Super Bowl Preview

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Will you be watching the Super Bowl? What team will you be rooting for?

Photo: (left) NewsCom, (right) Jay LaPrete/Icon SMI/NewsCom

Celebrate Chinese New Year!

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Is your school or community celebrating Chinese New Year? Tell us how!

Tech-Savvy White House

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What are your ideas for improving communication between the President of the United States and ordinary citizens?

Hometown Hero

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Who are your heroes? Do any heroes live in your hometown? What qualities should heroes have?

Photo: (left) Safety Reliability Methods, Inc./AP Images, (right) Janis Krums/AP Images

The Brain Remains

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If you were an archaeologist, what would you want to discover?

Illustration: Troy Cummings

Delaware Eighth Graders' Moment in History

By Isaac Fields

Wow, What a day. You could feel the energy even before you could tell what was coming. The day started at 4 o’clock in the morning. We had a pretty early morning. After we could tell that we were awake we showered and got dressed. By 4:30 everyone was awake and I know that I was waiting in suspense for what would be happening in just 8 hours. Our parents/teachers came to get us around 5 o’clock and that is when we went to eat. For some that might not have been early but for me who could sleep all day it was. Breakfast wasn’t nearly as loud as it was the day before. We were the only people up besides a few others. I overheard the desk clerk say that the rush was around 2 o’clock for them and that the mall was already filling up.

We all got on the bus at 6:00 and were in the Metro line at 7:00. WOW! What a line. The station line was all the way into the parking garage next door. Good thing the line moved fast though. It took us forty minutes to get through the line. There were people passing out flyers in the 20degree weather. Most people just walked by them. The Metro ride itself was horrible. A normal 35 minute ride took us about 90 minutes. Luckily I didn’t take too much notice of the time. The car was very crowded by the second stop.

When we finally got to our stop at L’Enfant Plaza the train was so crowded that we had to push and shove just to find the door. The station itself was just jam- packed and some of the exit gates weren’t working. People were chanting, “I say O you say bama.” It was hectic trying to find a way out of the station. We walked a long way down the Mall until we were almost to the Washington Monument. We finally found a place to get in. We had a hard time seeing the jumbotrons because of the angle and the crowds. The guys in our group were lifting girls up and putting them on their shoulders so they could see. We couldn’t even see the Capitol Building. People covered every part of the mall. We couldn’t see Obama of course but we could hear him. After his speech we left and walked back across the Potomac to the Arlington Cemetery to catch the Metro to Pentagon City where our bus could pick us up for the ride home.

The class also laid a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknowns. Get their account of the ceremony here. Get more about the class Inauguration trip here.

Inkheart on the Big Screen

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Will you be seeing Inkheart this weekend? What movies are you excited for?

Photo: Images courtesy Mariam El Hasan and New Line Cinema

Delaware 8th Graders Lay Wreath at the Tomb of the Unknowns

By Neallie Payne

The wreath laying ceremony was a great honor. To get on this trip to Washington DC you had to write an essay explaining why you wanted to be a part of history and attend the Inauguration.

The top four essay writers were given the opportunity to lay a wreath. I and three others were chosen. Not everything went exactly on schedule, when we arrived we watched as the president elect (at the time) drove past us waving out his window, and we waited about a half a hour for Vice President Joe Biden to leave the cemetery.

I didn’t mind though, it was cool to know that I was going to lay a wreath right after Barack Obama and Joe Biden did. The ceremony was very nice, though it was cold.

The soldiers at the tomb take their job very seriously; they are extremely precise on their marching and can be very intimidating.

The four of us went into a room and got instructions on what to do, I was very nervous that I would mess up. Their instructions were very precise too, such as, march to the top of the stairs and when signaled, step with your left foot and walk slowly down the stairs.

Much to my relief none of us messed up. As the trumpeter played Taps I looked out over the still, silent grounds of Arlington and felt very proud that I was helping pay tribute to those who have fought and died for our country.

Photos: At top, the group of 8th graders from the Brandywine School District in Delaware. Left, soldiers lay a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknowns at Arlington Cemetery in Virginia. Both photos courtesy Brandywine School District.

