>> welcome to "teen kids news." i'm livia. here's our top story for this week. history is often divided by milestones, such as the bronze age or the space age. today, many experts are saying that we're about to launch into another new age. jacelyn tells us more. >> the official name is uav. that stands for unmanned aerial vehicle. but unless you sleep with your science textbook, you probably

know it by a simpler name -- drone. it's the hottest development in flying. you might say that the age of the drone is taking off. joining me from texas a&m university corpus christi, are two experts on drones -- dr. luis cifuentes and senior cody torno. welcome. >> hi. hello. >> so, cody, so that we're all on the same page, what's so special about drones? >> the interesting part about it is the fact that it is unmanned. so, we don't have a pilot actually inside a cockpit flying the vehicle. it's done in an exterior location, which is a safer option. >> so, how's it controlled? >> it's controlled via satellite usually or some type of external communication link, kind of like a long-distance r.c. plane except it also can be used autonomously, which means without any kind of user input. >> doctor, the military has been using drones for a while now to

take out terrorists. how else can drones be used? >> well, there are a tremendous number of applications. one of them is called precision agriculture. it's going to make it possible for us to grow food much more efficiently, wildfire monitoring. if you want to go out into the marine environment and follow whales, you could use unmanned aircraft systems or drones to do it. if you want to check structures which are very tall, like smokestacks or windmills, you can do that. if you want to monitor hurricanes, you can use drones to do that. the opportunities are endless, and of course as you've all heard, amazon is talking about delivering packages to people with this kind of technology. it's not gonna happen immediately, but it might happen down the road. >> fascinating. cody, how did you get interested in drones? >> i'm in my senior year of being a mechanical engineer here at texas a&m, corpus, and dr. luis garcia, one of our

incoming professors, offered me the opportunity to get in on the ground floor in his lab. so, that's how i became acquainted with this whole program. >> doctor, will this new technology offer future career opportunities for kids in school today? >> oh, absolutely. any kid who's interested in the science, engineering, and mathematics should really look into this because it's what we call the third kitty hawk moment in aviation. if you are interested in going into engineering in college or computer science or geospatial science, these are all going to be opportunities for young kids to enter the new market, the new industry, the new commercial environment that's gonna come out of unmanned aircraft systems. >> so, cody, what advice do you have for students in middle or high school that they should study if they want to pursue a career in i guess you could call it "dronology"? >> i think one of the most important things is math and science.

also, one of the bigger things is computer science, as well because that has a large role in controlling these vehicles autonomously. >> doctor, do you think that one day we'll all have our own personal drones? say i forgot my homework. could i have my drone bring it to me at school? >> actually, i think it might become that someday. the notion of people having drones, or unmanned aircraft systems, to provide services like going to the market and bringing something back. but also people are even thinking they might eventually be used as mechanical pets for folks. so, today everybody has a cellphone. twenty years from now, it's very likely that people will have their own drones in the garage and use them for a variety of different things. >> cody, in your opinion, does a student have to be a genius in math and science to be able to pursue a career in this field?

>> not at all. it just has to have the interest and the motivation to actually get focused on this kind of research and this kind of field, because it is a little bit different then what's been done before. so, it's just having the interest and the drive to be a part of it is the most important part. >> well, cody torno, dr. cifuentes, thank you both for being so informative and thank you for not...droning on. >> thank you. >> another interesting use for drones is searching for cattle caught in a drought area. guess you could say "oh, give me a drone where the buffalo roam." for "teen kids news," i'm jacelyn.

>> it happens on fields, rinks and courts all across the country thousands of times a year. a player takes a hit and suffers a concussion. even if he or she gets back up again, the damage can be

serious. nicole reports on a national effort to make sure players, parents, and coaches know what to do about these injuries. >> i got hit from behind once, and then somebody came from the side and hit me helmet to helmet. >> football is a contact sport. kids get hit... and hurt. so, usa football, a youth-league organization, is joining forces with the government's centers for disease control. they're educating coaches, parents, and players about concussions. >> a concussion is any direct hit to the brain which changes the way your brain normally works. it's basically your brain getting rattled inside of your skull. so, what happens with a concussion, and football players are great examples of this, is that while they're protected by all their helmets and protective gear and padding, the helmet itself does a great job in stopping the skull from getting injured. however, the brain within the skull actually moves forward and

hits the inside of the skull. >> the most obvious symptom of a concussion is a loss of consciousness. but that doesn't always happen. other symptoms might include... you need to be checked out by a doctor. and remember, the damage to your brain can continue even if the symptoms go away. >> some of the symptoms of a concussion can present a day later without any warning. so, you do have to be on the lookout for that. >> football is just one of the activities that puts young people at risk. emergency-room visits for sports-related concussion in kids ages 8 to 13 doubled in a decade. [ whistle blows ] the good news is that some of that increase is attributed to

