Special Interest Articles
A space where the students at RGJS news can explore specific topics, hold interviews or share their passion and knowledge. 

Nature is one of the most wonderful things we have on Earth. It is full of life, color, and amazing sights.

 Everywhere we look, there are trees, flowers, mountains, and oceans that make our planet special. I love walking outside and feeling the wind on my face or listening to the birds sing in the morning.

 Sometimes I see butterflies flying around and squirrels running up trees, and it makes me smile.

Nature is also very important because it gives us so many things we need to live, like clean air, water, and food. 

Without nature, people and animals wouldn’t survive. That’s why we should always take care of it. We can help by not throwing trash on the ground, recycling, and planting more trees. If everyone does a little bit to protect nature, it will stay beautiful and healthy for a long time. I think nature is a gift, and we should all be thankful for it!

1. Don’t eat food with palm oil in it! People cut down forests to create palm oil farms.

2. Reducing, reusing and recycling can minimize waste and help planet Earth! Always remember that recyclable materials  such as paper, glass and cardboard aren't just waste, too - small clothes can also be turned into patches for ripped or torn clothing. You can go to the Eco shop which happens at the end of every month at our school, so you can help us reduce plastic.

3. You can conserve water by not having long showers and by not leaving taps running when you’re not using them. That includes when you’re brushing your teeth and leaving the tap on so you don’t have to turn it off and on again!

4. Speaking of water, using too many products such as shampoo or handwash can pollute our seas! Using less of these products can stop our seas being an unfriendly place for our fish to live.

5. Try to remember to walk or use the bus to get to school. Doing this can reduce your carbon footprint and help decrease global warming!

6. Planting trees and plants in your gardens can help our ecosystem by absorbing carbon dioxide and releasing oxygen. Growing flowers can also bring a happy atmosphere into your garden with their bright, delightful colours!

7. When you’re not using them, you can turn your electronic devices off to reduce the amount of power they use, therefore helping our planet from being destroyed by climate change. Using a less amount of energy can stop people from having to burn coal (which creates carbon dioxide) just to create more electricity!

8. Eating and drinking less meat and milk can help the environment because livestock farming contributes to greenhouse gas emissions. People often cut down trees to create space for farmland!

9. Replacing single-use  plastic bags helps our earth too! It can help us get our planet better by decreasing the amount of plastic we use.

10. Picking up plastic can help planet Earth because it stops the plastic from drifting away to sea, or even worse, trapping small creatures! Removing plastic also makes your home a tidier, happier place to live.

11.  Buying second - hand clothes, furniture and other items stops companies from producing more products. The less products people make, the less coal they burn!

12. If you use a reusable water bottle then you won’t be throwing plastic away every day like you would with a single - plastic bottle! Doing this helps reduce plastic.

13. Create shopping lists to reduce buying excess food! Doing this reduces how much plastic companies make to create the packages.

14. Store food properly. Using older foods first also helps!

15. Choosing  local foods helps our planet as well! It reduses our carbon footprint by stopping ships from having to sail across the ocean to deliver it here.

16. Choose a plant - based diet. It helps by reducing livestock farming!

17. Share your knowledge with your friends and family. It helps inspire them to take action too!

18. Look for products with minimal packaging - or made from sustainable materials. This helps by reducing pollution.

19. Try to minimize food waste. When food decomposes in landfill,it releases methane, a really powerful greenhouse gas!

20. Create a compost heap in your back yard! It may be stinky, but you can put your food waste there. It helps minimize greenhouse gas emissions, and decomposes into healthy soil for your plants to grow!

       Doing all these things can help planet Earth, making it a healthy, happy and eco - friendly place to be!

Axolotl

The axolotl is a unique aquatic salamander native to Mexico that remains in its larval stage throughout its life, a phenomenon called neoteny. These amphibians are known for their external, feathery gills, and astonishing ability to regenerate lost body parts, including limbs, heart, and even parts of the brain. While commonly found in wild populations in Lake Xchoimilco, they are critically endangered due to habitat loss and pollution, though conservation efforts are underway. In the wild, axolotls are exclusively found in the freshwater lakes in Mexico City, specifically in Lake Xchoimilco.  However, they are critically endangered because of pollution, habitat destruction, and the introduction of invasive species. Conservation efforts include habitat restoration and captive breeding programs.  I have attached an image of an axolotl below. TAKE A LOOK! 

Platypus

The platypus is a unique, semi-aquatic mammal from eastern Australia known for its unusual combination of features, including a duck-like bill, webbed feet, and a beaver-like tail.  As one of the world’s only two species of monotremes, it lays eggs instead of giving birth to live young and feeds its babies milk. Male platypuses have a venomous spur on their hind legs, used in fights during mating seasons, which can cause intense pain to predators or other males. They are skilled swimmers that use their sensitive bill to detect prey with electroreception, despite being rather clumsy on land. The platypus has a streamlined body, dense brown fur, a broad, flat tail and webbed feet for swimming, while its webbed hind feet and tail help steer. When on land, it can turn its webbed front feet back to use its claws for digging. 

Sloths 

Sloths are slow-moving, tree-dwelling mammals native to the tropical forests of Central and South America, famous for their incredibly low metabolic rates, which causes their sluggish-ness. These herbivores spend nearly their entire lives hanging up-side down from branches, using their long, curved claws to tightly, and their digestive system is so slow that it can take them up to a month to digest a single meal. Despite their gentle appearance, sloths can be surprisingly fierce when threatened and are also excellent swimmers, which they use to travel between trees.While slow-moving, sloths can bite fiercely, slash with their claws, and shriek when they feel threatened.

Have you wondered, what are pyramids ? Why were they built? Lets take an adventure to Pyramid World and discover all the facts you ever wanted to know.

Pyramids are…

Primarily built as tombs for pharaohs in Egypt and Sudan, are massive stone structures that were once the world's tallest human-made structures. The Great Pyramid of Giza, built for Pharaoh Khufu, is the largest and took about 20 years to construct, using an estimated 2.3 million blocks of stone. 

Why were they built

Pyramids were built as massive tombs to house the pharaohs and their belongings for the afterlife, as Egyptians believed Kings would become gods in the next world.                        

Did you know …

• Due to their proximity to the Nile, ancient Egyptians suffered from a variety of waterborne and parasitic diseases. A 2024 analysis of mummies found that 65% had evidence of schistosomiasis (a parasitic worm), 40% had head lice, and 22% had malaria.

• The sensationalized "curse of the pharaohs" after King Tut's tomb was opened may have a basis in toxic fungi. Some archaeologists died after exposure to the spores of the fungus Aspergillus flavus, which can be found in long-sealed tombs. 

•  In ancient times, the sealed tombs of pharaohs and other wealthy citizens were ripe targets for looting. Many were robbed shortly after being sealed, and valuable treasures were stolen but don’t worry if they were caught, the punishment for robbing royal graves was severe and gruesome. Executions included impalement, where a stake was inserted into the body to cause a slow, agonizing death.