America's Liberian Dream

March 06, 2024

The nation of Liberia began in part as a dream of American Abolitionists.

The American Society for Colonizing the Free People of Color of the United States was dedicated to transporting freeborn blacks and emancipated slaves to Africa.

https://history.state.gov/milestones/1830-1860/liberia

https://www.britannica.com/topic/American-Colonization-Society

https://www.aaihs.org/the-american-colonization-society-200-years-of-the-colonizing-trick/

Paul Cuffee’s Dream

https://www.pbs.org/wnet/african-americans-many-rivers-to-cross/history/who-led-the-1st-back-to-africa-effort/

Economic Survival Against the Odds: 1880-1914

https://m.facebook.com/hpsol.liberia/photos/liberia-the-survival-of-an-african-state-period-review-1880-1914-by-ceska-sankar/514084695281382/

How One Historian Located Liberia’s Elusive Founding Document

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/liberias-founding-document-located-180980339/

The 1930’s: Photographs of the Country

https://www.liberiapastandpresent.org/paul-julien-in-liberia-in-1932-part-ii/

Liberia in World War II

https://wwiiafterwwii.wordpress.com/2022/08/27/wwii-weapons-in-liberia/

The First Liberian Civil War was one of Africa’s bloodiest civil conflicts in the post-independence era

https://www.blackpast.org/global-african-history/first-liberian-civil-war-1989-1996/

Liberians Celebrate 175th Independence Anniversary

https://www.liberianembassyus.org/in-the-news/liberians-celebrate-175th-independence-anniversary-on-embassy-grounds-near-washington-dc

Ellen Johnson Sirleaf - Africa’s first democratically-elected female head of state

https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/tcrr-chinese-workers-strike/

Edward J. Roye, Early President, from Ohio to Africa

https://aaregistry.org/story/edward-roye-politician-and-businessman/

https://liberiapastandpresent.org/EJRoye.htm

Back-to-Africa Narratives from the 1850s

https://www.psupress.org/books/titles/0-271-01710-4.html

A Modern Liberian Dream

https://frontpageafricaonline.com/opinion/letters-comments/the-liberian-dream/

Grand Challenge: Understanding the American Experience

Grand Challenge: Valuing World Cultures

ERC Grand Challenges: For project design, for inquiry, for activism

*Title:* Portrait of Edward James Roye, American-Liberian political figure Credit: public domain from Wikipedia

Understanding War Through the Arts

March 16, 2023

A short time ago, the Smithsonian Institution added a fifth Grand Challenge to its framework for study and examination, entitled “magnifying the transformative power of the arts and design”. One aspect of that inquiry involves examining how arts communities past and present have helped us to remember and make sense of world events, some small and relatively unnoticed and others as cataclysmic as a world-wide conflict.

Paintings, protest and propaganda: A visual history of warfare

https://www.cnn.com/style/article/depicting-war-through-art/index.html

A classical design for the forthcoming National World War I Memorial in Washington, D.C.

https://www.civicart.org/national-world-war-i-memorial

https://www.nps.gov/wwim/index.htm

A reminder from Indian WWI soldiers on the cost of war

https://scroll.in/magazine/916712/bombs-going-off-like-the-rains-in-sawan-a-reminder-from-indian-wwi-soldiers-on-the-cost-of-war

A First World War poem by French poet Adrienne Blanc-Peridier

https://femalewarpoets.blogspot.com/2017/10/a-first-world-war-poem-by-french-poet.html?m=1

Bavarian War Memorial (Kriegerdenkmal)

https://pietistschoolman.com/2012/01/25/commemorating-wwi-part-4/

Dulce et Decorum Est By Wilfred Owen

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/46560/dulce-et-decorum-est

WWI Remembrance: Clay Figures Amass in Belgium

https://sculpturedigest.com/wwi-remembrance-clay-figures-belgium/

Interpretation of the American Civil War in Bluegrass Music

https://cupola.gettysburg.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1135&context=gcjcwe

Canada’s War Art Collage

https://www.warmuseum.ca/firstworldwar/objects-and-photos/art-and-culture/official-art/

Thiepval Memorial to the Missing of the Somme

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thiepval_Memorial

In Flanders Fields by John McCrae

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/47380/in-flanders-fields

A Centenary of Australian War Art

https://www.theworldwar.org/exhibitions/centenary-australian-war-art

Grand Challenge: Magnifying the Transformative Power of the Arts and Design

STEM, STEAM, STEMX, STEMD and beyond..

ERC Grand Challenges: For project design, for inquiry, for activism.

Our Eyes on the Skies

March 16, 2023

As our universe gets smaller via technology, it's more important than ever to know what’s coming and going out there.

The skies of northern Chile are considered the best in the world for astronomy.

https://www.astronomictourism.com/astronomical-observatories-chile.html

The world's largest telescope is going to be built in Chile

https://www.vox.com/2014/12/5/7339349/extremely-large-telescope

The Universe Through Hubble's Eye

https://skyandtelescope.org/astronomy-news/universe-through-hubbles-eye/

Mayan explorations: Evidence suggests El Caracol was a lookout onto the heavens.

https://www.exploratorium.edu/ancientobs/chichen/HTML/caracol.html

For decades, Arecibo was Puerto Rico’s pride and joy and our ears for intelligent life in the universe

https://www.space.com/arecibo-radio-telescope-collapse-anniversary

Egyptians used the merkhet, sun dial, and water clock to design, build, tell time and bury their dead.

https://astronomerguide.com/ancient-egyptian-astronomy/

NASA's DART spacecraft hits a target asteroid. How did they make it happen?

https://www.reuters.com/lifestyle/science/nasas-asteroid-deflecting-dart-spacecraft-nears-planned-impact-with-its-target-2022-09-26/

https://www.space.com/dart-asteroid-mission

Do you take time to look up?

