BtN: Episode 15 Transcript6/06/17
Hi, I'm Nathan Bazley and this is BTN!
Coming up today:
- We find out which social media sites are most likely to bring you down.
- Meet the kids leading the country in citizen science.
- And we catch up with the young guy who's just flown around Australia all by himself.
But first:
This Week In News
We are unfortunately starting our show once again with news of a terror attack in the UK. Here's more on what happened and a look at some of the other big stories of the week too.
People in the UK and right around the world have been showing their support for London.
Malcolm Turnbull, Australian PM:Again, we send our heartfelt sympathy and love to the victims and their families and to the people of Britain.
On Saturday night terrorists attacked people on London Bridge and at the nearby Borough Market.
Islamic State has claimed responsibility for the attackwhich killed at least 7 people and injured 48 more.
Emergency services have been praised for responding incredibly quickly and saving lives.
Teresa May, British PM: We must come together, we must pull together and united we will take on and defeat our enemies.
If you're feeling worried or upset about that news make sure you talk to someone about it.You can also go to the BTN website to check out our tips for dealing with upsetting news.
Meanwhile, in a show of support after the last UK terror attack, Ariana Grande returned to Manchester for the One Love concert.
It was organised to raise money for people affected by last month's deadly bombing outside one of her shows.
Some massive names joined Grande for the concert like Justin Bieber, Katy Perry and Pharrell.
She also invited a local school choir to join her on the stage.
Before the show, Grande met with some of the people who'd been hurt in the bombing and shared a few cuddles.
The US President has announced that his country is going to pull out of the Paris Climate Change Agreement.
It's a massive deal that nearly 200 countries signed up to in 2015.
The main target was to keep average global temperatures from rising by more than two degrees.
But President Trump says it would punish American businesses and lead to workers losing their jobs.
Many world leaders have criticized the move.
And a 12-year-old from California has won a national Spelling Bee in the US.
Ananya Vinay took home 40 thousand dollars in prize money after 12 hours of spelling words most of us have never heard of.
But the winning word was Marocain. In case you were wondering marocain is a type of dress fabric made of silk or wool.
Funding Schools
Reporter: Jack Evans
INTRO: Now, since being announced in the lead up to the budget the federal government's new plan for funding schools has been a hot topic of conversation.Some schools support the changes, others particularly those run by the Catholic Church, are against it. So, we thought it would be a good time to explain how schools are funded now and why some think that should change.
You might not have thought about it before but schools are pretty expensive to run. You've got buildings, equipment, and teachers, all there to make sure you get a great education. But who should pay for all that stuff? Well that question can be difficult to answer. You see in Australia we have all sorts of schools. But they're usually grouped into two main types - public schools and private schools.
You probably know already that private schools generally charge parents more for kids to go there. But you might not realise that both types of schools get funding from the government. Public schools receive most of their funding from the State and Territory governments. While private schools actually receive more money from the federal government. Overall public schools get more funding because they can't charge parents much in fees. Whereas private schools get a lot less from the government because they usually charge parents more and can sometimes get money from other places too like donations.
But some people reckon this system isn't working very well. Because some schools don't get enough funding while others seem to get more than they need. So recently the government announced changes. It has promised $18.6 billion in new funding for schools. But the money will now be divided differently. Most schools will get extra to spend. But some, like one huge group of private schools run by the Catholic church, are worried they'll get less.
DAN WHITE, SYDNEY CATHOLIC SCHOOLS:Our estimate, if we can't work as a system, is that on average school fees in the middle to the upper areas would double. So, for a primary school family that's currently paying about $2,000-$2,500 per child, it's likely on average to be $5,000 over time.
That's why some people and schools are now campaigning against this new plan. Some say schools actually need even more funding than is being offered. Others say the changes are not fair on Catholic schools. But the Government says this is the most fair system that the country can afford.
SIMON BIRMINGHAM, EDUCATION MINISTER: There's no reason for fee increases when you're seeing hundreds of millions of dollars extra going into the schooling system there.
The debate around how schools are funded will continue for a while yet. But while not everyone supports this plan most agree that making sure all Aussie kids get a great education is worth the effort.
Ask A Reporter
Have you got a question about school funding? Ask me live on Friday during Ask A Reporter!Head to our website for all the details.
