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Note:  This information is taken from an article written by W. Douglas Tynan, director of Integrated Health for the American Psychological Association.  It is paraphrased from the Sunday October 26,2014 edition of the Philadelphia Inquirer. You can find more on this topic and other health topics on his website about healthy kids at: http://www.Philly.com

We all know that exercise is good for the heart and body.  Staying fit with regular exercise helps children grow stronger and ward off obesity.  But there are several studies that have found exercise to be EXTREMELY BENEFICIAL to children’s developing brains.

Charles Hillman from the University of Illinois found that kids who participated in regular physical activity – 60 minutes per day – enhanced cognitive performance and brain function. The study measured  one hour of vigorous exercise followed by 45 minutes of a less vigorous skills game for a total of two hours every day after school for 150 days of the school year.  On measures of concentration, attention, impulse control, flexible thinking and brain activity (measured by scalp electrodes), the 8-9 year old studied, did much better overall than their sedentary peers.

A second study by Catherine Davis at the University of Georgia, with older children who were overweight and did low level (20 minutes per day) and high level (40 minutes per day), for only 15 weeks had the same results, along with better scores in concentration, math and impulse control.  If a prescription medication showed the same results, people would be lining up to buy it.  If there was a curriculum that showed this benefit, school districts would be signing up in droves. 

But, it is NOT a product, but rather a lifestyle to be taught at home and in school. The best way to get children to do their best in school is to GET THEM TO MOVE! Instead of eliminating physical education programs, we should be expanding them.  The most intriguing part of these studies was the gain in impulse control.  Is it my imagination, or were there fewer children with ADHD 50 years ago when recess and backyard play were popular staples of every neighborhood? I’d love to hear your views on this interesting topic.

The importance of these findings

I am pleased to bring you a post from a writer friend TERRY JENNINGS, whose specialty is CHILDREN’S NON FICTION.  here’s Terry:

If Dante had been a non-fiction writer, in the Divine Comedy he would have put a circle in hell for writers whose overriding vice is Pride of Research. I never read the Divine Comedy but I did read Dan Brown’s Inferno and I know Dante liked those little circles where you would burn for eternity to expiate your sins. So if at any time there is a writer’s confessional, I would have to own up to that vicious sin—researching so much and having such pride in my cool factoids and data that sometimes I forget that the research should play a supporting role, not be all consuming like the fires of hell. And the part that makes this whole thing vicious is that along with pride can come a bit of arrogance and infallibility. I’ve done all this research and I know all there is to know, right? Recently, during the editing of my fact-based picture book, Sounds of the Savana (Arbordale, 2015), fate (or my sweet editor, whichever you choose) knocked me off my high horse.

Normally, my problem is not to include every tidbit and morsel in a manuscript. That is a sin I have worked hard to overcome. I figure I have slaved to get those lovely little gems and I have to put them somewhere. They have to be of use. I try dropping them into cocktail conversation. For instance, “Did you know that vervet monkeys have different kinds of vocalizations for different predators?” Or “Did you know spiny mice slough off their skin if a predator catches them? All that nasty owl will get is a piece of skin—and the mouse’s skin regrows by the next day. Imagine that!” I eat up that kind of stuff, but it makes people around me fall asleep.

Since I can’t use them socially, I want to include all my new knowledge in my manuscript. After many rejections, however, I have learned to listen to the wise and include only what works organically in the story, what drives the story forward. I have had to, sadly, leave a lot of wonderful information behind, condemning it to that nether world of unused facts. At first it was hard, but working with Arbordale has eased the pain. They have back matter in each book. A place where I can display many of my beloved nuggets. And if there’s not enough room in the back matter, they have a website with lots more information and activities. And when I remembered my own website could be a third bucket into which I could drop the remaining morsels, I danced a jig.

Now that I have the perfect place for all my darlings, the stories flow more easily. They can be even more engaging. I don’t have to explain that sound waves are deflected by temperature differences in Sounds. All I have to do is have a lioness roar on one side of the lake and the wildebeest hear her as if she were right next to them. Then . . . in the back matter or the website, I can put all sorts of amazing stuff about how the layer of cool temperature over a warm lake can deflect the sound wave so that it travels farther than when the temperature is uniform. I can let them know that in a 60 mile circle around Mount St. Helens, no one heard the eruption. They saw it like a silent movie—all because of the temperature difference between the roiling volcano and the layer of cool 8:32-in-the-morning atmosphere above it.

