Category: Blogs

At 9:00 we skyped with Neil Yamamoto from Hawaii. He was on the USS Missouri, a retired battleship. He had presented us a slideshow he made, which he is also talking about the Japanese American experience during WW2. Everything changed when Japan and US got into war. He also talked about how the Japanese got transferred from the states California, Washington, and Oregon to other states and sent to internment camps.

The Japanese-Americans were thought of as “untrustworthy” and “unassailable”! Japanese-Americans in Hawaii made up 40-60 percent of the workforce! Then, everything changed on December 7, 1941 with Pearl Harbor. Japanese-Americans were not thought of as morally good people UNTIL the creation of the 442nd infantry. It was an awesome presentation!

Neil is so kind and we learned a lot of things. This is amazing! Thank you so much.  

By: Jenna Jamgochian, Gabriella Palmeri, and Julia Tate

Our second mystery call was with Australia they are in grades 5-7. They’re in the city of Sydney which is a very popular city. They have previously done the 24 hour World Tour at their school. They go to Inaburra Primary School. They are now watching our slide show about our state and school. They were just trying to talk like us!      

By: Jillian Nourie and Trinity Valente

We got to do our second mystery call with students and teachers from another school. It happened to be in Sydney, Australia. They are in the southern hemisphere. It was very cool to see other students in a different country because they do things a lot different than we do at our school. They were in grade 5 and 6. They were all so nice and respectful and it was so great being able to talk to them. We both got to share things about our schools and we experienced how different it can be. 

They did read our shirts and found us out, witch made it really easy to know who we were. It was so much fun, they were so nice, kind and respectful to us. Really and truly such an amazing time Skyping  these kids.

It was fun to learn that there are other people in the world that live the same way as we do!

By: Julia Tate, Olivia Draus, and Skylar Karl

We had a nice conversation with the lady at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute! We learned that when you look at the rings inside a stump of a tree, the rings show how old the tree is. Another cool fact was that one centimeter of growth of coral is one year of growth for the coral. The oldest piece of coral she’s seen was 1200 years old! Finding nemo was actually pretty accurate on their facts. Corals also can die naturally when the water level rises and the coral cannot get enough light because the surface is too high. They take cylindrical pieces of coral to sample, and then fill them with cement so animals don’t swim into them. We loved learning about her job and about different types of corals!

• When you look at the stump of a tree, the rings inside show how old the tree is
• 1 centimeter of growth for coral = 1 year of growth
• “Finding Nemo” was surprisingly accurate
• Coral can die when the water rises and it doesn’t get enough light because it is too far from the surface
• They take cylindrical pieces of coral to look at
• They fill the hole with cement so animals don’t swim into them.

By: Emily Finkbeiner and Dalia Nedzinskas

We had our first Mystery Skype! It turned out to be a ranger from Calaveras State Park.

• She is giving us hints about where it is that she lives, such as which hemisphere, which country, and what landmarks she lives by.
• Calaveras translated to English is skull. It is a Spanish word.
• The park is located at the top of a mountain so that the trees can get a lot of water to grow. It’s so high in elevation it gets snow.
• Some of the big Sequoia trees can grow up to as high as a skyscraper building, and the smallest one is still 30 ft around. You can go inside the tree and look up inside the tree because because there’s a hole at the bottom.
• There is a tree that is 3,000 years old  which is 110 feet around and it’s the oldest and biggest living tree.
• It just snowed, they got 5 inches of snow in California!!!
• Native Americans used Sequoia trees to build huts.
• The Sequoia trees need about 8 bathtubs worth of water.

We had a very great time talking to this ranger because we didn’t know where she was. She gave us many interesting facts we did not know about the Sequoia trees and about California itself.She was very sweet and answered all of the questions we had.it was a very cool experience to learn about !!!

By- Kamryn Brown and Skylar Karl

We are currently chatting with Andrew at Monticello. Monticello is where Thomas Jefferson lived. Andrew is giving us interesting facts on Monticello:

• Thomas Jefferson’s house only has 8 rooms.
• As soon as the house was finished his wife passed away.
• Monticello is one of the most important sites in the US.
• Thomas Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence but yet still had slaves.
• Jefferson was 6 foot 2 and a half and slept sitting up.
• Thomas Jefferson supported white supremacy and enslaved 607 people in his lifetime.
• Thomas Jefferson help expand the US by making the Louisiana Purchase.
• Andrew believes that Jefferson’s house is not cursed. There was a woman looking down from the balcony that was believed to be a ghost because she disappeared.

Thank you Andrew for video chatting with us, it was a pleasure to speak with you!!

By: Kamryn Brown, Sidnee Szymanski, and Hailee Hassel

Currently, we are chatting with Antarctica (4 o’clock pm)!  They just informed us that they have not seen the sun in over three months!  In January, it was colder in Wisconsin than it was in Antarctica, how fascinating! The continent of Antarctica is resting on about 10,000 feet of ice.  The ice sheets move about 33 feet per year towards the ocean. In Antarctica, they often go uni-cycling for fun! They also play board games, computer games, or watch movies.  They can even buy things on Amazon! We loved hearing about what it was like in Antarctica! Thanks for chatting with us! #OLSmith24HourWorldTour2019

By: Margaret Carscadden and Olivia Makled

Welcome to O.L. Smith Middle School’s 24 Hour Tour Blog!  Our tour begins at 3:00 PM on Wednesday, May 22.  We will be spending the night at the school and visiting different classrooms, people and institutions around the world through Skype to learn more about our world, its geography and history, and student life around the world.  We will connect with someone on all Seven Continents!  Check back here for updates and follow along as we take the biggest field trip ever!  #OLSmith24HrWorldTour2019

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