Meet the American Toad

Well I just popped into school to check on the animals and I'm pleased to say, all is well in the science lab. The plants are green and healthy, the turtles are swimming around, the anoles are camouflaging, the walking sticks are having a population explosion (there must be more than 100 in the container now!) and the toads are sitting in their bowl of water.

So what are these toads exactly?

There are many toad species, but the toads in Room 409 are Eastern American Toads. They can be found in areas with lots of moisture and plenty of insects, like grassy areas and forests. A mature female toad is larger than an adult male, and her skin is much rougher in texture.  Males and females have spotted bellies, but males have darker throats. Toads have a very warty appearance, and the warts (raised swellings, not “real” warts) protect them from predators by secreting bufotoxin, an unpleasant white substance that is a mild, foul-tasting poison. By the way, YOU can't get warts from holding a toad, but you probably will get peed on.

Toads have knobs on their back feet that they use to shove dirt aside so they can sink into the soil and disappear. Sometimes students think the toads have escaped from their terrarium when they are in fact just nestled deep in the soil.

In addition to insects, toads like to eat worms, slug, spiders and just about anything they can fit into their mouths. And what likes to eat toads? Snakes, owls, skunks and raccoons. Toads can live up to 30 years! 

FINBACK WHALE STRANDED ON BEACH IN QUEENS

Heard the news today about a finback whale beached in the Rockaways neighborhood of Breezy Point, Queens. According to my naturalist friend Don Riepe, the 60-foot whale is very emaciated and not expected to live. Finbacks are solitary creatures and this one was discovered alone. Finbacks are found in all the world's oceans.

Finbacks, also known as a fin whales, are an endangered species and the second-biggest whale after the blue whale. But unlike blue whales, who feast on krills, finbacks also consume a range of schooling fish, including anchovy and herring.


Note: The whale has passed on. It died Thursday, Dec. 27, 2012.

TOP OF THE FOOD CHAIN, MA!

Fourth-Graders are learning about the food chain. Here a hawk devours a tasty mouse.
Hawks, owls, and eagles are just some of the ORGANISMS at the TOP OF THE FOOD CHAIN. That means they have few or no PREDATORS.

PREDATORS are hunters who kill and eat their PREY.
PREY are the animals that are hunted and eaten.

Ms. Seitz took these photos while in Australia.

THERE'S A CHILL IN THE AIR--AUTUMN IS OFFICIALLY HERE!

Although autumn began on September 22, it wasn't until this weekend that it really felt like fall. It's downright cold out there. Despite the chill, I ventured out to the Queens County Farm Museum to celebrate the harvest and pick up several pumpkins to carve and/or paint. They have a great working farm here--lots of cool-weather plants were still growing...leeks, lettuce, kale, broccoli and more. You can even buy fresh eggs from the farm's chickens. There are also animals on the farm and they love kind, gentle visitors. I especially enjoyed watching the pigs rummage around with their big, square snouts.

The Queens County Farm Museum dates back to 1697 and occupies New York City's largest remaining tract of undisturbed farmland. The 47-acre farm is the only working historical farm in the city and is the longest continuously farmed site in New York State. The site includes historic farm buildings, a greenhouse complex, livestock, farm vehicles and implements, planting fields, an orchard, and an herb garden. For more info, go to: http://www.queensfarm.org

Praying Mantis Feasts on Monarch Butterfly!

Hey fourth-graders! I've been thinking about our first unit, Food Chains, and lo and behold, I wake up this morning and find a praying mantis eating a monarch right in my backyard. A praying mantis is a stealthy hunter. Because it eats meat (butterfly is meat!) it is a carnivore. The butterfly eats nectar from plants and is therefore a herbivore. Do you know who might eat the praying mantis?

ARE YOU READY TO GO BACK TO SCHOOL?

I am!
After a great vacation in Israel and Jordan (that's me floating in the DEAD SEA!), I'm getting my lessons ready and preparing to go in and set up the room for you guys. I'm very much looking forward to seeing some of my former students and meeting my new ones. It's going to be a great year full of hands-on experimentation and learning.

