Tag: grade 6

News Science

First Human Colony Planned For Mars

A Dutch business owner is looking for people who want to live on Mars.

He believes that with proper preparation, a human settlement can exist on the Red Planet.

He said the settlement would provide valuable information for those who support and study life beyond Earth.

The project is called Mars One and nearly 80,000 people–including 35 Canadians–have applied to start a new life on Mars.

Those who are chosen to go would set up a colony, similar to a city.

Supplies for the colony will be sent to Mars beginning in 2016.

The first four settlers are scheduled to be transported to Mars in 2023.

News Politics

Surprising Win For Liberals In BC Election

The Liberals unexpectedly won the provincial election in British Columbia on Tuesday surprising many people, who thought the New Democratic Party (NDP) would win.

The Liberals and the NDP are two of Canada’s biggest political parties.

The Liberals were already in power in B.C.; after this election, they will stay in power.

Being “in power” in this case means they are responsible for making many of the important decisions involving laws and money in the province. It also means that their leader is the Premier of the province.

Many people—including political experts—thought the New Democratic Party would win the election. Not only did the Liberals win, but they won a “majority government.” That means they have more seats in the legislature than all of the other parties combined.

News

Hadfield Arrives Back On Earth; Videos From His Incredible Journey

In Chris Hadfield’s own words, he is, “safely home—back on Earth, happily readapting to the heavy pull of gravity.”

The Canadian astronaut left Earth to live on the International Space Station (ISS) late last December.

He touched down in Kazakhstan on Monday at 10:31 p.m. (EDT), along with two other astronauts who had been on the ISS.

He will now undergo extensive medical testing to help his body adjust to life on Earth again.

In the five months he was living on the ISS, Chris Hadfield changed the way we all relate to space.

News

Factory Conditions, Wages Improving In Bangladesh

Things appear to be changing for the better for people who work in clothing factories in Bangladesh.

Bangladesh is a small country in south-east Asia.

About four million people there work in clothing factories, cutting and sewing clothes. A lot of the clothing they make is sold in stores in North America.

Most of the factory workers in Bangladesh earn much less than workers who do similar jobs in North America. Often they work long hours, and many of them work in unsafe conditions.

Recently there was an accident involving workers in a clothing factory near Bangladesh’s capital city, Dhaka. Many workers were injured or killed.

Kids

Program Provides Help To Angry Teens

A program to prevent kids from dropping out of school is now available in Canada.

Reconnecting Youth is a U.S. program that helps kids gain self-esteem and cope with their emotions.

The Canadian program adds something more. It helps kids to see how anger can rule their lives.

The Canadian program is taught by social workers, who have training to help kids deal with anger that may be holding them back.

Many teens who are angry may also skip classes, insult teachers and even drop out of school, says Ed Schild, a spokesperson for the Reconnecting Youth program.

Reconnecting Youth has been a pilot project at R.H. King Academy in Toronto for the past two years.

Health

Many Celeb Chefs’ Recipes Not Healthy: Study

Celebrity chefs serve up amazing food that tastes great and is good for you, right?

Research shows that most people believe that food created by famous chefs is generally healthy.

Well, maybe not.

Some researchers at Coventry University in Britain took a look at 904 recipes written by 26 celebrity chefs.

A celebrity chef is a chef who has become famous and popular—often because of they’re on a TV show or own a famous restaurant.

More than 85 per cent of the recipes the researchers tested “fell substantially short of the UK government’s healthy eating recommendations,” according to a media release on the Coventry University website. Most of the recipes called for ingredients that are known to contribute to health problems like obesity and heart disease.

Animals News

Non-Venomous Python Found In Winnipeg Dumpster

A Winnipeg resident was surprised on Tuesday to discover a five-foot Ball python in a dumpster behind an apartment building.

The snake is not poisonous.

The resident called police; one of the officers used a small recycling box to corral and hold the snake.

The police then called the city’s animal services department.

They came right away and rescued the animal.

Ball pythons are a bit smaller than most pythons. Ball pythons are about one metre long.

Police said that finding a snake in this way is extremely rare—it almost never happens.

The person who discovered the snake had been putting out their garbage and heard a noise; they saw a snake moving around.

The snake will be held until a good home can be found for it.

Kids Science

Chris Hadfield Sings With Hundreds Of Thousands Of Schoolchildren

I’m watching history happen, right in front of my eyes.

It’s 12:30 Eastern Time on Monday, May 6.

On my computer screen, I’m watching a live satellite feed from space.

An astronaut is singing and playing guitar. He’s singing a song he wrote (with Canadian songwriter Ed Robertson from the band the Barenaked Ladies) called I.S.S. (Is Somebody Singing)?

But the really exciting part is something I can’t see. Hundreds of thousands of children in Canada and throughout the world are also singing, right at this moment, singing the very same song.

It’s part of Music Monday, which is an annual event in Canada that began in 2005. Each year, a song is chosen and school children across the country learn it so they can sing it at the same time on the same day.

Kids

Artist Draws Superheroes Inspired By Girls

Artist Alex Law believes kids know best what a superhero should look like.

So, in a new online project she calls “Little Girls Are Better At Designing Superheroes Than You” she’s taken her inspiration from girls.

“I remember being a young girl myself and being unsatisfied with the female characters available to me,” she told TKN in an email.

“Most female superheroes are designed and written by adult men, and I don’t think adult men know or even care about what girls like.”

So, when she saw some little girls dressed as their favourite superheroes, she started drawing them.

And she turned them into superheroes.

Health News

Peanuts Recalled For Not Stating “May Contain Peanuts”

A supermarket in England is taking packages of peanuts out of their stores because their containers do not say they “may contain peanuts.”

Booths is a grocery store chain; they have 29 locations in northern England. They pulled 300 of the packets off their shelves after a health agency issued an allergy alert.

The alert was issued because the food didn’t have a warning telling the customer that it might make people with allergies get sick.

The containers are labelled as “Whole Hearted Roasted Monkey Nuts.”

“Monkey nuts” is a British nickname for peanuts in the shell.

The allergy alert was issued by the Food Standards Agency (FSA), which is in charge of ensuring food safety in the United Kingdom.