07x05 - River Rescuers

[bunniefuu]

(Krista) Welcome
to the Mississippi River.

What are some things that end
up polluting our watershed?

(Hope)
Here's another can.

(Hope)
We are making an art project.

So it inspires other people
to help the environment.

(Krista)
It's a team effort.

(all)
River Rescuers!

(cheerful music)

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Girls" is provided by

the National Science Foundation.

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all fields of science
and engineering.

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where discoveries begin.

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to communities around the world.

(girls)
♪ S-C-I-G-I-R-L-S

(Izzie)
We need you!

(girls)
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(Izzie)
Come on!

(girls)
♪ When I need help
and I've got a question ♪

♪ There's a place I go
for inspiration ♪

♪ Got to get to the web, check
the girls' investigation ♪

♪ What girls?

♪ SciGirls! ♪

Whoo!

(girls)
♪ S-C-I-G-I-R-L-S

(Izzie)
I need you!

(girls)
♪ S-C-I-G-I-R-L-S

Come on!

♪ You've got to log on, post

♪ Upload, pitch in
Yeah!

♪ Want to get inside a world
that's fascinating? ♪

♪ The time is right
'cause SciGirls are waiting ♪

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♪ S-C-I-G-I-R-L-S

(Izzie)
We need you!

(girls)
♪ S-C-I-G-I-R-L-S ♪

(Izzie)
SciGirls!

Hey, Izz.
What you doing?

Whoa!

[clattering]

[chuckles] Jake, you found
Max, my monkey math robot!

Oh, I've had him
since I was two.

Oh!

(both)
Ooh, ooh.

Eeh, eeh.

I see number !

You've got, like,
mountains of stuff in here.

[chuckles]
I know.

I wanted to build a skyscraper

with my popsicle-stick
collection,

but I couldn't find it, so...

[whispering]
I went searching in there.

[eerie note]

[mysterious music]

♪

Found them!

You know, maybe the SciGirls
can help me with this mess.

Here, you can hold Max.

[upbeat music]

♪

Oh, that's cool.

Hmm. Nice, but, eh, maybe
another time.

[gasps]
Ooh, this could work!

♪

(Hope) Let's go see
the dock down there.

When I'm outside in nature,
I feel very calm and quiet.

(Amelia) This is cool.
(Hope) Yeah.

I really like the birds

and just being
in, like, the fresh air.

It's refreshing.

(Amelia) There are three
little fish in there.

(Hope)
Oh, there's another one.

We're at
Fort Snelling State Park.

It feels peaceful,

and it also feels very fun
to be with my friends.


and it also feels very fun
to be with my friends.

♪

My name is Amelia.

My friends describe me as shy
but also energetic.

Whee!

My name is Dani.

A few things about me
is that I am blind.

Some way
they would describe me

is probably outgoing
and fearless.

Hey, Hopey, high five.

Dani, I'm trying to--
I can't--Aah!

My name is Hope.

One of the things I love
to do is play the trumpet,

and, also, I love science.

What are you guys drawing?

I'm drawing this angle
right by me.

My name is Jenny.
I was born in Vietnam.

I really like to dance,
and I like art.

(Dani)
I know Hope

'cause she was in a lot
of my classes last year.

Amelia is my sister.

And I met Jenny this year,
and we became friends.

(Hope) We are
a very hardworking team.

We love to just be silly...

[laughter]

And then we're also
very serious.

Oh, look, there's an exhibit.

Oh, yeah.

At Fort Snelling, they have
this pollinators' exhibit.

And what I really enjoyed
about it

was how it was accessible
to many different people.

(Hope) Look, there's
audio description.

- Should we play it?
(Jenny) Yeah, we should.

(electronic voice) Welcome to
our -minute audio description

of this interpretive
panel exhibit.

(Amelia)
We live in Minnesota,

close to where
the Mississippi River starts.

(Hope)
It starts in Lake Itasca.

(Jenny) And it goes
down to the Gulf of Mexico.

