- Coming up on "Extra Credit," the four stages in the life cycle of a butterfly, a world of birds, and how being in space affects the body.

Come on!

(bright rock music) Welcome to "Extra Credit" where we meet interesting people, explore new ideas, and discover fun places together.

I'm your host, Gabriel.

From planes and helicopters, to butterflies and birds, today, we discover the physics of things that fly.

Let's get to our first adventure.

(upbeat electronic music) - Are you curious about careers in science?

Hi.

I'm Janellyn, and today, I'm here with pilot Emily Coaker.

Emily, where are we today and what do you do here?

- I am a pilot with Delta Airlines here at the Detroit Metropolitan International Airport.

(airplane whizzing) - Tell me about a typical day on the job.

- Well, that's the neat thing about being an airline pilot.

There isn't a typical day.

Our schedules change all of the time, we're constantly flying to different cities.

We can start our day by flying anywhere from Paris, to Los Angeles, or even just a short hop over to Grand Rapids, Michigan and back.

Before and during a flight, our job is quite complicated.

We arrive to the aircraft at least an hour in advance to prepare everything from checking over the documents onboard the plane to make sure that it is legal to fly to walking around the aircraft to make sure that there's no damage on the outside and everything is safe.

Then we come back on the plane and test all of our equipment to make sure that we're ready to go before the passengers board.

All right, Janellyn, why don't you have a seat over here?

You get to be the captain for today.

- Oh!

This will be fun.

- [Emily] Welcome to the Boeing 717.

- How is STEM incorporated into your job as a pilot?

- When you're learning how to fly, courses such as physics, aerodynamics, and math are all very important for building that foundation to earn your pilot certificates and ratings.

And when we pull back, that's what makes the plane go up, and when we push forward, that makes the plane go down.

- What is your advice to kids that are interested in becoming a pilot like you?

- My advice to kids is that this career is sensational and rewarding.

Get out there and learn and explore.

- Good morning, everyone.

This is Janellyn speaking, your captain for today.

Sit back, relax, fasten your seatbelts, and enjoy the flight.

- The most rewarding part about being a pilot for me is that I actually get to do what I love for a living.

You've earned your wings.

- [Janellyn] Wow!

- You get to wear it proud, just like we do.

I actually get to have my hands on the controls and feel that passion for flight and get to experience that every day.

So it's a very rewarding career.

- Emily Coaker passed her interview with flying colors!

Explore your possibilities!

Gotta jet!

- Our friend, Joe Wos, from Cartoon Academy is a really great artist.

And we can all be great artists too, but you're probably wondering, how?

Joe has some really great advice for how we can all draw better cartoons.

Check it out.

(upbeat electronic music) - Hi, I'm Joe Woes from Cartoon Academy and this is a quick draw lesson on practice.

If you wanna get good at anything in life, you have to practice.

And one of the best ways to practice in drawing is to draw everything new you learn five times.

To draw something five times, you'll be surprised how quickly you'll remember the lessons learned.

Let me show you what I mean.

I'm gonna show you how to draw a quick little seagull.

We're gonna start with the head shape.

Up.

Over.

And down.

Out.

And in.

Down.

And up.

Up, over, down.

Now for the beak.

Out, down, up, and in.

The eyes.

One, two.

(seagull squawking) And lastly, the feet.

Down, down, letter C, and then a letter W, and in.

Letter C, W, and in.

Now that's one time.

I'm gonna do it one more time and then I want you to do the remaining three on your own.

And by the time you've drawn it five times, you'll be amazed you can draw it every single time.

So let's draw it one more time together.

Over.

Down.

Out.

And in.

Down and up.

Add the tail feather.

The beak.

And the eyes.

One, two.

Around for the feet.

Around for the other foot.

It's okay if each time, it changes a little bit.

The point is to practice.

It's a very important lesson in drawing because practice makes pretty good.

Nobody's perfect.

I'm still learning.

You don't have to be the best in the world.

Just be the best you that you can be.

This has been a cartoon quick draw from Cartoon Academy.

(bright piano music) - Now let's fly over to the Detroit Zoo and do some birdwatching with our buddy, Brad.

(upbeat electronic music) - I'm an education specialist for the Detroit Zoological Society and today looks a little different than normal.

Today, I'm actually in the "Matilda R. Wilson Free-Flight Aviary" at the Detroit Zoo.

