Sample Articles (copyrighted material)
I wrote these two very different articles about stars for the Ohio Graduation Test Manual, published by Amsco, 2003. Students were asked to compare two approaches to stargazing.
Stars Above, Stars Below
From the time the earliest human beings lived on earth, they gazed at the
starry skies in wonder. As they sat by their warm fires in the evening,
they looked above and created stories.
In the winter skies,
you can easily spot the constellation "Orion the Hunter," with his dog
Sirius at his feet. Myths about Orion go back as far as 2000 BC. In the
Greek myth, Orion revealed his plan to rid the earth of all wild
animals, and so was banished to the heavens. Another Greek myth
involves Pegasus, the Winged Horse, who was said to fly out of the head
of Medusa when she was slain by Perseus. Later, Zeus used Pegasus to
carry his thunderbolts.
Many Native Americans tell stories about
the stars, too. These sacred stories are passed from one generation to
the next. Chippewa and Ojibwa tribes who live in the Great Lakes region
tell the story of Fisher and Wolverine, and how they created spring and
summer by climbing up and making a hole in the sky big enough for warm
weather to come through for half the year. Fisher remains in the sky as
the constellation that many people call the Big Dipper.
Stars
have a daily place in our lives, too. When you were small, you probably
sang the songs "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" and "When You Wish Upon
a Star." Some other famous star songs are "Stella By Starlight,"
"Stardust," "Don't Let the Stars Get in Your Eyes," and "Catch a
Falling Star and Put It In Your Pocket."
Of course, you're never
too old to make a wish on a falling star, and if something really good
happens to you, you might "thank your lucky stars." Teachers, parents,
and coaches encourage you to "reach for the stars" when you think about
your future. On the other hand, if you're trying to excel at football,
you might get hit so hard that you "see stars."
Stars play a big
part in romance, too. If you fall madly in love, people might call you
"starry-eyed." "Stardust" is that romantic, uncritical phase of new
romance when you're convinced the other person is just about perfect.
You can only hope that your romance will work out, unlike that of Romeo
and Juliet, the famous "star-crossed lovers."
Stars are
important symbols in government. The 50 stars of the Stars and Stripes
are one example. Lots of states have flags that feature stars, too.
Alaska's flag shows the Big Dipper and the North Star on a solid blue
background. The flag of Texas, known as "the lone star state," has just
one star. Ohio's flag has 17 stars. The 13 stars grouped around the
circle in the middle represent the 13 original states of the union. The
four stars added to the peak of the triangle symbolize that Ohio was
the 17th state admitted to the union. Then of course there's our
national anthem, "The Star-Spangled Banner."
Entertainment has
its stars, too. There are movie stars, rock stars, sports stars, and
just plain super stars. There's "Star Trek," "Star Search," and "Star
Wars." The Dallas Stars is a hockey team, the Alabama Stars is a minor
league baseball team, and baseball fans look forward to the
major-league event that takes place halfway through the season, the
All-Star Game.
Stars can even be found underwater and
underground. There are starfish in the ocean, and a funny
tropical fish called the stargazer because its eyes are on top of its
head. A tiny rodent called the star-nosed mole is another odd-looking
creature.
Perhaps the most interesting thing about stars is
this: Did you ever stop to think, as you made a wish on a falling star,
that hundreds of other people in other cities and towns and states saw
the same star fall -- and made their own wishes? Maybe stars can't
really make wishes come true, but nearly everyone agrees that few
things are more beautiful than a night sky filled with nature's
sparkling diamonds.
A Star's Life
Stars
live in galaxies, along with clouds of gas and interstellar dust. Stars
are born in these clouds, which are called nebulae. When a star begins
to form, hydrogen gas contained in a nebula is pulled together by
gravity. The mass of gas begins to spin faster and faster, and the gas
gets very hot. When the temperature reaches 15,000,000 degrees on the
Celsius scale, a process called nuclear fusion begins to occur in the
core of the nebula. Nuclear fusion gives off heat, and the heat causes
the gas to glow. At this point in its life, the star is called a
protostar.
The protostar continues to enlarge as it accumulates
matter available in the nebula. When the accumulation of new matter
stops, the star is called a main sequence star. In this phase of the
star's life, gravity pushes against the ball of gas, keeping it
together but also trying to make it collapse. The pressure of the hot
gas inside the star, produced by nuclear activity, counteracts the
force of gravity. As long as the balance holds--and it may be millions
or billions of years--the star remains stable, a giant sphere of
glowing gas.
In medium stars like our Sun, the nuclear activity
in the core of the star continues. As it does, it converts hydrogen to
helium. This conversion begins to cause instability in the star's core,
and the outer shell of the star eventually begins to expand. The star
is bigger, but it is also cooler, so it glows red rather than white. At
this point in its life, the star is called a red giant.
When
most of the nuclear fuel inside the star is finally used up, the
gravity that has been pushing against it all this time wins out. The
star collapses. It is now much smaller, but very dense, and it shines
with a white-hot light. At this point, the star is called a white
dwarf. Once the energy inside a white dwarf is gone, the star dies. It
is now called a black dwarf.
