Some Natural Science Resources

Just catching up with subscriptions and such and wanted to pass them along.

Project Feeder Watch

Project FeederWatch is a winter-long survey of birds that visit feeders at backyards, nature centers, community areas, and other locales in North America. FeederWatchers periodically count the highest numbers of each species they see at their feeders from November through early April. FeederWatch helps scientists track broadscale movements of winter bird populations and long-term trends in bird distribution and abundance.
Project FeederWatch is operated by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology in partnership with the National Audubon Society, Bird Studies Canada, and Canadian Nature Federation.

If you don't have the $15 to enroll and record your observations; there are great resources available on the Cornell Lab site in identifying those feathered friends outside your window.

2006 Arbor Day Poster Contest for 5th graders (9 or 10'ish?)

Join over 75,000 fifth grade classrooms and home schools across America in
the 2006 Arbor Day National Poster Contest sponsored by Toyota!

Toyota?? Oh, well, it's a cool project. There are some free educational resources available on the Nat'l site, as well. Activity Guides And the blah, blah blah standards. National?! [Don't want to look. Just know it's something I wish we didn't have; particularly on a national level. Knew I should have just taken a nap instead. ] Anyway, the state contact is here.
And here's Illinois' information:

Reinee Hildebrandt
IDNR
ORC-Forest Ecology, 1 Natural Resources Way
Springfield, IL 62702
217-785-8771

Hmmm...investigating further (should have taken that nap), I see that only homeschoolers who are in a club or association can participate? And if you're not in one of those, you can't? It has that same aroma (burning piles of leaves for the asthmatic) that HSLDA's HR 3753's Section 10 has.
Well, Journey South isn't tainted and neither is the Cornell Lab. It's a family/education thing with those groups. And pondering further with the current federal legislation staring at us, it's amazing how HSLDA's agenda seems to fit in so nicely with the school-ish agenda. Independants lose.
With no intention of going on the above tangent, I'm going to quit and go take that nap.