If you live in America, or even if you don’t, it’s likely that you’ve had the urge to see for yourself some of this huge, varied, spectacular land of ours. Everything is available here: a rich history, awe-inspiring natural environments, incredible man-made wonders, varied peoples and cultures, and spiritual inspiration. Part of loving our country is seeing our country, and so my brother and I were inspired when we were in college to take our turn making a trip across our great land.
Our particular trip had the dual purpose of moving my brother from an internship in Silicon Valley back to his college in Michigan so we had our start and end points. We plotted a southerly route through Los Angeles, Arizona, Texas and Missouri in order to avoid snow in the mountains, seeing as we were too cheap to buy chains. We had plenty of time though, to meander and stop to see great sights along the way.
I arrived on an airplane at 2am and awoke the next morning to a torrential downpour that was equaled in its fury only by its rarity, or so I was told. My brother had not finished his errands before moving, so I climbed into the passenger seat, which was gathering water from a large drip where the windshield met the frame, and I spent my Northern California sightseeing time slogging through the rain doing errands. Oh well, there was much more to see ahead of us.
Unfortunately, due to the rain and the schedule of someone we were driving to LA, we decided not to take Highway 1 along the coast, one of the most scenic highways in the world. We made it to Disneyland (and swiftly spent our budget for several days), but misestimated the distance from there to the house of some relatives we were visiting, so we had to skeedaddle in order to spend the day driving across LA (or so it felt). We got slightly lost in those pre-cell phone, pre-internet days, so we pulled up in Laguna Beach several hours late but thankfully in time to sleep. Years later, I found out that our relatives saw our old station wagon with the 2x4 bumper pull away from the curb in the morning and were certain we were never going to make it home.
So, the next day, we were really setting off. We were very focused on reaching the Grand Canyon and spending a couple of days there so we blew some money on a hotel for efficiency, even though our plan was to camp. When we were fifteen miles from the lip of the canyon, our car suddenly came down with an illness. We sputtered to the side of the road at a little metropolis boasting a motel with an attached ‘fine dining establishment’, a gift shop, and a gas station/auto repair shop. We were told the car had a small problem and needed a part which could be ordered for delivery in four short days. My brother and I bonded over cribbage, HBO and anticipating the daily restaurant special while we bided our time. Once the car was repaired, we drove to the edge of the Grand Canyon, took a good long look, and headed back to the highway in order to make up for lost time. About twenty miles down the road, the car quit completely. Some nice Canadians stopped (“you never pass a car on the side of the road in wintertime in Canada”), removed the new thermostat, which hadn’t been the problem, diagnosed the problem, and sent us to the nearest repair shop. Two days later, we were on the road again to Texas.
It’s just possible that our current image of Texas might be slightly influenced by the fact that we spent our time there on the floor in the hallway of a Holiday Inn with several hundred other people after the highways were closed due to ‘the worst ice-storm we can remember’. Another great meal in a hotel restaurant and we were rolling again.
About this time, we pulled into a gas station and two men came running up to helpfully inform us that our tires were about to blow but they could sell us new ones at a good price. Wanting to be savvy travelers, but being completely naïve about cars, my brother and I decided our tires probably weren’t about to blow but we’d better not drive at night just in case – especially since our wooden bumper wouldn’t hold a jack.
This is when my brother decided it would be a good time to get sick. We called our grandparents to check in and must have sounded pathetic because, frugal as they were, they immediately offered us money to fly home. Abandoning the car wouldn’t have been an obstacle but, unfortunately, my brother had agreed to drop a friend’s TV set at his house in Indiana so we were saddled with our good deed and had to turn down the offer.
We drove through Missouri and did get to see the arch, so that was a highlight. By the time we got to Indiana (after making a three hour round-trip TV detour that seemed like nothing when we were looking at the map back in California), it was December 31st. We stopped in a small town motel, having given up on our plans to camp several states ago due to feeling sorry for ourselves, and were looking forward to seeing the only entertainment in town: a disco band at the Holiday Inn. Unfortunately, my index finger took the rare lull in the action as an opportunity to swell up and turn green. Thinking it was just an infection, I was going to see how it was in the morning but we made the mistake of calling our mother to wish her a Happy New Year. After diagnosing my malady over the phone, she pronounced that I had blood poisoning so we were off to find an emergency room. We drove around for some time before we came upon a sign marked “Indian Hospital”. We walked around the darkened exterior and found a kindly nurse who gave me a tube of ointment for my infection – no charge – and sent us on our way. Being too tired and in too much pain to party down, we hit the sack at 11pm.
Another 300 miles (at 55 miles per hour, thanks to President Carter), and we were home. After calculating the number of sights we’d seen on our great adventure, we arrived at the number two: a few minutes staring at the Grand Canyon and a photo of the St. Louis arch taken from the car window while we were moving.
So what did we learn by seeing America up close and personal? By all means, go out and experience what our wonderful land has to offer. Just remember to take a lot of money and a very good traveling partner. And to call your mother once you’ve arrived safely home.
Feeling inspired to discover our magnificent country for yourself? Maybe you’d be better off staying home and exploring these products from the Museum Tour catalog. You can start by reading Great States with your kids to learn about the history and geography of each state. With little ones, you can read Follow That Map, which teaches map skills as Sally searches for a mischievous dog and cat on the lam. Experience our national pastime from the comfort of home with Old Century Baseball, a handcrafted pinball-style game. You can even build a Native American Village with our creative diorama kit.
Thursday, December 17, 2009
See the U.S.A.
Thursday, December 10, 2009
The Environmental Movement: Where Are We Now?
Written by Kara Bowman, Educator
“Pollution, pollution,
Wear a gas mask and a veil,
Then you can breathe,
Long as you don’t inhale.”
From Pollution by Tom Lehrer
When I was a girl in the 1960’s, I remember taking the trash outside, dumping it in the big can, and wondering where it went. One lucky day, I got to accompany my father to the county dump. I remember being flabbergasted at the scale and the smell, but especially by the concept. I clearly remember thinking, “This is it? This the great plan the grown-ups have for all of the trash we make? They dump it in the ground and cover it up?” Even at age six, I sensed that this was not a good, or sustainable, idea.
The environmental movement burst into the national consciousness in the 1962 with the publication of "Silent Spring" by Rachel Carson. "Silent Spring" galvanized public opinion in the same way Uncle Tom’s Cabin had done a century before with slavery. "Silent Spring" spent 31 weeks on the best-seller list, and the public had a collective shift in understanding our interdependent relationship with nature. Prior to this time, the environmental movement was focused on preserving individual habitats from development, such as our National Parks, and solving specific problems, such as oil spills. It wasn’t thought that humans could impact the environment on such a large scale that our very lifestyle could poison us and make our communities, and the earth itself, uninhabitable. Before "Silent Spring", we were operating under the western expansion beliefs that nature was so vast it could heal itself and that there would always be more.
The idea of limitless resources ran smack into reality in the early 1960’s when people began naming what they saw around them and demanding action. In the eleven years following the publication of "Silent Spring", Congress passed the Wilderness Act, the Clean Air Act, the Water Pollution Control Act, the National Environmental Policy Act, the Endangered Species Act, and established the Environmental Protection Agency. As Dr. Suess so eloquently put it in his 1971 book The Lorax, “"I am the Lorax. I speak for the trees. I speak for the trees, for the trees have no tongues.” In the 1970’s, we were all speaking for the trees.
