World Tour at NCSS blogging the session

Rick asked two people to tweet about the World Tour. #briarhill24hrworldtour

Started at a middle school but now at several middle and high schools in Lewisville ISD, Texas. Rick provided an overview of what the World Tour.

Rick introduced the 6 station helpers to the rest of the session attendees.

A conference participant video conferenced with two teachers in Texas; one middle school and one high school teacher. Lewisville uses Zoom for the video conference. Students apply to become part of the World Tour. A student meeting before embarking on the World Tour to clarify roles, expectations, organize and prepare. The Lewisville model is for 24 hours, but your school could do a shorter Tour. Six hours, 12 hours, you do you!

A parent meeting is essential because they have lots of questions about what the students will be doing for 24 hours. Yes, they can rest during the 24-hour period. Lewisville doesn't throw up obstacles that prevent students from participating such as GPA or attendance. Have games and other activities for stuff to do during down time or if there is a last minute cancellation.

Each video conference takes about 30 minutes which means there are about 20-25 minutes to rotate stations and prepare for the next conference call. 25 students who will participate and start preparation about 6 weeks before the event. Try to match students to location that they are interested in researching.

Started just with video conferencing with one other classroom in another location. Lewisville does this just before Spring Break. They start on Thursday night and into Friday. This year is Feb. 28-March 1, 2019. You are invited to join Lewisville on the 2019 World Tour!

Library layout: downtime games, separate areas for boys and girls to rest, social media station, cartographer station, "nexters" (the person who is next in line for the interviewing), video conference station, scribe station, blog station, breakfast/lunch/dinner/snacks area, iMovie producer station. End call between all district schools to celebrate the end of the event.

Phase 1: Laying the Groundwork: set date, administrative approval, create blog to house information, teacher team, look for contacts, create Twitter hashtag, contact t-shirt company to begin design process.
Phase 2: Getting Your People: make school announcements, interesting meeting, application process, week to turn in application, selection process, have student team chosen 1 month before event to give time to prepare, congratulatory letter and contract form, second meeting with selected students. Global contacts (Skype in the Classroom), Google+ communities, Twitter, Who do you know?, National Parks/Museum Education directors, school alumni, contact schools/businesses/authors/scientists/military. Use Google sheet to keep track of roles and contacts.
Phase 3: Logistics: Food - all meals, snacks, breakfast, lunch, dinner, supplies needed,
Phase 4: Preparation: meet with student 4 times to prepare (pulled during an advisory period), continuation of updating blog, students create Top 10 lists, students create current events presentation, Final Student Meeting, Media blitz
See Rick's presentation for the rest of the phases

Another idea would be to do a tour of a historical tour. Such as a 6 hour tour of Civil War sites. Each class period took a different site like Ford's Theatre, History Professor, etc, Or a World History class could video conference with the National World War II Museum in New Orleans in one-day different classes talk to different sites related to the topic.

For all the details visit http://tinyurl.com/LISDWorldTour

Presenting the World Tour at NCSS

On December 1st, we presented the 24Hr World Tour event in Chicago.  The purpose is to share the experience that we have had, and support others in the planning of their own World Tour.  We are also always looking for contacts to connect with to help enhance our classrooms.  Thank you for attending the session and we would love some feedback.

• What are some other possible stations?
• How can the tour be enhanced?
• Things you like, we should keep?
• Things you wonder about?
• Theme ideas?
• Student artifacts?
• Next step actions?
• Do you have a contact that can help us with our never ending quest to have great contacts all around the world.  If you do, click here.

First Mystery Virtual Conference of the 2018/19 School Year

Today is our first mystery virtual conference of the 2018/2019 School Year. Everybody is extremely excited for this mystery skype. We are Currently skyping Mr.Gomez's class. We had kept the location secret for the students skyping Mr.Gomez's class to add a little more of a challenge. The class has limited English ability. It's a challenge to keep up with them because of wifi problems we are having. Can you guess where they are located? They are in the South America. They live near mountains. They are on the pacific ocean. They are not in Chile. If you guessed Peru then you are correct.

Thank You Everyone From Everywhere

We want to thank everyone who joined us on our 24Hr World Tour.  We talked with scientists, students, teachers, business people, relatives, celebrities, museums, parks, and friends from all over the world.  What great memories we made as we had cultural exchanges on each continent.  It was tiring as we worked hard throughout the night.  It's interesting to see students show up for school the next morning as we worked through the night.  Conversations were great, food was good, ping pong and other games were fun!  Everyone had their own favorite part of the tour.  Thanks again everyone!!!!!

