{"id":2228,"date":"2020-05-20T10:58:13","date_gmt":"2020-05-20T09:58:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/stem\/?p=2228"},"modified":"2020-05-06T11:24:28","modified_gmt":"2020-05-06T10:24:28","slug":"stem-students-answer-childrens-questions-6","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/stem\/2020\/05\/20\/stem-students-answer-childrens-questions-6\/","title":{"rendered":"STEM Students answer Children’s Questions #6"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
When visiting schools and museums our Street Scientists often get asked a variety of questions from curious children. Here are the answers to some of our favourite questions!

This week, we’re answering questions on Zoology, the study of animals to celebrate the International Day of Biological Diversity on Friday.<\/h5>\n\n\n\n
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Why is there different animals in different areas?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

-asked by Halliemae, 9, Simonside Primary School<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Animals are different because they need to survive in the environment they live in. They adapt<\/strong> to their surroundings to achieve this. For example, there are polar bears in the Arctic. Their bodies are covered in white fur so they can camouflage with the ice around them, making them harder to spot when they look for preys. However, their skin is black and their body is huge, this is so they can still absorb heat and stay warm in the cold. Their feet are also big and have a rough surface, helping them to swim and not slip on the ice. Can you imagine if they didn’t have these adaptations, would they be able to survive in that habitat? Other animals that do not have features that help them survive in their habitat will eventually struggle to survive and die. That is why there are different animals in different places as they have different adaptations required to be able to survive.
–Aurelia, Dental Student<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Why does a whale have a blow hole?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

-asked by Isobel, 11, from Marden Bridge Middle School<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whales have blowholes because although they live in the ocean, they are actually mammals, which means they breathe air <\/strong>just like us! Their blowhole is an adaptation to allow them to easily breath in lots oxygen when they come to the surface so that they can dive for long periods of time.\u00a0
– Demi, Marine Biology Student<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Why are a giraffes’ tongues blue?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

-asked by Ellis, 11, from Burnside Primary School<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Their tongues are dark blue because they have a large amount of\u00a0a\u00a0colour\u00a0pigment called melanin<\/strong>. Giraffes feed by using their tongues to rip leaves off trees high up\u00a0in the African savanna.\u00a0This means that their tongues are in the sun for a long time, nobody knows for\u00a0certain\u00a0but some people think that\u00a0the high amounts of melanin are to stop them getting sunburn on their tongues – a sunburn tongue has got to hurt a lot!\u00a0We also have melanin in our skin that stops us getting sunburn but\u00a0not as much as the giraffe which is why it doesn\u2019t need to put\u00a0suncream\u00a0on its tongue!
– Lizzie, Biology Student<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Why do bees get nectar?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

-asked by Finlay, 11, from Burnside Primary School<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bees use the nectar and pollen they collect from flowers as food<\/strong>, nectar is a sweet sugary liquid made by flowers to attract bees and other insects and animals. Flowers\u00a0use the bees to spread\u00a0pollen<\/strong>\u00a0between themselves and other flowers (pollen is what makes people with\u00a0hayfever\u00a0sneeze). The bees store pollen in\u00a0a structure called a pollen basket<\/strong> on their back legs they\u00a0store nectar\u00a0in an organ called a honey stomach<\/strong>. Back at the hive the bees\u00a0that have been out collecting nectar pass it to other bees who make the nectar into honey.\u00a0
-Lizzie, Biology Student<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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If you have any questions that you would like our team to answer, please leave a comment below!<\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When visiting schools and museums our Street Scientists often get asked a variety of questions from curious children. Here are the answers to some of our favourite questions! This week, we’re answering questions on Zoology, the study of animals to celebrate the International Day of Biological Diversity on Friday. Why is there different animals in … Continue reading STEM Students answer Children’s Questions #6<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3103,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[441],"tags":[18,43,234,427,142],"class_list":["post-2228","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-qa","tag-animals","tag-biology","tag-questions","tag-your-questions-answered","tag-zoology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/stem\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2228","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/stem\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/stem\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/stem\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3103"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/stem\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2228"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/stem\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2228\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2234,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/stem\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2228\/revisions\/2234"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/stem\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2228"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/stem\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2228"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/stem\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2228"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}