For those interested in learning about what's going on in Ukraine that might not make the news in the U.S. or for those interested in supporting a free press in Ukraine, the English-language Kyiv Independent operates a website and a free daily e-newsletter: kyivindependent.com/  At the top of the website are GoFundMe options to allow visitors to support the Independent or a broader group of Ukrainian media organizations.

If you're looking for a bit of summer learning fun, Google Earth's Carmen Sandiego game takes students around the world, using clues to solve a crime while seeing some of the world's most iconic landforms and structures in 3D:
earth.google.com/web/data=CiQSIhIgYmU3N2ZmYzU0MTc1MTFlOGFlOGZkMzdkYTU5MmE0MmE

For those of you in the Washington, DC, area, the National Air and Space Museum (which is currently closed for renovations) is sponsoring a Tour of the Universe at various sites around the National Mall on Wednesday, July 20 (11am-3pm). Visitors can look at the sun through filtered telescopes, learn about exoplanets, take a selfie with an astronaut, and more. airandspace.si.edu/events/tour-universe

How good is your vocabulary (or your child's)? This quick two-part checklist helps you assess your vocabulary and perhaps learn a few new words in the process: preply.com/en/learn/english/test-your-vocab

Here's an incentive for you or your kids to get outdoors and to develop those digital photography skills: the Maryland Department of Natural Resources is sponsoring a photography contest for photographs taken in Maryland, with a preference given to photos highlighting native species. Submissions are due by Aug. 1 dnr.maryland.gov/Pages/photocontest.aspx  (Scroll to the bottom of the website to see last year's winning images.)

Use your knowledge of geography to rearrange these 12 words into the names of countries:

1. ANALOG
2. CHAIN
3. LAITY
4. MAIL
5. PAINS
6. PLANE
   
7. PURE
8. RABIES
9. RAIN
10. REGALIA
11. SERIAL
12. UNHOARDS
    

Puzzle and answers from Solomon Golomb hub.jhu.edu/magazine/2022/spring/golomb-verbal-geography/

Things are blooming, buzzing, leafing out, and crawling by.  But is that a bluebell or a balloon flower? A black swallowtail or a red-spotted purple? The free Seek app from iNaturalist helps users identify the plants, animals, and fungus they're seeing simply by scanning them with the camera on a smartphone. There's more information about Seek and links to download the app (from Google Play or the App Store) at www.inaturalist.org/pages/seek_app.

Thinking ahead to your summer reading list?  You can test your knowledge of classic literature by matching characters to novels with this 35-question quiz: play.howstuffworks.com/quiz/can-you-name-which-literary-classic-these-characters-are-from

Have a student interested in discussing current events? The University of Virginia's Youth Leadership Initiative offers the First Freedom Wall, a free platform for teaching and practicing the skills of online discourse and debate. The First Freedom Wall allows students to exchange comments with other students across the country on current issues in American politics. yli236.youthleadership.net/learning-programs/firstfreedom-wall

You can design your own opera using "Hansel and Gretel" as the template to learn about what goes into staging an opera with this interactive module from Go Classical: goclassical.org/kids/opera/opera-game

The Penn Museum's free, online At-Home Anthro series is designed to introduce K-8 students to topics and hands-on projects in archaeology, anthropology, and world cultures. Upcoming events feature Pomo basketry, Middle Eastern incantation bowls, and weaving with recycled materials. Classes are live on Tuesdays 1:00-1:45 ET: www.penn.museum/events/kids-family/at-home-anthropology-live

ST Math has made its visual puzzle-based math program free to home schoolers and other independent learners through June 30, 2023: www.stmath.com/homeschool-math

HHMI Biointeractive has hundreds of free online activities to enrich life science learning, including this new one for high school students that uses data science to understand island biogeography: www.biointeractive.org/classroom-resources/exploring-island-biogeography-through-data

You can find hands-on projects to learn about the vernal equinox, spring migrations, plant seasonality, frog song, and more at Journey North: journeynorth.org/

