Salvation Army School Supply Drive at DCS

Salvation Army School Supply Drive
July 1, 2009- September 30, 2009
Discovery Center is partnering with the Salvation Army for the 9th year to collect donations from the community to provide local children with the school supplies needed for the upcoming school year. The drive begins July 1, 2009 and ends September 30, 2009. A barrel has been placed inside the Discovery Center lobby for supplies to be dropped off during regular hours of operation.

Discovery members will receive a free guest pass for items brought in, and non-members will receive a buy-one-get-one-free admission pass for items donated. Donated supplies must be new and in original packaging. Possible donations include:

· Back Packs
· Glue, liquid white, 8oz.
· Scissors
· Rulers
· Bags of blue, black, or red ink pens
· A box of No. 2 pencils
· Rubber eraser toppers
· Paper
· Crayons or colored pencils
· Calculators
· Tennis Shoes
· 2 or more Folders with 3 brads and 2 pockets
· Large boxes of tissue
· Protractors

The Discovery Center and Salvation Army want to help provide equal opportunities for learning. All donations will be placed directly into southwest Missouri elementary and middle schools. The drive will last through Sept. 30, 2009. For more information contact Charlotte McCoy at 471-862-9910 Ext. 713

George’s Secret Key to the Universe Week 6

Hello again!

Chapter 16 starts out talking about the eco-warrior protest. Everyone is yelling “Save our planet!” After reading this part, do you think Eric would want to be an eco-warrior? Do you want to be one? What are some things you could do to help save our planet? At my house, we recycle lots of the things we used to throw in the trash, and we just bought an electric lawn mower so we wouldn’t use as much gas. I don’t know if I would ever go to a protest like George’s Dad, but I want to do everything I can to help our planet be healthy and clean!

Dr. Greeper is super creepy in our reading this week, but he talks about one of my very favorite subjects – exoplanets. Look back at the chapter in chapter 18. Dr. Greeper explains that there are planets around other stars in the galaxy. In fact, astronomers have found more than 200 of them! Most of them are like Jupiter or Saturn. No one has found one like Earth yet, but NASA has a special telescope in space right now looking for a planet like ours. The Kepler mission was launched just a few months ago, and astronomers believe it will find planets similar to Earth. What do you think about that? Would you want to travel to another planet? And see if there were other people or creatures there?

Keep Reading!

Jill

George’s dad would probably have enjoyed this music video called “Take Aim at Climate Change.” http://passporttoknowledge.com/polar-palooza/whatyoucando/taacc/

Does your family do anything to recycle waste, or protect our natural resources? What strange things are happening in Dr. Reeper’s home? I certainly don’t like the sound of things there—and I can’t begin to imagine what it smelled like! No wonder he was wearing a gas mask when he opened the door!

Laurie Duncan

Education Director

Fish Blog Installment 3

So, you may be wondering, where did goldfish come from? The history of the goldfish started in China around 1276 A.D. when a natural mutation in the color of the Crucian Carp resulted in a gold carp instead of the normal gray carp. Mutations are changes in the genetic makeup of an organism. There are many factors that influence mutations including environmental factors, mistakes in DNA replication, disease, and sometimes just spontaneous unexplainable events in the cell. The cells of an organism are constantly duplicating and if one little protein of one little mechanism isn’t working properly the whole process can be shut down or create a product that strays from the original. Not all mutations can be seen, in other words, some mutations don’t show up in the organism’s phenotype (as discussed in a previous installment). In the case of the creation of goldfish, a natural mutation occurred in the carp that led to a change in color. In order to carry on this color to later generations of carp the Chinese selectively bred for this new golden color. (Make sure to read the next installment to learn about selective breeding!)

Now, back to history…The Tang Dynasty was famous for keeping beautifully colored goldfish in big ponds, and according to legend the Emperor of China banned anyone but the royal family from keeping these newly bred carp called goldfish. Additional varieties of goldfish began to appear in China and in 1502 A.D. goldfish were introduced to the Japanese. The fish became very popular and new versions of goldfish were created including the ryukin.



In 1611 A.D. goldfish reached Europe where additional diverse types of goldfish were bred including the celestial which has no dorsal fin and eyes facing upward.


In 1874 goldfish were exported to America where the tigerhead and the bubble eye goldfish were bred. For those who know their history, you may recall that in the 1870s the California gold rush brought a massive influx of foreign immigrants looking for work in the United States, including those from China.

Therefore we can conclude that all goldfish, no matter what shape or size, are related and are of the same species descended from the Crucian Carp. Just like a bulldog and a poodle are dogs and can mate, so different varieties of goldfish are carp and can also mate. Additionally, Koi are also related to carp but since they are a different genus of fish Koi are not goldfish. Koi and goldfish can be compared to horses and donkeys, in that they can breed but their offspring are sterile and have a very boring appearance.

Goldfish continue to be a very popular pet even today. If their environment is kept clean and treated they can live for several years. Goldfish can be very flexible when it comes to quality of water, temperature of water, and the food they eat. Besides how easy it is to take care of them, they are fascinating to watch. No wonder they have such a long history!

