Valentine's Day 2011

We had lots of fun. Thanks to all the parents who helped with the party. We enjoyed playing Bingo, opening valentines, eating ice cream sundaes and making graphs with candy hearts.

GPS Training

Columbus, Amerigo Vespucci and others traveled great distances using few instruments and less than accurate maps. What do you think Columbus or Amerigo would say if they saw a GPS device? Where would Columbus have gone instead of the New World?

Early explores used their instruments and longitude and latitude coordinates to find their destination. Today we have the benefits of GPS to help us find our destination with much more accuracy. GPS was first developed by the United States government for military use.
We wanted to know where our enemies were hiding. But in 1978, President Ronald Regan signed a bill to make GPS available for all the public to use. Do you think that was a good law to pass?

GPS stands for Global Positioning System and consists of a constellation of 24 satellites circling Earth twice a day.

The basic principle of GPS is to determine with the best possible accuracy a point in space using 3 coordinates, latitude, longitude and elevation or height from sea level (measured from space).

The best tracking with a GPS occurs when a point is determined by at least 4 satellites at the same time.

The satellites continuously transmit information on specific radio frequencies to ground-based receivers.

How Are GPS devices used in Our Lives Everyday?

Which one do you think is the best use of the GPS?

In a shoe to track a human.

On your arm to track you path when jogging or perhaps hiking.

Finding our way to an unknown destination.

Used in cars, fire engines, police cars, ambulances, airplanes, boats, taxi, and other vehicles.

Used on a motorcycle or a bicycle.

Put on a pet or an animal to find them. Perhaps used by hunters and hunting dogs.

Useful for finding someone lost in a dangerous area.

Finding Our Way !!! Where is that restaurant, mall, baseball field, theater, store, address?

The Internet is also a good place to find GPS directions.

Look at GOOGLE MAPS to see lots of images, maps, and directions.

This map shows the coordinates for Dallas, Texas.

Geochaching: The Act of Hiding (And Finding) Hidden Treasures Using a GPS Device.

People all over the world have started Geocaching. You choose a place to hid a small treasure like a little toy or trinket. You post the coordinates on the Internet at the Geocaching site and then someone will use their GPS device and search out your treasure. If they take your treasure they have to leave a new one and also write you a message on the log book or on the computer.

Geocaching is lots of fun!

Let's Review

1. What does G stand for in the abbreviation GPS?

2. Why was GPS developed? Who used it first?

3. How many coordinates does GPS use for locating a destination?

4. Name one of those coordinates from this group of words:

equator, longitude, tropical, organic, latitude, groundbreaking, elevation

5. Name someone besides yourself or your parents who would use a GPS?

6. What is Geocaching?

Our Growing Garden Before the Storms Hit

These pictures were taken in January. We are observing the cabbage forming small heads.

This is a big broccoli plant. It has formed eadible parts.

We have several cauliflower plants with great big leaves. They are just now staring to produce a small head of cauliflower on each plant.

We're not sure why these plants haven't grown as big as the other ones.

This is another big cabbage plant. The leaves are enormous.

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