Rocket Science

Wombat's choice of what to do this morning - just a bit of rocket science smile emoticon He is watching documentaries on journeys to deepest space and future spaceflight technologies, and using an app with realistic orbital physics to create and test his own rocket designs.

The app is Simple Rockets: "Kepler wrote the equations 400 years ago, and SimpleRockets uses those equations to model extremely realistic orbital physics. Players will learn about rocket science and astrodynamics while they are having a blast exploring the solar system."

Here are some of Wombat's creations.

Scorpion!

The other day my Mulga yelled out that there was a scorpion in the sandpit where he and Boronia were playing. It was not at all aggressive and I was easily able to gently coax it into a jar using a stick. 

Being homeschoolers we transferred it into our mini aquarium to observe overnight. We also happened to have a UV torch on hand. The next day I carefully transferred it back into the jar and we took it for a bushwalk and released it on our property well away from the house. 

I posted some pictures on facebook and was astounded by the number of people who did not realise we had scorpions in Australia - let alone this close to Sydney. I believe they are quite rare as this is only the second I have seen in 20 years of living out here. 

We are members of the museum and Wombat wanted to make sure we shared it to so we sent an email to them.

We think it might be a Mottled Scorpion from our research (http://www.foundation.qm.qld.gov.au/Find+out+about/Animals+of+Queensland/Other+Arachnids/Scorpions#.VPgEXPzLfYg).

From our understanding it would give a painful sting to an adult and may be deadly to a young child. We are hoping the museum will confirm our hypothesis. (Mulga got double pocket money for protecting himself and his sister by alerting an adult and keeping them both away.) 

NPWS volunteers

Spent a nice rainy day at Bent's Basin as NPWS volunteers. We were making flaps which were to be placed at the entrance of wombat burrows to test the effectiveness of this method for delivering medicine to treat mange in the wombats. Unfortunately the rain stopped us from going out to put the traps in place, and soccer has now started so we are unlikely to get the chance to go back and see how they worked unless they do a weekday run - but it was a great homeschooling experience nonetheless and one we enjoyed heaps.