Apologies!

This blog has been hanging fire for a while and I apologize. It will resume it's reguarly scheduled schedule - Monday, Wednesday and Friday, beginning this Monday.

And it will keep to that schedule - promise!

Websites for Girl Scientists

These are from the Girls With Wings links page
http://www.girlswithwings.com/GirlsLinkpg.html

http://www.josietrue.com/
The Adventures of Josie True is a web-based historical adventure game for girls. The hero of the game is Chinese-American Josie True, a regular girl who becomes involved in intrigue across time and space as she tries to find her inventor-turned-teacher Ms. Trombone. She time travels with one of Ms. Trombone's
inventions, the Intellicat .During their travels, they meet a host of historical figures including women from history such as Bessie Coleman, the first African American woman pilot.

At each stop in the journey, there are fun, rewarding activities to play in order to find Ms. Trombone, stop the artifact thieves, help Bessie Coleman at her airshow, and much more!

http://www.braincake.org/
BrainCake: to help girls be confident, solve problems, and think independently. They engage girls in current science, helping them understand its relevance to
their life today. They create and link girls to programs that educate and prepare them to understand and use science in their everyday lives. And, they
embrace girls as architects of change - envisioning, planning, organizing, shaping, and building a better world - with math and science as their tools.

http://library.duke.edu/specialcollections/bingham/guides/beyond/
Beyond Nancy Drew: A Guide to Girls' Literature. An interesting listing of books written in the last 200 years provided by the Sallie Bingham Center. The
books reflect the changing roles that were/are considered proper for girls. Roughly chronological, the listing is organized into subject headings such as A Christian Upbringing, Etiquette, Nurses, A Christian Upbringing, Girl Detectives, Tomboys and Working Girls, Heroines, and more.

http://www.careeroptions.org/careeroptions/english_index.htm
Career Options for Women is a series of 13 half hour English language and 13 half hour French language programs highlighting women working in jobs traditionally done by men, mostly in trades and technology. It is filmed across Canada, and is intended to raise awareness by providing insight into a wide range of leading edge careers not typically considered by females.

http://www.girlshealth.gov/index.cfm
GirlsHealth.gov was created to help girls (ages 10-16) learn about health, growing up, and issues they may face. It focuses on health topics that girls are concerned about and helps motivate them to choose healthy behaviors by using positive, supportive, and non-threatening messages. The site gives girls reliable, useful information on the health issues they will face as they become young women and tips on handling relationships with family and friends, at school and at home.

http://www.girlsinc-online.org/
Girls Incorporated is a national nonprofit youth organization dedicatedto inspiring all girls to be strong, smart, and bold. With roots dating to 1864, Girls Inc has provided vital educational programs to millions of American girls, particularly those in high-risk, under-served areas. Today, innovative programs help girls confront subtle societal messages about their value and potential, and prepare them to lead successful, independent, and fulfilling lives.

http://www.girlstart.org/
Girlstart offers a variety of educational formats designed for girls, adults, and families through after-school programs, workshop series, summer camps, Expanding Your Horizons, and free community events. All Girlstart programs share a common theme of hands-on exploration of science, math, and technology in a fun and
girl-friendly environment. These programs are held at the Girlstart Tech Center and in Austin-area schools.

http://www.iwaswondering.org/about.html
iWASwondering is a project of the National Academy of Sciences intended to showcase the accomplishments of contemporary women in science and to highlight for young people the varied and intriguing careers of some of today's most prominent scientists. Very kid friendly with flash, graphics, games and activities.

http://www.mathcats.com/
Math Cats was the featured collection at The Gateway to Educational Materials: "Math Cats encourages open- ended exploration of math concepts through engaging
online and offline activities. Online activities at the Studio 2B is a community of girls 11-17 who want to make a difference in their lives and in the world and have fun while they do it.

http://www.studio2b.org/
STUDIO 2B is brought to you by Girl Scouts. It has all of the things you love to do, from traveling to exoticlocations to roughin' it in your backyard to just hangin' with the girls. Whatever you want to do—it's here! Get in the know by contacting your local Girl Scouts and telling them you want STUDIO 2B. Find out how to
develop new leadership skills, improve the community, or ask for help to
create your own group.

http://www.whyville.net/smmk/top/gates
Whyville was launched in 1999 as a virtual city for engaging young people in constructive educational activities while promoting socially responsible behavior. The citizens of Whyville interact with each other while participating in activities that range from science and math to art, civics, and economics. Examples include science simulations in angular momentum, art activities like designing your own avatar and visiting the Getty Museum, writing for the town newspaper, playing multiplayer games such as checkers, and treasure hunts that take you around the globe.


http://www.zoeysroom.com/
Zoey’s Room is a model online education program to teach 10 to 14 year-old girls about science, technology, engineering and math (STEM).

Cyber-hostess “Zoey” hosts her own chat room for girls every day after school. She encourages girls to explore STEM topics through fun challenges called Tec-Treks, which expand their knowledge on a range of 21st century skills, including Internet research, databases, word processing, science, business math, digital and video proficiency, robotics, engineering and website design. Each month, Zoey leads informative chats with “Fab Female” role models in STEM professions. This one-on-one connection, along with the collaborative community of the website, encourages girls to become more interested in STEM careers.

