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Joint Astronomy & CoMC Lesson: Owls Navigating the Stars It was a lovely spring evening. The weather had been absolutely stunning the past couple weeks, though it still tended to be a bit chilly at night. Luckily, it would be a very active lesson, and they had told the students to bring jackets on the lesson announcement. This was the first time Tristan had been able to do a full joint lesson, other than the extra credit activity he had done with Paul, and he was very excited for it. |
Dressed in her comfy clothes and jacket, Emmalyn made her way towards the barn on the beautiful spring evening. The light wind made her ponytail wave as she walked and brought the smell of life to her nose. She took several deep breaths and closed her eyes. The smell reminded her of their old home back in the States and she wanted to savor the moment. She continued her journey and arrived to the hay bales before many of the others arrived. She gently let her heavy bag, containing two textbooks, paper, dragon hide gloves, and other various items, drop to the ground next to her hay bale. "Good evening, Professor Wayland and Professor Kennedy." She greeted them both and noticed the beverage station to the side of the class area. "Oh, treats!" A warm beverage would be just the cherry on top of the evening. After selecting a nice spiced tea, she made her way back to her hay bale and waited for the class to begin. |
Just because they could be comfortable didn't mean they couldn't stay fashionable and Zita was making sure to show that. She headed to the grounds with her hair pulled over her shoulder in a braid. As she moved closer to the area she realized how early she must have been. Well poo That was never the entrance she liked, she would rather people see her walk in, but this was going to have to be fine since the professors would have already seen her. "Hello" giving a finger wiggle to them as well as to Emmalyn as she found her own seat. Oh, there was tea? Well unless it was Valla tea she wasn't going to be drinking it. |
Rylee was super excited to hear they could wear comfortable clothes to this lesson. That meant she had on her most comfortable pair of blue jeans, a long sleeved white shirt with a large unicorn on the front and her sparkly rainbow sneakers. A small portion of her long ginger hair was pulled back from her face and tied back nicely off to the side. "Good evening, professors!" she exclaimed happily waving her hand at both men. "Hi, Emmalyn! Hello, Miss Zita!" Both girls also got a wave in greeting from the bright eyed child. It was a beautiful evening to be outside making her cheery mood even brighter. Oh, there was a beverage station today! With a clear spring in her step she made her way over to it. It was hot chocoa but tea was just as good. Selecting one with a nice fruity scent to it, Rylee poured herself a cupful. Cup in hand she made her way over to a hay bale and sat down placing her bag which contained her usual items for her lesson as well as her jacket this time at her feet. Mmm.. this tea smells so yummy. |
While he wasn't the best (that might be an understatement but you know) with creatures, PER SE, Cam did usually enjoy the Care of Magical Creatures lessons anyway. For one, they were outside and there was usually something happening, too. Even though THAT sometimes made it hard to take notes which had led to some difficulties with homework assignments for him in the past. But so far, so good, he had passed them all. It just took longer. "Good evening, professors." Cameron greeted the two, finding them an interesting combination. The two lessons, not the two professors. Although they did seem like an interesting pair too, of course. While he HAD seen the drink that had been provided, Cam didn't really feel like having anything warm right now so he filed the information away for later. So instead of getting a cup, he found himself sitting on a hay bale near Zita. Hello.....acquaintance. |
The evening was lovely and it was really almost a pity that they had a lesson that evening. Because Skylar could have found about a dozen other things to do be doing instead, namely, it was PERFECT flying weather. But then again, even if it was 3 degrees Fortunately, the subjects of tonight's lesson were interesting; Creatures as Creatures Healing was high on her list of post-Hogwarts activities and Astronomy, well, she didn't want to do anything with that, but she did find the subject interesting and she kind of felt partial to taking the lesson, given it was Apollo's super distant relative or something. Also, the lesson wasn't taking place at midnight tonight, which was pretty much a plus, because it meant she'd have time to unwind and study before bed. Two large thrones? OH, so you CAN make more than one throne, Professor Wayland? We see how it is .... "Evening Professors," she greeted to them both, as she gave a look specifically at Wayland. "You know, you really shouldn't play favorites like that with the seating arrangements." Cause like just because they were professors didn't make them superior. Only it did. But really, she just wanted to sit on a throne too. Which is why she turned around took one of the hay bales near the back of the semi-circle and worked it on top of another one. Okay, so it wasn't as big as the professors', but it still made her feel important. And her almost five foot nine self had little trouble taking a seat on it and pulling her legs up into an Indian-Style. |
