Articles for Grade 3

When one hears about animals escaping from their zoo enclosures, it is usually because the door has been inadvertently left open. However, what happened at the Kansas City Zoo in Missouri on April 9th, was an orchestrated escape, conjured up by one smart chimpanzee....

On April 7th, 2014, scientists from the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory announced that they had been successful in flying a radio-controlled scale-model of an old WWII era plane, the P-52 Mustang, using liquid hydrocarbon fuel. Not impressed? How about if we tell you that the fuel was created entirely from ordinary seawater?...

On April 7th, Prince George Alexander Louis, the nine-month-old son of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge (Kate Middleton and Prince William), set off on his first foreign tour to New Zealand and Australia. The bundle of cuteness showed perfect royal demeanor when he emerged from the airplane after the long flight from London to Wellington with a bright smile and what appeared to be, his first royal wave!...

In November 2008, 265 pits collected from various cherry trees from 14 locations across Japan, were sent to the International Space Station. The endeavor was part of an educational and cultural project to demonstrate to kids, how seeds can continue to live and grow, even after a jaunt to space. The seeds that circled the globe 4,100 times during their four-month mission, were brought back to earth in March 2009. While some were kept for lab tests most, were returned to their original locations....

If you are ever stranded on an island, here is one thing you may not want to do - send a distress message inside a bottle. That's because chances are it will not be delivered until long after you are gone. At least that's what happened to the one Richard Platz sent to his wife, on May 17th, 1913....

Why do zebras have stripes? This question has been stumping both animal experts and zebra fans all over the world for centuries. But now it appears that some researchers in California may have finally solved the age-old mystery!...

When the eruption of a volcano on November 21st, 2013, resulted in a brand new island about a thousand kilometers south of Japan's capital Tokyo, experts were a little hesitant to declare that a permanent new landmass had been born. That's because these kind of volcanic islands have a tendency to disappear almost as rapidly, as they appear....

Always wondered what an Egyptian mummy might look like underneath all of its wrappings? Then you may want to head to Stockholm's Medelhavsmuseet, where a new exhibit allows visitors to peel off all the layers right down to the skeleton - with a swipe of a finger!...

Tomorrow is April 1st or as it is better known, Fools' Day! This is the day when pranksters come out in full force to have some light-hearted fun at the expense of some unsuspecting souls. Though the origin of this age-old tradition is not known for sure, some trace it back to 1582, the year when the Julian calendar (which began the New Year in April), was replaced with today's Gregorian calendar. Others believe it was to mark the change of seasons. No matter what started it all, April Fools' sure is a fun tradition....