Priscilla Chow, 8 (Palmetto Bay, FL) Machu Picchu Viscachas Priscilla Chow, 8 My family and I traveled on a train from Cusco to Machu Picchu. Once we got there at noon, we spotted two Machu Picchu viscachas on a wall. I asked our tour guide why there were squirrels there and he said that they’re Machu Picchu viscachas. They looked like squirrels to me; they were just a little bigger. They both had short oval ears, fluffy grey pelts, and long curly tails. The Machu Picchu viscachas were climbing the wall. They didn’t seem scared at all; they were probably used to people around. Then I suddenly noticed another Machu Picchu viscachas playing in the field. As we kept walking, we went by an arch. I saw one more Machu Picchu viscachas inside the stone arch. I was so shocked that there were so many Machu Picchu viscachas in Machu Picchu. In fact, I thought they didn’t really exist. Before this trip, I had read a fairytale on Machu Picchu viscachas and I thought they were just fictional. After this trip, I did some research on Machu Picchu viscachas and found out that they usually come out at dusk. Then I realized how lucky we were on that day! I also learned Machu Picchu viscachas, which can be called Inca rabbits, live in Cusco and Machu Picchu. My new knowledge of Machu Picchu viscachas included the facts that they eat grass, seeds, and insects, they belong to the Chinchillidae family, and their relative, the chinchilla, is an endangered species.
nonfiction
Spartan Education
Sparta’s ruthless education may have been controversial, but it made them into one of the most battle-hardened city-states to ever walk the earth. The Spartans’ notoriously tough education allowed them to become one of the largest military powers of their time, even though their population was relatively small. Although Spartan education was brutal by modern standards, the system was extremely beneficial to the country and its survival. The strengths of Spartan education did outweigh the weaknesses for three reasons: it provided physical training, training of mentality, and important life skills. The brutality of Spartan education forced young Spartan boys to become tougher, and didn’t leave room any slack. The most obvious example of this is the harsh conditions young Spartan boys were forced to put up with. These conditions forced members of the agoge to either adapt and harden themselves, or die. In addition, Spartan boys were not provided with much, and had to live through the year with only 1 garment and scarce amounts of food. Finally, girls were not exempt from physical training, because Spartans believed that strong parents produced strong offspring. All of these aspects of Spartan education kept young children extremely fit and in shape, and also helped them adapt to tough conditions. These skills would be incredibly valuable once they moved on to become adults. Although the Spartans were mainly focused on physical dominance, they were also taught to have a tough mentality. The scarce amount of resources provided to young Spartans prevented them from becoming spoiled, which would prepare them better for adult life. Discipline and obedience were also important concepts taught at the agoge. Finally, young Spartan boys were taught to show respect to those who deserved it; namely, men who were older than them. Oftentimes, people are easily hurt or influenced by words and peer pressure among many other forms of non-physical forms of influence, but the Spartans were trained to withstand the effect of these kinds of situations. Finally, Spartan education taught young Spartans many important life skills. As mentioned earlier, Spartans were almost always being trained to survive under harsh conditions, which made them more resilient and able to withstand pain in the future. Also, because they were only allowed one garment throughout the whole year, they were taught to easily adapt to any type of weather. They were also taught to read and write, but, because this was purely for practical reasons, they were effectively prevented from wasting time reading and writing non-essential text, which gave them more time to focus on more important tasks at hand. These aspects of Spartan education kept Spartans both effective and resilient, and provided great boons to their lives in the future. It is true that Spartan education had some weaknesses when it came to the harshness it exhibited on young children. However, the three reasons presented above – that Spartan education provided both physical and mental training, in addition to important life skills – show that, in the end, the strengths of Spartan education outweighed its weaknesses.
How do people predict the weather?
It all started on a chilly Wednesday night when my mom and I were looking at the weather app because we wanted to check if it would rain the next day. My mom and I noticed that there was a warning saying it might snow the next day. I was uninterested but had some hope. On Thursday, it snowed! I then felt an urge of curiosity. How do meteorologists predict the weather? I thought. I decided right then to start researching right away! It all starts with the satellites. Satellites orbit around the earth and use their cameras to see the weather up above. Several satellites are up there, each covering a piece of land. Satellites pictures can help meteorologists, people who study the weather. There are three types of satellites so meteorologists can get a better understanding of future weather. The first type of satellites is polar-orbiting satellites. They orbit closely to the earth and take approximately 7 detailed shots a day. Geostationary satellites stay at the same location and take the same picture around every half a minute. Lastly, there are deep-space satellites. They stay close to the sun to monitor space weather or solar storms. NOAA also may use information from other satellites owned by other companies. For a review in temperature, airspeed, wind direction, and wind speed, they use something called weather balloons. Weather balloons have special devices attached to them to measure. They are made of latex and synthetic rubber and inflated with either hydrogen or helium. Most people know what weather balloons are, but don’t know much about what they do. Parachutes are often attached to help retrieve it once it falls. Radars are used to measure participation, which means the chance of it going to rain. They can also be used to see if there are any thunderstorms or tornadoes. To be more specific, the radar used to measure participation are called doppler radars. They detect radio waves, which show wind speed and even direction. They use the Doppler effect to predict the chances of rain from a far distance. The doppler effect is when the frequency from a sound wave changes as the observer moves away or closer. Lastly, the information from these devices is gathered and sent to the meteorologists’ computers. They use a system called AWIPS (NOAA’s Advanced Weather Information Processing System), which is a computer system that combines all the data received from the following devices and turns it into a graph. They use that for predicting the actual weather and then display it onto a map. Humans there also predict the weather. To predict storms or blizzards, humans can use the forecasts from previous years. For example, if there was a blizzard every year for the past 6 years, chances are there will be a blizzard the current year. Also, if the clouds might be grey, chances are it might start raining! At 10:33 a.m, when my mom and I looked at the weather, that question popped in my head, making me feel very inquisitive. Weather is an unpredictable part of mother nature and most people have many questions about it. But using modern technology thanks to humans, we can precut weather using radars, balloons, satellites, and even our brains! Sources: Warrilo, Chrissy. “Students Ask: How Do Meteorologists Predict The Weather?” GPB Blogs, 5 Feb. 2012. Web. 29 Feb. 2021. “6 tools our meteorologists use to forecast the weather”. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, 14 Aug. 2017. Web. 29 Feb. 2021.
