ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)



Questions for discussion

Vaccination Debate

1. Working in pairs, record the issues raised in the BTN Vaccination Debate story.

2. Finish the following sentence: Vaccinations have been used for decades to stop the spread of…

3. What impact did the Polio vaccine have on the disease in Australia?

4. How does a vaccine work?

5. Respond to the following statement: Getting vaccinated isn’t just about protecting yourself.

6. Which diseases do most children get vaccinated for?

7. What is the `No Jab No Pay’ rule?

8. What did Pauline Hanson say recently about vaccinations?

9. Why are some health care professionals worried about people listening to the wrong advice?

10. What do you understand more clearly about vaccinations since watching the BTN story?

Check out the Vaccination Debate resource on the Teachers page.

South Sudan Famine

1. As a class, discuss the BTN Famine story. What were the main points of the discussion?

2. Where is South Sudan? Locate using Google Maps.

3. How are aid organisations helping people affected by the famine?

4. People in South Sudan don’t have access to what?

5. What impact has the civil war had on people?

6. What percentage of the population is in desperate need of food?

7. When does the United Nations declare a famine?

8. The UN is also concerned that famine could be declared in which other countries?

9. What do aid organisations say is needed to help people affected by famine?

10. How did this story make you feel?

Write a message about the story and post it in the comments section on the story page.

Platypus Census

1. Briefly summarise the Platypus Census story.

2. Platypuses are not native to Australia. True or false?

3. What are some unique features of the platypus?

4. Why are scientists conducting a platypus census?

5. Where in Australia do platypuses live?

6. Platypuses are nocturnal. What does that mean?

7. Mammals that lay eggs are called _____________________.

8. What feature does the male platypus have?

9. How did Indigenous Australians describe the platypus?

10. Name three things you learnt watching the Platypus Census story.

Check out the Platypus Census resource on the Teachers page.

Why do we Sleep?

1. What does the BTN story mainly explain?

2. Why do we need sleep?

3. What do studies show about animals that are sleep deprived?

4. Why are sleeping animals at risk?

5. What happens to a dolphin’s brain when they sleep?

6. What does the prefrontal cortex do?

7. How can a lack of sleep affect a person’s learning?

8. Finish the following sentence: Research shows that while we sleep, our brains are…

9. How do you feel when you get a bad night’s sleep?

10. What did you learn watching the BTN Sleep story?

Write a message about the story and post it in the comments section on the story page.

Synchronised Swimming

1. In your own words, explain what synchronised swimming is.

2. What does Luka like about the sport?

3. What skills are needed to be a synchronised swimmer?

4. What did the sport used to be called?

5. How long has synchronised swimming been around?

6. Synchronised swimming is one of ______ Olympic sports that only allows women to compete.

7. What is a potential problem with mixed competitors in synchronised swimming?

8. Why do James and Zoe make a great synchronised combination?

9. James and Luka’s coach is hoping that they will compete at the ________ Olympic Games.

10. What did you like about the BTN story?

Write a message about the story and post it in the comments section on the story page.

Teacher Resource

Vaccinations

[pic]

1. Working in pairs, record the issues raised in the BTN Vaccination Debate story.

2. Finish the following sentence: Vaccinations have been used for decades to stop the spread of…

3. What impact did the Polio vaccine have on the disease in Australia?

4. How does a vaccine work?

5. Respond to the following statement: Getting vaccinated isn’t just about protecting yourself.

6. Which diseases do most children get vaccinated for?

7. What is the `No Jab No Pay’ rule?

8. What did Pauline Hanson say recently about vaccinations?

9. Why are some health care professionals worried about people listening to the wrong advice?

10. What do you understand more clearly about vaccinations since watching the BTN story?

[pic]

Discuss the BTN Vaccination Debate story as a class. What questions were raised in the discussion (what are the gaps in their knowledge)? The following KWLH organiser provides students with a framework to explore their knowledge on this topic and consider what they would like to know and learn.

| What do I know? |What do I want to know? |What have I learnt? |How will I find out? |

| | | | |

| | | | |

| | | | |

| | | | |

Ask students to find out what the following key words about vaccines mean:

• Vaccine

• Immunity

• Virus

• Disease

• Bacteria

[pic]

