Some of the things that our children did on Saturday:
* extracted the DNA from bananas using common household reagents. You could see the thin threadlike strands of DNA with the naked eye.
* did a Crime Scene Investigation, learning about dusting for fingerprints, DNA analysis of hair to assess gender, blood typing, and chemical determination of mystery powders. They were able to actually use automatic pipettes and carry out chemical reactions, identify chromosome bands on gel plates, etc. (The chef did it!)
*played in touch tanks, befriending beasties such as horseshoe crabs, starfish and sea urchins. Iain was very much looking forward to this club display, but was very put out when many of the specimens were, uh, expired. Iain vastly prefers live fish to dead fish.
* got a PRIVATE tour by one of my old Nutrition profs, Dr. Jim Atkinson (who looks not much older today than he did 23 years ago!). We bumped into him in the Animal Science building, and when he discovered how much Iain loved fish, he took us through the aquaculture research areas in the An. Sci. building. We saw fish brooders and various tanks. Unfortunately there were no current research projects, but it was still very interesting.
* laughed hysterically when aforementioned Dr. Atkinson informed me I was the OLDEST past student he had seen on Saturday (previous to myself, he had met up with an OAC '93 student; yep, CPS '87 here!)
*Took part in an honest-to-goodness human anatomy lab. Iain was moderately fascinated, and Alison dove right in. The two of them were the subject of many photographs taken by the head anatomy lecturer at the University, who has promised to e-mail me some of the photographs. If I decide to include anything in the blog, I will date them 2004. I did have a "moment" when they showed us a healthy liver, and a liver from a very large woman. Healthy liver, 7 pounds. Unhealthy liver, 27 pounds (ouch). When the liver was biopsied, they discovered that there was essentially NO functioning liver tissue; just fat. This was a sobering moment for me.
*Played with assorted animals including a ball python and a boa constrictor, centipedes, and a vicious attack (Quaker) parrot. Oh yes, we already have one of these at home, so I guess no biggie.
*Watched some of the student square dance competitions.
*Rode on a hovercraft.
*Watched mom manage to finagle a tour of a South Residence private room from a helpful 2nd year student. The children had heard of these odd octagonal rooms, and desperately hoped to see one. They did (and it didn't turn them off residence forever!)
...and many other fun activities. Alison already wanted to attend U. of G. some day ... this only cemented her desire. She is fascinated by SURGERY, of all things ... anatomy ... how the body works. Currently she wants to be a vet technician or a vet. Iain now wants to go to Guelph ... wildlife biology, marine and freshwater biology, etc. Claire has fallen in love with the university campus and is completely ticked that it doesn't come with an attached teacher's college.
We also spent awesome time with Mom and Dad in Burlington, and had a wonderful visit with Scott and Andrea Bothwell and family in Guelph, who allowed us to bunk out overnight in her folks' basement apartment. And HUGE props to Kev, who cared for and worried about our animals for the whole time we were away. He ended up having to resurrect Claire's hamster AGAIN (see my Jan. 10, 2007 blog entry), plus the sheep provided him with some scares. However all is well :).
I will add photos to this entry at some point, but for now it is just long and wordy, with my apologies ;).
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