Label: 2011 Countdown

January 1, 2012

The top Seymour Science blog posting of 2011 was written by….YOU! 

 I am so proud of all of you who wrote to me in response to Earth Day! On the last day of April, we posted almost 300 promises that you have made to Earth Day’s BILLION ACTS OF GREEN website. Seymour Science readers have really stepped up to make a difference! I feel sure that you will all work hard to continue caring for our planet Earth every day.

As promised, we are publishing everyone’s writing about why they care about Earth Day. This list is alphabetical, so find your name and show your writing to your families, your teachers, your librarians and your friends. You are part of an important cause, and each of you deserves to be very proud of what you’ve done. 

Alana:   

Dear Mr. Simon, My carbon footprint was very surprising to me. To know how large of a footprint I am leaving is mind blowing. My carbon foot is 19.9. I have a fairly large family. I have 5 people in my family. To reduce my carbon footprint I could turn off the T.V. when I am not watching it. Also, I could reduce the amount of time I use the T.V. Another thing I could do is buy a reusable water bottle. I could also eat less fast food.  Sincerely, Alana

Alana B.:           

Alex:           

Alyssa:                       

Amanda:

Amber:                       

Amelia P.:           

December 31, 2011

A simple question — What is your favorite breed of dog? — started with a fifth grade class in Churchville, Pennsylvania and prompted an avalanche of comments that continued all year long!

The month before I was going to speak at Churchville Elementary School in Pennsylvania, it was obvious that they were doing lots of preparation! Mrs. Gorgol, the librarian at the school, sent in this "favorite dog breed" survey, conducted by students in Mr. K’s 5th grade class. They chose my book DOGS to read and share with the class, and then they decided to survey the class to find out the favorite dog breed of their classmates. My favorite breed is the English Springer Spaniel, because that’s what my dog Nova was.

Here’s what the kids had to say about their favorite dogs. Nice work creating the graph!   

I’d be curious to see if the results are similar across the country. Write and tell me: which is your favorite dog breed? Maybe you would like to send me a photo of your dog in an email? Be sure to send me the name of your dog and anything that makes him or her special!

For those of you receiving iPads or Nook Color/Tablets this season, Seymour Simon has many quality eBooks available for purchase, some discounted as much as 50% for the holidays. If you are adding reading material to a tablet, please consider making Seymour Simon’s exceptional nonfiction for children part of your collection. Happy holidays to all!

December 30, 2011

Many readers ask questions about how they can get started as a writer. This year, I combined many of those excellent questions into a single guideline for beginning authors. Hunter wrote: "I have improved in writing a lot this year!" And Olivia added: "GOOOOOOO WRITING!"

When I speak in schools, I usually tell the story of writing my first book, called SPACE MONSTERS, when I was in second grade. Since I have been in a lot of schools recently, I have been hearing from students who love writing, and are asking for advice on how to become authors.

A dog-lover named Natalie wrote:

Ever since I was in 1st grade, I have wanted to be a writer to express my deep imagination. I have written fantasy books like you wrote Space Monsters. Every time I start a book I want to start a new one with a complete new idea. How do you stick to one book topic at a time?

Or this note, from Marissa:

I want to become an author when I grow up. I write every day. I just wrote a few stories in my writer’s notebook at school! I tried to write a chapter book, it has a few chapters.

Dina, whose school I visited this winter, asked:

What do you think I should do to be a good writer like you? You already told us to start writing while you are a kid but I want to know more. I’m very interested about you and writing! 

I’m so glad to receive letters like these from fellow writers! I think that writers begin their life as a writer when they are young, just as you are. It’s important to keep writing as much as you can. I’ve written many books and usually work on several books at the same time. I do research on a number of topics and write about one of them. I think you might like to do the same.

While you are working on a book or story, keep the ideas for future books coming. Keep a notebook or journal where you jot down your story ideas, and any details that seem important to you. That way, you can stick with the one story that you’re working on until you are finished, but you are still keeping track of ideas that you might want to write about later. Sometimes I go back and write a book from a scrap of an idea that I jotted down years before. So don’t be shy about writing down your thoughts. You never know when they might come in handy!

Finishing a book is always much harder than starting a new book. But like everything else that you want to learn to do well, writing takes practice. The more you write, the better you get at it, and the easier it becomes.

I wish you well with all your writing projects!

Your fellow writer,

Seymour

For those of you receiving iPads or Nook Color/Tablets this season, Seymour Simon has many quality eBooks available for purchase, some discounted as much as 50% for the holidays. If you are adding reading material to a tablet, please consider making Seymour Simon’s exceptional nonfiction for children part of your collection. Happy holidays to all!

December 29, 2011

This story about a beautiful natural history museum in Vienna, Austria included an amazingly realistic, CGI video from their new dinosaur exhibit. Readers LOVED the video, including Sebastian, who wrote: “My little brother was scared out of his mind!” I think Sebastian meant that as a compliment!

