Leukemia

We just learned a little about Blood Cancer.

One of the three types of blood cancer is called Leukemia.

The word leukemia comes from the words for white and blood, because this is a cancer of the white blood cells.

This disease usually starts in the bone marrow where all of the blood cells are being made.
A type of blood cells called blasts that are not totally made right start getting made in the bone marrow and sent around the body.

These blasts take the place of normal healthy blood cells and then the body gets sick because it doesn't have the right kinds of blood cells doing the right jobs.

There are 4 main kinds of leukemia:
- Acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL)
- Acute myeloid leukemia (AML)
- Chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL)
- Chronic myeloid leukemia (CML)

The different types of leukemia depend on which types of blood cells are having problems, and how fast the cancer is spreading.


(from: wikipedia - leukemia)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Peripheral Vision

Latvia

We just learned about the country of Kazakhstan

Let's learn a little about the country of Latvia!

This is a small country that borders Estonia, Lithuania, Russia, Belarus, and the Baltic Sea.
It is only about 25,000 square miles, and has about 2 million people living there.


(from: wikipedia - latvia)

The flag of Latvia is red with a white stripe in the middle.
There is an old story from Latvia of a soldier who wrapped himself in a white blanket before he died, and the blood colored the rest of it white.
The other soldiers used that colored flag to help get everyone to fight and win their war.


(from: wikipedia - flag of latvia)

To eat in Latvia you might have sklandrausis, which is a sweet pie made of dough with potatoes and carrots.


(from: wikipedia - sklandrausis)

Visiting Latvia you might go to Turaida castle, an ancient castle built in 1214.


(from: wikipedia - turaida castle)

Another famous building in Latvia is the House of the Blackheads.
The Brotherhood of the Blackheads was a group of people who helped defend the city of Riga.


(from: wikipedia - house of the blackheads (riga))


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Ross Sea

Heliocentrism

We just learned about the Believer's Baptism.

Another part of early Christianity is Heliocentrism.

Long ago people in the world saw the sun come up one side of the sky and then go down in the other.
People thought that the world was flat, and the sun was up in the sky going around the earth.
Later on people changed and agreed that the world was not flat but that it was a globe, but they still believed that the sun went around the earth.

Through the years a few scientists tried to tell people that the earth actually went around the sun, but people did not believe them.
The idea that the earth is at the middle of the universe is called geocentrism.
The idea that the earth actually orbits around the sun is called heliocentrism.

In 1610 AD the astronomer Galileo wrote a paper called "Sidereus Nuncius" which means Starry Messenger, telling people about how he beleived the earth orbited around the sun.

The church was very upset because they believed that if the earth was not the center of the universe, then that would mean it was not special or that it went against something that was in the Bible.

Galileo was put on trial and was found guilty, and told he was not allowed to teach people that because they thought it was not true.
The astronomer Copernicus had said the same thing many years earlier, but people did not believe him either.

Galileo's and Copernicus' books were banned for their whole lives, and the church did not allow them to be printed until about 200 years later.


(from: wikipedia - heliocentrism)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Vikings and Christians

Throwback - Tony Smith

We just learned about the S, Metal by John Chamberlain.

Another famous American sculpture is Throwback by Tony Smith in 1979 in Washington DC.

Smith was born in 1912 in New Jersey, and was very sick as a child.
He grew up during the depresson, and went to an art school in New York while he was growing up.
Later on in life he worked as an architect and an art teacher in college.

He was known for making what was called Minimalist art, which was artwork that was very simple looking, but was still very interesting.

For his sculpture called Throwback, it was a 7 foot by 11 foot sculpture made of aluminum that was welded together.
The pieces were all at different angles so they made a sort of squarish ring with a lot of edges.

Smith really liked geometry, which is how shapes look and work together, so this sculpture that had a lot of different rectangle type shapes connected to each other in interesting ways.


(from: wikipedia - )


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Forever Free - Edmonia Lewis

Swahili - I am happy

Last time we learned that the Swahili words for horse, sheep and duck are farasi, kondoo, and bata.

Let's learn how to say I am happy in Swahili!

We can break it up into a few words.

I am - Nina - sounds like nee-nah - 文A


happy - furaha - sounds like foo-rah-hah - 文A


Together Nina furaha sounds like nee-nah foo-rah-hah



(from: wikipedia - swahili language)

Russian: Я (ya), счастлив (schastliv)

Norwegian: jeg er glad

Greek: Είμαι (Eímai) χαρούμενος (charoúmenos)

ASL: I am happy

Italian: Sono felice

German: Ich bin glücklich

Spanish: Estoy feliz

French: Je suis heureux

Cylinder Head

We just learned about the Cylinder in the engine block.

Another part of a car's engine block is the Cylinder Head.

The engine block cylinders are the piece that holds that pistons that move up and down.
On top of that cylinder part is the cylinder head.
This is the big metal piece that goes on top and closes in the pistons.

It also has other parts that let in fuel and take out the wasted exhaust from the piston.


(from: wikipedia - cylinder head)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Valve Types

Orangutan

We just learned about the Gorilla.

