The dog ate my blog. That furry white happy hairball mix of maltese and miniature poodle has sapped up all my free time. I read for a few minutes a day. I finish nothing.
I started reading a stack of puppy and dog training books, as if training my dog will free up any time!
Did Fleming Rescue Churchill?: A Research Puzzle by James Cross Giblin, and illustrated by Erik Brooks.
Reading level: Ages 9-12
Publisher: Henry Holt and Co. (BYR); 1st edition (April 1, 2008)
ISBN-13: 978-0805081831
Did Fleming Rescue Churchill?: A Research Puzzle
Jason had missed class so he could see the dentist because of a toothache. Too bad, because he missed getting his choice for a scientist to research and report on. The only one left was Alexander Fleming, and who was he? His teacher, Ms. O’Mara, insisted he was a great choice because he discovered penicillin, the antibiotic that has saved millions of lives.
When Jason agrees, he mentions to his teacher that he’ll start on the internet and go from there. Jason’s teacher warns him that the internet is a poor place to start, not everything is true. He accepts her advice, but he’s turned off by the biographies he finds, and settles for the encyclopedia. Here he learns the details of Fleming’s career and that he won the Nobel Prize for Medicine. Then, his teacher gives him useful pointers for organizing and writing his report, and most importantly, he learns how to make his report interesting for others.
Jason’s report grows more interesting to him, also, as he proceeds. Inspired to find the truth about a link between Fleming and Winston Churchill that he has learned about on the internet, Jason spends every free moment looking for some source that will settle the questions that have arisen during his research. How will he resolve the conflict stories about Fleming?
All in all, this book was fun to read. More importantly, it taught important lessons about research and writing at a middle school level. I really do think that this book is worth reading. It -Yeah, right Dad! – would even make a good jumping off point for keeping a kid or two busy for a while during the upcoming summer. Have him or her read the book, then assign someone who has won a Nobel Prize as a subject for a three page paper, using the lessons from this book as a guide.
Well, Senor Parrot, you’ve laid a big goose egg, I hear you say, Not over summer break! But a trip to a water park would make a good reward, if you need help kicking up the enthusiasm.
Cool Gravity Activities: Fun Science Projects About Balance
Second, there is a two page layout of things the kids can find around the house to use in their experiments. Maybe a hockey stick, or a rake, or a ruler or thread. Get some eggs, metal forks and wooden popsicle sticks. A few more things and you’re ready. I’d skip on the bathroom plunger, though. Yuck! Maybe a kid’s garden shovel, or something like that.
Now to the activities. Each has pointers on what to look for, instructions on performing the experiment, an explanation of the science behind the activity, and a practical application for real life. There’s quick projects like balancing a plunger, or a more suitable substitute, making tops from oddly shaped pieces of paper, or how an uncooked egg spins compared to a hard-boiled egg. Some of these will be fun for your kids to use to show off to their friends. Try balancing two forks and a popsicle stick on one finger!
None of the experiments takes too long and each incorporates writing data and findings in a journal. This writing part is critical. Scientists write down everything and then misplace it. Engineers know where they put everything. If you kid loses his or her notes, you know they’ll be a scientist. If they tidy them up, file them alphabetically and cross-reference them, they’ll be librarians. But if they just keep them organized on a bookshelf, they’ll be engineers.
Little Rat Sets Sail
learning to sail pretty much the way they will experience it for themselves. As Little Rat grows in experience and overcomes some of her fears, she grows in confidence, too. It’s also very entertaining for young readers along the way. The illustrations are great. Illustrator Molly Bang has fantastic fun exaggerating Little Rat’s fears, and she shows what it’s like to be out in the boat, the way sailing really is.
In Monika Bang-Campbell’s book, Little Rat’s parents enroll her in a sailing class, much to her dismay. She shouldn’t have been surprised, though. Pictures of sailing scenes hang from every wall in her home, evidence that her parents are passionate about sailing. But Little Rat finds danger and distress everywhere, from the steep descent from the top of the hill down to the boats, the deep water that she thinks is filled with eels and jellyfish, and even having a life jacket different from what the other kids wear, not dorky like hers. But she has a good teacher who recognizes her fears and helps her to grow in confidence and courage as the summer progresses.
