The Luna Moth

http://www.spigotsciencemag.com/

Just as our Spring 2010 issue BUGS was being given a final edit by our superman editor, Nat, and we were putting the last touches on a video interview we did at Insectropolis in Tom's River, NJ, I ran smack into a filmy, pale lime Luna Moth. What a sight! It was Mother's Day. We were brunching at my son's and daughter-in-law's lovely home. The day was still and filled with the pinks, whites, and yellows of Spring. My grandaughter Kelly came running into the kitchen,"Grandma, grab your camera, quick! It's a surprise!" I followed her outside. She was pointing excitedly at a spot, nose-high, on the sweet gum tree outside her house. The seedpod balls from last season were still scattered on the ground. Usually I gather them all up and paint them shiny gold for glorious winter arrangements. These must have been the ones I had missed. We oohd and aahd and stared and got nose-close to see the fuzzy antennae, the eyespots and the long tails. I took a picture from every angle and, at the time, wondered what is this filmy, pale lime beauty that is hanging on the bark of the sweet gum tree in the middle of the afternoon, at my grandaughter's house.
Once home, I called my friend Sue with whom I had recently spent a day visiting the Insectropolis--a Bugseum in New Jersey. We interviewed an expert there, all about bugs, while we were surrounded by bugs, and beetles, and spiders and all sorts of creepy-crawly things. Sue knew all about the Bugseum. She had arranged our visit. And, she was full of bug knowledge having taught kindergartners about bugs for years. In fact, she ended up going home from there with a prized molt of a tarantula which had just shed its skin. Sue couldn't wait to take her prize to show the school children. When I told her with great excitement of the filmy, pale lime creature hanging on the bark of a sweet gum tree, she immediately knew what it was.
"A Luna Moth," she said. "Yes they are beautiful...and sad too. They have a very short sad life," she said. "In fact, they have no mouth--they don't eat. They only live for about a week and their only purpose is to mate."

Valeria B. Girandola, Editor-in-Chief
Spigot Science Magazine for Kids and Classrooms
http://www.spigotsciencemag.com/

Holiday Origami

Okay, okay, so there are only two weeks to go before the blessed winter break. But here’s an idea combining math, vocabulary, research, hands-on, following directions, group work, patterns, and fun: origami!

Each year the American Museum of Natural History in NYC decorates a holiday tree in origami, all origami, over 500 creations on the tree, and this year the theme is Origami, A to Z—all animals, like an A and a Architeuthis, a B and a butterfly, a C and a chimpanzee, and so on.

What fun to find patterns, or make them up (even better) for animals of all sorts, the stranger the better, and cut and fold. No Tree? Put them on a bulletin board in the shape of a tree, or string them around the room.

What great lessons can unfold! On just one search on the Internet for “history of origami for kids” there were 81,000 results. So there’s research, history, taking notes, writing a report, presenting a report. And that leads to so much more. Learning how to follow directions, step-by-step—important to demonstrate. Learning how to make a real crease (pressing thumb nail back and forth), how to make sense of the folds (you’re on your own).

One search on “origami and math” came up with 73,400 results. Who knew? Oh, Teachers, please find the first website I clicked on: Fascinating Folds, The Educational Benefits of Origami. Listed for all to see and for the conscientious teacher’s plan book are wonderful sections on: Behavioral Skills, Cooperative Learning, A Link to Math, Cognitive Development, Multi-Cultural Awareness, and Community Building. What more could teachers, team leaders, department heads, supervisors, principals, superintendents, and board members ask for? Oh, it almost makes me wish I were back teaching again. On second thought, I love writing about this and creating Spigot Science Magazine for Kids and Classrooms wwww.spigotsciencemag.com five times each year with my colleague, Dr. David Cochran, Spigot's Chief Learning Officer. Yes, we’ve been there in that classroom. I think I’ll get my grandchildren and start folding paper for our tree. What fun!

