Week of September 26, 2004

Liberty’s Kids

Let freedom ring with Liberty’s Kids at http://pbskids.org/ libertyskids. This Revolutionary newspaper is full of articles from back in the day. In Now & Then, you’ll see how everyday things, such as dessert and clothes, have changed since Revolutionary times. Try your hand at witticisms or get tangled in a Riddle Riot in Fun & Games. E-cards combine the past and present using images of 18th-century times and modern technology. Be sure to write and print your own Revolutionary newspaper with LNN. (This site is no longer available.)

Nominate a cool Web site at https://4Kids.org/nominations/

Viking Voyagers

Put on a Viking helmet and set sail to The Vikings at www.bbc.co.uk/schools/
primaryhistory/vikings. Red-haired Thorkel will teach you about these Norse people. You probably envision cutthroat pirates when you think of Vikings, but these famous travelers were mostly farmers from Denmark, Sweden and Norway who were looking for better farmland. In Viking Life, you’ll find out how Viking kids learned to be Viking grown-ups. Read about Norse gods such as Loki, the playful trickster, and Freyja, the beautiful goddess of love.

Seeing Color in Motion

Colors make the world a brighter place. Watch as primary and secondary colors spring to life in Color in Motion, at www.mariaclaudiacortes.com, an animated and interactive experience of communication and symbolism. The Stars is where you get your chance to view the colors one-by-one and learn fun facts about them. Put your theater skills to use as you direct the color of your choice in an emotional scene in The Lab. Or sit back and relax as each color presents a short film in The Movies.

	Dear Amy: Why do people recycle stuff? — Maryam, Calgary, Alberta Dear Maryam: We use tons of natural resources every day. Recycling the materials we use helps us sustain the environment. Recycle City at www.epa.gov/recyclecity shows how people can recycle and reuse materials in all sorts of ways. Engineers and designers continue learning better ways to use materials. Maybe people will even begin to design products so that they can be reused in many ways and for many years so that we don’t use up our natural resources. Dear Amy: Do our nerves send messages to the brain faster than the speed of light? — Maya, Mississauga, Ontario Dear Maya: No. The speed of light is 299,792,458 meters per second, or about 670,000,000 miles per hour, and our nervous system doesn’t send signals quite that fast. The highest speed that our nerves send signals is 120 meters per second. The thicker a nerve is, the faster a signal shoots through it. Some nerves are wrapped with a tissue called myelin, which also increases the speed at which a signal can travel. Go to http://faculty.washington.edu/ chudler/cv.html for some more info about nerves and signals. Ask Amy a Question

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