Issue 2 by First Flight

FALL 2020

– a children's magazine

MAP OF EMBER OAKS

ENGLISH

JINNA

NATHALIE

ZOE

OU UR R SST TO OR RYY O Welcome to our second issue! My name is Jinna, and I am the Editor-inChief of First Flight. First Flight is a non-profit, educational, children’s magazine that began in the summer of 2019 as a personal project of mine. After years of volunteering as a teacher, I wanted to create a fun and educational resource that students could access beyond the classroom. Upon entering the University of Chicago, I met two wonderful friends, Nathalie and Zoe, who shared my passion for teaching children. With their support, the magazine came to life. Our readers will explore the fictional town of Ember Oaks and befriend its citizens. Each member of the community has their unique experiences and areas of expertise – from English to Science, there is something to learn from everybody. With each issue, you’ll be introduced to more citizens, so keep your eyes peeled for future announcements on our website! Happy reading! Jinna Lee, Editor-in-Chief

OUR TOWN Hi! My name is Tamara the Telescope. I’ve been stargazing for as long as I can remember. I love climbing to the tops of trees to get a good view on clear nights with my friend Rami the Robin. I can look at nebulae, galaxies, and planets. But that’s not all I do! I love all kinds of music – punk, R&B, classical, and pop. My personal favorite is jazz music. I dream of traveling the world as a jazz singer! Rami and I are planning to start a jazz band with the rest of Ember Oaks. If you have any music recommendations, let me know!

Hi, my name is Rami the Robin! I love to travel to new countries and make new friends! I just got back from Xian in China, where I saw the terracotta warriors. They were so intimidating!

Tamara is my best bud. We stargaze from different treetops and mountain peaks every Friday night. Macchu Picchu, Mt. Fuji, and Denali are on our bucket list. I’m also pretty handy with a hammer! When I’m at home, I enjoy working on carpentry projects. Right now I’m refinishing a birdhouse!

Welcome to Ember Oaks! I'm Phil the Phoenix, the mayor of this town. Come meet some of our townspeople! Do you see the grey pictures on the right? You'll be meeting those folks in our next issue, so make sure to come back and visit us!

Howdy friends! I’m Frida the Frog. Basketball is my favorite pastime! You can catch me on the basketball court with my best friend Benny any day of the week. I don’t mean to brag, but I can dunk better than anyone else I know. I also love to paint murals around the beautiful pond I call home. Shapes, colors, hand-eye coordination – I have all of that down pat. But when it comes to words, I get a little mixed up. Good thing I have you to help me with my crosswords and mad libs!

Hey there! My name is Benny the Bookworm. In my free time, I enjoy curling up in a cozy hole and losing myself in a book. Sometimes I read a bubbly romantic comedy, other times a bone-chilling thriller. I run Ember Oak’s library from Monday to Friday, so if you’re ever looking for something to read, pop in and give us a visit! On weekends or after work, I love to exercise with my friend Frida the Frog. She might be a better basketball player (she has an excellent jump), but no one can beat me at weightlifting. You’d be surprised how much muscle it takes to shelve books everyday!

Hi! My name is Bianca the Beaker. I love all kinds of science, whether it’s biology, chemistry, or physics. When I’m not in the laboratory, I love playing video games, surfing, and baking! My love of science comes from cooking with my family. Everyone in my family loves to cook – they’re all chefs! After a few years of cooking with my parents, aunts, and uncles, I grew interested in the chemistry of cooking. Why do we add acid? What does baking powder do? Join me in the Loopy Lab to explore these questions! I’m so excited to learn with you all!

WHO'S NEXT?

Some of the pages have fun exercises you can work on! If you have a printer at home or at your local library, feel free to print those pages out!

CONTENTS ENTERING SPACE Exploring the Planets

10-11

Tools of Astronomy

12-13

Connect the Dots

LEAVING EMBER OAKS A Robin's Travels

16-17

Animal Spotlight

18-19

SPECIAL ARTICLE Hero Spotlight: Ruth Bader Ginsberg

20-21

Print out the page numbers in pink!

ENTERING ENTERING SPACE SPACE

EXPLORING THE PLANETS. . . . . . . I love astronomy. It’s out of this world! Hop on my rocket ship, and let’s explore the universe together!

Welcome to Mercury, the smallest of the planets! Mercury is the closest planet to the sun. Its year is only 88 earth days long, but one day on Mercury lasts 1408 hours. Mercury experiences a huge range of temperatures. During the day, it can get as hot as 840ºF! Without an atmosphere, however, Mercury can’t keep that heat. At night, Mercury dips to -275ºF. Imagine going to school in that weather! Mercury has a temperature range of 1,100 degrees, the largest of any planet in the solar system.

