Welcome to Florida Fishing Fun as part of our Getting Families Fishing Series.
As you’ll discover in this video, fishing with friends and family offers you pathways to learning about aquatic ecosystems, the fun and bonding of family adventures, plus how to become a more sustainable person here on Planet Earth. This show and others in the series is airing nationally on 5 digital networks 24/7, and syndicated television in 7 states on 33 stations via ABC, NBC, CBS and FOX… plus PBS in some markets.
Okay, so there's several great ways to enjoy and share the fishing fun and education in this show.
First, you can kick back with family or friends to watch this entire half-hour television episode to get the full content in one sitting. Kinda like enjoying a full course meal. Yum-yum.
Then there's the shorter, custom segments on the noted links below. These are the custom "classroom" or learning videos with some bonus content designed to share with your entire classroom. On these links below you'll also find lots of other educational content, including custom lesson activities for your teacher to take your entire classroom on a three to four day journey of peer-driven learning blended with fun and hands-on pathways to try outdoor pursuits yourself.
Whichever way you decide to enjoy the fun and educational content, it's a win-win way for you to get engaged with pathways to discovering more about yourself and the great outdoors.
Until then, enjoy the journey of discovery in all of the content in our Getting Families Fishing Series funded by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service in partnership with the Future Angler Foundation, a nonprofit org dedicated to growing sportfishing across the country.
For all kinds of helpful information and resources on how kids can learn where-to and how-to go fishing, explore our companion KidsFishing.US website. You'll also find lots of fun educational resources for classroom or lakeside learning. Plus, be sure to check out all the helpful resources on TakeMeFishing.org.
Official Boater Safety Courses
and Boat Safety Education Materials
Recognized by the U.S. Coast Guard, approved by NASBLA and your state boating license agency, and approved by Transport Canadahttps://www.boat-ed.com/
Welcome to the Shooting Sports Challenge television show that's part of our America’s Conservation & Hunting Heritage Series airing nationally on 5 digital networks 24/7, and syndicated television in 7 states on 33 stations via ABC, NBC, CBS and FOX... plus PBS in a number of markets.
As you’ll discover in watching this program, shooting sports and our hunting heritage offers you pathways to learning about America's Model of modern wildlife management and how to discover new levels of self-confidence and focus.
Okay, so there's several great ways to enjoy and share the shooting sports and conservation education in this show.
First, you can kick back with family or friends to watch this entire half-hour television episode to get the full content in one sitting. Kinda like enjoying a full course meal. Yum-yum.
Then there's the shorter, custom segments on the noted links below. These are the custom "classroom" or learning videos with some bonus content designed to share with your entire classroom. On these links below you'll also find lots of other educational content, including custom lesson activities for your teacher to take your entire classroom on a three to four day journey of peer-driven learning blended with fun and hands-on pathways to try outdoor pursuits yourself.
Whichever way you decide to enjoy the fun and educational content, it's a win-win way for you to get engaged with pathways to discovering more about yourself and the great outdoors.
So enjoy the journey of discovery in all of the content in our America’s Conservation & Hunting Heritage Series funded by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service in partnership with Safari Club International Foundation, a nonprofit org dedicated to promoting wildlife conservation across the country.
Official Hunter Safety Courses for Today’s Hunter
Approved by IHEA-USA and your state hunting agency
Could you survive this gauntlet of physical and mental tests? Discover the answers by watching the four parts of this science show and reading the information below. And to take this learning adventure into your classroom, have your teacher download the free Lesson Activities at the bottom of this page so everyone can share in the fun of this inquiry based learning.
Better grab your energy bars, extra water, sunblock and adventure gear if you hope to keep up with our ITO kids as they embark on one of the biggest adventures of their lives in The Amazing Eco-Trek Race. Josh, Caroline, Emma, and Jacob begin a gauntlet of physical and mental tests where they are scored on how they face challenges in four environments across Wisconsin. From paddling, to caving, to Hunger Games archery, and biking, they discover new things about their physical limitations while learning many of nature’s secrets in some wild places. Their amazing race offers some unexpected twists and turns as fear, doubt, and fatigue creep into the competition. See who makes it to the finish line and what they learned along their remarkable journey.
