In the novel The Power of One by Bryce Courtenay, one of the characters talks about the "stupendously stupid sacrifice of men" during some military battles. Those famous battles are briefly discussed here to help the reader understand the accuracy of his argument. The Charge of the Light BrigadeThe Charge of the Light Brigade took place on October 25, 1854, during the Crimean War, which pitted the Russian Empire against an alliance between Britain, France, the Ottoman Empire, and Sardinia. In the Battle of Balaclava, the British forced the Turks to abandon their artillery positions. Britain's Lord Raglan didn't want the Russians to take their cannons when they retreated, so he ordered the British cavalry to following them and capture the cannons. There were gun batteries on three sides of the valley into which the cavalry rode, so it was ridiculous to think they'd be successful. This valley became known at the Valley of Death and become symbolic of the needless sacrifice of human life in war. The Charge of the Light Brigade—1 day Alliance casualties: 363 (40% of the cavalry who charged) Russian/Turk casualties: very few Flanders Fields
Many of the same trenches were used for four years! Those newer, more accurate machine guns made it easy for opposing sides to mow down soldiers as they rose above the trenches when trying to advance. It was a long and bloody stalemate with neither side able to advance.
Gallipoli The Battle of Gallipoli also took place during World War I. The Gallipoli peninsula is located in Turkey and runs along the Dardanelles Strait (in yellow on the map below). The Central Powers (Germany, Turkey, Austria-Hungary, and Bulgaria) controlled the Dardanelles Strait, which was an important transportation route to the Mediterranean Sea as transportation, at the time, was limited to mainly trains and ships. The Allied Powers wanted access to the Mediterranean Sea to provide naval and supply support from Russia. This meant Russians ships needed to be able to travel from their ports on the Black Sea, through the Dardanelles Strait to the Aegean Sea and then to the Mediterranean. Troops from Britain, Australia, and New Zealand (all Allies) landed on the Gallipoli Peninsula and faced well entrenched Turkish forces who held them off in the months long battle. Gallipoli Campaign—8 1/2 months Allied casualties: 192,000 (plus another 100,000 evacuated due to sickness) Central Powers casualties: 186,000 (plus another 64,000 evacuated due to sickness) Summary These battles are all examples of great loss of life with little or no gain for the countries battling. The British didn't gain control of the guns in the Valley of Death, neither the Germans nor the Allies gained more than a few miles on the Western Front during World War I, and the Allies were forced to retreat, having gained nothing in their attack of the Gallipoli Peninsula. All those injuries and deaths were for nothing. They were a "stupendously stupid sacrifice of men." Bundesarchiv Bild 104-0832, Soldaten in Kampfpause in Schützengraben. circa 1916. German Federal Archive. Wikimedia Commons. Web. 7 May 2017. The Crimean War - Episode 2 The Valley of Death. Dir. Mick Gold. YouTube. UKTV, 15 June 2011. Web. 07 May 2017. "The Eastern Front, 1914-17." The National Archives. The National Archives of the UK, n.d. Web. 2 May 2017. <http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/pathways/firstworldwar/document_packs/eastern.htm>. Esposito, Vincent J., and T. Dodson Stamps, eds. "Race to the Sea 1914." A Short Military History of World War I - Atlas. N.p.: n.p., 1950. N. pag. Wikimedia Commons. Web. 7 May 2017. <https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Race_to_the_Sea_1914.png>. Freedman, Russell. The War to End All Wars: World War I. Boston: Sandpiper, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2013. Print. Kenney, Karen Latchana, and Edward G. Lengel. Everything World War I. Washington, D.C., U.S.A.: National Geographic Society, 2014. Print. Krasnoborski, Edward J. "Battle of the Marne." United States Military Academy. N.p.: Department of History, 1938. N. pag. Wikimedia Commons. Web. 7 May 2017. <https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Battle_of_the_Marne_-_Map.jpg>. Moore, William E., and James C. Russell. American's Wearing Gas Masks during World War I. N.d. Wikimedia Commons. Web. 7 May 2017. Rasmussen, R. Kent. World War I for Kids: A History with 21 Activities. Chicago, IL: Chicago Review, 2014. Print.