Alaska Sea Life Center, Seward

          It is 2PM and as one of our final Skypes of the Briarhill 24 Hour World Tour, we will be visiting the Alaska Sea Life Center in Seward, Alaska! This park is about 4000 miles from Dallas, and during summer, the warmest it will get is about 75 degrees. Their main goal is to teach everybody about Alaska's sea life. We learned that Alaska is twice the size of Texas!
           Pilot, a sea lion, is 9 years old is already more than 1 thousand pounds, but is still going to grow 1000 more pounds! They also have multiple birds like puffins. These birds are incredible swimmers that paddle with their wings and feet, and some can dive up to 200-300 feet deep! Some of their fish can live to be 100 years old! One of the coolest animals they showed us were the king crabs, and they got that name because they are 2 feet wide. The crabs that they have are like scavengers because they are always digging in the gravel. Big Mouthed Sculpins live there as well. They appear as big rocks and sit so still that algae can grow on them. They have mouths as wide as there whole face and sit and wait for prey to come right in front of them. Below is one of the Giant Pacific Octopi named Gilligan that stays on the wall right there. She has a few thousand eggs, and once those eggs all hatch she dies. She has been in the same place for 8 months waiting for her eggs to hatch.

This is Gillgan the octopus

The man that we spoke to said that his favorite animal was the Giant Pacific Octopus.
We told him that we got no snow, and that right now it is 60 degrees. We also told him that we like to play team sports here outside. We also explained to him that we don't really get to the beach much because it is 5 hours away.
We got to see so many animals, like one of the sea lions, and it was so much fun to learn all about them!
-Jade and Isabel

Ford's Theater

          Right now it is 12PM and we are Skyping with Alice from Ford's Theater in Washington D.C. She is across the street virtually showing us the theater.
          Ford's Theater was originally purchased by the Ford Brothers and turned into the Ford Theater in 1863. On April 9, 1865 the Civil War ended with Robert E. Lee surrendering. People celebrated the end of the war at the White House. President Abraham Lincoln spoke about granting voting rights to African Americans who fought for the Union in the war.  John Wilkes Booth, a strong patriot, was in the crowd and did not like what President Lincoln was saying. On April 14, 1865, John Wilkes Booth heard about President Lincoln and his wife coming to see the play Our American Cousin. The theater was decorated for the president and prepared for his arrival. On that night, there were almost 2,000 people. Before the show John Wilkes Booth had prepared a plan to assassinate President Lincoln, the Vice President, and the Secretary of State. When the president arrived late, the show was stopped for him and his wife, Mary, and they were applauded. At about 10PM, Booth came into the theater, crossed the balcony, and went into the presidential box. It didn't all go according to plan, because the Secretary of State was only injured, and the Vice President was not injured at all. He fired a shot into the back of Lincoln's head and Lincoln immediately went unconscious. A friend of President Lincoln's, and Major in the Army, attempted to help. He ran into the presidential box, which was when Booth pulled a knife on him and stabbed the Major from his elbow to shoulder.  Booth jumped from the box, exited the theater, and jumped on his horse in the alley and galloped away. After it was determined that President Lincoln would not live, he was carried across the street to the Peterson Boarding House, where he died the next morning. Lincoln's body was taken home to Illinois where a big funeral was held for him.
          The whole city was in mourning, and a reward had been put out for Booth. Over the course of 12 days, Booth traveled all the way down to Maryland. He was eventually found and refused to surrender, causing the soldiers to shoot him. His last words were, "Tell my mother I died for my country."
          After the assassination, the theater was closed to the public, and soldiers were put outside of it to stop the public from entering. The Ford brothers tried to re-open the theater with a show, but no one wanted to come see a show in the theater where President Lincoln was assassinated. The Ford brothers ended up selling the theater to the government, who gutted it and later turned it into an Army medical museum and an office space. Later on, the building collapsed killing 22 people.  The government gutted the building again and turned it back into a museum and an office building. The theater was reopened 103 years after the assassination of President Lincoln. The museum has been re-done several times in an attempt to return it to its original look all while making the theater a place where people can come see plays and learn its story.

This is a famous illustration of when Booth goes into the presidential room and shoots Lincoln. The Major is running in on the left.

 

The photo on the left is a crime scene photo, and the one on the right is the presidential box right now.