To see why someone would want to Become an Archery Superhero, or, try their own style of Hunger Games, check out this video and website from our science education friends at Untamed Science... http://www.untamedscience.com/become-archer-superhero/
When you're ready to take your own eco-challenges, have your teacher download one of the free classroom Lesson Guides below that go with this video adventure! (Unlike many of our Lesson Guides, this series is meant to be used with the 4 Parts of the main video and they do not have their own individual Serious Science videos.)
Plus, the educational partner noted below supported the video content here for all of us to learn about safety in the outdoors.
This page offers a chance for you to see the entire Emmy-winning film in HD. It also provides link to the classroom educational films and lesson activities related to this production. Simply click on the link below to explore some of the classroom educational films, lessons and resources on river restoration.
Throughout this website you'll also find over 100 classroom educational films on science, nature and the environment, all with free companion lesson activities or discussion guides to empower students with peer-driven learning in school. Teachers will find abundant background and other supporting educational resources.
As you'll see, the story of the Ottaway is told through the hearts of minds of over 30 various stakeholders, as they confront the challenges of turning back the hands of time by removing the three upper dams and modifying a fourth to once again connecting the region’s major coldwater river with the waters of Lake Michigan. This film weaves together strong Native American values, the complexity of a changing society, and the unspoken voices of nature’s population of “environmental citizens” whose lives are interwoven with… the rebirth of the Ottaway.
With funding support from the Grand Traverse Band of the Ottawa and Chippewa Indians, this documentary film also offers a blueprint on how communities across Michigan can navigate the challenges of dealing with the state’s 2500 outdated dams that face similar fates as those near Traverse City.
Over two years in the making, this film was produced by Dan Bertalan, an Emmy-winning documentary producer with deep roots in Michigan and environmental justice. This film recently won an Emmy from the Michigan Chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences. The film was broadcast via CMU Public Television and public television affiliates across Michigan. Also, the Outdoor Writer’s Association of America awarded the film honors as the top Conservation Documentary in their national awards.
Plans are already underway for a sequel documentary as the final chapter of the river unfolds with the building of a state-of-the-art selective fish passage that will once again connect spawning fish from the Great Lakes with historic waters they haven’t been able to reach in over 100 years.
Okay admit it! Kids and even parents today can't seem to "disconnect" from their cell phones long often enough to make time for meaningful face-to-face connections with family and friends.
So what's the solution? One innovative teacher created a summer-school homework assignment that required two "cell phone-addicted" students to make it their "mission to go fishin". As you watch the TV show, try to identify a handful of key elements that can make real family fishing adventures happen. And if you're a student of R3, see where recruitment, retention, and reactivation come into play.
Besides enjoying the action in this program, kids and teachers can share the education that's part of almost every fishing adventure by watching the companion classroom videos and lesson activities with the links below. They're free, fun and an easy to download for engaging peer-driven classroom learning... complete with hands-on sections for getting kids and families fishing.
Fishin' For Food and Fun comes with complete educational content about how to clean and cook your catch and was provided by our friends at the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources.
Fishing YOUR US Forests is your educational "passport to angling adventure". This classroom video has tons of companion lesson activities and resources on how to plan a family fishing adventure on YOUR National Forests. To help plan your next National Forest adventure, click on the logo here.
For all kinds of helpful information and resources on how kids can learn where-to and how-to go fishing, explore our companion KidsFishing.US website. You'll also find lots of fun educational resources for classroom or lakeside learning. Plus, be sure to check out all the helpful resources on TakeMeFishing.org.
Official Boater Safety Courses
and Boat Safety Education Materials
Recognized by the U.S. Coast Guard, approved by NASBLA and your state boating license agency, and approved by Transport Canada
This 70-minute documentary explores the challenges and solutions we face in our collective search for sustainability.
Sometimes, we think that the food we eat just pops out of the ground or appears magically at our supermarkets, but the truth is much different. Jacob and Gianna, our hosts, quickly discover that a huge amount of work goes into growing soybeans, and that the most sustainable ways of doing things are not always the easiest. That being said, it does not take long for them to learn that sustainable practices often equate with financial success for farmers and others in the soybean industry.
Sustainability has three pillars: environmental, economic, and social. Each is equally important, and they combine to paint a bright picture for the future of the soybean industry. The hosts enlist the help of Cedric in mission control and Coolbean, a smart soybean with an ego to match, to find the base of each pillar and get the big picture of what these pillars support.
