MOSH Connect

For the Birds Part I – “Nature Walking” with Sheri

Join MOSH Educator Sheri on a nature walk, and learn all about the kinds of habitats that birds and other critters live in!

Recommended Materials: MOSH Lab Bird Observation Journal found here, writing utensil

Recommended Time: As long as you would like! This nature walk activity is for you and your family to get outside in your neighborhood and observe your surroundings.

For the Birds Part II – “Backyard Birds” with Chloe

Join MOSH Educator Chloe to learn all about the various birds that call your backyard home!

Recommended Materials: MOSH Lab Bird Observation Journal found here, writing utensil

Recommended Time: Spend 15-20 minutes each day observing your backyard for birds and other animals

For the Birds Part III – “Bird Beak Game!” with Chloe

Join MOSH Educator Chloe in playing a Bird Beak Game! Test which beak shapes are best for picking up certain foods and compete against MOSH Educators in a race to collect food!

Recommended Materials: Tweezers, Tongs, Spoons, collection bowl, paper scraps, dried beans and pasta, seeds, and other small, miscellaneous objects

Recommended Time: 15 minutes prep, 10 minutes to play along

For the Birds Part IV – “Building Bird Feeders” with Sheri

Join MOSH Educator Sheri to learn how to build your own bird feeders, find out which foods your yard’s birds prefer, and learn some helpful tips for bird observation!

Recommended Materials: MOSH Lab Bird Observation Journal found here, writing utensil, sticks, toilet paper rolls, scissors, string, sticky edible substance, nuts, fruits, and other bird-safe foods, bowls, spoons, and paper towels

Recommended Time: 15 minutes prep time, 15 minutes build time, 15 minutes setting feeders in your yard, then 15-20 minutes of daily observation

On Friday, April 17^th, our MOSH Educators held a live bird discussion on Facebook Live! Click the button below if you want to hear the engaging and informative discussion.

Recommended Age: This Lab is primarily aimed towards 1^st — 3^rd grade science standards, but all ages are welcome to participate in these activities.

These activities are designed to be completed at your convenience. The recommended video order and activity info for “Life Cycles” can be found below:

Life Cycles Part I – “What is a Life Cycle?” with Kristi

Join MOSH Educator Kristi in reviewing the essentials of life cycles and conduct an experiment with mold in your home!

Recommended Materials: Writing utensil, paper, 3 jars/containers with lids, food, water, bowl

Recommended Time: 15-20 minutes to explore your yard on each occasion; Mold experiment takes 10-15 minutes of prep, then 10 days of observation.

Life Cycles Part II – “Lovable Little Frogs” with Evin

Join MOSH Educator Evin in a review of the frog life cycle and metamorphosis, and then participate in a national Citizen Science project about frogs!

Recommended Materials: North American Amphibian Monitoring Program Website

Recommended Time: Spend 15-20 minutes each evening observing your backyard, listening for frog calls and other animal noises.

Life Cycles Part III – “Oh, to be a Butterfly” with Emily

Join MOSH Educator Emily in a review of the butterfly life cycle, and observe your environment’s local butterflies on a nature walk!

Recommended Materials: Writing utensil, paper

Recommended Time: As much as you’d like! The nature walking portion is for you to explore your surroundings and look for butterflies.

Life Cycles Part IV – “All About Plants” with Kristi

Join MOSH Educator Kristi in reviewing the life cycle of plants and identifying the ways in which plants grow and change over time!

Recommended Materials: Writing utensil, paper

Recommended Time: As much as you’d like! Spend time on your nature walk looking for different plants and seed types.

On Friday, April 24^th, our MOSH Educators held a live discussion about life cycles on Facebook Live! Click the button below if you want to hear the engaging and informative discussion.

Recommended Age: This Lab is primarily aimed towards 2^nd — 4^th grade science standards, but all ages are welcome to participate in these activities.

