Page Type: Elementary

A giraffe without spots is super rare. So when a giraffe at a zoo in Tennessee gave birth to a solid brown calf, everyone was talking!

The female calf was born on July 31 at Brights Zoo. Like her mom, she’s a reticulated giraffe, one of four different giraffe species. All giraffe species have spots, or patches. The spots help the animals remain camouflaged, or hidden, from predators such as lions. But very rarely, a calf is born without any spots at all.

How rare is a spotless giraffe? The last known spotless reticulated giraffe was Toshiko, a calf born in 1972 in Tokyo, Japan. Scientists know of only two others. One was Toshiko’s older sibling, and the other was a giraffe born in Uganda.

The zoo celebrated the calf’s birth by asking followers on its Facebook page to choose a name. All the names are Swahili, which is a language spoken in Kenya, home to the largest population of reticulated giraffes. The name choices were Kipekee, Firyali, Shakiri, and Jamella. Kipekee received 16,000 votes, more than any other name.

Welcome to the world, Kipekee!

A spacecraft from India has gone where no one has gone before—the Moon’s south pole. The spacecraft (which was not carrying people) landed on the Moon on August 23.

Millions of people across India watched on TV and the Internet as the Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft made its landing. When it was clear that the spacecraft had touched ground, viewers erupted in cheers.

Just a few hours later, a vehicle called a lunar rover traveled down a ramp from the spacecraft onto the surface of the Moon. Scientists planned to have the rover explore the Moon for 14 days, studying its surface and sending photos back to Earth.

“India took a walk on the Moon,” said the Indian Space Research Organization, which is India’s space agency.

Pets aren’t just cute and loving. They can be really funny, too! Each year, the Comedy Pet Photography Awards celebrate the funniest pet photos on the planet. And this year’s winners didn’t disappoint.

The overall winning photo is called A Life Changing Event. Michel Zoghzoghi took the photo of his two kittens to show their different personalities. It’s shown at the top of this article.

The Comedy Pet Photography Awards were founded in 2020 by Paul Joynson-Hicks and Tom Sullam. Both Joynson-Hicks and Sullam are photographers who love animals. The contest aims to celebrate the way pets can change our lives in a positive way. Joynson-Hicks and Sullam also want to send a message about the importance of animal welfare.

People who want to enter the contest can select from several categories. They include Dogs, Cats, Horses, and All Other Creatures Great and Small (animals that aren’t dogs, cats, or horses). There’s also a category called Pets Who Look Like Their Owners. And there’s a Junior category for people who are aged 16 or under. The winner of each category receives a certificate.

An overall winner is selected from one of the categories. The prize is 500 pounds (about 635 dollars), a camera bag, and a trophy. Plus, finalists get to see their photos featured on the Comedy Pet Photography Awards website.

Want to see more winning photos? Check out the slideshow below!

Something unusual is happening in the sky on August 30. That night, the Moon will be both a blue moon and a supermoon. 

You may already know that the Moon doesn’t always look the same to us. Sometimes we see only part of it. That’s because of the different ways light and shadow hit the Moon as it orbits Earth. When we can see the entire Moon, we call it a full moon. There’s a full moon about every 29.5 days. You can think of a blue moon and a supermoon as unusual forms of a full moon.

A blue moon isn’t blue at all. It’s the name given to the second full moon in a rare month when there are two full moons. This happens only every two or three years.

A supermoon is when the moon is at the point in its orbit that is closest to Earth at the same time it is full. This causes the Moon to look a bit larger and brighter in the sky. Supermoons happen three or four times a year.

It’s not every day that there’s a supermoon. And it’s not every day that there’s a blue moon either. A moon that’s both at the same time is called a super blue moon.

And how often do super blue moons happen? The next two will be in 2037—one in January and another in March. But they’re usually much less common, sometimes happening as many as 20 years apart.

An old schoolhouse was about to be knocked down to make way for a new school. But now, the schoolhouse has a new home and a bright future.

The yellow schoolhouse was built in Vancouver, Canada, in 1912, but city leaders decided recently that it was time to build a new school on that spot. After the city made plans to destroy the schoolhouse, the government of the Squamish Nation, an Indigenous (native) nation, stepped up. The nation said it would take the building and use it as a school at X̱wemelch’stn, which is a Squamish land reserve.

City leaders were thrilled. They wanted a new building, but destroying the old one would have created a lot of waste. The Squamish Nation needed a school. At X̱wemelch’stn, the schoolhouse would have a whole new life.

It’s not easy to move a building, but it can be done. In August, the entire schoolhouse was lifted onto a trailer and driven to a barge (a type of ship). The barge transported the building across the English Bay to another trailer, which took it to X̱wemelch’stn.

The Squamish Nation will use the building for early childhood education and to teach Sḵwx̱wú7mesh sníchim (the Squamish language).

Check out this video of the schoolhouse in transit!

Do board games help kids learn math? Scientists say yes!

