4Kids.org - Week of January 27, 2008

Week of January 27, 2008

History Detectives

Historians want you to check out their craft at You Be the Historian, www.american
history.si.edu/kids/springer. Historians pay close attention to the clues people leave behind that survive through time. Click on Let's Go to rummage through the belongings of the Springer family. See if you can figure out how many Springers there were, what they ate and what their work was. Did you know that in the future, historians will study things that you once owned? What kinds of things will historians in 2050 learn about your family by looking at your artifacts.

Nominate a cool Web site at https://4Kids.org/nominations/

Visit the Featured Web sites to find the answers.

What sources of light did the Springers use?

Betty lamps and candles
Firecrackers
Neon lights

Who created the computer?

Alan Turing
Bill Gates
Steve Jobes

Vanilla
belongs to which
family?

Piperales
Rosidae
Orchid

Crack the Code

Nova Online invites all code-cracking brainiacs to check out how the Allies discovered hidden messages in Nazi communications at www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/decoding. If you are up for a challenge, click on Crack the Ciphers to see three World War II-style puzzles. Next create a coded message and e-mail it to a friend with a secret key. Test your new code talents when you use a simple cipher and try to make sense out of confusing correspondences. This site introduces you to many codes that surprisingly, you will be able to see in everyday life.

Tasty Tropical Treats

Expose your taste buds to some sweet and spicy foods at The Missouri Botanical Garden’s Tropical Feast, www.mobot.org/education/
tropicalfeast. Did you know that the avocado is actually a fruit and that it contains up to 30 percent oil? Bamboo, a tropical vegetable, cannot only be eaten, but can also be used in construction. Food can also provide clues about the lives of ancient people. For example, fossilized sweet potatoes in the Andes are possible evidence of ancient trade routes between Asia and South America.

Do you think field trips help students learn? Why or why not?

Speak Out Here!

Dear Amy: Who invented the Internet and when? — Katherine, St. Paul, Minn.

Dear Katherine: Today, the Internet is something many of us take for granted. It is actually a relatively new invention, which began as a project for the U.S. Defense Department in 1969. It began a network called the ARPANET that was used to develop strategies that would allow networked computers to communicate with each other. The networking technologies developed in this project eventually evolved into the Internet that we know today. To learn more about the history of the Internet, visit www.fcc.gov/cgb/ kidszone/history_internet.html.

Dear Amy: How do I find games that are appropriate for kids? — Peyton, Newport, Calif.

Dear Peyton: The best place to look for kid-friendly games is on Web sites that are specially designed for kids. A good place to start at is Yahoo! Kids at http://kids.yahoo.com. This kid's search engine has a games section on its site, or you can use the search bar to look for even more games on the Web. Want to boost your brainpower? Learning is a blast at 4kids.org/games and www.funbrain.com/kidscenter.html.

Ask Amy a Question