We’ve now had a couple of generations come of age since the birth of the modern environmental movement. With Generation X (born about 1964-1979) and Generation Y (born about 1980-2000) growing up in an era of heightened environmental awareness and higher stakes, we take it on faith that the younger generation is even more motivated than their elders to clean up the legacy we have left them. This turns out not to be true, however.
Environmental Defense released poll findings comparing environmental attitudes of young adults (18-25 year-olds), with those of the Baby Boom generation who came of age around the first Earth Day in 1970 (45-55 year-olds). "We undertook this effort expecting to find significant differences between the generations," said Fred Krupp, Executive Director of Environmental Defense. "And while those exist, we were struck more by the similarities. Baby Boomers and the Internet Generation (a subset of Gen Y) share the same concerns about the environment and agree that individual actions can make the difference when it comes to protecting the planet." (San Diego Earth Times)
Awareness of environmental problems is one thing, but taking action is another. As Marshall McLuhan exclaimed, “There are no passengers on Spaceship Earth. We are all crew.” When we look at acting, rather than awareness, the difference between the generations grows. People who came of age when the environmental movement was bursting into our collective consciousness are more likely to take personal responsibility for being part of the solution. Analysis of a longitudinal study found that, except for a slight uptick in the early 1990’s, there has been a three-decade long decline in the number of youth 1) taking personal responsibility for the environment, 2) participating in conservation behaviors, and 3) agreeing with the concept that resources are scarce. “Findings reveal that youth tend to assign responsibility for the environment to the government and consumers rather than accepting personal responsibility.” (Environment and Behavior, Examining Trends in Adolescent Environmental Attitudes, Beliefs, and Behaviors Across Three Decades, May 5, 2009) So it turns out that the latest generation is no more environmentally aware than Baby Boomers, and is less likely to take personal action on environmental issues. As a recent article put it, “Young people, in the popular imagination, are more environmentally conscious than the rest of us. But a new analysis of 30 years worth of data suggests that if we're waiting for a child to lead us out of the wilderness of environmental degradation, we may be waiting a long time.” (Tom Jacobs, Generation ‘Green’ Environmentally Oblivious, Miller-McCune, May 25, 2009)
How can we help motivate the younger generation? How can we share the reality of the situation without imparting a sense of hopelessness that can be paralyzing? We can help them follow the path of E.B. White who said, “I would feel more optimistic about a bright future for man if he spent less time proving that he can outwit Nature and more time tasting her sweetness and respecting her seniority.” We can help our children become respectful of nature by encouraging a personal relationship with nature from an early age. Rather than starting with the boring and tedious solutions, such as composting, we can begin by instilling a sense of awe and wonder about what we are trying to save. Spend time outdoors camping, fishing, hiking, and picnicking. Plant a garden. Identify birds. Collect rocks. Paint the landscape. Do whatever catches their interest and generates enthusiasm for nature.
We can also help our children learn about the interconnections in nature, which will help them think as environmentalists. As John Muir put it, “When one tugs at a single thing in nature, he finds it attached to the rest of the world.” Read to them about environmental issues in order to educate them about the problems we face. Talk to them about your thoughts. I think it’s best not to be heavy-handed but to find where their heart lies and encourage whichever piece of environmentalism speaks to them. In my mind, the goal is not so much to create all of the specific behaviors you would like to see (such as awareness of wasting electricity or recycling), but to help grow a passion for thinking environmentally.
If you can plant the seeds, you can eventually stand back and watch them sprout and grow. I had this experience when my four year old son went on a field trip with his preschool class to a lumberyard. The manager was proudly showing the class around when he recklessly asked the group of tots whether there were any questions. “Yes,” answered my son. “Why are you trying to kill us?” After much sputtering on the part of the manager, my son explained, “Trees make air we breathe and you are cutting down trees, so you are killing us.” While his execution left a little to be desired in terms of finesse, his logic was ironclad and I was very proud that day of the little environmentalist I was growing.
Museum Tour offers many ways to encourage the budding environmentalist in your family. Celebrate their love of living nature with the Butterfly Pavillion, an AntWorks, Planet Frog, or the Carnivorous Creations terrarium. Go outside into nature with your younger child with Science on a Nature Walk. Or delve into exploring problems and solutions with your older child with the Global Warming Kit. Museum Tour has products for environmentalists of every age and interest.
Thursday, December 3, 2009
Fun with Statistics
Written by Kara Bowman, Educator
“The statistics on sanity are that one out of every four Americans is suffering from some form of mental illness. Think of your three best friends. If they're okay, then it's you.” Rita Mae Brown
The longer you live, the longer your life expectancy is. Sounds wrong, doesn’t it? Think about it a minute. If you’re a 50 years old male, your life expectancy is 78.5 years. If you make it to 60, you’re life expectancy is now 80.4 years. It increased because the 78.5 figure included those people who passed away over the last ten years. If you can hold out until 100, you will live to 102, on average. (To find your life expectancy based on your gender and current age, check out the Social Security Administration’s Actuarial Tables).
Very few of us have a good sense for statistics unless we work with them. As a culture, we are fascinated with statistics, though, from trivia games to airline ontime arrivals, to political polls, to every kind of sports statistics humans can think of. Here are a few of the figures someone has taken the time to calculate. The average human produces 25,000 quarts of saliva in a lifetime, enough to fill two swimming pools. Fashion models’ measurements are 33-23-33 on average, while American women are 38-32-41. If it can be counted or measured, you can rest assured that someone will count it or measure it.
I had a funny experience years ago when I worked for a bank and we were scouting locations for new bank branches. We were looking for certain age and income characteristics by census tract when we came across a tract that looked different from the rest. Tract #1191 was typical, with 48% of the population male, 26% under age 18, and 75% of the houses owner-occupied. The next tract we looked at, #1220, showed males comprising 98% of the population, 2% of whom were under age 18, and 98% of the houses were rented. We were sure the data was wrong and were about to contact the publisher when we thought to take a look at a map. It turned out that the tract we were considering for a new bank branch contained 54 houses plus San Quentin Prison. I’ve always used this as a reminder not to turn my brain off when looking at numbers but to ask myself what they mean. (If you’d like to play with the government’s census data, take a look here. It’s a lot of fun and you paid for it so you might as well enjoy it!)
Context means everything when it comes to numbers because our brains are constantly trying to impute meaning. I’ll give you an example: What do you think when you hear that 1,000 hectares of old growth-forest are clear-cut each year in Tazmania? You may have been outraged or saddened to hear that because your brain is trying to figure out how to categorize it and decided to group it with ‘destruction of the environment’ thoughts. What if you then learned that there are 1.5 million hectares of old-growth forest in Tazmania, most of which is protected from cutting in National Parks or protected reserves? Does this context change the way you view the first statement? One habit we can get into in order to protect ourselves from faulty assumptions is to ask ourselves what the facts are and separate them from our judgments.
How numbers are gathered often impacts the results. The very wording of a question can elicit very different responses. Much has been written on this subject, but I will share a simple example as an illustration. In 2003, people were asked whether they would, “favor or oppose taking military action in Iraq to end Saddam Hussein's rule, “ 68% favored taking action. When people were asked whether they would, “favor or oppose taking military action in Iraq to end Saddam Hussein's rule even if it meant that U.S. forces might suffer thousands of casualties,” the number favoring intervention dropped to 43%. Partisan organizations often purposely use questions designed to elicit the response they want, although reputable polling firms try hard not to do this.