Grand Challenge: Unlocking the Mysteries of the Universe

STEM, STEAM, STEMX, STEMD and beyond..

ERC Grand Challenges: For project design, for inquiry, for activism

Labor Strikes in the U.S.

March 15, 2023

Labor Strikes and Their Impact on America’s Industrial Development

Believed to be the First: Jamestown Polish craftsmen's strike of 1619

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1619_Jamestown_craftsmen_strike

The Lowell Mill Girls Go on Strike, 1836

http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/5714

Battle of Blair Mountain: Two mine wars fought in West Virginia from 1912-1921

https://www.zinnedproject.org/news/tdih/battle-of-blair-mountain/

The Homestead Strike: Carnegie Steel vs. Steelworkers’ Union- The Army and Pinkertons Summoned Against Workers

https://www.history.com/topics/industrial-revolution/homestead-strike

The Coal Strike of 1902: Turning Point in U.S. Policy

https://www.dol.gov/general/aboutdol/history/coalstrike

Farm Workers Strike of 1965

https://depts.washington.edu/moves/UFW_geography.shtml

Operation Dixie: Southern segregation, racism and a militarized police meant the plan was destined to fail

https://timeline.com/operation-dixie-was-a-quixotic-attempt-to-unionize-the-south-61fdd7dd0810

Strikes and Strife in New Hampshire’s Mills

https://www.nhradicalhistory.org/story/strikes-and-strife-in-manchesters-mills/

The Transcontinental Railroad Chinese Worker’s Strike

https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/tcrr-chinese-workers-strike/

Some of the Issues That Led Women to Strike

https://time.com/4687509/day-without-a-woman-history-womens-strikes/

Great Railroad Strike of 1877

https://www.britannica.com/topic/Great-Railroad-Strike-of-1877

The 1975 Junior Doctors’ Strike

https://www.bmj.com/content/351/bmj.h6155

Grand Challenge: Understanding the American Experience

ERC Grand Challenges: For project design, for inquiry, for activism

Agitated workers face the factory owner in *The Strike*, painted by Robert Koehler in 1886. Public domain.

Do Forever Chemicals HAVE to Be Forever?

March 15, 2023

"Forever chemicals": Can we solve this persistent pollution problem?

What are PFA’S?

https://www.wbur.org/news/2019/11/08/what-are-pfas-chemicals-and-should-i-be-freaking-out-about-them

https://www.euronews.com/green/2022/08/19/forever-chemicals-what-are-pfas-and-can-we-solve-this-persistent-pollution-problem

https://www.ourdailyplanet.com/story/the-fda-reaches-agreement-with-companies-to-phase-out-food-packaging-containing-pfas/

Stockholm University: In Antarctica and on the Tibetan plateau rainwater is unsafe to drink

https://www.su.se/english/news/it-s-raining-pfas-even-in-antarctica-and-on-the-tibetan-plateau-rainwater-is-unsafe-to-drink-1.620735

In breast milk, toxic concentrations of "forever chemicals" have been discovered

https://www.industryglobalnews24.com/in-breast-milk-toxic-concentrations-of-forever-chemicals-have-been-discovered-how-dangerous-are-they

Scientists discover that two common, cheap substances can break down "forever chemicals".

https://www.euronews.com/next/2022/08/19/two-substances-found-in-nearly-every-chemistry-lab-could-help-break-down-forever-chemicals

https://www.eenews.net/articles/breakthrough-research-could-destroy-forever-chemicals/

Researchers are investigating whether microbes can help break down fluorinated contaminants

https://cen.acs.org/environment/persistent-pollutants/microbes-save-us-PFAS/99/i10

What’s going on with PFA’s where you live??

Grand Challenge: Understanding and Sustaining a Biodiverse Planet

STEM, STEAM, STEMX, STEMD and beyond..

ERC Grand Challenges: For project design, for inquiry, for activism.

The Bow Takes a Bow

August 05, 2022

Archery was vital to the survival of early humans and a giant step in thinking

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2022/apr/16/how-archery-was-vital-to-the-survival-of-early-humans

https://www.britannica.com/technology/bow-and-arrow

Development of the bow meant we were thinking hard: human cognitive evolution and archaeology.

https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/antiquity/article/bridging-theory-and-bow-hunting-human-cognitive-evolution-and-archaeology/509A69D013D25C97B92B36DD8F9017C2

The Holmegaard bow has been dated to around 7000 BC

https://worldarchery.sport/news/166330/how-old-bow-and-arrow

A Bit of Physical Science: Energy From a Bow Goes Into Kinetic Energy of the Arrow

https://www.wired.com/2014/12/much-energy-bow-goes-kinetic-energy-arrow/

http://ffden-2.phys.uaf.edu/webproj/212_spring_2015/Addis_Gonzalez/Addis_Gonzalez/introduction--history.html

Humans hunted for meat 2 million years ago

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2012/sep/23/human-hunting-evolution-2million-years

Early Stone Age people hunted with sharpened sticks. Later, they used bows and arrows and spears tipped with flint or bone. People gathered nuts and fruits and dug up roots. They went fishing using nets and harpoons.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/topics/z82hsbk/articles/z34djxs

Prehistoric children were hard workers, who learned from an early age to use the weapons and tools that would help them

https://www.science.org/content/article/playing-tools-and-weapons-was-normal-part-prehistoric-childhood

Science and Culture of the Bow and Arrow

https://chem.libretexts.org/Ancillary_Materials/Exemplars_and_Case_Studies/Exemplars/Culture/Cultural_Connections_to_Potential_and_Kinetic_Energy