Students will investigate in more depth some questions they have about the vaccines.

|Define: What do I want to know? |

|Key questions to research |

|Students can choose one or more of the following questions or come up with their own: |

|What is a vaccine? |

|How do vaccines work? |

|What impact have vaccines had on controlling disease? |

|Why are most vaccinations given in the early years of a person’s life? |

|Why is it important to vaccinate against rare disease? |

|What is the future of vaccinations? Predict what vaccines may be available during your lifetime. |

|Locate: Where do I find the information? |

|What resources will help answer my questions? (Internet, people, resource centre, organisations, print). Discuss with students what a |

|reliable source is. |

|Select: What information is important for the investigation? |

|Students may need support to sort through and select relevant information. |

|Organise: How do I make sense of the information? |

|Students can organise their research by creating main headings from their questions. Write each heading on a separate piece of paper. |

|Record the information found for each question. |

|Present: How do we let others know about this information? |

|Students decide on the best way to present the information. Possibilities could include: |

|A `Did You Know’ Fact sheet |

|Create an Infographic |

|Design a poster |

|Prezi presentation |

|Evaluate: What have we learnt? |

|Students reflect on what they have learnt about the vaccines during their investigation. Students will reflect on their learning and |

|respond to the following. |

|What I learned... |

|What I found surprising... |

There are weblinks at the end of this activity to help students with their research.

[pic]

Research a Vaccine

Students will investigate the impact a particular vaccine has had on controlling disease. Choose from one of the following:

Polio, MMR (measles, mumps, rubella), diphtheria, tetanus, whooping cough, Hepatitis B or Chicken Pox.

• Describe the disease. What are the symptoms? Is the disease caused by a virus or bacteria?

• Who is most at risk of getting the disease?

• What impact did the disease have?

• How does the vaccine work? How often should a person be vaccinated?

• What impact has the vaccine had on controlling the disease worldwide?

• What are some interesting facts about the vaccine?

[pic]

History of Vaccines

Students match the scientist to the disease they helped prevent by playing the Pioneer Breakthroughs matching game The History of Vaccines website also has an interactive timeline which highlights significant events in the history of diseases and vaccines.

[pic]

Watch the BTN Vaccinations story then answer the following questions:

1. Which vaccination did Sarah get in the BTN story?

2. What is a vaccine?

3. Who do vaccinations protect?

4. Name some diseases that vaccinations protect you from.

5. Getting vaccinated is compulsory. True or false?

6. Why do some people decide not to vaccinate their children?

Watch the BTN Polio Return story then answer the following questions

1. What are some symptoms of polio?

2. Polio is not contagious. True or false?

3. How many people in Australia were diagnosed with polio between the 1930s and the1980s?

a. 20 000

b. 40 000

c. 60 000

4. In which decade was a polio vaccine developed?

BTN – Vaccination Row



BTN – Vaccinations



History of Vaccines – Activities



ABC News – Health groups demand Pauline Hanson retract `fringe’ vaccination comments



Teacher Resource

Platypus Census

[pic]

1. Briefly summarise the Platypus Census story.

2. Platypuses are not native to Australia. True or false?

3. What are some unique features of the platypus?

4. Why are scientists conducting a platypus census?

5. Where in Australia do platypuses live?

6. Platypuses are nocturnal. What does that mean?

7. Mammals that lay eggs are called _____________________.

8. What feature does the male platypus have?

9. How did Indigenous Australians describe the platypus?

10. Name three things you learnt watching the Platypus Census story.

[pic]

After watching the BTN story, respond to the following questions:

[pic]

Class Discussion

Hold a class discussion to find out what students know about platypuses. Using sticky notes, students write down a piece of information about platypuses. Collect and place all the notes on a wall in the classroom. The following questions may help generate discussion:

• Are platypuses a native or introduced species?

• What are monotremes?

• The platypus is said to have features of which animals?

• What feature does the male platypus have?

• Why is the platypus well adapted to a semi-aquatic lifestyle?

