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Watch!
No dishes!
I
See Moving
“A
banana slug. A banana slug. " Chance picked the slug up
off a small rock with two sticks. He watched as it crawled across
his palm leaving a slimy trail behind. "If we put a sock
on him that would cover his whole body. He has only one foot.
And it is the length of his body," he told me.
"Yeah.
Banana slugs have only one foot." Nissa turned the slug
over and examined it more closely. "Oh look. He has a seed
on his foot. It is caught in his slimy stuff."
"A
seed? He’s carrying a seed?" Jill came over and looked
through the magnifying lens to see for herself. “Wow!”
"I
wonder if it is a Forget-me-not," Jimmy muttered and came
over to see.
"I
know a lot about banana slugs. I know what they like to eat.
They eat plants and leaves and animal poop. My mother has a
vegetable garden and she is always sprinkling sawdust around
her vegetables. The slugs can't slide through sawdust. They
leave the beans and lettuce alone for us to eat.“ Nissa
took the magnifying lens from Jill and continued, "My mother
hates them in her garden.” She looked at the one footed
slug and continued, “And you know what else I know? The
banana slug can be a boy and a girl in one body. Isn't that
weird?"
"Look
at these slugs." Joshua yelled out from the edge of the
creek. "They have holes on their sides. And they're big
holes too." The children rushed over to Joshua and watched
as two banana slugs slid slowly onto a green leaf.
"Look
at the black things sticking out from their heads. Maybe that's
their eyes." Nissa began searching for eyelashes.
"I
can't see any eyes. How do they know where they are?"
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 Just
by listening to a child express what nature is up to gives
the lesson a degree of informed analysis, depth instead
of shallowness, and understanding instead of attitude.
We at StarChild Science are commited to pursuing a vigorous
presence of children's explanations and observations in
science activities. We can't loose sight of this one critical
ingredient... the child's input!
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"The
top two tentacles are the sensors for light. They can tell the
slug if it is in the sun or the shade. The bottom tentacles
are like the tongue and fingers on us. They taste their food
and
move it into their mouth." I told her.
"I'll
bet those holes are for breathing," Jill took a deep breathe,
flaring her nostrils wide open like a horse.
Nissa
took a twig and tried to overturn one of the slugs. "How
do they eat plants? I don't see any teeth."
"They
have twenty-five thousand teeth. And all these tiny teeth are
on their tongue." As I talked I could see Nissa stick her
tongue out and hold it with her fingers for just a moment.
"Hey.
Come over here. Look what I found. A millipede." Chance
watched as the millipede quickly crawled across the back of
his hand. "He has to be careful with all those legs.".
"Looks
like a thousand legs rushing past your knuckles. Many many feet
and no teeth. Just a jaw. Nature, nature nature, you have been
busy."
"It
took a lot of energy to make all of those legs." Serene
watched the millipede move. "I have only two legs. And
the slug has one. And the millipede has many many of them."
"Look
what I found. A turtle. A real turtle!" Nissa picked a
turtle up and began examining its shell. Then she turned it
over and examined the soft shell protecting its abdomen. “It’s
a boy.“ She looked up at me. “I had a boy turtle once.
I named it Breadcrumbs. I think it died once.”
"How
many socks could we put on this turtle?" I asked.
"Four.
He has four feet. And look at them. The two front ones are shorter
than the two back ones." Nissa stretched one of its back
legs out from its abdomen and yelled out in surprise, "Look
what I found." She tugged at something. Gently. "A
seed. A seed got caught between his shell and his stomach."
The other children rushed over, eager to see a seed in such
an unexpected place. Chance held up a magnifying glass and began
to examine the tiny grass seed. "And this seed is hairy
too," he told us.
“He’s
so small.” Serene looked at a miniature frog I found at
the edge of the creek.
"Isn’t
he cute?” Jill came in closer to look at the frog.
