Author: ally

While some people hitting middle age buy a new car or do a career pivot, Erlend Bore decided he would take up metal detecting. 

The 51-year-old Norwegian bought his first metal detector just before the summer, “partly to go treasure hunting, but mostly to have a hobby that got him off the sofa,” according to a translated Facebook post from the Archaeological Museum at the University of Stavanger. 

In a surprise for Bore and archeologists alike, he ended up making the country’s “gold find of the century.” Though he initially thought he had come upon a trove of chocolate coins while canvassing the island of Rennesoey, the metal detectorist actually unearthed nine pendants, three rings, and 10 gold pearls. 

“It was completely unreal,” Bore said in a press release, while museum director Ole Madsen added, “To find so much gold at the same time is extremely unusual.” 

Archaeological Museum at the University of Stavanger/ X

Archaeological Museum at the University of Stavanger/ X

Archaeological Museum at the University of Stavanger/ X

The pendants and pearls were part of “a very showy necklace” that one of society’s elite may have worn 1,500 years ago, explained archeology professor Håkon Reiersen. He continued: “In Norway, no similar discovery has been made since the 19th century, and it is also a very unusual discovery in a Scandinavian context.” 

The artifacts date back to Norway’s Migration Period around A.D. 500. It was likely a time of crisis that may have been particularly bad in the area where the items were found, as evidenced by the prevalence of abandoned farms from the era. 

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“Given the location of the discovery and what we know from other similar finds, this is probably a matter of either hidden valuables or an offering to the gods during dramatic times,” Reiersen said.

As required for objects from before 1537 in Norway, Bore handed his find in immediately and the artifacts will be “preserved and displayed as soon as possible” at the Archaeological Museum. “We would like to praise the detectorist for doing everything right when he found this unique gold find,” said Marianne Enoksen, the section manager for cultural heritage in Rogaland County Municipality, which comprises Rennesoey.

Students at Michigan State University have gotten a unique opportunity to glance into their school’s past after workers came upon the foundation of a 19th century observatory. They called MSU’s Campus Archaeology Program to investigate, and the students in the program were able to unearth remnants of the campus’s first observatory, constructed in 1881. 

“It gives us a sense of what early campus looked like in the late 19th century,” Ben Akey, a Michigan State campus archaeologist and anthropology doctoral student, said in a press release. “The original campus observatory was built and used at a time when Michigan Agricultural College — what would become MSU — was a radically different institution with only a handful of professors and a relatively small student body.”

One of those professors was Rolla Carpenter, who graduated from what was then Michigan State Agricultural College in 1873. He returned to teach a variety of courses, including math, French, civil engineering, and astronomy. For the latter, he would take students to the roof of a campus building to observe the cosmos. 

Nick Schrader, MSU University Communications

Nick Schrader, MSU University Communications

Nick Schrader, MSU University Communications

Nick Schrader, MSU University Communications

Photo courtesy of Michigan State University Archives and Historical Collections

Photo courtesy of Michigan State University Archives and Historical Collections

“But he didn’t find it a sufficient solution for getting students experience in astronomical observation,” Akey explained. “When MSU acquired a telescope, Carpenter successfully argued for funding for a place to mount it: the first campus observatory.”

Over a century later, the university now has a more sophisticated setup, with a 24-inch reflecting telescope and a more modern observatory used for research as well as public events. 

“It’s amazing to see how far we’ve come from a little 16-foot circular building to a large building with a high-quality telescope and an electric dome,” Levi Webb, an astrophysics and anthropology student who participated in the archaeological dig. “Seeing the difference between how observing used to be versus how it is now is very interesting to me and makes me appreciative of the observatory we have now.”

Next summer, the original observatory site will be the focus of an undergraduate archaeological field school “where students can enroll for credit and get experience excavating the foundation of the first observatory on campus,” per Stacey Camp, the director of the Campus Archaeology Program and an associate professor of anthropology. 

“I love watching students connect with artifacts and try to tell a bigger story about humankind with those objects,” she added.

Back-to-school season can be an exciting time for kids — shopping for new backpacks, lunch boxes, and supplies branded with the year’s hottest trend (’90s kids might fondly remember the Lisa Frank varieties). But for teachers, especially those in high-needs schools, it can be more stressful. 

“I realized that it was not an exciting time,” Cristina Easton, who spent 15 years working in Title I schools in New York City and Baltimore, told Nice News. “I would submit my supply list to my principal and I would have to edit, edit, edit. Because we really could not ask much of our families who couldn’t afford all of the supplies that we were asking for.”

