Indholdsfortegnelse for September 2021 i Faces People, Places, and World Culture for Kids and Children

1 With a total land area of 571,951 square miles, Alaska is bigger than Texas, California, and Montana combined. The state of Rhode Island could fit into Alaska more than 420 times. 2 The United States purchased Alaska from Russia for $7.2 million in 1867—that comes to about 2 cents per acre. Originally, many thought the deal was foolish, but when gold was discovered in 1898, many who had criticized the purchase changed their tune. 3 Alaska’s state flag was designed by a 13-year-old boy named Benny Benson. The simple design—the North Star and the Big Dipper on a blue background—became the official flag of the Alaskan Territory and later the state flag when Alaska became the 49th state in 1959. 4 A relay of dog teams carried life-saving medicine…

D o you know where the state of Alaska is? Because Alaska is outside of the contiguous (connected) United States, many people aren’t familiar with it. Because of its size and location, it’s often shown separately on maps of the United States, along with Hawaii, and so it isn’t easy to understand exactly where Alaska is. It isn’t even possible to drive to Alaska without going through Canada. And yet Alaska has a rich and important history. It was the 49th state to join the United States, and it is the largest state in the Union. It is known for lumber, fishing, furs, and oil. And it was the site of one of the biggest gold rushes in U.S. history. Welcome to Alaska. If you look at a map of…

Tlingit (Kling-kit) master carver Tommy Joseph has been carving for more than 40 years, especially totem poles. He has an outdoor studio at the Sitka National Historical Park in Alaska where people can watch him in action. Joseph also teaches the art of wood carving. He estimates that if stacked on top of one another, his 40 different totem poles would reach more than 500 feet. Nineteen of his totem poles are in Sitka, Alaska. Others are in Ohio, Washington, the Carnegie Museum in Pittsburgh, and Chicago. Some are overseas in Germany, France, Great Britain, and New Zealand. Q How did you get interested in wood carving? AI was in third grade. A local wood carver came to my school and gave a demonstration. I remember going home and taking…

Most of Alaska’s active volcanoes are composite volcanoes, meaning they were formed by alternating layers of lava and rock. Of Alaska’s active volcanoes, one or two erupt each year. The Aleutian name for Mount Cleveland is Chuginadek, which refers to the group’s goddess of fire, who was thought to live on the volcano. Alaska’s Novarupta erupted for two straight days in 1912, sending 7 cubic miles of ash and pumice into the air. The wind blew 12 inches of ash to Kodiak, Alaska, about 100 miles away. Some ash even reached Puget Sound, Washington, which is more than 1,500 miles away. The Novarupta eruption was one of the two largest eruptions in the 20th century. The curved row of volcanoes that make up the Aleutian Islands formed about 40 million…

Step 1–Laying out the Frame Cut six strands of vine of equal length. For a small basket, the strands should be at least 2 feet long. Lay them out across each other to form a six-pointed star. Step 2–Forming the Base Take another piece of vine and begin to weave it around the center of the star. Once you have gone around it once, insert another vine into the middle so that you have a seven-pointed star. This will make the weaving alternate properly. Materials Vines (a wisteria or grapevine would work well) or willow tree twigs. These should be green and flexible enough to bend without snapping. Alaska is home to many indigenous peoples. They have faced many challenges to maintaining their culture and way of life. Indigenous women…

DATE OF STATEHOOD: January 3, 1959 AREA: 665,384 square miles (total land and water) CAPITAL: Juneau HIGHEST POINT: Denali, 20,310 feet POPULATION: 731,545 (2019 estimate) NICKNAME: The Last Frontier or Land of the Midnight Sun STATE MOTTO: “North to the Future” AVERAGE JANUARY TEMPERATURE: 5°F AVERAGE JULY TEMPERATURE: 55°F NATURAL RESOURCES: coal, fish, forests, gold, gravel, natural gas, oil, molybdenum, sand, tin, water, zinc AGRICULTURE: beef, eggs, grains, greenhouse products, milk, potatoes, reindeer…