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  Stop
here! What have we learned so far?Think
about what we just observed. The children are watching
movement. In this experience along the creek the chidren
are focusing on the application of energy for movement.
It's as if they are walking through the first five chapters
of StarChild
Science: Teach Your Own. Let's consider this
more closely: These children are aware by now that everything
that moves requires energy. And, they are aware that the
energy has to come from somewhere. Here you must emphasize
the conservation of energy which allows the animal
to use the food it eats as a source of energy for movement.
This is an important point because you want the child
to become aware that the animals they are observing take
energy from the food they eat just like we do. They turn
potential energy in the food into kinetic energy for movement.
 As
you are watching the animals crawl, swim, jump, ask the
children how did they get the energy to do that? What
did the animals have for breakfast? For dinner? Do they
store their food? Do they grind it up before they put
it in their mouth? Do they have beaks or do they suck
their food into their mouths?.
Ask
the children
to
examine the mouths of the animals if they can with their
magnifying glasses.
At
this level of our science class, I always focus on the
animals having the ability to move about in space. I do
this because this is the first time in our science class
that we see energy supplying gross movement like crawling,
jumping, hopping, swimming, diviing, walking, flying.
We call all the animals spacebinders. Use this
term frequently while observing animals. The sooner a
child focuses on energy for getting around in space, binding
space, the easier it will be for him to look at the animal
world as the world of the spacebinders. And, he
will then see the major difference between the animals
and the plants, the energybinders.
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”What
does he eat?” Serene asked. I was just about to answer
when the tiny frog disappeared from the tip of her finger. “He
jumped,” the children yelled out. “He jumped away.”
When we looked at the creek all we could see was a circle of
waves, growing and growing, larger and larger in diameter then
disappear.
“That
was astonishing. Maybe ten feet. Maybe fifteen. For such a miniature
creature his jump was Olympic.“ I said.
“Whatever
he eats he gets lots of energy from it. I can’t jump that
far and my legs are bigger than his legs too. He must be like
a lion to the beetles and the fish in this creek. He is so strong.“
Chance carefully turned small rocks over along the creek, searching
for another frog.
"I
know what I’m going to do. I’m going to see if I can
see a stickleback fish in the creek.” Nissa walked along
the creek with her specimen jar and began searching for a stickleback
along its edge. “I see them. Look. Come over here. They
are nibbling on small plants.“ She knelt closer to the
water’s edge. “Oh no, a black beetle is trying to
eat one of them. I’m going to save it.” She plunged
her jar into the water and scooped up whatever she could. When
she held the jar up into the light she saw a small silver colored
fish swimming round and round frantically looking for some place
to hide.  She
watched closely until the fish came to an abrupt stop, and to
her surprise, stared right back at her. It was trembling like
a little blob of J-ello. “I’ll bet it’s scared.
It looks scared. Real scared.” She looked closer. “No
eyelids. Hey, this fish has no eyelids,” she yelled out
to me. Suddenly the tiny fish began swimming round and round
again, pouring its energy into a circular path.
"Look
what I have. Look what I have.” Jill stared into her specimen
jar, watching a beetle trying to maneuver something from its
rear and on up towards its mouth. She watched as its forelegs
rolled a small bubble of air towards its mouth. “Wow. Look
at that. It looks like it is playing with a beach ball."
“Let
me see.” Chance came over to join them, thinking it was
certainly to be a circus act he was about to see. ”That's
a bubble or something! Under water like that?”  It
was real clear the beetle had a bubble full of air and had neatly
tucked it under its hind legs before it dove deep into the water.
It was ready at a moment’s notice to supply enough oxygen
for a fast scurry down deeper and deeper in the jar.
“Is
he just playing?” Jill asked.
“No.
Beetles don’t play. Have you ever seen a insect play?”
Joshua looked at her with contempt and laughed a hearty laugh.
