Have you ever felt like you‘re alone? That's how the earth feels, lonely because it's the only planet that fits life? Not anymore, now, Scientists are on the search. Scientists have found many close fitting planets like Earth, but none fits the liquid water clues. All are too cold to resist. People have searched thousands of years but still have not found the right ones.
Let's start our search in the Solar system. We start at the first planet, Mercury. Do you see anyone who can stand the coldness at night? You would be blind if you stare at the sun for too long at Mercury. 1 minute and say good bye to your eyes! Mercury does not fit any of the clues.
Let's do our next search in the Solar system at Venus. Sadly, we can't go there thanks to the clouds of gas surroundingthe planet. Earth already has life so lets move on. Mars, the most likely one to have life. With High tech air conditioning, we can turn it to fit temperatures. But, Mars has no water! All the water is under the rust, so it's hard to get. How can we get the water without hurting the planet? It isn't fit! It was really close.
The gas planets wouldn't make it. We could land on it and start falling through till the rocky core. Ouch! I don't want to go there.
Can the scientists find the "clone" of Earth that has all the people needs? It might be really different. But trying to find the "copy" of Earth in space is really worth the effort.
Have you ever wished to go to a place where learning is awesome?
Why not try Tule Pond, where you can learn so many things! Many plants and
animals are waiting to be discovered. At Tule Pond, you can learn about
almost everything in nature, even storm and flood drains!
Buzz, buzz; Can you hear the bees? Listen to the bees as we walk
along the pond. The bees may sting you but the bees are very good pollinators.
Do you love to pick flowers to make necklaces? The bees let the flowers bloom
and smell good. Quack, quack. So many ducks returned to the water this
year! While the rain is big, the water in the lagoon refills. This way, the
ducks come. Look at the turtles swimming together with the ducks. The turtles
may walk slowly but they sure are really quick swimmers. Likely, they aren't
built for land. Beavers create the stick lodges today at the lagoon. Can you
believe beavers are actually able to stay dry inside the lodge so the babies
are safe? Butterfly and milkweed beetles all share one thing in common,
eat milkweed. Don't expect to see bats or owls in the daylight. The nocturnal
animals all love to eat and hunt at night time.
The first thing people would see is tule floating in the water. As
it drifts, it might drag your attention to the cattails. The cattails do not
have anything brown around them like in the pictures on the internet. If you
walk some more, you can see something red. I call it the Red Fungi. It smells
so horrible! The yellow flowers taste so sweet. How do I know? I've tasted so
many of them. Got dirty hands? Pick a few Californian Lilac and add water to
it. Say good bye to the dirty hands! It's a natural soap. There are many trees
at the sides. Fungi hang on the trees and stay there without making a single
movement.
Do you remember the story of the sunken Atlantis? The whole thing
sunk down into the sea. The same thing happened to the storm drains. the drains
sunk into the rain water. For some reason, the drains still haven't cleared out
the water. The fact means we can't make an echo there anymore. We can't even
see the drain anymore, like Atlantis!
I had a great time at Tule Pond. When I went to Tule Pond, the
first thing was to look at the Tule Hut. I even observed the inside! Can you
guess what I did next? I ran down to the Spider Trail! It's probably got its
name for the darkness. The milkweed was beautiful and neat but one thing,
the milkweed beetles! The ugly beetles really don't fit on the milkweed. The
red beetles stand out against the silky white milkweed. To smell the spaghetti
leaf got me happy! This time, I saw the green house, and I went in to feel the
warm sprinkle! Do you know why it was warm? Because of the hot sun!
Learning science is really fun after all! Listening closely will
let people know a lot of fact. Looking around and touching gives a lot of
information about the surroundings. Smelling plants can be lovely or stinky!
Tasting yellow flowers makes taste buds sense sweetness. Everyone can study
about so many facts in one trip. Why don't you go to Tule Pond and be really
smart?
