♪ "teen kids news" is on now, and here's what we've got. >> is there room in space for you? find out where nasa's going in the future, and how you can get on board. >> cinnamon rolls. they may seem hard to make, but you'd be surprised how easy they are with my four-ingredient recipe. >> join us, as we travel back in time to the 1700s. >> and much more, next on "teen kids news."

♪ welcome to "teen kids news." i'm mwanzaa. >> and i'm jessica. here's our top story for this week. >> it's no secret our nation needs more students to focus on math and science. it's a path that could really send your career soaring. literally. nicole found out what it takes to become an astronaut. >> reporter: in 1961, alan shepard became the first american in space and made becoming an astronaut the dream of millions of kids. shepard's historic flight was part of project mercury, our first baby steps in space exploration. over the years, the national aeronautics and space administration, nasa, has piloted many manned programs. project gemini set the stage for

long-distance travel and the first american spacewalks. apollo missions landed men on the moon. skylab was america's first orbiting space station. the shuttle program changed the way we launched and returned. for the first time, astronauts piloted a re-usable vehicle. and currently, the international space station, with astronauts from different nations living together for months in orbit around the earth. at nasa headquarters in washington dc, i got to meet two astronauts, dr. sandra magnus and leland melvin. both are examples of different ways you can become an astronaut. you might say that sandra took the more "traditional" path. >> well, i grew up in a small town near in southern illinois called belleville, illinois. and it was about middle school actually when it sort of hit me. "hey, you know, i want to go be an astronaut." and so i was going to go to school, study physics, all the way through my ph.d.-a ply to

nasa, and presto-whammo get to be an astronaut. >> reporter: it wasn't quite "presto whammo." after sandra got her ph.d. she worked as an engineer at an aviation company for a while. >> so it took me about, gosh, ten years or so after graduating from college to get to the point where i was ready to apply to nasa, and then i got lucky enough to be selected. >> reporter: leland was on a different career track. his thoughts of "touchdown" had nothing to do with rocket landings. it was his football career that was taking off. so you were drafted by the nfl when you were 22. how did you end up an astronaut? >> when i was drafted, i already graduated from college. i graduated with a chemistry degree. i bounced around from the detroit lions to the dallas cowboys, but in between detroit and dallas i started graduate school at the university of virginia in material science engineering. >> reporter: but when leland got hurt on the field, it also hurt his chances for a future in pro football. >> so when i got injured again with the cowboys, i just went right back to grad school full-time.

and then i worked for nasa for ten years doing research, and then i applied to the astronaut corps. >> reporter: while there are many paths to becoming an astronaut, they all have some basic requirements. to apply for the astronaut program you need to have a college degree in engineering, science or math, and then professional experience or advanced college degrees. >> three, two, one, zero. >> reporter: so after you get selected, do you think you head right into space? not so fast. what are the basic steps in astronaut training? >> the first thing you do is you go through basic training, which is land survival training,'mf water survival training. then we go through classroom training, systems training for the space station and the space shuttle. and then after that, after about maybe two years, 2 1/2 years we get technical assignments. like i worked in moscow for a year working with the cosmonauts. and i had to learn russian and

worked along with, you know, a lot of international partners. >> reporter: along with learning how to work with astronauts from all over the world, leland also had to become an expert in robotics. another job qualification? being able to wear a suit that can weigh a couple hundred pounds. >> it's hard to scratch. there's places you want to scratch and you really can't scratch. >> reporter: so, what was your role in space? >> on my first flight ssi22, i was the lead for all the robotics on the mission. >> reporter: that was in february 2008. and he took with him the memory of astronauts who had given their lives to extend the horizons of our civilization. including his friend david brown, who died in the crash of the space shuttle "columbia." >> so i'm sitting there on the launch pad thinking, "hey, dave. hey, columbia crew. i'm here to carry your legacy." that's why i didn't have any fear. >> whoo! >> seven seconds, steve.