Valeria Girandola, Editor-in-Chief

Spigot Science Magazine for Kids and Classrooms

Using Picture Books in the K-12 Science Classroom
Picture books are one of the easiest ways to introduce scientific concepts in the classroom. No matter what the grade level, illustrations and written words bring a real clarity to sometimes intricate concepts. Students introduced to new and exciting ideas or processes through well-written and carefully illustrated books become motivated to want more. Of course, the accomplished teacher practices the performance well beforehand of reading to the class while holding the book up and open so that the pictures are readily visible to all students. The teacher’s voice is dramatic and meaningful. There are pauses to emphasize the accompanying picture complete with important details. There is pacing, separating the concepts as they develop across the pages.
One of my keenest memories is of my 4th grade teacher, Mrs. Franz, reading to us in her oh-so- pleasing voice, showing us the pictures, smiling, as we learned. Then in 7th grade, Mrs. Tiffany did the same thing. ( I was fortunate to go to a demonstration elementary school for The College of New Jersey, formerly known as Trenton State Teachers’ College. Both of these teachers, along with many others that crossed my childhood paths, went on to become professors in K-12 education at the cCllege. Their voices and lessons never to be forgotten.)
Preparation is the key .
1. Make friends with the school librarian a week or two ahead of time. Ask her to choose about 3 to 7 books that have colorful illustrations and short content. She can usually get books from the county or other libraries on loan.
2. Skim each book. Prepare a mini book talk. Choose a main idea to use while introducing the book. Tell the children to listen and look for a specific detail of information, or perhaps, an inference.
3. Read with meaning and modulation, pausing with expectation. Pointing out the pictures.
4. Discuss as you go. Make the experience interactive. The book comes alive. It has a whole new personality.
5. When it’s over have the students discuss, then write in their journal ,3 things they learned, liked, or wonder about.
6. Share the journal entries.
This can be done daily with each book or all at once making a book-talk day of the science class. Put the books aside and encourage the students to peruse the books on their own. At the end of the unit have the students choose one of the books and do a short book report on it. In upper grades, do a report on the subject of their favorite picture book.
Integrating science with reading and writing is a powerful way to teach all three subjects. Modeling oral reading and encouraging listening and looking for details in the words and pictures of the book connect science learning with language arts. Powerful, efficient teaching that makes learning stick.

Valeria Girandola, Editor-in-Chief
Spigot Science Magazine for Kids and Classrooms

See the exciting issue: CHANGING EARTH now at www.spigotsciencemag.com

Our first SPIGOT of the year--all about ENERGY--is now online and ready for kids and classrooms. I was pleased to get a lot of questions about Trickles, the Teaching Guide that accompanies each issue. It wasn't online the first day that our ENERGY issue came out and obviously a lot of people missed it. Trickles is written for the teacher to help make lesson planning and teaching a little bit easier. For each article, Trickles offers vocabulary words, ideas for skill and comprehension lessons, the reading level, and links to the National Standards. It's all in the spirit of "good preparation makes for a good lesson."
With the ENERGY issue, we have begun posting a teaching/learning hint on our Trickles page. The first hint suggests that teachers in lower grades read the higher reading level pieces to the class, discussing and explaining along the way. For instance, the article, "The Great Escape," by NASA writer Tracy McMahan (p.17), has a reading level of 11.5. That means that the sentence length and number of advanced words make it suitable for someone reading on a high school level. However, younger students certainly would love to hear the article read to them. It's about all the energy needed to get people and equipment to the Moon to set up lunar outposts there. A person's listening vocabulary is much higher than his reading vocabulary. Having students listen and discuss with the teacher on a regular basis strengthens the students' recall and listening comprehension skills. In addition, the students will be accessing a lot more information that way too.

Val Girandola, Editor in Chief
Spigot Science Magazine for Kids and Classrooms

Origami for the Holidays

The annual Origami Tree at the American Museum of Natural History
Central Park West at 79th Street, New York City.
www.amnh.org/programs/specials/holiday/?src=kf_c

For over 30 years the museum has celebrated the holiday season with its origami tree. This year the tree is decorated with the theme of Fantastic Creatures: Mythic and Real. This is a MUST GO! If you can’t…at least do some origami. Bears, gorillas, cows, pigs, beavers, weasels panthers, wooly mammoths, buffalos, longhorn sheep, squid, blue whales, walruses, seals, lobsters, sting rays, horseshoe crabs, hammerhead sharks, etc., etc., etc. You get the idea…Get patterns and make some for your science, math, and art celebrating. What fun!

Around this time last year, we at Spigot were getting ready to publish our very first issue, WATER. I took three of my grandchildren to the American Museum of Natural History in New York City to see the special exhibit on WATER. It was worth the trip. The exhibit covered everything—the past, present and future of WATER. But we were especially amazed at the museum itself. The day before we had watched the movie, “Night at the Museum” where every animal and human in the place comes alive. So we were prepared for the sights we would see.
However, two other sites stand out in my mind—first, the subway from Penn Station goes right to the museum. The subway slows down as it approaches the station where we were to get off. And the ceramic walls of the subway tunnel come alive with tiles of animals on them. Then the train stops and you go right to the underground entrance into the Museum. The other memory is of the crowds. It was a Friday and I think every student in New York and New Jersey was at the museum that day. It was crowded. I remember the kids as being so very interested and excited about the very dramatic exhibits all over the place. I’ll bet some smart teachers had showed them “Night at the Museum” movie too.
Val Girandola, Editor in Chief
Spigot Science Magazine for Kids and Classrooms

Patterns, issue #5, is now posted on our website (http://www.spigotsciencemag.com), and it’s all about math.

