Page Type: Elementary

It’s back-to-school time! Did you know that there are millions of schools in the world?

Every school is special, but some are VERY different from all the rest. Check these out!

Oldest School

Shishi High School in Chengdu, China, opened in 141 BCE, making it the oldest school in the world. The school’s buildings have been rebuilt a few times, but Shishi has operated in the same location for more than 2,100 years!

Keep chasing your dreams. That’s what Carson Pickett’s dad has always told her. So Pickett never stopped doing what she loved—playing soccer. And in June 2022, she became the first person with a limb difference to play on the U.S. women’s national soccer team (USWNT). (When someone has a limb difference, it means that one of their arms or legs is not shaped in the usual way.) 

Pickett usually plays for a team called the North Carolina Courage, but she was chosen to fill in for Emily Fox for the USWNT game that took place on June 28, 2022. Pickett played for all 90 minutes of the game. She helped the U.S. team win a 2-0 victory against Colombia.

Pickett, who was born without a left hand or forearm, started playing soccer when she was 5. She loved the sport, and by the time she got to college, experts were calling her one of the best young players in the United States. Eventually, Pickett became a professional soccer player. She has played for many teams, but playing for the USWNT was an especially big moment in a big-deal career.

“I saw the crowd and everyone chanting ‘USA’ and I just knew that my biggest dream just came true,” she told Good Morning America. “I think it was so cool to see my parents in the stands and just all the little kids screaming your name and things like that. And honestly, it’s the best feeling I’ve ever had in my entire life.” 

But soccer isn’t the only thing that’s important to Pickett. In 2019, a photo of Pickett with a young fan went viral on social media. Like Pickett, the boy, Joseph Tidd, had been born without a left hand and forearm. Pickett wants to encourage people—especially kids—to be proud of what makes them different.

“Different people are my kind of people,” she told CBS News. “The world needs more of that.” 

A diner was eating outside at a restaurant in China when they spotted some footprints—very large footprints. These were no ordinary animal tracks. It turns out they were made millions of years ago…by dinosaurs!

Paleontologists (scientists who study fossils from long ago) used special instruments called 3D scanners to study the fossilized footprints and determine their origin. According to paleontologist Dr. Lida Xing, the prints date back about 100 million years, to a time called the Cretaceous period. They were made by two sauropods. 

A sauropod was a type of dinosaur that had a small head and a long neck and tail. Dr. Xing said the sauropods that made the footprints probably measured about 26 feet (8 meters) in length. They were actually on the small side. Some sauropods could reach almost 100 feet (30 meters). That’s the length of three school buses! Sauropods were so heavy that the ground probably shook when they walked. 

But while they were big enough to take down a lot of other dinosaurs, sauropods were vegetarians. They didn’t eat meat. Because they were so big, sauropods had to look for endless amounts of vegetation to eat. Paleontologists say that could be what the pair of sauropods were doing when they made the footprints that have survived for so long.

Footprints don’t always last for millions of years, even when they’re fossilized. Many footprints and other fossils may have been lost when they were built on or paved over before they could be discovered. But the sauropod footprints were discovered in a location that was once a farm, and the prints were buried in dirt and sand. Covered over like this, the prints were protected from damage. The dirt and sand were removed when the property was turned into a restaurant.

The restaurant owner has fenced off the area where the footprints are in order to protect them. It’s as if there’s a treasure on his property.

“The footprints were very deep and quite obvious,” Dr. Xing told CNN. “But [for a long time] nobody had thought about [the possibility that they were made by dinosaurs].”

Have you ever seen a monarch butterfly? Monarchs, which are found mostly in North America and Central America, are famous for their beautiful orange, black, and white wings. But in the past several years, it’s been harder to find some monarchs—because there aren’t as many as there used to be. Scientists say that migrating monarch butterflies are endangered, which means they’re in danger of dying out.

The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), a group that keeps track of species populations, has added the migrating monarch butterfly to its “red list” for the first time. The red list is a list of species whose populations have fallen to the point where they are “threatened.” When something is threatened, it means that its future is not certain. There are more than 41,000 species on the red list.

According to the IUCN, the number of monarchs in North America has fallen by at least 22 percent in the past 10 years. That’s almost one-quarter of the monarch butterfly population. Scientists believe there are a few reasons for this. The butterflies have lost much of their habitat, including parts of forests where they stay during the winter. They’ve also been harmed by pesticides, which are poisons that farmers use to kill pests that eat crops. And, like many species, monarch butterflies are affected by climate change.

