Some pictures of my classroom. Our school’s theme this year is “Gear Up for the Future.” I had the kids write their individual goals on gears to hang up around the room.

One bulletin board I like is the “So…I’m Here” one. In our first staff meeting this year, we talked about our “why.” (This is based on a book by Simon Sinek, I believe.) Why do we teach? What’s our purpose in teaching? If you have a “why,” it’s going to affect your “how.” I tried to translate my “why” into goals for our classroom.

What math classes have you taken?

What math classes did you do best in?

What math classes did you like the most?

What math classes did you do worst in?

Are there areas of math that you enjoy? What are they?

Why do you learn math?

What do you like about math?

Least favorite notation you’ve ever seen?

Do you have any favorite theorems?

Better yet, do you have any least favorite theorems?

Tell me a funny math story.

Who actually invented calculus?

Do you have any stories of Mathematical failure you’d like to share?

Do you think you’re good at math? Do you expect more from yourself?

Do other people think you’re good at math?

Do you know anyone who doesn’t think they’re good at math but you look up to anyway? Do you think they are?

Are there any great female Mathematicians (living or dead) you would give a shout-out to?

Can you share a good math problem you’ve solved recently?

How did you solve it?

Can you share any problem solving tips?

Have you ever taken a competitive exam?

Do you have any friends on Tumblr that also do math?

Will P=NP? Why or why not?

Do you feel the riemann zeta function has any non-trivial zeroes off the ½ line?

Who is your favorite Mathematician?

Who is your least favorite Mathematician?

Do you know any good math jokes?

You’re at the club and Andrew Wiles proves your girl’s last theorem. WYD?

You’re at the club and Grigori Perlman brushes his gorgeous locks of hair to the side and then proves your girl’s conjecture. WYD?

Who is/was the most attractive Mathematician, living or dead? (And why is it Grigori Perlman?)

Can you share a math pickup line?

Can you share many math pickup lines?

Can you keep delivering math pickup lines until my pants dissapear?

Have you ever dated a Mathematician?

Would you date someone who dislikes math?

Would you date someone who’s better than you at math?

Have you ever used math in a novel or entertaining way?

Have you learned any math on your own recently?

When’s the last time you computed something without a calculator?

What’s the silliest Mathematical mistake you’ve ever made?

Which is better named? The Chicken McNugget theorem? Or the Hairy Ball theorem?

Is it really the answer to life, the universe, and everything? Was it the answer on an exam ever? If not, did you put it down anyway to be a wise-ass?

Did you ever fail a math class?

Is math a challenge for you?

Are you a Formalist, Logicist, or Platonist?

Are you close with a math professor?

Just how big is a big number?

Has math changed you?

What’s your favorite number system? Integers? Reals? Rationals? Hyper-reals? Surreals? Complex? Natural numbers?

How do you feel about Norman Wildberger?

Favorite casual math book?

Do you have favorite math textbooks? If so, what are they?

Do you collect anything that is math-related?

Do you have a shrine Terence Tao in your bedroom? If not, where is it?

Where is your most favorite place to do math?

Do you have a favorite sequence? Is it in the OEIS?

What inspired you to do math?

Do you have any favorite/cool math websites you’d like to share?

Can you reccomend any online resources for math?

What’s you favorite number? (Wise-ass answers allowed)

Does 6 really *deserve* to be called a perfect number? What the h*ck did it ever do?

Are there any non-interesting numbers?

How many grains of sand are in a heap of sand?

What’s something your followers don’t know that you’d be willing to share?

Have you ever tried to figure out the prime factors of your phone number?

If yes to 65, what are they? If no, will you let me figure them out for you? 😉

Do you have any math tatoos?

Do you want any math tatoos?

Wanna test my theory that symmetry makes everything more fun?

Do you like Mathematical paradoxes?

👀

Are you a fan of algorithms? If so, which are your favorite?

