We are now accepting applications for the 2012-2013 Scholastic News Kids Press Corps! To be considered, your application must be postmarked by September 27, 2013. NO LATE APPLICATIONS WILL BE ACCEPTED.
In order to be considered, you must be between the ages
of 10-14 (must be 10 years old by November 1, 2013)
and complete
all of the following:
* a typed news article (maximum 400 words) about your
community. The article must include at least two quotes from at least two interviews.
* a typed essay (maximum 250 words) that answers the
questions: Why do you want to be a Kid Reporter? What do you hope to learn as a
Kid Reporter?
* two ideas for stories about your community that you would
like to work on as a Kid Reporter.
* a basic background information form that lets Kids Press
Corps editors know more about you and help us select a diverse group of kids
from all over the country.
* a Student Release Form (form provided by Scholastic must
be completed and signed by your parent/legal guardian).
* a recent photograph of yourself that, if you are selected
as a Kid Reporter, will appear on the site when we announce the new Kid
Reporters (this can be a color printout or an actual photograph, but we cannot
return any submitted photographs).
Scholastic
News Kids Press Corps/Apply 557 Broadway New York, NY
10012-3999
All
applications MUST be postmarked by September 27, 2013. NO LATE
APPLICATIONS WILL BE ACCEPTED!
Kid Reporters are chosen by Scholastic News Kids Press Corps editors, and the 2013-2014 Kid Reporter team will be announced in early November. Check out the 2012-2013 team!
About the Scholastic News Kids Press Corps Members
of the Scholastic News Kids Press Corps cover news stories for
scholastic.com/kidspress and select Scholastic classroom magazines.
Between 15-20 new press corps members are chosen each school year. The
program is open to all students ages 10-14 with a burning desire to be a
journalist. The selection of Kid Reporters is based on writing ability,
interviewing skills, and attention to detail.
Iron Man returns to theaters on Friday in Iron Man 3! At the
press junket for the movie, held in Los Angeles on April 22, the cast and crew
talked about how the movie came together and the challenges of keeping a
superhero's adventures fresh and exciting. You can read my report from the
junket on the Scholastic News Kids Press Corps website!
After the junket, I had the opportunity to sit down with Don
Cheadle. He plays Colonel James Rhodes, the man inside the suit of the Iron
Patriot. Check out my interview with the all-talented actor!
Kid Reporter Damien Murphy: What sets Iron Man 3 apart from
the other two movies?
Don Cheadle: It's bigger and badder. Tony gets to come to
terms with who he is and his relationship with (Rhoadey) grows stronger.
Kid Reporter: How is the Iron Patriot different from the War
Machine in the last movie?
Don Cheadle: It's just a paint job. Really! The President
(in the movie) wanted to re-brand him and just changed the look and re-named
it.
Kid Reporter: Did you
actually get to wear the Iron Patriot suit or was it just CGI?
Don Cheadle: I actually had to wear it. It wasn't very
comfortable. It was really heavy, but some of it was CGI and motion captured
mixed in.
Kid Reporter: What's it like to play Tony Stark's best
friend?
Don Cheadle: We had fun! I think it shows in the movie
because we just had a lot fun interacting on and off screen as well.
Kid Reporter: Do you have a favorite scene in the movie?
Don Cheadle: I like doing the stunt work especially in the
third act. The cable stuff and running around.
Kid Reporter: Did you do your own stunts?
Don Cheadle: Yeah, I did all the physical work -- on
harnesses, cables and leaping off two stories buildings...
Kid Reporter: I know you've done a bunch of different kinds
of movies, mostly serious ones. What's it like to be in a bi-budget comic
movie?
Don Cheadle: I've done a lot of different things, and being
in this big-budget action movie is just another piece of the puzzle.
Kid Reporter: Are there other similarities between the other
smaller budget movies you've made?
Don Cheadle: No, I wouldn't say that. This one is a huge
undertaking. Very technical. But at the end of the day, we are just creating
real moments and truthful beats.
Kid Reporter: Why do you think these movies continue to be
so liked by so many?
Don Cheadle: They're just a lot of fun. They don't take
themselves so seriously. They can just go into the theater and cheer and be
entertained.