Not all monarch butterflies are in trouble. The problem is affecting only the monarch butterflies that migrate, or fly from one place to another each year. Every autumn, millions of these monarchs fly south, from colder parts of North America to California and Mexico, where they spend the winter. They fly north again as the weather warms up in the spring. 

The migration of the monarch butterfly is thousands of miles—the longest in the insect world. The sight of the butterflies is so beautiful that crowds sometimes gather to see thousands of the orange insects sleeping in the trees.

But scientists say there are reasons to hope monarch butterflies will be around for a long time. Putting a species on the red list can make people aware that it needs help. And there are ways to help, including by protecting forests and using fewer pesticides. 

Ordinary people can help too. Monarch butterflies lay their eggs on a plant called milkweed, and caterpillars (young butterflies) feed on the milkweed. People who have backyards can help monarchs by planting milkweed.

“There is still time to act,” Scott Hoffman Black, a scientist who works to help save species, told CNN.

What do you get when you build the most powerful space telescope ever? Some pretty amazing images! The James Webb Space Telescope was launched into space in December 2021. And now, it’s showing us space like we’ve never seen it before.

The Webb telescope orbits around our Sun, so it’s close to Earth. Yet it can capture images of space objects that are millions of miles away. And those images are really clear. What’s the secret? Webb has infrared cameras. These cameras can detect (see) light that the human eye—and many other telescopes—cannot. Webb can receive images through space dust, which is where stars and planets form!

Some of the most beautiful images show nebulae, which are clouds made up of swirling dust and gases. Sometimes this dust and gas has been ejected, or released, by a dying star. 

Webb captured an image of the Southern Ring Nebula. The image shows the dying star in the center of the nebula. The image also includes a brighter star. That star is not dying, but it will one day. When that happens, scientists say, it will probably eject a nebula of its own.

New stars also form from the dust of nebulae. One of Webb’s images shows the Carina Nebula, where many stars are forming. The image shows stars in and around a cloud of dust that looks like mountains.

Webb is just getting started. It could continue to capture images for another 20 years! Scientists hope to get images of exoplanets—planets that are outside our solar system. Some of these planets may have what it takes to support life! Scientists want to peer far into the universe to learn more about how it began. 

What else will they find? They’re not sure, but they can’t wait to find out!

There’s something funny about the kidney garden spider. The markings on its back look like a face with a thick mustache! It’s not just any face, though. It appears to be the face of the man on cans of Pringles brand potato chips. Now, the people at Pringles want the spider species to have a new name: the Pringles Spider. 

Pringles has posted an online petition to try to get the kidney garden spider renamed. A petition is a form that people can sign to show they want something to happen. The Pringles petition says, “We’re [asking] the arachnid community to do what’s right and recognize this very real spider as the Pringles Spider.” (An arachnid is an eight-legged animal with a body in two parts.)

It’s not likely the kidney garden spider cares what it’s called. After all, it would rather eat a bug than a potato chip. The spider, which is found in South, East, and Southeast Asia, catches its meals by building a circle-shaped web called an orb web. It places a curled-up leaf at one end of the web and builds a silky “roof” for the leaf. Then, it creeps under the roof and hides. When prey lands on the web and tries to get untangled, it makes the web vibrate. Feeling the vibrations, the spider rushes out to get its meal. 

And why is it called the kidney garden spider? It often lives in gardens, and its two large markings are shaped like kidneys.

Still, there are plenty of people who think the spider should be named for Pringles instead. Thousands of people signed the Pringles petition in the first week after it was first posted.

The public doesn’t get to make the final decision, though. Scientists give animals their names. So far, “the arachnid community” hasn’t commented.

Have you ever seen something flying high in the sky and thought, “What IS that?” If so, you’re not alone. Many people have spotted what are called unidentified aerial phenomena (also called UAPs or UFOs). Now, scientists from NASA (the National Aeronautics and Space Administration) are going to investigate. 

In the fall of 2022, NASA will begin a study to learn more about UAPs. The goal of the study is to look at what we know about UAPs and figure out how to learn more. Why study UAPs? Hundreds of pilots have reported seeing flying objects that haven’t been identified or explained! 

Does that mean hundreds of alien spaceships have visited Earth? It’s not likely, scientists say.

