Page Type: Elementary

There was a solar eclipse last month. Did you miss it? That could be because this eclipse was viewed from Mars!

The eclipse happened on April 2 when Phobos, one of Mars’s two moons, passed between the Sun and Mars. The event was captured on video by Perseverance, a rover (vehicle) that landed on the Red Planet in 2021. NASA sent Perseverance to Mars to look for signs that there was once life on the planet. But the rover’s fantastic camera makes it ideal for viewing an eclipse, too.

Perseverance captured video of Phobos as it passed in front of the Sun. Some people said that the tiny moon’s lumpy surface made it look a bit like a floating potato! Phobos is about 157 times smaller than Earth’s moon, so the eclipse lasted only about 40 seconds. (Solar eclipses on Earth last a few minutes.) But scientists were thrilled to see something that humans may never get to witness in person. 

“I knew it was going to be good, but I didn’t expect it to be this amazing,” said Rachel Howson of Malin Space Science Systems in San Diego. Howson is one of the operators of Perseverance’s camera. 

Phobos isn’t going to be around forever. Scientists say that gravity from Mars is pulling the small moon toward Mars. Every time Phobos orbits Mars, it gets closer to the planet’s surface. Eventually, Phobos will crash into Mars. But that won’t happen for tens of millions of years, scientists say.

Angela Haseltine Pozzi and her team of artists make big, brightly colored sculptures of animals that live in and around the sea. But while some sculptors shape their creations from metal, marble, or clay, Pozzi’s team uses trash. 

The sculptures are made from plastic that has washed up on beaches. This is plastic that was thrown away and got carried to the ocean by rivers or storm drains. Scientists aren’t sure exactly how much plastic is in Earth’s oceans, but they estimate that about 14 million tons of it enter the oceans every year. Some of this plastic breaks down into tiny pieces, where it harms marine animals that try to eat it.

Pozzi wants to highlight the plastic problem. She got the idea to build plastic sculptures and, in 2010, started a group called Washed Ashore to make it happen. Volunteers for Washed Ashore go to beaches and collect plastic. Then, working with Pozzi, they build their creations.

Washed Ashore has built a huge number of sculptures with everything from buttons to bottles to bleach containers. It’s their way of telling people just how much plastic is used and carelessly thrown away. 

There are rainbows under the water—rainbow-colored fish, that is! Scientists have discovered a new species of fish that has red, orange, and purple coloring.

The fish is called the rose-veiled fairy wrasse. (Wrasses are a family of brightly colored fish.) It lives in the waters around Maldives, a nation that’s made up of a group of islands in the Indian Ocean. The area is home to many species of marine life. The rose-veiled fairy wrasse also goes by its scientific name, Cirrhilabrus finifenmaa. Finifenmaa means “rose” in Dhivehi, the language spoken in Maldives.

Researchers first spotted the rose-veiled fairy wrasse in the 1990s, but they thought it belonged to a species they already knew about. Recently, they studied the fish more closely and realized it was actually a different species.

The rose-veiled fairy wrasse is found 160 to 500 feet (50 to 150 meters) beneath the ocean’s surface. This depth is called “the twilight zone.” The water in the twilight zone is darker and colder than near the surface. Around Maldives, the twilight zone is home to deep-water coral reefs. Many fish depend on these reefs, which have not been explored very much. Scientists say that learning about the twilight zone species will help them understand how to protect the coral reefs.

Just in time for Earth Day, Mattel has introduced some toys that might be kinder to our planet than other toys. 

Mattel’s Mega Bloks Green Town is a group of building sets that are made mostly from plant-based materials. The Matchbox Tesla Roadster is also made by Mattel. It’s a toy car that’s made from 99 percent recycled materials. 

Not every toy is friendly to the planet. In fact, many plastic toys are made using fossil fuels like oil and natural gas. When plastic is made from fossil fuels, greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide are released. This plastic keeps releasing greenhouse gases even long after it has been made. Having too many greenhouse gases in the atmosphere leads to climate change. 

