Archived Topics and streaming video
Archived NewsQuizzes
Archived Lesson Plans

Lesson Plans for NewsDepth 2007-2008 season
Lesson Plans for NewsDepth 2006-2007 season-
shows #6-9 and #11-31

Classmate Hero
NewsDepth 07-08 #29, 4-24-08
Everyone has a hero – someone they look up to and admire.  For second graders at Johnston Elementary School in Woodstock, Georgia, that hero is one of their own classmates. Eight-year-old Zachary Evans was honored last Thursday by his principal, Cherokee County Fire and Emergency Services, and the family of an elderly man who he helped return to safety. While out walking his dog Zachary encountered an elderly gentleman who asked him how to get to Woodstock. The man, 79-year-old Walter Ivey Wood, had apparently wandered away from his home. After telling him how to get to Woodstock, Zachary went back to his house and saw a TV news report about a missing elderly Woodstock man. Zachary went back to the spot where he saw Wood, who was still there. He then began walking home with Wood when school and fire officials found them and assisted Mr. Ivey to the hospital where he was found to be in good condition.
http://www.cherokeetribune.com/content/i
ndex/showcontentitem/area/7/section/23/item/109311.html
Lesson Plans (Language Arts for grades 2-4)
Play Video

Pond Scum Fuel
NewsDepth 07-08 #28, 4-17-08
Scientists who are searching for the ultimate alternative fuel source have tried everything from corn to coconuts. Miles O'Brien found a guy who believes that one day we'll be filling our fuel tanks with a scummy alternative.  Glen Kertz believes he's found the magic bullet alternative to oil - it's pond scum but without the pond - and that's what sets his idea apart.  Kertz is flowing, and growing, algae through a long-winding journey in clear plastic bags suspended in a greenhouse. He calls the system Vertigro.  The algae grows fast and is siphoned off continuously. The algae oil is extracted, ready to be refined into fuels like biodiesel. Kertz says he can produce a hundred thousand gallons of algae oil per acre per year.  Compare that to corn - which yields about 20 to 30 gallons an acre. The Vertigro facility is a long way from the corn belt, in the desert near El Paso.
http://www.globalgreensolutionsinc.com/s/Vertigro.asp
Lesson Plans (Science and Language Arts for grades 4-5 and 6-7)
Play Video

Olympic Torch Lighting Ceremony
NewsDepth 07-08 #26, 4-3-08
The 2008 Beijing Olympic Games are months away, but the official Olympic flame arrived in Beijing on Monday.  The torch was lit and will now travel to over 20 different countries, spanning 85,000 miles and five continents. The first torch relay began in Berlin in 1936; but can be traced to the ancient Olympian Games in Greece over 2700 years ago.
http://en.beijing2008.cn/
http://torchrelay.beijing2008.cn/en/
Lesson Plans
Play Video

World Rice Price Pressure
NewsDepth 07-08 #25, 3-20-08
It's getting harder and harder for hundreds of millions of people to feed their families. Rising fuel prices are pushing up the cost of grain production. The pain is especially bad for the nearly half the world's population that depends on rice every day. As Dan Rivers reports from Thailand, that could eventually be a threat to political stability.
http://www.essortment.com/all/ricegrown_oah.htm
http://www.kidsregen.org/howTo.php?section=inGarden&ID=4
http://www.calrice.org/a7_how_rice_grows.htm
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/JB14Df02.html
Lesson Plans (Science and Language Arts for grades 7 and 8)
Play Video

Arms and Armor
NewsDepth 07-08 #24, 3-13-08
Why not travel back to the Renaissance, as the Cleveland Museum of Art presents a special show called "Arms and Armor from Imperial Austria." It's on loan from one of Europe's largest and oldest armories. The exhibit has more than 200 pieces of armor and weaponry used to protect Austria from Turkish invaders in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.  Armor was worn for protection - even horses wore the beautiful armor.  But it was worn also for status, and some of the pieces show that they were created as highly-decorated art objects. The exhibit runs through June first.
http://www.clevelandart.org/exhibcef/armsarmor/html/
http://www.civilization.ca/milhist/austria/aus00eng.html
http://www.wviz.org/index.php/WVIZ/applause/9715/
Lesson Plans (Grade 7, Social Studies, Visual and Language
Arts, plus additional references for other grades)
Play Video

Black Bear Family
NewsDepth 07-08 #23, 3-6-08
Black bears in Massachusetts are hibernating right now, but before spring arrives and they're on the move, wildlife experts are giving the animals a check-up. Jack Harper has the story of the four bears – a mother and three babies – that had a good checkup, and Mama Bear slept through the whole thing.
Lesson Plans
Play Video

The Year of the Frog
NewsDepth 07-08 #22, 2/28/08
The Cleveland Metroparks Zoo celebrates leap year with “Leap Frog Day” this week. Visitors to the zoo will have a chance to go nose to nose with many of the zoo's frogs and learn what they can do to help endangered amphibians around the world.  2008 has been declared the Year of the Frog, and zoos across Ohio and the country hope to educate the public about the amphibian extinction crisis, and raise funds for efforts to save these creatures in the future.
http://www.clemetzoo.com/
http://www.yearofthefrog.org/
http://www.amphibianark.org/yearofthefrog.htm
Lesson Plans
Play Video