CAM and... zita Astronomy and Care of Magical Creatures... An INTERESTING combination that had Natalie hopes up a liiiiittle bit because Astronomy was done at night as was the dance of the mooncalves. Honestly, Natalie just wanted to watch mooncalves dance forever and ever. She doubted they would have another lesson on it so soon, though. With her jacket zipped up to her nose, Natalie made her way down to the barn and to the hay bales. She was going to sit by Cam, of course, but saw that he was... for some reason... in the same vicinity as Zita. Perhaps he didn't realize it? Hmm. Joining Cam, Natalie shot a LOOK towards the blonde before sitting down next to her friend. "Hi," she said, looping her arm through his to steal some of his body heat. |
Being able to,wear comfortable clothing during class was both freeing and stressful. Today, Dorian wore a pink sweater with light blue jeans and white shoes. Definitely not suitable for the Care of Magical Creatures portion of the class but he did not care. Jessa had showed him a neat spell to clean dirty clothes and he was sure that if it worked on paint, it worked with everything. Reaching the barn, the twelve year old was surprised that he did not walk in at the last minute which seemed to be his signature style. Instead, he was on time and it annoyed him for no reason at all. What was he supposed to do? Mingle? Sit and wait? What? A greeting would be a great start. "HELLO EVERYONE" there. Done with that. Next he turned to the two professors and waved at them. "Good evening Professors" he greeted in a completely different manner than before. More polite. Moving towards a hay bale to sit, Dorian was about to when he stopped midair as he thought. Now that he was on time for a change he had to reward himself did he not? He picked up the hay bale with difficulty by bending his knees and placed it on top of another hay bale. He then dragged another hay bale towards the other two and placed it beside it before stacking one on the other again and pushed it next to the one on the floor. And then he sat down on his very own |
SPOILER!!: All Y'all Tristan watched as more students trickled in. When every bale was full, he gave a wink to Kalen and stood. With a flick of his wand the two thrones dismantled and the hay turned back into bales before rolling back behind the barn. "Good evening everyone, and welcome to our joint lesson. We appreciate you being here and we hope you enjoy what we think is a really interesting and fun lesson." He said with a grin, turning to look at his best friend. "Professor Kennedy if you would like to begin?" He gestured to Kalen with his hands as if saying the stage is yours, and gave him a wink, before stepping back to give Kalen the floor. |
SPOILER!!: Replies! Kalen nodded at Tris’s wink and he stood as well, sending his hale bale throne one last look as it dismantled and rolled off into the barn. Kalen usually liked to have something to lean on, so this would be a fun lesson. He carefully set his tea cup on the ground and stood behind and a bit to the side of his best friend as he spoke. Yes yes,, fun and interesting lesson.. He folded his hands in front of him and nodded to Tris as he turned the lesson over to him, he was grateful that he had called him Professor Kennedy and had left “Karen” out of the equation. “Thank you Professor Wayland.” He said with a smile and a wink over at his friend as he stepped in front of him. “As was previously mention by my esteemed colleague, we hopefully have a fun and interesting lesson for you which I will kick off right now with a question..What do you remember about star navigation and what creatures do you think would be able to use stars as navigation?” ” He asked as he looked around. “Just give me your best guess on both questions or just one.” He said sigh a smile as he looked around. OOC: Hello! Welcome to the first question! Feel free to answer both parts or just one! We will be moving on in about 24 hours or so! |
The hay bales outside of the barn filled quickly with chattering students. All seemingly happy to be at class and to have the option of a warm drink. Her eyes paused on Skylar at her complaint, but her attention was quickly taken back to her warm tea. She sipped the steamy beverage, letting the liquids heat travel throughout her body. Before she could relax any more, the professors started class and she knew her attention would need to stay focused on them. Star navigation. She had remembered a bit about that class. Not nearly enough, but some was still hanging around in her distractible mind. “The north star. Umm, Polaroid, no Polio, no that’s not right either. Oh, Polaris! Yes, Polaris. It’s the brightest star that you can use to find your way.” She was fairly certain that was correct, but now she needed to figure out what creatures would use the north star. “I think birds and bats use the stars to navigate.” It was probably more, but the two of those seemed like a good start to her. She pulled her parchment out of her bag and began to take notes when the other students spoke. There were several older students in attendance and she thought they might have some good ides. While she waited her turn, she slowly took a few more sips of her tea, and warmed her hands by wrapping them around the cup. |
