(cheery pop music) - welcome to teen kids news. i'm veronique. let's begin with our top story for this week. (upbeat pop music) not all of us are intending to apply to college. but for those who do, here's some good news. as amelia reports, the earlier you start to prepare, the better your chances. - when do you think students should start preparing for college? - i believe early on, 9th, 10th grade is the best place to start 'cause you already started taking your psats that's preparation for your sats starting in your 11th grade year,

and if you start during your 11th grade year, it's definitely hectic. - probably like when you first get to high school. - well, i think once you start high school, you should start preparing for college because you have, your grades will count and the colleges will look at your grades from 9th grade all the way to senior year. - you might be surprised to learn that many experts recommend starting far earlier. for more on this, we turn to jason ma. families hire him as a college prep coach, and he's also the ceo of the company threeeq. hi. - hi, thanks for inviting me. - you like to quote a saying by ucla coach john wooden that "failure to prepare is preparing to fail." - well, i think when you look at successful people, the first thing that i would try to figure out is, how did they prepare in order to become successful? so really most of the work is really in the preparation. - speaking of preparation, at what age should kids start preparing for college?

- i had a conversation with the dean of uc san diego, admission dean mae brown. she said, "start preparing for college in 6th grade." now where she's really coming from is to build strong study habits, build good reading habits is really shaping your skills in ways that it's gonna be easier for you in high school. so it's not necessarily preparing for college per se, but it's really building a stronger foundation. - that's pretty young. besides building that foundation, what else can a 6th grader do to prepare? - when i coach my own students, i emphasize quite a bit on shaping their skills, their mindset, and teaching them about some tricks of the trade on how to become successful academically and non-academically in high school. to me, in middle school, whether you're in 6th grade, 7th grade, or 8th grade is really pre-high school. so very importantly is really shaping good habits.

so for example, if you're so distracted in spending so much time, many hours per day, playing world of warcraft or playing games, those are not good habits and that's not exactly a real good way to spend a lot of time on. so to shape and to try to replace some of the bad habits with better ones like reading fiction and non-fiction, really spending time on doing homework, getting things done, maybe even have time to do some house chores, i think those are good mindset to start building. - how 'bout extracurricular activities? are they important at that age? - i think it's important, but i would not stress over it. i think it would be important to start building the habit of the importance of doing extracurriculars. now the purpose of doing extracurriculars, kids, is not really to do extracurriculars. the purpose is, get into the habit of giving, of contributing, of growing along with your teammates, of being a good student,

of really having the heart and the brain to contribute and to grow and to connect and to engage. those are essential skills to have. - there are people who say that increasing pressure on kids, especially by starting early, is counterproductive. what do you think about that? - i disagree. i think one key to success in life is really to try to, in most cases, not all, is to start early with a purpose. understand why that's important to you. get some coachings, they're important. get high quality guidance from your parents if they are smart in certain ways but not everything. work with advisors or mentors at school or somewhere else. self-learning, okay, you could google so many things today and just read a lot. watch useful videos and audios, to show some initiative. it's part of your skillset you wanna build early,

and it's to learn to become a strong learner so you could keep on learning and keep on improving and keep on giving in smart ways. - what about families that can't afford to hire a college prep coach like you? what can they do? - well, that's one reason that i spent, gosh, 2,000 hours of team time putting together my own book called young leaders 3.0, stories, insights, and tips for next-generation achievers. the idea there is to impart part of my teachings in terms of mentoring and storytelling. that's one almost free resource, and i think like big picture, college board, and there's whole bunch of sites you could study yourself. and talk to people. be intellectually curious, be holistically curious. just learn from all sorts of methods out there, and lot of it's really complementary. - thanks, jason. you've certainly given us a lot to think about.

- thank you, thanks for inviting, it's fun. - a new parent once asked a famous educator when the parent should start her baby's education. the educator replied, "rush home now and start. "you haven't a moment to lose." he was joking, of course, but the message is clear. if you want to get into a top college, it's almost never too early to start. for teen kids news, i'm amelia. - relaxing, how it can help you make the grade, when teen kids news continues. - [luke voiceover] closed captioning is brought to you by...

- do you sometimes feel overwhelmed with all the work you have to do for school? well, christin's here to help with this week's make the grade. - being a good student take a lot of work. you have to research, read, study, take notes, analyze, review, write, edit, relax. yes, i said relax. academic experts say students will do a better job at studying if they make a point of taking breaks. here's one way to do it. sit quietly in a comfortable position. close your eyes. slowly breathe in through your nose, out through your mouth. relax your feet, your legs, your hands, your arms, and your neck, and even your face. feel the tension draining away. imagine you're at some favorite peaceful place. just be there for, say, four or five minutes.

