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KIDS DID IT!
What if you could power a flashlight without batteries? Ann Makosinski, 16, has come up with such a flashlight that has an unusual power source...body heat! Called thermoelectric technology, Ann wanted to come up with a flashlight to help those that don't have electricity. She said that much of the heat radiating out of us is wasted. Ann decided to see if she could harness some of that heat. Her bright idea won the Google Science Fair Award. Her prize, a trophy made from Legos, a trip to Denmark where Legos is headquartered and a $25,000 scholarship.
Photograph from odditycentral.com
Photograph from finance.yahoo.com
Photograph from bleacherreport.com
Malavath Poorna, 13,of India, climbed a mountain. Not just any mountain, Malavath summited the highest peak in the world-Mt. Everest becoming the youngest girl to ever do so. Because of her age, Nepal would not allow Malavath to attempt the climb from the "easier" ascent. Nepal requires climbers to be at least 16 years old. Thus, Malavath and her group climbed from the Tibetan side, a bit harder ascent route. It took 52 days to complete the climb with Malavath reaching the top of Mt. Everest on May 25th. Malavath took part in a program which offered mountaineering. She was one of twenty selected out of 150 to get further training for a possible Mt. Everest climb. She and S. Anand Kumar, 16 ,were the only two that successfully qualified. Malavath suffered from altitude sickness and trekked dangerous crevasses, steep sloops and endured very cold temperatures. Malavath never gave up her quest to climb the tallest mountain peak in the world.
Photographs from:dailymail.co.ukThe U.S. Women's Open begins in June and Lucy Li will be one of the golfers competing in the tournament. What makes this news worthy is Lucy is only 11 years old! She is the youngest person to qualify to play in the Open. The sixth-grader from Redwood, California, recently played a round of golf with a score of 74-68 during a qualifying game at Pinehurst No. 2 in North Carolina. Lucy took up the sport at the age of seven. Way to go,Lucy!
Photograph from stltoday.comThe ports of Hong Kong are where much of the illegal ivory arrives for distribution in Asia. The world's largest ivory destruction is set for May 15th, an amazing 30 tons of ivory. That's equal to about 11,000 elephant killed for their tusks! The ivory stockpile being destroyed is largely due to school children who sent a petition(letter) to the government asking that this be done. A number of school children in Hong Kong have been writing letters to create awareness on just where ivory comes from and the damaging effect the illegal ivory trade is having on the remaining elephant population. One of these kids is Nellie Shute, 12, of Australia, who attends the Hong Kong International School. Her message, "no to ivory". She was able to convince her school to remove ivory carvings from a display case. Nellie then made gift cards which helped to raise $250 which was given to pay for the care of an orphaned elephant at the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust in the African country of Kenya. The students haven't stopped yet. Now, the students are spreading the word in hopes that Hong Kong stores remove ivory products from their shelves.
Photograph of Nellie from adelaidenow.com/au 
Photograph from CNN.com
Shubham Banerjee,12, of California,used a Lego kit and created something that can help others. He invented a Braille printer! Called Braigo(combining the words braille and Lego), Shubham's printer is hundreds of dollars less than those currently on the market. It is Shubham's goal to help blind people around the world, especially in poorer nations. Shubham used the Lego Mindstorms EV3 set to create his printer which he submitted for a local science fair. The Lego company, based in Denmark,having learned of the seventh grader's invention using their blocks, tweeted,"We're very proud. Impressive work for a great cause."Shubham plans to allow others to be able to make his Braigo, free of charge.
The first high school in the USA has gotten Pavegen floor tiles and the efforts are thanks to student,Zach Halem, 14, who got his school, Riverdale Country School in New York, to install them. The teen contacted the developer, Laurence Kemball-Cook, about the floors and worked with Pavegen and school officials to bring the tiles to his school. Walking on the green tiles,located outside the school's cafeteria, creates energy, from 2-7 watts. That's enough to power a street light for about 30 seconds or can power a cell phone. The green tiles are made from recycled rubber.Students can see what they generate under their feet and help power the hallways.
Photograph from energyharvestingjournal.comWhat did YOU do on Christmas Eve? Tyler Armstrong, 9, from Yorba Linda, California climbed a mountain. And, not just any mountain, he climbed the tallest mountain peak in the Western and Southern hemispheres, Aconcagua. Tyler climbed into the record books becoming the youngest to ever summit Aconcagua. The peak is 22,841 ft. tall and only 30% of the 7,000 people who attempt the climb are successful each year. Special permission was needed for Tyler as the youngest age to make such a climb is usually 14 years old. The ascent,along with his dad and a Tibetan sherpa guide, was done on what is named the "Polish Glacier route. Tyler said that it was pretty amazing to see "all the clouds are under you." To help pay for the trek, Tyler held fundraisers and also raised money for Cure Duchenne, an organization doing muscular dystrophy research. Climbing mountains isn't new to Tyler. When he was 8 years old, Tyler climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro, a 19,341 ft. mountain peak in Tanzania, Africa. A future goal of Tyler's is to successfully climb all the highest mountains on each continent. They are called the "seven summits". Next,Tyler hopes to attempt Denali,(also called Mt. McKinley) the tallest peak in North America(located in Alaska).
