Transcripts For KCSM Teen Kids News 20111008

>> these are teens with a mission. they're working to save rainforests in indonesia and malaysia and the endangered animals that live there. >> we really need to take a big part in helping our environment. >> this became their battleground. they fought to remove some snacks from their school vending machine. but it wasn't easy. >> the biggest challenge i faced was other students and teachers liking the products in the vending machines that we were taking out and they didn't want them removed. >> those products all had one particular ingredient in common. >> the entire rainforest ecosystem is endangered because of palm oil. >> palm oil is used to produce many things -- makeup, biodiesel fuel for cars, and, yes, even some of our favorite snacks. in fact, the world wildlife fund says 50% of the packaged foods found in grocery stores are made with palm oil. >> the way they make -- harvest palm oil is, they cut down an area of rainforest -- they actually burn it -- and then they use that area to plant a palm-tree farm where they use the fruit of the palm tree to make the oil. >> to understand this issue, you need to understand some definitions. sustainable palm oil comes from farmers who are helping to protect the rainforests. non-sustainable palm oil comes from farmers who are hurting the ecosystem. >> they're destroying orangutan habitats and habitats of all the animals in the indonesian rainforest. >> jordan started researching non-sustainable palm oil as a sixth-grade current-events project. he realized he wanted to do something about it, so he recruited his classmates. >> i helped, like, spread the word. >> i did some online, like, posters and banners. >> i was getting petitions signed by people. >> i wrote the petition, along with a couple of friends who helped me edit it. >> i wrote letters to congressmen and representatives. >> in most cases, the studentss. get to a certain point and then the project kind of dies down. but this group definitely went above and beyond what was expected of them. >> all that hard work got noticed and got results. >> my group and i, we went to the assistant superintendent for business in the district, and we proposed to him our campaign and what we wanted to do, and we asked him if we could remove all the non-sustainable products from the vending machine. >> the recommendations that were presented were based on fact, on research, on concern for the environment, and that's what you want in our young population. that's what you want in our students. >> mr. rubbo gave his okay to ban the offending snacks. not wanting to anger powerful food companies, jordan doesn't want to reveal on tv the names of the products that were removed, but they included some popular choices. >> to find out if food has palm oil in it, you have to look at the ingredients list on the nutrition-facts label on the side of the package. then if it says palm oil or palm kernel oil, which are two different ways of saying palm oil, you can go to our website to find out if it's sustainable or not. >> that website is kidsagainstpalmoil.org. you can also find a link on our "teen kids news" website. one more thing -- palm oil has a lot of unhealthy saturated fat, another reason to watch what you eat. >> stay with us. there's a lot more coming up on "teen kids news." >> we'll be right back. >> palestinian authority president mahmoud abbas returns to a hero's welcome in the west bank, telling supporters a palestinian spring is here. but they will face a long path ahead. president abbas made the bid for palestinian statehood to the united nations general assembly. the security council is considering the request, but the u.s. promises to veto it. the white house and israel, citing security concerns, insist the palestinians seek statehood through direct talks with israel and not through u.n. recognition. two american hikers, josh fattal and shane bauer, finally back on american soil after two years in an iranian prison. the two claiming they were detained because of their nationality and not their actions. >> from the very start, the only reason we have been held hostage is because we are american. >> fattal, bauer, and bauer's fiancée, sarah shourd, were arrested after crossing the unmarked border between iraqi kurdistan and iran in july 2009. shourd was released in 2010. president obama making his way down the west coast on a trip that includes town-hall events and fund-raisers for his re-election campaign. the president asking supporters to rally behind him once again, saying helping secure his re-election is the best way to turn around a sluggish economy and overcome harsh political opposition. >> we've got more work to do. we are going to build an america that we believe in. >> the president is also using this trip to push congress to approve his jobs bill. for "teen kids news," i'm laura ingle, fox news channel in the classroom. >> you'll need sunscreen, but swimming is not allowed. as nicole reports, this trip to the beach is not for fun in the sun but to learn about our reliance on science. >> no pen and paper necessary. today's test is underwater. what chris and his teacher joel rodriguez catch in their net will determine if