Squiz Kids acknowledges the traditional owners of the lands on which we podcast the Turrbal and Combermeri people.
Squiz Kids!
It's your daily news fix.
Fun, free, fresh.
Hello and welcome to Squiz Kids Today, your fresh take on what's happening in the world around you.
I'm Christy Kidgerina.
It's Wednesday, February 18.
In Squiz Kids Today... elephant sensory super hairs, a teaching prize triumph, Obama on extraterrestrials and the Fart Facts Project.
That's what's making news kid style.
Imagine learning your times tables from a mural stretching down your street.
An art teacher in India, has just won one of the biggest prizes in education for helping kids to do exactly that.
Rubble Nagi has been awarded the 1 million Global Teacher Prize after spending more than two decades turning slum walls and village lanes into colourful outdoor classrooms.
Slums are very crowded neighbourhoods where many families live in small basic housing and they don't always have reliable access to things like clean water, electricity or schools.
While in Australia most kids are required by law to attend school and have access to free public education, that isn't always the case in some parts of India.
Some families can't afford uniforms or supplies.
Others need their children to work to help to support the household.
That means millions of children can miss out on formal schooling.
So, around 24 years ago, rubles started small, teaching just 30 children through art.
Today, her foundation runs around 800 learning centres, turning neighbourhood walls into bright murals that teach reading, maths and history.
She calls them living walls of learning.
Meanwhile, in Canberra, there's been a change at the top of the Liberal Party of Australia.
Angus Taylor has successfully challenged Susan Lee to become the party leader.
Lee had made history as the party's first female leader, but held the role for only nine months before the internal vote.
Supporters of Taylor say it's about a change in direction and strategy.
Others question whether Lee was given enough time to make changes of her own.
As always in politics, time will tell.
Each day we give the world globe a spin and find a news story from wherever it stops.
And today we've landed in Germany, where scientists have discovered elephant trunks.
Come with built-in touch sensors.
An elephant's trunk is covered in about 1,000 whiskers.
Because elephants don't see especially well, those whiskers extend their sense of touch.
Researchers found that each whisker starts stiff at the base and becomes softer towards the tip.
That design helps elephants detect exactly where something brushes against them.
Unlike rat or cat whiskers, which are solid, elephant whiskers are porous and shaped like a blade of grass.
And once lost, they don't regrow.
Porous is a fancy word for something with tiny holes in it.
To test their theory, scientists 3D printed a giant whisker and knocked it against objects.
Who said science is boring?
Apparently, you could feel the difference depending on where it hit, which may explain how elephants can gently lift something fragile like a flower or move something enormous like a tree or with the same trunk.
Turns out whiskers ain't just whiskers.
Music it or not?
Aliens area 51 a former president what could possibly go wrong?
Over the weekend, former american president barack obama found himself at the center of an internet frenzy after answering a lightning round question on a political podcast.
Are aliens real?
They're real, he said, but i haven't seen them.
And social media took off us to the new ufo.
So Obama quickly jumped back online to clarify.
The universe is enormous.
He said so.
Statistically, there's a good chance that life exists somewhere.
But the distances between solar systems are so huge that the chances that aliens have ever visited Earth well, that's very low.
And during his presidency, he said he saw zero evidence of extraterrestrial contact.
The takeaway?
Well, in space, no one can hear you scream.
And on social media, everyone hears just half the story.
Breaking news from the world of breaking wind.
Scientists in the US have developed sensor-equipped smart underwear to objectively measure flatulence.
That's farts, people.
The device clips into underwear and tracks hydrogen gas released by the gut.
So until now, most research on farts relied on people reporting their own numbers.
And let's just say memory or reporting can be unreliable when it comes to farts.
Early findings suggest healthy adults may pass gas more than twice as often as previously thought, around 32 times a day.
The bigger mission is creating a human flatus atlas.
It's a detailed guide to normal gas patterns.
