welcome to "teen kids news," i'm mwanzaa. >> and i'm jessica. here's our top story for this week. >> when you think about recycling you may think about plastic bottles, paper and aluminum cans. but there's a different type of waste that should be recycled. it's called e-waste and as tyler shows us, it's a growing issue. >> what should you do with your old computer once you upgrade to a new one? or what about that mp3 player that no longer works? just throwing these electronics out can be dangerous to you and the environment. the government estimates that over 2 million tons of e-waste ends up in landfills every year. some of it contains hazardous materials, like lead, which can lead to serious health problems.

that's why collection events like this one are important. people can drop off their unwanted or broken electronics, instead of throwing them in the trash. >> computers, monitors, tvs, mixed electronics, pretty much anything with a plug. >> the material is sorted, weighed and then shipped to a plant for processing. >> we're what's called a de-manufacturing facility. so we actually take a part all of the equipment and break it down to the smallest unit or what we call a commodity product. >> the waste is then sent to other companies that can reuse it. >> for instance, the easiest one to understand is plastic because everything that you have is covered in plastic. your mp3 players are covered in plastic, your monitors are covered in plastic. plastic is one of those items that we can re-use, so we break it down to the plastic components, so we kind of separate the plastic housing from the monitor itself, we then take that plastic, bale it and send it to someone that can re-use the plastic.

that's what i mean by a commodity. >> newtech also takes apart other electronics like computers and printers. they even have a special machine that separates leaded glass from non-leaded glass in tv monitors. this line is where the two different types of glass are actually attached to each other. that line is what we call the frit line and it is the most leaded portion of the monitor. >> the machine measures the "frit line", then cuts the monitor in two. it gets separated by hand, and the leaded glass is crushed. finally, the non-leaded portion of the glass is dusted and then sent off to be recycled. even the crushed leaded glass will get re-used. >> this material is sent to a smelter that will actually pull the lead out of the glass and re-use the lead for new manufacturing. >> so nothing goes to waste. we look to ourselves with a no landfill promise, so that nothing goes to the landfill that shouldn't be going to the

landfill. >> and states across the country are getting the message about e-waste. >> currently there are 23 laws or 23 states in the country that have e-waste laws and more to come. >> jim has some advice for how you can help reduce e-waste. before you buy new electronics, make sure the retailer will take your old electronics and recycle them. >> stay with us, there's lots more still to come, on "teen kids news." >> we'll be right back. credible, one genius brush. credible, twist to one, for length and drama... or two, for length and definition. it's mascara, with a twist. new revlon, customeyes mascara.

some things in life we take for granted. until we don't have them any more. livia has the story. >> meet daria. like lots of teens she plays soccer, a musical instrument, and can text as fast as she talks. but in one way she's very

different. unlike everyone else in her family and unlike most kids, daria has had no hair since she was a very little girl. >> when i was 14 months old i was losing my hair, and we went to a doctor and they told us to go to like, a hair specialist and they said i had alopecia. alopecia is a hair loss disease. >> there's three different types of alopecia. there's alopecia areata, there is alopecia totalis and alopecia universalis. daria has universalis, which is the most severe case of alopecia. >> that means a childhood, and possibly a lifetime, without hair, eyebrows and eyelashes. and it means dealing with people who think she might be seriously ill. they associate hair loss with cancer treatments. daria has learned to explain, that she feels just fine. >> alopecia doesn't really make a difference, it's just hair. people do have a tendency to look and stare and wonder what she has so it's good for her

confidence that she's able to get out there and do things. >> one of those things is working to promote a cause that has helped her a lot. locks of love is the charity that encourages people to cut off their long hair, and donate it to people who need wigs for medical reasons. you can go to any hairdresser and if you have 10 to 12 inches, you just send it to locks of love. >> i actually heard about locks of love when she was very young they had said she was too young at that point to really be involved in the whole thing. so they later contacted us, i guess they kept us on file. >> daria was seven when she got her first wig from locks of love. the organization also gave her a platform, arranging television appearances where she could explain her disease and the charity. that gave the confidence to talk to the toughest audience of all -- her peers, at a special assembly. >> we set up a power point

presentation, and she spoke, and it was fantastic. >> and that was just the beginning. she has a hair drive at the local high school every year where they bring in a salon a whole bunch of stylists and they cut peoples' hair. she goes to another school where she speaks with the health classes, and they also have hair drives. >> i think she handles it very well. i mean she definitely has a tougher time than a lot of her friends, but she still plays sports, she still does everything everyone else does and she's still happy! >> happy to give back, to the organization that provides her not only with hair, but with an opportunity to make a difference! for more information on locks of love, check out our website.

it's an activity we're used to seeing on the sidewalk. >> every girl jumps rope at some point.

