Kids News - Articles for Grades 6-8

With childhood obesity rates on the rise, schools are going all out to encourage students to become more active and make healthier food choices. Some have added standing desks; others have revamped their cafeteria menus. In Dillwyn, Virginia, the educators have gone one step further - They have designed a school that incorporates movement and healthy eating....

What's better than a scoop of ice cream on a hot summer day? How about one that doesn't melt into a sticky puddle within minutes? That, believe it or not, could soon become a reality thanks to the ingenious scientists at the Universities of Edinburgh and Dundee....

Queen Nefertiti, the wife of King Akhenaten who ruled from 1352 to 1336 B.C., was one of ancient Egypt's most influential and beautiful queens. Historians maintain that she played a significant role in the political and religious reforms that resulted in numerous changes including the establishment of Aten as Egypt's supreme god. Many even believe that the powerful queen served as pharaoh for a brief period following her husband's death and the accession of his 9-year-old son King Tutankhamun (Tut), to the throne....

Freestyle motocross maestro Robbie Maddison is well-known for his heart-stopping stunts. In 2008, the Australian daredevil wowed the world with a leap over the 164-feet tall Arc de Triomphe in Paris, France. In 2014, he performed several back flips over stationary airplanes at the military service aircraft graveyard in Tucson, Arizona. However, neither compare to his latest stunt - "Surfing" a wave on a slightly modified KTM dirt bike....

While vending machines have a bad reputation generally, they are particularly frowned upon in schools. That's because most are filled with foods that are deemed unhealthy for both kids and adults. However, no one will have any objection to Jet Blue's vending machines. That's because they dispense free books!...

An agricultural experiment called Nemo's Garden is taking farming to a new level - about 20-feet below the ocean's surface! The endeavor is the brainchild of Italian entrepreneur and scuba diving enthusiast Sergio Gamberini who wanted to combine his passion for diving and farming to create a sustainable food source without disturbing the underwater ecosystem....

Tossing food at total strangers is not something that is acceptable in most settings. However, at the La Tomatina festival in Bunol, Spain, it is not just accepted but encouraged. That's because the whole purpose of the event that is held annually on the last Wednesday of August is to pelt friends and total strangers with as many tomatoes as possible....

In August 2013, Elon Musk, the CEO and CTO of SpaceX, the world's first privately funded spacecraft company unveiled a 57-page white paper that outlined a radical new supersonic transportation system. Called Hyperloop, it envisioned giving residents of high-traffic cities that lie within short distances the option to commute in enclosed capsules through low-pressure steel tubes at up to 800 mph. Musk hypothesized that such a system would help cut the commute time between cities like Los Angeles and San Francisco from the current 6 hours to just 30 minutes....

The Japanese have always been at the forefront of deploying robots to perform jobs that are traditionally done by humans. Over the past year, humanoid robots have been seen helping customers at Mitsubishi Bank, selling Nestle's espresso machines and even filling in for human science communicators at museums. Hence, it is not surprising to hear that the country is now home to a hotel that is staffed almost entirely by the Androids!...