Inner Space Cave Unit

 I'm in no way affiliated with Inner Space Caverns.  

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4 years ago we took an amazing trip to Inner Space Caverns.   It was not long before my youngest son's first year of homeschooling, and it sparked a desire to learn more.

Using the One Small Square - Cave book that I found at our local library as a spine, we did an in depth unit on caves that, looking back, is one of the highlights of our homeschool experience.  

I've written up a 13-15 day Unit Study on Caves for others to use too (see links below).  It includes the activities that we did, along with others I've found that also look fun for various ages of kids.   This is a "choose your own activity" adventure.   You choose which activities are right for your children.   It is however designed with the idea that you will actually visit a cave (and has some activities aimed specifically at visiting Inner Space, since it's the nearest large cave to Waco).   If you're not visiting a cave, or are visiting a different cave, that's ok---it shouldn't be too hard to tweak this to fit your needs.

While we did our unit AFTER visiting Inner Space Caverns, I re-designed this unit to come before a cave visit (since the Cave book we used has lots of ideas that to actually do IN a cave. )  But,  of course, visiting a cave first would spark interest, and you can absolutely do it that way too (it's what we did, after all).  If you do a cave visit first I suggest skipping ahead to Day 13 - Inner Space Visit which has some suggested activities for the day before, during the visit, and after the visit.   Of course, if you can afford multiple cave trips, there are other nearby caves you can visit, and there is also the Natural Bridge Caverns in San Antonio (which I've heard are amazing) which you could visit before, after, or during the unit.    And there's even a "faux cave" in the Mayborn Museum that would make an easy side trip during your study.


MAIN TEXT USED

One Small Square - Cave by Donald Silver is beautifully written and illustrated, and rich with information--a true living science book.   Like all of his "One Small Square" books it takes you into an environment (this time a cave), and asks you to explore "one small square" of it in great depth.  The sections are short enough to hold the short attention span of my 7 year old, but deep enough to make a real science study using this book as the spine even for older kids.    There are fun experiments and activities in sidebars throughout.   Unfortunately, it is not longer available through Waco Libraries, but you can buy it on Amazon or various other booksellers.   

ALTERNATE  FREE TEXT

You CAN use this study without buying the book above by in stead using the Junior Cave Scientist Workbook that is free through the Forest Service.   While it lacks some of the info in Donald Silver's book, it still has enough to create a fun caves study around.   I've put together a guide on how to combine the suggested extra activities in my Unit Study with that  Workbook as an alternative spine (main text):   Alternate Workbook Guide.

CAVE UNIT STUDY

• Day 1: The Cave Entrance
• Day 2: The Twilight Zone 
• Day 3: Winter Guests
• Day 4:  The Dark Zone
• Day 5: Cave Formations 
• Day 6: Bats
• Day 7: Cave Adapted Creatures  
• BONUS DAY:  Karst (Optional) 
• Day 8:  Cave Pools and Water Creatures
• Day 9:  How Caves Form
• Day 10:  Famous Caves 
• Day 11:  Types of Caves 
• Day 12:  More Cave Creatures 
• Day 13-15:  CAVE VISIT (before, during and after)   

The reading schedule and discussion questions are also contained in a printable Discussion/Reading Guide PDF (which does not include the activities, videos, book suggestions, ect....just what pages to read daily from the Donald Silver Caves book, and the discussion questions with them).



(NOTE:  While usually blog posts here go from newest to oldest, since I posted this all at once I posted it in order).  



 

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Linked Up at Throwback Thursday and Homeschool Highlights

THIS WEEKEND - Austin Mini Maker Faire

This weekend down in Austin one of my favorite events of the year is happening--The Austin Mini-Maker Fair.  This is a chance for you and your kids to get hands on creating everything from stuffed animals to Lego Robotics.   Don't let the "mini" fool you...there is more than enough to do to fill a whole day.

There was so much to do last year.   Here's a sampling...

They always have some amazing mechanical creatures, like this bird who

moved his head, claws, and beak.



There were fun robots to play with.

And a lobster car (all those lobsters dance).

But the best stuff is the hands on stuff, like this marshmellow shooter.

We didn't get to keep it, but we did get to try it out.

But there was lots of other stuff we made and did get to keep.

My son worked diligently to finish a stuffed rocket that, because it used conductive thread, could be used as a pen for an iPad or iPhone!  How cool is that!  We still have it but not sure where it is now, so unfortunately I don't have a picture of the finished piece.  This is why we didn't get to all the exhibits.  There's just a lot of them that you could sit at and create for a long time.  If you have several kids you'll want to either split up or agree beforehand which projects everyone wants to do. 

This was a nice touch.  When you have young kids that have been walking around for a while, the Happy Hut is a nice quiet place to sit and cool off with a book and just chill for a while.  Whoever thought of this...thank you!

I didn't even get pictures inside...where my husband spent most of the day with our older too kids.  We  get in there in time to enjoy the planetarium, and to do some building with lego mindstorms. 

It was a fun, fun day....well worth the price ($15 for adults, $10 for kids).  This is going on THIS Saturday and Sunday, May 16 - 17.  

Click Here for More Info