I thought it was cool
that it starts

on, like, such a small lake

and just gets bigger
and stronger.

♪

Today we are going
on a riverboat...

(ranger) Welcome aboard.
(all) Thank you.

(Hope) And learning
about history

of the Mississippi River.

♪

Welcome
to the Mississippi River.

My name is Krista.

Have you ever been
on a boat this big before?

-(all) No.
-[laughs]

(Jenny) First, we met Krista,
a park ranger

at Fort Snelling State Park.

(Krista) We are on the mighty
Mississippi River.

We are going to
be exploring one

of Minnesota's first highways.

We think
about bringing people here.

I myself am an immigrant
to Minnesota.

And there are
so many other people

that have come here
over time,

but the Dakota people
have called this place home

for thousands of years.

Krista explained a lot
about the history of the river,

including how it's really huge
for the Dakota.

The Dakota name for
this river is Hahawakpa,

and it means
"river of the falls."

♪ ♪

She also talked about how
we should try and conserve it

so that we can realize
who came before us

and who will come
after us as well.

It was used for transportation
and to pass supplies.

They might send
big old white pine trees


They might send
big old white pine trees

down the river,

and then they'd get collected

here in St. Paul
and Minneapolis.

Today we use the river
for, like, water sources

and to go on boat rides still,
'cause that's fun.

(Krista) Because we're in the
Mississippi River watershed,

a lot of our drinking
water is impacted

by the Mississippi River.

(Jenny)
A watershed is a area

that water
kind of collects to.

(Hope) The Mississippi River
watershed

is the largest in the U.S.

and the fourth largest
in the world.

(Krista)
So, when we're looking out here

at the Mississippi River,

there are so many plants,

so many animals,
so much life.

Do you know what that word
is for all of that life

and all the different types
of life that are in a space?

- Is it biodiversity?
- Biodiversity.

You got it.

(Amelia)
Krista talked

about how it's one
of the most biodiverse rivers.

Oh, look at that big
eagle's nest up there.

(Hope) Yeah.
(Krista) That's huge!

(Jenny)
Oh, there's one! Oh, wow.

(Hope)
Oh, there goes one.

(Amelia)
Oh, it just lost a feather.

We're coming up
on Fort Snelling State Park.

(Dani) Do you guys clean
the water here?

No, we don't clean the water.

But we do have a lot of rules
about picking up trash.

(Jenny) She told us a lot
about how it impacts Minnesota

and down to the Gulf of Mexico.

I really would like
you to meet Laura,

who will be able to go
a little bit deeper

into what's in the water

and some more of the ways
that we can take care of it.

- Would you like to meet her?
(all) Yeah.

♪ ♪

- Hello.
(all) Hi.

Welcome.

(Amelia)
We met Laura.

She works with
Friends of the Mississippi.

Here you've got a really great
model of -D watershed.

Let's do a little experiment.

Dani, do you want
to be the water?

Sure.

[laughs]
You can be the rain.

Does someone want to make
the rain sound for us?

- I will.
- Amazing.

What are some things
that you think

end up polluting
our watershed?

Plastic.

(Jenny) Salt.
(Laura) Yeah.

- Oil.
(Laura) Oil, yeah.

Maybe some people have spilled
some oil from their cars.

Too much salt. Oh.

What are
some other pollutants

that we've got
that might end up there?

- Yard waste.
(Laura) Yard waste.

(Amelia) Even things
like leaves and grass

and soil can be pollutants.

(all)
Plastic.

(Laura)
So we know plastic lasts

for a really,
really long time.

And what are some of the
dangers of, you know, plastic

that starts off here
in the Twin Cities

and runs all the way down?

What starts, do you think,
happening to it over time?

It starts, like, breaking
up into micro-plastic.

Fishes and marine animals
would eat it,

and sometimes they would starve
because the plastic

is filling their stomach,
but it's not really food.

(Laura) We've got a bunch
of trash in our waterways.

Let's see what happens
when it rains again.

