Tag: grade 8

News

Mayor Rob Ford Has Bizarre Confrontation With Reporter

Toronto’s mayor is involved in another bizarre situation. This time, mayor Rob Ford, had a confrontation with a reporter from the Toronto Star newspaper.

(You may recall a past TeachingKidsNews article when Mayor Ford was confronted by a CBC comedian on his property, and called the police. Here is a link to that article.)

In this case, the Star found out that Ford intends to buy some property next to his home. Ironically, Ford wants to buy the property in order to erect a security fence.

Star reporter Daniel Dale went to Ford’s home around 7:45 p.m. to look at the property and take some pictures of it.

One of Ford’s neighbours called the mayor and told him someone was snooping around his house.

Ford got very angry. He drove home and confronted the reporter.

Entertainment News Sports

Stanley Cup Playoffs Update

With the beginning of each National Hockey League (NHL) regular season, teams dream of winning The Stanley Cup.

The Stanley Cup is the NHL’s ultimate prize. It is a trophy awarded each year to the team that wins the playoffs.

The playoffs are composed of the top 16 teams from the regular season.

In the playoffs teams embark on a best-of-seven series in hopes of winning The Cup. The team to win four games first wins the series.

Each series win brings a team one step closer to raising The Stanley Cup as champion.

Last year the Boston Bruins were champions and won The Cup.

This year the Bruins lost in round one in a thrilling series against the Washington Capitals.

Health Kids News

Nutella Is Not A Health Food

The company that makes Nutella, a spread made from chocolate and hazelnuts, has agreed to give refunds to people who bought the product because they thought it was good for them.

Four women in the United States sued the company, Ferrero U.S.A., Inc., because they said it made misleading claims about the product. Television commercials for Nutella describe it as part of a balanced breakfast, along with toast, milk and fruit.

The women said they bought Nutella because they believed it was a healthy food to give their families. Then they found out that the spread contains large amounts of sugar and fat. Eating too much fat and sugar can contribute to obesity – being overweight — which is not good for your health.

Environment News

Japan’s 2011 Tsunami Sends Balls 8,000 Kilometres To Alaska

In March 2011, Japan was hit by the largest earthquake ever recorded.

It caused a tsunami–a huge wave that started out in the ocean. The tsunami swept onto the north-east coast of Japan and back into the sea, carrying away everything in its path.

Now, after travelling across the Pacific Ocean for more than a year, a soccer ball and a volleyball have washed up onto Middleton Island, off the coast of Alaska.

The man who found them plans to send them back to the two Japanese teenagers who lost them during the tsunami.

The balls were found two weeks apart and both balls had names on them. The soccer ball also had a school name and several messages.

Amorphophallus-Apr282012 worlds tallest flower
Environment Lighter News Science

World’s Largest (And Stinkiest) Plant About To Bloom Near Niagara Falls

It’s stinky and it’s huge—and it’s about to bloom.

The world’s tallest flower is set to bloom this week.

Its scientific name is The Amorphophallus titanium (Titan Arum for short).

The extremely rare flower is at the Niagara Parks’ Floral Showhouse, near the Canadian Horseshoe Falls in Ontario. When it blooms, it will be the 22nd of its kind to bloom in a botanical garden.

Titan Arum is also known as the corpse flower. That’s because of the stinky odour it gives off. It smells like rotting meat.

Its horrible smell helps the flower attract insects that it needs for pollination. (Lots of insects are attracted to rotting meat.)

Titan arum normally grows in the rainforests of Sumatra.

However, this one—and another one that is also growing and will bloom after the first one—was donated by a man who lives in New Hampshire, U.S.

Health News

Raising Awareness About Prader-Willi Syndrome

Dante’s dad wants people to know about Prader-Willi Syndrome.

People with Prader-Willi Syndrome (PWS) feel hungry all the time. That’s hard for most of us to imagine. We’re used to eating a meal and then feeling full for about two hours.

But kids with Prader-Willi don’t feel full. After they’ve eaten, they want to eat again. But of course if they do that, they’ll eat too much—not just three meals a day. That can lead to obesity—being overweight—which can lead to health problems.

Dante, who is now seven-and-a-half, was born with PWS. His dad, Keegan Johnson, wants to make people aware of the condition in order to raise money for research and, eventually, a cure.

News Politics

Dramatic PC Win In Alberta Confounds The Pollsters

“They” had predicted that this election would make history in Alberta.

“They” had predicted that the new Wildrose Party would win, and take over from the Progressive Conservatives (PCs), who have held power there since 1971.

“They” were wrong.

“They,” are the pollsters; the people who take polls. They ask people, prior to an election, how they intend to vote and make an educated guess as to who will win an election.

Most of the polls predicted not just a win for the Wildrose Party, but that the Wildrose Party might get a majority as well.

Entertainment News

Director James Cameron Goes To Earth’s Deepest Point

Canadian movie director James Cameron is known for doing some amazing things, in a big way.

He has directed some of the biggest movie blockbusters ever including Avatar, The Terminator and Aliens.

In 1997 he directed the film he is perhaps best known for, Titanic.

This year–100 years after the original Titanic ship sank to the bottom of the ocean–Cameron has gone down to the ocean floor himself, to the deepest point on Earth.

News Science Technology

Students’ Experiments To Be Conducted In Space

Three students have won the chance to have science experiments they created carried out by astronauts in space.

The students won an international competition called the YouTube Space Lab Contest. Last October, students around the world aged 14 to 18 were invited to come up with ideas for experiments that could be performed on the International Space Station.

The space station is a satellite that orbits the Earth. It includes a research laboratory where astronauts from the United States, Russia, Japan, Europe and Canada conduct experiments. Because there is no gravity on the space station, they are able to do experiments they could not do on Earth.

For the contest, students had to make a video explaining their hypothesis – the idea they wanted to test – and the method for doing the experiment. Then they posted the videos on YouTube.

Winners were chosen by people voting on YouTube, and by a panel of judges that included scientists, teachers, astronauts and journalists.