I run a "we are what we do" scheme at school whereby pupils are set challenges each week to change some small part of their behaviour or habits in an attempt to improve social skills, awareness of the environment, attiudes to learning etc...

The programme since september has been really successful but I'm now writing the challenges for the spring term and am running out of useless facts to base my challenges on...So I am appealing for more!

Previous examples are:

Wasps taste like apples, beetles taste like nuts - to challenge pupils to try new foods

A pencil can drawn an unbroken line of 37 miles - to encourage them to bring a pencil to school

Leaving the tap turned on while you brush your teeth wastes an olympic sized swimming pool amount of water a year - to conserve water

An ancient law states "stronger people should not hurt weaker people" - punishment execution - anti bullying week.

A steak left in a dish of coca cola would be gone in a week - to encourage healthy drinking habits.

I'm sure you get the idea - I've trawled the web, but difficult knowing what to search for on google. Any websites or suggestions will be gratefully received!

Thanks! :)

try the website

useless facts (http://www.angelfire.com/ca6/uselessfacts/)

They appear to be catagorised....It may help you to find some:confused:

You can get 12500 sheets of paper from a single tree.
95% of this paper will eventually be thrown away unrecycled.

Getting drunk out of your head is not big & it's not clever.

And it loses you good friends.

Originally posted by absynthfairy

A steak left in a dish of coca cola would be gone in a week - to encourage healthy drinking habits.


Thanks! :)

A pie left in John Prescott's house will be gone in 15 minutes. :D

This is more like what your after I think

kids useless facts (http://www.indianchild.com/amazing_facts.htm)

It takes more muscles to frown than to smile - encouraging positivity?

The Golden Labrador contains more venom than a spitting cobra, within its molars. The only reason they are not dangerous to humans, is because their jaws cannot open wide enough to bite flesh

Due to the its unique, modifiable skeletal structure, the African elephant can squeeze its body through a 1 metre wide hole. This is very similar to the way the (closely related) common brown mouse, can squeeze through small gaps, by collapsing its skeleton.

Animals, the size of horses have been found living in stables all over the world.

Some European people believe that Tom Jones is actually a government experiment to create the first music idol, entirely from bacon and aluminium foil. Ridiculous as that may sound, there is further belief that his hair is made from steel wool.

According to some hardcore evolution books, it is actually possible for human females to lay eggs and they apparently did so, until around 10,000 years ago. Medical science denies this fact in order to promote hospitals and national health services.

Bad tempered Emperor Penguins have been found as far as far south as Central Africa and have been known to ravage entire villages in their thousands, if provoked.

No No No! Norbert, you're being silly now!:thumbsup:

Tea and Coffee, tomatoes, beetroot & red wine are high in antioxidents so are good at fighting off colds & flu germs.

Vitamin C is an antioxident.

Antioxidents get rid of the free radicals that make you toxic/ ill.

Oooh thanks so much guys! These are doing the trick beautifully - norbert - you scared me a little but thanks! :thumbsup:

its imposible to lick your elbow (should keep em quiet for a while)

polar bears are left handed (this will make the left handied kidies smile)

you can spell any english word using a selecetion of just 26 letters (spelling)

1/0 has no solutions because you can do 0 + 0 + 0 + 0 ....forever and you will never make 1. (maths)

POHMS stands for Prisoner of Her Majesties Service the Austalians are in facts POHMS not us. (GEography)

elephants can't run down hill but they are excellent swimmers

got loads more, i just can't think of them though

Nodding or pointing directions when on the phone, Absolute waste of time

I'll have a think and get back to ya.

My mother used to say " the only thing you are allowed to stick in your ear is your elbow ":suspect:

it is impossible to eat 3 dry cream crackers in 60 seconds.

No drink or spread allowed.

People who laugh a lot are much healthier than those who don't. Dr. Lee Berk at the Loma Linda School of Public Health in California found that laughing lowers levels of stress hormones, and strengthens the immune system. Six-year-olds have it best - they laugh an average of 300 times a day. Adults only laugh 15 to 100 times a day.


How to keep the doctor away and keep good emotional, physical and mental health.

There is no known case of a slug dying of a heart attack. Veg must be good for the heart.

The tortoise and the hare. Running on corridors doesn't get you there faster.

its a little known fact that running in rain actually gets you wetter than walking

Originally posted by wendygs
People who laugh a lot are much healthier than those who don't. Dr. Lee Berk at the Loma Linda School of Public Health in California found that laughing lowers levels of stress hormones, and strengthens the immune system. Six-year-olds have it best - they laugh an average of 300 times a day. Adults only laugh 15 to 100 times a day.


