Turn out the lights, the

big show is tonight

This graph from NASA shows why you might want to stay up late to-night for a chance to see the Perseid showers while they are at their peak. (Visit ColoradoNIE.com for times and tips!)

The red bar of the graph shows the number of fi reballs in the Perseids, with the next most spectacular shower, the Geminids that come at the end of the year, in second place, and October’s Orionids a distant third.

But the Perseids are the brightest of the annual showers, which occur when the Earth passes through a cloud of debris left behind by a comet.

Some city people will see the bright fi reballs, but those who fi nd rural dark skies away from light pollution (See story, Page Two) could see as many as 100 meteorites per hour.

1

ColoradoKids CK ReporterKaiya Cox,

Aurora

conSerVation in tHe GobiA partnership between the Denver Zoo and

Kent Denver Middle School brought ten kids to Mongolia this summer to experience

cultural activities and stay in a camp of traditional Mongolian yurts, a type of tent, tracking animals and participating in conservation work.

For the fi rst two days we stayed in the capital (Ulaanbaatar) and did daytrips exploring the sur-rounding parks.

We also went to a traditional singing and danc-ing performance with throat singing, orchestras of unique instruments and contortionists.

Next was the 8-hour train ride and 2-hour van ride to Ikh Nart Nature Reserve, in the Gobi Des-ert, where the Denver Zoo has worked for over 30 years.

We helped conservation researchers and learned about their projects, which include conserving bats, lizards, small mammals, argali and ibex (large sheep like bighorns) and several types of raptor, as well as an archaeology project.

The favorite day for probably everyone was get-ting to interact with the raptors.

We got to record data for little owls, cenarius vul-tures, sacer falcons, and golden eagles, as well as handle and observe them.

Climbing into the baby vulture’s nest was an in-credible adventure.

At the end of our stay at Ikh Nart, we had a tra-ditional Mongolian barbecue with people from the

surrounding areas, and showed them the con-servation projects.

It was fun to interact with them and try to connect through the language barrier.

After visiting the local school, and fi nding our old friends who had come to Denver earlier, we went back to Ulaan-baatar and up to Hustai National Park for a night.

There we got to see the wild Przewaslki’s horses, which everyone loved.

The other highlight was riding other horses around everywhere.

From there, we went to Seoul, South Korea, for a 13 hour layover, and then on to L.A. and home to Denver!

That cute little fellow coiled around a researcher’s fi nger is a northern pine snake, and he may be about to get a track-ing device planted under that beautiful spotted skin.

Researchers at Drexel Uni-versity have been studying the snake, which is threatened, though not endangered.

Part of the reason the num-ber of snakes is decreasing is because they grow large and are not venomous. This means that poachers frequently hunt them to sell as pets.

They can also be hurt by loss of habitat as more open land is taken for building, by automobiles when they cross roads during mating season, and by climate change, since spring cold snaps have been more frequent in recent years.

Outfi tting newborn pine snakes with transmitters has revealed one reason people who are scared of snakes should still like them: Even three-month-old babies hunt and eat mice. photo: Drexel U.

trackinG SnakeS to HelP tHem SurViVe

By Ben West, 13,a Kent Denver MSstudent reporting forColorado Kids

Sweet baby This little sacer falcon chick will grow up to be one of the largest falcons, with a four-foot wing span. photo by Ben West

many as 100 meteorites per hour.

There are three movies reviewed in today’s CK. Choose one, then use the ads in today’s newspaper to plan an evening out for your family and the family of a friend. Choose a restaurant with prices in its ad for dinner. How much would your evening cost?

Beyond these four pages

Too much light harms our bodies,Robs us of the night sky’s beauty

Light pollution is overused and unneeded light that affects everything.

Too much light at night can af-fect us by disrupting our sleep, confusing the circadian rhythms that tell our bodies when to sleep and when to be awake, and suppressing a hormone called melatonin that is a natu-ral sleep aid.

Recently, Paul Bogard gave a presentation in the Tattered Cover explaining about light pollution and his new book, “The End of Night: Searching for Natural Darkness in the Age of Artificial Light.”

The presentation was very interesting and there were lots of people there.

Bogard told us, for instance, that having more streetlights would not make us safer, but in-stead would blind us and cause us not to see the criminal that

we intended to see with those lights.

Later, he told me that the world is losing its natural darkness to artificial light and light pollu-tion.

Two thirds of the world is covered in colorful lights. Dark-er places are getting harder and harder to find because everywhere that people live and find jobs becomes a very bright place.

According to Paul Bogard, in order to reduce light pollution, people should understand that most of light is wasted.

Lights that shine in our eyes should be shielded or turned off.

Reducing light pollution also means saving energy. It is esti-mated that the US spends 2.2 billion dollars on wasted outdoor light.

Eight out of ten children will never experience a truly dark night and will never see the Milky Way, he said.

Without light pollution, about 3,000 stars in col-ors of blue, red, orange and yellow are visible to the naked eye.

Some of the best spots for stargaz-

ing are remote National Parks like Great Basin National Park in Nevada and Death Valley National Park in California.

“So let us go dark!” Paul Bogard calls, because the starry night sky is one of the most amazing sights you will ever see.

‘Smurfs 2’ offers good effects and family fun

“The Smurfs 2” is a funny, sweet, family-friendly movie about

seeing the good in everybody.

It is the day of Smurfette’s birthday, and all the Smurfs are planning a surprise birthday party for her.

The plans are in full swing, but to get her away from the surprise, the other Smurfs convince her to go on a hike.

By the lake, however, Smurfette remembers that she was created by Gar-gamel, the evil sorcerer, and then changed into a Smurf.

She worries she may still be a “naughty.”

