January 24, 2011
I so enjoyed speaking in Houston area schools last week. On Wednesday, January 19th, I spoke in Meadows and Juan Seguin Elementary Schools in Fort Bend. Shelly Puckett and Denise Waterbury are the librarians in those schools and the children were wonderfully prepared for my visit. On Thursday and Friday, I spoke in Eagle Springs, Bear Branch and Atascocita Elementary Schools in Humble. Donna Smalley, Derry Summer and Anna Codon are the librarians in the Humble schools and they also wonderfully prepared the children for my visit. I am indebted to the librarians for inviting me and making my visit possible, but more than that, I am so pleased to become friends with such wonderful education professionals.
In each of the schools, I spoke to children in large groups from K-5 and I’m pleased to say that I think that my audiences both enjoyed my presentations and learned a lot about science and writing.I invite students, teachers and parents to tell me what they thought about my presentations.
Posted by: Seymour Simon
January 21, 2011
Ever wonder how the hammerhead shark can see where it’s going when its eyes are on the sides of its head? Marine biologist Dr. Michelle McComb of Florida Atlantic University has been studying hammerheads and she found that these strange-looking creatures have incredibly good binocular vision. “Binocular vision” simply means that you use both of your eyes at the same time and see one image. We humans have good binocular vision, too, at least straight in front of us. But hammerheads, with their widely spaced eyes, have clear binocular vision above, below and even behind themselves! That is very useful when your diet depends on catching fast-moving prey, and it is probably why the species evolved in this way.
Ironically, the only place that hammerheads don’t have great vision is straight in front of them. However, they have nostrils near each of their eyes, and Dr. McComb says they use “enhanced stereo smell” to make up for that blind spot.
Image: SharkDiving.us
Posted by: Seymour Simon
January 21, 2011
I had a great time at Eagle Springs Elementary school in Humble, Texas yesterday. Donna Smalley, the librarian at Eagle Springs Elementary school was so quick - click here to see the video full of great photos from our day together. Her note read: "So many positive and enthusiastic comments (from the students)!"
Thanks, Donna. Your kids were obviously well prepared, and I thoroughly enjoyed my visit to Eagle Springs!
Posted by: Seymour Simon
January 20, 2011
Reader Mary Spezzano sent a note this week to tell us how excited she and her boys are that Lily the Black Bear is due to give birth again very soon (probably within the next week). "Everyone is excited, nervous and eager to see how it will all play out since Hope (1 year old cub from last year) is in the den with her," Mary writes. "This will be a rare glimpse into a mixed age litter!!!!!" Mary and her sons Patrick, Sean and James are watching Lily and Hope on a webcam placed in their den by biologist Lynn Rogers of the Wildlife Research Institute near Ely, Minnesota.
Although Dr. Rogers’ intention was to conduct a long-term, scientific study of black bear ecology and behavior, he also ended up creating ursine Internet celebrities! More than 25,000 viewers watched live as Lily gave birth to her cub, Hope, last January. Hearts melted as Hope’s tiny paw reached out to touch Lily’s nose just after the birth.
Click here to watch the bears live on the webcam, and while you are on the website you can also read notes from Lynn Rogers, the biologist. In yesterday’s post he described what is likely to happen when the cubs are born. "With birth(s) about to happen, there are so many things to think about. What to look for? Likely 1-3 cubs, each about ¾ pound and 9 inches long, covered with sparse fur and looking light-colored because of their white skin. They will have little sucking mouths with no teeth. Is there room in the den? The den is 5-6 feet long. The cubs will mostly be under Lily. They are too small to take up much room."
To learn more about bears and this bear research visit the North American Bear Center and read Dr. Rogers’ blog on the Wildlife Research Institute page.
Posted by: Liz Nealon
January 19, 2011
There’s a new video that showcases Seymour Simon’s books as you’ve never experienced them before - animated to a Breakbeat music track!
Shelly Puckett, the Library Media Specialist at Meadows Elementary School in Meadows Place, Texas, wanted to get her kids excited about Seymour’s visit to their school. So she used Animoto to make this very hip animation. Click here to view and dance along to beat of Seymour Simon’s world. Wonderful!
(Music track: "Montreal" by Seattle drummer KJ Sawka).
Posted by: Liz Nealon
January 19, 2011
Photographer Bence Máté describes the scene in today’s Cool Animal Photo of the Week: "I was photographing hummingbirds when I heard the sharp, alarming noise of the birds reacting to the presence of a predator. Sixty feet away from me this green-crowned brilliant (also known as Heliodoxa jacula, a type of hummingbird) was fearlessly attacking a small viper."
Máté took this photograph in Costa Rica, where about 50 of the 338 known species of hummingbirds, as well as tree-dwelling vipers, live in the tropical foliage.
This amazing image is a winner in Nature’s Best Photography magazine’s 2010 Best Photography contest. You can see more great nature photography on their website.
