March 25, 2011

I very much enjoyed my Skype session this morning with some of the students at Cavallini Middle School in Upper Saddle River, New Jersey. They have been studying non-fiction writing, and 20 students were well-prepared with good questions. Nice job, and a great way to start my day!

I thought I’d share one of the answers with you. A student asked me: if I had not become a writer, what would I have done?

Thinking back to my studies, I always loved science. I fell in love with space first, and then animals. In college, I studied Behavioral Psychology, which is really the study of animal behaviors. If I had it to do all over again, I think I would have become a marine biologist. This is probably why I have written so many books about whales, sharks, dolphins, and even keeping saltwater aquariums!

I like doing Skype sessions because they allow me to connect with more students. I get many more requests for school visits than I can accept, as I need to spend at least some time at my desk, researching and writing books! If you are interested in booking me for a Skype session with your school, click on this link on my website to put in your request.

July 23, 2010

We visited Cape May, New Jersey for a couple of days this week. I love to get out on the beach first thing in the morning, when it’s uncrowded and the marine life is feeding. We spotted a large pod of dolphins swimming less than 200 yards off shore both mornings.

Cape May - the southernmost tip of New Jersey - is a favorite destination not only for human tourists, but also for a pod of an estimated 2500 dolphins who summer there each year! You don’t need to book a "whale watch" tour. If you are vacationing at the ocean, just get out on the beach at dawn or dusk and watch the surf. You’ll be amazed at all the animal life  - birds, fish, mollusks, dolphins, seals - that you can see if you just take the time to look.

September 1, 2009

July 14, 2009

In this article from the latest issue of Wired Magazine, researchers describe how some humans are learning to move around by using their ears, rather than their eyes, to know where they are going.

Make Like a Dolphin: Learn Echolocation | Wired Science | Wired.com

Do you think YOU could move around in your world the way a dolphin does in water?


 

June 1, 2009

Doing an experiment with a child helps them learn about science. To learn new things, you have to build upon what you already know. In everyday interactions with children, there are many things you can try without lecturing or applying pressures to help them learn science. Of course,  you can’t experiment with a dolphin but here are a few ideas that will help you learn about how dolphins survive in the sea.

1.  How long can you hold your breath? Compare that to how long a dolphin can hold its breath underwater.

2. Do sounds travel underwater? Can you hear sounds when you are swimming? Have you ever played a game where you and a friend make sounds and "talk" underwater,  and try to understand each other?

3. Which freezes more quickly: freshwater or ocean water? Fill two plastic cups halfway, one with freshwater and the other with salty water. Put them in the freezer and check them every ten minutes to see which freezes first. How do the results help to explain why dolphins don’t live in freshwater lakes in places that get very cold in winter?

4. Dolphins dive deep under the water where the water pressure is very great. In the sea,  pressure increases with water depth. Here’s how you can demonstrate that pressure increases with depth. You will need a large, empty tin can, a hammer, a large nail, water, salt, a ruler and a basin or a sink.  Use the hammer and a nail to make three holes, one above the other and each two inches apart in the side of the can. Stand the can on the side of the basin or sink and fill with water. Measure the distance the water spurts out from each of the holes. Try it again with salty water.

a.  Which spurts out further? Why? Remember that the weight of the water is greater over the bottom hole than over the top hole. The heavier the water above, the greater is the water pressure below. At sea level, air pressure is a bit less than 15 pounds per square inch. At 300 feet, the water pressure is about 150 pounds per square inch.

b.  Could humans survive at that pressure without protection? Do research to find out how dolphins survive the pressure of deep waters.

Click on this for Dolphins FAQs 

May 31, 2009

What’s so interesting about dolphins?

  A while ago, I read a science fiction story about an ocean planet populated with intelligent water mammals such as whales and dolphins. The ocean animals of this planet even explored beyond their planet in spaceships filled with ocean water. And who were the leaders and the smartest sea life on the ocean planet? Dolphins, naturally.

  What makes dolphins so smart? Why their brains of course. Dolphins have very large brains in relation to their body size. In fact, bottlenose dolphins rank second only to humans in the ratio of their brain size to body size. Just how intelligent on the dolphins that live on our planet Earth? Nobody really knows the exact answer to this question (or at least no one on Earth knows), but researchers are finding out that dolphins can and do communicate with each other and that they can even solve some puzzles and problems.

  All of this is interesting, but the real reason I wrote a book about dolphins is that they are beautiful and fascinating to watch at sea and even in large public aquariums.  And like with most of the books I write, even after the book is published I still am finding out new things which I wish I had put in the book. Do you know things about dolphins or have you taken pictures or video of dolphins that you would like to share with readers of Seymour Science?  Send an email to Seymour Science  and tell me all about it so I can post your note on my site.
 

May 31, 2009

  1. Dolphins are the "wonder of the animal kingdom." Take a tour of a dolphin’s body to find out what makes them so wonderful.

    a. Teeth: A dolphin’s teeth are not for chewing, but how do they help in food gathering? Some scientists think that the teeth are spaced in a way to help dolphins analyze sound waves.

    b. The melon: The melon is used in echolocation to focus sound waves the dolphin gives off.

      c. Dorsal fin: As distinctive as a person’s face. Used by scientists to identify individual dolphins.

    d.  Eyes: Special glands to protect their eyes from ocean water.

      e. Skin: Many nerve endings in skin helps explain why tame dolphins like to be stroked.

    f. Blowhole: Like a person’s nostril.  Blowhole allows a dolphin to breathe while swimming at top speed.

  2. What makes Dolphins so smart?

    a. Brains: large size, second only to human in ratio of brain size to body size.

    b.  Communication: Dolphins communicate by sounds. Listen to a recording of a "conversation" to hear the squeaks and whistles.

      c. Dolphins make choices and learn quickly.

  3.  What are some amazing dolphin facts? What other facts do you know?

          a. Using sonar, a dolphin can find a single marble dropped into the end of a 70 foot pool.

    b. A mother dolphin will stay with a calf for two to three years.

      c. The killer whale (Orca) is really the largest dolphin, not a whale.

    d. Dolphins can mimic a human whistle.

      e. Baby dolphins "babble" like human children.

      f. Dolphins were once land animals and evolved into sea animals.  Their front legs became fins for steering although they still have a land mammal’s finger-like bones.