Innholdsfortegnelse for 308 i The Week Junior

On 1 November, world leaders, environmentalists and activists met in Glasgow, Scotland, for the start of the two-week-long COP26 climate summit, where they were discussing ways to limit climate change. Climate change is long-term changes in world weather patterns. Human activities such as burning fossil fuels (coal, oil and gas), farming and cutting down forests are a major cause of climate change. Already, progress has been made at COP26 and vital planet-protecting deals have been agreed. What is the aim of COP26? The aim of the summit is to find ways to save the planet and limit rising temperatures that are causing climate change. Rising temperatures are already causing more extreme and harmful weather events, such as droughts (severe shortages of water), heatwaves, flooding, forest fires, rising sea levels and…

On 27 October, the head of Jesus College at Cambridge University returned a priceless bronze cockerel to Nigerian officials. The cockerel, known as the “Okukur”, is one of the Benin bronzes, a collection of sculptures that were stolen by British soldiers in 1897 when they destroyed Benin City, in what is now Nigeria. The University of Aberdeen also returned a bronze statue of an oba (king) of Benin, which the university bought in 1957.…

Yucatan, Mexico Extremely rare wooden canoe is found A wooden canoe believed to be more than 1,000 years old has been found in a sunken pool of fresh water. Experts think that the rare 1.6-metre boat was used by the Maya, a group of people who were the main civilisation in Central America from around 250BC to AD900. The boat was found by builders working on a rail project. Sicily, Italy “Medicane” hits the island of Sicily A rare medicane has hit the island of Sicily, causing torrential rain and severe flooding. A medicane is a hurricane that happens in the Mediterranean. Sicily’s president said that two people had died because of the storm and one was missing. The city of Catania had as much rain in two days as…

The Week Junior Science+Nature and the Tree Council are launching a new writing competition that celebrates the wonders of nature. They want you to write a story of up to 500 words, which can be fiction or non-fiction. It could also be a poem. You could write about your favourite tree, a place in nature that means a lot to you or ideas to help protect the planet. Get creative and use your imagination, too. The story could be told from an unusual point of view – like that of an old oak tree or an insect such as an ant or bumblebee – or you could imagine what nature was like in the past or how it will be in the future. Two winners will each receive a year’s…

An exhibition at the Victoria and Albert (V&A) Museum in London this month tells the story of the masterful Russian goldsmith Carl Fabergé (someone who designs and makes things using gold). His most famous creations are the decorative Easter eggs he made for Russia’s rulers in the 19th century. The first egg In 1885, Tsar Alexander III, Emperor of Russia and head of the Romanov family who ruled Russia for over 300 years, asked the jewellery firm Fabergé to make an Easter egg for his wife, Maria. Not a chocolate egg but an egg that revealed a solid gold yolk when opened. Inside the yolk was a gold hen wearing a ruby crown, and inside the hen was a ruby pendant egg. The Tsar had intended the present as a…

The ancient Egyptians believed that a person’s body needed to be preserved if their soul was to be reborn in the afterlife. Skilled experts called embalmers would spend around 70 days working on the body of an important person, such as a pharaoh. To preserve flesh, they removed its moisture with a special kind of salt. They took out most of the internal organs, including the brain but left the heart in place because they believed it was the centre of a person’s being. Finally, they wrapped the body in bandages soaked with natural resins that hardened to protect the mummy within.…

Dutch and US engineers say that a streamlined, self-navigating boat called the Roboat III is ready to go to work on the canals of Amsterdam. The boat is fully electric and can travel for 10 hours at a time and carry up to five passengers. It uses light-detecting technology, cameras and satellite navigation to gather data about its environment, then plots an obstacle-free route through the water. As well as passengers, the boat can be adapted to carry cargo or waste, or link with others to form a floating platform. Enjoy these stories? Find more in this month’s The Week Junior Science+Nature magazine sciencenature.theweekjunior.co.uk…

On 10 November, thousands of red ceramic (made from hardened clay) poppies will be unveiled at the Imperial War Museum North (IWM North) in Manchester in a permanent exhibition called Poppies. These poppies were among 888,246 handmade poppies that were first installed at the Tower of London in 2014 to commemorate 100 years since the outbreak of the First World War. Each poppy represented a British military life lost in the war. They have since travelled all around the UK in temporary exhibitions and will now remain at the Manchester museum. Paul Cummins and Tom Piper designed the installations. “They have always been temporary,” Piper told Th Week Junior, adding that it might be trickier to create the same excitement in their permanent home. He said, “I hope it helps…