If a star is a very massive
one--say ten times the size of our sun--its demise can result in a
supernova, a powerful explosion that lights up the sky for weeks and
can reach temperatures of 1,000,000,000 degrees Celsius. The core of
such a massive star becomes a neutron star, spinning rapidly and
emitting radio waves. If the star emits pulsing radio waves, it is
called a pulsar. These stars are still very large, but there is no
nuclear fusion to push back against gravity. Eventually the core is
swallowed by its own gravity, creating what is known as a black hole.
Black holes swallow matter that gets too close to them.
It's
important to remember that the life cycles of the stars described above
take millions or billions of years to complete. In other words, there
is no need to worry about our Sun--the closest star to planet
earth--burning out any time soon.
Help Yourself by Helping Others
This article was also written for the Ohio Graduation Test Manual,
but at the 10th-grade level. The student's task was to decide whether
he or she agreed with the author's concept of teen volunteeerism, and
to write a short essay explaining why or why not.
Teen
volunteerism is on the rise in the United States as well as in other
countries around the globe. According to Tom Culbertson, President and
CEO of Youth Services America, US teenagers spent 2.4 billion hours of
their time volunteering in 1999. Many schools now ask students to
volunteer time in their communities as a requirement for graduation,
and school clubs sponsor community service projects as well.
So
why should you spend your time volunteering to help others when you'd
rather be home playing video games or out shopping with your friends at
the mall? There are many answers to this question.
First, of
course, is the satisfaction of knowing that you have had a positive
impact on your community. Teen volunteers restore run-down parks,
transform abandoned lots into playgrounds and ball fields, and beautify
their communities by planting flowers and painting murals on buildings.
They participate in popular national and global programs like Habitat
for Humanity and the National Wildlife Federation's Earth Tomorrow.
If
you'd rather work on a one-to-one personal basis, you might volunteer
to tutor a child who is having trouble with your favorite subject.
People in nursing homes brighten up at the sight of young faces and are
delighted to have someone read to them, write a letter for them, or
simply spend time chatting.
Do you love animals? Then perhaps
you'd like to volunteer at your local animal shelter. Dogs need
exercise and play, cats need to be brushed and petted, and these
activities help every shelter animal to become more adoptable because
they react in a friendly and positive way to prospective adoptive
families. Are you interested in more exotic animals? Then try
volunteering at a zoo or wildlife rehabilitation center. If you're
crazy about horses, check to see if your community has a Therapeutic
Riding Association, where volunteers assist physically challenged
children and adults in horseback riding activities.
Maybe you'd
like to see another part of the world. A group of Las Vegas teens did
just that in June, 2002, when they traveled to the jungles of Brazil to
build classrooms for a children's shelter. Cincinnati teen Adhrucia
Apana worked for a week in an orphanage in India, and after returning
to the United States, she started an organization called Child by
Child. It encourages kids to help raise funds for needy children.
There
are plenty of travel opportunities within the United States as well. A
number of conservation and environmental organizations sponsor
"volunteer vacations" for outdoor enthusiasts who don't mind working
for their food and lodging. Your contribution might be to help
construct a new trail or repair an old one, help build cabins and tent
sites, or cut firewood. You could find yourself anywhere from Acadia
National Park in Maine to a national wildlife refuge in Montana. Your
reward? A cozy cabin or tent, food cooked over a campfire, fantastic
opportunities for recreation, and a lot of new friends from all over
the country.
Are you still wondering "How can helping others help me?"
Volunteering
can help you explore careers and give you some ideas about what you
might like to do in the future. Did you love landscaping the local
park? Maybe horticulture is the field for you. Did you find you love
working with children? Then maybe you'd like to be a teacher.
Volunteering at the hospital might make it clear to you that you'd
really like to work in the health care field. Working in a national
park might open up the possibility of becoming a wildlife biologist.
Here's
another way volunteering can help you: As you develop new skills and
talents, you are also acquiring references for job applications and
resumes. If you helped build a house for Habitat for Humanity, you
might be able to obtain summer work in construction. Your work with
children translates to a job as a camp counselor or daycare worker. You
might be hired in a veterinarian's office because of your work with
animals at a shelter. If you think of volunteering as an unpaid job,
you can easily see that it helps you to develop a sense of
responsibility. By proving that you're reliable in a volunteer
capacity, you let employers know they can count on you to be a
dependable--and paid--employee.
If you're college-bound, your
volunteer activities and accomplishments are a definite plus on your
college and scholarship applications. Exemplary volunteers often win
awards, and listing these on your applications can help you shine even
more brightly in the eyes of admissions officers and scholarship
committees.
The Prudential Spirit of Community Awards are
given each year to teens whose volunteer efforts go "above and beyond."
Emily Douglas of Powell, Ohio, won a Prudential award because she
founded an organization that gathered and sent clothing, books, and
toys to children in Appalachia. David Levitt, of Seminole, Florida,
also won the award. He convinced his school district to donate unused
food from 92 schools to a service that provides food to the hungry and
homeless. Obviously, winning one of these awards would make you feel
pretty proud of yourself.
Even if you can spare only a little of
your time for community service, you can make a difference. You don't
have to win an award to feel good about yourself. It can be a real
self-esteem booster to know that people are sure they can count on you
and that they truly appreciate what you're doing.
An old Greek
proverb states, "A civilization flourishes when people plant trees
under which they will never sit." Of course, the Greeks weren't really
talking about trees. They were talking about giving a part of yourself
to make your community, nation, or world a better place.
Knowing you have done that is the real reward of volunteering.
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