"teen kids news" is on now and here's what we've got. you'll be surprised at what one company does with ordinary trash. more girls are training with weights. i'll tell you what you need to know before you begin. so what makes the ivy league so difficult to get into? i'll have a report on "college and u." as i walk through my business, i know i owe it a debt. it created my profession and my

career's a sure bet. if you're wondering why that man talks in rhyme, you'll find out in the upcoming report of mine. i'll tell you about a group of dancers with a unique connection. >> 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. our earth is getting cluttered with more and more garbage. finding places to put it all is becoming a big problem. siena reports on one company's innovative solution. >> only two manmade structures are large enough to be seen from outer space, the great wall of china and the fresh kills landfill on new york's staten island. don't let the landscaping fool

you. it's really the world's biggest garbage dump. in just one year, the average american creates up to 56 tons of trash. that's about the weight of 12 full grown elephants! enter terracycle, a young company that's come up with a creative way to process billions of pieces of garbage! ceo tom zacki had just begun college when he came up with the idea. >> it was my friends and i, we were trying to grow these plants, and we couldn't make them work until we started feeding worm poop to them. so the first product terracycle created was liquid worm poop in a soda bottle and then from there it grew. >> you've heard of recycling, but terracycle does something different -- they call it upcycling. take a potato chip bag. there's three things you can do with a potato chip bag. you can throw it out, so that's putting it in the trash. there's no value being done there. if you took the potato chip bag and melted it into the plastic it's made from that would be recycling. there you're only valuing the

material, you're not valuing the shape it's in, or the color, or anything else that makes it a chip bag. upcycling, you're saying every aspect of the chip bag is valuable, and you're not going to melt it, you're not going to do anything to it, just make it into a new product. so recycling values only the material a product is made from, upcycling or reuse values the shape and the material it's made from. terracycle has been motivating schools across the country to get with upcyling. the company pays two cents for every piece of garbage the schools collect! all that trash and pennies mount up. terracycle pays out almost $200,000 a month for garbage. >> one of our parents actually brought it to our attention, at the pto meeting and from there it just took off. >> waste to be recycled is broken down into product types, called "brigades." >> we have a capri sun brigade. we have doritos, and any lays products. and when they are finished they just put it in the bin and at the end of several days we just

collect it and hand it over to terracycle. >> terracycle then turns the trash into all sorts of useful products. this pencil case is made from juice packs. this backpack is upcycled potato chip bags. >> i actually have a friend that has a pencil case that's terracycle, and i think it's pretty cool what they do, and it looks cool. >> the company is even branching out to fashion. >> i saw a doritos suit which was pretty cool, and they had a lot of different stuff that can be used from day to day just from trash basically. >> start thinking about garbage differently and realize that it's a raw material, something of value, not something that should just be thrown out. as you might say, "someone's trash is terracycle's treasure!" if you're interested in learning more, check out our website. >> stay with us. there's lots more still to come, on "teen kids news." >> we'll be right back. revlon growluscious mascara. helps lashes grow stronger. with a unique formula that complements my lashes'

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free lighted magnifier right now. when you think of exciting careers, science, math and engineering might not seem high on the list. but erika's report may change your mind. ♪ as i walk through my business i know i owe a debt ♪ >> john cohn's not really a rapper. he's actually a computer engineer at ibm, and a somewhat wacky educator. >> i grew up liking my science and math and you will too if you follow my path -- school. >> i've never been very good at sports, and when my kids started getting older, i got snookered into volunteering in one of their classrooms, and i realized that was a great way of relating to the kids, and sort of,

instead of tossing around footballs, we tossed around lightning. and so i started doing it in their schools, and then the neighborhood, and now i do it all over the country. >> john's electrifying performance is part of national lab day. president obama says it's important to encourage young people to be "makers of things, not just consumers of things." that's where a program called stem comes in. >> stem is four letters that mean -- "s" for science, "t" for technology, "e" for engineering, and "m" for math. organizations come together with the main goal of inspiring middle school and upper school children to get more involved in the sciences, find out how exciting it is to be an engineer, understanding science technology, engineering and math, and hopefully we'll have more of the students now go into that path. >> how many of you are nerds, geeks, geekettes, nerdettes, aw, come on! how many of you are inventors? everyone's an inventor. >> the way i look at it, it's really good to have a scientifically aware society. you know, when you think about

stuff the world is facing right now, with energy and climate, the problems that we're facing, they're going to need policy, and we're going to need to conserve and everything, but we re also going to need new technologies. >> can you taste electricity? >> no. >> oh yes, you can! >> and if you can get kids to start thinking about their inventive skills, their science skills to solve those problems, it's going to be a whole lot easier. and i find that they get it, they get it. you don't have to teach them that, they already know this. which do you think is a better conductor of electricity, santiago or the steel wool? the one thing i always tell children is that you can't think of one thing, truly, that doesn't touch your life, that doesn't involve engineering, science, math and technology. everything from the clothes that you're wearing, to the glasses, to the hair bands, to the rubber bands. everything. that's the cool thing about engineering and science. it's not just something you learn, it's something you can use. itouch, iphone i know you be wantin' those things. it's engineers like me be designin' that bling! >> do you know what this is? >> no.