In the New York Times there is an article on just this event in the insect world. "What is even more remarkable is that the air bubbles automatically refill with oxygen, allowing the bugs to swim indefinitely without coming to the surface. Some insects even hibernate underwater all winter." Read this article to your child and discuss how this one bubble event enables this insect to do many things. Ask your child questions such as: What does this bubble of air do for the insect? Does it help him hunt for food? Does it form on his head? His back? Do you ever see bubbles of air in your bathtub when you are taking a bath? A glass of water in the morning after it has been standing all night?
By asking questions you stimulate your child to try to make sense of this event. Encourage him/her to imagine swimming in the creek, river, ocean and taking a bubble of air down under the water and using it as a source of air. Imagine his pet dog swimming in the lake or a river. Does the dog need a bubble of air to keep him underwater? When I have a science class this is one way I engage the children in science.They are curious to begin with. That is not a problem. That is what makes children such a delight for me. Their curiosity is a natural path to start questions flowing about nature's ways You will be pleasantly surprised with this method.
“Oh,
look what I have. It’s a millipede I think and it is swimming
around in the water.” Chance came over to show us.
 "That
little creature is a beetle larva. If it is successful it will
become an adult diving beetle. It’s like any teenager now.
It wants out of here.”
"Teenager?
I hate teenagers,” Jill told us in a firm voice. “I
have a teenage brother and he is not nice. He is mean.”
“Oh,
this little critter is mean too. It eats any small creatures
in the creek that he can overpower. He injects a chemical into
his prey that dissolves their insides and then he sucks the
insides out.” I watched as Jill’s whole body quivered.
“That’s
what my brother tries to do. Suck out my insides.” Jill
looked up at me as if wanting to be rescued. “My mom says
he’s got problems. He doesn’t like girls right now.
She says he will be nicer when he gets out of this stage and
becomes a adult. I can’t wait for that to happen. We all
can’t wait for him to turn into a adult.”
“Between
us two there is nothing between but what?” I asked the
children as we examined more creek dwellers in our observation
jars.
“Energy
and information. That’s all there is between nature and
us,” Chance watched the larva wiggle against the wall of
the observation jar as if it was trying to drill a hole through
it and escape.
“All
that moving around. Look at that beetle run for it. And look
at that worm wiggle.” Jill looked down into my jar, closely
watching the small, moving, pulsing black head force itself
out of what looked like a hollow skeletal body of a small fish.
 Black
and furry toothpick legs moved slowly out of the black head.
"Those eyes. Look at those eyes. They are large like balloons
on his head."
“Space-binders
are what some scientists call the animals,” I told her
“Space-binders?”
Joshua asked. “Space is something way out there.“
He waved his arms up high into the air. “I never heard
of that word before.”
"That
little spacebinder has made a case for himself out of small
pebbles and mud," I told Joshua as he watched the larva
squirming out of its case.
"I'll
bet he has iron in his case. It's in the dirt stuff in the creek.
Remember?" Chance asked me. "Maybe if I put a magnet
up to his case I can grab him and pull him out of the water."
His grin was a little too big for my comfort.
"No.
Don't do that. That is mean. That case is where he lives. How
would you like it is someone came over to your house and pulled
it up with a big magnet?" Serene stared at Chance as hard
as she knew how to stare at anything.
Everything
we find at the creek boasts of an impressive collection of spacebinders
that has survived over millennia. Just the gathering of beetles
with their slick armored jaws is like a collection of different
types of bad guy hats in a western movie museum. None of these
spacebinders is gracious. They live in the here and now and
they have to survive somehow, some way each and every moment.
Their angry, premeditated murders cast a wide net across the
creek, destroying the more placid creatures of the lot in a
bloody moment of gratification.
While the most notorious larva of them all, the dragon fly larva,
chase after a silvery scaled stickleback fish seeking refuge
in the darkness of the creek's bank, the bold but naive toadlets
with new lungs ready for air struggle through muddy water seeking
a new horizon for their life just ahead.
Everyone
is leaving the creek, it seems. It's like the meadow in midsummer.