Look at this great image from Vienna, in Austria. My stepdaughter, Jules, who is a college student studying abroad this semester, sent it with this note:

"At the Natural History museum in Vienna (a converted Hapsburg Palace) they had scientific stained glass! Of course, I thought of you." 

Thanks, Jules. I love it! Look at the replica of the sea anemone, the delicate glass sculpture with many tendrils, like a flower, hanging from the ceiling in front of the window. Isn’t it just magnificent?

I decided to learn more about this museum, and discovered that it is the third-largest natural history museum in the world, after New York’s American Museum of Natural History and London’s British Museum. I love natural history museums, probably because when I was a teenager, I was the President of the U.S. Junior Astronomy Club, which had its office in the basement of the American Museum of Natural History. I spent many hours there, wandering through the exhibits, and I’ve loved natural history museums ever since.

One of the main attractions of Vienna’s Natural History Museum is their newly just-opened, modernized dinosaur hall. And I discovered that they have made a very exciting CGI animated movie that includes a life-sized animated model of an Allosaurus and a recreation of the giant asteroid impact that led to the extinction of the dinosaurs! The film is on YouTube and I’ve put a link to it here because I think my readers will like it as much as I do. Check it out and let me know what you think.

For those of you receiving iPads or Nook Color/Tablets this season, Seymour Simon has many quality eBooks available for purchase, some discounted as much as 50% for the holidays. If you are adding reading material to a tablet, please consider making Seymour Simon’s exceptional nonfiction for children part of your collection. Happy holidays to all!

December 28, 2011

No question that my readers love dogs. As the New Jersey second graders who call themselves Kramer’s Kennel Club wrote: "we loved your story about a firefighter hero saving our favorite—a dog!"

A Labrador retriever suffering from smoke inhalation was saved by firefighters who carried him out of a burning house and gave him "mouth-to-snout" resuscitation.

When firefighters arrived at the fire in Wasau, Wisconsin, the owners told them that their dog was still inside. The rescuers rushed into the house and carried out the unconscious dog, named Koda. Firefighter Jamie Giese, who owns two dogs himself, said he told the other firefighters: "We’ve got to work on this dog. (We) laid him down in the front yard, and we started assisting breathing.’‘

When Koda eventually regained consciousness, firefighters placed a human oxygen mask over his snout and rushed him to an animal emergency center for medical treatment.

The rescue was successful….Koda was returned safe and sound to his owners the next morning.

 Photos: Dan Young  /  Wausau Daily Herald

For those of you receiving iPads or Nook Color/Tablets this season, Seymour Simon has many quality eBooks available for purchase, some discounted as much as 50% for the holidays. If you are adding reading material to a tablet, please consider making Seymour Simon’s exceptional nonfiction for children part of your collection. Happy holidays to all!

December 27, 2011

The top “Cool Photo of the Week” for the year was an astounding macro photograph of a common dragonfly. Beaudoin wrote: “I like how the photographer chose the right time of day to capture a brilliant photo.”

Many photographers like to shoot macro (very close up) photographs of insects because the macro camera lens reveals details of alien-looking creatures that we can’t see with our own eyes. A Polish photographer named Miroslaw Swietek takes it even further. He goes into the forest in the early morning and photographs the insects when they are covered with dew. Through the camera lens, the drops of water make the insects look as though they are covered with diamonds.

This is a photograph of a dragonfly. Look at how the water drops magnify the lenses in its compound eyes! (click here to read another one of my posts if you want to understand how compound eyes work).

LiveScience interviewed Swietek about how he takes these amazing photographs, and he said that the time of day makes it easier. "That early in the morning, insects are very sleepy so the camera doesn’t disturb them."

If you would like to see more of these amazing images, click here to go to the LiveScience website, where they have a slideshow of Miroslaw Swietek’s  "jeweled" insect photographs.

For those of you receiving iPads or Nook Color/Tablets this season, Seymour Simon has many quality eBooks available for purchase, some discounted as much as 50% for the holidays. If you are adding reading material to a tablet, please consider making Seymour Simon’s exceptional nonfiction for children part of your collection. Happy holidays to all!

December 26, 2011

If I’ve been to your school, you know how much I love astronomy and space. This is important news in our ongoing exploration of the solar system, and classes across the country are invited to go along! 

Just after school started, I received a question from a fifth grade study group asking me: "Is the moon just a big rock?" Of course, that is exactly what the moon is, but being a former teacher, I never give a simple answer like that. Instead, I asked them if they would please do some research and write back to me with interesting information that they learned about the moon.

Well, they did a great job! I received this email from Angela, Diana, Martin and Andres, who are a science study group in Mrs. Williamson’s Fifth Grade class at Wolf Canyon Elementary School, in California.

Dear Seymour Simon:

Our science group found two great, interesting facts about the moon.

1)    The moon is the fifth largest satellite in the solar system.

2)     It is thought to be formed some 4.5 million years ago.

Thank you for your great science books!

Good work by Mrs. Williamson’s science group! They did their homework and found some very interesting facts about the moon.

