2. From the Editor
Welcome to the first edition of the Great Book of
Questions! The questions throughout this book were
generated by Churchill students, ages 6-13, and posted
in the Science Room and first floor hallway during the
2007-8 school year.
The goal of this project is to honor the curiosity of our
students and encourage scientific inquiry. Therefore, we
have deliberately refrained from providing the “one
correct answer”. In science, finding an “answer” means
it’s time to ask a follow-up question!
Throughout the book, you will encounter clickable links
that lead to text, animations, videos, and interactive
games that explore scientific concepts. Many of these
resources require some reading and explanation, but
are enormous fun to explore.
Enjoy and thank you for reading!
Lisa Fischler
Churchill School Learning Specialist and Science Teacher
3. Table of Contents
Space
Physics and Chemistry
Earth
Living Things
Living Things: Animals
Humanity
How much? How many?
Questions to Ponder
To jump to a section, just click on it!
5. Click to find out!
Planet Size Comparison
Planet Mass Comparison
For more information about our solar
system and its planets, try:
The Solar System - National Geographic
Welcome to the Planets
6.
7. Interactive Timeline: Big
Bang to Present
Video: Formation of the
Solar System
Video #2: Formation of
our Solar System
Animation
12. The Phoenix Mission to Mars
Learn more:
Phoenix Mission Home Page - updated news and
multimedia galleries
Mars: The Search for Water, the Search for Life
Finding Water With Phoenix Video
You can also subscribe to the Phoenix Mission
Podcasts on iTunes!
13. Learn about stars!
NASA Sun-Earth Media Viewer
Build Your Own Star
Life of a Star Animation
Ask An Astronomer - Sun Questions
14.
15.
16. This was a topic of intense debate this year!
What we do know: NASA is very careful about keeping
spacecraft germ-free so that we don’t spread Earth germs
by accident. We would not be worried about this if germs
could not survive at all in space!
23. All chemicals are made from elements. This chart shows all
the known elements in the universe. The elements can
combine and make BILLIONS of different chemicals.
24. A substance is an acid when it
breaks up in water and
produces hydrogen ions.
This causes it to have chemical
reactions when it comes into
contact with other substances.
26. Learn about rocks and minerals:
Rocks and Soils - BBC
Interactive Rock Cycle Animation
Thinkquest: This Planet Really Rocks!
Earth Materials Module
Virtual Sand Collection
27. Explore the Earth!
Ology: Earth Interactives
Build a Virtual Volcano
National Geographic: Forces of Nature -
covers volcanoes, tornadoes, hurricanes and
earthquakes
28. More Earth Resources!
Label the Continents in Pangaea
Animation: Breakup of Pangaea
Exploratorium: Origins of Antarctica
Seafloor Spreading
29. About Whirlpools Waterfalls Interactive
(another term: water vortex) River Erosion Creating a Waterfall
30.
31. Antarctica:
Discovering
Antarctica
About Ice
Ages:
Ice Ages Animation
Deglaciation of
North America
32. Weather links!
Water Cycle: Animated
Diagram
Thirstin's Water Cycle
Clouds
Grow Your Own Tornado
Forces of Nature:
Tornadoes
All About Acid Rain
33.
34. Ozone Multimedia
Global Warming
Time for Kids: All About Global Warming
41. Cinnamon comes from the bark of trees - the Ceylon cinnamon tree or the cassia tree.
It can be ground up with a mortar and pestle, food processor, or even a cheese or
coffee grinder.
47. Across long distances, animals use
sound to locate each other. Some
species have specific calls between
parent and baby.
Close up, animals often use smell.
Parents might “mark” their babies with
a specific smell, or just learn to notice
the baby’s smell. This is why you have
to be careful not to touch or pick up
baby animals - their parents might not
recognize them again!
48. When sharks attack people, it is often by accident.
In the water, a swimmer or surfer might have the
same shape as a seal or other shark prey. Lifespans of Different Species of
Shark
49. Most adult female mosquitoes
live only 2-3 weeks. Some
species that spend the winter Life Cycle of a Mosquito
indoors (such as in garages)
can live as long as 6 months.
