Good morning, and welcome to Kid News! I'm Tori. It's Tuesday, October 25th, 2022, and we begin with

scientists training nerve cells in a dish to play video games. Researchers in Australia

accomplished this feat by getting nerve cells to grow over a small electronic chip with

lots of electrodes. Then they got the clump of nerves, which they called dishbrain, to stimulate

the right electrodes, and control a small paddle on a screen to play a simple video game called

Pong. Your parents or grandparents might remember it. It's a little like ping pong on a screen.

Remarkably, it took the dishbrain only five minutes to get the hang of it. Though, according

to a news for Kid's article, it wasn't very good at it. But experts say this research could

help scientists understand our brains better, and it could also lead to new kinds of computers.

The nation's latest report card was just released yesterday, and the results, according to

the Secretary of Education, were appalling and unacceptable. Nearly 450,000 fourth and eighth

graders from all over the country were given federal tests in math and reading between January

and March this year. These results are the first since the pandemic began and show US students

in many states experienced a significant decline in these important skills, especially in math,

when schools were shut down and many classrooms had to meet remotely. According to the New York Times,

last year, the federal government made its single biggest investment in American schools,

spending $123 billion or $2,400 per child to help students catch up. The funding expires in 2024.

It's not clear at this point what other steps can or will be taken to improve the academic

ability in US schools, but as one education expert put it, we do not have a moment to waste.

Great Britain has a new history-making prime minister. Yesterday, former finance minister Rishi

Sunak was voted in, making him the third person to hold the job since early September. He's also

Britain's first non-white leader, its first Hindu prime minister, and at 42 years old, the

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