Meet the
new Garbage Patch State rising in the middle of the oceans, where plastic is
king. The new country’s flag is blue like the seas, with an emblem of red
recycling signs. As of April 11, 2013, the garbage patches scattered in the five
oceans across the world are symbolically recognized by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and
Cultural Organization (UNESCO) as a federal nation.
What Is the Garbage Patch State?
The garbage
patches are giant swirling masses of
plastic trash and other debris that have been trapped by the oceanic currents
and are floating on the water. The plastic littering the sea comes from various
marine and land sources, such as shipping, tourism, fishing, and other solid
waste carried into the oceans by rivers.
The exact
dimensions of the five islands of the Garbage Patch State aren't known. Some
say it's the largest concentration of plastic debris in the world. The Garbage
Patch in the North Pacific alone is believed to be the size
of Texas or perhaps twice that size.
Charles
Moore, the oceanographer who first discovered the North Pacific Garbage Patch
in 1997, told the San Francisco Chronicle that it isn’t a solid island, as some
people believe. Instead, it resembles a soupy mass, undetectable by overhead
satellite photos because it's 80 percent plastic and therefore translucent. The
plastic moves just beneath the surface, from one inch to depths of 300 feet,
he added.
The
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) says that “regardless of
its exact size, mass, and location, manmade debris does not belong in our
oceans and waterways.”
Why Is It Dangerous?
Dr. Onno Gross is a marine biologist, environmental journalist, and
president of the Marine Conservation Organization DEEPWAVE. He wrote
on the Smithsonian’s Ocean Portal blog that “thousands of sea animals die in
agony through the deadly flotsam of our consumer society. There are at least
138 marine species that regularly entangle themselves in this rubbish.”
Unlike
organic debris, which is biodegradable, plastic disintegrates under the
sunlight into tiny pieces that never decompose. These small particles become a
source of food for marine birds and animals, such as sea turtles, albatrosses,
and even whales.
“The
massive production of plastic and inadequate disposal has made plastic debris
an important and constant pollutant on beaches and in oceans around the world,”
Lorena M. Rios Mendoza, Ph.D., said at an American Chemical Society (ACS)
meeting on April 8 in New Orleans. Her team was announcing the discovery
of a garbage patch even in the Great Lakes!
Fish and
birds could be harmed from accidently eating the plastic particles or absorbing
toxic substances that leach out into the water, Rios said. Her team knows from
analyses of fish stomachs that fish are consuming the plastic particles. Fish
also could pass such substances to consumers.
What Can We Do to Help Clean Up?
NOAA
believes that cleaning up is very challenging. “It is certainly not
cost-effective to skim the surface of the entire ocean.”
“You can't
take these particles out of the ocean. You can just stop putting
them in", agrees oceanographer Charles Moore.
“No more
trash in our oceans must be our highest priority”, warns Dr. Gross.
The Ocean
Conservancy, an organization that fights on behalf of oceans, offers many tips
to help treat the problem at its roots:
Put trash in a secure,
lidded receptacle, since most marine debris starts out on land.
Properly recycle
everything you can in your area.
Less is more: don't buy
stuff you don't need, and choose items that use less packaging.
Inform and inspire your
friends to help stop marine debris at the source and volunteer to clean up
beaches.
Bring your own
containers for picnics instead of using disposables.
Take your own reusable
bags whenever you go shopping.
What are
your ideas on how to help clean up the growing patches of garbage in our
oceans? Share them in the comments section below!
On the new show Brain Games, host Jason Silva and executive
producer Jerry Kolber uncover and explain tidbits about the inner-workings of
the human brain through interactive games. Brain Games is the only show I know
of where the star of the show is the brain of the person watching it!
Everything is about you and your brain. It gets you the think about thinking!
Brain Games enables viewers to take a quick glimpse at the
amazing human brain and “infects people with wonder,” according to Jason Silva.
This show doesn’t just make it enjoyable to learn about complicated topics like
how your brain perceives and interprets things having to do with time, it also
makes these topics easier to comprehend. To me, it’s a science show that feels more
like something you would want to see with friends rather than something you
would watch at school.
