“My mission is to share my story and passion for S.T.E.A.M. (science, technology, engineering, arts and math) education with our future explorers—help inspire them to dream big, bold dreams and help get them the tools so they can make those dreams become a reality. They will then have opportunities available to them that will help positively change the world.”
An inspiring quote from our spotlight on Leland Melvin, educator and astronaut.
The boundaries of what science covers is up for debate but one unifying factor is its pursuit of knowledge, to test the unknown so it may be known. According to the National Science Teachers Association, exposure to science is important for elementary students so they can build problem-solving skills and participate in an increasingly technological world. Champions of the scientific method, rejoice!
Here are five magazine resources to encourage inquisitive young minds:
On top of magazines, here are more science bits to check out on Flipboard:
- We partnered with the California Academy of the Sciences to create this Earth Day exploration.
- Follow sources like BBC Future and Popular Science to supplement classroom research.
- Dive deep on science news with these topic pages: Biology, Chemistry, Earth Science, Science Education, Women in Science, and much more!
If you’re a teacher and collect science materials for students in a magazine, we’d love to add it to our S.T.E.M. metazine. To be included, send us the link by tweeting @FlipboardMag with the hashtag #FlipEDU or email us at FlipEDU@Flipboard.com
~jdlv is curating “Mad Kitchen Science“
It’s Time to #ThankATeacher for Teacher Appreciation Weekhttps://in-id.about.flipboard.com/educators/its-time-to-thankateacher-for-teacher-appreciation-week
For Teacher Appreciation Week, we’d like to take this time to thank all of you who have participated in our FlipEDU efforts so far. We hope that our pooled resources from Flipboard teachers and magazines are making a difference in your classrooms.
Here are some ways you can thank fellow faculty with Flipboard:
- Make them a Flipboard magazine with memories of the past year.
- Follow the #ThankATeacher hashtag on Flipboard and flip your favorite posts.
- Share Flipboard magazines made by teachers on Twitter #FlipEDU and #ThankATeacher (we’ll RT you!).
- Nominate a teacher who’s using Flipboard for a spotlight in our blog. Email us at FlipEDU@flipboard.com
We’d also like to share a few stories from the #FlipTeam about educators that have supported our families, changed our lives and made us who we are today.
“My daughter, Clare, is in the 3rd grade in Larchmont, NY. She is in a co-taught classroom and has two teachers, Ms. Goldenberg and Ms. Loughran. My story of appreciation is for both of these teachers for not only focusing on traditional academics in the classroom, but for also encouraging, recognizing and rewarding good classroom citizenship. I know that Clare is going to learn to read and write and do math, but it’s far more important to me that she learn how to be a good partner to her classmates, a good citizen of her school and to learn to care about the people and world around her. Given the pressure teachers have to make sure their students score well on standardized tests, I so appreciate the time and attention Clare’s teachers spend on ‘life academics,’ as well as traditional academics.” – Christina Abee, Advertising
“I am from the Netherlands, where I grew up speaking Dutch. I was about 16 years old, my mom and dad went to a parent-teacher meeting with my English teacher Toon van de Hurk. They asked him why I mainly had C’s. His answer: ‘She makes things too complicated in her head. If I spend an hour with her, I think she’ll get it.’ I remember going over questions about an English text with him. That hour made a huge difference in my life. Not only did I become a straight-A student in English, he taught me a new way to approach problem solving that I was able to apply to other areas in my life. He made me feel understood and seen. If it hadn’t been for him, my life would have taken a different path. For one, I would not have moved to the United States where I’ve been happily living and working for almost 10 years.” – Christel van der Boom, Content & Communications
“In my 7th grade history class at Del Sur Middle School, Mr. Hill had an annual sandwich challenge. If you could write out instructions on how to properly make a sandwich, step-by-step, he would eat it. Many students tried to include gross ingredients like anchovies with bananas and would lose sight of the assignment. They would have to eat their creations. I stepped up to the plate and not only did Mr. Hill have a delicious ham sandwich, he unlocked my potential for writing consciously and thoroughly.” – Jenn de la Vega, Content & Communications
Not on Flipboard yet? Get started with Flipboard in the classroom here.
~The Flipboard Team
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Journalist Todd Woody has written widely about the environment for over 20 years. From the dot com days to the death of coal, he’s covered what is arguably the biggest story of our time: the life of our planet.
It’s something he thought about early in his career, sitting on a plane, hovering over Northern California’s redwood forests. Here, overlooking a mosaic of misshapen trees, Woody saw the devastating effects of deforestation firsthand. As a reporter, he decided to use that level of access for the greater good.