Social Media Negativity
Reporter: Amelia Moseley
INTRO:Next,we're looking at social media. Recently a study in the UK asked more than a thousand young people about their social media activity. It found four of the five most popular social media sites were actually having a negative effect on their wellbeing. But which sites were found to be the most negative and, more importantly, why?
Social media - it's been taking over our screens one 'like' at a time.
FIN:I sometimes use Facebook, but more often I use Instagram and Snapchat.
ROSE:I follow all my friends, mainly, but sometimes I'm looking at celebrity's accounts.
TAMSIN:Ahh, I go on it daily ‘cause I have streaks. If you don't know what streaks are it’s on Snapchat where you speak to someone every day and you start a streak and it counts the days.
LILY:If I'm not doing homework, I'm probably spending like half an hour on it at the least! I use it quite a bit, I should probably cut back on it quite a bit.
Stats show around 7 out of 10 Australians use Facebook, 1 in 2 watch YouTube, 1 in 5 are on Instagram and 1 in 6 are Snapchatting, and when it comes to younger people those last two are even more popular.It’s got some experts are worried about the impact all this social media screen time could be having on users, especially young people first joining up at 12 or 13.
LILY:I think cyber bullying happens quite a bit on social networking.
WILL:Young people sorta want to better themselves so they can look like celebrities and people that these photos of them aren't actually real.
ROSE:Social media can often make people feel left out if they're not at an event or tagged in a photo and they can feel really upset about themselves and left out.
A recent survey asked nearly 1,500 14 to 24 year olds in the UK to rate the impact of the top five forms of social media on their health and wellbeing. It included stuff like their sleep, feelings of sadness or anxiety, their ability to express themselves, bullying, body image and fear of missing out. Instagram came out with the most negative score, especially when it came to things like impact on sleep, body image and FOMO, although many also said it helped them express themselves. YouTube rated really badly for impact on sleep, but it was the only site that had a positive impact in most categories, including helping to support young people if they were feeling sad or lonely.
The experts who carried out the survey suggested ways to make social media a more positive experience. They include making pop-ups to warn when someone's been using social media for a long time and putting an alert on photos of people that've been digitally altered to help with body image issues. Some social media sites are already trying to encourage users to make more positive content, while others have brought in ways to try to tackle bullying, harmful content and negative comments.
But some reckon it's also important for young people to be taught how to tackle the good and bad of social media, because - let's face it - it isn't going away anytime soon!
TAMSIN: I think you should just be natural and honest and truthful throughout all of social media.
ROSE:I think social media should be used for expressing yourself and not worry about how many people are following you or other things like that.
WILL:Just be nice to everyone on there. Don't post anything that you don't want your parents to see.
Poll
And we'd like to know if you think social media has a negative effect on you overall.
Let us know in our online poll.
Meanwhile, here's how you voted in our last poll.
Quiz
And still on the subject, how many users does the world's largest social media site, Facebook, have now?
23 million
230 million
or 1.23 billion
The answer is: 1.23 billion
Citizen Science Kids
Reporter: Jack Evans
INTRO:Next, we're looking at citizen science.That's what it's called when ordinary people help scientists make amazing breakthroughs in research.But did you know some of Australia's top citizen scientists are actually kids?Take a look.
Jack: The Anas superciliosa is the most recognisable duck in Australia. It's plumage features shades of light brown with an unmistakable glossy green near the wings.
Amelia: Hey, what's an Anas superciliosa?
Jack: It's the scientific name for a pacific black duck. The female lighter in colour.
Amelia: Why are you talking like that?
Jack: I'm rehearsing to be a citizen scientist!
Amelia: Rehearsing? I don’t think that's how it works.
JACK: The female lighter in colour.
Ok, so there might be a bit more to being a citizen scientist than a silly accent. It's when ordinary people do experiments or researchto help scientists learn more about the world around us and pretty much anyone can be one including kids.
Griffin: That is Gallinula Tenebrosaa Dusky Moorhen.
Meet Griffin, he's only eight but he's already one of Australia's top citizen scientists!
Griffin:See that yellow tip on the beak, that is a dead giveaway.
He spends most of his free time looking for unusual plants and animal species and if he spots something he snaps a pic and uploads it to a special science app. The app then classifies the find, tells him the scientific name of the species and gives him points for each new find.
