Aquifer

An aquifer is an underground layer of rock or soil that contains water. The water is held in the spaces between the rock or soil particles. There are two kinds of aquifer:

1. a confined aquifer is a water supply which is sandwiched between two layers of soil or rock that water can not pass through (impermeable layers),

2. an unconfined aquifer is a water supply that has an impermeable layer below it, but not above it. A confined aquifer that is under pressure is an artesian aquifer. The pressure can often push water to the surface in a well drilled into an artesian aquifer; usually wells need a pump to bring water to the surface from the aquifer they are drilled into.

We use aquifers as a source of drinking water and of water to irrigate crops or to use in industry, pumping water from the aquifer using a well. As with any container of water, pumping from the aquifer empties it--or at least decreases the amount of water it holds. Aquifers are refilled, or recharged, in areas where they are exposed on the surface of the earth. Water can re-enter the aquifer in these recharge areas. Going in Earth Science

 

 

 

Click on the whales to see the whole exciting story!
Includes 10 photos. Going in Animals

 

 

Going in Earth Science

 

 

Water Filtration for kids from the EPA. "Lesson: Learn all about the water filtration process.
Then make your own (pretend) water filter!" This Flash slide show has controls that let users
move around the presentation. All the steps of water filtration are covered.
Going in Health, Life Skills, and Technology

 

 

 

Knossos, The Ancient Palace Stronghold Of The Minoans

Three different video tours of this sprawling establishment.
The history is also explained, in a long but good article.
Going in Ancient History and Archaeology

 

 

Planning Playtime From Utah, USA. "Awesome Educational Activities for kids, Crafts for kids, and other fun kid pins. Activities & worksheets for toddlers, preschool, kindergarten, & first grade." We saw their paper cup math video on FaceBook and we knew we had to post this site! Just like their Pinterest blurb says above, they are all that. This mom of five and sibling of 11 has excellent offerings for younger kids. Going in Homeschool and Early Learning/Early Childhood

 

 

Before you cut the grass, check for baby rabbits
1:12 video from CBC Hamilton.
"If you see a rabbit's nest, let it be; they grow up quick,
in a couple of weeks, they'll be gone."
See baby rabbits up close. Squeak!
Going in Animals

 

 

 

 

 

 

Made w/ Code Superpowers come in all shapes and sizes. Discover a new superpower with code.This exercise was linked to the Google main page lst week. Wonder Woman helps you to learn code using an interface that reminded us of MIT's Scratch. Learn coding by plugging in commands. Reason out how many moves it will take; then test your coding and see if your guesses are correct. If not, find your mistake(s) and correct them until your programs what it needs to. After mastering the basics you can strive for elegance- do the sames tasks in fewer moves, for example.

Going in Logic and Probability and in Life Skills

 

 

A Timeline of Earth's Average Temperature (This is the famous one from xkcd)

It's huge! Therefore you will need to click on the link to actually see its awesomeness.

"(This) illustration covers a huge swath of time from the last Ice Age in 20,000 BCE to current day and beyond... The drawings and captions depict significant earthly milestones, from humanity's spread across the continents to the extinction of the saber tooth tiger. A number of historical figures also make appearances, such as Gilgamesh, Buddha, Shakespeare, and even the last North American Pokémon ("that is not a real fact"). All the while, the temperature accelerates from cool-blue on the left side to red-hot, record-breaking heat on the right." Quotes are from EcoWatch. This graphic is 740 pixels wide by 14,957 pixels long (Wow!) Going in Earth Science

 

 

Oklo, the Two Billion Year Old Nuclear Reactor In a uranium mine at Oklo, Gabon is "a uranium deposit in Africa where, eons ago, a unique set of conditions came together to form the world’s only known natural nuclear reactor." This reactor stopped running about 2 billion years ago. The narrator describes the reaction process in simple terms. Going in Earth Science

 

The full rotation of the Moon as seen by NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter

See the entire Moon as it spins. Graphic is from NASA via reddit.com
via imgur. Going in Astronomy

 

 

Ticks These ticks have climbed up to the top of these young
lambs quarters (garden plants) waiting for some warm-blooded
animals to walk by. Then the ticks will stand up on their hind legs
and try to grab on to the animal's hair as they go by. Once they
are aboard the animal, they latch on, dig in, and start sucking
blood. When they are full of blood they look like a large white
bean. Then they drop off of the animal, and crawl away to lay
their eggs (EEWWWWWW!) Any mammal will do: deer, rabbits,
dogs, cats - anything, even YOU! Other ticks go after birds.
Ticks carry diseases like spotted fever, Lyme disease, and
many others - including tick-borne encephalitis in Europe.

Going in Animals

 

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Vaccination: ‘I Will File A CPS Report’: Pediatrician’s Blunt Message About Vaccines Is Going Viral Vaccines work. Do not argue. Vaccination is NOT controversial. Get your offspring vaccinated. Read Dr Ginsberg's post. Debating vaccination is like debating gravity - science does not care if you believe it or not! Watch the video. Why are old forgotten diseases such as measles, mumps, rubella, polio, and whooping cough making a comeback? Because too many young parents are not vaccinating their kids, due to hysteria or peer pressure. This makes their innocent children a public health menace. People who don't vaccinate should be forced to do so by court order.
Make sure you vaccinate on time, too. Those shot schedules were set by experts. Please do not alter them just because YOU don't like watching your kid cry. Your kids overreact because they learned that behavior from you! Be a good parent. Be a responsible citizen of your country and the world. Be an adult - get it done. Going in Health, Homeschool, and Life Skills (because responsible parenting is a life skill that you want your kids to learn).

 

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Roadrunners eat snakes, lizards, & insects. They are related
to cuckoos. They are omnivores. Yes, they can fly but they
don't like to. Watching them wade into a snake fight is
quite fascinating. Find out more about them here.
Find out about rattlesnakes here.
Going in Animal Cams

 

How to Engage English Learners With Technology

Going in Literacy > ESL

 

 

Those little parakeets in bird cages? Welcome to their REAL world!

Going in Animal Cams

 

Going in Animals

 

The next two sites are about a political practice called gerrymandering. Going in Geography, Maps, and Secondary Mathematics

What Is Gerrymandering? A short video explains what's wrong with this ugly political practice. Watching it gives learners the needed background to appreciate the importance of fighting gerrymandering with geometry!

 

Meet the Math Professor Who’s Fighting Gerrymandering With Geometry This link's from A Mighty Girl's Facebook site. The original article from The Chronicle of Higher Education explains it in a more academic. Basically, Professor Moon Duchin of Tufts University, "has helped create a program to train mathematicians to serve as expert witnesses in court cases over redrawn electoral districts." Since courts all the way up to the US Supreme Court have problems understanding gerrymandering, this is a good plan to overcome this evil practice. Read one or both articles, and learn.

 

 

Featured on MrNussbaum.com (If you still haven't been to MrNussbaum, go look it over!):

The Multiplication Zombies of the Brittany Graveyard This is a quick and dirty in your face game. You will either know your mulitiplication facts, or you'll learn them very quickly! Throw correct answer pumpkins at the zombies in 5 locations, 25 quick questions each to test your skills! Going in Math > Intermediate

 

Will and his Happy Hamstars is a K-1 math game. Save the Hamstars by solving easy math problems. PLEASE watch the How to Play Video before you try this out.

Going in Math > Primary

 

"Mr. N's Boardwalk Challenge is a super fun activity that requires students to order positive and negative decimals and whole numbers on a number line. Upon success, players will earn "tokens" to use on boardwalk games such as ski-ball, roll the ball, whack-a-pirate, and air hockey. Tickets from these games can be earned to print out boardwalk "prizes." This game is a perfect motivator for fifth and sixth graders who will play for hours if given the chance."

Going in Math > Intermediate

 

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