these students got today's assignment right. before we see what they find, let's take a look at how the day began. >> what we're doing today is we're actually gonna get into the water. we're gonna do some water-quality testing. we're gonna test the water, see if it's any good. >> these teens came to the beach strictly for science. >> it just gives you a chance to really get out there in the field for whatever you want to do, and i really like the program. >> coastal class teens about the waterways near their home, from coastal ecology to aquatic habits. >> hands-on experience is always good for any student. it helps them really get a feel for what they're doing and learning more about their environment or wherever they're living at. >> today, students are looking for levels of the chemicals phosphate, nitrate, and oxygen. they won't find the test results by standing on the beach. >> now, if you feel a coolness in the waders, it is not water. it might be sweat.is not water. >> that's probably not the grossest thing they'll experience as they collect their samples. this is the test for oxygen levels. so now it's back to the net. >> oh, look at that! well, we're gonna i.d. some of this stuff. >> as they quickly learn, there's plenty of life in this ocean. >> see that? so, that's flounder right on the top. it looks just like sand, right? >> of course, most of the fish that we eat come from the ocean. but these students are making a more personal connection with the water. >> we're all kind of connected to these things. you know, a lot of the products that people actually use come from the ocean. they just kind of don't know about it. >> for example, things like toothpaste, shampoo, and even ice cream would not exist without our oceans. drug companies use the blood from horseshoe crabs to make sure their drugs are safe for humans. the biggest lesson today is the importance of protecting our oceans. >> there's a reason why most of the population is near the water, you know. this is where life kind of starts. this is where a lot of resources are gathered. it's a mode of transportation, it's a food source, it's recreation. so it plays an important part in people's lives, and people really need to think about taking care of it and taking care of it for the future, you know, not just living for today. >> you don't have to live on the coast to learn more about our waterways. there's bound to be an organization like coastal classrooms near you. it just takes a bit of research and a willingness to get your feet wet. >> okay, everyone. it's time to find out what teens think. here's our "speak of the week." >> we want to know -- what do you think is the biggest problem facing the world today? >> i guess global warming?oday? >> pollution. >> i'd say poverty. >> 'cause you see so many people are poor and... >> it leads to a lot of other problems like drugs and violence and other bad things. >> ...cause they don't have food. >> there's a lot of hungry kids out there, and we need to help them. >> they don't have good shelter. >> the biggest problem facing the world today? honestly, i think it's the economic problems and the lack of us trying to do anything about it. >> they don't have -- basically have no clothes on their backs. >> i think definitely the economy is something that needs to be taken care of. i know, like, pretty much worldwide everyone has been suffering through bad times right now, so, like, i would say take care of that and everything else will fall into place. >> one thing's pretty clear. it's up to our generation to roll up our sleeves and solve these problems. for "teen kids news," i'm harry. >> here's a riddle. what has 88 keys but no locks to put them in? you'll definitely want to "stay tuned" for my report. >> "teen kids news" is helping you get healthy -- one bite at a time. here's another serving of good advice. >> the term "a balanced meal" is tossed around a lot, but what does that really mean? jax hubbard is a nutritionist at long island college hospital. jax, how do we know if our meal is balanced or not? >> well, that's an excellent question. you want to make sure you're balancing your meal by including foods from all the food groups. when you look at your plate, you want half of the plate to be vegetables and 1/4 of the plate protein, which would be your meats or chicken, and the other 1/4 to be starch, so your pastas or rice. you also want to make sure you're color-coding your diet. colors mean nutrients, and nature gives us endless options. >> you know, that was pretty good info. thanks, jax. we'll see you soon with another question. >> does the term "kah-wu zingu bu-binga" ring a bell? probably not. but after you watch erika's report, that crazy word will no doubt "strike a chord." [ classical music plays ] >> you've seen one. you've heard one. you may even own one. but how much do you really know about a piano? the people at steinway & sons invited us on a tour of their piano factory to learn how they build some of the world's finest musical instruments. >> so, when was the piano invented? >> the date that they usually put on that is 1700. it was, give or take a year, by a man named cristofori in italy, and what he basically did was take a harpsichord, which