51. Depending on the species,
animals use:
• the Sun
• the Moon and stars
• smell
• landmarks
• echolocation (sound waves)
•Earth’s magnetic field
There is a lot we still don’t know
about how animals do this!
52. Deep Sea Vents - Monterey Bay
Ology: Marine Biology
Secrets of the Ocean Realm
53.
54. Some poisonous animals get their
poison, or venom, from what they eat.
However, poisonous snakes make their
own venom.
55.
56. The stinger and venom sac in a worker honey bee are attached to its body.
When it stings, the stinger and part of its abdomen is left behind.
65. Each of us has a unique brain. You
don’t learn or think exactly like
anyone else in the world. It’s
interesting and fun to learn about
how you learn.
How do you like to learn? Lisa
likes to listen and write, and she’s
pretty good with music. But have
you ever noticed that she can’t
find things that are right in front
of her face? She’s not very good
at drawing things the right sizes or
finding her way around places,
either. It’s not that she “can’t” do
it. She just has to work really hard
at it.
Sometimes it’s frustrating when
you have to work hard for a long
time to get something that
doesn’t come naturally. Teachers
and parents can help you come
up with strategies to make you
the best learner you can be!
Check out the Brain
Learn about your amazing brain! Neuroscience for Kids
Arcade on Sparktop.org!
69. On airlines, there is a flight data recorder that keeps track of
what switches are pressed and what buttons are pushed.
There is also a voice recorder that uses microphones in the
cockpit.
The recorders are stored in the back of the airplane and
kept inside a very hard, tough box that won’t burn up or fall
apart.
People call these machines “black boxes” but they are
actually orange!
How Stuff Works: Black Boxes
Ink is made from powder, water, and dye.
The dye is made by mixing chemicals in
the factory.
Different chemicals are used for different
colors. Also, washable markers use
different chemicals than permanent
markers.
70. Videos about how the Space Station
was built:
Assembly Animation
Parts of the Space Station
The International Space Station was
not launched. It was built in space!
Click here for an interactive tour!
NASA Space Station Home Page
75. An X-ray machine is like a camera.
Instead of using sunlight or a flash,
however, it uses X-rays to expose the
film. X-rays are similar to light, but
they have more energy than light.
Light does not pass through your
body, but an X-ray can.
When an X-ray image is taken of
you, the X-ray machine sends an X-
ray through your body and that
image forms on the X-ray film.
Scientists also use x-rays to look at black holes and other
strange things in space. They use special equipment, such
as the Chandra X-Ray telescope.
79. The Earth contains over
326,000,000,000,000,000,000 (326 million trillion)
gallons of water! 98% of this water is the oceans.
There are more fish in the oceans than all the
amphibians, birds, mammals, and reptiles in the
world put together!
80. There are 48 million billion tons of salt in
the oceans. If the oceans dried up, enough
salt would be left behind to build a 180-
The deepest part of the ocean, the
mile-tall, one- mile-thick wall around the
Mariana Trench, is 35,800 feet deep.
equator.
81. No one knows for
sure how many
books there are...
The largest
database, World
Cat, lists 32 million
different titles.
The world uses 90
There have been over million tons of paper
one billion computers every year! That would
sold throughout the stack up to 247 Empire
world. More are being State Buildings!
made every day!
82. In the United States, There are 7 species of penguins that live in There are 18 species of
there are 75 million dogs! Antarctica. Scientists guess that there are marmoset. Each species
Some of these live in NY! between 17-20 million breeding pairs. has a different number
of individuals in its
population.
This number is too huge to print. Just one
human body has approximately 50,000
bacteria per square inch.
83. There are nearly
10,000,000,000,000,000,000 (10
quintillion) insects in the world!
This means that there are 200 million
insects for each person on Earth!
More than one million different species
of insects have been identified. Some
experts believe that there may be as
many as 30 million insect species in the
world that have yet to be discovered.
Insect Q&A
84.
85. World Population Clock
The world’s population is constantly changing.
172,800 new babies are born every day!
