Current Event Connection, Main

11 Things We Learned This Week

This week, we learned …

… what happened after First Contact in Papua New Guinea. Read of the week!

Photograph by Jodi Cobb, National Geographic

What is the human geography of Papua New Guinea?

 

 

… how pollution fuels North African migration.

An immigrant from Tunisia waits for relatives to greet him in Marseilles, France.
Photograph by Ed Kashi, National Geographic

Adapt this lesson plan on the long-reaching “legacy of litter” in our world ocean.

 

 

… gestures shared by chimpanzees, bonobos, and possibly early humans may have biological underpinnings.

This is not one of those gestures. At all.
Photograph by Paramount Pictures Corp., courtesy National Geographic

How do chimpanzees and humans use their smarts, as well as gestures, to improve their societies?

 

 

… climate migration could change the demography of the U.S.

Sea-level rise is an impact of global warming. Rising temperatures cause ice to melt at the poles. As this polar ice melts, sea levels rise, causing floods in coastal areas. A storm surge on a Louisiana highway, above, shows the effects of sea level rise.
Photograph courtesy NOAA

Where did some of the first waves of U.S. climate refugees relocate?

 

 

… a Franciscan manzanita is seeking same.

The last Franciscan manzanita in San Francisco cannot reproduce without a mate.
Photograph by Daderot, courtesy Wikimedia. Public domain

What is another endangered plant on the San Francisco peninsula?

 

 

… Florida residents may soon help determine science curriculum.

Florida’s legislature started considering two related bills that, if enacted, would let residents recommend which instructional materials teachers in their school district use in their classrooms. (These students are in Turkey.)
Photograph by John Stanmeyer, National Geographic

One of our favorite Florida science lessons offers students a dip in the aquifer with a Nat Geo Explorer!

 

 

… why Kenya is getting its first coal plant.

Lamu is an historic port town on Kenya’s Indian Ocean coast. Supporters of a planned coal plant say it will help meet the country’s fast-growing demand for electricity and draw investment. Its critics worry that it will damage the area’s fragile marine ecosystem, threaten the livelihoods of fishing communities and pollute the air.
Photograph by Erik (HASH) Hersman, courtesy Wikimedia. CC-BY-2.0

What is coal?

 

 

… there are still advantages to taking longhand notes.

A study has shown that the fact that you have to be slower when you take notes by hand is what makes it more useful in the long run.
Photograph by Cory Richards, National Geographic

Use our collection of graphic organizers to help students take notes.

 

 

… deepsea mining has its roots in CIA conspiracies.

Black smokers, like this one along the mid-Atlantic Ridge, are the largest type of ocean vent, and eject the hottest fluids. Vent fluids heated to more than 400° Celsius (752° Fahrenheit) spew out of tall chimneys at rates of up to 5 meters per second (16 feet per second). Their thick black “smoke” is made of tiny particles of metals (including iron and copper) and salts (mostly sulfates).
Photograph by Stephen Low Distribution Inc.

What is deepsea mining?

 

 

… students who took arts-focused field trips experienced greater gains on standardized test scores.

Lucky field-trippers improve their test scores with Diego Rivera murals at the Detroit Institute of Art.
Photograph by Melissa Farlow, National Geographic

Use our road-trip boredom busters on the way to and from your field trip destination.

 

 

… Iowa is the best state in the union.

In addition to being #1 overall, Iowa was also the top-ranked state in the “Infrastructure” category.

How does one of our Iowa educators take geo-inquiry from the prairie to Peru?

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