Category: Outside The Box - LEARN. THINK. EXPLORE.

LEARN. THINK. EXPLORE.

OUTSIDE THE BOX:

9/22/2023

For American high school students interested in studying outside the U.S., applications are now open for a variety of fully funded State Department programs, including the National Security Language Initiative for Youth (NSLI-Y), the Kennedy-Lugar Youth Exchange and Study (YES), the Congress-Bundestag Youth Exchange (CBYX), and the Future Leaders Exchange Program (FLEX Abroad). These programs all have different deadlines, goals, and participating countries. This link to the Department of State exchange search provides information about all of these programs and more: tinyurl.com/32xfy465

OUTSIDE THE BOX:

9/15/2023

NIH (the National Institutes of Health) offers loads of free resources for teaching health and life science topics, from bioengineering and microbiology to concussions, cannabis, ticks, and nutrition. There are even comics and a board game available for download! Most of the materials are for middle and high school, but there are some things for elementary school students too. science.education.nih.gov/

OUTSIDE THE BOX:

9/8/2023

Checkology is a free video-based curriculum devoted to teaching news literacy, from understanding bias and conspiratorial thinking to making sense of data and evaluating science-based claims: get.checkology.org/

OUTSIDE THE BOX:

9/1/2023

High school students in the DC metro area interested in the life sciences should check out Suburban Hospital's Medical Exploring program. Students meet every-other Monday evening in Bethesda and occasionally on school holidays to take field trips and learn about careers in medicine from some of the region's top doctors and healthcare professionals. The virtual info session for this year is Monday, Sept. 18 (6-7 pm). For more information or to register for the info session, see medical-exploring-info.events.suburbanhospital.org/

OUTSIDE THE BOX:

8/25/2023

If you're looking for geography trivia (or great maps) to expand your learning, the Map Shop has a section of its website devoted to geography trivia questions and their answers: www.mapshop.com/trivia

OUTSIDE THE BOX:

8/18/2023

Looking for a different game to play, one that invites brainstorming and conversation? Brave Ideas is a new board game developed by President Lincoln's Cottage in partnership with Game Genius. The Cottage was "the place where Abraham Lincoln worked, and reworked, and reworked again his ideas surrounding the Emancipation Proclamation. These ideas changed the nation, and President Lincoln’s Cottage is dedicated to inspiring the same avenues for innovation in today’s world." To read about the Brave Ideas game or to order a copy, see www.lincolncottage.org/all-about-the-brave-ideas-game/.

OUTSIDE THE BOX:

8/11/2023

Global Nomads Group offers about a dozen free online classes to connect teens around the world, on topics ranging from architecture and medical research to ocean health and finance: gng.org/programs/courses/

OUTSIDE THE BOX:

8/4/2023

If you live in or will be visiting Alabama, Georgia, Kansas, Nebraska, Oklahoma or Texas, there's a special citizen science project for you: the United States Geological Survey is asking people in these six states to mail in dead butterflies, moths and skippers to help scientists research the causes that may be contributing to their declining populations. For more information, including the address to which you can mail your specimens, see www.usgs.gov/news/state-news-release/media-alert-usgs-calling-all-dead-butterflies-and-moths-six-states

OUTSIDE THE BOX:

7/28/2023

This resource from the information database company LexisNexis helps students (and anyone else) learn to fact check information "like a pro": www.lexisnexis.com/pdf/nexis/Nexis-webinar-how-to-fact-check-like-a-pro.pdf

OUTSIDE THE BOX:

7/21/2023

Geographical magazine (UK) has a new daily geography quiz. (A score of 75% or better wins you a discount on a Geographical subscription.) geographical.co.uk/quizzes

OUTSIDE THE BOX:

7/14/2023

The Powerball lottery is nearing a $1 billion jackpot. If you are interested in learning more about probability in the context of Powerball before you buy a ticket, this short (90-sec.) video explains how to calculate your odds of winning: www.youtube.com/watch?v=ohjy5gO2txc

OUTSIDE THE BOX:

7/7/2023

If you are going camping with kids this summer, the National Park Service has a special Junior Ranger program on space technology, which includes a "space tech in your campsite" module: www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/atoms/files/junior_ranger_space_tech_explorer_tagged.pdf

