Archives for September, 2009
Happy the Hippo Leaves the National Zoo
Posted by Photograph by Mehgan Murphy/National Zoo
Happy the hippo was born at the Smithsonian’s National Zoo and lived there for 28 years. In recent years, he has been the zoo’s only hippo and shared a habitat with the elephants. On Monday, September 28, Happy moved out in preparation for the Asian elephant exhibit expansion. His new home is at the Milwaukee County Zoo in Wisconsin. Zoo visitors in Washington, D.C. will miss him, but at least Happy will finally have some company–two female hippos named Puddles and Patti.
Learn more about Happy’s big move on the National Zoo’s website.
Get the facts on hippos on National Geographic Kids.
Did you know that your cell phone charger still uses energy if you keep it plugged in after your phone is charged? That is one of the amazing facts you can discover on the Energy Star website created by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. You can find ways you can save energy, watch a slide show about global warming, and learn how your school can get involved and become more energy efficient.
Visit the Energy Star website.
Beginning in 2010, coin collectors will be able to collect a series of 56 new quarters that will depict national sites in each of the 50 states, the District of Columbia, and the territories of Puerto Rico, Guam, American Samoa, the U.S. Virgin Islands and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. The mint worked with state officials to select the sites and collaborated with the U.S. Park Service, the U.S. Forest Service, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The first five quarters in the series will depict:
- Hot Springs National Park, Arkansas
- Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming
- Yosemite National Park, California
- Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona
- Mt. Hood National Forest, Oregon
Get the release dates for all 56 quarters on the United States Mint website.
Quiz Your Noodle and find out how much you know about the national parks.
Posted by
BOOK NAME: Transformers – Revenge of the Fallen: The Last Prime
ADAPTED BY: Tracey West
This is a book called Transformers – Revenge of the Fallen: The Last Prime. I wanted to read it because it looked very cool and it’s from the second movie of the Transformer movie series.
In the story, Sam’s going to college and trying to forget about the Transformers. His girlfriend visits him in college and brings a metal box, and in the box is a little transformer called Wheels. Sam is with a pretty girl and then she wraps her metal tongue around Sams’ neck. She’s actually a Decepticon, but Sam didn’t know that!
In a different part, Megatron comes back alive but he can turn into a different vehicle. He and Optimus Prime get into a battle. Optimus tries to hit Megatron with a missile, but he misses. Megatron hits Optimus Prime with a missile and he gets very damaged.
There’s some new Transformers called The Twins. They transform into an ice cream truck.
You can find out the rest of the story if you buy the book.
To Readers of the Green Scene blog following the Ocean Now Expedition
SUBJECT: A Message From Cocos Island
FROM: Enric Sala
Thank you so much for following our expedition to Cocos Island and the Las Gemelas seamounts. The whole team is thrilled to know that you’re watching and reading about our work!
We’ve seen incredible animals here, including a whale shark, hammerhead sharks, sea turtles, marble rays, and the astonishing frogfish–which walks on the seafloor and looks like a sponge!
I wanted to reply to some of the comments and questions you had for us. (Photograph by Ford Cochran)
PurpleAnimalLUV, I agree with you completely: Sharks ARE sooo cool and are misunderstood. Go Green (and Blue), and spread the word!
Illustration by Chris Rooney
Have you ever wanted to become a blogger for National Geographic Kids? Here’s your big chance! NG Kids is searching for three new bloggers for DogEared, the book review blog by and for kids. If you love to read (and if you love to give your opinions), this is the perfect contest for you.
Learn more about the “So You Wanna Be a DogEared Blogger” contest.
Read the official rules and enter.
What a weird-looking fish! It’s six feet (2 meters) long, has tiny teeth, a long tail, and it doesn’t have scales. Guy Marcovaldi captured video footage of the fish while working on the TAMAR project, which is involved in sea turtle conservation. The fish was found off of the shore of Brazil’s Bahia coast. It was dead and floating near the water’s surface.
At first the fish was reported as being a newly discovered species, but David Johnson, an ichthyologist with the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, says that the fish probably belongs to a group of fish known as Jellynoses. Jellynoses are mysterious fish that live at the bottom of the ocean. Catch a glimpse of this large, gelatinous fish in this video!
Read more about this discovery on National Geographic News.
Check out pictures of more strange ocean dwellers on National Geographic Kids.
Sylvia Earle, Enric Sala, and other researchers and scientists are on an expedition to Cocos Island to document the ecosystem and find ways to better preserve the ocean for the future!
Send a friend or family member one of these amazing e-cards so they can learn more about Ocean Now and find ways to help ocean conservation efforts.
