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Wildville

Wildville | December 2020

SAITHE Pollachius virens There’s something fishy in Norway, and its name is saithe. Actually, some call it the fish lover’s fish. You can find saithe, a type of fish located in the waters off the coast of Norway, year-round. There are northern and southern saithe, which are simply divided by the 62nd degree of latitude. These social fish travel in schools and live in shoals of fish. Wait, what’s the difference between a school of fish and a shoal of fish? Well, if saithe, for example, are stationary, they are existing in a shoal, much like a pack of wolves. However, once they get moving in a large group, that’s called a school. Think of it like a school bus. Schools of fish have to do with motion and travel. Now, where do these shoals of saithe like to swim? They are bottom-dwelling fish, which means they like to swim between zero and 300 meters, or almost 1,000 feet, deep. Unless you’re a scuba diver, this means that don’t get to swim with saithe.Norway has so many saithe swimming along its shores that the fish have become an important source of income. And thanks to the numerous ways to cook saithe (fried, poached, grilled, etc.), white fish lovers keep coming back for more. Activity: Now that we’ve learned a bit about this fish, how big do you think they grow to be? If someone asked you to show them by holding up your hands how big these fish are, you’d probably show them a fish anywhere from six to 18 inches long, but these saithe can weigh up to 44 pounds! How big do you think that is? Sources: < a href="www.gonorway.no/norway/articles/786" target="_blank">www.gonorway.no/norway/articles/786 < a href="fromnorway.com/learn-more/seafood-encyclopedia/saithe-coalfish/#facts" target="_blank">fromnorway.com/learn-more/seafood-encyclopedia/saithe-coalfish/#facts

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Letter From Truman

Letter From Truman | December 2020

Hi, Kids! I went to the doctor for a checkup this week. She told me a lot about how my body works. Did you know there are six different systems that work together to keep your body healthy? You can read more about them in the “Connections” section. One thing that is an important part of staying healthy is eating foods like fruits and vegetables – and fish. One kind of fish that is popular to eat in places like Norway is the saithe. These fish are plentiful and affordable – and yummy! Read more about them in the “Wildville” section. Another way to stay healthy is to get plenty of exercise. There are many sports and activities to choose from when it comes to staying fit. Martial arts is one option. In Norway, Vikings practiced a martial art called glima. It dates back hundreds of years. Check it out in the “Cultural Connections” section.

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Cultural Connections

Cultural Connections | Chinese Brush Painting

Have you ever looked at a painting and suddenly felt as though it transported you to another place? Well, that’s what Chinese brush paintings do. This art form is viewd as an extension of calligraphy. As a general rule, the places in these paintings of rolling landscapes or other places are not real. They are imaginary. They’re not sketched bit by bit from what the eye can see, but they tap into the imagination for inspiration. Unlike a lot of Western art, these decorative paintings aren’t framed. Instead, they are mounted to a scroll and hung along the walls for display. Also, unlike in Western art, the goal of a brush painter is to visually capture the inner existence of the painting’s subject as opposed to an attempting a realistic portrayal. This art form may seem fairly free-flowing, but there is a technique that Chinese artists follow. Let’s take a look at brush-painting techniques: 2. Hold the brush handle loosely along the middle. Place the inside of your index finger on the handle to support the brush’s motion. The index finger and middle finger will lie on the outside of the brush, with your thumb supporting from the inside. The ring and pinkie fingers will be relaxed in this position. None of your fingers should be tight enough to touch the inside of your palm. Many say your grip should be loose enough to hold a tomato between the brush and your palm without bruising the tomato.

