Earth Science

Visit these Web sites to find the answers, then go to www.4Kids.org / detectives / . * What's a good boat for rivers with strong currents? * When did the supercontinent Pangaea exist? * How many fruit food group servings should you eat daily? YOU'LL EAT THIS ONE UP For heaps of food fun, join the Kids Food CyberClub at www.kidsfood.org. Start your adventure by climbing the food pyramid. Then go on a great scavenger hunt that will have you exploring the Internet and visiting places like Broccoli Town, USA, and Cereal City.

Hoping to tap into an economic engine that can weather the recession, Gov. Martin O'Malley unveiled a strategy Tuesday for bolstering the space industry's foothold in the state by lobbying for more federal dollars and emphasizing science and mathematics in schools. O'Malley, speaking to more than 500 aerospace industry representatives in Greenbelt, outlined a plan to harness what he characterized as the state's "unsung economic hero." The vision is similar to one the governor has articulated for the biotechnology industry as a way to further move the state from a manufacturing- to a knowledge-based economy.

The city and four rural counties have been singled out as areas with an "extraordinary shortage" of teachers under a state program that uses scholarship aid to help attract teachers.Also, the state Board of Education has declared a critical shortage of teachers overall in the areas of mathematics, science, special education and trades and industry.Those actions came as the board received predictions of a more than 300-teacher shortfall statewide in the 1991-1992 school year.The board declarations were part of an annual board resolution that names subjects and geographical regions that are the focus of a special scholarship program, enacted in 1984.

Major changes could be in store for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, based on the recommendations of a 12-member committee set up this summer to study the continuing tales of balky equipment, poor handling of the space shuttle fleet and devastating problems aboard the $1.5 billion Hubble Space Telescope.What has emerged is a blueprint considered by many in NASA's scientific, political and contractor constituencies to be full of common sense.The strongest point is a call to reduce dependence on the shuttles by building a new unmanned launcher.

A NASA satellite designed to measure greenhouse gas emissions and pinpoint global warming dangers crashed yesterday after a protective covering failed to separate from the craft shortly after launch at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. The loss of the $278 million satellite came as a severe blow to NASA's climate monitoring efforts, as well as the builder of the Orbiting Carbon Observatory, Orbital Sciences Corp. of Dulles, Va. "Our whole team, at a very personal level, is disappointed," Orbital Science's John Brunschwyler said at a briefing just hours after the satellite plunged into the ocean near Antarctica.

Rock n' country There's no such thing as too much fun - unless of course you're referring to Bill Kirchen & Too Much Fun, who will be rocking the Creative Alliance at the Patterson on Saturday in a concert sponsored by the Sound Foundation. The Sound Foundation is a music-oriented project of Creative Alliance, a nonprofit organization committed to promoting the arts in the Baltimore/D.C. community. Bill Kirchen, a country-music veteran and Grammy nominee, will play his country-rock music with his band.

Pat Whitehurst wears many outfits when he teaches his students. Sometimes he comes to school dressed as a Supreme Court justice to teach his law class. On another day, he donned an inmate's uniform to teach a lesson about prisons. And sometimes he just puts on a tie with a patriotic theme. "I stimulate my students by dressing up," said Whitehurst, who has been teaching Advanced Placement U.S. government and politics, freshman government, geography, sociology and law in America classes at Fallston High School since 2000.

FREDERICK -- With 53 confirmed cases since January, Frederick County is far ahead of its neighbors in rabies cases this year, according to regional health department statistics.No people have contracted the disease in the county, but 35 have undergone post-exposure treatment, according to Charles Gillis, supervisor of the county Department of Environmental Health.This is the third year in a row that Frederick County has led the region in rabies cases. Thirty-four cases have been reported this year in Washington County; Franklin and Fulton counties in Pennsylvania; and Jefferson, Berkeley and Morgan counties in West.

Teachers at Sudbrook Magnet Middle School, a high-performing school in northwest Baltimore County, are revising a magnet program this summer to focus on environmental and earth sciences. The new curriculum will replace a general science and math program, which was called computer applications in science and math. The school's other three magnets - in the visual arts, performing arts and foreign languages - will remain the same. The new magnet will give pupils the opportunity to gain high school credits in environmental and earth sciences, so they can take more advanced classes in high school, said Tom Miley, one of the teachers revising the program.

Seventh-graders from the Sudbrook Magnet Middle School in Pikesville crowded around a mock environmental crime scene yesterday looking for clues that might lead them to a culprit, and questioning three teachers wearing tags that read "witness." Seventh-graders Jon Henricks and David Schetman unearthed what they thought was a major clue. "I think we found something important because there was the company name of Sluggo Inc. on one of the barrels," Jon said, "and we found out that one of the witnesses knows someone who works there."