ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)



Questions for discussion

Old news

1. What part have newspapers played in history?

2. Why is running a newspaper expensive?

3. How do newspapers make money?

4. What are some benefits of newspapers over radio or TV news bulletins?

5. How has the internet changed the way we get news?

6. What has Fairfax Media announced recently?

7. Why are some people concerned about how journalism will be affected?

8. What do you think the future of newspapers is? Explain your answer.

9. Do you think people will want to pay for online news? Why of why not?

10. What do you understand more clearly since watching the BtN story?

Post a message on the Behind the News Guestbook

Rhino trade

1. Explain what is meant by the following statement: `The rhinos horn may be their main weapon, but it’s also their biggest threat.’

2. How much per kilogram can rhino horn be worth on the black market?

3. What is rhino horn used for?

4. What is a poacher?

5. Why have some conservationists been cutting the horns off rhinos?

6. What does the wildlife vet compare dehorning rhinos to?

7. What are rhino horns made of?

8. Why do some people want the legalisation of the rhino horn trade?

9. Do you think rhinos should be dehorned? Explain your answer.

10. What are some other solutions to the problem? Post your ideas on the BtN Guestbook.

Find five interesting facts about rhinos and draw an illustration for one of the facts.

Soft drinks

1. Discuss the Soft drinks story with another student.

2. Why is the mayor of New York City concerned about obesity?

3. In your own words, describe what he plans to do.

4. What has happened to the size of soft drinks over the years?

5. The super size ban would also affect diet soft drinks. True or false?

6. Apart from soft drinks, what other drinks would be affected?

7. Why are some people opposed to the ban?

8. Some drinks that can contain large amounts of sugar are not included in the plan. What are they?

9. Do you think super size soft drinks should be banned? Explain your answer.

10. What else could be done to address the obesity problem?

` Should super size soft drinks be banned?’ Vote in the BtN online poll

Modern maps

1. Briefly summarise the Modern maps story.

2. What part have maps played over the years?

3. The art and science of making maps is called

a. Topography

b. Cartography

c. Orienteering

4. How were maps made many years ago?

5. How has technology changed map making?

6. Global Positioning System is also known as…

7. People learning map making today do far more than make maps. What else do they learn?

8. What sorts of unusual places are being mapped?

9. What do you think the future of maps is?

10. What was surprising about this story?

People use maps to locate reference points. Give some examples of reference points on maps.

Weird water

1. What was the main point of the story?

2. What is the chemical formula for water?

3. Why is water described as `sticky’?

4. Water is the only substance on earth that occurs naturally as a solid, liquid and gas. True or false?

5. What happens to the water molecules as they go from a solid to a liquid to a gas?

6. Why do we need water to survive?

7. The human body is around ___________ per cent water.

8. Water covers almost three quarters of the Earth’s surface, so why is it so important to save it?

9. Give your own reasons why we need to conserve water.

10. Illustrate an aspect of the BtN story.

Find out some interesting facts about water by doing the water quiz

Rhino trade

Focus Questions

1. Explain what is meant by the following statement: `The rhinos horn may be their main weapon, but it’s also their biggest threat.’

2. How much per kilogram can rhino horn be worth on the black market?

3. What is rhino horn used for?

4. What is a poacher?

5. Why have some conservationists been cutting the horns off rhinos?

6. What does the wildlife vet compare dehorning rhinos to?

7. What are rhino horns made of?

8. Why do some people want the legalisation of the rhino horn trade?

9. Do you think rhinos should be dehorned? Explain your answer.

10. What are some other solutions to the problem? Post your ideas on the BtN Guestbook.

Rhino trade

Negotiate with students how many activities they will need to complete from each section.

Remember and understand

• Find five interesting facts about rhinos and draw an illustration for one of the facts.

• The following words relate to the rhinoceros. What does each word mean?

pachyderm

endangered

herbivore

extinction

poach

• Show on a map where rhinos are located in the world.

• Find out more about a rhinos eyesight, hearing and sense of smell. Write a brief description of each.