This issue marks a milestone for us here at Spigot as we have completed our first year of publishing! Patterns joins Simple Machines, The Universe, Trees, and our very first publication, Water. This coming January our Energy issue is coming out. We are pleased with our growing subscriber base and would love to have more feedback about how you are using Spigot with kids and classrooms. vgirandola@spigotsciencemag.com

Time for Science
Teaching science is a noble and necessary part of our educational system. An understanding of science, of how things work, of what makes the world turn and the rain fall, along with a good dose of curiosity, is what brings about inventions and innovations that improve our lives and enhance humanity. Science in the schools however is becoming the victim of a balancing act. Recent studies indicate in some places, as much as 75 minutes of science a week is being sacrificed to the teaching of math and reading/language arts. Instead of balancing the schedule, science is being catapulted overboard. What that means for the advancement of invention remains to be seen.

Integrating Science
Integrating science into other subjects throughout the day is one way to combat this time drain. Spigot does just that. Our TOC ( Table of Contents) links articles to math, geography, language arts, health, social studies, and the arts. Trickles, the Teaching Guide lists vocabulary, skills, reading level and national standards. Our plans for the future include adding a full glossary of the vocabulary words in each issue. Science can be taught in all subjects.

Keeping Science in the Balance
Both Dave and I have been classroom teachers. We know first hand the balancing act that is always lurking there in the shadow of the plan book. I remember wishing there were 6 days in a week (what a crazy thought!) so that I would get in all the instruction in both science and social studies without giving up precious time for either.
No matter what, the language of science is especially important in the early education years. For that language fascinates, stimulates, and prepares young minds to someday make discoveries that will save our world.
Val Girandola, Editor in Chief

Welcome to the Spigot Science Blog

Science is oh, so important for our kids and there are limited reading resources that are age appropriate for upper elementary/middle school kids.  Enter Spigot Science Magazine for Kids and Classrooms™, currently a FREE online e-zine.  We’re on a mission to provide relevant interdisciplinary content that relates to science, so kids will understand and embrace the joy and wonder that science brings to our lives.  This blog is designed for teachers and others who work with kids.  We want it to be interactive and stimulating.  We want you to want to come back every couple of weeks to gain some new ideas and news about what we’re doing to help kids (and teachers) Tap into Learning.  We especially want you to add your ideas to the conversation.

Spigot Celebrates First Anniversary

With the publication of our fifth issue, PATTERNS, Spigot Science Magazine for Kids and Classrooms celebrates it first anniversary.  Wow.  It’s hard to believe.  Right now all five issues, WATER, TREES, THE UNIVERSE, SIMPLE MACHINES, and PATTERNS can be downloaded for FREE at www.spigotsciencemag.com.

 Win a Book for Your Classroom Library

Ponder, our cute little mascot (find him in any issue) loves to make people think, observe, read, and learn.  He is inviting teachers to have their students become “pattern detectives.”  Read Patterns Are Everywhere on page 5 of our November, 2008, issue. Count the number of times the word pattern(s) appears on the page.  Email your best count to vgirandola@spigotsciencemag.com.

  Also tell us how you use Spigot in your classroom. Tell us what you like and what else you’d like to see in Spigot. From the correct word counts, we will select three winners.  They will be able to select a book from Dr. Richwine’s book reviews on pages 22-23 for their classroom library. 

Spigot Extra

Rubber Ducky Patterns (Contributed by Susan MacDougall)

In January, 1992, twenty-nine thousand plastic bath toys, including yellow rubber ducks, blue turtles, red beavers, and green frogs fell overboard in the North Pacific after leaving China.  In 16 years, they have traveled more than seventeen thousand miles and have washed up in Alaska, along the west coast of Canada and the United States, and in Japan and Hawaii.  Now, some have survived floating through the Arctic and have headed toward Maine and Massachusetts in the United States and are expected to start washing up in Greenland, Iceland, Norway, Ireland and Great Britain.  Curtis Ebbesmeyer, a retired oceanographer is studying the paths the bath toys have taken as they float with other flotsam and jetsam through the massive Pacific Gyre, a large-scale swirling ocean current.  If you find one on the beach look for the words "First Years" to see if it is a real toy from 1992. 

Check out the patterns that some of these duckies, turtles, beavers and frogs have traveled at:

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2007/01/moby_duck.php

http://oceans.greenpeace.org/en/the-expedition/news/trashing-our-oceans/ocean_pollution_animation

For Discussion

What can we do to make Science come alive in our classrooms and in the lives and interests of our students?