This and that

— Jerry Coyne could use your input concerning homeschooling and evolution. Are there any quality homeschooling science materials out there?

— Students take ‘trip’ to the sun; Scientists show pupils what physicists do.

— Reptile Discovery Center slithers into DeLand.

“The idea was really to expose people to the world of reptiles,” Barden said. “Although it’s a working snake farm, and the primary focus is on breeding and that kind of thing, we thought we could expose people to the animal and the animal to people.”

— School’s biology class gives landscaping a makeover

The students, all seniors, will earn college credit for the class through Edison State College. Time spent working on the landscaping project could either be used as community service hours or extra credit for the first-time class.

“We are like his guinea pigs,” added Sarah Cody. “It’s really been great.”

— Planetarium director reaches for the stars

“Not a week goes by without somebody saying, ‘Yeah, I was out last night. We saw something. I’m sure it was a UFO.’ It drives you crazy,” Rodgers says. “Usually we can nail it down to a star that they might have been seen or go online and figure out if the Space Station went overhead the night before, or something to explain what they saw that was out of the ordinary to me. It’s encouraging to me because it means that at least people are outside looking up at the sky. It’s discouraging because, immediately, everything is a UFO.”

— Busch Gardens amusement park in Tampa: a big math and physics lab.

This is the season of the theme park field trip, and the parks are happy to help, offering educational programs and deep discounts in hopes of filling their post-spring break lull with some of Florida’s two million students.

Just in case principals or parents question the legitimacy of such outings, the Web sites for Busch Gardens and Sea World include detailed information about how their school programs align with the state’s education standards.

— And you would have already known all this stuff if you were following me on Twitter.