Griffin: So, take pictures of an animal or plant or organism that isn't domestic and then you put the species name in, and experts sort of like identify it and you can earn gold.
Well not real gold. The app is called QuestaGame and Griffin’s not the only kid into it.
Austin: I've been playing QuestaGame for about one and a half years.
Meet Austin, he's 10, and is currently the number one bird spotter in the country.
Austin: When I started playing QuestaGame I started finding new species of different animals and I wanted to make my species on the QuestaGame being first or second on the leader board.
In fact, recently Austin beat thousands of other citizen scientists mostly adults to win the first ever world BioQuest competition. But it's not just a game, the info that these guys and the thousands of users collect is used by scientists to work out where some species can be found and can even lead to new discoveries.
David Haynes, QuestaGame: A young player discovered a black-faced monarch bird that was not in a region at all where it was expected to be and it's a sighting like that which gives us new knowledge about the distribution of species.
Dr Bryan Lessard, CSIRO:I've recently discovered a new species just by looking at the data uploaded online.
Austin and Griffin reckon the app is a great way to get outdoors and learn more about nature and they'd love to see more kids getting involved.
Austin:It would be good to have more people interested in animals.
Griffin: So, if you want to be a scientist you can get a head start on learning.
So who knows what ground breaking discoveries young citizen scientists could make in the future.
Aussie Classroom Connection
Have you registered for the BTN Aussie Classroom Connection yet?Hundreds of classes from all over the country already have but we need more!Especially country classrooms which are currently 8% behind their city cousins.For all the details on how you can register your class please visit our website.
Antarctic Icebreaker
Reporter: Sowaibah Hanifie
INTRO: Next up today, twelve children will soon get the chance to visit Antarctica for free. But there's a catch.To win this competition, you have to come up with a name for Australia's new icebreaker ship. Take a look.
It's the coldest, driest place on earth. A frozen land where life as we know it, is impossible.
This is Antarctica the icy continent that surrounds the South Pole.
Australians actually began adventuring here in 18th century. And since then we have returned over and over again. Eventually building research stations to learn more about the plants, animals and climate of this unique region.
But getting here isn't easy. That's why we have this. A special icebreaker ship called Aurora Australis.
Icebreakers aren’t like other ships. They have strong, rounded hulls to help break through icy waters. Without them, getting to Antarctica by sea would be almost impossible.
But Aurora is getting pretty old now and has had some bad luck lately. Last year it was caught in a blizzard and its passengers were left stranded. So, the Australian government has decided to build a stronger, faster and bigger ship to replace it. It'll cost half a billion dollars and be 156 metres long, 116 passengers will fit on board along with 96 large shipping containers that can be filled with equipment and supplies. Inside the new icebreaker there'll even be some labs to help scientists with their research.
The new ship set to be built by 2020 but there's just one problem it needs a name. So, they're asking kids to give it one.
What would you call the new Icebreaker?
KID 1: Slushy maker because it has to crush the ice and that’s how you make a slushy.
KID 2: The SIC, which stands for Science Investigation Cruiser, because it’s built to go to Antarctica and investigate the research and help us learn more.
KID 3: Frosty because it goes to Antarctica and I suppose it removes snow and is like frosty the snow man.
KID 4: Iceberg crusher, because it has to break iceberg, that's its job, so I think that is a good name.
KID 5: The ice slicer 101 because the boat basically slices through the ice to get through and crushes it and I added the 101 to make it sound cooler.
Kids in years 5 to 8 can nominate what they think the new icebreaker's name should be and there's a big reward on offer for the lucky winner. They'll get to take five friends on a one-day excursion to Antarctica!
On the five-hour plane ride the class can watch incredible icebergs from above.
Once there, they'll meet some of the people who live and work at the Casey research station and take part in some research.
It’s a pretty fun way to be part of Australia's Antarctic research team for years to come.
Quiz
To our second quiz now. Which of these animals wouldn’tyou find in Antarctica?
- Penguins
- Polar Bears
- Or Walruses
The answer is: Polar Bears
Sport
Australian tennis player Samantha Stosur has crashed out of the French Open putting an end to her 452-week reign as Australia's top-ranked woman.
Stosur lost in three sets to Latvia's Jelena Ostapenko on the weekend.
She needed a medical time-out after dropping the second set and later revealed she'd been suffering from a hand injury for several days in the lead up to the match.