Climate Change

At the Global Warming Alert Conference in Harrisburg, there were messages of hope, accompanied by speakers typically talking about climate change dangers predicted to take place in the future. That future is not only getting closer, but according to Donald Brown of Widener University, we only have about 5 years to drastically change our behavior to stop a ecological switch from flipping that would trigger runaway global warming.

He also spoke about a campaign of disinformation and named perpetrators. Disinformation gets my dander up, especially about such an important topic and for so self serving an end. This inspired me to poll readers about their understanding and feelings about climate change. Please take the poll on the side bar to the left.

Mythic Humanoids – Serpent People and Dragon Shape Shifters – Part 2 (Symbolism)

Like fire that later came to be associated with serpent people's spin off dragons, depending on the people group the myths came from, serpent people could be good and helpful or cunning and evil. In some cultures they were both. For example, in ancient Egypt, Apepi, a giant serpent demon attacked Ra, the sun, while Mehen, another giant serpent coiled around the sun at night to protect him. Regardless of whether they are good  or evil, both serpents and dragons are usually associated with underwater or underground worlds, often with the roots of cosmic trees. (Niddhogg - Norse, Mictlan - Aztec, Veles – Slavic)

Science Lesson – Magic School Bus - Flight

Day 1 – Air Foils and Lift

Using Magic School Bus Episode # - Flight, I taught the K- 2^nd graders about lift and air foils. I tied it into the weather lessons by reviewing the facts about updrafts and wind. Then I reminded them of our discussion about updrafts from hot spots helping raptors like turkey vultures, common in our area, get up into the stronger wind currents higher in the sky. That is why they circle. Then I equated wind discussed in the weather lessons with the moving air needed and the updrafts from hot air up drafts with the lift needed for flight.

Weather lessons for young children

Since I've been writing about Djinn, desert weather spirits, I thought I'd take a little break from mythical peoples and contribute to my science lessons areas.

This will seem like a drastic shift for many readers but since this blog is about nature, the mythical, scientific, emotional and moral aspects of nature, in other words, the impact nature has on humans, this topic fits right in.

I've been doing some easy lessons on weather for a home school co-op class as a short notice replacement teacher. The class is based around the Magic School Bus animated TV series produced by Scholastic Productions Inc. (recommended for ages 4 - 10.) My class has 8 students from kindergarten through second grade. This is a much younger level than I'm used to teaching, but the topic of weather dovetails nicely with my latest posts and appeals to my muse.