[bottle spritzing]

[soft music]


[soft music]

♪

Oh, no. What's happening
around the watershed?

It's all sliding.

It's all going down.

(Amelia)
It's clogging.

(Hope)
One thing that I learned

and I thought
was really cruel and sad

was even, like, a really small
amount of material

can, like, really make
a big impact.

It seems like what we're
doing to the land actually

is impacting the water.

So, even if we don't
live near a waterway,

our storm drains
drain directly to the river.

(Dani)
Yeah.

A big part of my job
is awareness and education.

Some of the projects we've done

at Friends
of the Mississippi River--

we've worked
with a lot of schools

and community members
to use a debris tracker.

A debris tracker
is a citizen-science app

that you can track
and put in data about debris.

Citizen science is when
the public is doing science

and helping with research.

So how do we use the tracker?

Well, I could take you out,

and we can go out into
the community and try it out.

I'm pretty excited
to see, like, what it is

and how it works.

I'm Amelia.

Here are some
of my favorite things to do.

Let's make a smoothie together.

I take a cup of fruit
and put it in the blender.

Now we blend.
[blender whirring]

Once you're all done,
don't forget to enjoy it.

Yum.

This is my dog, Rev.
This is my cat, Aurora.

This is my other dog, Apollo.

He's a puppy,
so he's very energetic.

I play the oboe.

[playing scale]

♪

See you soon.

[upbeat music]

♪

- Hi, Laura.
- Oh, hi.

(all) Hi.
- It's nice to see you again!

We are at Hidden Falls.

(Dani)
We are meeting Laura,

and we are going to be doing
a trash pickup.

(Laura)
It's estimated

that about million
metric tons of plastic

is ending up in our oceans.

The big questions
that the scientists

are really digging
into is,

where is the pollution
coming from?

And what can we do about it?

Well, we can help spread
awareness and pick up trash.

(Laura)
Yeah.

We can also do what
scientists really like,

is look at some data.

Identifying different
specific types of trash

could also help us figure out,
where is it coming from?

And it's going to
just really help us

solve this problem that
is not only a local problem

but really a global issue.

Plastic is
a problem everywhere.

So, before we start
using this,

I wanted to also get us
equipped with some other tools

that we need
for our trash cleanup.

We want to be safe,
and so we've got gloves.

We're not going to pick
up anything that's needles

or any glass that's sharp.

Or if it's something
that's too large to fit

into the containers
that we have,


into the containers
that we have,

we could identify it
and flag it for the park board.

And then at the end,
you should also, like,

wash off your hands
and anything that was, like,

near trash again for safety.

♪ ♪

(Amelia)
Gum wrapper.

(Jenny)
Gum wrapper.

(Dani) Ooh.
(Hope) A mask.

I got Styrofoam.

An Oreo wrapper,
I think.

I wonder who left
that there.

Food wrapper.

Yeah, two of them.

(Amelia)
Glass fragment.

(Jenny)
That's a lot of trash.

(Amelia) Oh, it looks
like masking tape.

Masking tape.

For the trash pickup,
we split into teams.

And on each team,
there was somebody

who kept the tallies

and somebody
who picked up the trash.

Cigarette butt.

Cigarettes.

So you find a piece of trash,

and you go through
the different categories

on the app to try
to find what you have.

Two bottle caps.

Metal.

(Amelia) And we collected
for minutes.

Oh, it's a pocketknife.

(Hope)
A pocketknife.

For my part,
I did the tallying.

And I just used my phone, and
I used this Braille keyboard

that I type
with eight of my fingers,

'cause I have
to hold it weird.

(Hope)
I see two plastic bottles.

(Dani)
Two plastic water bottles.

Aluminum.

There's a water bottle.

(Hope) We also have a ribbon
that I'm putting in.

More metal coming your way.
It's tinfoil, I believe.

There were trash cans
at the park.

They were everywhere.

But for some reason,

there was still
a lot of trash on the ground.

Oh, another cup.

(Hope)
Okay, here's another can.

