Blast From The Past- Schoolhouse Rock "How a Bill Becomes A Law"

For all you old-timers and even you young-uns, this is a awesome flashback to Saturday morning television. Schoolhouse Rock taught us many things through song and video. Here is the classic "How a Bill Becomes A Law". CLICK HERE to either relive the memory or enjoy it for the first time.

Queens on a Chessboard Puzzle

Queens on a Chessboard

Put eight x's into this 8-by-8 grid so that no two x's are in line with each other vertically, horizontally, or diagonally.

Chess players note: You are being asked to place eight queens on a chessboard so that no queen can capture any other queen.

See (one of many possible) solutions below



Interesting Tidbits and More...

Hmm...let's look at some interesting tidbits and more...

1. 111,111,111 X 111,111,111 = 12,345,678,987,654,321 (the sequence is called a palindrome).  
2. Ant trails leading away from the nest always fork at a 60 degree angle. Somewhere in the earth I am sure are millions of ant geometry classes :)
3. Bees must pollinate 2 million flowers to collect enough nectar for one pound of honey (for those who don't know...honey is essentially regurgitated nectar...maybe it should have been named VOMey)
4. What does Google mean? A googol means 10¹⁰⁰. In real terms it looks like this: 10,­000,­000,­000,­000,­000,­000,­000,­000,­000,­000,­000,­000,­000,­000,­000,­000,­000,­000,­000,­000,­000,­000,­000,­000,­000,­000,­000,­000,­000,­000,­000,­000,­000
5. If you are in the rain and have 100 yards to go, will you get wetter by walking or running? The answer is by running. The reason is because when you walk most of the rain hits your head and shoulders. When you run your entire front side accumulates wetness. You will be twice as wet after the 100 yards.  
6. A drop is 1/60th of a teaspoon.
7. Can you name one of the four non-proper words in the English language that begin with dw? (see answer below)
8. The last year that read the same upside down was 1961. When will the next year that does this occur? (see answer below)
9. What is "Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia"? (see answer below)
10. Name the one state with only one syllable. (see answer below)

7) dwarf, dwindle, dweeb, dwell (ing)

8) 6009

9) Fear of long words

10) Maine

A Fun Science Quiz by Mr. D

Hey all you nerds. See how you do with this 10 question science quiz. The answers are posted at the bottom (no peeking!).

1. What is the only state without poisonous snakes? 
2. What is the only state that has never had an earthquake?
3. The hottest planet in the Solar System is _____________ with an average temperature of 864 degrees F (be careful it isn't closest to the Sun).
4. Where are the ears of a cricket located?
5. What is the only letter that does not appear in the Periodic Table of Elements?
6. What year did cars start having ignition keys?
7. Hawaii moves ___ inches closer to Japan every year.
8. House flies have a life span of ___ days.
9. What is the only bird that can fly backwards?
10. How many teeth does a mosquito have (0 is not the answer)?

ANSWERS:

1. Maine
2. North Dakota
3. Venus
4. Front leg just below the knee
5. The letter "J"
6. 1949
7. 4 inches a year
8. 14 days
9. Hummingbird
10. 47 teeth

Answers are courtesy of http://www.hightechscience.org/funfacts.htm

Can You Beat Mr.D in Multiplication?

Okay class the race is on. How many multiplication problems can you solve in a minute? You are about to compete against other online students in this fast paced educational game. The key is to answer as many in a row without a miss. If you miss it really slows the overall score. I played it a few times and my best score was a 1510. I'm sure somebody out there can top that. Post your top score.  Have fun and solidify your multiplication skills.

CLICK HERE TO PLAY!

Ready for the Drag and Drop the State Addicting Game?

WARNING: Don't try this at home...unless you have time on your hands because this educational game is very addicting. Just take the state shape showing above the blank United States map and drop it where you think it should be. Remember you are on the clock. Post your time and we'll see who the champ is. I just did it and had an underwhelming 45 out of 50 correct for 90% (this was actually pretty good) in 543 seconds (this was actually pretty bad). C'mon, who is going to beat my time?

Click here to begin!

How much would you weigh on Pluto?

Yes I know Pluto has been booted as a planet but I still count it as one of my heavenly family members. So the question still remains...how much would you weigh on Pluto...or any other planet? The answer is a click away when you CLICK HERE. Just type in your weight and hit calculate to see what your weight would be on all the heavenly spheres. Why would you weigh so much more on Jupiter than Saturn? The answers are there if you scroll down to the bottom. Don't forget to click the link at the bottom and see how old you would be on each planet. his website has wonderful links to excite any student about life in outer space.

Multiplication Monster Tip #1

How would you like to easily be able to multiply two numbers up to 20 together and quickly get the answer. With this method you can do it in seconds. Here is how to do it:
Let's say you want to multiply 12 X 13
1) take the first number (12) and add the second digit of the second number (3)...12 + 3 = 15
2) add a zero to the result...15(0)= 150
3) multiply the second digits 2 X 3 = 6
4) add the result of step 2 and 3...150 + 6 = 156

Here's another one to try:

14 X 15 = (14 + 5 = 19...190) + (4 X 5 = 20) = 210

and another one (combining the steps):

16 X 13 = 190 + 18 = 208

one last one:

18 X 14 = 220 + 32 + 252

Hopefully you found this beneficial. I'll be adding more tips and tricks so check back in when you find the time.

Mr. D's Voki

Hi there. Click on play and hear a message from me.Go to voki.com and create your own personal voki.

My Substitute Teacher Voki Message

Here is how a teacher could use a voki in a classroom setting. Click on play to hear a message to my students. The children could create their own and play it back. They will have great fun and learn. Think of if they typed in times tables or practiced spelling words for this week's vocabulary. Go to voki.com to find out more.