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tv   Teen Kids News  PBS  April 26, 2014 4:00pm-4:31pm PDT

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>> welcome to "teen kids news." i'm livia. let's start with our top story. depression among teenagers is surprisingly common. some health experts say that one in five will feel what's considered major depression at some point in their teen years. scott tells us more. >> i've felt depressed in some ways of being bullied at school, and it's very -- you feel empty and sad, and it's just... you don't want to be living. it's a terrible feeling. >> it feels like you don't have a place anywhere. >> it's just really sad and, like -- and not happy.
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>> no doubt we've all felt sad at various times in our lives, but when does feeling sad mean something far more serious? dr. dana rabinowitz is a psychologist who treats kids with depression. hello, doctor. >> hi. >> so that we're all on the same page, what does "depression" mean? >> "depression" is one of those words that people use in everyday conversation to mean they feel really sad, but real depression is when you have a loss of interest in the things that you want, and you're sad for two weeks or longer. >> how can we tell the difference between just feeling blue and real depression? >> when you're really depressed, the level of depression is really intense. you feel so sad you can't find any interest in the activities you really enjoy. you might not be interested in school or your friends or your family anymore, and there are all these physical symptoms that go along with it, also. people can lose weight or gain weight. they can have trouble sleeping. they have trouble paying attention. they feel tired and fatigued and
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just generally feel lousy. >> how about your grades? does depression sometimes affect them? >> well, when you're depressed, you can't concentrate, and if you can't concentrate, it's hard to pay attention to what the teacher's saying. it's hard to pay attention to studying. and your grades often do suffer. >> are there certain kinds of situations that can cause a teen to feel depressed? >> there are lots of situations that happen in a teen's life that can make teens upset or sad, but some people handle them fine, and some people get depressed. things like a divorce, a loss of a family member to death, or problems with friends, changes in schools, or just feeling overwhelmed with your academics and your grades can all lead to depression for some teenagers. >> what should a teen do if he or she feels this way? >> depression is not something that a teenager should have to deal with alone. if they feel depressed, they should seek adult help. there's a lot of people that you can talk to, whether it be a family member, a parent, a close relative, a teacher at school, or a guidance counselor or school psychologist.
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all these are adults who can help you evaluate what's going on and make the decision of whether you need to go speak to somebody who's a mental-health counselor like a psychologist or a psychiatrist to get diagnosed and properly treated. >> how about if you have a friend who seems to be depressed? >> your job as a friend is to listen and be supportive, but if you're concerned about your friend being depressed, that's not something you as a teenager can handle on your own, and so i would suggest, again, seeking out another adult and seeking advice from them and having them deal with it. >> any final words of advice? >> depression is a serious medical disorder and in extreme cases can lead to things like suicide, so if you're concerned about yourself or your friend, you really need to go and seek help. >> thank you so much for talking with us. >> thank you so much. it was a pleasure. >> depression is not something you should try to just tough out. the sooner you get help, the better. >> we'll visit a music program where the teachers are truly in tune with the kids.
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>> kathleen sebelius resigns from her post as health and human services secretary. she spent five years in the role and was instrumental in implementing the affordable care act. critics blamed her when many existing health plans were canceled and for technical problems which kept people from enrolling. >> i am so grateful to have had this opportunity. i appreciate all of the effort and support. >> president obama praises sebelius' work. >> under kathleen's leadership, her team at hhs turned the corner, got it fixed, got the job done. >> in turn, the president nominates his budget chief sylvia mathews burwell to replace sebelius. a new survey says families are planning to spend a little less on the prom this year.
