Backyard Science Fun

May 10th, 2009

Your yard and neighborhood provide many wonderful opportunities for kids to both play and learn.  In addition to swimming and other outdoor sports, your child can also use your backyard for science projects. If you are interested in helping them achieve this, you may want to familiarize yourself with some popular backyard activities, especially those that have a focus on nature and science.

Exploring the outdoors is not only a fun activity, but it can also provide many educational science experiments.Whether you live in a rural, suburban, or even urban area, there are a surprisingly large number of different plants and animals to be found in you yard.Kids naturally enjoy nature, and you can encourage them with your help. This is particularly true with toddlers and elementary school aged children. Your kids may need your help, so pick things you are also interested in.

One way for children to learn science is by examining the local plants. If you look closely, most backyards have many different kinds of plants and flowers. Although many animals and insects live in your lawn, don’t neglect the other, uncut areas of your yard.

There are many different animal habitats to be found in your yard and your neighborhood. Try to identify as many different kinds as you can. Be patient and quietly observe them for awhile. What do they eat? Can you find where they live? Bird watching is a popular hobby, and even amateur bird watchers often contribute to real science projects. Don’t be surprised if you child decides they would like a new pet bird.

Your backyard is also likely full of many different insects. Children may find observing bugs even more interesting than studying the plants and flowers. It is not only fun to see what kinds of bugs live in your backyard, but it is also exciting to learn about how they survive.

Encourage your child to study the impact of the weather on the environment for the plants and animals in your yard. Backyard conditions change as the weather changes. Study your backyard after a heavy rain, and have your child look for all the changes they can find. Your child can learn a lot by studying the effects of the weather on the animals and plants in your yard.

Providing your child with some basic scientific supplies can reinforce their learning experience. A possible list includes books and nature guides, a magnifying glass, various containers, a butterfly net, etc. If your child is planning on capturing a few insects, a small cage or breathable container may be just what they need. You can buy these supplies at many stores, such as toy stores, department stores, or sometimes even dollar stores. Or search online to find what you need.

Science and nature guide books may be useful for you and your child. Many books and guides have a specific focus on insects, birds, plants, or flowers.The pictures and information found in these resources can help you identify the animals and plants living in your yard. You can find a large choice of science and nature books at local book stores, or at online retailers.

When examining the plants, bugs, and flowers in your backyard, you and your child may want to document what you see.  This can easily be done with a notebook or a camera. Have your child record their exploration and findings by taking pictures.Save the pictures - they could be useful for other projects. You can turn the photos into memories by using them in a scrapbook or collage project.

It doesn’t matter whether the backyard exploration in planned or spontaneous, your child is sure to find something interesting. Teaching kids science in your own backyard is just one of the many adventures that you and your child can share outdoors. And it just may be the start of a life-long interest in science.

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What is the Chinese Calendar?

May 7th, 2009

Many people do not understand exactly what Chinese calendars really are, but to be honest, it is very close to the Western calendar, it has just been in place for longer. 2600 B.C is when the first Chinese calendar was introduced and it is the biggest chronological calendar on the books to date. Emperor Huang Ti was the person that discovered the cycle of the zodiac which the Chinese Lunar calendar centers itself around, basically, the moon cycle is what this particular calendar goes by.

There are a surprising number of similarities between the Chinese and Western, Gregorian calendars. However the differences are more important. The Western calendar focuses on months more than years. However, with the Lunar calendar, one year in every twelve has the name of a particular animal. This is due to a legend wherein Buddha summoned all the animals of the world to bid him farewell before he left earth. Only twelve showed up. As a reward for their kindness, Buddha named a year after each animal, in order of appearance.

As you can clearly see, there is a strong link between the Animal zodiac and the calendar. Not only do the animals factor into the naming of the years, but they are also important to the people who were born in one of their years. The Chinese believe that the animal under which you were born is very important. Each animal lends certain personality traits and influences.

A huge portion of the overall population of the world are Chinese. That leaves many people following the Chinese calendar and celebrating the Chinese New Year. However, Chinese people do not follow the calendar entirely. They use the Gregorian calendar as well. The Lunar calendar is used only for planning the festivals celebrated by the Chinese, such as the new year.

Because the Chinese calendar also operates around the phases of the moon and the longitude of the sun, modern science has had an effect on it. It does so every year in fact. It is ever changing, which is extremely intriguing in and of itself.

Let us consider the phases of the moon first. They are extremely important. Under the Chinese calendar, the coming of the new moon means that a new month is starting. Conversely, the sun’s longitude helps to determine important periods of time - the Principal Terms.

In closing, as mentioned, each year corresponds to an animal. 2009 is the year of the Ox. The year of the Ox occurs every twelve years. The same can be said for the Dog, Rat, Snake, et cetera.

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What are the Education Requirements For a Forensic Anthropologist?

May 7th, 2009

You have seen them on your favorite Bones or CSI TV show. They are the crime scene investigators who study bones derived from a crime scene. They are the forensic anthropologists. Have you ever wondered what a forensic anthropologist does and what the educational requirements are to become one?

If you have a knack for the biological sciences, anthropology, archaeology, and history, then the field of forensic anthropology may be the career choice for you. It will be part of your job to help medical examiners or coroners with the gathering and identifying of human remains. You must know how to determine biological profiles such as age, sex, race, height, etc. of skeletal remains. You must determine the cause of trauma to the skeleton. You may have to visit the burial site, help dig it up, and scrutinize soft tissue or skeletal remains with the intent of identifying the dead person and helping to ascertain the approximate time and cause of death.