>> this is an electronic piano. it, this is a thing called a theramin. can you say that? and what's the name of your song? >> my song? >> my song. okay. kenya's going to play her song called "my song." this is the keyboard. so just think of it and this is like the pedals. okay, i give you kenya and "my song." ready? go ahead. you just gotta get a little jiggy with it. >> no question, john's teaching methods are a bit unusual. >> you know what runs on a couple of millivolts? you! what happened? >> you died. >> no, no, no. they go woo, woo, woo. okay, they take you to the hospital. they hook you up. you'll be the weird box thing, stand up. so you do the beep beep. your heart gets a little electric shock about once a second. did it work? okay, good!

what i think is important is to get out there and get kids to actually viscerally experience something. shake, shake, shake your head! nice look! >> thank you doctor, send me a bill. >> the most exciting thing was the generator with the high voltage. >> i knew a lot about electricity, but i never knew that it was all around the air, and all the different ways that it could be produced. >> that was really cool when the lights were turned off, and you can see all the sparks come out. >> doing hands on experiments with vandergraph generators, and learning about electricity is a perfect opportunity for students to understand how science works, and maybe having a job in the future with science. >> the success i see immediately is the faces on the children. their minds are starting to begin to determine that, "oh my goodness, i can do this. i can go into this field." been spending all my life living engineering paradise. been to grad school once or

twice, living engineering paradise. ♪ >> i've always wanted to be a scientist, but now, after seeing this, i might want to be an engineer, too. >> for more information on bringing national lab day projects to your school, you can contact us at teenkidsnews.com. for "teen kids news," i'm erika. who wants the same nail color day after day? not me. new revlon top speed™ nail enamel. cool color with a built-in topcoat that sets in just 60 seconds. with revlon you can change your mind again, and again, and again. new revlon top speed™ nail enamel.

let's pump some iron here, come on! >> once upon a time, pumping iron was mostly a guy thing. but not these days. weight training is part of the picture for girls, too, especially girls who want to get in shape to compete in sports. >> they're just as into the fitness as the boys are. an athlete is an athlete in

today's society, compared to boys, or just girls, athletes are athletes. >> the bigger, the faster, the stronger, is just as important for the girls as it is the boys. >> but as more girls get into weight training, their injuries increase. researchers at ohio state university found weight training injuries among teenage girls are up 143% since 1990. >> and their increase was much higher than the increase among males. >> so, the girls need to join the boys in making sure they train safely. and that starts with learning how to lift free weights correctly. because while older people tend to strain themselves by lifting, teens tend to hurt themselves by dropping! younger individuals were more likely to be injured using free weights, and they were more likely to sustain fractures and lacerations when they dropped the free weights on themselves. whether you're a boy or a girl, before you pick up the weights pick up some safety advice. never lift alone.

always use a spotter. start slowly, and build up to heavier weights. individuals that want to weight train, whether they're using free weights or machines, need to make sure that they work with a coach, a physical trainer, or personal trainer, an athletic trainer to learn the proper techniques. >> inhale, exhale, excellent! >> with the help of proper supervision, you can be sure you're going after the results you want, safely. now let's check out something cool to do online. click this! >> a lot of us may never circle the globe, visit the jungle or climb the alps, but this site can get you pretty close. kids national geographic is a great place for animal lovers and young explorers to learn about our planet. you can check out amazing photos and videos of almost any animal

you can think of, and even some you may have never heard of. click on the "people and places" link to learn about different cultures from around the world. there are also links to tons of games, activities and stories. you can travel to distant countries and go on a safari without ever leaving your house.

