Round the World Challenge

Just one more stop to make before we go back home. This week’s objective is a place that is owned by no one country. Even though it is very cold, there are plenty of happy feet here.

Yes it is Antarctica this week. Happy feet referred to the movie and as penguins do not live in the Arctic . . . . .

Many animals call Antarctica home although most live in the sea. Your task this week is to find a suitable large image of Antarctica and set that as the background on a page. Then research which creatures live in Antarctic and more importantly who eats who. Once you have this information create a food web. To really challenge you try to use a path restrictor so objects can only be moved towards certain other animals that they feed off.

As this is pur last week, complete your front page by adding a path back to your starting point.

I hope you have all enjoyed your trip around the world and have learned many things along the way.

This week’s clue may be a bit cryptic. We are looking for a strange looking, small aquatic creature that is very unique. It is often sold in pet shops although it is in danger of extinction in its native environment. It is commonly (and somewhat incorrectly) known by a three word name: the first word is the name of a country, the second word is a way to move around and the third word is a type of an aquatic animal to which it is not at all related. Its real name starts with A.

Known by many names, including Mexican Walking Fish, the Axolotl (which is an amphibian and not a fish) is indeed an unusual looking creature with an equally unusual life cycle. Your technical task this week is to create a life cycle chart starting wth the circle drawing tool. Add images and text to depict the Axolotl’s stages of development. The Axolotyl can do something that no other creature can during its life cycle - be sure to include this.

Also, discuss with your class why the Axolotl is in danger of extinction and add Mexico to your list of places visited.

Time to leave Asia and travel over the Pacific Ocean. Many daredevils have tried crazy stunts at this place and not all have survived. Lots of rushing water, barrels and tight rope walking are a strange mixture.

Niagara Falls attracts 20 million visitors per year and can be viewed form the USA or Canada as it is on the border of those two countries. A weir controls how much water goes over the falls to ensure there is always a good view for tourists.

At its summer peak, almost 3000 cubic metres of water goes over the falls every second. How many bathtubs would that fill in one second? How quickly would your city’s dam fill at that rate?

For your technical task this week, firstly research the stunts people have performed over the falls with barrels and tightropes. Wikipedia has some good information on this.

Then draw an image of Niagara Falls using your IWBs drawing tools. Add a tightrope walker and a barrel to the scene. If you are using Activstudio use the Restrictor function to restrict the tighrope walker to moving horizontally over the falls and restrict the barrel to moving vertically within the falls.

Don’t forget to keep marking each place we visit on your world map and mark the path we are travelling.

A few technical difficulties has seen our plane stalled on the tarmac but all is now well and we are ready to continue our journey.

This week we move from what was once the tallest object in the world to what was, and remains to this day, the longest man made creation. Begun over 2000 years ago it took many years to complete.

The Great Wall of China was built and rebuilt many times since it was first begun around the 7th century BC. The wall was amazingly long as it twisted and turned along China’s border but very little of it still exists today.

Your task this week involves several steps.

1. Find out how long the wall was during its main construction period.

2. Find an image of the world with the city where you live at the centre. Google maps is good for this.

3. Use the map’s scale to measure out the length of the wall in a straight line.

4. Draw an arc using this distance scale to see how far the wall would stretch from your city. If you have Activstudio the compass tool would be good for this.

Welcome back travellers. I hope you are all well rested and ready to continue your trip around the world.

This week we are visiting something that Gustave built over 100 years ago that today is still one of the most well known and well visited tourist attractions in the world.

The Eiffel Tower was the tallest structure in the world when it was constructed in 1889.

How does it compare today to other tall buildings?

Your task this week is to construct a column graph comparing the Eiffel Tower to other tall buildings known to your students, including a local building to give perspective to the tower’s height in your graph.

You may use the rectangle drawing tool to create the columns or photos of the buildings you choose which you can stretch to maintain the correct scale.

Welcome again travellers. This week we head to an exciting place for an exciting event. Your task is to find both. Your clues are:

A natural light display more amazing than fireworks in the land of fire and ice.

Good luck!

This week we travel to Iceland to view the amazing sights of the Aurora Borealis.

Your task this week is to gather images of this incredible natural event through an image search using the keywords “aurora borealis” or “northern lights”. Once you have collected enough images create a slide show or movie, even add some music to create a display better than watching fireworks. Then link that to the page you create for Iceland.

We’ll rest here a while during the school holiday period ready to start travelling again next term.

Did you find and answer the Riddle of the Sphinx?

This week it is time for a bit of mystery, a very famous mystery.

Is this creature real or is it not? There is some photographic evidence but it is not clear.

This creature lives in the depths of a lake but does not eat haggis!

“Nessie” has been the talk of Loch Ness in Scotland for many years. It will be interesting to see who believes and who does not after you do some research on it.

Your technical task this week is to place a marker on your world map at each of the places we have visited so far and use the straight line tool to join those markers.

Welcome back to the next stage of our trip around the world. This week’s clue is in the form of a riddle, something nearby is actually quite famous for a riddle.

I am much older than an elephant, but much younger than Uluru.

I was built on the sweat of many for the benefit of one.

I am a geometric shape.

Good luck and please keep those posts coming.

Yes 1-2H it was the Pyramids of Egypt. I suspect that your teacher will have a good knowledge of this.

An extra quest this week is to find out what is the famous riddle that involves the object you see in this photo in front of the pyramid.

Your technical task this week is to use the Drag a Copy (Activstudio) or Infinite Cloner (Smart) funtion to place multiple pyramids on the page you create. You may choose to research pyramids in general or you may focus on one particular pyramid - and don’t forget that famous riddle.

No comments left last week? Well maybe things will pick up this week.

The clue for this week is : I’m large, I’m usually moving slow but what big ears I have.

If you think you know what this is, post a comment.

Well guessed 1-2H, it was an elephant. To be exact it was an African elephant.

Your technical task this week is to take a new page on your IWB file and place a map of Africa as a background object. Then, using the drawing tools, mark on the map the area over which the African elephant lives.

Remember to add some of your findings to the comments section.

Keep up the good work.

Welcome to your first challenge as we head round the world :

I’m the biggest of my kind in the world, but I’d look a lot bigger if most of me wasn’t underground.

This should stimulate some class discussion. If you think you know what this is then submit it in a comment to this post. Check the other submissions first so we don’t have multiple same postings. Otherwise keep thinking and I’ll tell you the answer tomorrow.

Thanks for joining in and have fun . . . .

The answer to this week’s clue was Uluru, the world’s largest single rock.

Now it’s up to you to add some information to this post. Add some interesting additional information - how many people high is Uluru?

Your technical task this week is to take a screen shot from Google Maps or Google Earth of Australia, or just the Northern Territory if you prefer, and include it in the information page you are creating. Mark the location of Uluru on the map.

Let’s see who can post the most interesting fact . . .