These activities are designed to be completed at your convenience. The recommended video order and activity info for “Muscle Up, Buttercup!” can be found below:

Muscle Up, Buttercup Part I – “Movin’ Muscles” with Chloe

Join MOSH Educator Chloe in getting your muscles moving. Play along and see how many times you can flex your finger in 1 minute!

Recommended Materials: A finger

Recommended Time: 15-20 minutes of moving around, plus the 1-minute game

Muscle Up, Buttercup Parts II & III – “In a Heartbeat” with Sheri

Join MOSH Educator Sheri in identifying some of the major organ functions, including all about the heart. Build your own stethoscope and see how much work it takes for your heart to pump blood!

Recommended Materials: Paper tube, tape, funnel, 1 ½ gallons of liquid, 2 ½ ounce cup, 2 large containers, observation journal found here

Recommended Time: 20 minutes of watch time and 15 minutes of craft and game time

Muscle Up, Buttercup Part IV – “Digestion & Smooth, Smooth Muscles” with Chloe

Join MOSH Educator Chloe in recreating the digestion process and learning all about how those smooth, smooth muscles do so much for us!

Recommended Materials: Paper tube, thin sock, scissors, plastic bag, bowl, paper/plastic cup with a hole in the bottom, juice, water, squishable foods like bananas or crackers

Recommended Time: 15 minutes of prep time, 15 minutes of activity time, and 5 minutes of clean up time

Muscle Up, Buttercup Part V – “No Bones About It – Skeletal Muscles” with Chloe

Join MOSH Educator Chloe in reviewing all of the ways in which we use our skeletal muscles and play a game to see how important bones can be!

Recommended Materials: Clay, Toothpicks, plain cup or glass, writing utensil

Recipe for Homemade Flour Clay (in case you don’t have your own clay already): https://www.thesprucecrafts.com/oven-flour-clay-recipe-1250343

Recommended Time: 15 minutes of watch and game time, and 15-20 minutes a day moving around and activating the different muscles in your body

On Friday, May 1^st, our MOSH Educators held a live discussion about muscular systems on Facebook Live! Click the button below if you want to hear the engaging and informative discussion.

Recommended Age: This Lab is primarily aimed towards 4^th through 6^th grade science standards, but all ages are welcome to participate in these activities.

These activities are designed to be completed at your convenience. The recommended video order and activity info for “Wild Weather!” can be found below:

Wild Weather Part I – “Weather & Air Pressure” with Kristi

Join MOSH Educator Kristi in learning the essentials of air pressure in our atmosphere – one of the key components of Earth’s weather systems! Then, learn how to construct your own barometer to track the changes in air pressure over time!

Recommended Materials: A balloon, a rubber band, a jar, a pair of scissors, a long stick or skewer, a marker, a piece of paper

Recommended Time: 5-10 minutes of making your barometer, plus 10 minutes a day for 7 days of observing pressure changes

Wild Weather Part II – “Clouds & Rain” with Kristi

Join MOSH Educator Kristi in exploring how clouds develop in our sky and how clouds lead to rain; then, learn how to construct your very own rain gauge to track how much rain your home receives over time!

Recommended Materials: 2-liter bottle, scissors, tape, ruler, marker

Recommended Time: 15 minutes of constructing your rain gauge, plus 10 minutes a day of checking in on the progress of your rain gauge collection

Wild Weather Part III – “Sparks Fly, Electricity in the Sky!” with Evin

Join MOSH Educator Evin in exploring the essentials of one of Earth’s most powerful weather phenomena – lightning!

Recommended Materials: Listening ears and a calculator

Recommended Time: Any time you see lightning, count how long it takes for the thunder to reach your ears, then divide the number of seconds by 5 to find out how many miles away the lightning struck!

Wild Weather Part IV – “El Niño & La Niña” with Emily

Join MOSH Educator Emily in reviewing how a major climate cycle – El Niño & La Niña – affects our day-to-day weather; then, learn how to make your own anemometer to observe wind speed!