Read more about the class Inauguration trip here.

Cabinet Members Confirmed

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If you were President, whom would you turn to for advice?

Photo: Frank Fey/US Senate Photographic Studio/Reuters

No Rest For the President

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Photo: Charles Dharapak/AP Images

Delaware 8th Grade Class at Inaugration

A group of more than 20 8th graders from Brandywine School District in Delaware are on a three-day trip to Washington DC. Students wrote essays on why they wanted to be a part of history in order to be considered for the trip. In DC, they attended the laying of a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldiers, visited to the Dulles Air and Space museum, enjoyed the pre-inauguration concert, and, of course, experienced the Inauguration itself.

Here's the first of their first-person Inauguration Day blogs.

Today was a very fun and tiring day for us all!  First of all, we had to wake up before the sun was even out which is totally outrageous.  Then we were on the bus for about 2 hours before we arrived at the Metro Station.  We got to use these cool Obama cards to get past the turnstiles, so we could get on to the Metro.  The Metro is really fun and fast!  Let’s just say you don’t want to be standing up on it while it is moving, without holding onto a pole.

After the Metro ride, we arrived at the Pentagon building.  To our surprise, we found out that you are not allowed to take pictures of the Pentagon because it is a Federal offense.  Right next to the Pentagon is the 9/11 Memorials. The memorials are amazing!  They have the names of the people who unfortunately passed away on 9/11.  It is nice to know that we all have not forgotten them and we do things such as make beautiful memorials for them.

After we went to the memorials, we used our awesome Obama cards to get back onto the Metro.  The Metro took us to Arlington.  We went to the Arlington National Cemetery.   Also, during our time in Arlington, we saw President-Elect Barack Obama in his limo!  Wow, talk about a lot of security and bodyguards!

During the trip to Arlington Cemetery, we got to go into the Arlington House, also known as the Robert E. Lee Memorial.  It is so cool seeing how the houses were made back then. One interesting thing was that the mother delivered 6 of her 7 children in her bedroom Chamber.  Robert E. Lee wasn’t all that into the whole slavery thing.  He actually let his slaves have many rights such as get married.

After that experience, we went to see the Changing of the Guard Ceremony and the wreath-laying ceremony.  First of all, it was unbelievably cold!  Seriously, we cannot even begin to tell you how cold it was!  Anyway, at the Changing of the Guard ceremony, it was amazing how precise they did everything!  Even when they walked or turned, they made their cool shoes make this cool clacking noise!

Then, we saw the wreath laying ceremony.  Our school was the first to go.  As a matter of fact, four members of our group laid the wreath.  Finally, it was time to get on the Metro to go back to Pentagon City to defrost and eat lunch at the mall.  Our group had Chinese and pizza.  It was delicious!  It really hit the spot.

Then, we shopped at the mall and bought some really cool stuff!  After we shopped till we dropped, we got on the bus to the hotel to check in and chill out for awhile.  Then we went to dinner.  It was very good. 

Finally, we had an pool party.  Although most of the people took up the pool playing water polo, it was still fun.  Now, we are locked in our hotel room watching TV and eating yummy snacks.  Well, now we just have to wait until tomorrow to see what awesome adventures lie ahead.  

--8th grade students Chelsea White, Neallie Payne, Molly Shustack, and Chrysanthe Christo contributed to this report.

Read more about the wreath-laying ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknowns here.

Inauguration Day

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Michelle Obama Issues a Call to Service

Video courtesy USAService.org via YouTube

In 1983, President Ronald Regan declared the third Monday of January an official holiday to commemorate the life of Martin Luther King. Many people began celebrating by participating in volunteer activities on the holiday. In 1994, Congress officially declared the Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday a national day of community service.

This year, Martin Luther King Day falls one day before the historic Inauguration of the first African-American President of the United States.

President-elect Barack Obama has issued a national call to service that he hopes will reignite Americans’ commitment to serve others. Obama and his wife, Michelle, are asking people to make January 19 the first of many days they will spend volunteering in their communities.