This is Ford's Theater today.

          Today Ford's has a museum underneath the theater and it is also a working theater. They now do all sorts of plays, such as musicals, history plays, and others. President Lincoln loved the theater and this is their way of celebrating him. On the 150th anniversary of the assassination, 10th street, the street that Ford's Theater is on, was full of people to remember Lincoln. Going to Ford's is a self-guided tour, but through the education department they like to give you a tour. The museum holds tons of artifacts, such as the gun John Wilkes Booth used to shoot Lincoln (pictured below), the boot that Booth wore when he broke his leg, and the doctors tools from when Lincoln was shot.

We learned so so much about Ford's past, how it became the theater it is today, and what you will see if you visit it!
-Jade

International Spy Mueseum

We are Skyping Lucy from the International Spy Museum in Washington D.C. She is going to see if we have what it takes to be a spy. She is going to put a normal picture on screen and we are going to try and find five things that look suspicious in the image.

We found that people could be conducting a "brush pass', a guy leaning forward by a tree, someone in the window, someone could be eavesdropping, and someone could be conducting surveillance.

 We are now getting to look at spy gadgets and guess what they are used for. This is a spy watch that can be used to take photos or videos in secret.

In the photo above there is a gun disguised as lipstick.

She also says they are a medium sized museum and get a few thousand visitors per day. They have exhibits, interactive activities, scavenger hunts, birthday parties, overnights, and even spy camps! There are three exhibits at the museum right now, and her favorite is a section of the James Bond exhibit called "My Bond Moment". This is where real spies talk about their experiences. She has worked there for five and a half years, and says if you want a job like her we would need to go to college, get good grades, and like working with kids!

--Makayla, Varshini, Lexi

Mystery Skype 4

     It is currently 11:00AM and we are doing another mystery Skype. We will be asking Ms. Peyrot and Mrs. Gilbreath yes or no questions about their location and we will be timed on how fast we guess it. Turns out, they were on the roof of Briarhill Middle School. They said it is very windy and cold up there. They are on the lookout for Mr. Bleemel's tennis ball. They were very kind to show us the air conditioner. -Rylie and Molly

Mystery Skype 3

Christian GC is going to be giving us clues so that we can find his location. All we know is that he is in a major city somewhere....We find out early on that he is not in the northern hemisphere. He is also south of America. We find out later that his country is near an ocean but not an island. He later reveals that he is in the western part of South America. By asking him about the countries he's near in we find out he's in the capital of Peru, Lima. When questioned more we find out that the American embassy is right behind him (which is why we see an American flag in the background).

He says that if we ever visit Peru that we have to visit the Inca museums and remains. He says there are also a lot of cool old cathedrals and Churches. 

 

-Madison 

Niagara Falls

We are Skyping with someone from Niagara Falls. The falls are snowy and cold. Some of the water is frozen, but some of it is running. There are two parts to Niagara Falls. there is the Canadian side, and the American; There is a total of 3 waterfalls, The American Falls, the Horseshoe Falls, and the Bridal Veil Falls.The falls are located in Niagara Falls National Park, which was established in 1885.

We were able to see the falls, but couldn't hear our speaker. Unfortunately due to these technical difficulties we had to end our call short. We are excited to share our research with you.

-BMS Student

All Seven Continents!!

We are now trying to Skype with all 7 Continents at once! There will be someone from each continent and we will be talking to each other. There are people from Antarctica at Palmer Station and we also have people in Taiwan from our Asia Skype. We also have someone in Australia and it is actually 2 A.M. for them right now. We have a class from Nigeria in Africa and in Europe there is a woman from Iceland. In South America, there is a teacher from Argentina.

                                            This is the doctor at Palmer Station, Antarctica.
There are research stations that are government facilities for the people to study and then they leave. There aren't exactly made to be like houses. Their research stations at Palmer Station have 23 people. Because of the temperature, there are not any land mammals, it is just the marine animals. Also, the water temperature there is 30 degrees Fahrenheit! That is what they have to go scuba diving in! They have also been doing this research project for about 30 years. It was so cool to get to speak to all 7 Continents at the same time!

