The Week Junior UK – 24 August 2019

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24 August 2019•The Week Junior

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·REX SHUTTERSTOCK

·SOUTH CUMBRIA RIVER TRUST

5

A

survey hasrevealed that young peoplecannot

identify some of the UK’smostcommon wildlife

and plants. The study found that 83% of people

aged between five and 16could notrecognise

abumblebee, and almost one in four didn’t know

whatarobin looked like.

Researchers, on behalf of

afamily-activity app,asked

1,000 people to identify

what they saw inaseries

of pictures. Around half

of them didn’trecognise

photos ofabluebell or

astinging nettle. The study

also found that as young people grow older,they

become less interested in nature.

Thereport’sother findings showed that on

average, children spend morethan five andahalf

hoursadaywatching TV,playing games or using their

phones. Bycomparison, they spend just an hour and

outdoors in the natural world.

Technology is also changing our

understanding of some words. A

separate studycarried out by the

University ofLeeds found that words

onceassociated with nature–such as

eet, web and cloud–are now used

y to describe technology.

“Cookingcompetition showwill blast entiremeals

into chefs’faceswith cannon”thetakeout.com

THEWEEK’SSILLIESTHEADLINE

TwoTVa dverts arebanned

T

wo TV adverts have been banned after they were

found to show gender stereotypes.Astereotype is

an unfair and untrue belief held aboutacertain group

of people. One of the adverts, foracar company,

showed men as astronauts and women as mothers.

Some people said the adverts suggested that only

men go on adventures and women stay at home. The

Advertising Standards Authority,which oversees UK

adverts, banned gender stereotypes in June.

Moregirls studying science

F

or the first time ever,morefemale than male

students have takenAlevel scienceexams.

Overall, in the three main sciences of biology,

chemistry and physics, female pupils accounted for

50.3% of those studying the subjects. In biology,

63% of students werefemale and in chemistry itwas

54%. Physics is the one sciencewherethereare still

moremale students, with females making up 23%

of pupils taking theexam.

Stone skimmers crowned

T

hereigning champion of the All England Open

Stone Skimming Championships has defended his

title at this year’sevent. AlexLewis won this year’s

competition at LakeWindermereinthe LakeDistrict

witha98-metreskim. His throwwasthree metres

further than thecompetition’sprevious best, which

Lewis set. In the femalecategory,Christina Bowen

Bravery beat former winner BarbaraMaher.

Young people unable to identify

common British plants and animals

pine martenF ebutterfly cabbage whitE conkerD puffinC stinging nettleB badgerA

Howwell doyouknowBritish wildlifeand plants?

A

D E

B C

F

ahalf

o

tw

mostly

CANY

OU

BEE-LIEVE IT?

Therea

remor

ethan 250

species

ofbeeint

he UK,

including

24 species

ofbumblebee.

People didn’t know

manycommon plants.

ANSWERS

CANBEF

ATTHE OUND

OF THEBOTTOM

PAGE!

Oneadver tshowed

only male astronauts.

Alex Lewis