Kids News - Articles for Grades 6-8

This year's Winter Olympics is the longest in the 90-year history of the games. That's because the International Olympics Committee decided to add a record, twelve new events across eight disciplines - ranging from ski half-pipe to snowboard parallel slalom and even a Luge - team rally competition. Does that mean that future Winter Olympics will be as long? Not necessarily. Here are a few sports that made a grand debut and even lasted a few games, before being scrapped in favor of more exciting and popular sports!...

The most exciting storms are ones accompanied by flashes of lightning. Unfortunately those are rare, unless you are in the vicinity of the Catatumbo River in Northwestern Venezuela, home to the spectacular everlasting 'rib a-ba’, or ‘river of fire' lighting storms....

When one thinks of nature's most fierce predators, the images that come to mind are those of lions and sharks. While they are certainly dangerous there are other unlikely ones, that are even more so. Among them are the Tasmanian devil, the honey badger and . . . the mantis shrimp?...

At a symposium held by the Society for the Study of Egyptian Antiquities in Toronto, Ontario, on January 11th, archeologists revealed the uncovering of yet another provincial pyramid near the ancient settlement of Edfu in Southern Egypt. The 4,600-year-old structure, built decades before the Great Pyramid of Giza, is the seventh of its kind discovered scattered near major ancient settlements, throughout central and southern Egypt....

Though you must have all imagined how terrified Peeta and Katniss were when they were competing in the Hunger Games and then again in Catching Fire, you probably did not feel like you were in their shoes and living the experience with them. That, is what researchers at MIT's Media Lab are trying to achieve with a new device that they call Sensory Fiction....

Let's face it - Vehicles made for kids are kind of lame. After all, where is the thrill in driving a car whose top speed is 5 mph! Now, there is hope - A car that not only looks like the real deal, but also, drives like it! And it's not just any car but a replica of the DB Aston Martin convertible, the kind even James Bond would be proud to be in....

While smog is a problem in many of the world's urban cities, few have it as bad as China. Most of last year, the air around Beijing was so polluted that on certain days it went beyond what was once considered the worst possible level. The residents of Harbin, in northeast China, have not had it easy either. On days when the haze is really bad, residents are unable to even see across streets and airplanes have a hard time landing....

Children have always had the uncanny ability to take the simplest items and use their imaginations to transform them into fantastic playthings. Cardboard boxes become time machines, blankets hung over tables transform into fortresses, while twigs magically turn into wands or pirate swords....

This morning, 25,000 people braved the early morning chill and made their way to Gobbler's Nob to see for themselves what Punxsutawney Phil had to say about the length of this year's frigid winter season. Unfortunately, the legendary woodchuck did not predict what most had been hoping for!...