Bird Camera...webcams and science observation

http://www.raptorresource.org/

Here is a link to see baby birds.

You can use webcam posts like this one for observation on wildlife. What kinds of things do you think your students will see.

This link was submitted by an avid reader from the Northeast.
Thanks, K!

Palms, Fungi and Insects...Have you thought about how the food supply is affected by fungi and insects?

Here is a portion of an article I was posting to http://read-about-it.blogspot.com/2010/08/palms-fungi-and-insectshave-you-thought.html
If you are interested in reading further, please click the link. Thank you.

"Date palms were propagated in large numbers clonally through tissue culture technology. Tissue culture derived date palm cultivars planted in the KISR tissue culture orchard showed crown bending at the fruiting stage." Source: http://www.scientificjournals.org/journals2009/articles/1480.pdf, Accessed August 19, 2010.

Do you eat dates? If so, perhaps you will find the linked article informative. Have you thought about how the food supply is affected by fungi and insects? Science study becomes, "relevant," to students when they can connect to ideas with which they are already familiar. They likely have heard of date nut bread, or, eat dates and milk to break a fast, or just pack some dates for hiking trips. So, research on dates can assist students in assimilating some broader concepts on food production, such as, how pests and diseases can affect the food supply.

Here the work of C. Sudhersan, Yousef Al-Shayji, and S. Jibi Manuel of the Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research is used as a way to interest students in science.

In the USA, some people celebrate Ramadan and now it is the time for Ramadan. Since most students do not celebrate this holiday, it might be confusing why some students are using dates and milk to break their fast, so tying in dates in science class might give all students something to share and provide a cultural link to the science class, too. But, lets get back to the science class and think about food.

Plants are what types of organisms when it comes to thinking aboutfood?

Did you say producers? Yes, the date palm uses sunlight to produce the sugar found in the date. We, people, on the other hand, are consumers, we eat dates. Do you have educational standards in your area related to producers and consumers? It is easy to find lessons on this topic, for example, www.teachersdomain.org/resource/tdc02.sci.life.oate.lp_energyweb/ shows a lesson and also has a tab to show the standards related to the lesson. The national standard have often included this topic among the science standards:

"For ecosystems, the major source of energy is sunlight. Energy entering
ecosystems as sunlight is transferred by producers into chemical energy through photosynthesis. That energy then passes from organism to organism in food webs."

In reading about the date palms, students can relate the date palm as the producer and we, who ingest dates, as the consumers. Where do the fungi cme in?

Fungi are opportunists and can cause plant disease. The journal article referenced indicates the role of an insect vector and a fungus in causing a disease in the date palm.

Is the fungi decomposing the date palm, just making it sick, or is it a decomposer/ What do you think? Getting students to think about questions like this can help them appreciate food. Rather than just thinking about food as something available at meal times, students can see that science is involved in getting food to the plate. Of course, there are farmers, and the people that have shipped the food, and the stores or markets that have carried the food, and the person that prepared the food...but, science is also involved. And students will also have their own religions and cultures ideas about food, which are important to them when they are integrating new science knowledge into their thoughts and memory for later use. So what is the science? Let's look further at the article.

Here is a portion of an article I was posting to http://read-about-it.blogspot.com/2010/08/palms-fungi-and-insectshave-you-thought.html
If you are interested in reading further, please click the link. Thank you.

A Part of my Forever

Passing through time and space
We contact perhaps only a trace
Of another soul who's somehow bound
To always be around
A part of our forever
A part of our forever.

You connect live or internet lace
And have somehow found a sacred place
In the deep inside: me, mind, soul
Though for perhaps a fleeting role
Of joy and happiness
Of joy and happiness.

United by deep thinking
And/or internet linking
Writing and speaking new
Ideas true
A part of my forever
A part of my forever.

Official Google Website Optimizer Blog: Share Your Success (and get a free t-shirt, book, and shout-out)

Official Google Website Optimizer Blog: Share Your Success (and get a free t-shirt, book, and shout-out)

UPDATE (where is the new site, dammit?!)

TIBU2.com is still in development, but will be going live before much longer. We're sorry that it's taken so long, but a thing like this is worth doing right. Our development staff has been halved, and with moving and houses and babies flying around, things have been distracting.

The site has been tested- and re-tested- ad nauseum, but mistakes certainly will be revealed as more and more people use the site when it goes live.

The initial launched site will be bare-bones, but more features and functionality will be added as things progress, and the creation will be an ever-evolving process in which we encourage you to take part.

We're glad that you all have shown such interest in the TIBU2.

Thank you- for your patronage, your patience, and your ongoing faith.