Blog Posting for 10/24/2014
This week news4kids.org aired the following stories:
Triathlon Champions K-2
Chichen Itza Explored 3-5
World Largest Guitar K-2
Orion Space Capsule 3-5
Newscast: Triathlon Champions K-2
Essential Question: What is a triathlon?
Vocabulary: triathlon, triathlete
Learning Objectives:
– Define a triathlon as a race with three different stages, usually swimming, cycling, and running.
Summary: Recently, 60 men and 60 women from around the world traveled to Mexico in order to participate in a World Cup triathlon race. A triathlon is a race that has 3 different stages. The most common triathlons are made up of a swimming race, a bike race, and a running race.
Newscast: Chichen Itza Explored 3-5
Essential Question: How are archaeologists able to explore the ruins underneath one of Chichén Itzá’s largest pyramids?
Vocabulary: Chichén Itzá, Yucatan, Maya, Kukulcan Temple, archaeology, ruins, pyramid, fragile, electrical resistivity tomography, electrodes, electrical current, emit, 3D map, prosperous, elaborate, diverse, astronomy, observatory
Learning Objectives:
– Identify Chichén Itzá as an ancient Mayan city that peaked around 900 C.E.
– Identify the ancient Mayan civilization as being noteworthy for having one of the first fully developed written languages, for having a very accurate and modern understanding of astronomy and mathematics, and for its elaborate and diverse art, sculptures, and architecture.
– Explain that electrical resistivity tomography allows scientists to explore underground without any digging, through the emission of electrical currents and 3D mapping.
Summary: Mexican scientists and archeologists will soon begin to explore the soil beneath the Kukulcan Temple in the Maya site of Chichén Itzá on Mexico’s Yucatan peninsula. Chichén Itzá was a large city built by the Maya people around 600 C.E. The site attracts over a million tourists from all over the world each year and is one of Mexico’s most-visited archeological sites.
Newscast: World Largest Guitar K-2
Essential Question: What is the history of guitars?
Vocabulary: electric, acoustic, unique, tentacle, vibrations, electronic waves, 3D printer, carbon fiber
Learning Objectives:
– Identify the guitar as a popular, widely-used musical instrument.
– Explain that the earliest guitar-like instrument is believed to have originated in Spain over 900 year’s ago.
Summary: The world’s largest playable guitar was unveiled at a new guitar exhibition at the Liberty Science Center in Jersey City, New Jersey. The guitar is 43 feet long, 16 feet wide, and weighs 2,255 pounds, which is as much as a small car.
In addition to the giant guitar, the exhibition also has on display several other unique guitars, including the world’s only playable 8-neck guitar. The 8-neck guitar is nicknamed the “Rock Ock”, due to its resemblance to an octopus’ 8-tentacles.
Newscast: Orion Space Capsule 3-5
Essential Question: What is the goal of NASA’s Orion space capsule?
Vocabulary: NASA, space capsule, deep space, asteroid, Apollo, low-earth orbit, rover, atmosphere, ionosphere, solar wind, colonize
Learning Objectives:
– Identify Orion as NASA’s newest manned space capsule.
– Name at least four “firsts” that NASA hopes to accomplish with Orion.
– Define NASA’s Apollo missions as the first to send humans beyond the low- earth orbit. Identify Apollo 17 as the mission that claims the most recent landing on the moon, in 1972.
Summary: In the waters off of the San Diego shore, NASA has been conducting a number of tests on its newest manned space capsule, Orion.Orion is designed to take humans further than they’ve ever gone before. Carrying crews of up to seven astronauts, it will be the first to conduct missions into deep space. In addition to shuttling astronauts to and from The International Space Station and conducting missions to the moon, NASA hopes that Orion will be the first to explore an asteroid, and possibly even send a crew to Mars!
