Rapid Eye Movement

We just learned about eye movement of Smooth Pursuit.

Another part of eye movement is Rapid Eye Movement also called REM.

Sometimes when a person is sleeping, their eyes will move around quickly in a bunch of different directions over and over again for a while.
The quick or rapid eye movement also happens at the same time as a lot of activity in the brain even while you are asleep.
Some scientists think that REM is what happens when you are having very active dreams.


(from: wikipedia - rapid eye movement sleep)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Foliate Papillae

Adrien de Gerlache

We just learned about the Antarctic Territories.

The first human to ever try to make it to the South Pole in Antarctica was Adrien de Gerlache.

In 1897 AD, a sailor from the country of Belgium named Adrien de Gerlache got 18 people together to try and make it to the south pole.
One of the sailors on the ship was Roald Amundsen from Norway, and another was Frederick Cook from America.

Their ship called the Belgica got down to the west side of the Antarctic Peninsula, and then the water turned to ice and their ship got stuck.

They were stuck there for a whole year, trying to survive in the cold by hunting penguins and seals.

From May through July, they had to live in total darkness because of the long winter!

A few people died and some others went insane, but people got really sad when their cat Nansen died, and they buried him in Antarctica.

In March of 1899 they finally got loose from the ice and sailed back home.
They didn't make it to the south pole, but they could tell everyone what it was like to live for a year in Antarctica.



(from: wikipedia - adrien de gerlache)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Cairo Citadel

Christianity in Bulgaria

We just learned about the Glagolitic Script.

Another part of early Christianity is Christianity in Bulgaria.

In a lot of parts of Eastern Europe, people still either did not know about Christianity or they did not believe in God.

Christianity was very well known in the Western parts of Europe, like Italy and England.
Bulgaria is a country in the Eastern part of Europe, just east of Greece, and just north of Turkey.
Because it was in a very special place at the edge of eastern and western Europe, people really tried hard to help spread Christianity there, so that maybe it would help it become more popular in the East.

King Boris I got baptized in 864 AD, and since then for over a thousand years there have been a lot of Christians in Bulgaria.


(from: wikipedia - christianization of bulgaria)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: First Apology

Charles Sumner - Anne Whitney

We just learned about the Abraham Lincoln by Vinnie Ream.

Another famous American sculpture is the statue of Charles Sumner made in 1875 by Anne Whitney.

Anne was born in 1821, and through her life worked hard to be a sculptor.
Through her life she worked hard to fight for women's equal rights, to help save the environment, and to help people see that slavery was bad.

Because she was a woman, people would not let her go to some schools because they thought it was inappropriate for women to make sculptures of men's bodies.

She moved to Rome for a while and learned from some of the master sculptors there, and when she came back she made a statue of Charles Sumner who was famous for being against slavery.

There was a contest in Boston for who could make the best statue, so she sent in her statue of Charles Sumner.

She won the competition, but then when they found out the statue had been made by a woman they turned her away and picked someone else.

Anne Whitney went on to make a lot more sculptures of men and women, using her sculptures to help try and show people that women should be equals, and that slavery is bad.


(from: wikipedia - anne whitney)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Rajagopuram

Russian - They are excited

We just learned that in Russian I am happy is Я счастлив (ya shastliv),
you are sad is Ты грустный (Ty grustnyy),
and he is angry is Он сердится (On serditsya).

Let's learn how to say they are excited.

Они взволнованы (Oni vzvolnovany)

They - Они (Oni) - Sounds like oh-nee 文A

are excited - взволнованы - (vzvolnovany) Sounds like v-z-voh-l-noh-vah-nee 文A

So all together Они взволнованы (Oni vzvolnovany) sounds like oh-nee v-z-voh-l-noh-vah-nee.


(from: wikipedia - russian academy of sciences)

Norwegian: De er begeistret

Greek: Είναι ενθουσιασμένοι

ASL: They are excited

Italian: Sono eccitati

German: Sie sind aufgeregt

Spanish: Ellos estan emocionados

French: Ils sont excité

Negative Feedback

We just learned about the Encoder.

Another part of a servo is Negative Feedback.

When a servo machine is working, and it needs to tell the motor to STOP, it needs some sort of a sensor that tells it when to stop.

A negative feedback part of a machine is something that senses when something gets to a point where it needs to stop, and the movement of the machine stops the machine itself.

That might sound sort of confusing, but if you think about a real world example it makes sense.

In a toilet there is usually a type of ball that is floating in the water in the tank.
When there is no water, the ball is hanging down, which lets the water flow in to fill up the tank.
As the water starts to rise, it gets to the ball and starts to make it float.
When it gets high enough, the ball is floating and it is connected to a valve that closes to stop water coming in.

So the ball floating is the negative feedback saying CLOSE THE VALVE AND STOP LETTING WATER IN, and the more the ball floats up the more the valve closes until it is totally closed and the water stops coming in.


(from: wikipedia - negative feedback)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: SM-65 Atlas

Black Panther

We just learned about the Leopard.

Another type of Wild Cat is the Black Panther.

The black panther is not really a different type of cat, it is just a different color of cat.
Both the leopards that live in Africa or Asia, and the jaguars that live in the Americas can be born with black fur.

For a long time people thought this was a whole different type of cat, but scientists figured out later that they were just the same cats with different fur.

Sometimes leopards or jaguars can have fur that is totally black, and other times just part of their fur is very dark but you can still see spots on the other parts.





(from: wikipedia - black panther)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Flower Hat Jellyfish