Learning Across Kansas; 101; High School

(school bell ringing) (upbeat funky music) (children screaming excitedly) (school bell ringing) (car horn beeping) - Hi, welcome to Learning Across Kansas. I'm Cindy Couchman and I'm your host for this episode. Learning Across Kansas between the Kansas State and the Kansas Public Together, we wanna ensure as we face social distancing and health and safety issues As you can see, I'm hosting outside. That's because April 22nd of Earth Day. We're gonna take Across Kansas and they're gonna talk social studies, English, and even your social emotional health

all connect to our beautiful Earth. We're gonna start in De Soto, Kansas, with Keil Hileman, who's about how Native and valued the earth and used every single Keil, take it away. - My name is Keil Hileman. I teach history and archeology for the De Soto school district. I will tell you that Earth Day holds a especially for 2020 as But I'm also fascinated had a love of the earth as The best archeological evidence in North America for 16,000 years. Most Native American tribes Some of them often referred to the land as belonging to their grandchildren, the idea that it should be They not only worshiped the land, they prayed for everything And that's the irony of it. The land gave them everything. Everything you see in front of you

are pieces of artifacts from in Kansas, things they off the land, whether it's a deer or even a bison horn, or seashells traded or pottery made out of clay, the Native Americans used The long white bead was The tiny brown bead was They literally wasted nothing. After an animal had been processed and the hide turned into skin, the fur used for pillows they literally would take the extra bones and make a bone pile so that any family, any person, could find something there to use. Waste was not an option. When you see a bison, and large and terrifying. They saw Walmart on feet. It was everything they

So when we celebrate earth day this year, and we consider all of I ask you to remember that for thousands of years literally using everything around them, living with the earth, not just on it. And, of course, as pioneers Manifest destiny, the idea and conquer and change and build, changed how we saw the earth. Now you're gonna meet a who's gonna talk to you Thank you for your attention and time. - Thanks, Keil. Let's talk about the history of Earth Day. Nineteen sixty-two, Rachel It launches a huge conversation about the environmental movement and the debate that we have going on on the climate today. What was it like when Rachel Carson's book - It was very revolutionary

and increased the awareness of everybody about what was going on - So, another thing that by surprise was in 1969. Cuyahoga River in because it was so polluted. So Senator Nelson from Wisconsin said, "We're gonna do Earth Day April 22, 1970," and 22 million people show This is going to lead to legislation like the Environmental Protection Act, Clean Water and Clean Air So, let's talk about one more thing and go into a little bit of economics. So, people respond to awareness. Well, they also respond So in 1973 the United in the Yom Kippur War, which caused the Arab into the United States. Let's see what that did When we're talking about Earth Day today,

there was an embargo of What kind of an impact did that have? - It created long lines to put in fuel, and the fuel prices went up to over a dollar a gallon. - [Kara] What did that do to cars? - It changed 'em, from the big V8 engines that got eight, nine miles to the gallon, to the small economy cars to the gallon. One thing was the Cadillac to put on cars to cut down on that, and they changed it to unleaded fuel, took the lead out. Then went from carburretion which gave better mileage and from big steel frames and steel cars to, basically, lightweight metal. - [Kara] And now I'd for their help in showing us how people and things a little history on Earth Day

in their 1960 Chevy Impala Bubbletop. Now, back to Cindy Couchman. - [Narrator] Kansas school for the remainder of the academic year, but school is still in session. Keeping students engaged during this extraordinary time is critical for their ongoing success. We salute our teachers, who are committed to ensuring this year strong. We're all ready for our but until that time, Kansas students, keep learning and keep Together, Kansans can. - Thank you, Keil and Kara. From learning how Native and used every resource to how Earth Day has and continues to protect our earth, even through the cars we drive. We're gonna kick it back to now learn about fossil fuels. Keil, take it away. - Hello, my name is Keil Hileman,

and I teach history and archeology for De Soto unified school districts. I'm here to talk to you and fossil fuels. We hear about fossil fuels People have concerns about pollution, but where did it all start, where did it come from? About a hundred million years ago Kansas was part of a inner and had amazing lifeforms and You and I would not wanna swim with them. We wouldn't last long. But beautiful creatures. Now, if you have a fish tank and you've seen what settles at the bottom of your fish tank, fish, food, remnants, plants, that is exactly what limestone is made up of for Kansas. We are the bottom of a prehistoric ocean. And all of that biological and literally created hence the title "fossil fuels". Before you, you see several A trilobite, megalodon shark's tooth,