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on average, families will dish out $978 on the annual rite of passage for high-schoolers. that's down 14% from last year, according to the survey released by visa. the costs include formal wear, flowers, dinners, transportation, hair and makeup. an executive at visa says the spending on formal wear may be down this year due to the harsh winter weather, which has been the trend of retail. pope francis kicks off holy week by holding mass in st. peter's square. instead of delivering his prepared homily, he delivered one off the cuff, inviting people to look into their own hearts and examine how they are living their lives. afterwards, he posed for selfies with young audience members and even sipped some tea handed to him from the crowd. for "teen kids news," laura ingle, "fox news channel in the classroom." >> a lot goes into learning to
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play an instrument, and with many schools cutting back on funding for classes like music, a lot of kids just can't afford private lessons and instruments. that's why this next story is music to our ears. here's emily. >> so, to play "hot cross buns," we use the notes "b," "a," and "g," right? so this one's "b." >> this might look like any after-school music program, but look a little closer. [ "hot cross buns" plays ] that's right -- this teacher is a teen. he's part of a program called "a-chord with kids." young volunteers teach kids who might not be able to afford music lessons. [ notes play ] [ up-tempo music plays ] the program was orchestrated by two friends -- chase and austin. >> music has a big impact on us, and we really wanted to share the joy of music with everyone here because they might not have the privilege to be able to have enough money to buy an
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instrument or something. >> the guys took their idea to a nearby community center named after the famous scientist george washington carver. >> well, we came here, and we went to one of the directors here, and we asked if we could start this program, and through those channels, we were able to get this program off its feet. >> many of their classmates were happy to help. >> put your second finger there. [ chord plays ] see, right at the end, that was perfect. like, literally, it was perfect. when one of my friends told me about this opportunity to work at the carver center to teach kids the instrument that i play and that the kids were very eager and willing to learn, then i really wanted to be a part of this program in order to give back to my community by using the skills that i've learned. >> start from middle "c." and then if we go up an... >> you could say this instructor has the perfect name for teaching music.
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her name is melody! >> yeah, a lot of people say that. [ chuckles ] i started playing piano at the age of 5, so i've been playing for a total of 10 years now, and it's been a really great journey, i think. and i think after giving concerts and things like that, i think it's great to be able to reach out to the community and share my love of my instrument with everyone. >> two of the instructors are chase's younger brothers. alex teaches guitar. >> good job. and now over here. as soon as i heard that my brother was doing this, i wanted to join. >> it's a really fulfilling experience, and you really get to develop a relationship with these kids through music, and it's really something special. >> remember, you want this hand on top. yeah. >> the students choose what they want to learn. there's no pressure, just fun. [ drums play ] >> they tell us what they want to be taught, and so it makes it unique from any other program
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because there's no strict guidelines or deadlines or performances we need to be ready for. it's really just a fluid thing. >> volunteers teach music basics, as well. the program is a big success. its founders say that any teen can turn a good idea into action. >> 1, 2, 3, 4. >> really, all you have to do is find the right people and ask them how to start it, and even if music isn't your thing, just doing something else to help others is really a great thing. [ mid-tempo music plays ] >> of course, it helps if you're as talented as these two. chase started on the piano in second grade and moved on to the saxophone. austin plays guitar, piano, drums. and, oh, yeah, he sings, too. >> ♪ there won't be many other nights like this ♪ ♪ when i'll be standing here with someone new ♪ >> austin plans to make music his career. chase isn't sure about what his future holds, but one thing is certain -- they'll always have music in their lives, and they
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want other kids to have it, too. >> when is a full moon even fuller? when it's closer to the earth. as we learn in science class, the moon's orbit is not a perfect circle -- more like an oval. so as the moon travels, it actually moves closer or farther from the earth. the closest point is the perigee. the furthest is the apogee, so when a perigee moon rises, it's 14% bigger and 30% brighter than the other full moons, unless it's a cloudy night. >> "teen kids news" got a chance to visit the culinary institute of america and get some recipes and cooking tips. here's a taste of what we learned. >> when you get home from school, you're always looking for an afternoon snack. i'm gonna show you how to make a frozen peach smoothie that will boost your energy for your homework and your sports. the first thing we're gonna do is we're gonna take ice, and we're gonna put it in the bottom
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of our blender. next, we're gonna take our fresh fruit. i have two sliced bananas. make sure we get all of that. and i have some canned peaches. next i'm gonna add my liquids. i have some low-fat yogurt here. and i like to use yogurt instead of ice cream to make it a little bit more healthy. next i'm gonna add some peach nectar. you could really use any fruit juice. you could use pineapple or apple. it's your smoothie. make it whatever you want. and we're gonna sweeten it up with a little bit of honey. we're using honey instead of sugar to make this a healthy snack. i'm using about one tablespoon.
