Arctic vs. Antarctica

Tuesday (08/06/2010)

a) The endangered bears.
* Many animals are listed as endangered due to many reasons.
* Brown bears too. Reasons: development that chopped off trees. Bears live on mountain forest and in river valleys. The reforestation has caused deaths of other hunger preys. Bears can't eat enough fruits nor honey. Thus, some moved towards the forest centre while others migrated to the North ie Arctic area.
* Those who stayed, sometimes hunt for garbage food in humans' residence. Who is to blame? poeple or bear? However; humans' used guns to protect themselves. Bears thought that they were in danger; thus; it'snot a surprise for bears to attack those people.
* Brown Bears can now survive in North Pole because "global warming" has caused North Pole to be warmer. In fact, some Brown Bears and Polar Bears mated to produce "Polar Brown Bear".

b) The Earth and its Poles.
* We went downstairs to take a look at the big map.
* North Pole is Arctic which means "bears" while South pole is Antarctica which means "no bears".
Teacher: Imagine we are sailing through the different oceans from "Malaysia" to Arctic.
Where is colder? Are there people living there? Which animals live in there?
Kids: Arctic is colder. Polar Bears live in Arctic. Penguins live in Antarctica.
* That was a good guess! However, Antartctica is the coldest and driest place on Earth and it comprises of huge frozen land that only certain plants can grow. The coldest had been -49 degree C. Thus, no people live there. However, there are many types of different animals that are suitable living there.
* Arctic is also cold and it has much less land that is also frozen. It is called "tundra". Here, there are natives called the Eskimos. Tundra can support some plants. There are also a number of animals. Some animals only migrate there in the summer. While others, live there for long term. Sunlight can't be seen often although in Summer, it is brighter. Compared to Antarctica, sometimes, the whole day is totally dark as it is farther away from the Sun.

c) Video Clips:
* We watched video clips of the animals living there and people residing there. The animals were all beautiful white for protection except some such as seals, walrus, Emperor Penguins and etc. Even the owl is white.:)