Go Outside and Play!

By: Judi Stuart
Port Discover - Visitor Services Manager

Go Outside and Play!
Not too many years ago, mothers frequently commanded their children to “Go outside and play! It’s a beautiful day.” It was both a defense and a blessing from a parent made weary from the chaos created by kids playing in the house.

September 24 begins “Take a Child Outside Week” in North Carolina, and is celebrated both nationally and internationally. Sometimes called “Leave No Child Inside Week,” the event is part of a movement that picked-up speed with the publication of the book Last Child in the Woods by Richard Louv in 2005.

In 2008, Mr. Louv won the Audubon Medal for energizing “the national debate on the importance of connecting kids to nature.” Other recipients of that award have included Rachel Carson, Robert Redford, Jimmy Carter, and E. O. Wilson.

Perhaps Mr. Louv’s most startling proclamation is that he believes that we must start a movement to save our children from what he calls a “nature-deficit disorder.” He also suggests that many of the increases that we see in childhood obesity, attention difficulties, and even depression may be the result of an increasing lack of children’s direct contact with nature on a regular and frequent basis.

He writes that while our children’s worlds are “limitless in cyberspace” they are “shrinking in reality.” The world’s fixation on such fear of child endangerment caused by people, animals, and other things possibly lurking in the woods has had the effect of scaring kids right out of the woods and fields.

Studies have been done that prove that symptoms of attention-deficit disorder are reduced when the child spends more time engaging freely with nature. In addition, schools that use outdoor classrooms and other techniques to get kids outside seem to see improved test scores and an increase in the students’ ability to problem-solve.

Parents and teachers often sense the importance of children’s need to experience nature’s wonders, but they name many obstacles in the modern world that don’t support the effort. Lack of access to natural areas, too much homework, extra-curricular involvement, and competition from computers and television are some of the problems experienced when trying to get the kids outside.

Our area provides endless opportunities year-round for experiencing nature. We need only to take advantage of them, but it does take some effort on our part. Port Discover has developed a scavenger hunt to be completed in the Kid’s Grow Garden behind the center.

On October 20, 2012 from 10:00 am to 2:00 pm you can attend Dismal Day at the Dismal Swamp State Park and participate in a Family Fun Run/Walk. There will also be pontoon rides, creepy crawly critter crafts, and many other outdoor activities.

Use next week as your opportunity to start making spending time in nature with your family a permanent focus. As Mr. Louv asks, “if the disconnection between children and nature continues, who will become the future stewards of the earth...?”
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Knowing Too Much

By: Judi Stuart
Port Discover - Visitor Services Manager

Knowing Too MuchSometimes it’s better that we don’t know. Last month, while keeping up with current events, I learned too much.

Charlie Naysmith was taking a walk with his father on the southern coast of Great Britain. Instead of walking by a large brownish- yellow rock, he picked it up to examine it. Now, he’s going to be $63,000 richer.

The curious eight year old found a piece of ambergris, which has a odor of its own and is sometimes used in expensive perfumes to prolong the scent. What’s really amazing about the substance, which is literally worth its weight in gold, is its origin.

Ambergris is produced in the intestines of sperm whale to protect them from the beaks of the squid that they often digest. Later, the whale vomits or poops out the excess, which then hardens and seasons, as it eventually floats to the shore.

Selling ambergris has been illegal in the United States since 1972 when the sperm whale became an endangered species. In New Zealand, it washes up on shore, and gangs control the territory, so that they can sell the substance and make a huge profit for themselves.

Author Herman Melville wrote an entire chapter in Moby Dick about how “fine ladies and gentleman...regale themselves with an essence found in the inglorious bowels of a sick whale.” Recently a 200-year-old fragrance used by Marie Antoinette was replicated using ambergris. It sold for $11,000 a bottle.

The ingredients found in some cosmetics are often, shall we say, unusual.

Lanolin, which is found in many lipsticks, shaving creams, skin creams, shampoos, and make-up removers comes from animal fur or hair. It is the sebum that is made from wax and the remains of dead fat-producing cells.

Squalene can be obtained by squeezing shark livers and is used in facial moisturizers, lipbalm, sunscreen, eye make-up, lipstick, and bath oils. When used, it is easily absorbed into the skin and combined with other oils. Wheat germ oil and olive oil are replacing squalene in many products.

Dead algae or diatomaceous earth is used in some acne treatments, facial cleansers, and exfoliates. You would recognize it as the slimy film on fish tanks. Cholesterol from animals is found in anti-aging and many other creams.

Guanine is formed by processing the scraped off scales of dead fish and then suspending them in alcohol. The result is a pearl essence that gives the iridescent quality to some cosmetics such as finger nail polish.

Other startling substances used in beauty treatments around the world include nightingale droppings, snail secretions, cochineal beetles, placenta creams, cow dung, and snake venom.

After all my research, I am left with the question—what kind of person first decided to rub nightingale droppings on her face or picked up that ambergris rock and smelled it? I don’t know, but what I do know is that I’ll be reading the labels from now on.
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It’s All in Your Head

By: Judi Stuart
Port Discover - Visitor Services Manager

It’s All in Your Head
Have you thought about your brain lately?

In 1990 President George Bush issued a proclamation making the nineties the “Decade of the Brain.” People were beginning to realize that the advancements in technology were advancing the field of neuroscience to new heights.

Electro encephalography (EED) measures the changes in electrical voltage in the neurons in the brain. Magneto encephalography (MEG) uses highly sensitive magnetometers to measure the electrical currents produced by brain activity. Functional magnetic resonance imaging (FMRI) measures changes in blood flow during brain activity.

Since all science is based on observation, these new technologies have allowed researchers to study the human brain in ways never before possible. What have we learned, and has it really affected teaching and learning? The answer is as complex as the brain itself.

We have learned that the brain continues to change well past childhood and that it changes based on a person’s experiences and learning. Although the brain stops growing at age 18, it continues to make new connections throughout life. For some time, teachers have accepted that each child learns differently which has made strategic designing of lessons mandatory.

One of the most dynamic times during the brain’s development is right before puberty when the frontal cortex experiences an unexpected growth spurt, and the gray matter begins to thicken and rapidly grow connections. The older teen brain differs dramatically in anatomy, biochemistry, and physiology from the childhood brain.

In 2002, PBS’s Frontline aired a program titled “Inside the Teenage Brain” which you can still watch online. Several points are made about how the changing of their brains should affect how we deal with teenagers.

Cognitive skills are still being built in the teenage brain, and the skills of judgment and decision-making are immature and that actually causes the risky behavior that we sometimes see. You might say that the teen tends to be mentally clumsy, just like they are sometimes physically clumsy.

Just when parents begin to allow kids to stay up a little later and might actually lose control of bedtime, the child’s sleep need increases to 9.5 hours per night. The average teens get 7.5 hours per night which makes them operate at a deficit.

Strategies like allowing the student to catch up on sleep on the weekends and having later start times for school have been explored. Some researchers think that the number of hours of sleep that the student regularly gets is a better predictor of college success than SAT scores.

Other tips for parents include reading aloud and having conversations with children, which promotes brain development. Studies have shown that students who ate lunches that did not include artificial flavors, preservatives and dyes did 14% better on IQ tests.

By the way, the technical word for that problem of not being able to remember a word or name that’s on the tip-of-your tongue is called anomia. Yep, I’ve got that!
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