July 27, 2010
Here’s a fun summer ecology project to do with kids.
Ecology is the study of living things (plants and animals) and their relationships with their environment. The word "ecology" comes from the Greek and means a house or home, so you can think of ecology as the science that deals with the home conditions of living things.
This is a project in which you can observe how an animal’s physical structure contains a wealth of information about where it lives.
Materials you will need:
o A small amphibian such as a water-living salamander.
o A small lizard such as an anole (often sold as a chameleon in pet stores)
o Research materials about each kind of animal (book or Internet)
o Notebook for recording your observations
The Project:
A salamander and an anole look very much alike at first glance, but one spends its life on land and the other spends much of its life in water. Are there differences in their body structures that allow these animals to adapt to their different environments? How do these differences relate to the life of the animals?
Observation:
1. Observe the way each animal breathes. Look at the feather gills just behind the head of the salamander (gills are not present at all ages in all kinds of salamanders). Do these move in a regular way? How do they assist the animal in breathing?
Now, look at the head and neck region of the anole. Can you see any regular breathing movements? How much the anole breathe?
Why do you think these two animals breathe differently?
read more2. Now, gently touch the salamander with the end of a pencil so that it swims across its container of water. In the same gentle way, stimulate the anole to move across its container. What differences or similarities can you see in the way the animals move? How is each animal’s method of moving fitted to its particular environment? How do the differences in their body structures help them move?
3. Gently touch the skin of the salamander. Describe how it feels in your notebook. Touch the skin of the anole and describe how it feels. Do they feel the same? Which of the two animals is more likely to be able to live in only one kind of environment? Don’t try this because it might result in an animal’s death, but what do you think would happen if you put the land-dwelling lizard in a water environment and the water-dwelling salamander in a land environment?
4. Look at any other differences in body structure (such as in the tails). Do these structures fit the animals to their environments in any way? List the differences and the similarities in body structure of the two animals and compare them.
5. Place a small earthworm or mealworm in front of the head of each of the animals. Record the way each gets the food into its mouth. Now place the food about 1 foot away from each animal and see what happens. What are the differences in the feeding behavior? Are these differences related to the differences in the kinds of food available in a water and a land environment?
6. Read about the differences in the way eggs are fertilized...
Posted by: Seymour Simon
July 26, 2010
As the morning light dawned over Capitol Hill here in Seattle, the full moon was still bright in the sky. What a sight!
Ever wonder what happens to make the moon seem "full"? The moon travels once around the Earth every 29.5 days and though the moon seems to shine in the night sky, it is actually being illuminated from varying angles by the sun. A full moon occurs when the moon is 180° away from the sun, so that sun, Earth and moon form a line. At that point the moon is completely illuminated.
(Diagram courtesy of Minesweeper and Wikipedia)
According to space.com (an excellent source of information about the night sky), July’s full moon is often called the "Hay Moon" - no surprise to anyone living on a farm who has spent recent weeks cutting, baling and stowing hay for the winter.
The native peoples of northeastern North America didn’t grow hay, so they named this moon after male deer - the Bucks Moon. Others call this the thunder moon, because this is the time of year when sudden thunderstorms often occur on hot summer afternoons.
The moon was at its fullest last night at 9:36 p.m. EDT (0136 GMT), and at least here in the clear skies of Seattle, it was a sight to behold.
Posted by: Liz Nealon
July 25, 2010
Depending on where you live in North America, you’ve been experiencing some variation of unstable summer weather - extreme heat, heavy rains and flooding, violent summer thunderstorms or tornadoes, tropical storms and potential hurricanes. Children are fascinated by weather, and full of questions about why these things happen.
Just in time to help you explain all these various phenomena we’ve published three new Teacher Guides for Seymour’s WEATHER, LIGHTNING, and HURRICANES books. These are free downloads from SeymourSimon.com. Try them out today with a kid that you love!
Posted by: Liz Nealon
July 24, 2010
A reader named Mary Ludwick wrote today to introduce us to a fabulous resource for anyone interested in birds and birdwatching - eBird.org.
According to the information on the website, eBird.org is a real-time, online checklist program… (that) has revolutionized the way that the birding community reports and accesses information about birds. Launched in 2002 by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and National Audubon Society, eBird provides rich data sources for basic information on bird abundance and distribution at a variety of spatial and temporal scales.
