Winsome Wednesday: Build Your Wild Self

When given half a chance, children love to create and be imaginative. Use the web application, BuiLD YouR WiLD SeLF, and watch kids' creativity and imagination in learning...

run wild....

BuiLD YouR WiLD SeLF is a web application. Anyone can use their imagination or their knowledge of animals to create their own animal for a special habitat using this web application. Provide a platform for your students or children to build an imaginary avatar. Once their WiLD SeLF is created, they can use it as a desktop image, an avatar, or any similar application. Kids can compare and contrast various traits of humans and animals. They will also get a chance to learn about the habitats that some zoo animals would live in their natural homes.

Use this web application as:

A. the anticipatory set for new lessons in science, social studies, language arts, writing or other subject.

B. an example of animal habitat information to be studied utilizing many learning strategies; especially Compare/Contrast You can build a lesson about animals and their environments.

C. a formative assessment to determine if students can describe/explain why they used a particular environment or body part.

D. a reward for effective learning behaviors.

The web application, Build Your Wild Self was created for the Bronx Zoo, New York Aquarium, and other New York City Zoos, in cooperation with the Wildlife Conservation Society.


SHARE SOME FINE EXAMPLES THAT STUDENTS HAVE SHARED WITH YOU:

Defend Your Avatar!

What do you think of avatars? Do you have an avatar? If you do, can you defend it? Can you explain what it is and what it represents?

Over the years, I've heard and told various stories of how students created some project, including  avatar development. It's an act of creation from ideas built from prior knowledge and ongoing lessons. If you have an individual avatar, you created it or described how it should be created.

If you don't have an avatar, I'd like to suggest what I consider an appropriate place to begin, no matter your age. The Bronx Zoo website is a wonderful place for teachers and their students. There are the obvious lessons about habitats, with images and lesson plans, but the Avatar Generator, BuiLD YouR WiLD SeLF is not one of the traditional lessons. Making an avatar with this web application provides an opportunity to learn about habitats as you learn to use online web applications, technology and group interactions.

Feed the Birds

Feed the Birds! In this time of ever increasing habitat destruction, we can help through habitat creation in our yards, gardens, parks and farms. Many of our smaller, native birds continue to be at risk from imports like starlings.

Since these native birds evolved within our local ecosystem, they fill a niche in the local food web. They are an important link to an ecosystem. Frequently, they need help to make it through the winter. You can help by setting up a feeding station.

Before you consider making a feeding station, remember:
1. birds will depend on your food supply
2. don't start if you think you will tire of the project
3. place feeders in places where cats can't get the birds
4. don't mix seed for larger bird species (set up feeders just for them)
5. keep squirrels out of bird feeders

My favorite small bird feeding station is a very unique feeder that uses a 2 liter bottle to hold the seeds and a small platform screws on the existing bottle threads. It is convenient to refill, and you can replace the bottle whenever you want. I purchased my feeders at my local Ace Hardware. I found this supplier, The Yankee Gardner, online.

Squirrels can't get to the seed because they are too heavy, and the feeding station tilts when they try to use it.

Since I feed small finches, wrens, chickadees and similar types of birds, I use two types of seeds: thistle(black) and safflower seeds. Most of the smaller species love these seeds. The largest birds that will eat these seeds are cardinals, but they don't travel in flocks. They are not a problem for they seem to co-exist with the smaller birds.

Some of my friends, family and colleagues create small bird habitats also. It would be wonderful to learn what they are doing.

If you love beauty, you will be rewarded by feeding the unique, small native birds in your region.

Wormy, yet Cool Pictures

While this is an excellent article, I am discouraged that the writers refer to "AIR" and not "NITROGEN" because many people will think they are talking about oxygen.
This is fantastic research and very cool pictures.

clipped from www.nsf.gov Clams Convert Air into Food Trait no longer the domain only of plants Bacteria in a shipworm allow it to manufacture food from the nitrogen content in air. Credit and Larger Version Now scientists at Ocean Genome Legacy in Ipswich, Mass., and their colleagues at Harvard Medical School have shown that animals, too, can convert air into food. The National Science Foundation (NSF) funded their research. The animals are marine clams called shipworms. these clams use bacterial symbionts living inside a special organ in their gills to convert dissolved air [which is about 80 percent nitrogen] into the protein they need." The discovery reveals a new way for animals to feed and suggests that other animals in the sea and elsewhere may be able to survive with only air as a source of protein. Understanding how these clams make use of this process helping gain insights into how plants fix nitrogen responsible for protein made by plants Using multi-isotope imaging mass spectrometry (MIMS)

