What makes your home “special”? Check out this story about a hermit crab making the most of their home “A House for Hermit Crab” by Eric Carle and enacted with colorful crafts made by Shepherd. House4HermitCrabDownload ..read more

Many horseshoe crabs you see this time of year along the shore are probably “molts”. You can tell if the exoskeleton seems hollow. Insider science tip: If the horseshoe crab has a slight opening at the opposite end of the telson (i.e., pointy “tail”) – it’s a molt. However, if you see a live one that has been stranded on shore, you may want to help the living fossil out and flip it. But, be sure to do it carefully and handle it in the safest manner. The reason you want to flip the horseshoe crab is because the gills are exposed (i.e., upside down) and just like fish they need to get oxygen fro ..read more

A “giant larvacean” and its “inner house,” which is a mucus filter that the animal uses to collect food. The creature builds a huge mucous structure that functions as an elaborate feeding tool, guiding food particles into the animal’s mouth. When the filters get clogged, the larvacean abandons them. Photo: Monterrey Bay Aquarium Research Institute via AP https://newsela.com/read/critter-snot-palaces/id/2001009851/activities If you’re a larvacean, you work constantly without a break to save the planet. Larvaceans are tiny invertebrates that are always filtering food – or, microplastics – from ..read more

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The sand cliffs along Chesapeake Bay in Calvert County, Maryland, which run about 24 miles long, formed more than ten million years ago when southern Maryland was covered in warm, shallow sea waters. Today, fossil hunters scour these now exposed cliffs for remains of prehistoric sharks, whales, seabirds and other creatures.  I had never heard of the Calvert Cliffs until a little more than year ago. Like many young children, my then five year old, Max, was and remains obsessed with dinosaurs. So I looked online to see if perhaps there might be a place around our home in the Washington, DC a ..read more

It’s the dead of winter and I am Reminiscing about last summer. My husband and I both turned 40 in 2019 and we splurged on a family vacation to Alaska. It’s been over six months and the most memorable part of the trip for our nine and six year old was an afternoon we spent with Briana and Claudia with the Center for Alaskan Coastal Studies at the Yurt on the Spit in Homer, AK. The educators were kind, patient, knowledgeable and engaging. So grateful for the hands-on, interactive opportunity. Keep up the amazing job and thank you for such a memorable experience ..read more

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