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TopClicks
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Kidzone
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Cool Stuff
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Curiosities & Wonders
Aibo, the Robotic Dog - Meet Aibo, Sony's robotic dog. It has amazing lifelike movements! According to the product information, it is also capable of artificial intelligence: it thinks, feels, and "grows up." Learn about what it does, how it works, and how you can get one. (Hint: You'd better have lots of money.)
Amazing Animals of the World - Did you know there are real dragons? Komodo dragons, that is. They can grow up to ten feet long and weigh 300 pounds! Learn about the unique and fascinating features of 30 different animals. You can search on the area of the world or the name of the animal. This site was created by students for the ThinkQuest Junior competition.
Ancient Bristlecone Pine - Imagine a tree that is nearly 5,000 years old! Back in the 1950s (that seems like a long time ago, but not when compared to the age of the tree), a man named Edmund Schulman was studying bristlecone pine trees in the White Mountains of California. He and fellow researchers discovered "Methuselah," which was found to be 4,723 years old. That was in 1957. Today, it remains the world's oldest known living tree. Read more here.
Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization - The Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization (BFRO) is a unique all-volunteer scientific & investigative organization focused on the bigfoot/sasquatch mystery. It is directed by a virtual community of scientists, researchers, investigators, and other specialists from an array of backgrounds. The organization develops and implements investigation strategies, evidence collection techniques, and coordinates field projects with the help of volunteers across the continent. The BFRO is, by a very wide margin, the largest, oldest, most credible, and most well respected research organization involved in the study of this subject. Not limited to any particular geographic region, the BFRO investigates sightings and gathers evidence in natural areas across United States and Canada.
Bioluminescence Web Page - We're going to give this page a glowing report. Bioluminescence is a chemical light that is produced by fireflies, fish, and even fungus! This site is concerned with the mechanism of how this light is produced. It offers wonderful photos and explains why most bioluminescent deep-sea organisms flash blue lights more than any other color.
Biosphere 2 - Did you know there is a rain forest in the middle of the Arizona desert? There's also an ocean. It's true, and the most amazing part: they are both indoors! Biosphere 2 is a 7,200,000-cubic-foot sealed glass and space frame structure, and inside are seven wilderness ecosystems, or biomes, including a rain forest and a 900,000-gallon ocean. The idea was to find out how people could survive inside a sealed environment, in case we wanted to colonize other planets. Could they grow all their own food? Manufacture their own air? Recycle their own waste? The first crew of biospherians (four women and four men) entered Biosphere 2 on September 26, 1991. They remained inside for two years, emerging again on September 26, 1993. Biosphere's original experiments were very controversial, but the results were undisputed: we don't know how to successfully accomplish this mission--yet. Columbia University now operates the facility as a learning center about the greenhouse effect. See what they are up to and take a cybertour. Go into the Home section to check up on temperature, humidity, and other sensors around the building.
Birthstones - Did you know that if you were born in April, your lucky birthstone is the diamond? To find out more about various gemstones and their properties, check this site!
Build It & Bust It - Engineers figure out how to build bridges that stay up, tunnels that don't collapse, and buildings that rise to the sky without tumbling down. At this site you can try building your own joint and beam structures and then test them for stability. If you have a hard time, just go to the Testing area and load someone else's bridge and apply forces to it. Will it stand up or go falling down, falling down? This site was created by students for the ThinkQuest competition.
California Shipwrecks - There's a neat database at this site that lets you search for shipwrecks off the California coast. Say you're looking for wrecks off Mendocino. Plug in that county name and BAM! You'll find records on more than 200 shipwrecks. It tells how they went down, too, from a "monster wave" to a collision. Other parts of the site tell the stories of several famous (and not so well-known) shipwrecks, and suggest links to maritime museums on the Net.
Cool Robot of the Week - NASA cares about robots enough to honor the "Cool Robot of the Week." Check past awardees for information on remotely powered environmental research aircraft, news on the winners of the annual RoboCup, and a photo of how MIT students turned a campus dome into a replica of R2D2, among many others!
Diving for Captain Kidd's Sunken Ship-Discovery Online - In 1697 Captain Kidd fitted out the Adventure Gallery, a formitable fighting ship equiped with 30 guns designed for speed and mobility. He had been hired by the British government to sail the high seas and put an end to pirates wreaking havoc on the important trade routes of the East India Company. After only a few months aboard the Adventure Galley, something went wrong. Follow the story as it unfolds!
