Monthly Archives: April 2014
What the Dino Saw… dinosaurs for Year 1/2… National Dinosaur Museum, Canberra
The photos and videos were taken in April, 2014. The displays may have had changes if you visit Canberra's National Dinosaur Museum.
Hello everyone,
I know you are interested in dinosaurs and wanted to learn something about them. Let's start with a visit to Canberra's National Dinosaur Museum. When you arrive, you can see dinosaurs waiting to greet you.
Let's meet some of the dinosaurs waiting outside the museum. If you want to learn more about one of them, you can click on their names under the photo and it will take you to an information page about the dinosaur.
Let's start with an old favourite...
...for more information click the link below...
Tyrannosaurus Rex
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You may know the tyrannosaurus rex was a carnivore. It ate meat but do you know the meat eating dinosaur below?
...for more information click the link below...
Spinosaurus
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Not all meat eating dinosaurs were as big as these. Did you know there were smaller dinosaurs who would hunt together? Velociraptors might only be 60cm high and 1.6m long but the Utahraptor was bigger. Let's meet a Utahraptor.
...for more information click the link below...
Utahraptor
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Not all dinosaurs were meat eaters.
...for more information click the link below...
Brachiosaurus
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...for more information click the link below...
Parasaurolophus
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...for more information click the link below...
Stegosaurus
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Triceratops
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There were also reptiles that could fly. While not dinosaurs, they soared through the skies...
Pteranodon
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Now let me show you around the inside of the National Dinosaur Museum. Click on the photo below to go to the next post and see inside the museum...
Things to remember:
We don't really know what colours dinosaurs were. Fossils don't show colour. The colours you see are guesses.
We don't know what sounds the dinosaurs made. Like colour, the sounds are also guesses.
Scientists can make guesses about how dinosaurs looked by looking at fossils.
Some More Thoughts for the Battalion Bloggers
With continued thoughts and questions from the Battalion Bloggers, another post was necessary to answer. To see their initial post and the follow up comments, here is the link...
A Surprise Post Inspires Action
Hello Battalion Bloggers,
There is no need to apologise for taking time to reply. I have seen how many quality experiences you have been having through blogging and know you would be having many other learning experiences in school. When we are keen to learn, there is always something to keep us busy.
Ethan, Isaac & Alex – There was no need to use a zoom lens to take the close up photo of emus. While it isn’t possible with emus in the wild, the photo was taken at Potoroo Palace, my favourite local wildlife sanctuary. I have hand fed emus at the sanctuary so being up close isn’t hard. I have seen emus a little taller than me and I stand 185cm tall so they probably can reach around 2m in height.
Dinosaurs – Well, there’s a coincidence. I am preparing something on dinosaurs for Year 1 and 2 in my local school. It will include a blog post I will also share with your class when it’s ready. It will take time as there is much to prepare. Below is a sample photo I have taken of a friend lurking near a tree at Australia’s National Dinosaur Museum in Canberra…
Kale – I think emus can run up to around 50kph (31mph) so they can run much faster than us. I think the one I saw would have only been running in the 30s.
As far as winged dinosaurs are concerned, there really weren't any. They were flying reptiles like the ones pictured below. When I was your age most thought they could only soar like kites but it has been shown they could really fly and some are known to have had feathers.
Melvin – One of the amazing things about learning is the way we can recall information we may have learned some time ago. That’s one of my secrets in blog commenting. Someone writes something and I remember a fact or two and, with extra research, I start writing a post.
Amy, Catherine & Noam – We don’t tend to see emus walking around wild in my area. However, in my first school as a permanent teacher, I sometimes had to chase emus out of the school playground before children arrived. In the first photo below, you can see my first school. It was 100km from the nearest town. Children lived on sheep and cattle stations.
The second photo shows you a close up of emu feathers. They feel almost furry but, of course, emus have feathers and not fur. You can also see an emu wing but, of course, they can't fly.
Martin and Zyne – Auckland Museum was full of amazing displays of history, culture and nature but it was the moa I most liked to see. It would be amazing to see a living one but, unfortunately, they are now extinct.
Jenna, Hilary and Claire – While I don’t have a photo of my own of the hoatzin adult, below is one accessed from Wikimedia Commons. They are amazing looking birds.