Finally, there is the math itself. Anyone who has had an elementary Probability and Statistics course might remember that random sampling only produces a confidence that 95 or 98 percent of the time, the real number (ie. the number if every member of the population was measured) would be close to the number derived from the sample. This means that if you read a hundred statistics, several will be off significantly. And that’s given a well-designed random sample. The classic case of a bad sample resulted in a photo of President-elect Truman holding up a newspaper with the headline, “Dewey Defeats Truman”. The newspaper had conducted a poll by telephone at a time when only wealthier households had telephones. Since these families were more likely to vote for Dewey, the sample wasn’t random and the results were just slightly off, shall we say.
So, the next time you read some numbers, caveat emptor, or, as Lewis Carroll put it, “If you want to inspire confidence, give plenty of statistics. It does not matter that they should be accurate, or even intelligible, as long as there are enough of them.” But that’s a cynical note to end on, so maybe we should end with the king of pollsters, George Gallup, who said, “Not everything that can be counted counts; and not everything that counts can be counted.” You can count on that.
Museum Tour has many fun and engaging ways to help the children in your life with their math literacy. A Balance Kit is a hands-on way for preschoolers to gain number sense. When they’re a little older, get them Building Thinking Skills software for computer-lovers or 101 Math and Science Activities which they can do alone or with help. The book, Nibbling on Einstein's brain, helps you sort good from misleading information in science. My family loves Shut the Box, which is a fun game of probability for kids and adults. Have fun!
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
Pay Attention, Please
Written by Kara Bowman, Educator
"I think the one lesson I have learned is that there is no substitute for paying attention." Diane Sawyer
I’m not much of a natural when it comes to learning languages, but one phrase that’s seared into my brain is Fermez vos Bouches (shut your mouths) as spoken, not unkindly, by my high school French teacher. She wanted us to close our mouths because she knew that getting us to pay attention was the only chance she had of putting something into our brains and helping up pass the AP Exam (as well as find a restroom if we ever wandered into France). It turns out that she was right. There is no substitute for paying attention when it comes to learning.
What is paying attention? In short, it is learning to weed out extraneous information, both with perceptual selectivity and with cognitive selectivity. Imaging studies suggest that there isn’t one ‘paying attention’ part of our brain, but the act of focusing happens in different areas. The prefrontal cortex is involved in task-related activity and planning, the parietal cortex helps with bodily and environmental awareness, and the anterior cingulated with motivation. When a learner pays attention to something, using all of these parts of the brain, the part of the brain processing the information also becomes more active, making the information more likely to stick with us. In other words, “Construction of individual meaning (ie. learning) improves when students pay attention.” (Dialog on Learning, Tomkins Courtland Community College, 09/09/09)
Fortunately, we can train our brains to focus more effectively and, therefore, become more proficient learners. One method of increasing our powers of attention is meditation. (Jones, Rachel (2007) Learning to Pay Attention, Public Library of Science Biology) Researcher Richard Davidson and his colleagues tested subjects’ powers of attention with an attentional test. For example, subjects were asked to pick out numbers in a stream of numbers and letters shown to them on a screen. Subjects were then given three months of intensive training in a form of meditation that trains the mind to shut out distractions and focus on stimuli in a non-judgmental manner. When the subjects were asked to repeat the test, there was significant improvement compared to the control group. These subjects were not meditating during the test, but had actually changed their brains in a way that allowed them to improve their performance on the test.
Another method of paying attention is, ironically, to take deliberate breaks from paying attention. Researchers at Melbourne University found that people who surfed the internet at work for personal reasons were actually 9% more productive than those who were blocked from doing so. (This statistic excludes the 14% of workers who are prone to internet addiction, meaning they do not stop surfing even when they want to.) The attraction of internet surfing, according to Dr Coker, can be attributed to people’s imperfect concentration. “People need to zone out for a bit to get back their concentration. Short and unobtrusive breaks, such as a quick surf of the internet, enables the mind to rest itself, leading to a higher total net concentration for a days work, and as a result, increased productivity.” (The University of Melbourne Media Release, Thursday 2 April 2009) Of course, breaks do not have to be for online shopping but this study sure helps remove some of the guilt!
While I’ve never particularly prided myself on my surfing, internet or live, I’ve long considered myself an excellent multi-tasker and took satisfaction in being able to keep many balls in the air at the same time. I recently discovered that, like the rest of the mortals on the planet, I am actually only working on one thing at a time and I’m not so much a great multi-tasker as I am a great serial-tasker. We are actually switching back and forth between subjects, without needing much start-up time. We’re kind of like jugglers who actually only have one ball in the air at a time but keep changing balls so rapidly that it looks like we’ve got several flying at once. Okay, I could live with that. But imagine my surprise to find that I’m probably not very good at juggling at all.
According to researchers at Stanford, “the people who multi-task the most are the worst at it.” (Study Find People Who Multi-task Often Bad At It, Randolph Schmid, San Jose Mercury News, 08/24/09) People in the high multi-tasking group were worse at taking in information, organizing information, ignoring irrelevant information, and took longer to switch from one task to another. High multi-taskers tend to love more information but aren’t able to process it effectively. On the other hand, the fewer tasks someone undertook at one time, the more they were able to think effectively about the information in front of them. Whether the tendency to multi-task caused the lower attention, or lower attention people tended to multi-task, was not determined in the study. It is clear from this study, however, that paying attention to one thing at a time will increase our effectiveness. I guess my French teacher had it right so I think I’ll fermez ma bouche and concentré.
You can teach your children how to focus in fun, entertaining ways. Here are some items to capture and hold their attention. Ball of Whacks, Simplexity, Building Thinking Skills, Sand Pictures.
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
Food for Thought, or Thought for Food
I used to know someone in college who was far skinnier than he wanted to be and would lose weight if he didn’t make an effort to keep it on. We would go out for lunch sometimes and he would say, “I don’t really want one, but I guess I should have a milkshake, too.” Sigh. Like most of us, I’ve never had that problem and have struggled with maintaining a healthy weight my whole adult life. This is not to make light of the problems of underweight people but, given the statistics on overweight Americans, I’m guessing most of us relate better to my situation than my friend’s.
Two of the largest selling book genres are cookbooks and diet books, which, taken together, attest to our enormous interest in food. There are currently thousands of food books in print so it’s hard to imagine anyone having anything new to say on the subject of eating. The End of Overeating by David Kessler, M.D. manages to approach an issue that’s dear to our hearts, not to mention our stomachs, with a fresh perspective. The book’s genesis was in a simple question that Dr. Kessler had: Why do we eat what we don’t want to eat? Dr. Kessler was the former FDA Commissioner who oversaw the redesigned food label (the food pyramid) and took on the tobacco industry so he was well-connected in many fields when he decided to go in search of an answer to his query.
The reward center of our brain lights up when we encounter food with a high reinforcing value. Sugar, fat and salt are reinforcing foods, meaning an animal will work harder to get them than foods without those ingredients. We then produce dopamine, which motivates us to seek these foods out next time in anticipation of the reward. As David Foster Wallace colloquially put it, "But then, so how come I can’t stop, if I want to stop, is the thing."