A beautiful geometric visualization of positive-valued binomial expansions, the algebraic expressions produced by raising sums of variables (a, b) to natural-valued powers n. The algebraic structures and procedures of binomial expansion are described by the binomial theorem–which, in turn, is proved by the above figures. 

Given (a+b)^n, there will be (n+1)-many terms, c(a^(n-m))(b^m), where c is a constant, and a and b are variables. 

By tradition, these terms are arranged in descending order by powers of the leading term, a. Accordingly, the binomial expansion of (a+b)^n begins with the term having the highest power of a, which is a^n for all n. 

The remaining n-many terms are ordered such that the exponent of each successive a term (n-m) decreases by one. Correspondingly, the exponent of the b term (m) increases by one, such that (n-m)+m=n. 

The binomial coefficients c for each successive term c(a^(n-m))(b^m) are described by Pascal’s triangle. Given (a+b)^n, the nth row of Pascal’s triangle contains (n+1)-many numbers, which are the coefficients c, listed in the order described above.

Note that the exponent n is the dimension of the figures pictured above. This is no coincidence; the term (a+b)^n can be depicted geometrically by a figure whose measure (length, area, volume, hypervolume, etc.) is the quantity produced by multiplying (a+b), n-many times. 

Additionally, observe that the coefficients c give the quantity of n-dimensional figures required to fill in the missing bits of area, as illustrated by the figures. For example, in order to fill the volume (a+b)^3, we use two cubes of volume a^3 and b^3, and the remainder is filled by 3 “plate-like” figures and 3 “tube-like” figures (each of whose dimensions are (a^2)b and a(b^2), respectively).

Would you eat it? Yes, this is all food and it moves thanks to “synthetic biology.”

the-miraculous-polyglot:

hej-je-suis-a-language-dweeb:

iwillbeapolyglot:

les-langues-sont-ma-vie:

French

http://www.laits.utexas.edu/fi/home - I absolutely love this website. It has everything!

http://french.speak7.com/ 

http://www.elanguageschool.net/

http://www.learnalanguage.com/

French word of the day: http://www.bitesizedlanguages.com/wod/r/french

https://conjuguemos.com/index.php

http://learn101.org/french.php

http://www.memrise.com/topic/french/wordlists/

http://lightandmatter.com/french/

http://go.hrw.com/gopages/wl-fr.html

Pronunciations: http://www.forvo.com/languages/fr/

http://www.learner.org/resources/series83.html#

http://oli.cmu.edu/

http://www.bbc.co.uk/languages/french/mafrance/

http://www.rfi.fr/lfen/statiques/accueil.asp

Podcast: http://www.coffeebreakfrench.com/

http://www.newsinslowfrench.com/?gclid=CMPphb2SrKgCFQI8gwodRnvuHQ

French in Mali: http://wws.peacecorps.gov/wws/multimedia/language/lessons.cfm#french

http://www.miscositas.com/french.html

http://www.transparent.com/learn-french/

http://www.digitaldialects.com/French.htm

Phonetics: http://phonetique.free.fr/index.htm

http://www.verb2verbe.com/

Listening activities: http://frenchlingq.com/

http://ielanguages.com/french.html

http://www.realfrench.net/grammar/games.php 

http://www.languageguide.org/french/

http://goethe-verlag.com/tests/EF/EF.HTM

http://globegate.utm.edu/french/globegate_mirror/frlesson.html

http://www.parleremo.org/viewcatalog.php?catlang=fra

http://www.jump-gate.com/languages/french/french1.html

German

http://www.dw-world.de/dw/0,,9572,00.html -You have to register, but it’s a great way to learn German

http://userweb.port.ac.uk/~joyce1/abinitio/index.html 

http://www.deutsch-lernen.com/

http://www.fln.vcu.edu//menu.html

http://www.canoo.net/index_en.html

http://files.flageorgia.org/german/grammar/grammar.htm

http://www.ielanguages.com/German.html

http://www.parleremo.org/viewcatalog.php?catlang=deu

http://www.lsa.umich.edu/german/hmr/grammatik/index.html

http://learn-german-easily.com/index-basic-german

http://learn-to-speak-german.de/learn-with-songs

http://www.vorleser.net/

http://www.tagesschau.de/

http://german.speak7.com/

http://dict.leo.org/ende?lp=ende&lang=en&searchLoc=0&cmpType=relaxed&sectHdr=on&spellToler=&search=

