Kids News - Social Studies for Kids

Monday, August 8, was Earth Overshoot Day. Calculated annually by the environmental advocacy group, Global Footprint Network, it is the day when humanity has consumed all the natural resources — produce, meat, fish, water, and wood — that our planet can regenerate in a single year. This means that for the rest of 2016, we will be using natural resources that are impossible to replace....

Water, or rather the lack of it, is one of the most pressing issues of our times. Unprecedented droughts and growing populations have left many countries struggling to keep up with demand. Given that agriculture is the largest single user of freshwater, providing farmers with new conservation techniques would go a long way in alleviating our water woes. It turns out that a “miracle” powder has been helping drought-stricken Mexican farmers do exactly that for over a decade!...

In July 2016, much to the dismay of environmentalists and the Standing Rock Sioux tribe, the US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) — the federal government body in charge of the nation's waterways — granted the final permits to allow construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL). When completed, the 1,172-mile-long, $3.8 billion USD pipeline that snakes through four states will be able to transport up to 500,000 barrels of crude oil from the Bakken Formation area of North Dakota to refineries in Illinois, daily. The builder, Dakota Access, LLC, a subsidiary of Texas-based Energy Transfer Partners, asserts that the underground pipeline is a more direct, cost-effective, safer, and environmentally responsible way to transport crude oil....

Shortly before the school year ended in June, 1,700 American kids got to do what most students can only dream of — play video games in class. No, the 100 educators that allowed this were not slacking off. They were helping Microsoft beta test a new Minecraft Education Edition, which the company plans to offer to schools across the globe within the next few weeks....

At the end of the spring semester in May, students taking Georgia Tech’s online Knowledge-Based Artificial Intelligence course received some stunning news. Jill Watson, one of the nine teaching assistants (TA’s) that had helped them navigate the challenging course for the past five months was not a “she,” but an “it” — an intelligent robot to be precise!...

In 1924, two years after he began excavating Egyptian King Tutankhamun’s (Tut) burial chamber, British archaeologist and Egyptologist Howard Carter finally discovered what he had been seeking: The young pharaoh’s well-preserved sarcophagus. In addition to the scores of precious jewels, amulets, and bracelets that had been buried alongside, Carter also unearthed two daggers wrapped around the boy king’s body. The other also featured a gold handle, but its blade appeared to be made from iron....

Sunday, September 11, 2016, marks the 15th anniversary of the most daring and deadliest terrorist attack on American soil. Planned and executed by Islamic extremist organization Al Qaeda, the unprovoked act of violence is what led to our ongoing "Global War On Terrorism” and changed life as we knew it, forever....

On Wednesday, August 24, the residents of the Apennine regions in central Italy were jolted awake at 3.36 a.m. by a 6.2 magnitude earthquake. To make matters worse, it was followed by over 80 aftershocks, including a 5.5 magnitude tremor that hit Umbria an hour later, at 4.33 a.m....

After years of planning and months of anticipation, the 2016 Summer Games finally kicked off in Brazil on August 5. The beautiful opening ceremony, held at Rio de Janeiro’s Maracana Stadium, featured lots of great music and dancing, and even a supermodel. The highlight of the evening, however, was the over 10,000 athletes from 207 countries that marched across the stadium, proud to represent their respective nations at the world’s most prestigious sporting event. Though they are all champions in their own right, here are few youngsters that are expected to leave their mark at the Games of the XXXI Olympiad....