Soldiers and Indians Though Hollywood movies and television shows would have us believe cowboys and Indians frequently fought each other in the "wild west," it just wasn't true. Nor is it true that Indians frequently attacked wagon trains heading west. In fact, a man on a wagon train was more likely to die drowning at a river crossing or having a mishap with his own gun than in a fight with an Indian (Duncan and Ward). "Soldiers and Indians" would have been more accurate than "cowboys and Indians," but even that wasn't as common as Hollywood would have us believe. The majority of soldiers serving in forts and outposts of the old west never fought Indians and some never even saw an Indian (Duncan and Ward). The Wild West After the US bought the Louisiana Purchase from France in 1803, more and more people headed west into what they believed was mostly empty land. This was just plain wrong. Native People had been living there for centuries. Many, like the Cherokee, had already been pushed west from their original lands many years earlier (Anderson and Wetmore). Imagine living in a place where your parents and your grandparents grew up (and even their grandparents!) and then some strangers come along with guns and tell you to leave. They tell you that you and all the other people in your town now have to move to a reservation 1,000 miles away and you can't leave that reservation or you'll be arrested. This is what happened to many Native People when they were moved from all over the US to "Indian Territory" in what is now (mostly) Oklahoma and southern Kansas in the 1830s (History.com "Trail of Tears"). Cowboys
If you look at the map of the trails on the right you'll see some cross the area promised to the Indians (which seems crazy since it was their land to begin with). This meant occasionally they would have fights with cowboys, but usually, cowboys and Indians never saw each other at all (Duncan and Ward). Instead of the stereotype from the movies of fighting cowboys and Indians, the real story was very different. One cowboy who did see Indians wrote, "The people we saw, scattered about in small villages or begging [beef] from us, were not the 'savage foes' of Western lore but a sorry lot of starving human beings."
There were a few battles (battle is a poor word, however since the army had Gatling guns and could kill Indians, including women and children, without penalty) between the army and Native American nations in this area during the heyday of the cowboy, but the idea that cowboys and Indians were constantly at war is a myth . . . except in the movies. Anderson, William L., and Ruth Y. Wetmore. "Cherokee." NCpedia. University of North Carolina Press, 2006. Web. 14 Mar. 2017. <http://www.ncpedia.org/cherokee/origins>. Duncan, Dayton, and Geoffrey Ward. "The West." The West. Dir. Stephen Ives. Prod. Ken Burns. PBS. Sept. 1996. Television. Haeber, Jonathan. “Vaqueros: The First Cowboys of the Open Range.” National Geographic. National Geographic Society, 15 Aug. 2003. Web. History.com Staff. "Trail of Tears." History.com. A&E Television Networks, 2009. Web. 14 Mar. 2017. <http://www.history.com/topics/native-american-history/trail-of-tears>. Image file: Public Broadcasting Station. "Isom Dart." Wikimedia.org. Wikimedia Commons, 20 July 2017. "Indian Wars Time Table." United States History. Online Highways, LLC., n.d. Web. 14 Mar. 2017. <http://www.u-s-history.com/pages/h1008.html>. Olson, Tod, Scott Allred, and Gregory Proch. "We Prepare for Indian Attack but Meet None." How to Get Rich on a Texas Cattle Drive: In Which I Tell the Honest Truth about Rampaging Rustlers, Stampeding Steers, & Other Fateful Hazards on the Wild Chisholm Trail. Washington, D.C.: National Geographic, 2010. 24. Print. Ponsford, Matthew. “America’s black cowboys fight for their place in history.” CNN. Turner Broadcasting System, 28 Nov. 2012. Web.
WHAT IS CAMOUFLAGE?