Italian

http://www.learnalanguage.com/learn-italian/

http://www.elanguageschool.net/

http://easy-italian.tumblr.com/

http://nativeitalian.tumblr.com/

Linguistic Map of Italy: http://les-langues-sont-ma-vie.tumblr.com/image/20541832214

Italian word of the day: http://www.bitesizedlanguages.com/wod/r/italian

http://matadornetwork.com/abroad/10-extraordinarily-useful-italian-phrases/

Audio, grammar, idioms, etc: http://www.oneworlditaliano.com/english/home.htm

Children’s books: http://www.ilnarrastorie.it/favole.famose/

http://www.zapitalian.com/

http://www.ielanguages.com/italian.html

http://www.poliglo.com/English/english.html

Newspaper: http://www.repubblica.it/

http://italian.about.com/od/lessons/tp/italian-language-lessons.htm

Children’s songs and rhymes: http://www.mamalisa.com/?p=824&t=ec&c=120

http://www.italianlanguageguide.com/

Culture: http://www.kwintessential.co.uk/resources/global-etiquette/italy-country-profile.html

http://twitter.com/italianlanguage

http://www.iluss.it/schede_gram_free.html

http://www.education.vic.gov.au/languagesonline/italian/italian.htm

https://conjuguemos.com/index.php

http://learn101.org/italian.php

http://www.memrise.com/topic/italian/wordlists/

Pronunciations: http://www.forvo.com/languages/it/

Podcast: http://radiolingua.com/shows/italian/one-minute-italian/

Podcast: http://radiolingua.com/shows/italian/my-daily-phrase-italian/

http://www.transparent.com/learn-italian/

http://www.digitaldialects.com/Italian.htm

http://www.ielanguages.com/italian.html

http://www.italianizeyourself.com/

http://www.languageguide.org/italian/vocabulary/

http://goethe-verlag.com/tests/EI/EI.HTM

Spanish

http://www.lingolex.com/spanish.htm

http://www.123teachme.com/ - Has games, verb conjugations, text translator, grammar, quizzes, and more!

http://www.studyspanish.com/

http://spanish.speak7.com/

http://www.elanguageschool.net/

http://www.learnalanguage.com/

Spanish word of the day: http://www.bitesizedlanguages.com/wod/r/spanish

http://zachary-jones.com/zambombazo/

http://www.poliglo.com/English/english.html

https://conjuguemos.com/index.php

http://www.lingolex.com/spanish.htm

Games: http://www.quia.com/shared/spanish/

Newspapers: http://libguides.mit.edu/content.php?pid=146063&sid=1247903

http://www.spanishdict.com/

http://learn101.org/spanish.php

http://www.memrise.com/home/

http://www.memrise.com/topic/spanish/wordlists/

Phonetics: http://www.uiowa.edu/~acadtech/phonetics/#

Phonetics/Dialects in Spanish: http://www.uiowa.edu/~acadtech/dialects//#

Pronunciations: http://www.forvo.com/languages/es/

http://learner.org/series/destinos/

http://www.colby.edu/~bknelson/SLC/index.php

http://www.miscositas.com/spanish.html

http://www.codyscuentos.com/

http://radiolingua.com/shows/spanish/coffee-break-spanish/

http://www.transparent.com/learn-spanish/

http://www.digitaldialects.com/Spanish.htm

http://www.ielanguages.com/spanish.html

http://www.learn-spanish.co.il/

http://mld.ursinus.edu/~jarana/Ejercicios/index.html

http://www.todo-claro.com/

http://www.spanicity.com/

http://www.languageguide.org/spanish/vocabulary/

http://goethe-verlag.com/tests/ES/ES.HTM

http://learner.org/series/destinos/

http://www.spanishprograms.com/learning_module/tutorial_index.htm

http://www.expanish.com/free-spanish-study-guides.php

http://www.lingolex.com/accents.htm

http://www.codyscuentos.com/

http://www.spanishunlimited.com/

http://www.onlinefreespanish.com/

Chinese

http://www.chinese-tools.com/learn/chinese - What I love about this site is the pinyin to character tool 

http://www.chinese-outpost.com/language/

http://www.csulb.edu/~txie/ccol/content.htm

http://www.sinosplice.com/learn-chinese

http://chinese.rutgers.edu/class_content_simplified_chinese/level1/class1-to-9/class1/short_en.htm

http://www.zapchinese.com/

http://www.yeschinese.org/learn-chinese/lesson-1-introduction-to-hanyu-pinyin/

Thai

http://www.thai-language.com/lessons

http://www.thai2english.com/

http://www.linguanaut.com/english_thai.htm

http://learn-thai-podcast.com/thai-language/

http://www.into-asia.com/thai_language/

http://www.carla.umn.edu/LCTL/VPA/Thai/pages/home.htm

http://learningthai.com/

http://www.seasite.niu.edu/Thai/Beginning_Thai_I_review/index.html

http://www.thai-lessons.com/trivial_game.php

Music: http://www.ethaimusic.com/index.php

Korean

http://www.voakorea.com/

http://www.learn-korean.net/

http://www.parleremo.org/viewcatalog.php?catlang=kor

http://wiki.galbijim.com/Hanja

http://animara.com/hanghoul/ - shoot zombies by translating hangul!!

http://www.uebersetzung.at/twister/ko.htm 

http://langintro.com/kintro/toc.htm

http://www.genkienglish.net/speakkorean/

http://www.infocobuild.com/language/korean/korean.html-

http://linguanaut.com/english_korean.htm

http://www.lifeinkorea.com/Language/korean.cfm?Subject=writing

http://www.learn-korean.net/learn-korean-classes-listarticles-4.html

http://www.transparent.com/wotd/today/korean.html

http://rki.kbs.co.kr/learn_korean/lessons/e_index.htm

http://www.youtube.com/user/koreanclass101?feature=results_main

http://tunein.com/radio/Korean-g152/

Newspaper: http://chosun.com/

http://www.indiana.edu/~koreanrs/hangul.html

http://www.koreandictionary.net/

http://parksguide.blogspot.com.br/

http://korean.sogang.ac.kr/

http://ezcorean.com/korean_grammar/index.php?cfile=bb_index.php&subaction=vforum&home=grammar_forum

Japanese

http://www.freejapaneselessons.com/

http://www.learn-japanese.info/

http://www.learnjapanesefree.com/

http://www.learnjapanese.com/ - Has slang expressions, grammar, common phrases, vocabulary and more

http://japanese-phrases.sakura.ne.jp/

http://www.manythings.org/japanese/

http://jisho.org/

http://www.saiga-jp.com/kanji_dictionary.html

http://www.learn-japanese-adventure.com/japanese-lessons.html

http://libguides.mit.edu/content.php?pid=146063&sid=1247899

http://www.jgram.org

http://www.iknow.co.jp

http://www.guidetojapanese.org

http://www.yamasa.cc/members/ocjs/kanjidic.nsf/SearchKanji3?OpenForm

Greek

http://www.kypros.org/cgi-bin/lexicon - Greek to English, English to Greek Dictionary (Modern and Ancient Greek)

http://www.101languages.net/greek/basics.html

http://www.biblicalgreek.org/grammar/

http://users.forthnet.gr/agn/drennolds1/

http://gr.voanews.com/

http://www.ukindia.com/zip/zgk1.htm

http://www.textkit.com/

http://www.xanthi.ilsp.gr/filog/

http://mylanguages.org/learn_greek.php

http://www.e-radio.gr/

http://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/alphabet.html

http://greek-language.com/Alphabet.html

ESL (English as a Second Language)