Kids Fight Climate Change by Martin Dorey. Illustrated by Tim Wesson (Walker Books) Become a two-minute superhero with this book, which suggests ways to fight climate change by changing what you eat, the way you use energy and how you travel. Positive and informative, it includes 50 quick and easy “missions” to complete. The Biggest Footprint by Rob Sears and Tom Sears (Canongate Books) This unusual illustrated book imagines all of mankind as one giant human being, exploring the consequences of our combined actions on planet Earth. Drawing on lots of mind-bending facts and statistics and suggesting practical ways to help care for our planet, it will inspire you to take action against climate change. Climate Emergency Atlas by Dan Hooke (Dorling Kindersley) Read up on all the important facts…

Name: Nina On The Edge of the Dark Sea of Darkness by Andrew Peterson “This fun-packed book is really exciting and funny! Three normal children find out a secret that will change their lives for ever.” YOUR TURN Email your book review to hello@theweekjunior.co.uk. If your review is printed in the magazine you’ll receive a Roving Reporter badge. Tell us what you liked about the book and why you’d recommend it to others, and don’t forget to include your name and address.* *If you are the competition winner, we will only use the details you provide to contact you and arrange delivery of your competition prize. Further details about how we manage the data you provide can be found at www.dennis.co.uk/privacy-policy…

During a beach walk on the Isle of Lewis, in Scotland’s Outer Hebrides, Andrew Eaton-Lewis spotted a glass bottle covered in barnacles. His first thought was to recycle it, but then he saw a faded note inside. It was written in French and dated 26 January 2020. Andre Huet, from Quebec, Canada, had written it and the bottle had carried it about 2,200 miles across the Atlantic. Eaton-Lewis plans to write back to Huet. He told The Press and Journal newspaper, “I’d be interested to find out a bit about who he is and why he does this.”…

Royal Mint competition To celebrate the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee, the Royal Mint Museum is inviting school pupils aged from eight to 11 to enter a short story competition. To get involved, write a story of no more than 500 words about the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee. The winning entry will be brought to life by illustrator Sarah Edmonds and will be published in the Teach Co. Teach Primary magazine. You’ll also get the chance to win a whopping £5,000 voucher for your school library. Plus, there are special commemorative coins for the winner and runners-up. The deadline for entries is 3 December. For more information, head to royalmintmuseum.org.uk/learning GET INVOLVED Email your news, views and pictures to hello@theweekjunior.co.uk…

Follow The Week Junior on PopJam @TheWeekJunior. You can download the PopJam app from the App Store or Google Play. Last week we asked you if space tourism is a good idea… “We have already wrecked our planet, let’s not wreck the solar system!” “Yes, but the tourists checking space out should be skilled and trained.” “No, instead of building fancy rockets, all these rich people can help other things and people. Climate change and world hunger aren’t going to fix themselves, are they?” Tell us what you think of this week’s issue and we’ll print some of the best comments here.…

The Government has promised to introduce tougher action against water companies that dump raw sewage (untreated waste) into England’s rivers and seas. Water companies provide us with clean water and sewage systems. What is the problem? At the moment the UK’s water companies can pour untreated sewage into rivers and seas after extreme heavy rain. Usually they treat the sewage in giant tanks, cleaning it before releasing it into rivers or the sea but after severe weather sewers and storage tanks fill up fast and water companies are allowed to release the dirty water into the waterways to stop it flowing back up the pipes into people’s homes. This is called storm overflow. This is only meant to happen in “exceptional” circumstances, such as after very heavy rain, because that’s…

Fireworks have become a regular feature of all sorts of celebrations, including Bonfire Night, New Year’s Eve and Diwali. To some, they are a vital part of the festivities and something to look forward to every year. However, for others they can be very distressing. On New Year’s Eve 2020, London introduced a drone display as part of its fireworks show for the first time, but what about replacing fireworks with drones altogether? Drone displays are starting to replace fireworks at major celebrations and events around the world, including this year’s Tokyo Olympics. Some say this is the future, as drones are quieter and cleaner than fireworks. However, others don’t think it’s the same and want to hold on to tradition. So what do you think? Should drones replace fireworks?…