So why is it so easy to float in the Dead Sea?
The Dead Sea has a LOT of salt in it. I saw chunks of salt some as big as snowballs! Salt water is heavier (denser) than regular water. People can float in regular water, but since salt water is even denser, it is even easier to float in the Dead Sea.

Summertime!

I hope everyone is having a good start to the summer. Well, I spent a few days up North and did a short hike at Mount Ascutney in Vermont. There I saw several butterflies flying around. I didn't know what they were, so I quickly tried to identify it when I got home. It is a White Admiral butterfly. We have Red Admiral butterflies in Brooklyn, but I've never seen a White Admiral. If you want to see some butterflies close to home, check out the butterfly bushes in the school garden on McDonald Avenue. I've recently seen Red Admirals and Painted Ladies there.

I also saw this pretty pink flower. I also researched it when I got home, and I believe it is a Deptford Pink. (Related to the carnation.)

Finally, I went to the Path of Life Garden in Vermont. It's a meadow-like garden with sculptures and paths. You follow the paths, which takes you through the stages of life from birth to childhood (you walk through a maze of bushes!) to middle age to death and rebirth. I got to sit with the Buddha for a while to reflect.

WELCOME TO THE SCHOOLYARD!

Today, we had the most amazing visitor in our schoolyard. Right before students lined up to go to classes this morning, this amazing Polyphemous Moth with a six-inch wingspan was sighted on the school wall, right near the kickball field. Mr. Carlisi started taking photos, then Ms. Rubens, and some students ran upstairs to let me in on this great find. Then I snapped this photo!

Polyphemous moths are giant silk moths that are native to our area. The caterpillars (see below) feed on a variety of tree leaves, like oak, maple, birch, and sycamore. Then they wrap themselves in a leaf and spin a cocoon inside, which is where they stay until they emerge. After emerging, the moths mate and the female lays eggs. The moths do not have mouths and do not eat. They only live about a week to ten days.

I believe our visitor was a male because males have thicker antenna so as to detect a chemical put out by the females. This is an ADAPTATION that females use to be found by a mate.

The four eye spots are also an ADAPTATION to scare away predators. The eye spots are transparent! This moth gets its name from the Greek myth of Cyclops Polyphemus, the monster with the one eye. Polypheous moth are usually nocturnal, so I'm not sure why it was flying around the schoolyard in broad daylight today!

ATTENTION SOON TO BE FIFTH GRADERS!

 

The Urban Nature Club is for fifth-grade students extremely interested in nature. Most of what we do is plant and maintain the school garden, so an interest in plants is essential. We may also do some bird watching and other nature activities. Some of the gardening is hard work and you WILL get dirty, so you must be willing to literally DIG IN. While we will spend time outside, sometimes we will be inside planning the garden or learning how to study nature. The Urban Nature Club is fun, but it is also a time to learn. Every student will be EXPECTED to keep a nature journal, which includes writing and nature illustrations. Some of this will have to be done at home. Good behavior and cooperation is a must! You also must be able to follow all instructions, have excellent attendance, and work well with others. Please apply only if you can’t imagine yourself doing anything else. The club will most likely meet on Mondays after school, but that time might change. Thank you for your interest, Ms. Seitz

Please answer the following questions on a clean sheet of lined paper. The paper MUST have a heading with your name and class. The writing MUST be neat and legible, but students will not be judged on spelling or sentence construction. Enthusiasm and commitment is what I’m looking for. The questions MUST be answered fully. In the event that many students submit an application, the strongest candidates will be chosen by lottery.

1. Please explain in two sentences or more why you want to be a member of the Urban Nature Club.

2. Please describe in two sentences or more any experiences you have had in nature or gardening. Don’t worry if you haven’t had much experience. If you haven’t, please tell me what you are most interested in learning from nature and gardening.

3.  What are some of your interests outside of school?

4.  What about nature and gardening appeals to you? In other words, what do you like about these things? Please answer in two sentences or more.

5. Finally, why should you be chosen to be a member of the Urban Nature Club? Convince me that this is a good fit for you. Answer in two sentences or more.

