Classroom Ideas, Current Event Connection, Main

11 Things We Learned This Week

This week, we learned …

… why Los Angeles doughnut boxes are pink. Read of the week!

Mmmm, doughnuts.
Photograph by Shutterstock

Revisit our favorite geographic doughnuts, beignets.

 

… the world is running out of sand.

This young scientist is looking for the impact of grains of sand on an Alaskan glacier.
Photograph by Kitra Cahana, National Geographic

Learn more about sand dunes with our reference resource.

 

… there are genuine nut jobs in California.

California produces more pistachios than anywhere on Earth outside Iran.
Photograph by Rebecca Hale, National Geographic

How are nuts—even hijacked nuts—a part of globalization?

 

… how the war changed Ramadan in Baghdad.

What is Ramadan?

 

… scientists extracted the first genome from an Egyptian mummy.

The genome of this mummy, of King Tut, was not sequenced.
Photograph by Kenneth Garrett, National Geographic

What’s the newest view of the most famous Egyptian mummy, King Tut?

 

… the hangar opened for the world’s biggest airplane, and construction started on the world’s biggest telescope.

How did man-powered flight get started?

 

… organic cotton might be worse for the environment than regular cotton.

Cotton is a thirsty crop.
Photograph by Kimberly Vardeman, courtesy Wikimedia. CC-BY-2.0

What’s the water footprint of cotton and other key crops?

 

… a former FBI agent is tracking down lost apples of the Pacific Northwest.

Heirloom applies like these were once grown in abundance in the Pacific Northwest.
Photograph by Rebecca Hale, National Geographic

How did “Johnny Appleseed” contribute to the dwindling varieties of apples in the U.S.?

 

… 17-year cicadas are waking up four years early.

Photograph by Alletah Ganino, My Shot

What are cicadas?

 

… voting might make us stupid.

Photograph by Arthur S. Siegel, courtesy Library of Congress

How does your vote count?

 

… Bloom’s digital taxonomy verbs.

Infographic courtesy global digital citizen foundation

How do these verbs work with our learning framework?

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