more awareness about the dangers of head injuries. people are starting to realize that when you bang your head you don't just get up and keep going. >> if you bang your head, they want you to tell the coach that you're not feeling well and your head is ringing. and they'll make sure that you sit out and you're okay. >> hit 'em. >> here's something many kids and parents don't know. having one concussion increases your risk for another. this man's son suffered six concussions. >> if i would have known what i know now, i wouldn't have allowed my son to continue playing high school football all the way to his last game, when he got his last one. now, there's a united effort to address concussions on all kinds of playing fields. >> this is truly a multisport issue, so we have u.s. lacrosse and soccer and even hockey, to name a few.

and then, also, the ncaa and the national federation of state high school associations all working together to come up with a common standard of excellence when it comes to signs and symptoms and an action plan for concussions. >> recently, young concussion victims came here to washington to tell their stories to congress. teens testified about trouble concentrating in the classroom because of head injuries on the field. with increasing awareness of long-term damage from concussions, some states are enacting tougher rules about when you can return to play if you show any symptoms of a concussion. >> you need to at the very least go see your pediatrician or your doctor and be cleared for return back to activity. your brain needs to be fully recovered before going back to play. and even when you do go back to your sports practice, it should be a gradual introduction back. >> do not feel like you need to be a hero, okay, because your well-being throughout your life is more important than a football game. >> on capitol hill, for

"teen kids news," i'm nicole. >> this strange-looking contraption is part of a new interactive exhibit on submarines. i'll have a report. dive, dive, dive!

>> we're here at the intrepid sea, air, and space museum to check out their new exhibit, submerged. megan bednarz is a museum educator, and she'll be our guide. how are you? >> hello. very good. how are you? >> good. so, let's go look at submerged. yeah, let's do it. >> all right! so, this is it? >> yeah, this is it. this is an overview of the history of submarines. it all started with the turtle during the revolutionary war. >> that little thing? >> yeah, that little thing right up there. it was designed just to go deep enough to be below a wooden ship and just poke some holes in it hopefully sinking the ship. the submarine that you can find at our museum is the uss growler, and that was a grayback class. so, that could go about

300 feet, and since then they have just gotten bigger and faster. >> all right, so now we have -- what do we have here? >> here we have berthing, which is the living area, the sleeping area. as you can see, there's not a lot of space. so, this box here would be where you had to fit all of your prized possessions. >> everything? >> everything. >> had to be very careful, huh? >> yeah, you had to be very, very choosy. and oftentimes you might be sleeping over torpedoes. so, there were bunks in the torpedo rooms for anyone on that watch. >> and these worked? >> yes, they all work. >> so, that's the ultimate alarm clock if you don't wake up. >> absolutely, yeah. if that goes off you have to wake up. >> okay, all right, good. >> mm-hmm. >> so, what do we have over here? >> over here this is, these are the controls. so, we have three yokes here for steering the sub. it took three people to operate. you have one yoke for going up and down and then the others

for going right and left. >> so, why are all the lights red in this room? >> okay, so in the control room we have these red lights because there isn't really any night or day inside the sub, but when you're looking through your periscope out at night, you have to have your night vision ready. so, this red glow helps your eyes adjust to view the horizon as it is at night. >> wow. so, this must be the periscope. >> and this is the periscope. so, you would have to get behind the periscope. you control it by rotating it with these handles, and this gives you a view of the horizon above you because you can't see it from inside the sub. >> so, it looks like i'm looking straight out. how does this really work? >> let's check it out. >> okay. >> so, we have here a diagram that shows us how the mirrors inside of a periscope work 'cause you were able to see the horizon, but you're under water. so, this is where your eye was. you can see the way light bounces off of these mirrors to bring that image to your eye. the mirrors are set at

