Hurricane Trivia Quiz

It's hurricane season, and if the weather this year has been any indication, it's going to be a bad one! For those of you who live on the East Coast, we just got hit by one of the worst hurricanes in years, Hurricane Irene. The playground by my house actually seemed to turn into a small lake. On the basketball court, the water came up to the top of the basketball hoops!

Flooding, downed power lines, damage and loss of houses and belongings, these are some of the devastating effects of hurricanes. But what is the science behind them? What IS actually a hurricane? What causes them? Test your knowledge of hurricanes with our Trivia Quiz.

1. When does the Atlantic hurricane season begin and end on the East Coast?
2. Many of the worst hurricanes in U.S. history have all taken place within the same two weeks of every year. What is this peak date?
3. Why do East Coast U.S. hurricanes typically only happen in late summer?
4. How fast can hurricanes travel?
5. What is the difference between a hurricane and a typhoon?
6. Which is worse: a Category 1 storm or a Category 5 storm?
7. How do hurricanes get their names?
8. What will the next hurricane's name be?
9. Which past hurricane name will never be used again?

Hope you all made it through Hurricane Irene ok! Leave your answers to the Trivia Quiz in the Comments below, and check back next week for the answers and some more fascinating hurricane facts.

- Ratha, Stacks Writer

Kid Reporters Meet President Obama

Two Scholastic News Kid Reporters, 10-year-old Topanga Sena of Orlando, Florida, and 11-year-old Jacob Schroeder of Albuquerque, New Mexico, conducted an exclusive interview with President Barack Obama at the White House. The interview covered a wide range of topics including the economy, education for 21st century jobs, the environment, and the books that he reads with his daughters. The President also talked about the events of 9/11, telling the Scholastic News Kids Press Corps that it was a tragic moment for all of us, adding, “But. . . as terrible as that day was, it brought America together and it reminded us that we’re all one people, and that each of us have a responsibility as citizens of the United States, to try to make this country the best it can be.”

As the interview came to a close, a surprise visitor trotted into the room. Bo, the First Dog, greeted the Kid Reporters with a wag of his tail and earned a treat from the President.

How cool!! Click here to watch the complete video interview with the President.

Do you think YOU have what it takes to interview the President? The Scholastic News Kids Press Corps is a group of 50 talented young reporters, ages 10-14, from across the country, and it is now accepting applications for the 2011-2012 school year! Applications must be postmarked by October 11, 2011. Apply now!

Calling Kid Activists!

Time is running out! The 3rd annual BE BIG in Your Community Contest is still going on but there's just ONE WEEK left! If you've been thinking about a BIG Idea, it's time to act. Submit your BIG Idea to win a $25,000 community grant! Thousands of kids entered over the past two years, and kids (just like you!) have seen their BIG Ideas come to life.

Community Grant Opportunity!

Hi Splotters! There's only ONE MONTH LEFT in the Be Big in Your Community Contest. That's right—time to enter now! This is your chance to do something really BIG! Submit your BIG Idea for a chance to see it brought to life with a $25,000 community grant!

Coming up with such a BIG idea can sometimes be daunting, but maybe one of our past winners can help inspire you. Meet Adrienne—who worked to build sunshades to protect kids from the harmful effects of the sun.

Kids helping kids, and helping their communities—now that's BIG! You can check out the rest of our winners here. Or better yet, submit your own. No idea is too small or too BIG. Visit the BE BIG in Your Community Contest website and let us know about your BIG Idea. But remember, the deadline is June 17th. So grab a parent, teacher or some friends and let us know how YOU can make the world a better place!

— Melissa, Scholastic Media Staffer

I SPY Times Square Celebration!

What better way to celebrate a birthday than at the crossroads of the world – Times Square, New York City! If you've never been to Times Square in person, it is quite the spectacle. Times Square is always all abuzz with hundreds of thousands of people walking through daily and these massive brightly illuminated jumbotrons flanking the avenues.

Today, I SPY hosted a SPECTACULAR party with a giant 12-foot tall birthday cake in the heart of Times Square! Jean Marzollo, the author of I SPY, was on-hand to celebrate and kick-off the festivities. The cake came with a challenge for twenty students from Manhattan Country School to race against the clock to find 20 objects hidden around the cake—all within 10 minutes. For every object found, their school would receive 25 books! While it was bit rainy in New York today, it did not dampen the students' spirits! The students were super excited about the challenge and were chanting, "I SPY, I SPY, I SPY!" as they eagerly waited to take on the challenge.

Each object came with an I SPY rhyming clue such as:

I spy an object you must knock down to win.
This one is yellow. It's a bowling pin!

Equipped with their I SPY magnifying glasses, the students had to quickly search the cake to find the object in order to receive the next I SPY clue. These students were very experienced at solving I SPY puzzles! Sometimes they didn't even have to wait for the host to complete reading the clue before figuring out the object they needed to find on the cake! With 9 seconds to spare, the class found all 20 objects and was awarded 500 books for their school. Each student also was surprised to receive their very own copy of the new I SPY Spectacular book, which Jean Marzollo personally signed after the event. While the giant cake wasn't one for feasting (imagine digging into a giant cake!), everyone got to celebrate and sing Happy Birthday to I SPY and eat a yummy cake that looked just like the big one!

20 Years, My Oh My,
Happy Birthday to I SPY!

Click here to open a slideshow of the event.

—Amabel, Scholastic Media Staffer

 

Be Big for National Volunteer Week

It's National Volunteer Week, the perfect excuse to get out there and BE BIG!

Did you know that National Volunteer Week is going on all week long? "What is that?" you ask. National Volunteer Week is a time to celebrate people doing extraordinary things through service.