Key Words

Students develop a glossary of words and terms that relate to the platypuses. Below are some words to get them started.

|monotreme |burrow |venomous |species |

|habitat |mammal |nocturnal |native |

[pic]

Information report

Students will create an information report about platypuses. The following may help guide students’ research:

• Description of a platypus

• Diet, habitat

• The life cycle of a platypus

• Adaptations

• Threats to platypuses

• Interesting facts about platypuses

Structure and features of an information report

Information reports are factual texts written to inform and provide detailed facts about a topic. Discuss with students what they already know about the purpose, structure and features of an information report. Use the following as a guide to use with students.

• Purpose – An information report provides information to the reader by stating facts.

• Structure – see table below.

• Language features – write in the present tense, use technical or scientific words and write in the third person.

Students can then use the following plan to help write their report. They can present their reports using publishing software or as a brochure.

|Information report – structure |

|Title |States a topic |

|Introduction |The opening statement explains the subject of the report, and includes a |

| |definition or short description. |

|Body |Facts grouped into paragraphs. Starts with a topic sentence. Include |

| |subject specific language. |

| |Text features such as sub-headings, labelled diagrams, charts and captioned|

| |photographs may be included. |

|Conclusion |A summary of what the topic is about and end with an interesting fact. |

[pic]

Students create a labelled diagram of a platypus.

Include:

• A title

• An accurate drawing

• A scale to show the size

• Labels to show the main features

Body parts to include: Webbed feet, venomous spur (males only), flat tail, bill

Source: National Geographic

[pic]

Watch the ABC Splash videos Platypus: The young male leaves the burrow and Platypus at Play to get an insight into platypuses behaviour and adaptations. Ask students to respond to the following questions:

• How do you think `Big Foot’ knows how to find food?

• Why will he have to leave the pool?

• What makes a platypus `custom made for the water’?

• How does a platypus find its food?

• What interesting facts did you learn watching the videos?

• What was surprising?

[pic]

Create a Quiz

Use Kahoot! to test students’ knowledge about platypuses. Quizzes can be created to recap learning or test personal knowledge. There is also the option to connect with classrooms around the world and play kahoot in real time.

[pic]

Live Science – Platypus



National Geographic - Platypus



Australian Museum – Animal Species: Platypus



Office of Environment and Heritage - Platypus



ABC Splash – Platypus at Play



ABC Splash – Platypus: The young male leaves the burrow



ABC News – Scouring river beds and history books to discover if the platypus is under threat



BtN: Episode 06 Transcript 14/03/17

Hi I'm Nathan Bazley and this is BTN!

Coming up today

• South Sudan declared a famine area. We find out what's caused this disaster.

• Why these scientists will be hunting platypuses for the next 3 years.

• And Amelia investigates why we sleep.

Heaps of stuff like that coming up. But first to vaccinations.

Vaccination

Reporter: Amelia Moseley

INTRO: The Prime Minister has announced tough new rules on kids whose parents choose not to vaccinate them. They will be banned from childcare centres and preschools under the proposal in an effort to encourage parents to protect their kids from potentially dangerous illnesses. Here's more on how vaccinations work and why they're important.

It's a sight that makes most people feel a bit uncomfortable, including me!

AMELIA: Is this gonna hurt?

DOCTOR: No it won’t hurt Amelia.

But it's also something most of us have been through before as babies, kids and later as adults.

Vaccinations have been used for decades to stop the spread of many of the world's most dangerous diseases. For instance, way before you were born there was a really bad illness that affected tens of thousands of kids, called polio. It caused a lot of pain, lifelong deformities and sometimes death! But in Australia today, polio doesn't exist thanks to vaccinations. So how does this little jab actually work?

AMELIA: So the vaccine I'm about to have is for three illnesses - it's for Whooping Cough, Diphtheria and Tetanus. So what the needle contains is a teensy little bit of each of the bacterias that cause those illnesses. Now, they've been changed in some way, so they won't actually make me sick. What they will do is help me to fight off those bacterias if I happen to come across them in the future.

DR. WILLIAMS It's all over.

AMELIA: Ok, good. That wasn't too bad!

Not all of those infections would've been dangerous for me if I had got them; Some would've just made me sick for a while. But for babies, getting an illness like Whooping Cough, for example, can be fatal. That's why getting a vaccination isn't just about protecting yourself, it's about protecting others that can't always be vaccinated like newborn babies, really old or really sick people, or people with allergies.

