Level of Difficulty: This book may be too challenging for young children. It is a good book for parents or teachers to read out loud.
Did you know that pandas eat mostly bamboo, but sometimes they eat small deer? Giant pandas are viewed by the world as cute, cuddly teddy bears. Authors John Seidensticker and Susan Lumpkin prove that they are much more than that.
The writing style of the author is factual, while still able to entertain the reader. A child would appreciate having this story read to them, because it might be a little too hard for them to read on their own. Every page of this 186-page story includes a photograph of a live panda, either in a zoo or in the wild. There is a helpful index that makes it easy and quick to look up a specific piece of information.
Some of the information in the book will be surprising to readers. “A newborn panda is the size of a stick of butter” is just one example of a shocking passage in the book. By reading this book, you can learn about giant pandas and how they are born and live, whether in a zoo, or out in the wild. It also describes why giant pandas are endangered, and the factors that contribute to this The lives of many specific pandas are detailed, including the Smithsonian National Zoo’s Tai Shan,who was born in 2006.
Another theme of this book is ecology because the habitats of giant pandas are described—where they live and the environment that is necessary for pandas to survive.
This book will fulfill all of your panda bear knowledge needs.
The book’s cover is what caught my attention. I could tell that the book was going to be very interesting. The book is about turtles hatching out of their eggs and living on their own.
The author starts with information on turtles, like a pond is home to an ancient snapping turtle.
The illustrations in the book are amazing. The cover illustration is about the struggles of a cute little turtle as it tries to cross the road, but can’t get across fast enough. So, a little boy gets out the car to save the turtle and put it in the pond.
Although the reading level is 9 to12 years old, the illustrations and wording of the book makes it seem like a 4 year old can read it. Over all I think it’s great for kids.
Did you know that frogs come in all different colors? Yellows, reds, greens, and even blues! For example, there is the blue dart frog, which has enough poison in it to kill 10 people! Frogs can also come in all different sizes. Some can weigh around five pounds. But others are small enough to fit on the tip of your finger!
Nic Bishop’s love of frogs and toads definitely shows through his word choice and use of interesting photos. “I love to paddle my canoe through the water weeds,” writes author Nic Bishop. This is his way of discovering new frogs all the time!
All frogs have their part in the food web and chain. Most frogs get their energy from eating mosquitoes, flies and many other small insects. They also might eat baby turtles or small birds. But some animals, such as raccoons and snakes, get their energy by eating frogs.
This is an awesome book overall because it describes the difference between a toad and a frog, uses amazing pictures for visual learners and provides great descriptions. Enjoy!
Did you know that every tree, whether if it’s living or dead, provides a place for something to live in? This book explains how a hole in a tree can provide a place for animals or insects to live. This story explains how a tree begins to become a place for living things over time. Did you know a tree home begins from just a scratch in the tree of the bark? Did you know a cut formed in a tree can be the beginning of a hole in a tree?Well, while reading this book the author explains the changes of the tree and animals.The book also tell you about how many different animals come along to eat their prey. Different animals, such as red-bellied woodpeckers, flying squirrels, blue birds, and red back salamander, arrive one a time begin to live in the tree and eat their prey.This book is also great to read to know about niches and habitats.
The author is very specific with her explanations of what’s happening. Everything reads very well for any child 5-8 to read.The beautiful pictures will inspire the reader. For example, the book has beautiful pictures of beetles eating their way out of chambers and planting fungi.The wonderful pictures can be very helpful. Any child would enjoy this book!
“I can begin to replace some of the trees here in my own backyard- one tree at a time.”
Wangari’s Trees of Peace is a colorful children’s book that teaches a lesson.The colorful pictures and easy-to-understand words tell a story that people of all ages can learn from.Jeanette Winter tells the true story of how Wangari Maathai brought color back to Kenya by telling women to replace trees that had been destroyed to make room for buildings and industry.Even though the government told her she was wrong and that women couldn’t make a big change like this, she still worked hard to return the green to Kenya.She gave the village women seedlings to start planting their own trees.Wangari paid the women for each seedling that lived for at least three months.Through this, she accomplished another goal: she proved to the government that women could make a big change.
Author Jeanette Winter makes the story fun and interesting to read. I don’t think any child would be bored or feel overloaded by information while reading this book.The pictures add a lot to the story and they help explain what is going on.The book contains quotes from Wangari and there is an author’s note in the back that gives you information about real life Wangari and her story.
This book would be great for kids learning about the environment and how humans affect it.Wangari’s Trees of Peace is good at telling a story and giving you information without making you feel like you are reading a textbook.I actually would have liked to get more information; there wasn’t very much scientific information.