catch up Patrick walked down to the barn and was surprised to see professor Kennedy even though he had heard it was going to be a joint class. He was really hoping it was interesting. As he was sitting listening to the greetings and beginnings of class he heard the question about navigation. "I would assume migr--" taking a deep breath Patrick tried again, this stinking word got him every time, all the r's in the word. "migratory animals would use them to figure out where they needed to go." After spitting out his answer and his cheeks tinting with red a bit, he was surprised to find that most of his classmates were sipping on tea. He snuck off to grab a glass to hopefully keep his hands warm, they were always cold in this weather. |
Ronan was thankful for Professor Wayland's instructions on the thrones, as he was one of those who had the misfortune of not having a seat due to Skylar and Dorian's thrones. "Yeah, my bum would appreciate its own bale to park upon, guys!" he said brightly, before plunking himself and his hot chocolate down on an empty part of the aforementioned second year's makeshift throne. "Hi." Anyway, class began with a simple question. "Well, centaurs probably do." It was the most obvious answer, but then he wasn't that great at CoMC. |
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With a sigh, and ONLY because she felt slightly bad for influencing the younger Ravenclaw, she rolled her eyes and took one of the other hay bales down off, setting it next to hers. But before she sat down, she did cast a non-verbal engorgio to make it just a smidge larger than the others. Because if it was one per person, there wasn't any restrictions that they couldn't enlarge the one they had. Quote:
"Uh, well, I think all creatures would actually use the stars for navigation. They have different senses than humans and rely on these senses to find their way. As far as we know, they can't read a map or a compass or anything, so they have to use the stars as their guide...." |
SPOILER!!: Replies Kalen kept his stance at the front of the class. “Since most of you seemed to not answer the question about Celestial Navigation, I’ll give you a short run down of it. Celestial Navigation, also known as Astro Navigation, is the ancient and modern method of something called position fixing. Basically it is finding where you are in the world using angles based on the sun, the moon, planets or stars and the Horizon.” He nodded and clasped his hands together as he motioned for Tristan to come forward. “Now that we have had a brief review, I’m going to hand it back to Professor Wayland as he explains more about the creature part of this lesson. Tris? ” He said as he took a step back and picked up his cup of tea off the ground and took a sip. Ahh, much better. |
SPOILER!!: All Y'all Tristan listened to his lesson partner intently. Star Navigation was one thing he really thought was interesting about Astronomy, especially that specific creatures could use them to navigate and migrate. When Kalen motioned him forward, Tristan stepped up to stand next to him. "Thank you, Kale." He said with a wink before turning to his captivated audience. "Alright, as I mentioned to Skylar, there are many different ways in which creatures navigate or migrate. Most use the Sun Compass method, which is migrating during the day and knowing the direction the need to go by the position of the sun. Those that use the Sun as a compass, also use landmarks, such as river, lakes, mountains, etc. to help them migrate or navigate to get to or from their homes." He paused to let those writing notes get caught up. "The other method I mentioned was the Magnetic Compass. This means that some creatures use the Earth's magnetic field to navigate. This has only been tested on birds and hasn't been completely proven yet." He paused to collect his thoughts. "The animals that use Star Compass are mostly birds, especially song birds because they migrate at night. They use the stars position as a map to get them where they need to go. The memorize the position of the stars and know when they need to migrate because of it." He said with an excited smile. Migration pattern always interested him. "So, tonight's creature, though not a song bird, is the Owl." With a flick of his wand, a red spark burst from the tip, and suddenly all different types of Owls were descending around himself and Kalen. "I'll explain more about why we are using them in a moment, but for now, please give us characteristics of an Owl." He waited patiently for answers, with an Owl on each shoulder, and one of course landed on his head. He rolled his eyes and shook his head. Owls were weird sometimes. OOC: Y'all are doing great! Sorry for all the info! I just found it really interesting. You have 24 hours to answer the question before we move on. |