Legendary Archers: Female Gods and Heroes

https://legendarchery.com/blogs/archery-bowhunting-blog/7-legendary-archers-female-gods-and-heroes

The Two Most Common Bows

https://archerybull.com/crossbow-vs-longbow/

Crossbow vs. the Longbow in the Medieval Period

https://www.thebeckoning.com/medieval/crossbow/cross_l_v_c.html

Archery at the Olympic Games: the early era and the modern era.

https://worldarchery.sport/sport/history/archery-olympic-games

The Quest to Shoot an Arrow Farther Than Anyone Has Before

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/innovation/quest-shoot-arrow-farther-anyone-has-before-180979009/

Grand Challenge: Valuing World Cultures

ERC Grand Challenges: For project design, for inquiry, for activism

Young People Say "Fridays for Our Future"

April 15, 2022

Young people are taking their future into their own hands. What does the youth movement for climate justice look like? How are they making their voices heard, and will they have the impact they intend?

School climate strikes resume across the world

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/mar/25/fridays-for-future-school-climate-strikes-resume

How Fridays for Future Keeps the Climate Relevant Amidst Other Crises

https://www.dw.com/en/how-fridays-for-future-keeps-the-climate-relevant-as-other-crises-rage/a-61232469

https://fridaysforfuture.org/

Sunrisers are marching over 600 miles across the Gulf South and California

https://www.sunrisemovement.org/campaign/generation-on-fire/

The Sunrise Movement is a youth movement to stop climate change

https://www.sunrisemovement.org/about/

South Korean students shave heads in protest

https://www.reuters.com/business/environment/skorean-students-shave-heads-protest-over-japans-nuclear-waste-water-plan-2021-04-20/

Colombian youth file the first climate change lawsuit in Latin America

https://www.dejusticia.org/en/colombian-youth-file-first-climate-change-lawsuit-latin-america/

Youth activists not just skipping school, they are also taking concrete steps to influence the policymaking process

https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/blogs/energysource/youth-climate-activists-arent-just-striking-theyre-taking-policy-action/

Kids vs. the World in a Landmark Climate Complaint

https://gizmodo.com/its-kids-vs-the-world-in-a-landmark-new-climate-lawsui-1838343565

Well, these Canadian elementary school students WANTED to protest…..

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/cbe-climate-strike-ban-sunalta-elementary-1.5299356

Boston’s Global Climate Strike organized by local groups

https://thescopeboston.org/7857/news/environmental-activists-join-bostons-global-climate-strike-organized-by-local-groups/

In 185 countries, an estimated 7.6 million people have attended Fridays for Future climate strikes.

https://www.sierraclub.org/sierra/are-you-ready-climate-strike-fridays-for-future-friday

1.1 Million were approved to Skip School for Climate Protest

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/16/nyregion/youth-climate-strike-nyc.html

Belgrade joins global climate strike with second Fridays for Future protest

https://balkangreenenergynews.com/belgrade-joins-global-climate-strike-with-second-fridays-for-future-protest/

Why we shouldn’t need a Fridays for Future Movement | Franziska Marhold | TEDxVienna

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ynwIZIdsb7w

BUT….. the issue of Climate Change is curiously absent from shows for kids

https://www.sierraclub.org/sierra/2021-6-winter/critic-s-notebook/children-s-programming-needs-tackle-climate-change

Organized climate change denial shapes public opinion on global warming

https://www.cbc.ca/news/science/climate-change-denial-fossil-fuel-think-tank-sceptic-misinformation-1.5297236

Fridays For Future U.S. - We Don't Care

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TLi_Y3OF1q4

Protest in Glasgow and around the world for action against climate change

https://www.npr.org/2021/11/06/1053218525/cop26-glasgow-global-climate-action-protests

Grand Challenge: Sustaining a Biodiverse Planet

ERC Grand Challenges: For project design, for inquiry, for activism

A Hard Look at Currencies

April 07, 2022

Over the last 10,000 years, the material form that money has taken has changed considerably—from cattle and cowrie shells to today's electronic currency

What IS money?

https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/article/history-money/

How Our Currency Evolved from Pelts to Money

https://mint.intuit.com/blog/investing-2/the-history-of-money/

The Origins of the Piggy Bank

https://www.paragonbank.co.uk/blog/origins-of-the-piggy-bank

What are global currency markets?

https://global.pimco.com/en-gbl/resources/education/understanding-currencies

Mom, what is bitcoin?

https://money.cnn.com/2018/05/14/pf/crypto-kids/index.html

https://www.newscientist.com/definition/bitcoin/

Cryptocurrency and blockchain

https://www.pwc.com/us/en/industries/financial-services/fintech/bitcoin-blockchain-cryptocurrency.html

Bitcoin's mysterious creator, Satoshi Nakamoto

https://www.businessinsider.com/bitcoin-history-cryptocurrency-satoshi-nakamoto-2017-12

The enormous electricity consumption needed for cryptocurrency fuels the climate crisis

https://www.earthisland.org/journal/index.php/articles/entry/bitcoin-miners-revived-dying-coal-plant-co2-emissions-soared

https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/why-bitcoin-is-bad-for-the-environment

Montana’s Hardin Generating Station, a 115-megawatt coal plant was slated for closure until bitcoin came along:

https://marathondh.com/our-facilities/

What Does the Future Hold for Cryptocurrency?

https://online.stanford.edu/future-for-cryptocurrency

https://www.forbes.com/sites/earlcarr/2021/12/30/cryptocurrency-risk-or-opportunity-the-good-the-bad--the-ugly/?sh=7fa5e58f74c8

62% of Crypto Investors Believe They’ll Get Rich — Are They Right?

https://levelup.gitconnected.com/62-of-crypto-investors-believe-theyll-get-rich-are-they-right-a5bcec78aae1