(Dani) We collected
many kinds of debris,

but at the top was plastic.

(Laura) So, of items,
the majority is plastic.

items are plastic.

For plastic,
we picked up %.

You can look
at other data as well

that other people
have collected.

Maybe get some ideas
about a bigger project

or what your next steps
might be.

- Sound good, everybody?
(Hope) Thank you.

(Laura) Thank you for all
the work that you did.

It felt pretty cool because
we got to do citizen science

and contribute to that data.

Hi, I'm Jenny.
Welcome to my house.

I really like to draw.

This is an art project that
I made for science last year.

I do tend to draw a lot more
cartoon, like, anime-ish style.

Welcome to Jenny's baking show!

I mostly make cookies, but
sometimes I do change it up.

I'm making a vanilla cake
for my sister.

So right now
I'm holding my dog.

His name is Luca.
He's a teddy bear.

And he is one-year-old.

Thank you.
See you next time.

Bye.

[upbeat music]

♪ ♪

Today we are
at Hidden Falls again,

and we are brainstorming
what to do for our art project

to bring awareness.

(Hope)
We are making an art project

so it inspires other people
to help the environment.


so it inspires other people
to help the environment.

What kind of project
should we make?

Maybe a collage.

Yeah! Oh, my gosh,
that would be smart.

Yeah, we should draw pictures
or take pictures

about what we see
in the water and the river.

Yeah.

We should add
audio description for it,

so it would be accessible.

Yeah, like at Fort Snelling.

And we could also add,
like, tactiles

'cause, like,
tactiles are cool.

(Amelia)
Yeah.

The more accessible
our project is,

the more people are going
to be able to get involved.

If we add Braille, then we get
a whole nother group of people

to join the movement.

Sounds like we got a plan.
Let's go try it out.

Okay.

[upbeat percussive music]

♪ ♪

The way that we
divided up the project

was that Jenny was doing
the drawing.

I am going to draw
the scenery of what I see,

and I hope that people
could maybe feel the same way

about cleaning up the area.

(Dani) And Amelia
was taking the pictures.

I was helping Hope
with, like, audio

and the audio description.

The rocks even make a sound.

(Hope)
Yeah.

We are getting audio
of sounds of nature,

and we're also doing audio
description for the project.

What do you hear?

- I heard a bird.
- Oh.

- Over there.
- I got a recording of it.

(Jenny) Our next step is to
look at the website

to see what data
has been collected

and see places
that haven't been.

Hi.
My name is Dani.

I'm making a dessert--
chocolate-covered strawberries.

First, I cut off the leaves,

and then I'm dipping them
in chocolate.

Then we're going
to freeze them.

I like playing hockey.

We don't use
a regular-size puck.

And it's made out of metal
and has ball bearings in it

that make it make sound.

[ball bearings rattling]

I like walking the dogs
'cause my dogs love me.

I like playing my instrument
because I like music.

[plays note]

Bye!
See you later!

[upbeat music]

♪

Today we are at Hope's house.

And we are going to be looking
at the website.

(Hope) And see what other
people have collected

around the Twin Cities area.

(Amelia) Yeah, maybe
we can find somewhere

that doesn't have
any data near us.

(Dani) It would be good
to get more people

to, like, experience it so that
they can help spread the word.

(Amelia) Maybe here,
over by where Krista works.

I also was using a tactile map
that has the river

and has, like,
the Twin Cities around it,

and I could look at that.

(Hope) Jenny is sick today,
which is pretty sad,

but we're going to catch her up
on everything.

So I think Fort Snelling Park,
just in general,

would be a really good area

because it's, like,
a really important area

for the Mississippi
and just Minnesota, in general.

And it's also
very historical.

- Yeah.
- So we want to keep it clean.

- Yeah.
- So we want to keep it clean.

We decided to do our cleanup

at Fort Snelling State Park,

because we noticed,
especially on Pike Island,

that there wasn't
a lot of data.

It's a really big park.

There's a boat launch
and a picnic area,

and we're going to use
that area to help clean up.