The hosts start their journey into soybean sustainability from the ground up…literally. A farmer explains the sustainable practices he uses on his farm and a soil scientist describes the process of soil testing. Why would scientists go through the trouble of digging up dirt all over a soybean farm? And what scientific process makes soybeans one of the best crops to grow in the Midwest? The hosts, and experts that they speak to, will help you answer those questions and many others.
All this sustainability stuff may seem like a lot of extra work and, well, it is. As another farmer explains, however, this extra work results in extra income for the farmer. How else are sustainable practices involved with soybean economics? The hosts wonder what happens after soybeans leave the farm and quickly realize that sustainability plays a part in the transport of soybeans as well. A grain distributor highlights how a cooperative saves farmers from driving hundreds of miles while a lock-master (huh, what’s that?) describes barge transport. It turns out that one barge traveling down the Mississippi River contains as many soybeans as 58 trucks. Whoa.
Ok, so soybeans benefit the environment and farmers, but aren’t there three pillars of sustainability? What about social sustainability? A farmer walks the hosts through her family farm that benefits the environment, economy, and her community all at the same time. Next, a nearby town beckons. Two kind community members tell the story of how Evansville, Wisconsin became the “Soybean Capital" of the state. Finally, they learn about a group of farmers that work together to minimize erosion from their farms into the watershed of Madison, Wisconsin. Here are three different methods with one common goal.
Sustainability has not always been the top priority of the soybean industry. One of the experts the hosts speak to was instrumental in developing the National Soybean Sustainability Initiative. This tests how sustainable farmers and others in the industry are being, and provides them with ideas on how to do even more in the future. This came at a perfect time, as the hosts realize by talking to an employee at The DeLong Company. These days, soybean buyers all around the world demand soybeans produced sustainably. The market must meet this demand but the push towards being more sustainable has benefitted the industry tremendously and the hosts find out why. You will too as you watch this episode. Just promise that you won’t be a know-it-all like Coolbean....
Have you ever wondered where the fuels that power our vehicles comes from? Or, have you thought about how they turn syrupy black crude into the clear gasoline and fuels that drive our society? Well, ponder no more. You're about to get a serious introduction to the science and technology of refining and transporting hydrocarbons.
There are two ways to learn here: You can simply watch this "Emmy-winning" video above or read more of the background information below. Doing both can double-up on your smart meter. As a side note, the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences was so impressed with this production, that they awarded it with the Emmy for the top Youth Educational Program-Series in the Midwest. Woo-who! A big shout-out to our ITO youth scientists shown here with their well-deserved Emmy at the awards ceremony in Chicago. See the video to the right.
Before we get started however, let's consider your previous knowledge base about the petroleum industry. Chances are you've likely "learned" more about the oil industry from the news than from hard science sources. One of the rules of being a scientist is knowing how to evaluate potential bias of your information sources (including us). And news by it's very nature focuses on negative events cast in extreme situations. So it's little surprise that the news about the oil industry is sometimes presented in a negative light. Oil spills make for dramatic news stories, yet we seldom if ever hear about how the industry plays a vital role in powering almost every segment of our industrial society. Without it, we'd pretty much grind to a halt. Consider that as you begin "refining" your own critical thinking by exploring the science and technology here that begins to decode refining and transporting the fuels that make our modern lives possible.
Let's start by digging into the science behind the formation of crude oil. Did you know that crude oil was formed from the decomposed body parts of ancient marine organisms? We're talking real tiny stuff here like algae and other microscopic organisms such as zooplankton. Nope, there's no dinosaur juice or ancient forests in that formed oil.
One of the keys to this ancient marine life eventually becoming oil is being trapped in a sediment layer. This layer also had to be free from oxygen in an “anaerobic” environment to prevent scavengers from eating them. As more accumulating sediment layers buried their body parts deeper, pressure and heat essentially “cooked” their organic matter into hydrocarbons. And that's how crude oil was formed. Despite the common misconception, an "oil reservoir" in the ground isn't a giant cave in the earth filled with oil. Instead, the oil in a reservoir rock is located in the tiny interconnected pore spaces in the rock. In fact, some rocks such as sandstone, can have up to 30% porosity, or interconnected pores spaces for oil to occupy and flow through. See for yourself sometime by filling a cup with sand, then slowly pouring about a half cup of water into it before it overflows. The water seeped into the 50% "porosity".