These days, nearly every kid in Australia gets vaccinated for a bunch of illnesses, including the ones I was just vaccinated for, and others you might recognise like measles and chickenpox. The government reckons vaccinating kids is so important that it now has a rule called 'no jab, no pay'. It means parents who don't vaccinate their kids don't get welfare payments from the government like child care and family benefits. The government also wants kids to be banned from childcare and pre-school if their parents choose not to vaccinate them.

But not everyone agrees with that. Last week, Senator Pauline Hanson said that even though she vaccinated her kids, she thinks parents should have a choice not to and should do some research.

SENATOR PAULINE HANSON: Parents should take the responsibility to actually investigate the whole situation. People come to me constantly all the time, they're very concerned about it and I've heard it for years.

The problem is that if you look on the internet, it's not hard to find people who disagree with vaccinations. They say it causes side effects and that people have died or been left with disabilities after being vaccinated, but nearly all doctors and scientists say that's just not true!

DR. WILLIAMS: The possibility of a reaction is very minimal and if something happens we're prepared to treat it, but again I must reiterate it is quite rare.

At the moment, only a very small number of Australian parents - about two per cent - refuse to vaccinate their kids, but health care professionals say they're worried others will start listening to the wrong advice. They say vaccinations have been so successful that everyone's forgotten how devastating diseases like polio were. They say it's important to remember how much this little jab is doing to keep you, and others, safe and healthy!

This Week in News

Western Australia has a new Premier! Mark McGowan will lead the state after the Labor party won this weekend's election.

MCGOWAN: I came here 27 year ago in my Corolla across the Nullarbor and today the people of Western Australia have made me Premier. Thank you.

He'll take over from Liberal Leader Colin Barnett who's been premier since 2008.

----

There's been some more bad news about the Great Barrier Reef. Aerial surveys have confirmed it's suffered its second coral bleaching event in 12 months.

Bleaching happens when the water gets too warm and the algae that lives in coral leaves.

And if it goes on too long the coral can die. That's what happened last year. Scientists say 22 percent of the reef's coral was lost in one of the biggest coral die-offs ever recorded.

In better news Scientists say they're close to finding a cure for the facial tumour disease that's been plaguing Tassie Devils.

They've been treating infected animals with live cancer cells which they say can help their bodies fight the disease.

SCIENTIST: We treated this cancer with cancer, which sounds a bit odd but what we did was we use the cancer cells, cultured them in a laboratory and made them express genes which made them become visible to the devil's immune system.

They say the next step is to develop a vaccine.

A scientist in the UK has called for plain packaging on junk food, a bit like the type used on cigarette packets in Australia.

His research has shown that brightly coloured packaging on food causes our brains to release a chemical called dopamine that makes us feel good. He reckons it could help to fight obesity by making unhealthy stuff a little less appetising.

And archaeologists in Egypt have made a massive discovery. This is part of a statue that they found in the ruins of a three-thousand-year-old temple buried under modern-day Cairo.

They think it dates back to Pharaoh Ramses the second who was one of Ancient Egypt's most famous rulers.

Famine

Reporter: Matt Holbrook

INTRO: Now last week we told you about South Sudan which has been officially declared a country in famine. It's the first official famine in the past 6 years. Here's more about why South Sudan is in trouble and what you can do about it.

This is a food drop.

They're helping some of the millions of people in South Sudan suffering from starvation. The UN's recently declared South Sudan the site of the world's first famine in six years, but there have been big problems here for a while.

GEORGE FORMINYEN, WORLD FOOD PROGRAM: We have got conflict that has been ongoing in this country since 2013. That conflict has made people move, has made people leave their normal places. They do not grow their food as they would do. They have lost their livestock on which they survive. They don't have money, no markets which are functioning, they cannot find any other way of surviving, and so at the end of the day, they only rely on humanitarian assistance.

That’s George and he works for the UN's World Food Program. He says many people have been forced to flee their homes to escape the fighting in South Sudan, and massive food shortages have been made worse by drought.

That's left more than forty per cent of the population in desperate need of food. Some are really sick, and every day people are dying. But unfortunately, it's not always safe for aid workers to help them.

GEORGE FORMINYEN, WORLD FOOD PROGRAM: Because there is fighting, there are impediments to access. What happens is that people drop even further, and they get into situations of catastrophe, and here is why we have famine like or famine conditions.