A Wal-Mart sized exodus has just begun. Thousands of winged
seeds float into the summer air like tiny gliders, silently
riding capricious breathes of summer breezes. The thousands
of surviving creek youngsters of this year's eggs cozy up to
air for the first time. Their new lungs expand with impunity
as they wiggle, strut, and sometimes claw themselves out of
the water, never to return to a life as a water creature, an
aquatic spacebinder. Now, they are air spacebinders that can
feed while on flowers, bask in sunlight, hide in petals and
along stems. They seem to know just what to do to survive in
air. Some of them flip and flop around in the air like tiny
Blue Angels over their birthplace while waiting for dinner.
Spacebinding
is what animals do. They bind space in myriads of ways, embracing
prey and mates alike with claws, feet, arms, tails, anything
to clutch, to catch, to overwhelm. Earth is the place for spacebinders
because it has cliffs, and holes, and hiding places. It has
banks and stems and trunks. It has ponds and oceans and rivers
that meander through mountain ranges and valleys. Earth is the
only place where there are spacebinders that tell us when summer
is fading and autumn is near; when night is falling and daybreak
is moments away. Spacebinders have Earth in their genes.
The
articles you see on this web site act as activities and
explanations of smaller topics within each main idea. For
example, the articles on animals you read about below act
as explanations on the behavior of different animals; their
personalities, their habitats, their instincts, their value
to us humans. |
Where Tasty Morsels Fear to Tread
I’ve just come back from the predator capital of Europe: Romania. The forests and mountains there are home to most of Europe’s remaining bears and lynx and wolves, oh my! (I didn’t see any of them, but I did see evidence of bears — scat, and a fresh pawprint.)
White House Proposes New Rules For Food Safety
"We've seen too many large-scale recalls, everything from spinach to peanut products, pistachios, peppers, mushrooms, alfalfa sprouts and recently even cookie dough."
You mean there is a connection?
Scientists reveal the effect of fishing on cod size and question turning crops into fuel. Is ethanol the panacea it was once thought to be?
Natural Solar Collectors On Butterfly Wings Inspire More Powerful Solar Cells
...the butterfly wing solar collector absorbed light more efficiently than conventional dye-sensitized cells.
Another unusual piece by Olivia Judson
Olivia always adjusts to get a broad focus on biology. Teenagers can really learn quickly from a writer like this. Not only does Judson focus on the 'big' picture, but her writing is so to the point that you find yourself walking away with a clear understanding of a small, short episode about 'life happens'. She is a research fellow in biology at Imperial College London.
Poultry Nutritionists Remove Pollutants From Watersheds By Adding Enzyme To Chicken Feed
Diving, Rolling, and Floating, Alligator Style
Alligators can move their lungs all over the place. Why?
Ethanol Fallout: Health Risks for Livestock
"If some distillery wastes end up linked to animal disease or deaths, the ethanol industry might even encounter a costly “shock event,”
I think one question that comes to mind immediately is "Since the pig gastrointestinal system is so similar to the human gastrointestinal system, then wouldn't our children's' growth be stunted as well if they eat pork that was fed this feed?" Ask your local health experts or nutritionists. Find out. Start asking the people who know about such things. Protect your child and yourself. No one else is going to do it for you. Put pressure where pressure has to be put in order to get answers. Judy Wilken MS
As nectar levels in flowers change from minute-to-minute, faster learning bees are more likely to keep track of which blooms are most rewarding, and thrive as a result.
Little 'Quisto' is just over 2 months old now
What blue eyes you have!
Mr. Wing, the curator at Louisville Zoo, wrote me about Quisto today, Monday December 3, 2007. "The kitten (El Conquistador...Quisto for short) has started venturing out onto the exhibit. His mother, Miquela, doesn't let him stay out though. She runs out after him and carries him back into the den." Apparently, little Quisto has started nibbling at the carnivore diet so we should see a growth spurt soon!"
