Innholdsfortegnelse for 298 i The Week Junior

The east African country of Kenya is conducting its first-ever national wildlife census (an official count of a population). It is hoped that the information revealed in the answers will help the country protect its endangered animals. What are they doing? Since 7 May, Kenya has been counting all of its wild animals. The census is being taken by the country’s Ministry of Tourism and Wildlife, in partnership with the Kenya Wildlife Service and the new Wildlife Research and Training Institute. Animals are being counted in all 58 of the country’s national parks and wildlife reserves. However, the search has not been restricted to these parks and reserves. “For the first time we’re even going beyond protected areas,” explains Robert Obrein, from the Kenya Wildlife Service, “because the national government…

On 21 August, 14-year-old Katie McCabe, from Devon, England, completed a challenge to sail around Great Britain. McCabe arrived back in Exmouth, Devon, after a 52-day journey that started on 30 June. She sailed on an eight-metre-long wooden boat called Falanda. While her father, David, sailed five miles behind her, Katie sailed her boat single-handedly for the entire trip. McCabe has been interested in sailing from a young age, and grew up on her parents’ converted fishing trawler. She wanted to sail across the Atlantic, “but my parents wouldn’t allow me,” McCabe told The Times, “so I thought, ‘Why not go around Britain?’.” Setting off in an anti-clockwise direction, McCabe covered a total distance of 1,840 miles. Her journey went via the Caledonian Canal, which connects the east coast of…

An eight-year-old girl in Texas, US, has designed a pop-up classroom to help refugee children. A refugee is someone who has been forced to leave their home country because it is unsafe for them to live there. Paisley Elliott came up with the idea after she heard that a school she had helped to build at the Moria Refugee Camp in Lesbos, Greece, had been destroyed by fire. Elliott describes herself as “a tiny but mighty humanitarian” (a person who tries to improve people’s lives and reduce suffering). She is now raising money to take her pop-up classroom to Uganda, in Africa.…

Researchers have shown that a woolly mammoth walked almost far enough in its lifetime to circle the Earth twice. The discovery was made by a team of researchers investigating a 17,000-year-old mammoth tusk that was found in Alaska, the largest and most northerly US state. A mammoth’s tusks grow in layers like rings on a tree trunk, providing a neat record of its age. “Mother nature doesn’t usually offer up such convenient and lifelong records of an individual’s life,” said team member Dr Pat Druckenmiller. “From the moment they’re born until the day they die, they’ve got a diary and it’s written in their tusks.” As the tusk grew from year to year (finally reaching 1.7 metres), it locked away chemicals from whatever the mammoth was eating at the time.…

Ripples in the famous rings around Saturn have been used to solve a long-standing mystery about what’s inside the planet’s core. The insides of rocky planets have clearly divided layers but until now, scientists had little idea of what happens inside gassy planets like Saturn. Christopher Mankovich and Jim Fuller, from the California Institute of Technology in the US, used data from NASA’s Cassini spacecraft to track changes in the rings, which are held together by gravity (a force that traps things in orbit around planets). Tremors inside the planet, similar to earthquakes, can affect Saturn’s gravity and create ripples in its rings. By tracking these patterns, the scientists worked out where the tremors happen and how they spread through Saturn, helping the team understand more about the planet’s core.…

On 21 August, Oval Invincibles women and Southern Brave men became champions in the finals of The Hundred cricket competition. Invincibles, based in London, won the women’s event by beating the Southern Brave women’s team, which is based in Southampton. The Southern Brave men’s side then defeated Birmingham Phoenix in the other final. Both games were played at the famous Lord’s cricket ground, in London, in front of big crowds. In The Hundred, each team bowls 100 balls in a match. The batting team aims to score as many runs as possible from the 100 balls. The team with the biggest total wins. Oval Invincibles women batted first and scored 121. Southern Brave women then hit a score of 73 when they batted, meaning Invincibles won by 48 runs. Invincibles’…

Have you ever wondered what lies beneath the surface of the ocean? Well, now you can find out, with this free, interactive and live show at the Winchester Science Centre and Planetarium. In Underwater Agents you join the Inspirers, a squad of deep-sea detectives, as they journey below the surface of the world’s oceans. During the show, you’ll discover how sounds travel underwater; why human ears don’t work as well below the surface; and what natural and man-made sounds can be heard beneath the waves. There will also be the chance to get involved with some live experiments. Underwater Agents is part of Winchester Science Centre’s Year of Sound. Throughout the year there have been live science shows based around different sounds and how they’re made. Underwater Agents will be…

