Classroom Ideas, Current Event Connection, Main

11 Things We Learned This Week

This week, we learned …

… NASA has new pictures of Jupiter—and you can help develop more! Resource of the week!

What a great image of Jupiter’s Great Red Spot.
NASA / SwRI / MSSS / Gerald Eichstädt / Seán Doran © CC NC SA

Learn more about Jupiter’s Great Red Spot, and the satellite that got there.

 

 

… what happens when Walmart leaves town. Great read.

The loss of community is perhaps the most surprising and evocative result of a Walmart leaving town.
Photograph by Brave New Films, courtesy Wikimedia. CC-BY-2.0

How did “big box” stores like Walmart become a defining part of the 1990s?

 

… five map and compass skills every outdoorsman (and outdoorswoman!) should have.

The most familiar type of compass is probably the magnetic compass, which use a magnetized needle lined up with the Earth’s magnetic field. This hand-held magnetic compass is being consulted by U.S. Marine Corps Cpl. Travis Bos at a training exercise in Pohakuloa Training Area, Hawaii.
Photograph by Cpl. Demetrius Munnerlyn, courtesy U.S. Marines

Get started learning map skills with our great collection!

 

…what happens when someone tries to open an emergency exit on a plane in flight. (They fail.)

Those big emergency exit doors are impossible to open in a pressurized cabin.
Photograph by Michael Walker, National Geographic

How do people survive flights in non-pressurized areas of the airplane?

 

… Ghana successfully launched its first satellite.

What other groundbreakers are launching satellites these days?

 

… how a middle-aged housewife discovered four new types of tessellating pentagons.

Tessellation is the tiling of a flat surface using repetitive geometric shapes, with no overlaps and no gaps. When the shapes used to tile a plane are all five-sided, they are called tessellating pentagons. There are 15 known tessellating pentagons.
Illustration by EdPeggJr, courtesy Wikimedia. CC-BY-SA-4.0

What are some other five-sided beauties?

 

… scientists can store images and movies in DNA.

This galloping horse, the first motion picture ever made, is encoded in bacterial DNA.
Film by Eadweard Muybridge, courtesy Wikimedia. Public domain

What else is encoded in DNA?

 

… Kazakhstan is rediscovering its nomadic identity. On horseback.

As companions, iconography, and sustenance, horses are ubiquitous in Kazakhstan, and have been for centuries.
Photograph by Altaihunters, courtesy Wikimedia. CC-BY-SA-3.0

What else is a part of Kazakh identity?

 

… there’s a secret tunnel under the Pyramid of the Moon.

The secret tunnel extends from the giant pyramid to the Plaza de la Luna, the central square in front of it.
Photograph by diego_cue, courtesy Wikimedia. CC-BY-SA-3.0

Who were the Teotihuacanos?

 

… a manmade island built to save Lagos’ economy also threatens its existence.

Eko Atlantic is an enormous land reclamation project built on the coast of Lagos, Nigeria.
Photograph courtesy Eko Atlantic

Where else are coastal community engaging in land reclamation?

 

… where women are politically empowered.

Click to enlarge! Map by UN Women

How has the map changed since 2015?

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