50 Fun Facts About End of the School Year

Which stretchy material got its English name because it was so good at wiping away pencil marks?

Rubber earned its name after Joseph Priestley noticed in 1770 that a lump of it was excellent for rubbing pencil marks off paper. Before then, people erased with crustless bread.

Which frozen treat did 11-year-old Frank Epperson invent by leaving a drink and stirring stick outside overnight?

Popsicle history began on a back porch in Oakland in 1905, when the cold night froze the soda mix around the stick. Epperson waited almost twenty years before patenting it as the 'Epsicle'.

Which summer toy was invented by Lonnie Johnson, an engineer who had worked for NASA and the Air Force?

Super Soaker water guns grew out of an accident: Johnson was testing a new kind of refrigeration system in his bathroom when it shot a powerful stream of water across the room.

Which field-day contest between two teams was an official Olympic event from 1900 to 1920?

Tug of war was dropped after the 1920 Games, when the Olympic committee trimmed its program. At the 1900 Games, Danish and Swedish pullers joined forces as a mixed team and took first place.

School buses are painted yellow partly because lettering of which color is easiest to read on it at dawn?

Black lettering on yellow proved the most legible in semi-darkness, so a 1939 conference made the pairing a national standard. Professor Frank Cyr gathered the delegates in New York.

Which form of carbon, mixed with clay, makes up the so-called lead in a modern pencil?

Graphite was thought to be a form of lead when a large deposit turned up in the 1500s, and the name stuck. Adding more or less clay to its powder sets how hard a pencil writes.

Which author's last book published in his lifetime, 'Oh, the Places You'll Go!', became a favorite graduation gift?

Dr. Seuss published the book in January 1990, the year before he died at 87. Its sales still spike every April to June, as families buy it for graduates from kindergarten to college.

Which word, coined by a mathematician's nine-year-old nephew, names the number 1 followed by 100 zeros?

Googol was the idea of Milton Sirotta in 1920, and his uncle popularized it in a 1940 book about mathematics. The founders of Google later named their search engine after it, with a changed spelling.

Which medieval explorer shares his name with a swimming-pool tag game where 'it' keeps both eyes closed?

Marco Polo supplies both calls in the game: the tagger shouts 'Marco' and everyone else must answer 'Polo', giving away where they are. Nobody has found a real link to the Italian trader.

What is the flat, square graduation cap called, a name it shares with a bricklayer's tool?

Mortarboard caps look like the square board a mason loads with wet mortar. The hat probably took shape in Italy about 500 years ago and may have grown out of the clergy's biretta.

Which part of a graduation cap do American students move from the right side to the left near the ceremony's end?

Tassel turning is typically done by the whole graduating class in unison. Tassels only reached academic caps in the 18th century; before that, a plain tuft decorated the middle.

At an American graduation, which title goes to the top-ranked student, who traditionally gives the farewell speech?

Valedictorian comes from the Latin for 'to say farewell', because the title's holder was traditionally the final speaker of the day. Most schools pick theirs by grade point average.

Which English composer wrote the 'Pomp and Circumstance' march that plays as graduates walk in at American ceremonies?

Edward Elgar was in the audience the first time it was played at a graduation: Yale used the march in June 1905, at the ceremony where he collected an honorary doctorate of music.

Which word for a graduation ceremony literally means a beginning, the start of life after school?

Commencement is the act of commencing, so the name treats the day as a starting line and not a finish. Some colleges prefer to call the same event a convocation or a congregation.

Which Latin honor, meaning 'with highest praise', is the top of three levels awarded by most American colleges?

Summa cum laude outranks the other two standard levels, which translate as 'with great praise' and simply 'with praise'. Some colleges award it only in extraordinary circumstances.

Which shock-rock act scored a 1972 hit with 'School's Out', which went to number one in Britain?

Alice Cooper set out to bottle the final three minutes of the last day of school, a wait the singer compared to a slow fuse burning. The single also reached number seven in America.

In which country does the school year begin in April, around the time the cherry trees blossom?