Pick an E-Card to send.
Posted by BOOK NAME: The Book of One Hundred Truths
AUTHOR: Julie Schumacher
Thea spends six weeks every year at her Grandma’s beach house, but this year is different. She spends most of the time there either babysitting her nosy 7-year-old cousin, or writing in the Book of Truths that her mom gave to her. The thing about Theadora Grumman is that she is a liar. Because she’s such a liar, Thea’s mom is making her write a book with 100 true things, like the story that when she was at Three-Mile Creek and her friend almost fell through the ice and died, and the truth that she doesn’t even have very many friends.
Thea’s cousin is always trying to find out what Thea’s writing in her book. She is bugging Thea like crazy, but what is also bugging her is that something is going on with her aunts. They’re acting very secretive and suspicious and they won’t tell anyone what they are up to so it’s up to Thea to find out why.
This was definitely a book I would read over again! I like how the author really made it a fictional mystery and exciting all at the same time. I could never put it down! really hope that the author has other books of hers that I can read. I hope you find it somewhere because you don’t want to miss out on a great read.
llustration by Todd Marshall via Science
Meet Raptorex kriegsteini, a new dinosaur species described this week in the journal Science. This “tiny” Tyrannosaurus rex ancestor would still look big to us at nine feet (three meters) tall., but quite small compared to its descendent T. rex. Other than the size difference, the two dinosaurs look remarkably alike, according to Paul Sereno of the University of Chicago and a National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence.
This new dino changes the way scientists think about the evolution of T. rex‘s short arms. Raptorex kriegsteini also had short arms, meaning that T. rex‘s short arms evolved later than previously believed, according to Thomas Holtz of the University of Maryland (who is not associated with the study).
Learn more about this find on National Geographic News.
Get the facts on Tyrannosaurus rex on National Geographic Kids.
Search for T. rex bones in Zipper’s Cave Maze.
Learn
more about paleontologist and National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence
Paul Sereno on National Geographic.
Enric Sala swam with 100 white tip sharks during a night dive at Cocos Island in Costa Rica. Sala and a team of scientists from Ocean Now are surveying and showing the last pristine places in the ocean.
Would you want to swim with sharks?
Watch videos of Enric diving with white tip sharks and hammerheads!
Follow the Cocos Island Expedition on Ocean Now.
Photograph by Enric Sala
Did you know that not all watermelons are sold for food? An incredible one-fifth of watermelons go to waste because they have too many scars or are shaped oddly. Wouldn’t it be great if something could be done with these rejected watermelons?
Wayne Fish, a chemist with the Agricultural Research Service in Lane, Oklahoma, and his team were working on a project using watermelons when they realized that watermelon juice could be used to make ethanol, which can be used as fuel for cars. It doesn’t matter how the watermelons look, because only the juice is used. Could watermelon juice be the fuel for a car you might drive one day?
Read more about this green (or is it red?) fuel on National Geographic News.
Put your own words into a photo of a woman eating watermelon on National Geographic Kids.
Photograph by Gareth Richards, My Shot
Posted by Do you LOVE to read and talk about books? We are looking for three new bloggers to join our amazing team of kids who love reading and are not afraid to tell everyone if they like or dislike a book and why! It’s our “So You Wanna Be a DogEared Blogger” Contest.
For your chance to be chosen as one of the three new bloggers, read a book, write a review according to the instructions in the Official Rules, and enter the “So You Wanna Be a DogEared Blogger” Contest. We’d love to make you part of the DogEared team!
Enter the contest and you could win!
Photograph by Evan Zhang, My Shot
Watermelons are delicious and great fuel for kids on a hot summer afternoon. But they also might make great fuel for cars!
Wayne Fish, a chemist with the Agricultural Research Service in Lane, Oklahoma, and his team were working on a project using watermelons when they realized that watermelon juice could be used to make ethanol, which can be used as fuel for cars. Only about four of every five watermelons grown are sold to people for food. The remaining fifth of the watermelons go to waste. That could be a lot of fuel!
Read more about this green (or is it red?) fuel on National Geographic News.
Put your own words into a photo of a woman eating watermelon on National Geographic Kids.
Saving energy is important. But what is energy, exactly? How is it measured? And how do we use it in our daily lives? Get answers to these questions and much more on the Energy Kids website. Play games, answer riddles, and get ideas for science fair projects while you brush up on your energy knowledge.
Get tips on how to save power on National Geographic Kids.
Learn how we can get energy from cows! Read Cow Power.