http://www.englishpage.com/

http://www.english-online.org.uk/course.htm

http://www.english-the-easy-way.com/Writing_English_ESL/Writing_English_ESL.htm

https://sites.google.com/site/marysenglishcourse/home

http://englishlearner.com/index.shtml

http://www.brainpopjr.com/

http://www.superteacherworksheets.com/index.html

http://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/en/

http://www.ESLDesk.com/

http://www.zozanga.com/

http://www.englishclub.com/learn-english.htm

Sign Language

www.aslpro.com

www.aslresource.com

http://www.asl.ms/

Esperanto

http://en.lernu.net/

Newspapers: http://eo.mondediplo.com/, http://www.liberafolio.org/

http://www.kurso.com.br/index.php?en

http://en.lernu.net/lernado/index.php

http://esperantofre.com/edu/kino01a.htm

http://www.esperanto-panorama.net/vortaro/eoen.htm

http://esperantofre.com/eeo/EoDktA/GerdaA/GerdaVoA.htm

http://esperanto-usa.org/

http://donh.best.vwh.net/Esperanto/Literaturo/

Russian

http://www.tasteofrussian.com/

http://speakrussian.blogspot.com/

http://wws.peacecorps.gov/wws/multimedia/language/lessons.cfm#russian

http://www.international.ucla.edu/languages/technology/podcasts/

http://www.ukindia.com/zip/zru1.htm

http://russophilia.wordpress.com/

http://www.golos-ameriki.ru/

Arabic

http://i-cias.com/babel/arabic/index.htm

http://www.alrashidmall.com/learn-arabic.htm

http://www.searchtruth.com/arabic/lessons/unit1_writing.php

http://arabic.speak7.com/

http://mylanguages.org/learn_arabic.php

http://arabic.tripod.com/

http://www.daadlanguage.com/

http://www.madinaharabic.com/start_learning.html

http://omanpocketguide.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=67&Itemid=81

http://tunein.com/radio/Arabic-g135/

http://www.al-bab.com/arab/newspapers.htm

http://www.arabicgenie.com/arabicletters.html

http://www.arabic-alphabet.org/arabic-lessons/

http://www.internetpolyglot.com/lessons-en-ar

http://www.firdaous.com/en/0023.htm

Norwegian

http://NorwegianLanguage.info/

http://www.stolaf.edu/depts/norwegian/grammar/grammar.html

http://www.apronus.com/norskaudio/samfunnslaere.htm

http://mylanguages.org/norwegian_alphabet.php-

http://www.freedict.com/onldict/nor.html

http://www.nrk.no/

Newspaper: http://www.aftenposten.no/

http://www.101languages.net/norwegian/vocabulary.html

http://iteslj.org/v/no/

http://norwegianlanguage.eu/2009/01/01/what-form-of-norwegian-to-learn-bokmal-or-nynorsk/