Photograph from:lasvegassun.comTana Clymer,14, from Oklahoma, was at the Arkansas Crater of Diamonds State Park looking for diamonds. After about 2 hours of digging, Tana found a yellow diamond about the size of a jellybean. At first, Tana, thought the 3.85 carat canary diamond was just a piece of a candy wrapper. What's great about Tana's discovery is that she can keep the diamond,thought to be valued at thousands of dollars! Tana named her diamond "God's Jewel".
Photograph from ABCnews.go.comBack in 2009, Kevin Terris was on a field trip to Utah's Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument with his classmates searching for fossils when he noticed what looked like a little piece of bone under a mushroom shaped rock called a "hoodoo". Could it be a dinosaur bone? Walking around the boulder,Kevin sighted a skull...of a dinosaur. Could more of the dinosaur remains lay beneath the boulder? Returning the next year, the site was excavated and, an amazing discovery was made. Seems Kevin had stumbled upon the remains of a complete parasaurolophus. The duck-billed dinosaur fossil is said to be the most complete, smallest and youngest of the species of dinosaur ever found. Nicknamed "Joe", the age was determined by the ring patterns in its leg bone. The parasaurolophus was less than a year old when it died. This month, Joe goes on display at the Raymond M. Alf Museum of Paleontology in California.
Photograph from dinosaurjoe.org
Photograph from spokesman.comJust like most 11 year old kids, Carson Huey-You, has returned to school for the fall. The difference, Carson,is attending Texas Christian University in Fort Worth as the college's youngest freshman. Carson, who plans to study physics started to read at the age of 2 and graduated from a private high school this past June as co-valedictorian. In his spare time, Carson likes to play the piano,chess and checkers and loves Star Wars. He also enjoys watching Mythbusters. Carson wants to be a quantum physicist when he grows up.
Photograph from clickorlando.comArvind Mahankali, 13, of New York, is the 86th Scripps National Spelling Bee champ. The winning word was "knaidel" a Yiddish word for dumpling(matzo ball).In addition to $ 30,000 in cash and prizes, Arvind won a great looking trophy. This isn't the first time Arvind has competed in the Bee. The previous two years, Arvind finished in third place. The 8th grader,the first boy to win in five years,studied German words for the bee. He plans to become a physicist.Congrats, Arvind on a job well done!
Photograph from SFgate.com
Photograph from dailymail.co.ukTwins Ryan and Luke Novosel, of Wilmette, Illinois, read in the Guinness Book of World Records they got as a Christmas gift that a school in Iowa had the world record number of twins in one grade... 16 sets of twins. The two 5th graders knew they had many more in their Highcrest Wilmette Middle School. There are 24 sets of twins out of the 470 fifth graders! Guinness was contacted and required birth certificates, a photo of all the twins and information from the school was submitted for consideration to the change the
Are you a polyglot? That's a person that can speak multiple languages. Timothy Doner, of New York, has taught himself to speak 23 languages ...and he's only 17. Some of the languages which Timothy can speak includes Farsi, Swahili, French, Mandarin, Russian , Hebrew and Arabic. Timothy says that he reads about 8 different language newspapers each day and spends hours on languages. What sparked an interest in languages was his learning Hebrew for his bar mitzvah back in 2009. Using language books, apps on his IPhone and speaking with other people on the internet, he has increased the number of languages he can speak. Called the youngest polyglot in the world, Timothy says next on the list of languages to learn include Japanese,Polish,German, Sudanese and Malay.
Photograph from NYtimes.comGuan Tianlang, 14, will be making history this week when he becomes the youngest golfer at the Masters. Prior to Tianland, the youngest to participated in the Masters(the one where the top golfer gets a green jacket) was Matteo Manassero, 16 of Italy. Tianlang is an eighth-grader from the country of China. He got the invitation to play by winning the Asia-Pacific Amateur Championship last fall. Tianlang began playing golf when he was just four years old, after watching Tiger Woods play in thh 2005 Masters. When he met Woods the other day, Tiangland asked him to autograph his golf cap. Woods then invited Tianlang to play a round of golf together.Excited to play in the tournament, Tianland also needs to schedule time to...do his homework which he brought along to Augusta,Georgia.
Photograph from:www.bbc.co.uk/newsround3/31/2013: Boy Finds Rare Fossil on the Beach!
Photograph from Oxfordmail.co.uk
Winter Vinecki is only 14 but has a big goal. By the end of the year(2013), she hopes to become the youngest person to run a marathon...on all seven continents! Winter lost her dad to cancer when she was just nine years old. She decided to start Team Winter, a non profit organization to create awareness to cancer, especially prostate cancer, the cancer that took the life of her dad.She's raised almost $400,000 for prostate cancer research. Winter started running at the age of five and has already become a two-time IronKids triathlon national champion.Winter's attempt to run one marathon on each continent has begun and hopes to continue to raise money to support her cause. She's raced the Eugene Marathon in Oregon(North America)and the Amazing Maasai in Kenya(Africa). Winter raced in Antarctica in March and, next up, a run in the Inca Trail Marathon(South America). The next marathons will include the Sunrise to Sunset race in Mongolia(Asia), the Wharf to Wharf race in New Zealand and finish in the Athens Classic Marathon in Greece(Europe) in the fall,where the marathon originated. If Winter is successful in completing each of these marathons before her 15th birthday, she will set a record as the youngest to ever accomplish this task. You go, Winter!
