What fish can grow longer than a school bus but feeds on tiny plankton? The whale shark is the largest fish on Earth — and one of its gentlest.
From tropical coastlines to the open ocean, these enormous fish spend their lives searching for tiny creatures drifting through the water. Discover how whale sharks use filter feeding instead of hunting, dive thousands of feet beneath the surface, and migrate incredible distances across the globe. You'll also learn why these gentle giants are endangered and how scientists are working to protect them for generations to come.
“Flush with cash” might need to turn into “flush that cash” if fake money keeps popping up! Counterfeit cash used to be a problem for mostly shops and retailers, but there’s been a recent rise in fake cash popping up in the home! That doesn’t mean that more of your neighborhood pals have decided to print their own money, or that fake bills are appearing out of thin air, but enough of it is in circulation that everyday people are going to make a purchase or deposit money with counterfeit cash, very possibly by accident.
In 2024, there were 99,000 fake notes in circulation. Last year, that doubled to 200,000, partly because of a rise in organized crime. While the fake bills make their way between hands and households and businesses, people become increasingly reliant on electronic methods of payment (like cards and Venmo), so they fall a bit out of practice of knowing what physical, paper money looks and feels like.
Unfortunately, it’s not always the people making counterfeit bills that are punished. Shops and retailers are hurting, and customers go into banks and post offices to deposit money that can’t be accepted because it ends up being fake.
Did you put on sunscreen today? Yes? Go put on some more.
Tans may be fashionable, but the risks that come with sun damage are anything but — and they can last a lifetime. That's why England banned tanning beds for anyone under 18 back in 2011. Even so, people as young as 14 have found ways to use them illegally. Now, the rules are getting stricter: businesses will be legally required to check ID before letting anyone near a sunbed, and salons will need to post clear health warnings — including dropping any misleading claims that certain beds can prevent sunburn or help with weight loss.
Even with stronger laws, misinformation is still a problem. Rumors about tanning beds offering benefits like vitamin D have a way of spreading while the risks get quietly ignored. Experts say that even a single tanning bed session before the age of 35 increases the risk of skin cancer by nearly 60% — and young skin is especially vulnerable. Skin cancer is already the most common cancer in the world. The tan isn't worth it.
“Shoot for the Moon — if you miss, you’ll land among the stars,” won’t cut it for NASA, who says “Nah, Moon or bust.”
NASA’s got big plans, and their names are Moonbase 1, 2, and 3. They were too busy working on the science to put more into the names, okay? Moonbase 1 will be the first privately-funded lander to reach the lunar south pole, Moonbase 2 will deliver a record amount of equipment that would support astronauts at a lunar base, and Moonbase 3 will focus on gathering research and data.
But these are just glimpses of NASA’s lunar ambitions, namely to put a base on the Moon. It starts with sending dozens of rovers and lunar landers to scope out the perfect spot, followed by building small cabins for short missions, and then building larger structures sustained by nuclear power for the long term. That’s not until 2033, but NASA wants to send astronauts back to the lunar surface by 2028.
End-to-end encryption prevents anyone from viewing online communications except the sender and the receiver. Or, it prevents anyone online from viewing it. Can’t do much about someone looking over your shoulder on the subway.
In 2019, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg promised to roll it out across his suite of apps — you know, those Facebook and Instagram things you may have heard of? But that promise was met with mixed results. On one hand, many were happy that their private conversations could be kept, well, private. On the other hand, there was pushback from police and government groups that could use messages to catch criminals.
Implementing end-to-end encryption was a years-long process for Zuckerberg, until his platforms abandoned the concept just this year. The company tweaked their terms and conditions to suggest that not enough people were opting into the encryption, but critics have questioned that explanation, pointing out that private messaging is an important part of how platforms keep users engaged and can support their advertising business.
Feeling the heat lately? It might be because of El Niño, a climate pattern characterized by unusually warm sea-surface temperatures in the central and eastern tropical Pacific Ocean. It can affect the trade winds. These are the permanent, normally easterly winds that flow around the Earth's equator.
