About 70 percent of the Earth’s surface is water-covered. The vast majority of water on the Earth’s surface, over 96 percent, is saline water in the oceans. But it is the freshwater resources, such as the water in streams, rivers, lakes, and ground water that provide people (and all life) with most of the water they need everyday to live. Water sitting on the surface of the Earth is easy to visualize, and your view of the water cycle might be that rainfall fills up the rivers and lakes.

Just how much water is there on (and in) the Earth? Here are some numbers you can think about:

1. The total water supply of the world is about 333 million cubic miles (mi3) (a cubic mile is an imaginary cube measuring one mile on each side), or 1,386 million cubic kilometers (km3). A cubic mile of water equals more than 1.1 trillion gallons. A cubic kilometer of water equals about 264 billion gallons.

2. If all of Earth’s water (oceans, icecaps and glaciers, lakes, rivers, ground water, and water in the atmosphere was put into a sphere, then the diameter of that water ball would be a bit less than 1,400 kilometers across, a bit more than the distance between Chicago, Illinois and New Orleans, Louisiana.

3. About 3,100 mi3 (12,900 km3) of water, mostly in the form of water vapor, is in the atmosphere at any one time. If it all fell as precipitation at once, the Earth would be covered with only about 1 inch of water.

4. The 48 contiguous United States receives a total volume of about 4 mi3 (17.7 km3) of precipitation each day.

5. Each day, 280 mi3 (1,170 km3)of water evaporate or transpire into the atmosphere.

6. If all of the world’s water was poured on the United States, it would cover the land to a depth of 90 miles (145 kilometers).

7. Of the freshwater on Earth, much more is stored in the ground than is available in lakes and rivers. More than 2,000,000 mi3 (8,400,000 km3)of freshwater is stored in the Earth, most within one-half mile of the surface. Contrast that with the 60,000 mi3 (250,000 km3) of water stored as freshwater in lakes, inland seas, and rivers. But, if you really want to find freshwater, the most is stored in the 7,000,000 mi3 (29,200,000 km3) of water found in glaciers and icecaps, mainly in the polar regions and in Greenland.

Source: ga.water.usgs.gov/edu/earthhowmuch.html
(Last accessed: 16 August 2010)

Check out the following books on water:

(All Rights Reserved, PowerKids Press, 2009)

Oceans of the World
by Sandy Roydhouse
Call Number: J English 551.46 ROY
Click here to check for item availability.

Water
by Geoff Barker
Call Number: Y English 553.7 BAR
Click here to check for item availability.

Water : Discover Science Through Facts and Fun
by Gerry Bailey and Steve Way
Call Number: J English 553.7 BAI
Click here to check for item availability.

Originally answered by Shahada Selamat
Associate Librarian
Children’s Services

Students performing at the 1966 National Day Parade
Source: www.nhb.gov.sg

National Day Parade, 9 August 1967
Source: www.nationalartgallery.sg

August marks a very special month in Singapore’s history as Singapore holds its national day celebrations on 9 August every year.

9 August is a significant date because on 9 August 1965, Singapore broke away from Malaysia and became a fully independent country. Prior to this, on 27 May 1961, the Malayan Prime Minister Tunku Abdul Rahman proposed merger between Singapore, Malaya and other British colonies like Brunei, Sabah and Sarawak to form Malaysia for political and economic reasons.

However, due to political differences that later led to 2 racial riots in Singapore in 1964, as well as economic incompatability, on 7 August 1965, the leaders of Malaysia and Singapore signed the separation agreement and on 9 August 1965, Singapore became a fully independent country.

This year, Singapore will celebrate its 45th year of independence and the National Day celebrations and parade will be held at the Padang where the first National Day Parade (NDP) was held. The theme this year is ‘Live Our Dreams, Fly Our Flag’ as the organizers hope that Singaporeans will “reflect upon the nation’s achievements and be inspired to work towards their own dreams”.

Do catch the parade and the celebrations in action if you have a chance!

