Feel Good Friday - Wonderopolis

I was wondering if there were any free summer camps that I could share in today’s Feel Good Friday and that’s what led me to Wonderopolis.

Created by the National Center for Families and Learning in 2010, Wonderopolis is “a place where natural curiosity and imagination lead to exploration and discovery in learners of all ages.” 

Start your exploration by visiting the website to review the Wonder of the Day® - an intriguing question sent in by people from around the world. Recent Wonders of the Day® that have been answered include: Who was Bessie Coleman? How does a dishwasher work? And what happened to Pompeii? For each wonder there is an explanation, a short video, a list of Wonder Words associated with the topic and a quiz to test your knowledge!

You can search through over 2000 Wonders of the Day® here or submit your own question in the Wonder Bank. Top questions get answered and you can upvote any of the 278,387 listed. Right now, there is an exciting three-way tie between: What are Macrophages? How did people learn to read words and phrases? And what is Diwali?

You may be wondering, what does any of this have to do with summer camp? One of the other programs run by Wonderopolis is Camp Wonderopolis, a “free online summer-learning destination that's full of fun, interactive STEM and literacy-building topics boosted by Maker experiments!” You can register for camps that focus on topics such as music, construction and engineering or fitness. In each camp you’ll follow learning tracks, test your knowledge and use everyday items for hands-on maker activities. Because these camps are self-guided, you can start any time.

 

There is also a network for educators called Wonder Ground which provides classroom resources, lesson plans, correlations to education standards, and real-world applications.

 

Wondering what you can do to help Wonderopolis stay engaged with the one million users that visit their website every month? Become a Wonder Funder by making a donation and help spread the word on social media by liking the Wonderopolis Facebook page and following them on Twitter @Wonderopolis and Instagram @wonderopolis.