We’ve teamed up with Maped Helix to help four lucky winners get set for school. Three runners-up will receive the Helix Oxford Blazer Buddy pencil case filled with some stationery essentials – an Oxford rose gold fountain pen, Oxford colour gel pens and a Maped Picnik Concept water bottle and lunchbox. The overall winner will receive all of this, plus a set of 24 Helix Oxford colouring pencils and the Oxford Complete School Stationery Set, filled with everything you need to go back to school, including the Oxford Maths Set, scientific calculator and 30cm folding ruler. To find out how you could win, visit theweekjunior.co.uk/mapedhelix Want more ideas like this? Head to theweekjunior.co.uk/activityhub…

The competition to become the best public toilet in the US is on, and the 10 finalists have been announced. It’s now up to the public to decide where they would most like to stop to use the facilities. Voters must consider categories such as hygiene and the overall look of the place. The lucky loos include those at JFK Airport Terminal 4 in New York and a portable toilet called the Fancy Flush in California. Is this story real? Or have we wiped away the truth?*…

Name: Rosa “I was born into a vegetarian (later vegan) family and I have always cared for animals. My dog is a beautiful beagle who was rescued from a laboratory. She had spent most of her life in pain. Humans can do terrible things, but they can also do good. Meat-free Mondays have been around for a few years, but only some schools in the UK do them. Here are the benefits of meat-free Mondays: • The meat and fisheries industries are responsible for 31% of greenhouse gases created by food production, so eating less meat is good for the environment. • Eating less meat will reduce demand. • Processed meat (like hot dogs and bacon) have the potential to cause cancer. • Soya beans (which vegans and vegetarians eat)…

Help is arriving in Haiti for those affected by a large earthquake on 14 August. More than 2,200 people have died, more than 12,000 have been injured and 344 people are missing. Shortly after the 7.2-magnitude earthquake struck, Tropical Storm Grace hit the Caribbean country and delayed rescue efforts. The heavy rain also made it difficult to get aid – such as medical supplies, food, clean water and shelter – to the country. The US, the United Nations (UN) and several charity groups have managed to fly aid to Haiti. The UN is an organisation of 193 countries that takes action on human rights, peace and climate change. However, damaged roads and flooding have made it difficult to reach remote areas, and aid organisations are using helicopters to get supplies…

There have been a record number of places bidding to become the UK’s next City of Culture. An all-time high of 20 places have expressed an interest in hosting a year of cultural festivities in 2025. What is the City of Culture? The UK’s City of Culture competition aims to raise awareness of culture in different parts of the UK. The current City of Culture is Coventry, in England. The title is awarded every four years. The first UK City of Culture was Derry-Londonderry, in Northern Ireland, in 2013. This was followed by Hull, in England, in 2017. The competition is run by the UK Government’s Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, in connection with the governments of Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. How does it benefit the city?…

The Scottish National Party (SNP) has agreed to share power with the Scottish Greens. It is the first time that a Green party has become part of a government anywhere in the UK. The Scottish Greens are a political party focused on environmental issues. Two Green Members of the Scottish Parliament (MSPs) will now be junior ministers in the Scottish government, which means they will be involved in discussions about the running of the country.…

Alaska, US Drilling halted to protect polar bears A judge in the US has ruled that a drilling project to extract oil from an area in northern Alaska cannot go ahead. The judge said the project had not considered the damage that would be done to wildlife, especially polar bears. Alaska’s governor, Mike Dunleavy, said cancelling the project meant people would miss out on thousands of jobs. New York, US Record rain as Storm Henri hits On 21 August, more than 10 centimetres of rain fell in New York as Storm Henri hit the northeastern coast of the US. The tropical storm left more than 120,000 homes without power. Nearly five centimetres of rain fell in one hour in Central Park, in the city’s Manhattan Island. That’s the most rain…