That’s it! Good luck to everyone!

DUE DATE IS WEDNESDAY, JUNE 20, 2012. THEY CAN BE LEFT IN MY MAILBOX. LATE APPLICATIONS WILL NOT BE ACCEPTED.

ATTENTION FOURTH-GRADERS

It was a beautiful day but quite windy in the P.S. 230 Garden on McDonald Avenue. We went out to plant some basil and in the garden saw a young bird not quite strong enough and having a hard time flying in the wind. It would take off and then get blown down or tired. So I went over to pick it up and, well, it was pretty easy. The young house sparrow (I suspect a female) was a little uneasy at first (and yes, pooped on Ms. Seitz!), but then she settled into my hand and the hands of four Urban Nature Club Members. The students remarked how soft and warm she felt and how they could feel her heart beating. Then she was placed in the shrouded safety of one of the garden beds until she was ready to try her wings at flying again.

 

Besides that, we pick our first piece of broccoli, which was shared among us. It had a crisp and tender stalk. Very yummy. There were also a few radishes to gnaw on. The raspberries are little green balls right now. Can't wait for those to ripen up. And the snapdragons are in bloom and well as Lamb's Ear in the herb bed with its pretty pinkish flowers.

We also have three additional raised beds on the Dahill Road side of the school, which are doing really well. We're growing corn, squash, peppers, tomatoes, cucumbers and others delicious things. Speaking of the garden, we are looking for parents and student volunteers to help maintain the garden over the summer. If you're interested, let Ms. Seitz know.




Also, fourth-graders interested in joining the Urban Nature Club next year should start thinking about why they're interested because I will be handing out applications soon. If I receive more than 8-10 applications, winners that display the greatest interest in nature and who have stellar behavior will be selected by lottery.

HORSESHOE CRAB BEACH WALK ON SUNDAY

If you plan on coming on the horseshoe crab walk along Plumb Beach on Sunday, please let me know so I can expect you.

Meeting time: 8:30 A.M., Sun., May 20, 2012

Directions to Plumb Beach: Take Ocean Parkway (toward ConeyIsland) to the Belt Parkway East. After Exit 9, move into the right lane. You will be getting off soon. Look carefully on the right for a parking lot and pull in. This is the Plumb Beach parking lot. If you reach Exit 11 (Flatbush Ave.), you have gone too far. If you are lost, call me at (917) 945-9696.

FOURTH GRADE SCIENCE TEST COMING UP!

It's time to put on your science thinking caps. The hands-on portion of the state science test begins on Wed., May 23, 2012 and ends on June 1, 2012. Students will be scheduled in different groups. The written exam takes place June 4, 2012 in the student's classroom.

Please study your science notebook, go to brainpopjr.com, and read, read, read. Practice your vocabulary. And remember, never forget to write the unit of measure (centimeters, milliliters, degrees, grams) because you will lose a point each time you forget. Eyeballs, eyeballs, eyeballs......

Do your best work and never stop trying as hard as you can! I'm on your side kids!

Even when I'm not teaching science, I like to explore the natural world. That's why when I visited Washington, D.C. this spring break, I went to the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of Natural History. From geology to entomology, astronomy to biology, there's plenty to experience at the museum. I especially liked the museum's 2011 Nature's Best Photography Exhibit. Here's a few photos that I took there, but you can go to http://www.mnh.si.edu/exhibits/natures-best-2011/index.html to see more. 

New York City is NATURE CENTRAL!

Kids are always amazed when I tell them that hawks and owls nest in New York City. Here's another example of nature co-existing with the city--two red-tailed hawks perched on a 12th floor ledge of a building near Washington Square Park in Manhattan. What a view they have from their cozy, little home. You can watch these predators (and their two eggs!) 24/7 by tuning to Hawk Cam 2012, a partnership between The New York Times and New York City Audubon. The address to spy on these carnivores is: http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/03/12/the-hawk-cam-is-back-for-another-season. Happy virtual birding!

WHAT ARE THOSE CREEPY THINGS IN MS. SEITZ'S ROOM?