Crypto scams are the top threat to investors ‘by far,’ say securities regulators

https://www.cnbc.com/2022/01/11/crypto-scams-are-the-top-threat-to-investors-by-far-say-regulators.html

https://www.kaspersky.com/resource-center/preemptive-safety/scam-websites

Missouri Mayor Pledges $1,000 in Bitcoin to Each Household in His Town

https://levelup.gitconnected.com/missouri-mayor-pledges-1-000-in-bitcoin-to-each-household-in-his-town-f8f696f78e85

Another New Step: Developing Digital Currency

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/05/20/the-fed-this-summer-will-take-another-step-ahead-in-developing-a-digital-currency.html

https://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/fandd/2021/06/online/digital-money-new-era-adrian-mancini-griffoli.htm

Grand Challenge: Valuing World Cultures

Grand Challenge: Sustaining a Biodiverse Planet

ERC Grand Challenges: For project design, for inquiry, for activism

Tricky Insects: Insights into Evolution

April 05, 2022

Whether it’s for mating, self-defense, or finding a meal, insects have evolved in surprising ways.

Thanks to Tony Spagnuolo, Calcutt Middle School, Central Falls, RI, for this installment’s origin.

Membracidae- The “thorn mimic”

https://www.projectnoah.org/spottings/17034758

https://www.si.edu/stories/beautiful-and-bizarre-treehopper

Bird droppings? Nope, clever moths and caterpillars

https://bugoftheweek.com/blog/2021/8/9/bird-droppings-nope-clever-moths-and-caterpillars-looking-like-poop-beautiful-wood-nymph-eastern-tiger-swallowtail-black-swallowtail-red-spotted-purple

Crafty Caterpillar Puts Flowers on Back

https://twistedsifter.com/2012/05/wavy-lined-emerald-moth-camouflaged-looper-info-pics/

https://roadsendnaturalist.com/tag/camouflaged-looper/

The hawkmoth: These critters mimic snakes

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2254257/The-caterpillars-mimic-snakes-grow-spiky-spines-eat-toxic-flowers--predators-away.html

How about twigs?

http://www.urbanwildlifeguide.net/2013/05/twig-mimic-caterpillar.html

https://www.tcpalm.com/story/life/columnists/carol-cloud-bailey/2020/07/29/those-little-clusters-twigs-your-house-and-trees-actually-caterpillars-port-st-lucie-stuart-vero/5517313002/

The Giraffe Weevil

https://www.madamagazine.com/en/der-giraffenhalskaefer/

https://www.sfzoo.org/giraffe-weevil/

The Amazonian ant species Allomerus is monogamous, likes only one food, and builds traps

https://indianapublicmedia.org/amomentofscience/trap-building-ants.php

https://whyfiles.org/shorties/177ant_traps/

Can You Find The Mimics In America's Largest Insect Collection?

https://www.npr.org/2018/04/03/598240941/video-can-you-find-the-imposter-bugs-in-americas-largest-insect-collection

Grand Challenge: Unlocking the Mysteries of the Universe

Grand Challenge: Understanding and Sustaining a Biodiverse Planet

STEM, STEAM, STEMX, STEMD and beyond..

ERC Grand Challenges: For project design, for inquiry, for activism.

Frank Vassen - Flickr: Giraffe Weevil, Andasibe, Madagascar CC BY 2.0

Stained Glass Past and Present

February 17, 2022

Stained glass as an art form has evolved continuously over the centuries

It is believed that glassmaking was discovered 4,000 years ago in Mesopotamia.

https://www.cmog.org/article/origins-glassmaking

The Splendid History of an Ancient Art Form

https://mymodernmet.com/stained-glass-history/

1,000-Year-Old Colored Glass Beads Discovered in West Africa

https://www.livescience.com/59462-early-glassmaking-west-africa.html

Metals and chemical knowledge inform stained glass windows

https://mariekehendriksen.nl/2013/06/23/metals-and-chemical-knowledge-in-unexpected-places-stained-glass-windows/

Why stained glass works in both sacred and secular spaces

https://www.deseret.com/2016/11/14/20600344/why-stained-glass-works-in-sacred-and-secular-spaces#pieces-of-art-glass-are-assembled-into-panels-for-the-roots-of-knowledge-a-200-foot-long-stained-glass-installation-for-utah-valley-university-at-holdman-studios-in-lehi-on-nov-4-2016

The most spectacular, historic and eye-catching stained glass windows are scattered around the globe.

https://www.americanvisionwindows.com/amazing-stained-glass-windows/

Stained Glass in the Art Deco Movement

https://www.cumberlandstainedglass.com/the-evolution-of-stained-glass-in-the-art-deco-movement/

Looking ‘At’ Not ‘Through’. The Art of Stained Glass

https://magazine.artland.com/11-artists-who-worked-with-stained-glass/

Stained (Luster-Painted) Glass from Islamic Lands

https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/slpg/hd_slpg.htm

The Alhambra Palace, Granada

https://www.andalucia.com/cities/granada/alhambra-comares.htm

https://buffaloah.com/a/virtual/spain/gran/alham/mex/mex.html

Akili Anderson has infused his work with Afrocentric themes

https://stainedglass.org/news/article:akili-ron-anderson-is-lending-his-spirit-for-a-better-world/

http://www.akilironanderson.com/stained-glass.html

The Stained-Glass Décor Comeback: Far From Medieval

https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-stained-glass-decor-comeback-far-from-medieval-1475768450

https://www.cumberlandstainedglass.com/stained-glass-windows-are-becoming-a-popular-home-decor-trend/

Women Artists Working In Glass

https://artzealous.com/stained-glass-ceilings-5-women-artists-working-in-glass-that-you-should-know/