OUTSIDE THE BOX:

6/30/2023

The Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History has a new exhibit on cellphones, from the complicated supply chain that gets one to you to how they work to how they are changing human lives around the globe. naturalhistory.si.edu/exhibits/cellphone-unseen-connections

OUTSIDE THE BOX:

6/23/2023

Now that the 2023 National History Day contest is over, students (6th-12th grade) are welcome to start work on projects for 2024. The theme for 2024 is "Turning Points in History." For history-loving students, NHD is one of the few competitions that encourage students to dig deep in an area of personal interest. Participants can compete in five different categories: research papers (individual only), websites (individual or group), documentaries (individual or group), performances (individual or group), or exhibits (individual or group). Be sure to check with your state history day organization about local qualifying events. https://nhd.org/en/contest/theme/

OUTSIDE THE BOX:

6/16/2023

Looking for an outside-the-box geography enrichment resource this summer? The Atlas of Geographical Curiosities might be just the ticket: https://www.amazon.com/Atlas-Territorial-Curiosities-Jonglez-photo/dp/236195530X/

OUTSIDE THE BOX:

6/9/2023

Any rock collection can be a great start to a study of geology but a RADIOACTIVE rock collection?! Even cooler. The free PDF cited in this article from Atlas Obscura guides readers in (safely) collecting radioactive rocks. www.atlasobscura.com/articles/radioactive-mineral-rock-collectors-guide

OUTSIDE THE BOX:

5/12/2023

Planning a road trip or local getaway? This article highlights what editors consider to be the best state parks in the U.S. (The eagle-eyed among you might recognize a few of the photos on my website were taken at some of the state parks profiled.) www.outsideonline.com/adventure-travel/national-parks/best-state-parks-in-us

OUTSIDE THE BOX:

5/5/2023

Looking for a new verbal game? Merriam-Webster offers a variety of free vocabulary-based games, from a four-at-a-time wordle puzzle to farm idioms and famous last lines of literature: www.merriam-webster.com/games

OUTSIDE THE BOX:

4/28/2023

Teens interested in learning more about stock investing might want to check out the Top Trader Competition being offered by the University of Texas at Dallas Naveen Jindal School of Management this summer. Rising 9th-12th graders compete to maximize returns on $1M in virtual cash. The registration deadline is May 26; there's an early-bird discount until April 28. jindal.utdallas.edu/events/top-trader/

OUTSIDE THE BOX:

4/21/2023

Winter showers bring spring flowers. For those planning a field trip to southern California or Arizona soon, this article provides details on when and where to see the desert wildflowers that are expected to be blooming in abundance after the region's wet winter: www.nytimes.com/2023/04/01/travel/california-arizona-spring-wildflowers.html

OUTSIDE THE BOX:

4/14/2023

The National Archives has a great line-up of history-related events throughout the year, in person for those in the DC area and online. Later this month, for example, there's an author talk about Sarah Kidd, the wife of a pirate, a lunchtime series about challenges faced during the Eisenhower administration, a panel discussion about Black baseball players before Jackie Robinson, and a living history program with "Albert Einstein." www.archives.gov/calendar

OUTSIDE THE BOX:

4/7/2023

Visit a marshmallow Peeps factory in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania: www.justborn.com/who-we-are/how-our-candy-is-made/

OUTSIDE THE BOX:

3/31/2023

Mastered Statele* already? This daily quiz from the makers of Worldle* and Statele features images from U.S. states and challenges participants to identify where the photos were taken: wheretakenusa.teuteuf.fr/
*Statele: statele.teuteuf.fr/
*Worldle: worldle.teuteuf.fr/

OUTSIDE THE BOX:

3/24/2023

The cherry blossoms near the Jefferson Memorial in Washington, DC, are at peak bloom now. If you can't get to Washington, DC, you can still see them via this live bloom cam: www.bloomcam.org/ Prefer to check in on Japan's cherry blossoms? Try this live bloom cam: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7P9DlrY8xXc

OUTSIDE THE BOX:

3/17/2023

The Montgomery County (MD) Gem, Lapidary, and Mineral Society's annual gem, mineral, and fossil show is this weekend at the Montgomery County fairgrounds. For details about hours and to get a discount on admission, see www.glmsmc.com/show.shtml.