Published in Frontiers for Young Minds
Have you ever heard about executive functions (EFs)? These are skills that you use every single day! They allow you to achieve your goals, resist your impulses, and make wise decisions. During adolescence, your brain is still developing. In particular, the area of your brain responsible for your EFs is still maturing and becoming more efficient. Th...
Published in Frontiers for Young Minds
Antarctic sea ice is more than just frozen seawater at the ocean surface. It is an important home for many tiny-sized marine organisms! When seawater freezes, tiny salty rivers and streams form inside the sea ice. These are called brine channels. To live in these channels, organisms must be smaller than a pinhead. Some organisms can live their whol...
Published in Frontiers for Young Minds
Albedo is the word to describe the amount sunlight that bounces, or reflects, off of the Earth. The concept of albedo is a very important one in discussions of Earth’s climate, because it relates to how much heat is absorbed by various parts of the Earth. Earth’s albedo is influenced by the physical properties of the planet’s various surfaces. Some...
Published in Frontiers for Young Minds
In one of Earth’s largest oceans, the Southern Ocean, tiny organisms called phytoplankton are starving! Not for spaghetti though. How would you like a dinner of iron soup? No? Well, phytoplankton love it. Luckily, these important little organisms can get their iron soup near melting ice, undersea volcanoes, and even near the rear ends of whales! So...
Published in Frontiers for Young Minds
Did you ever face a problem you needed to solve? Most of us face such problems daily—for example, finding the shortest route to school, locating the source of a bad smell, fixing a broken home appliance, or settling a disagreement. Problem solving is an essential life skill. Problem solving is also a creative process, and creativity is considered a...
Published in Frontiers for Young Minds
You might have heard that looking at bright lights like TVs and phones at night can affect your sleep and be bad for your health. But did you know that lights at night are also bad for animals and plants in nature? Human-made light that reaches the environment at night is called light pollution. Lights at night often kill many insects, baby sea tur...
Published in Frontiers for Young Minds
Do you ever feel sad, lonely, anxious, or stressed? Everyone experiences these feelings sometimes, but there are resources that can help. Some people think that technologies like social media and video games are leading to stress and anxiety, but technology can actually support people’s mental health. In fact, some technologies are made to help peo...
Published in Frontiers for Young Minds
Making friends is fun! But for some children, it is hard and even scary. Children who are shy (behaviorally inhibited) are nervous about meeting new people. Happy feelings help people make friends. Looking at people to talk to them also helps people make friends. We wanted to know more about what happens when children play together for the first ti...
Published in Frontiers for Young Minds
Emperor penguins are tough birds that breed on sea ice, which is the frozen surface of the ocean. They are famous for walking across the sea ice, to and from the open ocean, to get food for their chicks. Their bodies and behaviors help them live in the cold, dark winters of Antarctica. However, though they live far away from people, human actions a...
Published in Frontiers for Young Minds
COVID-19 is caused by SARS-CoV-2, a virus that affects the upper and lower respiratory tracts. Most kids who get COVID-19 do not get sick at all, or only feel sick for a short time. But sometimes children who have had COVID-19 can feel unwell for several weeks or months after the infection. They continue to feel exhausted, have shortness of breath,...