One reason we have trouble stopping is that the food industry uses its knowledge of our biology to give us a more pleasurable experience, which usually means eating things we can't resist. For example, Chili’s popular Boneless Shanghai Wings are made of deboned chicken (quick to eat), which is injected with a water and salt solution (the water makes it easy to chew), battered, breaded (the breading contains salt and sugar), deep-fried, and covered with ginger-citrus sauce (mostly sugar along with more salt). Accompanying the chicken is a creamy wasabi ranch dressing, which is made from mayonnaise and contains additional salt, fat and sugar. And this is only an appetizer. As a food consultant said, "(This dish) is the quintessential example of how to cram as much hedonics as you can into one dish."
The food industry also knows that the allure of the basic building blocks of sugar, fat and salt can be strengthened by adding factors such as variety (multiple flavors like chocolate with a caramel swirl), multiple sensory stimuli (such as smooth and crunchy together or hot fudge on cold ice cream), and emotional connections (such as the 'fun' atmosphere in restaurant ads). Dr. Kessler concludes that, "Rewarding foods are rewiring our brains. As they do, we become more sensitive to the cues that lead us to anticipate rewarding foods." This makes it harder and harder over time to resist foods when we’re walking by a bakery, sitting in a meeting with muffins, or even possessing the knowledge that there are cookies in the house. Overcoming our resistance is why our ice cream, which used to be offered in vanilla, chocolate or strawberry fifty years ago, have now exploded into flavors like Ben and Jerry’s Everything But The… which contains chocolate and vanilla ice creams, Heath® bar chunks, white chocolate chunks, peanut butter cups, and chocolate-covered almonds.
After some sleuthing in the food industry, Dr. Kessler states, "I began to develop an overarching theory about eating for reward: Chronic exposure to highly palatable foods changes our brains, conditioning us to seek continued stimulation." This sounds a lot like addiction (in fact, dopamine is the same chemical released when using cocaine). Dr. Kessler continues, “Conditioned hypereating works the same way as other 'stimulus-response' disorders in which reward is involved, such as compulsive gambling and substance abuse. Such disorders are characterized by a high degree of sensitivity to sensory stimuli, and they typically lead to a perceived loss of control, an inability to feel satisfied, and obsessive thinking.” Dr. Kessler found that most overweight people and many normal weight people had obsessive thoughts of food. This rings true for at least some people because Overeaters Anonymous is an organization based on the twelve-step recovery model of addiction that helps members with what they term 'compulsive eating'.
So now that we understand the problem, what is the solution? The End of Overeating outlines several steps we can take to reprogram our brains to have a healthy relationship with food. The first is to change our emotional connections with food. We have developed simplistic associations of certain foods with comfort and pleasure, which leads us to overeat (eg. cherry pie tastes good). By using more complex thoughts, we can push ourselves away from something so it no longer seems desirable and other things seem desirable instead (eg. cherry pie is full of fat and sugar and I'm going to feel good if I skip it and bad if I eat it). This conscious thought will help make it easier over time to change your habitual thoughts. Another change we can make is planning our eating. Replacing the impulsive act of eating with a thoughtful act will help us behave in accordance with our true values and give us structure that will help support us. Understanding our triggers gives us more control as well. One of my favorite take-aways from the book is the realistic assessment of my own behavior. If I know that every time I think I'm going to have just a few crackers I really end up eating more than I want, I can stop myself from taking the first bite because I will no longer believe my thought that I'm just going to have a few. This technique can be coupled with avoiding traps, such as sitting far from the muffins in a meeting. Another technique is to make rules, such as not allowing yourself to eat between meals (behavior the svelte French consider bizarre).
After thinking I would have no interest in another book about food, I found myself fascinated with learning about how food influences my brain and how my brain influences my food choices. You can help pass on what you know to the young people in your life with several Museum Tour products. Teach the children in your life healthy attitudes about eating while playing with the International Dinner Play Set or the Playful Chef Kit. Learn more about what you eat with the Kitchen Chemistry Set or teach young children to make nutritious meals with The Playful Chef Cookbook.
Monday, November 9, 2009
The Architect in Each of Us
Apparently long before David Letterman appeared on the scene, people were obsessed with lists. The historian Herodotus (484 BC–ca. 425 BC), and the scholar Callimachus of Cyrene (ca 305–240 BC) listed the seven wonders of the ancient world: the Great Pyramid of Giza, the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, the Statue of Zeus at Olympia, the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus, the Mausoleum of Maussollos, the Colossus of Rhodes, and the Lighthouse of Alexandria. Architecture plays a prominent role in this list since, of these monuments, four are buildings and the Gardens also contained structures.
For thousands of years, people have been inspired to greatness by the dream of constructing buildings of beauty. Who hasn't looked up at a building and felt awe and wonder, as well as appreciation for the architects who gave us the experience? Since humans began constructing, building design and style has always been considered in relation to materials, environment, use and artistry, often with inspirational results.
My son and I were recently in a diner with Trivial Pursuit cards on the table. He picked one up and asked me, "Who invented the arch?" I was amazed not at the answer (the Romans), but by the question. I never thought about the fact that the arch had to be invented, but rather assumed that it had always existed. Of course it has always existed in nature, but one person was the first to copy that idea and incorporate it into an edifice. In reality, each of the practical, structural and ornamental details of architecture came from the mind of an architect, which means that architects must combine a knowledge and love of science with a talent and appreciation for art and the creativity of being able to think, "What if?"
Miriam-Webster Dictionary defines architecture as simply, “The art and science of building.” Richard Rogers, a British modernist architect, takes it further by saying, "I believe very strongly, and have fought since many years ago, to get architecture not just (included) within schools, but architecture talked about under history, geography, science, technology, and art." Architecture touches so many aspects of what makes us human, and learning about architecture can open up innumerable avenues to learning about humanity.
Since so many deep strains inside us are touched by architecture, how can we encourage young architects and the architect in each of us? Children are natural builders and love to use blankets to create a fort, blocks to create a zoo, sand to create a castle, or sticks to create a magical kingdom. According to Architecture in Education, when children engage in construction play, they face all of the challenges of real architects. Kids have clients who give them problems to solve with constraints, such as the size of the dolls who will use the buildings or the number of kids to fit into the fort. They must use available materials and be aware of the structural limitations of stacking too many blocks or the ‘legal’ implications of using a heirloom quilt. Young builders must consider land use (if I build the castle in the hall, will my brother trip over it?) and deadlines (when is bathtime?). Finally, they aim to impress with their building acumen and inspire awe with their creativity, just as adult architects do. In this sense, you have only to provide space, time, materials and appreciation of their creations in order to let their natural problem-solving skills and ingenuity flourish.
Even without knowing about architectural styles and periods, you can talk with your child about buildings in books and in your neighborhood. Ask questions. Why does a mall have no windows? Why doesn’t a front door have a large glass panel like a sliding door? Why are houses made out of wood and public buildings often made out of bricks or stone? Which buildings are old and how can we tell? How have windows changed over the years? Why are roofs more peaked in colder climates? The questions are never-ending and those of us with children know that they will come up with even more. As your child gets older, specific architectural styles can be explored, along with the engineering issues involved in creating large structures. The guessing, thinking and researching involved will help your child develop curiosity, logic, competence, and a love of learning, whatever profession she eventually chooses.
You can ask yourself the same questions about how form follows function, how materials were selected, and how styles have evolved to fit time and place. You can learn about whichever aspect piques your interest in great structures: the religious art in medieval churches, the efficiency of great modern home design, or the engineering audacity of huge bridges. If you would like to begin to learn about styles, try the website of the Victoria and Albert Museum which beautifully catalogs the distinctive features of each of the ten main architectural styles along with a fun quiz at the end. Don’t forget to play, too, with 3D puzzles, home design software, local architectural tours, or just digging in the sand with your kids!
