October 5, 2012
If you haven’t yet had a chance to read my new book, SEYMOUR SIMON’S EXTREME EARTH RECORDS, you can check out some of the powerful photographs and extreme facts in this new slideshow on the Huffington Post Book Blog.
Which of the seven Extreme Earth Records in this slideshow do you think is the most interesting, beautiful or surprising?
Click here to view!
Posted by: Seymour Simon
October 3, 2012
Last month’s amazing photographs of the space shuttle Endeavour traveling to its final home at the California Science Center were both thrilling and quite sad. The retiring of the final shuttle spacecraft marks the end of manned space travel, at least for a while.
For today’s Writing Wednesday, we want you to read this excerpt from Seymour Simon’s SPACE TRAVELERS.
Your Assignment: As you read, think about why Mr. Simon chose to write about the Voyager 2 probe and other unmanned spacecraft that are exploring the solar system and beyond. And we would like to know your opinion: Do you think there are other civilizations out there that will be able to decode or "hear" the message that we put onboard the Voyager? Why or why not?
When you are finished, click on the yellow "Comments" link at the bottom of this article to post your writing.
Note to Educators: Today’s Writing Wednesday exercise is designed to use in support of CCSS Reading/Informational Standard #2: Determine the main idea of a text and explain how it is supported by key details; summarize the text. SPACE TRAVELERS is one of the digital exclusive, recorded eBooks available in the StarWalk Kids digital collection. Click here for more information about signing up for a free, 60-day trial for your school.
Posted by: Liz Nealon
October 2, 2012
Tourists come from all over to visit Japan’s Toyama Bay between March and June, when millions of breeding firefly squid come to Toyama Bay to drop their eggs. The firefly squid is bioluminescent (buy-oh-loom-ih-NESS-cent), which means that is has special organs in its body that can produce light. Each of the squid’s tentacle has a light-producing organ called a photophore (FO-to-for). The squids flash these lights to attract small fish, on which the squid can then feed. The firefly squid can also light up its whole body to attract a mate.
I would love to see this, wouldn’t you?
Posted by: Seymour Simon
October 1, 2012
Last week in the UK, people from all over England, Scotland and Wales called the police to report very bright lights in the night sky. One caller said, "I’ve seen shooting stars and meteor showers before, but this was much larger and much more colorful."
Experts think that what people probably saw was "space junk." Dr Tim O’Brien, from the Jodrell Bank Observatory, said it’s not possible to know the exact source. "It’s hard to say exactly, whether it was a chunk of rock coming in from outer space, burning up in the atmosphere, or a bit of space debris which we call space junk, which is basically man-made stuff from a spacecraft that’s burning up in the atmosphere."
I am guessing that it was probably space junk. Meteorites, or pieces of rock, usually blaze across the sky in a matter of seconds. That’s why people call them "shooting stars."
The truth is, we’ve left a pretty big mess of old hardware circling our planet. Those things tend to take longer to burn up as they enter our atmosphere, so more people see them.
Look at this diagram; the blue sphere is Earth. According to NASA, each dot represents a bit of known space junk that’s at least 4 inches (10 cm) in low-Earth orbit, where the space station and shuttles roam. In total, some 19,000 manmade objects this size or bigger were orbiting Earth as of July 2009. And there are lots of smaller ones, too.
No one is quite sure how to do it, but there is no question that it is time for us to clean up our room!
CREDIT: NASA/Orbital Debris Program Office.
Posted by: Seymour Simon
September 27, 2012
I was walking on the beach this weekend and came across a lot of very big, brown shells. I used a SeeMore Explorers Observation Log to describe what I saw:
I actually knew what the animal was, but I wanted my readers to see how it is possible to figure out what you are seeing in nature.
I have always been fascinated by horseshoe crabs. Did you know that they are one of oldest living creatures? They have been around for 450 million years, which means they were here on Earth 200 million years before the dinosaurs!
The reason the shell I picked up was so light was because the crab was not in there any longer. Horseshoe crabs molt as they grow - that means that they shed their hard shells when they grow out of them. They walk out of the hard shell, and their inner shell, which they already have, begins to harden, becoming their new outer shell. Horseshoe crabs molt many times - 16 times for males, 17 times for females - before they are fully grown. If the shell had been heavy, then it would have been a dead animal.
One other interesting thing about horseshoe crabs is that they are not actually in the crustacean (crab and other shellfish) family. They are more closely related to arachnids (spiders) than they are to shellfish.
What a fascinating animal. Now can you see why I’ve always been interested in these prehistoric animals called horseshoe crabs?
Posted by: Seymour Simon
September 26, 2012
Welcome to an Out of This World Writing Wednesday!
When Seymour Simon was in second grade, he wrote his first book, called SPACE MONSTERS. He loved to imagine that there were aliens living on Mars, and he wrote and illustrated a science fiction story about it.
When he grew up, Seymour wrote and published a real book called SPACE MONSTERS, about Martians and other aliens as they appeared in books, movies and television series. That was long ago - the book is long out of print, and all the photographs inside were in black and white.
This year, Seymour Simon decided to go back to his favorite topic one more time, this time working with his friend and collaborator Dennis Kendrick on a new eBook called SILLY SPACE MONSTER JOKES AND RIDDLES. They had a lot of fun working on the book, because it allowed them to imagine all sorts of crazy and funny ways that you might draw a space monster.
