Dr. Scott Sampson - Get outside, get into Nature

Paleontologist Scott Sampson, chief curator of the Denver Museum of Nature and Science, is using his passion for Tyrannosaurus Rex and the gang to encourage America’s most indoor-oriented generation to get outside and explore nature.

Sampson—or "Dr. Scott," as he's known to millions of young fans around the world, hosts the Emmy-award-nominated PBS kids show Dinosaur Train. The show is two parts fun and one part science, blending vibrant animation and catchy tunes with a live-action educational segment hosted by Dr. Scott himself. 

“Dinosaur Train encourages kids to go outside and make their own discoveries," said Sampson, during an interview with The Trust for Public Land for the family issue of Land&People. "They’re getting out there and engaging with nature, looking for plants and bugs and birds because they’re encouraged to do so on the show.”  

So what are Dr. Scott's tips to get kids excited about the natural world?

1) "Start in the backyard or the park. Ask your child to pick one aspect of nature that they’re most interested in—it could be anything ... a cloud, a plant, or a bug. Then give them a piece of paper and a pencil and ask them to closely observe the item and draw it—or maybe write a couple of notes about it." 

2) "They’ll see structures they've never noticed before in a blade of grass, or veins in a leaf, the feel of bark on a tree, and they'll write down their observations. Just by doing that, they've started a nature journal. Encourage them to do this for five minutes a day, to sit and write about what they hear, what they see, what they feel." 

3) "Next, make a game out of this activity. How many different types of animals can you see in the next ten minutes? How many different plants can you find in the backyard?”

(found in The Trust for Public Land)

Dia do Pai / Father's Day

To be a Dad is... To be here saying how much I love you :)

My Dad played with me in the slide and the swings. He goes to see the fish with me, that water with fish like Nemo, and goes to see the roses.

My Dad, in the summer, goes with me to the beach and the Algarve and my GrandDad's house. I like that Dad reads me stories after I brush my teeth. I play with my Dad and my dinosaurs. Whenever I misplace something, Dad does magic and takes it out of my ears. I just don't like it when he tells me off.

45º aniversário da Lagartinha

Facebook page 

Caterpillar...

Ah, Mr. Anderton...

Andertoons

Girls Can Be... / As Meninas podem ser... Como quiserem :)

Dia Internacional da Mulher / International Women's Day

El Cinismo Ilustrado

GeekSweetie

From top to bottom, left to right:

Rosalind Franklin, a British biophysicist and X-ray crystallographer who discovered the DNA double helix.

Marie Curie, a Polish physicist and chemist who conducted pioneering research on radioactivity.

Chien Shiung-Wu, a Chinese American physicist with expertise in the techniques of experimental physics and radioactivity. She worked on the Manhattan Project and is known as the First Lady of Physics.

Émilie du Chátelet, a French mathematician, physicist, and author during the Age of Enlightenment. Her crowning achievement is considered to be her translation and commentary on Isaac Newton's work Principia Mathematica. The translation, published posthumously in 1759, is still considered the standard French translation.

Mae Jemison, an American physician and NASA astronaut. She became the first African American woman to travel in space when she went into orbit aboard the Space Shuttle Endeavour on September 12, 1992.

Vera Rubin, an American astronomer who pioneered work on galaxy rotation rates. She uncovered the discrepancy between the predicted angular motion of galaxies and the observed motion, by studying galactic rotation curves. This phenomenon became known as the galaxy rotation problem.

Ada Lovelace, an English mathematician and writer chiefly known for her work on Charles Babbage's early mechanical general-purpose computer, the Analytical Engine. Her notes on the engine include what is recognised as the first algorithm intended to be carried out by a machine. Because of this, she is often described as the world's first computer programmer.

Maria Sibylla Merian, a German-born naturalist and scientific illustrator. Because of her careful observations and documentation of the metamorphosis of the butterfly, she is considered among the most significant contributors to the field of entomology.

Lise Meitner, an Austrian and Swedish physicist who worked on radioactivity and nuclear physics. Meitner was part of the team that discovered nuclear fission, an achievement for which her colleague Otto Hahn was awarded the Nobel Prize.

Yep - IFLS reports about OUR dino :)

Torvosaurus gurneyi : ten metres long, 4 or 5 tons heavy

Image from New Scientist

James Gurney's words on Torvosaurus gurneyi - Dinotopia!

Dinotopia! James Gurney's blog

Today a new dinosaur is being introduced to the world, and I'm thrilled and honored that that the paleontologists decided to name it after me. It's called Torvosaurus gurneyi.

 The dinosaur, which was discovered in Portugal, is one of the largest carnivorous dinosaurs from the Jurassic and the largest land-predator discovered in Europe.

Lead author Christophe Hendrickx of the Universidade Nova de Lisboa and Museu of Lourinhã says, “With a skull of 115 cm, Torvosaurus gurneyi was...an active predator that hunted other large dinosaurs, as evidenced by blade shape teeth up to 10 cm.”


Mr. Hendrickx says he chose the name because of a childhood fascination with the book that I wrote and illustrated called Dinotopia: A Land Apart from Time.

When I introduced Dinotopia more than 22 years ago, I received many letters from young children who said they wanted to become artists or paleontologists. It gives me great pleasure to hear from some of them all these years later and to find out that they're doing for a living what they dreamed about as kids.