45 degrees. so, whatever's on the horizon is gonna enter in, bounce down, and then bounce again right to your eye. >> oh. >> yeah. pretty nifty. >> so, it reflects the whole thing out from up top to down low. >> exactly, yeah. >> and that's -- they didn't have any windows on the submarines. so, that's how they would see? >> yes, that was your eye into the outside world -- no windshield, no nothing. >> is that how they would know how to steer? >> it's a little bit different. that helps them decide where they're going, but there's more to it than just the periscope. we use sonar to detect objects. so, there's two ways to use sonar. one way would be active use of sonar. so, that's what being shown here. the submarine sends out a ping and then that sound bounces back to the sub. so, the pings that you hear are used to find objects that might be approaching. so, if you hear a lot of pings close together, you know that there's something approaching you. if you hear pings far apart, something's leaving. but most subs like to stay very,

very quiet because they're designed to be very, very stealthy. >> aah. >> so, that's where passive sonar comes in. that's just listening. you're just listening for other sounds. you're not sending out any sounds. >> so, sonar is the same thing that a bat would use to find out what's around it. >> oh, yeah, absolutely. a lot of wildlife uses this to map out the space they're in. sound is great because it bounces off of everything and comes right back. >> okay. >> here is our mess area. so, this is where you're gonna find the enlisted men doing all their eating, doing all their lounging and relaxing. storage was very, very scarce on the sub, so if you look below you... >> are those cans? >> yes, these are the tops of cans. so, in order to save space, they actually filled up all the walkways with canned food. >> so, it made everybody a couple inches shorter, huh? >> yeah, exactly! the more you ate the shorter you get. >> got it. okay. >> and here you can see table settings. so, board games were extremely

important aboard a submarine and also movies were always shown in the mess area. so, this was the time of the day where enlisted men could actually finally relax and let their guard down a bit and enjoy some games. >> and this is where they ate, as well, on these tables? >> absolutely, yeah. multipurpose was also a big deal because there's no space. >> so, it's called a mess 'cause they don't eat very cleanly? messy eaters? >> very messy, yeah. [ laughs ] >> all right. so, what do we have over here? >> all right, the last space here is the engine room. >> okay. >> so, a diesel engine, a diesel-powered sub is going to have to surface to get power. so, while it's on the surface, it's set to diesel. it charges up its batteries that will later power the engines when it's below the surface. so, below the surface, it can switch to electric power. >> oh. >> yeah, today's subs are nuclear-powered. they work a little differently. but the sub in our collection is an electric-diesel sub. >> okay, so, it's like the hybrid of the old days. >> yes, absolutely. very good, yeah. >> all right.

so, when men wanted to be on a submarine, were they just drafted on, or did they have a choice of some sort? >> well, the men that were already enlisted in the navy had the chance to volunteer to work on a submarine. yeah, conditions are considered very, very extreme. it's homesickness. it's not knowing day or night. you're under water for months at a time. it's a small environment. so, those stresses were so extreme that they wanted men there that would be up for that particular challenge. so, you were volunteering at that point. >> so, they weren't being forced into anything? >> exactly. >> all right, i have one last question. >> yeah. >> how does something that small power something that big? >> yeah, well, so, submarines are under water. it's easier to move once you're under the water. so, you don't need that giant of a propeller. the propellers for the intrepid would've been as tall as this sub, and there would have been four of them. and as you can see here, it's a much smaller propeller for a submarine. >> okay, well, thank you so much. you've covered everything. i really appreciate it. >> yeah, great to be here. >> you too.

a submarine's greatest asset is being able to travel undetected. that's why the unofficial motto of the u.s. submarine fleet is "silent service." for "teen kids news," i'm scott. >> want to volunteer a guess at the nickname for tennessee? here's a hint. i've already given you the answer. plans tonight kevin? yep, going to ryan's house for a party. i guess that's ok. just be home by ten. what, it's friday night. the curfew you have imposed is an egregious infringement upon my social well-being and freedom. speaking of freedom - it is preposterous to suggest that i must have my homework done before playing video games. i also dispute your contention that i keep my room clean, and the vile task of taking out the garbage is beneath me. i know my rights, and you can't tell me what to do. ryan's party- here i come. thank you kevin. mom, dad, you have thirty seconds for a response.

does ery conversation with your teen turn into a debate? call the boys town national hotline at 800-448-3000, or visit parenting.org. trained counselors are on call 24-7 to help with parenting problems - big or small. don't wait for your next debate. ♪ in 1988, our dear friend paul newman had a vision. a place where kids with serious illnesses could just.be kids. [bruce] so he founded a camp. and the joy of playing, laughing, and simply belonging had a profound effect [julia] freeing the children to reach beyond their illnesses and discover new strength.

