Science Matters: Habitats, Oceanography, Planets, and Technology, a Weekly Reader publication articles

Recent articles from Science Matters: Habitats, Oceanography, Planets, and Technology, a Weekly Reader publication

Saving a HABITAT: Moving the Healy Road Gravel Prairie.(Brief Article)
January 1, 1993... ELGIN, Illinois--Scientists, aided by more than 400 volunteers, appear to have saved a rare habitat in this part of the United States by moving it 6 miles away. By 1990, prairie habitats had all but disappeared from Illinois, often called the...

The OCEAN: A Place of Many Habitats.(Brief Article)
January 1, 1993... The waters of the oceans provide the plants and animals that live in them with the oxygen and food they need to survive. Different kinds of plants and sea creatures live at different levels of an ocean. Light penetrates the ocean's water...

Adapting to a DESERT HABITAT.(Brief Article)
January 1, 1993... A desert is one of the most difficult habitats for plants and animals to survive in. Those that are able to survive have biological adaptations that help them cope with intense daytime heat and constant dryness. Some plants, like the...

Pollution: Can Be a Product of Useful Acts.(Brief Article)
January 1, 1993... The acid rain that destroyed the trees in the photograph resulted from a very useful action many miles away. There, coal was burned to produce steam to turn turbines that generate electricity for tens of thousands of people. Among the products...

Habitat Matters: Destroyer of Habitats.(Brief Article)
January 1, 1993... Pollution. That's a word you've heard many times. But how is it defined? Have a classroom discussion. Your teacher will act as recorder and mark down answers on the chalkboard. Water in a river that runs through your town is used to cool...

Inner Space: The Land Beneath the Seas. (OCEAN MATTERS).(Brief Article)
January 1, 1993... Scientists on an ocean vessel name Melville are mapping the ocean floor off the coast of South America. Using instruments called sonar scanning devices, they have discovered some surprising things. The ocean floor has many features like...

Tsunami: Killer from Inner Space. (OCEAN MATTERS).(Brief Article)
January 1, 1993... It happened suddenly on a quiet morning early in September 1992. Some 75 miles off the Pacific coast of Nicaragua in Central America, an earthquake shook the ocean floor. The vast energy released by the quake was transmitted as shock waves into...

Ocean Motion: Rivers of Inner Space. (OCEAN MATTERS).(Brief Article)
January 1, 1993... Tsunamis are dramatic examples of movement in the seas. There are more common movements of ocean water that occur all the time. Tides are the movement of all the oceans' waters caused by the gravitational attraction between Earth and its moon....

Warm and Cold Water Currents. (Ocean Matters!).(Brief Article)
January 1, 1993... An ocean's surface currents are caused by winds. Some surface currents are warm water currents. Many of these form near the equator. Scientists have observed deep currents flowing for beneath an ocean's surface. These are cold water currents....

Mars the Red Planet.(Brief Article)
January 1, 1993... When the Mars Observer reaches its planned orbit altitude in a year, it will orbit Mars for a full Martian year--687 Earth days. The instruments aboard Mars Observer will collect data about the Martian atmosphere and will map the surface of the...

The Solar System.(Brief Article)
January 1, 1993... Mars and Earth are two of the principal planets of what is commonly called the solar system. The planets in our solar system follow fixed paths in space, which are determined by the planets' relationships to the sun. The gravitational...

Measuring Space.(Brief Article)
January 1, 1993... When scientists study objects in space, they deal with distances so vast that they must compress their data into manageable terms. One way scientists compress data is to prepare scale models or scale drawings of objects. In doing that, each...

Surveying the Solar System.(Brief Article)
January 1, 1993... This photo shows Neptune, currently the farthest planet from the sun. Neptune is more than 30 times as far from the sun as is Earth. In 1999, Pluto will cross Neptune's orbit. Then Pluto will remain farthest from the sun for 248 years. To...

Space Travel. (Space Matters).(Brief Article)
January 1, 1993... To get an idea of how much time it would take to travel from planet to planet, plan an imaginary trip through space. Figure out the distances between Earth and nearby planets, and use a calculator to determine how long each ride would take if...

Dummies Pass Test: Air Bags Save Lives!(Brief Article)
January 1, 1993... Recently, Merv and Mini Mannequin took part in a safety test. The test showed that air bags help protect passengers during a car crash. Later, a reporter interviewed Merv and Mini. Reporter: Merv and Mini, how do you feel? Mini: Just...

