Current Event: The Fall of Rusty Patched Bumble Bees

For the first time in the continental United States, a wild bee has been designated as an endangered species. What was once a thriving bee in the United States and Canada, the rusty patched bumble bee is now weakly carrying on in scattered populations. In the past 20 years, the insect’s population has dropped 87 percent because of habitat loss, disease, pesticides, and climate change. The bumble bee is a large, burly bee that often has mostly black-and-yellow coloring. Like most bumble bees, rusty patched bumble bees have black heads, but workers and males have a rusty reddish patch on their backs. Bumble bees are among farmers’ best friends, and protecting these insects is important. They pollinate (help fertilize) numerous wild plants and such food crops as blueberries, cranberries, clover, and tomatoes. The agriculture industry leans heavily on such native pollinators as bumble bees. Now that the rusty patched bumble bee is listed under the Endangered Species Act, the Fish and Wildlife Service must assess, protect, and help restore the insect’s population and habitat.

The rusty patched bumble bee (Bombus affinis). Credit: © Rich Hatfield, The Xerces Society

Objective:

Bumble bees are large, burly bees that often has mostly black and yellow coloring. They live in most countries, from the Arctic to the Antarctic. Australia and some Pacific islands had no bumble bees until people brought them there. Bumble bees are social insects. This means that they live in colonies (groups). The organization of the colony is not as complex as that of a honey bee colony. Only the queen bumble bee lives through the winter and starts a colony in the spring. During the summer, the colony may increase in size to 50 to several hundred bees. Many people fear bumble bees because of their noisy buzzing flight and long, sharp stings. Unlike honey bees, bumble bees do not die when they sting. They can sting repeatedly, but they only do so when defending their nest or when handled. The Behind the Headlines news story and related World Book articles explore bees and other animals.

Words to know:

• Bee
• Bumble bee
• Endangered species
• Global warming
• Insect
• Wildlife conservation

Discussion Topics:

1. Ask your students to name animals, other than bees, that start with the letter “B”. (Students might say baboons, badgers, bald eagles, barracuda, bass, bats, bears, beavers, beetles, birds, blobfish, blue jays, blue whales, boa constrictors, boars, bobcats, buffalo, butterflies, buzzards.)

2. Ask your students to debate, “Humans have the responsibility to protect animals from extinction.”

3. Ask your students to use World Book’s Timelines feature to view or add to the Animal Extinctions Since 1600 timeline.

Current Event: Australia’s Extreme Weather

Australia’s Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) recently released its annual climate statement, and it was filled with bad news. Extreme weather lashed Australia throughout 2016, harming fragile landscapes and ecosystems both on land and in the sea. The BOM blamed the damaging weather extremes on climate change as well as an unusually strong El Niño. (El Niño is a periodic variation in ocean currents and temperatures that can affect climate throughout the world.) The BOM listed a number of weather events that devastated parts of Australia in 2016. The cities of Darwin and Sydney saw their hottest years on record, while hot and dry conditions and large numbers of lightning strikes led to raging bushfires in Tasmania, Victoria, and Western Australia. The seas around Australia also reached record high temperatures, causing unprecedented bleaching of the Great Barrier Reef and other coral systems. Some areas in the country suffered drought while other areas saw heavy rains that caused unprecedented flooding. The BOM climate statement warned that such extreme weather events will become more common, even become normal, as global warming continues to reshape Earth’s climate.

This photo of Uluru, also known as Ayers Rock, shows its typically hot and dry environment. Heavy rains in late 2016 caused waterfalls to cascade down the sides of the giant sandstone formation.  Credit: © Steve Vidler, SuperStock

Objective:

Australia is one of the largest countries in the world. It is generally warm, and much of the country receives little rainfall. Australia receives most of its moisture as rain. Snow falls only in Tasmania and the Australian Alps. About two-thirds of the country is arid or semiarid and receives less than 10 inches (25 centimeters) of rain a year. Much of the rest of Australia has less than 20 inches (51 centimeters) of rainfall annually. The heaviest rainfall occurs along the north, east, southeast, and extreme southwest coasts. The country lies south of the equator, so its seasons are opposite those in the Northern Hemisphere. Australia is currently experiencing summer, the country’s hottest and driest season, which lasts from December to February. The Behind the Headlines news story and related World Book articles explore Australia.