The UN only declares a famine like this in really serious circumstances, when at least 20 per cent of a population faces extreme food shortages, 30 per cent are badly malnourished, and more than two people per 10,000 die every day. That's double the normal amount. Unfortunately, kids are the ones most at risk during a famine because without proper nutrition, they're more likely to die from preventable diseases like pneumonia or malaria.

While the situation is worst in South Sudan, the UN's also worried famine could soon be declared in Nigeria, Somalia and Yemen. It says more than 5 billion dollars is needed by the end of the month to help those at risk.

Tom works with Save the Children. He's working in Somalia, where nearly five million people are going hungry.

TOM ARUP, SAVE THE CHILDREN: Somalia's on the brink of famine. Urgent humanitarian assistance is needed here to prevent that famine. In 2011 there was a famine in Somalia and a quarter of a million people died. We can prevent that this time, but urgent assistance is needed.

Recently, the Australian government announced it was giving 20 million dollars on top of its normal aid spending to support people in South Sudan and Somalia. But aid groups say they need more, they say donations can supply food and medical supplies to kids like these, and prevent many more from getting sick. And with enough support it can go a long way towards turning things around.

Did you know?

Did you know the worst famine of the past 100 years started in China in 1958?

Within four years, between 10 and 30 million people are thought to have died.

Ask a Reporter

Have you got a question about famine? Ask me live on Friday during Ask a Reporter!

Head to our website for all the details.

Platypus Research

Reporter: Carl Smith

INTRO: Next, researchers are trying to track and count one of Australia's most mysterious creatures. They're spending 3 years scouring riverbeds in New South Wales for Platypuses. Here's more.

CARL: An Australian native with soft dense fur. Is that it!?

CARL: Oh, nope. That's just a rat.

CARL: A duck-shaped bill, there's one!

CARL: Ah, nope. That's just a duck.

CARL: Webbed feet! This has to be it.

CARL: Oh! You'd think given the platypus has so many unusual traits they'd be easier to find!

CARL: Hang on, why are you wearing flippers in the middle of a park Matt?

CARL: Well, I guess there's always one way to find a platypus in Australia, no matter where you are. By digging around for some loose change!

Even though it's easy enough to find pictures of this Aussie native, tracking down the real thing in the wild is actually really difficult. But that's exactly what these guys are trying to do. Their goal is to put together the most accurate count of platypuses in the wild ever! Basically, a platypus census!

There could be anywhere between 10-thousand and a 100-thousand platypuses living along the east coast between Tassie and Queensland. But no one really knows exactly how many! That's partly because these cute little critters are nocturnal - meaning they mostly come out at night - and partly because they spend a lot of time underwater or in their burrows.

That combo means these scientists from the University of New South Wales will have to wait very patiently through lots of cold nights for the next three years to try to tally them all up!

PLATYPUS COUNTER: So that's a female, so no spurs.

The platypus is a really, really unusual animal. It belongs to a tiny group of mammals called 'monotremes', which only includes platypuses and echidnas!

While most mammals give birth to live young, monotremes lay eggs! They also have a few other odd traits, like the male platypus's venomous barb!

In dreamtime stories, Indigenous Australians describe the platypus as a cross between a duck and a rat. And because they're so unusual, when the first platypus was sent to scientists in England they thought it was a hoax - believing someone had stitched different animals together!

We've learned a lot about the platypus since then. But figuring out exactly how many are out there has proved tricky. And knowing how many are hiding in the wild is important.

Some are worried things like foxes, riverbank erosion, and even dams are threatening platypuses. So, by tallying up how many are out there, and where they're living, we could figure out better ways to protect them.

CARL: Ah! Eggs! I must be close!

AMELIA: Carl, stop.

CARL: Oh.

Well I guess we'll just leave the platypus count to the experts.

Quiz

If you were paying attention through that story you'll know this one. Which gender of platypuses has poisonous barbs?

• Males

• Females

• Both

Answer: Males

Kind Classrooms

Now, around this time last year we asked you to help us show Australia how kind kids can be with Kind Classrooms. The whole aim is to get together with your class and plan something nice you can do for someone else in your community.