Museum Tour has many products available for architects, young and old. Try Ubersix contruction sets to erect giant skyscrapers and bridges. Archiquest building blocks are available in several different sets, such as Pyramids, Castles, Pagodas, and Russian Domes. The award-winning Young Architects Building Set, has all the materials for a 10 to 14 year-old to design and build a three-dimensional model of a home or other building. If your architect prefers to read, try the wonderful preschool book Pippo the Fool, which is about a competition to design a dome for a Cathedral in Florence.
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
The Joys of Open-Ended Play
Consider this: The Children’s Discovery Center in San Jose, California had a problem. They had a 1,200 square foot open space for changing exhibits, which was empty for a month this fall between the departure of one show and the arrival of the next. A museum staffer had an idea: she taped up some discarded boxes and threw them in the exhibit area. After adding a few dozen more boxes, some crayons, masking tape and safety scissors, the museum found they had one of their most popular exhibits of all time: Box City. Given that the museum has had exhibits costing up to a million dollars in the same space, what makes Box City one of the most popular attractions in the museum?
Before we get to that question, consider this: The National Toy Hall of Fame inducts toys each year based on specific criteria including the toy's icon status, the longevity of its popularity, how the toy encourages learning or creativity, and innovation. Past winners have included Legos, the Barbie doll, crayons, Tonka trucks, the jigsaw puzzle, and other usual suspects. Based on their criteria, in 2008 the Hall of Fame’s judges inducted … The Stick. "It's very open-ended, all-natural, the perfect price -- there aren't any rules or instructions for its use," said Christopher Bensch, the museum's curator of collections. "It can be a Wild West horse, a medieval knight's sword, a boat on a stream or a slingshot with a rubber band. ... No snowman is complete without a couple of stick arms, and every campfire needs a stick for toasting marshmallows. This toy is so fantastic that it's not just for humans anymore. You can find otters, chimps and dogs playing with it."
The box? The stick? What is it with open-ended play that makes it so appealing that kids will put down the several hundred dollar video game system to play with a ball of silly putty? It could be that our children’s brains know what they need to develop optimally, just as their bodies know when they're hungry. Research has shown there are several advantages to a child's development if they engage in play that has no defined expectations or outcomes.
Open-ended play develops the imagination. Imagination is the ability to form a mental image of something that is not there. Starting around age two, children can understand the symbolic nature of one thing standing for another, such as a box for a boat and a towel for a sail. The abilities to think symbolically and abstractly are the basic building blocks of creativity and intelligence. Albert Einstein even said, "Imagination is more important than knowledge," and he's no slouch in either department!
Creative play also helps children develop their social and emotional abilities. Kids will try on adult roles and test out ways of acting and being. In this way, they can develop their 'what-if' abilities, which is one way to strengthen their understanding of consequences. Children solidify their learning by not just taking things in passively, such as with screen time, but by mimicking and recreating what they have seen. They can also express themselves emotionally under the guise of being a character and children who playact are known to develop their ability to empathize. Creative play has also been linked to increased cooperation, problem-solving skills, leadership skills and behavioral control, such as using words to express oneself and waiting one's turn. Hmm… Maybe we should have time-outs to play house in Congress. It couldn't hurt.
Spending a lot of time in creative play also helps build cognitive skills. According to a National Public Radio report, "While... play might look a lot like time spent doing nothing much at all, it actually helps build a critical cognitive skill called executive function. Executive function has a number of elements, such as working memory and cognitive flexibility, but perhaps the most important is self-regulation - the ability for kids to control their emotions and behavior, resist impulses, and exert self-control and discipline. Executive function - and its self-regulation element - is important. Poor executive function is associated with high dropout rates, drug use and crime. In fact, good executive function is a better predictor of success in school than a child's IQ." (Creative Play Makes for Kids in Control, February 28, 2008)
So how can we give our children this elixir of all good things? Unlike most parts of parenting, it's very simple: 1) provide a safe space, either in the house or outdoors, 2) provide open-ended materials that will help spark creativity, and 3) provide the gift of time. (Why Creative Play Matters, Zrinka Peters, education.com) Children who have ample opportunity for creative play will be comfortable with it and find occasion for it everywhere. For example, when my daughter was in kindergarten, I received a note from her teacher one day that said, "Would you please talk to your daughter about pretending to be a dog at lunch and eating her meal with her hands behind her back? It was okay for the first week, but now everyone is doing it and they’re not all as neat as she is."
You can provide materials that will spark the creative drive in your child. Toddlers love to mimic so you can provide them with toy household goods or dress-up clothes. Other items that can stimulate creativity are stuffed animals or other figures, and large building blocks. Preschoolers also enjoy creating whole small worlds, such as dollhouses, airports, or towns. They also enjoy dolls, dinosaurs and other representative playthings. Elementary aged children add to the repertoire with puppets, play-dough, adult-style dolls, and more sophisticated building blocks and construction materials. All children love age-appropriate art supplies such as specialty papers, pens, paints and scissors. To encourage creativity, just make sure there are lots of uses, rather than one correct outcome such as with a coloring book or painted figurine. (Structured play is fine at times, too, and can teach skills such as following rules and sequencing.) One caveat regarding encouraging creativity is to stay away from TV show and movie character costumes or props since playacting things seen on the screen is often an act of re-creation rather than creation. What you want is to inspire their own imaginations, like the kids who were given a bunch of rubber gloves in their preschool class. One said, "I'm a doctor." Another pronounced, "I'm a scientist." And a third one exclaimed, "I'm a mommy changing her hair color!"
Museum Tour has highly creative products for every age. Little constructors will like Bumpity Blocks, their siblings will spend hours with Blocks and Marbles, and older kids, 10 and up, love dreaming big with Ubertropolis. For playacting, even a baby can join in with Gentle Giraffe, preschoolers and up will like playing the chef with French Cooking or Green Build-a-Fort. Little artists will enjoy the 3-in1 Portfolio, Colored Glass Tile Magnets or Crayola Art Studio software. These products are the just the beginning of what Museum Tour offers to spark your child’s creativity and development.
Thursday, October 22, 2009
Birthday Wish – Foreign Language Tapes
When I was in high school my classmates' response to foreign language requirements was "which language is the easiest?" We were full of U.S. pride and believed everyone around the globe spoke English so there was no reason to have to speak to people in their native tongue. As a result, my friends and I were limited by not being bilingual travelers.
Could it be that our country’s attitudes are changing? It is hard to believe that just a few years ago when we were angry at France for not participating in the Coalition of the Willing in Iraq, french fries became freedom fries in Congress. It made me aware of how our view of foreigners is often emotional rather than knowledgeable.
One thing that international wars accomplish is to make us conscious of being part of a world citizenry. Before 1992 few had ever heard of Bosnia and Herzegovina and certainly could not place these countries on a map. When Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait, attention turned to the Middle East and by now most Americans can identify the location of Iraq, Iran, and Afghanistan. Yet, most people are still uninformed about the cultures of these ancient countries and few of us speak Farsi or Pashtu. Those we elect to office often make decisions affecting the lives of millions without understanding other cultures.