Once a reservoir is drilled into and the crude produced, it needs to be refined. Crude oil straight from a well by itself isn't useful for much of anything. Oh sure, it will burn, or mess up your clothes. But it sure won't fly a jet or run in your vehicle. Rather than try to explain the whole process, you're better off watching the video above as you join our science team as they explore the entire process at Pine Bend Refinery, one of the most complex refineries in North America. As you'll see in the video, with the help of Flint Hills Resources engineers, they reveal the chemistry behind crude oil and touch on why it's vital to so many aspects of our lives.
As you'll see, one of the early phases of refining is the process of "fractional distillation" where they "cook" off the various hydrocarbon fuel "fractions". Yeah, it sounds confusing. But watch the video for a refined picture of how it all works. You’ll also get to see how the refinery’s very own version of mission control operates this complex refinery that's the size of a small city. You'll also learn how refinery experts use physics and technology in the refining process to remove impurities such as sulfur. They also use combinations of catalysts along with heat and pressure to enhance chemical reactions.
What do Legos have in common with oil refining? As you'll see in the video, they help conceptualize the refining process of “cracking” longer, heavier hydrocarbon chains of molecules into shorter chains that make up various fuels such as gasoline and jet fuel.
As you'll also see, it's pretty hard not to notice the steam coming out of some of the refinery towers. We know that steam comes from water and that fresh water is a precious resource. So our hosts also live up to their name of Into the Outdoors by getting to the bottom of how Flint Hills Resources manages, recycles and protects the water resources they use.
All these refined fuels eventually need to get from the refinery to the industries and businesses that use them, right? We sure can fill up our cars at the refinery. So pipelines offer the safest and most reliable method of transporting those fuels to all the various distribution points in society. That's why our team decodes all the pipeline connections, with the help of various engineers while exploring the physics behind transporting fuels via pipelines. Because pipelines span huge distances across all kinds of environments, our video team also digs into the technology engineers use to monitor pipeline integrity to prevent leaks and how they repair pipelines that need attention.
To dive deeper into all this the science and technology, watch the video above as your primer on the topic, then expand your learning by sharing the Discussion Guide (coming soon) with your teacher and classroom for some serious peer-driven learning.
And to learn more about refining and transporting petroleum products, visit the links of the educational partners that supported this episode.
When you think about mining, you probably think about minerals like gold, diamonds, or copper. But sand? What is so special about the sand deposits in Wisconsin and why has the sand mining industry grown so tremendously here in the Upper Midwest? Put on your hard hat and let’s decode the science of the frac-sand industry.
Why is all this sand in the Upper Midwest and what is the sand being used for? The first section of the video will help you solve those mysteries and more. The quartz sand mined in Wisconsin is especially pure due to its position at the shoreline of ancient seas. Waves pummeled the sand for millions of years, cleaning it of impurities and causing each grain to take on a rounded texture. Only clear, rounded sand grains can be processed by the mining company and sold for a variety of uses. What is this sand
used for? Watch the video to find out.
The second section of the video explores how the sand is actually mined. The investigative team finds out how sand is accessed and transported by interviewing a mining expert. Cedric, back at mission control, is not satisfied. He requests that the team asks a tough question about airborne sand that can cause a serious medical condition called silicosis. Emma and Josh ask experts about what Unimin does to keep their employees and surrounding communities safe from this dust, as well as manage the water they use in their operations.
The resident scientist at Unimin explains the process of reclamation in segment three. Reclamation means taking land that has been altered and managing it to match what it was like before mining took place. Unimin reclaims as they mine. They analyze the land before they ever dig so that they can recreate the original topography when mining is complete. Bulldozers move topsoil to areas in need of reclamation and workers plant native seeds to match the original habitat.
Segment four highlights the story of a species that has benefitted from Unimin’s sand mining operation. The Karner Blue Butterfly is an endangered species that prefers sandy soils with healthy populations of a beautiful purple flower called lupine. Unimin planted lupine throughout the areas it reclaimed and scientists have observed higher numbers of this small butterfly after reclamation compared to surveys conducted before mining started.
The investigative team has one final task in segment four. They need to ask critical questions about the impact of the sand mine on the local community. Josh and Emma sit around a bonfire with local kids who discuss their thoughts on the sand mine. Perhaps, like the kids, you’ll come up with your own conclusions about sand mining after watching the video below.
To dig further into the more Serious Science of industrial sand mining, explore these videos and companion lesson activities:
The educational partner listed below supported the video content you see here. Visit their page to learn even more about their sand mining operation.