Posted by: Seymour Simon
January 17, 2011
I received this charming note from a San Antonio 4th grader named Alicia. She had been reading my book BIG BUGS, and did this drawing on which she wrote that the insect was supposed to be a cricket, but “I don’t know how to draw a cricket.”
Actually, Alicia, you’ve made a pretty good start. Although we casually refer to “bugs,” bugs actually include two different species – insects and spiders (Arachnids). All insects have 6 legs, but spiders have 8 legs (they are not insects). A cricket is an insect, and you have definitely drawn an insect.
To make it look even more like a cricket, you could give it very long back legs, as you see in this photograph. Crickets use their four front legs for walking, and their two back legs are long and strong, so that they can make big leaps.
The very regular chirping of crickets is a common night sound in many places. As the temperature drops, their singing becomes slower and the pitch of the chirp gets lower. Some people use the chirp rate of crickets to estimate the temperature. I wrote about this in my book ANIMAL FACT, ANIMAL FABLE. Crickets are pretty interesting insects!
Posted by: Seymour Simon
January 14, 2011
What a great surprise arrived in the mail this week - three big envelopes full of thank you cards from every 3rd and 4th grader in San Antonio’s Highland Park School. I am absolutely delighted!
There was lots of excellent artwork, like this drawing by Ashley A. It pictures our entire Solar System, even the Asteroid Belt. This is a very accurate, detailed drawing.
Many writers asked about how I get the photographs that are in my book. Sarah wondered, "Were you nervous when you took pictures of volcanoes?" Alejandro (who drew the cover of my BIG BUGS book) and Wesley (who drew this scary black widow spider!) both wanted to know if I take all of my own photographs. In fact, Wesley asked, "How do you not die while taking these pictures?"
Good questions. I take some of the photographs in my books, but not all of them. Great spider shots like these are taken by photographers who are also arachnologists (that’s what you call a scientist who specializes in spiders). They use a special lens on their camera that allows them to get a very close-up picture of a spider without getting bitten (and without scaring the spider away). I did take many of the volcano photographs myself, but only from safe spots that were nowhere near hot lava!
Look at this great drawing of a volcano and the hot lava by Jasmin.
And finally, some of you Highland Park writers wanted to know how I feel when I write all of these books. "Do you feel happy or excited?" Analisa sounds as though she worries that it might be a lot of work. "Do you enjoy writing all these books?"
The answer is: I LOVE writing my books! It is a lot of work, because I have to research each subject very carefully, be sure that I am getting all the facts right, find great photographs, and work with my editor, who corrects my work just as your teacher does with yours. But the subjects are so interesting that my work is fun every day. And yes, I do feel very happy and excited when a new book comes out, after all that work.
Thank you again to every student, teacher and librarian who took the time to send me all the beautiful cards. ¡Feliz Año Nuevo!
- Seymour Simon
Posted by: Seymour Simon
January 14, 2011
Alas, poor Pluto is no longer considered to be a planet by the scientists of the IAU (International Astronomical Union). Astronomers use three criteria for a body to be called a planet: 1) it has to be in orbit around the Sun. 2) it has to have enough mass to pull together so that it becomes nearly round. And 3) it has to have enough mass and gravitational pull to clear out other bodies in the space around it. Pluto meets the first two tests, but it does not have enough mass to clear the space around it (for example, if it had enough mass its gravity would pull a meteorite down so it crashes to the surface). So Pluto has been renamed a Dwarf Planet. All you kids who have memorized the planets in order from the sun will now have to stop at Neptune, the eighth planet from the sun.
Here’s some more information about Pluto from Space.com, a really neat site that you can use to find out all kinds of interesting facts about what’s out there.
Posted by: Seymour Simon
January 11, 2011
Is there a glass of milk sitting on the table as you read this over breakfast? Bet you didn’t know that the production of milk is one of the big offenders in the creation of damaging greenhouse gases. How are dairy farmers are working to improve this situation? By reducing cow burps!
That’s right. Half of the greenhouse gas emissions associated with each gallon of milk take the form of methane gas, which is released both when cows burp and when they produce manure (that is, when they poop). And it’s not just a problem here. A British study found that methane emissions from gassy cows are responsible for 4% of the U.K.‘s total greenhouse gas emissions. A 2006 United Nations study found that cows produce a staggering 18 percent of the world’s greenhouse-gas emissions — more than planes, trains and automobiles combined.
Can burping cows really be responsible for all this? When cows digest their food, stomach bacteria produce methane, an ozone-forming gas considered 23 times worse than carbon dioxide when it comes to trapping heat in the atmosphere. "A lot of people think this gas is coming from the rear end," explains Nancy Hirshberg of Stoneyfield Farms in Highgate, Vt. "Ninety-five percent is actually from the front end, from the burps." Stoneyfield Farms is one of the many dairy producers who are working to develop new kinds of feeds that will help cows digest their food better, as well as constructing machines called methane digesters, which convert the bad methane gas to usable biogas.
Some families have one meat-free and dairy-free meal every week to help this problem of burping cows!
Posted by: Seymour Simon
