Make your own collection!

What do you collect? Rocks? Fossils? Seashells? Stamps? Coins? Here's a neat way to sort and store your treasure.

1. Find a small box. You can use a shoebox or one you purchased from a craft store.

2. Decorate the outside of your box if you wish. You can use stickers, or crayons and paper, or you can glue some of your collection items to the outside of your box.

3. To keep your items separate, you can use the bottom of an egg carton, small gift boxes, empty medicine vials, or you can make dividers for your box by using strips of poster board and making a grid.

4. Place one item from your collection in each new section of your box.

5. To be like a scientist, keep information about where and when you collected each item. Use small pieces of paper to make identification labels, and place the label with each item.

6. Scientists also keep a journal. Use a notebook to make notes about your collection items. Things to include in your journal are when and where you found each object, what it looks like, what you think about it, and a sketch of the object.

Visions of the Voyage

Darwin saw fantastic creatures during his travels on the H.M.S. Beagle. The illustrations below were printed in Darwin's book Zoology of the H.M.S. Beagle. Click on the images below to download.

Charles Darwin, Zoology of the Voyage of the H.M.S. Beagle

(London, 1838-1843)

Images courtesy History of Science Collections, University of Oklahoma Libraries.