Photograph from bayoubuzz.comEli Reimer hiked 70 miles on an amazing two week journey to reach the base station of Mt. Everest, the highest mountain in the world. Eli, 15, has Down Syndrome and did the climb reaching 17,600 ft. to create awareness and raise funds for the disabled. Along with his dad and a team of seven, Eli reached the South Base Camp, located in the country of Nepal, making history as the first person thought to ever do the amazing climb with Down Syndrome. The teen from Bend, Oregon, raised $85,000 in his efforts for the Elisha Foundation. Super accomplishment, Eli!
Photograph from newsfeed.time.comA couple of years ago a five year old girl,Daisy Morris,was walking along the beach on the Isle of Wight and found some dinosaur remains, Scientists say the remains were of a flying dinosaur and that it was a never before found species of a pterosaur that lived 115 million years ago.This week, the new species, was named Vectidraco daisymorrisae in her honor. The word vectidraco means dragon from the Isle of Wight. How many nine year olds can say that a dinosaur was named after them?Pretty cool!
McKenna Pope, 13, of Garfield, New Jersey decided to contact Hasbro over the colors of their Easy-Bake Oven. Currently, the oven comes in purple and pink. She felt the company should make a gender-neutral color for boys. She also suggested that the toy company should have boys in the ads for their ovens as many boys like to bake.Hasbro officials recently meet with McKenna, after she got over 40,000 signatures to her petition to make the change...and, a change is being made. A black, silver and blue gender neutral color Easy-Bake ovens will soon be available. McKenna shows that you can make a change no matter your age!
Photograph from:News.yahoo.comTallon Nightwalker, 16 of Fort Collins, Colorado, has been taking photographs of himself and animals since he was five years old. To date, Tallon has now snapped a shot of himself with 840 species! His goal-to grab a picture of himself with every species of creature on the planet. One of his favorite photographs is of that of himself with a bobcat. Why undertake such a project? Tallon says he hopes to make people aware of the need for conservation of our wildlife and how important the wildlife of our planet are to us. There are a couple of rules which Tallon and his father( manages a wildlife rehabilitation Center)) are requiring for this undertaking. Tallon can't have any barrier between him and the animal. The wildlife must be alive and Tallon either needs to hold the animal or be standing near someone who is holding the animal. That ensures safety for both Tallon and the animal. Tallon volunteers at a local wildlife center and hopes to make wildlife conservation his career. In 2010, the United Way awarded him the Linda Nerger Youth Volunteer Excellence award for his help with rehabilitating wildlife. Some of the creatures Tallon has collected to date include a bobcat, a rare okapi, tiger rat snake, black-billed cuckoo,Wyoming toad, spider monkey and a black bear. And, if you are wondering, Tallon has just 25,000 photographs to go....
11/12:Acacia Woodley,11, knows a little about being different and,other kids staring or whispering about her.That's because Acacia was born without a right hand and her left hand is deformed. A sixth grade student in Palm Bay,Florida, Acacia saw an idea which she wanted to bring to her elementary school...a friendship bench. She wanted to put the focus on kindness and not bullying.The idea of the colorful Adirondack bench became a reality and can now be found in the school's lobby. The purpose, it's a place to sit when you need some extra TLC. Anyone sitting there is sharing that they'd like some support or even a hug to help brighten their day. It's a place where random acts of kindness can be done. Acacia said," I believe everyone has kindness in their hearts and everyone needs a friend."The bench has words such as encourage,respect,smile, dream, and dream painted onto it. Acadia doesn't plan to stop with one friendship bench in her goal to stop bullying behaviors, she hopes that the idea spreads to all schools not only in her area but the entire country.
If you watch the Jets play the Miami Dolphins this weekend(October 28), you'll see something unusual. Instead of yellow penalty flags, the flags used will be pink. And, it's all because of an 11 year old boy from New Jersey. Dante Cano, wrote a letter to the NFL commission, asking that the flags be pink to promote Breast Cancer Awareness. The commissioner, Roger Goodell, received the letter and decided it was a great idea. On Sunday, Dante will present the pink penalty flags to the referees and then, he and his family will get to watch the game. You really can make a difference...at any age!