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we're gonna put the top on top of our blender. and we're gonna start by buzzing it on low speed first. this will prevent it from shooting up and getting you. [ blender whirs ] so i've been blending it for about a minute now, and it looks nice and smooth, so i'm gonna go ahead and get my glasses out of the freezer where they've been getting nice and frosty. i've also garnished my glass with a slice of peach. i'm just gonna pour a smoothie for myself. and now i'm ready to take on the afternoon. from the culinary institute of america for "teen kids news," i'm steve. cheers.
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>> the internet has been crawling with reports of a spider about the size of a horse. in fact, here's a picture of what's being called the angolan witch spider. only thing is the photo is a fake. experts say someone took the image of an ordinary spider, enlarged it, and then pasted it over a photo of a house. and here's a comforting thought -- the experts say the type of lungs spiders have wouldn't allow spiders to grow to be more than about 10 or 12 inches long. i'll certainly sleep better knowing that. >> during the american revolution, lanterns were hung from a church window to signal that the british were on the move, but just who gave that signal is a mystery that you can help me solve. >> your opinion matters.
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that's why we call this segment "speak of the week." >> we wanted to know -- how safe do you feel america is from a terrorist attack? >> i feel that we've stepped up our security since 9/11 has happened, and we're more aware of what's going on now, so we have troops around to protect us, and in case anything does happen, i think we'll be ready for it. >> honestly, i don't think it's very safe. i mean, you're always gonna find somebody or something -- like we could have a plane hover over our head and drop a bomb on us right now. but the security systems at the airports have definitely improved, especially on internationals, and i think it's getting much less of a threat than it was before 9/11. >> how safe do you feel america is from terrorist attack? >> i think america is very safe from terrorist attacks because,
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ever since 9/11, we've increased all forms of security including at airports and other places where people come into the country. >> well, safe in the sense that i don't believe anything would happen, but not safe in the fact that people are always worrying about it, so it's almost better off to be unsafe than to -- like, for example, on the anniversary of 9/11, it was almost worse than anything happening, the nervousness over what could happen. >> honestly, i don't feel that we're that safe because, you know, it's a very diverse country. there's different types of people in the country and people coming in every day, so, you know, it's not far from, you know, today or tomorrow that something bad might happen. we're not that safe. >> pretty safe. >> after 9/11, i think it has improved a lot. but before, it could obviously use tweaking. but now i feel pretty confident that it's fine. >> with the death of osama bin laden, the world is
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probably a bit safer today than it was on 9/11, but that doesn't mean we should let our guard down. the u.s. department of homeland security has this advice... for "teen kids news," i'm diyu. >> we all know the story of how during the american revolution, lanterns in a church steeple signaled that the british were on the move. but after more than 200 years, we still don't know just who hung those lanterns, so we sent nicole to try to solve this history mystery. >> this is the famous old north church in boston. it's where our hunt for clues begins. >> in april of 1775, general gage was looking to send british troops out to lexington and concord and do so in a secret mission because his previous missions had been foiled by the sons of liberty who had spies in the town of boston watching his troops' every movement.