Pride of Research can also lead to avoidance.  There is many a time when I’m almost ready to let the book go but I talk myself into just a bit more research so I don’t have to let my baby out into the world so everyone will say it’s ugly. Or the writing’s going bad and I dive headlong into a new strand of investigation so I don’t have to face my shortcomings.
With Pride of Research also comes a certain arrogance. Admit it. I know you’re out there. Just like me. We check and triple check every fact and have three page bibliographies for an 800 word piece. It doesn’t have to be overt self-importance. It can just be that cozy warm feeling that we’ve done your job well. We always try to do our job well. Carolyn Yoder (editor at Calkins Creek, an imprint for historical children’s books) would be proud.

That, however, is exactly how my pride of research came tumbling down around me.
“So, the illustrator wants to know what kind of owl would eat a spiny mouse?”
My sweet editor at Arbordale sent shivers of shame down my spine. In Sounds of the Savanna, “sound” shows up through predator and prey interactions. Since predators silently sneak, swoop, snatch, and stalk and prey squeak, squeal, heeaw, kerchew—actually make sound—when caught or almost caught, I foolishly concentrated on the prey. Every stalked critter, big and small was thoroughly researched. Its demeanor, its diet, its vocalizations, how it takes care of its offspring and of course, which animals preyed on it were minutely scrutinized. And it goes without saying I already knew they lived on the Savanna because that was my first criterion for choosing the species. But the predators? I had given them nary a thought. The research on the spiny mouse said owls eat them and that was good enough for me. Without much thought I could write that the owl swoops on silent wings with deadly talons—beautiful, although generic, tags—and that was sufficient. Was it arrogance or just plain forgetfulness? I know better. When I wrote my book about the recovery after Mount St. Helens’ eruption, I had tons of lists of the trees and animals that lived on the mountain and approximately when the species returned. I can’t believe I didn’t check on the spiny mouse’s predator. Turns out the Verreaux or Milky Eagle Owl loves spiny mice. And it didn’t take me too long to find it. Phew!

If that had been all, I might have come out with my dignity bruised, but still extant. But not long after the owl came the question about the vervet monkeys and their predator. Vervet monkeys have a vocalization for snakes. What snakes? All I could find was boas. My idea of a boa is huge. Vervet monkeys, not so big. I suggested they avoid the conundrum altogether by having the snake hidden in the grass. But by now I was absolutely distraught. Really? Two unidentified predator species? How could I? I checked to make sure there were no more hanging in the breeze and it turns out there weren’t. The other predators were well known dudes like leopards and lions, animals an illustrator can draw without getting down to differentiating between species.

I have been chastened, however. I promise to never let my pride of research make me blind to the shortcomings of my manuscript ever again. I will continue to do my job well, even better than I have because as non-fiction or fact-based fiction writers for children we are passing that information on to kids, and perhaps some day some one will take our book and use it as fodder to his or her pride of research.

Bio:

Terry Jennings began writing in 1999. Her first piece “Moving Over to the Passenger’s Side,” about teaching her fifteen-year-old to drive was published by The Washington Post. She has written a few other articles for them and Long Island News Day, as well as Ranger Rick, and a family humor column in my local newspaper, The Reston Connection.

She also writes educational text for the Smithsonian Science Education Center and other educational outlets. Gopher to the Rescue! A Volcano Recovery Story (Sylvan Dell, 2012) was named Outstanding Science Trade Book by the National Science Teachers’ Association and the Children’s Book Council. Her other book, The Women’s Liberation Movement: 1960-1990 (Mason Crest, 2013) was named to the Amelia Bloomer Project’s recommended feminist literature for women birth to 18. Sounds of the Savanna, a book about sound as told through predator/prey interactions in the African savanna is on its way with Arbordale Publishers. It’s due out fall of 2015. Terry is currently working on a historical novel about the Cuban Revolution (1959-1961) loosely based on my childhood along with a couple of other picture books–one on Magnetism and one on Erosion.  

Contact her at:

website: Terrycjennings.com
science blog for kids: kcswildfacts.com

Autumn 2014 marks the tenth anniversary of the publication of the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. In a series of blog posts, academics, researchers, and editors look at aspects of the ODNB’s online evolution in the decade since 2004. Here the ODNB’s publication editor, Philip Carter, considers how an ever-evolving Dictionary is being transformed by new opportunities in digital research.

When it was first published in September 2004, the Oxford DNB brought together the work of more than 10,000 humanities scholars charting the lives of nearly 55,000 historical individuals. Collectively it captured a generation’s understanding and perception of the British past and Britons’ reach worldwide. But if the Dictionary was a record of scholarship within a particular timeframe, it was also seen from the outset as a work in progress. This is most evident in the decision to include in the ODNB every person who had appeared in the original, Victorian DNB. Doing so defined the 2004 Dictionary (to quote the entry on Colin Matthew, its founding editor) as ‘a collective account of the attitudes of two centuries: the nineteenth as well as the twentieth, the one developing organically from the other.’