Photograph from YahooNews10/11/12:When you say to yourself that you are too young to try and make a difference in the world....think of Malala Yousafzai. When 11 year old, Malala Yousafzai, who lived in the Swat Valley, in Pakistan, was told girls would no longer be allowed to go to school, she was very upset. She didn't feel it was right that those who had taken control of her area,called Taliban, denied education to girls. She decided to write a blog under a pen name for the BBC. She dared to criticize the Taliban telling of how her life had changed and how her community suffered by such policies. Malala actually received threats by the Taliban for her campaign that all girls should be given the opportunity to go to school and get an education! Her courage to speak out earned her Pakistan's highest civilian award. Malala was also nomination for an international children's peace award.Eventually, the Taliban were removed from the area and Malala and other girls were again allowed to attend school. Sadly, the other day, Taliban gunmen boarded her bus and searched her out. They shot the young teen Malala, now 14, in the neck and head as she left a school that she was attending. Pray for Malala Yousafzai as she fights for her life...
Vevgeny Salinder,11, recently went for a walk and has made an amazing discovery, a well-preserved body of a 30,000 year old woolly mammoth! Found near a weather station in Taymyr, northern Russia, the adult male mammoth's body is nearly intact,with bones, fur and skin. Scientists worked for a week excavating the 6ft 6 inch mammoth from its resting place in the permafrost. Thought to be about 15 year of age, the 1100 pound mammoth also has its rib cage, mouth and tusk. It also has a hump on its back(like a camel) where it had stored fat to survive the harsh winter months.Scientists say it's the second best preserved ever found and the first mammoth to be found in Russia since 1901 The mammoth was named Jenya,(Zhenya) the nickname of the boy who found it.Scientists hope to obtain some of its DNA for possible cloning projects.Pretty cool!
Photograph from Daily MailVictoria Walker is only in sixth grade but she's designed an app that just might help stop people from texting while driving. Her idea, the barking of dogs. Victoria, 11,says she got the idea from her own three dogs. Their barking sound can get on one's nerves so why not an app that if you start texting while driving, you hear the sound of incessant barking...until you stop. Victoria took part in a Hackathon, a competition sponsored by ATT in Los Angeles, to think of ways to get people from stopping such a dangerous practice of texting and driving. Teamed with a designer named David Grau, the team won the competition with their idea for Rode Dog, winning $20,000 to assist in the idea's development. The idea is for people to join "packs". If a member is using their phone while driving, other pack members can send along the barking sounds. Plans are for the app to allow for you to select non barking animal sounds,too,(like the roar of a lion or the clucking of a chicken)and will be available later this year.
Although it's the right thing to do, not everyone would do what Abbie Jacobson,8,of Maine recently did. A few months ago, Abbie found a little purse on the sidewalk outside her local Sam's Club. When she opened it, she was amazed to find it contained $4000, gold rings,earrings and bracelets, some Cambodian money and a debit card.Abbie knew the right thing to do was to try to get the purse back to its rightful owner,turning it into the police department. Her parents also called the bank which issued the debit card.The owner, a woman originally from the country of Cambodia,was so grateful,she invited Abbie and her family to lunch. On the first day of school, her 3rd grade teacher complimented Abbie for her honesty. The class gave her a round of applause. Abbie was asked what she would have done with such money and said she would have loved to see Justin Bieber in concert. A Bank of Maine executive heard of Abbie's honesty and knew someone who obtained tickets for Abbie and her family to attend the concert.
8/31/12:Charlie Naysmith,8,of Great Britian,found a strange waxy-looking stone while walking along the beach with his dad.It turned out to be whale vomit,and,would you believe the marine mammals' upchuck is very valuable?Called Ambergris,it's used in the making of perfumes, and is known as "floating gold". Charlie's wad which weighs about one pound, may be worth $65,000! Charlie, who's searched the beach for more ambergris,hopes to use the money earned to help animals.
Annaleise Carr, 14, has swum into the record books. On Sunday, Annaleise became the youngest to swim solo across Lake Ontario.The young Canadian swam the distance of 31.6 miles in about 27 hours. Allowed to take breaks(as long as she stayed in the water), Annaleise did the swim for charity. Hoping to raise $30,000 for a childhood cancer group, Camp Trillium,Annaleise,who has been swimming competitively since a young girl, has raised $90,000! Kudos to Annaleise!
Joshua Smith,9, noticed that the parks near his home were not being well kept. When he asked his parents, Joshua was told that the city of Detroit didn't have the money to keep the park maintained and the grass mowed. This really upset Joshua and that's when he got an idea. He asked his parents if he could sell lemonade to earn money to help his city get needed funds. His parents agreed and set him up with $100 to purchase supplies. With the addition of popcorn and other drinks, Joshua and his friend, Dwayne Durant,10,raised over $3400 in just a week! The mayor of Detroit, thanked Joshua for his efforts but said that he thought the money should be used to help pay for Joshua's college education. Joshua said that just wouldn't be right because people supported his cause which was to help the city! Kudos to Joshua for his caring spirit!