Sailing can be scary for little folks. Sailboats rock. They are never level. Things happen all the time. The wind strengthens or wanes and changing direction means changing sides and ducking heads to avoid the boom, changing which line is held, and on and on.
For my kids, it wasn’t so much the depth of the water or the thought of what might be waiting just below the surface that upset them. It was the tipping and rolling with the wind and the constant sense of losing their balance. The boat would not stay level or at even the same angle. But these things, disconcerting or not, are much of what later becomes the fun of sailing.
After a while, my kids became eager to get into the boat and spend a few hours out on the lake. As long as they have enough to keep them busy, its a lot of fun. Now they’re old enough to spend some time steering at the rudder, or holding the jib or main sheets to control the sails. Videos can also be helpful. We’ve acquired several and we review them in the spring, or watch them snowy nights when we’d rather be on a warm lake soaking up the sun.
Here’s a video clip from Youtube, cut from a popular video Teaching Kids How To Sail
Simon Bloom is returning soon in his second book titled Simon Bloom: The Octopus Effect
this sequel to Simon Bloom: Gravity Keeper by author Michael Reisman every since I finished the first. Amazon shows it to be available this coming June 11, 2009. I like that.
From JacketFlap, and probably the publisher, but the publisher doesn’t have a link for the book yet:
In Simon Bloom, The Gravity Keeper, Simon Bloom and his friends used the Book of Physics to narrowly defeat villainess Sirabetta. Now Simon’s nemesis, stuck as a helpless thirteen-year-old, wants revenge. In this exciting sequel, Simon and company must enter the mysterious undersea realm of the Order of Biology to find Sirabetta before she can restore her powers. Aided by old allies and some new ones, the kids struggle with fi erce beasts, dangerous enemies, and their own evolving abilities. Blending humor, suspense, and science, and throwing new octopus powers into the mix, Michael Reisman brings us another outstandingly original adventure.
If you’re not familiar with Simon Bloom, you’re missing out on a fabulous read. Here’s my review of Simon Bloom: The Gravity Keeper.
Nick Mangiaracina notes some disturbing statistics about the trend of American high school students in his article “Reading, writing are one of our last bonds” , published in the University Daily Kansan. This information, culled from the well known National Endowment for the Arts survey completed in 2004, has been noted elsewhere many times before, but it bears repeating:
According to a 2004 report by the National Endowment for the Arts, the percentage of people reading literature dropped 10 percentage points from 1982 to 2002. More significant was the 17 percentage point decline of reading literature of those between the ages of 18 and 24 during the same time period.
Standardized test scores support this trend. The Center for Pubic Education reported a 6 percentage point decline on National Assessment of Education Progress reading test scores among 12th graders between 1992 and 2005. As the name suggests, this test is used to measure progress in education, especially in math and reading.
Its easy to point our blame at schools, especially public schools, but really, there are many fine teachers just trying to maintain as best as they can. What we, as parents or students, can do, is do our best for ourselves in the sphere of influence that we have.
We have to monitor our our kids’ progress and supplement where we can. We don’t have to pay for expensive tutoring, if we can’t afford it, but we can get supplementary materials and start where our kids are at, work with them, and help them reach and exceed their expected grade level of performance.
Isn’t this what homeschoolers do? They have a growing network online and offline where they discuss curriculum and learning experiences and they do very well. As a supplement, some of these same strategies would work for our non-home schooled kids.
The Lost Colony
A twelve year old genius, Artemis’ match, has discovered their existence and has calculated how to catch them. Her plan is to expose them to the scientific world and win a Nobel prize. Sher is determined and will let nothing stop her, including Artemis Fowl. Hence the whole underworld fairy realm is at risk of being discovered and exploited. The fairy realm seeks Artemis’ and Butler’s assistance.
Has Artemis met his match? Will the Fairy world be exposed? Do not assume you know the outcome. This volume will not disappoint you: it is the most thrilling the the series and is filled with all sorts of twists and surprises. A must read? It can be easily read alone, but for the most impact, read the Artemis Fowl series in order. Be careful, however. Don’t start this book if you have impending deadlines or tests! Once you start you won’t want to stop.