And you may be wondering, why am I here today?

Well, I wanted to bring you all along on an adventure today to one of my favorite spots at the zoo.

The "Free-Fight Aviary" is an immersive habitat where we can see birds flying around in a habitat that looks a lot like where you would find them in the wild.

So please come along on this journey with me and we're gonna do some birdwatching as I like to call this segment "Birdwatching with Brad."

But first, let's take a look at some vocabulary words and some of the different skills we're gonna be working on today.

So our vocabulary words for today, the first word is dimorphic, which means that there's two distinct forms of something.

So one thing could look two different ways.

The next word is plumage, which is a way to describe the feathers that come from a bird and their size, their shape, their color, the overall pattern of the bird's feathers.

And the last word is juvenile, which refers to something that is young.

Now that we have an idea of some of the vocabulary words and some of the different skills we're gonna be working on today, let's take a walk through the aviary.

So, when we first enter the aviary, we're gonna see this large tree and this water feature, but immediately, what I saw was actually these two birds right up here.

The Jambu Fruit Dove is a small, colorful forest dove that inhabits mangrove swamps and rainforests in the countries of Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, and Brunei.

Listen closely while in the "Matilda R. Wilson Free-Flight Aviary."

You can hear their soft cooing.

They're usually described as shy birds who spend their time roosting, and nesting, and feeding and usually you will only see them alone or in pairs.

They are sexual dimorphic, which means males and females differ in appearance.

Think about cardinals or red wing blackbirds that are common in North America.

Males have a crimson face, a white chest, and a pink patch near their throat while the females have a light purple face and a green chest.

The Jambu Fruit Dove usually lays one or two eggs and the egg is cared for by both the male and the female for two to three weeks.

The parents never leave the egg unattended.

One will always stay in the nest while the other is looking for food.

Here, you can see the appropriately named Scarlet Ibis.

The range of the Scarlet Ibis is very large and colonies can be found throughout areas of South America and the Caribbean.

Adult plumage is virtually all scarlet.

The feathers might show some various tints and shades, but otherwise, they're completely red, except for a small tint of black on the tips of their wings.

Currently, you can see some juvenile Scarlet Ibis here at the Detroit Zoo, but they will look a little different than their parents.

The juvenile plumage is a mix of gray, brown, and white.

As they get older, they will develop their adult plumage.

They develop this deep scarlet color because of their diet, which is rich in crustaceans, like shrimp, crabs, and crayfish.

Their distinctive long and thin bills are used to probe for food in soft mud or under plants.

The Scarlet Ibis is a very, very social bird unlike the Jambu Fruit Dove who likes to stay alone or in pairs.

They're very community-minded when they search for food and even in protection of young.

They live in large flocks, usually of 30 or more.

And when they are building their nests, they stay close together.

They try to arrange their nests in close proximity.

Next on my journey through the "Free-Flight Aviary," I ran into this guy.

This is the Spur-Winged Lapwing.

You will see them running around on the ground.

They are a type of shore bird.

It's really easy to recognize the Spur-Winged Lapwing because it's got this unmistakable look.

They have these very long legs, they have a black crown on their head and these red eyes.

And they also have this very striking call, almost kind of sounds like an alarm clock going off.

(bird chirping) This species, they prefer marshes and similar freshwater or wetland habitats.

The food the Spur-Winged Lapwing eats are insects and other invertebrates that it picks up off the ground.

The Spur-Winged Lapwing also gets its name because it has these small little claws on their wings, which they'll sometimes use as a way to defend themselves or their nest from animals.

And now, as we're looking at this Lapwing, look at this other bird over here.

This bird right here is the Gray-Capped Emerald Dove, though it has lots of other names.

It can also be known as the Common Emerald Dove, or the Green Dove, or the Green-Winged Pigeon.

They're pretty common throughout India and Southeast Asia.

The Gray-Capped Emerald Dove can be identified when you're in the "Free-Flight Aviary" by its iridescent green feathers and that gray cap that it looks like it has on its head.

When you are in the "Matilda R. Wilson Free-Flight Aviary" and if you are looking for the Gray-Capped Emerald Dove, my suggestion is to look down.

They are terrestrial birds.

They like to spend a lot of time on the ground.

That's where they can find a lot of the food they eat.

Thank you so much everybody for watching.