and teenage megalodon's shark's tooth. You also see a prehistoric bison tooth, a prehistoric horse tooth, and angel wing remnants. Ammonites, beautiful a bison leg bone, a wooly mammoth tooth and a mastodon tooth, and Kansas is literally filled with fossils. If you go out hunting for fossils you simply need to look through the hill, and you'll see all the An old screwdriver and a hammer, or a hammer and a chisel, with parents' permission, and you can seek out and chisel them out. This is a petrified fern, and because it sticks up, that's the actual fern in turned to stone. If you look carefully, you'll find little fragments like this with hundreds of thousands And, if you're lucky, you might even find a sedimentary layer

from the bottom of the prehistoric ocean. Fossil fuels are great. They worked fantastic for But they do produce CO2. And you're about to named Cherryl Delacruz, and she's gonna talk to you Have a great day. Thank you for your time - Thank you, Keil. This is Cherryl Delacruz from Topeka Public Schools. Atmospheric carbon dioxide, or CO2, has been dominating other greenhouse gases in the last century. And why is that? Because of the drastic our use of fuels, coals and oils, the so-called fossil fuels. Let's take a look at this measured at NOAA's Mauna in recent years.

If we take annual data from 2007 to 2019, it can be modeled by a linear regression, y equals 2.35x plus 381.8, where x is in years and y is This means that the CO2 is increasing by 2.35 ppms every year. Now, use this equation to in the atmosphere. I'm pretty sure you can do the math. So now what? Well, scientists believe at a faster rate because of And it has multiple Sea level rise and longer, loss of sea ice, change and more intense heatwaves, and, of course, many more.

From this, NASA's GISS graph, it can be observed that from 1880 to the present. How is it changing? The US National Climate put these two together in one graph. Looks like both temperature follow the same curve. What else do you notice? And what do you wonder? Based on the graph, do is largely caused by the This year's Earth Day Climate change is one of the challenges that Earth is facing right now, and there's so much that we can do to make this planet a This world needs us. This world needs our action. - We're experiencing like we've never seen before.

COVID-19 is here in Kansas, in our bigger cities and There are several things you can do to protect those around you. First and foremost, please stay home, leaving only when you or to get some exercise. Practice social distancing. Please trust that we'll get back to normal far more quickly if we - Wow, those are some Thank you for sharing them with us. And learning about carbon that's really impactful. Makes me wanna go buy an electric car. So, learning from about fossil fuels and the energy that they produce, to the energy that the sun produces. We're gonna go learn about solar panels with Stan Bergkamp in Maize, Kansas. - Hi, my name is Stan Bergkamp. I teach physics and chemistry So, I'm standing in front of a 720-panel, 200 kilowatt solar array,

which the construction started this on Earth Day 2019, April 22nd. And so it's kinda fitting that as we develop this theme of Earth Day and the idea of using renewable energy, that I do this presentation here. So, how the system works is fairly simple. We have our local star, and that works on a fusion process where hydrogen slams together in a very high pressure Out of that process we get little bundles of So those photons leave it takes 'em about eight and when they strike the the solar array is constructed of matter that we call electrons are hit by the photons, and the electrons become excited and they actually leave that stable state. So, what the solar array does

is that it takes those and generates an electric current. So that electric current is what we call direct current, or DC. So, before we can use it on the grid, what we have to do, over here, is that this bank of that direct current into So then, once that AC then that gets stuff out on the grid, and then we can use it. So, we have sunlight coming in, striking the electrons. The electrons become excited. We change the DC into AC. At the end of the day, as any good electrical story goes, we can make toast. So we'd certainly generate and we use it just over So, plants have been doing this for years, and now I'm gonna turn and she's gonna explain how and build sugars out of that.

Take it away, Shannon. - Hey, thanks Stan. You're right, leaves are a whole bunch like your solar panels. Their job is to do the same thing really, and that is convert energy from the sun into energy in the form of glucose that can be used by the plant, and also by, really, every So here's how that works. Leaves are really cool, in that they have organelles in them that are called chloroplasts. If you take a chloroplast it looks sort of like this. Inside of the chloroplast they're actually little membranous discs, and they have pigments in 'em. Pigments do the same thing Their job is to catch the photons. I like to think of it kinda So, if you have a you catch the ball, right? Well, what happens in pigments which is the green one, it has an electron in the And that electron is able to move.