Although it is designed specifically as a place for birdwatchers to report their sightings, this is also a rich source for educators and families to use with kids because it enables you to find out which birds to look for in which months of the year. If you combine this resource with the bird identification aids at Birding.com, you will soon be seeing and identifying birds that you never even knew were residents of your neighborhood! Kids who are excited by birdwatching can report their observations and help build scientific knowledge about the bird population in their communities. Check out this story about eBird’s June "Birder of the Month," a young father who juggles home, work and time with his three-year-old son, and integrates all these activities with his passion for bird watching.
In the Gulf Coastal area, bird watchers are using the site to help NOAA track sightings of birds injured by the oil spill. They are building this body of information in order to help to steer beach protection and clean-up efforts to the sites with the greatest concentrations of birds and most important habitats. So many citizens wonder what they can do in the face of the massive environmental crisis - here is a valuable way to contribute if you live in that area of the country.
Thanks, Mary Ludwick, for building our bird knowledge on SeymourSimon.com!
Posted by: Liz Nealon
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.
Posted by: Seymour Simon
July 22, 2010
We recently completed the Teacher Guide to accompany Seymour’s enduring hit, THE PAPER AIRPLANE BOOK. First published nearly forty years ago, this book is now in its 28th printing and continues to delight kids and parents alike.
The Teacher Guides always include a reproducible activity page for kids, and for this one, we decided to include a pattern and special sheet of paper for kids to make a “Seymour Plane” – once they fold it, they have a paper airplane with his image on the wings! Hence this wacky photo.
Download the guide and try it yourself. Aerodynamics has never been this much fun!
Posted by: Liz Nealon
July 17, 2010
Hello fellow Shipmates,
I am very happy to report that our crusade to help save our planet Earth has been going great! How is it going on your end? You wouldn’t believe it…I was so flattered and excited. I was asked by Nick Federoff from Sustainable Environmental Education and ThingsGreen.com to go and speak to a group of teenage foreign exchange students from Italy and Germany (Thank you Nick.) 
They wanted me to tell them about our crusade and about "KTFBT." I also told them all about how I became Seymour’s environmental reporter. They were very surprised to hear about everything we have been doing. They will be here for three weeks. It is really cool because they had told us that there is a lot of pollution where they live and one of the reasons they came to America is because they are here on a green initiative. Their group is called the "Center for Cultural Interchange "and they are partnered with a foundation called "GREEN HEART." Green Heart in part, helps to sponsor the teens so they can come out to volunteer and learn about environmental projects. Green Heart officials say that in order to become a Green Heart exchange volunteer, "No experience or special skills are required-just enthusiasm, an open mind, and a genuine desire to help." Isn’t that awesome? There are teens from all around the world who are going out and traveling all over the globe in order to volunteer.
We had a wonderful time hanging out and talking. We also got to go the Things Green Learning Center in the Greater Los Angeles, California area where we were learned about the benefits of gardening and planting flowers and vegetables, especially trees and about the importance of sustainability. We also got to plant a California poppy flower. It is actually the state flower of California. I hadn’t ever planted these types of seeds before. I was really surprised because the seeds were super tiny. Who would think that something so tiny can grow into something so beautiful? 
I even got to help Nick teach them how to plant and water the seeds. I felt so important.
You might think that hanging out with the teens was cool, but it gets even better. During this entire time Nick’s camera crew was there filming so I might even get included in a documentary that Nick is recording. : ) Whew hew!
Okay…Okay…so back to my story. I would like to share a lesson with you that I learnt that day from my new friends. My new friends taught me how to say Recycling and Recycle in Italian. : ) Recycle is Riciclare and Recycling is Riciclaggio in Italiano. Of course…you all know how I am. That inspired me to want to learn how to say these words in as many other languages as possible. Wouldn’t that be so great… since my ultimate goal is to spread our message all around the world?
This whole experience has been amazing and we are only half way through summer. I still can’t believe that I have new friends from Europe that are going to help spread the KTFBT message and are also going to start to follow my blog and Seymour’s website. I am so happy!!!
Well my fellow shipmates…I must be going now…so remember to spread the word. This is "OUR PLANET.OUR FUTURE!" Also "ricordatevi di riciclare," which means remember to please recycle. As always thank you. I REALLY appreciate you taking the time to read my blog. Until next time…
Arrivederci,
"Science Rules!"
