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St.
Louis History News Stories
Glennon
Xmas art
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Places to Go, Things to Do Car history exhibit, Happenings4Youth
rally
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(Editors
note: On Saturday, Oct. 21, the 2006 Chemistry
Exposition will be held at the St. Louis Science
Center. The theme is: "Your Home: It's all built
on chemistry." This article gives specifications
for four home-product experiments kids can do
at home. |
Time in Minutes
|
Unwrapped Cube
|
Aluminum Foil |
Newspaper
|
Plastic Wrap
|
Waxed Paper
|
|
15
|
|||||
|
30
|
|||||
|
45
|
|||||
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60
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|||||
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75
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|||||
|
90
|
Which cube melted the fastest?
Which cube took the longest time to melt?
List the wrappers in order from the worst to best insulation?
Why do you think some are better insulators than others?
Where's the Chemistry?
The wrapper that allowed more heat through to the ice and melted it fastest is the worst insulator. The wrapper that kept the heat away from the ice and melted it the slowest is the best insulator. Metal tends not to be a good insulator because it transfers, or conducts, heat. In this case, it conducted the heat from the warmer air in the room to the cold ice.
Avi's Sensational Salt Dough
Bricks are made by shaping clay and then drying or baking it at high temperatures. In this activity, you and your adult partner can mimic how bricks are made. You will shape and bake creations from a dough made from only flour, salt and water.
Materials:
-
Conventional or toaster oven
-
˝ cup measure for dry goods
-
White flour
-
Salt
-
Large bowl
-
Large spoon
-
Ľ cup for liquid measure
-
Warm water
-
Aluminum foil
-
Cookie sheet or metal tray
-
Clock or timer
-
Oven mitts
-
Food coloring (optional-add to the water before pouring)
-
Rolling pin and cookie cutters (optional)
-
Smock or apron (optional)
Procedure:
-
Have your adult partner preheat the oven at 200 degrees F
-
Measure and pour ˝ cup flour and ˝ cup salt in the bowl and mix together with a spoon.
-
Slowly add Ľ cup warm water while stirring the flour and salt and continue to mix until the ingredients blend into a dough.
-
Knead the dough with your hands until it is smooth and elastic. If dough is sticky, add more flour. If too dry, add more water.
-
Shape the dough. Use tools that your adult partner has approved to help make your creations.
-
Cover the cookie sheet or metal tray with aluminum foil and carefully place your designs on the foil.
-
Ask your adult partner to place the tray in the oven. If you have a glass oven door, you can keep an eye on the dough.
-
Have your adult partner take the tray out of the oven with oven mitts and check to see if they have finished baking after about 15 minutes. When dry and ready, your designs will be less shiny. The thicker your creations, the more time they need to bake, just as with sturdier brick.
-
When the creations have dried, have your adult partner remove the tray from the oven with oven mitts and place the tray on a heat-resistant surface. Be careful. Everything from the oven will be hot.
-
Wait for your adult partner to tell you when your newly created art is cool enough to touch.
-
When it has cooled completely, remove your sensational salt dough creation from the cookie sheet.
-
In the What Did You Observe? Section, describe what the dough felt like before and after you baked it.
-
Thoroughly clean the work area and wash your hands.
What Did You Observe?
How did the dough feel as you started to shape it? After you baked it?
Where's the Chemistry?
In this activity, a chemical change occurred when you baked the dough. It was soft and elastic at first and then became hard and rigid during the baking. When a chemical change happens, things cannot be made to go back to what they were like originally and something new is formed. You can notice these changes by observing how it looks and how it feels. The color may be different, or it may feel solid instead of soft. In order for chemical changes to occur, heat made be required like in this activity.
Making Playtime Paint
Why do we paint our homes? We paint the outside of our homes mainly to protect them from the rain, wind and sun. Other reasons we paint are to make our homes and the rooms inside look nice and brighten our lives.
Modern paints are highly specialized and complex. But, they all have two basic parts: pigments and binders.
Pigment gives paint its color. The binder adds important chemicals that "hold" the pigment, help the paint stick to surfaces and allow it to form a smooth film when it dries.
In this experiment, you will make your own paint using chalk as a pigment and glue and water as binders.