I will see you all in the "Matilda R. Wilson Free-Flight Aviary."

- Exercise is important for everyone, especially for astronauts who travel into space.

Let's learn how gravity affects our bodies and what astronauts must do in space to stay healthy.

(upbeat electronic music) (upbeat guitar music) - [Kids] "Our World."

(kids giggling) - 98.

99.

100.

(whistle blowing) Whoo!

I do my best to stay fit.

We all know that exercise is an important part of a healthy lifestyle, but did you know that exercise is even more important when you're training to be an astronaut?

Other than eating and drinking, what do you think NASA astronauts do to stay healthy?

- Experiments?

(buzzer ringing) - I know, I know.

Is it moonwalking?

(buzzer ringing) - Exercise.

You see, floating in space is a lot of fun, but spending time in space causes changes in the body that aren't good when the astronauts return to Earth.

You see, on Earth, our bodies work against gravity.

Gravity is the force that pulls you to the ground.

When you stand up, you have to lift the weight of your body and carry that weight wherever you go.

The muscles in your legs, back, and neck have to work against gravity with every step you take.

Even when you take a rest after playing with your friends, your muscles are still working against gravity.

Your bones get a workout, too.

Your skeleton supports your muscles and protects your insides.

When you stand up, walk, or run around, your bones are carrying your body's weight.

This kind of work keeps your bones strong.

Gravity gives your heart a workout, too.

When you're standing up on Earth, gravity pulls the blood down towards your feet.

So your heart works hard against gravity to pump the blood up to your brain and to keep the blood moving from your feet back up to your heart.

But in space, all of these things change.

Wanna find out more?

Let's visit our friend over at NASA's Johnson Space Center.

Dr. Kjell Lindgren helps keep our astronauts healthy and fit for travel.

- Weightlessness looks like a lot of fun.

The astronauts are floating, their tools and their food are also floating around, but it's also hard on the body as well.

The heart doesn't have to work as hard because you're not standing up.

When you stand up on Earth, the blood is pulled down by gravity and the heart and your muscles have to work to keep the blood moving back up to the heart and up to the brain.

So the heart doesn't have to work as hard in space.

Your bones and your muscles also don't have to work as hard because you're not standing up, you're not constantly fighting against gravity.

And so those can weaken and so you can lose bone mass and your muscles can become smaller.

It's very similar to somebody just laying in bed all the time.

Scientists actually use that as a model or a way to demonstrate the effects of weightlessness.

We have people lay in bed for long periods of time and we look at how their bones weaken and their muscles and their hearts weaken as a result.

Some of these tests last up to 90 days.

(record scratching) - In bed for 90 days?

That's no fun.

- So we use exercise in space.

The astronauts exercise to help keep their bones healthy, and their muscles healthy, and their hearts healthy.

- Thanks for sharing all that fascinating information with us.

Astronauts can inspire you to make physical fitness a part of your life, too.

I'm even more motivated to work out than before.

Come on, Globey.

I'll race ya.

(bright rock music) - [Kids] "Our World."

(kids giggling) - There's a word for a person who studies birds.

Do you know what that word is?

A person who studies birds is called an ornithologist.

What kind of equipment do you think ornithologists use to study birds?

The curious crew visited the Michigan State University Museum to find out.

(upbeat electronic music) - Are you curious about careers in science?

Hi!

It's Janelynn, and today, I'm here with Professor Pam Rasmussen.

So where are we today?

- Well, we're at the Michigan State University's Natural and Cultural History Museum.

I'm an ornithologist.

Ornithology is the study of birds.

I curate bird exhibits in the museum.

This exhibit is showcasing the conservation issues that we have with birds of Michigan.

- What does your typical day at work look like?

- Every day can be completely different.

One day, you're preparing specimens, another day, you're out in the field, one day will be devoted to research.

It's just highly varied.

- How does STEM impact the work you do here as an ornithologist?

- Well, birds are all around us and are subject to the laws of physics, so we have to learn some physics.

It holds the wings slightly up.

They're not flat, they're like this.

- Like a V. - A V. Many, many birds are endangered, so we need to understand them in order to protect them.

- What type of equipment do you use when you go out to bird watch?

- Well, you need binoculars.

That's the first thing.

Use your binoculars and look at that top nest.

There's four baby herrings now.

Also, a camera with a good zoom.