Just as humans say ”hello” and “goodbye” to each other before and after get-togethers, researchers have found that some apes use signals to start and end their social interactions. An international team led by Dr Raphaella Heesen, of Switzerland’s University of Neuchâtel, studied more than 1,200 interactions involving chimpanzees and their close relatives, bonobos, in captivity. They focused on how the apes began and ended activities like grooming and play, and found that just before, they often exchanged a look or made a certain noise. Sometimes they would butt heads, touch each other or hold hands as a way to break the ice. The researchers say these signals are the start of a ”joint commitment” – an agreement to co-operate towards a common goal of some sort. In humans, an…

Researchers from the Central University of Punjab in India have discovered a beautiful new species of green algae (simple, mostly aquatic, relatives of plants). The umbrella-shaped algae are each made from a single large cell – a basic building block of life that is normally microscopic in larger animals and plants. The scientists found the species in 2019 when they were exploring coral reefs around the Andaman Islands in the north-eastern Indian Ocean. It took two years of comparing it with other plants and algae before they could confirm it as a new species, which they have now named Acetabularia jalakanyakae. In the Sanskrit language, jalakanyaka means mermaid. “It has caps with intricate designs, as if it were a mermaid’s umbrella,” explained Felix Bast, who led the study. The coral…

Have you ever been on a long car journey or a countryside walk and seen people unfolding a big paper map to help them find their way? Chances are they used one made by Ordnance Survey, which is the national mapping agency for England, Scotland and Wales. Ordnance Survey (OS) has been mapping the nation since 1791 and recently celebrated its 230th anniversary. Read on to find out about the work it does. Early ideas Ordnance Survey was created in June 1791 by the UK Government. Back then the defence ministry needed it to survey (study in detail) parts of England’s south coast in case of an attack by France. Accurate maps were important to help move troops around. A similar operation had been carried out in the Scottish Highlands…

One of the world’s best-preserved woolly mammoths is called Yuka. Her remains were found in permafrost (permanently frozen ground) in Siberia, Russia, in 2010, and date back 39,000 years. Yuka was a young mammoth, between six and 11 years old when she died. Despite this, however, she was three metres tall and weighed five tonnes. Scientists say that Yuka’s body and fur were so well preserved because she had stayed frozen for a long, unbroken time. In 2014, Yuka went on a world tour and was displayed in Japan and Taiwan, as well as Moscow, the capital of Russia.…

On 24 August, G7 world leaders had a virtual emergency meeting to discuss the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan. The G7 is a group of seven of the most powerful countries in the world – Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the UK and the US. The Taliban is an Islamist military and political group. They claim to be followers of Islam but their ideas and beliefs are extreme and violent. The Taliban ruled Afghanistan from 1996 until 2001, when the US and other countries, including the UK, invaded the country to remove them from power. Under Taliban rule, there were strict rules that meant girls could not go to school and women were barred from getting jobs. The Taliban took control of the country’s capital Kabul on 15 August and now…

28 August 1963 Martin Luther King Jr.’s famous speech In the US capital, Washington D.C., Martin Luther King Jr. delivered some of the most famous words in history. “I have a dream,” he said. His dream was that all people, regardless of race, should be treated equally. The speech was one of the most important moments of the Civil Rights movement, in which black people protested against racial discrimination. On 4 April 1968, King was shot dead, sparking shock and outrage around the world.…

A father and son have become the first people to travel across the English Channel on electric-powered hydrofoil boards. The boards have a battery inside that powers a rotor. Rob Wylie and his 19-year-old son Morgan completed the crossing from France to England in one hour and 44 minutes. “It was a lot harder than we thought it was going to be,” Morgan told BBC News. He said they both fell in the water four or five times.…

“The sculpture is already complete within the marble block, before I start my work,” said the famous 16th century sculptor Michelangelo. “It is already there, I just have to chisel away.” Michelangelo would spend weeks at the Carrara quarries finding the perfect block of marble to work on. Now robots are carving stone just as Michelangelo and other sculptors did but in a fraction of the time – and arguably to the same standard. Robotor is a Carrara-based company making robots that work with marble. It claims that through robot sculptors, “We are entering a new era of sculpture which no longer consists of broken stones, chisels and dust”. However, many people believe that real art can only be crafted by humans. So what do you think, can robots replace…