Mercury has a huge metallic

CORE

core, about 2200-2400 miles wide. This iron core makes up 75% of the planet’s diameter. Like Earth, the core of Mercury is molten – that means the core is so hot, it’s liquid metal.

As the planet spins, the rotation of the core creates a magnetic field. This magnetic field is only 1% as strong as Earth’s field, but it’s very active. Particles from the sun slam into the field, creating magnetic “tornadoes.” As the core cools over time, the planet shrinks. The crust around the core crumples and folds, forming towering cliffs and deep valleys. These wrinkles are called “Lobate Scarps”. They can be hundreds of miles long! At the poles of the planet, scientists have found pockets of ice. Comets or asteroids may have carried this ice to Mercury.

LOBATE SCARPS

No one knows who first discovered Mercury, but we’ve found Sumerian records of the planet that are over 5,000 years old! The Romans named the planet after their quickfooted messenger god. What do you think it’s like to walk around on Mercury?

Tools of . . . . . . . . . Astronomy How can we understand what we’re looking at when we observe the night sky? How can we tell whether a fuzzy blob is a star, a galaxy, or something else? How can we track the movements of stars? Let’s find out!

Invented by Hipparchus between 220 and 150 BC in the Roman Empire, the astrolabe has one of the longest histories of any astronomical instrument. The astrolabe is a 2-D model of the night sky, usually carved onto a brass disc. With an astrolabe in hand, ancient astronomers could measure the position of celestial objects, the time, the time of year, the altitude or azimuth of a celestial object, the current latitude, and more. The name astrolabe comes from a combination of the Greek words astron and lambanien, which roughly translates to “star-taker.” Vocabulary check! The altitude is the angle from the horizon to the object along the vertical plane. The azimuth is the angle between the object and the North, measured clockwise around the observer’s horizon.

Though their purposes and materials can vary, the basic structure of astrolabes remains consistent. The most important part of the astrolabe is the mater, a circular disk which contains flat plates called tympans. Each tympan is engraved with information for a specific latitude, such as the portion of the night sky above the horizon or altitude

and azimuth measurements.

The edge of the mater is often subdivided into sections representing hours of time or arc degrees. A framework called the rete surrounds the mater and the tympans. The rete rotates freely and contains pointers that indicate the positions of the brightest stars. The rete functions as a star chart â&#x20AC;&#x201C; one full rotation signals the passage of a day. Often, retes were decorated with beautiful engravings of animals, plants, and mythological creatures. Alidade: a ruler-like stick astronomers use as a pointer to determine directions or measure angles.

Mater

Rete

Tympan

Over the centuries, the astrolabe made its way out of Europe and into the medieval Islamic world. Muslim astronomers and scholars improved and added new tools to the astrolabe, which allowed for better navigation and more precise measurements of altitude and distance. In addition, the astrolabe served spiritual purposes and was often used to find the direction of Mecca for prayer. The earliest surviving astrolabe is dated to this period, around 927AD.

Connect the dots CONSTELLATION: CASSIOPEIA

A Robin's Travels Hi, I’m Robin! I love traveling and exploring different countries. What are some places you want to travel to? This week, I’m visiting Bolivia!

Bolivia is a landlocked country located in western South America. Bolivia’s largest cities are located in the Andes mountains, so Bolivia has the world’s highest lake, salt flat, capital city, road, cable car, and golf course in the world!

The first Bolivian flag was adopted after the nation declared independence from Spain in 1825. The three colors on the flag – red, yellow, and green – were popular in the clothing of the Aymara and Quechua people. The red symbolizes the bravery of the soldiers, the yellow represents the rich minerals and resources, and the green stands for the fertility of the land.

Photo: Diego Delso, delso.photo, License CC-BY-SA

Salteñas are an oven-baked pastry stuffed with peas, carrots, potatoes, and meat and served for breakfast. These tasty pastries burst with sweet and spicy gravy. Legend says they came from an Argentinian woman who moved to Bolivia and made the best empanadas in the country. Eating this dish without making a mess is quite a challenge!

Silpancho consists of a base of white rice, topped with boiled or steamed potatoes, beef or chicken, fried eggs, and chopped parsley, onions, or beets. The name comes from the Quechua word silpanch’u, which means thin or pounded. Though the dish originated in the city of Cochabamba, it rapidly grew popular and spread throughout Bolivia!

