A cyclist in England snapped a photograph of some very unusual pigs. They looked like sheep with their wooly coats. They a rare mangalitza pigs!

NASA has announced that the Lunar Orbital Platform-Gateway will begin construction in 2022. The outpost will be the "staging" point for astronauts to begin the long trip to Mars. It is estimated that the space station, which will orbit the moon, will be ready for use in 2025. Nations including Russia, China, South Africa, India and Brazil may also be participants in the project.

Illustration from Boeing

Two boys from Scotland, ages 8 and 5, asked their parents if they could place their toy pirate ship into the water, After adding some plastic for stability, the pirate ship was launched. Amazingly, Harry and Ollie's Playmobil ship is still sailing the ocean seas, a year later! The boys placed a message into the ship that if someone found it along the shore to launch the boat, again. A tracking device is also on board the tiny ship so the boys(and anyone else who goes to their Facebook page) can see where it has traveled. A couple of weeks ago, the Pirate ship was making a journey across the Atlantic. It stopped transmitting. The boys thought the ship had sunk. Then, a pinging sound was detected a few days ago, the pirate ship is now near the coast of South America! To date, the toy ship has sailed about 3000 miles, all by itself.Photograph from The Days are Just Packed

A whopper of a discovery was made in southwest England. The fossil remains of a huge ichthyosaur were unearthed. Scientists say the jawbone, about 3 ft. long, of the marine reptile, suggests while living, the ichthyosaur was about 85 ft. long! Estimated to date back 205 million years, it may be the largest remains of an ichthyosaur, or "fish lizard" ever found.

A "hotel" with an out of this world view will begin welcoming guests beginning in 2022. Actually, the hotel will be in space, about 200 miles above the planet! The Aurora Station will be launched in 2021 with hopes to have guests the following year. The "first luxury hotel in space" will have a capacity for a crew of two and up to four guests. The hotel, the idea of Orion Span,will orbit the earth for 12 days at a time. Guests will have live-stream viewing with those back on earth, lots of zero gravity flying time and will be able to particulate in research experiments during their stay. Costs for such a stay would be around $800,000 a NIGHT for a total of about $10 million. You can already make a reservation!

Illustration from OrionSpan

NASA is thinking about developing drone bees that will eventually swarm around the red planet, Mars,exploring its nooks and crannies. With communication and sensors, the bees, called Marsbees, will be able to map out areas and share data with one another! It is hoped that the drones, the size of bumblebees, will also be able to take sample, check for gases on the planet and maybe, detect forms of life. Other exploring equipment, such as the Mars Curiosity rover, has covered about 12 miles of the planet's surface in six years!The drones,being developed by teams from the USA and Japan, will be able to cover a vast area of terrain. When their battery runs down, the Martian bees will return to a mobile base and, once recharged, buzz off again for further exploration.

Photograph from telegraph.co.uk

PAST NEWS STORIES

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"The school is the last expenditure upon which America should be willing to compromise."FDR "If a man empties his purse into his head, no man can take it away from him. An investment in knowledge always pays the best interest."(Ben Franklin) "You must be the change you want to see in the world."(Mahatma Gandhi) "School is a building that has four walls-with tomorrow inside."(Lon Watters) "We know the future will outlast all of us, but I believe that all of us will live on in the future we make."(Senator Ted Kennedy) "The purpose of life is a life of purpose." (Robert Byrne) "The purpose of life is to amount to something and have it make some difference that you lived at all."(Dear Abby)
Special thanks to EducationWorld for letting me use this image of my "alter ego" as Mrs. "Waffenschmidt!

About Gail:

I have retired from teaching after 33 1/2 years in the classroom. Of that time, I taught Grade 6 Social Studies teacher for 31 1/2 years.I earned my BA in early secondary education with a concentration in social studies from SUNY Oneonta, New York, and my MST in social studies education from Binghamton University in New York. In 1988, I was awarded the Outstanding Elementary Social Studies Classroom Teacher of the Year Award from the New York State Council for the Social Studies. Additionally, in 1988, I was also awarded the Outstanding Elementary Social Studies Teacher of the Year Award by the National Council for the Social Studies.

My work has appeared in most children's publications including:
Appleseeds,Scholastic's Super Science,Scholastic's Science World, Highlights for Children, National Geographic World, Ranger Rick, Cobblestone, Faces, Muse Magazine,Contact Kids, US Kids,Action Magazine(Scholastic),Girls' Life,Boys' Life,American Girl, Instructor,Creative Classroom,Middle Years,Time for Kids,Scholastic News,Scholastic News Zone, Time for Kids , Ask Magazine, Dig, Calliope, Cobblestone, FACES, Studies Weekly, Glo Adventurer, and more.

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