I'm Here!!

I have finally arrived in New Orleans. Today I met the other teachers and 2 of the scientists. The teachers are from Florida, California, Texas, Virginia, Ohio and Massachusetts, so we are from all over the US. One of the teachers is originally from Willington and went to Hall Memorial. Her parents still live in Willington. Is that a small world or what? We talked about all kinds of things over dinner, but I thought you would like one of the stories especially. There are scientists who are studying Right whales in the Bay of Fundy. That's between the Gulf of Maine and Nova Scotia. They have trained a dog to smell whale poop. The dog goes with them on their voyages and when they stop, the dog goes to either side of the ship. The ship turns that way. The dog leads them to whales by the smell of the poop. Scientists actually study the whale poop to learn about the diet of the whales and can get DNA from the whales that way. This story led to a similar one about caterpillars. There is a caterpillar that will throw its poop away from it as a decoy to make predators go in the wrong direction. I can't wait to learn more about caterpillars.

I took some pictures of the hotel where we are staying and the street it is on. Tomorrow we'll take the street car into the French quarter of New Orleans. After lunch we will meet Dr. Lee Dyer, the head scientist. He is going to give us a lecture about caterpillars before we head out to the Pearl River WMA.

Just one question today. Find out about the types of trees that grow in New Orleans. These are food for many caterpillars. Name at least 5 and then ask me any questions you have so far.