Recommended Materials: DIY Anemometer Instruction Sheet, 5 paper cups; 3 wooden sticks, dowels, or skewers; tape, empty water bottle or stable object to rest on

Recommended Time: 15 minutes to construct your anemometer, then 10 minutes a day to check on your anemometer to track wind speed changes over time

On Friday, May 15^th, our MOSH Educators held a live discussion about Weather on Facebook Live! Click the button below if you want to hear the engaging and informative discussion.

Recommended Age: This Lab is primarily aimed towards Kindergarten space science standards, but all ages are welcome to participate in these activities.

These activities are designed to be completed at your convenience. The recommended video order and activity info for “Our Spectacular Sky!” can be found below:

Our Spectacular Sky Part I – “Night & Day” with Chloe & Sheri

Join MOSH Educators Chloe and Sheri as they share which time of day they think is better – daytime or nighttime? Which do YOU prefer?

Our Spectacular Sky Part II – “Shadows” with Chloe

Join Chloe as she guides you through a shadow-tracing experiment and explores how – and why – the Sun moves in our sky overhead each day.

Recommended Materials: An interesting-looking object (such as a toy dinosaur), paper, tape, 2 markers of different colors, a well-sunlit area that receives light throughout the day

Recommended Time: 10 minutes of prep and tracing in the morning, 5 hours of wait time during the day, then 10 more minutes of tracing and observing in the afternoon

Our Spectacular Sky III – “The Night Sky & Constellations” with Sheri

Join Sheri as she discusses what you can see in the night sky with your own eyes and with the help of a telescope. Then, learn how to construct your own pocket constellation to bring the stars to life in your own home!

Recommended Materials: A toilet paper tube, scissors, tape, a flashlight, pocket constellation printout

Recommended Time: 10-15 minutes of nighttime sky observation; for pocket constellation, 10 minutes of prep and construction, then 10-15 minutes of fun with light

More to Explore – Hubble Space Telescope Images

Our Spectacular Sky Part IV – “Man in the Moon!” with Sheri

Join Sheri as she explores Lunar phases, a bit of history about how we’ve related to our Moon over time, identifies one of the key differences between the Earth and the Moon, and explores what craters and ejecta are. Then, follow along to demonstrate how meteoroids hitting the surface changes the Moon’s landscape!

Recommended Materials: Plastic bin or other large container, flour/sand/lightly colored powder substance, cocoa powder/dirt/dark powder substance, a rock or object to drop in powder
Optional: sifter for spreading dark powder

Recommended Time: 10 minutes of prep and 5-10 minutes of experimenting with dropping objects

On Friday, May 29^th, our MOSH Educators held a live discussion about Our Spectacular Sky on Facebook Live! Click the button below if you want to hear the engaging and informative discussion.

Many of us are exploring safe ways to connect while practicing social distancing. This Cinco de Mayo, enjoy this mini history lesson as we toast to brighter days ahead.

In the first episode of History With a Twist, Caroline and Elizabeth explore the history of the Timucuans and the legend of The Three Sisters.

View the Sweet Corn Cocktail Recipe.

In the second episode of History with a Twist, Caroline and Elizabeth celebrate Jacksonville’s film history and its legacy today.

A special thank you to Norman Studios and Jacksonville Historical Society in the production of this episode.

View the Silver Screen Cocktail Recipe.

Learning Goal
Explore arachnid anatomy by examining anatomical differences between them and other arthropods and creating an anatomically accurate hat.

Learning Goal
Apply the concept of inertia to the building of a roller coaster that takes advantage of gravity and manipulates speed.

Learning Goal
Explore Newton’s 3 Laws of Motion in action by building a homemade catapult, observing how changes in its design affect it’s launch.

Learning Goal
Transform milk into casein plastic, a moldable substance that can harden into biodegradable plastic. Then, compare the biodegradability of casein plastic to regular plastic in different environments.

Learning Goal
Investigate and observe how substances can undergo physical change, and that many physical changes are affected by temperature, by making butter and testing the butter in different temperature environments.

Learning Goal
Explore how a color wheel is organized by experimenting with color mixture and categorizing items around the house into their proper place on a Color Wheel.