[bruce] from that one camp the seriousfun children's network has grown, serving 30,000 kids globally every year. at no cost to their families. [bruce] please help us continue paul's vision. visit seriousfunnetwork.org. >> now we're going to run a state flag up the pole. here are the facts that make this one stand out. >> in 1796, tennessee became our

sixteenth state. america now stretched west to the shores of the mississippi river. then, in 1812, the united states went to war with britain again. many tennesseans volunteered to fight for their new country. they were commanded by general, and soon to be president, andrew jackson. that patriotic spirit earned tennessee its nickname -- "the volunteer state." but another 80 years would pass before it got its own state flag. >> this is one of my favorite flags, because it's simple. it uses red, white, and blue and it's a design actually that was submitted by a soldier named leroy reeves. and the three stars represent the three parts of the state of tennessee. there's western tennessee, between the tennessee and mississippi rivers. there's middle tennessee, which is known for the tennessee river and also bluegrass country. and then the great smoky mountains are in the eastern part of tennessee, and that's what the third star is meant to represent. >> the design celebrates unity

by enclosing all three stars within a circle. and the red, white, and blue colors celebrate tennessee's unity with america. a distinctive blue edging ensures that the flag can be easily recognized, even on days when there's no breeze to unfurl it. with "flag facts," i'm harry. >> coming up, i'll show you how to go from the fleece of a sheep to the wool of a scarf.

selling cookies is about... -the big picture. you have to have a goal. -a big goal. something you and your team... -want to do in the world. we choose... -where the money goes. a trip. -an adventure. helping people out. -helping a lot of people out. something never been... -done before. we have to decide. -make a plan. we all... -have to agree. it's not always easy. and about the money? -we are responsible for it. handling it... -managing it... tracking it... -doing great things with it. this is business. -girl business. girl business. -the biggest... girl-run business... -in the world. it's kind of amazing. girl scouts are everywhere. -over

2 million of us. my mom is one. -my little sister is one. my cousin michelle is one. -maybe you're one. girl scouts should totally run the world. -i think we already do. i'm not surprised. -are you surprised? we're not surprised. did you think this was just about cookies? >> the way woolen cloth is manufactured today involves a lot of complicated machinery and technology. but have you ever wondered how it was done ba-a-a-ck in the day? laura went to find out. >> visiting philipsburg manor is like traveling back to the mid-1700s. every year, the historic farm holds its "sheep to shawl" festival. it shows how colonists were able to make clothing and other cloth items out of a sheep's fleece. the first step is called "shearing." >> this is a once-a-year activity. what she's wearing is a one-year

growth, and that comes off around this time of the year. >> while the sheep clearly don't love being shorn, it's not as bad as it looks. >> it doesn't really hurt any more than having your hair cut hurts. it doesn't really have any feelings in it. >> the trick to shearing is to remove the fleece in a single section. >> and the reason it's taken off in one big piece is because the best part of it, what they call "staple," grows very thick, and that's the part that would be best for spinning and making into thread. >> the next step is one that can get a little tedious. it involves getting all the pieces of grass out of the wool. >> and so, we take our fingers and we pick and we pick, and this is what children would be doing every single night. >> once the wool is picked clean, it's ready to be spun. >> i am right now using an 18th-century device, called a spinning wheel, to turn wool from our sheep into yarn. it's run by a treadle, and down here's my foot, and the foot

controls this back arm, which runs the back wheel, just like a bicycle. i'm gonna pinch. i'm gonna pull, stretch, and release, and that's gonna feed right into the machine. >> this device allows you to make a special type of yarn, called "tape." >> tape is used to tie clothing together. might be used for shoelaces. might be used for tying your jacket closed, that kind of thing. >> and in case you're just "dying" to know how they add color to the yarn, here's where that's done. in 1750, there would have been a lot of different kinds of dyes -- some local, which would have been affordable, and some imported, which would have been expensive. >> today, we use chemicals to create dyes, but in colonial times, all the colors came from mother nature. >> onion skins and daffodil heads, very affordable, gives you beautiful yellows and golds, and you can mix them and overdye them, like you do in art class. blue and yellow will give you nice green. >> now, the different-colored

yarns are ready to be woven into cloth. >> this is our final stage. we are making fabric. this loom has four harnesses and four pedals, and so as i raise two of the pedals, we make what is called a shed, and that's what our shuttle goes through. when i change my feet, i change the threads on the warp and then i'm ready to have the shuttles go right through again and again. change my feet. so, i've changed the warp threads, and there we go. and that's how it's done. >> so, the next time you wear something made of wool, just think of all the steps that went into making it. at philipsburg manor for "teen kids news," i'm laura. >> we'll see you next time on "teen kids news." thanks for watching.have a great week.

niadventures brought to you by seaworld and busch gardens for more than 40 years working to preserve the world we share. (jack) chris, why do they call this the skeleton coast? (chris) watch out, quicksand man. hi everybody i'm jack hanna. here at my base camp-- busch gardens-tampa bay. welcome to animal adventures.