Tuesday, 6 December, 2022
Tassie Tiger found in a cupboard; Volcanoes and lava in Hawaii and Java; shutting down a TikTok challenge; and phoning outer space.
LINKS
Tassie Tiger remains found: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-12-05/last-tasmanian-tiger-remains-found-in-museum-cupboard/101733008
Indonesia’s Semeru volcano erupts: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/dec/04/indonesias-semeru-volcano-erupts-prompting-tsunami-fears
Hawaii’s Mauna Loa volcano continues spewing lava: https://edition.cnn.com/2022/12/02/us/hawaii-mauna-loa-kilauea-eruption-friday/index.html
WA’s ‘outer space telephone’ : https://www.theguardian.com/science/2022/dec/05/are-we-alone-in-the-universe-work-begins-in-western-australia-on-worlds-most-powerful-radio-telescope
Space station space walk – VIDEO: https://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-us-canada-63849682
Newshounds
Get started on our free media literacy resource for classrooms
www.squizkids.com.au/newshounds
Squiz Kids + Lego ‘Build To Give’ Christmas Campaign
Help Lego give away Lego sets to families in need this Christmas.
- Build something using Lego
- Share your creation to Instagram (a story or a post)
- Tag @ squizkids and #buildtogive
We’ll re-share your post on our Instagram, and on December 9, reveal just how generous Squiz Kids are …
Squiz Kids For Schools – Classroom Activities tied to the podcast
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Got a birthday coming up and you want a shout-out? Complete the form on our Squiz Kids website. Link: SHOUT OUTS or / send us an email at [email protected]
EPISODE TRANSCRIPT
THE LOWDOWN
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Have you ever put something in a cupboard and then forgotten it’s there? Christmas decorations? A favourite pair of shoes? The remains of the last known Tasmanian Tiger?
Yeah – probably not the last one … but that’s what has happened in Hobart with the announcement yesterday that the remains of the last known Tassie Tiger were found in a cupboard at the back of one of Hobart’s museums.
Ahh … I knew I put you somewhere!
Tassie tigers, or thylacines, are extinct. The last known Tassie tiger died in a Hobart zoo on September 7, 1936.
Because of that, we mark National Threatened Species Day every year on September 7.
And while it had been believed that the skin and skeleton of the last known thylacine had been lost, a researcher in Tasmania yesterday revealed he had tracked it down to the back of a cupboard in a museum’s education department.
Turns out someone had failed to label it properly. Like your school hat in the lost property … do as your parents tell you and label everything!
It’s a remarkable find – as so few skins and skeletons – including all of their Tassie Tiger DNA remain in the world. Jurassic Park, anyone?
I’ve stuck a link to photos of the remains in today’s episode notes – but a warning: they’re super cool.
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 Indonesia … and Hawaii … on two different spots on the so-called Ring of Fire – where earthquakes and volcanoes are continuing to rumble away.
On Indonesia’s main island of Java, thousands of people were told to evacuate from their homes yesterday as the tallest volcano in the country erupted sending plumes of ash 15 kilometres up into the sky.
This volcano, called Semeru, erupted last year, forcing thousands of people to leave their homes and killing more than 50 people. Locals have been told not to go within 8 kilometres of Semeru while it does it’s seismic thing .. The eruption comes barely a month after an earthquake near the Indonesian capital Jakarta caused widespread damage.
Meanwhile – Hawaii’s largest volcano, Mauna Loa, continues to belch out lava – more than a week after it first erupted. The lava is slowly getting closer to one of the main highways on the island – and given that the molten rock is about 1200 degrees celsius – there’s not a lot anyone can do to stop it.
I’ve stuck links to photo and video of both volcanic eruptions in today’s episode notes.
POP CULTURE CORNER
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TikTok – an app that i’m sure you’ve heard of, but I’m equally sure none of you are on, given that the minimum age to have an account is 13 … ahem … has banned the hashtag ‘sunburn challenge’ – over fears it was encouraging young people to go out and develop skin cancer.
Speaking as a fair-skinned, ginger-haired human who’s had more than his fair shareof sunburns – it seems hard to believe anyone would actually go out and try to get sunburned – but humans, my friends, are nothing if not weird.