- Varshini

Scotland

       Talking to Amy from a Scotland zoo is wild! At the zoo, she told us about penguins and the different types they have at the zoo. They have more than 20 types penguins! They are able to keep them outside because of how cold it gets in Scotland and it doesn't get very hot during the summer. They also have different name for their penguins like a King penguin named Sir Neil Zolaf. When we were talking to her it was 2:05PM there. They have more than 100 types of animals at the zoo, and the zoo is a charity for the research and conservation of endangered species. One project they are doing is to protect animals from plastic in the ocean. The most common plastic is the plastic that holds bottles of soda or cans of soda together.

    Today, they are actually doing a penguin march where they let the penguins out of their habitat and they wander from one side to another right in front of the public! Lets make sure to protect the animals and learn about the world.  By: Molly, Isabel

                                           Amy talking to us at the zoo in Scotland!

Nigeria

    Right now we are waiting to Skype with Nigeria! We are going to be doing a game of pictionary with them. they said that living in Nigeria is... fun and awesome. They live in a city and it is the capitol of Nigeria (Abuja). "There is so many cool places to interact" the kids said.
    Some of the questions that the kids want to know are... What is it like in school? How old are we? Some of their favorite sports are the same as ours- gymnastics, volleyball, and basketball. In pictionary they are getting lots of the names of monuments right! We drew the Statue of Liberty, the Eiffel tower, Sydney Opera House, and the Great Wall of China.
    
    

This is the kids trying to guess a pictionary!

-Lexi

Next Stop... Brazil!

      We will be Skyping with Athalo Carrao  He gave us language lessons in Portuguese; like we learned how to say hi and happy birthday (olá and feliz Aniversário). In return we also told him some American slang like 'It's raining cats and dogs. He also told us there is a big storm there right now. 

He showed us and described the different foods that they eat in Brazil. He also showed us some attractions like Laphina Cave, as well as a picture of the worlds largest rodent, the capybara. He said that the capital of Brazil is often referred to as B. He is 372 miles from Brazil's capitol, Brasilia. He suggested that if we ever visited that we visit the beautiful beaches.
-Madison

Athens, Greece

     Skyping with Katy, an archeologist, in Athens, Greece. The Corinth Canal didn't become a canal until 1893. Now she is showing us a picture of the Temple of Apollo. The columns are huge. The Peirene Fountain was during the archaic period. Even to this day the tunnels aren't fully explored. It was the main water source until as late as the 1930s, and it is still working. They used decorative lion spouts as gutters long ago. Their museum is really big. They have artifacts relating to ancient religions. The have ancient pottery pots that they find at every famous site, and they have proven that it was made in Corinth. It is called Corinthian Pottery. They dig in April, May, and June each year and find 1000s of artifacts in those months. They don't keep it all though. They have been digging in a mid-evil hospital and church complex.


By: Rylie

Kazakhstan

We are skyping with Kazakhstan!!! The Kazakhstan slogan is Strength is our Unity. They are telling us about the huge source of minerals in their country, such as Gold, and Iron! Kazakhstan is a very diverse country with 121 nationalities, and 3 major languages. The country of Kazakhstan serves as a bridge between Europe and Asia with their closest allies being Russia and China.

They are now telling us about the similarities between Kazakhstan and the United States! Astana, Kazakhstan is very similar to New York City, New York. The location of Texas is very similar to the location of Shymkent, Kazakhstan.  They are both located in the center and are along the southern border. The eagle is a symbol for both the United States and Kazakhstan! Many Kazakhstanis live in Texas for work, and study! - Tristen

Mystery Skype #2

At 3 a.m. we are having our second mystery Skype of the night. We are Skyping with Anita, she is in the Northern Hemisphere, and is in Europe. She is in the South of Europe and it is sunny. Anita is West of Turkey and is not in Bulgaria, but is very close. She is in Croatia! She unfortunately could not show us around town, but she says there is a lot of interesting things in main square called Dot.

The time there is 10:00 a.m. they have had a lot of snow recently. She says it has been an unusual winter and it is luckily not 0 degrees anymore! She says tourists like the food there very much, and the food is a mixture of European and International food. They eat sarma and they eat a lot of the things we eat here, and they love making and eating cakes. We are 7 hours behind her, and she is very surprised we are up at 3 a.m.  She says she has received a cowboy hat from Texas as a gift.

There is not many fast food places, only McDonald's, Burger King, and KFC. She is a teacher at a private school not a state school, and her students love listening to K-Pop but she is okay with listening to whatever is on the radio. She teaches high school kids in the afternoon and says they speak English really well. Her currency is the only country that uses it. Their president has a lot less power than ours, even though he is well respected. She says she has been to America quite a few times to D.C. and New York right before Christmas time.