When we track the water temperature using tools like satellites, buoys, and ocean floats to measure temperatures below the ocean's surface, they show a large body of unusually hot water. Way bigger than the pot of water you’re boiling for your mac and cheese. Yes, even if you’re making extra mac and cheese. This is serious business! It can cause the sea-surface temperatures in parts of the tropical Pacific to rise by more than 2°C (about 3.6°F) above average, suggesting this year's El Niño is unusually strong, and could make 2027 one of the hottest years on record.
Depending on where you are in the world, El Niño is associated with both droughts and floods. These affect the lives of people living in those places, as well as their agriculture and food production, so the whole world feels the El Niño effects.
The DRC (Democratic Republic of the Congo) is a large central African country now facing an Ebola outbreak along with neighboring Uganda. Ebola is a serious virus spread through contact with infected blood or body fluids, causing fever, vomiting, and bleeding. This outbreak's strain has no approved vaccine or treatment.
This isn't the DRC's first health crisis — and it's not bad luck. Three main factors are at play: the DRC borders nine countries with heavy cross-border movement and conflict-driven displacement, making disease spread easy; its health system is stretched thin, so early symptoms (which mimic other illnesses) often go unnoticed; and close contact with wildlife in its vast forests — including hunting and eating bushmeat — raises the risk of animal-to-human disease jumps.
Together, these factors explain why outbreaks keep happening — and why this one deserves close attention.
Take students on a journey through China with this engaging one-page fact file for Grades 3–8. Students will explore China’s geography, history, culture, wildlife, and government while learning about famous mountains and rivers, bustling cities, giant pandas, traditional celebrations such as Chinese New Year, and important moments from China’s long history.
You can use this fact file to:
- Introduce a geography or social studies unit
- Support nonfiction reading practice
- Compare countries and cultures
- Complete map and research activities
- Prepare students for projects or presentations (use our country report template!)
- Pair with videos, articles, or other informational texts (see Related Resources below)
In Majuli: A River Island in India, learn about Majuli, the largest river island in Assam. It’s a busy place that’s an example of how Indian people work with each other and the natural world. This video is from the BBC’s Hidden India, in which presenter Geraldine James explores India’s diverse environments.
Trace the remarkable journey of Martin Luther King Jr. from his childhood in the segregated South to his rise as one of the most influential leaders in the American Civil Rights Movement. Through peaceful protest, powerful speeches, and unwavering determination, Dr. King inspired millions to challenge injustice and fight for equality.
This Kahoot explores key moments in his life and legacy — including the Montgomery Bus Boycott, the March on Washington, and the lasting impact of his famous “I Have a Dream” speech. Students will discover how nonviolence, courage, and moral leadership helped reshape history and continue to inspire movements for justice around the world today.
Watch the related BBC videos (below), then invite your Grade 3–8 students to test their knowledge and deepen their understanding of this iconic leader and the movement he helped lead.
In Preparing Flowers for Chinese New Year, a farm in Kunming, China’s Spring City, prepares flowers for the busy Chinese New Year season. Flowers travel from farm to auction, where buyers purchase them for shops. This video is excerpted from BBC’s Chinese New Year: The Biggest Celebration on Earth, a documentary series detailing the world's largest annual human migration (Chunyun), where over 1.5 billion people celebrate the Lunar New Year.
Test Your Knowledge of the Civil Rights Movement
The Civil Rights Movement was a pivotal time in American history, when individuals and communities fought for equality, justice, and the basic rights of all people. From the oppressive Jim Crow laws to brave acts of resistance, this movement reshaped the nation.
This quiz will explore key events, influential leaders, and cultural milestones, including Emmett Till, Rosa Parks and the Montgomery bus boycott, the March on Washington, Bloody Sunday, the Voting Rights Act, Martin Luther King Jr., Charlotta Bass, Malcolm X, John Lewis, and Motown.
See how much you know about the struggle, the leaders, and the victories that helped create a more just society.
