Amir is studious and inquisitive. His dream is to one day be a newspaper reporter. He works hard writing articles and conducting interviews for TLX News.
Emilio is an adventurer. He loves to travel with his parents and his older brother, Ernesto. He is also interested in history and has visited many historic sites.
Jill is running for class president at her school. She is a leader in her class and encourages good citizenship. Each month she volunteers at her town’s local food pantry.
Shelby loves going to her local recreation center to skateboard and take art classes. She is very involved in her community and helps with recycling and conservation.
Camille has French heritage. She uses her laptop to email her friends and organizing her MP3 collection. Her dad is a music teacher and someday she might like to be one, too.
Ernesto loves sports, and his favorite sport is soccer. He is also very interested in photography and one day hopes to be a professional photographer.
Ruby cares about environmental issues. She likes to visit state and national parks. Someday, she hopes to be an architect and design skyscrapers that are Earth friendly.
Aiden lives on a big cattle farm in Texas. He likes to grow vegetables in his own garden and uses them to help his family make fajitas. Cooking is his favorite hobby.
Adam lives with his grandparents near the beach. They are Chinese Americans. He likes to help his grandfather paint pictures of the ocean.
Lilly wants to be a pilot. One day she would even like to fly in the space shuttle! For now, she'll just use her telescope to visit outer space.
Reema and her family are from India. She likes animals and hopes someday to be a vet. She is practicing by taking care of her pet turtle, George.
Sam likes to read. He loves going to the library and reading books about dinosaurs. Sam is hearing impaired. His family is learning American Sign Language.

Amir is studious and inquisitive. His dream is to one day be a newspaper reporter. He works hard writing articles and conducting interviews for TLX News.

aboriginal:: the first people to live in a region
venue:: a place where events are held
compost:: a mixture of natural materials that is used for fertilizing
achievement:: a success someone has
ceremony :: a series of acts performed in a certain way according to a set of rules

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Going Green in Winter

When most Americans think of the Winter Olympics, they think of white snow, white ice, and the red, white, and blue of Team USA. But the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, are all about being green. The Vancouver Organizing Committee (VANOC) created venues for athletes and audiences that are environmentally friendly. A venue is a place where events are held. For the 2010 Olympics, Whistler Olympic Park and the Richmond Olympic Oval are two venues that were created with the environment in mind.

Whistler Olympic Park

Whistler Olympic Park is located about 75 miles north of the city of Vancouver. At this venue, Olympic athletes compete in ski jumping, cross-country skiing, and the biathlon. The biathlon combines cross-country skiing and target shooting. The ski trails and ski jumps were designed and built to blend in with the natural landscape of the mountains.

This overhead view shows the ski jump and ski trails in Whistler Park.

When setting up this venue, workers tried to cut down as few trees as possible. When they did have to clear the land of trees, they found ways to reuse them. The wood waste was chipped up and put into a compost pile. Compost is a mixture of natural materials that is used for fertilizing. Then workers mixed the compost with wildflower seeds and spread it on the ground. This filled in areas where construction equipment disturbed the land, and the wildflowers provide food for animals living in the area. When the snow melts after the Olympics, people can take nature walks along the trails.

Richmond Olympic Oval

The Richmond Olympic Oval is located in a suburb of Vancouver. It has a track made of ice where speed skaters will race during the Olympics. While building the Richmond Olympic Oval, engineers reused as many natural resources as possible.

Athletes compete in the environmentally friendly Richmond Oval.

There are many ways that this building is environmentally friendly. Special containers collect rainwater, which is reused to flush toilets inside the building. Extra water is stored in a pond in front of the building. The roof is made from trees that were harmed by pine beetles. This wood cannot be mulched or used for paper, but people found a way to reuse it. The roof is the largest surface ever covered in the once-discarded wood.

The Winter Olympic Games last for only a few weeks. But the people who created the venues for the 2010 Games made sure that the sites reused natural resources and can be enjoyed by everyone for years to come.

TLX News Journal – Geography Activity:
All of the venues for the 2010 Winter Olympics were built in ways that protected the environment. Explain what you do, or can do in your everyday life to help the environment where you live.

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