Overall, Wangari’s Trees of Peace is a beautifully written, inspirational story that teaches a lesson.
Teen EMT is an occasional series documenting the experiences of high school senior and SciJourn reporter KiOntey Turner as she works with patients on real ambulance calls in St. Louis.
Riding down Natural Bridge Ave. on the north side of St. Louis City in an ambulance sent chills down my spine. I realized that I was actually going to help save someone’s life. When we got to the scene of the accident around 9 p.m. I saw people milling around the patient, a car without a windshield, fire trucks and police cars. As soon as that general assessment was taken, I wanted to know what I could do to help this person.
This was my first time riding in an ambulance for the St. Louis City Fire Department. I couldn’t really do much more than help move the patient from the ground to the stretcher and from the stretcher to the hospital bed. Although all I could do at this moment was just a little bit, I thought that a little means a lot to someone that needs help.
I am only 17, but I had been training for this day for about 7 months. At my school, I’m enrolled in the emergency medical technician (EMT) program, which trained me in CPR and basic assessment skills that inform me of the patient’s current condition and how to treat that condition to the best of my ability. (And even though emergency medicine is exciting, I would like to pursue a career as a medical doctor in pediatrics.)
Being an EMT is not a job for someone with a weak stomach. The patient I encountered had two broken bones in the lower part of his leg—bones called the tibia and the fibula. And they just happen to be sticking out of the side of his leg. He also had multiple scars on his face, arms and hands, and there was a huge bruise around his back from side to side. The giant bruise indicated internal bleeding. I didn’t really know what would happen to this man, but whatever it was, I wanted him to get the best medical care that he could receive at the hospital.
What Is An EKG?
The EKG (electrocardiography) is only a small part of the emergency medical process. This piece of equipment is used to read and monitor the heart and what it does. To the untrained person, reading the rhythm of the heart on an EKG is like reading a completely different language. But to a trained eye it shows a few simple things: heartbeats per minute, irregular heartbeat and the pattern of heart rhythms.
The average range for an adult’s heart rate is between 60 to 100 beats per minute. If the EKG reads less than 60 beats per minute, then the patient has brachycardia (below average heart rhythm) and if the heart rate is above 100 beats per minute then the person is experiencing tachycardia (above average heart rhythm). Both of these readings are examples of irregular heartbeat or an arrhythmia, and these may lead to cardiac arrest (ventricular fibrillation) or a heart attack (myocardial infarction), which is because of the lack of oxygen going to the heart. KT
For the rest of my shift, I was prepped and trained by the paramedic and the EMT that I was riding with that night. I was shown all of the things that I would have to work with if there was a specific type of patient that we had. For example, I was showed an easier way to take a patient’s blood pressure when on the way to the hospital. And that it is a good thing to over-treat patients so that their medical needs are met, instead of under-treating and something going wrong.
I also learned that not every call is an emergency. It may just be someone who needs attention for a paper cut that may seem like an emergency to them.
But no matter what the call is and who the patient is, they are to be treated with respect. The patients are the most important person in your life because they depend on you to care for and treat them. This is the reason that emergency medicine is a vital part of the medical system; patients depend on you to do all that you can as a medical professional. KiOntey Turner
The food you eat may be growing in stuff that you once flushed down the toilet. At the O’ Fallon, Missouri wastewater plant (2 MB PDF) 350 tons of Class A fertilizer–the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) top rating–is produced on average each month. Known asbiosolids, the fertilizer is derived from human and other organic waste. Farmers use it to grow crops; we buy and eat the produce. We have come full cycle.
Primary sludge before it enters the biotower at the O’Fallon, Wastewater Treatment Plant (Photo by T. Baker)
Biosolids are like vitamin pills for soils, according to Ken Arnold, Chief of Land Application with the Missouri Department of Natural Resources. “There are no fertilizers available on the market today that can supply a more complex array of essential trace nutrients,” he adds, citing metals such as molybedenum, vanadium, zinc and iron. “A fertilizer blend composed of all the required plant nutrients would be costly — beyond the financial means of an average farmer.”
In 2004, 718,000 dry tons of biosolids were used as fertlizer in the U.S., 85,000 dry tons just in Missouri, according to the EPA.
There is a long history of applying human waste as fertilizer. As early as 1865, entrepeneurswere contracting to remove “night soil” (biosolids) from New York City outhouses and ship it to farmers for their fields, according to records in the New York Times archives. The main difference between then and now is how the biosolids are pretreated to remove living organisms to provide safer fertilizers, say experts.
Wastewater biosolidsgo through several processes to eliminate pathogens, states Dan Scherer, Managing Director of Water & Sewer Operations for the City of O'Fallon. “[Our biosolid] product is registered as an acceptable fertilizer with the State of Missouri.”