Words to know:

• Australia
• Bushfires in Australia
• Drought
• El Niño
• Flood
• Global warming
• Great Barrier Reef
• Meteorology

Discussion Topics:

1. Ask your students what they know about Australia. (Students might say that it is the only country that is also a continent; Australia is in the Southern Hemisphere; Sydney is the largest city, and Canberra is the national capital; Australia is famous for its kangaroos, koalas, platypuses, wombats, and other unusual animals; the Aboriginal people were the first humans to arrive in Australia.)

2. Ask your students to debate, “Climate change is the most important issue in the world today.”

3. Ask your students to use World Book’s Timelines feature to view or add to the History of Australia timeline. (Students may wish to use World Book’s “Australia” article for help.)

Current Event: Mythic Monday: the Warrior Achilles

Achilles was a Greek warrior in the Trojan War, a war fought between Greece and the city of Troy. The events in Achilles’s life are legends but may have some historical basis. Achilles was the son of Peleus, the king of Phthia in Thessaly, and Thetis, an immortal sea nymph. Soon after Achilles was born, Thetis dipped him in the River Styx, whose water would make him invulnerable, like a god. However, the immortalizing water did not touch the heel by which Thetis held him. Homer’s epic poem Iliad, which tells of the final year of the Trojan War, describes Achilles as the mightiest warrior in all of Greece. But his pride, vanity, and overwhelming desire for glory in battle also made him stubborn, petty, brutish, and easily angered. Achilles felt he was not being adequately rewarded for his services and refused to fight any longer in the war. After his closest friend, Patroclus, was killed, Achilles returned to battle. The Trojan War went on, then, and Achilles soon met his demise. According to legend, one of the Trojans shot an arrow into Achilles’s heel, and Achilles died from the wound.

This painting, The Triumph of Achilles, is in the Achilleion, a palace dedicated to Achilles on the Greek island of Corfu. Credit: The Triumph of Achilles (1892), by Franz von Matsch; Achilleion Palace

Objective:

The Trojan War was a conflict in which ancient Greece defeated the city of Troy. The legend of the war inspired many leading works of classical literature. Some of the events that occurred during and after the Trojan War became the subject of three great epic poems—the Iliad and the Odyssey, attributed to the Greek poet Homer, and the Aeneid by the Roman poet Virgil. Scholars do not agree about the truth behind the legend of the Trojan War. Some of them believe it distorts and exaggerates small conflicts involving the Greeks from about 1500 to 1200 B.C. Others think the legend is based on one great war, which most say probably took place about 1200 B.C. The Homeric epics combine historical material of different times with fictional material. As a result, the works are not reliable historical documents. But archaeologists have found historical evidence in the ruins of Troy and other places that confirms certain events described in the epics. The Behind the Headlines news story and related World Book articles explore the Trojan War and other topics related to the war.

Words to know:

• Achilles
• Agamemnon
• Ancient Greece
• Greek literature
• Hector
• Heinrich Schliemann
• Helen of Troy
• Homer
• Iliad
• Mythology
• Odyssey
• Paris
• Styx
• Trojan War
• Troy

Discussion Topics:

1. Ask your students if they can name gods and goddesses from Greek mythology. (Students might say Aphrodite, Apollo, Ares, Artemis, Athena, Atlas, Cronus, Dionysus, Hades, Hera, Hermes, Poseidon, Prometheus, Uranus, Zeus.) Also, see if they can name some other characters, besides Achilles, from Greek mythology. (Students might name Adonis, Aeneas, Charon, Helen of Troy, Hercules, Jason, Medusa, Midas, Oedipus, Pandora, Pegasus, Perseus, Phoenix, Theseus, Ulysses [Odysseus].)

2. Ask your students what their favorite book is and why.

3. Ask your students if they would rather live in ancient Greece (or any other ancient civilization) or in modern times. Have them explain why.

4. Ask your students to use World Book’s Timelines feature to view or add to the History of Ancient Greece timeline. (Students may wish to use World Book’s “Ancient Greece” article for help.)