>> when we come back, we'll find it's like to live on the space station. omes. there is a medicare benefit that may qualify you for a new power chair or scooter at little or no cost to you. imagine... one scooter or power chair that could improve your mobility and your life. one medicare benefit that, with private insurance, may entitle you to pay little to nothing to own it. one company that can make it all happen ... your power chair will be paid in full. the scooter store. hi i'm doug harrison. we're experts at getting you the power chair or scooter you need. in fact, if we qualify you for medicare reimbursement and medicare denies your claim, we'll give you your new power chair or scooter free. i didn't pay a penny out of pocket for my power chair. with help from the scooter store, medicare and my insurance covered it all. call the scooter store for free information today.

astronaut sandra magnus spent 4 1/2 months orbiting earth on the international space station, logging 50,304,000 miles in zero gravity. when everything is floating, there are some special challenges. >> think about in your bedroom at home, what you have laying on your dresser or laying on your bed. and if that was your bedroom in space, all of that stuff would be flying all over the place. and so you need to have velcro or tape or bungee cords. your pockets need to have zippers in them because things will float out of your pockets. and so you really need to keep track of your stuff at a whole other level. >> so what is the size of the space station? >> it's about the size of a five-bedroom house. >> reporter: and that's just the living area. the entire station is bigger than a football field. >> so it is huge. and it's one of the fun things, to rendezvous and dock with the

space station, especially from the shuttle we have lots of windows. and it starts out as this tiny point of light and you get closer and closer and it keeps getting bigger and bigger. and it's like, "oh, my goodness. look what we did! look at this huge monster building that we have built in space with all these other countries over ten years, and i'm going to live there." >> what's the best thing about being on the space station? >> well, of course, it's the view of our planet. it's absolutely beautiful. >> reporter: leland also has great memories from the space station. though he was there on a much shorter visit, he remembers the space station's commander inviting his shuttle crew over for dinner. >> and so she said, "you guys bring the vegetables, we'll bring the meat." and so we float over with our rehydrated vegetables and we come over and we're all sitting around this table. and there are african-american, asian-american, french, german, russian, first female commander, just the whole rainbow coalition of people in space. >> reporter: and that's why the

space station is up there. not only conducting experiments, developing new medicines, and testing new technology, but also creating better communication among nations. >> and we're learning how to work together as a planet to achieve something for the planet. and the relationships and the methods and the processes and the understanding that we gain from that kind of a project is going to carry us forward into the next couple hundred years, even. >> reporter: so if you want to become an astronaut, there's still plenty of time and space waiting for you. >> there is no final frontier. we just have to keep pushing and pushing and pushing. >> well, the universe just keeps expanding so we keep having places to go. >> that's a good problem to have. >> reporter: at nasa headquarters in washington d.c. for "teen kids news," i'm nicole.

this season we were invited to do some behind-the-scenes reporting on the new york yankees.

here's this week's segment. >> reporter: hi. erika here with the field report. today, we're at the scranton/wilkes-barre yankees. i'm going to give you a minor league experience that won't be minor at all. hey, we're here with zack segovia. he's a pitcher here. >> we don't have a lot of cameras here, so you can come on closer if you want to. i won't bite you, i promise. >> what is it like being in the minor leagues? >> i've been playing baseball since i was 2. so i've been in the minor leagues for i guess eight years now. but i've just gotten to scranton, and i've been part of the yankee organization since spring training. >> what do you love about being a minor leaguer? >> i know people see bull durham, people see the bus rides, and stuff like that, and you know what, it is like that. i mean we go to the smallest cities ever, but you develop some really close relationships, and as you keep playing you become friends, and you know the people on the other side too, which makes just the whole baseball community just a good place to be. >> as a pitcher, how is it for you on the mound? >> it's just me versus you. my job is to get you out. >> is the atmosphere a little more relaxed in the minor

leagues? >> it's great for the fans because we're very close to them, and we do have the pinstripe patrol. i mean, we have a blast, and it's awesome. >> i am going to be dancing with the pinstripe patrol tonight. any advice for me? >> are you really dancing with the pinstripe patrol? >> yes, i am. >> wow. you've got to have a nickname. i mean, we have a guy named hurley. obviously, not his real name. we have empire. >> i play soccer. i play some tennis, soccer. kicks. >> maybe you could be kicks. >> yeah, kicks. >> let's see you kick, for your namesake. wow. she's got a name. her pinstripe patrol name is going to be kicks. >> hey, i'm here with champ. how ya doin' champ? can you show us some of your signature moves? is it scary being in front of big crowds? no, you like it? you're the champ! what's your favorite trick? he wants us to follow him. let's go. he's a pretty good driver.