Illegal and legal immigrants from the south have created many city areas where only Spanish is spoken. Bilingual street signs, airport messages, and hospital admittance forms have become the norm in parts of the United States. Slowly, employers are seeing the benefit of being able to speak to a person in his or her native tongue. Bilingual assistance is available in court hearings and government agencies. Museum Tour looks for bilingual call center operators.
Words are important and different languages have words that imply a variety of meanings. Without being able to communicate in a person's native tongue there is a great chance of misinformation leading to mistakes. International travel is much more enjoyable if you can talk directly to the people. Jobs are available to those who speak second languages and, of course, language fluency is imperative for foreign service work.
When talking to Europeans or Asians we often hear that they speak four or five languages fluently. Why are they able to do this and we can not? Is it language fear? Not starting ear training at an early age? Less practice in memorization? Teacher training? Priorities? Expectations? Less international travel? Does the idea that the U.S. is a melting pot play into the notion that everyone must communicate through a common language – English? Does this belief make us less sensitive to the rich cultural variations that might enhance our lives if we embraced differences rather than eliminated them?
I believe that expectation plays a large part in the decision to learn another language. Children in certain countries are expected to speak more than their native tongue and their second language accomplishment is as much the norm as learning to play a sport. Parents encourage their children to travel abroad in order to become a well rounded person.
As a country that considers itself a world leader wouldn’t we be better off if we could speak to others without translators? Leadership involves communication and understanding. Let us help our next generation of children become part of a global community so they can make the world a kinder place. Expect them to become bilingual.
Please let me know your opinion about this issue. Go to Museum Tour’s blog site museumtour.blogspot.com and comment.
Museum Tour offers language product's for young and old. Bilingual Kids: French, Spanish, for ages 6+; Instant Immersion is offered in Italian, Chinese, Japanese, German, Spanish, French, and Japanese which is a comprehensive program for older children and adults; The Talk Now Series is a practical first step for travelers interested in one of 23 language selections. For those who need immediate translation help World Traveler Language Translator offers 44 language translations and is a handy device to take on a trip.
Bullying in Schools - New Epidemic?
In the schools, at home, and at an early age we can do a lot to lower the incidence of bullying and make children aware of the rights of others. The American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry says that half of all school children are bullied physically or verbally at one time or another, with cyberbullying being added to the mix. Children who bully are more likely to wind up in the prison system. The consequences of being bullied are diverse, including headaches, poor grades, depression, low self esteem, and even suicide. The Stop Bullying Now Program has developed many interventions that work, and teachers are being trained to recognize bullies and eliminate destructive behavior. Parents should be aware of changes in their child’s behavior and teachers need to pay attention to what is happening in the playground and school halls. A detention or lecture may not be enough. Training and counseling are often needed to assist the bully to learn better behaviors and to help the bullied redevelop self esteem.
Did you know that Plastic Degrades in Sea Water?
Can MP3 Players cause Hearing Loss?
He is concerned that a generation of children who are losing their hearing at an early age. Parents beware! Monitor volumes and teach your children ear safety. Headphones seem to invite people to turn up the volume and the small hairs in our inner ear cannot survive with continuous abuse. There is a relationship to volume and length of time you are exposed. The rule of thumb is to moderate the volume or not use headphones for more than an hour at a time. The second rule is to not have volumes over 85 decibels. For comparison: a humming refrigerator is 45 decibels; voice communication is 60 decibels; motorcycles, firecrackers, firearms are over 85 decibels. Avoid noises that are too loud, too close, or last too long. For more information go to the National Institute on Deafness and other Communication Disorders.
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
The 3 Rs plus Electronics?
Schools concentrate on the 3 Rs - reading writing, 'rithmetic but some do not take into account the changing skills needed to survive in the evolving world. For most of us, words used in the study of electronics are like speaking a foreign language. What is a diode, a capacitor, or resistor, and how do they manage electrons flowing through a wire? What will developments in nano-technology bring to the future and will our lives continue to be propelled into unknown realms? Will I be on the "band wagon" or have to jump off because the unknown is too scary?
My children and grandchildren are far more adept at using the computer, making Internet connections, managing their iPods and MP3 players than I am. They seem to have an intuitive sense of how to connect to the information they want and how to repair problems that have gone wrong in their electrical devices. My granddaughter tells me it is "just a generation thing". Is her mind wired differently than mine? Children as early as 3 years are being introduced to the computer in a way so that it has almost become an extension of their bodies. New software vocabulary is embraced with ease.
Though most schools and families do not think of the hardware part of computers in the same way they do the software part, many jobs of the future are going to go to those who understand the electronics behind the device. These people are going to be able to repair our cars, computers, and phones. They are going to be the ones developing new technology to make devices go even faster. They are the pace setters.Becoming comfortable with technology, terminology, and the ability to change is part of our future. It is time to start introducing children as early as eight to the vocabulary and challenge of electronics so they also will be at ease with the idea of managing electrical flow to produce work. Many people turn to NPR's Car Talk to understand what is wrong and how to fix their cars. In the future there may be an "Electronics Talk" to help fix household devices. For such a show to be possible there needs to be a great many savvy people who talk the talk.
Math and physics teach underlying principles. Electronics show practical applications and helps give reason to the hours of classroom work that a child endures. Electronics offers a great outlet for creative people. It is its own art form using logical thinking to solve problems. Just as understanding something about cars is useful when you need repairs, knowing something about electronics is helpful in working with repairmen. For the inspired who like creative challenges the field is blossoming and "electronics speak" is equal to "future speak."
New electrical devices will also create ethical dilemmas. For instance, children at birth could be easily tagged with an electronic device placed under their skin that will follow them through life. We now track animals in the wild. Why not people? Without understanding what is being developed it will be difficult to participate in the ethical discussion. A democracy only works if you have an informed citizen group. Understanding electronics and contemporary technology in general is part of embracing the world of knowledge.
Museum Tour Catalog offers a way to get started in electronics by playing with simple toys like Elenco's Snaptricity. As you become more comfortable you can switch to circuit boards. These devices teach children the basics of controlling electrical flow to make something happen. They are hands-on activities that produce satisfaction because there is a visible result.
Not only do these toys develop a comfort with the terminology of electronics but they teach children the valuable lesson of following directions. Electronic directions are not much more difficult than following a dress pattern once you learn to understand the underlying principles. Electronics education also offers hand-eye coordination since wires and snap together parts need to be managed carefully. Most of all the field opens a window for creative problem solving, a skill that transfers to other aspects of life.
Items that will stimulate your family's interest in electronics include: Caption Camera; Sylvania 8.9" G Meso XP Bundle; Text Messenger; R/C Snap Circuit Rover Deluxe.
Is your Pet’s Health at Risk due to Fluoride in Dog Food?
Do you Know What is in Your Bottled Water?
New Digital Channel to benefit Low Income Families
Tuesday, October 6, 2009
What is so special about The International Year of Astronomy?
Galileo invented the telescope 400 years ago. There have been many celebrations last summer and we continue to honor this great man by expanding on his vision and developing more complex telescopes. So, why not use them..…go observe! NASA presents us with brilliant images that are guides to finding them on your own.
In September, look for Jupiter. Jupiter is the largest planet in the solar system. 1610 was the year Galileo discovered four of Jupiter’s moons. Can you see them? Modern telescopes have found that there are 63 moons of which four are large.