WHY DO ANIMALS HAVE CAMOUFLAGE? Camouflage is an animal's ability to hide itself from predators and prey. Animals use camouflage to hide from predators that want to eat them or to hide from prey they want to eat. Most animals camouflage themselves through colorization—the color of their skin, fur, feathers, or scales matches their environment, mimics a leaf, stick, or some other thing common in their surroundings, or their color pattern allows them to blend in with other animals in their species to make it difficult for predators to tell them apart. TYPES OF CAMOUFLAGE There are many different types of camouflage, but the main type is called crypsis. It is when an animal's coloring allows it to blend in without being seen. Other types of camouflage include patterns that make an animal's movement difficult to detect or the ability of an animal to mask its smell. Some animals, like the toad below, try to match their background to avoid being seen. Some animals, like the ptarmigan, even change color entirely with the seasons to blend in to the changes in their environment. Pixabay
Pixabay The ghost mantis has a body that looks like a brown leaf. It is an example of an animal that mimics, or copies, something from its environment to avoid being seen. TRY THIS EXPERIMENT Want to see how camouflage works? Try this experiment. Here's what you'll need:
3. Mix the the paper squares together and spread them out over the mat of paper. 4. Find a friend and ask him or her to pick up as many pieces of paper as they can in 10 seconds. The only rule is that he or she must only pick up one piece of paper at a time. 5. Once they've finished, count the number of brightly colored squares and the number of printed squares. If your friend is like most people, he or she will have many more colored squares of paper. Why? Because they are easier to see. This is how camouflage works, too. If an animal blends into its background, it is less likely to be attacked by a predator. Butterfield, Moira. "Camouflage." 1000 Facts about Wild Animals. New York: Scholastic, 1992. 34-35. Print. "Camouflage." Camouflage. University of Delaware, n.d. Web. 05 Aug. 2016. http://tinyurl.com/z8kttml "Camouflage." National Geographic Society. National Geographic Society, 25 Aug. 2011. Web. 02 Aug. 2016. Harris, Tom. "How Animal Camouflage Works." HowStuffWorks.com. InfoSpace LLC, 18 May 2001. Web. 05 Aug. 2016. <http://tinyurl.com/ydeyyfc>.
The grass wasn't really (literally) a magic carpet; it wasn't a colorful woven piece of cloth you'd put on your floor. The asparagus wasn't really (literally) an entire forest of trees painted silver. The author, E.B. White, wasn't being literal when he wrote these lines, he was being figurative. He meant that the ice covering the grass made it sparkle and look fancy, like a carpet covering the ground. He meant that the ice covering the asparagus made it shimmer in the light so that it looked silvery and with all the stalks standing up out of the ground, it resembled a tiny forest . Both of these examples are similes, but there are lots of other types of figurative language.
IDIOM Idioms are any type of figurative language that is used so often, it becomes commonplace. An example you've probably used yourself is, "killing time." You didn't mean that you grabbed time around the throat and choked it to death, you meant that you did something unimportant while you were waiting. "We killed time until the movie started." Idioms are often unique to a region or culture. In México, they don't use the phrase "killing time," they instead say, "está picándose los ojos" which means he's "poking his eyes." They don't literally mean he's poking his eyes, of course, just like in the U.S. we don't literally mean we're killing time. It is an idiom that means they are wasting time while waiting for something. "It's raining cats and dogs." Flocabulary. "Flocabulary - Figurative Language." YouTube. YouTube, 15 Nov. 2012. Web. 09 Jan. 2016. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OPjAiUbdl14>. Lewis, Ryn. "Language Arts Figurative Language Tutorial." YouTube. YouTube, 9 Nov. 2010. Web. 09 Jan. 2016. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6QbV81Ilq0I>. Luna, Rulo. "45 Funniest Mexican Expressions (and How to Use Them)." Matador Network. N.p., 2 Mar. 2015. Web. 9 Jan. 2016. <http://matadornetwork.com/abroad/45-funniest-mexican-expressions-use/>. Warner, Joanne. "Figurative Language." Mrs. Warner's 4th Grade Classroom. Arlington Elementary School, n.d. Web. 09 Jan. 2016. <http://mrswarnerarlington.weebly.com/figurative-language.html>.