Current Event: Kennewick Man Comes Home

U.S. President Barack Obama recently signed a bill ordering the return of an ancient human skeleton known as Kennewick Man to representatives of local Native American groups for reburial. The nearly complete skeleton was found by two college students on the banks of the Columbia River in south-central Washington in 1996. Scientists called in to examine the skeleton sent a bone sample to a radiocarbon laboratory for dating. The lab results determined that Kennewick Man lived between 8,500 and 9,500 years ago. The scientists determined that the skeleton was that of a Paleo-Indian. Paleo-Indians were among the earliest people to inhabit the Western Hemisphere. Several Native American groups from the area where the skeleton was discovered requested that the skeleton be returned for proper reburial. Many Native Americans believe the excavation of burials and analysis of remains to be disrespectful, and that doing so disrupts the spirits of the dead. The Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act of 1990 requires institutions receiving federal money to return human remains and grave items to Native American groups if the groups can prove their “cultural affiliation” to the remains. In 2000, the U.S. Department of the Interior determined that Kennewick Man was a Native American and would be returned without further study to the Indian groups that claimed him. A group of archaeologists challenged this decision in court. In 2002, a federal court ruled that the skeleton should not be returned and could be further studied. In 2004, Native American groups ended all attempts to appeal the ruling, allowing scientists to keep the skeleton. In 2015, new genetic evidence proved that Kennewick Man was closely related to Native Americans in the Washington region. In 2016, officials from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers acknowledged the cultural affiliation of Kennewick Man. The bill signed by President Obama orders the skeleton to be transferred to state archaeologists in Washington. They will work with local Native American nations, who will rebury the remains according to traditional customs within 90 days.

The exceptionally well-preserved skeleton of Kennewick Man is represented by nearly 300 bones and bone fragments. Credit: © Chip Clark, Smithsonian Institution

Objective:

Prehistoric people are human beings who lived before the invention of writing, which occurred about 5,500 years ago. The period before writing is called prehistory, and people who lived during this time are known as prehistoric people. The first human beings lived about 2 million years ago. They descended from even earlier ancestors, small humanlike creatures who walked with an erect (upright) posture. Scientists call all members of the human lineage hominins. The scientific study of prehistoric people began during the 1700’s. As fossils were collected, scholars began to assemble a picture of early people. Today, many kinds of scientists work together to learn about prehistoric people. Scientists called paleoanthropologists study human physical and cultural development. Evidence of prehistoric people—such as fossils, tools, and other remains—is rare and often fragmented. Paleoanthropologists must base their theories on this limited evidence. As a result, scientists cannot yet present a detailed picture of early human life. Over time, new discoveries can provide evidence to prove or disprove previous theories. The Behind the Headlines news story and related World Book articles explore Kennewick Man and other prehistoric human fossil discoveries.

Words to know:

• American Indian
• Anthropology
• Archaeology
• DNA
• Evolution
• Fossil
• Human being
• Kennewick Man
• Paleo-Indians
• Prehistoric people
• Radiocarbon

Discussion topics:

1. Ask your students if they can name other American Indian (Native American) groups. (Students might name any of the many groups cited in the “American Indian” article’s related information section “Indian groups.” Note that many scholars do not refer to the Inuit, Aleuts, and Yuit as Indians. Native Hawaiians are also strongly opposed to being called Native Americans.)

2. Ask your students if they can name any other famous prehistoric human fossil discoveries. (Students might say Chauvet Cave paintings, Java fossils, Lascaux Cave paintings, Lucy, Peking fossils.)

3. Ask your students to debate, “Human remains and grave items belonging to Native Americans should be returned to Native American groups.”

4. Ask your students to use World Book’s Timelines feature to view or add to the Prehistoric Human Fossil Discoveries timeline. (Students may wish to use World Book’s “Prehistoric people” article for help.)

