Category archives for Culture
Posted by What makes NG Kids so special? In one word, how would you describe National Geographic Kids? What comes to mind when you think of NG Kids games, the magazine, website, books like That’s Gross, Weird But True, NG Kids My Shot, and our animal videos?
Please add your word in the comments!
The NG Kids Dare to Explore O’ahu contest challenged kids to tell us why they would like to explore Oahu. Four kids ages 9 to 14 were selected as winners to join the Oahu expedition from August 23-29, 2012. The four winners were Ella Beezely, age 10 from Indiana; Liam Kivirist, age 10, from Wisconsin; Anya Hardin, age 12, from Ohio; and Sarah Tharpe, age 14, from Florida. The kids were joined by NG expert and Digital Nomad, Andrew Evans.
The kids visited Pearl Harbor and the USS Arizona Memorial, explored the nooks and crannies of the Battleship USS Missouri, met a real WW2 hero at the Pacific Aviation Museum, learned to plant taro (and eat poi!), made music at Na Mea KuPono, contributed to restoring the fish ponds with coral with Paepae o He`eia/Friends of He`eia, appeared on a movie set at Kualoa Ranch, explored all of the Polynesia Islands in one day plus were dazzled by “Ha!” at the Polynesian Cultural Center, all in just one week while staying at The Aston Hotel and Resort Waikiki Sunset!!
Group photograph by Dana Deighton. From left: Anya Hardin, Liam Kivirist, Ella Beezley, Sarah Tharpe with Andrew Evans, NG Digital Nomad in back
Fish photograph by Anya Hardin
Last month kids were invited to enter their pictures in the Children’s Eyes on Earth photo contest to help raise awareness of environmental issues. This contest was created by IDEA (International Dialogue for Environmental Action) along with the photographer and National Geographic photographer and humanitarian Reza. Now, you can help choose the winner by rating the photos entered in the contest! Visit the Children’s Eyes on Earth website until September 25 to vote.
Here’s your chance to be part of a new National Geographic Kids book! Visit the Are You “Normal”? page on National Geographic Kids
to answer polls about your family, friends, likes, dislikes, and more!
Your answers will appear in the next Are You “Normal”? book, which will
be published in 2013.
Meet the mascots of the London 2012 Olympic Games! Wenlock and Mandeville are made of steel, and are said to be made from the last girder of the Olympic stadium! Wenlock is the mascot of the Olympic Games, and Mandeville is the mascot of the Paralympics. The mascots are both customizable. You can create your own Wenlock or Mandeville on their official website.
This summer’s Olympic games begin on July 27. The Paralympics begin on August 29. What events are you most excited to watch?
Learn more about the London 2012 Olympics.
Get the facts on the United Kingdom on National Geographic Kids.
Photograph by Johnny Green, AP
Rahul Nagvekar, a 8th grader from Texas, won the 2012 National Geographic Bee today at National Geographic headquarters in Washington, D.C. Nagvekar received a $25,000 college scholarship, a lifetime membership in the National Geographic Society, and a trip to the Galapagos Islands! Nagvekar is the third GeoBee champion from Texas in the past four years.
Watch the tense final moments of the competition, with the questions asked by “Jeopardy!” host Alex Trebek.
Watch last year’s final question on News Bites.
Learn more about the National Geographic Bee.
Do you have what it takes to compete in the GeoBee? Quiz Your Noodle and find out!
Fifty-four state-level winners matched wits in the National Geographic Bee preliminary round on Tuesday, May 22. Here are the 10 competitors that came out on top:
Raghav Ranga, Arizona
Varun Mahadevan, California
Anthony Stoner, Louisiana
Adam Rusak, Maryland
Karthik Karnik, Massachusetts
Gopi Ramanathan, Minnesota
Neelam Sandhu, New Hampshire
Rahul Nagvekar, Texas
Anthony Cheng, Utah
Vansh Jain, Wisconsin
The winner of the National Geographic Bee will win a $25,000 college scholarship, lifetime membership in the National Geographic Society, and a trip to the Galápagos Islands. Watch them compete in the final round on Thursday, May 24, at 8 p.m. ET/PT on the National Geographic Channel and Nat Geo WILD.
Learn more about the National Geographic Bee.
Do you have what it takes to compete in the GeoBee? Quiz Your Noodle and find out!
Photograph by Rebecca Hale
The finalists in the 2012 National Geographic Bee arrive at National Geographic headquarters this week for the finals! Every year, thousands of schools participate in the Bee, but only one finalist from each state goes on to compete in the finals.
Learn more about the National Geographic Bee.
Do you have what it takes to compete? Quiz Your Noodle and find out!
