howtosmile blog

Summer means picnics! In the park, at the beach, even inside on a rainy day, pack math and science fun in your picnic basket with Howtosmile.org activities. Combine STEM explorations about whatever you like best—food, kites, sand, animals and lots more—to turn a picnic anywhere into a whole new summer learning adventure.

There are so many ways to celebrate World Oceans Day June 8, including making and sharing marine artwork. Learners and their friends at home, camp or school can create pieces of water-themed art—saltwater or freshwater—then hold a summer Marine Art Show for families, their whole school or camp, even their local community.

How do you diagnose and help a three-eyed monster with a heart problem? That's the challenge and fun in the new, free Monster Heart Medic iPhone/iPad app, now available in the App Store. This educational adventure game uses animated monster stories, interactive simulators, arcade games, virtual diagnostic tests and more to explore the cardiovascular system and how it's affected by healthy living.

Earth Day, April 22, is part of this year's international Climate Education Week. At Howtosmile.org, you can find thousands of STEM activities, for all ages, related to the environment, climate and the natural world.

Want to celebrate our planet's ocean? On or around World Oceans Day, June 8th, share what you know and why you care about the ocean by holding a special sea event. Ask your friends, family, students and colleagues to help you plan an ocean festival, beach party, sand sculpture contest, sea-themed parade, cooking event with sustainable seafood, photo exhibit or other fun and creative public event. 

If you do one thing for the environment in 2015, it could be to help clean up and prevent plastic trash from polluting our oceans. More than 5 trillion pieces of plastic may be floating—and sinking deeper—in the world's oceans, according to scientists. This marine debris includes toys, toothbrushes, bottles, plastic bags, fishing nets and other items that break down into smaller pieces and are carried around the globe by ocean currents and waves.

The adventures of Indiana Jones(TM) are film legend—and they're science too. In the National Geographic exhibition Indiana Jones(TM) and the Adventure of Archaeology, the world's most famous, fictional archaeologist inspires a new generation to dig deeper into the science and history of field archaeology. As they enter Indy's world, visitors discover how archeological objects advance scientific and historical knowledge.

What keeps the blood in your body moving in one direction? How do your lungs pull air in and push air out? Why does your nose make sticky snot while your intestines make smelly gas? Discover how your body really works with the new, free DIY Human Body app. The app uses everyday items to let you explore your body's complex machinery in 13 fun, hands-on STEM activities.

Getting kids to move while they're learning science can help them visualize and "experience" processes like cell division, energy transfer, circulation and planetary motion. Kinesthetic STEM learning becomes not only hands-on, but feet-on and body-on as learners' own movements simulate cells or body systems, atoms or machines. Celebrate the 5th anniversary of Let's Move! in February 2015 with Howtosmile.org explorations that use physical activity to model scientific processes and principles.

How do you connect learners of all ages with birds that they only see high up in trees, or flying far overhead? One way is letting learners measure their own armspread against a migratory bird's wingspan. To do this, you can download a free pattern for a 14-foot wide wingspan banner, created by Georgia's Department of Natural Resources.