Next Monday is Pi Day (3.14).  San Francisco's Exploratorium offers several pi-related activities, including this one that helps kids discover pi on their own: https://www.exploratorium.edu/snacks/pi-graph.  Of course, the classic way of celebrating pi day is to bake a pie, in which case these recipes might come in handy: cookinglikeyourmom.wordpress.com/?s=pie

There's a new free online geography game called Worldle (clearly riffing on the popular word game, Wordle).  Worldle shows one image per day of a country (shape only).  Users have six tries to guess the country; each guess generates feedback on distance (in km) and approximate direction to the correct answer.  Playing with a world map on hand instead of just working from memory or guessing, though, creates a lot more learning: by consulting a map between guesses, students of geography develop a more refined sense of distance as well as country positions and shapes. worldle.teuteuf.fr/

This is the 50th anniversary of the Iditarod -- the famous Alaskan dog sled race -- which begins in Anchorage on the first Saturday in March (March 5 this year) and ends when the last musher reaches Nome.  Free educational resources, including book recommendations, to learn more about the Iditarod here: iditarod.com/edu/

Those with 4th graders can take advantage of the National Park Service's Every Kid Outdoors program this spring and summer: 4th graders can sign up for a free pass that provides the student and his/her family  -- all kids under age 16 and up to three adults -- with unlimited free entrance at any U.S. site that charges an entrance fee, including national parks, until Aug. 31, 2022. everykidoutdoors.gov

Learn about identifying birds and prepare for the annual Great Backyard Bird Count next weekend with this free webinar on Wednesday (2:00 pm ET) on bird identification and birdsong: cornell.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_k_--YvA0QHan7yXRlMLvKA  The Great Backyard Bird Count runs Feb. 18-21.

Looking for an at-home art project or easy Valentine's gift? Of all the art projects my kids did over the years, tissue-paper decorated candle votives are the only ones that are still used. Kids can make "stained glass" votives with just three ingredients: plain glass candle votives (available for about $1 each at a craft store), tissue paper (a combo of red, pink, purple, and white for Valentine's?), and glue (Elmer's is fine but decoupage glue is good too). Cut the tissue paper into small squares or other shapes, and glue the tissue paper squares to the outside of the votive as suits your artistic vision :-).  Allow to dry.  For extra sparkle, brush a coat of Mod Podge Sparkle over the top of the dry tissue paper and allow to dry again.  You end up with something like this: www.upstateramblings.com/stained-glass-votive-candle-holders-christmas-in-july/

NASA is requesting help with a citizen-science activity, the NASA GLOBE Cloud Challenge, through Feb. 15. All you need to do is look up at the sky and record information about clouds, preferably at specific times to coincide with weather satellite flyovers. NASA is looking for the public's help to better understand how clouds, which are visible from space, actually affect conditions on the ground. For all the details, see observer.globe.gov/do-globe-observer/challenges/cloud-challenge-2022

Wordle is the game of the moment. The game combines the word play of hangman with the deductive logic game Mastermind. Players have six chances to figure out the day's five-letter word. www.powerlanguage.co.uk/wordle/

Start the new semester with a geography quiz: identify a country based on three cities and an image. (This starts easy and gets harder.) play.howstuffworks.com/quiz/if-you-can-name-2525-of-these-countries-from-just-three-cities-youre-a-geography-genius

The Smithsonian's Arts and Industries Building has re-opened after a long renovation and has a new exhibit: FUTURES. "Part exhibition, part festival, FUTURES presents nearly 32,000 square feet of new immersive site-specific art installations, interactives, working experiments, inventions, speculative designs, and 'artifacts of the future,' as well as historic objects and discoveries from 23 of the Smithsonian’s museums, major initiatives, and research centers." FUTURES is only open through July 6, 2022.  aib.si.edu/futures

The Bill of Rights Institute is sponsoring an essay contest for U.S. students in 8th-12th grade (must be ages 14-19 as of April 15) on the topic, "How does an understanding of natural rights and respect build a free society?"  Top prize: $7,500.  Essays are due by April 15. For more information, see billofrightsinstitute.org/we-the-students-essay-contest