Materials:
-
2 freezer-style zip-closing bags
-
Colored chalk (regular or sidewalk)
-
Mallet or hammer
-
Small cups (4 oz.)
-
Measuring spoons
-
Water
-
Wooden craft sticks
-
White craft glue
-
Paintbrushes
-
Paper
Procedure:
-
Place one freezer bag inside of the other.
-
Place 2-3 pieces of the same colored chalk or 1 piece of colored sidewalk chalk into the inner bag. Close both bags, squeezing as much air out as possible.
-
Carefully use the mallet or hammer to break the chalk into a fine powder. Make the powder as smooth as possible. It will be harder to break up the small chunks once you have taken the powdered chalk out of the bag. Your paint will end up lumpy if the powder isn't fine.
-
Carefully open the bags and slowly pour the powder into a small cup. (Note: If you want to make more than one paint color, repeat Step 3 with another color of chalk. Use separate cups for each color.)
-
Add 3 teaspoons of water to the powder in the cup.
-
Using a craft stick, mix the chalk powder and the water until you have a fine paste. The smoother the paste, the smoother your paint will be.
-
Add 1 tablespoon of white glue to the cup and stir everything together.
-
If your paint appears thick, you may need to add up to 3 more tablespoons of water to get the consistency you want. Add 1 tablespoon at a time and mix after each addition.
-
Paint a picture on the paper.
-
Thoroughly clean the work area and wash your hands.
Where's the Chemistry?
Paint is made of tiny particles of color that are suspended in a liquid instead of dissolved in it. Think about what happens when you add salt or sugar to water. It dissolves into what is called a solution. Unlike a solution, paint particles "float" within a thick liquid such as oil or glue. The thick liquid helps the paint stick to and spread evenly across a surface. Then it allows it to form a film on the surface as it dries. In this activity, the glue and water mixture suspended the chalk's colored pigments. That is, the glue acted as a binder to help spread the paint evenly across a surface to dry.
Testing Spaghetti's Strength
Can you think of an example of a polymer that is a strong building material? Yes you can! Wood is a naturally occurring polymer found in the lumber used to build the frame of a home or in the plywood placed on the outside part of the frame.
One of the reasons it is strong is because of the strength of its chemical bonds. Chemical bonds can be broken by force. Scientists test how much force is required to break a material sample. That's to make sure the material is strong enough for building purpose.
As in plywood, greater strength can be achieved by bonding thin strips together.
In this activity, you will see how scientists examine building materials. But, in your case, you'll test the strength of spaghetti and how the number of strands effects its strength.
Materials:
-
Small paper cup (4 oz.)
-
String
-
Pencil
-
Raw spaghetti
-
Other uncooked pasta (one thinner and one thicker than spaghetti, such as angel hair and fettuccini.)
-
Masking tape
-
Metric ruler
-
Pennies
Procedure:
-
Make a "penny bucket" from the paper cup and string. First use the pencil to carefully poke a hole in the side of the cup, just below the rim. Poke a second hole directly across from the first one.
-
Tie one end of the string to each hole to make a handle for your "penny bucket" as shown and set it aside.
-
Place one piece of spaghetti on the table and use the ruler to measure so that 12 centimeters of spaghetti hang off the edge of the table.
-
Tape the spaghetti in place.
-
Place a small piece of masking tape on the end of the spaghetti that hangs off the table by folding the tape in half over the end.
-
Hang the empty "penny bucket" on the spaghetti up against the end tape.
-
GENTLY place pennies one at a time into the "penny bucket."
-
Continue to add pennies until the spaghetti breaks.
-
Record the number of pennies in the "What Do You Observe?" section.
-
Repeat the steps 3 through 9 for 2, 3 and 4 strands of spaghetti. When you tape the ends, make sure the spaghetti strands are touching each other.
-
Repeat steps 3 through 9 for thinner and thicker pasta.
-
Throw away the empty "penny bucket" and broken spaghetti pieces. Return the pennies to the owner. Thoroughly clean the work area and wash your hands.
What Did You Observe?
|
Number of strands of
pasta
|
Number of pennies held
before breaking
|
||
|
Regular spaghetti
|
Thin pasta
|
Thick pasta
|
|
|
1
|
|||
|
2
|
|||
|
3
|
|||
|
4
|
|||
Which number of strands was the first to break? ___________ the last?___________
Which type of pasta held the most pennies overall?
