Turkey-Day Trivia & Other Tidbits

Student Loan Girl — Mon, 19 Nov 2007 15:07:00 GMT

Whether you’re making the trip home for a feast and four-day weekend with the family, or staying put and keeping it low-key with friends, frozen pizza, and a steady stream of college football, equip yourself with these feathered factoids, and you’re sure to take the Thanksgiving spotlight with your impressive command of fowl fable and lore.

Or with what is obviously your slightly freaky turkey fetish. Whatever works.

The Turkey Trivia Trove

Did you know that:

Turkeys can drown if they look up when it’s raining?
Turkeys have great hearing, but no external ears?
The fleshy growth from the base of the beak is called the snood?
Turkeys sometimes spend the night in trees?
The heaviest turkey ever raised was grown in England and weighed 86 pounds?
Only male turkeys make the familiar “gobbling” sound? (Females make a clicking noise.)
The turkey once vied with the bald eagle for the title of national symbol of the United States? Benjamin Franklin argued on behalf of the turkey.
Wild turkeys can run at speeds of up to 25 miles per hour and fly for short distances at up to 55 miles per hour?
Turkeys have heart attacks? (When the Air Force conducted test runs with jets that broke the sound barrier, entire fields of nearby turkeys would drop dead.)

For even more turkey “did you knows,” check out these websites:

Test Your Thanksgiving I.Q.

If you’d rather show off your towering turkey know-all by dominating the competition Jeopardy!-style, challenge your small siblings, vegan roommates, and other worthy adversaries with these Thanksgiving-themed quizzes:

Thanksgiving Pop-Culture Quiz from FamilyEducation.com
Turkey Day Quiz from InfoPlease
Aristotle’s Thanksgiving on the Web Turkey Trivia Quiz

465 Ways to Say “Thank You”

You may already know how to say “thank you” in Spanish, French, Italian, or German, but if you’re looking to extend your linguistic borders, try saying it in Welsh, Zulu, Thai, or any one of another 465 languages. Here’s just a small sample:

Arabic: Shukran
Chinese (Mandarin): Xie xie
Dutch: Dank u
Finnish: Kiitos
French: Merci
German: Danke
Greek: Efcharisto
Hebrew: Toda
Hindi: Shukriya
Hungarian: Köszönöm
Inuktitut (Alaska): Taikkuu
Irish Gaelic: Go raibh maith agaibh
Italian: Grazie
Japanese: Arigato
Korean: Komapsumnida
Lakhota: Pilamaya ye (said by a woman), Pilamaya yelo (said by a man)
Navajo: Aheéhee’
Polish: Dziekuje
Russian: Spasibo
Scottish Gaelic: Tapadh leat
Spanish: Gracias
Swahili: Asante
Swedish: Tack
Tagalog: Salamat
Thai: Khawp khun
Welsh: Diolch
Zulu: Ngiyabonga

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Reaching Beyond the Classroom to the Reservation

Student Loan Girl — Wed, 15 Aug 2007 23:41:00 GMT

People often question the contributions of young people and criticize the U.S. educational system, but one university is proving that an education isn’t confined to test scores or textbooks and that when given a chance to step out of the norm, students and teachers can respond in extraordinary ways.

Taking an innovative approach to teaching, University of Utah professor Hank Louis is giving his architecture students hands-on experience in their field while exposing them to the rich traditions and culture of the Navajo people, according to an article by Desert Morning News reporter Susan Whitney (“Homes Sweet Homes—University of Utah Architecture Students Provide Houses for Navajos Through Design/Build Projects,” Aug. 13, 2007).

Getting an Education, One Brick at a Time

Thanks to their creative and socially conscious professor, students at the University of Utah are designing and building homes on the Navajo reservation in Bluff, Utah, that feature curved adobe walls, solar paneling and other eco-friendly design elements.

Students are gaining practical skills in home design and construction while helping put Native American families in modernized homes reflective of their culture. The work, in partnership with Louis’ nonprofit DesignBuildBLUFF, is having a positive effect on student recruiting, and up until this year, was supported by a grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Each year, Louis finds a design-build project for his class, and then his students let their creativity loose. In his most recent project, students spent one semester drawing house plans and the following semester building a home for Baxter and Dora Benally, a Native American couple living on the Navajo reservation in Bluff, Utah.

Students based the design for the Benallys’ home on a hogan, a one-room Navajo structure traditionally built of natural materials with its entrance facing east. Walls on the west side of the home curve around an outdoor fire pit that also honors the Navajo’s belief system. “If you drew four lines from the center of the firepit to the four sacred mountains of the Navajo, you would see that the home’s rooms align with those mountains,” Whitney writes.

The 1,300-square-foot structure features outdoor steel walls, which will eventually rust and mirror the red hues of the sandstone cliffs behind the adobe brick home, and the roof’s right angles are designed to reflect patterns found on Navajo rugs and baskets. The home includes energy-efficient features like solar panels and a Trombe wall, “a sun-facing thermal mass that will help to heat the master bedroom during winter.”

Student House-Building Project Promotes More Than Just Learning

By constructing custom houses themselves, Louis’ students learned valuable lessons that can’t be taught in any classroom. They discovered that what’s on paper doesn’t always work and you have to adapt to structural changes along the way. They formed a friendship with a Native American couple, learned a few words in Navajo and discovered the joy in giving your time and talent to someone in need.

Some graduates of Louis’ class have been so touched by their experience, they continue to check in on the other three families for whom they’ve built homes, replacing things like sagging straw‑bale walls and old water pumps.

College students, like anyone else, can have their moments of self-involvement, but they also have an incredible capacity to touch the lives of others. All they need is a teacher like Louis to show them the way.

Talk to the education finance advisors at NextStudent. They have all the information and advice you need on student loans. Check out www.nextstudent.com.

Student Loan Girl

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Student Loan Blog : Navajo

Turkey-Day Trivia & Other Tidbits

Reaching Beyond the Classroom to the Reservation