COLORADO
Colorado Cornucopia
By Pierce, Landon, Finn, Hannah, Elian, Isa, Naomi, and Tallie
Fifth Graders at Stanley British Primary School
Denver, CO, United States
THE STATUE OF LIBERTY
By Pierce
In 1865, a Frenchman named Édouard de Laboulaye had an idea to celebrate freedom and the friendship between France and the United States. He suggested that France give the US a monument. Laboulaye shared his idea with his friend, a sculptor named Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi. Bartholdi started designing the statue, which they named Liberty Enlightening the World. France would build the statue, and the US would create the pedestal.
Both countries loved the plan, but they quickly ran into the same problem: money. In France, funds were raised from all kinds of people, including schoolchildren and copper manufacturers. In the US, art shows, auctions, and events didn’t raise enough for the pedestal. In 1883, poet Emma Lazarus wrote a poem called The New Colossus for an art auction to help raise money. Although her poem wasn’t famous at first, it later became an important part of the statue’s story, symbolizing welcome and hope for immigrants.
Bartholdi also needed help figuring out how to make the statue stand strong. He turned to Gustave Eiffel, the engineer who later designed the Eiffel Tower. Eiffel created a strong iron framework for the statue that allowed the copper skin to expand and contract with the weather without breaking.
Meanwhile, in the US, fundraising for the pedestal was slow. Joseph Pulitzer, the publisher of a newspaper called the New York World, wrote articles asking Americans to help. He criticized the wealthy for not giving enough and the middle class for expecting others to solve the problem. His campaign inspired thousands of people to donate, and the money came pouring in.
Architect Richard Morris Hunt designed the pedestal using concrete and granite to ensure it was strong enough to support the massive monument. Its cornerstone was laid in 1884, and Hunt even donated his fee to help finish the project. By 1886, the pedestal was complete, ready to hold the giant sculpture.
Lady Liberty was ready to travel from France in July 1884. A ship called the Isère brought it to New York Harbor in June 1885. It came in 214 crates, holding 350 individual pieces. Workers reassembled it on the pedestal in just four months. On October 28, 1886, the Statue of Liberty was officially dedicated.
Today, the Statue of Liberty stands as a symbol of friendship between France and the US. It is also a reminder of the collaboration and generosity that brought this incredible monument to life.
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Math Questions
- If there are 350 pieces divided into 214 crates, on average how many pieces would be in each crate?
- How many years has it been since the statue was created?
- How long was it from the planned completion date to the actual completion date?
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COLORADO FOURTEENERS
By Landon and Finn
In Colorado, there are many, many fourteeners (mountains with peaks higher than 14,000 feet). There are approximately 96 fourteeners in the entire United States, and 56 are in Colorado. Because Colorado has so many fourteeners, it contains 75 percent of the land in the US with an altitude of over 14,000 feet.
The largest, Mount Elbert, stands 14,400 feet tall. The first person to summit Mount Elbert was Henry W. Stuckle in 1874. The smallest is named Sunshine Peak and is 14,001 feet tall.
Pikes Peak is the first fourteener that you would encounter in Colorado if you were traveling west from the plains of Kansas. Pikes Peak is 14,115 feet tall. The first person who climbed it was explorer Zebulon Pike, who led an expedition there in 1806. His group failed to reach the summit because of deep snow and lack of food.
Pikes Peak was formed over a billion years ago when ancient rocks were pushed up by forces deep inside the Earth, and erosion shaped it into the mountain we see today. It has an old cog railway that you can ride to the summit during the summer.
Longs Peak is 14,259 feet tall and is one of the tallest in Colorado. It’s the only fourteener in Rocky Mountain National Park. An estimated 30,000 people climb it each year.
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Math Questions
- What percentage of all the fourteeners in the US are in Colorado?
- If 156 people climb Longs Peak in a year, how many climb it each month?
- What is the elevation difference between the smallest peak (Sunshine Peak) and the largest peak (Mt Elbert)?
- What is the elevation difference between Longs Peak and Pikes Peak?
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GIANT PANDAS
By Hannah
Have you heard about giant pandas and how they’re at risk? Although they’re not endangered anymore, giant pandas are still considered vulnerable, with only about 1,800 living in the wild today. Scientists believe pandas have been around for two to three million years, but their numbers started to drop as humans built more roads and towns, cutting down the forests they need to survive.
Giant pandas play an important role in their ecosystem. They eat mostly bamboo—between 20 and 40 pounds every day! By consuming so much of this plant and spreading its seeds through their poop, pandas help bamboo forests grow. Occasionally, they’ll also eat other plants, fish, or small animals, but this woody grass remains their favorite food.