Swedish

http://www2.hhs.se/isa/swedish/chap2.htm

http://www.onlineswedish.com/main.php

http://swedishalphabet.tripod.com/index.swf

http://www2.hhs.se/isa/swedish/chap9.htm

http://www.ielanguages.com/swedish.html

Newspaper: http://www.dn.se/

http://www.svtplay.se/

http://sverigesradio.se/

http://www.ectaco.co.uk/English-Swedish-Dictionary/

Finnish

http://donnerwetter.kielikeskus.helsinki.fi/finnishforforeigners/parts-index.htm

http://yle.fi/vintti/yle.fi/supisuomea/sanasto/01.shtml

http://www.hs.fi/

http://watch.squidtv.net/europe/finland.html

http://www.fincd.com/

http://www.hei-finland.com/

http://www.hs.fi/english/extras/speakup

http://www.101languages.net/finnish/

http://www.oneness.vu.lt/

http://www.uuno.tamk.fi/

http://www.digitaldialects.com/Finnish.htm

http://mylanguages.org/finnish_alphabet.php

http://www.infopankki.fi/en-gb/finnish_on_the_internet/

Polish

http://www.transparent.com/word-of-the-day/today/polish.html

http://www.transparent.com/learn-polish/proficiency-test.html

http://www.skwierzyna.net/polishwords.pdf

http://www.i-polish.com/

http://www.skwierzyna.net/polishshortstories.pdf

http://www.skwierzyna.net/polishgrammar.pdf

http://grzegorj.w.interia.pl/kurs/

http://onestoppolish.com/useful_polish_phrases.htm

http://polish.slavic.pitt.edu/

http://portalwiedzy.onet.pl/tlumacz.html?qs=bread&tr=ang-auto&x=0&y=0

http://www.listenlive.eu/poland.html

http://www.tvp.pl/strony/przegapiles-w-tv-zobacz-w-internecie

Latin

http://www.cambridgescp.com/Lpage.php?p=clc%5Etop%5Ehome

https://conjuguemos.com/index.php

http://learn101.org/latin.php

Newspaper: http://www.vatican.va/archive/aas/index_en.htm

http://www.memrise.com/language/eng/lat/

Pronunciations: http://www.forvo.com/languages/la/

http://www.transparent.com/learn-latin/

http://ielanguages.com/latin1.html

http://www.textkit.com/latin_grammar.php

http://www.surfacelanguages.com/language/Latin

http://humanum.arts.cuhk.edu.hk/Lexis/Wheelock-Latin/

http://www.hhhh.org/perseant/libellus/aides/allgre/

http://www.thelatinlibrary.com/alice.html

http://ancienthistory.about.com/cs/fun/

http://yle.fi/radio1/tiede/nuntii_latini/

http://www.linneyslatinclass.com/ghlectures.php

http://adamhoward.net/latin/latincomm.html

http://dictionaries.travlang.com/EnglishLatin/

http://www.ket.org/Education/latin/index.html

http://ablemedia.com/ctcweb/chifiles.html

http://www.textkit.com/

http://www.thelatinlibrary.com/classics.html

http://www2.hawaii.edu/~bender/latinex.html

http://www.classicsunveiled.com/romevd/html/game.html

http://www.classicsunveiled.com/romevd/html/vocabmain.html

http://www.linneyslatinclass.com/

http://web.uvic.ca/hrd/latin/wheelock/

http://archives.nd.edu/latgramm.htm

http://www.learnlatin.tk/

General Language Sites

http://www.fodors.com/language/ - Has Spanish, French, Italian, German, Arabic, Chinese, and Japanese

http://www.omniglot.com/ - Has basic phrases in almost any language along with idioms and sayings

http://www.wordreference.com/ - Any language (French, Italian, Spanish, Russian, etc.) to English dictionary 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/languages/ - Basic phrases and vocab in French, Spanish, Greek, Chinese, German, Italian, and Portuguese. 

http://www.languagehelpers.com/ - Has Chinese, Czech, French, German, Latvian, Portuguese, Russian, and Spanish

http://www.smartphrase.com/index.shtml -Has Italian, French, German, Spanish, Greek, Dutch, and Portuguese. Random phrase generator

http://www.101languages.net/vocabulary/vocabulary.html - Has Danish, Dutch, Finnish, French, German, Italian, Norwegian, Portuguese, and Spanish

http://www.livemocha.com/ - A few people have suggested this site, and it’s incredible. If you want to learn a language on your own, you need this. And it’s free! 

http://vinurminn.tumblr.com/post/15596816573/in-linguistics-a-filler-is-a-sound-or-word-that - Fillers in other languages. 

http://memrise.com/language/

http://www.lang-8.com/

http://www.elanguageschool.net/ - Has Arabic, Chinese, Dutch, French, German, Hindi, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Turkish, and Vietnamese.