Apply and Analyse

• Rhinoceros’ horns are made of keratin fibres – the same material found in hair, fingernails and scales. What do you think the functions of the horn are?

• What are some of the special adaptations that the rhino has to help it survive in its environment? (Include information about a rhino’s horn, skin, feet, ears, nose and lip.)

• What other animals are poached for a valuable body part? How has the problem been addressed and could the same approach be taken with the rhinos?

Evaluate and create

• Do you think the idea to dehorn rhinos to reduce the number of poachers killing the animals would work? Are there any other solutions to the problem? Explain your answer to a group of students in your class.

• How many species of rhinos are there and which ones are endangered? Create a creature feature about a species of rhino. Include general information, behaviour, habitat, number in the wild and in captivity.

• Find out the similarities and differences between black and white rhinos. Make a Venn diagram (two overlapping circles) to compare and contrast the two species’.

( Related Research Links

ABC 730 - Scientists call for legal rhino horn trade



Behind the News – Rhino rap



UN Works – Endangered species: Rhinoceros



Rhino Resource Centre – Rhino species



Slimming soft drinks

Focus Questions

1. Discuss the Slimming soft drinks story with another student.

2. Why is the mayor of New York City concerned about obesity?

3. In your own words, describe what he plans to do.

4. What has happened to the size of soft drinks over the years?

5. The super-size ban would also affect diet soft drinks. True or false?

6. Apart from soft drinks, what other drinks would be affected?

7. Why are some people opposed to the ban?

8. Some drinks that can contain large amounts of sugar are not included in the plan. What are they?

9. Do you think super size soft drinks should be banned? Explain your answer.

10. What else could be done to address the obesity problem?

Slimming soft drinks

Ask students to brainstorm a list of food and drinks they consume that contain sugar. Which is the most common food and drink on the list?

Discuss with students what the nutritional value of soft drinks is. What is meant by the term `empty calories’? How does it relate to soft drinks?

Students will be analysing a selection of drinks and calculating how many teaspoons of sugar are in each drink. They will then use the information to create a public education campaign to make people more aware about the sugar content in some drinks.

Sometimes sugar is called something else on the nutrition information on food and drink packaging. Students research what some other words for sugar are.

(Fructose, dextrose, sucrose, maltose, corn syrup, honey, glucose, molasses)

Use the nutritional information on drink labels to convert sugar content from grams to teaspoons; 1 teaspoon = 4 grams.

Choose four types of drinks

• Soft drink

• Juice

• Flavoured milk

• Other (iced tea, energy drink etc)

Record the:

Serving size

Sugar (grams)

Energy (kilojoules)

What did they find surprising about the results? Students can share their findings in the form of a public education campaign.

Discuss with students different approaches that could be taken about the issue. Here are some examples:

• Create a cartoon/animation, using celebrities or humour to get the message across or shock tactics.

• Include a logo, jingle or gimmick to help get the message across.

Students share their public education campaigns with other students in the school.

( Related Research Links

ABC Lateline – NYC closer to banning supersize soft drinks



Better Health Channel – Sugar



BtN: Episode 18 Transcript 26/6/12

On this week's Behind the News

• We look at an unusual solution to stop poachers killing rhinos.

• Why super size soft drinks are being targeted in the fight against obesity.

• And we look at the future of map making as technology takes over.

Hi I'm Nathan Bazley, welcome to Behind the News. Also on the show today a group of scientists turn to rock music to teach kids about water. But before all that.

Old News

Reporter: Sarah Larsen

INTRO: A lot of people are talking about the future of newspapers. It's been a lot harder for newspapers to make money in recent years mainly because people can now get their news online for free. Last week two of Australia's biggest media companies announced some big changes. Sarah takes a look at that announcement and what it could mean for the future of newspapers.

PAPER BOY: Extra! Extra! Read all about it!

SARAH LARSEN, REPORTER: Before there was Twitter and 24 hour news there was this.

The morning and evening papers set the news agenda and broke the stories that changed history.