To get those biosolids, the O’Fallon plant processes between 8.5–9 million gallons of water per day. Time of day determines the type of water that enters the system. Half of the flow during the day is from industry and at night it is all from homes.
The plant uses no added chemicals in the purification process, according to Richard Stephan, Plant Supervisor and Pretreatment Coordinator. Instead, the plant relies on gravity, density and microorganisms to extract the biosolids from wastewater.
The first step uses ¼-inch screens and gravity to remove unwanted materials like cigarette butts and plastics from the wastewater. The wateris then pumped into the center of a tank, known as the primary clarifier. Here, air is pumped in from the bottom to aid in settling out the solids, which are used in the fertilizer. Floating materials, such as lettuce leaves and corn fiber, are skimmed off the top. This is by far the smelliest phase of the process.
Primary clarifier with skimmer to remove floating materials. (Photo by T. Baker)
The liquidy biosolidsthen enter a holding area where they are mixed with returned activated biosolids and sprayed up into towers. Two seconds later, the biosolids have “roller coasted” to the tower's bottom. During those two seconds bacteria in the biosolids, along with other microbes living on plastic grids in the tower, absorb and digest much of the biological matter. These bacteria actually come into the plant with the wastewater. In addition, this plant keeps “bugs” in storage to deal with shortages that might occur when something in the water kills the microbes.
These bacteria are key to the success of the plant. Air is pumped in to keep the bugs healthy for their short day in the towers. “Young” bacteria work more efficiently, so the plant “wastes out between 5000–6000 pounds of bugs per day,” says Stephans. To get the most efficient work from the bugs, the plant operators measure a parameter called the biological oxygen demand (BOD). Too much air is detrimental to the bacteria; too little and they die.
The pump that moves the liquid sludge up to the tower (building to right of tubes) for the ride down the biotower. (Photo by T. Baker)
Four 15–foot deep aeration tanks are the next home for the liquid biosolids and their resident “bugs”. The black bubbly surface gyrates and pulses,like the blob from the black lagoon, due to the 19 air jets on the bottom of each tank. Stephens tells SciJourner that these tanks also serve as a storage and production area for the bacteria. They store about 17000 pounds of microbes to be used in the biotowers if needed.
This phase is the most critical part of process. Stephans has workers check the BOD three to four times per day. They use air flow and water input to carefully control the oxygen concentration.
Aeration tank “bugs” are stored for use. Maintaining the right BOD is critical for the survival of the microorganisms . (Photo by T. Baker)
The last tank has two jobs. First, it filters out the treated biosolids, leaving behind clear water that flows out over the tank's top. This water passes underultraviolet lights to kill any remaining organics before being pumped into the Mississippi River. Second, treated biosolids remaining in the bottom of the tank either go to the digester or are put back into the system.
Scherer states that the bugs in this tank last about one day before they are sent to the digester. Aged, unusable bacteria also end up in the digester. According to Stephans, the bugs turn into cannibals and “eat” each other.
Last tank where final filtering removes sludge. (Photo by T. Baker)
What is now a liquid sludge in the digester travels to the biosolids plant where it is pressed to remove water, and heated to 160 °C for 30 minutes to destroy any remaining pathogens. Lime is mixed in to raise the pH. This final product is stored for 24 hours to ensure that the pH remains above 12, which indicates that all the pathogens are dead. The resulting fertilzer product is 35% solid, and the farmers use a manure spreader to desposit it on fields. Trish Baker
Press in the biosolids plant that forces water out of the sludge. Final product is 35% water (Photo by T. Baker)
Pictured is a seismograph, which is used to measure earthquakes. According to Saint Louis University earth sciences professor, Dr. Keith Koper, seismographs, such as this one, can detect major earthquakes all the way from China. The biggest earthquake ever detected, which occurred in Chile, was magnitude 9.5 on the Richter scale. Each magnitude is 10 times bigger than the one before it.
The I-64 project status sign, located on the I-170 approach to Brentwood, Missouri, has been counting down the months and days until project completion since early January of 2008. Countdown to completion of I-64 construction project. (Photo by Laura Pearce)Recently it reached the 6 month milestone. When the countdown finally reaches zero and the new I-64 opens for traffic, nearly $500 million dollars (and countless hours of motorist angst) will have been spent on the state-of-the-art highway. If construction continues on schedule, motorists will enjoy the smooth surface and enhanced safety of the new roadway by Christmas and a direct shot from downtown Saint Louis to Chesterfield for the first time in nearly two years.