What fish can grow longer than a school bus but feeds on tiny plankton? The whale shark is the largest fish on Earth — and one of its gentlest.
From tropical coastlines to the open ocean, these enormous fish spend their lives searching for tiny creatures drifting through the water. Discover how whale sharks use filter feeding instead of hunting, dive thousands of feet beneath the surface, and migrate incredible distances across the globe. You'll also learn why these gentle giants are endangered and how scientists are working to protect them for generations to come.
“Flush with cash” might need to turn into “flush that cash” if fake money keeps popping up! Counterfeit cash used to be a problem for mostly shops and retailers, but there’s been a recent rise in fake cash popping up in the home! That doesn’t mean that more of your neighborhood pals have decided to print their own money, or that fake bills are appearing out of thin air, but enough of it is in circulation that everyday people are going to make a purchase or deposit money with counterfeit cash, very possibly by accident.
In 2024, there were 99,000 fake notes in circulation. Last year, that doubled to 200,000, partly because of a rise in organized crime. While the fake bills make their way between hands and households and businesses, people become increasingly reliant on electronic methods of payment (like cards and Venmo), so they fall a bit out of practice of knowing what physical, paper money looks and feels like.
Unfortunately, it’s not always the people making counterfeit bills that are punished. Shops and retailers are hurting, and customers go into banks and post offices to deposit money that can’t be accepted because it ends up being fake.
Did you put on sunscreen today? Yes? Go put on some more.
Tans may be fashionable, but the risks that come with sun damage are anything but — and they can last a lifetime. That's why England banned tanning beds for anyone under 18 back in 2011. Even so, people as young as 14 have found ways to use them illegally. Now, the rules are getting stricter: businesses will be legally required to check ID before letting anyone near a sunbed, and salons will need to post clear health warnings — including dropping any misleading claims that certain beds can prevent sunburn or help with weight loss.
Even with stronger laws, misinformation is still a problem. Rumors about tanning beds offering benefits like vitamin D have a way of spreading while the risks get quietly ignored. Experts say that even a single tanning bed session before the age of 35 increases the risk of skin cancer by nearly 60% — and young skin is especially vulnerable. Skin cancer is already the most common cancer in the world. The tan isn't worth it.
“Shoot for the Moon — if you miss, you’ll land among the stars,” won’t cut it for NASA, who says “Nah, Moon or bust.”
NASA’s got big plans, and their names are Moonbase 1, 2, and 3. They were too busy working on the science to put more into the names, okay? Moonbase 1 will be the first privately-funded lander to reach the lunar south pole, Moonbase 2 will deliver a record amount of equipment that would support astronauts at a lunar base, and Moonbase 3 will focus on gathering research and data.
But these are just glimpses of NASA’s lunar ambitions, namely to put a base on the Moon. It starts with sending dozens of rovers and lunar landers to scope out the perfect spot, followed by building small cabins for short missions, and then building larger structures sustained by nuclear power for the long term. That’s not until 2033, but NASA wants to send astronauts back to the lunar surface by 2028.
End-to-end encryption prevents anyone from viewing online communications except the sender and the receiver. Or, it prevents anyone online from viewing it. Can’t do much about someone looking over your shoulder on the subway.
In 2019, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg promised to roll it out across his suite of apps — you know, those Facebook and Instagram things you may have heard of? But that promise was met with mixed results. On one hand, many were happy that their private conversations could be kept, well, private. On the other hand, there was pushback from police and government groups that could use messages to catch criminals.
Implementing end-to-end encryption was a years-long process for Zuckerberg, until his platforms abandoned the concept just this year. The company tweaked their terms and conditions to suggest that not enough people were opting into the encryption, but critics have questioned that explanation, pointing out that private messaging is an important part of how platforms keep users engaged and can support their advertising business.
Feeling the heat lately? It might be because of El Niño, a climate pattern characterized by unusually warm sea-surface temperatures in the central and eastern tropical Pacific Ocean. It can affect the trade winds. These are the permanent, normally easterly winds that flow around the Earth's equator.
