Showing results by author "Amy Tao" in All Categories

All of our pet dogs today have evolved from wild wolves. Humans began to tame wolves and then select their friendliest pups for keeping. Gradually, people learned how choose some dogs and breed them to do different jobs.

Do you know how new fruit is made? Learn about the different parts of a fruit plant’s flower—the stigma, pistil, and stamen—and how they use pollen to make seeds in a process called pollination! The seeds grow into new flowers, which turn into fruit after they’re pollinated!

Do your shoes fasten with Velcro straps? Have you ever wondered where this strange invention comes from? Sometimes nature provides excellent inspiration for new solutions! Plant burs stuck in his dog's fur gave Swiss engineer George de Mestral a good idea.

Click loves flowers! If he could have anything he wanted in his garden, he would choose flowers with a variety of different seeds, bulbs, leaves, and stems so he could enjoy all sorts of pretty colors and interesting plants! Did you know that orange blossoms turn into fruit, or that a pussy willow’s flowers are called a catkin? Follow along with Click and learn all sorts of cool flower stuff!

Will an orange float or sink in water? Are heavier objects able to float in water versus lighter objects? Learn about the density of materials and how water affects the objects! Make your own scientific discoveries and expand your knowledge by conducting your own experiments with water.

Do you know how new flowers are made? It’s a process called pollination, which is what happens when pollen is moved from one flower to another! The flowers rely on animals like bees and hummingbirds to do this for them, and in return, they offer the animals delicious nectar to eat. What is your favorite pollen-moving animal?

Have you ever wondered why there are different shaped footprints in the mud or snow? An animal may be nearby! Discover the many animals that are in your environment! Every animal creates different tracks. Some tracks are large, and some tracks are small. Some animals may have five toes while others may have only a few. How many animal tracks can you name?

Red is a red blood cell. Luke is a leukocyte, or white blood cell. Patty is a platelet. What do these three have in common? They are the workers in your blood. Listen to find out why each worker is important for your body.

Your skin does a lot to make sure you are healthy and feeling good. It can keep you warm on a cold day, and cool on a hot day. It's tough and helps protect you from the sun. Its ridges help you grip things. Let's face it, your skin has you covered.

Learn about how the body processes food by following Joe's pizza lunch—from the plate to his mouth to his stomach and beyond. The nutrients from food are absorbed in the small intestine, which are delivered to rest of the body.

Bees pollinate the flowers of the plants we eat. Without pollination, plants can't grow fruits and seeds. Which foods would you miss if we didn't have honeybees? So next time you're eating a meal, stop and thank the bees for their hard work!

When volcanoes blow their top, watch out! They can blast out dangerous lava, rocks, ash, and steam that can contain clouds of poisonous gas. But when lava cools, it becomes rock, which in turn creates new land.

Did you know that spiders are not insects? Insects have only six legs but spiders have eight. Unlike insects, spiders do not have antennae. Tarantulas may look terrifying, but they are relatively harmless to humans.

Our sun is great at shining down light and heat on earth, but was the sun always that bright? With the help of gravity, the sun is eventually able to produce enough energy to give off light. Our sun has kept this up for four billion years and will keep shining for another five billion years!

Beliefs about the shape of the earth have varied over the millennia, but the Ancient Greeks were able to observe that our planet is round and even Eratosthenes attempted to measure its size. It was not until explorers had fully charted the globe that most people were really able to comprehend its spherical shape.

Reduce, recycle, and reuse. We can all help Earth, if we choose. In this poem, kids learn about the differences between recycling, compost, and hazardous waste.

Have you ever seen a fractal? You probably have, and just didn’t know it! These repeating shapes can happen anywhere, whether in nature or in math—it’s easy to make one out of a series of lines and triangles! Follow along and make a fractal of your own in a fun craft.