Fun facts from Britannica: How are hurricanes and typhoons named?

For 250 years, Encyclopaedia Britannica has provided the world with researched, verified information. A global leader in education whose flagship products serve the needs of students and consumers on multiple platforms and devices, Britannica has been a pioneer in digital learning since the 1980s.

eSchool News has partnered with Britannica to bring you a fun fact each month, along with advice on how to teach today’s students how to cut through the misinformation on the internet.

How are hurricanes and typhoons named?

The names of tropical cyclones can often seem strange and even random. So where do these names come from, and who creates them? Storms used to be named after the places they victimized and the time that they struck, like the Great Galveston Hurricane of 1900, but now the first names of people are used for them instead–when did that start? Here are the answers.

How to differentiate fact from fake

At a time when fake news spreads faster than the truth, checking your facts is essential. As a gatherer of information for 250 years, this month we have provided you with another tip for your students to help them learn how to navigate the truth.

Fact-checking tip:

Ask your students to look at a website’s key features and its the URL. Look at the website’s footnotes to see if it has referenced other sources of content. Does it use hyper-links and if so look at these websites?