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>> it was paul revere who came up with the plan to hang signal lanterns. >> and so he enlisted the help of who we think were a couple of different men. we don't know for sure because he only tells us that he chose a friend to help him give those signals. >> to solve the mystery, you need clues. bob explained that there are two basic types. >> so, primary sources -- the best way to put it would be those are sources that come from people who were alive or present at the time that events happened, so they're someone who are gonna be able to give us an eyewitness account of the things that actually happened that night. by contrast, secondary sources are sources of information that come from someone who's heard it from someone else, read it somewhere else, heard that story from someone else. >> so walk me through how we go about solving the mystery. >> well, the first thing we'd do is actually look at the documents. so, we'd read what paul revere said about the night. >> that would be a primary source. >> and then we read the stories of two men -- samuel haskell newman, who, in april of 1876, at the centennial of the american revolution, came
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here to this church and, before a packed house, told his family's story about how his father climbed the stairs and hung the lanterns. >> but as bob said, samuel newman told that story 100 years after the event, so he didn't witness it himself. that makes him a secondary source. >> the last document that we read is one from a guy named reverend john lee watson, who actually lived in pennsylvania. he sent his own version in the form of a letter to the editor to the boston gazette, saying that it was his relative, captain john pulling, who actually hung the lanterns in the old north church. >> that's another secondary source because reverend watson wasn't an eyewitness either. having looked at the documents, next step is to hunt inside the church for clues. as bob showed me around, i asked him, "why is it important to question when and who wrote a historical document?" >> i think it's really important for us to recognize that history's not something which just comes down to us from on high or is a magical fixed thing that happened in the past.
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history is really stories that we've constructed from evidence that we have of what happened in the past. those stories can change and differ as we get new evidence. >> some of that new evidence is on a wall near the front of the church. it's a plaque that says robert newman displayed the lanterns. >> this was actually placed here by the newman family. it comes from the newman family's story. it doesn't include, obviously, the story of the pulling family or the participation, potentially, of mr. pulling, so the newman family's plaque says that it's only mr. newman, and mr. newman only, who was responsible for hanging those lanterns. >> but we have to remember that the plaque is a secondary source, put here 200 years after the famous night. so what's behind this door? >> these are the stairs of the steeple. this is the way we're gonna get up and see the bell-ringing chamber and the rest of the area where the lantern hanger would have gone. >> when we return, "teen kids news" gets permission to go where few visitors are allowed -- way up. >> how many more flights? >> oh, if you want to go all the
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way to the top, quite a few more. >> [ chuckles ] oh, it's dark and scary in here. >> we're looking for clues to the mystery of just who hung the signal lanterns for paul revere. so where are we? >> we are in the bell-ringing chamber here at the old north church. there are eight bells above your head. they weigh a grand total of 7,200 pounds. >> wow. >> so the stairs you're about to climb were actually built in 1982 when the bells were restored, and the bell frame that they sit on was restored. so these stairs do not reflect what it would have been like to climb up here in 1775. they're actually a relatively stable version... >> ah! >> ...of what they may have had. >> i find that hard to believe. so, is this it?
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>> this is it. we are up at the spot where the lanterns were hung. >> so, which window was it? >> it was this window -- the northwest window facing towards charlestown, which is where the militia would have been waiting to see the signals as arranged with paul revere. >> so are these the actual lanterns that were hung? >> they are definitely not the actual lanterns. they are lanterns that we use for our annual birthday celebration, which is on april 18th. >> this was a special side trip. the actual hunt for clues continues downstairs. >> well, this plaque here in the washington courtyard is one of two that are out here that tell us one of the sides of the story. this particular one was placed here by the daughters of the american revolution and tells us that it was mr. newman who hung the lanterns in the old north steeple. this is the second of the two plaques that are out here in the washington courtyard that tells us anything about the hanging of the lanterns. this particular one, which was placed here by pulling decedents, is the only one of the plaques either outside or inside of the church that actually puts both newman and pulling onsite together on that night. the last place we go is right up
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the street here to the copp's hill burial ground, which has the tombstones of both captain john pulling and robert newman. and we look at some of the words that are written on their gravestones as part of solving the mystery. >> you can do your own investigation. one way is by visiting boston's old north church. >> the other way is you can go to our website, and it's a shameless website plug -- but for a particular program called "tories, timid, or true blue?" which talks about all of the different documents and some different people who might have attended and been a part of this church on the night of april 18, 1775, and would have been connected to that story. >> well, i examined all the clues, and guess what -- i figured out who really hung the lanterns. want to know who it was? i'm not telling. guess you'll have to do your own research. for "teen kids news," i'm nicole. >> well, that wraps it up for this week's "teen kids news," but we'll be back next week, so see you then.