Current Event: The Frozen Waters of Mars

Researchers recently used the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) to discover a vast deposit of ice beneath the surface of Mars. The MRO, launched by the United States National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) in 2005, carries the highest resolution camera ever sent to Mars. Its high-resolution images helped identify safe landing sites for subsequent Mars landers and discovered recurring slope lineae, patterns on Martian hills and valleys likely formed by the flow of liquid water just below ground. Radar on the MRO detected ice in a region called Utopia Planitia. The researchers estimate that the Martian ice deposit holds more water than Lake Superior, the largest body of fresh water on Earth. The deposit is buried beneath as little as 3 feet (1 meter) and as much as 33 feet (10 meters) of Martian soil. The deposit is not solid ice, but rather is 50 to 85 percent ice, with rock, dust, and other materials mixed in. The newly discovered ice deposit may have important implications for the eventual human exploration and colonization of Mars. Other such deposits exist on the planet, but most are small and found in areas with rough terrain. Utopia Planitia is a large, flat basin located in the somewhat warmer mid-latitudes. Therefore, future Mars colonists may be able to land a spacecraft in Utopia Planitia and find water not far from their landing site. Such water could be used for drinking, growing crops, and creating rocket fuel for journeys back to Earth.

Large deposits of ice have been discovered beneath the surface of Mars, the fourth planet from the sun. Credit: NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems

Objective:

Mars is the fourth planet from the sun. Of all the planets in our solar system, Mars has the surface environment that most closely resembles that of Earth. The planet is named for the ancient Roman god of war because its color resembles the color of blood. Mars owes its color to iron-rich minerals in its soil. Today, Mars is nicknamed “the Red Planet” in reference to its color. The planet is much colder than Earth—the average temperature on Mars is about -80 °F (-60 °C). Mars has two tiny moons, Phobos and Deimos, both of which were discovered in 1877. Recently, scientists found strong evidence that water once flowed on the surface of Mars. Mars might once have harbored life, and living things might exist there even today. Although space probes have carried telescopes and other instruments to Mars, no human being has ever set foot on the planet. The Behind the Headlines news story and related World Book articles explore Mars and other astronomical topics.

Words to know:

• Astronomy
• Mars
• Mars Exploration Rover Mission
• Mars Pathfinder
• Mars Science Laboratory
• National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)
• Planet
• Radar
• Space Exploration

Discussion Topics:

1. Ask your students if they can name the seven other planets, besides Mars, in the solar system. (The other planets are Mercury, Venus, Earth, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune.) See if your student can come up with a mnemonic for remembering the names of the planets.

2. Mars’s two moons were discovered in 1877. Ask your students to name some people who were alive when the moons were discovered. (Students might name Susan B. Anthony, Clara Barton, Alexander Graham Bell, Otto von Bismarck, George Washington Carver, Winston Churchill, Marie Curie, Charles Darwin, Frederick Douglass, Arthur Conan Doyle, Thomas Alva Edison, Sigmund Freud, Geronimo, Ulysses S. Grant, Claude Monet, Florence Nightingale, Alfred Nobel, Theodore Roosevelt, Leo Tolstoy, Harriet Tubman, Mark Twain, Queen Victoria, Booker T. Washington, Woodrow Wilson, Orville and Wilbur Wright.)

3. Private companies have begun launching people into space. Ask your students if they would want to visit Mars. Would they go to Mars if they knew they could never return to Earth?

4. Ask your students to use World Book’s Timelines feature to view or add to the Advances in Space Exploration timeline. (Students may wish to use World Book’s “Space exploration” article for help.)

Current Event: Space Age Hero John Glenn (1921-2016)

On December 8,United States astronaut and Senator John Glenn died in Columbus, Ohio, at the age of 95. John Herschel Glenn, Jr., was born on July 18, 1921, in Cambridge, Ohio. He became a pilot for the U.S. Marine Corps, serving in both World War II (1939-1945) and the Korean War (1950-1953). After the wars, he served as a test pilot for new supersonic aircraft, which travel faster than the speed of sound. In 1959, he was chosen to be one of the first seven National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) astronauts. On Feb. 20, 1962, he became the first American to orbit Earth. (About 10 months earlier, Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first human space traveler when he made one orbit of Earth in his spaceship.) Glenn orbited Earth three times during his historic flight. He was probably the first human being to “fly” a spacecraft manually for any length of time. During the flight, the autopilot malfunctioned, causing the spacecraft to tilt to the right. Glenn held the spacecraft in its proper position for the rest of the flight using the vehicle’s manual controls. After Glenn left NASA in 1964, he decided to go into politics. He won election to the Senate from Ohio in 1974, and he continued to serve as a senator until 1998. Glenn traveled back into space in 1998, aboard the space shuttle Discovery. Glenn was 77 years old at the time of the mission, making him the oldest person ever to take part in space travel. As a fighter pilot in two wars, an astronaut in two missions 36 years apart, and a senator for 24 years, Glenn leaves behind a towering legacy of service to his country matched by few people in U.S. history. His humility and patriotism impressed everyone he met. Glenn was an American hero, the likes of which may never be seen again.