To help individuals organize service events on the King holiday, the administration launched USASERVICE.org. This Web site will also help people find volunteer opportunities in their communities.

Kids are welcome at any of the service events. If you’re under 16, you have to be accompanied by a parent or guardian. If you can’t spend Monday at a volunteer event, you’ll be able to find future events on the USA Service Web site soon.

A Legacy of Service

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Do you volunteer in your community? What do you do? Do you think volunteering and community service are important? Why?

(Above: Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Photo: Bob Adelman/Magnum Photos)

Wicked Winter Weather

 

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Do you live in an area hard hit by the extreme winter weather? How has it affected you? What are your ideas for staying warm this winter?

Photo: Sentinel-Tribune, J.D. Pooley/AP Images

Will Koalas Make It?

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Do you think Australia should list the koala as a critically endangered species? What ideas do you have to protect the koala and its habitat?

Photo: ©iStockphoto.com

Who Will Be Top Dog?

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What kind of dog do you think the Obamas should get when they move into the White House? Why?

New Games from Electronic Arts

Another cool thing about going to CES is being able to see all the latest games before they hit store shelves. This year, Electronic Arts (best known for the Sims series of games) was at the convention, showing off a number of their upcoming games. Here were two of my favorites.

The Sims 3

The next entry in the popular simulation series is on its way to the PC, and it looks great. Creating a Sim is now more fun than ever. In addition to getting to choose how your Sim looks, you also get to pick out different traits for them. These traits range from the normal (“flirty” or “non-flirty”) to the outrageous (“kleptomaniac” or just downright “evil”). These all contribute to what your Sim wants to do with their life, leading up to a lifetime goal that he/she wants to achieve within their virtual lifetime. Along the way there are much smaller goals with a much smaller impact. But they can be just as silly as some of the traits. For example, if your character is evil, one of his or her goals might be “Taking Candy from a Baby.”

And for the creative people, The Sims 3 makes it really easy for you to make your own movies. Whenever you want to capture a scene, you just hit the record button and it will record everything happening on your screen. You can then choose to upload it to the Internet, or you can edit it on your computer and make a cool movie.

The Sims 3 does not yet have a release date or a price.

Henry Hatsworth in the Puzzling Adventure

One of my favorite games that EA was showing was Henry Hatsworth in the Puzzling Adventure, for the Nintendo DS. This game tells the story of Henry Hatsworth, the number one adventurer in the Pompous Adventurer’s Club, who is attempting to uncover a mystical artifact – the Magical Golden Suit. The game truly is, as the title suggests, a “puzzling adventure.” On the top screen is a traditional adventure game, where Henry wanders around five different worlds fighting enemies. But on the bottom screen is a puzzle game where you use the stylus to line up three blocks in a row.

 

The two screens interact in different ways. For example, an enemy that you defeat on the top screen will come back to haunt you on the bottom screen. And lining up special bricks on the bottom screen will give Henry a boost – the coolest of which is “Tea Time.” When you unlock Tea Time, Henry turns into an indestructible robot that can easily rampage through the level.  looks to be not only a fun game, but also one with a very clever sense of humor.

Knock-Offs at CES

While the Consumer Electronics Show is, for the most part, home to the newest and most original gadgets, not everyone is unique. In fact, there are many companies who create clones, or knock-offs, of already popular products. This was best seen in the Gaming Showcase, where some of the most popular games were facing some almost identical competition.

For example, you’ve probably played Guitar Hero or Rock Band, but you probably haven’t even heard of the ElectroStar Riff-Rocker. Instead of the full size plastic guitar that comes with the other two, the Riff-Rocker guitar is the size of your palm, and plugs into your computer via USB. When you plug it in, you can open up a program that looks exactly the same as Rock Band, except with only one instrument, the guitar. It’s a little bit difficult to play because of how small it is (I couldn’t believe my ears when the press representative said that real guitarists preferred it because it was more realistic), but other than that it is a spot-on copy of Guitar Hero and Rock Band.