A bunch of TikTok influencers have been recruited to get the message out that getting sunburned increases your risk of developing skin cancer … and trust me – no one wants that ..
SPACED OUT
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I know I bang on a lot about movies from the 80s – and you all probably just roll your eyes – but seriously – I’ve you’ve never seen the movie ET – do yourselves a favour. It’s about an alien who gets left behind on Earth and spends the rest of the movie trying to ‘phone home’ – its honestly better than i’ve just made it sound. And on the subject of phoning alien life forms – there’s a massive construction project underway in the deserts of Western Australia – capable, among other things, of sending a message to outer space to hopefully communicate with alien life forms.
The project will see more than 100,000 antennas built on Wajarri country – so powerful that they’ll allow astonomers to look far out into space to understand how the stars and galaxies take shape.
I’ve stuck a link to photos of the antennas in today’s episode notes: they look like enormous Xmas trees.
Meanwhile: NASA has just released footage of two astronauts aboard the International Space Station doing a space walk – which is the fancy term for leaving the space station and floating about in space, in zero gravity, 400 kilometres above the surface of the Earth. I’ve stuck a link to the video in today’s episode notes. The astronauts were installing new solar panels on the space station. Now that’s some serious DIY.
CHRISTMAS with LEGO
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(clock ticking) Hear that? That’s the clock ticking on our Christmas Charity Campaign with LEGO. You know the one .. where for every Lego build a Squiz Kid does and shares to Instagram, tagging @squizkids and using the hashtag Build to Give – the good people at LEGO will donate a LEGO set this Christmas to a family in need.
This week is your last chance to show the world how generous Squiz Kids can be… the more we build, the more joy we bring this Christmas.
We’re currently just under 286 builds .. and while that’s 286 families whose Christmas is going to be a little bit brighter – and bravo to all of you who’ve been busy building – i reckon we can put in one last great effort and push it right up there. Remember the three best builds win a prize … on top of the warm fuzzy we all get for giving back this festive season.
Don’t just sit there – get building! Suggest it to your teacher as an end-of-year project… do it as a family activity after school. You can create and share as many builds as you want – just remember to tag us @squizkids, and add the hashtag BuildToGive. I’ve stuck details in today’s episode notes..
And stay tuned for Friday’s big reveal …
THE SQUIZ
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This is the part of the podcast where you get to test how well you’ve been listening …
- What is spewing out of Hawaii’s Mauna Loa volcano and threatening to cross and shut down a highway?
- What’s the scientific name of the Tasmanian Tiger?
- What have two astronauts aboard the International Space Station just done to install new solar panels?
SHOUT OUTS
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It’s December 6 … only 18 days until Xmas … crack out the fruit mince pies and fire up the eggnog …
It’s also a special day for these Squiz Kids celebrating a birthday today ..
William from Canberra, Helena-Jean from Mayfield, Marcus from Berowra Heights, Bear from Heathridge and Parmis from Woodcroft.
And belated birthday shout outs go to …Ebony from Woongarrah, Fatima from Mildura and Addison from Casino.
Classroom shout outs go to… Year 6 at Branxton Primary School who are having their graduation tonight, class 6B and Ms Sofianos at Rosary Park Catholic School in Branxton, class 3/6 Peach at Bowen Public School and farewell to Miss Hills,
class 5CL and Miss Lawrence at Ocean Grove Primary School, class F2 at Hammond Park Primary School, class 4S and Mrs Shabaya at Mount Annan Christian College,
class 5F at Manly State School in QLD and happy belated birthday to their teacher Ms Forster, class 5G at Our Lady of Fatima Primary School in Caringbah and lastly to all the students at Carlingford Public School.
And a quick note on Classroom Shoutouts … we’ve got only 9 podcasts left in the year and over 120 Classroom Shoutouts – and counting – in the Squiz Kids mail box queue – we’ll do our best to get through as many as possible before the podcast wraps on December 16 – but if we don’t, please accept our apologies and please get in touch when the school term resumes next year …
The S’Quiz Answers:
- Lava
- Thylacine
- Space walk