The baseline or bottom line could help doctors better understand digestive health and how diet changes can affect our gut microbes.
Another example of science not being boring.
A bit disgusting maybe, but definitely not boring.
Q&A call out.
I am so excited to announce that Squeeze Kids Q&A is back.
And we haven't saved the best for last.
Nope.
We're kicking things off with a bang, a brainwave and possibly a very loud shirt, because our very first special guest is none other than Dr Carl Kruszelnicki.
Yes, that is Dr. Carl.
Woo!
Science explainer, myth buster University of Sydney physicist, ABC radio legend who's been answering curly questions from Aussies for decades.
He's the author of more than 40 books and the proud owner of some of the brightest shirts ever stitched together by humanity.
And this is your chance to ask him a question.
It could be about science.
It could be about him.
It could be gloriously random.
Maybe you want to know where on earth does he find such bright shirts?
How did he first fall in love with science?
What did he win an Ig Nobel Prize for and what even is an Ig Nobel Prize?
What's his favourite band or song to listen to while thinking his big thoughts, and where does he think them?
What the strangest question is that anyone's ever asked him?
Or what one science myth he really wishes people would stop believing?
Now, they're just some ideas.
It's over to you.
If you've got a question that you're bursting to ask Dr. Carl, send it in.
You can email your question to squizkids at squiz.com.au.
And if we pick yours, we'll ask you to send in a voice recording.
Or you can head to the Squiz Kids website, follow the instructions very carefully and send us your voice recording directly.
You've got until Tuesday, March 3.
So go on, what are you waiting for?
Time for the quiz.
This is the part of the podcast where you get to test how well you've been listening.
Question number one.
What's the name of the new leader of the Liberal Party replacing Susan Lee?
Well done if you remembered that his name is Angus Taylor.
Question number two. approximately how many whiskers does an elephant have on its trunk?
Did you get that one?
It has around a thousand whiskers.
Question number three, what is the name of the database about farts that researchers want to create?
It's called the Human Flatus Watt.
Music Excellent work if you got this one.
It is the human flatus atlas.
Shout out.
It's Wednesday, February 18.
This year, two significant moments in the religious calendar fall on exactly the same day.
For many Christians, today is Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent.
That's a 40-day period of reflection, prayer and preparation leading up to Easter.
And for Muslims, the holy month of Ramadan begins at sunset this evening.
Ramadan is a sacred month of fasting from dawn till dusk, along with increased prayer, generosity and time spent with family and community.
Different prayers, different practices, but a shared focus on kindness, reflection and hope.
It's also a special day for these quiz kids celebrating a birthday today.
Isaac from Forest Lake and Blake and Sophia from Curry Curry.
And belated birthday shoutouts go to Taylor from Yarrawonga, Victoria from White Rock, Ivy Rose from the Northern Beaches, Ethan and Amelia from Kasula and Daisy, who's listening all the way over there in Hanoi, Vietnam.
Classroom shout-outs.
Today go to Class 5 Blue with Mrs K at Holy Spirit Catholic Primary School in Currie, Currie.
Classes 6A, B and H with Mrs Oliver, Mrs Hobson and Mr Threlfall at Echuca Primary School.
Class 5B with Mrs Meher Homji at Jindalee State School.
Year 2 with Ms Blee at Winona School in North Sydney and and year four with Miss Wall at Shaw School, also in North Sydney.
And a super special shout out to Mario and Aidan, from Australia but now living in Columbia, South America, who recently emailed us to suggest a Squeeze the World episode on Columbia.
Stay tuned.
And people don't forget.
If you've got a birthday coming up and you want a shout out, or if you're after a classroom, shout out whether you're in Australia or around the world.
Drop us a line at squizkids, at thesquizcomau, or fill out the form on our website.
Well, that's all we have time for.
Thanks for listening to Squiz Kids today and we'll be back again tomorrow.
In the meantime, get out there and have a most excellent day.
Over and out.
Thank you.