Another popular thing to copy was the Nintendo Wii. The Gaming Showcase was filled with similarly shaped white boxes designed to look like the Wii. Although some of the games looked pretty good, most of them looked like they had been developed for a console well over a decade old. But there was still some considerable interest in the knock-offs – some of them actually had people waiting in line so they could try “Vii Sports” or “Super Tennis.”

The Three Screens in Your Life

By Scholastic Kid Reporter Aaron Broder

Before the official kickoff of the International Consumer Electronics show on Thursday, Microsoft’s CEO Steve Ballmer gave the keynote speech of the technology extravaganza. A keynote speech lays out the main idea of a particluar meeting or policy.

As soon as Ballmer got on stage, he tried to make one thing clear – although the recession is a pressing problem, it wasn’t going to keep Microsoft from doing what they have always done. “Today, our world, our nation, and our industry are facing some challenges… the impact will be with us for quite a while.” But, he said, not matter how long the recession lasted, “our digital lives will only get richer.”

Convergence of the Three Screens

Ballmer then began talking about the three screens in most households that were starting to become one – the computer, the mobile phone, and the TV. For the computer, he started by showing off some of the cool features in the new upcoming version of Windows (which has a free public beta, or tryout period, starting Friday). Windows Version 7 can learn your habits, making the computer/TV/phone experience just for you, and easier to use. There are also a lot of features that make it easy to share your files and music with other people in the house.

Windows is also available for some cell phones, and it has some new features as well. Now you can watch YouTube videos on the go, and you can show your friends videos without having to be at your computer. If you have an account on the Windows website, then you can access it both from your computer and from your phone.

Entertainment

The third screen is the TV, which is part of one of Microsoft’s biggest industries; their entertainment division – the one behind the Xbox. They had a lot of exciting announcements for entertainment. The popular Halo series will be coming out with the first T-rated game in the series, Halo Wars, which offers a new type of strategic gameplay. Halo Wars is set to release on February 28th, and there will be a demo out on February 5th.

For people who want an entirely new experience, Xbox Live will now have live game shows that you can participate in from your TV screen. This spring, they will be launching a game version of 1 vs. 100, and you can compete against people from all over the world who have an Xbox.

Make Your Own Game with Kodu

And if you ever get tired of playing games that other people have made, then you can use the new Kodu Game Creator to easily program your own games. A twelve-year-old girl named Sparrow came on stage to show how easy it was to make your own game using Kodu. All you have to do is put a character on the screen, and tell it what it should do when something happens. For example, you can tell the character that if it sees an object, to either chase after it or run away.

At the end of the keynote, Steve Ballmer reiterated what he had said at the beginning of the speech. There were three screens in most households, the PC, the phone, and the TV. Microsoft is in the process of unifying these platforms into one using the internet.  Soon, you’ll be able to access the information that you need from wherever you need it.

(Image: Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer. Photo courtesy Aaron Broder.)

Mod with "The Woz"

 By Scholastic Kid Reporter Aaron Broder

At Macworld today, a company called Axiotron announced the Modbook Pro, a more powerful, redesigned version of the Modbook. The original Modbook is a modified Macbook computer with a touch screen and no keyboard, that allows users to draw, sketch and write directly on the screen.

Steve Wozniak, the co-founder of Apple Computers and a legend in the “Macworld” community was the very special guest presenter.

The “Woz” as many call him, showed off some of the new capabilities that were available on both Modbooks, including a way to control what the computer does just by writing on the screen what you want it to do.

For example, if you write “red screen”, then the background wallpaper turns red. He showed some of the other uses of the touch screen, and after the presentation, was very friendly as everyone crowded around to get a picture or signature from “the Woz”.

Learn more about the Modbook here.

Photo: Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak and Aaron Broder. Photo courtesy Aaron Broder.

Scholastic Kid Reporter Aaron Broder is bringing you the latest on digital music and movies, television, electronics, and even robots from the International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) and MacWorld this week.

Congress Gets Back to Work

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What do you hope the 111th Congress accomplishes during its two-year session? What issues would you like to see Congress take up?