The fishermen and explorers used the pelts to help them stay warm on the trip home across the Atlantic and then sold them to clothing makers in Europe. The pelts were often used to make the collars of jackets. At the beginning of the 1600s, however, beaver hats became very popular. Hats were big business in those days. Although it seems strange today, for centuries almost all men and women in Europe wore hats, so when beaver hats became popular, millions were sold. Beaver hats kept fashionable ladies and gentlemen dry and warm in the rainy weather of London, Paris and other European cities. Fashion fuels finance Most beaver pelts for these trendy hats came from Russia, but by the late 1600s, beavers were almost extinct in Russia and Europe due to over-trapping to supply enough beaver pelts for all those hats. No other fur looked as good or withstood the weather as well as beaver, so the abundance of beavers in North America became a valuable resource. That's why by 1670 the French, Dutch and English had each established companies in far-off North America to take advantage of the furs available there. In fact, much of the development of the United States and Canada is thanks to the beaver hat fashion trend. Beaver pelts became big business. When fur trappers began, many furs were of value, but once the beaver hat craze took hold, beaver pelts became the main trade item. Beaver fur is particularly well suited for making hats and depending on the size and quality of the pelts (and the size and quality of the hat) it would take between one and five pelts to make a hat. Though no data exists that tells us exactly how many beaver hats were made, we do know that 500,000 hats were exported from England to Europe in 1760 and that doesn't take into account how many beaver hats stayed in England (Net, 2009). Since the popularity of beaver hats lasted for more than 100 years, it's safe to assume tens of millions of beavers were killed.
"Beaver has so depreciated [declined] in value within the last few years [the 1840s], that trapping has been almost abandoned; the price paid for the skin of this valuable animal having fallen from six and eight dollars per pound to one dollar. Which hardly pays the expenses of traps, animals, and equipment for the hunt. . . . The cause of the great decrease in value of beaver-fur is the substitute which has been found for it in the skins of the fur-seal and nutria—the improved preparation of other skins of little value, such as the hare and rabbit—and, more than all, in the use of silk in the manufacture of hats, which has in a great measure superceded [sic] that of beaver. The curse of the trapper is leveled against all the new-fashioned materials of Paris hats" (Ruxton, 1924, p.146). Effects on Native People The demand for furs meant an invasion of people—people to trap the animals and skin them, people to trade those furs with, people to supply the things trappers and traders needed like clothing, traps and food. To supply this, forts were established along the major North American rivers which meant Europeans began living there permanently. With the establishment of Jamestown in 1607, Québec in Canada in 1608 and Plymouth in 1620 and forts popping up in the interior of the country to supply the trappers and traders, more and more people were coming to North America to stay. This meant the Native People's way of life was forced to change. The decline in beaver hat popularity didn't mean Europeans would leave North America or that things would go back to "normal" for the Native Americans. Their way of life and the environment they lived in had been permanently changed. Though they thrived for thousands of years in North America, for several generations Native People had given up hunting for their own food and clothing in order to trap beavers. They therefore depended on the forts and trading posts for much of their food and clothing just as the Europeans did. Old ways of living that had been handed down for centuries frequently became lost and often didn't matter anyway since their land was now occupied by settlers and often times the animals they relied upon were driven away or over-hunted. At first the French trappers needed the Native People's expertise. They knew the land, where to find beavers, how to trap them and how to survive during the cold winters when trapping was at its most profitable (beaver fur grows thicker in the winter making it worth more money). But as the years went by and the value of beaver