Science Around The World

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Overview

Janice VanCleave's Science Around the World presents interesting facts and fun experiments that relate to the different geographical regions of the world -- also known as biomes. Each different biome -- forest, grassland, desert, and tundra -- has its own unique plant life, animal life, and climate. The experiments, activities, and facts in this book help explain how the different biomes work and show the importance biomes play in keeping life on Earth so fascinatingly diverse. You'll learn how the tilt of Earth ...
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More About This Book

Overview

Janice VanCleave's Science Around the World presents interesting facts and fun experiments that relate to the different geographical regions of the world -- also known as biomes. Each different biome -- forest, grassland, desert, and tundra -- has its own unique plant life, animal life, and climate. The experiments, activities, and facts in this book help explain how the different biomes work and show the importance biomes play in keeping life on Earth so fascinatingly diverse. You'll learn how the tilt of Earth affects the weather in different parts of the world; how and why some animals migrate; why leaves change color; and how cacti survive so long without rainfall. From the South American rainforests to the African savannas to the Chinese Takla Makan Desert, you'll find out how climate and geography determine the way plants and animals look and behave -- with safe, inexpensive experiments for the home and classroom!

Presents interesting facts and fun experiments that relate to different geographical regions of the world--also known as biomes.

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Editorial Reviews

Children's Literature
Subtitled Activities on biomes from pole to pole, this book covers the four terrestrial biomes: forest, grassland, desert, and tundra. Each section covers the flora, fauna, and climate conditions specific to the biome, and includes applicable experiments and activities. The desert section, for example, is divided into hot and cold deserts. Two introductory pages distinguish between the types of deserts and explain how certain areas become arid. VanCleave discusses transpiration plus the adaptations and survival techniques for both hot and cold desert plants and animals. Experiments require simple materials and demonstrate concepts like how halophytic plants eliminate excess salt, how camels can walk across sand without sinking, and how surface area affects evaporation rates. The "Forests" section covers tropical rain, deciduous, and coniferous forests. "Grasslands" includes both temperate and tropical grasslands. And "Tundra" is divided into lowland and highland. World maps mark each biome's location (although the temperate grasslands map appeared incorrect in my copy of the book). New terms are in bold type and defined when first encountered. Additional reference sources are cited throughout, while an extensive glossary and index are available at the end. This information-packed paperback is 120 pages in length with simple black and white illustrations accompanying the straightforward text. Children studying this book can discover the influences of climate and geography on the behavior and appearance of plants and animals. Former science teacher VanCleave has authored more than forty books and gives science workshops. This is a worthwhile addition to your science library. 2004,Wiley, Ages 9 up.
—Chris Gill
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Product Details

  • ISBN-13: 9780471205470
  • Publisher: Wiley, John & Sons, Incorporated
  • Publication date: 3/5/2004
  • Edition number: 1
  • Pages: 128
  • Sales rank: 592,394
  • Age range: 8 - 12 Years
  • Product dimensions: 8.48 (w) x 10.58 (h) x 0.39 (d)

Meet the Author

JANICE VANCLEAVE is a former science teacher who now spends her time writing and giving science workshops. She is the author of more than forty books that have sold over two million copies and a resident science fair authority on discovery.com.

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Read an Excerpt

Janice VanCleave's Science Around the World

Activities on Biomes from Pole to Pole
By Janice VanCleave

John Wiley & Sons

ISBN: 0-471-20547-8

Chapter One

Rain Forest Humidity

All forests in the tropics are tropical forests, but they are not all rain forests. But, most rain forests are in the tropics. For a forest to be a rain forest, it must receive more than 80 inches (200 cm) of rain each year. Most tropical rain forests receive about 200 inches (500 cm) of rain every year, and a few get more than 400 inches (1,000 cm).

While the rainfall in most tropical rain forests is evenly spaced throughout the year, the tropical areas of India, Myanmar (formerly known as Burma), and Southeast Asia along the northern Indian Ocean coasts experience a cycle of seasonal changes related to rain called wet seasons and dry seasons. Wet seasons are times of abundant rain, and dry seasons are times when there is a lack of rain. Tropical rain forests in these areas are called monsoon rain forests (areas that experience pronounced wet and dry seasons). Unlike most tropical rain forests, which are evergreen forests, many plants in monsoon rain forests are deciduous, which means they lose all their leaves during part of the year. The leaves are lost during the dry season.

The consistently high temperatures and abundant rainfall in rain forests result in another characteristic of this type of forest-high humidity. Humidity is themeasure of the amount of water vapor (gaseous state of a substance, such as water, that is normally in a liquid state) in the air. The air in a rain forest is like a sponge; it holds lots of water vapor. While rainfall is a major contributor to humidity. Transpiration also affects humidity. Transpiration is the evaporation (change from a liquid to a gas) of water from a plant's stomata (tiny surface openings that are especially abundant on the undersides of leaves, the main food-producing part of a plant).

FUN TIME! Purpose

To measure relative humidity.