was a common instrument back then, and create an apparatus that was hammers. it was a very basic instrument, and it evolved throughout the years. it was first called piano forte. "piano" meant soft, and "forte" meant strong, so it could give you soft sounds. it could also give you strong sounds, which the harpsichord couldn't do. it was all of the same volume. so the piano gave musicians a whole new world to open up and types of music to play. the birth of modern music was really because of the piano. when you say bach and beethoven and all these people who shaped what music is, they all played the piano. >> to go from the lumber yard to the instruments you see here, it takes about a year to build a steinway piano. our first stop was the workshop where they make the frame. >> these are what we call laminations. they will be bent around the presses that you see around the room, and that will form the shape of the piano that everybody's familiar with. >> how do they bend the wood? >> we don't use any steam. we don't use any water. we don't use anything extra special to do this other than really brute force. >> in fact, these presses have been here since the late 1800s. the process was invented and patented by steinway. >> what'll happen is, we'll take those laminations. they'll run through what we call a glue wheel, which will put glue on both sides of those laminations. we'll bring it over to a press, and literally there are seven or eight guys that will manhandle those laminations around that press. they will put on what we call coles and presses, which are these things down here, and when they're done, it'll look like that. that will stay in there now for the rest of the day. >> when the bending process is complete, this is what we've got -- the rim of a grand piano. >> when we come back, we'll learn how you can put a little kah-wu zinga bu-binga in your piano. >> we're continuing our tour of steinway & sons piano factory, where we just saw how a piano's frame is built. next on our tour is the climate-controlled room where they store some very unique wood. the frame of a steinway is made from rock maple lumber, which gives it strength. but the skin of a piano, known as a veneer, can come from many different sources, some of which are quite unusual. >> we have a collection of pianos we call the crown jewel collection, which are exotic veneers, and when we build one of these pianos, all of the veneers, all the pieces of wood on that piano, will come from the same tree, and the reason we know that is, if you look up here, that's literally a tree. it's half of it, but that would be a tree, and it's called a "flitch." and we mark that flitch, and we number it, and that flitch will follow this piano as it goes through the factory so we're sure that we have an even color pattern and that the grain patterns all work and all look the same. the veneers that we use come from all over the world. we have walnut from the united states, we have a wood, believe it or not, called kah-wu zinga bu-binga, which comes from africa. we have macassar ebony, which comes from india. >> one type of wood steinway & sons doesn't use is wood from endangered species, nor do they use keys made from elephants' tusks. >> the keys are no longer ivory. they still talk about the ebonies and the ivories, but they're no longer made of ivory, of course. and steinway was one of the first to discontinue using ivory. you know, we're very conscious of the environment and the world that we live in. >> since a piano is one of the few musical instruments that you can't hold, it needs to be able to stand on its own. >> well, here we become what we call a case, and behind you is when we add the furniture components, which we call the key bed, the legs, and what we call a pin block, then the piano becomes a case, and it's ready to move on to become a true piano, finally, at the end. and this is what's called planing the bridge. he's getting the bridge set up for the bridge pins that the strings are gonna pass over. this is all done by hand. each one of the notches that you see on this board, the bridge here, those scallops, are all done by hand. the chisel is actually made by the guy who does the work because he has to handle that chisel, so he needs to know that the tool is right. >> if you think of a piano's frame as its body and the veneer as its skin, then these small components can be thought of as its muscles and bones. they're the parts that respond as your fingers dance across those black and white keys. a handcrafted piano like this one contains more than 12,000 parts. you may also be surprised at how much force it absorbs every time you sit down to play. >> we're in what we call the belly department here at steinway. the belly department is where we install the sound board, the strings, the cast-iron plate. these things are what's gonna hold up against the 40,000 pounds of pressure that are gonna be exerted on this piano once we put strings on it and tune it up to pitch. that's 40,000 -- it's 20 tons, 40,000 pounds. >> as we neared the end of our tour, we paused for a look at something very rare -- a lasting tribute to a man who is still a musical legend. >> this is a limited edition steinway. this is