What’s it all about?

Global Warming

You’ve heard it… a million times…. now read about it and find out what it’s all about… It’s your future…

Global Warming and Climate Change

Saturn

 

Spacecraft Snaps New Views of Saturn

Reuters

LOS ANGELES (March 1) - NASA’s Cassini spacecraft has snapped never-before-seen images of Saturn showing the planet from perspectives above and below its ring system, the national space agency said on Thursday.
The images were taken in recent weeks by the probe, which blasted off on a mission to study the planet and its bands a decade ago.

Over the last two months, the spacecraft has climbed to higher and higher inclinations, providing its cameras with glimpses of the planet and rings that have excited scientists.

“Finally, here are the views that we’ve waited years for,” said Carolyn Porco, Cassini imaging team leader at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colorado.

“Sailing high above Saturn and seeing the rings spread out beneath us like a giant, copper medallion is like exploring an alien world we’ve never seen before. … It’s so utterly breath-taking, it almost gives you vertigo.”

The images released on Thursday included a video sequence showing the rings as they appeared to Cassini while it sped from south to north, rapidly crossing the ring plane.

The spacecraft was launched on October 15, 1997 and entered into orbit around Saturn on July 1, 2004. The mission is a cooperative project between NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agen

 Contest!  What the arrow pointing to?  <~~~~~~~~Click

What did we learn in school today? Coral Reefs

Today we studied coral and coral reef barriers.  We learned that coral is a living organism and that it’s exoskeleton forms reef fences in warm waters.  Coral reef barriers are wonderful places for marine life.  We also learned they are popular places for scuba and snorkeling and that many people love to visit just for this.  We need to conserve our coral reef barriers by practicing conservation.  Did you know that jellyfish are also in the coral and sea anemone families?

Great Barrier Reef information pages - Cairns - AUSTRALIA

Coral Reef: Great Barrier Reef 

A Bucket of Rex!

Chicken Rex???

Prep Up ~ Science is Upon Us

 You can study at these great sites…..

Click here~~> P373rBlogit Study Hall

Earth Day~

Earth Day Footprint Quiz

 Live Search

A What??

Check it out. 

What kind of animal is this?

 It’s a cross between a dolphin and another animal.

Post your answers!

 Click here to see more animals that have cross bred:  P373rBlogIt

New Tomb?

Egypt Discovers more Tombs…

The Associated Press THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 9, 2006

CAIRO American archaeologists have made the first discovery of a new tomb in Egypt’s Valley of the Kings since King Tutankhamen’s was uncovered in 1922, Egypt’s antiquities chief has announced. The 18th Dynasty tomb included five mummies in intact sarcophagi with colored funerary masks, along with more than 20 large storage jars, sealed with pharaonic seals, Zahi Hawass, head of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, said in a statement. Still unknown is who the tomb belonged to. The U.S. archeologist Kent Weeks, who was not involved in the discovery but has seen photographs of the tomb’s interior, said its appearance suggested it did not belong to a king. “It could be the tomb of a king’s wife or son, or of a priest or court official,” he said Thursday. No matter who is in the new tomb, its discovery shatters the nearly century-old perception that there was nothing left to discover in the Valley of the Kings, where it was long thought that the 62 previously known tombs were all there was, said Weeks, who made the last major discovery in the valley. “It clearly proves that the Valley of the Kings is still not exhausted,” he said. “There are probably more tombs to be found in it.” Weeks made the last major discovery in the valley. In 1995, he opened a previously known tomb and found it was far larger than expected: more than 120 chambers, which he determined were tombs for sons of the pharaoh Ramses II. The new tomb is a single chamber, meaning it was probably intended for a single mummy, he said. Other sarcophagi - or even all of them - may have been put in at a later time. “The objects in the tomb don’t necessarily date to the original tomb. It is not unknown for a tomb to be used as a storeroom for other materials,” Weeks said. “The objects could be 200 to 400 years later than the original cutting of the tomb. Some could be original, some may have been introduced later.” It is known that in later dynasties, high priests fearing grave robbers took mummies from their original sites and stashed them in other tombs or locations - or even after the pharaonic area, mummies were moved either to protect them or to hide them for later theft, he said. Hawass did not specify who was believed buried in the tomb. The antiquities chief was scheduled to visit the site Friday to announce more details. A University of Memphis team of archaeologists led by Otto Schaden found the tomb 4 meters, or 13 feet, below the ground, buried under rubble and stones 5 meters away from Tut’s tomb, the statement by Hawass said. Inside the rectangular tomb, the five wooden sarcophagi were surrounded by the jars, which appeared placed haphazardly, suggesting the burial was completed quickly, the statement by Hawass said. The 18th Dynasty, from around 1500 B.C. to 1300 B.C., was the first dynasty of the New Kingdom, the pharaonic empire than lasted until around 1000 B.C. and made its capital in Thebes - the present day city of Luxor, 500 kilometers, or 300 miles, south of Cairo. The Valley of the Kings was used as a burial ground throughout the New Kingdom, though contrary to its name not all the tombs are of kings. The new tomb will be called KV63 by archaeologists, adding to the previously known sites labeled from KV1 to KV62, which is the tomb of Tutankhamen, uncovered by Howard Carter in 1922. KV5 is the tomb of Ramses II’s sons. “It’s ironic,” Weeks said. “A century ago, people said the Valley of the Kings is exhausted, there’s nothing left to find. Suddenly Carter found Tutankhamen. So then they said, now there’s nothing to find. Then we found KV5. Now we have KV63. I wouldn’t be surprised if we find more.”