ANTARCTIC "Seal Cam" Images

I have seen "turtle cam" before. Scientists view the habitat and the organism they are studying from the back of the Weddell Seal, so they can also study the habits of the seal without having to kill anything.
Why not do this to whales? Gosh, think how many cameras you could connect to a whale and have WHALE-A-VISION. It could be an excellent way to study their feeding habits and other patterns of behavior. Could record sounds also.
Can someone suggest this to prevent whale killing?

clipped from www.nsf.gov Under the Antarctic Ice--Antarctic Toothfish Under the Antarctic Ice--Antarctic Toothfish Swimming beneath the Antarctic ice, an Antarctic toothfish (Dissostichus mawsoni) is photographed by "seal cam." Seal cam is an on-going National Science Foundation scientists use seals as "eyes" to see what goes on underneath the Antarctic ice Weddell seals are a predator of the toothfish. Toothfish are found throughout Antarctica and the Antarctic Peninsula, South Orkney Islands and South Shetland Islands, from 0 to 695 meters depth. A well-adapted hunter, the lateral line sensory system of the toothfish can detect prey by recognizing the low vibration frequencies emitted by swimming crustaceans. More about this Image Researchers Lee Fuiman from the University of Texas, Austin, Randall Davis from Texas A&M University, Galveston, and Terrie Williams from the University of California, Santa Cruz, equipped 15 Antarctic Weddell seals with video cameras, infrared LEDs and data recorders. usage Conditions.

Momentous Monarch Migration

Monarch Migrations are momentous events, all in all, but when there are profoundly enormous groups of Monarch butterflies making landfall near human populations, it is news. These are rare events.


Many people frequently see small groups of 100 or less during the migration events, but very few people site large groups of Monarchs. These large Monarch groups are usually seen where special conditions of food, shelter, water, and weather come together to make an inviting stopover.

There are Monarch observers, in SE Kansas, who have hosted migration groups, numbering in the thousands on their land. The Monarchs usually roost in fields with flowers, cedar trees and ponds(streams or lakes),creating shelter. Having personally seen migration groups in the thousands at Wilson County State Lake,KS and at surrounding farms on different occasions over the past 20 years, I can vouch for these wondrous migrations.

Last week, Richard Hines, a Monarch Watch supporter, reported a Monarch migration cohort that will set records for many years. Richard enjoys the Monarch Migrations with his family. He recognizes the need for Monarch butterfly habitat, and he encourages these habitats by maintaining a Monarch Watch Waystation.

Mary Hines, a secondary Journalism, Yearbook and English teacher, takes excellent digital images, photographs, of the Monarchs and their migration. She was kind enough to share all the pictures used here.

A lucky farmer with 450 acres of blooming sunflowers in Southeast Kansas, near the Neosho River, west of Erie, KS, played host to what Dr. Chip Taylor, an entomology professor at the University of Kansas and the Director of Monarch Watch described as a rare event for this area.
Dr. Taylor enthusiastically reported this rare mass migration event to the folks at JourneyNorth,

Why So Rare?
Dr. Taylor explained: "The monarchs had been attracted to a sunflower field that was in full bloom....The 450 acre field had been planted late in the season, after the first crop was flooded out in early June. It is rare to have commercial sunflowers blooming this late in the season so the expectation of seeing such an aggregation at this time of year again is low."

View Larger Map

Estimating the total number in a Monarch roost is difficult, but considering the most conservative number of monarchs per square yard of the 450 acres of sunflowers and the bordering trees that were covering them, Dr. Taylor suspects the number could be 200,000 Monarchs.

I agree this is the conservative estimate considering that there is only one monarch per 10 square yards, in this estimate. The pictures taken at the rural Erie, KS site indicate that the roost size (monarch population in the field, trees, and other roosting areas) was closer to 1 Monarch butterfly per 1 square yard. You do the math! A number in the millions overwhelms the mind.

Taking the more conservative number of 200,000 Monarchs during this siting, the Erie, KS roost size is double the previous record-setting Monarch roost observation in SE Arkansas last year, in October of 2006.

It is important to note that the work of ordinary Canadians, Americans, and Mexicans, along with their scholars, teachers, nature lovers, and other leaders, makes it possible for the Monarch butterflies to continue to migrate. This dedicated community still travel to and from Mexico and Canada, through America each year.

Since various conditions impact the Monarch butterfly, these Monarch Watchers consider and work to minimize activities that often cause ecological crises in Mexico and the United States of America

In the past, some of these deforestations and habitat loss events have put the Monarch, as a species, at risk, but there are dedicated Monarch enthusiasts, including multitudes of students in the three countries, as well as the world, who help intervene to solve these ecological issues before they destroy the Monarchs. It is very awe-inspiring. You too can answer this call to action and enjoy the Monarch Migration.