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4 Unexpected Truths Behind Every School Trip

When the permission slip is handed over from their child, parents are sometimes likely to think back to their own educational excursions with rose-tinted glasses. They may recall the fun and freedom of venturing outside the classroom to new and exciting destinations, but as they sign off on their child’s adventure, do know they really know what they are in for?

The fact is, times have changed. Excursions are not completely as they were a generation ago. Parents might be fascinated to know that their progeny will enjoy their journeys in fresh new ways.

Students will be connected

There are so many opportunities for those students who can afford to embark on a school trip abroad (or even in the UK). Students can get up close and personal with safari wildlife in South Africa or drink in the history of the ruins of lost but not forgotten societies in Greece. But these forays into the wide world do not carry the same sense of isolation and pioneering spirit as they once did. While still exciting, the truth is that students will be thoroughly connected – to folks back home and to one another. Modern Internet and mobile phone technology allows parents and teachers to keep a close eye on students virtually, while giving them a chance to share their experiences.

Students will be challenged

No school trip today is a mere excuse for teachers to lay off lesson planning. If, in the past, journeys within the country or abroad had an air of carelessness to them, this is all but stamped out by expert providers of quality tours. The reality is that students will be challenged: they will indeed have fun, but they will also be expected to learn and take back this learning to the classroom.

Students will be distracted

There is believed to be a broad consensus that children today are multi-taskers who have sacrificed a long attention span for distraction. This changes the way a school trip is experienced. While this framework of thinking is not all bad, since students are, indeed, able to be occupied with multiple streams of informational input, it does mean that on a journey filled with new sights and sounds to dazzle the senses, it is harder for students to stay focused. This is why expert guides are so important to make sure students have a conducive learning environment.

Students will have options

In the past, perhaps even the most ambitious excursions did not cater wholly to students’ needs. This is not the case for the modern school trip. While in the past many groups visited museums such as the Louvre, famous sites such as the WWII battlefields, or renowned natural environments such as the Bay of Naples, the tours were not organised to specifically serve the needs of each class and curriculum. Nowadays, the truth is that a recognised educational tour provider will not only provide an experience tied deeply to English, Math, History and other subjects, but they can also adjust to suit individual class needs.

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Diet Tips – 5 Tips To Help You Lose More Weight

Every little bit helps, right? And when it comes to weight loss, the more you know, the more you can do. I want you to take these 5 simple diet tips and incorporate them into your own weight loss plan. They’re easy to follow, and if you do follow them, you will lose weight faster.

1 – Water Before Each Meal – This works for 2 reasons. Firstly, a lot of the time when we feel hungry, we are actually thirsty due to dehydration. Secondly, consuming water before eating will help you to feel more full and therefore you won’t eat as much. Not to mention, how good water is for the human body. Start by having a single glass before each meal.

2 – No Carbs After Dark – If you plan out your eating correctly, you can eat all of your carbohydrates during the day. That way you can eat only protein and healthy fats at night. The reason for doing this is simple: If you eat carbohydrates and don’t burn them, they will be stored on the body as fat. This is your body’s way of conserving food for later. Stick to low GI carbohydrate sources, such as wholegrain bread and rolled oats.

3 – No Sugar Before (or during) Meals – Never ever eat sugar before having a meal. If you do, you will spike your insulin levels. Insulin is a hormone in the body. When insulin is spiked, your body will store whatever you eat as fat. This is the number 1 reason why people get fat! Look around tomorrow wherever you are and you will see countless people consuming sugar before or with their meals. It is a disastrous combination.

4 – Eat More Chili – If you love chili, then you will love this tip. Chili is a great metabolism booster and helps your body to rid itself of free radicals. What more could you want? Fresh chopped or whole chilies are best, as you will get more benefit, but any form chili is better than none.

5 – Cook Meals The Night Before – Now I realize that we are all busy and you might not have time to cook all of your meals the night before. But that doesn’t mean you can’t cook some. Or at least the ones that are easy to cook. The great thing about this is that you know exactly what you are eating. There are no surprises. Most importantly, you won’t feel as tempted to buy takeaway food. Out of all of these diet tips, this is the most important.

I sincerely hope that these diet tips have helped you, and I even more sincerely hope that you use them. You can incorporate all of these tips for free! You just have to buy some chili.

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Galaxy Life: Pocket Adventures Review

Your home world has just been destroyed and you’ve been sent to distant planet to colonize and rebuild, regroup and retaliate, however, yours is not the only colony and it’s every Starling for themselves. Galaxy Life is a massively multiplayer online base builder/strategy game, in which you are responsible for protecting your starlings from attack and crushing any competition.

Gameplay mainly consists of building your Starling colony, you’ll need to place all your essential buildings for resource production as well as defense structures to protect them. As you progress you’ll need to upgrade your buildings in order to produce more resources, make military units stronger and eventually colonize more worlds.

Player interaction is a necessity, some items necessary for advancement are only obtainable by ransacking other colonies. This results in a lot of action, you’re going to get attacked, a lot, but it’s not as bad as it first seems. You don’t actually lose anything when you’re attacked, damaged buildings will stop functioning, but any resources taken are not lost. Protecting your base is a little difficult, you’ll find that your turrets will be hard pressed to protect everything so sacrifices must be made.

When attacking you simply select a unit and tap on the screen to deploy. Once you’ve deployed a unit you have no more control over it so strategy comes from unit placement and timing. Rather than spamming all your troops in one place you’ll find it’s better if you can secure key locations first with specialized units then place regular units after.

There is a short mission system for training and to keep you occupied in the early levels of gameplay but once you decide to expand and reach out, you’ll find a virtual cosmos to play amongst. Interactions with friends are limited to sending them troops for defense, after a while though, troop production becomes very expensive and this feature is a little underused. There is a mail system but it needs a little work, user names are sometimes not displayed.

In app purchases are not essential for development but you’re able to speed up projects and buy items for defense and offense. Anyone who has played similar titles before will be wary of high level bullies, Galaxy Life addresses this issue by only allowing you to initiate attacks on people close to or above your own level. This is fantastic as it puts an end to ‘farming’ low level players.

Visually this game looks fantastic and plays easily on both iPad and iPhone. There is plenty to do here as well, even when your high level you’ll no doubt have a low level colony that needs more attention. I’m giving Galaxy Life a 4 star rating, it’s addictive and there always seems to be something you want that’s just out of reach to reel you back. The social elements need a little work but these are not game breaking faults. IAP’s could be a little cheaper but as they’re not essential its not too big an issue. All in all a great title.

Achievements 71
Points 552
Galaxy Life: Pocket Adventures Achievements