- Are you guys excited?
- Yeah.

- I'm very excited.
- I am too.

(all) Three, two, one.
Yeah!

That was crispy.

Hi, I'm Hope.
Welcome to my house.

This is my music room and
then my flute and my trumpet.

[plays notes]

These are my chickens.

This is the she-shed that me
and my dad are building.

This is my bed.

I sketched it out,
and me and my dad built it.

And I have my periodic table
of elements poster

because I love
the periodic table.

Another thing I love
to do is tennis.

♪ ♪

See you next time!

♪ ♪

[wood creaking]

♪ ♪

We're at my house
finishing our art project.

(Amelia) Here, what do we want
as our title?

(all)
The River Rescuers.

(Amelia) And then we have each
of our little boxes.

(Hope) We want people
to get involved

because one little impact
on the Mississippi

can go all the way down
to the Gulf of Mexico.

I think, for the raindrops,

like, we should put
a quote in it.

We could do the "one drop
can lead to a bigger action."

And then we want
the audio description.

(Dani) Including people with,
like, different experiences

just helps
with the problem solving,

'cause then you have more
people putting in their ideas

and their potential solutions.

♪ ♪

(Hope)
Should we start recording?

(Dani) Yeah, let's go
with what we have.

Okay.

This is audio description
of our art project,

titled River Rescuers.

This art project is by
Hope, Amelia, Dani, and Jenny.

Our art project
is coming along really well.

We are almost done.

We just need, like,
an hour or so.

(Amelia) I'm really excited
for our upcoming cleanup event

to help get
more people informed

and to be able to train
more people.

Check it out.
We've got dinosaur toys!

[roars]

And space books
that are out of this world!

[imitates engine whirring]

What's that, Izz?

Oh, I created an app

that helps me keep track
of all my things.

I input where I keep
everything in my room

and how often I use stuff.

Cool.

Cool.

Yeah.

If I haven't used something
in a while,

it flashes like this.

[beeping]

And then I know
it's time to give it away.

(both)
Eeh, eeh, ooh-ooh.

I see number !

Oh, here you go.
This monkey's for you.

[gasps]
Izz, can I keep it?

I mean, this superhero
lunchbox is totally awesome.

[chuckles] Sure, Jake.

I'm saving the planet one
reusable lunchbox at a time!

Inputting that and...

Whoa.

According to your app,
we've given away everything.

Yeah, now I'll finally
have room to build

my popsicle-stick skyscraper.

[gasps] Ooh, and I can fit
a build-your-own volcano set

in there, too,
a slime laboratory--

Whoa, that's a lot of stuff.

Oh, yeah, you're right.

I don't want
to end up here again.

Come on, I got an idea.

[upbeat music]

♪ ♪

(Jenny)
Hey, guys.

(Amelia) Oh, there's Jenny.
(Hope) Jenny!

It felt really good
to have Jenny here today

so our whole group
could be here.

It's like the missing
puzzle piece back in.

We're at
Fort Snelling State Park,

and we are doing
a trash cleanup

around the river
and the picnic area.

The people who are
coming to our event--

both of our mentors
are coming.

And we're going to have a ton
of our friends there, too.

So this is the safety table.

So we're going to do
these things like stations.

And at every station,

we give them the materials
that they need.

(Dani)
We need gloves

because you don't ever want to
come in contact with the trash.

Do you guys have
a phone to use?

Or do you guys
want a clipboard?

(child)
Clipboard.

(Hope) So, for this,
you're going to just do a tally

of the different things
that you find.

It feels really nice
to share what we've learned

so other people can learn it
and they can be inspired.

(Amelia)
Have fun.

♪

(Laura)
We found a metal stake,

so I think that
would go in here.

(Jenny) So first we want to
clean up in the picnic area,

which we took half an hour on.

I found another one!

Another metal stake!

♪

(Krista)
Oh, it's a team effort.

(Amelia) Try to find
as much trash as you can

in the next five minutes!