Stunning Tiffany Stained Glass Debuts After 100 Years of Obscurity

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/after-100-years-obscurity-brilliant-tiffany-stained-glass-window-shine-chicago-180977850/

Shiseido’s Interactive Stained Glass Window in Tokyo

https://www.spoon-tamago.com/2014/12/08/shiseidos-interactive-stained-glass-window-in-tokyo/

Breathtaking images of Japanese stained glass spiral staircase

https://grapee.jp/en/151595

Mihrimah Sultan Mosque, Turkey

https://www.contemporarynomad.com/turkish-stained-glass-window/

Nell Arthur's Memorial Window - White House Historical Association

https://www.whitehousehistory.org/nell-arthurs-memorial-window

Teatro Colón (Argentina)

http://www.traveladventures.org/continents/americas/teatro-colon15.html

In Corinth, Vermont, Restoring Stained Glass Windows

https://www.vnews.com/Stained-Glass-restorer-in-Corinth-7781129

Grand Challenge: Valuing World Cultures

ERC Grand Challenges: For project design, for inquiry, for activism

Visitors to Our Galaxy?

February 15, 2022

The Mysteries of Interstellar Visitors

Interstellar visit from a cigar-shaped thing named 'Oumuamua still confounds astronomers

https://www.wired.com/story/oumuamua-was-neither-comet-nor-asteroid-so-what-was-it/

Astronomers spent decades looking for objects from outside our own solar system. Then two arrived at once.

https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20210506-the-interstellar-voyagers-that-visited-our-sun

Harvard’s Avi Loeb Argues That ‘Oumuamua’ Was Really An Interstellar Alien Probe

https://www.forbes.com/sites/brucedorminey/2021/02/11/harvard-astronomer-views-interstellar-interloper-as-humanitys-wake-up-call/?sh=6e11bf8a4a21

Mystery of ‘Oumuamua Gets Trickier

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/mystery-of-interstellar-visitor-oumuamua-gets-trickier/

https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/asteroids-comets-and-meteors/comets/oumuamua/in-depth/

Why Can’t We Find Planet Nine? Planetary scientists have declared that a ghost planet is hiding in the depths of the solar system, well beyond the orbit of Pluto.

https://www.quantamagazine.org/a-new-worlds-extraordinary-orbit-points-to-planet-nine-20180515/

https://www.quantamagazine.org/why-cant-we-find-planet-nine-20180703/

2I/Borisov, the first known interstellar comet

https://earthsky.org/space/comet-21-borisov-comets-red-dwarf-stars-hubble-space-telescope/

Pluto's Sputnik Planitia glacier contains thousands of pits suspected to be caused by floating islands of water ice

https://www.spaceflightinsider.com/missions/solar-system/eternal-ice-age-unusual-ridges-near-plutos-sputnik-planitia-formed-by-ancient-glaciers/

https://skyandtelescope.org/astronomy-news/sputnik-planitia-drives-plutos-wandering-heart/

The Six Most Likely Places to Find Alien Life

https://www.space.com/15702-alien-life-solar-system-places.html

Fermi Paradox: Where are the aliens?

https://www.space.com/25325-fermi-paradox.html

The many major hurdles to becoming an interplanetary species.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Filter

https://www.scifuture.org/the-great-filter-a-possible-explanation-for-the-fermi-paradox-interview-with-robin-hanson/

The Great Filter: a possible solution to the Fermi Paradox.

https://astronomy.com/news/2020/11/the-great-filter-a-possible-solution-to-the-fermi-paradox

The Great Filter Theory | Genius by Stephen Hawking

https://mass.pbslearningmedia.org/resource/hawking_genius_ep02_clip05/are-we-alone-ch-5-the-great-filter-theory-genius-by-stephen-hawking/

Grand Challenges: Unlocking the Mysteries of the Universe

STEM, STEAM, STEMX, STEMD and beyond..

ERC Grand Challenges: For project design, for inquiry, for activism.

By Arne Nordmann (norro), CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=365130

Law and Justice Yesterday and Today

January 18, 2022

Sensational Trials Have Provoked Questions About the Law, Justice and Punishment

Many thanks to Kelsey Morse of White Mountains Regional HS (NH) Humanities Team for the ideas that sparked this edition.

The Right to a Trial by Jury

https://www.loc.gov/exhibits/magna-carta-muse-and-mentor/trial-by-jury.html

A Discussion of the “First Murder”: the biblical tale of brother killing brother and the complex relationships among victim, perpetrator and judge.

https://billmoyers.com/content/the-first-murder/

NPR: Three current trials put a spotlight on justice

https://www.npr.org/2021/11/21/1057759761/three-current-trials-are-putting-a-spotlight-on-race-and-justice

How Medieval Europe thought of Justice

https://www.medievalists.net/2019/04/how-medieval-europe-thought-of-justice/

https://www.abdn.ac.uk/sll/disciplines/english/lion/justice.shtml

China’s Legal System And The “Ten Abominations”

https://china-journal.org/2016/05/11/china-legal-system-ten-abominations/

The Aztec Legal System

https://www.mexicolore.co.uk/aztecs/you-contribute/aztec-law

http://azteccivilisations-justice.weebly.com/aztec-justice.html

Justifiably Infamous: The Spanish Inquisition

https://www.britannica.com/topic/Spanish-Inquisition

The Evolution of the Philippine Criminal Justice System

https://napoleoncreyes.wixsite.com/carabaojustice/single-post/2014/03/16/the-evolution-of-the-philippine-criminal-justice-system

Native American Social Structure, Laws and Punishments

https://restorativejustice.org/10fulltext/eagleharley

The Unique Problems Facing Native American Youths in the Criminal Justice System

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2020/10/native-american-youths-criminal-justice-system.html