Review by Senora Parrot.
Senor Parrot’s Note: Found sitting under about 2 years worth of stuff that should have been dealt with then. The review should have been posted long ago. Sorry!
Stolen from the New York Times
The French writer Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clézio, whose work reflects a seemingly insatiable restlessness and sense of wonder about other places and other cultures, won the 2008 Nobel Prize in Literature on Thursday. In its citation, the Swedish Academy praised Mr. Le Clézio, 68, as the “author of new departures, poetic adventure and sensual ecstasy, explorer of a humanity beyond and below the reigning civilization.”
Mr. Le Clézio’s work defies easy characterization, but in more than 40 essays, novels and children’s books, he has written of exile and self-discovery, of cultural dislocation and globalization, of the clash between modern civilization and traditional cultures. Having lived and taught in many parts of the world, he writes as fluently about North African immigrants in France, native Indians in Mexico and islanders in the Indian Ocean as he does about his own past.
Well, seems, from his description, that he fits the non-insular type that the Nobel Prize Selection Committee was looking for this year. Sniping at the committee aside, there are a couple of lovely snippets of his work translated provided by the New York Times, as well. Unfortunately for us Americans who can only read English or German, a search of Amazon turns up little in translation. I’m left with the impression that it would be a great pleasure to read more of his work. Alas, it’s not just Americans who don’t translate much.
If your kids like the Lego or Playmobil castles, or any of the other building toys, Castle Under Siege! by Andrew Solway is a little book that offers a fun hook into some the science behind those ancient buildings. Already engrossed in the imaginary building of a castle and defending it against all enemies, kids are primed to learn how it was really done. Books like this are great segues into learning more on their own.
I found this book in the library by chance, while looking for books about robots to share with my kids. I grabbed it, realizing that these simple applications might help my kids see just why science is cool. It also provides a nice window into the past. Its aimed at 2nd through 4th graders, though some older kids might enjoy the quick informative read, especially coupled with David Macaulay’s great Castle, which is aimed at higher age level than Castle Under Siege!
Medieval society seems like all labor, but there were lots of machines at work to create and maintain their way of life. Castle Under Siege! looks at a few of these, like the drawbridge, crossbow, catapults, and siege engines were actually applications of simple machines. Photographic reenactments and illustrations help explain the concepts.
Simple machines are also so simple, that a trip to the hardware, home improvement, or hobby store to pick up a couple pulleys, boards, dowels and wooden wheels can result in some quick construction of the same machines on a tabletop scale.
I saw something on the AP wire about who might be in line for the Nobel Prize in Literature this year. Italian writer Claudio Magris is favored 3-1 by the British betting agency Ladbrokes. Bob Dylan is listed last at 150-1. Folks cheering for long-time favorite Philip Roth will likely be disappointed, given some of the recent sentiment others have expressed. One Nobel watcher, publisher Svante Weyler, says:
He’s the grand old man in American prose, but I think the academy doesn’t believe he is ‘heavy’ enough,” he told Reuters.
From Street Knowledge Media we read that a Swedish Juror for the prize, permanent secretary Horace Engdahl, publicly stated
“Of course there is powerful literature in all big cultures, but you can’t get away from the fact that Europe still is the center of the literary world … not the United States,” he told The Associated Press in an exclusive interview Tuesday
“The U.S. is too isolated, too insular. They don’t translate enough and don’t really participate in the big dialogue of literature. That ignorance is restraining.”
Nothing like putting your cards on the table. Unlike Swedish, which is rarely taught, perhaps even in Sweden, English is taught and spoken most everywhere in the world. Other languages, such as Spanish, German, French, and Chinese are also spoken by quite a few folks.
But the thing with English is, lots of folks, everywhere, can read English pretty well. Well enough to read works untranslated. And anyone who is interested in the type of literature that receives the Nobel Prize probably speaks or reads more than one language, except probably in the U.S.
Of course! We’re insular! I forgot about that part. We only think about ourselves, I suppose, and our “ignorance is restraining.” Like the Nobel jurors have any reputation of winnowing the wheat from the chaff over the years.
Senor Parrot’s Perch
