Classroom Ideas, Current Event Connection, Main

11 Things We Learned This Week

This week, we learned …

… how to make your kids good at anything (it won’t be fun) and how many learning myths you might still believe.

Developing expertise involves “deliberate practice.”
Photograph by Lynn Johnson, National Geographic

What are the learning attitudes of successful scientists?

 

… sea ice has reached a record low.

Decades of scientific research has documented the phenomenon of Arctic shrinkage. Arctic shrinkage includes the melting of the Greenland ice sheet, warmer temperatures, and a loss of sea ice.
Map by National Geographic

Learn more about the “twilight of the Arctic ice.”

 

… the secret, performance-enhancing addiction of the NBA. Read of the week!

It’s peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.
Photograph by Evan-Amos, courtesy Wikimedia. Public domain

Our favorite peanut-butter sandwich is from Hong Kong.

 

… foot-binding in China was even worse than you think, for different reasons than you think.

Foot binding, which deformed the feet of millions of women, was outlawed in 1949.
Photograph by Jodi Cobb, National Geographic

How are children enslaved today?

 

… trafficking in beautiful art is an ugly world.

Those craters aren’t a part of the natural landscape. They’re holes left by looters in Peru.
Photograph by Bill Ballenberg, National Geographic

Join the hunt for looted sites in Peru with Global Xplorer.

 

… five economic terms we should all know.

No, one of the terms is not “yuan,” the official currency of China.
Photograph courtesy Pixabay. Public domain.

Browse some lessons in economics to share with your students.

 

… a New Zealand school has abolished gendered uniforms.

Aw, Samoa was doing gender-neutral (and shoeless) uniforms back in 1962.
Photograph by Robert B. Goodman, National Geographic

Does the military have gendered uniforms?

 

… Helibacon is a Texan response to eradicating an invasive species.

Helibacon offers hog hunters the chance to shoot feral pigs like these—from a helicopter.
Photograph by NASA (yes, NASA—these razorbacks were spotted near the Kennedy Space Center in Florida). Public domain

Go ahead and eat the alien invaders yourself.

 

… how we invented numbers, and how to throw an ax.

Discover the amazing world of numbers with Nat Geo Kids!

 

… Monopoly tokens have gone to the birds.

Get some ideas to build your own board game!

 

… Australian cyclists rode 130 miles to map out the image of a giant goat.

Map courtesy Google Maps

Use MapMaker Interactive to map your own shapely route!

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