Guilt or Innocence: Varieties of Ordeal and Torture

https://pages.uoregon.edu/dluebke/Witches442/442Week03--Ordeal&Torture.html

Trial by combat

https://priceonomics.com/a-brief-history-of-trial-by-combat/

How U.S. Courts Work

https://www.americanbar.org/groups/public_education/resources/law_related_education_network/how_courts_work/cases/

https://judiciallearningcenter.org/your-day-in-court/

The U.S. Federal Court System

https://www.justice.gov/usao/justice-101/federal-courts

Stage courts versus federal courts in the U.S.

https://judiciallearningcenter.org/state-courts-vs-federal-courts/

“Jim Crow” Justice in America

https://oxfordaasc.com/page/focus-on-jim-crow-justice/jim-crow-justice

https://www.britannica.com/event/Jim-Crow-law

How the Massachusetts jury system was created.

https://www.mass.gov/info-details/learn-about-the-history-of-the-jury-system

The International Court of Justice

https://www.icj-cij.org/en

Note: As always, Grand Challenges links do not necessarily represent our feelings or beliefs, but are intended to provoke inquiry, discussion, and critical thinking.

Grand Challenge: Valuing World Cultures

ERC Grand Challenges: For project design, for inquiry, for activism

Photo by Tingey Injury Law Firm on Unsplash

Gangs and Their Roots in Society

January 14, 2022

Gangs seem more numerous and powerful than ever: Some of the why, where, and when of gangs

Haitians suffocate under growing power of gangs

https://apnews.com/article/business-caribbean-port-au-prince-haiti-gangs-8793b917718e5f67f27317e765c410aa

What gangs tell us about the world we live in

https://theconversation.com/what-gangs-tell-us-about-the-world-we-live-in-114221

Where do gangs come from? The Influence of Population
Migration Patterns on Gang Emergence

https://www.nationalgangcenter.gov/content/documents/history-of-street-gangs.pdf

Chinatown tong wars

https://www.sfexaminer.com/news/chinatown-tong-wars/

Understanding gangs as armed groups

https://international-review.icrc.org/sites/default/files/irrc-878-hazen.pdf

Demobilizing South Africa’s ‘child soldier’ gangs

https://www.thenewhumanitarian.org/news-feature/2020/01/23/South-Africa-gangs-child-soldiers-apartheid

7 Infamous Gangs of 19th Century New York

https://www.history.com/news/7-infamous-gangs-of-new-york

Gang Movie: In 1862, Amsterdam Vallon returns to the Five Points area of New York City seeking revenge against Bill the Butcher, his father's killer.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0217505/

Central American gangs like MS-13 were born out of failed anti-crime policies

https://theconversation.com/central-american-gangs-like-ms-13-were-born-out-of-failed-anti-crime-policies-76554

Why Do Youth Join Gangs?

https://ojjdp.ojp.gov/sites/g/files/xyckuh176/files/jjbulletin/9808/why.html

Sociological Perspectives

https://www.ukessays.com/essays/sociology/gangs-from-different-sociological-perspectives-and-theories-sociology-essay.php

Brain scans on street gangs to trace reasons for life of crime

https://www.standard.co.uk/hp/front/brain-scans-on-street-gangs-to-trace-reasons-for-life-of-crime-6797494.html

Grand Challenge: Valuing World Cultures

ERC Grand Challenges: For project design, for inquiry, for activism

Photo by Chandler Cruttenden on Unsplash

Got Milk?

January 12, 2022

In the history of our species, drinking milk is a newer habit. Today, drinking milk is common practice in Europe, North America, and a growing patchwork of other places.

Every mammal produces milk to rear its young.

https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20160707-the-surprising-links-between-human-milk-and-the-wild

Mammals, Mutants, and… Roaches: The Science of Milk (Video)

Why Did Ancient Humans Start Consuming Milk From Other Mammals?

https://www.rawmilkinstitute.org/updates/why-humans-drink-raw-milk

https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20190218-when-did-humans-start-drinking-cows-milk

https://learninglab.si.edu/collections/lactase-persistence-and-human-migration/crw8btjh5izbVYPJ#r

Chemistry? In my milk??

https://dairyprocessinghandbook.tetrapak.com/chapter/chemistry-milk

The Science of Milk (Video)

Understanding human milk as a biological system

https://academic.oup.com/ajcn/article/113/5/1063/6218075

At Rwanda’s Favorite Bars, Forget the Beer: Milk Is What’s on Tap

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/09/world/africa/rwanda-milk-bars.html

Should we buy a yak instead of a cow? How about a camel?

https://www.heifer.org/blog/why-buy-a-cow-when-you-can-get-yak-milk-instead.html?msource=KIK2F19BL0101&gclid=CjwKCAjwzaSLBhBJEiwAJSRokvsG_lSu9EtBAZnjUb_V7QIYlwm2iOSlA89SKykBdavYa5-wzqJIcxoCELEQAvD_BwE

Greater Heat Stress From Climate Change Could Lower Dairy Productivity

https://www.ers.usda.gov/amber-waves/2014/november/greater-heat-stress-from-climate-change-could-lower-dairy-productivity/

Past, present, future of America’s dairy industry

https://extension.umn.edu/dairy-news/dairy-industry-50-years

Almond milk: quite good for you – very bad for the planet

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/shortcuts/2015/oct/21/almond-milk-quite-good-for-you-very-bad-for-the-planet

Have you got milk? In your fridge? In your school? What do YOU think about milk??

Grand Challenge: Valuing World Cultures

ERC Grand Challenges: For project design, for inquiry, for activism

Dealing with the Water

November 19, 2021

What will we do with the water? The future is already here wherever you are — in the form of rising sea levels and frequent, destructive flooding. What is to be done?