♪ there are thousands of colleges in the united states. 4,140 at last count. yet a lot of ambitious kids and their parents have a very short

list -- the eight schools of the ivy league. >> the ivy league is a very hard group of schools to get into. >> they give you more opportunities than other schools. >> there's a lot of kids that their whole life depends on getting into an ivy league school. for the record, the eight ivies are harvard, dartmouth, brown, cornell, columbia, yale, princeton and the university of pennsylvania. to find out what's so special about them, we talked to lee stetson. he spent almost 30 years as an ivy league dean of admissions. >> the ivy league has this image of being one of the more elite and respected programs in the country academically. which we like to think is true. >> but what most people don't realize is that the ivy league was originally defined not by scholastics, but by athletics. >> we end up playing each other in sports, and that's really the bottom line. >> that may be how it started, but today the ivy league is seen by many as the country's most

prestigious schools. they're certainly among the oldest. seven of the schools were founded even before the american revolution. there's a legend that ben franklin applied to harvard and was rejected. so he said he'd start a college of his own. and he did. founded in 1740, it was called the academy of philadelphia. later it was renamed the university of pennsylvania. today, penn has more than 23,000 students on campuses that sprawl over hundreds of acres. its wharton business school is world famous. and while there are many other excellent colleges around the country, for some, only the ivy league will do. applications are at an all time high. and only a fraction of those students will be accepted. but the more challenging it is, the more attractive it becomes, and that's one of the reasons the ivies are more popular today. dean stetson adds that students and their parents shouldn't

obsess on the ivies. they should broaden their options to find the college that best meets their individual needs. >> there are plenty of other options out there. >> the man who became famous for his experiments with electricity would probably be shocked to see how his little college became one of the country's top universities. shocked and very proud. i'm lauren for "teen kids news." it's time to get your thoughts, opinions and comments on "speak of the week." >> the internet's a big place! so where do you spend your time online? tell us your favorite websites. >> my favorite website would have to be facebook 'cause i can get on it all the time and can connect with friends and family. >> my favorite website is youtube 'cause i can look up skate videos. >> wwe.com 'cause i like wrestling.

>> my favorite website would probably be, oh goodness, um -- i guess like a search engine like google or something. that way because you can always go onto other ones to find information and help you with school work. >> on the computer i prefer to go to itunes. >> my favorite website's facebook because you can chat with your friends overseas. >> my favorite website is probably youtube 'cause i can listen to, like watch videos and songs. >> and don't forget teenkidsnews.com! i'm sam.

used to express personal emotions and feelings. so it's no surprise that the girls we're about to meet have a special connection to dance and to each other. nicole has the story.

>> no, these girls aren't performing in beijing. chinese folk dance is actually becoming increasingly popular right here in the u.s. but this group of girls is dancing for a special reason. >> we're all like each other we're all connected. >> all the girls in this class were born in china and adopted by american families. >> well, i think it's a really supportive environment for us because you know that there are other girls that are kind of going through the same thing because we're all adopted. so you've known these girls for a really long time and you know that you can trust them, with like your secrets. >> i want them to be proud that they're chinese and you know now that they are also chinese-american i don't want them to lose that. >> they're going to get questions like "how come -- are you from china? how come your parents aren't chinese?" they need to know what it means

to be chinese to answer those questions. >> five, six, seven, eight. and one, two, three, four. >> i believe the girls, um they should learn chinese folk dance because their, their origin's from china and now they living in united states, so they are missing the chinese heritage in part of their life. so able to, learning chinese dance they will learn their heritage at the same time and they're learning their culturals and learning where they come from and what's special about chinese people. >> i think it's interesting to learn about your culture and your heritage and doing chinese dance, and it's fun too. >> every week the group gets together to practice. their traditional outfits and drums are red, because in chinese culture red means good luck. >> this dance is called a drum dance.

it comes from the north part of china. >> chinese dancing dates back more than 5,000 years. and it demands some special talents. you need to have good rhythm to do chinese dance. you should be able to concentrate on what you're doing. >> you have to be able to count. remembering the moves. >> we need to put our toes straight. >> you need balance, you need rhythm, and you need to have a lot of fun. >> it takes a lot of practice. >> and practice they do, to make sure they are ready for several performances throughout the year, like this one at a chinese new year celebration. since the days of ancient china, this dance was performed during harvest time. >> so all the farmers and all the people who live in the village they will come together

and they will do a parading, and they will do their drum dance to make noise and to have fun together. >> the girls also dance at local asian festivals. >> these graceful young ladies are performing a far more difficult dance. it's one that the younger girls are eager to learn. >> i'm looking forward to next year because we are doing a dance that we have to balance bowls on our head. i think it's called the mongolian dance, and yes, i'm looking forward to it but i think it's going to be very challenging and hard. >> i think it would be cool to try to balance bowls on your

head. >> it should be interesting, not to drop it, and yeah, so i'm kind of nervous though. >> i find it hard enough to just sit still and balance the bowl. but i'm sure the girls are up for the challenge. to learn more about chinese dance, visit our website. 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!