whoa, pretty nice. can i help you get the crowd riled during the game? all right, let's do it. see you out there. i'll see you out there. >> go yankees! hey, we're here with the pinstripe patrol right now. today, i am an honorary member. but we need to find out what to do first. >> tonight, we're going to take it easy on you. all you have to do with us is the cupid shuffle, which i'm sure you've already heard of and know. so we'll take the initiation easy, and you can hop in on that dance with us. >> do you have any advice for me? >> as long as you have a smile on, the fans will adopt you right into our crew. >> all right, thank you. >> hey, guys. how are you doing today? hey, how are you doing? are you ready for the baseball game? >> yeah. >> all right. can i have a high five from everyone? >> thank you. all right, we'll see you later. >> see you out there. >> this is our new edition to our pinstripe patrol for the

night. her name is kicks. >> hello, nice to meet you. see you at the game, all right? >> what makes you good at what you do? >> i just like to have fun. i think that's what makes all of us good. i mean, we enjoy our jobs. we have fun. we love interacting with the fans. and i think we try our best to make people's days, you know. >> sounds like a lot of fun. >> yeah. oh, i love it. best job i've ever had, by far. >> thanks. >> hey. how are you guys doing? are you ready for the game? >> yeah. >> can you guys give me a high five? all right. let's go. good game. have a good game. can you give me a high five? you ready? going to have some fun? all right. we'll see you out there, all right? have fun. >> warming up. ♪ >> oh!

♪ ♪ >> that was awesome. >> high five, good job! thank you so much, you guys. >> see you later. >> that was tiring. every baseball game looks better if you're eating a hot dog. yum. thanks for joining us. i'm erika. this is the field report, minor league edition.

students from the culinary institute of america are sharing some of their favorite recipes with "teen kids news." here's what's cooking this week. >> hi. today, we're going to make cinnamon rolls. it's a great recipe for people that are new to the kitchen, and it's really easy. first thing were going to do is we're going to go ahead and preheat our oven to 350 degrees. next thing were going to do is were going to take our bread. now, i'm using white bread right now, but we could use whole wheat bread. whole wheat bread would be a healthier alternative. you can also use pumpkin bread. first thing were going to do to our bread is we're going to cut off the crusts. i'm going to take my knife and just start to cut off the crusts, making sure my hands are way out of the way of that knife. next thing i'm going to do is i'm going to take my rolling pin. what i'm going to do is i'm

going to roll out this bread so it's nice and flat. it's going to make it easier for us to roll up a little bit later. next thing i'm going to do is give it a little brush of melted butter. just have a little round container with some butter in it. were going to put a nice even layer, starting from the top to the bottom, just a little bit will do here. you don't want to put too much on here. next step is we're going to take our brown sugar. i have just regular brown sugar here, but you could use honey. just make sure it's nice and even, top to bottom. last but not least, we're going to put a little bit of ground cinnamon. and again, just a dash will do you. you don't want to put too much on there. once our bread's all seasoned up were going to start rolling up our cinnamon roll. and to do that all you do is take the bottom and you start rolling it up little by little

starting from the bottom all the way toward the top. and taking time just to roll it up nice and even. when you get to the top, we're going to go ahead and pinch that seam closed so it doesn't come undone once we're cooking it. and then we're going to roll on the side just to even it out a little bit. i'm going to take my chef's knife again and we're just going to trim off the ends a little bit, make them look a little bit nicer. and then we're going to cut about one-inch cinnamon rolls. you should be able to get about four out of the entire roll. i'm going to take these cinnamon rolls and put them on our greased baking sheet. i'm going to take this and we're going to go right ahead and put it right in the oven. these have been in the oven for about three to four minutes now and they're looking nice and golden sbrourngs brown, so i'm going to go ahead and take them out. we're going to let these cool off for about 30 seconds. okay, they're cool enough to pick up, so we're going to go ahead and put them on our plate so we can go ahead and share them with our friends and family.