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Around The World

Around The World | Peanuts

Maybe you’ve eaten a few peanuts and seen elephants at the circus or in a movie pick up peanuts with their trunks to eat them. You may have even learned in school that George Washington Carver made many, many foods and products from peanuts. But do you know what connection China has to peanuts? Well, China produces more peanuts than any other country in the whole world. It’s true! In fact, according to the World Atlas, China produces approximately 8 percent of the world’s peanuts, which is almost twice as many peanuts as the second peanut production runner-up, India. The United States does love its peanuts, though. According to the National Peanut Board, it’s the third-largest producer of peanuts in the world. The U.S. had two peanut farmers to serve as presidents. Thanks, Thomas Jefferson and Jimmy Carter! And it has six cities named after these peanuts! But alas, because China produces the most peanuts, it still wears the peanut crown. Not everyone calls the small legumes peanuts. Peanuts are also known as groundnuts, which makes sense because they don’t grow on trees like a lot of other nuts — they grow under the ground like potatoes or carrots! The National Peanut Board says on its website that in one year the world, as a whole, produces about 29 million metric tons of peanuts. It also explains that for every 12-ounce jar of peanut butter you have in your pantry, it took approximately 540 peanuts to make it! That’s a lot of peanuts!

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Kids

What’s It Like To Be | Peanut Farmer

Please tell our readers a little bit about yourself, including your name and your profession. My name is Greg Gill, and I’m a peanut farmer in Walnut Ridge, Arkansas. I also represent Arkansas’ peanut farmers on the National Peanut Board. I started farming with my father when I was young, and this is my 41st crop. Farming is all I ever wanted to do. I grow peanuts, soybeans, corn and rice on 10,000 acres. I’m married and have three children and two grandchildren. I love living in the country, and riding horses is one of hobbies. What is a typical work day like for you? There’s always work to be done of the farm, but planting and harvest seasons are the busiest. I usually get up by 6 a.m., and my crew and I meet at the shop at 7 a.m. We talk about what’s coming up in the day and what we need to get done. During the busy times or if we know there’s bad weather coming in, we’ll work until it gets dark or even later, sometimes eating lunch as we’re driving the tractor through the field. Outside of planting and harvesting, we’ll repair and maintain our equipment and set up irrigation pipes and things like that.  What do you love most about your job? I love being outside and working outside. I don’t like being cooped up in an office. The most rewarding thing about farming to me is planting a seed, nurturing it and watching it come up and grow. It’s a pleasure to see these plants start from nothing to providing food for everyone. Plants are kind of like people; you take care of them, and if they’re sick, you help them get better. You try to do whatever it takes to make the plant do all it can do. Do you have any fun facts about peanuts that you can share with our readers? 94 percent of Americans have at least one jar of peanut butter in their pantry. Peanuts have more muscle-building protein than any other nut — 7 grams per serving. Two peanut farmers have been elected president of the USA – Thomas Jefferson and Jimmy Carter. Astronaut Alan Shepard brought a peanut with him to the moon. George Washington Carver promoted more than 300 uses for peanuts in the early 1900s. It takes fewer than 5 gallons of water to grow one serving of peanuts. What is one thing you wish everyone knew about peanuts? Many people are surprised to learn that peanuts do not grow on trees like other nuts. Peanuts grow underground. When you look at a peanut field, you’ll see the plant’s green leaves above the soil. The peanuts themselves grow underneath the soil. When it’s harvest time, a machine called a digger goes through the field, pulls up the peanut plant and flips it upside down, peanuts-side up. The peanuts dry for a few days and then another machine called a combine goes through the field. The combine separates the peanuts from the rest of the plant and then the peanuts get on their way to your house for your snacks and PB&Js.