Why do you think this is so?
Where's the Chemistry?
Spaghetti is a type of polymer called a carbohydrate. Its bonds are strong. However, it could only support a certain number of pennies. When there was too much strain on the spaghetti strands, it caused the chemical bonds to break. There is strength in having several strands of spaghetti stuck together. This allows more pennies to be supported.
SIUE chemistry students to help at ExpositionStudents from Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville's chemistry club will be on hand again this year to help kids at the 2006 Chemistry Exposition. The event is on Saturday, Oct. 21, at the St. Louis Science Center. Club vice-president Dave Herrmann of Belleville will be back again this year. A year ago, he helps kids to make toys such as snow polymers and a lizard puzzle with tiles. This year, he'll be showing kids how to make foam insulation and homemade paint. Dave is a 24-year-old pre-med student at SIUE. The chemistry club does lots of outreach projects with younger kids. He said, "There's a lot of satisfaction in giving kids their first exposure to science experiments. I like to see their surprise and amazement when the experiment works" In addition to helping at the Chemistry Exposition, science club members give demonstrations at after-school meetings and lead tours of area chemical plants. Lance Endsley is a 20-year-old pre-pharmacy student from a small southern Illinois town of Ciesie, Ill. He hopes to be accepted to SIUC's School of Pharmacy next fall. Last year, Lance was in the set-up crew at the Exposition. This year, he'll be one of the club members who'll give hands-on help with experiments. For Lance, the Exposition will be his first chance to work with young kids. "Up to now, I've only worked with college kids," he said. Among other chemistry club activities, he's participated in a "science pentathlon." Unlike a regular athletic pentathlon, the science one matches contestants in science skills. Eric Voss and Susan Wiediger teach in the SIUE chemistry department and are advisors for the chemistry club. They have supplied student helpers for the Exposition for years. The Exposition is sponsored by the St. Louis chapter of the American Chemical Society. The ACS has a neat website at www.chemistry.org with sections for kids. |
Kids to learn swordplay in acting classes
Fourteen-year-old Shannon Durphy is glad to hear that swordplay and on-stage violence will be part of her Shakespeare Conservatory acting lessons this fall.
The Metro Classical and Academic High School freshman thought she was going to have to miss out on that part of the lessons. Shannon is in a new acting program sponsored by the Shakespeare Festival of St. Louis.
The Saturday Conservatory classes are being offered for the first time this fall at St. Louis University. At first, the "Scenes with Swordplay" activities were to be offered as a separate series.
Shannon said, "I wasn't going to be able to take any more acting classes this semester. I'm in a gifted program in high school and am playing volleyball. The sports and homework were too much."
But, her core Conservatory classes are being restructured. Among new elements will be a class on stage violence taught by Todd Gillinardo, a professional fight choreographer.
Jessica Vonder Haar of the Shakespeare Festival said Gillinardo specializes in helping actors in mastering action scenes featuring swordplay and fistfighting. Ms. Vonder Haar said Gillinardo specializes in teaching actors "how to take a punch-safely."
Of course, Shakespeare included a lot of fighting and murder in his plays.
Shannon and 14-year-old Audrey Marten of Maplewood are in the Advanced Scenes for Teens core program. The class of 11 includes kids from 11 to 17.
Another subject in the 10-week program is "Speak the Speech." That includes general advice on voice, diction and projection. Then, there is specialized help in handling the unique speech patterns of Shakespeare's time.
Sound designer Robin Weatherall will help them pick original music to go with the actors' action and speech.
The kids also have homework. Each will come up with a plan for a scene. Then, the kids will have a group discussion session to take their ideas and put them into a final script.
The kids then will perform this original scene.
Both Shannon and Audrey have had previous acting experience in Shakespeare plays.
Shannon and Audrey had parts in performances of "The Tempest" and "Julius Caesar." They acted in the same plays although they attended different schools the last two years.
The performances were part of the Metro Youth Shakespeare Project. In that program, a Shakespeare play is divided into scenes and assigned to 10 different St. Louis schools.
Each school picks actors to fill all roles in their scenes. For instance, in the play, "Julius Caesar," there were 10 different kids playing Caesar. Then, the whole play was performed all in one theater using 10 different casts.