This kitten was born at the Louisville Zoo.
Dr.
Palumbi - Cooking with DNA- A great Quicktime movie
She
thought it was red snapper at $10.99 per pound! Was it?
Click on image to watch Quicktime movie
Sea
Otter, Peregrine Falcon Back From The Brink Of Extinction
But Other Species At Risk In Canada
“Habitat
loss and disturbance are the biggest threats facing species.
This could be the result of factors as diverse as forestry,
housing development, or changes to the natural flow of
rivers,” says Dr. Hutchings. “Another major
threat is the invasion of exotics that can have devastating
effects on Canada’s native species.”
Calif.
squirrels yank rattlesnakes' tails
Squirrels
pack their tail with heat and hit the rattlesnake. This
is a great example of energy protecting an animal. It's
all about energy!
Algae
Killing Birds, Sealife in Calif.
"Normally
we're able to flush out the toxin with a treatment regimen
… This year they're just coming in dead.
Crocodile
severs Taiwan vet's arm
Believing
the animal was successfully anesthetised, Mr Chang tried
to remove the syringe, but the crocodile suddenly turned
and bit off his left arm, holding it in its mouth.
Bee
vanishing act baffles keepers
"Bees
are highly social insects. They don't leave their babies
and the queen."
Duckling
With Rare Gene Mutation Born With 4 Legs
Stumpy!
What happened?
A
baby boy and baby girl.Aihin and Meihin are their names.
This
panda mommy is a good mommy. She pays attention to them
and feeds them when they are hungry. Soon she will be
playing with them.
Groucho'
is about to meet the ladies!
Virgin
Birth -- By Komodo Dragon
Squirrels
Winning At Outwitting Trees' Survival Strategy
Science Daily —
This
is a good example of how animals can communicate with
a plant's strategy.
Archer
fish hunt?
This
fish hunts with its machine-gun water pistol
Baby
Panda Crushed by Mother in China Zoo
The
mother was asleep after delivering twins.
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For Fish in Coral Reefs, It’s Useful to Be Smart
The damselfish exhibited what is called anticipatory behavior, in that they would tap the image and then swim quickly to the other end of their tank in anticipation of their food reward. But, the study went even
Tumors Feel The Deadly Sting Of Nanobees
Now the toxin in bee venom has been harnessed to kill tumor cells by researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.
Trading Energy For Safety, Bees Extend Legs To Stay Stable In Wind
"much like a spinning ice skater who extends her arms to slow down."
Shifty-Eyed Thieving Fish Caught on Video
a thieving deep-sea fish with rotating eyes protected by a transparent shield shaped like the canopy over a fighter pilot.
Miles, a new baby boy giraffe at the Houston Zoo
Advance Offers Revolution In Food Safety Testing
"Rapid methods are not readily available to directly assess the toxicity of bacterial contamination in a user-friendly fashion," said Janine Trempy, professor of microbiology and associate dean of the OSU College of Science.
Baby sea turtles – off to a good start
"I hope to see you here in 15 years," she adds with a friendly smile, "when the babies we just released return to lay their eggs."
The Wild Side
Olivia Judson, an evolutionary biologist, is the author of “Dr. Tatiana’s Sex Advice to All Creation: The Definitive Guide to the Evolutionary Biology of Sex,” which was made into a three-part television program. Ms. Judson has been a reporter for The Economist and has written for a number of other publications, including Nature, The Financial Times, The Atlantic and Natural History. She is a research fellow in biology at Imperial College London.
Our greatest souce of omega 3 fatty acids from the ocean
"This is far below what is needed to sustain the population and we have decided to shut down the commercial ocean salmon fishery for all of California and most of Oregon to aid their recovery,” said Jim Balsiger, NOAA’s Fisheries Service acting assistant administrator.
Life Cycle of the bee
There were Greek beekeepers and Egyptian beekeepers?