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Space Place

Nasa Space Place | Cassini Says Goodbye

Cassini Says Goodbye Teagan Wall   On Sept. 15, the Cassini spacecraft began its final mission. It started its dive into the planet Saturn, where it will gather information and send it back to Earth for as long as possible. During the dive, it will eventually burn up in the atmosphere, much like a meteor. Cassini’s original mission was supposed to last four years, but it has now been orbiting Saturn for more than 13 years! The spacecraft has seen and discovered so many things in that time. In 2010, Cassini saw a massive storm in Saturn’s northern hemisphere. During this storm, scientists learned that Saturn’s atmosphere has water vapor, which rose to the surface. Cassini also looked at the giant storm at Saturn’s north pole. This storm is shaped like a hexagon. NASA used pictures and other data from Cassini to learn how the storm got its six-sided shape.  Cassini also looked at some of Saturn’s moons, such as Titan and Enceladus. Titan is Saturn’s largest moon. Cassini carried a lander to Titan. The lander, called Huygens, parachuted from Cassini down to the surface of the moon. It turns out, Titan is quite an exciting place! It has seas, rivers, lakes and rain. This means that in some ways, Titan’s landscape looks a bit like Earth. However, its seas and rivers aren’t made of water — they’re made of a chemical called methane. Cassini also helped us learn that Saturn’s moon Enceladus is covered in ice. Underneath the ice is a giant liquid ocean that covers the whole moon. Tall geysers from this ocean spray out of cracks in the ice and into space, like a giant sneeze. Cassini flew through one of these geysers. We learned that Enceladus’ ocean is made of very salty water, along with some of the chemicals that living things need. If there is life on Enceladus, NASA scientists don’t want life from Earth getting mixed in. Tiny living things may have hitched a ride on Cassini when it left Earth. If these germs are still alive and they land on Enceladus, they could grow and spread. We want to protect Enceladus so that if we find life, we can be sure it didn’t come from Earth. This idea is called planetary protection. Scientists worry that when Cassini runs out of fuel, it could crash into Titan or Enceladus. So years ago, they came up with a plan to prevent that from happening. Cassini will complete its exploration by diving into Saturn — on purpose. The spacecraft will burn up and become part of the planet it explored. During its final plunge, Cassini will tell us more about Saturn’s atmosphere and protect the moons at the same time. What an exciting way to say goodbye! To learn more about Saturn, check out NASA Space Place.

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Weather

Weather | What Makes A Hurricane

Hurricanes are one of the most destructive weather hazards around. Most people know that hurricanes are dangerous, but do you know how they are made? It’s hard to believe, but big and powerful hurricanes start off as just a few thunderstorms in the middle of the ocean! Hurricanes only need a few ingredients to grow from a group of thunderstorms into a hurricane. The first ingredient is the warm ocean, at least 80°F. Vapor from the warm water rises into the atmosphere, which then condenses, causing heat to be released into the atmosphere and the air to be lighter. As the warm air continues to rise, more air moves in near the surface to take its place, which causes strong winds. The next ingredient is local winds. They need to blow in the same direction and at the same speed from the ocean surface to the top of the atmosphere. Finally, all this needs to happen away from the equator, due to a phenomenon called the Coriolis Effect, which describes how air moving toward the equator and the poles curves due to the Earth’s rotation. The Coriolis Effect is what makes hurricanes spin, and there is no Coriolis Effect near the equator. If the thunderstorms over the ocean have these things, they can start to grow into a hurricane! Those thunderstorms, called tropical disturbances, start to cluster together, drop in air pressure and become a tropical depression. Wind speeds in a tropical depression are only about 38 mph. As the Coriolis Effect makes the tropical depression spin, it becomes a tropical storm. This is like a mini hurricane, and its winds are 39-73 mph. As it continues to spin, it takes more energy from the warm ocean water below and grows stronger until it is a hurricane. If it keeps growing and getting stronger, major hurricanes can reach wind speeds of 111 mph or faster. That’s as strong as a tornado. The National Hurricane Center has said that it’s rare to get all the ingredients together. Lucky for us, not all thunderstorms or tropical storms become a hurricane. For more information on hurricanes, visit Tropics Intro and Hurricanes.