Sonso is made of yuca dough and fried with cheese, eggs, and butter. A popular dessert or sweet snack, sonso is a misspelling of “silly” in Spanish. No one knows how it got the name. Do you have any guesses? 17

HERO SPOTLIGHT HERO: RUTH BADER GINSBERG Have you heard the name “Ruth Bader Ginsberg” or “RBG” recently? She was one of nine justices on the Supreme Court, the highest court in the United States, and the first Jewish woman to serve. She sat on the court until she passed away on September 18, 2020. RBG is remembered as a champion of gender equality. She protected women’s rights throughout her career. After graduating from Columbia Law School at the top of her class, she volunteered as an attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union. She worked on more than 300 gender discrimination cases, where she tried to change laws that treated men and women unequally. She even took six of those cases all the way up to the Supreme Court! When Bill Clinton appointed RBG to the Supreme Court in 1993, she continued to advocate for gender equality. She authored the court’s opinion, or final decision, on United States v. Virginia early on in her career. This case allowed women to attend the Virginia Military Institute for the first time. She went on to write many more opinions in favor of gender equality.

RBG quickly became a cultural icon. Her big round glasses and lace collar were her trademarks, and she was known to have a good sense of humor. She often attended opera performances at the Kennedy Center with her fellow justice, Antonin Scalia. Although Antonin and Ruth often disagreed on Supreme Court cases, they were good friends. RBG was tough. She took care of her sick husband and baby while she attended law school, battled five rounds of cancer, and served on the court until she was 87 years old. She overcame her own share of gender discrimination and made the country more equal for everyone.

What can we learn from RBG?

_______________________________________ _______________________________________ _______________________________________ _______________________________________

Whew! That was quite a journey! Did you enjoy it? Come back next time to meet more of our townsfolk!

OUR TEAM Jinna Lee –––––––––––––––––––– Editor-in-Chief, Illustrator Nathalie Chicoine –––––––––––––––––––– Managing Editor Zoe Reichbach –––––– Staff Writer, Social Media Manager

SOURCES All About Mercury. (2020, April 14). Retrieved October 18, 2020, from https://spaceplace.nasa.gov/all-about-mercury/en/ Bolivia. (2020, September 12). Retrieved October 18, 2020, from https://www.britannica.com/place/Bolivia Choi, C. (2017, October 14). Planet Mercury: Facts About the Planet Closest to the Sun. Retrieved October 18, 2020, from https://www.space.com/36mercury-the-suns-closest-planetary-neighbor.html Colors of the Innermost Planet: View 1. (n.d.). Retrieved October 18, 2020, from https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/resources/771/colors-of-the-innermost-planetview-1/?category=planets_mercury Constellation Guide. (2020). Retrieved October 18, 2020, from https://www.constellation-guide.com/constellation-list/cassiopeia-constellation/ Delso, D. (2016). Mountains and reflections surrounding the Uyuni salt flat during sunrise [Digital image]. Retrieved October 18, 2020, from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Salar_de_Uyuni,_Bolivia,_2016-0204,_DD_10-12_HDR.JPG Hirst, K. (n.d.). What Connects Llamas and Alpacas, Vicunas, and Guanacos? Retrieved October 18, 2020, from https://www.thoughtco.com/llama-and-alpaca-domestication-history-170646 Llama. (2018, September 21). Retrieved October 18, 2020, from https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/mammals/l/llama/ Viatour, L. (n.d.). Young Lama in the Pyrenees [Digital image]. Retrieved October 18, 2020, from https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Lama_1_Luc_Viatour.jpg Overview: Mercury. (2019, April 10). Retrieved October 18, 2020, from https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/planets/mercury/overview/

Poppick, L. (2017, January 31). The Story of the Astrolabe, the Original Smartphone. Retrieved October 18, 2020, from https://www.smithsonianmag.com/innovation/astrolabe-original-smartphone180961981/ Projects, C. (2020, September 09). Synonym of Camelus glama. Retrieved October 18, 2020, from https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/Lama_glama Rami. (n.d.). Rennerus Arsenius Astrolabe [Digital image]. Retrieved October 18, 2020, from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Rennerus_Arsenius_astrolabeCnAM_3907-IMG_6426-black-wb.jpg Rivero, G. (2008). Empanadas [Digital image]. Retrieved October 18, 2020, from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Empanadas_salte%C3%B1as_2.jpg Ruminants And Camelids Digestive Overview & Forage Feeding Instructions. (n.d.). Retrieved October 18, 2020, from https://standleeforage.com/nutrition/nutritional-papers/ruminants-camelidsdigestive-overview Silpancho [Digital image]. (2014). Retrieved October 18, 2020, from https://www.alamy.com/stock-photo-traditional-bolivian-dish-called-silpanchowhich-is-the-name-of-the-79265982.html The Llama is Bolivia's National Animal. (n.d.). Retrieved October 18, 2020, from https://www.boliviabella.com/llama.html Wild Hair Alpacas LLC. (n.d.). Retrieved October 18, 2020, from http://www.wildhairalpacas.com/pages/1414/wild-hair-alpacas-llc-whats-sospecial-about-alpaca-fiber