Growing With Science Blog

Today let’s use the recently released book  Astro:  The Steller Sea Lion by Jeanne Walker Harvey and Illustrated by Shennen Bersani to explore an interesting sea mammal.

Astro, who was orphaned at birth and raised by humans, has become an ambassador for his species. If we could interview Astro, here’s what he might have to say:

Interviewer (from now on in bold): Can you start by you telling our audience what kind of animal you are?

Astro (plain text):  I am a Steller sea lion.

Does that mean you are stellar, like a star?

No, my species is named for Mr. George Wilhelm Steller, a famous explorer and naturalist who discovered us in Alaska in 1741.

I have been to California and seen California sea lions, are you one of those?

No, my species tends to be larger and lighter colored. We are also much less common. In fact, those of us that live along the eastern Pacific coasts are threatened, and those along the western Pacific coasts are endangered.

What does that mean?

It means that if people aren’t careful we could go the way of the Steller’s sea cow.

What is a Steller’s sea cow? I’ve never heard of it.

The Steller’s sea cow was another sea mammal named by Mr. Steller in 1741. They looked sort of like the manatees now found in Florida. They were gentle plant-eating giants. Because the sea cows were good to eat, they were extinct only 27 years after Mr. Steller found them.

Yikes, that is sad. Hope that doesn’t happen to your species.

With luck, this new book will help inform many people about us.

Tell me about “your” new book.

Jeanne Walker Harvey has written the story of my life up to now. She explains how I was orphaned at birth on an island off the coast of California. A scientist found me and took me to the Marine Mammal  Center. The humans took really good care of me. In fact, whenever they tried to send me back to the wild, I just kept coming back to them. Finally, they found a home for me at the Mystic Aquarium in Connecticut, where I live now.

And you know the best part?

What’s that?

Jeanne is donating a percentage of the royalties from the book to both the Marine Mammal Center and to Mystic Aquarium.  Think of all the sea creatures like me that will help.

Anything else about the book?

What I want to know is how Shennen Bersani did those fantastic illustrations. She always shows my best side.

Hey, I thought I was asking the questions.

Didn’t you write to her?

Yes, I asked her how she made the illustrations and here’s what she said:

“I’ve been using colored pencils for a long time, I’ve even taught classes and workshops on their use… so most of what you see in Astro is colored pencil on Arches watercolor paper, with a splash of acrylic paint.”

How are the colored pencils so rich? They look like photographs, only much more luminescent.

“Layers!  Layer upon layer of pencil is used with a ‘toothy’ paper.  Layers are the best way to explain it.  Does that explanation help?  I use a graphite pencil, nothing fancy there, to draw out the image on the Arches.  (You can see some of my actual sketches turned into coloring pages on the Sylvan Dell website under Astro Teaching Activities.)  Then I color them in with the colored pencils, and highlight some areas with acrylic paint.”

Many of the people look like my real friends. How did she do that?

About the models, Shennen Bersani said:

“I traveled cross-country to step in Astro’s, umm flippers.  I met with some of the actual people who worked with Astro – and included likenesses of them when possible. I also had fun including my family members, friends, neighbors, and myself.”

Isn’t that fun? We should tell the children in the audience to check out Shennen Bersani’s picture in the back of the book and on her website, and then look for her in the illustrations. It will be our little secret.

Would you tell her that I appreciate all her hard work?

I think she knows. So, Astro, do you think there will be a sequel to your book?

Actually, I was thinking I’d make a great movie star!

If you are interested in using this book as a teaching tool, visit Sylvan Dell Publishing’s Astro page for Teaching Activities in the form of a .pdf booklet.

Check out how you can use zoo or aquarium observations as a science project at Dragonfly TV.

The Sea World Education Department has downloadable .pdf teacher’s guides on Seals, Sea Lions, and Walruses (scroll down page for links), as well as other ocean-related topics.

Have you ever seen the California sea lions at Pier 39 in San Francisco, California?

The California Academy of Sciences has a video that explains why their numbers have recently decreased and also why tagging certain individuals gives us useful information.

And here’s a video of Astro in action. I think he’s right, he would make a great movie star.

The book was provided for review.

Have you ever thought about sea slugs and why they are different colors? It turns out color can be pretty important in sea slugs.

One sea slug, (Elysia chlorotica), is green. Recently scientists investigated the color and found out that the sea slug makes its own food with chlorophyll! Chlorophyll, as you probably know, is the pigment plants use to make their food via photosynthesis. This sea slug not only borrows chloroplasts from the algae it eats, but also can make its own chlorophyll. It is the first animal to be shown to have that ability. Cool! ( Wired Science has a copy of the original article from ScienceNews. Both sites have ads, but the Wired site is less busy.)

