Butterflies

BBC Worldwide with David Attenborough

Monarch Butterfly Migration

Animal Adaptations

Invasive Species

In this week's National Geographic Explorer magazine, we learned about invasive species (plants and animals introduced to an area where they are not native). The result is often a decline of native species of plants and animals. Below are a few videos that bring this to light.
Eurasian Water Milfoil

Australia's Cane Toad Problem

Snakeheads in Maryland

Emerald Ash Borer

Emerald Ash Borer

Back to the Future

In this week's National Geographic Explorer magazine, we are reading about predictions made in the 1950s by science fiction writers like Ray Bradbury. The article compares they predictions made 50 years ago for life today. Below is an interesting video on predictions for the next 50-100 years and beyond.

National Geographic- Human Body

Today we read "Body Works" in our National Geographic magazine. The students learned how the different body parts work together. Here are some of the amazing facts:

• A baby has 300 bones, an adult 206. As we age some bones fuse together
• At rest, our body takes in about 2 gallons of air per minute
• When running our body takes in 50 gallons of air per minute
• Each foot has 26 bones
• It takes 16 seconds to pump blood from the heart to the feet and back again
• We take approximately 33,000 breaths a day
• It takes more than 600 muscles to move all of our body parts
• The brain,at full size, weighs about 3 pounds.
  

Madagascar

Today we read an National Geographic article about the animals of Madagascar.
Click here for Wikipedia info on Madagascar.