May 13, 2011
Yesterday, we drove along winding roads through the hills in Dutchess and Columbia counties, in New York State. It’s very agricultural up here, with many horse and dairy farms.
Spring is the season for animal babies and we saw many calves and foals in farms along the roads. This calf is two to three months old and follows its mother everywhere. Where mom goes, baby is not far behind.
Spring is an amazing season of quick changes. Trees and bushes leaf, and the color of the leaves changes from a pale yellow-green to a darker green in a few weeks. Flowers bud on apple trees and on forest floors as if by magic. Birds are singing. Butterflies are flitting from one bush to another. It feels as if you’re in a nature movie, but this is real life and it happens every spring.
Years ago, Rachel Carson, a scientist and naturalist, wrote a book called Silent Spring. It was about the dangers of using too much and the wrong kinds of insecticides. The "silent spring" referred to the bad effects of insecticides upon birds. Every time I hear birds singing in the spring, I give silent thanks to Rachel Carson, a wonderful nature writer who also provided me with the inspiration to become a writer.
(Editor’s Note from Liz Nealon)
I often travel with Seymour as he walks in nature and photographs, and thought that it would be fun for readers to see what was going on "behind the camera" while Seymour was taking the photograph above. This herd was very curious, poking their heads through the fence and nuzzling to see if he had any food for them!
Posted by: Seymour Simon
May 11, 2011
A student named Makayla M. wrote today and asked:
"Do you think that macaroni penguins are weird or cool? What is your favorite animal in the world?
I think all penguins are cool, don’t you? Macaroni Penguins are so unusual, with those magnificent, bright-colored feathers on their heads. You can probably find my book PENGUINS in your school library, and you’ll find a page in there that tells you how the Macaroni penguin got its name. (Hint: It has nothing to do with pasta.)
I can’t tell you my favorite animal because then the other animals would attack me!
(Photo from PENGUINS, by Seymour Simon. CollinsSmithsonian Books, 2007)
Note to students Using the "ASK SEYMOUR SIMON" button: Please take your time and be sure that you enter your email address correctly. If it is misspelled, I can’t reply to you, so you never get an answer to your question. Type your email in, and then check your work! Thanks.
Posted by: Seymour Simon
May 10, 2011
Set your alarm for just before dawn tomorrow morning, May 11 and you can see FOUR of the planets in our Solar System with your own eyes!
Mariano Ribas took this photo early today from his home in Buenos Aires, Argentina. The three "stars" that form a triangle high in the sky are Venus, Mercury and Jupiter. If you look down below, closer to the fence, there is a fourth faint light, which is Mars.
This amazing sky show will continue all the way through the end of the month. Astronomers are excited about tomorrow because they say it will be the "best" day for viewing, with the two brightest planets in our Solar System, Venus and Jupiter, very close together.
Set your alarm, look to the eastern sky, and greet the planets. What a great way to start the day!
Posted by: Seymour Simon
May 10, 2011
Regular Seymour Science readers know that we do this every Tuesday…...and isn’t this trumpetfish photo a beauty?!
I am particularly interested in the trumpetfish (Aulostomus maculatus) these days because I am working on a new book about CORAL REEFS. Trumpetfish live in coral reefs, and they often swim vertically (straight up and down, as you see here) as a way of camouflaging themselves. They want to blend in with tall coral like sea rods and pipe sponges so that they can sneak up on unsuspecting prey. They catch their food by lying so still that they look like a stick, and then sucking up passing fish into their mouths.
These fish grow to be about 36 inches (just under one meter) long. If you spread both your arms out as wide as they can go, that is about the size of a full-grown trumpetfish.
Photo: Nick Hobgood
READERS: Are you wondering how to add your own "comment" to this blog? Click here for exact directions on how to add a comment so you can become one of our Seymour Science writers! We also want you to be safe and not share too much information when you write on this blog, so please take a minute to read about how to stay safe on the Internet. We love to hear from you, so give "comments" a try!
Posted by: Seymour Simon
May 9, 2011
Katie, a student at Thunder Hill Elementary School in Maryland, has won an autographed copy of Seymour Simon’s BABY ANIMALS by answering the question: What do you call a baby hippopotamus? Katie (and several other students) correctly answered that a baby hippo is called a calf. We did a random drawing, and Katie came out the winner.
Thank you to everyone who entered. We love to hear from you!
Posted by: Liz Nealon
May 7, 2011
May 7 is National Train Day, and in honor of the event, I’m re-posting this blog from Carol H. Rasco, CEO of Reading Is Fundamental, Inc., America’s oldest and largest nonprofit children’s and family literacy organization.
Seymour Simon’s Book of Trains is devoured by children interested in trains…children and youth of all ages. While it is advertised as written for ages 9-12, even pre-school youngsters love the big color pictures and some of us adults learned things about freight trains we had seen on the rails but never knew the details. From the earliest rail cars to the obsolete cabooses to electric subways to France’s TGV with speeds of between 200-300 mph, the details are here in words and photos.
It is a great book to use as the centerpiece for National Train Day as it reminds us:
Trains can carry
grain and gravel,
milk and machines,
cars and computers,
pipes and people.
Amtrak turned 40 years old on May 1 and there is a timeline which might be of interest to students on the National Train Day website with the Kids’ Corner featuring the cities where special children’s entertainment will be held on Train Day along with a downloadable Amtrak Kids’ Booklet, Kids Depot featuring games and even a section to learn to fold an origami train.
Carol H. Rasko writes often about the books related to current events. You can read her stories on the RASCO FROM RIF blog.
Posted by: Seymour Simon
May 6, 2011
If you are reading this morning, click on the "play" button to watch baby hawks being born. I’ve just seen both parents standing on the edge of the nest while the first, tiny fledling squeezed out of its shell. Amazing sight to see!