More than 114,000 young artists from across the country have submitted their drawings to the Doodle 4 Google contest, and now you can help select the winners! The drawings are all based on this year’s theme, which is “If I could travel in time, I’d visit…”
The competition was open to K-12 students in the United States. The entries are broken up into five different age groups, and you can vote for your favorite in each category. The national winner will be chosen on May 17, and the winning doodle will appear on the Google homepage on May 18.
Visit the Doodle 4 Google site to vote for your favorites.
Feeling creative? Submit your favorite photographs to National Geographic Kids My Shot!
Illustrations courtesy of Google
The winners of the 2012 National Geographic Student Expeditions Photo Contest have been chosen from more than 1,800 entries. The contest was open to high school students across the country. Timothy Brooks, who snapped the grand prize winning photo above, will travel to London this summer for the National Geographic Student Expeditions London Photography Workshop. His winning photo entitled, Coyote Curled at Sunset, is shown above.
See all of the winners and finalists on the National Geographic Student Expeditions website..
Do you love to take pictures? Submit your favorites to NG Kids My Shot!
Photograph by Timothy Brooks
The National Geographic Kids website has been nominated for a 2012 Webby Award! The website is listed in the Website – Living – Youth category. NG Kids won the award in this category in 2010, and received the People’s Voice award in 2011.
Happy April Fools’ Day! Well … not quite yet. This Sunday is the first day of April, which traditionally is the day when people play pranks on each other. No one is exactly sure how April 1 became the day to play tricks on people. One theory says that when the calendar year was changed so the year began at the beginning of January instead of April, those who were slow to start using the new calendar were called “April fools.”
Are you planning to pull a prank this year? What was your best prank ever? Leave a comment and tell us!
Read more about the history of April Fools’ Day on National Geographic News.
Photograph by Old Visuals / Alamy
Today is February 29, which means that 2012 is a leap year. Every four years, February gains an extra day. Why do we have leap years? The Earth orbits the sun once every year, but it takes a little longer than 365 days–the trip actually takes 365.242 days. To keep the calendar from drifting out of sync, an extra day is added to the calendar every fourth year. The next leap year will be in 2016.
Read more about leap years on National Geographic News.
Read what kids do when their birthday is on February 29 on the Washington Post.
Today is Friday the 13th. Some people believe that the number 13 is unlucky. In fact, there’s even a word for fear of the number 13: Triskaidekaphobia. Some people believe that Friday the 13th is an especially unlucky day. If you are afraid of Friday the 13th, you have paraskevidekatriaphobia.
This is the first of three Friday the 13ths in 2012. The other two are in April and July. We won’t have three in one year again until 2015, and not again after that until 2026!
Read about the history of the Friday the 13th superstition on National Geographic News.
Read about phobias on National Geographic Kids.
Photograph by SuperStock, Inc.
Today is the start of the 2012 Google Science Fair! This competition is for curious kids ages 13 to 18. If you have a great idea for a project, you can register for the fair. The grand prize winner will receive cool prizes including a National Geographic Expedition trip to the Galapagos Archipelago!
Visit the official Google Science Fair site to get more information.
Do science experiments at home with National Geographic Kids.
The 2011 National Christmas Tree Lighting Ceremony begins today 5 p.m. EST. Carson Daly will host the ceremony, and President Obama will officially light the tree. There will be performances during the event, featuring Kermit the Frog, Will.i.am, Big Time Rush, and more.
There has been a National Christmas Tree every year since 1923. The tree that will be lit today is a new Colorado blue spruce. The last tree was damaged in February 2011 and had to be replaced. There will be nightly performances at the National Christmas Tree from December 6 through December 23.
PBS stations across the country will broadcast the ceremony. You can also watch the ceremony online at www.thenationaltree.org.
How much do you know about winter holidays? Quiz Your Noodle and find out!
Photograph by Jewel Samad, AFP/Getty Images
This Thursday is Thanksgiving! Chances are you will have a lot of leftovers after your family feast. There’s a lot of extra food in American houses between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day–an extra 5 million tons!
What can you do to cut down on food waste this holiday season? Here are some tips from Nourishing the Planet on how your family can cut back.
Make a List
Create a shopping list of all the items you will need for holiday meals and stick to it.
Take Smaller Portions
Use a smaller plate to help you take smaller portions of food at mealtimes. That way you’re less likely to have leftovers on your plate.
Store Leftovers Safely
Proper storage of leftovers keeps them safe to eat for longer. Food that hasn’t been served properly have to be tossed.
Compost!
Instead of throwing out food scraps, add them to your compost heap.