Volcano Glossary: the B's

Basalt - a dark-colored, fine-grained lava rich in iron and magnesium and relatively poor in silica (less than 54 percent.) The most common of earth's volcanic rocks, basaltic lavas compose all the ocean floors and many continental formations as well. Typically very fluid because of their low silica content, basaltic lavas can flow great distances from their source, forming broad lava plains such as the Columbia River Plateau. Shield volcanoes are typically formed exclusively of basalt.

Bergschrund - A Crevass at the back of a glacier between the glacier and its rock headwall, formed by partial melting and movement of the glacier. [A German word. Berg= mountain. Schrund = crevass.

Block - Angular fragment of lava rock measuring a minimum of 2.5 inches to several tens of feet in diameter.

Block-and-ash flow - Variety of a pyroclastic flow, a turbulent mass of hot dense rock fragments that avalanches downslopes as the result of an eruption. Block-and-ash flows are commonly triggered by the distruption or collapse of a dome while hot.

Blocky lava - A lava flow whose surface is characterized by a jumble of large angular blocks.

Bomb - a lump of plastic or molten lava thrown out during an explosive eruption. Bombs range in size from 2.5 inches to many feet in diameter. Because of their plastic condition when first ejected, bombs are commonly modified in shape during their flight through the air and/or by ther impact on the ground. As the outer crust cools and solidifies, continued expansion of the interior by gas pressure sometimnes causes cracking, which may form a bomb surface resembling the crust of freshly baked bread (breadcrust bombs).

Breccia - Rock composed of many distinct fragments, typically sharp and/or angular, embedded in a matrix of fine material. Breccias are sometimes formed when shattered lava blocks are transported by avalanches or mudflows.

Bibliography
Fire Mountains of the West: The Cascade and Mono Lake Volcanoes, Stephen L. Harris. Mountain Press Publishing Company. 1988

Volcano Glossary - the As

Aa - Hawaiian word used to describe a lava flow whose surface is broken into angular, jagged fragments.

Agglutinate - A volcanic deposit formed by the accumulation of flattened and welded fragments, typically derived from showers of still-molten rock particles ejected in magma fountains. The liquid fragments may accumulate to form a stream of lava.

Andesite - A lava of intermediate composition, usually light gray or brown in color. Andesite has a silica content ranging from about 54 to 62 percent.

Andesite line - An imaginary line drawn around the boundary of the Pacific Ocean basin, seperating continental and oceanic lava rocks according to their chemical composition. On the Pacific side of the line lavas are basaltic. On the continental side, lavas with a higher silica content, such as andesites, commonly occur.

Ar - the element argon

Ash - fine particles of pulverized blown from a volcano. Measuring less than about 0.1 in diamer, ash may be either solid or molten when first erupted.

By far the most common variety is vitric ash, glassy particles formed by gas bubbles bursting through liquid magma.
Lithic ash is formed of older rock pulverized during an explosive eruption, while in:
crystal ash each grain is composed of a single crystal or group of crystals with only traces of glass adhering to them. Many volcanic ash deposits contain mixtures of all three kinds in various proportions.

Ash fall -a rain of ash from an eruption cloud

Ash flow - An avalanche of hot volcanic ash and gases that can travel great distances at high speeds from an erupting vent. Large-volume ash flow deposits commonly solidify to form Ignimbrites. (Also called a pyroclastic flow).

Asthenosphere - A zone of the earth's outer shell beneath the lithosphere. Of undetermined thickness, this is a region of weakness where plastic movements occur.



Bibliography
Fire Mountains of the West: The Cascade and Mono Lake Volcanoes, Stephen L. Harris. Mountain Press Publishing Company. 1988

Oceanography Terminology - the As

Abyss - a synonym for the deep sea. (The deeper parts of the ocean, all of which lie in darkness or where sunlight penetrates too weekly to support photosynthesis. Often thought as as the depths beyond the continental shelves, the deep is usually estimated as covering about 65 percent of the Earth's surface, or nearly two-thirds of its exterior.)

Abyssal plain - the floor of the deep sea extending outward from a continental rise or an oceanic trench.

acorn worm - a type of marine invertebrate whose head resembles an acorn, found down to depths exceeding three kilometers (two miles). Not a true worm but a member of the phylum Hemichordata, these animals burrow in the sand and mud. Lengths range from inches to over six feet. Some acorn worms are brilliant in oranges, reds and yellows.

Acoustic Thermometry of Ocean Climate - a project begun by Scripps in the 1900s to measure the overall temperature of the Pacific and any changes therein by broadcasting sound waves across its breadth and measuring subtle changes in their trail time over years and decades.

Advanced tethered vehicle - a 20-foot Navy robot that can dive to depths of 6 kilometers, or 3.7 miles. It has three arms and many still and video cameras, which send images up fiber-optic cables to shipboard operators at the service.

Bibliography
The Universe Below: Discovering the Secrets of the Deep Sea, William J. Broad. Simon & Schuster, 1997

Story resumes Monday

Sorry for the extra two delays with this story - family emergency! Pleae expect next chapter on Monday.