When we track the water temperature using tools like satellites, buoys, and ocean floats to measure temperatures below the ocean's surface, they show a large body of unusually hot water. Way bigger than the pot of water you’re boiling for your mac and cheese. Yes, even if you’re making extra mac and cheese. This is serious business! It can cause the sea-surface temperatures in parts of the tropical Pacific to rise by more than 2°C (about 3.6°F) above average, suggesting this year's El Niño is unusually strong, and could make 2027 one of the hottest years on record.
Depending on where you are in the world, El Niño is associated with both droughts and floods. These affect the lives of people living in those places, as well as their agriculture and food production, so the whole world feels the El Niño effects.
The DRC (Democratic Republic of the Congo) is a large central African country now facing an Ebola outbreak along with neighboring Uganda. Ebola is a serious virus spread through contact with infected blood or body fluids, causing fever, vomiting, and bleeding. This outbreak's strain has no approved vaccine or treatment.
This isn't the DRC's first health crisis — and it's not bad luck. Three main factors are at play: the DRC borders nine countries with heavy cross-border movement and conflict-driven displacement, making disease spread easy; its health system is stretched thin, so early symptoms (which mimic other illnesses) often go unnoticed; and close contact with wildlife in its vast forests — including hunting and eating bushmeat — raises the risk of animal-to-human disease jumps.
Together, these factors explain why outbreaks keep happening — and why this one deserves close attention.
Take students on a journey through China with this engaging one-page fact file for Grades 3–8. Students will explore China’s geography, history, culture, wildlife, and government while learning about famous mountains and rivers, bustling cities, giant pandas, traditional celebrations such as Chinese New Year, and important moments from China’s long history.
You can use this fact file to:
- Introduce a geography or social studies unit
- Support nonfiction reading practice
- Compare countries and cultures
- Complete map and research activities
- Prepare students for projects or presentations (use our country report template!)
- Pair with videos, articles, or other informational texts (see Related Resources below)
In Majuli: A River Island in India, learn about Majuli, the largest river island in Assam. It’s a busy place that’s an example of how Indian people work with each other and the natural world. This video is from the BBC’s Hidden India, in which presenter Geraldine James explores India’s diverse environments.
Trace the remarkable journey of Martin Luther King Jr. from his childhood in the segregated South to his rise as one of the most influential leaders in the American Civil Rights Movement. Through peaceful protest, powerful speeches, and unwavering determination, Dr. King inspired millions to challenge injustice and fight for equality.
This Kahoot explores key moments in his life and legacy — including the Montgomery Bus Boycott, the March on Washington, and the lasting impact of his famous “I Have a Dream” speech. Students will discover how nonviolence, courage, and moral leadership helped reshape history and continue to inspire movements for justice around the world today.
Watch the related BBC videos (below), then invite your Grade 3–8 students to test their knowledge and deepen their understanding of this iconic leader and the movement he helped lead.
In Preparing Flowers for Chinese New Year, a farm in Kunming, China’s Spring City, prepares flowers for the busy Chinese New Year season. Flowers travel from farm to auction, where buyers purchase them for shops. This video is excerpted from BBC’s Chinese New Year: The Biggest Celebration on Earth, a documentary series detailing the world's largest annual human migration (Chunyun), where over 1.5 billion people celebrate the Lunar New Year.
Test Your Knowledge of the Civil Rights Movement
The Civil Rights Movement was a pivotal time in American history, when individuals and communities fought for equality, justice, and the basic rights of all people. From the oppressive Jim Crow laws to brave acts of resistance, this movement reshaped the nation.
This quiz will explore key events, influential leaders, and cultural milestones, including Emmett Till, Rosa Parks and the Montgomery bus boycott, the March on Washington, Bloody Sunday, the Voting Rights Act, Martin Luther King Jr., Charlotta Bass, Malcolm X, John Lewis, and Motown.
See how much you know about the struggle, the leaders, and the victories that helped create a more just society.