Dummies Get Started!(Brief Article)
January 1, 1993... Merv: We're ready for another test. Let's get started. Engineer: Getting started isn't all that easy. After all, a car that's not moving is a body at rest And a body at rest will stay that way until an outside force gets it moving. That's...

It's Not Enough To Get Started. You Have To Push On.(Brief Article)
January 1, 1993... Mini: OK. Now we know that we need a force to overcome a car's inertia to get it to move. Are there other forces a car must overcome to keep on moving? Engineer: As a matter of fact, there are two forces to overcome if a car is to keep...

Technology in Your Life!(Brief Article)
January 1, 1993... There was a time when athletic shoes were worn only for sports or for relaxation. They were called sneakers or tennis shoes back then. And they came in only one or two styles! Now look around you. How many of your classmates are wearing...

Word List.(Brief Article)(Glossary)
January 1, 1993... abyss the deepest, darkest part of the ocean acid rain rain containing small amounts of acids of sulfur and nitrogen adaptation a change in a plant or an animal species that helps it survive in its environment buoyancy a lifting...

Series Overview.(Brief Article)
January 1, 1993... When science is an important part of the curriculum, children are likely to become science-oriented, curious about the world in which they live, and fascinated by the new technologies all around them. Students develop the skills of scientific...

Science Matters [TM], Grade Six.(Brief Article)
January 1, 1993... Students learn that habitats are homes to a variety of plants and animals that live on prairies and in oceans and deserts throughout the world. Although habitat denizens have successfully adapted to their host environments, they have no defense...

Skills Overview.(Brief Article)
January 1, 1993... Students learn to * identify types of habitats; * understand pollution's harmful effects on habitats; * understand that active underwater volcanoes can create islands; * understand how tsunamis form and their impact on coastal...

Suggested Monthly Plan.(Brief Article)
January 1, 1993... By using timely topics to introduce concepts and teach corresponding skills, the Weekly Reader SCIENCE MATTERS series updates and enriches your science curriculum. Although each unit of study in SCIENCE MATTERS is only a few pages in...

Classroom. (RESOURCES).(Brief Article)
January 1, 1993... Unit 1: Shoeboxes, black paint, paintbrushes, cardboard, scissors, masking tape, small clay flowerpots, potting soil, fast-sprouting plant seeds, marking pen, measuring cups, salt, teaspoon, balance scale, uncooked eggs, water, clay pots, soil,...

Books To Enjoy. (RESOURCES).(Brief Article)
January 1, 1993... Reserve one or more of these books at the library for the duration of the unit. Try to read two or more books to the class per week. Encourage students to read some of the books on their own or with a book buddy. One Day in the Prairie,...

Read-Aloud Books. (RESOURCES).(Brief Article)
January 1, 1993... Under the Sea from A to Z, Anne Doubilet, Crown, 1991 Temperate Forests, Basil Booth, Silver Burdett Press, 1988 The Ocean, Anne W. Phillips, Macmillan, 1990 Acid Rain, Christina Miller and Louise A. Bery, Messner, 1986 The...

Unit 3: Planets.(Brief Article)
January 1, 1993... Background Information When the Mars Environmental Survey spacecraft lands on Mars in 1997, it will be carrying a pack of Rockys, microrovers (robots) that look like toy dump trucks. These Rocky robots will chip at rocks with tiny picks,...

Unit 4: Technology.(Brief Article)
January 1, 1993... Background Information When a ship traveling from Korea to the Pacific Northwest was hit by a severe storm in May 1990, 80,000 sneakers were dumped overboard. Six months later, the sneakers began to wash up on the beaches of Washington...

Unit 1: Habitats of the world.(Brief Article)
January 1, 1993... Background Information The Audubon Society's Sharing the Earth project studies sites in developing countries where wildlife and habitats are threatened by rapid population growth and places, like the United States, where high resource...

Unit 2: Oceanography.(Brief Article)
January 1, 1993... Background Information Tsunami is a Japanese word meaning "great wave in harbor." Most tsunamis occur in the Pacific Ocean because the Pacific Basin is surrounded by deep ocean trenches, explosive volcanic islands, and towering mountain...