In the decade since 2004 this notion of the ODNB as an organic ‘work in progress’ has gone a step further. This is seen, in part, in the continued extension of biographical coverage, both of the ‘recently deceased’ and of newly documented lives from earlier periods—as discussed in other articles in this 10th anniversary series. But in addition to new content there’s also been the evolution—in the form of corrections, revisions, amplifications, and re-appraisals—of a sizeable share of the ODNB’s 55,000 existing biographies, as new scholarship comes to light.

The need to ‘keep-up’ with fresh research is not new. In 1908 the Victorian DNB was reprinted in an edition that collated the marginalia and correspondence born of several decades of reading. Thereafter, no further reprints were undertaken and later findings remained on file: information relating to the birthplace of the Quaker reformer Elizabeth Fry, for example—submitted by postcard in 1918—could not be address until the 2004 edition of the Dictionary. Such things are today unimaginable. Over the past ten years, and alongside the programme of new biographies, existing ODNB entries have been regularly updated online—with proposed amendments reviewed by the Dictionary’s academic editors in consultation with authors and reviewers. It’s worth remembering that today’s expectation of regular online updating is one that’s emerged in the lifetime of the published ODNB. Just 10 years ago, many saw online reference as a means of delivery not a new entity in its own right. The expectation that scholarly online reference could and should keep in step with new research and publications (and could be done while maintaining academic standards) is one pioneered, in part, by works like the ODNB.

One consequence is that Dictionary editors now focus on conservation (just as museum or gallery curators care for items in their collection) as well as on commissioning. In doing so we draw heavily on an ever-growing range of digitized records that have become available in the lifetime of the published Dictionary. This has been a truly remarkable development in humanities research in the past 5 to 10 years. For British history we’ve seen the digitization of (to name a few): the census returns for England and Wales (to 1911); indexes of civil registration in England and Wales (births, marriages, and deaths from 1838); Scottish parish registers from about 1500; early modern wills and probates; and 300 years’ worth of national and provincial newspapers. And this just scratches the surface.

In 2004 there were many people in the ODNB for whom the biographical trail ran cold. Access to paper records alone once meant that certain individuals simply disappeared from the historical record. Of course, some lives remain puzzles. But with these newly digitized sources we’re now able to address many of the previously unknown and untraceable episodes that were scattered across the 2004 edition. A decade on we’ve added details of nearly 3000 previously unknown births, marriages, and deaths for ODNB subjects. Access to newly digitized sources also prompts more wide-ranging revisions. Take, for example, the traveller Eliza Fay (1755/6-1816), known for her Original Letters from India, whose Dictionary entry has recently doubled in length owing to new genealogical research that minutely plots a troubled personal life that led Fay to travel to India and the business ventures she maintained there.

The case of Eliza Fay reminds us that this boom in digitized resources is particularly valuable for better understanding the lives of nineteenth and twentieth-century women. As a result of multiple marriages and/or multiple name changes many such biographies are prone to obscurity. There are also many occasions when women gave false information about their age, often for professional reasons. With digital resources, and a little detective work, it’s now possible to recover these stories. One example is Valerie, Lady Meux (1852-1910), who married into one of Britain’s wealthiest brewing families. To her contemporaries, and to generations of researchers, Lady Meux appeared the epitome of high society. But recent research uncovers a very different story: that of Susie Langton, the daughter of a Devon baker who—via multiple changes of birthdate and name—worked her way into the London elite. To Susie Langton (or Lady Meux), the discovery of her true past may not have been welcome, but for modern historians it becomes a key part of her story, and a fascinating case study of late-Victorian social mobility.

A good deal of this detective work is being done from the ODNB office. But much more comes in from thousands of researchers worldwide who are also making use of digitized resources. It’s our good fortune that the ODNB online is growing up with the Who Do You Think You Are? generation—a band of genealogists from whom we’ve benefited greatly thanks to their willingness to share new information. Such discoveries obviously enhance our understanding of the ODNB’s 60,000 main subjects, but they’re similarly adding much to the Dictionary’s 300,000 ‘other’ people: the parents, children, spouses, in-laws, patrons, teachers, business partners, and lovers who also populate these biographies. Looking ahead to our second decade, we anticipate that more will be made of these hundreds of thousands of ‘extras’ in creating a richer picture of the British past—as the ODNB continues to document and add to what we know.

The post The Oxford DNB at 10: what we know now appeared first on OUPblog.