It took a lot of people to publish a paper, a lot of time and a lot of money, but they were profitable. People would pay a lot to put an ad in the paper knowing their message would get to thousands.

Over the years newspapers got some competition. First there was radio which could give up to date information as it happened then TV, where you could actually see the news unfold.

But newspapers survived and even today there are plenty of people who like to start the day like this.

REPORTER: The good thing about a newspaper is that you can fit a lot more information here than you can into a radio TV news bulletin. I can take my time, decide what I want to read when I want to read it.

But the internet is changing everything. Now you access information from all over the world whenever you want. You don't have to pay for it and you don't have to wait for it to be delivered. Nowadays when news breaks it usually breaks online and that's where we heard this last week.

GREG HYWOOD, CEO, FAIRFAX MEDIA (Fairfax Digital): The days of the huge printing plants built for our legacy print classified business are well and truly over. There will be redundancies.

That announcement was made by the boss of Fairfax Media, Australia's second biggest newspaper business.

It publishes the Age in Melbourne, the Sydney Morning Herald and the Financial Review.

But lately business hasn't been going so well and Fairfax is making big changes. It's going to close some of its printing presses and send some jobs overseas to save money. 1900 people will lose their jobs.

Australia's biggest news organisation, News Limited, is also making changes.

It's merging newsrooms, cutting jobs and buying online media.

MIKE SMITH, FORMER EDITOR, THE AGE: I think this is the biggest thing in newspapers for a hundred years. This is the end of the golden age of newspapers. The big question though is whether it also means the end of the golden age of journalism

For the moment there aren't any plans to actually close the major newspapers. But some are wondering if these changes are the beginning of the end for newspapers as we know them.

And there are questions about how that will affect journalism; whether reporters will still have the time and money they need for quality reporting.

But the newspaper companies say they're just trying to adapt to a changing world.

They're hoping their online editions will help business grow. But making money online can be more difficult. There's a lot of competition for ad space here.

From next year News Limited will start charging for access to some of its sites and some reckon Fairfax might follow.

They're hoping people will be willing to pay for the newspaper even if it isn't made of paper any more.

But at least for now there are still some who prefer it the old fashioned way.

Presenter: Let's see what else is making the news. Here's Tash with the Wire.

The Wire

A boat carrying around 200 asylum seekers capsized off Christmas Island last week. Authorities rescued 110 people, but up to 90 people are feared dead. The survivors have been taken to the Christmas Island detention centre.

*****

Egypt has a new President. Mohammed Mursi is the first democratically elected leader in the country's history. Mr Mursi is from a group called the Muslim Brotherhood. That group was banned when Egypt's last president, Hosni Mubarak, was in power. The current military regime says it will hand over power by the start of next month.

*****

And WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is still trying to avoid extradition to Sweden where he faces criminal charges. He's hiding out in the Ecuadorian embassy in London. He's asked Ecuador to grant him political asylum, which would mean he would live there and not be extradited. Ecuador is considering the request.

Rhino Trade

Reporter: Nathan Bazley

INTRO: You might have heard before that rhinos are often killed for their horns. The poachers sell the horns for money. Well some conservationists have come up with an unusual solution to the problem. But not everyone thinks it's a good idea. Let's see what it is.

NATHAN BAZLEY, REPORTER: They are one animal you certainly wouldn't want to face off against. With their massive front horn, rhinoceroses sure look pretty intimidating.

But while it may be their main weapon, it's also their biggest threat. Because their horn is the main reason many are killed.

They may not look all that valuable, but on the black market, rhino horn can be worth as much as $60,000 a kilo. It's been used for thousands of years in some traditional Asian medicines. But unfortunately, the easiest way for poachers to get it is to kill the animal. And so far this year, more than 200 have died for this very reason. That doesn't have to be the case though.

Take a close look at these rhinos and you'll notice something pretty interesting. They're all hornless and they're all still alive and healthy. Well this one is about to be pretty sleepy.