As far as emus go, I really only call them male or female although, as with other birds, you could call females “hens” and males “cocks”. In the post for Daniel, I mentioned males tend to make a grunting sound. I searched through my archive of video clips I have taken and found one where, if you listen carefully, you can hear what I think is the grunting sound of a male emu (on the right of the trio). Soon after Europeans first settled Australia, two species of emu became extinct and fossils show there was a third. The Tasmanian emu was thought to have become extinct in the mid 1800s. What we do have are three types of the one species of emus, Dromaius novaehollandiae novaehollandiae (in the south) and Dromaius novaehollandiae woodwardi (in the north) and Dromaius novaehollandiae rothschildi (in the south-west). Being the same species, they look similar but do have some differences. I will let your class know when I have my dinosaur post ready for my local school.
Lane – When you see me write about many different things, I didn’t know about much of what I shared beforehand. It’s the questions people ask that give me the chance to research and learn more. As an example, in the comment above for Jenna, Hilary and Claire, they asked me how many species of emu there are. I did some research and now know there were other species but they have become extinct. We now have only one species with three subspecies. That was my learning from finding the answer. We don’t need to know the answers to everything but we must know how to find answers when we need them.
Peng Peng & Daniel – I’ve always thought the Chinese system of names make more sense when the family name comes first so I would be Mannell Ross rather than Ross Mannell but I didn’t know about family tree differences. My family tree includes both male and female ancestors but the further back in time we go the more my family tree looks like a family forest because there are so many relatives. Look to the end of this post for some big maths about relatives.
There are a number of museums in London. I visited the Natural History Museum, the London Transport Museum, the Science Museum, and the British Museum. There were so many fascinating displays in each I couldn’t choose a favourite. Remember, I’m interested in very many things and took many photos. Here are a few…
Science Museum
British Museum
Natural History Museum
London Transport Museum
Imperial War Museum
Aya, Hannah and Kelly – Like many things in life, I am still learning. Answering your class’s questions, I have learned more facts. We should always keep or minds and eyes open to a world of learning. Writing comments and posts is my way of learning more and sharing what I find. All the knowledge in the world is no use unless we share with others.
What do I like about emus? With the kangaroo, they appear in the Australian Coat of Arms and so are a national symbol and, I think, remind me a little of dinosaurs from the past.
Some extra maths for Peng Peng and Daniel
I once looked at the numbers of parents, grandparents, great grandparents, great great grandparents, etc. we have. Before long, I realised there are so many every human on Earth has to be related to every other human somewhere back in time. Look at this maths…
If we go back only 10 generations (parents to great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, grandparents) there would be 1024 great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great grandparents.
If we go back 20 generations, there would be 1,048,576 great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great grandparents (that’s 18 greats).
Before you think I sat there working out all of this by hand, there is a maths trick we can use in a computer spreadsheet to work this out. If we start a spreadsheet and type the following into a cell,
=2^20
(for 20 generations) it gives you the answer… 1,048,576
=2^10 gives you 1024 for 10 generations
=2^25 gives you 33,554,432 for 25 generations
=2^30 gives you 1,073,741,824 for 30 generations
Can you see how big the numbers are becoming? By only 30 generations, there are over one billion great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great grandparents (that’s 28 greats).
Before long, there would be more people than there have ever been if everyone was still alive today. This means families marry into others families but, somewhere back in time, they were already related. We are all part of the same family. I am part of a family forest of which you are also part.
The Family Forest
Bilbies, Chocolate and a Dilemma for the Battalion Bloggers
To see the post from Battalion Bloggers...
Save the Bilbies
After being one of the classes to receive some baby Australian animal card sets, members of the Battalion Bloggers class became interested in the bilby. This small marsupial, as they pointed out, looks a little like a rabbit. Being a marsupial, it is more closely related to kangaroos and koalas than placental mammalian rabbits. With their observation of similar appearance to rabbits and with Easter approaching, I mentioned Australia has chocolate Easter Bilbies as well as bunnies. 30c from each sale of the 150g Easter Bilby is donated to the Save the Bilby fund. Bilbies are endangered in the wild.
This extra information brought even more comments and questions so I decided to send a gift to the Battalion Bloggers. Here is a photo of one of three inside their gift...
Their post after receiving the gift, linked above, shared comments from the students. Below are my replies...
Jenna, Catherine and Hilary – It was the interest your class showed in bilbies and Easter Bilbies that gave me the idea to send them. While they can be bought online, the trio were bought in a department store.