For more information on this year’s NDP celebrations, do log on to the NDP official website :
http://www.ndp.org.sg

Sources:
1) The Living Past
2) NDP 2010 Official Website: www.ndp.org.sg

Posted By:

Ms Chen Wanying
Children’s Librarian
Children’s Services

With the recent influx of 3-D animated movies like Shrek Forever After, Toy Story and the most recent Despicable Me, have you ever wondered how does a 3D movie work?

While watching 3-D movies, you are actually looking at two still images that appear to be nearly identical simultaneously. It is set up in such a way that your left eye sees one of the images and the right eye sees the other. These images are not identical as they were shot using two cameras. Your brain is able to combine the 2 different images and form a 3-D image that looks incredibly realistic.

In the early days, to view 3-D movies, we used the red/blue glasses. Both left and right images appear on the screen at once but one is tinted red and the other is tinted blue. The problem with this is that it disrupts the colour of the images. Thus, to handle this, we now use polarized light.

This technique makes use of a property of light called polarization. The film is still recorded using two camera lenses placed side by side. However, in the cinema, the two film reels are projected through different polarized filters. Thus, images for the viewers’ left eyes are polarized on a horizontal plane while images for the right eyes are polarized on a vertical plane. Our glasses use the same polarizing filters to separate out the two images again and our brain will put these two separate images together and create the 3D effect.

(Reference: How do 3D films work? | Explore | physics.org
www.physics.org/article-questions.asp?id=56
Last accessed: 20 July 2010)

Originally answered by Aslin Harminah
Associate Librarian
Children’s Services

Source: How To Make A Terrarium: http://www.katyelliott.com

Source: Paperus, The Bottle Garden Specialists: http://www.paperus.com.sg

A terrarium is a minature garden of small plants that is grown in a closed or partially open container. It has made a comeback as a fuss free gardening project for urban dwellers since its popularity in the 1970s and 1980s and you can buy a ready made one or purchase a starter kit at the Singapore Garden Festival! It is a convenient solution for busy office workers and people who do not have green thumbs as a terrarium is a self sufficient ecosystem that requires little care. All you need to do is to water it every few weeks depending on the size of the terrarium. Not only will making a terrarium spruce up your living space with little effort, it will also help to recycle your unused transparent jars and containers!

How do you create a terrarium? All you need is to place stones, or gravel, charcoal ( to provide drainage for the plants), small plants in a transparent bottle and voila! You’ve got your own minature garden in a bottle or container!

For more information on the steps needed to create your own terrarium, do check out these useful sites!
1) The Garden Management System Gardening Software: Terrariums

http://www.hmk.on.ca/terrarium.html

2) National Geographic Kids: Grow Your Own Minature Garden

http://kids.nationalgeographic.com/

3) Paperus: The Bottle Garden Specialist: What is a Paperus Bottle Garden?http://www.paperus.com.sg
4) Katy Elliott: Home, Art And Food: How To Make A Terrarium

http://www.katyelliott.com/

Also, do check out the books that are available in the library for creating your own terrarium!

All Rights Reserved, Hockessin, Del. : Mitchell Lane Publishers
A Kid’s Guide To Making A Terrarium by Stephanie Bearce
Call Number: J English 635 BEA
Publisher: Hockessin, Del. : Mitchell Lane Publishers, c2010
View item availability here

All Rights Reserved, North Adams, Mass. : Storey Publishers
Tabletop gardens : 40 stylish plantscapes for counters and shelves, desktops and windowsills by Rosemary McCreary
Call Number: English 635.965 MAC -[HOM]
Publisher: North Adams, Mass. : Storey Pub., c2006
View item availability here

Posted By:

Ms Chen Wanying
Children’s Librarian
Children’s Services

Image is retrieved from:

http://www.elegantgoldbuys.com/page/1202355

Most of us have heard of Aesop’s fable: The Hen That Laid The Golden Eggs (in some versions, it is a goose). In real life, there are no animals that can lay golden eggs. However, there are blue eggs!