This private game farm has had trouble with poachers coming in and killing rhinos for their horns. So they decided the best way to stop it was to remove the temptation.

MARTINE VAN ZIJIL LANGHOUT, WILDLIFE VET: Dehorning is the same as clipping your nail or clipping the hoof of a horse. As long as you don't go in the tissue, it's not invasive for the animal.

NATHAN: Well okay, they do use a saw instead of clippers, so it's probably not exactly like clipping your nails. But rhino horns are made of keratin, which is the same protein that forms our nails and hair.

Within a few minutes it's all done and they say the animal doesn't feel it much at all. But this tactic would take a lot of work to carry out in the wild. So some say the next step would be the legalisation of the trade of rhino horns, so that proper businesses could be set up to harvest the horns safely.

The South African Government is looking at how this horn trading could be made legal, while making sure poachers couldn't profit from it. One idea so far is to genetically track where every horn comes from. And if the government make it work, they'll stand to make a lot of money from it too, because they have a huge stockpile of rhino horns that they've seized, just sitting around.

But of course, some other conservationists say this isn't the way to go.

KIRSTY BREBNER, ENDANGERED WILDLIFE TRUST: Having seen it done and just seeing basically the majesty of that animal taken away, it affected me psychologically, so how does the baby then come back and see its mum with no horns?

So is this a case of having to be cruel to be kind? Or is there a better way?

Presenter: Even though they say it's not cruel it doesn't seem ideal. Do you have a better idea? Let us know on the guestbook on the BtN website.

Quiz 1

Now we're going to have a story about soft drinks next. But first let's have a quiz about them.

The question is:

What gas is used to make the bubbles in fizzy drinks?

Carbon dioxide

Nitrous oxide

Helium

Answer: Carbon dioxide

Slimming Soft drinks

Reporter: Nathan Bazley

INTRO: Nitrous Oxide is laughing gas and helium is the light gas that goes in party balloons. Drinking too many fizzy drinks can be a big reason for obesity. So much so that over in America the mayor of New York wants to put a limit on the size of soft drink people can buy. So how bad can a bit of soft drink actually be? Let's find out.

KID: Hey!

POLICE: I'm with the Soft Drink Police Department. You're busted!

KID: Chill out. It's just soft drink!

Just soft drink?!

NATHAN BAZLEY, REPORTER: Not if you're walking through New York, where soon enough, soft drink could be a crime.

Welcome to the big apple. A big city of bright lights, screaming at you to eat, drink and be happy. As you can see, serving sizes here aren't exactly small. But that's not the only thing that's big in New York.

More than half of the population are overweight and 6000 people a year die from obesity related illnesses. So the city mayor has decided to do something about it. He's targeted super sized soft drinks.

MICHAEL BLOOMBERG, NEW YORK MAYOR: Now there are many factors that contribute to childhood obesity, but the single biggest is soda.

When McDonalds first opened in the 1950s in the US, you could only buy a drink that was about 200mls - less than a measuring cup. At the peak in 2003, the two biggest sizes were 946 millilitres, and a whopping 1.2 litres! Now the sizes are smaller, but the smallest is still 355 millilitres - almost double what was available in the 50's and it's called a kids size! It's a pretty common story in other outlets too.

The plan is to limit any soft drink bought from a restaurant, fast food store, movie theatre or stadium to 473mls. Any bigger would be against the rules.

NATHAN: That's about this much. But it might surprise you to learn that in this bottle of soft drink, there would still be roughly 13 teaspoons of sugar! In the US, some restaurants serve drinks three times the size, which means you'd be looking at about 40 teaspoons of sugar!

The plan won't affect diet soft drinks, because they don't contain any sugar. But it will affect some other drinks you might not have thought of.

THOMAS FARLEY, NYC HEALTH COMMISSIONER: Sport drinks, energy drinks, sweetened teas and coffees, sweetened fruit drinks, so called vitamin water.

That's because despite not always tasting as sweet, all of those drinks can still contain heaps of sugar. Not that many New Yorkers seem to care all that much.

