The Walking Classroom

Dive into cave weathering and erosion! Caves are hollow spaces underneath the earth’s surface with openings large enough for a person to enter. Many caves form in a karst environment, a type of landscape made of rocks like limestone, or dolomite, that slowly dissolve in the presence of water with a slightly acidic tinge. There are several different types of caves, and they are named by how they are formed. The most common type of cave is a solutional cave, a cave formed by the chemical reaction of water with limestone bedrock. While chemical weathering gets things started, caves continue to develop over time through ongoing physical and chemical weathering, as well as erosion.

Learn about the rich history of Mammoth Cave National Park. This geographic area has significantly impacted people in Kentucky and worldwide, from prehistoric times to the present, through exploration, saltpeter mining, and tourism. Beyond its historical importance, Mammoth Cave National Park boasts incredible biodiversity, with a vast array of plant and animal life.

In this episode of the Walking Classroom, you learn about the famous climate expert and top female scientist, Inez Fung.Dr. Fung teamed up with other scientists to bring attention to climate change and work towards stopping our Earth from getting too hot for us to comfortably live. She believed that we need to understand how our behavior will affect the earth in the long-term and that what we do on land is connected to what’s happening in the atmosphere.

Today’s Walking Classroom focuses on Leonardo da Vinci, a famous Italian inventor and artist who lived during the Renaissance. Da Vinci is well known for paintings like the Mona Lisa and the Last Supper, although he also spent much of his time on other types of creations and inventions. His many interests went beyond painting and included anatomy, architecture, and engineering.

Today’s podcast focuses on the field of meteorology and the forces that create weather patterns and natural phenomenon like rain, thunder, and lightning. The kids discuss and explain how the weather is predicted and how it affects our everyday lives. Weather changes can be caused by temperature shifts that affect our atmosphere and cause the air to move differently. A meteorologist is someone who studies and predicts weather patterns and helps us understand what is going on in our atmosphere.