Japan opens its academic year in April, just as cherry blossom season arrives in big cities such as Tokyo and Kyoto. Its six-week summer break therefore falls in the middle of the school year.

In which country do graduating high-schoolers celebrate 'russ' by wearing colored overalls for weeks each spring?

Norway's russ season traditionally runs from around 20 April to 17 May, the national Constitution Day. Its first red caps appeared in 1905, as a sign that the wearer was about to enter higher education.

Prom, the formal dance held for graduating high-school students, takes its short name from which longer word?

Promenade dances served much the same purpose as debutante balls in their early days. Historians think colleges were holding them as early as the late 19th century.

Which Latin phrase for the school a person graduated from literally means 'nourishing mother'?

Alma mater began as an honorific for mother goddesses such as Ceres. Only by the early 17th century had the nursing mother become an allegory for universities.

What name is given to the day in late June when the Northern Hemisphere has its longest stretch of daylight?

Summer solstice arrives on 20 or 21 June, when the North Pole reaches its maximum tilt toward the Sun. South of the equator, the longest day comes in December instead.

Which summer month did the Roman Senate name after Julius Caesar because he had been born in it?

July was known as Quintilis, the fifth month, until 44 BC, a leftover from the days when the Roman calendar began in March.

The sweltering 'dog days' of summer are named after which bright star that follows Orion across the sky?

Sirius, the Dog Star, returned to the dawn sky just as the hottest weeks set in, so ancient astrologers blamed it for heat, drought, fever and even mad dogs.

Fireflies, the glowing insects of summer evenings, actually belong to which larger group of insects?

Beetles of the family Lampyridae, more than 2,400 species strong, are what people call fireflies or lightning bugs. They glow mainly at twilight, and the point of the show is to attract mates.

Which campfire treat did 1920s Girl Scouts make from graham crackers, chocolate and a toasted marshmallow?

S'more is a contraction of 'some more'. A Connecticut newspaper described Girl Scouts eating 'Some-mores' in 1925, and the shortened name appeared by the 1930s.

Which summer picnic fruit belongs to the gourd family, making it a relative of cucumbers and pumpkins?

Watermelon is 91% water, and botanists class the fruit as a pepo, a kind of berry with a thick rind and no internal divisions.

On a bottle of sunscreen, what do the letters SPF stand for?

Sun protection factor ratings were introduced by the Austrian chemist Franz Greiter, who had been selling a 'glacier cream' since 1946. The scale became the global standard for UVB protection.

Beachgoers watch the sea rise and fall about twice a day mainly because of the gravity of which body?

The Moon does most of the pulling, and the Sun adds a tidal force only 46% as large. Most coasts see two high waters and two low waters each day.

Which toy takes its name from a Connecticut pie company whose empty tins college students loved to toss?

Frisbee became the brand name of Wham-O's Pluto Platter in 1957, once its founders learned that students were already calling the disc that. Their craze had begun with Frisbie Pie Company tins.

Which place in California holds the record for the hottest air temperature measured on Earth, set in 1913?

Death Valley reached 134 °F (56.7 °C) at Furnace Creek on 10 July 1913, a reading the World Meteorological Organization lists as the hottest ever recorded.

In 'Harry Potter', which trophy do Gryffindor and Slytherin chase all year by earning points for good work in class?

House Cup winners see their colours displayed in the Great Hall of Hogwarts for the whole of the following year. Breaking the rules costs points as surely as good marks earn them.

Which teacher leads field trips into space and inside a human body in 'The Magic School Bus'?

Ms. Frizzle is voiced by Lily Tomlin in the animated series, which first aired on PBS in 1994. Its theme song was performed by Little Richard.

Which Disney Channel cartoon follows two stepbrothers who build a grand project on each day of summer vacation?

Phineas and Ferb counts its summer vacation as 104 days long. The boys' pet platypus, Perry, leads a double life as a secret agent.

Which Disney film, first made in 1961 and remade in 1998, has identical twins meet by chance at summer camp?