Plastic also takes hundreds of years to break down. If plastic isn’t recycled, it just sits in landfills with all of our other garbage.

So why might Mega Bloks Green Town and the Matchbox Tesla Roadster be better for the environment than other toys? Materials that are made from plants, like Green Town, produce fewer greenhouse gases. And toys made from recycled materials, like the Tesla Roadster, need less new plastic to make them.

Mattel says it’s trying to be more and more Earth-friendly. In 2019, the company pledged to use “100 percent recycled, recyclable, or bio-based [plant-based] plastics materials in both its products and packaging.” It said it would do this by the year 2030. 

“Give me liberty, or give me death!” 

Historians believe Patrick Henry said these words in a speech he gave in March 1775. About a month later, on April 19, 1775, the Battles of Lexington and Concord took place. The American Revolution had begun. 

At the time, America was made up of 13 colonies that were ruled by Great Britain. Patrick Henry was one of many colonists who supported going to war for independence. One big reason for their support was that the British government had taken actions and passed laws that the colonists felt were unfair. 

For example, Britain, which was in need of money, had passed new taxes over the previous several years. People in Britain were taxed, too, but they had lawmakers who represented them in the British government. The American colonists had no one representing them in the British government. Since they didn’t have a voice in the government, they didn’t think they should have to pay these taxes.

Britain had also passed new laws increasing the control the British government had over the colonies. One law required colonial leaders to house and feed British soldiers. Another act applied to the Massachusetts colony. It allowed the governor to appoint leaders who had, until then, been elected by the people. The colonists felt they had less and less freedom.

Fighting in the American Revolution lasted until the British surrendered in 1781. Two years later, Britain signed the Treaty of Paris. By signing, Britain agreed that the United States was an independent nation.

More than 20 dogs from an animal shelter in Richmond, Virginia, recently found their forever homes, thanks to a group of thoughtful 7 and 8 year olds. Letters written by students in Ms. Jones’s 2nd-grade class helped convince pet adopters to give a special group of dogs—and one cat—a second look.

These weren’t ordinary letters. Each one was written from the point of view of a shelter dog or cat. 

“Hi, my name is Sleigh Ride. Do you want to adopt me?” read one letter, according to National Public Radio. “You can snuggle with me! I promise that I will be a good dog.”

Teacher Kensey Jones says she started the letter-writing project after volunteering at Richmond Animal Care and Control (RACC). Most of the animals at the shelter find homes within a few weeks. But some of them remain there for months because they are older or not quite as well behaved as other dogs, making them harder to adopt out. Jones told Christie Peters, the director of the shelter, all about her idea for the project. Peters loved it.

Jones identified 23 dogs and one cat that had been at the shelter for a while. She gave their photos and descriptions to her students, who then wrote the letters and drew pictures of the animals. Each letter and drawing about a dog or cat was posted in front of that animal’s kennel at the shelter. Jones and her students hoped that the letters would convince people not to overlook these longtime shelter residents.

The plan worked. Most of the 24 animals have found homes of their very own. Jones says she hopes other teachers will have their students do something similar for animals in local shelters. As for the students, they’re excited about the effect that their letters have had.

Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson has made history! The U.S. Senate voted to confirm Jackson’s nomination to the Supreme Court, the most powerful court in the United States. Jackson will be the first Black woman ever to serve on the Court.

Jackson will be one of nine Supreme Court justices. Together, Supreme Court justices hear about 80 cases every year. They consider whether laws are fair based on what the U.S. Constitution says. Justices have the power to overturn, or change, decisions made by lower courts. 

How do you become a Supreme Court justice? Justices are nominated by the president before the Senate votes on whether they should get the job. Those who are nominated usually have a lot of experience as a lawyer and a judge. 

Jackson has had a long career in the law. She grew up in Florida, where both of her parents were teachers before her father became a lawyer and her mother became a school principal. Jackson went to Harvard University and Harvard Law School. Then she worked as a law clerk for Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer, which means she helped him when he was deciding cases. Jackson also worked as a lawyer and then a judge. In 2021, Jackson became a judge on the D.C. Circuit Court, which is the second most powerful court in the nation. When Justice Breyer decided to retire from the Court, President Joe Biden nominated Jackson to replace him.

