This weekend “Let's Travel to Antarctica or wherever your child finds it most fun!"

This summer has been FULL of hot and humid days, and we could not help but think about being somewhere cooler… so our minds went to Antarctica! We watched a fun Ted Talk the other day and thought you might enjoy it as well: “Ted Talks Daily: The invisible life hidden beneath Antarctica’s ice | Ariel Waldman”. We thought it might be fun to “Travel” to Antarctica with your family, while not even leaving your living room.

On one of these hot summer days you and your kids can make a fort, set up a fan, have some misters to spray on you (to get the full, chilly experience) and take a magical journey to Antarctica as you explore and imagine what you would find.

This Ted Talk is only 6 minutes long, but full of fascinating information! Some highlights are below:

1. Antarctica is home to not only Penguins, but microbes as well – they live below the ice and look like glass!
2. Every year the sea ice nearly doubles the size of Antarctica
3. For her to investigate, she had to venture under the 9 feet thick ice!
   • She witnessed Sea Shrimp & Geometric Diatoms
   • 98% of Antarctica is covered with ice
   • Found critters on the glaciers of Dry Valleys
     • Embedded inside layers of ice
       • Happens when dirt blows onto glacier, then freezes over – creates unique little world where they live
     • Critter found: Tardigrade AKA “Water bear” – live in moss all over this planet, not just on Antarctica

Now, you’re not done just yet, don’t forget about the math. There are a million different ways to include it with this Ted Talk & Antarctica in general, but a couple examples might be:

• Every year the sea ice doubling the size of Antarctica… that’s a huge increase! What about if we imagined that every year, your child doubled in size… how tall would he/she be next year? How about in 3 years? 5 years?
• If 98% of Antarctica is covered with ice, how much is not? What about if only 77% were covered with ice, how much would be not be covered? What about if 92.25% were covered with ice, how much would be not be covered?

Then, finish it up with a fun frozen activity - make homemade popsicles! (Yum!)

While Antarctica and microbes may not be your family’s cup of tea – you should customize the activity to fit your taste! Couple examples below:

• If your child likes dinosaurs, find an educational video on dinosaurs, watch it in a fort, discuss it together (make sure to include some math, like figuring out how much taller each dinosaur is than your child) and then maybe go dig in the backyard for fossils.
• Or maybe they’re interested in fashion, so find a video on clothing designers, watch it in a fort, discuss it (include math, such as if it costs $5 per shirt and they sell it for $8, what’s their profit?), then help them make an article of clothing.

No matter what their interest, as long as your kids engaged in the material (and you include some math – because as you know, math is EVERYWHERE in our world, so the more experience they have, the more confidence they’ll have) and you keep it fun with things like videos, forts, and a related activity – YOU and your kids will have a BLAST learning!

And, just in case you want a fun, purely math-based activity 😊, here’s a link to: Variations on the Game War

Your friends in math,

The Team at Mathnasium of Littleton