They are the life cycle of the darkling beetle. The yellow worm-like creature isn't a worm at all. It's a meal worm, the larvae or young of the beetle. If you look closely, you will see six insect legs. And that whitish, sleepy-looking thing is a grub or the pupa of the beetle. It will stay this way for about three weeks, before COMPLETE METAMORPHOSIS occurs, changing it into an adult beetle. (The next stage in the life cycle would then be the egg.)

WHAT OTHER CREATURES DO YOU KNOW THAT GO THROUGH COMPLETE METAMORPHOSIS? SHARE!

The meal worms and beetles are handy food for the classroom anoles.

The students like them too! (Not to eat, of course, to OBSERVE!)

It's not every day that you see a Great Horned Owl in a tree in Prospect Park. But that's what happened to me today and it was so exciting! I saw the female, a huge lady! and even had her look right at me with her piercing yellow eyes. She even spoke in her traditional owl way: hoo hoohoo hoo hoo hoooo hoooo. The experience was incredibly awesome!

Now, it's not easy finding an owl in the woods. All I knew was that it was in a certain location in a Norway Spruce. I felt a bit like a detective with my map of Prospect Park and binoculars. I ended up looking up the wrong tree for a while and had to google "Norway Spruce" to remind myself of what it looked like. I think I was looking at a white oak by mistake. So, I circled around a bit, staying in the general area and looking for an evergreen tree. Owls perch in these because they provide needed camouflage and privacy (apparently crows like to hassle them). Deciduous trees--which make up the bulk of wooded area--don't have leaves this time of year.

I was thrilled and a little proud of myself when I found the right tree species, but then a little bummed that I couldn't find the owl. So just picture Ms. Seitz, binoculars around her neck, reading glasses perched just above her lip, camera wrapped around her wrist, and toting a big bag of other stuff, tripping over saplings and running into bushes just trying to get the best vantage point to see the owl. This took some time and some doing. A couple of people passed by and didn't pay any great attention to me, but for the most part I was alone in my determination to see the owl. And then, it happened. I saw what looked like brown feathers. I focused my binoculars and stared. Yes, feathers! Yes, a huge owl! I must have stared at the owl for close to an hour. Occasionally the owl moved her head and even looked at me for a while with those golden eyes. I even saw her scratch an itch she had. I snapped some photos, which admittedly are pretty awful, but they are here in all their blurry glory to prove that an amazing Great Horned Owl (and her mate...who I didn't see) lives in Brooklyn!

So why is this so cool and unusual? Well from what I hear from birders, Great Horned Owls have not nested successfully in Brooklyn in 100 years! So let's hope this pair likes it here and sets up a nest in the tree, and lay eggs, and raises young. Just how exciting would that be? Also, we don't see lots of owls in Brooklyn compared to say, pigeons, starlings and house sparrows, so just seeing an owl in this urban environment is downright wonderful! I feel so lucky!

Now, if you want to hear the Great Horned Owl, check out this link: 
http://www.birdjam.com/#

Lego Master Builders

I know that many of you love building with Legos, did you know that you can become a Master Builder when you grow up? But it's not that easy.....read on and learn what it takes to become one! (By the way, the story was written by sixth-grader Lucas Miller, who also happens to be my son!

             For Christmas, my brother and I got 4,287 pieces of colored plastic. We were extremely excited. These weren’t random bits of plastic, they were part of a Lego set of London’s Tower Bridge. But that’s nothing compared to the 20,000 bricks in the giant Whale’s Tail or the 304,500 bricks used to create Neptune in an exhibit at the Sydney Aquarium.

            Millions of people around the globe play with Lego but not many can name the people behind the gigantic and beautiful plastic brick creations seen in storefronts, theme parks and museums and places. These are the works of the Lego Master Builders.  I already knew a lot about Lego in general but since I didn’t know much about Lego Master Builders I chose to make them the focus of my I-Search paper.

