The Chronicles of Weibel
Fred E. Weibel Elemmentary
Why are Acoustic Instruments Made of Wood?
​
by Kavi Rajan (5th Grade)
If you take a look at a few acoustic instruments (guitar, violin, ukelele, bass, cello, etc.), you may notice a pattern. Almost every single one you see will be made of wood! Why is this? You may be wondering. Well, it has to do with a few things.
One of those things is that wood is easy to manufacture and easy to cut into pieces. Wood can of course be easily supplied and is a material that a machine can cut with little to no supervision. Additionally, the fancy patterns you see on some acoustic instruments can also be done by a machine. The reason they don’t commonly use metal, for example, has to do with the fact it can be easily produced and manufactured, but it’s flimsy and sharp.
Also, if you’ve ever plucked a string in thin air before, you may know the sound isn’t very loud - at least not compared to a guitar. But if the instrument is made of wood, the front piece (the one with the hole) can vibrate with the strings to make the tune louder. The material needs to be strong but flexible, and wood is perfect for that. If you’ve ever heard sheet metal vibrating, it’s very loud and sounds horrible. Other materials such as plastic are too hard and won’t vibrate at all, or make no sound.
Now you can share with your friends the reason all the guitars they see are made of wood.
A Deadly Spider
​
by Meghna Arvind (3rd Grade)
Many think the Black Widow
is the deadliest spider in the
world, is that true? Actually,
there are many deadly and
dangerous spiders.
The Wandering spider is one
of them that many don’t
know of…
​
The Wandering spider is one of
the deadliest and dangerous spiders
in the world due to its poisonous and potent venom. In one of the rankings, the Black Widow takes its place as the 4th deadliest spider in the world.
The Wandering spider is most commonly found in the forests of Costa Rica, Columbia, Peru, Brazil, and Paraguay on large Banana leaves. This large spider has a diet of crickets, other large insects, small lizards, and mice. Baby spiders usually eat pinhead grasshoppers and other tiny bugs. These creatures are nocturnal, and scale the forest floors at night to get their food. That is also the reason they’re called the “Wandering” spider. They do this at night because at night it’s dark, and there is a better chance their prey won’t notice when sneaked upon.
The Wandering spider only attacks humans if provoked or by accident. When threatened they will raise their two front legs. That is a signal to show that they are ready to strike. Their toxic bite can be deadly to humans and is their main self-defense. Did you know that these toxic spiders can kill you in just 45-60 minutes?
There are eight species of the Wandering spider. Almost all species live in Brazil, but some live in other places too. The most dangerous type is the Phoneutria species. The Phoneutria species lives in Brazil and lacks the characteristic red hair that most Wandering spiders have. Luckily these spiders don’t live in the parts that we live in.
The Wandering spider is usually
4 to 5 inches long. They are
usually brown with black spots
on the belly. The Wandering
spider has 8 legs and eyes like
most other arachnids.
Now, I am pretty sure that
Black Widow isn't your worst
fear anymore. That doesn’t
mean you should not fear the
Black Widow spider, unlike the Wandering spider, the Black Widow lives in North America...
The Brazilian Wandering spider
The Black Widow
All About Caves
​
by Soham Chatterjee (5th Grade)
What comes to mind when you think of caves? Underground tunnels in remote areas? That's correct, but caves are a bit more complicated than that. Caves can be found wherever the landscape is made of limestone. Caves form whenever
acidic water erodes rock, creating
large tunnels. The water becomes
acidic when it takes in carbon
dioxide from the air. It also
becomes acidic in the ground when
acids are picked up from the soil.
The acids in the water dissolves
the calcium carbonate in the
limestone. This causes cracks to
form in the rock.
​
Over time, the cracks widen and they become caves. Sometimes when the water is exposed to air in the caves, it can evaporate. When this happens, the calcium carbonate will be left behind, and can form structures such as flowstone, stalactites, and stalagmites. Stalactites and stalagmites are shown in the picture on the left.
​
There are a tremendous amount of parts in a cave. Bedrock is the rock in which a cave system develops. A gour is a mineral dam that forms at the outflow of a pool of water in the cave. A curtain stalactite is a stalactite that is much, much longer than the others around it. An underwater cave is a cave system that is formed below the water level. A rock column is a pillar of rock that is left outside the cave system when the rest of the rock has collapsed. A dry cave is a cave in an underground passage that doesn't have any water in it. A pothole is an entrance to a cave system. A column is a growing stalactite that can join a stalagmite to form a column. A sinkhole is a hollow surface that leads underground. Another part of a cave is limestone pavement. It is an exposed rock surface that is crisscrossed with cracks. A joined limestone is a rectangular series of cracks in frail limestone that is made by the movement of the Earth. And finally, there is karst. Outside of the underground tunnels in a cave system, there are limestone landscapes that are made when chemical weathering happens.
​
Gorges in caves are kind of like canyons. But how do they form? Well first, the limestone has to weaken. It can erode over time due to the water. Next, small holes in the limestone expand due to rock falls. When this happens, caves are formed. Finally, the rock is so weak that the cave's roof collapses, creating sinkholes. These sinkholes can merge to create the largest sunken area in the rock, known as gorges.
​
You now know about what caves are and the parts of caves. Here are some fun facts about caves. It takes 1,000 years for 1 in³ of a stalactite or stalagmite to grow. The largest
cave system in the world is the Mammoth Cave System in Kentucky, which is 352 miles long! The last fun fact is about a stalactite. The world's largest stalactite is in the Gruta do Janeloa in Brazil. It is 92 feet long.
Now you read a lot about caves. You read about what they are, parts of it, gorges, and fun facts. Now that you know all of this information, caves might be a lot more spectacular to you.
