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Read the August 2010 Newsletter: "Inspire students to take action this year!"

INSIDE:
Editor's Pick: Special Guest Blogger Elisabeth Soep talks about her inspiring new book,
Drop That Knowledge: Youth Radio Stories.

August Challenge: Plan a service-learning project
GeoFeature: 4-H2O: National Youth Science Day
GeoNews: U.N. declares "International Year of Youth"
Blog: A Kid, a Campaign, Iceland

The virtues enshrined in the Boy Scout Law--trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean, reverent--date back more than a century to founder Lord Robert Baden-Powell's original manual, Scouting for Boys.
 

Fine attributes, to be sure, but they beg one important question: Where's the geo??? To scout about, after all, a boy scout needs to know how to read or make a map, what's where, and how to get there.

So National Geographic Education pitched its tents, two big ones ... 


 

... at the National Centennial Boy Scout Jamboree near Fredericksburg, Virginia a few weeks ago and invited the assembled teens to view the world through our lens. More than 20,000 stopped by and did just that.

In case you aren't a boy or a scout or otherwise couldn't make it, here are a few highlights of what we shared:

IT DOESN'T JUST GROW ON TREES

 Well, some of what we eat does, but most of us rarely see our food get grown or raised. Often, we don't even know where it comes from. We gave scouts photos of familiar fruits, veggies, nuts, and meats and asked them to find the countries that export them most on a giant map of the world.
 

THE PLANET THROUGH ANIMAL EYES

Animals may share the Earth with us, but their worldview's entirely different. That's why National Geographic's remote imaging team developed Crittercam...



... a suite of high-tech, industrial-strength cameras that strap or stick to animals, then pop off for retrieval and a bona fide creature's-eye look at the landscape. Here, intrepid intern Matt sports Crittercam's ever-popular "KidCam."

Two months after the oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico began gushing, the scale of the disaster has only increased.  Sometimes scale can be difficult to visualize from news stories, but these oil spill visualization tools can help!

Parents: Talk with your kids about how the size of the spill compares to geographic areas they might be familiar with (e.g. your county, the size of the national park you visited on vacation last year, etc.)

Teachers: Have students try to identify land areas that might be the same size as the oil spill (e.g. small U.S. states, islands, and European countries), and then crunch the numbers to see how their guesses measure up.

It has been more than a month since the April 20th Deepwater Horizon drilling rig exploded in the Gulf of Mexico, leading to an oil spill that, according to the Guardian, has already dumped 42-100 million gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico.  Since then, the news has been filled with stories about skimming, tubes, domes, Top-Kill, cut and cap plans, and economic and environmental degradation. 


Public beaches were closed Friday in Grand Isle, La., as oil, dead fish, and birds washed ashore.

http://www.nytimes.com/imagepages/2010/05/25/us/jp-SPILL-1.html

The massive impact of this disaster is difficult to wrap our minds around, and yet it is increasingly important that we try to do so.  This disaster is not an abstract story in the news.  It is a tragic misfortune that affects people, economic chains, ecosystems, and the planet.  Most importantly, it is preventable. 

In permit applications to drill in the Gulf, BP said that it was, "prepared to handle an oil spill more than ten times larger than the one now spewing crude," according to reports from Alison Fitzgerald of Bloomberg News.  Bob Deans, spokesman for the Natural Resources Defense Council in Washington, categorized BP's actions as, "overpromised and underdelivered.  They told us they had a plan that could deal with the consequences of a worst-case scenario. They don't."

Even though the worst case scenario detailed in BP's disaster plan was far worse than the Deepwater Horizon spill, this spill is a worst case scenario for the local economy and environment.

The Oil Spill and the Economy

Which city beginning with the letter "K" has more than 7 million inhabitants living within its metropolitan limits?

Kiev, Kinshasa, or Kuala Lumpur?

If you said Kuala Lumpur, which would have been my guess, you'd be wrong, as was the contestant who attempted to answer the question in the first round of the National Geographic Bee Final yesterday in Washington, D.C. The correct answer, Kinshasa, a city located in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, is one of the largest in Africa, comparable in size to Johannesburg (South Africa) and smaller only than Lagos (Nigeria) and Cairo (Egypt).

The Bee Final was characteristically exciting--and challenging for us onlookers (even those with degrees in Geography)! Ten contestants--all male--advanced past the semi-final round held Wednesday (a head-to-head match-up among winners from all 50 U.S. states, territories, and Department of Defense Dependents Schools), to compete for a chance at a $25,000 scholarship, a trip to the Galapagos Islands, and a lifetime membership to the National Geographic Society.