When something is called a UAP or a UFO, it simply means that there’s something in the sky and there’s no explanation for what it is. Yet many people read reports about UAPs and believe that they came from outer space. Some people assume UAPs must belong to aliens. NASA scientists say they don’t share that assumption. They say there are many possible explanations for what people have been seeing. 

Scientists say there’s a lot they still don’t know about events that happen in the universe—even in our own sky. NASA scientists hope to learn more.

“We have the tools and team who can help us improve our understanding of the unknown,” said Thomas Zurbuchen of NASA. “That’s the very definition of what science is. That’s what we do.”

On May 24, a crowd gathered on the French island of Mont-Saint-Michel to witness a strange sight. High above them, a man was walking on a very long tightrope! The man, Nathan Paulin, walked—and sometimes wobbled—his way across the 0.8-inch (2-centimeter) wide slackline for 1.4 miles (2.2 kilometers). It was the longest tightrope walk ever!

The record-breaking walk took place on a slackline that was tied to a crane at one end and a very old building called the Mont-Saint-Michel Abbey at the other. The line was more than 300 feet (100 meters) off the ground, and it swayed back and forth in the wind as Paulin made his way across. Paulin, who was attached to a harness for safety reasons, took his time, carefully placing his foot with each step. The walk took two hours to complete! 

Just before he reached the end, Paulin lost his balance and slipped off the line. (He caught the line with his hands.) By the time he slipped, Paulin had already broken the record. 

Paulin, 28, is a pro at this sort of thing. According to his website, he’s been making his way across tightropes since he was a teenager, and he has done many attention-grabbing walks high above famous places. In 2017, Paulin and two others walked across a 1.0-mile (1.7-kilometer) tightrope above a valley in a French mountain range. And in 2021, he walked 1,969 feet (600 meters) on a line that stretched above the city of Paris from the Eiffel Tower to the Chaillot theater.

Paulin hopes to set more records in the future.

“My next dream—I hope to be able to do it—would be to walk between the Eiffel Tower and Montparnasse Tower,” he told Euro News. That’s a distance of 1.7 miles (2.7 kilometers).

Cars are cool when they drive, but what if they could also walk? Hyundai, a company that has been making cars for many years, plans to build two types of vehicles that are half car, half walking robot! 

Hyundai calls these cars Ultimate Mobility Vehicles, or UMVs. When they’re on smooth roads, UMVs ride on their wheels, like any other car. But when they reach someplace most cars can’t go—like steps or a pile of rocks—they grow legs! Picture a four-legged robot with a wheel at the end of each leg. The legs can bend and stretch, while the wheels can turn all the way around, allowing the vehicle to go forward, backward, side to side, and even up. 

Hyundai introduced the first of these vehicles, called the Elevate, in 2019. According to the company, the Elevate can climb a 5-foot (1.5-meter) wall or step across a 5-foot gap. Hyundai says the Elevate could be used to rescue people after natural disasters, like earthquakes. It could also help people with disabilities. For example, if someone can’t get down their front steps, the Elevate could go right to the top of the staircase to meet the person where they are! 

The other vehicle, called the Tiger X-1, was introduced in 2021. It’s similar to the Elevate, but it doesn’t carry people. Hyundai says the Tiger could take supplies to people who are waiting to be rescued after earthquakes. It could also be used on construction sites, or even to explore other planets!

So far, both the Elevate and the Tiger are concept cars. That means they’re still being developed. But in 2022, Hyundai opened a facility in Montana where it will build and test versions of these UMVs. The company hopes to someday put them on the road—and beyond.

If you don’t know how to spell a word, you could look it up in a dictionary. Or maybe you could ask Harini Logan! The 14-year-old from San Antonio, Texas, correctly spelled a series of seriously hard words in the 2022 Scripps National Spelling Bee to capture the top prize.

“This is such a dream,” Harini said after the bee, according to CNN. “This is my fourth bee, and I’m just so overwhelmed.”

In spelling bees, contestants are given words to try to spell. If they spell the word correctly, they stay in the bee. If not, they are out of the contest. As the bee continues, there are fewer and fewer spellers. The last speller left wins! 

This year’s Scripps Spelling Bee was a tough contest. The last two contestants, Harini and Vikram Raju, 12, were tied during the final round, so the judges decided to have a tiebreaker round called a “spell-off.” In a spell-off, each contestant tries to spell as many words as possible in 90 seconds. Vikram spelled 15 words correctly, while Harini spelled 22 words correctly, making her the winner. Harini’s words included “kniphofia” (a kind of plant) and “moorhen” (a kind of bird).