According to Henerson’s Chicken Breed Chart:  
Eggs can come in different colors, such as shades of white, creamy white, brown and blue, depending on the breed of the hen. The most unique egg color will be blue. The hens of Ameraucana and Araucana breed lay blue eggs.

Reference:
Henerson’s Chicken Breed Chart (http://www.ithaca.edu/staff/jhenderson/chooks/chooks.html) Last accessed on 30 June 2010.

If you want to read more on the topic, here are books that you can check out at our libraries.

 
All Rights Reserved, Picture Window Books, c2004

The goose that laid the golden egg : a retelling of Aesop’s fable by LarocheMark White
Publisher: Minneapolis, Minn. : Picture Window Books, c2004.
Call No.: JP 398.2 WHI -[FOL]
Click here to check for item availability

All Rights Reserved, Children’s Press, 2009, c2008.

How an egg grows into a chicken by Tanya Kant
Publisher: New York : Children’s Press, 2009, c2008.
Call No.: JP 636.5 KAN
Click here to check for item availability

All Rights Reserved, Minn. : Millbrook Press, c2007.

Guess what is growing inside this egg by Mia Posada
Publisher: Minneapolis, Minn. : Millbrook Press, c2007.
Call No: J 591.4 POS
Click here to check for item availability

Here are websites for information on the topic:
Title: Egg
URL: http://animals.howstuffworks.com/animal-facts/egg-info.htm

All websites are last accessed on 30 June 2010. Please refer to the terms and conditions on the homepages for use.
For the availability of the above book titles, please check the library catalogue.

Ms Chen Luojia
Associate Librarian, Children’s Services

For those who celebrated Father’s Day a few days ago with your dads, you must be wondering how this special occassion started!

Well, some 4000 years ago, a young boy named Elmusu carved out a father’s day card on a clay tablet, wishing his father a long and healthy life. And in 1910, Miss Sonara Louise Smart Dodd, whose mother died at childbirth and was brought up by her father started the campaign to pay tribute to her father who brought up six children on his own. She succeeded in lobbying for this occassion to be celebrated and in 1966, President Lyndon Johnson signed a Presidential Proclamation to declare the third Sunday of June as Father’s Day and this was also reiterated by President Richard Nixon in 1972 who helped to establish Father’s Day as a national occassion.

Sources:
History of Father’s Day -www.enidnews.com
History of Father’s Day-www.lankanewspapers.com

For books on dads, you can check out these books!

All Rights Reserved, New York, N.Y. : NorthSouth Books

Daddies by Lila Prap
Call Number: JP English PRA
Publisher: New York, N.Y. : NorthSouth Books
View item availability here

All Rights Reserved, New York, N.Y. : G. P. Putnam’s Sons

Your Daddy Was Just Like You by Kelly Bennett
Call Number: JP English BEN
Publisher: New York, N.Y. : G. P. Putnam’s Sons
View item availability here

All Rights Reserved, New York, N.Y. : HarperCollinsPublishers

It’s The Best Day Ever, Dad! by Brooke Shields
Call Number: JP English SHI
Publisher: New York, N.Y. : HarperCollinsPublishers
View item availability here

Posted By:

Ms Chen Wanying
Children’s Librarian
Children’s Services

The World Cup is soccer’s biggest event and it is held once every four years. The first World Cup was held in Uruguay in July 1930. Only thirteen teams from North America, South America and Europe participated in the event. Back then, the teams travelled by sea and some teams even travelled on the same ship to Uruguay. In the final match, the host nation defeated Argentina 4–2 in front of a crowd of 93000 people and became the first country to win the World Cup.

Today, 204 teams partipate in the tournament and 32 teams were shortlisted after gruelling matches in the qualifying rounds. Since 1930, the 16 tournaments have seen only seven different winners with Brazil leading the pack, having won the World Cup five times. The World Cup is now the most watched sporting event with millions of supporters from all over the world.

(Source: www.fifa.com/classicfootball/history/index.html
Last accessed: 17/6/2010)

(All Rights Reserved, Haynes, 2010)

World Cup Football
by Jason Ludditch
Call Number: J English 796.334 LUD
Click here to check for item availability.

