Meet Jupiter's Mother (Part 2)

Today, we welcome back Tracy Zollinger Turner, of Tiny Mantras. Tracy is the mother of a four-year-old astronomer (above) and has been sharing her tips for encouraging a child's love of science. You can read the first part of our interview here.

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Welcome back to Mama Joules, Tracy! I've gathered from reading your blog that astronomy was not one of your primary interests prior to your son falling in love with Jupiter (and the rest of the universe). How do you foster your son's love of astronomy?

For someone like me, I think remembering the connection between art and science (or science and everything!) has been helpful. I bring the science he likes into projects I enjoy more. We make planets and galaxies and nebulas out of clay. Or we do things like make egg tempera paint and encourage color mixing so there's a scientific process that's part of painting.

Tracy and her son made these planets and stellar objects
out of Play-Doh and FIMO clay.

I've promoted his interest in letters and reading by spelling and helping him write space-related words (we have used so many space metaphors in this house). When you actively notice what your child responds to, it gets easier to realize that shimmery fabrics can be used for imaginative play when he feels like being a comet or a black hole, crystals that hang in the window make rainbows around the house, and that it's okay for an apple to be sacrificed in the name of understanding gravity now and then.

What suggestions (for websites, books, etc.) do you have for parents of other would-be astronomers?

Websites

There are plenty of great astronomy sites out there, but few of them have stuff for younger kids. I like KidsAstronomy.com. There are science songs and reasonably simple games there.

Television, Music & Books

[My son] loves watching Powers of Ten, which may be one of the best videos ever made when it comes to illustrating the vastness of the universe, as well as the microverse! The TV show Zula Patrol is actually pretty great [too].

They Might Be Giants CD, "Here Comes Science" is our new soundtrack around here. It's actually taught or reminded me of a number of basic [scientific] concepts.

I wrote a post a while back about some of the astronomy books for kids that I like. [Note from Mama Joules to Tracy: Kerm reviewed George's Secret Key to the Universe; he thought it was great!]

Places to Visit

We've used Google Earth a lot to find our house, and [my son's] favorite places nearby from space. Incidentally, his favorite places are...

COSI - our local science center

Perkins Observatory - where the telescope was formerly the most high-powered in Ohio and used for astronomical research. It's now an educational center with lots of old-school astronomy displays, and lots of volunteer amateur astronomers who love to help people of any age develop a love of space and telescopes.

We have had the chance to go to a couple of NASA sites - one was a rare open house. [NASA scientists] are really good at figuring out how to talk to and educate kids!

Of course, we want to take him to Adler Planetarium in Chicago, Hayden Planetarium in NYC, the Air and Space Museum in DC and any [other] NASA site that we can, but we haven't had the chance just yet.

Tracy, those are some wonderful suggestions. I know that I will be visiting those websites soon. Thank you so much for stopping by!

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If you'd like to contact Tracy, or read further about her adventures with her astronomy-loving preschooler, please visit her at her blog, Tiny Mantras. She is also the occasional host for the Carnival of Space, a must-read if you want to keep up with astronomy in the blogosphere.


Photo credits: Tracy Zollinger Turner (used with permission)

Happy Buzz Aldrin Day!

Thanks to Twitter, I learned that today is Buzz Aldrin Day in Los Angeles in honor of the retired astronaut, who was the second man to walk on the moon. Aldrin will speak about his experiences and sign his new autobiography, Magnificent Desolation, on the front lawn of L.A.'s Griffith Observatory from 6:00-9:45 p.m. This event is free and open to the public and there will be telescopes available to view the moon during this time.

Congrats, Buzz! (I wonder if he'll get a key to the city?)


Photo of Lunar module pilot Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin credit: NASA

Fortieth anniversary of landing on the moon

We're very busy right now with guests, but we just couldn't let this day go by without comment. Forty years ago today (July 20, 1969), two human beings (Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin) landed a spaceship on the moon, and eventually got out and walked around a bit. A third astronaut, Michael Collins, stayed in orbit around the moon.

It's always seemed strange to me that we don't celebrate this day (July 20) as a holiday, along with April 12 (when Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first human to orbit the Earth). I like to think that centuries from now, when only serious historians know who John Kennedy or Barack Obama were, or for that matter who George Washington was, school children will still know who Neil Armstrong was, and what he did.

Putting people on the moon with 1960s technology was right on the edge of what was even possible. The Soviet Union never managed it, despite having a space program that was in close competition with ours. Nobody else has even come close.

NASA has a photo album of the Apollo 11 mission, and a nice history of Apollo 11. And there are many more resources, no further away than your favorite search engine.

There are some great documentaries about the US space program out there. An excellent place to start is by watching the movie Apollo 13, about a later mission to the moon that didn't go quite so smoothly. Or you might just look up at the moon, and remember that once, people walked there. I wonder when people will walk around up there again.


Image Credit: NASA

By the light of the moon

Photo credit: Andrew McMillan
My niece is working on a science project examining the effects -- real or imagined -- of the full moon on human behavior. I was poking around on the net, looking for some studies that might help her write up her background section, when I came across some interesting data about animals.

While the jury is still out about people -- it seems many think the moon affects human behavior but statistics don't seem to support this (although there have been some studies that do) -- a full moon has been shown to affect animal behavior.

As recently reported in Discovery Channel news, a new study to be published in the journal Animal Behavior has shown that a Full Moon Energizes Birds, at least in the case of the marine streaked shearwater.

A 2005 paper published in Wildlife Biology also documented an increase in noctural activity during the days surrounding the full moon in another bird, the yellow-throated marten.

And a 1974 study, reported in the journal Oikos, showed that the toad, Bufo americanus, was less active during a full moon.

From an ecological perspective, I think it makes sense that the moon would influence animals in predator/prey interactions, simply by increasing the amount of light available for the hunt. If you were a predatory bird, this would work in your favor and you might be more active. If you were a toad worried about being eaten, you'd stay put during a full moon.

Now, I'm less sure about dogs and cats. Like people, they've adapted to our lives full of artificial light, so the influence of light level from the moon seems like it would be less influential. But does the moon still exert an influence?

Maybe, maybe not.

In 2001, SPACE.com reported on two studies published in the British Medical Journal, one from England that showed a correlation between dog bites and the full moon, and one from Australia that did not (although if you look at the data, there appears to be something exerting an effect each month).

In July 2007, LiveScience® reported that "researchers found the risk of emergency room visits to be 23 percent higher for cats and 28 percent higher for dogs on days surrounding full moons."

Whether the "full moon effect" is real or imagined, the idea of the moon having an influence over animals and people has persisted for ages. Some scientists are sick of the controversy and have even taken a stand on the subject. David E. Campbell of Humboldt State University wrote in 1982, "Research on the relationship between phase of the moon and human behavior indicative of 'lunacy' should not be encouraged," in a short abstract with the subtitle "When enough is enough".

Despite Dr. Campbell's plea, with data this interesting, study results so varied, and fascinating personal stories, I doubt the question will be put to rest any time soon.

So what do you think? Are you wilder during a full moon? Does your dog seem to bark more? Can you think of a way to test your theory?