When he’s not surfing, the former Forbes environmental editor and New York Times contributor is a Senior Editor at TakePart, a “digital magazine for the conscious consumer” and division of Participant Media, the production company behind such seminal environmental documentaries as An Inconvenient Truth and Food Inc.
Instead of paying lip service to Earth Day, Woody’s helped lead Blue Planet, a special series about the fight to save the world’s oceans, full of interactive graphics, compelling videos and rich reporting. TakePart has also curated a series of magazines on Flipboard examining the environmental and social issues impacting our world. We spoke with Woody about grassroots advocacy, environmental optimism and how surfers can change the world.
How did you come to work for TakePart?
I have covered environmental issues for most of my career at daily newspapers, national magazines and digital publications.
Environmental coverage goes in and out of favor. I’ve pitched stories to national magazine editors who’ll say “but Todd—we just had a solar energy story six months ago…”
One day I got a call from TakePart, the digital magazine of Participant Media, a Los Angeles-based film production company that produced “An Inconvenient Truth,” “Food, Inc.,” etc., and they told me they were looking for someone to ramp up their environmental coverage and help grow their publication—which isn’t something you hear much of in the journalism world.
Was there a moment during your career in which you thought, “I need to keep telling the story of the environment.”
Early in my career, I was covering the “timber wars,” in which old-growth redwood forests were being cut down in California and hostile confrontations between environmental groups and big timber companies happened constantly.
For one story I went up north, and an activist attorney representing the environmental group took me up in a plane. From high up, I could see the effects of clearcutting—it looks like a moonscape.
But on the road, the timber companies leave what they call “beauty strips”—this tiny area along the highway where the trees are untouched and manicured. You have to go beyond that to see the extent of the damage.
Steve Hawk—who, like you, is a surfer/environmental journalist—has called surfers “inadvertent environmentalists.” Has surfing culture embraced environmentalism?
Traditionally [surfers] became environmentalists when their waves were threatened. Of course, there have been organizations like the Surfrider Foundation working on environmental issues for many years.
But in my experience, surfers never paid much attention to their own lifestyles. Let’s face it: a traditional surfboard is toxic. It’s made of polyurethane, it’s got an non-recyclable laminate that’s toxic and ends up in a landfill.
Surfers are iconoclastic, but they’re pretty conservative and don’t want to change the ways they do things. Margins in the surfing industry are very thin, and a lot of the big shapers have teams that they sponsor, and pros don’t want to risk anything in competition.
As I’ve come to find out while reporting for TakePart’s Blue Planet project, that’s changing in a big way; world champion Kelly Slater, for instance, rode an Ecoboard made from sustainable materials in competition earlier this month.
That was a big deal because pro surfers have a huge influence over not just surfing culture, but the culture at large. It’s a $7-8 billion industry, but it’s also what I call “b2b: bro to bro”— run by a small group of guys who all grew up together.
So Slater’s move was huge.
It’s not just surfers who are resistant to change. The Guardian recently wrote about how climate change produces apathy in our brains, not action. Why do you think that is?
Until it directly affects people’s daily lives or pocketbooks, it doesn’t get attention.
Which is where Participant comes in—it was founded in 2004 as a film production company to tell socially relevant stories and amassed these big audiences after producing “An Inconvenient Truth” and “Food Inc.,” and so on, and they wanted to keep that conversation going. So they started TakePart to cover these issues on a daily basis.
Part of the idea is to motivate people. We didn’t want people to just read a story and move on. Every article has a “Take Action” widget. Readers can sign petitions, donate money, etc., in actions sponsored by NGOs. That’s really different.
You’re still doing a lot of reporting. What are the most surprising stories relating to the environment?
I recently closed an endangered species project. Surprisingly I’ve found good stories. When you cover this beat, it’s mostly gloom and doom.
For this project, I wrote about this critter called the Amargosa vole that only exists in the Mojave near Death Valley. Its population crashed suddenly, and scientists gave it a 82% chance of going extinct within five years.
A team of biologists and conservationists and everyday citizens intervened and started a captive breeding program, not knowing if it would work. It did work. They are now introducing voles into the wild and creating new habitats.
There’s not typically much we can do to save a species. In this case there was, and it made a difference. That critter could have disappeared without anyone noticing it. It’s about everyday people’s involvement.
So how can the Blue Planet campaign help? What’s the goal?
