1. Mystery Bugs

Did you know that there are more insect species on Earth than all other animals put together? But one bug is bugging experts at the London Natural History Museum in the European country of Britain. A small red-and-black bug has appeared in the museum's gardens, and scientists don't know what it is. People often have questions about the animals they see in nature. Find a photo, story or ad involving a wild animal in today's newspaper. Think about the animal and write three questions about it that you would like answered.

Learning Standards: Generating questions about issues that affect students or topics about which they are curious; using written and visual texts to identify and research issues.

2. Who Can Catch the Wind?

With the price of oil and gas going up, people are looking for other ways to get the energy they need. One way that is getting new attention is wind power, which generates electricity from windmills and machines called turbines. In the town of Rock Port, Missouri, wind power now supplies all the electricity needed by the 1,300 people who live there. The town is the first in the United States to get all its energy from the wind. With family or friends, find a story in the newspaper about gas, oil or energy costs. Talk about ways people could use less energy or generate more power. Draw a poster showing one idea.

Learning Standards: Using written, oral and visual texts to identify and research issues of importance that confront adolescents, their community, their nation and the world; using the craft of the illustrator to convey ideas artistically.

3. Mystery of Flight

Amelia Earhart was one of the most famous airplane pilots in history. She was the first woman to fly alone across the Atlantic Ocean and the first person to fly solo across the Pacific Ocean from Hawaii to the mainland United States. Then, 71 years ago this month, she and her plane vanished over the Pacific Ocean on an attempt to make an around-the-world flight. Where would you go if you could fly off on an adventure? With family or friends, discuss places you would choose and give reasons for picking them. Then draw a comic strip for the newspaper showing the flying adventure you would most like to have.

Learning Standards: Responding to a variety of written, visual and electronic texts by making connections to students' personal lives and the lives of others; using the craft of the illustrator to convey ideas artistically.

4. Women Making News

Amelia Earhart made history as a woman attempting things that only men had done before. As a child she had kept a scrapbook of newspaper clippings about successful women in fields that had been mostly made up of men. For the rest of the summer, use the newspaper to create a scrapbook of your own about women succeeding in different fields. Write a paragraph for each, describing whether the field was one in which women did not have opportunities to succeed in the past. Explain why.

Learning Standards: Responding personally, analytically and critically to a variety of oral, visual, written and electronic texts; posing social science questions.

5. Moon Walk

On July 20, 1969, United States astronaut Neil Armstrong became the first human to walk on the Earth's moon. When he got out on the moon's surface, he told the world it was "One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind." The moon has often inspired people to think about life, write poems or create artworks. It also has been used as an image in advertising. With family or friends, watch the moon in the night sky. Then create an ad for the newspaper using the moon to advertise a product or service. For added fun, create a poem, song or artwork describing how the moon makes you feel when watching it at night.

Learning Standard: Reading and writing fluently, speaking confidently, listening and interacting appropriately, viewing critically and representing creatively.