Science magazines for kids

A few days ago an email arrived in my inbox from a Toronto colleague -- health writer Jane Langille -- to let me know about a new science magazine. (Thanks, Jane!)

I really enjoyed exploring the website (see Brainspace below), and that made me think about other children's magazines that cater to science interests.

Here are a few science magazines for kids that I know about:

Owl Kids: For me, Owl magazine and its cohorts Chirp and chickaDEE, each geared for a specific age group, remain the standard for Canadian kids' magazines. Owl, geared for nine- to 13-year-old readers, began as a nature and science magazine, but in recent years expanded its scope to include many other subjects and themes. It's been around for some 35 years, and it's still winning awards.

Owl also has an attractive website with content to explore geared for kids as well as teachers & parents. For example, the World Watch section offers links to causes of all types, including science-related topics.

Brainspace: New kid on the block, Brainspace is available through a website offering videos, a blog, and special content for students as well as teachers & parents. This Canadian magazine promises to offer interesting articles on math, geography, technology, and more.

If you've seen the September issue, please let me know: can the cover really talk? And how does it do that?


In my opinion, there's always room for more magazines offering content designed for readers in specific age groups, especially when the articles cover science. When I searched for children's science magazines, I found lots of links.

Odyssey: This is a science magazine designed for readers aged nine to 14, and the website says it intends to make its readers excited about science. Its topic range includes traditional school science subjects like physics and biology, as well as the environment, technology, and careers in the science fields.

Odyssey is part of the Cobblestone & Cricket family of magazines. Cricket has many different magazines geared for various ages and interests offered through Carus publishing (US). Each magazine has its own website, and the Odyssey site is full of interesting content and sample articles.

Kids Discover: While searching for magazines about science for kids, I came across this website. The Kids Discover website says it was started by a parent/publisher in 1991. It carries several science or science-related topics in its content list, from earth to space sciences.

I don't know much about this online magazine, but the website certainly looks interesting and I was able to read some samples of the content. Has anyone read it? What did you think? (Please leave a comment below.)


Do you have any favourite science magazines? Or any favourite magazines that have interesting articles about science?

Please leave a comment -- and share a link!

By Marie Powell

Marie Powell is the author of seven books for children, including Dragonflies are Amazing (Scholastic) and a new six-book series of Word Families books published by Amicus Publishing. 

The Science of Snow

I live in Regina, Saskatchewan. We joke that weather is more than small-talk here. Too often, it's what everyone is talking about.

This winter, it's a topic with a vengeance. According to Environment Canada, we've been setting snow records this year:

- a new daily record of 24 cm November 9
- more snow in the first three weeks of November than we had all last winter
- the snowiest November since the 1880s

In December, the snow continued. And with another 20+ cm dump yesterday, January just seems like more of the same.

As you can probably tell, I'm not a fan of snow. But if you can't get away from it, you might as well dig into it. So I'm digging out a copy of Snowflake Bentley by Jacqueline Briggs Martin, searching on the Internet, and turning to science to help me beat the winter blahs.

Snowflake Bentley tells the story of Vermont farmer Wilson Bentley, who studied snow and took pictures of snow crystals. In the book, someone tells Bentley that "snow in Vermont is as common as dust." I laughed when I read those lines. Did you know that snowflakes start out as tiny crystals no larger than a speck of dirt or dust, and join with other crystals when they fall? Most snowflakes are six-sided, and the size of one flake depends on the number of crystals forming it. When I was a child, I remember catching snowflakes on a mitten. An individual snowflake can be quite beautiful.

That's hard to believe when you look at the pile of snow in my front yard these days. Thank goodness for neighbours with snowploughs! Lately I haven't been looking at the individual snowflakes, like Bentley did, because there's just been too much of it. Some of it is packed hard; some is powdery; some has already melted and frozen often enough to form ice underneath.

The National Snow and Ice Data Centre (NSIDC) has collected a whole database of types of snow. The NSIDC site talks about blizzards, flurries, and snowbursts like the ones we've experienced this winter. We're too familiar with blowing snow and drifting snow. That's all we seem to see on the roads lately. The site lists some unusual types too, like "névé" (refrozen and compacted) and "graupel" (rounded snowflakes or snow pellets).

