Journal of Be(e)utiful Pla(y)ces

Anne Frank House, Amsterdam, Netherlands EXPLORE This week the Adventure Whales are focusing on Social Justice Heroes & Sheroes. In particular, we’re learning about young people who found ways to share their voices in the face of injustice. Our first stop was the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam, Netherlands. To join our adventure, start with this online lesson introducing Anne's story created by the Anne Frank House museum. Then, tour the secret annex yourself complete with sho

Guandera Reserve and Biological Station, Carchi, Ecuador EXPLORE Today, the Adventure Whales visited a place that is very special to me, the Guandera Reserve and Biological Station on the very northern end of the Ecuadorian Andes. I worked on the Reserve for six months in 2002 and still keep in touch with some of the lovely staff who welcomed me. The guandera forest is also special because there is so little of it (only 4% of the original forest still stands) and almost no on

Wolong National Nature Reserve, Sichuan Province, China EXPLORE The Adventure Whales are learning the “bear necessities” of Fantastic Forests this week. The first stop was the Wolong National Nature Reserve in the mountains of Central China. The nature reserve is home to many threatened and endangered species, the most famous of which is the giant panda. But, giant pandas are not the only animal stars--check out the red pandas, golden snub-nosed monkeys, and many others while

Iceland EXPLORE The Adventure Whales swam to Northern waters today to visit the crazy geology capital of the world: Iceland. I mean, they have volcanoes that you can go inside, the original geyser, a boiling river, and hot springs everywhere. To get a taste for the geologic wonders of Iceland, check out this National Geographic Next video. Then, learn more about why geysers erupt with SciShow Kids. Bonus: If you really want to go deep into geyser science, you can also learn m

Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, Hawaii, USA EXPLORE It’s hard to believe that school has been out for a month! As we go into Week 5 of our Virtual Outings, we decided to spice it up a bit. So, we’re going to explore the more explosive parts of our planet with some explosions of our own. Our first stop is Hawaii Volcanoes National Park on the Big Island of Hawaii. To join us, start with Google’s Hidden Worlds of the National Parks featuring Hawaii Volcanoes. PBS also has some

Studio Ghibli Musem, Tokyo, Japan EXPLORE To continue our week of Art & Imagination, the Adventure Whales swam across the Pacific to the Studio Ghibli Museum in Tokyo, Japan. For those of you who don't know Studio Ghibli, it is the famous animation studio that produces beautiful children's movies such as My Neighbor Totoro and Spirited Away. The kids were so excited to go there, but unfortunately the museum website is pretty spare and there are almost no photos online showing

Tate, London, UK Update! With many schools starting remote learning this week, Virtual Outings will move to twice a week. The plan is to post our adventures every Monday and Wednesday. EXPLORE Our team of adventurers decided to explore Art and Imagination this week. To kick off our travels, we visited Tate--the famous art museum in the UK. They have an AMAZING collection of kids activities on their website. We focused on Pop Art, but there are lots of other topics to dive int

International Space Station, Orbiting Earth EXPLORE What would it be like to live in space? To find out, the Adventure Whales visited the International Space Station. The, we imagined what it would take to voyage beyond Earth’s orbit to Mars or beyond. To join us, start by watching this short introduction to ISS with SciShow Kids. Then, explore on your own using Google Earth ISS. Watch a few Space to Ground dispatches from NASA. My favorite is about the first all female space

VLT & ALMA Telescopes, Chile EXPLORE Today we decided to journey beyond our solar system with a special guest: astronomer and science journalist Kathy Kornei! We also visited the Very Large Telescope (VLT) and Atacama Large Millimiter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) telescopes in Chile. These telescopes, and many more around the world and in space, allow us to explore the universe, even finding other planets that could hold life. To start, get a sense of what is out there and the

Our Solar System EXPLORE Today, we pulled a Ms. Frizzle,got on the Whale Bus, and took a tour of our solar system. To join the class, start with National Geographic’s Solar System 101. Then, ooo and ahh at these beautiful real images of our Sun and planetary neighbors. To get a feel for how large and far apart the planets really are, watch a scale model of the solar system come to life in the desert. If you can’t get enough, you can also learn about the origin of the solar sy