Kids News - Articles for Grade 8

September 11, 2020, marks the 19th anniversary of the most brazen and deadly terrorist attacks on American soil. The unprovoked act of violence, planned by Islamic extremist organization Al Qaeda, killed 2,977 innocent people and changed life as we knew it forever....

When the United States formally entered World War II — the six-year-long global conflict that began in 1939 with Nazi Germany's attack on Poland — in 1941, millions of brave Americans helped to fight for the cause. Among them was New Orleans resident Lawrence Brooks, who served the country for five years as a soldier in the US Army's 91st Engineer Battalion. Fortunately for us, Brooks, who will celebrate his 111th birthday on September 12, 2020, is still around to share his exciting encounters....

Invented by French teenager Louis Braille in 1824, braille has enabled millions of visually impaired kids worldwide to learn to read and write. However, the system of raised dots, representing individual alphabet and numbers, can be complicated for younger students to grasp. As a result, parents and educators are increasingly shunning the tactile literacy system, which is taught using special textbooks, in favor of online learning programs. Now, Denmark's LEGO Group hopes to reverse the trend with the help of braille bricks that allow children to learn through play....

Marvel fans and movie enthusiasts worldwide are mourning the sudden death of Hollywood star Chadwick Boseman. The 43-year-old actor, best known for his portrayal of T'Challa — the king and protector of the fictional African nation of Wakanda in Black Panther — passed away on August 28, 2020, after a four year battle with colon cancer. The news came as a shock to most people since the intensely private Boseman, who was diagnosed at stage 3 cancer in 2016 — the year King T'Challa debuted in Captain America: Civil War — never spoke publicly about his illness....

Scientists from the University of Texas at Austin have finally solved the mystery of a massive fossil that has been sitting unlabeled and unidentified at a Chilean museum for almost a decade. The relic, which resembles a deflated football, is the largest-known soft-shelled egg from a marine reptile that inhabited Earth over 66 million years ago — about the time of the mass animal extinction event. Measuring more than 11 by 7 inches it is also the second-largest egg belonging to any known animal, behind only the now-extinct elephant bird....

North America's relatively calm summer weather ended last week when a powerful derecho swept across the Midwest — from South Dakota to Ohio — on August 10, 2020, and a rare firenado struck Northern California on August 15, 2020. If you are like most people, you have probably never heard of either of the rare natural phenomena. Here is a brief explanation of the incredible extreme weather events....

Over the years, researchers have made numerous attempts to make Harry Potter's invisibility cloak a reality. While each version has been slightly better, none have come close to the one donned by the young wizard. Now, scientists may be able to get some tips from an unlikely source — ultra-black deep-sea fish that have evolved the capability to hide in plain sight to avoid detection....

SpaceX's first-ever passenger flight to the International Space Station (ISS) ended successfully on August 2, 2020, when Crew Dragon Endeavour splashed into the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Pensacola, Florida. After a series of safety checks, the recovery teams unlocked the capsule's hatch and quickly whisked the spacecraft's precious cargo — NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley — to shore. During their total 64 days in space, the astronaut duo completed 1,024 orbits around Earth and traveled 27,147,284 miles....

The lack of clues left behind by ancient Americans has made it difficult for researchers to pinpoint precisely when humans first arrived on the continent. However, it has always been believed to be about 13,000 years ago, just as the world was thawing from the last ice age. Now, evidence from the Chiquihuite Cave in Zacatecas, Central Mexico, seems to suggest that prehistoric humans may have been living in North America as early as 30,000 years ago....