My favorite is hoarfrost. We've certainly had what feels like record amounts of hoarfrost on the trees this winter, but I haven't taken the time to enjoy the beauty of it. I think I'll go out and take some more pictures, as soon as it warms up.

Meanwhile, I thought I'd share some of the snow sites I found:

National Snow and Ice Data Centre

http://nsidc.org/cryosphere/snow/science/index.html

Science of snow: FamilyEducation.com

Snow Day by L L Melton

http://fun.familyeducation.com/childrens-science-activities/winter/35037.html

Study snow science: University of Montana

http://www.montana.edu/wwwes/programs/snow.htm

Please leave a comment and share interesting facts about snow or snow science with us.

By Marie Powell

Life in Wascana Lake: Aquatic ecosystem studies

By Marie Powell

I had the chance to learn more about Regina's man-made Wascana Lake recently in a new speaker's night at the Saskatchewan Science Centre.

One of the speakers was Dr. Richard Vogt. He has a postdoctoral fellowship in biology at the University of Regina to study structure and functioning of aquatic communities and ecosystems. He works with Dr. Peter Leavitt in the Limnology Lab, using the long-term database of lakes in the Qu'Appelle River catchment to explore important questions in limnology (meaning the study of freshwater lakes and marshes) and aquatic ecology.

Limnology lab scientists monitor Wascana Lake as one of six major lakes in the Qu'Appelle Valley wastershed, Vogt told about 30 people who came to hear three speakers on water issues on May 4, to open the exhibit "Water's Extreme Journey." Vogt grew up in Ontario and took his PhD in Aquatic Community Ecolology from the University of Quebec in Montreal. He said his colleagues would envy the U of R for its “rare and valuable” database of samples, collected every two weeks – in all seasons – for some 16 years.

Part of Vogt's studies with Leavitt include the effect of Regina’s “Big Dig” in 2004. During the $18-million Wascana Lake Revitalization Project, or “Big Dig" as it's known locally, Wascana was dredged from about 1.5 metres to about five metres in depth, removing over 1.3 million cubic metres of soil in about four months. (More on the dig can be found in The Big Dig: The Miracle of Wascana Centre by Bob Hughes.)

Vogt's studies show that surprisingly, the project hasn’t affected Wascana Lake the way scientists predicted it would. For example, scientists predicted the dredging would make the lake less clear and cause an increase in algae. Up to then, he said, rooted plants locked up the nutrients in the lake sediments, providing a habitat for zooplankton that graze on algae. Plants growing all the way to the water’s surface would get caught in people’s boat oars, and have to be mulched periodically.

But the dredging caused “no change in the most important water quality indicators” in the lake, Vogt said. Although the overall number of plants was reduced, there has been no increase in algae, and no decrease in clarity. There are some differences in algae species that thrive in the lake, but “for the most part we see a similar diversity,” he added.

For more information, check http://www.uregina.ca/biology/faculty/Leavitt/labsite_files/wascana.html

Marie Powell is the author of Dragonflies are Amazing! (Scholastic Canada, Grade Two Guided Reading, 2007). (Note: A version of this material appears in Marie's article in Metro Regina print edition, May 10 2012. Photo: Wascana Lights by L L Melton.)

Inspiring Books

What were your most inspiring science reads in 2011? Maria over at Brainpickings (a site to which I recommend you subscribe) has a wonderful list with lots of links and videos to pore over. On my wish list? Radioactive: A Story of Love and Fallout by Laura Redniss. A great story and, by the looks of things, a stellar design. (And, really, what a great title.)

Why constellations and astronomy are important

by Joan Marie Galat

Astronomy has intrigued me since I was a young girl staring out the window on long drives. At that time, I knew how to find the Big Dipper and Little Dipper but not much else. Curiosity led me to hop on my bike and pedal to the County of Strathcona Library. For reasons no longer remembered, I visited the adult shelves  and took out books far beyond my level of comprehension.

