November 11, 2010

How do insects know when it’s time to take a bath? When their feet get dirty and lose their stickiness! Insects depend on their adhesive footpads to help them travel safely on leaves, along braches, even over craggy rocks. A new study of the behavior of beetles found that when they start to slip, they know it is time to stop and groom themselves!

Leaf Beetle photo: S.N. Gorb, University of Kiel, Germany 

May 26, 2010

We’ve been writing a lot this month about the work we are doing to develop free, downloadable TEACHER GUIDES to go with all 26 of Seymour’s Collins/Smithsonian books (plus some other perennial favorites like ANIMALS NOBODY LOVES, EARTH, THE MOON, THE PAPER AIRPLANE BOOK, etc).

One of the nice features at the start of each Guide is a brief piece of first person writing from Seymour entitled "Why I Wrote This Book." It’s designed for teachers or parents to read aloud with kids before starting to talk about the book together. Today we are working on the Guide to accompany DOGS. Here is a preview of what Seymour wrote about the genesis of this book.

My first dog was a Springer Spaniel named Nova. Nova means "a new star" and that’s what NOVA was: a new star in our family. Then my son Mike got a dog and he named it Riley (who was then the coach of the New York Knicks). He eventually got another dog named Dizzy (you can guess why) and I dedicated this book to all three (but I misspelled the name of one of my son’s dogs-check the dedication to see which one).

We have completed a prototype Teacher Guide - for EARTHQUAKES - and are currently testing it in classrooms.  If you would like to give us your feedback you can download a copy by clicking on this link. We would love to hear from you!

April 22, 2010

Perching on the high branch of a tree at the bottom of the driveway of my house in the Hudson Highlands of New York State, was this "animal that nobody loves," an Eastern Turkey Vulture.  The Turkey Vulture is the most common vulture in the New World.

Almost exclusively a scavenger (which means it eats the carcasses of dead animals), the Turkey Vulture rarely kills for its food. The Turkey Vulture tends to hunt by itself. It uses its highly-developed sense of smell to locate carcasses even hidden beneath a forest of trees.

 The Turkey Vulture on my tree was hunting in the area of my house which includes farmland with pasture and plenty of undisturbed forested areas for perching, roosting, and nesting. The large bird nests in dark recesses beneath boulders, on cliff ledges, in hollow trees, logs, and stumps, and in abandoned buildings.

April 14, 2009

Editorial Observer - Science, Mythology, Hatred, and the Fate of the Gray Wolf -  NYTimes.com

If you want to protect wolves from being hunted again to the point of extinction, then you need to protest the decision of the Interior Department to allow wolves to be hunted again. You can write to Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar at feedback@ios.doi.gov . 

January 29, 2009

Did you know that a baby cockroach can crawl into your house through an opening the thickness of a penny? Read about cockroaches, rats, hyenas,  vultures and other animals nobody loves in Seymour’s book ANIMALS NOBODY LOVES. Click on Seymour Simon’s Bookstore to get a copy.

January 27, 2009

Do you know that all snakes are carniverous? That is, snakes eat only other animals, no plants.

Do you know that some snakes can eat an animal that weighs more than they do? (Can you imagine eating a sandwich that weighs more than you do?) 

January 27, 2009

How about you trying to make up your own Animal Fact or Animal Fiction?

Do you know if everything you ever heard about snakes is fact or fiction?

Read Seymour’s book SNAKES and make up your own puzzle! Send it to Email SEYMOUR SCIENCE! 

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