The hope for a better tomorrow

One of our current world wide issues is climate change. Whether you believe in it or not, science says it's happening. I feel it is important to add current events into a classroom's curriculum. These children are the future. They will suffer from our mistakes and they should be knowledgeable on way to fix them. TIME for kids is a great resource for children to explore science in the news as well as other essential topics. 

I searched the site with the intent on finding articles about impact climate change and steps that can be taken to lessen it's evil. I was surprised and interested to find an article called, "High Flier" by Laurn Blackburn. This article was recently posted on April 25, 2016. It's content consists of the journey of a solar-airplane pilot as he completes a risky flight across the Pacific ocean. It was news to me that solar-airplanes were in the process of existence. Image how helpful it would be to our environment if all air-planes were solar powered. The harmful fuels let into the atmosphere would be greatly decreased. This solar-airplane took off from Hawaii on April 21st and safely landed in Mountain view California 3 days later. Swiss pilot, Bertrand Piccard had been practicing flying this solar plane, Solar Impulse 2, around the globe.  After a few more trips around the U.S., Solar Impulse 2 plans to venture across the Atlantic Ocean. To read more on this extraordinary topic, refer to the article here.
Individuals have been doing their part to save the Earth at least one day a year since April 22, 1970, according to Claudia Atticot and Alexandra Manning's article "Earth day". "The average American produces more than four pounds of garbage per day. Over the course of a year, that is more than 1,600 pounds of garbage per person". on the bright side, recycling has increased from less than 10% in 1980 to more than 34% in 2011. "Every year, Americans throw away enough paper and enough plastic cups, forks, and spoons to circle the equator 300 times." This article provides individuals with a number of shocking facts that can encourage anyone to try to make a helpful difference in the world. To read more about "Earth Day", click here.
In connection to Climate change, there are a number of articles on TIME for kids regarding natural

disasters that have been taking place. When discussion global warming and climate change in the classroom it is inevitable that the topic of natural disasters will come up.  Due to the changing climate, floods, fires, and threatening storms have been sweeping the nation. I chose to read a article titled, "Kansas Fights Record Wildfire". I chose this article because it hits close to home. Recently, nearby to my town of New Paltz, a wildfire broke out and has been destroying a beautiful natural preserve for days now. So far 3,000 acres of land has vanished. I would chose discuss this topic in class understanding that many students are being affected by it.This image shows the flames that have been burning for three days at Sam's Point preserve. According to the article about Kansas' wildfire, "nearly 400,000 acres of land have burned in Kansas since early last week, in the worst wildfire in the state’s history". To read more about Kansas' fight to put out there flames, you can read the article here.