Comparing images in the books to objects in the heavens left me feeling there were too many dots on the page and too many stars in the sky. I imagined constellations all over the place but was never sure I was seeing the same group of stars as in the books. Finally as an adult, I learned to find my way around the night sky. At one point I remember thinking, “if only you could connect the dots in the sky, it would be easier to find the constellations.” And that’s how my Dot to Dot in the Sky series was born.

How to find Cygnus (The Swan)
from Cepheus (The King)
from Dot to Dot in the Sky,
Stories in the Stars

The first and fourth books in the Dot to Dot in the Sky series show how to jump from one star group to the next. Stories in the Stars focuses on 15 easy-to-find star groups. They are easy to locate because they either contain bright stars or are near constellations with bright stars. Stories of the Zodiac explores the 12 constellations that the Sun appears to travel through when viewed from Earth. These books also share the myths, legends, and folklore that ancient cultures told to explain the gods, goddesses, heroes, monsters, and other characters in the sky.

While it's fun to search for constellations, it's also important to note that these star groups are more than pictures in the sky. They represent stories from many different cultures and are also important because they serve as a celestial map. Astronomers refer to zodiac constellations when describing the location of the planets in our solar system. Constellations are also useful for navigation. Just think of the North Star!

You may wonder why it’s important to study astronomy. Does it really matter what’s up there? Yes it does. Here are just a few reasons. Studying the Sun helps scientists understand the life cycles of other stars. This knowledge helps scientist learn how to predict celestial events that could impact Earth. 

Our Sun is the closest star to Earth at only 93 million miles away. It is responsible for life on Earth and provides our energy, our  atmosphere, and all our weather.

Solar flares impact radio transmissions. Activity from the Sun can interfere with Earth-orbiting satellites, power grids, and global positioning system (GPS) measurements. The Sun, as well as the Moon, causes Earth’s tides.

While I've learned a lot since those nights staring out the window on long drives, I still feel the same awe I did as a child—wondering about everything in space. But now the night sky is more familiar. I look up and see characters in the night sky. I know how to use the constellations to locate planets. And thanks to the important work of astronomers and other scientists, I know the Sun is responsible for much more than sunny days and the constellations are even more than a wonderfully entertaining way to enjoy the outdoors.

Flocks of fun: The Roger Tory Peterson Institute

Text and photos by Marie Powell

For those who love museums and galleries with a special interest, I can highly recommend spending some time at the Roger Tory Peterson Institute of Natural History in Jamestown, New York State.

The Peterson Field Guide to Birds has been a useful and recommended resource since its first publication in 1934.

The Institute is filled with Peterson’s sketches and paintings, as well as other works of art and exhibits.

I recently had a chance to join a tour of the archives given by Mark Baldwin, director of education since 1998, during the Highlights Chautauqua conference in July.

It's a fascinating place, full of displays and information.

I learned that Peterson trained as an artist and painter, but he also became known as a writer, photographer, filmmaker, and lecturer. Born in Jamestown in 1908, he loved to escape into the “natural world.” He bought his first camera with his paper route money as a child.

He used a variety of tools to help him create his well-known field guides, and the beautiful paintings of birds in their natural habitat that adorn the walls of the Institute.

Some examples include field notes and sketches, 35-mm transparencies, and “study skins” like this passenger pigeon (left).

There are about 200,000 transparencies in the archives, Baldwin said, as well as “study skins” of various birds that date back as far as 1892.

We also had a tour of the building and an introduction to its architecture from retired architect Marlin Casker.

The facility was built using the rural "Adirondack" style that's well known in the western part of NY State, Casker told us. In other words, it looks a little like the large log-cabin-style buildings that wealthy families built as their summer homes after the civil war.

The architects and builders used stone, natural and finished wood, as well as lodge-pole and white pine. It's very striking inside and out, with high ceilings, arches, and display areas.

I love birds, so I found lots to interest me at the institute, including some very cute displays like this Emperor Penguin (right).

Find out more about the Institute and about Roger Tory Peterson on the website: http: www.rtpi.org/

Marie Powell is the author of Dragonflies are Amazing! (Scholastic Canada).