(All Rights Reserved, Scholastic Children’s Books, 2010)

Wicked World Cup
by Michael Coleman
Call Number: J English 796.334 COL
Click here to check for item availability.

(All Rights Reserved, Heinemann Library, 2010)

World of Football
by Michael Hurley
Call Number: J English 796.334 HUR
Click here to check for item availability.

Originally answered by Rosjihanah Mon
Associate Librarian, Children’s Services

Image is retrieved from:

http://taralazar.wordpress.com/2009/04/26/marsha-riti/

According to C. Chew’s article, ‘Public Housing in Singapore’ from Infopedia:
“In the past, the size and layout of flats were guided by standard design plans, with some degree of variation. Hence, most of them tend to be rectangular in design, in order to achieve the outcome of high-density, high-rise developments.

However, over the years, the standard design plans for new flats have been updated to cater to the changing expectations and preferences of buyers. For example, executive flats were launched in the 1980s in response to the desire for bigger flats. These changes reflect the broader shift in the focus of public housing programmes from quantity to quality.

Whereas the emphasis of the early building programmes was on meeting the population’s basic need for proper shelter, there is now an emphasis on quality that extends beyond the design of the flats to the surrounding living environment, as evidenced by efforts to improve the landscape architecture and enhance the visual identity of housing estates and to provide better amenities for the residents. Hence, the flats in Singapore are now likely to come in more designs and shapes.”

Reference:
Chew, C. (2009). Public Housing in Singapore. Retrieved May 18, 2010, from Infopedia, http://infopedia.nl.sg/articles/SIP_1585_2009-10-26.html

If you want to read more on the topic, here are books that you can check out at our libraries.

All Rights Reserved, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, c2009

What’s inside?: fascinating structures around the world by Laroche, Giles
Publisher: Boston : Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, c2009
Call No.: J 720 LAR
Click here to check for item availability

All Rights Reserved, Raintree, 2010

Architecture by Bingham, Jane
Publisher: London : Raintree, 2010
Call No.: J 720 BIN
Click here to check for item availability

All Rights Reserved, Gareth Stevens Pub., 2010

Architect by Cohn, Jessica
Publisher: Pleasantville, NY : Gareth Stevens Pub., 2010
Call No: J 720 COH
Click here to check for item availability

All Rights Reserved, Charlesbridge, c1998

13 buildings children should know by Munich : Prestel
Publisher: Watertown, MA : Charlesbridge, c1998
Call No.: J 720 ROE
Click here to check for item availability

Here are websites for information on the topic:
Title: Architecture for kids: Lessons and activities
URL: http://www.kinderart.com/architecture/

Title: Roman architecture – History for Kids!
URL: http://www.historyforkids.org/learn/romans/
architecture/romarch.htm

All websites are last accessed on 20 May 2010. Please refer to the terms and conditions on the homepages for use.
For the availability of the above book titles, please check the library catalogue.

Ms Isabel Tan
Librarian, Children’s Services

Isn’t it strange that penguins have wings yet they can’t fly? If you ever wonder why they choose to waddle around instead of flying high, well, penguins cannot fly because their wings are too small and stumpy to lift them into the air. However, the wings which look like flippers are very good for swimming. Penguins are excellent swimmers and they are the only flightless waterbird. Other waterbirds like albatrosses, puffins, pelicans and gulls can fly.

Sources:
1) 100 Things You Should Know About Penguins by Camilla de la Bedoyere
Publisher: Great Bardfield, Essex : Miles Kelly, c2007
Call Number: J English English 598.47 DEL
2) Waterbird Fact Sheet: http://www.fws.gov

For more information on penguins, do check out these books!

