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Archives for 24 July 2019

🚀 🌎 APOLLO 11 RETURNED TO EARTH 50 Years Ago Today

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For live links, click to: riverhouses.org/2019-splashdown

The first men to walk on an alien world returned safely to earth 50 years ago today. Getting to the moon and landing on it was a challenge, but if the Apollo 11 crew could not make it back home, then all would have been lost. Here’s a professionally done animation you can show your students this week to explain all the steps involved in getting from the surface of the moon back to earth:

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The most hazardous phase of the return flight is reentry into the earth’s atmosphere, when friction produces incredible temperatures on the bottom surface of the capsule. (The same effect causes most meteoroids — “shooting stars” — to burn up in the atmosphere.) During this reentry phase there is a also nerve-wracking radio blackout for a brief interval before contact is reestablished, the parachutes open, and the capsule safely strikes the water.

The Apollo 11 capsule Columbia safely floating in the Pacific with the astronauts awaiting transfer to the U.S.S. Hornet, 24 July 1969. (Image: NASA.)

The Apollo 11 crew and the Columbia capsule were fished out of the Pacific by the crew of another fine ship, the U.S.S. Hornet aircraft carrier. The Hornet is now a floating museum in San Francisco Bay that you and your homescholars can perhaps visit someday:

Here’s one more interesting historical anecdote you can share with your students about the Columbia capsule. That tiny room — think of it as a room — was an intense workshop and laboratory, with all three astronauts engaged in difficult operational and scientific activity throughout the mission. It turns out that during their daily work they scribbled quite a bit of stuff on the walls and instrument panels: navigational calculations, notes about the equipment, and more. After their safe splashdown and recovery, Mike Collins got the urge to go back into the capsule and write a note of thanks, which he did, and which can be seen there to this day.

Command Module Pilot Michael Collins’ note of thanks written on the inside of the Columbia capsule shortly after its safe return: “Spacecraft 107 – alias Apollo 11 / alias ‘Columbia’ / The Best Ship to Come Down the Line / God Bless Her / Michael Collins / CMP.” (Image: NASA.)

The Columbia capsule is now housed at the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, but the museum’s website says it is not currently on display — so if you want to see it in person you may have to wait for a future opportunity.

What other grand historical anniversaries are you studying in your homeschool this month? 😊

❡ Come, here’s the map: If you turn to plate 109 in your recommended homeschool atlas (riverhouses.org/books) you’ll be able to locate the section of the Pacific Ocean about 800 miles southwest of Hawaii — notably empty, of course — where Apollo 11 made its final splashdown. 🌎

❡ Stay in the loop: This is one of our regular Homeschool Holidays & Anniversaries posts. Add your name to our free weekly mailing list (riverhouses.org/newsletter) and get great homeschool teaching ideas delivered right to your mailbox all through the year. 🗞

🌍 🇬🇧 WEEKLY WORLD HERITAGE: Ironbridge Gorge in the United Kingdom

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For live links, click to: riverhouses.org/2019-united-kingdom

The United Kingdom is one of our homeschool countries-of-the-week, so why not spend a few minutes today learning about one of the UK’s World Heritage Sites: Ironbridge Gorge.

The Iron Bridge over Ironbridge Gorge. (Image: Wikimedia Commons.)

Ironbridge Gorge is one of the key sites in the origin of the Industrial Revolution that transformed the world in the nineteenth century:

“The Ironbridge Gorge World Heritage property covers an area of 5.5 km2 (550 ha) and is located in Telford, Shropshire, approximately 50 km north-west of Birmingham. The Industrial Revolution had its 18th century roots in the Ironbridge Gorge and spread worldwide leading to some of the most far-reaching changes in human history.

“The site incorporates a 5 km length of the steep-sided, mineral-rich Severn Valley from a point immediately west of Ironbridge downstream to Coalport, together with two smaller river valleys extending northwards to Coalbrookdale and Madeley.

“The Ironbridge Gorge provided the raw materials that revolutionised industrial processes and offers a powerful insight into the origins of the Industrial Revolution and also contains extensive evidence and remains of that period when the area was the focus of international attention from artists, engineers, and writers. The property contains substantial remains of mines, pit mounds, spoil heaps, foundries, factories, workshops, warehouses, iron masters’ and workers’ housing, public buildings, infrastructure, and transport systems, together with the traditional landscape and forests of the Severn Gorge.“ (UNESCO World Heritage Centre #371)

World Heritage Sites are cultural or natural landmarks of international significance, selected for recognition by the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization. More than 1000 such sites have been recognized in over 160 countries, and we post one every Wednesday, drawn from one of our homeschool countries-of-the-week. You can find a complete list online at the UNESCO World Heritage Centre and in Wikipedia.

What world treasures have you explored in your homeschool this week? 😊

❡ Books in the running brooks: You can always turn to your River Houses almanac, atlas, and history encyclopedia (riverhouses.org/books) for more information about any of our countries-of-the-week. The almanac has profiles of all the nations of the world on pages 745–852; the endpapers of the atlas are indexes that will show you where all of the individual national and regional maps may be found; the history encyclopedia includes national histories on pages 489–599; and you can find additional illustrations, flags, and other mentions through the indexes in each of these volumes. For an ideal little lesson, just write the name of the Weekly World Heritage Site on your homeschool bulletin board, find its location in your atlas, read UNESCO’s one-paragraph description aloud, look at a picture or two, and you’re done. Over the course of the year, without even realizing it, your students will absorb a wealth of new historical and geographical information. 🇬🇧

❡ The great globe itself: This is one of our regular Homeschool States & Countries posts. Add your name to our free weekly mailing list (riverhouses.org/newsletter) and get great homeschool teaching ideas delivered right to your mailbox all through the year. 🌍