We just figured out where we are Skyping... Zagreb, Croatia!!

--Makayla, Lexi, and Varshini

Moscow, Russia

     Moscow is really cool, especially since its 10 degrees there! We are talking to Svetlana. She showed us a beautiful church. Yesterday was International Women's Day and they celebrate it by giving flowers and gifts to all women.
 During all of winter it snows about 1 meter of snow total! Sometimes during one day it can snow 20 cm. It is usually warmer in Moscow than in other cities, and it is only 10 degrees! She is in Red Square.
They have indoor and outdoor zoos. They have many animals. They have McDonalds and Starbucks! They also have KFC! They listen to lots of American and Russian pop music. Rap music is also popular there as well.
 There are about 22 million people living in Moscow today! She also took us to a place where we were in a giant Christmas ornament and we noticed that there were a lot of Christmas decorations still up. They have a joke that the longer you keep your Christmas tree up the more character you have.  To finish the Skype, she showed us their version of pancakes that they eat with honey instead of syrup!

By: Rylie and Isabel

Naomi's Village

 

   It's time to go to Kenya and visit Naomi's Village! Naomi's Village is a orphanage that is also a public school open to the kids that live near by. Today we are Skyping with a class from the village made up of boys and girls. Some of their favorite subjects are math, social studies and reading. Some of their favorite food is te poti or tortilla. The kids were really interested in what we were doing and surprised that we were still awake! Their school starts with kindergarten and goes all the way to 8th grade. At lunch they eat rice with a mixture of beans. Some of the other questions they asked included they wanted to know what state we were in, how long our world tour was, and how it worked. They wear uniforms and if they are in scouts they wear another one every Monday or Friday. As a scout, they have  more responsibilities. One thing we learned was the different and the holidays we both celebrate. Many of the kids really liked the idea of Halloween (Can't blame them, it's free candy!)

by: Parker ,Maddy, Isabel

Kauhsiung, Taiwan

It is 12:20AM and we are Skyping with Taiwan. They have different groups of people to Skype with us. We are going to compare our snacks and candies.

In Taiwan they like Hi Chew. Hi Chew has lots of flavors and it is a Japanese company. They have things called Pea Crackers as well. They have never heard of the peep marshmallows. They have McDonalds there, but no Chick-Fil-A. There are no Hershey's or gobstoppers and have never heard of them. Now we are moving to the second group.

Our interviewers explained our school day is divided into 8 period days and we have block days. We asked them about there schedule. They said that they also had 8 classes.
Before this Skype we were making grilled cheese sandwiches as a snack. We are now explaining to them how to make a grilled cheese sandwich, which they had never heard of. One of the participants explained the process step-by-step. We then moved on to a new group.

This group liked pineapple cookies, and basketball. They know what the NBA is and we explained to them who the Dallas Mavericks are and that we skyped with Mark Cuban, their owner, this morning.
We learned that their school days are 8 hours long, like ours. It was 2:37PM on Friday when were skyping them. We learned that the logo on their shirt was their school logo.

This was the fourth group. They asked us if we had a school uniform like them, and we explained that we did not have one, but right now we were all wearing the same shirt for our world tour.
We learned that they have potato chips like us.
They asked us what the most popular club in our school was. We told them choir! They also asked if we had basketball and we explained our athletics. We also told them that each class has 20-30 people, and our whole school had 1,000 people. They were surprised by that!

This was the fifth and final group. We learned that the students study after school and that it is very boring. They suggested that we visit their Chinese museum. One of the girls showed us a candy that is made of milk and sweet, in a raisin-shaped box.
We learned a lot about Taiwan's snacks and candy, and met a lot of new people!
-Jade, Makayla, Madison

Pictionary with India

    Tonight we are skyping a class from India. We are going to play pictionary with them. They go to school five days a week Mon-Fri, just like us. Their official language is English and they eat the same things we do. They like the same movies that we do, like Starwars.Their regular school day is also the same as ours in Texas.

    While we played pictionary, they correctly guessed the Great wall of China, The Pyramids and The Eiffle tower. They were actually able to guess everything that we drew.
In India it is Friday.