So what happens is when a photon comes in, the electron gets excited, just like that. We don't want the or the plant doesn't, so what it does instead and it uses it to make The names of them aren't that important, but their function is, because then what happens is those compounds are gonna be used, that energy's gonna be used, to put carbons together. So another way of thinking about it is think about a welder. A welder is trying to and it's doesn't have It has a torch (noisily that fuses things together. Well, plants do really a similar thing. The difference is they're pulling CO2 out of the atmosphere, right? So the CO2 is out in the atmosphere, and they need, those carbons need to be fused together. But it doesn't happen without energy. So, the energy carrying fuse those two things together, right?

And it happens over and over until, ultimately, you build glucose, which is C6H12O6. So those six carbons really in the atmosphere. Now this energy can be used by and it starts almost every Yay, glucose! That's why this is a big deal. You're gonna learn how to use that from Heidi here in a minute, but right now we're gonna - [Narrator] Hey, parents, With Kansas school buildings closed and homes being turned into classrooms, parents and caregivers and their students' learning. This is a new experience for most of us, so let's show one another a little grace. When you and your students start to feel overwhelmed or stressed, take a break, it's really okay. Keeping students interested is the key to success. Remember, you have an entire community of fellow care-givers Reach out. Together, Kansans can. - We learned from Stan

how the energy that the sun produces can be captured in solar panels in the same way that we capture it to produce glucose in plants. Next, we're gonna go to who talks about that and what it does in our and importance of being outside. Heidi, it's off to you. - I'm Heidi Albin, with in Maize, Kansas. Happy Earth Day. Earth Day is a great way to get outside. Did you know that being outdoors is actually important to your That's right. It's so important that not being outside can lead to Nature Deficit Disorder, which refers to the damage that can occur socially and mentally and emotionally and physically when we don't spend enough time outdoors. A quick internet search will reveal to you the that have indicated that a can correlate with rises anxiety and a stunting of

and even delayed cognitive development. So let's get outside. A great way to get outside is to take advantage of the Sun providing energy by starting a garden. And gardening is easier than you think. - Hi, I'm John, with I wanted to bring you to see my garden and with just seeds, sunshine, There is nothing else You know, growing your very physically healthy, because you're enjoying the that can be had by but it's also very therapeutic. So please visit cinagrogarden.com for lots of resources And please, please, get

No matter if it's gardening, being together and having can draw people closer to each other. - Thank you so much for We're gonna send it over to Sam Neill in Buhler, Kansas now. - Hi, my name's Sam Neill and I teach high school in Buhler, Kansas. And I love how easy it is to garden. I also love how easy it is to get creative and start writing. So I'm gonna share a and you're only going to need Let's get started. The three things that you're going to need to start your Roll Die Poetry are a notebook or a piece of paper, something to write with and a die from one of the games in your house. The final thing you're gonna

so I took some pictures and that inspired me to start writing. What you need to do is label each line one to These become your lines of poetry. Then you're gonna roll a die. Every time you roll this die, that becomes the number of words that you get to use in So you're gonna do this It's okay if, when you're Writing takes a lotta drafts. So I'm gonna show you what And then I'll share my This picture of a Bradford and a lone bench by the This is how my draft until I got it the way that I wanted to. Remember, it doesn't have to be perfect. Poetry is powerful because We want active words.

We want personification, where we have inanimate objects that are able to do human tasks. We also wanna focus on that really bring our writing to life. It's okay to go back and revise after you've written your first draft. Don't be scared to take And now I wanna share "A lone wooden bench "sits near a calm pond "surrounded by friends: "The white Bradford pear, "the pink Redbud tree. "This bench has waited all winter "counting the days until spring arrived. "And now warm sun wakes the Get outside, get writing. It's so simple to get creative. - Thank you, Sam. Being outside and is so important for our I wanna thank the seven teachers that have connected Earth Day to their content areas,

and a special shout out to educators all over the City of Kansas, who have made learning Thank you to the Kansas and the Kansas Public Broadcasting Service for making this partnership possible. I'm Cindy Couchman. Thank you for joining us. (upbeat music)