Another type of primate is the Orangutan.

The orangutans have orangey red colored fur, but their name doesn't come from their fur color.
In Malay the word "orang" means person, and "hutan" means forest.
Because these apes looked like furry people walking around the forest, long ago people actually thought they were just really hairy people!

Orangutans live most of their lives climbing around in trees and eating fruit.
They have really long arms which helps them climb, and they even make nests in trees to sleep in at night.
These animals are very smart, and have learned to use tools to get food.
Some orangutans like to eat bugs, honey or bark, and they will take a stick that they sharpened with their teeth to open up tree bark or to crack open fruit to eat the inside.
If an orangutan really likes the tool that it used, it will save it and collect other tools in their own little toolbox.

When orangutan males grow up, their face changes a lot, and grows to be flat and wide.
Orangutans don't live in family groups like chimpanzees or gorillas, they mostly live alone except for young ones that live with their mother for a few years.

There are three main different types of orangutans that live in different parts of the world and look a little different: Bornean, Sumatran, Tapanuli.

All wild orangutans live on the island countries of Borneo and Indonesia.

Bornean Orangutan:


Flared faces of male Bornean, Sumatran, Tapanuli:


Flared male face and non flared female face:


Baby orangutan:

(from: wikipedia - orangutan)



Orangutan Jungle School: And So It Begins - Smithsonian Channel


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Tigers

Blood Cancer

We just learned about the Epitope that the body looks at to find diseases.

Even though we've learned about all of the amazing things the human body does to fight off pathogens or diseases, sometimes the human body still gets sick.

Sometimes things go wrong with the blood cells we've learned about, with something called Blood Cancer.

Cancer is a disease that can affect any type of the body, from the bone to skin to brain.

Blood cancer has three different kinds: Leukemia, lymphoma, myeloma.

One of the ways that people test for these diseases is counting the number of each of the types of blood cells, from leukoctyes to lymphocytes to B cells.

The human body is supposed to have a certain number of each type of cells, and if the count is wrong then it can tell doctors something is wrong.


(from: wikipedia - tumors of the hematopoietic and lymphoid tissues)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Field of View

Kazakhstan

We just learned about the country of Hungary

Let's learn a little about the country of Kazakhstan!

This country borders Russia, China, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan.
It is over a million square miles, and is the biggest country in the world that does not border any of the oceans.
Even though it is a very big country, there are only 18 million people living there.


(from: wikipedia - kazakhstan)

The flag of Kazakhstan is light blue for the Turkic people, sky and water.
There is a yellow sun for wealth, and a yellow eagle is for freedom.
The left side has a pattern that is used a lot in Kazakhstan culture.


(from: wikipedia - flag of kazakhstan)

To eat in Kazakhstan you might have beshbarmak, which is boiled meat with noodles and onion sauce.
The name means "five fingers" because in the old days when nomads traveled around they would eat this with their hands.


(from: wikipedia - beshbarmak)

To visit in Kazakhstan you might go to the Khan Shatyr Entertainment Center.
This place is covered by a mesh tent made of wires that goes up about 500 feet.
Under the tent is a big place where a lot of people can have fun playing sports, shopping, going to a beach resort or boating down a river!

(from: wikipedia - khan shatyr entertainment center)

In the southern part of the country is a spaceport used for launches into outer space.
It's the oldest spaceport in the world, and was the place that the Sputnik 1 and Vostok 1 rockets launched from.

(from: wikipedia - baikonur cosmodrome)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Weddel Sea

Believer's Baptism

We just learned about the French Wars of Religion.

Another part of early Christianity is Believer's Baptism.

After some other people started to change the way they worshipped God to be different than the Catholic church, another group of people believed that people should be baptised as adults, not as babies.

Some people in the church believed that baptism was for babies to be brought into God's family when they were little, and then the church would raise them as Christians until they were old enough to take on responsibility of church for themselves.

Other people believed that since babies could not make the choice that they should have to wait until they were older to make the decision to be baptised themselves.

Because people disagreed about this, some of the early people called anabaptists who thought this way were killed by church leaders who thought they were being bad.

Today there are other religions who baptise as adults, like Baptists, or Amish and other religions that baptsie as babies like Catholics or Lutherans.


(from: wikipedia - believer's baptism)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: King Charlemagne

S, metal - John Chamberlain

We just learned about the sculpture La Grande Vitesse - Alexander Calders.

Another famous American sculpture is S, metal made by John Chamberlain in 1959 in Washington DC.

Chamberlain was born in Indiana and went to art school in Chicago.

He was most famous for making sculptures that were out of metal, mostly using rusted old car parts.

Some people thought he was one of the best makers of abstract art out there, and his art was put into museums next to other famous artists like Picasso.

One problem that he had was that because his art was made of old rusted car parts, not everyone knew it was art.
At a museum one time someone thought his artwork was just junk, so they took it and threw it away.


(from: wikipedia - john chamberlain (sculptor))


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: The Woman of Samaria (Rebecca at the Well) - William Henry Rinehart