonesia, Mt. Pinatubo in the Philippines, and Mt. St. Helens in Washington state, USA.

How a Reef is Made

It is fun to learn about coral reefs. This graphic shows how a reef is made. It starts as a fringing reef, then it is called a barrier reef, and finally it becomes an atoll.
Tiny animals build rocky cups for their homes with minerals in the sea. When they die, a new polyp builds on top of the old cups and a huge reef is made. This takes many, many years.

Coral animals are animals with stinging cells in their tentacles to catch prey. They are like jellyfish and sea anemones.

Geography Picture Dictionary

I like to draw. It is really fun. I love to do school work. This is one of my favorite projects.