>> but not every girl jumps like this. >> these are stan's pepper steppers. the world champion double dutch team is showing new york public schools how it's done. >> listen out for the whistle. get ready to get going. >> new york is the first school district to introduce double dutch as an official sport. >> anybody can learn it, it just takes time to get to a certain level of double dutch! >> competition level double dutch is scored on a point system. there are three components. the first is compulsory. that means there are certain requirements. the second component jumpers are judged on is speed -- how many times the left foot hits the ground in two minutes. peter proves double dutch isn't just for girls. >> i like double dutch because it's different. like, most boys play basketball,

but since i'm a boy and i do double dutch, it makes me stand out. >> many, many years ago, this was a sport that was dominated by men. the reason, women were wearing skirts. >> experts say dutch settlers first brought the game to the united states. that's why british colonialists later called it double dutch. it's now played world wide. new york public schools hope it will get more kids interested in sports. >> kids like to jump. so it doesn't matter whether they're bouncing up in the air or what, kids like to jump. >> and it helps us fight obesity, childhood obesity, and diabetes as well. >> only 10% of boys and girls in new york public schools participate in sports. >> i like double dutch because it keeps you in shape. you learn a lot of new things, and you make good friends from it. >> and you learn about teamwork.

the third component of competition is freestyle. jumpers are judged on execution and originality. creative routines involve acrobatics, quick handoffs, and even the splits. after watching freestyle, i tried my style. i think i'll save the splits for next time. for "teen kids news," i'm nicole. yeah! the design of this state flag is based on the beliefs of an early native american tribe called the 'zia.' randy howe is the author of "flags of the 50 states." >> it's as simple as can be. two colors. you have the red and the gold that is a reference to queen

isabella of spain, who sponsored much of the exploration of the new world. the symbol in the middle is a zia sun symbol, and it was found in an archaeological dig on a water jar. what was important to the zia was the number four. and you'll see four lines facing in the different directions. now four was not just important to them for the four directions. they believed in the power of the four seasons. they felt that there were four aspects of life that every person should pursue, like purity and being of sound mind, and all those sorts of positive attributes. >> the flag's bold simplicity helped it win first place in a competition of america's 50 state flags. with flag facts, i'm kristen. >> coming up, the civil war's "ground zero."

let's check in with the students at the culinary institute of america for this week's cooking tip. >> you know, a lot of people say a watched pot never boils, but if you're getting a little impatient you can put a top of your pot, because a covered pot boils faster than an uncovered one. but when it comes time to take the top off, there's two important things to remember. first of all, make sure you have a pot holder so you don't burn your hand on the cover. second of all, make sure you stand back a little bit so the steam doesn't burn your face. at the culinary institute of america, for "teen kids news," i'm emily. these people are getting ready to take a trip back into history. we're in charleston harbor along the east coast of south carolina. from here, ferries carry tourists out to visit one of our nation's most important civil war sites, fort sumter.

>> southern states are becoming very dissatisfied with the union. south carolina is the first state to secede and this is a direct response to abraham lincoln's election in 1860. >> one of the confederacy's first acts is to seize all the federal forts in the south. >> in charleston, union troops under major anderson are stationed at fort moultrie. >> fort moultrie was in pretty bad shape. that fort had been built in 1809. it was only one level high. >> in the middle of the night, the soldiers secretly rowed out to fort sumter which was still under construction. >> anderson's men moved over here to fort sumter because this was the newest fort in charleston harbor. it was three stories tall. it is going to be a state of the art structure by the time it's complete. and it is most defensible because it has a mile of water on all sides. so south carolina militia units, should they want to attack the u.s. army, are going to have to cross a mile of water first. right now we are standing outside of the sally port or the entrance to fort sumter, and what we are standing on is the granite wharf.