Ms. Vonder Haar said the audience could follow the play because each Caesar has some common costume element. (Young Saint Louis.com has written about this program. To read an earlier story, click here.)
Shannon said she got "real interested" in Shakespeare while a 7th grade student at Carr-Lane VPA Middle School. Her first acting was in 6th grade at Carr-Lane when she had a part in the play, "The Carnival of Animals."
She said that was a play that had very little dialogue. "The play was mostly about movement," she said.
Shannon said she signed up for the Saturday Conservatory sessions "to get better at speaking and movement." She said she also wanted more training of her voice.
Audrey is a freshman at Crossroads College Preparatory School. She said she came by her interest in Shakespeare at the age of 8. That's when she did a radio commercial for the Shakespeare Festival.
"I played Juliet in the balcony scene of 'Romeo and Juliet.' I was speaking in the background while others were giving the commercial's message," she said.
She said she got the radio part because her father is on the Shakespeare Festival's staff.
Audrey said she signed up for the Saturday classes "to better understand acting in general and to understand Shakespeare in particular."
About the Shakespeare language, she said, "It's tough at first. But, after talking about it with someone else, it's easier."
She said she'd like to be a professional actor but "it's pretty iffy right now."
Shannon also wants to be a professional. But, she admits she's got one problem: "I can't sing." She said she's hoping to take more voice lessons "so I can at least carry a tune."
Red Ribbon Days
Kid hopes she plays a "ghost" again
Eight-grader Erin Staengel hopes she gets to dress up like a "ghost" again this month during the busy Red Ribbon Days activities at her middle school in Fenton.
Kids in the TREND chapter at Rockwood South Middle School include a drunk driving emphasis during Red Ribbon Week. Some chapter kids paint their faces a ghostly white color to represent people killed by drunk drivers every day of the year.
That means a new "ghost" will be added every 20 minutes during DDA Day. That's the rate at which Americans are killed by drunk drivers every day of the year.
Fourteen-year-old Erin was a "ghost" last year. She wants to do it again because she wants to try to "stop the violence tied to drunk driving."
"Ghosts" are recruited from classes by another student who dresses as the "grim reaper."
TREND programming at many schools is especially busy during October. But, at Rockwood South, the TREND chapter has events scheduled nearly every month, including over the summer.
For instance, last June, the Rockwood South kids had a 10-member team in a Relay for Life event. That 24-hour walkathon raised money for the American Cancer Society. The Rockwood team raised $568.75 in pledges for their walking.
In July, the chapter held a garage sale at the home of their long-time advisor, Mary Corsair. That raised the money to send 12 chapter members to the annual TREND leadership conference in August.
The 2006-2007 TREND program opened last month with a "doubleheader" event. That included a trip to the Magic House and a party at Cici's Pizza.
The Rockwood South chapter usually has between 40 and 60 members.
Thirteen-year-old Henri Spencer is in her 3rd year with the TREND chapter. She's on the group's advisory council for the 2nd year.
Henri said she was urged by her teachers to join TREND because it would give her a chance to develop her leadership skills. "I want to be in as much stuff as possible because this is my final year," the 8th grader said.
Thirteen-year-old Allison Roehl said she's looking forward to participating in the chapter's Murder Mystery event next January. That's when the chapter members participate in a "mystery theater" program that moves from class to class.
Allison wants to be one of the actors in this year's mystery.
The 8th grader also has been in the TREND chapter for three years and on the advisory council for two. She likes the advisory council work because the group sets the agenda for each year's activities and events.
She said the thing she likes best about TREND is working on the planning committees.
Twelve-year-old Trina Burlison is one of the underclassmen on the advisory council. She's a 7th grader in her second year as a chapter member and 1st on the council.
She said, "The TREND program last year was a good one and we want to top that this year." She said she's looking forward to the chapter's Halloween Happenings event later this month.
She also thinks the Build a Bear event next March will be a winner.
Among other events planned for this school year are two Gym-n-Swim lock-in events, a Canine Carnival in Tilles Park, caroling in December, a Mardi Gras dance and a BBQ weekend event.
The school year program ends with an All-School Carnival next May.
Also, the chapter holds general membership meetings in the school. All students are invited. The theme for the first one will be "What Is Your Anti-Drug?" During the meeting, kids will be asked to tell what activity-or "anti-drug"-they use to keep them from thinking about drugs and alcohol.