She took note, birds yes, bats no, as the professors spoke. Her hand started cramping trying to write down all of the information as quickly as it was spoken, but she was sure she had hit the key points. She had no idea that creatures used Celestial navigation so much, but it did stand to reason. It’s not like they could pull out a map to find the way. “How does that work in very rainy climates when the sky is cloud covered a good part of the year?” If they couldn’t see the stars or the sun, how were they to follow them? When the red sparks flew into the air and the owls descended upon them, Emmalyn ducked down and tried to flatten herself against her hay bale. It was one thing to see the owls from afar, but she was not comfortable with them being so close. She wondered if any of the other students found the winged creatures to be as creepy as she did. Once things had settled down a bit, she slowly lifted her body back to a crouched sitting position. That’s when she noticed that her cup of tea had spilled. Thankfully they were outside and the liquid would be absorbed into the ground. “I don’t know much about owls, but I think they are all predators. And, like most predators, they have great eyesight.” They would have to have great eyesight to hunt at night. Not only would they need to be able to see little rodents and such from above, they had to do it in the dark. |
Daisy didn't have much interaction with owls except when they brought her any mail she might have so this question was stumping her a bit as she raised her hand. "There are owls that can have hearing that is up to about ten times better than humans." |
While Rylee may not have answered the previous question she had set her cup of tea down at her feet and pulled out a sheet of parchment and her quill. For a few moments all she did was take down notes on star navigation and the creatures that use it. A bright smile was on her face when Professor Wayland mentioned owls for today's lesson. Suddenly there was red sparks shooting up into the air followed by lots of owls flying down around them. Why did all the owls have to land around the professors! Could she hold one? Were they going to get to play with them? Rylee wiggled in excitement her eyes already trained on one that landed on the professors head. "Most owls are able to fly almost in complete silence due to their wings and feather structure making it easier for them to catch their prey." |
Dorian was not pleased when he was told to get rid of his hay bale throne but the 'No' that he thought in his mind never came out of his mouth and instead of defying he stood up and went to work. He was totally doing this because it was uncomfortable anyway to sit on. When he was done, Dorian listened as the Professors took turn to speak and occasionally scribbled a note in his notebook that lay open on his lap. He looked back up as Professor Wayland asked them to name a characteristic of an owl before he raised his hand, trying not to giggle at the absurd image of three owls on the man's shoulders and head. "They are extremely territorial, especially around active nests, right?" he asked in a tone that showed that he was unsure of his own answer but no way back now. |
Was she supposed to be taking notes? 'Cause she really wasn't feeling it today. Besides, she was pretty sure they had already talked about star navigation... hadn't they? It sounded familiar, anyway. Moving onto owls, right.... Owls and celestial navigation. It made sense, since owls were nocturnal animals. Natalie raised her hand. "Owls are nocturnal, so it makes sense that they would be able to use the stars to navigate. Otherwise it... would be hard to see?" Except that probably wasn't true because owls DID have amazing eyesight. Ah well. |
Welll hello Cameron, Zita had given him a wave as he sat next to her. This was an interesting turn of events that they were now getting along. She kind of liked it really, but she wouldn't make it out that she truly liked it that much, especially when Natalie sat down next to him. She gave the girl a smirk and turned her head back to the professor, "Oh no thank Professor, it's not Valla tea. I only drink tea from my daddy's company." She would be fine just how she was and it seemed class was already starting so there you go. Astronomy wasn't her best subject so she stayed quiet through it. Navigation and things just seemed odd to use stars and such for, but the big dipper thing proved itself last class, so maybe there was something to it. When it went back to the creatures she was happy it wasn't bats and lifted her hand to answer, "Owls have a strong vision and can see prey pretty far away. " At least she thought that was owls. |
