A Note From the Founder – Weird Badges
Kerry Cordy – Founder
Ever wonder why we have badges on obscure topics like Popcorn? After all, what educational value is there in popcorn? Recently I went to a new grocery store and asked a very young clerk to show me where the popcorn was. He asked if I needed popped or kernals. I said, “Kernals.” So he brought me to the microwave popcorn section.
I said, “No. I just need a bag of kernals.”
His response, “These ARE the kernals.”
I said, “No. I just need a big bag of plain kernals for my air popper not the microwave.”
He looked completely confused and said again, ” These ARE just kernals.”
During this time, I finally spotted a bag of popcorn kernals quite a ways down the row. I went and pulled it off the shelf and explained that this was what I was looking for.
He looked even more confused. I don’t think he had any idea you could make popcorn without a microwave.
Earning fun badges like the Popcorn badge not only teach you about the topic and its history, but how that topic is used today and where it comes from. Earning the Popcorn badge will not only show kids multiple ways to make popcorn, but they will also learn about how different cultures eat it (I was shocked in an Australian movie theater when they sprinkled sugar on my popcorn!), about the different types of popcorn grown, and so much more.
So when you see a new badge and think, “That’s a weird topic. Who wants to learn about THAT?” Ask yourself, how much do YOU know about that topic and where did you get your knowledge. Sometimes the things we take for granted as adults are still a mystery to kids…
New Badges Added
Fashion History Era Specific, Simple Machines, Arachnids
Charter School Funding
I posted on Facebook a few weeks ago regarding charter school funding and it made me realize how many families don’t know that many schools will pay for their Curiosity Untamed family/homeschool membership. If you homeschool through a charter school that provides funding or reimbursement for curriculum or extracurricular activities, all you need to do is have them send me their vendor agreement. As long as they accept Curiosity Untamed as a vendor, your membership fees should be covered. Just keep in mind that many schools forget to pay me so I don’t activate subscriptions until I have actually been paid for them. Sometimes you may need to do a little leg work to get your school to follow up if they drop the ball.
Use the Search Bar
After 17 years in business, our website has a LOT of badges of resources on it which sometimes makes things hard to find. Make use of the Search Bar. Try typing in a search term. If you have more than one word that you need to stay together, make sure to put them between quotation marks. For example if you do search for the words fashion history, the Baseball History badge comes up because on that page is both the word fashion as well as the word history. But nowhere on that page does it discuss fashion history. If you do a search for “fashion history” in between quotation marks, it tells the computer to treat it as one word and you will get clearer results with pages that have those two words together.
If you search several different words or phrases and you still can’t find what you are looking for, try searching for a general category and the word “(Specific)”. Many of our badges are general topics that are designed to be adapted to a more specific topic and these badges all have the word “specific” in their title. For example if you search for “watermelon” you won’t find any badges, but if you search for “Fruit (Specific)” the Fruit Specific badge pops up and you can adapt it to earn a Watermelon badge. If you are simply looking for ideas for badges to earn, surfing through all the specific badges, can also help spark your curiosity. For example, you may not know we have a Natural Wonders (Specific) badge and it may spark your curiosity about your local natural wonders. Maybe you have a lake nearby you have never visited or cavern you have never explored.
Simple Machine Challenge
Build a conveyor belt that can move an item from one end of the table to another using the following supplies.
Supplies:
- Unsharpened pencils
- Paper
- Scissors
- Straws
- Tape
- Toilet Paper Rolls
A conveyor belt is made from two pulleys on either side of the belt. When they move together, the belt rotates, moving the item on top the belt from one end of the table to another. Experiment with your design. Does the size of the roller matter? What about the length of your belt? Do you need to add more support? If so, how can you keep things rolling?
