Page Type: Elementary

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.

From gray to green and everything in between, cars come in lots of colors. But now there’s a car that can actually change its hue. The BMW iX Flow can go from dark gray to white…or from white to dark gray, in the blink of an eye.

The iX Flow uses a technology that’s already used in screens on certain electronic devices. The entire vehicle is wrapped in a type of electronic paint called “E Ink.” When the driver of the iX Flow pushes a button, electronic signals are sent to the car’s surface, causing its color to change.

The technology is just a prototype, which means the iX Flow isn’t currently for sale. But color-changing cars may be part of our future. BMW says there are tons of possibilities for this type of technology. It could allow drivers to update their E Ink cars with new colors and patterns. They could even opt for racing stripes.