Learning Goal
Label the stages of the Water Cycle. Then, test how temperature affects the Water Cycle by observing water under different heat conditions.

Learning Goal
Discover the veins that plants have and how they’re used to absorb water and other nutrients. Then, experiment with various plants to see which one absorbs the best!

Pan & Gaia have returned! Journey with your favorite explorers in Episode 2 of their Great Adventure at MOSH in the newest traveling exhibit: The Lost World of Dragons!

Join MOSH Naturalist Jeremy as he feeds and showcases our Alligator Snapping Turtle, Tonca.

Originally a Facebook Live Video from March 31, 2020

Join MOSH Naturalist Robin as she introduces two of our resident avians, Oscar the Great Horned Owl and Susie the Screech Owl.

Originally a Facebook Live Video from April 1, 2020

Have you ever wondered what makes up a flower? Dissect a flower with MOSH Educator Chloe and learn all about its parts!

April 10th was Gopher Tortoise Day across the state of Florida. Join MOSH Naturalist Robin as she spotlights three special Gopher Tortoises.

April 14th was National Dolphin Day. Join MOSH Naturalist Elijah as he shares some cool facts about dolphins while touring MOSH’s Atlantic Tails exhibit.

Join our Planetarium Educators as they explore the night sky!

Originally a Facebook Live Video from April 19, 2020

This Earth Day, join Educator Kristi as she explores what clouds are made of, hypothesizes on the impact of human-made clouds on the climate, and experiments with air pressure to create a cloud in a bottle!

Join Naturalist Robin as she explores the Hixon Native Plant Courtyard at MOSH. This outdoor education space is designed to delight and inform visitors of all ages. Inspired by Northeast Florida’s native environment, the Hixon Native Plant Courtyard encourages awareness and preservation of our region’s native species.

Thank you to the Wells Fargo Community Foundation for generously supporting the Hixon Native Plant Courtyard.

Join our Planetarium Educators as they explore the night sky!

Originally a Facebook Live Video from April 26, 2020

You’ve never seen the planets in our solar system arranged the way they ACTUALLY are in space unless you’ve really gone out of your way.  Let Eddie walk you through the sizes and spacing of the planets and how to recreate it yourself.  We guarantee the longest sheet of paper you’ve seen all week.

Although fun for old and young, the content touches on concepts ranging from 3^rd to 7^th grade.

Join our Planetarium Educators as they explore the night sky!

Originally a Facebook Live Video from May 3, 2020

Join our Planetarium Educators as they explore the night sky!

Originally a Facebook Live Video from May 10, 2020

Join our Planetarium Educators as they explore the night sky!

Originally a Facebook Live Video from May 17, 2020

Join MOSH Naturalists Robin and Elijah as they talk about snakes and introduce the snakes that call MOSH home.

Join our Planetarium Educators as they explore the night sky!

Originally a Facebook Live Video from May 24, 2020

Join our Planetarium Educators as they explore the night sky!

Originally a Facebook Live Video from May 31, 2020

Join our Planetarium Educators as they explore the night sky!

Originally a Facebook Live Video from June 7, 2020

Join MOSH Naturalist Robin as she highlights some of the life that you can find in MOSH’s VyStar Intertidal Touch Tank.

Join our Planetarium Educators as they explore the night sky!

Originally a Facebook Live Video from June 14, 2020

Join our Planetarium Educators as they explore the night sky!

Originally a Facebook Live Video from June 21, 2020

In recognition of World Refugee Day, MOSH hosted a virtual round table discussion on Friday, June 19 on Facebook Live. The discussion focused on refugee and immigrant experiences in Northeast Florida and featured panelists from local nonprofit organizations.

Join our Planetarium Educators as they explore the night sky!

Originally a Facebook Live Video from June 28, 2020

Join MOSH Naturalist Jeremy as he feeds and showcases our Alligator Snapping Turtle, Tonca.

Originally a Facebook Live Video from July 7, 2020

Join our Planetarium Educators as they explore the night sky!

Originally a Facebook Live Video from July 5, 2020