Researchers have found that the indri, an endangered lemur from the east African island of Madagascar, sings complex songs with a human-like sense of rhythm. Indris and humans are both members of an animal group called primates but have been evolving in different directions for around 77 million years. Scientists from Madagascar and the University of Turin, in Italy, analysed the songs of 39 individual indris and found distinctive rhythms and gaps between notes. These include 1:1 rhythm, in which gaps between sounds are the same length, and 1:2 rhythm, in which the second interval is twice as long as the first. Such rhythms are common in human music. Songbirds use them too, but this is the first time they have been heard from another mammal. “Rhythm may make it…

A2.5-billion-year-old ruby found in Greenland contains material left behind from some of the oldest life on Earth. Researchers who analysed the discoloured gemstone say this is the first time traces of ancient life have been seen in a ruby. Professor Chris Yakymchuk and his team at the University of Waterloo in Canada discovered a small amount of graphite form of the elemen carbon) inside the ruby. Carbon is a common element whose atoms can have different weights. When carbon is part of a living thing, it tends to take on its lightest form. The graphite in the ruby contained more lightweight carbon than you would expect in rock, more like the type that exists in living things. This made Yakymchuk and his team think that the carbon possibly came from…

Life in abstract Photographer Martine Lemarchand says she was inspired to shoot objects from her kitchen close up. Shaping up A male alpine newt shot in Beigua Regional Natural Park by Vittorio Ricci. Technicolour tadpoles Bruno Militelli shot this soap bubble up close before it popped. One, two, three, four A painted lady in flight. Sequence photographed by Andrew Fusek Peters. Purple haze A wood cranesbill photographed by Harald Cederlund. Spot the seahorse A pygmy seahorse hiding in a sea fan in Indonesia. Taken by Kirsty Andrews. CLOSE-UP PHOTOGRAPHER OF THE YEAR 2021…

How does climate change make you feel? If news of melting glaciers and oil spills makes you upset or angry, this is a normal reaction and it’s called climate anxiety. As world leaders meet at COP26 to tackle climate change, we can all act to protect our planet and feel more hopeful. What is climate change? Climate change means changes in long-term weather patterns, including rising temperature as global warming. Human activities, fossil fuels like coal, oil and gas, contribute to climate change and cause extreme events like floods. This risks the lives of humans, a plants. Scientists say these events will people around the world work together long-term weather temperatures that are known such as burning contribute to climate wildfires and floods. animals and get worse unless together. What…

Light up Red, Scotland From 22 October to 14 November, the organisation Poppy Scotland is encouraging people to light up their buildings in red as a symbol of remembrance. In the past, castles, cathedrals, schools and a phone box have been coloured red for the event. Poppy drop, IWM Duxford To mark Remembrance Sunday, a plane will fly over the grounds of the IWM Duxford scattering hundreds of poppies. There will also be Spitfire displays, memorial exhibitions and sculptures. The Remembrance Glade, Staffordshire At the National Memorial Arboretum there is a new Remembrance Glade, designed as a peaceful place to come and remember. There are sculptures, plants and trees that represent some aspect of remembrance and the service that many have given.…

by Ross Montgomery (Walker Books) Yanni is unhappy about moving with his family to their new home, Fallow Hall, and it doesn’t help that his baby sister Ari takes up all of his parents’ attention. When a mysterious visitor arrives on All Hallows’ Eve (Halloween), something strange and terrible happens. The new arrival is none other than an evil faerie, who steals Ari away. Now, with the help of his cousin Amy, Yanni sets out to save his sister before the end of All Hallows’ Eve. To do so he has to complete a perilous quest, navigating the faerie’s tricks and deceptions and encountering goblin palaces, battle-swept oceans and ancient treasures along the way. This richly imaginative tale shows faeries at their darkest and most sinister, but there are plenty…

Using a tablet, a phone or a digital camera, many of us take photos of different and interesting things in our life. These include friends and family, pets, celebrations and our hobbies, but what about taking photos of food as well? Food photography should be fun and creative. You can start with a simple snap of a delicious dish on a plate, which could be anything from a colourful salad to pancakes drizzled with honey. Your pictures do not just have to be of cooked food placed on a plate. Food photography includes many different things, such as people enjoying meals together, cooking, food ingredients, shops, markets and food production. For example, photographing people picking fruit and vegetables; a farmer looking after animals; or an ice cream van are all…