FBI Kids & Youth Educational Page - The Federal Bureau of Investigation has had a long history of helping to solve crimes in the United States. At their Web site you can find out about fingerprinting, polygraph (lie detector) testing, DNA analysis, and other methods of crime detection. You'll be fascinated by the information on real-life crime dogs. They look for explosives, perform search and rescue operations, and also can be trained to sniff out drugs. Check the games section for a fun little concentration matching challenge.
Fugitive Facts File - What do Henry ("Hap") H. Arnold, Omar N. Bradley, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Douglas MacArthur, and George C. Marshall have in common? They are the only men who have been five-star generals in the U.S. Army or Air Force. You can find that here, along with a ton of information that could help you with a paper at school or let you impress family and friends. In fact, you'll get lots of neat information, from A (Actors' and actresses' real names--did you know that Tom Cruise was born Thomas Mapother?) to Z (it'll link you to a Web site about Zorro).
Ghosts in the Castle - Wouldn't it be neat to live in a castle? Here's your chance to explore one built in Britain in the 1300s. We took the tour and met a lot of really neat people who are there to protect us, the castle owners. James, the archer, was one. He claims to be able to shoot a steel-tipped arrow more than 100 yards! With a few carefully placed clicks of your mouse on the mouse wandering around on the screen, you will be transported through this marvelous place. Watch for the ghosts, though. Now we're heading back to see what Peter the Jester has up his sleeve.
Going, Going, Gone - The Way Things Used to Be - Have you ever had to make your own soap? In the old days, that's what they did. They saved scraps of fat until they had enough, then cooked the fat until it was melted and smooth. They saved ashes too, and they poured water over them to release the lye. Then they added the lye water to the rendered fat. They cooked and stirred for several more hours, and the soap was then poured out into molds and left to harden. Those days are gone, because now we all buy scented soap in the store. What other things are different now than they used to be? Check out a fascinating list of them here.
Legends - Visiting this site is like entering a wizard's storeroom, stocked with lots of neatly labeled jars full of strange herbs, exotic powders, and unusual amulets. There are some books left on the dusty shelf, and they are about people like Robin Hood, King Arthur, and Peter Pan. Pirates, fairies, and even artists like William Morris are represented here. Shhh--did you hear someone coming?
Monsters of Mystery - Here a monster, there a monster, everywhere a monster monster! Seems like every region of the world has a "pet" monster they like to tell stories about. Whether it's the Yeti of Asia or the Mokele-Mbembe of Africa, you can read some of those legends here.
Nessie, the Loch Ness Monster - Mark Chorvinsky has put together a remarkable Web site exploring the controversies surrounding Scotland's world-famous Loch Ness Monster. Nessie, as the lake monster is affectionately known, has been the subject of numerous credible sightings over the past 60-plus years, even though extensive scientific efforts to track it down have been a lesson in frustration. This page presents well-researched and clearly written essays on the sightings, the searchers, and the debunkers, as well as investigations into other, lesser-known lake monsters from around the world. For example, ever heard of Canada's Ogopogo? He/she's been spotted regularly since 1926 in Lake Okanagan, British Columbia.
NOVA Online/Kaboom! - This resource is explosive! Learn all about the science of BOOM, the chemistry of WOW, and the precision ballet of controlled demolition. Dare we say this site is DYNAMITE?
Oak Island - Did you ever dig a hole? What if you dug a hole and found beams of wood? What if you then found a buried shaft? You'd probably be excited! That's exactly what happened to a young man years ago on Oak Island, just off the coast of Nova Scotia, in Maritime Canada. What's really intriguing is that many people have dug deeper into the shaft since then and found inscribed stones, coconut fiber, an iron plate, and oak wood, just as might be found in treasure chests. Problem is, the shaft is booby-trapped to flood with water, and no one has made it to the bottom. Is there treasure? No one knows. See more about this mystery at this Web page
Pirates! @ Nationalgeographic.com - Can you solve these National Geographic adventures? You'll have to read clues and figure out which pirate, which ship, and which treasure star in each of the mysteries. Beware: if you get it wrong, you may have to walk the virtual plank and start all over again! There are also links to additional materials, books, and links about pirates.
Pirates: Fact and Legend - What's the story with pirates, anyway? Did they really act the way they do in the movies and in books? Compare the legend to the hard facts in this close-up look at pirates, their history, ships, customs, and lots more. This site was created by students for the ThinkQuest competition.
