From the category archives:

Earth and Beyond

Mountain Answers

May 18, 2012 Earth and Beyond

1. The world’s tallest mountain is a little more complicated than it sounds. Mt Everest is the official highest peak, at 8,848m above sea level. But don’t forget it gets a significant leg up by being part of the massive Himalayan range, and the mountain peak is about 4000m above its base. For the [...]

Natural and Built

May 16, 2012 Activities

I‘ve always been a bit meh about natural and built landscapes. I mean it’s so obvious – do we seriously need to point this one out? But then a whole series of little things happened at once, as they do, and I realised that maybe it does need to be discussed. Not taught as such, [...]

Quiz – The Mountain Edition

May 15, 2012 Earth and Beyond

I live in one of the flattest areas of the flattest continent, so mountains are mainly pretty pictures to me. What is the tallest mountain on earth? What formed the Great Dividing range? How did transhumance allow the Alps to be exploited? How do pyramidal peaks or horns form? What is shown in the satellite [...]

Modern Moon Myths

May 14, 2012 Earth and Beyond

These pop up all the time, the moon has been just a little bit important in human history and we’ve had lots of time to tell myths about it. It would be nice to think that as a group we’ve grown out of werewolves and love spells, except we’re still doing it. There are new moon [...]

A Set of Science Songs

May 11, 2012 Earth and Beyond

We had another couple of days without internet which is why there was no quiz posted on Tuesday. Even the trusty 3G failed so no mobile devices either. It gave me an excuse for a trawl on YouTube to find some fun and interesting videos to share instead. An easy way to finish the week. [...]

Wordless Wednesday – Supermoon?

May 9, 2012 Earth and Beyond

We were outside on Sunday night so I grabbed the camera and got some shots of the spectacular moon rising. I didn’t grab the tripod, so sorry for the fuzziness. This is an actual photo, not a white dot on a cheap graphics program. I need to learn about using the camera on manual if [...]

Electric Answers

April 27, 2012 Earth and Beyond

1. The word ‘electric’ comes from the Greek elektron, amber. Rubbing amber with wool or fur produces static electricity and the amber attracts small pieces of ash or paper. The Greeks thought it was a form of magnetism in non-metals. It wasn’t until 1600 that it was recognised as different. 2. Lightning is a [...]

Greening My Home

April 20, 2012 Babies

On Tuesday I posted about ways to save energy at home with practical tips. Today I thought I’d look at our home and make some public commitments of things I can realistically change. The house is fairly well designed – it was a pre-airconditioning house for the desert so is up on stilts with all bedrooms [...]

Weather Fish

April 19, 2012 Activities

Last week during the school holidays it suddenly turned to winter, complete with thick jumpers and woolly socks. One of the games we played a lot of that both girls enjoyed was Go Fish. In case anyone doesn’t know this one, you have cards in your hand and have to try to make pairs by [...]

Wordless Wednesday – A Billion Tiny Moons

April 18, 2012 Earth and Beyond

Sometimes we all feel the need for pretty pictures, which is generally when I head over to NASA. The colours and images and thought of peering into the past are fascinating and soothing. And last night I saw something I’d never even heard of before. I don’t know many details of astronomy, but at least [...]