There are many amazing facts about pandas. For example, baby pandas are born tiny—about the size of a stick of butter—and weigh only a few ounces. Male pandas have a funny way of marking their territory: they do handstands to leave their scent higher up on tree trunks. These unique behaviors make pandas one of the most interesting animals on Earth.
You can help giant pandas by learning more about them and telling others why they’re important. Supporting efforts to protect their habitats is another way to make sure these amazing animals survive for many more years.
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Math Questions
- There are 14 forests with an average of 112 giant pandas each. What is the total number of pandas?
- Due to habitat destruction, half of the pandas die. How many pandas are left?
- Conservation groups stop further destruction, so that eight baby pandas are born per forest. What is the total number of pandas now?
- If one panda eats 26 pounds of bamboo the first day, 32 pounds the second day, 22 on the third, 33 on the fourth and 36 on the fifth, what is the average number of pounds the panda eats per day?
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THE HARM DONE TO THE OCEAN
By Elian
Did you know that radioactive waste has been dumped into the oceans? Between 1946 and 1993, 13 countries disposed of toxic materials in the sea. This practice stopped after international treaties and government agreements were created to protect the environment. Today, scientists are still monitoring the old dumping sites to make sure they don’t harm marine life.
The waste left behind can cause problems for animals living in the oceans. Some of the dumping sites are in the Atlantic near Europe and off parts of the US coast. Even though the water dilutes some of the material, it can still pose a danger. Eating fish caught from polluted areas over time might harm people’s health by damaging their organs.
This pollution also hurts people who rely on fishing to make a living. After the Fukushima disaster in 2011, many countries banned seafood from parts of Japan’s coast, leading to a big drop in sales for fishermen. The average annual pay for a Japanese deep-sea fisherman is about US$19,000, and disasters like this make earning a living even harder.
The Soviet Union dumped a lot of radioactive waste into the Arctic and Pacific Oceans. In the Kara Sea, for example, records show they threw away about 17,000 containers and 19 ships filled with radioactive waste. They also dumped 14 nuclear reactors. Germany and Italy dumped much less, only about 0.2 pounds each in the Atlantic Ocean. South Korea also got rid of waste in the Sea of Japan, but we don’t know how much they dumped because the data isn’t available.
Radioactive waste in the oceans is a serious problem that affects both wildlife and people. By learning about the issue and supporting efforts to protect marine life, we can help keep the oceans healthier for future generations.
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Math Questions
- For how many years did countries dump waste?
- How many total items did the Soviet Union dump in the Kara Sea?
- If a fisherman in Japan worked for five years without any disasters affecting their income, how much money would they make in total?
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MOUNT EVEREST
By Isa and Naomi
Mount Everest is the tallest mountain in the world, standing at 8,848.86 meters (29,031.7 feet) above sea level. By December 2024, about 7,120 people had climbed to the top.
Climbers use several camps to rest and prepare during their journey:
- Base Camp at 5,364 meters (17,598 feet)
- Camp 1 at 5,943 meters (19,500 feet)
- Camp 2 at 6,400 meters (20,997 feet)
- Camp 3 at 7,162 meters (23,500 feet)
- Camp 4 at 7,925 meters (26,000 feet)
Above 8,000 meters (26,247 feet) is called the “death zone” because the air has very little oxygen, making it dangerous for climbers. Serious risks include mountain sickness, freezing weather, extreme tiredness, falling, and avalanches.
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Math Questions
- If each climber who has reached the summit spent an average of five days at Base Camp, how many total days did the climbers spend at Base Camp?
- What is the elevation difference between Base Camp and the summit?
- How many meters do climbers have to ascend from Camp 4 to enter the “death zone”?
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BATS
By Tallie
Bats are amazing animals that live in many different places, like rainforests, farms, forests, and cities. There are more than 1,400 types of bats in the world, which means they make up about 20% of all mammals.
Unfortunately, many bat species are in trouble. Scientists studied 1,314 kinds of bats and found that 1.6% are critically endangered, 6.3% are endangered, and 8.3% are vulnerable. This means their populations are shrinking, and they need help to survive.
Here are some examples of bats that are endangered:
- flying foxes
- Indiana bat
- gray bat
One big reason bats are in trouble is because humans are destroying their homes by cutting down trees and building in their habitats. Protecting places where bats live is very important to keep these fascinating creatures around for the future.
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Math Questions
- There are over 1,400 types of bats in the world, but scientists studied 1,314 of them. How many bat species were not included in the study?
- If 1.6% of bats studied are critically endangered, how many bat species is that?
- What is the total percentage of bats that are at risk?
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