Happy Mother’s Day!

Today is Mother’s Day! How will you be celebrating with your family? If you are fresh out of ideas or would like to spruce up your already made plans, show the very special woman in your life that you care with some of these stellar Mother’s Day ideas from Math Blaster! From breakfast in bed to helping around the house, your mom will sure feel as radiant as she should, being the star of today’s holiday.

Photo By Paul Wilkinson

Photo By Paul Wilkinson

So be sure to take the time today and show your mom that you truly care by making her feel extra special. And don’t forget about Grandma, after all she is the ultimate mom since she was the one who raised yours! For more inspiration on making your mom feel on top of the world, visit our Pinterest page and share with us your favorite ways to celebrate Mother’s Day below.

 

 

Worksheet of the Week

Missing Proportion - Printable proportion worksheet for all grades

Flying Snakes

Snakes—scaly, slithering, hissing reptiles that fly? If you disagree, don’t let their lack of wings fool you into believing they can’t! There are some snakes that can glide through the air as far as 100 feet! How do they do it with out wings? Scientists are interested in their ability to glide as it may answer mechanical and aerospace questions.

PhotoByAlanCouch

There are five recognized species of flying snakes that are found in western India and Indonesia. These snakes are thought to be strictly tree dwellers and are rarely seen coming down from their comfy canopy homes. Scientists aren’t quite sure why or how often flying snakes fly, but it’s likely they do to move from tree to tree with out having to slither down just to climb back up another one or to escape predators and even hunt for food.

These flying snakes have the ability to rotate their ribs which allow them to flatten their bodies. The term “flying” isn’t necessarily what they do since they don’t gain altitude, but instead they are able to glide and they are very good at it. From high up on tree branches, flying snakes can fling themselves out of the tree then flattening their bodies into a concave C shape to trap air beneath them to seemingly slither through the air!

New research is investigating how the snake’s technique of gliding works and if their findings can be applied to mechanical problems with identifying the best air flow for smaller wind turbines.

Worksheet of the Week

Measuring Tape - Measurement 6th Grade

The Amazing Anthill

The mighty ant colony is a fascinating miniature, social society. At the core of this tiny civilization is a queen who overlooks her anthill kingdom populated by busy worker ants. But, did you know that not all worker ants are the same? In a recent study, evolutionary biologists have found that genetics plays a major role in the forming of different classes within ant colonies.

Photo by Matuus Gaal

Photo by Matuus Gaal

An ant queen can live up to 30 years and has only one job – to lay eggs and lots of them! However, her royal working subjects can take on many different daily tasks that include foraging, brood care (aka babysitting), building, or defending the nest. Biologists believe that these specialized behaviors may be due to the ant’s physical features it was born with.

For example, some species of colonies have soldier ants, that can weigh up to 100 times more than their sisters who primarily take on the job of caring for baby ants called, antlings.

In an ant colony, there are typically three types of ants: the queen, the female workers, and the males. You can identify male ants by their wings in which their sister workers lack.

A queen is also born with wings in which she uses to leave the nest where she was born to mate and start a colony of her own. She eventually trades her freedom, by losing her wings and lives out the rest of her life laying eggs.

Queen ants are essentially mothers to most of the ants in her colony. She can give birth to males, females, and future queens – all possessing her genetic makeup and born to carry out specific purposes for the good of the amazing anthill.

Super HyperBlast Sunday Challenge!

There is a new mission coming your way Cadets! Get ready for a 1-day challenge this Super Bowl Sunday that tests your HyperBlast skills! Maneuver through obstacles and blast through those math problems to win an ALL-NEW and exclusive Trophy that will make your Cadet’s Pod super stellar. The top 25 Blasters with the highest scores will receive this prize. Don’t miss out on this epic 1-day space adventure!

Blaster-Tournament

The Engulfing Power of Underwater Waves

We know that your Blaster likes to explore the galaxy and accomplish great dreams, but it is a great idea to encourage them to learn about the mechanics of their home, Earth, starting by learning the basics of Oceanography.

Recently, researchers found that the origins of the giant underwater waves that essentially has no effect on the surface of the ocean has an immense effect on the Earth’s climate and the marine ecosystem.

Photo by neekok.fi

Photo by neekok.fi

These internal waves resembles the shape of the towering waves we can see on the surface, and due to the temperature and density differences between the waves and the water around it, create a boundary between the bodies of water that produces changes to the ocean’s natural behavior.

As it is very difficult to detect these underwater waves, the new evidence found is profoundly important to help investigate this phenomenon further. The latest testing occurred at the South China Sea, and researchers found that the internal waves found here are the most powerful thus far, describing it as “skyscraper-scale waves”.

Discovering the origin of these waves can potentially reveal its possibility as the key mechanism for transferring heat from the upper part of the ocean to its depths. Therefore, it is important for the researchers to find out how these great waves are generated and perhaps shed some light on the research on global warming.

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