How to keep the doctor away and keep good emotional, physical and mental health.

Just look at all the unhealthy post reporting fun police on here for examples :hihi:

The brain smells of cheese.

The world's oldest living animal, Harriet the Galapagos Tortoise, is 175.

Olympus Mons - the highest point on Mars - is 24,000 meters above the surrounding plain. three times higher than Mt. Everest.

Termites taste of peanuts, locusts taste a bit like prawn or shrimp.

More children die of road traffic accidents in Northern Ireland than anywhere else in the U.K. In the last 30 years twice as many children have died in road accidents than have been killed in 'troubles'. But they never made the news...

Instead of toilet paper, Roman legionaries used a sponge on a stick.

No centipede has 100 legs.

No millepede has 1000 legs.

Does the brain REALLY smell of cheese??? Thats kinda gross...

A centipede has 1 pair of legs per body segment, a millipede has two pairs per segment.

Originally posted by absynthfairy
Does the brain REALLY smell of cheese??? Thats kinda gross...

According to the Thackeray Medical Museum in Leeds it does.... in fact the actual wording is "smells of strong cheese" IIRC.

I asked if I could buy their "Human Organs for Transplant" bag, as it was perfect for picnics as a cooler bag. Got nothing but blank stares in reply. Ah well.

woodlice belong to the shrimp family & taste of shrimp when blanched & added to omlette.

(according to Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall).

Originally posted by Don_Kiddick
woodlice belong to the shrimp family & taste of shrimp when blanched & added to omlette.

(according to Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall).

Woodlice? There's good eating on a woodlouse, especially if you can find the big ones (http://tinyurl.com/4mbqh) or the really big ones (http://tinyurl.com/d3uwn)

Originally posted by saxon51
A centipede has 1 pair of legs per body segment

One species of centipede actually eats Bats!

"Time flys like an arrow... Fruit flies like a banana" ?

I'll get me coat....

Can I resurrect this thread please? Just started work on the summer term! Any input welcomed and appreciated....

cows can walk up stairs but cant get back down them due to the way their legs are jointed

duck billed platypus's have no nipples and feed their young by secreting milk through pores in their skin (bleurgh)

ugh thats minging.

Does anybody know any I can manipulate to promote positive values?

Porcupines float in water

Giraffes have no vocal chords

A giraffe's fema is approximately the same length as an adult human's. (apparently giraffes have really long feet)

And my favorite pieces of random information concerns a little creature called the sea squirt. This little fella has a brain for one reason; to find a home (a rock in this case). Once it locates a rock to attach itself to, it no longer has a need for it's brain, so eats it!

Of all the animals without backbones, sea squirts are the closest relatives to humans. Although they don't have a backbone, they do have a "notochord" - a precursor to the spine. They're also the only pre-vertebrate animals to have their nervous system on the back part of their bodies, like humans, rather than on their belly-side.

Scientists also believe that the sea squirt was the first creature with an immune system. They hope to understand how the human immune system is organized by studying the sea squirt's.

well:

A leech has 32 brains.

The brain of a reptile makes up no more than 1 percent of the its body mass.

The song "Happy Birthday" brings in about $2 million in licensing revenue to Warner Communications who hold the copyright to the song.

Bananas contain a natural chemical which can make a person happy. This same chemical is found in Prozac.

Researches have discovered that eating five or more apples a week is linked to better functioning of the lungs.

I got these from www.AmmusingFacts.com hope its helps!!

An Ostrich's eye is larger than it's brain :D

Octopus' eat one of their 8 tentacles when faced with hunger.

try this for posative values might need to doctor some though http://www.astro.umd.edu/~marshall/chivalry.html

Lightbulbs taste just like blood does
:hihi: :hihi:

The song "Happy Birthday" brings in about $2 million in licensing revenue to Warner Communications who hold the copyright to the song.

nope, it's so old it's now out of copyright.


honda nate.. the plural of octopus is octopi.

PT

Sea otters have a sense of "future"

nope, it's so old it's now out of copyright.


honda nate.. the plural of octopus is octopi.

PT

Didn't Michael Jackson buy the rights to Happy Birthday?

btw: apparantly Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall informs us that woodlice are related to the prawn and are a crustacian not an insect. (and no they don't go pink when you cook them but make good fritters) :gag:

Capsaicin, the chemical which makes chillis hot, is insoluble in water so drinking water actually makes the burning from eating extra hot chillies worse. Milk is a much better option to soothe your mouth.