PE 🏃♀️
Core workout today:
Math ➕➖✖➗
Practice your multiplication:
Science 🔬
Denali
If you ask grown-ups about Denali mountain, they may not immediately realize what you’re talking about. That’s because until 2015 it was called Mount McKinley and that’s what we learned in school. Denali is the traditional name used by the native people of the area. During the gold rush, a prospector named the mountain after a presidential candidate (who will become the 25th president of the US later).
Denali is in Alaska and is part of the Alaska Range. It’s the tallest mountain in North America. It’s also one of the tallest mountains when measured from base to the top. It’s much taller in that way even than Mount Everest, the tallest mountain above sea level.
The first person to attempt getting to the top of Denali was James Wickersham in 1903, but he failed. In 1906, Frederick Cook claimed that he got to the top, but this claim was unverified. It wasn’t until 1913 that somebody climbed to the top and it was confirmed! It was actually four men: Hudson Stuck, Harry Karstens, Walter Harper and Robert Tatum.
Mauna Kea
Mauna Kea is a volcano of island of Hawaii. Don’t worry – it’s dormant and it’s not expected to explode any time soon. At 13 803 feet (4207 meters), it’s not a very tall mountain. This height is measured from sea level. I just mentioned that Denali is bigger than Mount Everest because it starts lower. Well, both of these start above sea level. That’s not the case for Mauna Kea. It start far, far below sea level. When measured from its base, Mauna Kea is 33 500 feet (10 200 meters) tall. That’s well over 4000 feet more than Mount Everest!
Social Science 👩🎓
Nellie Bly
Nellie Bly was the pen name of Elizabeth Jane Cochran. She studied to become a teacher, but she didn’t have enough money to finish school. When she was 16, she read a newspaper article and the way it talked about women made Elizabeth angry. She was so upset that she wrote newspaper’s editor. The editor was so impressed by her writing that he hired her as a writer.
As a reporter, she went undercover to a hospital for mentally ill and wrote an article about how horrible the hospital was. Her writing career was all about helping groups of people that were treated badly.
But how was she a famous explorer? Well, let’s start with this: have you ever heard of Around the World in 80 Days? She decided to beat that time. She set out on her trip on November 19, 1889. She had many adventures and problems on her way. She was running behind by the time she got back to America. One of the problems was that there were no planes back then and trains didn’t run too often. By this point, though, Nellie Bly was famous and everybody wanted to help her. Newspaper New York World rented an entire train for her to make sure she could come right back to New York. She completed the whole trip in 72 days!
Sally Ride
Sally Ride was born in 1951 in California. Growing up, she was a great tennis player, but when she was a teenager, she realized she wanted something different in life. She got a PhD in physics, specializing in astrophysics. When opportunity came, she applied to NASA. In 1983, she flew into space on board of space shuttle Challenger, becoming first American woman to go into space.
She actually got to go into space twice. And there are two schools in the US named after her! Another interesting thing she did: she is the only person who worked on both committees investing famous space shuttle accidents: Challenger and Columbia.
Valentina Tereshkova
If we mention Sally Reid, we can’t forget Valentina Tereshkova! She is not as well known in the US because he lived in the Soviet Union (currently Russia). Her greatest accomplishment: she was the first woman (of any country) to go into space. She went in 1963, so 20 years before Sally Reid! She was actually member of early space exploration. Neil Armstrong didn’t land on the Moon until 1969. First space mission for a human was only 2 years before Tereshkova’s mission. The first man to go into space was also sent by Soviet Union. His name was Yuri Gagarin.
Amelia Earhart
Amelia Earhart was born in 1897 in Kansas. She tried different jobs and careers, but nothing made her happy. When she was 23, she got to be on board of an airplane at an air show for the first time in her life and that’s when she decided she finally found her thing.
In 1928, Amelia was a flight navigator (no GPS back then!) on a flight across the Atlantic Ocean. This made her the first woman to fly across the Atlantic. She wanted more though. In 1932, she became the first woman and second person over all to fly solo (that’s alone) across the Atlantic. Later, she was also the first person (man or woman) to fly solo from Hawaii to California.
Amelia Earhart disappeared over the Pacific Ocean in 1937, when she tried to become the first woman to fly around the world.
Trivia ❓
Hawaii was the 50th state to join the union.
Word of the day ❗
Pen name – an assumed name used by a writer instead of their real name.
Activity 📺
Learn about Jade Hameister, kid-explorer: