Facts, resources, and answers from A to Z

A Aromatherapy

What are the Top 10 essential oils and what benefits do some people think they provide? Check out the National Association for Holistic Aromatherapy to find out: www.naha.org/Top10.htm

Fact:

* Aromatherapy is not a New Age fad. In fact, it has been around for more than 6,000 years. Ancient Greeks, Romans, and Egyptians all used aromatherapy oils to promote health and healing. Greek physician Hippocrates (460 B.C.-377 B.C.), known as the Father of Modern Medicine, used aromatic fumigations to rid Athens of the plague.

B Belly Laugh

The Food and Drug Administration and the Federal Communication Commission's page on cell phone facts: www.fda.gov/cellphones/

"New Privacy Menace: Cell Phones?" by Elisa Batista at Wired News: www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,57692,00.html

D Dreams

Answers to Dream Match-Up (p. 10) Teeth falling out: Loss of power A stone: A burden in your life Rainbow: Hope and joy Bear chasing you: Feelings of anger Turtles: Slowness The ocean: Symbol of life

To learn more about the meaning of dreams, check out this PBS Web site for kids: pbskids.org/itsmylife/emotions/dreams/

For some fun science projects on dreaming, check out the Association for the Study of Dreams: www.asdreams.org/subidxeduscienceprojects.htm

Fact:

* According to Dr. Matthew Walker; a psychiatrist at the Harvard Medical Institute, an average human spends about eight years of his or her life dreaming.

E Ecotourism:

Visit the Web site of the International Ecotourism Society to learn more about environmentally friendly travel: www.ecotourism.org/

Check out the Sierra Club's ecotourism principles: www.sierraclub.org/policy/conservation/ecotourism.asp

The ecotourism game: Try your hand at developing an ecotourism project in the Amazon. Can you make ecotourism work? Good luck! www.eduweb.com/ecotourism/eco1.html

F Fried Candy Bars

For an experiment on the melting point of chocolate, see: www.nsf.gov/od/lpa/events/fow/fowtfkv2n3/htm/melt_exp.htm

For a slew of candy bar recipes, including one for fried miniature candy bars, visit: www.recipegoldmine.com/candybar/candybar.html

G Games

"Computer Game Makers Kill Off Piracy," by Barry Fox, New Scientist, October 11, 2003

Learn about the software industry's fight against piracy at the Entertainment Software Association's Web site: www.theESA.com/index.html

Kids can learn about copyrights at: www.copyrightkids.org/

Read Codemaster's press release for FADE at: www.codemasters.com/news/displayarticles.php?showartlcle=500

H Hot Cocoa

To learn more about the hot cocoa study, check out: www.news.cornell.edu/Chronicle/03/11.20.03/cocoa_antioxidants.html

For a fact sheet on the health benefits of antioxidants see: www.cancer.gov/newscenter/pressreleases/antioxidants

I Ice Cream

Experiment Conclusion (p. 13)

One factor that determines the smoothness of ice cream is ice-crystal size. Ice crystals grow larger over time. So when a mixture sits undisturbed in the freezer, the crystals expand, making the ice cream hard. Smooth ice cream has ice crystals with a diameter smaller than 20 micrometers (two-hundredth of a millimeter). By shaking the ingredients, ice crystals have less of a chance to grow. This makes the ice cream smoother.

Also, shaking traps air bubbles. This gives the cream a fluffier texture. You can test how much air is in store-bought ice cream by letting it melt and refreeze. (You will wind up with a smaller chunk of icy cream!)

This site includes (almost) everything about ice cream from science to history: www.foodsci.uoguelph.ca/dairyedu/icecream.html

Read about an unusual method of making ice cream: www.popsci.com/popsci/hometech/article/0,12543,458641,00.htm

J Java

Activity:

Do your students consume too much caffeine? Have them evaluate their caffeine intake with the data-collecting exercise on TE 6.

It's Your Choice (p. 16)

1. a 2. d 3. c

For a complete guide to the history and science of caffeine, check out The World of Caffeine: The Science and Culture of the World's Most Popular Drug, by Bennett Alan Weinberg and Bonnie K. Bealer, Routledge, 2002.

Facts:

* In its pure form, caffeine is a toxic white powder.

* Caffeine has a half-life of 6 hours and is completely gone from your body in 12. That's why even a soda at lunch can interfere with a night's sleep.

K Karaoke

National Center for Voice and Speech is an interdisciplinary team of scientists and artists dedicated to studying the powers, limitations, and enhancement of human voice and speech: www.ncvs.org/index.html

Fact:

* Think you're a lousy singer? Don't despair. "With proper training and a passion for music, 80 to 90 percent of all people can learn to become pretty good singers," says voice and speech scientist Ingo Titze. What about the remainder? "Perhaps some part of their voice-ear connection is not working properly."

L Learning Disorders

Activity:

Help students build vocabulary skills. After reading the feature, have them complete the crossword puzzle on TE 7.

Answers:

It's Your Choice (p. 21)

1. c 2. a 3. c 4. d 5. b

Vocabulary Builder (TE 7)

1. dyslexia 2. hereditary 3. phonemes 4. sequence 5. neuroscientist 6a. cerebrum 6b. matter 7. hemisphere 8. word 9. parieto 10. occipito Bonus: twenty

Overcoming Dyslexia: A New and Complete Science-Based Program for Reading Problems at Any Level, by Sally Shaywitz, M.D., Knopf, 2003

For more information about dyslexia, visit the Web site of the International Dyslexia Association: www.interdys.org/index.jsp

Check out the National Institutes of Mental Health's Web site on learning disorders: www.nimh.nih.gov/publicat/learndis.cfm