-Kennedy and Zach

Hayley Orrantia

      Hayley Orrantia is a singer, songwriter, and an actress. She went to Grand Prairie Elementary school, Heritage Elementary, Brairhill Middle School, and Marcus High School. Her role model growing up was her mom, because she works really hard at what she does, and never takes no for an answer.
 Her favorite part of her profession is getting to meet a lot of new and unique people.  Her favorite TV show is Friends. 
 Outside of doing acting, she goes on tour with her songs. When she did Choir at Briarhill, she had Mrs. Jacques who is still teaching here now. She was on the X Factor show and she just finished up season 5 of the Goldbergs. We had a great time talking to Hayley! Her advice to teenagers: Really embrace who you are.

-Jacob, Matthew, Megan 

Fries With Gravy? - Sydney, Australia

    We are talking with Sydney, Australia. Reece and Ms. Weesner are at McDonald's, showing some 10-12 year olds the menu, and the playplace! They have fries with gravy, but most of the menu is the same as ours. Their BigMac costs $12 and ours is only $5.99! Ms.Peyrot and Lexi are at the shops of Highland Village showing them the movie theater, AMC, the bookstore, Barnes & Noble. When we told them about Ben and Jerry's they got excited, apparently they love ice-cream! Black Panther is showing at our movie theater, it's also very popular in Australia! The kids loved the shops of Highland Village, and got very excited when we showed them the places they have in Australia too! They have a breakfast burger at their McDonalds. It is called the Big Brekkie Burger. They told us that to them it sounds like we have accents, and we told them the same.

Some fun Australian slang is that they call sausage snags. It is currently 1:23 on Friday for them, so to us, they are in the future, because it is only 8:24 on Thursday. We asked what we should go see if we were to visit Australia and they told us to go to the Sydney Oprah House.

They have to wear uniforms to school, and Ed Sheeran is popular there, too. Some of them have been to the US before. They said that they liked it. They do many of the same extra curricular activities as we do.  Their school has a choir, they play cricket, and baseball.

They get a Christmas break, 7.5 weeks!!!! They get to school the same way we do, but a few kids ride trains. Their school day is only 6 hours. - Tristen, Riley, Madi

Antarctica Ice Cube

   We are Skyping with the Ice Cube South Pole Observatory in Antarctica.  We are Skyping with the five other LISD schools in addition to Ice Cube, that are also doing the 2018 24 hour world tour. We are Skyping with Raffaela and Johannes. At Ice Cube they study the universe and look for tiny particles called neutrinos. They use multiple types of light, x-ray, optical, infrared. Ice Cube is 2450 meters deep, it is the size of a normal building and uses 5000 optical sensors. Ice Cube has 15 countries participating in the program.
    Antarctica is very barren with a flat top, and  no hills or grass at all. To keep warm they have a very heavy jacket, boots, gloves, beanies, heavy socks, etc.. Even though they are on a barren Continent they can still exercises inside and outside, play games, and have fun. They hang out in the green house and the mess hall.
The sunset started last week and it still has about two weeks left. Most the food that they have is canned, besides the ice cream which they have a lot of. Before the crew goes to the Ice Cube they have to do a physical examination where they make sure they are fit enough to go there. They are 22 hours ahead of us meaning that it is 2:30 pm on March 9th and the temperature is a wind chill of -100 degrees Fahrenheit and it is actually -65 degrees Fahrenheit.
   Even though Antarctica is under American rules, there is the Antarctica Treaty saying that Antarctica can not be claimed as a state or territory for any country therefore it is an independent piece of land.
   Right know there are 40 people in Antarctica, which is almost how many people are doing the 2018 24 hour world tour! We learned so much about the Ice Cube from this Skype and it was really fun to talk to people that live so far away from us in very different living conditions.
-Kennedy, Reagan, Parker

Melbourne, Australia

                                         The photo above shows a room covered in red daisies.
Next we are going to an art museum in Melbourne, Australia. The art museum is the National Gallery of Victoria. Unfortunately they had to send a prerecorded video  because of technical difficulties. They welcome everyone in the gallery because it is free. The museum has a lot of different types of art like religious art, native art, and historical art. The museum is there to express culture so others can learn about them.
-Madison, Zena, Regan

Los Angeles, California

We are going to be talking to Dr. Phil from Los Angeles, California. We are hoping to get some great advice from him and learn so much. He has been doing his show for 16 years. In his free time he enjoys playing tennis. He plays this sport about 7 or 8 times a week. We also learned that Serena Williams is his good friend.He also thinks that teenagers don't understand the power of social media. He informed us to be careful on what we post because what we post on there doesn't ever go away. He also says he misses Texas, and he can't wait to eat chicken fried food.
- Maddie, Nicco, Varshini 