Martha Payne, 9, probably didn't realize how popular her blog would become. She started taking photographs of her school lunch and gave each lunch a grade. and posted them on the internet. One of her favorite lunches was mac and cheese and one of her low grades went for sausage and bean pita pockets.The Scottish school girl's blog has gotten more than five million hits. She also has raised about $105,000 for charity. Believing her blog was giving negative attention to the school, Martha was told she wouldn't be allowed to take photographs of her lunch. This caused an uproar of people emailing and tweeting that this ban was improper. Martha has again been given the OK to resume her blog. You can see her blog at this link:
The 112th U.S.Open begins this weekend and one of the 156 competitors will be Andy Zhang.Andy, 14(and six months),originally from the country of China,is thought to be the youngest to qualify to play in the famous golf tournament. Tadd Fukikawa held the youngest title when he competed in the U.S. Open at 15 years 5 months.Andy's pre tournament scores placed him as an alternate to the US Open. Then, the call came that another player,Paul Casey, was injured and Andy,who lives in Florida, would be playing in the tournament. Andy started golfing at the age of six and has competed in tournaments since he was ten years old.Good luck, Andy!
Snigdha Nandipati,14, of San Diego, became the 85th Scripps National Spelling Bee champ after correctly spelling "guetapens". The word is a French term for snare, trap or ambush. The middle schooler , one of 278 that took part in the three day competition in the Washington, DC area, said she studied for 6 hours a day and 10 hours a day on weekends for the competition. Her efforts paid off! Snigdha, who also enjoys playing the violin, reading and collecting coins, won a trophy, $30,000 in cash, reference materials, a $5000 scholarship and a $2500 savings bond. Congrats to Snigdha.
Snigdha Nandipati,14, of San Diego, became the 85th Scripps National Spelling Bee champ after correctly spelling "guetapens". The word is a French term for snare, trap or ambush. The middle schooler , one of 278 that took part in the three day competition in the Washington, DC area, said she studied for 6 hours a day and 10 hours a day on weekends for the competition. Her efforts paid off! Snigdha, who also enjoys playing the violin, reading and collecting coins, won a trophy, $30,000 in cash, reference materials, a $5000 scholarship and a $2500 savings bond. Congrats to Snigdha.
Brendan Haas, of Massachusetts,is only nine years old but he has done something wonderful helping people he doesn't even know.Brendan had heard about a man that started with a red paper clip and continued trading until he actually got a house.Brendan thought he'd like to earn a trip for a family to go to DisneyWorld.Calling his project, "A Soldier for a Soldier", Brendan started by offering to trade a toy soldier back in February. Trades continued until when he was done, Brendan has succeeded in earning airfare and a stay at DisneyWorld (and about $900) for a family.He then collected names of families who had lost a loved one in Afghanistan and picked a name out of a hat on Memorial Day. U.S. Army Lt. TImothy Steele's widow and 2 year old daughter will be going on the trip to DisneyWorld thanks to Brendan's project to help others!Well done, Brendan!
Photograph from New York Daily News
Most of us have flown a paper airplane but nothing like the Arturo's Desert Eagle. Believed to be the world's largest, the paper airplane weighed 800 pounds and was 45 ft.long. The whopper of a paper airplane was inspired by Arturo Valdenegro,12, who won a regional paper airplane contest earlier in the year.As the winner of the paper airplane contest, whose plane flew the farthest, Arturo participated with engineers who designed and built the mammoth paper airplane. The project was part of the Great Paper Airplane Project, at the Pima Air and Space Museum,Tucson, Arizona. Attached to a chain, the Arturo's Desert Eagle, made of materials similar to that used in pizza boxes, was lifted by a Sikorsky S58T helicopter. At 2703 ft, the paper airplane was release and glided about 7-20 seconds, at 98 mph until crashing in a heap in the Arizona desert.See a video of the flight of the paper airplane at this link:
A Virginia girl named Lori Anne Madison has qualified for the famed Scripps National Spelling Bee. At only 6 years old, Lori, is the youngest to ever qualify for the spelling tournament. She beat 21 other elementary and middle school students in her regional competition by correctly spelling the Spanish word for cowboy,"vaquero". The Scripps National Spelling Bee competition has been held since 1925. This year's event is scheudled for May 29-June 1 in Washington, DC. Lori will be one of 277 participants from the United States, U.S. territories and several other countries trying to become this year's spelling bee champion.
Taking bandages off is often a painful experience which eight year old Alanna Meyers, of Florida,wanted to change. She decided she wished to invent a painless bandage remover. She experimented with different natural ingredients and oils(coconut oil, lavender, oil, sweet almond oil), trying her concoctions on herself until she came up with a way to remove a bandage, painlessly. Alanna's parents have helped he get her Pain Free Bandage Remover produced. A television show, The Doctors, showed her produce on the program and interviewed Alanna as did the Rachel Ray Show. A percent of the sales of her product,"Taking Off" goes to Arts for Children.
Seven year old Miles Mann, of Woodbury,Minnesota, has been collecting pop tabs for Ronald McDonald House and has collected over 100,000 tabs in two years! The youngest philanthropist has become a youth ambassador for the program and recently spoke at their international convention in Chicago. Along with business cards, a power point presentation and flyers he passes out to those he meets on collecting tabs for Ronald McDonald House Charities, he's really working hard to educate others about helping others. His grandfather made him a large house which he wheels around asking for pop tab donations.
