Thursday, 14 October, 2021
We’re off to the moon!; Dolphins leap into footy comp; one very expensive car ride; and sending bees in the mail.
LINKS
Newshounds Fact Checking Centre:
National Geographic for Kids Climate Change info:
https://www.natgeokids.com/au/discover/geography/general-geography/what-is-climate-change/
Climate Change fact checking resources:
https://www.politifact.com/climate-change/
https://www.factcheck.org/issue/climate-change/
Squiz Kids Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/squizkids/?hl=en
Got a birthday coming up and you want a shout-out? Send us an email at [email protected]
EPISODE TRANSCRIPT
THE LOWDOWN
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Break out your astronaut suits and dust off your rocketships people … Australia is off to the moon!
The government in Canberra yesterday announced that Australia has signed an agreement with the American space agency NASA to build a rover that will go to the moon and start work on setting up a permanent human base there.
It’s an exciting leap into space for Australian scientists and engineers who will now get busy building a rover – which is like a buggy packed with scientific instruments – that can drive around on the surface of the moon and collect soil samples to bring back to Earth.
Why do we want to collect samples of dirt from the Moon? Because there is oxygen locked in the Moon’s soil – and if we can work out a way to extract that oxygen, we can use it to breathe when we set up a permanent human base up there.
How cool is science?
All going well, the Aussie rover could be up on the Moon as soon as 2026 – so, only five years away.
It’s all part of a wider space exploration program – which includes plans to not only establish a permanent home for humans on the Moon, but also send humans to Mars.
What an exciting time to be alive …
SPIN THE GLOBE
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Each day we give the world globe a spin and find a news story from wherever it stops, and today we’ve landed in in Denmark … where a man has just learned that speeding in your car can be a very expensive thing to do.
The man had just bought a brand new, $400,000 Lamborghini – which car fans among you will know is a super fast sports car. Whilst driving home on the freeway, and travelling at more than 100 kilometres an hour ABOVE the speed limit – he was pulled over by Danish police who made him hand over the keys.
Under a new law in Denmark, police can seize the cars of people who speed, sell the car and give the money to the Danish government.
The policeman said the man was “a little annoyed” … which you would be. But I’ll tell you something for nothing: you can bet he won’t be speeding again any time soon.
SPORT TIME
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It’s already got sharks, sea eagles, panthers and tigers. And as of 2023, the NRL will also have dolphins in its midst, following confirmation yesterday that Brisbane rugby league team, the Redcliffe Dolphins would be joining the competition.
The announcement means the Dolphins will become the 17th club in the national competition … the second club for Brisbane footy fans, alongside the Broncos, and only the fourth club in footy mad Queensland – joining the Broncos, Titans and Cowboys.
Now the real fun begins … with only a year to get their team sorted before the start of the 2023 competition, the Dolphins will be on the hunt to lure top players from other teams, as well as a big name coach ..
And the word on the rugby league street is that Rabbitohs coach Wayne Bennett is likely to be named the new coach of the Dolphins. Watch this space.
ANIMAL KINGDOM
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Has anyone at your house complained lately that a parcel they’ve ordered is taking ages to arrive? Well, spare a thought for the queen bees being shipped through the mail to farmers all over Australia. You probably know this from science already, but bees are important pollinators for two thirds of all of Australia’s crops. Pollination is when the bee lands on a male flower to eat some delicious nectar, flies on to a female flower, and takes with it the pollen that allows the female to bear fruit.
Every beehive depends on a queen bee, and if a queen dies or gets old, it can take the hive over a month to make a new one. Farmers don’t want to slow down their crop pollination, so they order replacement queens instead. And that’s where the postal delays come in. Lately, queen bees being sent across the country via mail have been arriving weak, exhausted, and sometimes even dead, because they’ve spent so long in their boxes. Australia Post is struggling to keep up with demand for deliveries at the moment due to the pandemic, with border closures and fewer planes flying to send packages on. They say, however, that they’re trying their best to spot packages of bees and push them to the front of the delivery queue. Now that’s more like the royal treatment a queen expects to receive.
THE S’QUIZ
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This is the part of the podcast where you get to test how well you’ve been listening …
- Deliveries of what insects have been held up due to delays in the postal system?
- What’s the name of the new team in the NRL?
- What are Australian scientists and engineers working on to send to the Moon?
SHOUT OUTS
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It’s October 14 … National Dessert Day in the United States … let’s start a petition to bring that national day to Australia .. stat.
It’s also a special day for these Squiz Kids celebrating a birthday today…
Summer from Ipswich, Kinsley from Sydney, Chelsea from Kiama Downs, Eloise from the Gold Coast, Kola from Brisbane, Lily from Carroll and Cooper from Albany Hills
And belated shout outs go to…Charlotte from Bathurst, Amelie from Watson and Oliver from South Australia.
And because our friends in Melbourne, Canberra and Sydney aren’t at school we are sending out home learning herograms …first one goes to Miss Finnigan at the Sacred Heart Primary School in Casterton and a very happy birthday to her for today. Herograms also go to all the Kindy teachers at Cranbrook School in Bellevue Hill and to all the Grade 2 teachers at SCEGGS Darlinghurst, who are doing an amazing job making home learning fun. Bronte sends a home learning shout out to her class Team Boundy at St Thomas More Primary School in Mt Eliza. Another shout out goes to Lilly, Colby and Lenny from Wamberal – your mum says you have all been home learning legends. Lastly to 3/4M and Mrs Eve-Macleod and 3/4J and Ms Jackson at Abbotsford Public School.
And finally classroom shout outs – to those lucky Squiz Kids NOT in lockdown… to class 5/6G and Mrs. Graham at Narrandera Public School and Sarah, Isabella and Kai, who are all new students in grade 5/6 at Cannon Hill State School.
The S’Quiz Answers:
- Bees
- Redcliffe Dolphins
- A rover