Dinotopia is a fantasy world, but it started with the science. Many dinosaur paleontologists, such as Michael Brett-Surman, Jack Horner, Phil Currie, and Ken Carpenter helped me to visualize the extinct animals that I painted in the book, and one of them even curated an exhibition of Dinotopia original artwork for natural history museum. What inspired me to write the book was the new dynamic vision of dinosaurs that emerged from the work of those very scientists.

Imagination is at the heart of all science, but it's especially at the core of paleontology. Paleontologists have a highly disciplined form of imagination, similar to that of a detective. I'm in awe of how they can pull together scraps of evidence and then—guided by patience and skepticism—build a complete vision of a world that we will never see.

Next time I return to doing paintings of Dinotopia, I look forward to visualizing Torvosaurus—perhaps with Mr. Hendrickx riding it.

Torvosaurus Gurneyi encontrado em Portugal

Ver tudo no blogue Lusodinos
 

A descrição detalhada, em que a espécie recebe o seu nome científico, foi publicada na revista PLoS ONE.

The Dinosaur Pet Guide, by John Conway

The Sea in all it's Glory / O Mar em toda a sua Glória

Predator and Prey / Predadores e Presas

Puffer Fish / Peixe Balão :#

No one is alone forever :)

Introduce a Girl to Engineering :)

Introduce A Girl To Engineering Day from USC Viterbi on Vimeo.

Malawi and the Lake

Africa Geographic goes to the Lake - and yes, Senga Bay :)

Postalinho das terras de Sua Majestade :)

Sua Majestade o T-Rex, ahahahhahahah... *suspiro* :D

Wombat!

Wishing Alatariel success with her projects - dear LEGO, girls RULE!

Alatariel on LEGO's Cuusoo website

For Lilian :B

Birthday Wishes from the Antipodes :)

Birthday Wishes from Granny Kangaroo ;)

and a beautiful Echidna stamp!

Age-appropriate Chores for Children

Happy belated Valentine's Day, and the Art of Beatrice the Biologist :)

6 - the cake for the party

A dinosaur cake, with the best and most diverse animals DL has in his collection

6!

The real cake is yet to come :)

Zero a Oito, maravilha editorial ;)

0a8

Muitos livros, muitas revistas, material didático e lúdico. Nós já temos os Lobos todos ;)

Dinosaurs from Book to Film :p

Boy, how I love the Muldoon character :)

Book - o - saurus! Roarrrrr

Bookstore | AK, USA

Me: “Hi. What can I help you find today?”
Customer: “I want to find a book.”
Me: “What book are you looking for?”
Customer: “I’m looking for that book with a bunch of words in it that sounds like a dinosaur?”
Me: *stares for a moment* “…a thesaurus?”
Customer: “Yes!”

Defender

From The Cove

Feliz Ano Novo!

Xmas is Coming!

Merry Xmas from Down Under :)

Walking with Dinosaurs 3D

How to Train your Dragon - 2

A postcard from Granny Angela - the Aussie Dunny :)

Africa Geographic goes to Malawi

Malawi, the land of the lake

 




Meeting the Malawians

Baobab!

This is a Baobab tree. The genus is found throughout Africa, Madagascar, some parts of Asia and in Australia. They are often called "the tree of life". Their trunks often reach 7 to 11 m in diameter and the Glencoe baobab (usually considered the largest in existence) had a diameter of 15.9 m until it split into two parts a few years ago.

A single tree can hold up to 4,500 litres (1,189 gallons) of water.
From I f Love Science 

 

Movimento Arco-Íris de Sabores (MAIS) - NutriVentures

Quando acordas de manhã, come logo uma maçã,
Uma banana por dia dá-te força e energia.
Queres manga pró almoço? Pode ser mas sem caroço.
Framboesa de certeza que vai ser a sobremesa.
Sumarenta melancia para o lanche eu já comia,
E se vens jantar comigo...não te esqueças traz um figo!
Antes de sair de casa uma laranja descascada
E um ananás para ganhar energia pra brincar.
Come ao chegar à escola um morango pra memória,
Quando é hora de lanchar o Kiwi vem a calhar.
Ao cantares a canção não te esqueças do melão,
Da papaia e da amora antes de te ires embora.
Quando acordas de manhã, come logo uma maçã,
Uma banana por dia dá-te força e energia.
Queres manga pró almoço? Pode ser mas sem caroço.
Framboesa de certeza que vai ser a sobremesa.
Sumarenta melancia para o lanche eu já comia,
E se vens jantar comigo...não te esqueças traz um figo!
Muitos cheiros, tantas cores, arco-íris de sabores,
Come fruta todo dia pra crescer com alegria!

Our Xmas Tree / A nossa Árvore de Natal

Feathers! Plumas! Penas!

Odysseus / Ulisses - read to my son :)

Interactive map - click to go places!

I am in preschool

What's the time... In Australia?

And two delicious comments on the Cheezburger post:

"To make it even more complicated, Broken Hill, out in far western NSW (the reddish one) runs half an hour after the rest of the state because the town runs off South Australia (purple) time. And then there's a town basically built right on the NSW/Queensland (blue) border which has two time zones during DST."

"Time Zones are the least of our problems down under..."