Photograph from Jordan's Website
By summiting Antarctica's Mount Vinson Massif, over New Year's Weekend, 15 year old Jordan Romero, became the youngest person to climb the Seven Summits-the highest mountains on each continent. At the age of 13, Jordan, his dad and stepmom reached the world's tallest mountain summit, Mount Everest. The previous record for the youngest to summit the Seven Summits was George Atkinson, 16, of Great Britain.He completed his ascents last May. Learn more about Jordan's climbing journey at his website:
Sixteen year old Amelia Hempleman-Adams,of Great Britain, went out on a ski trek and ended up in the record books. She has become the youngest to ski to the bottom of the South Pole. Along with her dad,Amelia completed the two-week, 97 mile adventure,unofficially breaking the record of Canadian Sarah Ann McNair-Landry, who at the age of 18, completed the journey, back in 2005. Along with some homework, Amelia brought along a photograph of British explorer,Ernest Shackleton,whose expedition tried to reached the bottom of the South Pole in 1907.Amelia hopes to have Guinness World Records verify her achievement in the coming weeks.
8/4/2011:Do you like doing crossword puzzles? David Steinberg ,14, does and he's now creating his very own. David just had one of his crossword puzzles published in the New York Times,becoming the third youngest to ever accomplish this feat, in the history of the paper. The newspaper, famous for its crosswords, has also purchased 3 additional crossword puzzles that David has created. David says in addition to crossword puzzles, he used to enjoy playing Scrabble quite a bit but his parents say they can't play with him any longer-David always wins.The New York Times starts easy on Mondays with each day the puzzles getting a bit harder. Sunday is the hardest puzzle of the week. The paper pays $200 for each published puzzle with $1000 for their Sunday edition. David says creating a puzzler for the Sunday edition is his ultimate goal!
Carissa Moore, 18, became the youngest-ever world surfing champion(female or male). Moore is also the first woman surfer from Hawaii to win a woman's title in 30 years. Carissa has long had the goal of winning this championship, having been surfing since she was a little girl. In fact, the goal of becoming Number 1 was listed on her back door, hoping to one day cross this goal off her list...guess she will be doing this next week!
Photograph from Red Bull Website
Youngest Harlem Globetrotter Draft is 12 Years Old!
6/22/11:The Harlem Globetrotters,famous for their amazing basketball performances, have announced six players for their 2011 draft class. One is Jordan McCabe. What makes Jordan so unique, is that he is only 12 years old. The middleschooler , from the Seattle, Washington area, has amazing basketball abilities(like being able to dribble two basketballs at the same time). Of, course, Jordan can't actually join the team just yet. He has to finish school high school and college but the Globetrotters's selection states they have the right to sign him at a future date. Pretty cool!
6/2/11:Sukanya Roy, of Pennsylvania, is this year's Scripps National Spelling Bee champ,correctly spelling the word, "cymotrichous". And, if you don't know what this word means, it's an adjective meaning wavy hair.Sukanya, who has competed in two prior bees,finishing 12th and 20th, says that she "went through the dictionary one or twice and that she guesses some of the words really stuck. The 14 year old won more than $40,0000 in cash and prizes and a pretty cool looking trophy.Some of the other words used in the spelling bee included cheongsam, opodeldoc , capoeira and abhinaya. Any idea what these words mean?
5/26/2011:You may know that Mt. Everest is the highest mountain in the world but do you know the Nepalese national park from which most climbers begin their ascent? 13 year old Tine Valencic, of Texas, knew the tie breaking answer to win this year's National Geographic Bee. As the 2011 winner, Valencic won a $25,000 scholarship, a trip to the Galapagos Islands and a lifetime subscription to the National geographic Society(sponsor of the annual bee).
Two Girl Scouts, Madi Vorva and Rhiannon Tomtishen, were working on achieving the highest Girl Scout award, the Girl Scout Bronze Award, when they made an interesting discovery. The orangutan that they were working to save, were endangered, in part, to something for which Girls Scouts have become famous-their cookies! Seems that all but one of the 17 different Girl Scout cookies, such as Peanut Butter Patties,are made with palm oil, an ingredient that is linked to rainforest destruction, home of the orangutan. The teens decided to ask that the cookies use a more environmentally friendly oil, canola. When the girls contacted Girl Scouts USA asking for the recipe to be changed, removing palm oil, they were not met with much success. Now, along with Change.org and the Rainforest Action Network, the girls are asking people to sign their petition to asking for another ingredient to replace palm oil and thus, help save the orangutans! Go to this site for more information on making Girl Scout Cookies, Rainforest safe!TakeAction And, yes..Madi and Rhiannon DID receive their Bronze Award!
Fifteen year old Ty Hobson-Powell attended his graduation ceremony this past week. Not from middle school, but from college. Ty is the youngest graduate of the University of Baltimore. Just shy of his 16th birthday, Ty, who likes playing basketball and Twittering his friends, is now planning to attend law school in the fall!