With every story, our first question is: why is this relevant to the reader? Which is a challenge with environmental issues for a general readership. They tend to be passionate about the environment, but many issues tend to feel distant from their daily lives.
Last year we were brainstorming about Earth Day coverage, and we decided to focus on the crisis in the oceans—acidification from climate change, plastic pollution, overfishing and the impact of marine life.
We created a package of narrative stories, videos and infographics that focus on the planet’s life support system. What we want to do is engage the reader with rich storytelling about the environment, and give them avenues to make a difference.
It’s about mindfulness and being aware.
Our Fragile Planet by TakePart
~ShonaS is curating “Out & About”
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Your Flipboard magazines can house articles, photos and tweets, but did you know you could flip whole magazines as well? We informally call these “metazines” around Flipboard.
To do this on mobile, tap the share icon to bring up a menu and select “+ Flip this into a Magazine.”
On the Web, click on the + icon below the bottom right corner of the magazine cover.
But why would anyone want to flip a magazine into another one? Here are a few reasons:
- A metazine can become a “shortcut” for you to keep up a specific set of magazines you like.
- You can flip magazines with comments and lift other great MagMakers up into the spotlight.
- Create a dedicated directory of magazines on a specific period of time or subject you are passionate about.
- On the Web, metazines look like beautiful “landing pages.”
Think of like a librarian. An alphanumeric order for the magazines can make it easier for people to navigate.
It doesn’t have to be all magazines in a metazine, either. Flipping a magazine among relevant articles can provide another perspective and supplement to your own curatorial vision.
Get creative with your title to set your collection apart and don’t forget to write a great description to explain what the metazine is all about.
We want to see see your metazines! Send us a link by tweeting at @FlipboardMag.
~jdlv is curating “Gif-tionary“
The Week in Review: Jolie’s Choice Sparks Health Conversationhttps://in-id.about.flipboard.com/inside-flipboard/the-week-in-review-jolies-choice-sparks-health-conversation
Actress, filmmaker and activist Angelina Jolie Pitt opened up this week about her decision to remove her ovaries and fallopian tubes as a preventive measure, in an op-ed in The New York Times, setting off a national conversation about health.
Jolie Pitt lost her grandmother, mother and aunt to cancer and carries the BRCA1 gene, giving her an estimated 87 percent chance of breast cancer and a 50 percent risk of ovarian cancer. The average woman has a 12 percent risk of developing breast cancer at some point in her life, whereas those with the BRCA gene are five times more likely to be diagnosed with the disease.
Pitt previously went under the knife for a double mastectomy, but said her choice to undergo an additional surgery is only one of the options available to women with a similar family history.
“There is more than one way to deal with any health issue. The most important thing is to learn about the options and choose what is right for you personally,” she wrote.
Her admission helped shine a larger spotlight on cancer, women’s health and familial choices over the last week.
A surgeon writing for The Daily Beast praised her decision to write about her experience, something he said he hopes “will increase awareness that much more and encourage people to talk to their doctors and get tested.”
“Women (and men) need to know that this gene mutation exists, because like so many other diseases, it is treatable if caught early enough. It doesn’t have to be a death sentence,” he wrote.
Dr. H. Gilbert Welch, a professor of medicine at Dartmouth, cautioned that her story “is an extreme case that should not be taken for a model for most women.” While others heralded her choice to share as a “powerful” step that linked “inner health and outer beauty.”
Ultimately, the 39-year-old mother of six said she feels “at ease.”
“I feel feminine, and grounded in the choices I am making for myself and my family,” she wrote. “I know my children will never have to say, ‘Mom died of ovarian cancer.'”
MagMakers on Flipboard are curating about cancer, health and family. Follow their magazines to learn more about these issues.
Current Medicine, Immunology And Cancer by Sirtuin: Latest news about new discoveries and prevention of diseases, including cancer.
Women’s Health by Doctors Without Borders: Doctors Without Borders looks at the health issues affecting women around the world.
Family & Parenting by Jax Lockyer-Barrett: A magazine addressing the issues and joys families face daily.
DIY Health by Edwin Kim: Jolie Pitt said she will be looking for “natural ways” to strengthen her immune system. Flip here for some ideas.
Follow the “Angelina Jolie,” “Health” and “Family” topics on Flipboard.
~GabyS is reading “Women in politics”
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Apple unveiled details of the long-awaited Apple Watch, along with other product announcements and updates, during an event on Monday.