Bilbies are desert dwelling animals so they aren’t found in my area. They are omnivores (eat plants and animals) and do look like rabbits but are marsupials (pouched animals) like kangaroos and koalas. Rabbits are placental mammals like us.
Unfortunately, no zoos near me have bilbies but Taronga Zoo in Sydney does. The bilbies at Taronga Zoo will be having a royal visit shortly…
https://taronga.org.au/news/2014-03-06/royal-visit-taronga
Because I sometimes send parcels, I keep some styrofoam packaging just in case I need to pack a special item. I knew to survive the trip to Canada the bilbies would need to be well packed. I thought the styrofoam would help protect them from heat and bumps. I was very happy when I read they arrived safely.
Taronga Zoo's bilby information video
Lane – Parcels can be mysteries before they’re opened. The tension builds as we open them and finally can see what’s inside. Seeing questions from you class about bilbies and their chocolate cousins gave me all the excuse I needed to buy some for a class so interested. It’s not the first time I have bought merchandise from the Save the Bilby Fund people but the chocolate bilbies are the tastiest. 🙂
Sam – Bilbies are very cute and I hope to be able to take some photos of my own but it seems I would have to travel to Sydney over 500km from here to do so. Next time I have the chance to visit Sydney, I’ll have to visit Taronga Zoo and hope my cameras can handle low light. The bilbies are nocturnal animals in the wild. They are active at night so they have low light their zoo area so visitors see them during the day.
Melvin & Kale - Every year I would buy some chocolate Easter eggs for my class as a reward for their hard work. Since retiring, I haven’t had a class for which to buy them until your class showed interest in bilbies at just the right time of year. 🙂
Noam and Claire – The real bilbies are even cuter than the chocolate ones. Here is a link showing the bilbies in Perth Zoo on the other side of Australia. What I like about this link is it also shows the young joeys (baby marsupials) in the mother bilby’s pouch.
http://www.perthzoo.wa.gov.au/perth-zoo-breeds-threatened-bilby-5080/
Alex, Amy & Ethan - As cute as chocolate bilbies might be, I can’t resist the chocolate. That’s why I have photographed them. I keep the photos and eat the chocolate.
In the wild, the bilbies have suffered by the introduction of rabbits, foxes and cats to Australia. The Fund helps set up fenced areas to help their numbers grow. 🙂
http://www.savethebilbyfund.com/our-work.php
Martin, Cohen and Zyne – It can be a wonderful experience to receive an unexpected gift and try to guess what’s inside before opening the box. I would buy Easter chocolate for my classes every year. Now I am in contact with classes around the world, I only needed an excuse and your class’s interest in bilbies gave me the reason I needed. 🙂
Bilbies have even been included as characters in children's books here in Australia. Below is a photo of three books I have in my library...
Hannah – I think we have something in common. As cute as they are, I wouldn’t be able to resist tasting the chocolate inside. We can buy Easter Bilbies online but here in Australia I know shops that sell them each year. They even have packs of 6 small bilbies but I liked the size I bought for your class because they are closer to the bilby’s size than the small ones.
Kelly and Kennedy – Can you imagine how hard it would have been to share only one bilby in class? I already had a box available and realised I should have been able to pack three bilbies safely inside. The foam was an attempt to protect them from heat and shocks so I’m not surprised that didn’t make a noise when the box was shaken. 🙂
Finally, a 4 minute 15 second video clip on Chocolate Easter Bilbies and their real cousins...
Arbor Day and Mrs. Ranney’s class post
To see the fascinating original post on Arbor Day by Mrs. Ranney's class...
Astonishing Arbor Day - Then and Now!
Hello Mrs. Ranney and class,
I was fascinated by the tree photo you shared. Knowing exactly when a tree was planted and being able to see how much it has grown reminds us how change happens over time. For humans, 28 years would see us grow from newborn babies into adulthood and possibly as parents of a new generation.
Your tree, the silk floss tree, interested me because you shared it is related to the kapok tree. When I was young, our bed pillows were often filled with kapok fibres. Kapok pillows can still be bought and it's claimed "Kapok is resistant to mites, mold and mildew so its hygienic, non toxic, hypo allergenic and environmentally friendly." (taken from Kapok Pillows Australia website)
I know kapok was also an important resource around the time of World War II because it was used in life preservers but, when the Japanese captured the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia), a new source of fibres was needed. From some research, I found children in U.S.A. collected milkweed pods to use their "silk". If they had a forest of your silk floss trees, they would probably have used them. They might have been an important war resource.