All Rights Reserved, A & C Black, 2007.
Title: Penguins Of The World
Author: Wayne Lynch
Publisher: London : A & C Black, 2007
Call Number: English 598.47 LYN -[ANI]
Click here to view item availability

All Rights Reserved, PowerKids Press, 2010
Title: Swimming With Penguins
Author: Miriam Coleman
Publisher: New York, N.Y. : PowerKids Press, 2010
Call Number: J English 598.47 COL
Click here to view item availability

All Rights Reserved, Weigl Publishers, c2009
Title: Penguins
Author: David Whitfield
Publisher: New York, N.Y. : Weigl Publishers, c2009
Call Number: JP English 598.74 WHI
Click here to view item availability

Posted By:

Ms Chen Wanying
Children’s Librarian
Children’s Services

(What is there more of the less you see? ———————> Darkness! -[1] )

Image is retrieved from: http://prosportsonline.net/2010/02/beneath-brown-bags-saints-had-loyal-fans/

According to Odyssey’s article, Night Vision: Why you can see in the dark?:
“Eyes work by converting light energy into nerve impulses. These nerve impulses are sent to the brain, where we “make sense” of them. A certain pattern of light is a “tree,” another pattern is “my dad,” and so on.

An eye functions a lot like a camera. Light passes through the pupil — the part of the eye that appears black, but is really an opening. It is then focused by a lens, before it lands on the light-sensitive retina -a delicate membrane lining the inner eyeball and connected by the optic nerve to the brain.

Two kinds of cells share space on the retina: short, wide “cones” (7 million of them) and long, narrow “rods” (120 million of these). Each kind has its special uses.
Cones require a lot of light to work. Each one is connected to its own nerve fiber, so they help us to see fine detail. They are also sensitive to small differences in light wavelengths, which we call colors.

Rods work well even in low light. They do not sense colors or fine detail — though they are very sensitive to movement! The retinas of true nocturnal animals are packed with many more rods than ours have.

When your eyes are adapting to low light, several things happen. First, your pupil opens wide to let in as much light as possible. Then the rod cells turn off — there is not enough light for them to work at all. So at night we don’t see colors or fine detail. But we are more sensitive to tiny movements, which makes us jump even when leaves are just moving in the wind. Because there are more rods on the edges of your retina than In the middle, you often see best at night “out of the corner of your eye.” You learn to look slightly to one side of what you see.

True night vision develops slowly — it takes about 30 minutes for It to peak. Over a period of time in low light, your rod cells develop a reddish pigment called rhodopsin. This pigment increases the rods’ sensitivity enormously! But you still see differently than you do during daylight. Seeing at night is a lot like looking at a black and white TV with poor reception instead of a color set with cable.

If your dark-adapted eyes are exposed to bright light, the rhodopsin will instantly bleach white and you will lose your night vision until it has time to develop again.”

The article was retrieved from EBSCOhost Kids Search.

In order to gain access to our eResources such as the one I have shared with you above, simply visit our eResources page and register: http://eresources.nlb.gov.sg/index.aspx

Reference:
K-S, D., & , Initials. (2007). Night vision: why you can see in the dark?. Odyssey, 16(5), 11-11

[1] – Http://www.kidsjokes.co.uk/jokes/other/night_jokes_5.html. (1998). Retrieved from kidsjokes.co.uk: night jokes

If you want to read more on the topic, here are books that you can check out at our libraries.

All Rights Reserved,  Picture Window Books, c2005.

Look! A Book About Sight by Dana Meachen Rau

Publisher: Minneapolis, Minn. : Picture Window Books, c2005.

Call No.: J 612.8 RAU

Click here to check for item availability

All Rights Reserved, PowerKids Press, 2008.

Exploring Light by Carol Ballard

Publisher: New York : PowerKids Press, 2008.
Call No.: J 535 BAL

Click here to check for item availability

All Rights Reserved, VT : Healing Arts Press, c2004.

How to improve your child’s eyesight naturally : a thoughtful parent’s guide by Janet Goodrich.
Publisher: Rochester, VT : Healing Arts Press, c2004.
Call No: English q617.70083 GOO -[HEA]

Click here to check for item availability

All websites are last accessed on 20 Mar 2010. Please refer to the terms and conditions on the homepages for use.
For the availability of the above book titles, please check the library catalogue.

Ms Sharifah A. Latif
Assoc. Librarian, Children’s Services