Volcanoes

Native Hawaiians knew all about volcanoes. According to them, volcanic eruptions were caused by Pele, the beautiful but tempestuous Goddess of Volcanoes. Pele had frequent moments of anger, which brought about eruptions. She was both honored and feared. She could cause earthquakes by stamping her feet or volcanic eruptions and fiery lava by digging with her Pa'oa, her magic stick. Pele had a long and bitter argument with her older sister, Namakaokahai. The fight ended up forming the Hawaiian Islands. Read more of this story...

Discovery Kids offers you their "Volcano Explorer" where you can go inside a volcano and even make your own volcano science project! Be sure to click the link at the bottom of their page to learn all about the last days of Pompeii.

Picture by Siddharth, Age 9, India

VOLCANO WORLD is a website designed for kids that includes virtual field trips, adventure stories, help for teachers, volcano FAQ, games and fun stuff and, of course, a kids' art gallery (see sample above).

Find out how much you know about volcanoes with this fun activity from National Geographic Kids.

Mount St. Helens VolcanoCams will let you see a volcano live, as in right now, during daylight hours in the State of Washington.

You can visit Mt. Shasta in California or view it "live" on its own webcam HERE or HERE. Mt. Shasta's last major eruption was in 1786 and earned Mt. Shasta the nickname, "Lighthouse of the Pacific." Mt. Shasta is actually a series of four overlapping volcanic cones and as a mountain, it stands alone, not connected to any nearby mountain, rising abruptly to nearly 10,000 feet. Read more about Mt. Shasta HERE.

Mt. Shasta, California


Mt. Etna, Italy

Mount Etna is one of the most active volcanoes in the world and is in an almost constant state of activity.The fertile volcanic soils support extensive agriculture, with vineyards and orchards spread across the lower slopes of the mountain and the broad Plain of Catania to the south. You can view live webcams of Mt. Etna HERE.

This CBS video shows an exciting view of one of Etna's most recent eruptions:

Watch CBS Videos Online

Do you know the difference between lava and Magma? Do you know how many volcanoes there are in the world? HERE'S A WEBSITE with lots of volcano facts for kids.

And here are some great books on the subject of volcanoes. If you want to find out more about the book, just click on the image. SECURITY CAUTION FOR KIDS: Do NOT click to download or "buy" anything or put your personal information in a form on a website unless you TELL YOUR PARENTS FIRST that's what you want to do.

The Hubble Site

FROM THE WEBSITE:

Since the earliest days of astronomy, since the time of Galileo, astronomers have shared a single goal — to see more, see farther, see deeper.

The Hubble Space Telescope's launch in 1990 sped humanity to one of its greatest advances in that journey. Hubble is a telescope that orbits Earth. Its position above the atmosphere, which distorts and blocks the light that reaches our planet, gives it a view of the universe that typically far surpasses that of ground-based telescopes.

Hubble is one of NASA's most successful and long-lasting science missions. It has beamed hundreds of thousands of images back to Earth, shedding light on many of the great mysteries of astronomy. Its gaze has helped determine the age of the universe, the identity of quasars, and the existence of dark energy.

The Hubble Site is such a massive resource, I could spend days and days there and never run out of things to see and do and learn. I love this website! You will, too.

The number one fascinating thing (for me) about this website are the incredible picture galleries that show our solar system, planets, nebulae and more. It is always amazing to look at these photographs of what's out there in space. It really is a magical universe. Be sure to click on the top link above the main picture - the link says, "Picture Album."

If you want to make your own model of the Hubble Space Telescope, you can do it because this webpage shows you step-by-step how to build it. What a great idea for a science fair project!

There's a special section here for teachers and a reference desk that everyone can use. Kids, you'll find some homework help here but the WHOLE website is fun and packed with great stuff that I know will help you in school.

Try the Glossary to brush up on your outer space vocabulary. Do you know what an "Accelerating Universe" is? What's the difference between a blue star and a brown dwarf? Exactly what is radiation, anyway? Think you're an expert on outer space? Go ahead. Take a peek.

Plan on spending a whole lot of time here because you can really get into this stuff. This place is 100% NOT boring. It is F-U-N.

And here's a fun list of books about the subjects of the Hubble Space Telescope and outer space. Remember, a book list is also a list of things to buy and kids need their parents' permission and help to do anything like that. I'm making book lists because I think parents and teachers appreciate that sort of stuff.

Science Fair Central

I used to have a hard time with science fairs and mostly, it was because I never liked any of the ideas I came up with or, if I had "kind of" a good idea, I never really knew how to put the whole thing together. This website put on by Discovery Education takes you through all the steps and even has a great guide for parents!

The website takes students through three major steps: 1.) Getting Started; 2.) Science Fair Projects and; 3.) Science Fair Presentations. If you read through these three steps, you'll be sure to improve your own science project and maybe even end up the star of the show. I especially liked the picture in the Science Fair Presentations that showed the three-sided backing and labelled each essential part of it so you can follow their explanations about what makes a great presentation.

This website is definitely worth a visit.

Fun Science Projects & Experiments

Are you ready to have fun? Let's go!

How to Make a Tornado in a Bottle


How to Make Virtual Vomit


How to Make Flubber or Slime


How to Blow Up a Balloon With Baking Soda & Vinegar


Diet Coke and Mentos