Materials

cotton ball tap water 2 outdoor thermometers that measure in Celsius degrees transparent tape index card (handheld battery-operated fan can be used)

Procedure

1. Wet the cotton ball with water and wrap it around the bulb of one of the thermometers. This is your wet-bulb thermometer. Leave the second thermometer uncovered. This is your dry-bulb thermometer.

2. Lay the two thermometers on a table with their bulbs extended over the table edge. Tape the other ends of the thermometers to the table.

3. Use the index card to fan the air near the bulbs of the two thermometers. Do not hit the bulbs with the card. Note: If a battery-operated fan is used, hold it so that the blades of the fan are about 4 inches (10 cm) from the thermometer bulbs.

4. Continue to fan the bulbs until the temperature on the wet-bulb thermometer stops decreasing. Then record the Celsius temperatures from both thermometers.

5. Use the following example and the relative humidity table to determine the relative humidity from your temperature readings.

Example:

What is the relative humidity if the dry-bulb reading is 16°C and the wet-bulb reading is 13°C?

Subtract the wet-bulb temperature from the dry-bulb temperature: 16°C - 13°C = 3°C

Find the dry-bulb temperature (16°), in the column on the left side of the Relative Humidity in Air table. Now find the difference between the two thermometer readings (3°) in the horizontal row at the top of the table. Where the column and the row meet is the number for the relative humidity. For this example, the number is 71; thus the relative humidity is 71 percent.

Results

You made a wet-bulb and dry-bulb thermometer and used them to measure relative humidity.

Why?

Relative humidity is the amount of water vapor in the air compared to the total amount of vapor that the air could hold at that temperature, expressed as a percentage. An instrument, like the one you made in this experiment, which contains a wet-bulb and a dry-bulb thermometer and is used to measure relative humidity, is called a psychrometer.

When the relative humidity reaches 100 percent, the air is saturated, meaning it cannot hold any more water vapor. If air with 100 percent humidity cools, some of the water vapor in the air will condense (change from a gas to a liquid). If the air is next to the ground, the extra moisture will condense as dew. Dew is water from water vapor in the air that condenses on cool surfaces. Above the ground, the extra moisture will condense into cloud droplets (tiny drops of water with diameters between 0.00004 to 0.002 inches [0.0001 and 0.005 cm] that form clouds). Clouds are visible masses of water droplets that float in the air, usually high above the earth. Fog is a cloud that is close to the ground. Raindrops can form in clouds by accretion, which is the merging of water drops that bump into one another. When the drops get large enough they fall. Raindrops also form if tiny ice crystals (solid materials whose particles are arranged in a repeating pattern) and water drops are mixed together in a cloud. The water sticks to the ice and the ice crystals grow large and become heavy enough to fall. As they fall they melt and hit the ground as rain.

MORE FUN WITH HUMIDITY!

Animals, as well as plants, add water to the air. See how the breath of animals increases air humidity. Do this by placing the end of a drinking straw inside the opening of a quart-size resealable plastic bag. Seal the bag as much as possible around the straw. Exhale through the straw five or more times, then quickly pull the straw out of the bag and completely seal the bag. Observe how cloudy the inside of the bag becomes. If the bag is not cloudy, repeat the procedure of blowing through the straw then removing the straw and closing the bag. Rub the outside of the bag with your fingers. The cloudiness will disappear and tiny drops of water will form. Rubbing the bag causes the tiny invisible drops of water clouding the bag to combine into larger visible drops. If the drops of water are not visible, open the bag and feel the inside with your fingers.

(Continues...)


Excerpted from Janice VanCleave's Science Around the World by Janice VanCleave Excerpted by permission.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.
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Table of Contents

Acknowledgments vii
Introduction 1
Forests 3
Tropical Rain Forests 5
1. Rain Forest Humidity 7
2. Rain Forest Soil 10
3. Rain Forest Plants 13
4. Forest Canopy and Below 16
5. Rain Forest Animals 19
Deciduous Forests 22
6. Seasons 24
7. Broadleaf Trees 28
8. Deciduous Forest Animals 31
9. Leaf Colors 34
Coniferous Forests 37
10. Conifers 39
11. Adaptations of Coniferous Plants 41
12. Food Chains 43
Grasslands 47
Temperate Grasslands 49
13. Grasses 51
14. Prairie Grasses 54
15. Prairie Animals 58
Tropical Grasslands 60
16. Savanna Plants and Animals 62
17. Savanna Animal Survivors 64
Deserts 67
Hot Deserts 70
18. Sandy Deserts 72
19. Transpiration 74
20. Hot Desert Plants 76
21. Hot Desert Animals 78
22. Camels 81
Cold Deserts 84
23. Cold Desert Plants 86
24. Cold Desert Animals 88
Tundra 91
Lowland Tundra 93
25. Permafrost 95
26. Arctic Tundra Plants 98
27. Arctic Tundra Animals 100
28. Polar Bears 103
Highland Tundras 106
29. Snow 108
30. Winds 110
Glossary 112
Index 117
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