the john lennon "imagine" piano. only 100 of these will be built worldwide. we've learned a lot about pianos here today, but perhaps one of the most important things we've learned is this -- it takes a great artist to play a piano well, but it takes many great artists to build one well. from steinway & sons forl. "teen kids news," i'm erika. [ classical music plays ] >> it's a hobby popular with celebs like dakota fanning, cameron diaz, julia roberts, and even russell crowe. and as emily reports, it's catching on with teens, as well. >> i'm here at lion brand yarn studio where i'll try my hand at a craft that dates back to ancient egypt. let's go inside. it's an explosion of color and an endless supply of inspiration. knitting is where the nimble put their needles and their creativity to the test. what are you working on today? >> today i'm working on a sweater. >> right now i'm working on leg warmers. >> a headband. >> knitting's not just for grandma anymore. >> and what i love about you teen knitters so much is -- is your imagination. i am -- i'm blown away by some of the projects i see you guys do. and the color combinations are sometimes things that i wouldn't think of, but they're fantastic. >> so, you have your yarn andic. you have your needles, and you want to make a slip knot, which you do that by wrapping the yarn around your fingers. and it's pretty the most -- one of the simplest parts of passing on. >> korrina's helping me create my first sweater. this is simple, right? how many different types of stitches are there? >> that is a great question 'cause you would be surprised to know the answer is two -- the knit stitch and the purl stitch. everything in knitting, all of those beautiful complex stitches, lace and cables, they're all from two stitches -- the knit and the purl. >> while i knit and purl, here are a few cool knitting facts. knitting comes from the words. "knot," which may have started with the dutch. the earliest example is a pair of socks found in ancient egypt. in olden times, knitting was just as popular among men as women. >> we have 120 classes a month. people come and buy their yarn and hang out and meet with friends. it's a great social place to be. >> to sit and knit, you only need two things -- yarn and needles. but both come in various types. there are straight needles, double-pointed needles, and even needles that are circular. those are handy in making a hat. a woman in england holds the guinness world record for using the largest knitting needles. they are more than 10 feet long. these look much more manageable. here's another technique that i'll try much later -- knitting with four needles at one time. >> and they're for doing something in the round but that's a little smaller. >> to help figure out what to knit, you can choose from hundreds of free patterns at online sites like lionbrandyarn.com. there are lots of types of yarns, but if you're just starting, what types of yarns should you look for? >> you want to look for a smooth fiber, also a light color, because you want to be able to see your stitches, and sometimes with black or really deep purple, even though you might love that color, it can be really hard to see. another thing you want to look for is a solid color. and the last thing to consider is what's called the weight of the yarn, which is the thickness. so, a nice medium-weight yarn, which uses needle sizes from 9 to 11, is a perfect start. >> i think i'm getting the hang of this. knitting takes patience and concentration, but these girls say it helps them handle the everyday stress we all have. >> it's kind of a therapy almost because you're basically concentrating on one thing, and it's really a lot of fun to do. >> it's fun to make things for your friends. >> once you first start, sometimes it can be a little tricky and difficult, but once you really learn, you know, get the feel for it, it's really easy, and, yeah, anyone can knit. anyone can knit. >> that's what they keep telling me. if teens want to learn how to knit, how should they start? >> your local yarn store, like the lion brand yarn studio or a store in your neighborhood, is a great place to start. find out if they do duet lessons. that's something we do, which is a lesson for a parent and a child or any grownup that wants to be involved in making sure that you stay on track, 'cause sometimes you go home and there's a mistake and you think, "ah, i dropped a stitch. what do i do?" and if there's someone around that can help you, it's a really great thing. >> okay. so, i'm a long way off from being able to knit a sweater. but with practice, i'm sure i'll get there -- one day. for "teen kids news," i'm emily. >> that wraps up our show, buty. we'll be back soon with more "teen kids news." >> thanks for joining us, and have a great week. >> here's a shout-out to american troops serving in afghanistan.

Related Keywords

United States ,West Bank ,Malaysia ,Iraq ,India ,Egypt ,Netherlands ,Israel ,Iran ,Afghanistan ,Indonesia ,Jordan ,Italy ,America ,Iranian ,Iraqi ,Dutch ,Indonesian ,Palestinian ,American ,Josh Fattal ,Mahmoud Abbas ,Cameron Diaz ,Julia Roberts ,Shane Bauer ,Jax Hubbard ,Russell Crowe ,John Lennon ,Sarah Shourd ,Joel Rodriguez ,Laura Ingle ,