Easton used her own money to outfit her classroom with the necessary materials and make it a welcoming place for kids. And she’s not alone — U.S. teachers spend an average of $860 of their already limited salaries on school supplies, according to a survey conducted by the nonprofit AdoptAClassroom.org.  

“Our kids spend more hours in school than they spend at home. So, for many of our kids, particularly in high-needs communities, school really is a second home,” Easton said. “That means as the adult in the classroom, I am creating an environment where my kids trust me, they know that I care about them, they feel excited to be there, they feel seen and recognized, and they feel comfortable enough to open up when they need something.” 

Courtesy of AdoptAClassroom.org

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She now works as a program strategy manager at AdoptAClassroom.org, which provides classroom funding to prekindergarten through 12th grade teachers and schools throughout the U.S. One of the things that drew her in was the organization’s flexible funding model, allowing teachers to decide what they need and when they need it.

Through AdoptAClassroom.org, people can donate directly to grants or to specific classrooms, and the teacher or school can purchase the most necessary materials. Easton said the COVID-19 pandemic was a perfect example of why flexible funding is so important: The health crisis completely shifted students’ needs, with cleaning supplies, masks, and social distancing measures becoming more important than ever. 

“There’s a lot of questioning of teachers happening right now and whether they know what’s best for their kids,” Easton continued. “[We’re] saying to our educators, ‘We’re going to give you this funding and allow you to make the choices about what is needed’ and the feedback we get from our teachers is that they feel really supported, seen, and respected when they’re given that flexibility.” 

Courtesy of AdoptAClassroom.org

Alongside the challenges brought on by the pandemic, it’s a particularly fraught time for educators right now: K-12 workers experience the highest burnout rate in the country and more than three-quarters of U.S. states were in the midst of a teacher shortage as of February.

Helping them get the right supplies for their classrooms is one small way we can alleviate some of that stress during the back-to-school season. 

“I think oftentimes people aren’t sure how to help when they hear about the struggles that teachers are facing, and AdoptAClassroom.org is a really easy way to just donate,” Easton explained. “You know that those funds are going to go to a classroom with a teacher who knows exactly what they want to do with that money.” 

At the end of the day, she said, it’s all about the kids — “One of the most exciting things about going through our impact content is seeing the pictures of really happy kids who are proud of their school supplies. For many of our students, because their families can’t afford materials, receiving new supplies in their classrooms gives them a sense that there are people out there who are looking out for them.”

Donate to AdoptAClassroom.org through Nice News’ August Cause of the Month fundraiser, or check out the nonprofit’s Ways to Give page to find a specific teacher to support.  

In 2016, 11-year-old Konnor McClain proclaimed that she would compete in the 2024 Summer Olympics during an appearance on Steve Harvey’s since-canceled talk show, Little Big Shots. 

After being introduced as “the best 11-year-old gymnast in the country,” young McClain said she started her gymnastics career when she was 18 months old in “mommy and me” classes. She added that not only would she make it to the Games, she would win the all-around gold medal. 

Now 18 and just one year away from the Olympic trials, she’s closer than ever to making that prediction a reality. 

“It feels incredible. Oh, my gosh, it feels like I’m almost there,” McClain said during a recent appearance on Today, adding, “I’ve been training 17 years for this.”

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Her journey hasn’t been an easy one: Her father Marc died in December 2021 due to COVID-19, and she lost her grandmother just a week later. McClain returned to the mat in February 2022 for the Winter Cup Challenge with “low goals” for herself, she previously told Olympics.com. 

But armed with the memory of her dad — her coach Anna Liukin gave her a patch with his initials, MM, to wear on her leotard — she won the competition. 

“Anna gave me the patch three days before the competition. She was like, ‘Here you go. I just wanted to give you this just so you have something to remember him and just to know that he’s right there with you,’” McClain recalled, adding, “I teared up a little bit because [it] was just so sweet and so special. It felt like he was there actually just with the patch there. It was kind of crazy.”

Mike Ehrmann/Getty Images

Then, in August 2022, the athlete made headlines again when she, Shilese Jones, and Jordan Chiles became the first three Black women to sweep the podium at the U.S. Gymnastics Championships. 

In the months following, she underwent surgery and rehab for a back injury but shared on Instagram that the operation “went even better than expected.” She wrote in January: “I am on the road to a bigger and better comeback and healthier me.”  

With the Olympic trials scheduled for June of next year, her sights remain set on Paris 2024. “[I’m] doing it for myself and my family, and for especially my dad, and just making it through, pushing through,” she told Today. 

It’s safe to say that in the seven years since her stint on Little Big Shots, she has more than proven Harvey’s confidence in her — “I think you’re gonna make it,” he said at the time.