Meanwhile, in the human world, Gargamel has become a celebrity because of his magic, but he has to get more Smurf essence to continue his shows.

He creates a plan where one of his new “naughties” will travel through a portal to Smurf village and capture Smurfette, the only Smurf who can give him the formula.

I thought this was a good

movie because the special effects were good, and it had a good plot.

A little more of the story was about the family drama within the human family in the film, and I didn’t find that as interest-ing as the Smurfs’ story.

I would recommend it for anybody four and up, or anyone who can handle

a little scariness and special effects.

I would give it 4 out of 5 stars. If you are looking for a movie

with good effects and a sweet family plot, try “The Smurfs 2.”

By Kristen White,11, a CK Reporter from Louisville

By Natalia Goncharova, 11,a CK Reporter from Fort Morgan

Colorado Kidsis produced by

Denver Post Educational ServicesExecutive Editor: Dana Plewka

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coloradokidseditor@gmail.comWe welcome your comments:

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History is my favorite subject. That is why I was excited when I got History Channel’s DVD set for the

show “America: The Story of Us.”

It is a show that explains every point of American history, from the first settlers in Jamestown to the year 2000.

It has wonderful pictures and the way they do animation is awesome.

One of my favorite points is when they covered the Battle of Lexington and Con-cord.

I really like how they captured the British army walking to Concord in the moonlight.

It was a wonder how they did that, because it looked like you were actually hiding in the trees.

I also liked how they defined Paul Re-vere’s ride and had him stop and tell the leader of the militiamen “they are coming,

so get the men together,” instead of having him just running and yelling “the British are coming!”

It seemed the History Channel’s version was much more likely to have been what

was actually said.Another thing I like is that, in the Civil

War, they showed how Minie bullets -- a type of bullet developed to expand and do more damage -- were made, loaded and fired, and how they impacted.

It was gruesome, but it gave you a pretty good idea of how it worked.

The only thing I think they should have taken out is seeing the insides of the body when the bullet hit. It was disgusting, and would not have been good for young chil-dren to see.

Overall, I would rate this series 5 stars, but I would recommend that no one under at least 8 years old watch it, because it has some incredibly violent parts, that really would scare them.

There should also be a label that warns squeamish people, because the series is disgusting at some parts.

So this movie is probably for people over eight with strong stomachs.

You could say that the History Channel has worked its magic again, but in a scary way.

Great, maybe-too-realistic view of history

By Tripp Ceyssens,11, a CK Reporter from Arvada

Enter to win four tickets for admission & unlimited

rides at Lakeside Amusement Park!

Send an email to:NextGen@DenverPost.com(Subject: Lakeside) and tell us

why you’d like to win.

SudokuRules: Every row across, every column down and each of the six smaller boxes must contain numerals 1,2,3,4,5 and 6, one time and one time only. The solution to this week’s puzzle is on Page 4.

5 4

6

5 1

1

3 6

1 4 5

ck Kids and adults can find live links to information about stories in Colorado Kids at www.ColoradoNIE.com

In this thrilling movie, based on “Sea of Monsters,” the second book in the “Percy

Jackson and the Olympians” series by author Rick Riordan, you definitely find out what the meaning of trust is.

“Percy Jackson and the Olym-pians: Sea of Monsters,” was an awesome movie, although I wouldn’t recommend it for younger kids, because, though it’s only rated PG, it does get a little violent in some parts.

I have read the book, “Sea of Monsters,” and it does provide some contrast to the movie.

The four main characters, Annabeth, Percy, Grover, and Tyson (played by Alexandra Daddario, Logan Lerman, Bran-don T. Jackson, and Douglas

Smith) all did incredibly well with their acting, although the characters in the book had somewhat different roles.

I loved how the special ef-fects in this movie all look very real, and the crew and every-one who worked to put this movie together all just did a really good job overall.

There were several “shock-ers” in the movie that I didn’t see coming.

But, in my opinion, these are great in movies, because they add unexpected plot twists to them.

I would definitely give this movie a 5-star rating and would totally go see it again if I were given the opportunity.

Psst! There’s another movie review inside!

In “Planes,” Dusty Crophopper is an ordinary crop-duster plane.

His job every day is to fly around and fertilize crops.

But he has another dream. He wants to race.

One of Dusty’s friends helps him fly around the acres and acres of fields, but he doesn’t get very far, as crop-dusters are not built for racing and he, ironically, has a fear of heights.

They are meant for flying low over the fields all day long so he is not used to flying high.

But Dusty thinks that he is a great racer, so he decides to try out for the “Wings Around the Globe” plane race, where only the best racers fly all around the world, competing for first place.

Dusty’s number-one enemy is the villainous Ripslinger, who is striving for the fourth First-Place win of his career.

If Dusty wins the race, then that means that Ripslinger won’t get all of the fame and fortune that he wants.

So Ripslinger is devoted to trying to get Dusty out of the race.

I really enjoyed this movie. I loved all of the references in

the movie to all of the real-life places in the world.

The only problem was that I would have liked a little more surprise. This plot is the same sort of underdog story that we have all seen a million times.

But the movie did have me laughing, smiling, and practi-cally crying for its characters.

I would recommend this movie to kids ages six and up, because there was nothing too scary or loud in this movie, but very young kids might not re-ally be able to understand it.

Percy JackSon film addS differenceS, Plot twiStS

Good Plane fun but not many SurPriSeS

You’ll find full-length versions of these stories and more at

If you enjoy writing and are 14 or under, why not join us?

Sudoku

Solution

231564

546321

354612

613245

425136

162453

By Meghan Cunningham, 13,a CK Reporter from Parker

By Lauren Hill,11, a CK Reporter from Littleton