The Lab garden is thriving! In addition to the plants, we have Black Swallowtail caterpillars making their home in our dill and parsley. Last year, we observed that our garden attracted a lot of butterflies, which resulted in a handful of caterpillars on our plants. This year, we used that knowledge to help our young scientists plan what and how much to plant in our garden. One concern was how much the caterpillars ate. Last summer, our parsley was decimated. This planting season, our young scientists decided to plant the dill and parsley close together in pairs. This attracted lots of butterflies, very quickly.

As of today, June 25th, our young scientists have counted 19 Black Swallowtail caterpillars in different stages of development living in our front garden. They are part of our local ecology and out young scientists have been delighted to observe them. Some of the caterpillars are fully grown and are nearing the pupa stage. Follow us on Instagram or Facebook for caterpillar updates via pictures and video.

Caterpillar Facts
​There are about 180,000 different types of caterpillars.
The life cycle of a butterfly has 4 steps: eggs, caterpillar (larva), pupa, adult (butterfly).
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Most female butterflies lay their eggs on the kinds of plants their caterpillars will want to eat – this helps make sure the young are able to start eating right after they hatch.

Some Swallowtail caterpillars make tents out of leaves for shelter.
Caterpillars have three pairs of true legs, up to four pairs of prolegs in the middle off their bodies, and often one pair of prolegs at the end of the body.

Caterpillars breathe through a series of small openings along the sides of their thorax and abdomen called spiracles.

This Sunday we will be setting our clocks back by an hour, marking the end of Daylight Savings Time. The old saying, "spring forward, fall back" sums up what we do with our clocks. In the spring we move one hour ahead, in the fall we go back an hour.

But why?

Although there are exceptions to Daylight Savings Time (Hawaii, parts of Arizona, and US territories don't recognize the time change), most of us end up changing our clocks twice a year. The reason why has to do with science.

Due to the tilt in the Earth’s axis, summer days have more hours of sunlight than in winter. As the sun creeps up over the horizon earlier and earlier in the day, we end up with lots of sun in the very early morning hours when the majority of people are still asleep. The idea of Daylight Savings Time is to shift the clocks so that the extra daylight instead occurs at the end of the day, when people are actually awake. Usually on the second Sunday in March, we move the clocks ahead by one hour at the start of Daylight Savings Time. In other countries, this is called Summer Time.

When fall arrives, less hours of sunlight means the days become shorter. At this point, usually the first Sunday in November, clocks are returned to their Standard Time and we "fall back" by an hour. This change in time allows us to make the most out of the diminishing daylight hours.

Located in Upper Black Eddy in Pennsylvania, Ringing Rocks Park, officially known as Bridgeton Boulder Field, is exactly what the name implies. After a walk through the woods, visitors come across a large boulder field to climb and explore. Bring a hammer along and you can hear the rocks ring! Known as sonorous or lithophonic rocks, when struck with a hammer, they ring like a bell. But not all rocks ring at the same tone!

So why do the rocks ring? Scientists aren't sure, but there are a lot of hypotheses.

Although the exact mechanism by which the rocks ring remains unknown, it may have something to do with the freeze-thaw cycle that helped created the boulder field in the first place. The ringing sound is metallic, which has led scientists to hypothesize that the higher iron content in the rocks is what causes the ringing ability. Although the iron content is higher than normal for your average igneous rock, the numbers are still well within normal range for basalt, for example, which does not ring. Even more interesting, igneous rocks are volcanic in origin, but Pennsylvania doesn't have any volcanoes (that we know of). How the rocks got there, why they ring...it's still a scientific mystery.

The only published experiment on the ringing rocks is from the 1960's where it was found that stress within the rocks themselves is what may cause the ringing. In this experiment, the Rutgers professor found that the boulders toward the center of the field experienced the most stress and made the higher ringing tone. During our visit, we did find that the rocks toward the center of the field rang at a higher frequency than those along the edges.

Other locations for ringing rocks around the world:

Ringing Rocks Park– Upper Black Eddy, Pennsylvania, United States
Ringing Rocks Park – Lower Pottsgrove Township, Pennsylvania, United States
Ringing Rocks Point of Interest – Ringing Rocks, Montana, United States
Bell Rock Range – Western Australia, Australia
Musical Stones of Skiddaw – Cumbria, England
Cerro de las Campanas (The Hill of the Bells) – Querétaro, Mexico
The Ringing Stone – Tiree, Scotland
Immenhof Guest Farm (Singing Stones)  - Omaruru Namibia

It was pretty cool clambering up and around large rocks banging on them with a hammer and hearing different tones. The boulder field itself is pretty impressive and it is further proof of how amazing our planet is. Outside of the boulder field, there's a hike toward a creek and a waterfall. It is a short loop hike with clear markers along the way. Vegetation in the boulder field is greatly limited (the boulders go 10 feet deep in some areas) so there is absolutely no shade available. Parking is free, but limited.

​Stay tuned for more family-friendly adventures as we explore our amazing planet Earth.

Thanks to the loving care provided by all our young scientists, our garden is thriving! The following has been harvested from the front raised planters:

1/2 pound of collard greens
1/2 pound mixed herbs (dill, cilantro, parsley)
1/2 pound rainbow chard
1/2 pound green lettuce

​And the garden just keep growing!
​Check out the pictures below and say hello to our garden plants as you walk by the Lab-

The recent wet weather has done wonders for our gardens! Check out how our plants are doing-