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>> here's a shout-out to pr newswire for including "teen kids news" on their big screen in times square, new york city.
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steves: pisa, in the north of italy, is a grand city with a grand history. for nearly three centuries,
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until about the year 1300, pisa was a booming port town, rivaling venice and genoa as a sea-trading power. from here, where the arno river meets the sea, its 150-foot galleys cruised most of the mediterranean. during the crusades, pisan ships transported entire armies to the holy land. like many italian city-states, the republic of pisa prided itself in its independence from both popes and emperors. but eventually its fleet was defeated by genoa and its port silted up, leaving the town's economy high and dry. pisa's three must-see sights -- the duomo, baptistery, and leaning bell tower -- are reminders of its long-ago sea-trading wealth. this dazzling ensemble floats regally on the best lawn in all of italy. this square -- the piazza del duomo -- was nicknamed the "campo dei miracoli," or field of miracles, for the grandness of the undertaking.
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the architectural style throughout is pisa's very own pisan romanesque. where traditional romanesque has a heavy, fortress feel, pisan romanesque is light and elegant. the buildings, with their tight rows of thin columns, geometric designs, and striped colored marble, give the campo a striking unity. the 200-foot-tall bell tower is famous because it leans about 15 feet. the tower started to lean almost immediately after construction began. various architects tried to correct the problem of the leaning by straightening up the top section. the tower tilted a little more each year, and was in danger of actually falling over. over the centuries, they tried every trick imaginable to stop the tilt. finally, they figured it out, stabilized the tower, and in 2001, the leaning tower of pisa was reopened to the climbing public.
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climbing to the top is an unforgettable experience, offering great views of the city, the square, and its dramatic duomo. pisa's huge and richly decorated duomo, or cathedral, is artistically more important than its more famous bell tower. its ornate facade glitters in the sun. the 320-foot nave was the longest in christendom in the 12th century, when it was built. the floor plan is that of a traditional roman basilica -- 68 corinthian columns dividing the nave into five aisles. the striped marble and arches on columns give it an exotic feel. the pulpit by giovanni pisano dates from around 1300. pisano left no stone uncarved in his pursuit of beauty.
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while this was sculpted over a century before the renaissance began, michelangelo himself traveled here to marvel at pisano's work, drawing inspiration from its realism. around the top, christ's life unfolds in a continuous scroll. the infamous massacre of the innocents is powerful. king herod, so threatened by this newborn king, orders the slaughter of all the first-born sons in hopes of killing baby jesus. mary and joseph load up the donkey and hustle their son down to egypt as the bloody massacre proceeds. the sculptor captures the horror of this event with a skill unprecedented in its day. pisano's 400 intricately sculpted figures all weave a complex theological ideal. this provides a symbolic foundation designed to legitimize and reinforce the gospel message the priests read from the lectern crowning the pulpit.
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in the middle ages, you couldn't even enter the church until you were baptized. that's why baptisteries like pisa's were free-standing buildings adjacent to the church. the interior is simple and spacious. a statue of john, the first baptist, the man who baptized christ, seems to say, "welcome to my baptistery." the finely crafted font is plenty big for baptizing adults by immersion, medieval-style. the highlight here for most is the remarkable acoustics, resulting in echoes long enough to let you sing three-part harmony... solo. [ singing harmonizes with echoes ] [ singing echoes ]
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- we're taking a cruise in the yangtze. - billed as one of the most incredible natural wonders of asia and drastically changing due to a controversial dam project, the yangtze river snakes through three massive gorges in eastern central china. - the cliffs here are about 3,000 feet tall. - and we're out to discover all the culture and history in this storied heart of china-- discover life along the river, both ancient... - the guys are pulling the boat--our boat with a rope with us in it. - and modern. - we are on the higher side of the dam, so to get to the lower side, they empty water while we're in it. our boat lowers down. - and learn some chinese. - how do you say this in chinese? [speaking native language] - water? [both repeating same word] - plus, find out what the kids are counting up to...

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