When his football sessions were disrupted by lockdown, 12-year-old Rivenn Welsh from Bolton, England, took up go-karting instead. Now he has won the British Indoor Karting Championship, despite not actually owning his own go-kart. “My ambition is to win lots of championships and race in Formula 1,” Welsh told The Bolton News. His success has seen him win a place in the outdoor Daniel Ricciardo Series for go-kart racers. To take part in the championship, Welsh will need to buy his own kart, so he has started crowdfunding to raise the money. “I just want to go as fast as I can,” Welsh says, “and I’m not scared of anyone.”…

Fox squirrels use similar moves to parkour free-runners as they leap between trees. A new study found that they make quick decisions based on the length of gap they need to clear and the strength of the branch they are on. They can twist their bodies in mid-air and sometimes bounce off walls to slow down before landing. • LIFESPAN IN THE WILD: Six to seven years. • HABITAT: Forests with hardwood and pine trees where they can make nests. • DIET: Mostly nuts but also pine cones, flower buds and insects. • SIZE: Around 60 centimetres from nose to tail. • FUN FACT: Flexible ankle joints allow them to turn their feet 180 degrees to face backwards or forwards.…

Scientists have used X-ray technology to look into the egg of an ancient, human-sized turtle and study the embryo (unhatched baby) inside. The ball-shaped egg is a fossil – its soft materials were long ago replaced by rocky minerals, preserving it. It was found in 2018 by a farmer in Henan province, China, alongside several fossil dinosaur eggs. When researchers from the China University of Geosciences in Wuhan saw it, they thought at first that it might be from a new dinosaur species, before realising that it was a turtle egg. The snooker-ball-sized fossil is much larger than the eggs of most living turtles. It suggests that it was laid by an animal more than 1.6 metres long – about as long as an average woman is tall. Researchers Fenglu…

Flower power A boy in Bangladesh surrounded by water lilies. Shoulder to shoulder Circus group Barely Methodical Troupe in Edinburgh for the Fringe Festival. Hitch a lift A humpback whale calf and its mother take a breath. Happy dog-day English springer spaniel Kenzi on her third birthday with cake. Wedding prep Women dress a bride in traditional clothing for her wedding in Kosovo. Paws on the roof A lion at a sanctuary in South Africa stands on a glass cube.…

Have you ever felt nervous about something but wanted to try it anyway? The start of a new school year can be an exciting but scary time. However, being brave and facing your fears will help you to enjoy new experiences. Why do I feel scared? Feeling scared, worried or nervous about something is natural and normal, especially when doing something that feels strange, like returning to school after the holidays or starting a new school. It’s a survival instinct that triggers a chemical reaction in your brain, which helps protect you from danger. This is why you might feel your heart beat faster or your skin prickle when you’re scared or nervous. Fear can be helpful and even exciting – for example when you’re on a fairground ride or…

The production company Amazon Studios is moving its filming of a new Lord of the Rings TV series from New Zealand to the UK. The programme, which hasn’t yet been named, is due to come out on Amazon Prime on 2 September 2022. It is set 1,000 years before the events told in J.R.R. Tolkien’s story The Lord of the Rings, which takes place in a fictional land called Middle-earth. Amazon Studios has so far spent £336.5 million shooting the first series in New Zealand, where the film versions of The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit were made. It is expected to film the next four seasons in the UK, starting in January 2022. The company says the move is to expand its production space, and to be…

Pack your bag What you need • Rucksack or equivalent school bag • Paper and pen • Essential items such as pencil case, exercise books, house keys Starting a new term, new academic year or especially a new school can be stressful. There is a way to remove a lot of this stress and it all comes down to how well you have packed your bag. Make a list of the things you need in a school day and always pack your bag the night before. The items might include a pencil case, exercise books, spare paper, water bottle, face mask, hand sanitiser, house keys, a card or a pass for the bus or the school and a way to pay for your lunch (the school will let you know…

A 40-year-old slice of cake from Prince Charles and Princess Diana’s wedding has sold at auction for £1,850. It is covered with icing and a sugared picture of the royal coat of arms. Moyra Smith, a member of the Queen Mother’s household, was given the cake at the wedding in 1981 but did not eat it. She wrapped it in clingfilm and kept it in a cake tin. Gerry Layton, who bought the cake, said he does not intend to eat it either. He said he will donate the cake to charity when he dies.…