Smithsonian Museum of Natural History

        Today at 4 p.m. CST we are speaking with the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History in Washington D.C.   We are talking with Maggy, and her favorite part about working at the museum is... seeing all the amazing objects. She works in the education department and manages live science. Also, she loves that she works with scientists to make discoveries. She studied biology and marine science in college and she taught elementary, middle, and high school students about Marine biology. Her dream job is to be a teacher. In the room with her she has birds, anthropology, animals, etc. All of the items that she showed us, she also taught us about. They have a lot of objects because they like to compare and contrast them. The museum also has a large collection of shells, rocks, and crystals. Some things to know about the museum are... it's free entry and they get their money from the US congress. The museum has Smithsonian sleepovers for kids. Every Friday the museum's scientists get together to eat and have fun.

She is now taking us into the museum. 

 This is the Ocean Hall

------------------------------------------------------------

Below is the Great North American whale

Above is a squid that washed up shore. (She thinks this is the most interesting creature)

----------------------------------------------------------

The next few are in her office.

They have a HUGE collection of fossils.

This is a bird that has no body, just the feathers and head.

This is Maggy from the museum.

-Lexi, Makayla, Jade

Our First Skype: Mark Cuban!!!

      We are speaking with Mark Cuban from Shark Tank!!!!
 He owns the Dallas Mavericks. We asked him about Shark Tank and what he looks for in the contestants. He looks for people with different backgrounds, and knowledge. He says it is fun to get a deal on Shark Tank. On TV a deal lasts about 10 minutes. In real life, it takes about an hour to an hour and a half.
     We asked about leaders that he looks up to and he told us Steve Jobs, and Elon Musk. One piece of advice he gave to middle school students like us is to not stress. He also told us to get outdoors or read a book and just be a kid without your face in electronics.  He also said a book can open a new door. His favorite books are about technology.
     He compared the Mavericks players to 20 brothers because he can't choose a favorite player.   Although he only knows a few songs, he likes to play the piano.  He played lots of sports but the ones he was better at was baseball and basketball. It was a great first skype!

-Rylie, Veronyca, and Reece

 

Mystery Skype Practice

Today we are going to be doing a practice mystery Skype.  We will be asking yes or no questions to try and determine where she is located.  The first question asked determined that her country was in the northern hemisphere. We found out a few questions later that, not only was she in North America, but she was in the United States.  She lives near the Gulf of Mexico in Texas. We first asked about all the main cities that we know of. She said no to all except College Station. Because she lives in College Station, she goes to Texas A&M. It is usually humid and warm, and right now it is 82. 

We asked her a little bit about her college life and her major, public health. She like traditions that A&M has. She is in a sorority, like a women's organization and she lives in an apartment, because she is a junior.-Veronyca, Madeline, Makayla, Madison

Exciting Challenge!! 7 Way...7 Continent Video Call

On March 9th at 9:00AM Highland Village, Texas Time, we will attempt to make a call to 7 people on 7 different continents.  We will have introductions, short weather report, current event, and quick conversation.  Will we be able to pull it off?  Follow us on this blog and on twitter at #briarhill24hrworldtour to find out.  

Oh... The Places We'll Go!

We kicked off preparation for our 24-hour World Tour today! We're presenting information about a few of the places we will be visiting throughout the tour. Students gathered facts and stories about some interesting places! So far we've heard about Naomi's Village, an orphanage and school, in Kenya, Niagara Falls, a series of massive waterfalls, on the border of New York and Ontario,  The International Spy Museum, the largest collection of espionage artifacts on public, in Washington, D.C. and Palmer Station, a research station in Antarctica! So much more is to come; we're so excited to start the tour, and finally talk to some of the amazing places we have learned about.

Interest Meeting

On January 19th before school started we had a World Tour interest meeting to see who wanted to be part of this years World Tour team.  We had many students pack the library to get details and their application.  Students need to get their application turned in by next Wednesday.  Good luck filling out the application.  We are looking for students who are ready for adventure. 

5 campuses going on the 2018 World Tour

The 5 campuses above will start a memorable adventure on March 8th at 4:00PM.  They will be contacting every corner of the globe talking with students, teachers, museums, friends, relatives, scientists, business leaders, community leaders, military, virtual field trips and many others from different walks of life.  Please wish us luck as we make video calls on the hour, every hour, for 24 hours.  Follow our stories at the above hashtags.