Kids News - Articles for Grade 6

A holiday associated with a math concept may not seem that exciting, especially for those not fond of the subject. However, America's Pi (“π”) Day – observed annually on March 14 (3/14) to honor the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter, widely recognized as 3.14 – is an exception. That's because the celebrations don't just include fun math activities, but also a slice, or two, of yummy pie!...

Carbon dioxide (CO2), released by activities like burning of fossil fuels such as coal, oil, and natural gas, is one of the biggest contributors to the greenhouse effect, responsible for global warming. Over the years, scientists have come up with several innovative solutions to capture the polluting gas. However, none have been practical enough to implement on a large scale. Now, researchers at RMIT University in Melbourne, Australia believe they may have finally found a feasible way to reduce atmospheric CO2 – turning the gas back into coal!...

Shelby, who plays Bella in the recent Sony Pictures release A Dog’s Way Home, has all the traits of a celebrity pooch: bright, golden eyes, expressive eyebrows, and a big, brown nose. However, the pit bull mix did not always seem destined to be a movie star. About two years ago, Shelby was a stray puppy who lived on the streets and spent her days digging through trash for food scraps....

Here is some good news for the thousands of North Americans affected by this year's harsh winter - March 20, 2019 is the first day of spring! In anticipation of the season's start, on March 10, 2019, most residents will “spring forward” by moving their clocks an hour ahead. Though the start of Daylight Saving Time (DST) entails sacrificing sixty minutes of precious sleep or play time on Sunday, it allows for longer spring and summer days....

A walnut-sized bee with a wingspan of two and a half inches – about the length of a human thumb – may seem like something straight out of a science fiction movie. However, the Megachile pluto, or Wallace's Giant Bee, is not a figment of a movie writer's imagination, but a real insect that dwells in the Indonesian forests. While a few dead specimens of the bee have been discovered over the years, researchers have not seen a living one since 1981. Now, thanks to a team of dedicated American and Australian biologists, the magnificent bee has been photographed live in its natural habitat for the first time....

Virgin Galactic's founder, Sir Richard Branson, has been hoping to make space tourism a reality since 2008. While it has taken a little longer than the 18 months he had originally estimated, the company is getting increasingly closer to accomplishing its mission. On December 13, 2018, Virgin Galactic's suborbital spaceliner, VSS Unity, made history with the longest rocket-powered flight when it soared to the edge of space, 51.4 miles (82 km) above sea level. On February 22, 2019, the aircraft repeated the feat, this time with its first passenger – the company's astronaut trainer Beth Moses - on board....

Experts estimate that Earth gets bombarded with thousands of pieces of cosmic debris each year. While most burn up in the atmosphere, a few hundred survive and hit the planet's surface annually. While the impact of the space rocks, which come hurtling down at rapid speeds, has thus far been minimal, the possibility of an asteroid landing in a densely populated area and causing severe damage cannot be ignored....

An elderly female, believed to have inhabited Earth approximately 3.67 million years ago, is causing a stir among paleontologists. If researchers from South Africa's University of Witwatersrand are right, the skeleton, nicknamed "Little Foot" due to its tiny ankle bones, represents a new species of an early human....

While any sighting of the critically-endangered leopard deserves mention, that of a black leopard is particularly newsworthy. What makes the specimen, recently captured on camera in Central Kenya by San Diego Zoo researchers and British wildlife photographer Will Burrard-Lucas, unique is that it is the first scientific documentation of such a creature in Africa in nearly a century. Prior to this, the only confirmed sighting was a 1909 photograph taken in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia....