Issue link: https://owlkids.uberflip.com/i/1150700
TEXT: MARIA BIRMINGHAM PHOTOS: BURLS ART (PENCIL CRAYON GUITAR); GETTYISTOCK (PENCIL CRAYONS, BOY READING); DREAMSTIME (GIRL, BACKPACK); RICK THOMAS (PIGEON); DOZENDOTS (INKI PEN); WWW.ANIMICAUSA. COM (STAPLER); BUFFALO PUBLIC SCHOOLS (BOOK VENDING MACHINE) owlconnected.com 7 I t's the power of the pen! There's more inside this pen than plain old ink. The INKI pen has a motor that moves its tip up and down, sort of like a mini jackhammer. This helps it create instant patterns, like dashes and dots, allowing artists to draw more easily. To get the INKI pen working, you simply twist its cap. This starts up the motor. Then you move the tip along a piece of paper, adjusting its angle to create patterns. The tip moves up and down very quickly— about 700 times per minute. But with another twist of its cap, you can turn off the motor and use the pen to write. How's that for doing double duty? BUY THE BOOK PICK A BOOK. ANY BOOK. R ead all about it! A school in Buffalo, NY, recently installed a vending machine for its students. But this one isn't stocked with drinks or snacks. It's crammed full of books! Every month, students are given special gold coins that work in the vending machine. The kids use their coins to choose books they'd like to read. They get to keep their pick, and the machine gets restocked so other students can have a turn. Happy reading! BIRDS IN BACKPACKS PIGEONS ON PATROL THE WRITE STUFF GET YOUR MOTOR RUNNING I t's the latest back-to-school trend: backpacks for birds. Okay, that's not entirely true. But researchers in England are putting backpacks on pigeons. And it's all to learn more about pollution. The researchers have made tiny backpacks full of sensors that they strap to homing pigeons—birds that have been trained to fi nd their way home. The backpacks, which are super-light so they don't bother the birds, collect data on things like temperature, wind, and air pressure. The pigeons fl y freely through the city—backpack and all. Once they return home, the data from the sensors can be studied to fi nd out how pollution is affecting the air. That's really getting a bird's-eye view of things!