Last Friday, we visited the Tellus Science Museum in Cartersville, Georgia. At first, I thought it would be fun to do another “day in the life” photo journal page. Then, about halfway through the visit, it occurred to me that a virtual field trip post would be fun.

So, are you ready to visit Tellus?

The Tellus Science Museum is an incredible, 12,000 square foot museum featuring 4 galleries – the Weinman Mineral Gallery, Fossil Gallery, Science in Motion, and a great, hands-on area for kids called My Big Back Yard. It also offers gem panning and a Planetarium.

Tellus is a fair drive for us, so we had to get up early – or closer to normal time for most people.

It was a gorgeous drive with the fall colors turning the mountains into an explosion of color against the cerulean sky. We couldn’t, of course, visit the museum hungry, so surely you know where we stopped.

We had a tray full of yummy goodness…

…and a little taste of heaven (sweet tea, of course!).

Of course, I had my standard fare: a grilled chicken sandwich, side salad, and the two fries that the kids know they have to give me – just enough to keep me from feeling deprived.

Josh said his sandwich loved him as much as he loved it because his chicken was shaped like a heart.

After lunch, it was on to Tellus.

The first thing you see, upon entering, is this awesome pendulum.

It has a name, but I forgot it and, unfortunately, it’s not on their website, but it is so cool. Based on the rotation of the Earth, the pendulum knocks over one of the little, colored blocks you see about every ten minutes. It takes 48 hours for it to knock them all over.

And, of course, this giant guy greets you as you step into the main part of the museum:

Our first stop was the rock lab where we learned about the three different rock types – perfect since this is what Josh and Megan have been studying in science. Since it was a small group, the parents got in on the action, too.

First, we sorted a group of rocks into igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic.

Then, we identified the rocks within each group. Great, hands-on fun!

And, there may or may not have been a little goofing off.

Next up was panning for gems, which was one of my favorite parts of the trip.

Next up was the Weinman mineral gallery which was filled with all kinds of cool stuff. Since we’ve been studying the Earth’s layers, I enjoyed this 3-D model showing the layers.

There were phosphorus minerals that glowed under black light…

…a giant ball of obsidian…

…and this display of a meteorite that hit a house in Cartersville, GA in 2009:

There was even a tube of ash from the Mt. Saint Helen’s explosion.

Petrified wood:

We watched a movie in the Planetarium where you sit in chairs that recline so that you can view the dome-shaped screen above you. Our favorite part was seeing the night sky as it would look with no pollution or lights. Gorgeous!

After the film, we were free to explore. We enjoyed looking at all the different vehicle types in the Science in Motion Gallery.

A model of the 1903 Wright Flyer:

Our final stop was the Fossil Gallery.

It was somewhere around this point where I was asked if I could please control my husband. Oh, if only I knew how. Men never really outgrow the boy inside them.

We had a great time at the Tellus Science Museum. I hope you enjoyed joining us!

Before we left, we managed to see the pendulum knock over one of the blocks – a highlight of the trip! Really, it was cool.

New friends were made and phone numbers were exchanged.

Did you enjoy the field trip? 

We took our first field trip in forever on Monday.  Brianna didn’t have Spanish class and Josh and Megan’s science, Real Science Odyssey, called for a trip to the zoo to observe a wide variety of birds.  Sounded like a great time for a field trip to me.  Brian even took off work so that he could join us.  A great time was had by all, starting with some fun on the carousel.

It was a bit cooler than I was hoping, but we dressed warmly and went anyway because we remembered that the last time we went on a really cool day, the animals were very active. We were not disappointed. Look at this gorgeous coyote:

The snow leopard enjoyed posing for the paparazzi. There were two cameras bigger than mine already there, and we was hamming it up.

I love the barn owl. He’s just beautiful, but always so forlorn-looking.

Isn’t this guy interesting looking? He’s a hybrid between an American bison and a Scottish Highlands cattle (and, yes, the sign said “a Scottish Highlands cattle,” even though it sounds like it should be plural).

I loved the little sparrows hanging out with the hybrid bull. The males were so pretty.

And, speaking of pretty, there was this adorable girl hanging around the petting zoo:

These next two are just a couple of the artsy type photos that I enjoy taking.

It must be mating season for the peacocks, because they were all strutting their stuff.  I didn’t realize that they also ruffle their tail feathers when they display them like this, so there was also this rustling noise going on everywhere and their really loud cries.

Great horned owls are such serious-looking creatures.

Not so much the raccoons. I love that I got this guy with his tongue sticking out.

The jaguars are gorgeous.  The one on his back was dying to play.  The other one really just wanted to be left alone.  His buddy was not convincing him to play.

I was pleasantly surprised that I got one decent picture of the new cotton-top tamarin twins. The lighting was awful, but this one turned out really well. You can see the face of the one baby and the back and tail of the other perched on mama’s back. The twins that the couple had last year are like little teenagers now and were so fun to watch.

It was a great day for a trip to the zoo…and much more fun than a day full of book work.