DRP DRP Week 1 I sure wish my

DRP

DRP– Week 1 I sure wish my family could just buy the things we need. But for one thing, there are no stores close by. For another, we don’t have enough money. What I would really like to be able to buy is soap! It takes my mother many days of planning and working to make soap for our family. She saves the wood ashes from the fireplace in a barrel. She also collects the grease and fat from cooking and butchering animals. Then, on the day of soap making, my mother, my sisters, and I spend many hours outdoors making the soap. First, we boil the grease and fat in a large iron kettle. Then, we pour water on the saved ashes. As the water filters down through the ashes, a brown liquid drips out a hole in the bottom of the barrel. This liquid, called lye, is added to the boiling fat. The mixture slowly begins getting thicker. While it is still warm, we pour it into rectangular shaped molds. Mother cuts in into bars with a wire and then leaves the bars to harden. This soap is very caustic on our skin. Do you know what? Sometimes it is fun being a kid. We don’t have to take very many baths.

DRP—Week 2 Hares or rabbits? Rabbits or hares? Are they the same or are they different? There is a difference, and it can be seen at birth. Baby rabbits (called kits or kittens) are born without hair and are blind and helpless. Baby hares (called leverets) begin life with fur and with their eyes open, and they can hop soon after they are born. Also rabbits are usually smaller than hares and have shorter hind legs and ears. You will often find rabbits living in shrubs and tall grass, while hares like open fields. There also some similarities between these two animals. Both animals belong to the same mammal order called Lagomorpha. They can both be found on every continent except Antarctica. They also look very much alike. Rabbits and hares are herbivores. They are both nocturnal animals, sometimes staying up all night to play and eat plants. Neither of them hibernates. They are active all year and must search for food even in the winter. Even the names sometimes get mixed up. The Belgian hare is really a rabbit and the Jackrabbit is really a hare!

DRP—Week 3 What can roar, but can’t purr very well? What cat lives mostly in Africa? What cat has the scientific name of panthera leo? This cat is a lion. Lions are the only members of the cat family that live in family groups called prides. A pride is often made up of twenty to thirty cats, usually related females, young males, and cubs. The pride also has one or more large adult males to protect and defend the group. Each pride has its own home territory. The males guard this home against other prides and animals. The females usually do the hunting, though a female would never hunt unaccompanied. Their favorite prey is antelope and zebra, but they are even powerful enough to bring down a giraffe or a large buffalo. Lions can’t run fast or far, so they must capture their prey by surprise. Hunting at night also helps them. Although the lioness is the one who stalks and kills the food, the male lion claims his share first.

DRP—Week 4 Humorous drawings have been used around the world for thousands of years. The comic strip, on the other hand, began in America. A young artist by the name of Richard Felton Outcault crated “The Yellow Kid” cartoon character which began appearing in the World in 1894. Following in the Kid’s footsteps were the “Katzenjammer Kids” in 1897 and “Mutt and Jeff” in 1908. Soon, funny papers filled with a variety of comic strips began appearing in most city newspapers. But no all comic strips project humor. Some cartoons, such as “Little Orphan Annie” in 1924, “Dick Tracy” in 1931, and “Brenda Star” in 1940, brought mystery and intrigue to the strips. Movies, TV shows, and toys were byproducts of other comics such as “Peanuts, ” which started in 1950. Despite TV, video games, and the Internet, comic strips continue to appeal to many people.

DRP– Week 5 Alaska, which became America’s forty-ninth state in 1959, was purchased from Russia in 1867 for $7, 200, 000. This mountainous, volcanic territory was originally called Russian America before being renamed. Being almost twice the size of Texas, it is the largest state and the most difficult to traverse. Having very few major roads, the chief most of transportation is small plane or snowmobile. In recent times more vehicles such as SUVs and RVs can be seen traveling on the oftentimes dirt or gravel roads. The southern mountains and wilderness areas are favorite destinations for tourists. For many years Native Americans, Aleut, and Inuit people populated this vast land. In the late 1800 s, when gold was discovered, people from the lower forty-eight began settling in Alaska. Today Alaska’s economy is built around tourists, oil, metals, natural gas, coal, forestry, agriculture, and

DRP– Week 6 The year 2089 has been a good one for the Barber family. They have been living at the new settlement on Earth’s moon since last January. It has been hard getting used to the barren look of the terrain. The kids, Jordan and Devin, miss their old friends on Earth, but they have made some new ones among the other families living nearby. Dr. Barber keeps busy setting up and conducting experiments at the lab. Mrs. Barber works in the medical clinic trying to keep people healthy in this harsh environment. The kids have daily lessons to do on their visual screens. This is also their way of keeping connected to their friends and family back on Earth. All of the homes and other buildings in Lunar Settlement are built underground. Oxygen is made and piped into the buildings. Tunnels, with moving sidewalks, connect all the buildings so the occupants can easily move 4 around. A special system also helps

DRP– Week 7 Research shows us that many kids in America today spend about 6 ½ hours per day watching a computer or TV screen. That is more than they spend in school or interacting with their families. Because of this research, some groups such as the American Recreation Coalition and the National Park Service are trying to help families see that kids need to be outdoors. One fantastic way to spend time outside as a family is to go camping. Camping is a wonderful way to strengthen relationships between parents and children and between siblings. Camping is also a good way to improve the health of all the family members. Hiking, swimming, biking, or participating in other outdoor activities can lower the chance of heart problems, obesity, depression, or stress in both children and adults. Spending time exercising outdoors is much more fun, is cheaper, and will give your family more lasting memories than sitting in front of a TV or a computer. It doesn’t matter if you camp using a tent, an RV, or by just throwing a sleeping bag down on the ground. It doesn’t matter if you travel to a far-off national park or go to the nearest campground. What matters is that you just get

DRP– Week 8 Many kinds of apples are picked when they are ripe and then shipped to grocery stores. The apple growers need to harvest their apples at the appropriate time. They can test the ripeness of an apple by finding out how much starch is in the apple. When an apple is ripe, most of the starch has already changed into sugar. You can try this experiment to find out if an apple is ripe. First, cut an apple in half so that you have a top and a bottom. Next, use a cotton swab to put some iodine on half of the apple. Then, wait a few minutes. Last, look at the iodine-covered half carefully. DO NOT EAT THE HALF OF THE APPLE USED IN THIS TEST! Iodine is a poison, and you should not put it in your mouth. Some of the half might have turned a dark blue or purple color. Remember, if there is starch in the apple, it is not ripe. In an apple that is ripe, there will not be much color change. If the dark color shows right under the skin, the apple is almost ripe. If the apple half is

DRP—Week 9 In 1905, when many gold mines in Nevada were already closing down, the town of Rhyolite was founded. It was one of the last of the great gold rush settlements. During its heyday, the town grew to about 16, 000 people and had a main street with many buildings and electric lights, a beautiful train depot, banks, and even its own stock exchange. But by 1911, when the mines began dying out, the miners began leaving. Today, about all that’s left of this once booming town is a street lined with broken foundations and walls of the stone buildings. The once-proud train depot has been restored as a museum. Besides touring the depot, visitors can stop at the Tom Kelly Bottle House. This interesting structure, built in 1905, has walls made of over 50, 000 glass beer and medicine bottles that were set in clay. With a shortage of lumber in the area, this was a cheap substitute for building material. This souvenir of American history can be seen near the California border just outside of Death Valley National Park.