The Parent Trap gave Lindsay Lohan her film debut in the remake, playing both sisters. The story comes from a 1949 children's novel by Erich Kästner.

Which illustrated book series by Jeff Kinney follows the daily troubles of middle-schooler Greg Heffley?

Diary of a Wimpy Kid first appeared as an online version on Funbrain in 2004, three years before the first printed book. Greg himself insists that he keeps a journal.

Which R. J. Palacio novel follows Auggie Pullman through fifth grade, his first year at a mainstream school?

Wonder sends Auggie, a boy with facial differences who had been homeschooled by his mother for years, to a private school called Beecher Prep. A film adaptation followed in 2017.

In E. B. White's 'Charlotte's Web', what kind of animal is Wilbur, whose life Charlotte saves with her writing?

Wilbur the pig is headed for slaughter until Charlotte, a barn spider, starts spinning words of praise for him into her web, which persuades the farmer to spare him.

Which actor played basketball captain Troy Bolton in the Disney Channel movie 'High School Musical'?

Zac Efron starred opposite Vanessa Hudgens, whose character Gabriella is an academically gifted transfer student. Their auditions for the lead roles divide East High's cliques.

Which 1975 Steven Spielberg thriller is widely regarded as the first summer blockbuster?

Jaws is remembered as the prototypical summer blockbuster. Its mechanical sharks malfunctioned so often that Spielberg mostly hinted at the creature with John Williams's ominous theme.

Which 1978 musical film ends with the seniors of Rydell High celebrating at a graduation carnival?

Grease was the highest-grossing film of 1978. Its closing carnival scene was shot at John Marshall High School in Los Feliz.

The word 'school' comes from skholē, an ancient Greek word that first meant what, long before it meant lectures?

Leisure came to mean the thing spare time was used for, learned discussion, and then the group that gathered to hear the lectures. Latin borrowed it as schola.

Which Italian city is home to the world's oldest university in continuous operation, where teaching began around 1088?

Bologna's university was organised as guilds of students, and it is counted as the first institution of higher learning to award degrees. Emperor Frederick Barbarossa granted it a charter in 1158.

Which Greek philosopher, once tutor to the young Alexander the Great, founded a school at the Lyceum in Athens?

Aristotle's Peripatetic school there outlasted him by more than two centuries, until the Roman general Sulla destroyed it during an assault on the city in 86 BC.

What name do geologists give the supercontinent that once joined the continents into a single mass?

Pangaea began to break apart during the Jurassic. Alfred Wegener argued in 1912 that the continents had once been joined, the seed of continental drift theory.

Which meteor shower, debris from the comet Swift–Tuttle, is a summer highlight that runs until late August?

Perseids appear to streak from the direction of the constellation Perseus, which is how the shower got its name. At the peak, 60 or more meteors cross the sky every hour.

Which Canadian-born teacher designed basketball in 1891 at a YMCA training school in Springfield, Massachusetts?

James Naismith went on to write the sport's original rule book and to found the University of Kansas program in 1898. He lived to see his game become an official Olympic event in 1936.

What is the term for a word that imitates the sound it names, such as 'buzz' or 'sizzle'?

Onomatopoeia comes from the Greek for 'name-making'. Languages hear sounds differently, so the tick of a clock or the snip of scissors is written another way from one tongue to the next.

The word 'kindergarten', coined by educator Friedrich Fröbel in 1840, means 'garden of children' in which language?

German supplied both halves of the word: Kind, 'child', and Garten, 'garden'. The picture Fröbel had in mind was a place where children could grow in a natural way.

What is the name of the longest side of a right triangle, the one opposite the right angle?

Hypotenuse is a name that refers to the way the side 'stretches under' the right angle. By the Pythagorean theorem, its square equals the squares of the two shorter sides added together.

Which Pakistani campaigner for girls' education received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2014, while still a teenager?

Malala Yousafzai was 17, the youngest Nobel laureate in history. At 11 she had written a blog for BBC Urdu about life in Swat, where the Taliban had at times banned girls from attending class.