In past discussions, one kid said she used reading and another, dancing as "anti-drugs."
TREND is a national program sponsored by the National Council on Alcohol and Drug Abuse (NCADA). You can learn more about it by calling Ginny Shaller at (314) 962-3456 or visiting the website at www.ncada-stl.org/trend.htm.
The TREND name stands for Turning Resources and Energy in New Directions. It's dedicated to keeping kids drug-, tobacco- and alcohol-free.
The TREND chapters bring that message through recreational activities, educational programs and community service projects.
For kids at Rockwood South Middle School, that turns out to be a year-old effort.
Gateway Young Achievers 2006
Jordan West mixes grades, sports and service
(Fifth in a Series)
Twelve-year-old
Jordan West got his new school year off to a good
start-sports wise. He and his Striker select soccer
team were in Chicago in mid-September for a multi-state
regional tournament.
Jordan was the leading scorer for two select soccer teams last year. But, he said he's going to concentrate on one team this year since he's moving to middle school.
He said he wants to make sure he gets off to a good academic start at Rockwood Valley Middle School. The 6th grader had a 4.0 grade point average at Chesterfield Elementary School.
This year, he said, "I want to make good grades and make new friends."
He said, "I want to get good grades because then I'll have a better chance of getting into Stanford University." The noted California school also has an excellent sports program, including a good soccer team.
His excellent grades, sports achievements and community service earned Jordan a Gateway Young Achievers of the Year award last spring. He was one of 12 St. Louis area kids who received the award, which includes a $1,000 savings bond.
(This article is the fifth of eight profiles by Young Saint Louis.com on the elementary and middle school awardees. If you'd like to read the four previous profiles, go to Past Stories and click on June, 2006; July, 2006; August, 2006, and/or September, 2006.)
Jordan's community activities include helping with programs at his church, Windsor Crossing Community Church. Last year, he helped collect supplies to set up a temporary housing shelter at the church for refugees of Hurricane Katrina from New Orleans.
This year, he's signed up help church teachers with 1st grade kids on Saturdays and Sundays. "We help the teachers by playing with the kids," he said.
When asked about what he gets out of the community service work, he said simply, "It makes me feel good. And my Mom and Dad are proud of me."
His religious activities included attendance at the Kanakuk K-7 Christian Camp near Branson. He took part in the program both last summer and in 2005. He received both sports and character awards.
During 4th and 5th grade at Chesterfield Elementary, he was a straight-A student and took part in a variety of other activities. He took violin lessons both years. He also took a Chinese language class after school. He said they studied both written and spoken word.
He was a member of the school's Character Counts Committee in both 4th and 5th grades.
One of the committee's activities was to produce videos that explain proper etiquette that kids are to use in the halls and with other kids and teachers. Jordan said his part in the video making was usually as an actor.
The Character Counts Committee also did planning for various fund-raisers at the school.
In one fund-raiser, the committee raised about $1,000 for tsunami victims in Indonesia. "We sold bracelets for $2 to raise the money," he said.
Besides his soccer playing, Jordan has been active in other sports.
Last year, in a district cross-country meet at Marquette High School, he ran a 5:53 mile. As a 4th grader, he also won the outdoor mile championship in the spring of 2005
In soccer, Jordan plays forward, which puts him in the middle of the team's scoring efforts. When his team's on defense, he and the other forwards are usually trailing the action.
That way, if his team's defenders stop the other team, the forwards are in position to take a pass and start attacking the other team's goal.
He also does a lot of sports just for fun.
But, one of those activities-bike riding-has been slowed down some. "I would ride my bike along when my Dad did his running," he said. But, this summer, his father hurt his knee and hasn't been running as much.
Asked about his best experience in life so far, Jordan said the Young Achiever of the Year award ranks highest. He said the $1,000 bond is already in his college fund account.
Jordan wants to have a career in sports, either as a pro soccer player or as a sports announcer.
This month's book reviews
A girl from Chicago goes to
live with her grandma
in a small town in Illinois
The year is 1937. America is in the midst of "the Great Depression." Many people are without jobs. Money is very scarce. Mary Alice, who is fifteen, is being put on the train to go stay with her grandmother in a small town in rural Illinois. Her dad has lost his job. There is no room for Mary Alice in the one room apartment that her parents are forced to move into.