SPOILER!!: All Y'all After he finished getting all of the answers from various students, took a deep breath to get his thoughts together. "I have a lot of information for you, but I am going to do my best to give you the most important parts that you need to know." He said with a pointed glance at all of them. "Owls are in the birds of prey category, also known as Raptors. A bird is considered a Raptor because of their sharp beaks and sharp claws or talons that they use to catch and eat food. But what is unique about Owls, they are the only species of Raptors that are nocturnal. This makes it much easier for them to share territory with other Raptors, because they aren't hunting at the same time." He paused to catch his breath. "Now, owls range from a tiny five inches to a the size of a small child with the wing span of six and a half feet. Their coloring tends to be tan, brown, grey, brownish red, and white. Most owls have feathers on their legs and toes, which isn't normal for most Raptors. Owls eyes are very large, so large in fact that they can't move, which is why they can move their heads in almost a complete circle." He paused, and looked down at his watch. If they were going to get this activity done he had to move on quickly. "Not all Owls are nocturnal, some are diurnal, and some are crepuscular. Most Owls share habitats, so being active and hunting at different times helps to reduce competition between the different types of Owls. Also, most Owls don't migrate. When they find a place they stay their most of their life unless some environmental crises happens causing them to have to flee. Then they typically use their Sun or Star Compasses to help them get around." There was so much more but they really needed to move on. "And now Professor Kennedy is going to tell us about our first activity." Tristan turned to Kalen and handed him the floor with a grin and a wink. |
Kalen shook his head a bit as Tristan called him Kale, but as long as they left the other nicknames at the door, he was perfectly okay with Kale. After all it was a supposedly healthy green yeah? His nickname could be much worse. He listened as his friend spoke about animals using different sort of compasses to find their way, he had found the subject fascinating and seeing it in person was even better. What he wasn’t expecting though was the flock of Owls to suddenly start decending all around him, and his green eyes went wide for a moment before he remembered that he was the Professor and was supposed to be calm about all of this. So he took a deep breath and another sip of tea as a large black owl decided his shoulder would be a nice perch. Okay.. deep breaths, this was fine.. it was fine. He was concentrating so hard on not panicking about talons in his shoulder,that he pretty much missed all of what Tris was saying about Owls and only snapped back to reality when he heard his name being called.. Oh yes! Activity! Kalen shifted just a bit in order to not disturb the bird on his shoulder. “As you can see, a flock of Owls have descended on us, and for this activity you will need to pick out an Owl and befriend it and then gain its trust by feeding it. We will be using these Owls for the rest of the lesson, so choose your bird wisely. ” He said as he turned his head and looked at the one on his shoulder. “As you can see they are fairly friendly, but made sure to grab some Owl snacks in that bag over there, to really win your bird over. ” He said as he indicated a cloth bag over where his and Tris’s thrones had been. “If you have any questions, let me or Tristan know, if not… go find an Owl! ” OoC: Welcome to the mini activity! All you have to do is pick out an Owl from the flock that is all around the students and then feed it a few treats from the bag! You will have about 48 hours in which to do this, and then we will be moving on! If you need help, just put Professor in the title! Thanks guys! |
To be honest, Owls had always interested Hattie. She had one herself, for delivering her post. But apart from that she hadn't thought too much about him. So maybe she was more curious than Interesting. Owls basically just served a purpose to her, so maybe that was it. But today seemed pretty cool. She was though, interested in seeing what owls had to do with Astronomy. The link wasn't very clear at the moment, but she was sure that she would get it as the lesson progressed. She made some notes, careful to make sure they were neat. She didn't know if she'd need these for when she started studying for her NEWTs next year. And now it was time for the activity. This sounded pretty cool, so she was super interested. The blonde got up, and grabbed handful of owl treats. She was sure that would be enough. Now to pick an owl. She decided to go for a Snowy owl. They were lovely and white and cute. Holding out the treat, she tried to coax the owl to be friendly and come over to her. She had a good few treats in her hand, so hopefully this would work and she'd have a nice owl friend! |
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