The sea! the sea! the open sea! The blue, the fresh, the ever free! Without a mark, without a bound, It runneth the earth's wide regions round. From Barry Cornwall Sailors talk about "the seven...
Layer cakes of rock
The upper part of the earth's rocky crust is like a layer cake. It is made up of many layers of different kinds of rock, one on top of the other. These layers were built up slowly, one after the...
The “magic” metal
aluminum ore (bauxite) Have you ever watched someone wrap a sandwich or cover a bowl of food with what looks like a sheet of shining, silver paper? It isn't paper at all---it's a thin sheet of...
Precious stones
They shine, they sparkle, they flash and shimmer. The crowns of kings and emperors were covered with them, and wealthy people have always worn necklaces, rings, and other jewelry made of them. They...
The dry liquid
> mercury ore (cinnabar) and mercury Imagine a dry liquid---a liquid you can stick your finger into without getting it wet. There is such a liquid. It's a melted metal that stays melted even when...
The Iron Age mineral
Safety pins and skyscrapers, scissors and steamships, automobiles and airplanes---none of these things could be made without the mineral called iron. Iron is a metal, like copper and tin and bronze....
The Bronze Age minerals
> ancient copper head from Iran > > This copper head was made thousands of years ago. It is no longer > bright because, in time, copper is covered with a greenish coating > called patina. > >...
Nature’s ditches
What parts of the earth's surface have floors and walls? Valleys. A valley is like a long ditch scooped out of the ground. The bottom of the ditch is called the floor. The sides are called valley...
Myths of Ancient Greece | The Flight of Icarus
When Theseus escaped from the labyrinth, King Minos flew into a rage with its builder, Daedalus, and ordered him shut up in a high tower that faced the lonely sea. In time, with the help of his...
The Gingerbread Boy
an American folk tale There was once a little old man and a little old woman, who lived in a little old house at the edge of a wood. They would have been a very happy old couple but for one...