What did you learn this week? Let us know in the comments or at education@ngs.org.
This week, we learned …
… there is a Museum of Endangered Sounds that preserves all those obsolete ’90s tech noises.
Photograph by secretlondon123, courtesy Wikimedia. CC-BY-SA-2.0
- How many sounds in the museum can you identify?
- What are some everyday sounds you think might be obsolete in 20 years?
- Resource: Sound out your city!
… why buyers shunned the world’s largest diamond.
- Would you buy the world’s biggest diamond, raw and uncut?
- Would you buy this 10-karat blue beauty, cut and polished?
- Resource: Why so blue, diamond?
… Italian parents who force a vegan diet on their children could go to jail.
Photograph by Keenpress, National Geographic
- Are there any vegans in your class? Why have they made this choice?
- Resource: Try one of the 50 recipes for 50 states—how would you make some vegan?
… facial-recognition software is ten years behind the “super-recognizers” of Scotland Yard.
- Do any of your students think they are “super-recognizers”?
- How can you test familiar and unfamiliar faces?
- Would age or disguise make a difference?
- Resource: Introduce the concept of pareidolia—the optical illusion involving the perception of a familiar pattern or meaning where it does not actually exist. Have you seen animals in the clouds? the man in the Moon?
… the Chernobyl nuclear exclusion zone could become the world’s largest solar farm.
- Why do you think Chernobyl might be a good site for a solar farm?
- Can you think of any other uses for the site?
- Resource: Why are animals—even endangered species—running wild in Chernobyl?
… Neanderthals’ lack of sewing skills could have killed them.
Photograph by Kenneth Garrett, National Geographic
- What are some ways modern people adjust to changing climate?
- Resource: Investigate how scientists predict climate change.
… a space mining company will start prospecting asteroids by the end of the decade.
- What space resources would you prospect for? Where would you look?
- Resource: Play our game to build the future of asteroid exploration.
… the definitive oral history of the lobster roll.
Photograph by Amy Toensing, National Geographic
- Are there any foods that characterize your region? Do you know their history?
- Resource: Follow Louisiana’s official state doughnut from an ancient Roman delicacy to an icon of the Big Easy.
… the first Americans may have arrived by sea, not a land bridge.
Gorgeous map by Chakazul, courtesy Wikimedia. CC-BY-SA-3.0
- Do you think ancient Americans arrived by land or sea? What evidence is more convincing?
- Resource: Follow human migration out of Africa in 13 seconds.
… how woodpeckers will save football players.
- Can you think of any other examples of biomimicry?
- Resource: What is biomimicry?
Technology is going too far.. We challenge nature at every forwarding step towards technology.. Now search on asteroid for minerals!! Space Deep is launching Prospector -1 but too much interference in nature is really not good.. Technology is responsible for many disasters.. Guys wake up and find out ways to reduce effect of technology.. Save our planet….
It’s a good idea to use waste land of chernybol for making solar panels.. But it’s completely radio effective land would it be safe for workers to work their? That place is inhabitable for humans and for animals and plants!!! Chernybol is in North of Ukraine which receives less amount of sunlight as compared to South so will this task become successful???
Finally Mcnulty was arrested.. Thanks to that taxi driver who locked him.. And that time he could not misguided the cops afteral they were super recogniser.. The way Mcnulty hide the things was something impressive maybe at least in my perception.. He could deceive anyone in front of their eyes.. He should use this talent in something else instead of theft…
The world is actually a very strange place.. Different people, different rules anything can happen anytime anywhere.. Sending parents to jail by Italian parliament just to force children to be a vegetarian.. There gesture is good to save children from malnutrition but still it’s quite funny… There could be a different way to make parents aware but sending jail it’s not an option..