On the show, deception specialists Apollo Robbins and Brian
Scholl, who is the director of Yale University’s Perception and Cognition Lab,
help Jason reveal and delve into the secrets behind the mysteries of not just
THE brain, but more specifically YOUR brain. But for all you magicians out
there — don’t worry! Brain Games isn’t doing magic tricks at all. It just seems
like they are because they are tricking your brain, which is indeed magical!
You might be wondering how I got to learn all about Jerry,
Jason, and Brain Games. As it turns out, Jason and Jerry spent the afternoon of
April 9 exploring the interactive exhibits in the New York Hall of Science in
Queens with me, my editor, and another journalist. Jason and Jerry, while using
the exhibits as games or as a visual aid, helped me to see and understand the
many loopholes in the human brain’s hardwiring. I even got to interview them
and play some of their games. I was always amazed, awed, and sometimes even
frustrated at the results of these epic games.
If you are already interested in neuroscience, go check out
the Brain Games website. It has some really cool games for you to play and
explanations on how they work and what they teach us. Even if you don’t think
that you are a “science person,”Brain Games will captivate you. It’s just as
entertaining as it is educational!
The first episode of Brain Games airs Monday, April 22, at 9
p.m. on the National Geographic Channel. Tune in to find out if you’re brain is
game for Brain Games!
Photos: (top) Kid Reporter Dani Bergman Chudnow looks giant and Brain Games host Jason Silva looks small in a room set up to create an optical illusion at the New York Hall of Science. (bottom) Dani and Jason at their normal size. (National Geographic Channels/Scott Gries)
Celebrate Earth Day and the fight to keep our planet clean on April 22!
Scholastic Kid Reporters explore ways to make every day Earth Day. And
this year, they look at the environmental challenges facing the country
due to climate change.
After Superstorm Sandy hit in October
2012, New York and New Jersey were left badly damaged. But one of the
hardest hit areas were those states' coastal regions. A lot of people
live along the water, and they faced a massive amount of cleanup and
rebuilding. But they're also facing a long-term problem: Rising sea
levels and the possibility of storms like Sandy becoming more common
thanks to the changes in Earth's climate. These very real threats are
changing borders and living areas, as well as forcing residents and
local governments think about how to address the problems facing their
communities because of a warming planet.
The Kid Reporters talk
to scientists, local officials, and residents to find out what impact
Sandy had on the environment, what might be in store as temperatures and
sea levels rise, and what that means for their communities.
Check out the Scholastic News Kids Press Corps Earth Day 2013 Special Report! Once you've look through the stories, share with us how you celebrate Earth Day in you community!
Photo: Aerial footage of Hurricane Sandy damage five months after the storm.
Taken from a miniature Quadcopter along the coast of Mantoloking, New
Jersey. (Photo: Wendell A. Davis Jr./FEMA)
April is National Poetry Month, and a new book has been released to
celebrate poetry and inspire kids to read, love, and memorize it.
Poems to Learn by Heart
is a collection of poetry organized by Caroline Kennedy. It features
short poems and long ones organized by subject. The goal of the book is
to get kids to enjoy poetry and encourage them to know their favorite
poems by heart. Artist Jon J Muth illustrated the poems as watercolor
paintings. Kennedy and Muth collaborated on another book of poetry in
2005, A Family of Poems: My Favorite Poetry for Children.
On February 28, I had the chance to cover a big Let's Move! event in Chicago. Let's Move! is First Lady Michelle Obama's intitiative to get kids healthy through physical fitness and better eating. The event in Chicago marked the three-year anniversary of Let's Move! and kicked off the Active Schools campaign.
Before the event even started, I interviewed the Secretary of Education Mr. Arne Duncan. I spoke to him about education cuts, and why it is important to balance homework and physical education. I spoke to Mr. Duncan in the media room right before he went onstage to speak in front of the media, teachers, and students who came out to hear him and the other athletes and notable people speak.
In the interview, Secretary Duncan explains why it's important to be physically active during the school day, why it's important to balance homework and physical education, and how looming budget cuts could impact kids and teachers across the country.
Watch my interview with Secretary Duncan below:
After the event, I interviewed Gabby Douglas, the gold medalist in gymnastics in London, Ashton Eaton, the gold medalist and world record holder in the decathlon in London, and Bo Jackson, who played both professional baseball and football at the same time.
Gabby Douglas spoke about how it is important to be active and how you have to train to gain success. She trains for 4 and a half to 5 hours a day! Check out that interview, too!