when you open your eyes, continue to sit quietly and continue your slow measured breathing for a bit longer. there, i'm certainly feeling better. a short break like this will recharge your mental batteries. i'm christin, here to help you make the grade. - as you're about to see, a state flag can have a lot to say. here's flag facts. (upbeat drumming music) - in september 1783, american colonists and members of the british parliament signed the treaty of paris, officially ending the revolutionary war. part of that treaty granted a parcel of land to the united states known as the northwest territory. that territory would become ohio. in 1803, ohio was admitted as our 17th state, but it existed without a stage flag for almost 100 years

until an architect named john eisenmann came up with a most unusual design. - the ohio flag is the only state flag of the 50 that is not a rectangle. it's a swallowtail flag that we usually see on a boat. what it is is it's a pennant but it comes to two points, and they chose that to be distinct. they wanted ohio to look different from all the other state flags, and they certainly achieved that. they chose to use the red, white, and blue of the american flag, several states have done that. but they also achieved simplicity by putting the letter o in the canton of the flag, and the letter o has two meanings to people in ohio. it's o for ohio, but also it's the buckeye state. - buckeyes are round nuts commonly found in ohio that native americans thought resembled the eye of a male deer, a buck. 13 stars are clustered around the o, representing the original 13 states.

four more stars stand beside them, representing the next four states to be admitted to our nation, including ohio. the red and white stripes symbolize roads and waterways, which help establish ohio as a center of american interstate commerce. with flag facts, i'm eric. (soaring ambient music) - here's a law designed to make bugs bunny happy. in kansas, it's illegal to shoot rabbits from a boat. not exactly sure why they have that law since i don't think rabbits swim. but if you hare of any that do, tell 'em that they're safe in kansas. at least from people with guns in boats. - a special athlete giving back to the community in a special way. our hooplaha pick of the week is next on teen kids news. may think that some goals are beyond their reach, like, for example,

making it onto a top college varsity team. but as we're about to see for one college athlete, overcoming challenges was a slam dunk. here's another great video from our friends at hooplaha. - (mumbles) very excited, okay. we've done this many times, okay. my name is anthony ianni, and i am a national motivational speaker for the michigan department of civil rights. so the camp we're at today is for kids on the go. it's a nonprofit organization outta detriot. and for the last three weeks actually, i've had the privilege and the honor to coach some kids with autism and maybe have a different learning disability as well, teach them the game of basketball, teach them the basics, and just have fun while we're here, and also show them that if you have dreams and goals, go and out and achieve 'em. don't let anything or anyone tell you that you can't do this, can't do that, and don't an obstacle stand in your way from living your dreams. i was diagnosed when i was four years old in 1993, and when i was five years old, a group of doctors and professionals told my parents that because i have autism

i would never be successful or achieve anything in my life. i ended up graduating from high school, from okemos high school in 2007, went on to grand valley state university for two years on a full-ride scholarship for basketball. i decided, you know, it was time for me to go and live my life long dream, and that was to play for coach tom izzo and michigan state university, and not only did i graduate and get my degree from michigan state university, but i also become the first division one college basketball player diagnosed with autism in ncaa history. - anthony really is inspiring to so many. his story is inspiring to us adults, to us parents, to the parents in the program, and to the children in the camp. they just literally look up to him, but he's just made such an impact. - kids on the go is important to ethan because it was able to take him from the child that was at two years old diagnosed and now he's at a point where he is a very high-functioning child.

he heard about this basketball camp and that he would be able to learn from somebody that played in college and somebody that has experienced some of the same issues and he really enjoyed it. he's just like, "i wanna learn how to play basketball. "if this guy can teach me basketball, "then i wanna try." - don't be afraid to tell you, "i can do this, "i can do that, and you're not gonna tell me "that i can't do this because i set my life. "i live my dreams. "you don't live 'em, i do." - [all] one, two, two, kids on the go! - we'll have more great stories from our friends at hooplaha on future shows. for teen kids news, i'm daniella. - when it comes to healthy eating, your plate can be your guide. one quarter of the plate should be for your protein. chicken, pork, or fish are best, but red meat is okay. just be sure that it's not too often. and lean towards lean, meaning meat that has very little fat.

another quarter of the plate is for your whole grains. these can be brown rice, wild rice, whole quinoa, or whole grain pasta. there are literally dozens of whole grain foods to choose from. with the remaining half of your plate, pile on the veggies, or add in some fruit. a healthy meal is one of the best ways to make a healthier you. - this important message is brought to you by the national road safety foundation. they want you to keep your hands on the wheel, your eyes on the road, and your mind on driving. - [girl] abby, i'm so glad you finally decided to come ice skating with us. - i have never been ice skating before. i'm gonna fall, i'm gonna make an idiot of myself. - [girl] you'll be fine, we won't laugh at you. - [boy] if you fall, we won't make fun of you. - hey, guys, who else should i invite? should we invite paige, do you think she'll go? - kyle will, taylor, taylor. - kyle and taylor, i think we could invite both of them. - i need gloves. - okay, i'll text maddie, i'll text maddie. - abby, i'm so glad you finally decided to come ice skating with us. - abby, watch out!

