What did you learn this week? Let us know in the comments or at education@ngs.org. This week we learned … … an American won the Man Booker prize. Congratulations, Paul Beatty! What novels are you reading now? … what wind, currents, and geography tell us about how people first settled Oceania. How do you think the remote islands of Australia and Oceania were populated? … Continue reading 11 Things We Learned This Week
What did you learn this week? Let us know in the comments or at education@ngs.org. This week, we learned … … under Hawaii’s starry skies, there is a fight over sacred ground. So, we know what’s going on on top of Mauna Kea. What’s going on below? Where else are indigenous groups protesting for greater sovereignty? … humans can only live about 115 years. … Continue reading 10 Things We Learned This Week!
What did you learn this week? Let us know in the comments or at education@ngs.org. This week, we learned … … that you can download and print absolutely gorgeous Landsat maps of your state. DO IT! … “Elegy for the Arctic” is a haunting composition for piano accompanied by crumbling glacier. … an L.A. artist’s ’emancipation project’ encourages students to create … Continue reading 14 Things We Learned This Week!
SPORTS It’s been five years since Yankee Stadium was demolished after serving as home to the New York Yankees for 85 years. National Geographic was there throughout the demolition process. (Nat Geo News) What’s a Yankee? Use our encyclopedic entry to find out. Teachers, scroll down for a quick list of key resources in our Teachers’ Toolkit, including a link to today’s MapMaker Interactive map. … Continue reading See 85 Years of Baseball History Vanish in 30 Seconds
1. It’s getting warmer outside
One of the biggest ‘bummers’ for me is dealing with long winters- – and I feel like this last one was one of the longest. The cold winds, wet drizzle and grey skies just don’t appeal to me. Luckily, it seems to have come to an end at last. For the past two to three weeks, I’ve been sleeping with my windows open, and it feels great. In fact, today, I wore shorts and sunglasses to work. Hooray for ‘casual Fridays.’
But why is it getting warmer? A common misconception is that the earth is actually closer to the Sun during the spring and summer, causing the weather to warm up… but, that is a misconception.
From Wikipedia: “In spring, the axis of the Earth is increasing its tilt toward the Sun and the length of daylight rapidly increases for the relevant hemisphere. The hemisphere begins to warm significantly causing new plant growth to “spring forth,” giving the season its name.”
2. I can’t breathe
With the nice weather comes higher pollen counts, and for me that means that my sinuses go haywire. Fortunately, I can track the pollen forecast on this website, which will tell me how I won’t be able to breathe that day. Of course, pollen counts really depend on the weather (temperature, precipitation, and regular seasonal trends), and the weather depends on where you are geographically located. My buddies in Texas have been “sportin’ shorts” for about a month now.
Continue reading “Five for Friday: Five signs that spring has sprung”