New Tombs..  <~~~~~~~~~~~Read

ThinkQuest Library Brain Power

Created by Students
	The ThinkQuest Library provides innovative learning resources for students of all ages on a wide range of educational topics. Featuring over 6,000 websites, the library is created by students from around the world.

ThinkQuest : Library

 The Dawn and Dusk of Man - A Thinkquest Project

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ALIVE

Healthy Heart

Did you give your friends valentines and little heart-shaped candies on Valentine’s Day? Do you ever cross your heart when making a promise that you really, really mean? Or turn on the radio to hear a guy singing about his broken heart?We see and hear about hearts everywhere. A long time ago, people even thought that their emotions came from their hearts, maybe because the heart beats faster when a person is scared or excited. Now we know that emotions come from the brain, and that the brain tells the heart what to do. So what’s the heart up to, then? How does it keep busy? What does it look like? Let’s find out. Working That Muscle Your heart is really a muscle. It’s located a little to the left of the middle of your chest, and it’s about the size of your fist. There are lots of muscles all over your body - in your arms, in your legs, in your back, even in your behind. But the heart muscle is special because of what it does. The heart sends blood around your body. The blood provides your body with the oxygen and nutrients it needs. It also carries away waste. Your heart is sort of like a pump, or two pumps in one. The right side of your heart receives blood from the body and pumps it to the lungs. The left side of the heart does the exact opposite: It receives blood from the lungs and pumps it out to the body. We Got the Beat How does the heart beat? Before each beat, your heart fills with blood. Then its muscle contracts to squirt the blood along. When the heart contracts, it squeezes - try squeezing your hand into a fist. That’s sort of like what your heart does so it can squirt out the blood. Your heart does this all day and all night, all the time. The heart is one hard worker! Heart Parts The heart is made up of four different blood-filled areas, and each of these areas is called a chamber. There are two chambers on each side of the heart. One chamber is on the top and one chamber is on the bottom. The two chambers on top are called the atria (say: ay-tree-uh). If you’re talking only about one, call it an atrium. The atria are the chambers that fill with the blood returning to the heart from the body and lungs. The heart has a left atrium and a right atrium. The two chambers on the bottom are called the ventricles (say: ven-trih-kulz). The heart has a left ventricle and a right ventricle. Their job is to squirt out the blood to the body and lungs. Running down the middle of the heart is a thick wall of muscle called the septum (say: sep-tum). The septum’s job is to separate the left side and the right side of the heart. The atria and ventricles work as a team - the atria fill with blood, then dump it into the ventricles. The ventricles then squeeze, pumping blood out of the heart. While the ventricles are squeezing, the atria refill and get ready for the next contraction. So when the blood gets pumped, how does it know which way to go? Well, your blood relies on four special valves inside the heart. A valve lets something in and keeps it there by closing - think of walking through a door. The door shuts behind you and keeps you from going backward. Two of the heart valves are the mitral (say: my-trul) valve and the tricuspid (say: try-kus-pid) valve. They let blood flow from the atria to the ventricles. The other two are called the aortic (say: ay-or-tik) valve and pulmonary (say: pul-muh-ner-ee) valve, and they’re in charge of controlling the flow as the blood leaves the heart. These valves all work to keep the blood flowing forward. They open up to let the blood move ahead, then they close quickly to keep the blood from flowing backward. It’s Great to Circulate You probably guessed that the blood just doesn’t slosh around your body, once it leaves the heart. It moves through many tubes called arteries and veins, which together are called blood vessels. These blood