and this is where anderson's men would have landed on the night of december 26, 1860. >> for more than three months, anderson and his men peaceably held the fort. then on april 12th, the confederate general beauregard gave the command to open fire. >> this is one of the weapons the rebs would have used to bomb the fort. so this is a 10-inch mortar, which is a small cannon, it's usually used -- it has a high trajectories so it can be used to shoot over the walls of a fortification like fort sumter and this is the same type of model that would have fired the first shot of the civil war. so we're standing inside of a casemate here at fort sumter. a casemate is a gun room so it just would just have one gun inside of it as you can see here today we do have one gun inside of this casemate. this is a 42-pounder. it fired off a 42-pound cannon ball was here during the first

bombardment of the civil war. it might have been active from april 12 to april 13, 1861 and it might have been firing back at confederate ports in charleston harbor. >> to give the huge cannons a wider range of fire, they're mounted on wheels. each cannon runs on what's called a traverse rail, and that's just how you move the guns from side to side. anderson and his men held out for 34 grueling hours. people in charleston watched the fighting from rooftops and along the harbor. a cease fire was finally arranged. lowering the u.s. flag, the union soldiers were allowed to leave with honor. >> but the story of fort sumter didn't end there. it becomes the target of another, even more devastating attack.

after the rebs forced the union to abandon fort sumter, the confederate flag flew over the fort. but as the tide turned in favor of the north, charleston came under siege. time and again the union tried

to capture fort sumter, but the defenders wouldn't give up. the turning point finally came on july 18, 1863 when union forces attacked fort wagner on nearby morris island. >> and the 54th massachusetts regiment leads this attack. now the 54th massachusetts was untried in battle. they are an all-black regiment that was raised up in boston. >> it takes seven attempts, but the union finally dislodges the defenders. from fort wagner, they were able to batter the rebs into submission. >> they bombarded fort sumter for 22 months, beginning in 1863 and ending in february 1865. so it's the longest siege during the civil war, the longest siege in u.s. military history. and they bombarded fort sumter so heavily from that point that they completely shot a way the top two levels of the fort during that time. this is all the damage that was inflicted on the walls between 1863 -1865 by the u.s army while the confederate army

was here wherever you see pock marks in the wall that is where projectiles would have bounced off the walls. you'll see some huge gapping holes there, that is where projectiles would have been imbedded in the walls and then blown up and there are still projectiles still being stuck in the walls of the fort which we can check out. >> we fly six flags over fort sumter and the first one the big one we have up there is the 50 star united states flag, our current flag. we fly five additional flags, these are historical ones that would have flown over the fort during civil war. that is the same flag that flew here in the first bombardment of the civil war, from april 12th to april 13, 1861. there are 33 stars on that. seven states already withdrawn from the union in 1861, but they were kept on the u.s flag that entire time. and that was the policy of abraham lincoln because secession was not recognized. to the right of that u.s flag is the stars and bars. that is the first national flag of the confederacy. the middle is a south carolina state flag. now to the right of that you have the second national flag of the confederacy, also known as the stainless banner, and that

became the national flag in 1863. the first national flag looked too close to a u.s. flag. so this one is not going to be mistaken for a u.s. flag. february 18, 1865 is when charleston's reclaimed by the u.s army, that is when the civil war ended in charleston harbor, and when that flag goes up it signifies the end of the war. there are now 35 stars on the flag. actually two more states were added to the union or to the flag during the civil war, which include west virginia, which had seceded from virginia to join the union and then there was also kansas. >> although the u.s. army made repairs, the fort never saw action again. in 1948, it became a national monument and is managed by the national park service. there's a museum with lots of interesting exhibits to tell you more about the history of fort sumter. and if you're interested in the history of baseball, here's an interesting piece of trivia -- abner doubleday who has long been credited as the inventor of

baseball was stationed here in 1861. he was part of one of the 85 men who participated in the first bombardment. however historians do not have any evidence baseball was ever played inside of the fort. what is suspicious is that ft sumter is five-sided, shaped like home plate is in baseball, and there have always been rumors or legends that home plate was designed after fort sumter's shape. >> sounds pretty convincing to me. here's another bit of trivia. after the north recaptured fort sumter, major anderson returned. he was given the honor of once again raising the u.s. flag over the fort. the flag he used was the same one he had been forced to lower in defeat four years earlier. this report is brought to you by dreamworks animation. >> ladies and gentleman are you ready to meet the baddest hero the world has ever seen? >> megamind isn't your typical super hero. that's because he started off his super career on the wrong side of the law.

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of laughs, colossal action and non-stop adventure, check out "megamind." for "teen kids news," i'm troy. >> that wraps up our show, but we'll be back soon with more "teen kids news." >> thanks for joining us, and have a great week! -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com

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