 A few highlights from the Final:

The state winners of the National Geographic Bee have been announced!  Many of the winners prepared a brief video about themselves and--what else?--the geography of their states. The videos are posted on YouTube on National Geographic's channel. Here are five of our favorites--if we have to choose ;-)

In the spirit of the holidays and the Copenhagen Climate Change talks, I am combining the two for this Five for Friday post- five ways to make your White Christmas green. Or, for those of you who live in warmer climes, five ways to make your Green Christmas greener.

1. Buy a re-plantable Christmas tree: I'd never heard of such a thing until fellow intern and green-queen extraordinaire Hilary told me her family does this every year. Although very few places in the United States actually market it, the idea is simple: Buy an evergreen with its root ball still attached, enjoy it for the holiday season; then return in to the nursery, plant it in your backyard, or donate it to a local park! Swanson's in Seattle, Washington is one such nursery that will take back the tree and re-plant it in Pipers Creek, a salmon habitat that needs conifers and other trees to maintain a healthy stream for the fish.

Another organization in the Pacific Northwest calls itself the "Original Living Christmas Tree Company." They pick up trees and replant them in watersheds all over the Northwest. They also have great tips on other ways to get a living Christmas tree if you don't live in the Portland, Oregon area.

Whatever kind of tree you buy, make sure it's real! According to the Environmental News Network, real trees are better for the environment than fake plastic ones. Check out the full story to read more.

2. Wrap gifts in recycled paper: My mother is the master of recycling wrapping paper (and ribbons) year after year. In fact, we have an entire closet in our house dedicated to wrapping materials, most of which have been used and re-used many times. Newspaper makes excellent (and often nicely-sized!) wrapping paper, especially if you use the Comics and other colored or graphic sections. Here at National Geographic, the Maps department frequently gives away old, rejected, or torn maps; I've been digging through the pile all semester, and plan to wrap all of my gifts this year in them! Ribbons and bows are also very easy to re-use. Grab a bag and see how many streamers, bows, and other gift-garnishes you can collect this year. You'll be surprised how fast your pile grows!

MWW learned about Alexandra Ramaeker Zahn, a 12-year-old from Iowa who has written four novels, through a friend's encounter with the her mother at a conference. Following the lead from our friend, we called Alexandra to learn more about her stories, which span the geography of the U.S. and Europe.

Alexandra is a middle school student who participates in multiple sports, as well as Mock Trial, Destination Imagination, Junior Achievement, Jazz Band and Chorus. She has traveled to 18 states and 2 countries with her family. She enjoys learning, in detail, facts about each of the places she has been to. She is curious about other cultures, landscapes, the science of things, and the dynamics of friendships.

Can you tell me the titles of the four novels you've written and give a brief synopsis of each?
Moving Streak is the story of an 8th grade girl named Abby who moves around the United States--to South Dakota, Iowa, and North Carolina. She doesn't know if she really fits in because she moves around so much. By the end of the novel, she finds out who her real friends are, and who she really is.

Deep Down Secrets is set in New York City. It is about a popular girl who doesn't really love being popular, and doesn't really know who she's become. With the help of her best friend, she comes to terms with herself.

Best Year Never is the sequel to Deep Down Secrets. It goes deeper into the friendships of the protagonist. Some kids still think she's stereotypically "cool," but others discover that she is different in important ways.

Princess of Anastesia takes place in Italy, in medieval times. It tells the story of a 12-year-old who lives with a farm family, but discovers that her real dad is a king, and she is a princess. Her father had to give her up because his kingdom was fighting a great war, and the enemies were trying to hurt her.

In brainstorming holiday craft ideas, I tried to come up with something that would be geographic, gender-neutral, and fun for all ages...Why not transform the traditional gingerbread house into a gingerbread global village? You could make an adobe abode for warm-weather dwellers, an igloo, a tee-pee, an eco-home...

So, like any good researcher, I grabbed my roommates and put the idea to the test this past weekend. They made an elaborate, traditional Victorian estate complete with an ice-skating rink and outhouse. I went less traditional--and only slightly less ambitious--and built a two-story adobe home and igloo.

Here are our tried-and-true recipes, tips and ideas.

You'll need:
--Gingerbread dough (recipe below)
--icing (recipe below)
--food coloring
--rolling pin
--measuring cups and spoons
--cookie sheets
--wax paper
--clean work surface
--pencils
--paper
--ruler
--scissors
--card stock or cardboard
--candy, such as gum drops, Life Savers, candy canes, Twizzlers, Pirouette cookies, etc.

We got the main recipe and instructions from "Elise" at Simply Recipes. Keep reading for step-by-step instructions.