Astronaut John H. Glenn Jr. in his Mercury spacesuit, February 1962.
Credit: NASA

Objective:

Mercury was the first United States project to send humans into space. It lasted from 1958 to 1963. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) ran the project. In 1959, Glenn and six other men were chosen from 110 test pilot volunteers for the program. The first two Mercury flights were suborbital flights, quick up-and-down shots that did not orbit Earth. The first American astronaut in space was Alan B. Shepard, Jr., whose flight was on May 5, 1961. The second astronaut, Virgil I. (Gus) Grissom, flew on July 21, 1961. After roughly 15 minutes, both flights returned to Earth. On Feb. 20, 1962, John Glenn orbited Earth three times. Three more Mercury missions followed Glenn’s flight. The astronauts M. Scott Carpenter, Walter M. (Wally) Schirra, Jr., and Gordon Cooper each flew the same number or more orbits than the previous flight. NASA grounded Mercury astronaut Donald K. (Deke) Slayton because of a minor heart ailment. The Behind the Headlines news story and related World Book articles explore the astronauts of the Mercury program and other missions.

Words to know:

• Astronaut
• Gagarin, Yuri Alekseyevich
• Glenn, John Herschel, Jr.
• Mercury
• National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)
• Ohio
• Senate
• Shepard, Alan Bartlett, Jr.
• Space exploration
• Space race
• Space shuttle

Discussion Topics:

1. Ask your students to name some famous astronomers and astronauts. (Students might name Buzz Aldrin, Neil Armstrong, Tycho Brahe, Eileen Collins, Nicolaus Copernicus, Yuri Gagarin, Galileo, John Glenn, Mae Jemison, Johannes Kepler, Christa McAuliffe, Sir Isaac Newton, Sally Ride, Carl Sagan, Alan Shepard, and Neil deGrasse Tyson.)

2. John Glenn served as a senator for 24 years and campaigned for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1984. Ask your students to name some of the 16 senators who later became president of the U.S. (The 16 senator/presidents in chronological order were: James Monroe, John Quincy Adams, Andrew Jackson, Martin Van Buren, William Henry Harrison, John Tyler, Franklin Pierce, James Buchanan, Andrew Johnson, Benjamin Harrison, Warren G. Harding, Harry S. Truman, John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson, Richard M. Nixon, and Barack Obama.)

3. Private companies have begun launching people into space. Ask your students if they would want to visit another planet or any other celestial body. Assuming they could safely travel anywhere in space, where would they go? Would they go if they knew they could never return to Earth?

4. Ask your students to use World Book’s Timelines feature to view or add to the Advances in Space Exploration timeline. (Students may wish to use World Book’s “Space exploration” article for help.)

Current Event: Pearl Harbor: 75 Years After

Wednesday, December 7, marked the 75^th anniversary of the Japanese surprise attack on the U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. Thousands of people have attended events that began last week at Pearl Harbor, capped on Wednesday by the headline ceremony at Kilo Pier attended by survivors of the attack and a number of dignitaries. Wednesday’s events also included the laying of a wreath at the Marine Corps Base Hawaii, the ringing of the Freedom Bell at the USS Bowfin Submarine Museum & Park, a band performance at the Battleship Missouri Memorial, a four-team college basketball tournament, ceremonies at the USS Oklahoma Memorial on Ford Island, and ceremonies at Schofield Barracks and Wheeler Army Airfield honoring the U.S. Army and its 25th Infantry Division. A private interment ceremony took place at the USS Arizona Memorial, where the ashes of two Arizona survivors who recently passed away were buried with their comrades who died in the ship 75 years ago. On the morning of Dec. 7, 1941, the Japanese launched a surprise attack on the U.S. Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor. Two waves of Japanese warplanes sank several U.S. ships, including four battleships. They also destroyed more than 180 U.S. aircraft. The Japanese killed 2,400 Americans but lost only about 100 of their own troops. The attack was a success for Japan at the time. But bringing the United States into the war proved disastrous for Japan and its citizens.

