Duck Billed Platypus

We just learned a little about Squirrels.

When scientists first discovered the platypus and tried to tell
other people about it, everyone thought they were joking!

No one thought there could really be an animal with fur and a tail like a beaver's tail,
and also a bill, webbed feet and lays eggs like a duck!


(from: wikipedia - platypus)

Another interesting thing about the platypus is that they have a small claw (also called a spur)
on their back foot that is poisonous!

Gluteus maximus

Let's keep learning about the muscles in the human body!

Last time we learned about the rectus abdominis

Next up is the gluteal muscles.
The muscles on your back side (or your butt) are called your gluteal muscles.
There are three muscles there, the gluteus minimus, gluteus medius and gluteus maximus.

Sometimes people call those muscles glutes or just talk about the gluteus maximus
since it's the biggest of the three muscles.

You use those muscles when you lift your leg up and down,
or bend your body backwards.

(from: wikipedia - gluteal muscles)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Back Bone

Ukraine

We just learned about the Netherlands.

Let's keep learning about the countries in Europe!

The largest country in Europe by size is the Ukraine.

A popular type of food in the Ukraine is Borscht!

(from: wikipedia - borscht)

The Ukraine is on the Southeastern part of Europe, right next to Russia.

(from: wikipedia - ukraine)

Famous poet Taras Shevchenko is from the Ukraine

(from: wikipedia - taras shevchenko)

Kiev Pechersk Lavra is an ancient monastery that was built almost 1,000 years ago!

(from: wikipedia - kiev pechersk lavra)

Ukranians have a special type of folk dancing
(from: wikipedia - ukranian dance)

Other Prophets

We just learned about Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego.

God called on many people to be prophets for him through the years.

We've learned about the ones who wrote some of the big books of the bible,
Daniel, Ezekiel, Jeremiah and Isaiah.

They are called the major prophets because they wrote the longest books of prophecy.

There are 12 other prophets called minor prophets not because they weren't important,
but because the books they wrote just weren't as long.

Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah,
Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah and Malachi
all delivered prophecies from God to his people.

Some of them warned of the coming exile, some cautioned people to listen to God after the exile,
and some told about the future when Jesus would come along.

(from: wikipedia - malachi)

Yellow Dwarf

We've learned so much about how to measure stars now!

We now know that:
- stellar classification is how hot the star gets, and uses letters and colors, like M and red
- absolute magnitude is how bright a star is, and uses numbers from -15 to 20.
- luminosity class is heat and brightness together, and uses numbers and names like I and supergiants.
- Hertzsprung-Russel diagram is like a map for understanding all of those measurements.

Now that we understand all of that, we can understand more about the stars in our universe!

The sun in our solar system has a stellar classification of G (yellow)
and a luminosity class of V (main sequence or dwarf)

So some people call our sun a Yellow Dwarf,
and others call it a GV, but they mean the same thing!


(from: wikipedia - yellow dwarf)

Yellow Dwarf stars are about 9,000 degrees, and burn for 10 billion years!

French - counting to fifty nine

We just learned how to count to 49 in French, let's keep going!

50 cinquante - sounds like sank-awnt /?/
51 cinquante et un - sounds like sank-aw-nt ay un /?/
52 cinquante-deux - sounds like sank-awn doo /?/
53 cinquante-trois - sounds like sank-awn twah /?/
54 cinquante-quatre - sounds like sank-awn cat-uh-ah /?/
55 cinquante-cinq - sounds like sank-awn sahnk /?/
56 cinquante-six - sounds like sank-awn see /?/
57 cinquante-sept - sounds like sank-awn set /?/
58 cinquante-huit - sounds like sank-awn soo-ee /?/
59 cinquante-deux - sounds like sank-awnt nef /?/

Doping Semiconductors

We just learned about what a Anode and Cathode are.

We learned a while back that semiconductors are chemicals that do not conduct electricity very well.

Some scientists discovered a crazy thing, that if you mix up a semiconductor with another type of chemical,
then when you zap it with electricity it becomes a good conductor!

This is called doping or adding impurities into the semiconductor.

Remember we said silicon was a semiconductor.
The chemical arsenic can be added to silicon for doping.


(from: wikipedia - silicon)


(from: wikipedia - arsenic)