Jay and I volunteered to lead a couple sections (birds and soils) of the Nature Merit Badge program put on at ERDC today for the Boy Scouts (local and otherwise - our group was mostly from Natchez). There were multiple badges they could register (like oceanography, plumbing, materials, etc.), but our session was the most fun, I'm sure. We had plants, birds, soils, mammals, fish, molluscs, and reptiles, complete with hiking and digging, and live animals and preserved skins to hold! James and Cora came along because we knew they'd love it (and it was the only way for both of us to volunteer). We started with a big gathering in the auditorium where the Scout Leader and our Colonel spoke before we split into our badge groups.
Jose led the plants section and had a PowerPoint presentation, which was a good way to get the kids warmed up for all the outside activities. James and Cora love raising their hands to answer questions (and they seemed to know a lot more about plants, birds, soils, and mammals - the sections we attended - than the older boys).
Cora kept a journal of everything she saw on our hike:
The Colonel had touted ERDC as a place where grown-ups can still play with mud pies (the concrete lab produces mixes that are the strongest in the world), so the kids thought it was awesome when Jay pulled a soil core and then had them make mud ribbons.
We actually learned a lot of cool things about ERDC during the Colonel's speech that in 10 years working here we hadn't heard before... The Hot Rod at the front gate is the fastest ever armored tracked military vehicle (it could go over 80mph, but couldn't be stopped once it passed 60mph - it crashed through a building near the test track before coming to a stop the one time they got it going that fast). ERDC also developed the tires for the moon rover (they're still in a warehouse on station). There were other tidbits of information too, but the kids fixated on whether Area 51 really had aliens or not (after the Colonel told them that they were really all on a secret research base, which is true, because ERDC is really one of the Army's best kept secrets hidden in plain sight, and that researchers who performed badly here were sent to Area 51 as punishment)... The Colonel told them he couldn't tell them or he'd have to kill them ;-)
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