pelts increased, all this trapping and exploring pushed the Native People off their land and out of their traditional hunting grounds, forcing them to either move or develop other means of feeding themselves. Additionally, Native People understood the value of furs and continued to trade themselves. They would sometimes fight with other Native American groups for access to beaver-rich areas and some gave up their traditional ways of living and spent their time hunting beaver instead. Louis and Clark explored the Northwest Territory in 1805-1806 and this opened up the western part of the continent to even more trapping and expansion. "Mountain men" such as Jim Bridger, Kit Carson, and Jedidiah Smith traveled throughout the west and trapped in the Rocky Mountains in the early part of the 1800s. Early explorers thought they would find gold and silver on the eastern coast of what is now the United States, much like the conquistadors had in Mexico and South America. Instead, the treasure they found was a furry rodent that led to the establishment of forts and the creation of very successful companies that drove the economy and contributed to the expansion of settlements farther into the North American continent. Native people were often killed, especially if they tried to fight for their lands. As much as 90% of the Native American population was killed by disease or war. The structure and lifestyle of the Native People who had lived in North America for thousands of years would never be the same. "The Beaver and Other Pelts." In Pursuit of Adventure: The Fur Trade in Canada and the North West Company. McGill University, 2000. Web. 20 July 2015. <http%3A%2F%2Fdigital.library.mcgill.ca%2Fnwc%2Fhistory%2F01.htm>. Faden, William. A Map of the Inhabited Part of Canada from the French Surveys; with the Frontiers of New York and New England. 1777. Library and Archives Canada. Wikimedia Commons. The Wikimedia Foundation, 21 Sept. 2006. Web. 22 July 2015. Feinstein, Kelly. "A Brief History of the Beaver Trade." Fashionable Felted Fur. UC Santa Cruz, Mar. 2006. Web. 20 July 2015. <http://cwh.ucsc.edu/feinstein/A%20brief%20history%20of%20the%20beaver%20trade.html>. Ferry, David. "Leave It to Beavers." The Atlantic. The Atlantic Monthly Group, June 2012. Web. 20 July 2015. <http%3A%2F%2Fwww.theatlantic.com%2Fmagazine%2Farchive%2F2012%2F06%2Fleave-it-to-beavers%2F308980%2F>. "Fur Trade." Indian Country. Milwaukee Public Museum, n.d. Web. 20 July 2015. <https%3A%2F%2Fwww.mpm.edu%2Fwirp%2FICW-146.html>. "Fur Trade." Old Prison Museum. Powell County Museum & Arts Foundation, 2015. Web. 20 July 2015. <http%3A %2F%2Fwww.pcmaf.org%2Fwordpress%2Fabout%2Flocal-information%2Ffur-trade%2F>. The Fur Trade. Manitoba: The Crown in Right of Manitoba as Represented by the Minister of Education, Citizenship and Youth, 2005. PDF. http://www.ece.gov.nt.ca/files/K-12/Curriculum/social-studies/Gr5/people-stories-of-canada/Grade-5_People_Ch7.pdf Kingsley Studio. Cabinet Card Men Beaver Hats. 1886. Wikimedia Commons. Web. 20 July 2015. Mayer, Dr. Eric. "The Fur Trade: Impact on Native America." Dr. E's Social Science E-zine. N.p., 26 Dec. 2012. Web. 20 July 2015. <http%3A%2F%2Fwww.emayzine.com%2Findex.php%2Fh16main%2Fhistory-16-week-1%2F10-the-fur- trade-impact-on-native-america>. Net, E.H. "Economic History of the North American Fur Trade, 1670 to 1870." The Encyclopedia of Earth. Environmental Information Coalition and the National Council for Science and the Environment, 17 Feb. 2009. Web. 20 July 2015. <http%3A%2F%2Fwww.eoearth.org%2Fview%2Farticle%2F151941%2F>. Ruxton, George Frederick Augustus, and Horace Kephart. Wild Life in the Rocky Mountains. New York: Macmillan, 1924.Print. Steve. American Beaver. 2007. Wikimedia Commons. Web. 20 July 2015.
The earth is warmest along the equator, rather than the North or South Poles, because the sun is strongest here (check out this cool site to see why). Warm air is lighter than cold air, so the warm air along the equator rises up into the atmosphere. This is called a low pressure system. Cold air over the poles then moves toward the equator to fill in the space as the warm air rises. This is called a high pressure system. If the earth weren't spinning, the wind would just blow from high to low pressure areas, but the earth is also spinning. This creates what is known as the Coriolis effect. The Coriolis effect causes the wind to curve as it blows. You can try this simple experiment to see the Coriolis effect for yourself.