Like all Supreme Court justices, Jackson will have her job for the rest of her life, unless she decides to retire. Jackson’s decisions and opinions will be very important because they will affect the lives of all Americans.

What has eight legs and may soon be headed to a tree near you? It’s the Joro spider! The spider, which is native to Asia, was first seen in the U.S. state of Georgia in 2013. It has now been spotted as far north as North Carolina. Scientists say the Joro is likely to eventually spread all over the East Coast of the U.S. 

The Joro spider gets lots of gasps when people see it. That’s because females are mostly bright yellow and can be as big as the palm of a hand—an adult hand! Their webs, which they often spin in trees, bushes, and power lines, can be up to 10 feet wide. But while the Joro may be a bit of a beast, it’s harmless to humans. In fact, scientists say it’s fairly shy.

Joro spiders are terrific travelers. When the spiderlings (baby spiders) hatch, they do something called “ballooning,” which means they sail through the air helped by silk they’ve released from their abdomens. Also, Joro spiders sometimes build their webs on vehicles and end up wherever the vehicles go. That’s probably how the Joro spider is spreading up the East Coast. 

It’s probably also how the spider got to Georgia. Scientists believe some spiders most likely hitched a ride on ships traveling from Asia to the U.S. 

Sometimes nonnative animal and plant species can harm ecosystems in their new homes by making it hard for native species to find food or living space. Scientists say it’s too early to tell if the Joro spider will do this. But for now, they’re glad to see that the spiders are eating a lot of pests, like stink bugs and lantern flies.

Everyone needs some encouraging words sometimes. That’s why a group of students created the Peptoc Hotline, a phone number people can call to hear positive messages anytime they want.

The idea for the hotline came from Jessica Martin, an art teacher at West Side Elementary School in Healdsburg, California. Martin wanted to spread joy at a time when there are a lot of tough things going on in the world. So she recorded her students saying happy messages and set up the hotline. She also asked some students to make posters with uplifting messages, which she then hung up all over Healdsburg. Working on the project brought Martin’s students plenty of joy, and they hoped it would also bring happiness to others.

People who call the Peptoc Hotline can hear recordings of kids ranging in age from 5 to 12 saying things like, “Be you!” and “Live it up!” These messages are mini “pep talks,” short speeches meant to make others feel happier and more confident. In fact, the project was originally called the Pep Talk Hotline, but when Martin’s 6-year-old son wrote it down, he spelled it P-E-P-T-O-C. 

The hotline, which debuted on February 26, has been a huge success. It receives hundreds of calls every hour, according to Martin.

Like all pasta, spaghetti is made from flour, water, and sometimes eggs. But on April 1, 1957, a TV news show in the United Kingdom (U.K.) played an April Fools’ joke on its viewers. The program claimed that spaghetti grows on trees!

The fake news story appeared on a TV show called Panorama. According to the story, the unusually warm winter that year had led to a very large “spaghetti crop” in Switzerland. Viewers saw people picking strands of spaghetti from trees and placing them into baskets.

Did the story fool anyone?

The BBC, the TV channel that aired Panorama, said it heard from lots of viewers who had seen the spaghetti story. Not all of them believed that pasta was actually growing on trees somewhere in Switzerland. Some were upset that a news show would do anything so silly. But others wanted to know where they could buy their own spaghetti bushes!

Why was this April Fools’ joke such a success? There are a couple of possible reasons. For one thing, spaghetti wasn’t widely eaten in the U.K. in the 1950s. Some British people didn’t know a lot about it. Also, Panorama was known for its serious news stories. It had earned the trust of its viewers. The show’s host, a man named Richard Dimbleby, had a long career as a journalist. When he told viewers about the spaghetti trees, he used the same serious tone of voice that he employed in any other news report.

After the spaghetti story, Panorama went right back to reporting real news. But its prank showed that even a serious news show can have a little fun. That’s exactly what the people who ran Panorama did with their silly spaghetti story.