This morning, we woke up early to take a balloon ride across the Valley
of Kings and Queens. The blazing flames lifted the balloon up into the air, and
we soared in through the sunrise. It was a memorable experience. We lowered to
the ground and headed to the tombs we saw from the air.
The Valley of the Kings is known as Biban el-Muluk (meaning doorway or
gateway of the kings). All the tombs are hidden from sight by the hills and
mountains surrounding them. The total complex contains 62 tombs from nobles and
kings. We saw the massive underground tombs of Rameses IV, Rameses IX, and Merneptah.
All the tombs were put together so beautifully and intricately. Afterwards, we
watched the Alabaster carvers in action in an alabaster factory where we bought
an alabaster pyramid.
After
a short drive, we reached the Mortuary Temple of Queen
Hatshepsut, which is located beneath the cliffs at Deir el Bahari. The mortuary
temple is dedicated to the sun god Amon-Ra and is located next to the mortuary
temple of Mentuhotep II. Here we learned how she married
her brother, Thutmose II, and then killed him, just to become a pharaoh and
rule Egypt. She even dressed like a man for people to accept her as pharaoh!
We
came back to our hotel and ate fish fry and chicken curry at a delicious local
restaurant called Nile Flowers. Then we took the ferry to the bazaar
(marketplace). We bought lot of souvenirs and gifts for my friends. The lights suddenly
started flickering and everything suddenly turned black. It was pitch black all
around us and we were really scared. We slowly walked out of the bazaar and
walked towards the area with power. We took the ferry back to our hotel.
My friends are talking about the 2012 winter
break and what Christmas presents they are looking forward to finding under
their tree. I cannot hold my excitement
as I share that I am looking forward to a dream vacation to Egypt!
The next day as we are driving to school
on a cold December morning, we hear about the violent clashes in Egypt on NPR.
As days go by, there are more reports of demonstrations and protests. The trip
we have been planning for months might be in jeopardy. We watch every report about Egypt on
CNN. After numerous calls to the State
Department, we are assured that there is no travel advisory to Egypt. They advise us to be careful of where we
travel and avoid the areas of protests.
With mixed emotions we pack our bags and get ready for our trip.
December
22, 2012
After a long flight from New York
connecting through Rome, we arrive in Cairo. Our hotel service takes us quickly
through immigration and visa to the van waiting outside. I tried to absorb as
much as I can looking out of the window until we reach our hotel. Our van
driver assures us that everything is quiet in Cairo now. We go to bed early to
get some rest before our Egyptian adventure starts the next day!
The Martin Luther King documentary King: A Filmed Record… Montgomery to Memphis
presents the civil rights leader almost entirely in highly public moments, like
his speeches.
But there are a few more private moments. One is an
interview Dr. King gives to a few journalists crowded into a small airplane.
It’s one of the more personal and intimate moments we see in the movie. But Dr.
King still sounds just like the public figure we’ve all come to know.
After I attended the screening of King at the Church of the Intercession in Harlem, I wanted to learn more about Dr. King. I especially wanted to know how well the movie captures who Dr. King was.
So I contacted Professor David Garrow. Professor Garrow wrote a Pulitzer Prize-winning biography of King, Bearing the Cross: Martin Luther King, Jr., and the Southern Christian
Leadership Conference.
“[Dr. King] was always very conscious of being formal, and proper, and dignified,” Professor Garrow told me. “Part of it is going all the way back to Montgomery, of being super aware that he is being seen as a prime representative of all black people.”
Today, Dr. King still inspires people – in America and around the world. Our view of Dr. King – and the civil rights movement he led – is based almost entirely on the types of words and images we see in King: A Filmed Record.
And after watching the movie, we’re left wondering what Dr. King might be discussing today had he not been assassinated in 1968.
“In the last two years of his life, King most often times is speaking in a much more challenging, critical voice about the degree
of change that is needed in American society and American behavior around the
world,” Garrow says. “Anyone seeing this film would be very powerfully surprised that the real Martin Luther King is not simply the ‘I have a Dream” optimism of 1963.”
Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in Scholastic News Kids Press Corps Blog are strictly those of the author and do not reflect the opinions or endorsement of Scholastic, Inc.
