2/12/2007
Field Trip to the Delta
So, the oldest son and I went on a field trip with the Marine Science Institute. This particular trip, the Delta Discovery Voyage, was aboard the RV Brownlee and involved a trip through the California Delta, which is where the Bay, the Sacramento River, and the San Joaquin River all meet.
It was raining and foggy. But that doesn’t matter; the Brownlee sails no matter the weather. So we arrived early - like by 30 minutes. I used the time to get some pics of the marina and dock areas.
This is the marina. There were some very nice sailboats docked there. I had to explain to Phil why they didn’t want people swimming there. First, swimming in the Bay? Um, no. Second, they wouldn’t see you and might back into your head. He grokked that.
This is a small pier. It’s purpose relates to fishing apparently because there is a cleaning station on it. It was nice and gave us a good view of the boat.
Here are two pictures of the RV Brownlee. The fog makes the pictures interesting, don’t you think? I especially like the first one. It’s my background right now? 
This is a map of the Bay Area. It lists all the docks and marinas and boat ramps. See the red dot with the arrow? Yeah, that’s pointing to where we were. I just liked the map and thought it would be a nice edition to the post.
The Delta is very important to California. It provides water for 24 million people and the farm land of the Central Valley. They have to watch the salinity, though. Apparently the Delta is a battleground between the fresh water of the rivers and the salty water of the Bay. In the spring, there’s lots of fresh water because of the melting snow. In the fall, though, there’s not as much fresh water, so the tide brings in lots of salty ocean water. Luckily, they store extra fresh water for just that reason. In the fall and winter they add fresh water into the mix to keep the salinity at an acceptable level. Very cool stuff.
This is Plankton. No, not the guy from Spongebob, although that’s where they got the idea. No, this little guy’s name is actually a Copepod. His home is in the water of the Delta. Some of the kids got to collect water samples, and then the instructor put drops on slides. Her microscope had a special camera attached so everyone could see what they would see if they were looking through the eyepiece. The kids loved it - the little creatures were squirming or zipping around, and they loved looking at the help sheets and trying to ID what the critters were.
“Heave, ho!” “Mud!”
So here the kids are pulling up the dredger thing from the bottom of the bay. After they hauled up their glob of mud, the put it into some strainer things and sprayed the mud away with the hoses you see there to the right. What was left? Shells, rocks, fish bones - stuff. They liked that.
I don’t have any pictures of the fish activity. The kids got to catch fish form the Bay in this big net and then bring them up to the live wells on the boat to look at them. The boys especially loved this activity. My camera’s battery died. 
So I have no pictures of them cautiously touching the fish. Hehe. They got bolder as time went by though - even the girls.
Now, here’s the part I haven’t told you yet. Part of why we were able to schedule this trip is because we agreed to share the time with another group. They were a little short of kids; we were a lot short (there’s a minimum). So we joined this group of 5th graders from one of the other elementary schools. OMG! First of all, we had 13 kids with something like 9 parents. That’s 1.4 children per adult. They had 43 kids and maybe 9 adults. That’s 4.8 children per adult. You’d think that would be a good ratio, right? It wasn’t. The kids were very loud, obnoxious, and could not keep still. They were constantly talking, shoving each other, and making smart-a$$ comments. The parents in attendance as chaperones? Well, they weren’t good at their job, let me tell you. While the kids were doing all of this, they were having a grand ol’ time chatting with each other. Once in a great while, someone (usually one of the teachers) would say something.
Luckily, we didn’t have to intermingle. When they divided the group into 4 smaller groups, we got to be our own group. Then something was going on, and the instructors had to go up to the bridge to talk to the captain. In that short time, the room became unbearable. Our kids were talking, yes, but they were nowhere NEAR as loud. Some of our kids had to cover their ears. There was screaming and shoving and rude comments to some of our kids. “What school are you from?” “I’m actually homeschooled.” “Homeschooled? Why would you want to do that? Are you a loser?” One of the other mothers and I were about to step over, since the kid’s chaperone who was standing there listening hadn’t done anything, but luckily, R. handled himself just fine. He said, “I’m not a loser. But I do get to stay home and have whatever I want for lunch and do all my schoolwork however I want while you’re stuck in school all day.” Good for him.
Watching these other kids, boys and girls, interact together made me realize what a good choice we made in homeschooling. And when Phillip was working together with his fellow homeschoolers, it made me feel even better. Our kids worked together very well, each helping the other, sharing. They assessed what each other’s strengths and weaknesses were - with no judgements - and put those to work FOR them. They actually finished the activities early and got to look around at other things and do extra as a result.
I have someone who keeps asking whether or not AJ and I will put Phil back into “regular school.” Well, if there is some great advantage for him to gain by doing so, sure. But otherwise, I think we’re all happy with the way things are.
And we still get the advantage of great field trips like this one.
When we got off the boat, we were drenched - I mean, prune fingers! - and starving! I called AJ who said that he and the youngest were hungry too, so we stopped by McD’s and grabbed some lunch for everyone and took it home.
This week we’re going to a Cartoon Drawing Workshop and a workshop/presentation on the Iditirod. Should be interesting.
sparta at 6:05 pm
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Hey there Chickadee: Great pics of your field trip. Looks like it was really cool!
CommentbyCara — 2/17/2007 @ 9:03 am