The attack on Pearl Harbor by Japanese bombers was a key event in U.S. history. Following the Dec. 7, 1941, attack on the U.S. naval base, the United States declared war on Japan and formally entered World War II (1939-1945). Credit: © AP Photo

Objective:

World War II (1939-1945) was the most destructive war in history. It killed more people, destroyed more property, and disrupted more lives than any other war in history. Historians believe that about 50 million to 60 million civilians and soldiers died during the six years of fighting. As a result of the war, much of Europe and parts of Asia lay in ruins. In addition to the tens of millions of people who died, millions more were left starving and homeless. The war brought about the downfall of Western Europe as the center of world power. It led to the dominance of the Soviet Union and the United States, and set off a power struggle between the two countries called the Cold War. The Behind the Headlines news story and related World Book articles explore the people and battles of World War II.

Words to know:

• Arizona
• Hawaii
• Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam
• Miller, Dorie
• Missouri
• Pearl Harbor
• World War II
• Yamamoto, Isoroku

Discussion Topics:

1. Ask your students what they know about Hawaii. (Students might say that Hawaii is near the middle of the North Pacific Ocean, Honolulu is the state’s capital and largest city, the island of Hawaii is the state’s largest island and Oahu is the most populous island, Hawaii became the 50th state in 1959, many Hawaiians are of Polynesian descent.)

2. Ask your students to name military and political leaders of World War II. (Famous military leaders include Dwight D. Eisenhower, Douglas MacArthur, Bernard Montgomery, George S. Patton, and Erwin Rommel. Famous political leaders include Winston Churchill, Hirohito, Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Joseph Stalin.)

3. Have your students debate, “How would the world be different today if World War II had never been fought?” Or they can debate, “How would the world be different today if the Axis countries had won World War II?”

4. Ask your students to use World Book’s Timelines feature to view or add to the World War II: Asia and the Pacific timeline. (Students may wish to use World Book’s “World War II” article for help.)

Current Event: Fidel Castro (1926-2016)

Fidel Castro, a guerrilla leader who led a Communist revolution in Cuba and ruled the island from 1959 to 2008, died on November 25, at the age of 90. After word of Castro’s death spread, music was quieted in the capital city of Havana, and flags were lowered to half-staff. The government temporarily banned alcohol sales and suspended the professional baseball season. Castro was cremated the day after he died and an urn containing his ashes was on display in Havana. From there, a cortege was to carry his remains 750 miles (1,200 kilometers) to a final resting place in Santiago de Cuba, the city in eastern Cuba where Castro launched the revolution. Castro will be buried on Sunday, December 4, ending the government’s nine-day period of mourning.

Cuban President Fidel Castro. Credit: © AP Photo

Objective:

Fidel Castro was born on Aug. 13, 1926, in Biran, near Mayari, Cuba. He graduated with a law degree from the University of Havana in 1950 and briefly practiced law in the capital. In 1952, he ran for election to the Cuban House of Representatives. But troops led by former president Fulgencio Batista halted the election and ended democracy in Cuba. As a result of Batista’s actions, Castro tried to start a revolution against the Batista dictatorship. On July 26, 1953, Castro’s forces attacked the Moncada army barracks in Santiago de Cuba. Castro was captured and sentenced to 15 years in prison. Batista released him in 1955, however. Castro then formed the 26th of July Movement, a group of revolutionaries named after the date of his first revolt. He then went into exile in Mexico. Castro’s forces landed in Cuba in December 1956. Many rebels were killed, and Castro and other survivors fled to the Sierra Maestra, a mountain range in southeast Cuba. People from the surrounding countryside joined the rebellion. Batista fled from Cuba on Jan. 1, 1959, and Castro took control of the government. The Castro government provided improved education and health facilities for many Cubans. But the economy often was troubled. In the early 1960′s, Cuba began depending heavily on the Soviet Union for economic support. This support ended in 1991, when the Soviet Union was dissolved. Castro vowed that Cuba would remain a Communist country. However, in the early 1990′s, Cuba undertook limited reforms that loosened state control over parts of the country’s economy. In July 2006, Fidel temporarily gave control of the government to his brother Raúl while he recovered from emergency intestinal surgery. In February 2008, Fidel announced that he would not accept reelection to the presidency by Cuban leaders later that month. Cuba’s National Assembly then elected Raúl to succeed Fidel. Fidel died on Nov. 25, 2016. The Behind the Headlines news story and related World Book articles explore Fidel Castro and other topics related to Cuba.

