Social Studies for Kids Update

Global Agreement Targets HFC Emissions
October 16, 2016
More than 170 countries have agreed to limit the use of hydrofluorocarbons, after down-to-the-wire negotiations concluded at a world summit in Kigali, Rwanda. The year that the countries agreed that they will begin taking action is 2019. That is the year that the U.S., the world’s second-largest polluter, and the European Union committed to begin. China, the largest polluter on the planet, will start in 2024, along with more than 100 developing countries.

Amundsen Ship Back above Water
October 16, 2016
A ship that carried famed South Pole explorer Roald Amundsen has emerged from the depths after decades underwater. Amundsen was the first to reach the South Pole, in 1911, and in 1906, the first to lead an expedition through the Northwest Passage. It was in 1918 that Amundsen and crew set out aboard the Maud to traverse the Northeast Passage. They left Oslo, Norway, and travelled along the Russian coast to Nome, Alaska. In all, the crew spent seven years aboard the Maud. The ship took the crew through the frozen Arctic lands, faciliating observations of weather and the stars. In 1930, the Maud sprung a leak and sunk. A Norwegian salvage team has finally brought the ship back to the surface.

Roman Britain
Trade flourished between Britain and the Roman world for a few decades after Julius Caesar left for good, but no Roman troops crossed the Channel for a good while. Eventually, a new emperor, Claudius, found the need to prove himself so he decided to have his troops invade Britain. Claudius ordered an expedition of conquest, sending 40,000 troops and several war elephants to Britain. ... And so on, as Rome rolls across Britain and eventually conquer it and Wales.

Find out more about Roman Britain – its people and armies and religion and daily life.

In this week's Significant Sevens, it's a look at the Seven Most Visited National Parks in the U.S.

Time Capsules
Time Capsules are snapshots of days gone by. Most time capsules are collections of items that are buried underground, likely in a container to protect the contents, with instructions to open the time capsule on a certain date. Common intervals are anniversaries like 50 years or 100 years. (Some extreme examples project far into the future.) Time capsules can be personal or general, tiny or gigantic. They are limited only by the imagination of the people who create them. They can also be variable in their durability, depending on the care taken in preparing the capsule (not to mention the material used). Many time capsules are not retrieved because people move on or just forget about them.

Erie Canal Opens for Business
How the Erie Canal was created and financed is the story of one man's desire and many people's skepticism. That one man was New York Gov. DeWitt Clinton, who had the foresight to envision a waterway that would link his state's main port, New York City, with the fertile plains of the Midwest, enabling trade between the nation's hinterlands and the other countries of the world. His opponents called the Erie Canal "Clinton's Folly," but Clinton had the last laugh, as the Canal became one of the nation's busiest waterways and most enduring symbols of rising industrial might.

The Mason-Dixon Line
The Mason-Dixon Line started as an argument and ended up settling many other arguments. To head off big trouble, a pair of Englishmen named Charles Mason, an astronomer and mathematician, and Jeremiah Dixon, a mathematician and surveyor, set out to have the last word on the subject.