Did you ever hear the nursey rhyme,"Hey diddle diddle,the cat and the fiddle, the cow jumped over the moon. The little dog laughed to see such sport and the dish ran away with the spoon."? Well, Luna, a cow in the Bavarian town of Traunstein, Germany, isn't actually jumping over the moon, but she IS jumping. Her owner ,Regina Mayer,15, loves horse jumping but had a problem. She didn't have enough money for a horse BUT she did have lots of cows on her family farm so Rachel did the next best thing, trained her cow, whose name means "moon", for show jumping competition!Training her cow took lots of effort, beginning when Luna was just a calf. Today, Luna and Regina are two peas in a pod, riding, and jumping up to 3 ft. high hurdles.
What did you do over your Christmas vacation? Sleep in? Shop or take in a movie?Read a book? Over vacation,Kathryn Aurora Gray, 10,of Canada,discovered a supernova. And, she is the youngest to ever do so! Kathryn spotted the supernova(an exploding star) which has been named Supernova 2010lt, after reviewing images of the galaxy UGC 3378(part of the Camelopardalis constellation). Kathryn, in fifth grade, got interested in trying to find a supernova after learning of Carolyn Moore, 14,who last year was the youngest to discovered one. Kathryn decided to try and beat the record. Because of the distance of UGC3378, more than 240 million light years away from the Earth, it is estimated that the star exploded about 240 million years ago! Kathryn says she was very excited to find one.
12/13/10:Does your state have a official state bird? A flower? Kristyn Demers,10, of New Hampshire, thinks her state should have a state color. And, the color she'd like to see selected-the color purple.(my personal favorite) Kristyn selected purple since New Hampshire's state bird is the purple finch and the state flower is the purple lilac. She has asked her local state representative to file a bill in the state legislature,adopting purple as the state'scolor.This winter, Kristyn will get to speak at a hearing to discuss the adoption of purple as New Hampshire's state color. And, since no other colors have been suggested to date, there isn't any competition for the title.To date, only 11 states have official state colors, so it might be an idea which will spread. What color would you pick for your state's color, and why?
11/10:Have you ever tried matching up the colors of a Rubrik's Cube?Feliks Zemdegs,14,of Australia, loves the Rubrik's Cube. In fact, his folks say the puzzler seems to be glued to their son's hands as he is always twisting the colorful cube.Recently, Feliks got his name in the record books,by solving the cube in 6.77 seconds. The record, set in 2008, was 7.08 seconds. On the same day, Rowe Hessler, of Massachusetts, also became the fastest American Rubik's Cube champ. His record was 6.944 seconds.
A new police dog has joined the force in Tokyo, Japan.But the dog isn't a shepherd or other large dog. Momo, is a seven year old Chihuahua.In English, the pooch's name is "Peaches", and tips the scales at a meager 6.6 pounds. The little brown and white dog passed her exam as a search and rescue dog, able to locate someone in only five minutes, after taking a whiff of the person's hat. It is very rare for a tiny Chihuahua to become a police dog. She'll go on duty in January.
Jackie Evancho got an amazing opportunity to show the world her singing abilities on America's Got Talent, after being selected to perform by YouTube viewers. The ten year old opera singer wowed the judges and audience with her beautiful voice as she sang Giacomo Puccini's aria "O Mio Babbino Caro".Selected to join other semifinalists, Jackie may be singing all the way to the bank. If she wins America's Got Talent's competition, she will win $1 million dollars and a contract to sing in Las Vegas! Jackie came in 2nd place in this season's America's Got Talent!!!!See and hear Jackie perform at her website:
July/10: Aaron Fotheringham, 18, made the record books recently. He is the first person to successfully perform a backflip in a wheelchair!The Las Vegas, Nevada, teen, was born with spina bifida, which has confined him to a wheelchair for most of his life. He's actually developed a new extreme sport in which other wheelchair-bound athletes compete and use their wheelchairs like a bike or skateboard to do tricks. His nickname...Wheelz. Read more:
July/10: Hibiki Kono, 13,of Cambridge, Great Britain, has loved Spiderman since he was a little boy. He did more than fantasize about his desire to be like his super hero. He recently invented a device, using two vacuum cleaners to enable him to climb walls, too! It took five months of planning to develop his climbing gadget. He's climbed up his school's wall but his mom won't allow him to climb too high. And, his mom also says Hibiki can't climb his bedroom walls for fear he'll pull down the ceiling!Read more:
Seeing the catastrophe in the Gulf of Mexico and birds covered in oil, moved Olivia Bouler,11, to tears. It also made her want to do something to help. Olivia, of New York, contacted the Audubon Society, and asked if perhaps, she could sell her bird drawing and watercolor paintings to raise money to help. She heard back from the Audubon Society asking to buy one of her drawings to hang in their office in New York City! And, Olivia is doing more. For anyone that makes a donation to either The Audubon Society, The Sierra Club, The Weeks Bay Foundation, The Mobile Bay Estuary Program or The National Wildlife Fund, Olivia will send along one of her drawings. AOL heard about Olivia's efforts and gave a donation of $25,000 and placed her work on their website:Olivia's Help the Gulf Wildlife Project. More than 500 people have now made donations and already Olivia has helped to raise more than$70,000 thus far! No surprise, Olivia plans to continue her love for birds. She wants to become an ornithologist, someone that studies birds, when she's older. See photographs of Olivia's work and learn more:
Do you know what the word "stronmuhr" means? Can you spell it? Anamika Veeramani,14, of Ohio knew the spelling for the word which is a medical instrument for measuring the flow of blood, and won the 2010 Scripps National Spelling Bee. As top spelling champ, Anamika also won $40,000 in cash and prizes. She said she'd like to use some of the money to maybe purchase an IPad. Anamika, who likes dancing and playing golf, hopes to go to Harvard and would like to become a cardiovascular surgeon.
