Author: Lisa Mungovan

Today is Marzipan Day. Marzipan is made using almond meal, and sugar or honey. The paste can be rolled out to cover cakes, or formed into sweet edible sculptures, like tiny animals or fruits, realistically painted with food coloring. I’d like to make all the planets. You could make a pan of marzipan Marzes!

Kristen Tapping, a design student in England, created a device that cleans the air, while you ride your bike. Rolloe is a recyclable air filter, that attaches to the bicycle wheel. Ozone, CO2, and NO2 get filtered out of the polluted air as it passes through, so you can go green, and help clean!

New research shows that millions of years ago, Megalodon shark babies were bigger than a human at birth. Paleontologists believe the shark pups hatched from their eggs in the womb, growing bigger and stronger before they were born. The 6-foot newborns would grow into 50-foot long mega-sharks, and lose 40,000 teeth over their lifetime.

Today is Clean Off Your Desk Day. Find a few minutes at school, to organize your desk, and don’t forget to sanitize it! If you’re learning from home because of the pandemic, and don’t have a desk, clean off your workspace and make a clutter-free zone. Oh, you study from your bed? Make it.

Dot-dash, dot-dash-dot-dot, dot, dash-dot-dot-dash, dot-dash. That’s my name! What’s yours? It’s Learn Your Name In Morse Code Day. Morse code assigned a pattern of short and long taps to each letter, to communicate by telegraph before telephones were invented. Use it to send messages by flashlight, or tapping on your desk.

Melting snow makes great slush puddles. They’re perfect for Step In A Puddle And Splash Your Friends Day! You should probably warn them first, so they can either run away, or get ready to splash you back. After all, we wouldn’t want it to become Everyone’s Mad At You For Getting Them Wet Day!

It’s sometimes hard to concentrate in school, when you’re sitting at your desk for hours. If your school is doing virtual learning because of the pandemic, it might be even harder. Researchers found that a short burst of exercise, can help your concentration. Take a brisk walk or do jumping jacks, to focus better.

Don’t forget to watch, for a triple conjunction of planets tonight. Saturn, Mercury, and Jupiter, will form a tight triangle towards the southwest horizon. Your best view will be 45 minutes after sunset. There are lots of free star tracker phone apps, to help you find them. Then use binoculars, to get a closer look!

Today is Save The Eagles Day. It started in 2015, as a way to save a pair of bald eagles named Alice and Al, whose nest was threatened by developers. The day expanded, to raise awareness of the many eagles around the world. There are over 60 varieties, the largest with over 7-foot wingspans!

What can help protect your heart, lower blood pressure, is made from a bean, and is celebrated today? Bittersweet chocolate! The bitter tasting flavonols that carry health benefits are removed from cacao beans to make sweeter chocolate, so if you want your chocolate to be good for you, bitter is better!