vessels are attached to the heart. The blood vessels that carry blood away from the heart are called arteries. The ones that carry blood back to the heart are called veins. The movement of the blood through the heart and around the body is called circulation (say: sur-kyoo-lay-shun), and your heart is really good at it. It’s so good at it that it takes less than 60 seconds to pump blood to every cell in your body. Your body needs this steady supply of blood to keep it working right. Blood delivers oxygen to all the body’s cells. To stay alive, a person needs healthy, living cells. Without oxygen, these cells would die. If that oxygen-rich blood doesn’t circulate as it should, a person could die. The left side of your heart sends that oxygen-rich blood out to the body. The body takes the oxygen out of the blood and uses it in your body’s cells. When the cells use the oxygen, they make carbon dioxide and other stuff that gets carried away by the blood. It’s like the blood delivers lunch to the cells and then has to pick up the trash! Kidneys Are Filters Each time the blood circulates from the heart out to the body, about 20% (one fifth) of it goes through the kidneys. The kidneys filter out some of the waste before the blood heads back to the heart.  The returning blood enters the right side of the heart. It takes the blood to the lungs for a little freshening up. Carbon dioxide is left in the lungs to be removed when we exhale. What’s next? An inhale, of course, and a fresh breath of oxygen that can enter the blood to start the process again. And remember, it all happens in about a minute! Listen to the Lub-Dub When you go for a checkup, your doctor uses a stethoscope to listen carefully to your heart. A healthy heart makes a lub-dub sound with each beat. This sound comes from the valves shutting on the blood inside the heart. The first sound (the lub) happens when the mitral and tricuspid valves close. The next sound (the dub) happens when the aortic and pulmonary valves close after the blood has been squeezed out of the heart. Next time you go to the doctor, ask if you can listen to the lub-dub, too. Pretty Cool - It’s My Pulse! Even though your heart is inside you, there is a cool way to know it’s working from the outside. It’s your pulse. You can find your pulse by lightly pressing on the skin anywhere there’s a large artery running just beneath your skin. Two good places to find it are on the side of your neck and the inside of your wrist, just below the thumb. You’ll know that you’ve found your pulse when you can feel a small beat under your skin. Each beat is caused by the contraction (squeezing) of your heart. If you want to find out what your heart rate is, use a watch with a second hand and count how many beats you feel in 1 minute. When you are resting, you will probably feel between 70 and 100 beats per minute. When you run around a lot, your body needs a lot more oxygen-filled blood. Your heart pumps faster to supply the oxygen-filled blood that your body needs. You may even feel your heart pounding in your chest. Try running in place or jumping rope for a few minutes and taking your pulse again - now how many beats do you count in 1 minute? Keep Your Heart Happy Most kids are born with a healthy heart and it’s important to keep yours in good shape. Here are some things that you can do to help keep your heart happy: Remember that your heart is a muscle. If you want it to be strong, you need to exercise it. How do you do it? By being active in a way that gets you huffing and puffing, like jumping rope, dancing, or playing basketball. Try to be active every day! Eat a variety of healthy foods and avoid foods high in unhealthy fats, such as saturated fats and trans fats. Don’t smoke. It can damage the heart and blood vessels. So now you know that your heart doesn’t look like a valentine, but it sure deserves to be loved for all the work it does. It started pumping blood before you were born and will continue pumping throughout your whole life. Updated and reviewed by: Gina Baffa, MD Date reviewed: March 2005 Originally reviewed by: Lisa B. Zaoutis, MD

Smithsonian Institute National Zoo

Smithsonian Institute National Zoo

Ground Hog Day

Groundhog .org - the Official Site of the Punxsutawney Groundhog Club