http://www.forvo.com/languages/ - EVERY LANGUAGE STUDENT SHOULD KNOW ABOUT THIS SITE!! Pronounces words by native speakers in these languages: English, German, French, Russian, Tatar, Portuguese, Spanish, Italian, Czech, Chinese, Swedish, Japanese, Finnish, Persian, Hungarian, Greek, Dutch, Korean, Polish, Turkish, Ukrainian, Romanian, Bulgarian, Catalan, Hindi, Wu, Danish, Cantonese, Hebrew, Bashkir, Irish, Esperanto, Galician, Norwegian (bokmål), Indonesian, Serbian, Latin, Interlingua, Lithuanian, Slovak, Icelandic, Croatian, Yiddish, Slovenian, Occitan, Belorussian, Thai, Ancient Greek, Vietnamese, Afrikaans, Lombard, Kurdish, Tagalog, Asturian, Latvian, Welsh, Breton, Basque, Azerbaijani, Tamil, Sanskrit, Sicilian, Bosnian, Armenian, Estonian, Malay, Bengali, Neapolitan, Georgian, Klingon, Min Nan, Scottish Gaelic, Kabardian, Scots, Macedonian, Marathi, Faroese, Chuvash, Lakota, Swiss German, Bavarian, Zazaki, Mongolian and Swahili and many more.

http://www.internetpolyglot.com/mainMenu.html - Has English, Spanish, French, Chinese, German, Japanese, Italian, Dutch, Russian, Portuguese, Korean, Greek, Arabic, Hebrew, Thai, Latin, Hindi, Polish, Tagalog, Swedish, Romanian, Norwegian, Turkish, Finnish, Farsi, Danish, Indonesian, Czech, Hungarian, Ukrainian, Amharic, Swahili, Bulgarian, and Croatian.

http://www.engoi.com/en/index.html - Has Greek, Czech, Turkish, Romanian, Polish, German, French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch and Swedish.

http://www.babelnation.com/  - Has French, German, Italian, Portuguese, and Spanish.

TODAY IN SCIENCE: The First Woman in Space

Sally Ride became the first American woman in space on this day in 1983.

Lift-off is very exciting! There isn’t really time to be scared, but it’s exhilarating and sometimes overwhelming.                                 —Sally Ride, Female Frontiers QuestChat, March 23, 1999

As a child, Ride’s dream was to be a professional tennis player. As an adult, she achieved something that many children dream of doing – she became an astronaut and orbited the Earth.

Ride entered the astronaut corps in 1978, one of only 35 people accepted out of over 8,000 applications, and was trained as a mission specialist. Her qualifications included a doctoral degree in physics. One of only six women accepted into NASA’s space program the year she applied, Ride became the first American woman in space when she blasted off aboard the Space Shuttle Challenger on this day in 1983.

Ride flew on two space flights during her career at NASA, both aboard Challenger. During Ride’s second space flight, in October 1984, one of the crew, Dr. Kathy Sullivan, became the first woman to walk in space. Ride’s planned third flight was cancelled after the Challenger exploded in January of 1986; Ride served on the Presidential Commission that investigated the accident.

In 1987, Ride left the astronaut corps to teach at Stanford University, hoping to encourage more women to pursue careers in science and engineering. She has written several books, including a children’s book titled To Space and Back.

Learn more.

Image Credits: NASA

Dr. Ride sits in the aft flight deck mission specialist’s seat during deorbit preparations. 

Ride floating in the Challenger flight deck.  

Ride before taking off in a T-38 jet, bound for NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, three days before launch aboard Space Shuttle Challenger.  

Ride participates in a mission sequence test in preparation for the STS-7 mission.  

This device turns air into drinking water

WaterGen, an Israeli-based startup, founded six years ago by Arye Kohavi, is on a mission to help solve the world’s water crisis. The company’s premise is simple: turn air into clean water. What started out as a military device is now going to help a lot of people. There’s just one prohibitive factor in the way.