Update at 10:41 am Eastern Time from Liz Nealon (Seymour is speaking in Illchester Elementary School, Ellicott City, MD this morning).
Two babies are safely hatched. I managed to grab this screen capture photo of the one remaining egg, plus a tiny baby, when the mother bird got up to clean it!
Posted by: Seymour Simon
May 6, 2011
Joey LaMountain, a middle school student in Cape Coral, Florida, was in his kayak in the Orange River when he saw something unusual - a manatee with a crab trap attached to its right flipper. "Whenever it’d show up for air, we saw the buoy come up too," he said.
The quick thinking 12-year-old, whose mom is a volunteer at Manatee Park, grabbed his cell phone called Florida Fish & Wildlife Commission’s emergency hotline. Then he waited for divers and directed them to her exact location.
This week the manatee, now nicknamed Tang-Lee was set free - fully recovered. The Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission said that the middle schooler’s quick thinking was particularly important because the state has had a record 218 manatee deaths statewide after last January’s cold snap.
"It feels really, really good," Joey said.
Photo courtesy WBIR.com
Posted by: Seymour Simon
May 5, 2011
I received a letter today from a student who wants to enter our BABY ANIMALS contest and has some questions about how to use Comments. I have asked Liz Nealon, who works with me on the blog, to help you all with the answers. Happy writing!
- Seymour
Dear Seymour Simon:
I am not sure how to comment. I went to the blog, do you just scroll down and click ‘Comment’?
Sincerely,
Anonymous
I am so glad to have a chance to help everybody learn how to comment, because we love to read your writing!
So, let’s get started. At the bottom of each story on the blog, there is a link called "Comment." Move your mouse down, click on that link, and you will get a page that looks like this.
Here is what to do:
1. Type your first name and last initial (no last name) in the first box.
2. No email in the second box - that’s for grownups, unless you are entering a contest. If it is a contest, type in your email so that we can write to you if you are the winner. Once the contest is over, we will no longer save your email.
3. The third box wants to know your location. Just put your state or your country, not the name of your town. We think it is fun for you to see that your fellow Seymour Science readers and writers are from all over the United States, Canada and beyond!
4. The fourth box, called URL, is for adults only. If you enter anything there, we will delete it.
5. Next, click in the big white box and type away - that is where you put your comment! Once you have written your comment, please take a minute and read it over, to be sure that you have said what you mean to. Remember that this is going to be read by a lot of people, so take a minute to check your spelling, and make sure that this is a piece of writing that you want to share with others.
Below the big white box there is just one more thing to do before you are finished.
Type the two squiggly words that you see next to where the arrow is pointing, underneath. That is how you prove that you are a real person, and not an annoying SPAM robot.
Click "Submit" and you are done!
Have you ever noticed that when you add a comment to the blog it doesn’t show up right away? That is because an adult checks every comment before it is posted, to be sure that you did not accidentally give too much information (like your whole name), and also to be sure that what you wrote is something you want the whole world to read (no bullying, making fun of other kids, or saying things that might embarrass you).
That is all there is to it. Readers like "Anonymous" might want to show this blog to their parents and get permission before they try Comments. Once you do, we hope that your parents and teachers will feel good about it, and that you will have fun being part of the kids who talk about cool science with us on the Seymour Science blog.
So go ahead, give it a try! Click on "COMMENTS" at the bottom of this post, and let me know that you’re an expert now!
Families & Educators: Please feel free to write to me any time if you have questions, concerns or suggestions about our privacy policy. Our goal is to increase Internet fluency, build research skills, and empower students with knowledge of the world around them, as well as a love of science. Many children will need your help as they try these things for the first time, and we thank you for your support.
Posted by: Liz Nealon
May 5, 2011
I received a letter today from a student who wants to enter our BABY ANIMALS contest, and has some questions about how to do it. "Anonymous" is asking very good questions, so I thought I would share both the question and my answer here, for all kids to see.
"Dear Seymour Simon:
I am not sure how to comment. I want to blog, do you just scroll down and click ‘Comment’? It is hard for me to do a lot on websites with blogging because my parents don’t like me giving my email out.
Sincerely,
Anonymous (I don’t know if I should give my name away on the Internet)"
First let’s talk about Internet safety for my readers, because most of you are under 13 years old. Your parents are right in warning you to be very careful about giving out your whole name or your email address on the Internet. In order to stay safe, you should use only your first name (or first name/last initial, for example, I would be "Seymour S.").
Sometimes, if you are on a website that you know and your parents trust, you may want to give your email address for a very specific reason. For example, if you want to ask me a question by using the ASK SEYMOUR SIMON button, you need to give your email address so that I can respond to you. Or, when you want to enter a contest like this one, you need to give us an email address so that we can reach you if you are the winner. It is ok if you give us your parents’ or your teacher’s email address for this purpose. And, we only use the email address for that one specific reason, and then we delete it from our records. Your parents or teachers can read more about this in our Privacy Policy. We respect your safety, and we take it very seriously.
One more thing. You should never give your full name, your telephone number or your home address to anyone whom you meet on the Internet. If anyone is asking, you should tell your family, your teacher, or another adult whom you trust. No one, neither a grownup nor another kid, should be asking you for that kind of information on the Internet.
Thanks, "Anonymous," for asking these very important questions - it gives me a chance to remind you all about what I call the Internet Rules of the Road, so that everyone can enjoy this website and be sure to stay safe.
Next blog post, I will talk about how to comment on the Seymour Science blog. It’s not hard, you don’t have to give your full name or your email address, and we love to hear from you!
- Seymour
Posted by: Seymour Simon