Photo: ©Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP Images

Straight Out of Zimbabwe

By Scholastic Kid Reporter Aaron Broder

The John Lennon Educational Tour Bus is a bus full of multimedia technology that travels around the country giving kids the opportunity to make their own music, and music videos. John Lennon was a member of the legendary band The Beatles.

Last year they launched a brand new bus, with the latest technology. This year, they are part of another effort – Liyanna.

Liyanna is a band from Zimbabwe made up of eight band members from 17 years old to 23 years old. What makes them so unique is that all of them were born with a severe disability. Proper medical care for people with disabilities is scarce in Zimbabwe.

However, with the help of the John Lennon bus, they will be touring the United States during January, performing in places like Disney Land and the House of Blues. They will also be traveling in the bus, helping high school students across the country create their own songs.

“We enjoy playing music because while we are giving people music, we enjoy it at the same time,” said the band’s percussionist Goodwell Nzou. “We come to meet many people as we do music, and we make friends each and every time.”

Later this year there will be an HBO documentary about Liyanna entitled “Ithemba”. Just type “Liyanna” into www.google.com and you’ll find clips of their music.

Photo: Members of the band Liyanna with Aaron Broder. Photo courtesy Aaron Broder.

Scholastic Kid Reporter Aaron Broder is bringing you the latest on digital music and movies, television, electronics, and even robots from the International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) and MacWorld this week.

Make Your Own Music, Movies and More!

By Scholastic Kid Reporter Aaron Broder

At today’s MacWorld keynote address, Philip Schiller, a senior vice president at Apple, announced a new version of the popular creative tools for Mac computers, iLife.

iLife is made up of a number of different programs.iMovie, Garageband, and iPhoto, got major upgrades for 2009.

iMovie ’09 keeps the moviemaking process simple: all you have to do is take the videos you want and drag them into the window in order. There are also some really cool effects that you can add to your movie, like making it move in slow motion, or maps that show you as you travel from one place to another.

Garageband is Apple’s audio editing software. It has a great new feature called “Learn to Play,” where an on-screen instructor can teach you how to play guitar and keyboard.

Once you’ve mastered the basics of the guitar or keyboard, you can then move on to learning actual songs, with stars like Fall Out Boy, John Fogerty, and Sting teaching you some of their songs. You can get the Artist Lessons through Garageband for $4.99 each, and they will feature the song itself, the story behind the song, and a lot more.

iPhoto, meanwhile, offers two whole new ways to organize your photos, by the faces of the people, and by the places they were taken.

In iPhoto's Places, when you assign a picture a location, it will appear as a pin on a map of the world, and you can see the distribution of all your pictures. In Faces, iPhoto will automatically recognize where in a picture the face appears, and then you can assign it a name. iPhoto will then try its best to find that person in any of the pictures in your library.

The new iLife ’09 suite will be released later this month for $79, or $99 for a family pack of five licenses. You can read more about it on the Apple website at http://www.apple.com/ilife/.

Scholastic Kid Reporter Aaron Broder is bringing you the latest on digital music and movies, television, electronics, and even robots from the International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) and MacWorld this week.

Mac Mania

Do you use a Mac computer? You may not know it, but Apple computers and software have a whole conference all to themselves called MacWorld, and for over a decade, the Apple CEO Steve Jobs has been giving a keynote speech there.

However, this year marks the end of an era. Not only will Steve Jobs not be delivering the keynote tomorrow morning, but this will also be the last year Apple will even participate in the expo. That makes some people want to be extra sure they get to see the keynote – like 14-year-old Nicholas Lensander.

Lensander was the first person in line, arriving at the Moscone Center at 6:30 a.m. today to make sure he got to see the keynote that wouldn’t take place until over 24 hours later. He says it’s worth it though. “It’s a little frustrating [that Steve Jobs won’t be giving the keynote], but this is their last time at the show, so I think they have to go out with a bang.” He hopes to see something that nobody has ever thought of before.

Scholastic Kid Reporter Aaron Broder is bringing you the latest on digital music and movies, television, electronics, and even robots from the International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) and MacWorld this week.