Board games are games in which players usually move pieces around a board while following a set of rules. Some examples include Othello, Monopoly, and Chutes and Ladders (called Snakes and Ladders in the United Kingdom). Scientists studied children aged 3 to 9 to see if playing board games would have any effect on their math skills.

Scientists started by testing the kids on certain skills, like numbers, counting, and addition and subtraction. Then they divided the kids into groups. Some kids played games that required them to use numbers. For example, some games required counting or addition. Other kids played games that did not require them to use numbers. And some kids didn’t play any games. The kids played the games a few times a week for about six weeks. After that, the scientists tested the kids’ math skills again.

What did they find?

Scientists found that the kids who played board games improved their math skills. They improved much more than the kids who didn’t play games. And the kids who played number games improved more than the kids who played other kinds of games!

On June 4, 2022, Katya Echazarreta’s dream came true when she flew into space. Now, she wants to make sure other Mexican people get a chance to go to space too. 

Echazarreta has always loved space. When she was a kid, she told her mom she’d go some day. Growing up, she held on to her dream. She became an electrical engineer and then worked at NASA for a while. When she heard that regular citizens could apply for a chance to go to space, she jumped at the chance. 

It was a tough competition. More than 7,000 people from 100 countries sent in applications. But Echazarreta was chosen. She would become the first Mexican-born woman ever to go to space.

The space trip was short but amazing. Along with five other crew members, Echazarreta flew to the edge of space and stayed there for about 10 minutes. It was an experience she’ll never forget.

“The thing that remains with me…is that view of our planet from the outside,” she told CBS News. “It took me about three days to be able to fall asleep [after the trip] because every time I closed my eyes, I would see the planet and the clouds swirling around. I didn’t want to stop thinking about it.”

The Strong National Museum of Play takes fun very seriously. That’s why the museum recently got bigger—a lot bigger.

The Strong Museum, which is in Rochester, New York, expanded by 90,000 square feet (8,000 square meters)! Now, visitors have more ways than ever to learn about the history of play, or just to play.

“Shake It Off” is one of Taylor Swift’s biggest hit songs. But maybe she should rename it “Shake the Ground.” At two recent Swift concerts, fans got so excited that that’s exactly what they did!

The Earth-shaking events took place in Seattle, Washington, in July 2023. More than 70,000 Swifties (that’s the name for Swift’s fans) gathered each night to watch Swift rock out. During the two four-hour shows, the dancing fans, plus the music, shook the ground as hard as an earthquake.

That’s according to Professor Jackie Caplan-Auerbach, who teaches geology at Western Washington University. (Geology is the study of the features and history of Earth.) Caplan-Auerbach wanted to find out how much the Swift concerts shook the ground, so she checked an instrument called a seismometer, which measures the motion of the ground. Seismometers are often used to measure the strength of earthquakes on a scale of numbers. The higher the number, the stronger the earthquake. The shaking that took place at the Swift concerts wasn’t an earthquake, but the seismometer picked it up. The concert shaking measured 2.3, which is similar to a weak earthquake! 

“The music, the speakers, the beat. All that energy can drive into the ground and shake it,” Caplan-Auerbach told CNN.

After Caplan-Auerbach revealed that she had been studying the effects of the concerts, many of Swift’s fans sent comments to her on social media. They asked her if they had really caused the ground to shake. She said she’s excited to be able to help as many people as possible understand how science connects with real life.

Caplan-Auerbach wants to keep studying those concerts and why they shook the ground. How much shaking did the fans cause? How much of it was caused by the loud music?

Here’s another unanswered question: Is Caplan-Auerbach a Taylor Swift fan? Maybe so!

“I would not be surprised if I came out [of this study] as a Swiftie,” she told CBS News.

It was a golden gathering! In 2023, almost 500 golden retrievers and their owners met up in Scotland. They were there to celebrate the greatness of golden retrievers.

If you’ve ever met a golden retriever, you might understand why so many people love these dogs. They’re friendly and full of energy, and they love everyone. Golden retrievers also have a talent for “retrieving.” If you throw a ball, most goldens will run after it and bring it back to you. Today, the golden retriever is one of the most popular dogs in the world.

But golden retrievers didn’t always exist. The breed was developed by a Scottish man named Sir Dudley Marjoribanks in 1868. That year, the first litter of golden retrievers was born. Their parents were two of Marjoribanks’s dogs: a Tweed water spaniel and a yellow wavy-coated retriever. Those first golden retriever puppies were loyal and adorable—just as golden retrievers are today.

Golden retriever owners, as well as people who just love golden retrievers, now come together about every five years for the Guisachan Gathering. The four-day event takes place at Guisachan House, the home in Scotland where Marjoribanks once lived. The gathering includes dog training classes, a golden retriever parade, and a chance to pose with a golden retriever statue in a nearby town.

It’s not a fancy event. The dogs get muddy and a little smelly in the rainy Scotland weather. Some of them bark when their owners aren’t right by their side. But that’s okay. It’s just how golden retrievers are. It’s why everyone loves them!