Posted by: Alana G
July 16, 2010
When Seymour met 10-year-old Alana G. at the beginning of June, she was a fourth grade student who had written to say how upset she was about the Deepwater Horizon oil spill and its effect on wildlife, particularly the sea turtles, in the Gulf. Seymour told her that he was upset, too, and suggested that she do everything she can in her own community to raise awareness about environmental issues so that things like this don’t happen in the future.
Think environmentally all your life, no matter what you decide to do as an adult. Talk about it to your friends. Read about it in books and on the web. Remain committed to the idea that it’s OUR planet and we need to protect it from being abused.
Alana took these words to heart, and as you know, she is now writing for the Seymour Science blog about what she and her friends - they call themselves KIDS TODAY FOR A BETTER TOMORROW (KTFBT) - are doing in their community to make a difference. Regular readers know that the KTFBT have already volunteered on a sustainable farm and they also decorated an environmentally themed float for their community’s July 4th parade. Alana has set up a Facebook page and a blog to communicate with her fellow environmental activists, and went and spoke in front of her City Council and asked for their support. 
Now we learn that she has also secured a weekly segment called "Alana’s Corner" on a local radio show called "Three Guys Rant"!
In this week’s segment, Alana spoke about Recycling, telling the "3 guys" everything she knows about what can and cannot be recycled. She will be on every week this summer, raising awareness for her cause.
If you would like to hear Alana G. on the radio, click on this link. Scroll down the list until you find "Three Guys Rant 07-14-10.mp3"
Right click (or on a Mac, Control+click) on the link and choose "Save Link As." Save it to your desktop, and now you will have a file that you can open with iTunes, or whatever program you use to listen to mp3s. Alana’s segment runs from 16:40 - 24:20.
We are so proud of everything she is doing. As Alana often reminds us, although they are "just kids," it is their planet, too!
Posted by: Alana G
July 15, 2010
The Atlantic Ocean from the coast of West Africa to the Caribbean Sea is hotter than usual this summer and that means more hurricanes are coming. 
This area of the Atlantic is where tropical storm systems gain speed and size as they move toward the eastern coast of the US and the Gulf of Mexico. Weather scientists say that the surface temperatures are one to two degrees above average and that means that this year’s Atlantic Hurricane season might well have from 14 to 23 storms large enough to be given names. Hurricanes are bad enough in normal times but this year there are two areas already battered by catastrophic events: The Gulf Coast trying to clean up spilled oil from BP’s well and Haiti after January’s earthquake.
You can read more about this year’s hurricane season on the NY Times’ GREEN blog, which covers stories about energy and the environment.
Posted by: Seymour Simon
July 11, 2010
If your family lives (or is planning a summer vacation) anywhere near a desert, we recommend taking a drive with an excellent book called DISCOVER THE DESERT: THE DRIEST PLACE ON EARTH in hand.
Part narrative, part workbook, this volume is chock full of interesting information designed to capture the interest of all different types of kids, through whatever lens they like to view the natural world. Every two-page spread includes multiple illustrations and diagrams, at least one "Fascinating Fact" box, and a sidebar called "Words to Know," which defines vocabulary words used on the page.
And the facts are indeed fascinating. Did you know that paleontologists have found remains of ancient whales in Egypt and penguins as big as a man in Peru….excavated from what is now desert?! Chapter 5 deals with how people dress to live in the desert, and the reader learns that Mongolians wear boots with upturned toes - a Tibetan Buddhist custom designed to avoid hurting the earth. I just tried making Labneh (a yogurt cheese spread often served with olive oil on pita bread) from a recipe that I found in the chapter on What Native Desert Peoples Eat and Drink. Delicious!
There is also an invaluable chapter called Desert Dangers and How to Avoid Them. This section includes navigation techniques from the ancient "shadow tip method" to the modern GPS, cautions about dangerous weather, plants and poisonous animals, and is designed to help explorers show respect for the desert, as well as keep them safe.
Page after page of this practical book is chock full of science, cultural and vocabulary information that will turn a desert trip into a rich learning experience, as well as a fascinating family adventure.
DISCOVER THE DESERT: THE DRIEST PLACE ON EARTH. Written by Kathy Ceceri, Illustrated by Samuel Carbaugh, published by Nomad Press, 2009 (ISBN978-1-9346704-6-0, $16,95, ages 8 and up). The author has also created a Crafts for Learning website, which features many activities and topis for kids who like History, Math, Art, Science. Check it out - there are a lot of rich resources here.
Posted by: Liz Nealon