Andromeda is visible in October and all you need is your eyes or binoculars. This enormous galaxy of stars, gas, and dust is predicted to collide with our own Milky Way galaxy in billions of years.
Watch in November for the Crab Nebula. First seen by Native Americans and Chinese astronomers who recorded a bright star that could be seen during the day in 1054 A.D. What they were seeing was the death of a star which eventually formed the Crab Nebula we see today.
The Orion Nebula which can be seen in December is thought to be disks of material that could be building blocks of future solar systems. You can see it on a dark night with your eyes, but will see so much more with a telescope.FETTU – From Earth to the Universe – is an exhibit of astronomical images that is at the center of the International Year of Astronomy (IYA). It was at the Smithsonian last summer and traveling versions are being seen in 60 countries throughout the world. To find out if it is coming to your city you can visit
Amateur astronomers are helping to celebrate IYA. Consider Mark Sieble of Michigan, builder of Mark’s Tin Shed Observatory (I’d like to see that!) who captured an image on June 12, 2009 that will be used as part of the U.S.’s contribution to a project capturing photographic sections of the moon taken from 40 countries. Moon for All Mankind, a collection of these images is being assembled to honor the first space landing on the moon forty years ago. http://365daysofastronomy.org/ another informative site you might want to bookmark is a daily pod cast produced in honor of IYA.
Are you or someone in your family ready to be an amateur sky watcher? Children can start sky watching with a sky chart in hand, their own eyes, and binoculars. As they get a bit older they will enjoy exploring with an inexpensive telescope, learning how to use and take care of a piece of scientific equipment. Books abound with Greek Mythology that makes finding Orion’s belt or Hercules interesting. Inspirational books show magnificent, color enhanced images, explain how to purchase a telescope, and where to find assistance when you need it. The more serious amateur astronomer will use detailed charts to help in their exploration. Astronomy clubs are fun to join because you meet others like yourself. As a spectator you can take advantage of their free star parties. A visit to the planetarium also helps the novice who wants to understand the local night sky.
Those who get bitten by the astronomy bug will want a more sophisticated telescope with precision optics and perhaps even electronics to help track the object of choice. Imagine yourself on a clear dark night watching the night sky light up in all its beauty. And….imagine that you know what you are looking at and can find and name the images. You can do it…astronomy is a great hobby and can give you hours of fun.
Items that wil stimulate your family's interest in astronomy include: Start Theater, a planetarium for the home; Nightwatch, the reference of choice for backyard astronomers; Starship Earth, a globe of outer space explores the universe; Telescopes at many price points; Crystal Orb paperweights of the solar system. a piece of a real meteorite that that fell in 1947; Clestial Globe shows constellations by night, a Solar System light that orbits in your room; and many more.
When the Climate Gets Hot Can We Help It Cool Down?
Give Your Kid a Hug!
Have you ever thought about the Ethics of Space Travel?
There are many experiments done on astronauts and most of these are acceptable. However, astronauts have been leery about experiments that interfere with getting enough sleep. Sleep is difficult in microgravity and astronauts do have the right to opt out of a study even if it does affect the end results. Religion also plays a role in making ethical decisions. When a Jewish man died on the Columbia disaster there was a question about when to return remains. DNA studies would take weeks and Jewish custom demands immediate burial. As we explore space more fully there will be many ethical questions facing NASA that in the past have only been considered in science fiction books.
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
In Love With Language Words Plus Imagination Needed!
Crutches in the form of dictionaries, thesauruses, and encyclopedias are a great help to writers. It surprised me to discover how ancient the history of lexicography (compiling dictionary) was. Did you know that the first compilation of words dating back to 2300 BCE was found in what is now modern Syria? It would have been fun to be the one to find ancient tablets with bilingual Sumarian-Akkadian word lists. Of next importance were the Chinese who have been credited with the first monolingual dictionary written in about 3 BCE. Over the years there were many other early Arabic and European word compilations that set the stage for an English language version.
Since I use dictionaries often I appreciate those who put them together. An alphabetic English language dictionary was first written by a school teacher, Robert Cawdrey in 1604. If you jump in time to Samuel Johnson in 1755 you will learn that he compiled a more expansive “Dictionary of the English Language”, helping set a standard for future books. Then with another major leap forward, the Oxford English Dictionary was compiled. What an effort! Started by the Philological Society in London, it took over 50 years to complete the first edition in 1884 entitled A New English Dictionary on Historical Principles. Volunteers were called to help with this monumental task, and one of note was murderer Thomas Minor. Minor’s life was sustained by words as he contributed hours of work assembling definitions from his insane asylum in Crowthorn, Berksure, England. The Oxford English Dictionary with its 616,500 word-forms remains the most comprehensive and trusted dictionary of the English language and is constantly being updated. As a little aside…the Dutch dictionary Woordenboek der Nederlandsche Taal is the largest in the world and it took twice as long to complete.
Now, let us explore the thesaurus. Peter Mark Roget was a man of science, a physician, and a lexicographer who loved organization. He started early in childhood putting lists together that eventually led to his life’s work. In 1852 he published his major work “Thesaurus of Words and Phrases”, an invaluable book for helping writers of every ilk select just the right word to express their meaning. Roget, a man of many talents is also known to have invented the slide rule and for recognizing the concept of “persistence of vision”, a discovery that led to development of animation and films. Roget certainly was an inventive man.
Today, specialized dictionaries and glossaries in print and electronically make it easy to check spelling, meaning, and word roots. However, words themselves do not add up to their artful use. How does a truly great communicator use words? Are writers and orators born with a gift or do they learn to love words and their use by practice and study? Perhaps the answer is both.
Writing is a craft that involves creativity being applied to common standards and techniques. As in any art form, hours of practice are needed to be able to take words and craft them for understanding and inspiration. Writing involves vision without which there is no path for words to travel. It may involve hours of research in order to provide a depth of knowledge underlying the subject of the writing. Writing includes developing style, knowing how to present conversations, and of course, word use.
Dictionaries and thesaurus help the writer but in themselves can not be the muse. Time spent with imaginative play, creative and critical thinking processes and even silence give rise to an inner voice that is needed in speech and writing. Activities that promote creative expression are just as important as those focused on the accumulation of words.
At Museum Tour we suggest many ways to develop and practice creative language skills. Our early focus on language development helps children pronounce words correctly. It is difficult to read and write if your r sounds like a w. Books and games with factual content, workbooks as learning aids, and activities for performances are all part of our offerings to help young learners turn words into eloquent communication. A few examples include Speechersize (pronunciation), Origin of Expressions (creative language), Writers Companion (a how to book), Sensational Sentences (practice), Poem in Your Pocket (inspirational), Adventure Books (to embrace reading), Black Beauty (comprehension), Archiquest (creativity), Building Thinking Skills (reasoning and analytics) and Flipbook (sequencing).
Pain and Swearing? What next?
The study started when psychologist Richard Stephens listened to his wife’s language during childbirth. There were interesting findings….People who uttered swear words while keeping their hands in extremely cold water were able to withstand the ordeal longer than those who didn’t. They also reported less pain afterwards. For more information Click Here!
Swine Flu and Weight
It is known that most people who die have other risks such as diabetes, hypertension, coronary and lung diseases. According to “Jesse Roth, a diabetes specialist at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York."The resting level of inflammation goes up in obesity," he says. He suspects that this disrupts the body's immune response to viruses, making a lethal runaway reaction more likely.” So…ladies and gents….get it off! For more information go to The New Scientist.