Question:"The largest city in northern Haiti was renamed following Haiti's independence from France. What is the present-day name of this city?" Fortunately, Aadith Moorthy,13, of Florida, knew the answer and became the National Geographic Bee winner for 2010. Moorthy's efforts won him a lifetime membership to the National Geographic Society, a $25,000 college scholarship and a trip to the Galapagos Islands! Moorthy, who studied 20 facts a day for four months, said,"I wanted to win-that was my goal." The National Geographic Bee started in 1989 to foster geography knowledge among young people in the United States.
Do you know some of these answers which were asked of the 54 state level winners (50 U.S. states, Washington, D.C., the U.S. Atlantic and Pacific territories, and Department of Defense Dependents Schools) at this year's National Geography Bee?
Answers:
Some kids learn to ski, others learn karate, Preston Weber,11, who loves skateboarding, found another interest. He learned to do the knife dance of Samoan warriors! Watching YouTube videos, Preston, got fired up and taught himself the art of the fireknife. The dance involves twirling a very sharp knife extremely fast...and, it's lit on fire at both ends! After practicing for hours each day for about a year, Preston's fire-knife dancing paid off. He just won the 6-11 Junior Division championship at the 18th annual World Fire-knife Championships held this past week in Hawaii. Preston got interested in the dance after visiting a Polynesian show at a restaurant in his town, thought it would be fun to do and set out learning to do the traditional dance.
Today, May 15,2010, Jessica Watson,16, of Australia, sailed her pink yacht into Sydney Harbour to the cheers of thousands of spectators. She just completed a round-the world journey, the youngest to circle the globe-nonstop, unassisted and solo! Jessica's record setting adventure took her seven months to complete. Facing loneliness, homesickness,huge storms and 40 ft. waves(but also unbelievable sunrises, seeing a shooting star,and, a blue whale), the teen walked off the yacht, called Ella's Pink Lady, onto a pink carpet placed in her honor at the pier. It was the first time she'd walked on land in 210 days, after leaving Buderim, Queensland, on October 18, 2009. Watson's journey took her northeast through the South Pacific,across the equator(where she dumped water on her head to celebrate), south to Cape Horn( tip of South America), across the Atlantic Ocean to South Africa, through the Indian Ocean and around southern Australia. Although Jessica is the youngest to accomplish such an sailing,it will not go into the record books as the World Speed Sailing Record Council has discontinued its "youngest"category. Of her efforts, Jessica told spectators."People don't think you're capable of these things-they don't realize what young people, what 16-year-olds and girls are capable of. It's amazing when you take away those expectations what you can do." The Prime Minister of Australia has hailed Jessica,"Australia's newest hero". As for the title, Jessica was quoted as saying,"I don't consider myself a hero. I'm an ordinary girl who believed in her dream."
Update:Jordan Romero has become the youngest to summit Mt. Everest. The 13 year old reached the summit of 29,028 ft. on Saturday, May 22nd. He used a satellite telephone to call his mom saying,"I'm calling you from the top of the world". The eighth grader breaks Temba Tsheri's(of Nepal), record who held the youngest to successful summit Mt. Everest at the age of 16. Jordan only has one of the highest peaks, on all seven continents, left to climb. Come December, Jordan sets out to summit Vinson Massif, in Antarctica. Check out his website:
It may surprise you to learn that Caroline didn't use a telescope to find the supernova. It would be far too difficult for a regular telescope to successfully see one so far away. Joining the Supernova Search team, she received images taken with more powerful equipment at the observatory. And, lots of them, since the amateur group snaps thousands of images every night. For eight months, Caroline searched sets of 93 images taken three months apart. She studied the photographs to see whether there was a change between the two photographs in a particular area of the sky. She was looking at images taken of the UGC12682 galaxy found in the constellation Pegasus,the winged horse. She studied the images for three-ten hours a week. Each set of images took about 30-45 minutes to review. Then, in November, Caroline saw something. It was a faint speck of light that wasn't there in the earlier photograph."I didn't want to get my hopes up. Should I sent it to the search team or not?I decided I would."
Days went by and then one night the telephone rang. Caroline had already gone to bed. Her dad took the message that Caroline had indeed spotted a supernova. "We got confirmation and boy it's a strange one." Caroline said he dad woke her up around 11:30 PM and gave her the telephone. As she heard the news,a big grin took shape on her face and she started laughing.
To those who think they'd like to become amateur astronomers, Caroline has some advice."Go to your local observatory, join an astronomy club. Find astronomy sites on the internet or ask your science teacher for help. Get a telescope and go out, especially on a cold winter evening, and...look up!"