Maddie, the Zoo and You

Today at the zoo, Maddie is moving around in lots of different ways! She uses her special slow motion camera to see how a cheetah uses its body and something called fast twitch muscles to run really fast. She learns that our bodies also have fast twitch muscles as well as slow twitch muscles, which help us to run slower over a long distance. She heads to the sea lion enclosure to see the sea lions swim, and learns how, when we swim, we use our hands to scoop water and kick our feet to push us along, just like a sea lion’s flippers and tail! Next, Maddie learns that our hands have fingers and an opposable thumb so that we can grip things. She finds out how a squirrel monkey uses its fingers and thumb to grip onto a branch so it can swing from tree to tree. Then she uses her special camera in the wolverine enclosure to learn how a wolverine can make its special claws longer and shorter. Imagine if our nails could do that!