            I wanted to learn what Master Builders do and who they are.  I really wanted to uncover the history of the Lego Master Builder. I wanted to know who had created the position, and how the job has changed over the years. I also wanted to discover how someone could become a Master Builder and the different duties they would have before becoming a full-fledged master. Another thing I wanted to know was how many Masters there are, and who they are. But most of all I wanted to find about the creations they make, and how they are designed.

            Since Lego is extremely popular, I thought there would be loads of information on the Master Builders. But... there wasn’t. The Lego Book, by Daniel Lipkowitz, which I own, had a two-page spread but it is mostly pictures and has very little information. My dad helped me check the New York Times’ entire archives since 1851 and there was nothing on Master Builders. When I first Googled the topic, I found a June 2010 story by a WBEZ radio producer in Chicago at

www.marketplace.org about a Master Builder named Daniel Morey but it didn’t have much information. Very few  Google results contained any useful facts. Many were promoting Lego, especially the company’s “Master Builder Academy,” in which kids learn how to build with Legos.

I felt very frustrated. I almost gave up and wanted to change my topic. I asked my dad for help and he showed me how to put words in quotes in Google and how to refine my search.

            Finally, I found three good websites with stuff about my topic: zakkalife.blogspot.com (October 2011), geekmom.com (June 2011), which I only found through something on wired.com, and geekadelphia.com (March 2010). But then one site that just had Lego images, www.antalik.com, led me to another good site, www. Fbtb.net, (August 2005), after I clicked on the Neptune picture just because I wanted to see it up close.

            Zakkalife had an interview with Lego Master Builder Steve Gerling, Geekmom had an article about Gerling that also had some Master Builder history, Geekadelphia had an interview with a different Master Builder, named Pete Donner, and fbtb had an interview with Master Builder Erik Varszegi.  Most of the people who published these articles/interviews do not have any real journalistic credentials, they are mostly just Lego geeks with blogs about Lego, but considering that most of the stuff I found were just Q&As, I don’t really think credentials are necessary. They were very informative and answered most of my questions.            

            I learned from the geekmom site that the job of Master Builder was created in 1961 by Dagny Holm, who was the niece of one of Lego’s founders. Today, there are  Master Builders at the U.S. headquarters in Enfield, Connecticut, the world headquarters in Denmark, inthe Czech Republic, and in all of the Legoland theme parks (here in America, in Denmark, Germany, and the United Kingdom). Some of these people started out as artists, either painters or sculptors or woodworkers but some came from other backgrounds, as scientists or even clowns.

            In the Pete Donner interview, I learned that Master Builders have to start just as model gluers doing basic work and then move up to being a model builder before eventually getting promoted to Master Builder.

            In the Steve Gerling interview, which is the most up-to-date information I found, I learned that there are seven Master Builders at Lego in America but that they also use six or eight freelancers. One thing I learned in the Gerling interview and in the Varszegi interview that really surprised me is how much of their work today is done using computers.

            “We do a lot of our prototyping for our big models on software that the Lego company developed that allows us to take a virtually designed generic model and turn it into a virtual Lego model that can be used for a prototype,” Gerling says. “We can copy that layer by layer.”

            And Varszegi comments, “If we were to grow the department it would be helpful to have an art or architecture background like some of us here. Also these days, like most jobs, we are relying more and more on computer skills. We make use of 3D software like 3DStudiosMax, Maya and Poser. AutoCAD, we use that a lot and graphics programs like Photoshop. “

            One quote I really liked from Gerling showed that they don’t build the commercial sets that my brother and I might build and also about creativity. “We're not the ones who design the set that you buy in stores,” he says. “Our job is to promote the imagination.”

            I really learned a lot about Lego Master Builders and I was glad that I learned from the actual Master Builders themselves.. Even though the research part was frustrating, I think it taught me more about how to do research on a specific topic. I don’t think there is any more I need to learn about this topic but I think that whatever the next topic I need to do research on may be I will be more prepared to do the job.

Ms. Levy's Class - Research Museum

On Friday, Jan. 20, 2012, from 11:15 to 11:50 a.m., Ms. Levy's class will be showcasing their Native American and Ecosystem Projects. So ask your teacher to bring your class to Room 202 and see the great work that's going on!