NEW YORK RESIDENT: My wife, personally she drinks two litres of soda every day and she's very thin like you.

NEW YORK RESIDENT: I'm gonna do what I want to do, period.

NEW YORK RESIDENT: I don't think that anybody government official has the right to tell us what to eat or drink.

That's where most of the opposition to this plan comes from. While others say soft drinks are being unfairly targeted, because in many cases, orange juice can have almost as much sugar as soft drinks. Milkshakes can have more, but neither are banned. And on the food side of things, you'd get more sugar in a chocolate bar or doughnut than you would in a glass of soft drink.

But it's an interesting debate. What do you think should come first, health or the freedom to drink up big?

Presenter: OK let's make that our poll this week.

Online Poll

The question is:

Should super size soft drinks be banned? To vote just head to our website.

Last week we ran the story of the Olympic swimmers who posted a picture on Facebook of them posing with guns. They were punished. We asked you if you thought they should have been.

28 per cent thought yes and 72 per cent thought no, they shouldn't have been punished. Thanks for voting.

Modern Maps

Reporter: Sarah Larsen

INTRO: Helping you to find your way in the world is a competitive business. Recently Apple announced that it's going to take on Google Maps and develop its own mapping software. Technology like that is changing the way we think about maps and it got us wondering how map making has changed over the years? Here's Sarah.

WIZARD: The hill of doom lies 350 leagues to the east

HOBBIT: Um. I'm pretty sure it's west

WIZARD: No it's east

HOBBIT: The map says west.

HOBBIT: You're reading it upside down

HOBBIT: No I'm not

SARAH LARSEN, REPORTER: If you've got somewhere important to go a good map is a valuable thing. For millennia maps have shaped the world as we've known it. Leading the way to treasures, new lands, and helping us to see our place in the world

The art and science of making maps is called cartography and it's changed a lot over the years. In the old days maps were drawn by hand. Cartographers would carefully observe and measure the land around them, make some calculations, and try to draw what they saw to scale. Some were pretty accurate like these charts that Captain Cook made of Australia and New Zealand. But eventually we found ways of making sure we got it right. Planes could take photos from the sky and computers meant maps didn't have to be drawn by hand anymore. Then there were satellites which let you see the earth below and even find your place on it with the Global Positioning System.

Now finding where you are and where you're going is as simple as clicking a button.

REPORTER: Image what Captain cook would have thought of Google Maps! As programs like this get more popular paper maps are getting less common. But that doesn't mean we don't need map makers anymore.

MADDIE: You can turn off the vector and we can show the hills, road and vegetation.

Maddie is learning the skills needed by today's map makers who do far more than just cartography.

PAUL: Cartography was the science of making maps and these days we take it far beyond that we make maps we make survey plans we make 3D images which we draw over digital terrain model so we can see what the terrain looks like at any point.

While the maps are made on computer programs there are a lot of skills to learn. They learn how to analyse information from all different sources and how to take measurements on the ground.

PAUL: This is a total station Sarah it measures distances and directions to points and that enables us to get the co-ordinates of a feature that we're going to put on a map.

Those maps are used by all sorts of people from town planners to mining engineers. There are maps that track water courses and vegetation, maps used by telecommunications companies and fisheries. And while all the continents may have been found there are still explorers of sorts mapping the places that haven't been seen before. Like the bottom of the ocean or the minerals under the earth.

As long as we have places to go and treasures to find there will always be a need for maps. There's just less excuse than ever before for losing your way.

KIDS ARGUING

HOBBIT: Right wait a minute, this thing's got GPS. It's that way.

HOBBIT: Told you it was west

Presenter: OK let's have a quiz about that.

Quiz 2

The question is:

What do contour lines represent on a map?

Boundaries

Elevation

Scale

Answer: Elevation

And that kind of detail on a map is called topography. OK, let's take a look at some of the big sport stories this week. Tash has the Score.

The Score

Italy is through to the semi-finals of Euro 20-12! In the match against England, neither team could score during regular time, so it was decided in a penalty shoot- out. With England missing two shots, Italy advances to the semi-final to play Germany. Spain will play Portugal in the other game.