Here’s a video that shows the sea slug eating algae. (The video is silent.)

This video from National Geographic shows other, more colorful sea slugs (nudibranchs). (You’ll have to close a pop-up ad.)

Why are these sea slugs so bright? The colors are to warn predators that they aren’t good to eat.

Activities:

1. Draw and color your own sea slug.View images of sea slugs by searching images online, or look for photos in books to help you. Research a particular sea slug. Find out where it lives, what its habitat is like and what it eats.

Tidepool Coloring Book has a drawing of a nudibranch you could use, as well as images of other tidepool creatures.

2. Writing Prompt:

Imagine what our world would be like if more animals could make their own food from sunlight. Imagine green cows or elephants. Now, write a story about it.

Related Activities:
Fieldwork has extensive lesson plans for a high school level marine biology/oceanography class. For example, here’s the lesson on Mollusca/beaches. The author recommends that you have access to a body of salt water to be able to do the hands on activities. Check out the “busy fieldworkers.” Now, that’s my idea of learning.

Tide Pool Invertebrates post from last summer

Thanks to Carl for the heads up about the green sea slug and Susan for leading me to the Fieldwork site.

Are you interested in floating and sinking, oceanography and/or beach science? This week we found a fascinating book at the library about a scientist who studies ocean currents by looking at trash that comes up on the beach. Let’s find out more about his research and then perform some experiments based on his findings.

Tracking Trash: Flotsam, Jetsam, and the Science of Ocean Motion (Scientists in the Field Series) by Loree Griffin Burns is about Dr. Curt Ebbesmeyer, an oceanographer who studies the huge streams of water flowing through the ocean, called currents. In 1990 his mother pointed out an article in the newspaper about piles of sneakers washing up on the shores near Seattle, Washington. Dr. Ebbesmeyer turned his scientific curiosity to the problem, and discovered the shoes came from containers that had fallen off a ship during a storm months before. The sneakers floated in the ocean currents and ended up washing up on shore. By tracking how fast and how far the sneakers moved, he and other scientists could map the direction and speed of the ocean currents carrying the sneakers.

Activities:

(Note: always watch children around water).

1. Bathtub or pool currents

Try to create a current in a bathtub or pool using a hose or a handheld shower head. Partially fill the pool or tub with water, then create a fast current by shooting water through it. Try adding a plastic floating toy to track the movement of the water flow.

2. Floating high versus low

Dr. Ebbesmeyer also studied the movement of some floating bathtub toys that had fallen off another boat. He found that the bathtub toys moved to shore more quickly than the movement of currents would have predicted. Then he floated a sneaker and a bathtub toy in seawater. What he saw suggested the answer.

Do you have an old sneaker or similar object that you could use to test this question? Float an old sneaker and a plastic bathtub toy in a tub or pool. Do they look the same in the water? Do they move through the water the same when pushed by currents?

Dr. Ebbesmeyer used seawater for his experiment. How do you think that might change the results?

His idea was that the bathtub toys floated high up out of the water and thus caught the winds. When the wind helps move an object along, it is called the object’s “windage.”

It turns out the plastic tub toys had been packaged in sets of four, yet none of the packages were washed up on shore. He wondered how the packages might influence the movement of the toys, so he placed packages of toys in tubs filled with seawater. He found the packages fell apart overnight, and so the toys were moving freely very quickly.

What else might change how an object moves in the water?

3. Plastic brick floating

In February of 1997 a ship lost containers filled with over four million LEGO pieces into the Atlantic Ocean.

Gather:

• Plastic bricks
• container for holding water, sink or bathtub

Now you are ready to answer some questions.

Do plastic bricks float?
Can you build a boat out of them?
Do you think they would float differently in seawater?

Check out the Techbrick Site for some photos of a LEGO boat race to give you ideas.

Tracking Trash: Flotsam, Jetsam, and the Science of Ocean Motion (Scientists in the Field Series) by Loree Griffin Burns

I admit, I wanted to be an oceanographer when I was in fourth grade. Now through this awesome book I can catch a glimpse of the world of oceanography.

For your information, the last two chapters are more about the trash found in the oceans, the giant pool of trash that is circulating in the Pacific Ocean, and how damaging adrift fishing nets can be. The information would be a tie-in to a study unit on environmental issues, as well.