and they're you go. that's how we make cinnamon rolls in less than ten minutes. from the culinary institute of america, for "teen kids news," i'm steve. mm.

it's a good idea to learn to play a musical instrument. even if you never intend to perform. recent studies show music training is great exercise for the brain. it can even make the connections between the brain cells stronger. as a result, practicing an instrument may improve your communication skills. though we recommend you don't try talking and playing the tuba at the same time. milling corn, thrashing wheat and milking cows. it's hard to imagine what life was like 300 years ago. but troy visited the past and came back with this report. >> we're walking into a new world dutch barn, which was a typical barn in the lower hudson valley during our period, used for the processing of wheat,

which is on the floor here. people would use flails in order to thresh the wheat and remove the seeds so that they could be milled. >> reporter: we're here at philipsburg manor, where we are taken back in time to life as it was in the 1700s. and believe me, life wasn't easy. the cellphone, the car, even the electric light were still hundreds of years away from being invented. instead, colonists used muscle power for daily tasks, like cleaning the barn. >> take all of the sheep droppings and the straw and all that mixture and stick it in the cart and haul it away. >> reporter: next time your parents ask you to clean up your room, you may not want to complain. but not all the chores were this b-a-a-a-a-d. milling the corn, for instance, was hard work but not as smelly. so how does this mill work? >> well, our miller is going to show you right now. he's going to open up a gate, water's going to come pouring through the flume, and it's going to hit the water wheel

outside. the water wheel is hooked up to a gearing system that eventually turns a couple of stones. and the grain is set in between those stones. it's ground and then it comes out a chute. >> reporter: besides millers, there were also coopers. >> a cooper is someone who makes casks, which is the formal term for containers of all sizes, barrels, furcins, hogsheads, you name it. and essentially, what they start with is they start with just a regular old piece of wood. and they shape that piece of wood into a stave, and eventually those staves are put together into buckets or, in that case, a barrel. >> reporter: boat building was another important trade. these teens are actually learning how to make an ice boat. >> and essentially, it's like a sailboat on sled skids, so it moves very quickly. in fact, these boats used to have the land speed record in

the 19th century, going up to 150 miles an hour. >> and as you can see, they dress in traditional clothing, and they use traditional hand tools in order to carry out this work. >> for me it was an -- it was to experience something i'm not used to, and i wanted to try different things. >> reporter: experiencing this fascinating way of life frozen in time, made me wonder how the manor first began. >> the origins of philipsburg manor actually date back to the 17th century, in the 1680s, when fredrick philips came and established philipsburg manor which, over a number of years, grew to be over 50,000 acres of land. >> reporter: that's more land than the entire city of san francisco. to work such a huge farm required the labors of many different people, including some who didn't have a choice. >> this was a slave plantation, with 23 enslaved individuals living here.

>> reporter: that's right. even though phillipsburg manor wasn't in the south but in new york, it still used slaves. >> slavery was very, very prevalent. in 1750, for example, 20% of the population of new york city was enslaved. >> tenant farmers made up another portion of the work force. >> a tenant farmer is somebody who rents land from a landowner, much like a tenant rents an apartment. but in this case, you're renting a farm. in general, they paid their rent with wheat. so they would harvest their wheat. they would bring it down to the mill here to be ground. and a certain portion of that would go to mr. philips. >> reporter: and there's one more thing we can learn here. some of the energy sources from our past may be just what we need for our future. >> i think people are looking to wind energy, water energy again, as a possible source of energy instead of having to dig deep into the seas like in the gulf in order to extract oil in order to run our industry. people are looking at the ways

that things used to be done and wondering whether that's a better way for to us live on this planet. >> reporter: milling the corn at philipsburg manor, i'm troy for "teen kids news." >> that wraps up our show, but we'll be back with more "teen kids news." >> thanks for joining us, and have a great week. ♪ ♪ >> write to us at info@teenkidsnews.com. >> on behalf of everyone here at "teen kids news," we want to give a special thanks to all of our military overseas.