The watch, which will ship on April 24, will come in three different versions. The Apple Watch Sport is the least expensive and comes with a plastic band, while the Apple Watch is more expensive and comes with a steel case. The most expensive Apple Watch Edition starts at $10,000 and comes with an 18-karat gold case.
Designed to last approximately 18 hours, the watches have a speaker and microphone so they can place and receive phone calls. They can be used for Apple Pay or Siri, to monitor fitness metrics, display a calendar and maps, play music or TV, and support third-party apps, including Flipboard.
“The Apple Watch is the most personal device we’ve ever created,” Apple CEO Tim Cook told the audience Monday. “It’s not just on you, it’s with you.”
The announcement also put the spotlight on the wearable technology already available in the market, including the Sony SmartWatch 3, Garmin Vivoactive, LG G Watch R, Samsung Gear S and Pebble Time.
The news this week could lead to an increase in wearable tech and smartwatches in particular. According to Strategy Analytics, Apple could ship 15.4 million Apple Watch units this year, which would account for 54.8 percent of the total market for smartwatches. Forrester Research estimated 20 million people will likely buy something new from Apple.
Keep up with the evolving tech world as the smartwatch and other wearables become more popular.
Apple Watch Watch Watch by Andre Wolf: News and videos about the latest product from Apple.
All Things Apple by Francis Reyes: Latest announcements from the tech giant.
Smartwatch by kpw2013: When smartwatches are in the news.
Wearable Tech by J Bernard: Wearable technology in different forms: watches, headsets, wallets and more.
Follow the “Wearable Tech” and “Watches” topics to get updates on your Flipboard.
~GabyS is reading “Mobile Wearable Visionary Insights”
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As February comes to a close, so does Black History Month. Even though 28 (sometimes 29) days is too short, BHM serves as a way to remind us of the many achievements of African-Americans, and underscore how much work remains in the name of equality. Like Grantland’s Rembert Browne noted, it’s a time when the entire country gets a reality check on the “nature in which [African-Americans] exist.”
Of course, the community doesn’t exist in a vacuum. The history of African-Americans is the history of America itself. With no one true take on the “African-American experience,” we found five perspectives, thanks to our MagMakers. Learn from them all:
~ShonaS is reading “The Human Race”
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As Super Bowl month and the height of awards season, February puts advertising in the spotlight like almost no other time. On Flipboard, there’s been some big ad news, not to mention several campaigns that caught our eye. Here’s the first of our roundups showcasing noteworthy ads on Flipboard.
This month, keep an eye out for impressively executed ad creative from BMW, Leading Hotels and Lockheed Martin. All three companies take advantage of Flipboard’s full-page ad unit’s size, concept and messaging capabilities. Here’s how:
They make a big impression. Ads on Flipboard are the all stars of digital advertising—they’re beautiful, spacious and worthy of a printed magazine. The most impressive ads on Flipboard are often sourced from print campaigns and/or use glamorous photography that helps the product or service stand out on our full-bleed, high-resolution pages.
They keep viewers wondering what’s next. These ads seduce the audience with storytelling tactics such as action, mystery and intrigue. For example, the Uncommon Perspectives campaign by Leading Hotels provokes curiosity: what beauty, adventure and serenity await at the top of that hill? And the Lockheed Martin creative resembles a scene from a futuristic sci-fi movie.
They keep it simple. There’s no reason to clutter up a beautiful piece of ad creative with too much messaging. The best calls to action offer direct guidance without detracting from the ad’s look and feel. BMW’s “Learn More” button sends a clear message to the reader about a helpful next step.
What’s your favorite ad on Flipboard? Let us know @flipboardads.
~AndrewZ is reading “Love of Art”
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One of the defining features of the new Flipboard is topics.* Topics are designed to give you more of the stories you want, no matter how niche the subject. At the same time, topics empower you to discover a diversity of sources and magazines you might not have known about before. Here are the top things to know about topics and how they can supercharge your personalized experience.
So, what are topics?
- Flipboard topics are filled with a diversity of recent stories, from publications big and small. Choose from over 30,000 of them to see top articles about your interests.
Fueled by Zite’s technology, topics range from “wine tasting” to “sustainable design” to “cute animals” to “marine biology.” Flip through a topic to see popular stories from publishers as well as articles curated into Flipboard magazines (more on this soon!).
Where are topics?
- Get started by picking your favorite topics after updating Flipboard to 3.0 or higher.
When you first open the third generation of Flipboard, pick a few topics from the list. Scrolling down this list reveals even more related topics.
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Return to the list of topics to pick in the tile tab.