There are lots of intriguing artefacts lurking among the pages of this magazine, so if you’re a fan of history and archaeology (like me!) this is the issue for you. I particularly love our story on page 5 about the Roman statues unearthed in Buckinghamshire. The discovery was “utterly astounding”, according to Rachel Wood, the lead archaeologist at the site. I can well believe her – it must have been an incredible moment when she realised she was staring at people of the past. Meanwhile, over on page 14, scientists now think it likely that the ancient Egyptians were using mummification techniques 1,000 years earlier than previously thought, perhaps as early as 2,400BC. If true, that would completely change our understanding of the ancient Egyptians. It shows how much we…

“Here is a photo of my dog, Monty, having a try at the number fit puzzle. He is a very friendly dog who loves to play and eat the cat’s food. He is two and a half years old.”Ella “I built the Halloween bottle light with my Granny. It looked really spooky and cool.”Joe “I made the Halloween spooky shadow bottle craft in the latest issue of The Week Junior.”Lucy…

A SUPER VOLUNTEER David Matthews, a volunteer at the Samaritans, trekked 6,000 miles to every branch of the charity in the UK and Ireland. The Samaritans is a charity that offers emotional support to anyone in distress, He visited 201 branches and raised more than £20,000. A NEW BIRD SPECIES BRITAIN Tropical egrets are originally from Africa. However, rising temperatures and threats to their habitats are making life difficult there. They are becoming more common in Britain, experts think that the birds come here because the kind of wetland areas they like now protected in this country. A HUGE ACHIEVEMENT Sisters Amy and Ella Meek from Nottingham, in England, won the Environmental Champion Award at the Pride of Britain event on 30 October. Together, they set up the charity Kids…

Historian Dominic Sandbrook wanted to tell his son, Arthur, a story all about “the clash of empires”. It would feature everyone from mighty rulers to ordinary people who, when “catapulted into the action”, did extraordinary things and altered history. This story would be a true one: the story of the First World War (1914–1918). “The war was a waste of life with disastrous consequences,” Sandbrook tells The Week Junior. “But the weird thing is, many people enjoyed it.” There are stories of great comradeship among soldiers. One famous event was that of the Christmas truce of 1914, when soldiers on both sides stopped fighting on Christmas Day to exchange gifts and play football. Sandbrook says that the First World War seems remote to us now. “It’s easy to push to…

Rising numbers of female elephants in Mozambique in south-east Africa are being born without tusks, according to a new study. The change is thought to be a result of years of illegal hunting in which elephants were killed for their tusks. Experts think they have evolved to be tuskless so they are less likely to be hunted. Evolution is the process by which living things change over time to become better adapted to their environment. In the case of the elephants, animals with no tusks have survived better than those with tusks. The surviving animals have passed on that characteristic to their offspring, resulting in more young elephants that don’t grow tusks. Elephant tusks evolved from teeth. They gradually became a tool that the elephants used to dig water holes,…

Zookeepers at Cuba’s National Zoo say that some of their animals benefited from the peace and quiet when the zoo was closed during the pandemic. More babies have been born than usual, including rare Bengal tiger cubs. Around15years Grasslandsandforestsmostly in India but with smaller populations in Bangladesh, Bhutan, China, Myanmar and Nepal. Upto32metres long, including a metre-long tail. Waterbuffalodeerand wild boar. Bengaltigershavethelongest canine teeth of any living cat – as much as 10 centimetres long.…

Scientists studying a mummy from a recently discovered tomb in Egypt think the ancient Egyptians were using mummification techniques 1,000 years earlier than thought. Mummification is a traditional method of preserving the dead bodies of important people. It was used by various cultures around the world but is best known from ancient Egypt (see panel). Professor Salima Ikram, head of Egyptology at the American University in Cairo, worked with a team of archaeologists (experts in the study of ancient remains) who found the remains of a nobleman called Khuwy in 2019. They believe it is one of the oldest Egyptian mummies ever discovered. The body was found in a tomb at the Saqqara necropolis, an Egyptian burial site near the capital city of Cairo. It dates back 4,000 years to…

Eliud Kipchoge has won two Olympic gold medals in the men’s marathon, holds the marathon world record and is the only person to have run the 26.2-mile distance in under two hours. He usually only competes against other elite professionals but on 31 October Kipchoge took part in a special race against nearly 3,500 members of the public. To mark 1,000 days until the Paris Summer Olympic Games start in 2024, the runners lined up on the famous Champs-Élysées avenue in Paris, France. They ran a 3.2-mile race, the slowest runners setting off first and the fastest going last. Kipchoge, who is 37 and comes from Kenya, was the last runner to start. His challenge was to try and pass as many of the other runners as possible before he…