Words to know:

• 26^th of July Movement
• Che Guevara
• Communism
• Cuba
• Cuban missile crisis
• Fidel Castro
• Fulgencio Batista
• Guerrilla warfare
• Havana
• Raúl Castro

Discussion Topics:

1. Ask your students what they know about Cuba. (Students might say that Cuba is an island nation in the Caribbean region, Cuba is the only Communist state in the Americas, Havana is the country’s capital and largest city, Fidel Castro led the country from 1959 to 2008, Spanish is the country’s official language.)

2. Ask your students to name some other island nations other than Cuba. (Students might name Bahamas, Barbados, Cyprus, Iceland, Indonesia, Ireland, Jamaica, Japan, Madagascar, New Zealand, Philippines, Singapore, United Kingdom. Australia is classified as a continent rather than as an island because of its great size).

3. Ask your students to use World Book’s Timelines feature to view or add to the History of Cuba timeline. (Students may wish to use the “History” section of World Book’s “Cuba” article for help.)

Current Event: Monster Monday: The Asian Giant Hornet

The Asian giant hornet is the largest hornet in the world. It is so large that it is sometimes mistaken for a small bird in flight. Worker Asian giant hornets grow up to 1.75 inches (4.5 centimeters) long, and queens can grow even larger. They are equipped with piercing jaws, a quarter-inch-long (half-centimeter-long) stinger loaded with deadly venom (poison), and an aggressive disposition. Asian giant hornet venom is not more dangerous than the venom of other hornets or wasps, but these giants deliver more venom when they sting. And because of the hornets’ violent swarming behavior, victims are often stung many times at once by many different hornets. Asian giant hornet venom destroys flesh and red blood cells and, if it is delivered in a large enough dose, can lead to cardiac arrest or kidney failure. In Japan alone, Asian giant hornets kill about 40 people and injure some 1,500 others each year. These hornets are found throughout Japan and Southeast Asia. However, some environmentalists fear that the Asian giant hornet will invade other continents, particularly because of the uncertain effects of global warming. Isolated sightings have already been reported in the United States and Europe. Many of these sightings may be cases of mistaken identity, however, as these areas have their own large species (kinds) of wasps and hornets.

Asian Giant Hornet. Credit: Yasunori Koide (licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0)

Objective:

Hornets are large social wasps that live in North America, Europe, and Asia, typically within northern wooded regions. The nests of hornets consist of chewed up wood and plant fiber. Most nests hang in shrubs and trees, but they sometimes occur in buildings or even in the ground. A mated female called the queen starts to make the nest in the spring. She constructs several hexagonal cells and lays an egg in each one. When the eggs hatch, she feeds the larvae. All the young of this first brood consist of females. They become workers who help the queen enlarge the nest, gather food, and rear additional broods. By late summer, the nest may grow larger than a basketball and may contain hundreds of adult hornets. In the fall, new queens and males are born. After mating, the queens leave the nest to hibernate in a protected location. The workers and males die after the first frosts. The Behind the Headlines news story and related World Book articles explore hornets and other insects.

Words to know:

• Bee
• Hornet
• Insect
• Japan
• Southeast Asia
• Wasp

Discussion Topics:

1. Ask your students to name some types of insects besides hornets. (Students might name ants, bees, butterflies, cockroaches, crickets, dragonflies, fireflies, fleas, grasshoppers, lice, mosquitoes, moths, termites.)

2. Asian giant hornets are found in Japan and Southeast Asia. Ask your students what they know about Japan. (They might say Japan is an island country in Asia; Tokyo is the country’s capital and largest city; Japan is one of the most densely populated countries in the world; Japan has one of the largest economies in the world in terms of GDP; Japan’s tallest mountain is Mount Fuji, an inactive volcano.)