It takes a great deal of education to prepare to become a forensic anthropologist. You need a bachelor’s degree in chemistry, biology, anatomy, physiology, or anthropology, and a graduate-level degree in anthropology or human biology. Then you need a PhD and a minimum of three years of experience in forensic anthropology before applying to the board to become board certified.

You can still work in this field even if you do not have the required education. However, many forensic laboratory employers will favor your application if you have a doctoral level degree. Once you get a job as a forensic anthropologist, you will work at big universities as a consultant to medical examiners and courts.

Experts such as forensic anthropologists use their varied educational background to help solve a crime. Their efforts help bring an offender to justice and bring closure to the families of the victims.

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More Bad News about Sugar

April 27th, 2009

If you read nutrition labels and food ingredient lists, you know how common high fructose corn syrup is. You might expect it in cookies or soda, but it’s even found is some surprising places, like wheat bread or granola. Food manufacturers began switching in recent years to high fructose corn syrup because it’s a cheaper sweetener.

But, that switch may have caused unexpected problems for millions of people.  It turns out that your body can tell the  difference between different types of sugars, and when it comes to your health, sugars are NOT all the same.

A recent scientific study looked at how the human body reacted to 3 different types of sugar: glucose, fructose and sucrose. Glucose is made when your body breaks down carbohydrates (starchy foods) during digestion. Fructose is what gives fruit their sweet flavor. Sucrose, also known as table sugar, is a 50:50 mix of glucose and fructose. And high fructose corn syrup ranges from 42% to 90% fructose, with the rest being glucose.

The study results showed that extra sugar consumption caused all the study participants to gain weight. But there were important differences: compared to the other sugars, people drinking the fructose beverages had unhealthy changes in their liver function, increased fat deposits (more visceral, stomach fat which leads to heart disease) and a decrease in insulin sensitivity (a sign of diabetes). Other studies have shown that sugared drinks can double the risk of diabetes; half the risk is due to the excess weight gain, and the rest due to the high sugar content — mostly fructose.

“This study provides the best argument yet that we should either decide to consume less sugar-sweetened beverages in general, or that we should conduct more research into the possibility of using other sweeteners that may be more glucose-based,” says Matthias Tschoep, an obesity researcher at the Obesity Research Center in the University of Cincinnati. But don’t expect changes any time soon. We have become used to sweet drinks and foods, and fructose tastes sweeter than sucrose or glucose.

A recent government survey showed that sugary drinks account for 16% of the average American’s calorie needs every day. Maybe the lesson here is to take the time to think before you drink.

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Is Telepathic Communication Really Natural?

April 26th, 2009

Posted by: Guest Blogger: Thought Provokers

Oftentimes the results of  telepathic experiments are very intriguing. For something like telepathy to be considered by scientists to be a scientific fact, it has to be possible to measure it, the results must be consistent, and the results must be repeatable. However, when it comes to telepathy the results are not always repeatable or consistent. While science then declares telepathy as unprovable or unsubstantiated, others point out that perhaps they just haven’t invented the proper tests yet, since we still do not know or understand why some people may be telepathic.

Science has not disproven the existence of telepathic people. But is it possible to communicate without using any of our normal five senses? Just by thought alone? We would have to find means to test and measure it. Science and technology have already done this in the high tech way. Consider radio waves. True, we cannot see them, touch them, taste, hear or smell them, but we all know that they most certainly do exist.

Could it be possible that ‘thought waves’  exist - signals electrically or magnetically generated  by the brain?  Telepathic studies have been based on trying to find these thought waves. Explaining this in terms for the average person might be a little difficult, but stay with us.

The conventional wisdom in science is that human thought is ‘merely ‘ the result of a mass of biochemical neurons transferring electro-chemical impulses between different synapses. Indeed, this has led some to conclude that consciousness is merely an ‘illusion’. But, there is electrical current that gets generated—and as small as it is, it’s consistently and repeatedly measurable. Like all electrical currents, there is a proportional magnetic field that goes along with it. And the brain has tens of thousands of synapses activated at any given second.

So, now we are talking bio-electric and bio-magnetic fields - and we know very well that electrical and magnetic fields enable ‘mystical ‘ communications, for example, your cell phone. But, within these electrical and magnetic brain waves, is there content or mere static? Is it possible to be trained to control these waves? Does something like meditation actually operate by shaping thought waves into meaningful communication?

There is also skepticism because of the weakness of the brain ’s electromagnetic field. The common, ubiquitous electromagnetic fields of modern devices like televisions, computers, stereo systems, refrigerators, microwave ovens are all much greater than the brain’s; therefore they may possibly interfere with the brain waves.

It might however be possible to give  brains a boost. It seems that in times of extremely high emotional states, which might be brought on by a sense that one’s life is in danger for instance, more neural synapses than usual fire simultaneously, temporarily spiking the brain’s bio-magnetic and bio-electrical intensity.

And in fact, parapsychologists have documented short instances of telepathic communication in these moments. One of the most well-known examples is when a mother knows that her child is hurt or in jeopardy even though she is miles away and there has been no direct communication made between them. So, is this an example of brainwave boosting? Do blood-ties matter? Is it all just coincidence (mothers always worry about their children anyway, for instance)?

The jury of mainstream science is out on telepathy for now, and the general attitude is one of doubt. However, this may be slowly changing, and there are more researchers all the time who become convinced that telepathy is a real ability and that all it takes is the right training for just about anyone to become telepathic.

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