Rising Sea Levels Are Inundating Coastal Economies Four Times Faster

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-03-08/rising-sea-levels-inundating-coastal-economies-four-times-faster

Why the Missouri River Is Just Going to Keep On Flooding

https://www.insurancejournal.com/news/national/2019/04/30/525174.htm

Mississippi River, Missouri River listed as 'most endangered' in US

https://www.ksdk.com/article/weather/flooding/mississippi-river-missouri-river-endangered-flooding/63-ac1f8dd8-ba4a-474c-b5fd-4a5b837a9ef4

The Dutch Have Some Solutions to Rising Seas. The World Is Watching.

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/06/15/world/europe/climate-change-rotterdam.html

https://www.thestructuralengineer.info/news/the-dutch-solution-to-rising-seas

Jakarta may become the first megacity claimed by climate change. A last-ditch plan to save the city may not be enough

https://www.wired.co.uk/article/jakarta-sinking

Walls Won't Save Our Cities From Rising Seas. Here's What May

https://www.nbcnews.com/mach/science/walls-won-t-save-our-cities-rising-seas-here-s-ncna786811

“Green roofs” are being used in urban areas where space constraints limit the use of other stormwater management practices.

https://www.epa.gov/soakuptherain/soak-rain-green-roofs

Permeable Pavement Systems as a Mitigation Strategy to Combat Stormwater Outfall and Sea Level Rise

https://sharkresearch.rsmas.miami.edu/permeable-pavement-systems-as-a-mitigation-strategy-to-combat-stormwater-outfall-and-sea-level-rise/

https://www.usgs.gov/science/evaluating-potential-benefits-permeable-pavement-quantity-and-quality-stormwater-runoff?qt-science_center_objects=0#qt-science_center_objects

Rethinking the Future of Dams in the U.S.: The country must grapple with a legacy of 90,000 dams- the future of our existing dams, including 2,500 hydroelectric facilities, is complicated in the age of climate change

https://therevelator.org/rethinking-dams/

The World’s Largest Dam-removal Project — and What We Could Miss

https://therevelator.org/klamath-dam-science/

Can High-Volume Water Pumps Save Cities From Rising Sea Levels?

https://mwipumps.com/2021/02/05/how-flood-control-water-pumps-can-save-cities-from-rising-sea-levels/

What are the solutions being discussed near you? How are you impacted? Is there hope? Are there jobs to help with the challenge?

Grand Challenge: Understanding and Sustaining a Biodiverse Planet

ERC Grand Challenges: For project design, for inquiry, for activism

Will Climate Change Take Us or Remake Us?

November 18, 2021

Climate change is transforming ecosystems at an extraordinary pace. As species respond, their interactions with the physical world and the organisms around it change too. This triggers a cascade of impacts throughout the entire ecosystem.

https://www.nap.edu/resource/12491/ecological_impacts.pdf

Will Climate Change Remake Human Biology? As temperatures continue to climb, will we wither away, or will our physiology begin to adapt? Should we be sweating it??

https://onezero.medium.com/will-heat-remake-human-biology-7e9c9dcf8ba7

Global warming will likely alter the internal workings of our bodies — and cause a noticeable shift in our appearance.

https://www.nbcnews.com/mach/science/climate-change-could-affect-human-evolution-here-s-how-ncna907276

Our digestive systems will need to evolve in response to food availability— where crops and livestock can be cultivated.

http://www.fao.org/livestock-environment/en/

Some 'warm-blooded' animals are shapeshifting and getting larger beaks, legs, and ears to better regulate their body temperatures as the planet gets hotter.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/09/210907110718.htm

Climate and Land Use Change

https://www.usgs.gov/faqs/what-are-long-term-effects-climate-change-1?qt-news_science_products=0#qt-news_science_products

What, if anything, can we do to prepare physically and emotionally for what the warming climate will bring? What conversations are you having in your family, your school, your community?

Grand Challenge: Understanding and Sustaining a Biodiverse Planet

Grand Challenge: Unlocking the Mysteries of the Universe

ERC Grand Challenges: For project design, for inquiry, for activism

American Rural Education and One-Room Schools

November 18, 2021

Rural education has reflected the circumstances, challenges, and context of places in America called "rural.”

https://education.stateuniversity.com/pages/2383/Rural-Education.html

The Greek Revival Architecture of the American One Room School as a Symbolic Reflection of our Democratic National Ideals.

https://primaryresearch.org/the-greek-revival-architecture-of-the-american-one-room-school-as-a-symbolic-reflection-of-our-democratic-national-ideals/

The Rosenwald Schools: More than a century ago, in America’s rural South, a community-based movement ignited by two unexpected collaborators shaped the educational and economic future of an entire generation of African American families.

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/how-rosenwald-schools-shaped-legacy-generation-black-leaders-180977340/

https://savingplaces.org/places/rosenwald-schools

Death by Civilization: Thousands of Native American children were forced to attend boarding schools created to deprive them of their culture.

https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2019/03/traumatic-legacy-indian-boarding-schools/584293/

https://www.okhistory.org/publications/enc/entry.php?entry=AM012

Facing the Legacy of the Boarding Schools: Saving the Diné Knowledge

https://www.culturalsurvival.org/publications/cultural-survival-quarterly/facing-legacy-boarding-schools

Cultural Identity and Schooling in Rural New Mexico

https://jrre.psu.edu/sites/default/files/2019-08/24-8.pdf

Country schools went through hard times in the 1930s.

https://livinghistoryfarm.org/farminginthe30s/life_21.html

Education in the Thirteen Colonies

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Education_in_the_Thirteen_Colonies

Rural Women's Studies Association

https://www.ohio.edu/cas/history/institutes/rwsa

The Rural School Reference Collection is comprised of materials relating to the legacy of the rural schools in the United States with an emphasis on the Midwest.

https://museum.library.uni.edu/rural-school-reference-collection

New England’s one-room schoolhouses

https://www.newenglandhistoricalsociety.com/six-historic-one-room-schoolhousessix-historic-one-room-schoolhouses/

Teaching and Learning in Montana’s One Room Schoolhouses

https://savingplaces.org/stories/small-wonders-montana-schoolhouses

https://archive.storycorps.org/interviews/kristi-borge/

Some voices of rural schools and communities

https://www.nrea.net/

https://www.ruraledu.org/

Grand Challenge: Understanding the American Experience

ERC Grand Challenges: For project design, for inquiry, for activism

Is the Anthropocene Era a sinking endeavor?