3. Ask your students, “Because Asian giant hornets kill dozens of people every year, humans should do all that they can to eradicate them or any other animal that kills large numbers of people.”

Current Event: South Australia’s Ancient Warratyi

An Aboriginal man recently discovered a site preserving some of the oldest known evidence of human settlement in Australia. Clifford Coulthard, an Adnyamathanha elder, stumbled across a rock shelter while surveying in the northern Flinders Range. The Adnyamathanha are the Aboriginal people of Australia native to the Flinders Range of South Australia. Subsequent excavations at the rock shelter, called Warratyi, unearthed ancient tools, bones, and other artifacts that are dated to about 49,000 years ago–only about 1,000 years after the first humans arrived in Australia. Archaeologists excavated some 4,300 stone artifacts and hundreds of animal bones, emu egg shells, and other materials from layers deep within the site. They estimate that people occupied Warratyi on and off for about 40,000 years, finally abandoning the site about 10,000 years ago when conditions became impossibly dry. One sharpened bone tool from Warratyi, called a uni point, was used to hunt big game. Archaeologists also excavated bones from a Diprotodon—a prehistoric giant wombat that was the largest marsupial that ever lived. Many archaeologists believe these animals and other Australian megafauna (giant animals) became extinct because of hunting by early humans. The Warratyi rock shelter proves that Australia’s earliest humans were capable explorers who could quickly adapt even to the harsh conditions of the continent’s arid interior.

Profile view of Warratyi Rock Shelter elevated above local stream catchment. Credit: © Giles Hamm, La Trobe University

Objective:

The Aboriginal people of Australia, also called Aborigines, are the first people of Australia. Australia’s Aborigines live on mainland Australia and the nearby islands, including Tasmania. The ancestors of today’s Aboriginal people arrived in Australia at least 50,000 years ago. Scientists believe that these first people came by boat from Southeast Asia, the closest land that was inhabited by human beings at that time. By 30,000 to 25,000 years ago, they had colonized most of the diverse regions of the country, from the tropical rain forests to the central deserts. There were probably from 300,000 to 1 million Aboriginal people living in Australia when European settlers first reached the island continent in 1788. After 1788, European diseases, malnutrition, and violent conflicts with the settlers greatly reduced the Aboriginal population. As European settlers pushed Aboriginal people off their homelands, the Aboriginal people lost their livelihood and became poor and dependent. Whole families and clans died. By 1921, Australia had about 62,000 Aboriginal people. Today, Australia has about 500,000 Aboriginal people—about 2 percent of the country’s population. The Behind the Headlines news story and related World Book articles explore the Aboriginal people of Australia and other Australian topics.

Words to know:

• Aboriginal people of Australia
• Aboriginal people of Tasmania
• Australia
• Diprotodon (giant wombat)
• Flinders Range
• Marsupial
• Prehistoric people
• South Australia
• Tasmania

Discussion Topics:

1. Ask your students to name some marsupials. (Students might name bandicoots, kangaroos, koalas, opossums, platypuses, Tasmanian devils, Tasmanian tigers, wallabies, wombats.)

2. Ask your students to name some famous Australians. (Students might say Tony Abbott [former prime minister], Julian Assange [founder of WikiLeaks], Cate Blanchett [actress], Graeme Clark [doctor and inventor], Julia Gillard [former prime minister], Chris Hemsworth [actor], Steve Irwin [wildlife expert], Hugh Jackman [actor and singer], Ned Kelly [bushranger], Nicole Kidman [actress], Kylie Minogue [pop singer and actress], Rupert Murdoch [media executive], Greg Norman [golfer], Banjo Paterson [poet and lawyer], Kevin Rudd [former prime minister], Samantha Stosur [tennis player], Malcolm Turnbull [prime minister]).

3. Archaeologists work in many places, including Egypt, Greece, the Middle East, North America, and even underwater. Ask your students, “If you could be an archaeologist, where would you want to work? Why?”

4. Ask your students to use World Book’s Timelines feature to view or add to the History of Australia timeline. (Students may wish to use World Book’s “History of Australia” article for help.)