BOOK NAME: Lunch Lady and the Cyborg Substitute
AUTHOR: Jarret J. Krosoczka
This is a book called Lunch Lady and the Cyborg Substitute. It’s about a lunch lady who’s a secret fighter and about some kids who are trying to figure what she does. It’s book #1 and that means there’s going to be more. And I like it so I really want to get #2.
The Lunch Lady is trying to find out the secret of Mr. Pasteur who is a half-human, half-robot substitute teacher.
The Lunch Lady has a secret lab and her helper makes her cool stuff like a cool scooter that can spill sloppy joes that can stop cars. She also made a spatula called the Spatu-Copter that spins around and can make the Lunch Lady fly. She also made her suction cups so she could walk on the ceiling and a secret mole that’s a walkie-talkie thing.
The book was really good and really funny and really cool. This style book is like a comic book with lots of fighting and pictures and words.
Photograph by Gerald Herbert/AP
This morning, President Barack Obama welcomed kids across the country back to school. He stressed the importance of getting an education in his remarks, saying “…no matter what you want to do with your life – I guarantee that you’ll need an education to do it.” He also challenged students to take charge of their own educations by setting goals for themselves and working hard to achieve them.
Was today your first day of school? Did you set new goals for this school year?
Read President Obama’s speech on the White House website.
Get tips on how to go green and stay germ-free at school this year.
Real pirates once buried their treasure on Cocos Island. Now a team of scientists, led by Enric Sala and Sylvia Earle is diving into the waters surrounding this beautiful island in Costa Rica to learn more about the fertile seamounts where hammerhead and white tip reef sharks feed during their migratory journeys.
The Ocean Now researchers will document the marine life they find during the month of September. They will be reporting about the turtles, manta rays, and sharks they find.
Follow the Cocos Island Expedition and become involved!
Photograph by Sarah Wilson
Posted by
BOOK NAME: Swindle
AUTHOR: Gordon Korman
Hi, it’s Reed again. I’m going to tell you about a book called Swindle.
It started when Griffin and Ben had a sleepover at the old house. Griffin found a Babe Ruth card (by the way, Babe Ruth is one of the all-time best baseball players ever!). The card was worth millions of dollars, but he didn’t know that. He knew the card would be worth some money, but didn’t realize how much! It would help his family be able to keep their house.
He goes to a card store and a cashier tells him that it’s worth $120.00. Griffin says “fine.” Griffin never knew that the cashier cheated him.
You have to read the rest to find out if he gets the card back or if he gets millions of dollars or if he doesn’t. I’ll give you a hint: there’s a lot of police, a robbery, and a dog chase.
This book is for 8 and 9 year olds. I hope you read the book because it has a lot of twists and turns. I read it so fast that my brain was full of facts. It’s a good action book. If want this book you can go to Barnes and Noble. I hope you read it!
The poor neighborhoods of Cairo are harnessing the power of the sun and microbes to find new sources of energy in the city. Since 2003, Thomas “T.H.” Culhane, an urban planner and NG Emerging Explorer has been working on these projects with a nonprofit called Solar CITIES.
Using simple materials and waste from kitchens, he and Solar CITIES have installed 34 solar water heating systems and five biogas reactors to help residents get clean energy in their homes.
(Pictured: Solar CITIES project leader T.H. Culhane (right) and
organization intern Omar Nagy stand next to a solar-powered water
heater.)
Learn more about the Solar CITIES project on National Geographic News.
Play Recycle Roundup.
Photograph courtesy T.H. Culhane
It’s hard for most of us to imagine life without the Internet! The phenomenon, originally known as the ARPANET was born September 2, 1969, when one computer passed information to another through a cable. Soon other researchers and scientists connected their computers to this network and shared information over long distances.
Learn more on National Geographic News.
Play Pluto’s Secret on National Geographic Kids.
Photograph by Bart Muhl/AP
Laura Dekker is a girl with a dream–to be the youngest person to circumnavigate (sail around) the world alone in her yacht, Guppy. Laura isn’t new to sailing. She was born on a boat in New Zealand, and was sailing solo on lakes when she was six years old. She sailed across the English Channel to England and back at her father’s insistence that she prove herself before tackling the open ocean. Laura is 13 years old.
A Dutch court has ruled that Laura is too young to make the trip alone, and has placed her under state supervision for two months to make sure she stays on dry land.
Do you think 13 is too young to sail solo around the world? How old do you think someone should be before sailing such a huge distance alone?
Read more about Laura Dekker on the BBC.
Read about a man’s attempt to circumnavigate the world on his own power on National Geographic Kids.
