www.4Kids.org - Week of December 13, 2009

Week of December 13, 2009

Visit the Featured Web sites to find the answers.

Why do history detectives need cameras?

To create a photo scrapbook of their favorite historical items
To record discoveries and evidence during an investigation
Just for fun!

Who was the Apollo 12 commander?

Jim Lovell
Neil Armstrong
Charles Conrad

Why does the mother elk give her baby a tongue bath?

To make it squeaky clean
To erase its scent and protect it from predators
There isn't any water nearby to take a bath in

A Smooth Sherlock

See if you have what it takes to become a super sleuth at PBS' History Detective Kids, http://pbskids.org/history
detectives. This site invites talented young minds to test their history knowledge by unearthing clues and solving mysteries. Feeling brave? Open the Vault lets you peek at the cool historical artifacts discovered by other clever investigators. Once you are ready to solve some mysteries of your own, check out your detective kit with items such as a camera, magnifying glass, tape measure and more. What are you waiting for?

Nominate a cool Web site at:
www.4Kids.org/nominations

Something Celestial

space probe Apollo Moon Landings, From Lab to the Moon,
www.nasa.gov/externalflash/
apollo40jpl, challenges hopeful future astronauts in a virtual lesson about important moments in space travel. History has never been so out of sight as you mouse over the featured dates that surround the moon. After you read the overviews, click on the date to learn more about these early missions, such as the landings of the Surveyor crafts and how the Pioneer 4 put the USA in the “moon business.”

A Reality Show With Antlers

Step into the shoes, or should we say hooves, of the wild and wonderful elk at the National Museum of Wildlife Art, My Life as an Elk, www.wildlifeart.org/Learn/
Games/ElkStory. First choose your gender and then decide on a name. Bam! You have turned into a young elk! Next you will live through an entire year, experiencing all the challenges nature has to offer a creature such as yourself. From your very first day on Earth to the beginning of your adult life, this story will give you a new appreciation for the strength of the elk.

If you could visit any planet, which one would you choose and why?

Speak Out Here!

Dear Amy: Why don't DVDs and CDs play well when they're scratched? — Paul, St. Paul, Minn.

Dear Paul: A CD or DVD looks like a smooth surface to the naked eye, but if you look at it under a microscope, you'll see that tiny rings of bumps are carved into the disk. You might have heard that computers store information in binary code. CDs and DVDs are also stored in a binary format, where each bit of information either has a bump or no bump. Your CD or DVD player can decode this information using a laser to “read” the bumps and it then converts that information into sound or video.

When a disk is scratched, your player can't read the scratched area of the disk. Instead, it will repeatedly play whatever was read just before the scratch, until the player is able to read the disk again. To learn more about how CDs and DVDs work, go to www.howstuffworks.com/cd.htm.

If a CD is skipping, try cleaning it with a soft, lint-free cloth used to clean eyeglasses. Wipe from the center outward, working your way around the disk. For any minor scratches, a CD repair kit from an electronics store should do the trick!

—Amy

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