It's a good idea to have some kind of listening and/or recording device.

- I hear a lot of different chirping noises.

- Many birds are easy to see.

This is a Brown-Headed Cowbird right here.

If you look with your binoculars, you'll see it has a brown head.

Other birds are inside the tree.

The leaves obscure them and you may only hear them.

That's a Red-Winged Blackbird, that chirp-chirp.

It's pretty fundamental to be able to identify the birds around you in order to do any kind of ornithological work.

Right there.

There's a Blue Jay.

Probably coming for some food.

And you always want to be out more.

You never know what's around the corner, what's gonna fly in next.

- Professor Rasmussen gave me a bird's-eye view today into the world of ornithology.

Explore your possibilities!

- It's pretty cool learning about things that can fly.

So why don't we make our own paper helicopter?

Then, try to improve the design like NASA engineers did when they made the first helicopter for Mars.

(upbeat electronic music) - Hi.

This is Oda from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

Today, we're going to make a paper Mars helicopter.

We have satellites in orbit around Mars that take global pictures and we have a Rover on the surface that takes up close pictures, but there are some places on Mars that a Rover just can't go.

They're too rocky or too steep of a cliff.

So, the next Mars Rover, Perseverance, is going to take a helicopter attached to its belly to the surface.

When it gets there, it's going to deploy the helicopter, the helicopter will fly around for a series of test flights.

If we're lucky, we might get some pictures of surfaces that we can't see with the Rover.

Now, these test flights are gonna be really short, no more than about 90 seconds, and if they're successful, the helicopter will come back, land on the surface near the Rover, convey the images to the Rover, and then the Rover will convey those to Earth where we can see them.

The hard part about flying on Mars is the martian atmosphere is so thin.

It's only about 1% the thickness of Earth's atmosphere.

What that means is if we were standing on the surface of Mars and there were 100 mile an hour wind, it would barely disturb our hair.

So, it makes it hard for an aircraft to fly in very little air because the aircraft needs to be able to generate enough lift.

Lift is the force that is applied to the rotors by the air that lifts the whole aircraft off the surface.

The Mars helicopter has angled blades just like helicopters on Earth so that when they rotate, they run into the air and cause a high pressure that will push those blades and the helicopter up into the air.

Now, the Mars helicopter is very lightweight.

It's only about 1.8 kilograms and it has really big blades.

They're about 1.2 meters wide, which is about, oh, four feet or so, and they rotate 10 times faster than helicopter blades do on Earth.

Now, engineers had to do a lot of testing.

They had to figure out what kind of a helicopter blade is going to help that helicopter get off of the planet.

We have a chamber at JPL where we could pump out a lot of the air so we could test it in an atmosphere a lot like Mars.

And we could also offset the gravity using a tether.

Now it's time for you to make a Mars helicopter.

You're gonna need a few things.

First, you're gonna need either the printed template from this activity or a blank piece of paper that you can sketch that template onto, a pencil, a pair of scissors, a measuring tape, and if you have it, a little strip of ribbon.

First, I want you to cut along the dashed lines as shown in this diagram.

Then, take the rotors, which are labeled A and B, and fold them along the line shown in opposite directions.

Next, fold in X and Y.

Those two flaps will fold in to make the body of the helicopter.

And then lastly, fold up flat Z so that your finished product looks like this.

In order to fly your helicopter, you're gonna grab the body and drop from any height that you choose.

Now, I want you to adjust the performance of your helicopter.

The rotor blades are key to how your helicopter performs, so try making them smaller, or building another helicopter and making them larger.

Another thing that you can adjust is how they are folded.

The angle of incidence that is formed between the rotor and the body can be changed and possibly impact the performance of your helicopter.

For more ideas of how to measure the performance of your helicopter, take a look at the full activity at this URL and have a good time building your Mars helicopter.

- Now let's take a music break and learn about the life cycle of something else that flies, butterflies.

