Robert Falcon Scott

We just learned about the Roald Amundsen.

Another famous Antarctic explorer was Robert Falcon Scott.

He was a British sailor who joined up with a man named Ernest Shackleton for the "Discovery" mission to get to the south pole in 1901.

They landed in Antarctica and did some exploring, but did not make it to the south pole.

Scott went again in 1909 on the "Terra Nova Expedition" and was famous for using motor sleighs for a lot of the work, and also horses as well as dogs.

He was going to the south pole at the same time as Roald Amundsen, but Amundsen got there first.

At the very last part of the trip, he chose 4 men to go to the pole, and sent everyone else back.
On the way the motor sleighs stopped working, so the men had to pull the sleds themselves, but they kept going.

After his team of 4 men made it to the south pole, they took pictures as proof, but on the way back they had many troubles.
The temperature dropped a lot lower, the winds that were supposed to push them along stopped, everyone was getting frostbite, and they ran into some terrible storms.

They finally made it to the place where there was supposed to be some food, and also some sled dogs to help them make the trip back.
Because of the bad weather, the people who were supposed to bring the sled dogs did not make it there in time, and so the four men froze and died.

Later on in November of that year they made a trip out into the cold and found Scott and his men.
They made a grave site there, put up a big cross and named the place Observation Hill.

Before those men died, some of them had dug into the ice and found some fossils, and kept them.
There were over 2,100 things found that they collected and sent back to England to study.

With these discoveries, they proved that at one time Antarctica was warm and had trees before it was all frozen over.







(from: wikipedia - robert falcon scott)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Castles and Palaces

Neume

We just learned about the Cyrillic Script.

Another part of early Christianity is the Neume.

In the 900s, there were a lot of monks that were living in France, and they were writing music for things like Gregorian Chant.

They started using marks on their papers to show what kinds of notes to sing, like high or low or how long or short a note should be.

These writings turned into the music notes that we know today like half notes, quarter notes and the musical staff.

The word neume either comes from the Greek word πνεῦμα meaning "breath" or the word νεῦμα meaning "sign".


(from: wikipedia - neume)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Peshitta

Nathan Hale - Frederick William MacMonnies

We just learned about the sculpture of Standing Lincoln by Augustus Saint-Gaudens.

Another famous American statue is the sculpture of Nathan Hale by Frederick William MacMonnies in 1893.

MacMonnies was born in New York in 1863, and when he was 17 he started working with the famous artist Augustus Saint-Gaudens and became friends with him.

After a few years he went to Paris to study sculpture, and even opened his own art studio there.
He was one of the few American artists who was famous both in America and Paris.

When he was 30 years old he got a job in New York to make a big statue of Nathan Hale, who was a famous hero from the American Revolution.

It is about eight feet tall and made of Bronze, made in France and then brought over to America.


(from: wikipedia - nathan hale (statue))


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Mukteshvara Temple

Russian - This house is big

We just learned that in Russian we are surprised is Мы удивлены (My udivleny).

Let's learn about some of the things we see every day.

To say this house is big in Russian you say Этот дом большой (Etot dom bol'shoy).

This - Этот (Etot) - sounds like eh-tuh-t 文A
house - дом (dom) - sounds like doh-m 文A
big - большой (bol'shoy) - sounds like boh-l-show-ee 文A


(from: wikipedia - russian academy of sciences)

Norwegian: Dette huset er stort

Greek: Αυτό το σπίτι είναι μεγάλο

ASL: This house is big

Italian: Questa casa è grande

German: Das Haus ist groß

Spanish: Esta casa es grande

French: Cette maison est grande

Hydraulic Cylinder

We just learned about Hydraulics, using water to move things.

Another part of hydraulics is a Hydraulic Cylinder.

This is a tube that is filled with liquid like oil, and a special motor pushes more oil into the cylinder which pushes something like a big metal rod out of the tube.


(from: wikipedia - hydraulic cylinder)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Space Shuttle

Clouded Leopard

We just learned about the Snow Leopard.

Another type of cat is the Clouded Leopard.

This cat lives in the himalayan mountains in Asia near China.
There are not many of these cats left, with only about 10,000 of them around.
The clouded leopard and sunda clouded leopard are actually two different types of cats, but are very difficult to tell apart other than where they live, as the sunda lives in Borneo and Sumatra.

These cats have dark grey fur, with black and dark blotched spots on them.
They have black ears and some stripes on their face and shoulders.

The clouded leopards are much smaller than other leopards, weighing only about 50 pounds, and being less than 4 feet long.

Because these cats live in the mountains, they are great climbers.
They can even climb down a tree head first, hanging on with their back paws wrapped around the tree.
These cats are also great jumpers, and can easily jump over 4 feet high.






(from: wikipedia - clouded leopard)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Nomura's Jellyfish

Depth Perception

We just learned about Rapid Eye Movement.

Another part of how eyes work is Depth Perception.

Because humans have two eyes that are set apart from each other, they can look at the world and tell if something is close and if something is far away.

With just one eye it is very hard to tell that, but because two eyes are looking at something from different angles, the human brain can use those two different pictures and figure out if something is close or far.


(from: wikipedia - depth perception)


(from: wikipedia - binocular vision)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Foliate Papillae