        

Related Stories

• A welcome from David Cannadine, the new editor of the Oxford DNB
• The Oxford DNB at 10: new perspectives on medieval biography
• The Oxford DNB at 10: new research opportunities in the humanities

 

Welcome to Middle Grade March 2014.  Today I am highlighting Deb Marshall’s new blog about all things Middle Grade. She’s already featured Holly Schindler and her wonderful book THE JUNCTION OF SUNSHINE AND LUCKY, some great book reviews, and will feature my interview about writing Historical Fiction on March 15.

This is a blog started by Deb Marshall & Akossiwa Ketoglo to celebrate middle grade literature, all month, starting March 1, 2014. This is a continuation of Jill @ The Owl‘s original March of Middle Grade Books.

Expect fun and informative interviews, book reviews, giveaways and all sorts of fun shenanigans.

Deb is also hosting a readathon for the Kick-Off and here is the link to the post about that:

http://middlegrademarch.com/2014/02/17/middle-grade-march-kick-off-read-a-thon/

Here’s the link to the site and the post with my interview.  www.middlegrademarch.com

Note: All this week, Simon Rose is our guest blogger for the National Writing for Children Center.

by children’s author Simon Rose

Just as The Sorcerer’s Letterbox involved research into the medieval period and specifically into the mysterious disappearance of Edward V and his younger brother, in writing The Heretic’s Tomb, I studied the subject of the Black Death, which is estimated to have killed over twenty five million people in Europe in the mid fourteenth century.

In The Heretic’s Tomb, Lady Isabella Devereaux comes into the possession of a mysterious amulet that has the power to restore life to the recently deceased. Living at the time of the Black Death in 1349, the noble and virtuous Lady Isabella intends to use the mysterious artifact to cure the relentless disease. However, the villain of the piece, Sir Roger de Walsingham, is also determined to secure the amulet for himself, in order to raise an army of the dead in order to seize the kingdom and make himself King of England. In the present day, while exploring a medieval archaeological site containing the ruins of an ancient English abbey, Annie discovers the amulet in the long-forgotten tomb of Lady Isabella and is suddenly sent hurtling back to the Middle Ages in a thrilling time travel tale.

The Heretic’s Tomb involved considerable research into the world of fourteenth century England, especially the era of the Black Death and its impact on England and Europe. Some dialogue in spoken in Middle English, which had to be authentic. The story also features a spell book written in Latin, so it was very important to get all the words and phrases correct. I also read extensively on the harsh realities of medical treatments in the Middle Ages. I delved deeply into the world of the medieval church, monasteries, abbeys, the long reign of King Edward III, the Hundred Years War between England and France, the history of scrolls, manuscripts and printed books, medieval cities, villages, houses and castles, as well as archaeological excavation sites for the portions of the novel set in the present day. Some of the information I needed was readily available online, but books also played a large in the research process.

My website has a page devoted to The Heretic’s Tomb, including the historical background of the novel.

Note: All this week, Simon Rose is our guest blogger for the National Writing for Children Center.

by children’s author Simon Rose

Editors, teachers, librarians and critics may scrutinize the imaginary science in your science fiction story and the same applies to historical facts in time travel stories. Just as the scientific equipment has to be in working order, the historical details have to be well researched for the story to remain credible. In The Sorcerer’s Letterbox, Jack discovers a letter in a drawer and finds himself corresponding with Edward V, one of the princes imprisoned in the Tower of London in 1483. After penning a reply, Jack finds himself trapped in late medieval England.

While it was not overly important to explore the political complexities of England in the aftermath of the Wars of the Roses, facts had to be checked and rechecked. Some of this naturally involved research into the clothing of the era, everyday life, maps of medieval London and so on, but some aspects of the novel required more attention. The language of the scroll Jack finds had to be appropriate for the time period and be written in both the style and the alphabet of Middle English, as it was spoken in 1483. Real characters are also used in the book, such as Richard III, so that their exact location at the time described in the story had to be accurate. Most of all, research focused on the Tower of London, such as which buildings existed within the complex in 1483 and the layout of the grounds.

My website has a page devoted to The Sorcerer’s Letterbox, including the historical background of the novel, featuring who was who in late medieval England, Richard III, Edward V, the Wars of the Roses, the mystery of the Princes in the Tower, pretenders and imposters, the Tower of London, medieval maps, the history of the English language and links to various websites about the time period depicted in the story.

Most of the time I seem to choose the right illustration to post for Illustration Friday. I think the person who was decorating this room couldn't decide what to put in these frames, so many choices! But I do choose to unveil this youtube by my good friend, musician David Tobocman featuring my artwork. You can see the video here. Enjoy!