Norway's Doomsday Seed Vault
NewsDepth 07-08 #22, 2/28/08
In one of the most remote areas of the world, seeds are being stored in case of a world emergency.  The Doomsday Vault - something that could safeguard human existence -  is a 100-meter tunnel that connects a series of vaults.  Inside those vaults - about four and a half million seeds! The idea is that if mankind is ever threatened - due to global disaster or another catastrophe, our main resource for survival, food, would be safe. The vault is located on an arctic archipelago belonging to Norway, about 620 miles from the north pole.
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/indepth_coverage/science
/seeds/slideshow/index.html?type=flash
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/02/07020907
4207.htm
http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/europe/02/25/norway.s
eeds/index.html
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2007/12/photoga
lleries/seedbank-pictures/
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=38254288
Lesson Plans
Play Video

Triceratops
NewsDepth 07-08 #21, 2/21/08
The Cleveland Museum of Natural History has acquired a full-sized replica, or a copy, of a Triceratops, a creature that lived during the late cretaceous period, about sixty eight to sixty five million years ago. This three-horned giant was second in size only to its arch enemy, Tyrannosaurus rex. The replica was created by the Canadian museum-exhibit fabricators "Research Casting International," from a copy of a Triceratops on exhibit in New York City. There is no known complete skeleton of a Triceratops. The original New York skeleton is a composite, which means it is made up of bones from several different dinosaurs.
http://www.cmnh.org/site/AtTheMuseum_O
nExhibit_Tri.aspx
Lesson Plans
Play Video

Space Shuttle Atlantis
NewsDepth 07-08 #21, 2/21/08
The Space Shuttle Atlantis came home Wednesday from the International Space Station, after installing Columbus - Europe's $2 billion contribution to the ISS. The 23 foot long tube is attached to the station, and holds special experiments, letting scientists research what happens to things in zero gravity. Coming home on Alantis is US astronaut Daniel Tani, who spent four months in space instead of two, after Atlantis' December mission was scrubbed. As Atlantis headed home, the Space Shuttle Endeavour made the slow trip to the launch pad this week. Endeavour is scheduled to liftoff to the space station on March 11th, and will deliver the pressurized section of the Kibo Japanese experiment module to the ISS, the 25th mission to the space station.
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/statio
n/structure/elements/jem.html
http://www.nasa.gov/centers/kennedy/shut
tleoperations/orbiters/atlantis-info.html
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/
main/index.html
Lesson Plans
Play Video

South Korean landmark burns in fire
NewsDepth 07-08 #20, 2/14/08
It was "the" top national treasure. Now South Koreans are mourning the loss of a more than 600-year-old landmark. Fire has destroyed the wooden structure at the top of a gate that once formed part of a wall around Seoul. In a matter of hours, Namdaemun, the majestic gate symbolizing the country's thousands year old culture was crippled, torn apart by a raging fire that started Sunday evening. Koreans awoke to the news that their historic landmark was gone. As Sohn Jie-ae reports, South Korea is a nation in shock.
Lesson Plans
Play Video

Super Tuesday
NewsDepth 07-08 #19, 2/7/08
This past Tuesday, called "Super Tuesday," gave an indication of who the country hopes will be president. Super Tuesday is when 24 states hold their primary elections, all at once. This year's Super Tuesday shows Democratic Senator Hillary Clinton with an edge over Barack Obama in the number of delegates won, with Clinton winning the big states of New York and California. Senator Obama won more of the smaller states. On the Republican side, Senator John McCain took a commanding lead over Mike Huckabee and Mitt Romney, but there is no clear winner yet in that race either. The Buckeye State could have an influence on who wins either party's nomination.  The Ohio primary election happens March 4th. While the primary votes are important, so are the number of delegate votes each candidate gets. So who wins if one candidate gets the majority of the public vote, but another receives more delegate votes? Jill Dougherty provides some clarity.
http://www.npr.org/
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/
http://people.howstuffworks.com/primary2.htm
Lesson Plans
Play Video

Victor Schreckengost
NewsDepth 07-08 #18, 1/31/08
We were saddened to hear of the death last weekend of Viktor Schreckengost at the grand age of one hundred-and-one. An artist, industrial designer and teacher, this long-time Cleveland Heights resident created many of the every day items we use and see.  He brightened our lives with his paintings and sculpture. A few years ago, we did a story about Viktor and his influence on some very young art lovers at Grant Elementary in Lakewood - a suburb near Cleveland.  We share the story again with you now.
http://www.viktorschreckengost.org/
http://www.cleveland.com/arts/index.ssf/2008/01/v
iktor_schreckengost_has_died.html
Lesson Plans
Play Video

A Fourth Grader Builds Snow Machine
NewsDepth 07-08 #18, 1/31/08
A blizzard hit one backyard in Oregon last Thursday. Three feet of snow fell overnight at a West Linn home. Susan Harding shows us how this snowfall comes from the dreams of one ten year-old-boy. Fourth grader Forest Pearson built his own backyard blizzard with his Christmas present – a 30-gallon air compressor.
http://www.katu.com/home/video/14297287.html
http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/blsnow.htm
Lesson Plans
Play Video

Landfills