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Come Out and Play

Come Out and Play | Pickup Sticks

What’s the first game you remember learning how to play? Is it UNO, Connect Four or tic tac toe? Well, grown-ups may not think of it often, but games are a part of our culture, and in China, pick-up sticks is very much so a part of their cultural history. The game begins with 20 to 50 sticks, traditionally made of wood.  A player holds the sticks in his or her hand. When they drop the sticks onto a clear, flat surface, the sticks scatter about randomly. Then the real fun begins. Each player takes a turn picking up a stick without moving any others, much like Jenga blocks. If any other sticks move during the mission, the player loses his or her turn. If successful, the player earns another turn. And, of course, whoever has the most sticks at the end wins! The original pick-up sticks players are presumed to have been from 12th-century China. Even though it is a simple game that can be replicated by using straws or toothpicks, it has lasted the ages and traveled from China throughout Japan, Great Britain and the world. Our name for the stick game is quite English, as the game grew in popularity thanks to the nursery rhyme that included the line, “five, six, pick up sticks.” In other cultures, the same game goes by the names “jackstraws” or “spillikins.”

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Where in the World

Where In The World Is | China

So far, we know that China is the world’s largest producer of peanuts and is home to the giant salamander, but there are so many more fascinating things to know about this country. Let’s take a look at a few things that make China unique: China is located in eastern Asia and has 14 countries for neighbors. Regarding land, China is slightly smaller than the United States. However, in terms of population count, China outnumbers the U.S. by 188,695,514 people! That’s a lot of people, and it results in a lot of ethnic groups, too. The Chinese government officially recognizes 56 different ethnic groups. You may have heard of a few of China’s largest cities. Beijing is the nation’s capital, but other major cities include Shanghai, Chongqing, Guangdong, Tianjin and Shenzhen — all have over 10 million people. China is also a very diverse country for languages. The various Chinese languages include Mandarin, Yue, Wu, Minbei, Minnan, Xiang, Gan and Hakka dialects. And scattered throughout the many ethnic groups are even more minority languages. Can you imagine if the United States’ regional accents were actually different languages? Would you speak the same language as your family? One of the most famous attractions in China is the Great Wall of China, but technically it’s not even one wall. It’s a series of walls that connect from construction projects that lasted about 2,000 years. A portion of the distance the wall stretches to reach actually uses natural boundaries such as rivers or mountains. The portion of the wall that is most instantly recognizable because of its preservation was constructed by the Ming Dynasty, which ruled from 1368 until 1644. For a long time, the Great Wall of China was said to be the only human-made object visible from space. As it turns out, it is not visible from the moon without the assistance of technology. That is kind of disappointing if you’re focused on the wall. But with a simple shift of focus, you’ll quickly realize how grand that makes the vast expanse of space!

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Kids

Wildville | Chinese Giant Salamanders

Lions, tigers, bears and salamanders — oh my! You’ve seen this animal’s tiny cousin, but have you seen the Chinese giant salamander? It’s the largest amphibian in the world by far. In 2015, Forbes reported the discovery of a rare giant salamander in China that weighed 110 pounds and measured almost 6 feet long! In this salamander’s defense, it had almost 200 years to grow this large. Think about this for a moment. How much do you weigh? How tall are you? Andrew Cunningham of the Zoological Society of London told the BBC in 2015 that the giant salamander discovery was astounding. “Imagine a newt in a garden pond growing to this size,”  Cunningham said. “It is simply awe-inspiring to see a live adult in the flesh.” Never seen it before? You may have seen a well-known cultural Chinese symbol based on this amazing animal. Legend has it that the Yin and Yang symbol was originally designed to resemble the black and white giant salamander, according to chinesegiantsalamanders.org. Or, if you associate dragons with Chinese culture, you may be thinking of the dragons that people associate with the waterfalls in Chinese mythology, which could very well be exaggerations of the giant salamanders! These salamanders used to be quite popular. They lived in streams, caves and forests all over  China, but all this has changed since people have traded salamander homes for human homes. Now, according to the Chinese giant salamander website, this amphibian is critically endangered. Even still, the website explains that there are over 2 million farms that breed this species to be sold as a Chinese delicacy.

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