• Mya-Rose Craig, aged 19, set up a charity called Black2Nature to make the UK countryside a welcoming place for everyone. Craig, known as Birdgirl, has also written a book called We Have a Dream to inspire young people of colour to become climate activists. • When he was aged seven, José Adolfo Quisocala created a bank for his friends in Peru to save money for books and uniforms The children also earned money by finding paper and plastic to recycle. Now he’s 16, José’s bank has 6,700 customers and recycles more than 15 tonnes of paper and plastic every month.…

The UN Climate Change Conference (COP26) runs until 12 November. There are several apps, games, podcasts and websites to help you learn about climate issues and how you can help. The official COP26 website ukcop26.org) good place to start: read about the goals, and news of its main announcement Another useful website is that of the charity Greenpeace (tinyurl.com/TWJ-Green). It has a section for young people with information sheets, activities and ways to discuss issues with friends and family. Friends of the Earth is another charity that focuses on protecting the planet. Its website (friendsoftheearth.uk) has guides on subjects such as the importance of bees and trees. You can find helpful advice on what you can do to help tackle the climate emergency at the website of the Young People’s…

What was your favourite story as a child? I have vivid memories of camping under my dining-room table with the lights out, listening to an audiobook of Fantastic Mr Fox and drinking strawberry Nesquik – let’s go with that! What scares you? Deep water – that moment when the sea bed slips away and you suddenly realise how cold and da the water is beneath you Yeuch! (If anyone else has this, I can tell you that it called thalassophobia). Do you believe in faeries? I definitely believe that the world is full of weird things that we don’t always see – especially when we look for them – and that they have a mind of their own. I certainly hope there are no evil baby-stealing faeries popping up everywhere.…

How easy is food photography? It can be as easy or as tricky as you make it. A simple image of food on a plate can be improved if the food has lots of colour. Make sure there’s plenty of light to capture colours and textures. Try shooting it from above and close up to the side. Black-and-white settings on your camera may give a good effect. What food is good to use? All food can be photographed, from a pizza dripping with melted cheese to strawberries covered in cream. The Pink Lady awards have a Young category that includes age sections for 17–15, 14–11 and 10 and under. Any images featuring food can be entered.…

Name: Elle “Do you recall the poll that took place a few issues ago, about deciding whether or not the next James Bond should be female? I do. And if you voted that the next James Bond should be male, I vote for you to re-think this decision. The first James Bond movie was released in 1962. Ever since then, every James Bond movie has starred a male character. This might be exactly why you voted for the next James Bond to also be male. Even so, the 21st century has the potential to be a major turning point in the fight for women’s rights. If the next James Bond is female, girls would have someone to look up to; a famous figure in the past now changing just as…

Teacher’s name: Teacher Read School: Great Missenden Combined School, Buckinghamshire “I would like to nominate Teacher Read (who uses they/them pronouns) because they are one of the most amazing teachers ever. They make all subjects inspiring to learn and if you feel sad, they always make you laugh. Just when you think school couldn’t get any more fun, Teacher Read walks in and everything is a thousand times better! Thank you so much for being so brilliant!”Emily If we pick your teacher as Teacher of the Week, we’ll send your school three free issues of The Week Junior. Send your nominations, along with a picture of your teacher and your school’s full name and address, to hello@theweekjunior.co.uk Please include your full name and address so that we can send you…

1 Where is COP26 being held? ■ a) Aberdeen ■ b) Edinburgh ■ c) Glasgow 2 True or false? Southern Water has a sewage tank the size of 15 Olympic swimming pools. ■ True ■ False 3 What was a chef trying to make when he created tiramisu? 4 When did Guy Fawkes try to blow up Parliament? ■ a) 1815 ■ b) 1765 ■ c) 1605 5 True or false? During the First World War, conkers were used to make explosives. ■ True ■ False 6 What is the heaviest land animal on earth? 7 Where was Carl Fabergé from? ■ a) France ■ b) Belgium ■ c) Russia 8 True or false? The world’s most expensive ruby is the Sunset Ruby. ■ True ■ False 9 What is…