(tires squeal) (metal crunching) (sirens blaring) (upbeat ambient music)

- [luke voiceover] this report is brought to you by paramount pictures. - [woman] local residents have reported

numerous sightings of an unidentified creature. - we're lookin' for something unusual, something dangerous. - [luke voiceover] monster trucks is more than barrels of fun. it's a hilarious and action-packed ride that's now available on blu-ray and dvd. - what are you? (monster growls) - [luke voiceover] meet creech, a lovable monster with a taste for speed and gas. - there's something going on here. i don't even know how to begin to explain. take a look, he's likes hiding in my truck. (screams) - [luke voiceover] but as tripp, played by lucas till, finds out, creech is much more than a gas-guzzling monster. - [tripp voiceover] this thing is awesome, and it's smart. it is an engine for my truck. isn't that right, creech? (monster grunts) - [luke voiceover] now you might be wondering how the filmmakers were able to get truck to jump like that. they used hydraulics, the technology of compressing and releasing fluid to make the vehicle rock and roll. - to make the truck look like the creature

is inside of it and alive, we put a hydraulic system in it. it's powered by car batteries, runs an electric motor, drives a hydraulic pump. the pump squishes all the hydraulic fluid into a tank at high pressure and when we want, we can move our joysticks here and the fluid's diverted from the tanks into the cylinders on all four corners and we get the truck to move around any way we want. so we got forward, backwards, side, side. one of the things we needed the truck to do was get angry at till here and try and spit him out. so we could take the truck, we could lean it over and kinda shake it around and get it look like we're gonna knock till out of the truck. - woo! did you see that? - show off! (creech laughs) - [luke voiceover] but that's not all. to make the truck look like it's really being driven by creech takes a two special effects operators using remote controls. - sean's over there doing the gas, brakes, and steering,

and i'm here doing all the leaning, tilting, breathing, and all type of action. so if you'll notice, even the steering wheel's remote control. it's connected to the wheels, so you see the steering wheeling spinnin' around up there. (light ambient music) - [man] the monster is in the truck. (upbeat pop music) - whoa, did you see that? - [luke voiceover] and you'll want to see all the behind-the-scenes extras that come in the blu-ray combo pack. - let's go! - [luke voiceover] now we can all go get the monster trucks blu-ray combo pack. for teen kids news, i'm luke. - if you're happy and you know it, maybe you don't clap your hands to show it. researchers say happy people tend to talk more than unhappy people, and their conversations are different. instead of small talk, people who are happy tend to engage in meaningful conversations. so next time someone just says, "nice day,"

tell 'em to cheer up. (upbeat ambient music)

but sometimes we make the mistake of thinking a dog is friendly when it's really not. eden tells us more. - so you're walking down the street and you come across a dog. it's wagging its tail, so you'd think he's happy to see you. but when you reach out to pet him, he suddenly turns mean. what happened? to find out, we have robin bennett and susan briggs. they call themselves the dog gurus. they're also the author of the book off leash dog play. welcome. - thanks, we're happy to be here. - it's great to be here with you today. - so susan, we can't assume that a wagging tail is always a good sign, can we? - no, you can't. we love our dogs and they communicate a lot to us and the tail is an important part of that. but just because it's wagging its tail

doesn't mean it's friendly and you should approach it. - do you have to worry about speed or where they're holding their tail? - yes, you look at what position is the tail, whether they're holding it high or low, and you look at how fast that wag is. - robin, can you give us some specific examples? - well, sure, let's say you're going to pet that dog and he ends up turning mean, you might've noticed the dog's tail was wagging but he might've been protecting his owner. so that tail wag might've been way up over his back really high because that's a really good sign that the dog is protecting something. or maybe you have a dog that's afraid of something and he's hiding. you'll find that those tail wags are gonna be really low, tucked under the body, but still wagging. but that's still a dog i wouldn't really wanna pet right at that moment. - susan, besides the tail, are there other signs we should be looking for? - yes, we actually recommend we look at the other end. so let's look at the mouth. a dog that's safe to approach generally has an open mouth. a closed mouth means that dog's starting to get uncomfortable.

you can also look at their body. are their muscles relaxed? is it kinda curve and loose? versus a dog that you wouldn't want to approach would be very stiff. those dogs are uncomfortable, and it's not safe. - but i guess the bottom line is if you don't know the dog, don't approach him unless his owner says it's okay. - yes, you wanna first ask the owner and if the owner says yes, still check in with the dog to see what the dog's body language is telling you. is the mouth open? is the body posture relaxed? - so really, we would say three steps. number one, ask the owner, number two, ask the dog, and number three, pet the dog if both of them say it's okay. - i certainly learned a lot. thank you both very much. - you're welcome, thanks. - it was great. - so the next time you hear someone say that a wagging tail means the dog is friendly, you can tell them that's just an old wives' tale, and you learned that here on teen kids news. - that wraps up our show. but we'll have more teen kids news for you next week. so make sure you tune in. (upbeat pop music)

- [announcer] write to us at info@teenkidsnews.com.

alex: coming next, helping injured wing creatures. we visit a special rehabilitation center and witness incredible recoveries. this is "animal rescue." [captioning made possible by telco productions, inc.]