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Some people call it an underwater wonderland. Others call it the most magical place on our planet. We are talking about one of the great wonders of our natural world-the beautiful and amazing Great Barrier Reef located off the East Coast of Australia. People travel from all over the world to see and explore the Great Barrier Reef and the wonderful creatures that live in the area.

The Great Barrier Reef is not just one reef but actually a series of over 2000 individual reefs stretching for more than 2300 kilometers. It stretches from Papua New Guinea in the north down the Queensland coast to Lady Elliott Island in the south. In addition to the reefs there are also over 500 islands in the Great Barrier Reef.

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Imagine being able to turn a glass of orange juice into a glass of orange soda? Imagine being able to do this without using any fancy bottling machinery or mixing in real soda or using a soda gas cannister.

Rather, you will create the soda bubbles within the drink and in doing so learn some secrets of chemistry.

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If you think all turtles are so slow moving that they can barely make it from one side of the pond to another in a day, think again! Sea turtles are capable of migrating hundreds or even thousands of miles in a season. Can you swim a thousand miles in a three month span of time? Maybe—if you are a sea turtle!

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You can grow crystals in your own home, if you take a little time to allow for them to grow.

Please have a parent help you with this experiment, since ammonia and laundry bluing are chemicals which can be harmful if improperly handled.

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Every time you mix ingredients together and put the batter in the oven, chemical reactions take place. With this recipe you can make 4 small cakes while experimenting with the ingredients in order to discover which ingredients cause which reactions.

You’ll need an adult to help you with handling the oven and hot pans!

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Older than baseball, more ancient than basketball, even preceding ice hockey, the first evidence of people playing field hockey dates back to ancient Egypt! Four thousand year-old drawings discovered in a tomb at Beni-Hasen in Egypt’s Nile Valley illustrates people playing the game. And though it has undergone numerous changes and variations, field hockey has been played for centuries by many cultures, including the Greeks, Arabs, Romans, Persians, Aztecs and Ethiopians. As a modern sport, it is popular in India, Pakistan, Europe, New Zealand, Australia, parts of South America, Africa and Asia. In the United States, field hockey is played mostly by women, whereas men are active in the sport in other regions.

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Here’s a tricky one: a jellyfish is neither jelly nor a fish! If you’ve ever seen one drifting about in the water, you might think it was made of jelly, because it has such a floaty, flexible appearance.

In fact, jellyfish are 97% water, and have no heart, blood, brain or gills. However, they can smell, taste and remain balanced in the water. The bell, or body, of a jellyfish has at least one mouth on its oral surface, and they feed on tiny zooplankton, which drift about in the ocean much like jellyfish do.

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Windsurfing is a relatively new sport whose conception can be traced to the garages of two guys from Southern California. In 1968, a sailor named Jim Drake and a surfer named Hoyle Schweitzer put their heads together and came up with the idea of a new sport which brought out the best in their favorite pastimes. A windsurfer, or sailboard, is basically a combination of a small sailboat and a surfboard, constructed by placing a sail on a universal joint which can be steered by the person who stands upon the floating board. The universal joint allows the rider to steer the board in any direction without the use of a rudder– thus forming the only craft of its kind to be steered without the use of a rudder.

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Hyenas look a lot like dogs but the eerie sounds, growls and giggles they make are unique to themselves. A spotted hyena has a blunt nose, rounded ears, long front legs and a sloping back.Their yellow-gray fur is covered in dark spots. Actually, they are not even part of the dog family!

For years people thought that hyenas were scavengers and that they only fed on dead animals that had been killed by other attackers. But now scientists have learned that spotted hyenas are, in fact, skillful and talented hunters. They usually hunt in packs of ten to thirty animals but as many as 80 can live together in a grouping called a clan.

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Since Halloween is just around the corner…well OK maybe it is over a month away but we thought you might like to try this great recipe for pancakes. It is a little different from your basic breakfast pancake but it is the perfect thing to make on a weekend morning when you are in the mood for a special treat. Just remember to ask your parents or a very responsible adult for help with the stove.

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Several people have written in asking us for some good jokes. Try to guess some of the answers to these great jokes…and then try to stump your friends. Have a lot fun!

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They come into your house if you leave food out in the open. They invade your picnic basket. They even crawl around the walls and corners of your kitchen and bedroom. And the worst part is that they bring hundreds of their friends with them.

We are talking about ants of course. Ants are those tiny black (or sometimes red) insects that seem to be everywhere. We usually ignore them or swat them away if we find one crawling on our food or on us. But what most people do not know is that these small creatures actually lead really big and complicated lives.

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