Two sections of the roadway have been alternately closed to traffic forcing motorists to seek other routes. According to Dan Galvin of Gateway Constructors, the complete closures have been necessary because of the deteriorating condition of the roadway and the 30 bridges along the route, many of which had to be demolished and replaced. “When a bridge is new it is rated a 9, and by the time the condition deteriorates to the point where it is rated a 2 you have to close it for safety. Of the 30 bridges on the project, half were rated a 3 or a 4.” Galvin compared the bridges along the I-64 corridor to the I-35 bridge in Minneapolis that collapsed in August of 2007 taking thirteen lives. The I-35 bridge was rated a 4.
Had I-64 remained partially open during bridge and roadway reconstruction, the project would have taken an additional 4 years, resulting in more cost to taxpayers and increased risk of injury to workers. Gateway Constructors has led a consortium of contractors working on the I-64 project.
Cathie Farroll, a MoDOT spokesperson for the I-64 project, says that the overall quality of the finished roadway will be enhanced by the complete closures. “By closing the highway in sections, crews are able to produce higher quality pavements and stronger, more durable bridges.Entire bridge decks can be pouredat one time, and 24 feet widesections ofpavement are more durable, as well.”Farroll adds that the resulting higher quality translates into reduced maintenance costs and a longer life cycle for the pavement and bridges.
Generally, motorists on Interstate highways experience lane closures as repairs are carried out on a lane by lane basis, in most cases using asphalt as a new top layer for the road surface. However, the I-64 project was not suited for this piecemeal approach. The original roadway was constructed during the 1930s and 1940s as part of the old US 40, predating the construction of the Interstate Highway System. Adapting the antiquated roadway to 21st century Interstate standards mandated a complete rework for much of the roadway from top to bottom.
Although the concrete road surface of I-64 will appear new, 130,000 tons of old concrete and asphalt from the remains of the former highway and bridges are being reused for paving. According to some industry studies, concrete is more durable and can last twice as long as asphalt while costing only slightly more. In a 2007 University of Michigan study, records indicated that significant maintenance on concrete roadways were not required for almost 20 years after construction versus 10 years for asphalt.
Accordingly, motorists on the new I-64 roadway should not be detoured again until 2030.
Are you or your friends addicted to social networking? Does social networking affect you and your friends?
A survey by SciJourner of 51 youth, ages 21 and under, finds that nearly a third say they are “addicted” to social networking, but only 8% of the teens and young adults surveyed feel that social networking affects their relationships with other people. The survey also showed that younger teens, ages 14 and 15, use the social networks Facebook and Bebo more than teens at the age of 17.
The survey was conducted by handing out questionnaires to Youth Exploring Science teens at the Saint Louis Science Center and to youth in the community, or posting as a wall on Facebookand Bebo.
Approximately equal number of males and female took the survey.Of those who responded, 37% are under 16.Most of the teens used Facebook, but 30% preferred Bebo and 20% were on both Bebo and Facebook.
How much time are teens spending on social networks? For this survey we defined addicted as checking their Facebook or Bebo page more than 3 times a day. Around a third of the 51 teens fell into that category, spending 30 minutes to 5 hours per day on social networking.
One interesting aspect of social networks is that they have a
Teens can bespot where you can put if you are in a relationship—married, single etc. Teens in a really good relationship will say that they are “married”.“Complicated” means that you might be in a relationship, but it is not working that well.
Around 57% of the teens reported that they were in some kind of relationship. Why do so many of the teen’s relationship statuses say something other than single?
“Being married does not have anything to do with how many friends I have; I just network,” says Maurice M. Jr., age16. “If a girl wanted to add me that was attractive then I would add her, but that did not mean I have chat with her.” Does he fight with his “wife” on Facebook? “No. What my wife and I have going on it not for the public to know about,” says Maurice.
Do teens whose status is single look for relationships on social networks? Says Mark C., age 17, “No, I’m not really into that vibe, I want to find someone who I can ‘kick it’. I don’t want some random person on the Internet.” But he adds, “Sometimes, to my close friends, I do vent about being single on the computer, but not for the public to see.”Mark adds “Just because my status says single does not affect the amount of friends I have. “
“The only reason my relationship status is complicated is because one minute my boyfriend and I are arguing and the next we are happy,” states Niklya M., age 17. “When I put complicated I started to get a nice amount of boys that tried to add me, it was wired. But when we were in a relationship, I didn’t have that much friend requests.”She says that “This is not a permanent status, but for now I need [my boyfriend] to understand that we don’t have to be together.”
Most of the people surveyed say that social networks do not affect their relationships because they do not allow it. Others feel that because it’s a social network things are going to happen.
One small place in a tree 