GRAIL consists of two satellites, which will separate from the rocket that is carrying them into space and become lunar orbiters (satellites that orbit around the moon). They will photograph the surface of the moon as they pass over it, and scientists will be able to accurately measure various formations and moonscapes based on how far apart the satellites are. The project will study how the moon was formed, what its interior consists of, and why the side seen from Earth looks so different from the lighter-colored "far side." We know that the far side is covered with...

December 25, 2011

This year I skyped with two schools in Durham and Middlefield, Connecticut, and the students asked me one of the questions I am asked most often: How do you take those photographs of dangerous animals without getting hurt?!

I had a great "double Skype" session today with third and fourth graders in two schools in Durham and Middlefield, Connecticut. They have been studying my books and skyping with each other, and today all three of us did a Skype session together.

This is a very good question, and one that I am asked quite often. For a shot like this one, of a rattlesnake’s mouth and fangs, the photographer uses a bit of trickery called a "telephoto lens." That lens takes a picture that seems as though you are very, very close, when in fact, you are safely far away. Nobody is going to get THAT close to a poisonous snake!

The round area with a dark slit (at the bottom of the rattlesnake’s mouth) is a duct for releasing the venom. You can learn more about that and see a diagram at this link. 

Thanks to Mrs. Kohs and everyone who helped to organize today’s Skype session. I really enjoyed talking with you all!

Photograph by Anup Shah/Dembinsky Photo Associates

For those of you receiving iPads or Nook Color/Tablets this season, Seymour Simon has many quality eBooks available for purchase, some discounted as much as 50% for the holidays. If you are adding reading material to a tablet, please consider making Seymour Simon’s exceptional nonfiction for children part of your collection. Happy holidays to all!

December 24, 2011

One of the top news stories of 2011 was the devastating earthquake and subsequent tsunami in Japan. Many areaders expressed their sympathy toward the people of Sendai, and wondered how exactly such a huge, deadly wave forms.

The terrible earthquake that hit Japan in March 2011 was a magnitude 8.9. That’s one of the biggest ever recorded. The devastation caused was bad enough, but the resulting tsunami was even worse.

A tsunami used to be called a tidal wave, but that’s not a correct term. Tsunamis have nothing to do with tides - those are caused by the gravitational pull of the moon (and the sun to a lesser degree). The violent shaking of the earth underneath the ocean causes tsunamis. Tsunamis can also travel across long distances on the ocean. At sea, a tsunami wave is scarcely noticeable, but when the wave comes close to shore, it builds up and up and can by many feet high. 

For readers who want to read more about earthquakes and why we seem to have had so many big ones this year, you can read my earlier blog post:  

Photograph: The tsunami crashing into homes in Natori, Japan. Courtesy Kyodo News, via Associated Press.

For those of you receiving iPads or Nook Color/Tablets this season, Seymour Simon has many quality eBooks available for purchase, some discounted as much as 50% for the holidays. If you are adding reading material to a tablet, please consider making Seymour Simon’s exceptional nonfiction for children part of your collection. Happy holidays to all!

December 23, 2011

It is never an easy task selecting the Top Ten stories of 2011, but your comments really helped. Every day between now and New Years’ Day will feature one of the top stories of the year. Hope you enjoy it!

When I saw a wild turkey crossing over the dirt road leading up to my house in the country the other day, I thought of Benjamin Franklin, one of the founding fathers of the United States. Why? Because when it came to choosing a symbol of the United States, Ben Franklin thought the wild turkey was a more dignified bird than the bald eagle.  I’m not sure if I agree; the bald eagle is magnificent soaring in the sky and I think the turkey looked a bit pompous and stuck-up strutting across my road. But the turkey is a pretty interesting bird. It would rather walk than fly (though it can fly, at least for a minute or two). Seeing a single turkey is rare around here; I usually seem them in flocks of a dozen or more birds.

  Not to be outdone by a wild turkey, a large snapping turtle came walking across the same dirt road. I stopped the car to take a picture of the snapper. When I came close, the turtle turned around to face me, snapped and hissed. "OK," I thought. "I’m just looking. Let’s part friends!" And I got back in my car and watched the snapper disappear into the undergrowth. There’s a stream just nearby the road and I guess that’s where the turtle was headed.

A snapping turtle has a large head with strong jaws. This one was quite large - I would estimate about 14-inches from its head to the tip of its armored tail. That’s about the distance from your fingertips to your elbow.

Unlike many other kinds of turtles, the snapper can’t withdraw its head into its small shell. It relies on its jaws for defense and can bite hard and clamp down. I wouldn’t try to pet a snapping turtle, and neither should you! Thinking it over, petting a wild animal is a "no, no" in every case, no matter what. Wild animals are not pets and should not be touched, for your own safety as well as theirs.

 

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For those of you receiving iPads or Nook Color/Tablets this season, Seymour Simon has many quality eBooks available for purchase, some discounted as much as 50% for the holidays. If you are adding reading material to a tablet, please consider making Seymour Simon’s exceptional nonfiction for children part of your collection. Happy holidays to all!