Donate Extras
If you have extra (unopened) dried or canned foods, donate them to food banks or shelters.
Learn how you can give back during the holidays on National Geographic Kids.
How much do you know about Thanksgiving? Quiz Your Noodle and find out!
Photograph by Tyrone Turner
This week is Geography Awareness Week. Explore your own school and neighborhood through geographic eyes by undertaking a series of missions using skills such as photography, storytelling, mapping, and taking action. Visit the Geography Awareness Week website to learn more.
Geography Awareness Week was created in 1978 as a time for families and
classrooms to promote geography literacy. Is your class doing anything
special to learn more about geography this week?
Brush up on more geography skills by playing games on National Geographic Kids.
Photograph by Anoziram, NG Kids My Shot
Next Tuesday and Wednesday, join National Geographic Kids and First Lady Michelle Obama in an attempt to break the Guinness World Record for the most people doing jumping jacks! We need more than 20,000 people to do jumping jacks to break the record. So get your friends, sports teams, afterschool groups, or even your entire school to participate!
Click here to read the rules and find out how you can help break the record!
Get inspired to jump with this video on National Geographic Kids.
Photograph by Sara Zeglin
This Sunday, May 8, is Mother’s Day. Kick off the celebration by watching this video about baby seal Puff and her search for her mother.
What are you going to do for your mom this Mother’s Day? If you need inspiration, try these cool activities:
The National Geographic Kids website has been nominated for a 2011 Webby Award! Grab your parents and ask if you can register and vote for NG Kids (kids.nationalgeographic.com), in the Website – Living – Youth category on the Webby Awards People’s Voice page.
A little yellow house like the one seen in the Pixar movie Up actually went up in the air on Saturday, March 5 as part of the upcoming National Geographic Channel series “How Hard Can It Be?”. Scientists, engineers, and balloon pilots worked together to launch a life-sized model of the Up house using 300 helium balloons! Not only did the team prove that a house really could be lifted by balloons, they broke a world record for the largest balloon cluster flight ever attempted.
How far did the floating house get? It rose to a height of 10,000 feet and was in the air for about an hour.
Watch a video of the floating house on the Inside NGC blog.
Want more balloon fun? Watch this video of a dog popping balloons!
Photograph by Stewart Volland
Have you ever created a work of art you think would make a great greeting card? If you’re 14 or under, you can enter the 20th annual Pier 1 Imports/UNICEF greeting card contest! This year’s theme is “Making Spirits Bright.” The winning design will be reproduced as an official UNICEF greeting card for the 2011 winter holiday season. The winner will receive a $5,000 scholarship and $500 in art supplies for his/her school! In addition, visitors to the Pier 1 website will be able to cast their vote for the “Fan’s Choice Award.” The artist who receives the most votes will receive $500 in art supplies.
All entries must be received by Pier 1 Imports’ Corporate Headquarters by March 12, 2011. The winner of the contest will be announced in April.
Visit your local Pier 1 store or visit the website to get an entry form.
Learn more about the contest on the UNICEF website.
Image courtesy of UNICEF. Design by Justas Varpucanskis, 2010 “Voter’s Choice” winner
Beginning in February, when you visit NG Kids website you’re going to find an amazing new design. You’ll see more animals, bigger photos, and all the great games, videos, and news you expect–plus more facts and fun at your fingertips! And we’re making it super easy to navigate to cool areas like NG Kids My Shot, blogs, Animal Jam virtual world, NG Little Kids, and our Shop.
So stay tuned and get ready to explore the fresh new look of kids.nationalgeographic.com and let us know what you think!
Photograph by rosella, NG Kids My Shot
Interview With “Toy Story 3″ Actress
Kristen Schaal is an American comedienne and actress who is the voice
for animated characters such as Pumpkin Witch and Palace Witch in “Shrek
Forever After” and
the web-savvy dinosaur, Trixie the Triceratops, in “Toy Story 3″ (the
DVD goes on sale today!).
NG Kids: How did you get into acting and voice overs?
Schaal: Well, I started out doing stand-up and that led to all the jobs I have now.
NG Kids: Can you tell us how your voice becomes part of a movie or a TV show?
Schaal: It depends on the project. Usually you’re in a sound booth by yourself and say each individual line in different ways and the director can take which one he or she likes the best and that’s usually how the movies work. For the TV shows I’ve worked, we’re in the room together with the entire cast and we’ll riff and improvise with each other. It depends on whose project it is, but usually you’re just by yourself in a sound booth.
NG Kids: How long did it take for you to do the voice for “Toy Story 3?”
Schaal: I probably went in two or three times and each time, only under and hour. Trixie’s only a very short scene.
Read the whole post »
