Today Chris, Julie, and I did a wonderful investigation with galls. On Friday we collected cottonwood and willow galls on the Jordan River. Chris brought some from maple trees up the canyons.Fall is a good time to do this. Kids listed questions, and we formed hypothesis about the holes on the galls. Were they made by an insect chewing out, or were they made by an insect laying the eggs? Someone even wondered if a bird trying to get food may have made the holes. Kids made sketches of the tree branches and labeled them before opening the galls.(stem, leaf, maple, oak,gall etc.) They viewed them under Brock scopes. We observed all stages of developement (some empty galls) as well as several kinds of "bugs"- eggs,larva,wasps,aphids. Kids recorded their observation. There was incredible engagement! Tomorrow we will discuss our different hypothesis and what we think we learned. We will read some info. from the internet to find answers to our question which we did not observe. Thanks Chris- big fun!!!!