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The Middle-School Newspaper of King’s Academy
KA Library Probably the Best in JO
23 FEBRUARY 2017
Groundbreaking discoveries on the scientific horizon
Vol. 1, Issue 3
Real-life tractor beam, bionic eye, and tarantula membrane all in progress
By Rashed Zou’bi Have you ever wondered how many books are in the library? Well, here is your answer: Mr. Jazi Al Saleh was asked if he was to guess, how many books are in the school library? His answer was: “We do not guess, here at the library we have an exact number of books. In fact, they are almost 50,000 titles and 45,000 books. For we combine a series of books in one huge volume. An example is the Narnia books; we have seven titles in one book.” A lot of people have different perspectives: Student Awn Al Bqour estimated 95,000 titles and 50,000 books. While another student Rawhi Khatib estimated 50-70 thousand books. On the other hand, student Kareem Madanat estimated 15-40 thousand books.
The library at King’s Academy has around 45,000 thoughtfully chosen books.
(Photo by Mustafa Al-‐Karbooli)
Recycling much needed to solve problems By Mohamed Al-Ali If we want to leave our planet earth with a clean and healthy environment for our future generation, we need to care of it. Our Environment is getting worse day by day from littering, car travel or air travel. Littering is one of the main problems for the environment, causing an unpleasant and unhealthy environment.
Mr. Jazi continued by saying what he likes about the school library and said: “I like the student who comes to the library, because this student is searching for knowledge, and the library is the center of knowledge.”
Recycling is one the best and convenient ways of preventing this issue to continue.
In fact, Mr. Jazi himself has read 468 books from the library.
“Recycling helps to reduce gasolines which helps reduces the greenhouse gases that works on climate change. We also have some bins in the MS which encourages us to start recycling more. We should show people what are the causes of littering and that we could fix it by recycling,” Haseeb Haddadeen, an eighth grader, said.
Students Kareem Madanat, Awn Al Bqour, and Rawhi Khatib agree that it depends on the book if two weeks are enough to finish it or not, for the limit is two weeks in the library.
Recyclable materials include many kinds of glass, paper and cardboard, metal, and electronics. There are also other ways to reuse food and garden waste, also known as recycling. Materials that are recycled are collected and bought to a collection center and are produced into new materials. Recycling starts from homes, schools and colleges. At home, iuf you are not throwing your old products but instead you are taking advantage of them then you are helping the environment. In schools there should be some programs inspiring students to recycle which will affect their future generation in a positive way.
On the other hand, Mr. Jazi says that if it wasn’t enough, they’ll renew it. But for Mr. Eric, he says that two weeks are not enough to finish a book and that that is a problem.
“Now-days people don’t recycle but unfortunately they litter instead because they don’t care about the environment and their surroundings but they only care about themselves and not about others,” said Ammar Hammad, an eighth grader.
Ms. Jumana and Ms. Eman also help students find and check out books.
“Nowadays we are facing huge amount of problems in our environment causing a lot of unhealthy gases to take place in our modern days. If we recycle we could be able of reducing some of the problem of our environment resulting in a healthy world,” said Emil Billeh, a seventh grader.
Students Kareem Madanat and Awn Al Bqour do not go to the library that often, but for student Rawhi Khatib and Mr. Eric, they go very often. Student Kareem Madanat likes to have his own supply of books; therefore, he goes to the library only for Arabic books and not English. But he agrees with student Rawhi Khatib as they say that there is a huge opportunity to find special and rare books in the library. “The first headmaster’s wife helped start the collection when she carefully chose the most important books in the field,” Mr. Eric said. (Her portrait with Headmaster Widmer hangs in the lobby.) Now Library Director Ms. Hudda Abbas orders new books all the time with input from faculty and students. A dedicated patron, he added, “When I die, I want my ashes to be burned and scattered like dust on the library shelves.”
OP-ED: New MS mobile phone policy By Mustafa Al-‐Karbooli There has been a new policy in the school that is useful for teachers but is kind of concerning for the students. The policy is that the students can’t keep their cellphone with them and they have to hand it in during the morning because it can distract them, and they have to take them at the end of the day. That was so useful for the teachers because the students are paying m ore attention to their classes and the teachers. Personally I am one of those people who always keep their cellphones in their pockets because I’m scared that someone m ight open m y bag and steal the phone. I think that this is a good policy because it had an effect on me and it made me more concentrative in class. What is the purpose of this policy? I think teachers are getting angrier than they were before and I believe this because students aren’t paying attention to the classes but they are worrying about what can happen to their phones. They might ring or fall in the middle of the class. By taking the cellphones away teachers are getting calmer and students are getting more attentive.
By Abdullah Al-‐Ashram The year 2017 launched of with a lot of new groundbreaking discoveries. Discoveries are made every year, but this year seems to have a lot of mind-blowing discoveries. Discoveries are made every day and more bound to be made, as said by A.A. Milne a famous English poet. “One of the advantages of being disorganized is that one is always having surprising discoveries,” said A.A. Milne, author of Winnie the Pooh. Discoveries are always around the corner; everyday millions of new discoveries are made. Discoveries vary from intentional and unintentional findings. A discovery that was unusual and caught the eyes of many people, the wild tarantula that ate a foot-long snake. The tarantula, called “Grammostola quirogai”, was chowing down on the body of an “Almaden ground snake”. It's the first time a tarantula has ever been seen preying on a snake in the wild. The discovery was made in southern Brazil, a home for many tarantulas. The discovery was made on January 8 2016, as a group of scientists were looking for tarantulas. "Predation of such a large snake in relation to the size of the spider was extremely surprising to us," said Leandro Malta Borges, a graduate student in biology at the Federal University of Santa Maria in Brazil. Scientists discovered a new organ in humans. A mighty membrane that twists and turns through the gut is starting the new year with a new classification: the structure, called the “mesentery” has been discovered a couple of days ago. It was always known as a membrane, but it is now classified as an organ. Scientists are still trying to understand this weird and complex organ. No scientists have yet spoken about this structure and is yet to be validated. Scientists discover a new way to levitate object using the manipulation of sound waves. People will be finally able to move objects from far away. Scientists have found a way to resist gravity, this device will be available to purchase in a couple of months. The device is a tractor beam and will solve the annoying problem of having to get up from a relaxing sit, to get water or to get a remote. Scientists had found a new way to make several chronic stroke patients walk again. A clinical trial held at Stanford University School of Medicine injected modified human stem cells directly into the brains of several chronic stroke patients. The procedures were all successful with no negative effects described from the injection and only mild headaches as a result of the procedure, which was performed on mildly sedated patients. “All 18 showed significant healing long after any healing is expected following a stroke (a period of six months). This included increased mobility and actually allowed for patients who were previously limited to wheelchairs to walk again freely.” Scientists have discovered a new way of returning eye vision. Scientists have conceived a bionic lens which will supposedly return eyesight to those who are blind. Dr. Garth Webb, an optometrist in British Columbia developed the “Ocumetics Bionic Lens” which could give patients perfect vision and removes the chance of cataracts because the new lens replaces the existing, natural one. Even more impressive, Webb says the surgery can be done in eight minutes and will immediately correct the patient’s vision. “The lens is custom-made and inserted like a taco into a saline-filled syringe, then placed into the eye where it unfolds within 10 seconds,” said Webb.