Label: Science News

March 28, 2012

Welcome to WRITING WEDNESDAY! Every week there is a new opportunity to publish your own creative writing on the Seymour Science blog. This week, we are asking you to contrast two different kinds of science news stories - a firsthand account, and a secondhand account.

The Facts: This week’s big science news story is about James Cameron, the film director who directed both "Titanic" and "Avatar." On Monday, Cameron used a specially designed submarine to dive alone to the deepest place on Earth. The place is known as the Challenger Deep, off the coast of the Pacific island of Guam, and it is almost impossible to imagine how deep it really is. The Challenger Deep is 120 times deeper than the Grand Canyon and more than a mile deeper than the tallest mountain on Earth, Mount Everest, is tall.

Only two other people have ever made this dive. In 1960, Swiss engineer Jacques Piccard and U.S. Navy Capt. Don Walsh descended to the bottom in a bathyscape (a deep-sea diving craft) called the Trieste.

Read these descriptions of the two events. The first one is a firsthand account - which means that the story is being told by the person who was actually there. The second is a secondhand account - a story that is retold by someone who was not there, but has heard it from someone else.

Firsthand Account (James Cameron writing on Twitter): "Just arrived at the ocean’s deepest point. Hitting bottom never felt so good. Can’t wait to share what I’m seeing with you." 

Secondhand Account (U.S. Navy website):  "Only two people have ever been to the deepest part of the world ocean, and Dr. Don Walsh is one of them. In 1960 Walsh, along with Swiss inventor Jacques Piccard, piloted the U.S. Navy’s bathyscaph Trieste to a spot at the bottom of the Marianas Trench known as the Challenger Deep. Inside Trieste’s seven-foot diameter cabin and with more than 16,000 pounds per square inch pressure outside, Walsh relied on the knowledge and skills of the ocean engineers and marine technicians who built the craft and supported its operation."

Your Assignment: Tell us about the differences between the firsthand account and the secondhand account. Contrast and compare the two stories by telling us about the main focus of each. How is the information you got from each of them alike? How is it different?

When you are ready, click "comments" below and write about the differences and similarities between these two accounts.

Happy writing! 

Photo: Mark Thiessen / National Geographic

Educators: Today’s Writing Wednesday is designed to use in support of CCSS Anchor Standard RI.6: Compare and contrast a firsthand and secondhand account of the same event of topic; describe the differences in focus and the information provided.

March 23, 2012

As many of my readers know, I love to fold and fly paper airplanes. I have been doing it my whole life. But a 45-foot (13.7 meter) long, 800-pound (363 Kg) paper airplane? That is a little excessive, even for me!

A few months ago, Arizona’s Pima Air and Space Museum sponsored a paper airplane flying contest for kids. Hundreds of kids came, and their enthusiasm inspired the aerospace engineers at the museum to launch the Great Paper Airplane Project!

Their project was completed on Wednesday, when a helicopter lifted the giant paper airplane high above the Arizona desert and then released it. The paper airplane flew at a speed of 98 miles (158 km) per hour. Now THAT is a paper airplane. I wish I had been there!

Photo: Joshua Lott / Reuters

Learn how to fold your own paper airplanes with Seymour Simon’s classic PAPER AIRPLANE BOOK.

Click here to download a free paper airplane pattern to print and fold!

March 5, 2012

Following last week’s storm systems that unleashed devastating tornadoes in the Midwestern and southern U.S., many readers are writing to ask about tornadoes and why they happen. You can check your library to see if they have my book, TORNADOES, which explains these terribly destructive storms.

I have also written often about Tornadoes on this blog. Here is a link that will take you to a list of all my tornadoes blog posts. There is lots of good information for you there.

My heart goes out to kids, families and communities in Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama, Georgia, and North Carolina, whose lives were affected and in some cases, forever changed, by these powerful storms. 

February 8, 2012

Welcome to Writing Wednesday! Every week there is a new opportunity to publish your own creative writing on the Seymour Science blog. This week, we are asking you to use your writing to convince people to support an important cause.

The Problem: 2012 is one of Alaska’s snowiest winters ever. 92 inches of snow have already fallen in Anchorage, Alaska - that’s 18 inches more than they usually get in a whole year! And there are still ten weeks of winter left.

The snow is so deep that moose - the largest deer on Earth - are using plowed highways and railroad tracks to get around. This is dangerous, and they are being hit by trains and cars in record numbers. Although the moose is not officially endangered, the population is much smaller because of hunting and other human activities.

The Alaska Moose Agency wants the governor to declare a "Moose Emergency," so that they can get permission to clear trees and cut paths to give the moose safe pathways to walk on.

Your Assignment: Imagine that you are part of the Alaska Moose Agency, and you are making posters to hang up all around town, asking for a Moose Emergency. The poster can’t have too many words on it, or it will be too hard to read. So, you must argue your case, and make people care about saving the moose…..in 50 words or less.

Tips to Make Your Writing Powerful:

o   Set the scene by appealing to your reader’s senses and imagination.

o   Include descriptive details to help to convince the reader that your cause is important.

o   Use strong verbs to get your reader to take action.

Give it your best shot. When you are finished writing, click on the yellow "Comments" at the bottom of this post to enter your writing.

