Who is Gideon Sundback?

Check out today's Google Doodle to learn more about this electrical engineer with the Universal Fastening Co.

Can you list 10 things that his genius has improved????

Guaranteed To Make You Think!!

Put on your thinking cap and see how many of the following you can solve!!

1. Use the numbers 20, 10, -4, -2, and -1, and the signs +, -, x, and / to obtain the HIGHEST and the LOWEST numbers possible. All numbers and operations MUST be used once for each problem, and the answers MUST be integers!
2. Find four consecutive ODD integers whose sum is -80 (you must show me your equation too).
3. A standard deck of cards contains 52 cards - four groups (2 black suits and 2 red suits) of 13 cards. Each suit contains an ace, king, queen, jack, and the numbers 10 thorugh 2. Assuming the deck has been shuffled - find the porbability of drawing the following cards (express your answer in simplest form)
• A red card
• A king
• A queen or a jack
• An even number
• The 7 of hearts
• A prime number
4. Palindromes are numbers, words, phrases, or sentences that are read the same from left to right as from right to left. For example: (words) RADAR, BOB, DAD, (phrase) A MAN A PLAN A CANAL PANAMA, (sentence) MADAM I'M ADAM, (numbers) 22, 303, 1991.
• Find two palindromes whose sum is a palindrome.
• Find two palindromes whose difference is a palindrome.
• Do you think it is always true that if the sum of two palindromes is a palindrome, their difference is also a palindrome? Explain!
• Create a phrase or sentence that is a palindrome.
5. Secret codes & ciphers - a cipher is a secert system of writing in which every letter is replaced by a symbol. Can you decipher the following cipher???
• 20-23-15    9-19    20-8-5    15-14-12-25    5-22-5-14    16-18-9-13-5

Which problem was most challenging for you? Why? What strategy did you use to meet the challenge??

Football Fun 2012

Have some football fun! Learn about players, teams, past NFL tributes and future possibilities. To get started - click on"Download" found at the bottom of this post and have fun!!! Oh - don't forget to vote for your SuperBowl champion in the survey found on the right side of the blog!

The O.R.E.O. Project

Join us in the 2009 O.R.E.O. Project (Our Really Exciting Online project)

Here's the rules...(And you MUST use REGULAR - NOT double stuff cookies)

•Place one cookie on the table and then add one cookie at a time to the stack. (Yes you MUST use the whole cookie as it is when you take it from the bag!)
•Do NOT adjust the cookie after you have placed it on the stack and have moved your hand away.
•Cookies need to be freestanding and NOT leaning against any kind of support.
•A tumble has occurred once 1 or more cookies have tumbled from the stack.

How many cookies are in your stack?? Can you beat our record of 35? Tell us the number of cookies in your BEST stack. What strategies/suggestions can you share to get even more cookies in the stack??

Be sure to take part in the 2 OREO surveys found at the right - your opinion counts!!

Who Will Host the 2016 Olympic Games?

The tense and tight battle to host the 2016 Olympics is taking place in the Danish capitol of Copenhagen.
The stakes are huge for all four cities — Chicago, Rio de Janeiro, Tokyo, Madrid — and for the International Olympic Committee. It faces the choice of sending the games to uncharted territory in South America, appealing to those committee members who believe the Olympics should touch all corners of the globe, or opting in tough economic times for more familiar and perhaps more lucrative ground in Europe, the United States and Asia.
The winner gets the international prestige of staging the world's biggest sports extravaganza and billions of dollars in potential investment.
Years of preparations and lobbying by the four candidates will come down to 30 minutes of voting by the IOC's members, when they will eliminate the city with the fewest votes in successive rounds of secret balloting until one city receives a majority.
Which city is your choice for hosting the 2016 Games?? Take part in the 2016 Olympic City Choice poll found at the right! See if you are in agreement with the International Olympic Committee!

President Obama Talks to Students

On Tuesday, September 8, 2009 President Obama tallked directly to students across the country on the importance of taking responsibility for their education, challenging them to set goals and do everything they can to succeed. After watching the President's speech tell us what goal will you set for yourself in this new school year?

How Was Your First Week Back?

Welcome Back to the 2009-2010 School Year!

How was your first week? Any surprises? What made your first day/week special? What are you looking forward to this year? Share your impressions of this new school year.

Free Poverty - YOU Can Make A Difference

You can help donate water to countries in poverty. It's fun & challenging for you and an easy way to help those in need! Once at the site - you locate a country or state on a map. The closer you get to the location, the more cups of water you donate to countries in poverty. And you can play over & over again! Good luck - how many cups of water did you donate???

http://www.freepoverty.com/

The World's Meanest Dog Breed

Has the Pit Bull gotten a "bum rap"? Can we really trust the Bloodhound's sad eyes? Is the German Shepherd's bark worse that his bite??? Or is a floppy-eared, innocent-looking breed one of the world's most agressive pups? Cast your vote (at the right) for the world's meanest dog and see if you agree with the Journal of Veterinary Behavior. Tell us about your choice!

AND THE WINNER IS.....

The English Cocker Spaniel??

Find out more about this unusual distinction at:

World's Meanest Dog: The English Cocker Spaniel?: Discovery News

National Spelling Bee

The word was Laodicean, it means "lukewarm or indifferent to religion or politics" The winner was Kayva Shivashankar.

Read this article and click on the video showing images from the recent National Spelling Bee. Then post your thoughts. Are you an excellent, average, or poor speller? What makes one person a better speller than another?

http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2009-05-28-spelling-bee-thursday_N.htm

Exciting NEW Links

Two new links have been added to the list at the right!

Play Amazon Explorer - What mysteries does Amazonia hold? That's just what scientists at the American Museum of Natural History want you, Sam Smith, find out. If you're ready to explore the wilds of the Amazon jungle, journey on, adventurer!

Fun Brain - Explore, Collect, Compete - lots of aracde style activities for hours of fun!

Which Fun Brain activity did you like best? How successful were you as an Amazon explorer? Tell us about your adventures!!

Boldly Go Where No One Has Gone Before

Welcome to the new generation of "trekkies"! Were you one of the first ones to see the newest Star Trek movie?? You be the movie critic and tell us your impression of the characters, the plot, the special effects, which character you liked best - why?? Let us hear from you... "Live long & prosper"

To Judge or Not To Judge?!?

You can't judge a book by its cover. Well...at least you shouldn't!! You have most likely already seen or, at least, heard about Susan Boyle - a recent contestant on Britain's Got Talent. She was judged by the audience as she appeared on the stage - before she even opened her mouth. She didn't seem to fit the mold of a professional singer. But she wowed the crowd with her amazing voice. Check out her performance and then post your comments about our world judging people on the way they look. This video came from You Tube so you may have to try it at home since it doesn't always work from school computers! Enjoy...and think about the message here.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9lp0IWv8QZY