November 17, 2021

Rising Seas: Many of us have begun to sink. Will that make us pay attention?

Seven places that are sinking faster than anywhere else in the US

https://www.businessinsider.com/cities-towns-sinking-rapidly-us-2019-6

New Maps Show How Sea Level Rise Will Destroy Coastal Cities By 2050

https://www.forbes.com/sites/jimdobson/2019/10/30/shocking-new-maps-show-how-sea-level-rise-will-destroy-coastal-cities-by-2050/?sh=27cf6690456c

Our Debt to Places That Are Sinking

https://www.bostonglobe.com/2021/07/18/opinion/our-debt-places-that-are-sinking/

The Marshall Islands likely won't exist if we warm the planet 2 degrees

https://www.cnn.com/interactive/2015/06/opinions/sutter-two-degrees-marshall-islands/

Students on Pacific islands being swallowed by rising seas join global climate strike

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/climate-strike-change-protests-solomon-islands-global-warming-demonstrations-south-pacific-kiribati-marshall-islands-a9113386.html

The People of the Isle de Jean Charles Are Louisiana’s First Climate Refugees—But They Won’t Be the Last

https://www.nrdc.org/stories/people-isle-jean-charles-are-louisianas-first-climate-refugees-they-wont-be-last

This Alaska Town is Fleeing to Higher Ground

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/as-water-levels-rise-this-alaska-town-is-fleeing-to-higher-ground

How Sea Level Rise Threatens the NY/NJ/CT Region

https://www.fairfieldct.org/filestorage/10736/12067/17055/26401/48821/UNDER_WATER___How_Sea_Level_Rise_Threatens_the_Tri-State_Region_December_2016.pdf

Are the Dutch Docklands Floating Islands a Sustainable Alternative?

https://trends.archiexpo.com/project-25436.html

What kind of conversations are you having about rising water? Do you live on high ground? Or on low ground? What does activism look like where you live?

Grand Challenge: Understanding and Sustaining a Biodiverse Planet

ERC Grand Challenges: For project design, for inquiry, for activism

For the Birds

August 23, 2021

More people are watching the birds. But there are fewer of them to watch. What can the birds tell us? How have we treated them over the years? What will our combined futures look like?

The Pandemic: How Have Birds and Other Wildlife Responded?

https://www.audubon.org/news/a-year-pandemic-how-have-birds-and-other-wildlife-responded

Bird-watching soars amid COVID-19 as Americans head outdoors.

https://apnews.com/article/us-news-ap-top-news-ca-state-wire-or-state-wire-virus-outbreak-94a1ea5938943d8a70fe794e9f629b13

Millions of people are birdwatchers, with masses of clubs and groups in different countries across the globe

https://chirpbirding.com/blog/81/how-popular-is-birdwatching/

As the earth warms, birds are literally our “canaries in the mine”.

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/millions-of-birds-are-migrating-earlier-because-of-warming/

https://www.audubon.org/climate/survivalbydegrees

The Effects of Climate Change in 3 Birds

https://time.com/3319416/birds-climate-change/

Looks That Killed: The Fashion of Extinction

https://www.saturdayeveningpost.com/2016/06/looks-kill-fashion-extinction/

Humans are behind the extinction of hundreds of bird species over the last 50,000 years.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/08/210811113120.htm

Rosalie Edge: a forgotten hero of our natural world whose brave campaign to protect birds charted a new course for the environmental movement

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/how-mrs-edge-saved-birds-180977167/

The World’s First Refuge for Birds of Prey

https://www.hawkmountain.org/

How are the birds doing in your area? Do you watch them or feed them? Who's taking care of them? What are the birds telling YOU??

https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-55795816

Grand Challenge: Understanding and Sustaining a Biodiverse Planet

ERC Grand Challenges: For project design, for inquiry, for activism

Photo by Boston Public Library on Unsplash

Trees and Plants: More Amazing Than Ever

May 17, 2021

From tiny flowers to grand networks of aspens, we are surrounded by trees and plants. And, we are learning more about our green neighbors all the time. What can you learn from the recent discoveries we’ve collected here?

Plants and animals share many of the same genes—but we use some of them in different ways.

https://blog.helix.com/eya-twg-plant-human-similarities/

Fungi, whales, trees, and humans grow the same way, and growth, not metabolism, is the common pattern that ties all complex life together.

https://theprint.in/science/different-but-similar-fungi-whales-trees-humans-grow-the-same-way-study-suggests/326845/

Under our feet is an information superhighway that allows plants to communicate.

http://www.bbc.com/earth/story/20141111-plants-have-a-hidden-internet

https://www.nationalforests.org/blog/underground-mycorrhizal-network

Bristlecone pines only grow in the arid regions of the Western United States, and can live for thousands of years.

https://www.oldest.org/nature/bristlecone-pine-trees-usa/

Heirloom Farming from Jefferson’s Estate

https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/farming-gardens-at-monticello

Andrew Jackson’s Magnolias