Miami Heat has beaten Oklahoma Thunder, to win its second NBA championship in six years! The home team won the best-of-seven series 4 games to 1. Star player Lebron James scored 26 points.

GRAB: These fans - oh my god you guys are unbelievable, and this is a dream come true.

******

Black Caviar the undefeated Aussie horse has won its first race overseas. But at Royal Ascot in England it didn't go as well as many fans would have hoped. Instead of a convincing win, she just scraped through. The jockey said it was his fault for relaxing at the end but scans have shown that Black Caviar was suffering from a slight back injury

Weird Water

Reporter: Sarah Larsen

INTRO: We're always being told to save water. But at home and at school is that a message you take seriously? One science group is trying to teach kids to stop wasting water. As Alfie reports they've made the liquid the star of its own stage show!

ALFIE TIEU, REPORTER: When you think of liquid gold you might think of this, but many others think of this.

We've all heard the saying, "Water is precious," but do you know why?

BOY: I know that water is wet and everything's slippery when it's covered in water.

This isn't a lesson in drama. These school kids are getting a science lesson.

Soaked is a show put on by SA Water

MALE PERFORMER: A scientific rock concert that surfs the waves of everyone's favourite fluid.

FEMALE PERFORMER: Banana milkshakes!

They reckon water is so awesome they're keen to share some of its weird secrets. For example, did you know that water is sticky?

FEMALE PERFORMER: Honey is sticky. Water is wet.

MALE PERFORMER: And sticky!

What they're talking about is water molecules, the two Hs and the O that you might have heard about. They're actually attracted to each other, so with just a little encouragement drops of water can stick together. That's why a bottle with two holes can be made to spurt one stream of water.

Water is also unusual because it's the only substances on earth that occurs naturally as a solid, liquid and a gas. In a solid, water molecules don't have very much energy so they kind of just vibrate around like this. But in a liquid they have more energy so they're able to move around each other a bit more freely. In a gas, water molecules go nuts, moving around each other very quickly. And then there are the really important facts about water, like how we need it to live.

MALE PERFORMER: Without water, no life!

FEMALE PERFORMER: No life? What, no puppies? No kitties? No staphylococcus aureus?

MALE PERFORMER: What?

FEMALE PERFORMER: No flesh-eating bacteria?

The human body is around 60 per cent water. Your blood is 92 per cent water and even your bones are 22 per cent water.

GIRL: Water is like, water is essential to living, it's just the way our bodies are designed to have to use water, and most of the other things we drink have in some way come from water. Like with milk, cows drink water and they produce milk so everything sort of has water in it.

But water covers almost three quarters of the earth's surface, so why is it so important to save it?

It's because only a two-and-a-half percent of that water is fit to drink.

MALE PERFORMER: And of that two and a half percent 68.9 percent is trapped as permanent ice, so in glaciers as permafrost. 30.8 percent is trapped underneath the ground and we can use a bit of that, but it's mainly this stuff here, water in lakes and rivers.

The kids got thinking about why we need to conserve water.

BOY: It's a resource that can easily go over the years.

BOY: You need to know the scientific side of it. Because imagine if you didn't know the scientific side of it, it's just like this drink to some people.

With a bit of music, a bit of science and a lot of laughs, these guys are helping to inspire the next generation of scientists, while getting kids to appreciate the stuff that comes out of the tap!

Closer

That's it for the show. You can jump onto our website if you want to get more info on any of the stories. You can send us your comments and don't forget to vote in this week's poll. I'll see you next time.

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Episode 18

26TH JUNE 2012

LEARNING AREA

Health and Physical Education

Key learning

Students will create a public education campaign to raise awareness of the sugar content in some drinks.

Episode 18

26TH JUNE 2012

LEARNING AREA

Society and Environment

Key learning

Students will research the issue of dehorning rhinos as a way to help protect the species.

Episode 18

26TH JUNE 2012

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