Friday, January 22, 2021

Thursday, January 21, 2021

Cylinder


We just learned about the Engine Block of a car.

One part of the engine block is the Cylinder.

The engine has a piston that goes up and down to make the car move, and the cylinder is the place that holds the piston.

Sometimes a car will 4, 6 or 8 cylinders depending on how many pistons there are.


(from: wikipedia - cylinder (engine))


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Poppet Valve

Wednesday, January 20, 2021

Gorilla


We just learned about the Chimpanzee.

Another type of primate is the Gorilla.

A gorilla can grow to be 500 lbs and about 6 feet tall.
They have very long arms, and their arm span can be voer 8 feet long.
Most gorillas live to be over 35 years, and the oldest gorilla ever was 60 years old.

Gorillas can walk on their feet, but usually they do what is called knuckle walking, meaning they walk on all fours but using the knuckles of their handles.
They sleep in nests on the ground made of branches, and they eat leaves, fruits or sometimes bugs.

Grownup male gorillas get silvery grey fur on their back, which is where they get the knickname of silverbacks.
A family of gorillas is called a troop, and is usually made up of one adult male, a few adult females, and a bunch of young gorillas.
Young male gorillas are called blackbacks because they don't have the grey fur yet.
Once they get older they leave the troop and go try to find female gorillas to start their own troop.
Male gorillas help keep the troop safe from other gorillas and other animals that might attack the troop.

All gorillas live in Africa, and there are two different main types of gorillas, eastern gorillas and western gorillas.
There are four types gorillas: Western lowland gorillas, cross river gorillas, mountain gorillas and eastern lowland gorillas.

Most of these gorillas look a lot alike, but some have longer fur, red fur, smaller bodies or longer faces.
Gorillas are very smart and sometimes use tools like rocks or sticks.
They talk to each other using hoots, grunts, barks, screams and roars.
Some gorillas in captivity have even been known to learn sign language.





(from: wikipedia - gorilla)



Adorable Baby Gorilla - Rib Ticklers


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Lion

Tuesday, January 19, 2021

Epitope


We just learned about the Paratope.

Another part of the immune system is an Epitope.

Just like we learned that the paratope is part of the antibody that is like the lock, the epitope is the part of the antigen that is like the key.

The antibody lock goes around looking for an antigen key to match.
So the paratopes look for epitopes to match.


(from: wikipedia - epitope)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Central Retinal Vein

Monday, January 18, 2021

Hungary


We just learned about the country of Georgia

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

This is a country in the middle of Europe that borders Slovakia, Ukraine, Romania, Serbia, Croatia, Slovenia and Austria.
It is about 36,000 square miles, and about 10 million people live there.
The language of Hungary is Hungarian, and the name of the country comes from the Hun people who were the first to take over the land.


(from: wikipedia - hungary)

The flag of Hungary is sideways stripes of red, white, green.
Red is for strength, white is for faithfulness, and green is for hope.


(from: wikipedia - flag of hungary)

To eat in Hungary you might have hortobágyi palacsinta, which is a type of crepe filled with meat

(from: wikipedia - hortobágyi palacsinta)

Visiting Hungary you might go see the castle Eszterháza, built in 1765.

(from: wikipedia - eszterháza)

There are a lot of types of special Hungarian dances, like Csárdás.

(from: wikipedia - csárdás)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Filchner-Ronne Ice Shelf

Sunday, January 17, 2021

French Wars of Religion


We just learned about the Protestant Reformation.

Another part of early Christianity was the French Wars of Religion.

In the 1500s, the Catholic church and another group of Christians called Huguenots fought each other for over 30 years.
It was a very bad war, and about 3 million people died.

The Huguenots and the Catholics just did not agree on what the Bible said was the right way to believe, and because there were princes, kings and queens fighting about this it turned into a war.

Because the war was so bad, a lot of people from around the world started looking at Catholics as not very nice, and other people joined the protestant reformation.


(from: wikipedia - french wars of religion)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Icons

Saturday, January 16, 2021

La Grande Vitesse - Alexander Calders


We just learned about the Birth of the Muses by Jacob Lipchitz.

Another famous American sculpture is La Grande Vitesse by Alexander Calders Calders made in 1969 in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

Calder was born in 1898 in Pennsylvania. He was the third famous artist named Alexander Calder, after his father and grandfather who were both famous artists named Alexander.

Calder was famous for making mobiles, sculptures hanging from strings that would spin slowly with the air, and also "stabiles" that looked like they were moving but were big solid sculptures.

His sculpture La Grande Vitesse which means The Great Swiftness, or The Grand Rapids.
The sculpture is famous in the town of Grand Rapids, is nicknamed The Calder, and they even use it in the logo for the city.


(from: wikipedia - la grande vitesse)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Michigan Soldiers' and Sailors' Monument