How are your lines different? Your first line represents what wind would do without the Coriolis effect. Your second line represents what happens when wind blows from the North Pole toward the equator with the Coriolis effect caused by the rotation of the earth. Because of the earth's rotation and the Coriolis effect, wind in the northern hemisphere moves in a counterclockwise motion while wind in the southern hemisphere moves in a clockwise motion. The Coriolis effect is named for the French scientist Gaspard-Gustave de Coriolis even though he wasn't the first to recognize it. This lesson was adapted from NASA's Earth Science Enterprise lesson "Blow, Wind, Blow!" that is no longer published. "“Blow, Wind, Blow!” El Niño Making Sense of Weather." Earth Science Enterprise. National Aeronautics and Space Administration, 22 Jan. 2003. Web. 20 Dec. 2010. <http://kids.earth.nasa.gov/archive/nino/global.html>. Bunglesmate. "How to Find the Center of a Circle." Instructable.com. Autodesk, Inc., 2008. Web. 8 Jan. 2016. <http://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-find-the-center-of-a-circle/>. Dunbar, Brian. "What Is the Coriolis Effect?" NASA. NASA, 10 Apr. 2008. Web. 26 Apr. 2015. <http://www.nasa.gov/audience/forstudents/brainbites/nonflash /bb_home_corioliseffect.html>. McKissick, Katie. "What Is the Coriolis Effect?" SciJinks. NOAA and NASA, n.d. Web. 27 Sept. 2015. <http://scijinks.jpl.nasa.gov/coriolis/>. O'Connor, J J, and E. F. Robertson. "Gaspard Gustave De Coriolis." The MacTutor History of Mathematics Archive. School of Mathematics and Statistics University of St Andrews, Scotland, July 2000. Web. 26 Apr. 2015. Pearson Scott Foresman. Compass3. Digital image. Wikimedia Commons. Wikimedia Foundation, 15 Dec. 2007. Web. 26 Apr. 2015. "Seasons and Ecliptic Simulator." University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Nebraska Astronomy Applet Project/National Science Foundation, 19 Mar. 2009. Web. 8 Jan. 2016. <http://astro.unl.edu/naap/motion1/animations/seasons_ecliptic.swf>. "What Is the Coriolis Effect?" ESchool Today. ESchool Today, 2010. Web. 26 Apr. 2015. <http://www.eschooltoday.com/winds/the-coriolis-effect.html>.
The early explorers relied solely on wind power and were able to travel around the world! Christopher Columbus sailed 5,400 miles from the Canary Islands to the Caribbean in 36 days. How was this possible? Wind.
WESTERLIES AND EASTERLIES The area between about 30º and 60º latitude is known as prevailing westerlies because the wind comes from the west (winds are named for the direction they come from). In the area above 60º the cool air over the poles flows south and because of the Coriolis effect. It curves toward the west from the east so they are known as polar easterlies. Make your own wind pattern map
“Blow, Wind, Blow!” El Niño Making Sense of Weather." Earth Science Enterprise. National Aeronautics and Space Administration, 22 Jan. 2003. Web. 20 Dec. 2010. <http://kids.earth.nasa.gov/archive/nino/global.html>. Dunbar, Brian. "What Is the Coriolis Effect?" NASA. NASA, 10 Apr. 2008. Web. 26 Apr. 2015. <http://www.nasa.gov/audience/forstudents/brainbites/nonflash/bb_home_corioliseffect.html>. Mercator, Peter. December Solstice Geometry. Digital image. Wikimedia Commons. Wikimedia Foundation, 14 Dec. 2011. Web. 2 May 2015. O'Connor, J J, and E. F. Robertson. "Gaspard Gustave De Coriolis." The MacTutor History of Mathematics Archive. School of Mathematics and Statistics University of St Andrews, Scotland, July 2000. Web. 26 Apr. 2015. Pearson Scott Foresman. Compass3. Digital image. Wikimedia Commons. Wikimedia Foundation, 15 Dec. 2007. Web. 26 Apr. 2015. "Seasons and Ecliptic Simulator." University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Nebraska Astronomy Applet Project/National Science Foundation, 19 Mar. 2009. Web. 8 Jan. 2016. <http://astro.unl.edu/naap/motion1/animations/seasons_ecliptic.swf>. "What Is the Coriolis Effect?" ESchool Today. ESchool Today, 2010. Web. 26 Apr. 2015. <http://www.eschooltoday.com/winds/the-coriolis-effect.html>. Wicker, Crystal. "Weather Wiz Kids Weather Information for Kids." Weather Wiz Kids Weather Information for Kids. N.p., n.d. Web. 02 May 2015. <http://www.weatherwizkids.com/weather-wind.htm>. |
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I often struggle to find websites with thorough explanations in simple language to help kids understand historical events or scientific concepts, so I decided to create some of my own! -Cookie Davis
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