Service comes in lots of shapes and sizes. It can be as simple as picking up litter on your way home from school, or as BIG as creating a "Rain Garden" that keeps your community clean like Clay and his team did with the community grant they received in the 2010 BE BIG in Your Community Contest.

BIG or small, what matters is that you are helping to make your community a better place for everyone! HandsOn Network, Scholastic's partner in the BE BIG Campaign, has action centers all over the country that can help you get involved in your community. Click here for more information!

If you already have a BIG Idea on how to help your community, we want to hear about it! Share it in the 2011 BE BIG in Your Community Contest for a chance to win a $25,000 community grant! Click here for more information.

Photo courtesy of Irene McMullen

NCAA Basketball Tournament Trivia

NCAA Basketball Tournament Trivia Quiz

If you're a basketball fan, chances are you are looking forward to March Madness, leading up to the biggest night in Men's Division I hoops – the NCAA college championship game! The two best teams in the country will face off.

The 2011 tournament started with the best 68 college teams. In an elimination process it came to the best 16 teams. Then came the best 8 teams. Then the Final Four. They were the University of Connecticut, the University of Kentucky, Butler University, and Virginia Commonwealth University. Then the final 2 played each other to determine the national champion.

How well do you know your college hoops? Take our NCAA Basketball Tournament Trivia, and see how many points you rack up!

1. In what month does all the tournament "madness" kick off?
2. What are the Final 16 teams playing in the tournament known as?
3. What are the Final 8 teams known as?
4. When was the first NCAA championship basketball game?
5. What team has won the most championship titles ever?
6. An NBA basketball game is played with 4 twelve-minute quarters. How is a college basketball game played?
7. What team did Michael Jordan play college hoops for?

So give it your best shot, and rebound here for answers! Ok I'll stop with the puns. Anyhow, let us know your answers in the Comments below.

—Ratha, Stacks Writer

SPONSORED POST: Born to be Wild

This blog post is sponsored by IMAX Born to be Wild 3D.

An amazing wildlife adventure is coming to IMAX theaters on April 8. Born to be Wild 3D tells the story of two women working in Africa and Asia to save orphaned animals. When the movie writer/producer Drew Fellman learned about Dr.Galdikas who was rescuing baby orangutans, and Dame Daphne who was rescuing baby elephants, he instantly knew that their remarkable stories would make an incredible film. "They are heroes of the earth in the truest sense," he states.

Watch the movie trailer, and read on to learn more about these incredible Earth heroes!

Dr. Galdikas and Dame Daphne both stress that you cannot save the animals without saving their physical environment. "Orangutans are on the verge of extinction as their habitat is disrupted by poaching, illegal logging, and palm oil plantations whose by-product, vegetable oil, is sold in myriad products like junk food, soap, cosmetics and some bio-fuels around the world," Dr. Galdikas points out.

Elephants have been equally targeted by ivory poachers. Dame Daphne emphasizes, "The pressure on the African wildlife population has been an ongoing situation for 100 years. Unfortunately the elephant, although highly intelligent, has been viewed merely as a resource to be mined. We're consuming everything on the planet and if we're not extremely careful, there will be no room for any other life forms here. And as soon as that happens, there will be no more us."

Fellman concludes, "Both women have been huge inspirations to me personally. They are living proof that each one of us can make a difference. And I certainly hope people leave the theatre with the conclusion that they can do something, too."

Images and quotes courtesy of Warner Bros.

Brian Selznick Has Us Wonderstruck!

Wonderstruck by Brian Selznick will publish September 13th this year.

The cover has just released, and here it is!!

BE BIG in Your Community

Hi Splotters! We know volunteerism and being an active member of your community is important to you, so today we want to introduce you to three girl scouts who are doing BIG things in their community! Jennifer, Sharon and Lauren's BIG Idea won the grand prize in the 2010 BE BIG in Your Community Contest. Their BIG Idea, "Hearts for Diamond Hospital Classroom" is to help their community (and a lot of other kids and teens too!) by building a classroom for youth cancer patients at their local hospital. We got to talk with Jennifer about it!

Hoodwinked Too EXCLUSIVE Movie Poster

There's more to every tale than meets the eye! If you liked the movie Hoodwinked, the zany fractured fairy tale of Red Riding Hood, then get ready for an all new story that needs a happy ending. Coming to theaters April 29, 2011 is the animated family comedy Hoodwinked Too! Hood vs. Evil in 3D. And we have an EXCLUSIVE first look at the movie poster.

No one else gets to see this until tomorrow, so you should feel extremely special!!

The sequel finds our heroine, Red (Hayden Panettiere), training with a mysterious covert group called the Sisters of the Hood. But Red is forced to cut her training short when she gets an urgent call from Nicky Flippers, who returns as head of the super-secret Happily Ever After Agency, aka the HEA. A wicked witch has abducted two innocent children, Hansel and Gretel, and Nicky needs Red for the search-and-rescue mission. Thankfully, Granny and the rest of the gang—including the ever-clueless Wolf and his hyper little partner, Twitchy, join Red to solve the forest's latest caper.

It sounds pretty funny. Leave a comment to let us know what you think about the movie poster, and how special you feel for being the very first people to see it!

— Sonja, STACKS Staffer

Image courtesy of the Weinstein Company

Zodiac Scramble Answers

In last week's Trivia Quiz,  I relayed the shocking announcement that the earth's wobbly axis shifted, scrambling all the zodiac signs. So, how well do you know the NEW zodiac? Were you able to match the dates below with the correct astrology sign - including the new sign, Ophiuchus? Here are the answers.