Today's Classroom Activities :

What’s Your Location?

The GPS Mystery
Science Introduce your students to how the GPS (Global Positioning System) works. Visit the Library of Congress Everyday Mysteries website at www.loc.gov for explanations and great pictures of the earth from satellites. In what situations might your students find GPS valuable? Does it make the compass outdated?

A World View
Reading/Social Studies Help your students realize they are part of a global community by introducing them to pressing issues, and to kids their age from around the world dealing with these issues. Go to www.globalgang.org.uk and click on the "Real life" section to read amazing stories about from children all over the world. The "Action Station" invites students to share their own thoughts, poetry and even jokes.

Mystery Class 2009 is About to Begin!
Free Online Geography, Science, and Math Project
Teachers and students in grade 4 to 12 classrooms are invited to participate this winter/spring in Journey North's Mystery Class project in which students try to find ten secret classes "hiding" around the globe. The central clue is the changing amount of sunlight (photoperiod) at each site. Students first use only sunrise and sunset times, and later receive geographic, climatic, and cultural clues about each site. In the meantime, they also track daylength in their hometowns. On this inspiring eleven-week journey, young geographers must use reasoning, graphing, and research skills to pinpoint exact locations of the mystery classes.

The Ocean: Our Global Connector
In this lesson, through an exploration of the From Sea to Shining Sea map (PDF, Adobe Reader required), students will learn about these ocean descriptors, as well as come to understand that, although we have labels that separate names of different regions, the Earth ultimately has just one big ocean. They will explore how the currents of this one big ocean carry people, animals, and even debris around the globe. Students will study water movement and how tracking marine debris can be a way to learn more about currents and their impact on human activity.

Satellite Tracking
This activity provides an opportunity for students to use satellite tagging data to answer questions related to open-ocean animals, their habitats and migratory behaviors.