Born Without Half her Cortex -10 year old can see
Doctors originally discovered the problem when the girl was three years of age and developed seizures. They were able to stop the seizures with medication. In exploring why this child acts normally, doctors did a brain scan that showed retinal nerves “should normally connect to the right half of her brain instead set up shop in two parts of the left brain: the thalamus and the visual cortex.” It is amazing to see how adaptable our bodies are. For more information Click Here!
Monday, September 14, 2009
Pets Help People, but Can You Potty Train Your Bird?
Emotional and physical well being is often enhanced by having a companion animal. Dogs that need to be walked daily force the owner into a healthy exercise program. Grooming and petting provide tactile connections that human beings need and often don’t get as they reach old age. Pet owners in general develop an understanding of what it means to give and receive unconditional love, loyalty, and sympathy. Caring for animals encourages kindness and understanding. Service animals lead the blind across streets, help the deaf hear alarms, provide warning signs for those living alone, and give an overall feeling of safety. In addition, companion animals help lessen the feeling of loneliness, lowering blood pressure and even cholesterol levels.
In discussing the advantages of pets, one of my friends told me about her Double Yellow Head Amazon Parrot. She keeps the cage open and lets her bird fly around the house without being afraid of poop being dropped everywhere. She claimed that she was able to “housebreak” her parrot and teach it to relieve himself in the proper spot. Wow! I found that statement hard to believe so my staff and I did some investigative research to find out if that was possible.
What we found was an overwhelming affirmation, especially with “hookbill” birds. You can in fact train a bird much as you train a dog but you do need a lot more patience and attention. Start by paying close attention to signals that the bird may give before relieving himself. These clues may include a ruffling of tail feathers or a look in the eyes. When you have selected the spot you want the bird to relieve himself (many choose the cage itself). Follow up by taking the bird to the spot when it is time to go potty. Say “go potty”. If he moves from the spot, take him back until he goes. Play time can follow for 7-10 minutes before returning the bird to his perch where you will start the cycle all over again. When the bird follows through correctly he needs to be praised with words and treats.
There may be a few accidents on the way but with a lot of attention to body language and schedule you can succeed with a great reward for doing so. Once the bird is conditioned there is no need to perch him. You can start training him to “poop on command”, over wastebaskets and garbage cans.
Taking care of your bird requires daily maintenance, good nutrition, play time, toys, and interaction. Pay attention to common foods that can poison your bird. Among the culprits are chocolate, avocado, apple seeds, salt, caffeine, and alcohol. House plants such as daffodils, jasmine, lilies, ivy, parsley, and holly are a sampling of those to avoid placing near your bird.
Never punish your bird by withholding food, hitting, or holding a grudge. Birds are very intelligent and respond to frowning expressions, soft speech, and being put back in their cage. Lastly, if you are purchasing a new feathered friend make sure that it is legal and not a kidnapped bird on the endangered species list.
If you give such attention to a bird or any animal you will start to understand why emotional attachments get formed. Museum Tour Catalog encourages you to understand your animal and to have fun with your pet. We are confident that pets can help you learn, grow, and become a more satisfied person!
Our book series, Why do Dogs have Wet Noses?, Cats HaveWhiskers?, Horses Have Manes? is a fun read to learn unusual animal facts. Dog Tricks will teach you how to train a dog, and Fun With Your Dog, Fun With Your Cat actually has you making food to test their taste buds, teaching them to sit, and learning fun facts about these pets.
Sports Often Cause Knee Injuries
Wow! That is great international collaboration. Ready made plugs that imitate humane bone and cartilage are inserted microscopically. Stem cells from the bone marrow impregnates the pores of the implant, guiding the creation of bone on one side and cartilage on the other. The plug disappears in about six months producing a less traumatic surgery. Perhaps your son or daughter will become a researcher producing life support aides. To find more information about this procedure, Click Here!
Helping To Choose a Healthier Diet
Being physically active helps you maintain weight, reduces stress and in general helps you feel better. To lose weight, however, the calories taken in have to be less than those expended. Most dieters are helped when they start tracking their caloric intake, becoming aware of what they are eating. I was pleasantly surprised when reviewing this site to find that it was filled with a great deal of useful information.
What Do You Do if You Find a Baby Bird?
Sometimes if no one is around, the parent bird will still feed the fledgling on the ground. Feathered birds can be put on a branch or returned to the nest. When the nest has fallen and broken, put it in a box and strap it to the tree. If you have found a hurt bird then put it in a small covered box and visit a veterinarian or call the Wildlife International Rehabilitation Council Web site. Feeding a baby bird at home may mean giving formula food every 30 minutes for a month. This is not an easy task. I’ve tried it and failed.
Tuesday, September 1, 2009
A Case for a History Sleuth
The complaint continues about our schools today and is especially true for history classes. Studying history through lectures or memorization is a history killer for most children. What happened hundreds of years ago may not have much relevance to a 10 or 15 year old? We all come from the past and are influenced by our ancestors so history is an important course of study for good citizenship. History provides human understanding of the past, moral contemplation that tests our values today, and a sense of identity. Let’s explore how we can understand the past better than by lectures and readings?
How can we teach history in a way that is useful and fascinating? Primitive people used to teach tribal history through oral presentations around the fireplace. At time these tales would be animated by figures in masks or by dancers. Good story tellers were in demand and commanded great respect. Troubadours in the middle ages would write and sing about the past and tell tales of news from afar.
Human beings are story-telling animals. One teaching method that utilizes this attribute is known as the case method. Cases are stories with a message. They give an opportunity for the learner to become a participating detective, helping to unravel the past. Cases educate as well as entertain and offer an opportunity to observe, interact with, and understand human nature.
Solving a case leads to understanding the facts, not the other way around. Case study methods involve an in-depth examination of a single event. Just as a good forensic expert has developed a sleuth like strategy to solve a crime, case system participants are involved in collecting data, analyzing information, and reporting results. In other words a real-life context is the background for the historical inquiry with a resultant story to tell.
Ever wonder about the background of the signers of our constitution? Wouldn’t this subject make a great case to solve? Young researchers could ask: Were they religious? Well educated? Family men? What were their professions? Were they wealthy or poor? Most interesting….what happened to the founders later in life because of their involvement with the constitution? (Did you know that that some were considered traitors? Some became bankrupt. Others had their homes ransacked?) The case may even question the price of freedom?
One interesting case was inspired by a questioning student who noticed that while walking through city streets she sometimes saw black spots of gum ground into the pavement while at other times she noticed the spots were white. The professor asked her to research the subject and she wound up studying over1000 years of history, tracing the root of bubble gum to Africa, Greece, Native American Indians, and the Mayans. Not only did she learn history, but she became knowledgeable in the science of gum, and its commercial development.
There are lots of themes that could help develop our next generation of history buffs. Being a detective and uncovering stories creates mystery, intrigue, and is lots of fun.
In 2009-10 Museum Tour Catalog look for the Bill of Rights Game. You will find that it is a great way to explore questions about the edge of our political rights. The game leads you to ask many difficult questions such as - Should a student have the right to wear a t-shirt to school saying that gays are unnatural when there is a body of evidence showing no biological differences? Is the student’s free speech right more important than the harm being done to the gay student? Is it up to the school to decide what is worn on t-shirts?
By renaming the question, getting away from memorizing facts, and appealing to different learning styles the case method draws in curious learners to want to know more.