Photo: Donna Dewhurst

I have created a Guide called “Writing Exciting Nonfiction,” which you can download by clicking on this link. It outlines different techniques that I use in my writing, and includes many examples from my books. I have posted it so that you can use it with your students. Please let me know if it is helpful, and share any other feedback about how we can make this blog a productive tool for you to use in exploring and encouraging nonfiction writing with your students.

February 6, 2012

Isn’t this a pretty yellow flower, floating in a puddle? Don’t let your eyes fool you. This is a carnivorous (meat-eating) plant, and scientists think it is one of the fastest bug-eating plants on Earth!

Bladderworts eat tiny bugs (smaller than a flea) that live in the water. The plants have bladders (tiny, closed bags) with tiny hairs near the opening of the bag. When a micoscopic bug swims by and brushes against the hairs, the mouth of the bladder pops open, sucks in a gulp of water, and snaps shut, trapping the bug inside!

Until recently, we didn’t have a way to judge just how quickly this happens. But recently, French and German scientists used high speed cameras to capture the ambush, and discovered that it happens in a millisecond (there are one thousand milliseconds in one second).

That makes the Bladderwort one of the fastest plants in the pond. And it looks so innocent!

January 25, 2012

Welcome to Writing Wednesday! Every Wednesday you can publish your own creative writing on the Seymour Science blog.

Writing Wednesday has two simple rules: 

1. Give us the best you’ve got in 5 minutes. That’s right - five minutes of creative writing. Think of it as a word extravaganza to warm up your brain for the rest of the day!
2. Tell us your first name, the name of your school, and how old you are. 

Ready? Let’s go!

As a scientist wrote yesterday, "THE SUN IS WAKING UP." The sun goes through regular cycles, and we have entered a period of high solar activity. Huge solar storms have been sweeping the surface of the sun for the past week, sending bursts of geomagnetic radiation called "solar flares" toward Earth. When this radiation hits Earth’s magnetic field, it causes bursts of light that we call the Aurora Borealis, or the Northern Lights. Sometimes they look like ghostly fingers in the sky; sometimes they look like huge explosions of colored lights. 

Here is a photograph of the Northern Lights as seen in Finland this week. Take five minutes and write a list of five words to describe this nighttime sight. Enter your writing by clicking on the yellow "Comments" at the bottom of this blog post.

 Happy writing!

 Photo: Arnar Bergur Guðjónsson

January 19, 2012

Snowman looks at the city. He is happy because friends are being created! 

The cities and towns around Seattle, Washington received up to 8 inches of snow yesterday, officially making the winter storm one of Seattle’s 10 worst since the early 1940s, when record-keeping began. Schools and businesses are closed again today, as freezing temperatures have turned slushy roads into sheets of ice. I have a feeling there was a shout of joy early this morning from Seattle kids, who don’t often get a snow day. The snowman is happy, indeed!

The caption for the photograph above was written by Will from Ohio. He submitted this lovely piece of writing as part of yesterday’s “Writing Wednesday.” Nice job, Will!

Photo: Sam Jennings

I have created a Guide called “Writing Exciting Nonfiction,” which you can download by clicking on this link. It outlines different techniques that I use in my writing, and includes many examples from my books. I have posted it so that you can use it with your students. Please let me know if it is helpful, and share any other feedback about how we can make this blog a productive tool for you to use in exploring and encouraging nonfiction writing with your students.

January 11, 2012

Welcome to Writing Wednesday! Every Wednesday you can publish your own creative writing on the Seymour Science blog.

Writing Wednesday has two simple rules: 

1. Give us the best you’ve got in 5 minutes. That’s right - five minutes of creative writing. Think of it as a word extravaganza to warm up your brain for the rest of the day!
2. Tell us your first name, the name of your school, and how old you are.

This is one of the new species they found. It is called a VAMPIRE SQUID, and it lives in Monterey Bay, off the coast of Northern California. Click the "Comments" button below and take five minutes to write about what you see in this photograph. Use descriptive words and strong verbs to describe the animal and the dark waters where it lives. You could use a comparison to help your reader imagine this creature….or appeal to the reader’s emotions to set the scene (how does it make you feel when you look at a Vampire Squid?).

What you write is up to you. Have fun with it!

January 10, 2012

Are you tired of the unusually warm winter we are having? Do you miss having snow to play in and snowstorms to close schools? If you are, you’re in good company. Most of the U.S. is experiencing warmer-than-average temperatures this winter.

People who live in Cordova are used to snow, of course, but they have never seen anything like this. Most people who live in areas at risk of avalanches have moved in with friends for the time being, and the town is setting up a pet shelter.

Can you imagine 18-feet of snow? Picture four fifth graders, standing on each others’ shoulders, one on top of the other. That is about the height of the snow that has fallen this month in Cordova!

Photo: Kate Herring

January 9, 2012

The latest development in locating people trapped in the rubble after disasters like earthquakes is called PAWS - rescue dogs equipped with a camera, microphone and speaker.

PAWS stands for Portable, All-terrain, Wireless System. An inventor in England has developed a harness that holds a very lightweight camera, mounted on the dog’s head. The dogs are trained to play a game - "Go find your toy!" When they race through the rubble and come to a stop in front of a human, the rescuers are able to see on video places that they would otherwise be unable to reach.

Want to see what it looks like? 

This is a border collie’s view of his owner through the Paws head camera. 

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