(upbeat electronic music) (chill R&B music) ♪ Butterflies ♪ ♪ Butter butterflies flying in the sky ♪ ♪ With the wings so high ♪ ♪ I said butterflies ♪ ♪ Caterpillars in the sky ♪ ♪ Start as one living creature ♪ ♪ And metamorphosize ♪ ♪ Metamorphosis, the change it undergoes ♪ ♪ Yes you know ♪ ♪ Caterpillars, watch them grow ♪ ♪ They eat so fast, but move so slow ♪ ♪ When you think of stages ♪ ♪ Please think of four ♪ ♪ You've got the egg, larva, pupa, adult ♪ ♪ So let's explore ♪ ♪ The first stage ♪ ♪ An egg, how its life begins ♪ ♪ Five days later ♪ ♪ You're sitting there watching ♪ ♪ A caterpillar breaks ♪ ♪ So what does it do ♪ ♪ It starts looking around ♪ ♪ And starts crawling at you ♪ ♪ When the larva stage of caterpillars ♪ ♪ What we see ♪ ♪ It's eating eggshells, plants ♪ ♪ Yes, and even leaves ♪ ♪ That's how it's gonna grow ♪ ♪ As it keeps on chewing ♪ ♪ With those teeny tiny munching teeth ♪ ♪ That's what it's doing ♪ ♪ Eating 200 times its weight ♪ ♪ That's great, make no mistake ♪ ♪ This little bitty creature ♪ ♪ Wants to grow up fast and fly away ♪ ♪ And when caterpillars grow ♪ ♪ They molt the skin ♪ ♪ That means they shed their roll ♪ ♪ Yes, and they keep growing ♪ ♪ And the last time it molts ♪ ♪ It's easy to tell ♪ ♪ It turns into a pupa inside a really hard shell ♪ ♪ During the pupa stage ♪ ♪ Inside the chrysalis ♪ ♪ Transforming from one organism into this ♪ ♪ Butterflies ♪ ♪ Butter butterflies flying in the sky ♪ ♪ With the wings so high ♪ ♪ I said butterflies ♪ ♪ Caterpillars in the sky ♪ ♪ Start as one living creature ♪ ♪ And metamorphosize ♪ ♪ After several weeks ♪ ♪ A butterfly emerges ♪ ♪ Searching for a mate ♪ ♪ To start the cycle over ♪ ♪ But first ♪ ♪ It pops its wings and flies around the town ♪ ♪ Up and down, round and round ♪ ♪ Landing on the plants and on the ground ♪ ♪ Showing off its symmetry ♪ ♪ It's such a pretty thing ♪ ♪ Beautiful colors ♪ ♪ Two identical flopping wings ♪ ♪ And when it's thirsty ♪ ♪ It has a straw-like tongue ♪ ♪ It starts sipping nectar from the plants ♪ ♪ Yum, yum, yum, yum ♪ ♪ And when it's cold ♪ ♪ It flies away towards the Mexico ♪ ♪ By the equator where it's warm ♪ ♪ It's where it wants to go ♪ ♪ And once it finds a mate ♪ ♪ It's onto the next stage ♪ ♪ It's gonna reproduce and lay a few hundred eggs ♪ ♪ And soon, you're gonna see ♪ ♪ More caterpillar heads ♪ ♪ Little itty bitty, weeny caterpillar heads ♪ ♪ Little itty bitty, teeny weeny ♪ ♪ Cute, sweetie, squirmy ♪ ♪ Bobby, smiling, happy ♪ ♪ Chewing crawling caterpillar heads ♪ ♪ Butterflies ♪ ♪ Butter butterflies flying in the sky ♪ ♪ With the wings so high ♪ ♪ I said butterflies ♪ ♪ Caterpillars in the sky ♪ ♪ Start as one living creature ♪ ♪ And metamorphosize ♪ ♪ Metamorphosis ♪ ♪ The change it undergoes ♪ ♪ Yes, you know ♪ ♪ Caterpillars, watch them grow ♪ ♪ They eat so fast, but move so slow ♪ ♪ When you think of stages ♪ ♪ Please think of four ♪ ♪ You've got the egg, larva, pupa, adult ♪ ♪ So let's explore ♪ ♪ The egg, larva, pupa, adult ♪ ♪ Say the egg, larva, pupa, adult ♪ ♪ Egg, larva, pupa, adult ♪ ♪ Say the egg, larva, pupa, adult ♪ (chill R&B music) Friends, I had a great time learning about things that fly.

Wasn't it cool making our own paper helicopter?

How can you improve the design to make it fly even farther?

See you next time.

- [Narrator] This program is made possible in part by Michigan Department of Education, the state of Michigan, and by viewers like you.

(upbeat rock music) (bright piano music)