You can always go back to this list of topics to follow—just use the tile tab. (On iOS, filter to Topics and then Find More Topics to Follow. For Android, scroll to the bottom for the same option.)
- Search any topic you want.
Know exactly what you’re interested in? Type keywords into the search tab. For example, searching for “healthy food” gives you exactly that plus other related topics like “raw food,” “vegan,” “food crisis” and “food policy.” Tap the results to see articles, photos and videos from sources and magazines across Flipboard.
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Find topic tags on articles. Tap to see more.
Don’t know exactly what you want? Topic tags live all over for you to explore. Find them nestled in the bottom left corner of articles. Tap on them to deep-dive on top stories. Careful! These little but powerful tags can get addictive. Starting in “photography” might lead you to “aerial views.” From there you might stumble across “virtual reality,” then wander to “game development.” You never quite know, so just see where topic tags take you!
I found a topic I really like, how do I save it?
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Follow topics you like and they’ll be saved in your tile tab.
Loving that “painting” is a topic on Flipboard? Follow it! It’ll be added to the list of topics you follow in the tile tab for easy access later on.
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Follow topics to improve your Flipboard Home.
If you follow a lot of topics, it can be a lot to keep track of! Luckily, when you follow topics, Flipboard finds the best stories for you in Home. Go to the home tab to see highlights across what you are following. Save time by seeing a blend of everything you like.
I’m getting good at this. What’s the next level?
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You, too, can power topics. How? Just make magazines on Flipboard.
Great topics include the best of what the Flipboard community collects into their magazines. On some stories, you’ll see the attribution a person who flipped it. Tap the person’s name or profile picture to go to their profile and see more of what they’re flipping into magazines.
Contribute to topics by making magazines on Flipboard. Tap + on any story to begin. Set your magazines to “public” to ensure that what you collect can show up in topics as well.
We’re excited to deliver the stories that matter to you, in a smarter way. With topics, we hope to make it easier to see a different view or get more of what you like. Have fun!
*Currently, topics are only available in the U.S.
~DeanneC is reading “Smashing Maps”
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We’re on a quest to create the world’s best personal magazine, and today’s update—the third generation of Flipboard—builds on our core tenets. The new Flipboard is both more personal and magazine-like. Here’s how:
1) With over 30,000 topics now available, your Flipboard can be as unique as you are. Topics range from “action hero” to “zoology” (and everything in-between), and you can find them via search or by tapping on the new topic tags on articles. Press “follow” every time you want to add something (or someone) to your Flipboard and watch as your experience becomes tailored to your life.
Topics are fueled by Zite’s technology but they’re also powered by people: Flipboard’s magazine makers, to be precise. Our “MagMakers” have curated over 10 million magazines around subjects they’re passionate about, often flipping in insightful articles, stunning photos and powerful videos and music. Our community’s hand-picked selections, indexed by our algorithms, yield a potent new mix of topical content you won’t find anywhere else. Take a look:
2) Want to catch up on the news in a fast, definitive way? Meet The Daily Edition, a carefully curated roundup of top headlines in news, business, tech, sports and culture, along with some fun elements, like a daily track and a Parting GIF to send you off on your day with a smile. Curated by the Flipboard team, The Daily Edition is currently available in editions for the U.S., UK, Latin America, U.S. Latino, Brazil and India, and is ready every day by 7:00 a.m. local time. You can find it among your tiles.
3) We’re rolling out an all-new design for the phone, where Flipboard has been re-imagined to be more magazine-like and elegant. Open Flipboard, and you’ll be immediately immersed in a highly-visual and up-to-the-minute stream of articles, photos and more based on your areas of interest. There are airy full-screen covers, fresh typography and a new navigational bar that lets you quickly access your home feed, your tiles, search, notifications and your profile.
4) The MagMakers among you will be excited to learn that there’s an updated look for profiles and a new Web tool called My Analytics, which offers an overview of how your curation is performing on Flipboard. And because we admire the work of our MagMakers, we’re launching a new series today called “My Magazine,” videos that spotlight inspiring people, their personal journeys and magazine expressions. Be sure to check out the clips and share your story with us using the #MyMagazine hashtag.
Finally, as part of this new edition of Flipboard, we’ve updated our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use (effective October 30, 2014) to accommodate all the new features and to explain our practices more clearly.
There’s something for everyone in this third generation of Flipboard, whether you have deep interests, are a passionate curator or just want the latest headlines. So update today, start following topics and people, and truly make Flipboard your own.
~The Flipboard Team
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