Hot Stuff: Storms, Science, and More

Credit: William Duke

Operation: Monster Storms

Free for the 2007-08 school year

Just in time for the ferocious storms of winter comes Operation: Monster Storms, the new science curriculum from the National Geographic Society's JASON Project that introduces students to Earth's most extreme weather events. From flying into a hurricane's eye to chasing twisters in Tornado Alley, Operation: Monster Storms teaches students how powerful storms form and how meteorologists use advanced technology to better understand and forecast weather. The five- to nine-week core science unit for weather is designed for classrooms in grades 5-8, with the flexibility for teachers to adapt to higher or lower grades.

Credit: William Duke

Heifer International

Looking for more meaningful holiday-gift ideas? Then check out Heifer International, which bestows livestock and agricultural training on poor families worldwide. More than sixty years ago, Heifer began helping people become self-reliant and build stronger communities. Now, donors can honor friends and family by funding the purchase of farm animals. The group also offers a range of educational programs. Here's an idea: Have your students put together a holiday fundraiser that helps alleviate hunger and poverty. Isn't that sort of compassion what the holidays are all about?

Credit: William Duke

Howtoons: The Possibilities Are Endless!

HarperCollins; $16

Gather up your soda bottle, duct tape, and mop buckets -- it's Howtoons time. Howtoons are beautifully illustrated cartoons that teach readers ages 8-15 how to build fascinating and fun science projects using everyday objects. Using clear step-by-step instructions, young Einsteins soon learn the finer points of, say, making ice cream without a freezer, playing songs on a turkey-baster flute, or building a marshmallow shooter. Oh, to be young again.

Credit: William Duke

The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones, Volume One

Paramount Home Video; 12-disc set, $130

Who says history has to be boring? Not when you've got that roguish Indiana Jones involved (even if he's just a kid).The Emmy Award-winning series The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones makes its DVD debut with an array of all-new supporting and expanding bonus materials, allowing viewers to dig deeper into the real-life events behind young Indy's globe-trotting coming of age in the first part of the twentieth century. The twelve-disc Volume One includes seven feature-length episodes as well as a whopping thirty-eight in-depth companion documentaries, an interactive game, and interviews with such people as Martin Scorsese, James Earl Jones, Colin Powell, and Deepak Chopra. Volume Two will follow in mid-December; Volume Three is scheduled for a spring 2008 release.