Classroom Ideas, Current Event Connection, Main

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 …

… how to terraform Mars.

1280px-marstransition
Illustration by Daein Ballard, courtesy Wikimedia. CC-BY-SA-3.0

 

… pre-K might not be all it’s cracked up to be.

A girl learns a little geography at an early learning center for children from 6 weeks through kindergarten. Photograph by Lynn Johnson, National Geographic
A girl learns a little geography at an early learning center for children from 6 weeks through kindergarten.
Photograph by Lynn Johnson, National Geographic

 

… scientists accidentally discovered an efficient process to turn carbon dioxide into ethanol.

 

… how to teach middle-schoolers in this “mess of an election season.”

Nah, these students aren’t bored. Anticipating office drones 120 years later, they’re doing calisthenics at their desks. Photograph by Frances Benjamin Johnston, courtesy Library of Congress. Public domain
Nah, these students aren’t bored. Anticipating office drones 120 years later, they’re doing calisthenics at their desks.
Photograph by Frances Benjamin Johnston, courtesy Library of Congress. Public domain

 

… the benefits of raising bilingual children.

 

… the Great Barrier Reef is dead … Long live the Great Barrier Reef.

Photograph of the Great Barrier Reef by David Doubilet, National Geographic
Photograph of the Great Barrier Reef by David Doubilet, National Geographic

 

… the universe is much, much larger than we thought.

This image covers a portion of a large galaxy census called the Great Observatories Origins Deep Survey (GOODS). Beautiful photograph by NASA, ESA, the GOODS Team, and M. Giavalisco (University of Massachusetts, Amherst)
This image covers a portion of a large galaxy census called the Great Observatories Origins Deep Survey (GOODS).
Beautiful photograph by NASA, ESA, the GOODS Team, and M. Giavalisco (University of Massachusetts, Amherst)

 

… a thousand-year tradition is ending as an Alaskan village engages in its last whale hunt.

Alaska Natives begin a whale hunt in this beautifully evocative image from 1930. Photograph by Edward S. Curtis, National Geographic
Alaska Natives begin a whale hunt in this beautifully evocative image from 1930.
Photograph by Edward S. Curtis, National Geographic

 

… Washington, D.C., was not built in a swamp.

Not all riversides are swamps. Engraving by George Isham Parkyns, courtesy Library of Congress. Public domain
Not all riversides are swamps.
Engraving by George Isham Parkyns, courtesy Library of Congress. Public domain

 

… the logistics of Star Wars, and why we’ve been thinking about aliens all wrong.

 

… the sleeping habits of the animal kingdom.

Infographic courtesy Sleepopolis
Infographic courtesy Sleepopolis

3 thoughts on “11 Things We Learned This Week!”

  1. How could the scientist control the fallout of the Nuclear Warhead? How would they control the chain reaction surrounding Mars, the other planets, and the Universe in general? How long would it take for this whole process to take? I thought “Space X” or other programs were going to try to colonize Mars by 2021?

    Reply

  2. It’s really good to convert CO2 into ethanol.. It’s good for environment.. But ethanol is a fuel used in generators and vehicles and vehicles are big source of pollution.. So this is gonna be work for a better future enviournment?

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  3. Terraforming the other other planet!!! How is it even possible to change the whole enviournment , atmosphere of a planet?? It’s not a fairy tale we are living in a real world…
    In my perception I don’t think this would ever happen.. It would be a new harard to our blue planet.. Instead of making earth a better planet how can we even think about Terraforming another planet!!!!!

    Reply

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