Just like these kids did in 2016. We'd love to see even more Kind Classrooms get involved this year.

So get thinking, film your work and send it in to BTN before the end of March and you might see your good deeds featured on the show.

For all the details, please head to our website.

Sleep

Reporter: Amelia Moseley

Hi BTN, I'm Mitchell and I'm Troy! I would like to know why we sleep? Hope you can help!

AMELIA: Matt, I was asleep. You know you're supposed to knock?

MATT: What are you doing?

AMELIA: BTN Investigates! I'm the investigator. Mitchell and Troy would like to know why we sleep.

MATT: Where did you get that magnifying glass from?

AMELIA: Nowhere.

MATT: I like that jacket.

AMELIA: I haven't got time for this! I have investigating to do!

MATT: Have we done this before?

Sleeping! We spend about one third of our lives doing it! But besides the odd memory of a dream here or there, most of us are in the dark about what actually happens after we close our eyes. One thing you might already know is that we need sleep like we need food and water.

CARL: Sorry, Amelia, I just can't sleep with you watching me. It's just really weird.

AMELIA: But, Carl if you don’t sleep you might die.

Studies show that animals which are deprived of sleep for a long time can have seizures and can actually die from exhaustion. In theory, the same goes for humans. In fact, sleep is so important that humans and other animals actually risk danger to do it. When we're asleep, we're almost completely unaware of our surroundings. That isn't such a problem now, but a long, long time ago, we could've been attacked by wild animals! Even now, sleeping animals are more likely to be attacked by predators. That's why some animals, like dolphins, have found clever ways to do it. They only sleep with one half of their brain at a time. That means they can still come up for air and swim along using only the half of their brain that's still awake!

But we can't all be dolphins, so I've decided to see if a real sleep investigator can shed some light on the mysteries of human sleep.

AMELIA: So Charlotte, why do we sleep?

CHARLOTTE GUPTA, PHD STUDENT Well, there's not really a clear, simple answer I can give you on that, sorry.

AMELIA: Really? Well, sorry Mitchell and Troy, I guess there are some questions you just can't be answered.

CHARLOTTE GUPTA, PHD STUDENT: Hang on, hang on, there’s some things that we do know about sleep. A lot of people thought that sleep was something where our bodies aren't doing anything, almost like we were unconscious during the night, but now we know that there's a lot that our brain does when we're asleep and it’s really busy working through a lot of things so that we're prepared for the next day.

One idea is that our brain uses a bit of shut eye to recharge parts of it that are constantly working, like this area called the prefrontal cortex. It helps us plan and make decisions. But even when we're super relaxed, it doesn't stop. Like have you ever tried thinking about nothing? You end up thinking about thinking about nothing, right? So some experts reckon sleep is the only time this part can restart. Our brains are also busy cleaning out old stuff, making space for new stuff, and sorting through memories as we sleep.

CHARLOTTE GUPTA, PHD STUDENT: So there's a lot that we take in during the day when we're at school we're learning different things, we're seeing different things so during the night one theory is that our brain is sorting through all of that information and going through and working out what's important and then it stores that information as memories and when we wake up we can remember what we've learnt the day before.

It is proven that people who don't get enough sleep struggle to learn new information, whereas a good night's sleep can help us be more creative and solve problems. So even though scientists don't know exactly why we sleep yet, it's a good bet that it has a lot to do with stuff going on inside our heads!

AMELIA: Matt, you're still here.

MATT: Yeah. Since when did you have an office?

Quiz

Staying with sleep. What is the stage of sleep called when we dream?

• REM

• IBM

• MBM

It's REM or rapid eye movement sleep.

Sport

The Brisbane Lions will host the first ever Women's AFL Grand Final thanks to a win over the Western Bulldogs on Saturday.

Hosting honours go to the team that finishes the season on top of the table and after winning every game of the season so far even a loss next week won't knock them off.

The other spot in the Grand Final is still up for grabs and will go to the second-placed team. Currently that's the Crows but the Demons are in with a shot going into the final round.

¶The Sydney Uni Flames are just one win away from the W-NBL title. Over the weekend they beat the Dandenong Rangers 91 to 82 in game 1 of the Grand Final series. Dandenong will host the next game of the best-of-three series on Friday.