So today, for Writing Wednesday, we’d like you to look at both panels (below) of this joke from SILLY SPACE MONSTER JOKES AND RIDDLES, and think about all the things that make it funny. How are the words that Seymour Simon has chosen unexpected, surprising or funny? And tell us about the details in Dennis Kendrick’s illustrations that make you laugh.
When you are finished writing, click on the yellow "Comments" button below to post your writing.
Happy Silly Writing Wednesday!
Note to Educators: Today’s Writing Wednesday exercise is designed to use in support of CCSS Language Standard #5: Demonstrate understanding of figurative language, word relationships and nuances in word meanings; Reading/Literature Standard #1: Use illustrations and details in a story to describe its characters, setting, or events. SILLY SPACE MONSTER JOKES AND RIDDLES is one of the digital exclusive, recorded eBooks available in the StarWalk Kids digital collection. Click here for more information about signing up for a free, 60-day trial for your school.
Posted by: Liz Nealon
September 25, 2012
Today’s "Cool Photo of the Week" is a footbridge in Kakum National Park in Ghana (Africa). Visitors to the rainforest walk across this bridge to take a close look at life in the canopy - both plants and animals.
You need to be a brave explorer to cross this bridge, though. While there are hand rails and net walls on either side of you, you are putting one foot in front of the other, walking on a single plank that is just one foot (1/3 meter) wide. And, you’re a sky high 100 feet (30 meters) off the forest floor!
I’m not a big fan of heights; I probably wouldn’t walk across this bridge. Would you want to try?
Posted by: Seymour Simon
September 24, 2012
When soldiers are in combat, many put camouflage makeup on their faces to help them blend into the environment. Now, scientists have developed a new type of makeup that may help protect them against burns from bomb blasts, like the explosions or roadside bombs that have injured many troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.
An explosion produces powerful shock waves, and it also produces huge waves of heat, as hot as 1,112 F (600 C). That is as hot as a burning log, and anyone nearby will suffer severe burns to any exposed skin on their face, hands, etc.
Chemists were challenged to make a protective face paint that would have all the qualities of the camouflage paint that soldiers use already: Easy to put on and take off, waterproof, non-irritating to eyes, nose and mouth, include insect repellent (which is usually very flammable), and not rub off easily. And it had to be developed for a wide variety of skin colors - white, brown, light brown, black.
"I’m really impressed with this work," said Jamil Baghdachi, a chemist at Eastern Michigan University in Ypsilanti. "This is one of the most practical applications of science that I’ve seen."
Photo: Spc. Gerald James, U.S. Army
Read More: Science News for Kids, Heat-Resistant Makeup, by Sid Perkins, September 7, 2012.
Posted by: Seymour Simon
September 20, 2012
It’s Thursday, so it is SeeMore Explorers day! Last week, we used an observation log to try to figure out what kind of animal we were seeing. But some weeks, I just want to go somewhere and enjoy many things I can see. I may not know exactly what they all are, but I can enjoy the experience of being out in nature.
That’s what I did last weekend when I visited the Innisfree Garden, in Dutchess County, outside New York City. Innisfree Garden was created in the hollow surrounding Tyrrel Lake - a large, deep natural lake. The garden keepers pump water from the lake through a huge system of underground pipes, so that there is water everywhere you look in the garden. There are fountains, pools, streams, waterfalls, and sculptures that spout water (you can walk under them on a hot day!).
I walked all the way around Tyrrel Lake, and here’s what I saw:
A lovely lake full of lily pads, puffy cumulus clouds dotting the blue sky.
A turtle sunning on a log.
A pink lily flower, one of the last of the summer.
A green frog just before he leaped with a squeak to try to catch a dragonfly (he missed).
A water sculpture shooting streams of droplets into the air.
A rotting log, covered with moss, full of life inside.
A blue heron gingerly wading through the lily pads on delicate, long legs.
A mossy path leading to more beautiful sights.
My lovely wife Liz, smiling at me.
Posted by: Seymour Simon
September 19, 2012
Good Morning, and welcome to Writing Wednesday!
Today we’re going to work with an excerpt from a book called AMAZON DIARY.This is a fictional story about a 12-year-old boy named Alex Winter who is flying down to the Amazon jungle to visit his parents, who are anthropologists working there. When the small plane in which Alex is traveling crashes, he ends up living among an Amazon tribe, and keeping a diary about his experience.
This book is designed in a very unusual way. First, it uses handwriting (supposedly Alex’s handwriting in his diary) instead of printed text. It also incorporates drawings, doodles, and actual photographs of the Yonomami people. We’d like you to read this excerpt from Amazon Diary and as you read, think about ways in which how the story looks affects how you understand and enjoy what you are reading.
From AMAZON DIARY, by Hudson Talbott and Mark Greenberg
Your Assignment: Think about how the illustrations and pictures contribute to the story. How is this different than other books you have read? Then, write a reflection about how using diverse (different kinds of) media affects a piece of writing.
When you are finished, click on the yellow "Comments" below to post your writing. Enjoy today’s visit to the Amazon!
Note to Educators: Today’s Writing Wednesday exercise is designed to use in support of CCSS Reading/Literature Anchor Standard #7: Analyze how visual and multimedia elements contribute to the meaning, tone, or beauty of a text (e.g., graphic novel, multimedia presentation of fiction, folktale, myth, poem). Amazon Diary is one of the newly recorded and reformatted eBooks available in the StarWalk Kids digital collection. Click here for more information about signing up for a free, 60-day trial for your school.
Posted by: Liz Nealon
