Kayaking |
I am having a really fun time here in Virginia. We are here for five days, researching Monster Storms for JASON by visiting NASA Wallops Flight Facility. We are going to learn about some new tools and methods that NASA uses to collect weather data. But first, we had a little “scientific” fun.
We started yesterday by going to the small island of Tangier. It was an hour boat ride from the mainland of Virginia. We stayed on the island for three hours, and then went back to our hotel in Chincoteague. After that, we went to the beach and battled against the waves of high tide. It was really fun, but not better than today.
Today we went out on the marsh to kayak. I have never kayaked before, and it excited me. I have
Beach |
always wanted to kayak but never got the chance to. It was a new experience for me; I also had never been in a marsh before.
We set out two by two at 10:00 a.m. into the marsh. I ended up going with Argo Cameron, who like me, was inexperienced at kayaking. At first, we just kayaked in circles, and then we started to move very slowly. By that time, Ellen and Dawn were half way across the bay. We had to learn to use each other’s strengths to make the kayak move through the water. It was hard at first, and a little confusing, but we did it by the end.
We saw many animals like jellyfish, pelicans, seagulls, sea snakes, and sting rays. It was really fun to watch the seagull fight for her lunch. She kept on yanking at this
Beach |
sea snake that wouldn’t budge because there was a wire attached to it. Watching that scene also gave a good excuse for a break, which our arms really needed. Kayaking can be a good workout. Either way, it was a really great experience that tired me out for the rest of the day.
As you can see, science is not always like what we experience in schools. It also involves exploring new things like kayaking, being in a salt marsh, and meeting new people. It’s also observing things like watching the seagull fight for her lunch, watching the moon appear; watching the gradual rise and fall of the tides, and seeing how much sugar, soda and caffeine can affect a person’s actions!
And lastly, it’s teamwork; for example: Cameron and I working together to kayak and the Aerosonde team working together to control the project. Science is much more than just memorizing laws in a textbook. And that is what we are showing you through The JASON Project.
Jellyfish |