Hello everyone! Welcome to NH-DI’s Weekly Roundup!
Since this is our first week, here’s a recap of what we’re doing:
Every week, NH-DI is going to publish a newsletter for families, which we hope will be full of educational resources and inspiration during this challenging time.
We will feature a hands-on educational activity, which will be developed by our volunteers. We hope these will vary quite a bit from week to week, but they might take the form of an instant challenge, a mini-lesson, an experiment, an art project, or a game.
Additionally, we will collect and share other online resources that have inspired us! Each week, we’ll curate a list of cool activities, performances, and more.
Have questions? A cool video or website to share? Want to help develop an activity? Email teacher and NH-DI alum Emily Richardson at emily.richardson@nh-di.org. She’d love to hear from you!
Secret Codes
Want to learn how to send secret messages and crack codes? Check out the first episode in our Secret Codes series by playing this video:
Special thanks to NH-DI volunteer Steve Greenwood for developing this!
Some STEAM activities to try:
Make hot ice with just vinegar and baking soda!
Make dinosaur shadow puppets
We don’t think you need to limit your creations to just dinosaurs!
Two STEAM challenges from our friends at DI headquarters
Some more fun activities:
Lunch Doodles with Mo Willems
Celebrated children’s author and illustrator Mo Willems invites YOU into his studio every day for his LUNCH DOODLE. Learners worldwide can draw, doodle and explore new ways of writing by visiting Mo’s studio virtually once a day for the next few weeks. Grab some paper and pencils, pens, or crayons and join Mo to explore ways of writing and making together. New episodes will be posted each weekday at 1:00 p.m. ET and then remain online to be streamed afterwards.
Storytime From Space
Want to watch astronauts read books aloud from space!? Story Time from Space is a project of the Global Space Education Foundation, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit education foundation. They send children’s books to the International Space Station. While in space, astronauts videotape themselves reading these books to the children of Earth.
New England Aquarium: Virtual Visit & Activities
Their doors are temporarily closed, but you can join them online for live presentations, new videos, and activities to try from home. Their daily presentations are posted on Facebook every day at 11 am.
A few websites we recommend:
Ask Dr. Universe
Dr. Wendy Sue Universe is a very smart cat who investigates tough questions from curious elementary and middle school students. Based out of Washington State University, Dr. Universe teams up with professors, researchers, and experts in the field, to tackle big questions like: What is fire? Why does soda fizz? Why is the ocean salty? Why is liquid nitrogen so cold?
The Exploratorium
The Exploratorium isn’t just a museum; it’s an ongoing exploration of science, art, and human perception. Explore their vast collection of online experiences to feed your curiosity and education resources supporting online teaching and learning. We recommend checking out their hands-on activities, which cover a wide range of topics, such as how different deodorants affect the bacteria in your armpit! They even have a section of their website, the Learning Toolbox, dedicated to helping people “make sense of timely topics,” such as COVID-19.
Hour of Code
The Hour of Code is a global movement reaching tens of millions of students in 180+ countries. Anyone, anywhere can try any of the over 500+ one-hour tutorials, available in over 45 languages. Code.org® is a nonprofit dedicated to expanding access to computer science in schools and increasing participation by women and underrepresented youth. Their vision is that every student in every school has the opportunity to learn computer science, just like biology, chemistry or algebra. In addition to the Hour of Code tutorials, they also offer free online courses, sorted by age (K-5, 6-12, beyond K-12).
Share what you’ve created!
Were you inspired by any of the activities or resources in this Weekly Roundup? What did you build or create? We encourage you, with a parent or guardian’s help and permission, to share your creations on our Facebook or Instagram pages! (Just add your photo as a comment on our weekly post!)
And please share NH-DI’s Weekly Roundup with your friends! Ask them to sign up for weekly emails (if they’re 13 or older), or send them a link to our main Weekly Roundup page.
That’s all for this week, but we look forward to sending you more soon!
Published weekly by New Hampshire Innovation and Creativity Connection (NHICC), the nonprofit organization that operates New Hampshire’s Destination Imagination, Camp Gottalikachallenge, and Girls Engineering the Future programs. Learn more about us…