Mary Alice had visited her grandmother for short times in past summers. This time she knows she will have to stay for some time. Nobody really knows for how long. When Mary Alice arrives at the train station in the small town, her Grandma Dowdel is waiting for her. Alice is carrying a hamper with her cat, "Bootsie," in it and her old portable radio in her other hand. He dad's old army footlocker with her few clothes in it has been dropped on the station platform. Mary Alice could tell her grandma wasn't too pleased with either the cat or the radio - "Hoo-boy, another mouth to feed" and "That's all we need, more noise."
Mary Alice is even further shocked when her grandma takes her immediately to school. "You've already missed pretty nearly two weeks. I won't have the law on me." Her shock increased even more when Mary Alice saw the school with the outdoor privy and the pump outside. Her grandma introduced her to the poorly-dressed principal, who was also the school janitor and the basketball coach. Apparently, the depression hit small towns even harder than it hit big cities like Chicago.
Things got worse when Mary Alice met the kids in school. Right away, she is forced to share a desk with Mildred Burdock, an ugly, huge bully of a girl. At the first break, Mildred tells her "You owe me a dollar, rich Chicago girl." The other kids tell Mary Alice that she'd better pay Mildred if she knows what's good for her.
So the first hilarious event in the story is how Grandma Dowdel quietly deals with Mildred Burdock when Mary Alice shows up and tells her grandma that she owes Mildred a dollar. Mildred and the entire Burdock family find out that Grandma Dowdel is not someone to try to take advantage of. Mary Alice begins to understand why no one in town wants to cross her grandma. She finds out, as time goes on, that her crotchety-appearing grandma really loves her and will go to great lengths to protect her.
"A Year Down Yonder," by author, Richard Peck, is a sequel to his earlier book, "A Long Way from Chicago." Both books, although they deal with hard times in the "Great Depression," will have you laughing out loud as you read about Grandma Dowdel's exploits. .
An Irish girl helps rescue two
survivors
from the wrecked Spanish Armada
In the year 1588, the King of Spain sent a huge fleet of warships to invade England. Through the combined effort of the English Navy and the appearance of raging storms along the coast of Britain, the Spanish were defeated. Many of the warships were wrecked in the storms, and a few survivors, including both men and horses, were washed ashore.
A fourteen-year-old Irish girl, named Nora Donovan, is known for her extreme love of horses and the unusual ability she has to make friends with the wild horses that roam the Irish countryside. In one of her wanderings along the shoreline, she discovers both a beautiful warhorse and a youthful Spanish survivor. Both of them are injured and need her nursing care. She manages to hide both of them in a cave close to shore as she helps them recover from their injuries.
Nora knows if the young Spaniard is discovered by English soldiers, he likely will be shot or hanged as an enemy. The large Spanish warhorse will be seen as a trophy and probably turned into a mount for an English officer. Nora, if she is discovered hiding either the young man or the warhorse, risks being hanged as a traitor.
The main part of the story is concerned with how Nora struggles to help the young Spaniard reach a rescue ship that will return him to Spain. She also struggles to keep the beautiful Spanish horse from being captured and used by the English to continue their oppression of her people.
We learn how a young Irish girl uses her special talent with horses to pull off a rescue of the two survivors she found during the epic defeat of the Spanish Armada. In the process, we also learn about living conditions in the Ireland of the 16th century, from the point of view of a young girl of that era.
TITLE
"Are you Martha Boyle?" That's how this little book begins. A woman is at Martha's front door asking this question. It turns out she is the mother of a girl named Olive Barstow, who had been in Martha's grade at school. Summer vacation had just started. Just a few weeks before, Olive had been hit by a car and killed, while riding her bike. Before quickly leaving, the mother gave Martha a folded up page from the journal Olive had kept. On it, poor Olive had written that she hoped that she could write a book someday. She also said she thought Martha Boyle was the nicest person in her whole class and that she hoped that the two of them could become friends.
Martha was stunned. Some of the boys in the class had been mean to Olive. She and the other girls hadn't been mean especially, they had just ignored Olive. She was just so quiet and so shy; nobody tried to be her friend. Now, she was dead. And for some reason she had liked Martha and she had wanted to be a writer, just like Martha wanted to be a writer. It was all so weird.