Something's fishy as Europe dines
Europe's dinner tables are increasingly supplied by global fishing fleets that are depleting the world's oceans to feed the ravenous consumers who have become fish's most effective predators.
Lessons
from the tree frog
Tree
frogs can climb trees with remarkable agility, grabbing
and releasing as needed, leaving not a trace of sticky
goo.
It's
not easy being a bee
No
bacteria were linked with the collapse disorder, but the
data did point a finger of suspicion at two of the seven
viruses detected in the mixed-up DNA: IAPV and the related
Kashmir bee virus.
Losing
Bees, Butterflies And Other Pollinators
“We’re
losing six thousand acres of habitat a day to development,
365 days a year. One out of every three bites you eat
is traceable to pollinators’ activity. But if you
start losing pollinators, you start losing plants.”
This statement makes me wonder if the local farmers' markets
are going to be able to offer us continued abundance of
fresh fruits and vegetables. What we need now is a robot
bee, a mechanical robot bee that can pollinate flowers
. From what we know now, we can use light frequencies
to program the robot to fly from flower to flower based
on the color of the flower. This idea came from a 9 year
old StarChild Science student. Another StarChild Science
student reasoned that would not fix the problem because
he thought the bees are vanishing because there are no
flowers for them. This student thinks the bees have gone
to look for more flowers. Read this article to your child
and talk about this problem. Ask your child what he or
she would do to correct this situation. Start thinking
together! The photos of the bees were taken by Alexandra
Sanders at http://www.prestostore.com/cgi-bin/store.pl?ref=Alexi637&ct=34214
Antarctic
Warming To Reduce Animals At Base Of Ecosystem, Shift
Some Penguin Populations Southward
“Researchers
are seeing the movement of penguin populations southward
down the peninsula as sea ice lessens along its margins,”
Lyons said. “Gentoo and chinstrap penguins are shifting
south into areas now populated by adelie penguins, and
the adelies are being forced further south, all because
of the change in sea ice.”
Lawsuit:
Alaska sea otters need critical habitat
"Sea
otters in southwest Alaska are in a grave situation with
alarming and ongoing population declines," the lawsuit
says. "The absence of critical habitat permits the
degradation, modification, and destruction of habitat
essential to the Alaska sea otter's survival and recovery."
Penguin
Shoes Ensure "Happy" Feet
"We
have seen a dramatic improvement," Benton said, "and
[we] expect that they will only be wearing their pretty
shoes for a very short time." Ask your child what
he/she would do if he/she had a sore foot. Remember, animals
move in space, and so do we. Animals are called spacebinders.
And they need energy to do walk about, hunt and mate.
So, this little penguin needs to heal his feet in order
to hunt, to find food in the water. He doesn't have grocery
stores like we do. He has to hunt in the wild, the wild
ocean, or he will perish.
Cold
Comfort
Hibernating
little squirrel
Cold
trance or transplant?
Ask
your child what this little squirrel looks like while
he is sleeping. His head is curled into his chest. Why?
Do you sleep like that? Does your child sleep like that?
Talk to your child about this thing called 'hibernation'.
Zoo
Atlanta baby panda fidgets while mom is asleep
Go
to: http://www.zooatlanta.org/animals_videos.htm
If
your child still sleeps with you, tell him/her that in
the night you have watched him/her fidget too, just like
this baby panda.
Test-Tube
Koala Babies Debut
Shoring
up vulnerable populations
World
'needs new wild life body'
"It'll
need significant investment - we're not sure exactly how
much, but certainly more than anybody has given us."
Pigeons
smell their way home
"It
is now as clear as can be that information about the spatial
variation in atmospheric odours detected by the olfactory
nerve is the primary sensory basis of the homing pigeon
navigational map."
Dr.
Anna Gagliardo, University of Pisa
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The
language of science
is universal. |
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CHOPPED CHICKEN MANGO SALAD
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Billy's Island Steakhouse
Carmel,
California
831-626-0430
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a child's insatiable curiosity" Cheryl Block
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