Classroom Ideas, Current Event Connection, Main

11 Things We Learned This Week

This week, we learned …

… kids who get driven everywhere don’t have a good idea where they’re going.

The solution is probably not for kids to drive.
Photograph by Ivan Kashinsky and Karla Gachet, National Geographic

How do young children learn to read and interpret maps? How can you best support that learning?

 

… the locations of the last uncharted areas on Earth, and where Skull Island is.

How do you navigate fictional places?

 

… giving new meaning to the phrase “eco-warrior,” the U.S. Department of Defense is developing an environmentally friendly bullet.

By constructing prototypes out of biodegradable materials such as lignocellulose, soy, and bamboo fiber, the Defense Department aspires to create rounds which will simply disintegrate over time. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is suggesting special bioengineered seeds could be packed inside these new rounds, meaning soldiers would inadvertently be greening the landscape at the same time as undertaking target practice.
Photograph by Staff Sargeant Christopher S. Muncy, U.S. Department of Defense

What else is the Army Corps of Engineers up to?

 

… one of the world’s rarest whales was caught on film for the first time.

Zoom in on the whales of the world!

 

… Louisiana accepted its first climate refugees.

Isle de Jean Charles has been sinking into the Gulf of Mexico for decades.
Photograph by Carolyn Van Houten, National Geographic

What are climate refugees?

 

… why squids lost their shells.

Millions of years ago, squiddish ancestors were slow and heavily armored.
Photograph by David Littschwager, National Geographic

Why are cephalopods taking over the seas?

 

… the 19th century Scramble for Africa contributed to economic, social and political underdevelopment. (No, not exactly a news alert.)

This beautiful map of Africa dates from 1885.
Map by J. Bartholomew, courtesy Wikimedia. Public domain

What did colonial Africa look like?

 

… volcanoes could erupt a lot more, thanks to climate change.

This gorgeous volcanic cone is Shishaldin, a volcano on Unimak Island, Alaska.
Photograph by J. Baylor Roberts, National Geographic

Where are the world’s volcanoes?

 

… some Chinese millennials are taking up the hermit’s life in the mountains.

Check out our very favorite hermits!

 

… the children of the Ghetto Classics Orchestra brighten Nairobi’s Korogocho slum.

Where else is music making a difference to teenagers?

 

… sweaters may be a warm-and-fuzzy way of saying “sorry” to domesticated critters. That it plays great on Instagram is just a bonus.

Photograph by Jodi Cobb, National Geographic

What is domestication?

2 thoughts on “11 Things We Learned This Week”

  1. A great deed has been done by Elizabeth in korogocho.. Bring music to such a place is really admirable.. Giving smile to sad faces, give hopes to their lives, save them from criminal activities, give them a platform to show their talents really very nice.. I hope your work will flourish to many places.. All the very best..

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  2. Beaked whale is in dangerous of course due to human activities in fact whole equatic life is in danger.. Earth is in danger that’s also because of our activities..
    Climate refugees are more than political refugees!!! Where are we gonna end?? Somewhere people are suffering because of draughts and somewhere because of floods, somewhere heavily percipitaition and somewhere desertification.. use technology to save our beautiful earth and reduce the bad impact of climate change..

    Reply

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