The entire Boyle family was getting ready to go on summer vacation to grandmother's house at the beach. Martha had always liked going to her grandmother's for the summer, but this time, she knew she wouldn't stop thinking about Olive. She knew she had to do something to commemorate Olive. She also knew she couldn't talk about it to any members of her family, except maybe her grandmother. Because she was old and sometimes hinted at her own upcoming death, only grandmother might understand.
Besides her mom and dad, Martha's little sister, Lucy, and her brother, Vince, who was one year older than Martha, made up the Boyle family. In a nearby house was the Manning family - five boys - Jimmy, Tate, Todd, Luke, and Leo. Martha was interested in Jimmy, who that summer was focused on making a video. Jimmy was her brother Vince's age. Tate was her age and the other brothers were younger.
For some reason that summer, Jimmy showed considerable interest in Martha and wanted to involve her in his attempts to make videos. In fact, Martha began to think maybe she and Jimmy might become boyfriend and girlfriend. She was terribly hurt when she found out her first kiss was just something to be filmed for Jimmy's video.
Another event that had considerable impact on Martha was her near accidental drowning, while swimming near the shore. After a summer like this, can Martha ever resume her normal life with a positive outlook? Will she ever get over her preoccupation with death? Can she ever trust a boy again? Will she ever become the writer she wants to be?
A boy brings home a raven to
help cure
his grandfather's heart condition
Charlie Carlisle liked staying with his grandparents. They lived on a ranch close to the Teton Mountains and away from the city. Charlie was worried when his grandfather had a heart attack and was slow to recover from it. Singing Bird, a Sioux Indian girl, who was a good friend to Charlie, had told him elders in her tribe believed that ravens had magical healing powers and could help people recover from illness. So Charlie decided to steal a young raven from the two babies he found in a nearby nest and bring it home to raise.
The young raven was named "Blue Sky." Blue Sky and Granddad quickly became friends. Of course, Granddad had been a naturalist who studied bird behavior before he became ill. Granddad showed Charlie how to keep scientific notes on raven behavior. As he studied Blue Sky and other ravens, Charlie was practicing to become a naturalist if he wanted to be one when he grew up.
To his surprise, Charlie found that Blue Sky's parents were perched on the roof of the house almost every morning. They were keeping an eye on how the baby was being taken care of by the humans. Later, the other baby raven from the nest was brought by its parents to hang around the house where Blue Sky was living. The humans named her "Pinecone." Apparently, the parent ravens liked how Blue Sky was being fed and taken care of, so they brought Pinecone over to be cared for by the humans also. That way the adult ravens had more time to go off on their own. They turned the humans into babysitters for the young ravens. Talk about smart birds!
By bringing a baby raven into the house, Charlie had definitely given his grandfather a reason to get up and be more active than he had been. Granddad had always been fascinated by ravens and now Charlie had provided an excellent situation to study raven behavior up close. Not only did they have Blue Sky to study, but Pinecone and the parent ravens were also handy subjects to study.
Any reader will find Blue Sky's antics entertaining and amusing as he tries to control the humans' behavior. He sees them as other ravens and tries to make himself the "boss raven." Questions remain to be answered. Is raven magic great enough to keep Granddad from having another heart attack? What will eventually happen as Blue Sky matures and is able to fly off with the wild ravens? How will Charlie feel if he finally has to let the raven go off on his own? What will be the impact of Charlie's experiment with ravens on those people around who think ravens are evil birds? These are just a few of the questions that will be answered as you read "Charlie's Raven."
Six Math Mania puzzles for October
The
Math Mania competition got off to a
good start in September. There were lots of
entries and 27 kids got all the answers correct.
That's one of the fastest starts in the history of Young Saint Louis.com's math puzzles.
Now, the question is: Are you guys too smart or was Ms. Math Mania too lenient? I guess we'll find out this month.
In October, Ms. Amy Ruzicka, the math teacher at St. Gabriel School, has increased the number of puzzles to six. And, they are a different style from last month.
Let's see how you do. If you have friends who haven't entered, tell them about the monthly feature and have them enter. Maybe they'd like to have fun with math too.
The rules for Math Mania are the same as last year. Each month, the contest calls for you to give answers for five or six math brainteasers.
