Weekend Class

I am TIRED! This weekend I have a science workshop from 8-4:30 Sat. and Sun. at the Witchita Mountain Wildlife Refuge. I took a class there over the summer as well because they each count as one science credit, and I needed two! At FSU I took 3 science classes each worth 3 credits, and one lab worth 1 credit. That gave me 10 credits.. but at the school I'm at now they require 12 credits to graduate because each science class you take you have to have a lab with it... so 3 classes times 4 credits = 12.

Anyway, instead of taking a whole other class... I decided to dedicate my precious relaxing weekend time to completing these classes! The first one I took was called Prairie Ecology and the one this weekend is "Elks of the Witchitas". On my drive there two different herds of buffalo were running along the road next to my car. I was crossing my fingers they didn't decide to cross the road! lol. Saturday is mostly lecture based though, and I almost fell asleep a few times, but I really did learn A LOT! I can tell you their diet, their gestation period, how old they are based on their teeth, and even measure their antlers (including circumference!), and a whole lot more. Any questions?? We did get out and have a few activities that were pretty neat... and kept me awake!

Tomorrow we will spend about 4 hours in the "restricted" area of the refuge. We will be up close and personal with the elk, buffalo, deer, longhorn, etc. I'm looking forward to it... I just wish I could sleep later than 6:30!

The set of antlers, not horns, my group measured!

The sets of teeth my group had to work with and figure out their age...

Tomorrow will be a lot of fun, but SUPER cold. The high is only 55, but the time dedicated to when we are outside is going to be upper 40s!! Brrrr! I'll blog about my adventures on the prairie tomorrow!

-Ashley