(Jenny)
We went off

and collected
around the picnic areas

for minutes and then
around the boat launch

for minutes.

[indistinct chatter]

Ooh, look at all of that.

(Amelia)
We are here at the boat launch.

Go ahead and start cleaning up
in your two groups.

Make sure you stay
with your group.

(Laura) Oh, beverage bottle.
One beverage bottle.

(both) What is that?
(kids) Rubber ball.

(both) What is that?
(kids) Rubber ball.

(Hope)
It was definitely a success.

It doesn't matter your ability

or, like, your strengths
and weaknesses.

It just really matters
if you're willing to commit.

(child) Wrapper, wrapper,
wrapper--who has the bucket?

(Amelia) It seemed like a lot
of our volunteers

really enjoyed it,
and it really impacted them.

Then we came back,

and we talked about what kind
of trash we picked up.

Our first cleanup had items.

The data results
were very interesting.

We had items
in the picnic area.

And then on the boat-launch
area, we had items.

We found that there was
a lot more plastic

around the boat launch

than there was
around the picnic area.

And there was a lot more trash
around the boat launch

in general.

(Laura) Why do you think
it was different?

I feel like areas near water

appeal to, like, a lot
of people.

So a lot of people
are gonna come there.

And sometimes the river
gets plastic in it,

and the water flows in and out,

which makes it leave
the plastic on the shores.

And, like, up here, it's mostly
just humans moving it around.

Then we showed our projects.

(Amelia) Our mom--
when she was little,

she didn't see
a lot of bald eagles

'cause they were endangered.

But now every time
you come out to the river,

you usually see one or two.

That tells us that even
if a problem seems hopeless,

you can still turn it around.

The volunteers and our mentors

seemed to really like
our art project,

especially since it had Braille
and audio description on it.

(Dani)
My art is on the right.

You can touch it.

It is raindrops that have
Braille on it as well.

I feel like the younger
it's put into your heart,

the better
and, like, more you'll

really feel for the river
and try to help it out.

Thank you so much for coming.

I hope that you guys can make
your own cleanups

and organize your own cleanups.

You could help
clean up the river

or just cleaning
outside your home.

Thank you for helping out.

(Hope) My favorite part of the
experience was our cleanups,

'cause we got to help
with the environment

and learn about our
environment at the same time.

(Amelia)
I hope that our volunteers

and everyone
who sees our art project

learns to take care
of our river.

(Jenny) I feel like we did
really good

with the trash cleanup.

I feel like that
would be great

because it affects everyone.

(all)
One, two, three...

River Rescuers!

And now anytime
I want something new,

I have to get rid of at least
two things from my room.

[beeping]

Okay, let's make a trade.

Okay.

I'll give you my lava lamp
and Ferris wheel kit

for your
race-car-building set?

Hmm.

Throw in the chicken, and
we've got ourselves a deal.

Bawk, bawk!

[giggles]
Deal.

(Reagan) Congaree National
Park is very beautiful.

(Jayden) And it has
a very unique firefly,

because they can blink
their lights at the same time.


because they can blink
their lights at the same time.

In elementary school,
that's, like, the last time

I saw a firefly.

(Reagan)
Where they at now?

I'm excited to see a firefly.

- Ooh.
(Jayden) That is so cool.

[laughter, indistinct chatter]

(Ada) We're going to the Great
Smoky Mountains National Park.

(Isabelle) The salamander
capital of the world.

(Kaylee) We went into the
woods to find salamanders...

- Oh, there's one.ÂÂ
(Kaylee) To collect some data.

(Ada) We learned so much.
- Yeah.

(cheerful music)

- Major funding for "Sci
Girls" is provided by

the National Science Foundation.

Supporting education
and research across

all fields of science
and engineering.

The National Science Foundation,
where discoveries begin.

Additional funding is
provided by the PPG Foundation

which aims to bring
color and brightness

to communities around the world.

[upbeat music]

♪

♪

(girls)
S-C-I-G-I-R-L-S!