Then, you can submit your answers, using the form attached to the questions. If you answer all the questions correctly, you'll have a chance to win a Borders book certificate.
We'll award from 2 or 3 $10 book certificates each month, if there are enough winners.
Because there were so many kids with all-correct answers in September, YSL.com is awarding three book certificates. The winners in a random drawing from all the correct entries are:
Sydney Wright, 12; Scott
Burns, 11,
and Jackie Migneco, 13, all of St. Louis.
To enter the October Math Mania competition, fill out the attached entry form and give answers to the six questions. Be sure to follow instructions when compiling your entry.
In the November YSL.com edition, we'll publish a new set of teasers. We'll also include another article giving the answers to the October puzzles. We'll publish names of any Borders book certificate winners.
How to enter:
-
Print out the following entry form.
-
Fill out your name, address and telephone number.
-
Answer all six of the November Math Mania questions.
-
Put your completed entry into a stamped, addressed envelope.
-
Mail your entry to:
Math Mania Contest
Young Saint Louis.com
813 Rotherham Dr.
Ballwin, Mo. 63011
(All entries must be
postmarked by the
15th of the month to be eligible.)
-----------------------Clip here to make entry form-----------------------
Entry for October 2006, Math Mania Contest:
Name: __________________________________ Age: _____
Address: _________________________ School: ___________
City: _____________________ State: ______ Zip: __________
Contact phone: (_____) _____________________
October Math Mania Challenge: Brain Teasers
1. The number of hours that were left in the day was one-third of the number of hours that had already passed. How many hours were left in the day?
Answer: ___________
2. I'm thinking of two consecutive numbers. When I multiply the greater number by 3, I get 9 less than 5 times the other number. What are the two numbers?
Answer: ___________
3. I built a square fence using 48 posts. I placed the posts 5 meters apart. What is the area of the field bounded by the fence?
Answer: ___________
4. Replace each letter with a different digit to make a true equation. Identical letters should be replaced with the same digit.
PARTS
X 4
STRAP
Answer: P=
_____, A= _____, R= _____,
T= _____, S= _____
5. What is the difference between two dozen half-dozens and a dozen dozens?
Answer: ___________
6. What is the difference between half a dozen half-dozens and half of a half-dozen?
Answer: ___________
September puzzle answers
Lots of winners in last month's Math Mania
The 2006-2007 Math Mania got
off to a good start in September. And there were
27 kids who got all of the answers correct.
Usually, Young Saint Louis.com limits the number of $10 Border's book certificates to two each month. But, because there were so many winners in September, we're awarding 3 certificates.
In a random drawing from among the 27 winners, YSL.com awarded certificates to:
Sydney Wright, 12, Scott Burns,
11,
and Jackie Migneco, 13, all of St. Louis.
Virtually all of the entrants got the first two questions correct.
For Questions 3 and 4, all the kids who figured the middle numbers in the two X-designs had to be 1 and 7 were on the right track. The difference of 6 indicates the difference in the two puzzle totals: 23 + 23 (or 46) and 26 + 26 (or 52) although you use the same 10 numbers in each puzzle.
About the only kids who didn't get Question 5 correct, where those that forgot one of the rules. Ms. Math Mania, Ms. Amy Ruzicka, said that the zero couldn't be used in the 100s column.
Congratulations to those with all correct answers. And we urge you to enter again in October and invite your friends to enter also.
September Math Mania Challenge: Number Teasers
1. Place the numbers 1-9 in the nine circles below so that the sum of each side of the triangle is 20. The 8 has been placed for you.
2. Place the numbers 1-9 in the nine circles below so that the sum of each side of the triangle is 20. The 3 has been placed for you.
3. Place the numbers from 1-9 in the nine circles below making the sum of each of the two columns 23.
4. Place the numbers from 1-9 in the nine circles below making the sum of each of the two columns 26.
5. Place the numbers from 0-8 in the nine circles below so that the sum of the three-digit numbers formed will be 999. You may not place a 0 in the hundreds place.
Fun & Games
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Answers to Fun & GamesPuzzle #1Crossword Puzzles Note that the words used in the first three Young Saint Louis.com crossword puzzles are all taken from the articles appearing in this month's issue. 
Puzzle #2 
Puzzle #3 
Halloween Connections 
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