Sea-Monkey Central - It's "Instant Life"--it's "Sea-Monkeys"--it's a great marketing gimmick! Take the lowly brine shrimp (also known as live fish food) and develop a foolproof way to raise herds of them in a tiny plastic "zoo" aquarium. Advertise in the backs of comic books and sell the little critter eggs for a really cheap price. Everything you'd ever want to know about these fun but tiny pets is here, including terrible jokes, such as this one: Question: What do you call a Sea-Monkey tank that's been spilled on your sister's favorite doll? Answer: Shrimp on the Barbie.
Secret Language - Psssst! Want to send a secret message to a friend, one that nobody else can possibly decipher? Head on over to this page at San Francisco's Exploratorium, where you can print out a copy of some substitution cipher wheels. Put one inside the other, twirl them around a little bit, and you're in the spy biz!
Surfing the Net with Kids: Calendar, Factoid & Contests - Did you miss Shamu's birthday or maybe Elephant appreciation day last year? How about International Joke Day? If you tune into this site, they will keep you informed of these events as well as other events, contests and holidays.
The Bermuda Triangle - There are two sides to every story, and this page takes the skeptic's side of the mysteries of the Bermuda Triangle. This page explains, in factual terms, why many of the mysterious events attributed to the Bermuda Triangle may be no more than products of "over-active imaginations."
The Seven Wonders of the Ancient World - Everyone's heard about them, but who can name them? Well, there are the Pyramids, of course, and uh hmmm. Luckily, there is a list of all of them here, along with pictures and links. Since there are not many of the ancient wonders of the world around anymore, you'll also find a list of the Modern Wonders of the World, as well as the Natural Wonders of the World. There are also pictures and links for wonders such as these: the Great Wall of China, Victoria Falls, and the Eiffel Tower.
Underwater Archaeology - Discovery of shipwrecks and their cargoes in the Mediterranean, and the English Channel. Discover the organization and supervision of archeological undersea excavations and research on maritime history.
Volcano Expedition - Come explore the volcanos of Costa Rica. You'll find lots of information, photos, movies and information in this close up look of volcanic activity. Spectacular photos throughout the site and daily journals from the research team really make this site spectacular to see.
Wayfinding in the Middle of the Pacific - Journey back through time to the days of the early Hawaiians, and see how they voyaged across the sea without instruments or a compass to guide them. They had only the stars and other natural "signposts" to show them the way. Some young people from several elementary schools in Hawaii thought that was really unusual and cool. So they did a lot of research about the early settlers of Hawaii and entered their Web page in the ThinkQuest Junior competition. You'll enjoy reading about how the original Hawaiians traveled and how they used stars to navigate. You can even play a game that will prove just how much you have learned.
White House for Kids - Let Socks, the First Cat, take you on a fascinating kid's-eye tour of the White House in Washington, D.C. Buddy, the First Dog, can come along, too. You'll learn how the White House was built (bricks were made on the front lawn), tour the rooms, and find out about the First Family pets that have lived there (don't miss President Harrison's goat or Caroline Kennedy's pony). We learned something we didn't know before: the president's desk was once part of a ship, abandoned north of the Arctic circle in 1854! The HMS Resolute was later found by the crew of an American whaling ship. It was repaired and refitted, then sent to Queen Victoria as a gesture of goodwill. Later, when the ship was taken out of service and dismantled, a desk was made from some of its timbers. Queen Victoria presented the desk to President Hayes in 1880. The desk has been used by most presidents since then. Socks never gets to sit on it, though. Well, maybe he does, late at night, when no one is around.
World's Largest Roadside Attractions - Want to plan a summer vacation trip that will allow you to visit the World's Largest Clam, the World's Largest Ukrainian Easter Egg, and the World's Largest Cuckoo Clock? No problem. This Web site has all the details you'll need! (By the way, you'll be visiting Pismo Beach, California, Vegreville, Alberta, and Wilmot, Ohio.)
You Can with Beakman and Jax - Put on your thinking cap and visit this site. Discover the answers to important questions, like "What are fingernails made of?" and "Why do I hear weird sounds at night?" There are some neat animations, too. For example, check out "How the Internet Works."
Your Gross and Cool Body - Everything you've ever wondered about the science of sweat, pimples, burps, ear wax, and unseemly bodily noises is here. There are even audio recordings of stuff like a stomach growling--but it's not the real thing, and you get to guess what they used to make the sounds. It's not really disgusting, but it is gross, so if you're over 13 or so, don't even think of visiting this site! Those that do will learn a lot about digestion, the circulatory system, and other things about the human body and its mysteries.
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