Laramie
Life Science Assistant
“Resident Fish Expert”

George’s Secret Key to the Universe Week 5

My favorite part this week was when Annie told George about the Great Red Spot! This is an amazing feature on the planet Jupiter. We all live in Missouri where we have lots of tornados, but the Great red spot is a tornado the size of TWO EARTHS and it NEVER goes away!! Can you believe that? That storm has been on Jupiter for hundreds, and maybe millions of years. What would it be like if we had storms like that on Earth? Can you imagine a storm that would cover the whole planet?!

Another part that I thought was interesting was when George talked about the protest marches his Dad made him go to. He called his Dad an eco-warrior because his Dad was trying to save the planet by stopping global warming. George thinks his Dad is weird for being an eco-warrior, but do you think Eric would think George’s Dad was weird? Would Eric want to save the Earth? Sometimes people think other people are weird, even though those people are doing the same thing they want to do, just in a different way. Do you think George’s Dad thinks Eric is weird?

Have a great week!

Jill

I really thought George and Annie were going to end up abandoned in outer space—good thing Eric came home just in time! Do you think the punishment given to Annie and George was fair? Now George is thinking of entering the science fair, and doing a presentation on the solar system—what are some unique things he might want to consider including in his project? And what about Eric’s plan to locate a new planet in case the Earth gets too hot? If you could design the perfect “replacement Earth” planet, what would you put on your planet?

Laurie Duncan

Education Director

George’s Secret Key to the Universe Week 4

Hello Everyone!

George had an amazing adventure this week riding a comet through the solar system! I wish I could do that, although I think it would be very scary too! Would you have jumped out into space with Annie? Comets are mysterious objects that come zooming in past the sun and then zoom back out to travel to the far reaches of our solar system. They are big balls of dirt and snow that melt as they get close to the sun. One comet even crashed into the planet Jupiter in 1994! There are many comets in our solar system – some of them come around quickly and others take hundreds of years. Have you ever heard of Haley’s Comet? It can be seen from Earth every 76 years – the next time will be in 2062. How old will you be that year? If you want to learn more about comets, look at the chart in chapter 11.

One planet that George saw on his amazing ride was the planet Saturn. Most people recognize Saturn because it has rings – thousands of rings. This makes Saturn look very different from the other planets in our solar system. Lots of movies and cartoons show people walking or driving on Saturn’s rings, but that would never work. The rings are made out of dust and gas and ice crystal – they are not solid!

Hope you enjoy the book!

Jill

George’s Secret Key to the Universe Week 3

This week’s chapters introduced the extreme temperatures out in space. The chart in Chapter 8 tells us that the moon gets much hotter and much colder than it ever gets here on Earth. Do you have a guess why that is? I knew that temperatures were extremely dangerous out in space, because our atmosphere here on Earth helps keep us about the same temperature all the time, but I didn’t know that it -454 degrees out in space! Do you think the astronauts are hot or cold when they go on their space walks? One other cool fact I know about temperature is that if you were to walk around on Mars, your feet would be hot, but your head would be freezing! I challenge you to find out which planet is the hottest and which one is the coldest!

In chapter 9 Cosmos mentions that Pluto is no longer a planet. You may have heard something about this in the news or at school. When I was a kid, I learned that Pluto was our 9^th planet. But over the last few years telescopes have gotten better, and now we can see that Pluto is not like the other planets. Look at the chart in Chapter 9 for more information about dwarf planets. We actually have at least 4 officially dwarf planets in our solar system now, including Pluto!

Keep Reading!

Jill

Wow—George has certainly gotten himself into trouble in these chapters! First he’s chased by the boys in his class, then he loses his house key while trying to escape, he almost gets beaten up, he’s rescued by “Astronaut Annie”….and he’s now jumped through a doorway leading to unknown territory in the Solar System! Was Annie telling the truth? Does she really go exploring the solar system on a regular basis? And what did Cosmos mean when he said “Don’t jump! It isn’t safe! Come ba-a-a-a-a-ck.”?

Laurie Duncan
Education Director

Fish Blog Installment 2

We have success! Within a week of putting the eggs in the nursery tank seven tiny fish have appeared! They are so small that they could easily be missed. They are only a couple millimeters long and mostly gray. Normally the fish develop inside the egg for a couple days then hatch and settle on the bottom where they absorb their yolk sac. A few days later they develop their air bladder and float to the top where they begin to search for food. All seven are swimming around and seem very healthy. I’m such a proud mama!

Currently they all look the same so there is no telling who the parents were. At the rate they are growing I think it will only take a couple months for them to show their phenotype. A phenotype is a term used for any characteristic or trait of the organism that can be observed. Furthermore, the phenotype is the result of the organism’s inherited genes. We have several different kinds of goldfish in our tank with different phenotypes. We have black fish with big eyes, little speckled ones with butterfly tails, and a few with big heads in all kinds of colors. In a few months we should be able to see these different characteristics in the baby fish and then we will be able to figure out which parent fish passed on their genes.

Laramie

Life Science Assistant

“Resident Fish Expert”