And it was that time again on the weekend when budding inventors get together to send their creative, wacky and mostly useless flying contraptions off the end of a jetty.

It's the Birdman Competition!

PTERODACTYL GIRL: ¶I'm so confident because I'm going to Dino-Soar in actual fact.

Instead she Dino-Fell as did pretty much everyone else.

FACEPLANT GUY: Classic face-plant. I got told it would hurt and it did but it was a good pain you know.

BIRDMAN GUY: The Yarra has a certain flavour that's not good.

Thankfully the Birdman Competition's more about giving money to charity than flying dodgy aircraft and by the end of the day competitors had raised 80 thousand bucks.

Synchro Swim

Reporter: Carl Smith

INTRO: It's a sport that combines dancing and gymnastics - all while underwater and often upside down. It's synchronised swimming. And to finish up today we're going to meet some of the first boys to pick up the nose plugs in Australia. Take a look.

Meet James and Luka: two boys not afraid to try something new.

LUKA: I'm 9 years old, and I'm the first boy in Australia to do synchro.

LUKA: I like all the moves and how it's really creative, because yeah I'm a creative person.

Synchronised swimming is a sport that's been around for over a century and actually used to be called 'water ballet'!

JAMES, SYNCHRONISED SWIMMER: I get to keep fit, and I made a lot of friends with the girls.

James' sister Zoe had been practicing with the Gold Coast Mermaids - a synchronised swimming squad in Queensland. And he'd always liked gymnastics and swimming.

JAMES, SYNCHRONISED SWIMMER: I saw Zoe doing it in the pool and I thought I might have a go.

Having James and Luka on the squad means the Mermaids now have their own mer-men!

JAMES: It's kind of weird not having any other boys around except one, but I do get along with all the girls and it's really fun

And each week, they train alongside their female team mates.

LUCA, SYNCHRONISED SWIMMER: They just treat me like another person doing synchro. Like everyone else.

There are big synchronised swimming competitions around the world and you might have even seen it in the Olympics! But at the moment it's one of two Olympic sports that only allows women to compete.

Just a couple of years ago, mixed pairs were allowed to enter the World Championships of synchronised swimming for the first time. But these guys would like to make a splash at the Olympics, so they're campaigning for the rules to change there too.

Their coach says having boys and girls performing together could be good for the sport because it could inspire new types of routines.

James and Luka are hoping that by the 2024 Olympic games they'll be allowed to compete. Until then they're going to keep practising their tumbles, turns, kicks, and of course their timing.

JAMES: Yeah I'd do a duet with my sister. She'd probably kick my butt.

Closer

And that's it for today! But there is heaps more for you on our website. Including resources and class activities for this ep and instructions for how you can make a difference with Kind Classrooms. Thanks for joining me, and I'll see you next week for more BTN.

-----------------------

Episode 6

14th March 2017

Episode 6

14th March 2017

[pic]

Students will develop a deeper understanding of what vaccines are and their role in reducing the spread of disease.

[pic]

Science – Years 5 & 6

Scientific knowledge is used to solve problems and inform personal and community decisions (ACSHE083) (ACSHE100)

Communicate ideas, explanations and processes using scientific representations in a variety of ways, including multi-modal texts (ACSIS093) (ACSIS110)

Science – Year 7

Solutions to contemporary issues that are found using science and technology, may impact on other areas of society and may involve ethical considerations (ACSHE120)

Episode 6

14th March 2017

[pic]

Students will research and create an information report about platypuses.

[pic]

Science – Year 4

Living things have life cycles (ACSSU072)

Living things depend on each other and the environment to survive (ACSSU073)

Science – Year 5

Living things have structural features and adaptations that help them to survive in their environment (ACSSU043)

Science – Year 6

The growth and survival of living things are affected by physical conditions of their environment (ACSSU094)

Geography – Year 4

The importance of environments, including natural vegetation, to animals and people (ACHASSK088)

• What did you SEE in this video?

• What do you THINK about what you saw in this video?

• What does this video make your WONDER?

• What did you LEARN from this story?

• How did this story make you FEEL?

• What was SURPRISING about this story?

................
................

In order to avoid copyright disputes, this page is only a partial summary.

Google Online Preview   Download