The Arctic is warming twice as fast as the rest of the planet. The regions around the North Pole are “ground zero” for climate change, giving the rest of the world a snapshot of events to come. These events include shifts in the ranges of plants and animals, melting snow and ice, violent weather, disruptions in the food web, disease, and extinction. Read on for descriptions of nature-out-of-sync with the climate, sprinkled with a few silly subtitles to lighten up a serious subject. Strange Change in the Range These days in America’s northernmost city—Barrow, Alaska—temperatures have warmed several degrees over the past few decades. The regions in which plants and animals can survive is changing. Many species are able to survive farther north than they previously could. For example, trees…

The pilots who fly in and out of the Anchorage airport must wield their controls with steady hands and nerves of steel. Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport, the largest seaplane base in the world, averages 190 takeoffs and landings per day. That’s a lot of air traffic, and these Alaskan pilots do it all on water. Flying a seaplane is not like flying other small aircraft. Seaplanes have no brakes. As soon as the pilot starts his or her engine, the plane starts moving. Once moving, the plane’s floats must plow through water on takeoff. This causes a resistance called “aerodynamic drag,” which pilots must overcome to get airborne. This is why you can sometimes observe seaplanes lifting off one float at a time. When the first float leaves the…

Amid the snow and cold of Alaska lie some of the world’s most beautiful national parks just waiting to be discovered. Alaska’s Denali National Park is home to 20,320-foot Denali, the tallest mountain in North America. The park covers more than 6 million acres in interior Alaska and is the largest protected ecosystem in the world. You can find 650 species of flowering plants, 39 species of mammals, 167 bird species, and 10 species of fish in the park. You can mountain bike, walk on the Denali Park Road, hike, camp, raft, and see plenty of wildlife while at Denali. If you look closely, you may run across moose, caribou, and fox—even a grizzly bear. Farther south along the southeast coast of the Kenai Peninsula lies Kenai Fjords National Park.…

PAWtrait of a Polar Bear The polar bear is perfectly suited to live in the cold, harsh tundra of Alaska, Canada, Greenland, Norway, and Russia. Standing up to 10 feet tall, it is the world’s largest bear and the Arctic’s top predator. Its scientific name, Ursus maritimus, means “sea bear” for good reason. The polar bear spends much of its life in, around, or on the Arctic Ocean. A skilled swimmer, the polar bear can swim at a top speed of 40 kilometers per hour, paddling with its front paws while holding its hind legs flat like a rudder. Its paws are slightly webbed. On land, its dinner plate-sized paws act like natural snowshoes when it walks on snow and ice. The polar bear is built to stay warm. The…

When you think of typical Alaskan foods, do you imagine a table brimming with Baked Alaska and platters of Eskimo Pie? How about bowls of Klondike bars? You can’t get more Alaskan than that. Or can you? Alaska is known around the world for its fabulous seafood and delicious game meats, not to mention its wild berries and gigantic veg. Grab your appetite and a big plate—you’re going to need it. Feasts of the Frontier Alaska has some of the most expensive food prices in the country—a gallon of milk can cost more than $4 and a bag of chips costs $6. It’s not that surprising, given the state’s location and rugged environment. Living off the land and sea is common for many, especially those outside of the big cities.…

It’s 6:00 p.m., and Dr. Jessica Klejka (CLAY-kuh) has just arrived home from the Knik (Kuh-NICK) Veterinary Clinic. But her day isn’t over yet—it’s time to take her sled dogs for an evening training run. The dogs are excited as Klejka puts their booties on and hooks them to the sled. They’ll run 30 miles together before they turn in. When the team gets home, it’s after 10 p.m. Klejka’s husband, Sam, has left a light on. Tomorrow, they’ll do it all again. This is the world of a dog musher. Getting Her Start Mushing has deep roots in Alaska. Native Alaskans used dogsleds to get around. In the 1800s, dogs carried mail and supplies to gold miners. Today, dog mushing is Alaska’s state sport. Mushers like Klejka prepare dogsled…