Research Question:  "Why do some months have 30 days and others have 31 days?"

1. http://www.astro.uu.nl/~strous/AA/en/antwoorden/kalenders.html

A month is a period of time that is (historically) tied to the motion of the Moon around the Earth (how long it takes the moon to orbit the earth). Quite a few different kinds of months are in use:  the calendar month: a period of between 28 and 31 days that divides calendars. In some calendars, such as the Gregorian calendar that is used in the West, the months are no longer directly tied to the phases of the Moon. In other calendars, such as the Jewish and Islamic calendars, each month starts with a specific phase of the Moon.

2.  World Book Encyclopedia – states facts about many different culture’s calendars and reveals that, “Most people in the Western world use the Gregorian calendar, designed by Pope Gregory XIII.  It has 12 months, 11 with 30 or 31 days.  February normally has 28 days.” It is so accurate, “the difference between the calendar and solar years is now only about 26 seconds.” 

3.  Database – From HotBot I learned that our calendar comes from the ancient Romans and is based on the sun currently but was once based on the lunar calendar.  During Julius Caesar’s reign, the solar calendar was used but there were extra days which got put into the 1^st, 3rd, 5th, 7th, 9th, and 11^th months and a day was taken away from February.

Some historians think that Augustus Caesar took a day from September and added it to August, the month named after Augustus, and also moved a day from November to December.

That's why August and December now have 31 days, and September and November have 30. But there's no proof that this is the way it really happened.

May 5, 2009 --- “How did Mother’s Day begin?”

A.)     From the website: http://tinyurl.com/cp44yy

The tradition of celebrating and honoring mothers began thousands of years ago in many different cultures. In ancient Greece the people honored Rhea, the mother of all the gods, in springtime festivities. The ancient Romans honored Magna Mater (Great Mother) who was the mother of all their gods. Once a year, the Romans would honor this Great Mother by bringing gifts to a temple that was built for her. In England around the 1600’s, many children had to leave home to work for most of the year. They were allowed one holiday on the fourth Sunday during Lent where they would go home to spend time with their mothers. This special day was called Mothering Sunday.  As for in the United States?  In 1842, a social reformer and poet named Julia Ward Howe suggested that Mother’s Day be celebrated on June 2. She believed that this should be a day dedicated to peace. She held several meetings in Boston and soon several neighboring towns began to celebrate this holiday. Another woman named Anna Jarvis of West Virginia is considered the actual founder of Mother’s Day in the United States. Anna’s mother hoped that someday, someone would found a Mother’s Day where everyone would stop and take a day to honor and respect his or her mother. Anna wanted to be the one to fulfill her mother’s dream. Soon after her mother died, Anna asked her minister to hold a Mother’s Day service in her town. On May 12, 1907, the first Mother’s Day service was held in Grafton, West Virginia. Anna wrote many letters in support of a national observance of Mother’s Day. By 1909, almost every state was celebrating Mother’s Day on the second Sunday in May.  President Woodrow Wilson signed a proclamation on May 9, 1914 stating that the second Sunday in May would be the official Mother’s Day in every state. Anna continued to support Mother’s Day around the world and by 1948 this holiday was observed in more than forty countries.

B.) DATABASE – Grolier Multimedia Encyclopedia – Mother’s Day was suggested in 1872 by Julia Ward Howe with the intent of a day dedicated to peace.  Anna m. Jarvis is credited with originating Mother’s Day as we know it.  After her mother died in 1907, she campaigned for a national holiday celebrating Moms.  The first observed Mother’s Day was in 1908, and in 1910, W. Virginia’s governor issued the first Mother’s Day proclamation.

C.) TEXT – Mother’s Day by Ann Heinrichs states that Anna Jarvis, who dearly loved her mother, wanted to remember her mother, who had started a women’s club to help the sick, and preached kindness and peace.  When Anna’s mother died in 1905, Anna petitioned to create a mother’s day, which became a national holiday in 1914.

5/3/09

Your research question for this week                                                     How far up is the sky?

A.) From http://www.blurtit.com/q726747.html, I learned that the sky starts at ground level and goes up to infinity.  There is no real boundary between the atmosphere and space.  As you go up, it merely gets thinner and thinner.  If by the sky you mean that visible blue dome overhead, that is the ozone that is found in the stratosphere, ranging between 6.21 and 31.1 miles above the surface.

         B.) From VAPL database Grolier Online: The New book of Popular Science I learned that there are many parts of our atmosphere, including the troposphere (lowest part of the atmosphere) which extends to 10-11 miles in tropical regions and 5-6 miles in regions nearer the north/south poles.  The stratosphere, just above the troposphere has a maximum height of 30 miles.  Up to 50 miles above the surface of the ground is the mesosphere, 300 miles above the surface of the earth is the thermosphere and above 300 miles is the expsphere.

C.) From the book The Sky’s the Limit, I learned the following:  The sky is made up of the atmosphere.  The differring layers include: the troposphere is between 5 – 10 miles up.  The stratosphere is between 10 – 30 miles up.  The mesosphere is between 30 – 50 miles up.  the ionosphere is between 50 – 200 miles above our planet and the thermosphere arcs over 350 miles above the surface of the earth

Research question of the week: 4/26/09

How do tulips know when to bloom?

a) using Google or another search engine 

b) through library databases

c) in print. 

A.) From Yahoo.com, I learned that tulips bloom depending on the type of tulip you get and where you live.

B.) From Vernon Area Public Library’s access to ProQuest database, I found an article from The New York Times, dated April 30, 1992, that states that they will bloom when the weather conditions are cool and just wet enough.  They also like a certain amount of clay and peat, which provides nutrients.

C.) From the book Flowering Bulbs for Dummies, page 82 - 83, the typically do not bloom over summer because bulbs are dormant.  They prefer soil that is just damp enough (usually in the fall) and bloom in sunny places after snow melts in spring.

I intend to make this blog user - friendly, particularly for school/media center librarians.  I hope to put together a list of resources and topics for discussion.  Please feel free to send any ideas my way!