G’day, Earth Rangers! You’re going to love this Australian episode, full of fascinating facts and Emma has a chat with her Australian friend, Safari Guide Lawrence about some of the most interesting critters that live in the land down under! Crikey!
Just click the play button on the player below and get ready for another adventure!
Welcome back, Stemologists! So far, we’ve learned how STEM can be used to clean up the ocean, and what makes a smart device so smart! This time, we’re taking a look at how STEM is being used to help an endangered species in South Africa: rhinos!
Did you know that almost 80% of all rhinos live in South Africa? It may sound like the country is overrun with these impressive beasts, but there aren’t nearly as many as you might think. That’s because the giant horn on their head makes them a big target for poachers.
Poaching is the illegal hunting or capturing of wild animals. It’s a huge threat for many species around the world, including rhinos. On average, three rhinos are killed a day due to poaching, and it’s really taking its toll on their population. If it keeps up, rhinos could become extinct in less than ten years.
We definitely do NOT want to live in a world without rhinos, do you? Thankfully, technology (the T in STEM) is here to help!
Picture this: you’re visiting South Africa’s Welgevonden Game Reserve, home to many different types of wildlife including most of the world’s remaining rhinos. The scenery is beautiful and – hey, is that antelope wearing a necklace? Not exactly! It’s a tracking device.
Zebras and antelopes, like impalas, elands and wildebeests, are sentinel species. A sentinel is someone who keeps guard, and that’s what these animals help to do for the rhinos. The rangers at the park put tracking device collars on these sentinel species and can watch how they move to figure out if poachers are nearby.
Sentinel species react differently to different disturbances, including poachers. Whenever the sentinel species move, the tracking collar detects a change in behaviour. The data from the collar lives in the cloud and is analyzed by special technology that determines whether the animals’ behaviour fits the movement pattern, speed, and direction that’s normally associated with a poacher sighting. If it does, it can alert the rangers that a poacher is in the area, all in real time! The rangers can then spring into action and stop the poacher long before any rhino is hurt.
And, in case you were wondering why rhinos aren’t tracked directly: tracking rhinos would potentially allow poachers to discover their exact location. That’s information we do NOT want to share.
Remember the Internet of Things we talked about before? Well, this is just one of the ways it’s being used to help animals. If we can use this technology to save rhinos, why not elephants or any other endangered species targeted by poachers? The answer is: we can. Technology like this is so powerful that its application for doing good is almost limitless.
The future is full of opportunities for smart STEMologists like you to harness the power of technology to make the world a better, safer place for all species!
IBM and the IBM logo are trademarks of International Business Machines Corp., registered in many jurisdictions worldwide.
Sources:
www.savetherhino.org/rhino-info/poaching-stats/
www.ibm.com/blogs/internet-of-things/protecting-endangered-rhinos/
Mother’s Day is just around the corner so we thought we’d take a look at an amazing mom from the animal kingdom: the black bear.
Say hello to Trudy!
Trudy is a black bear living on her own in one of British Columbia’s most beautiful forests. She spends her time eating berries, salmon and whatever else she can get her paws on. She’s got a big appetite these days because she’s expecting two cubs in the New Year.
Food isn’t her only focus; she’s also looking for the perfect place to make her den. Choosing a hidden spot deep in the forest will give her and her future cubs a safe place to stay for the winter. This den will protect her from the cold and any predators that might be out looking for a bite to eat.
The cubs will be born in late January and will be blind and very small (about the size of a hamster). It’s up to her to care for them as they grow, and it’s a tough job that will keep her awake and busy for the rest of the winter.
When spring arrives, the cubs will be raring to get outside and explore their new environment. They’ll jump around, play, and climb on trees, so it’s Trudy’s job to make sure they don’t get into too much trouble. She also needs to be on the lookout for predators. She will protect her cubs from all sorts of threats, like humans, wolves and even other bears.
In the fall, Trudy will need to start looking for another den for the winter, but this time, it will need to have room for her cubs, which will have grown much bigger. It will be a tight squeeze, but since it will be the last winter they spend together, Trudy is willing to make it work!
Winter will fly by and so will spring. Before she knows it, it will be June and Trudy will be saying goodbye to her babies as they head off on their own and eventually start their own families.
We think Trudy will be a great mom, and while her cubs might not celebrate Mother’s Day, you can celebrate it with your mom!
Source:
www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/mammals/a/american-black-bear
www.bearwithus.org/understanding-bears/the-black-bear-mother-her-cubs
www.hww.ca/en/wildlife/mammals/black-bear.html
Did you know that forests cover about 1/3 of the land in Canada? Now that’s A LOT of trees! Canada’s forests are home to thousands of different species of plants and animals including caribou, wolverines, bears, lynx, beavers and so many more. But our forests aren’t just for the animals. They are also important for us too!
Forests help us fight climate change, clean our water and give us lots of fresh air to breathe, but they also provide us with the resources to make products we use every day, like lumber to build houses and paper to make books. It would be a lot harder to get these things if we didn’t have forests.
Not only do our forests give us lots of things, they also give Canadians lots of jobs. In fact, over 200,000 Canadians work in the forest industry. This includes engineers, scientists, foresters, and paper manufacturers, just to name a few.
People come from all over the country to work in the forest industry! Together, they make Canada the 4th largest forest products exporter in the world. That means products from Canada’s forests are sent to over 180 countries!
There’s no doubt that forests are important for Canadians, but we have to be very careful about how much we take out of them. If we harvest too much, it can affect the health of the ecosystem, hurting the forests and Canadians too.
Thankfully, there are measures in place to stop that from happening. Canada’s forest regulations and laws are some of the strictest in the world. For example, any time a tree is harvested in Canada, a new one needs to be planted to take its place. In fact, over 600 million seedlings were planted in 2016 alone!
There are also organizations whose job it is to make sure our forests are managed properly. They review the way the forest is harvested and make sure it meets certain environmental, social and economic standards. If it does, then that forest is considered certified and the products from it can have a special label on their packaging.
What can you do?
– When you’re at the store, look for products with CSA, FSC or SFI label on the package. This means it comes from a forest that’s certified.
– Give new life to the products you already have. For example, turn your recycling into gifts and decorations with the Fantastic Crafts and When to Make Them Mission. Accept your Mission today!
Our forests are an important part of our environment, culture and economy, and if we can make sure that they are managed properly and cared for, they can continue to be for future generations.
Sources:
http://www.hww.ca/en/wild-spaces/boreal-forest.html
http://cfs.nrcan.gc.ca/pubwarehouse/pdfs/39329.pdf
https://www.nrcan.gc.ca/forests/fact-book/21682
http://www.fpac.ca/sustainable-forestry/initiative/
Animals are always doing funny things and sometimes their antics get caught on camera. And that’s exactly what the Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards are all about. We’ve picked 12 of the silliest, funniest and most hilarious animal pictures submitted to the contest just to share a chuckle with you!
We need your help! This crane is trying to tell us something but we can’t figure it out! Do you know what it’s thinking?
Have you ever wondered what goes on beneath the waves of the icy Arctic Ocean? Join Earth Ranger Emma today as she dives deep in her submarine and learns all about whales and other ocean life. After that, prepare to be amazed as Emma counts down a top ten list of HUGE animals! This episode is full of big fun!
Just click the play button on the player below and get ready for another adventure!
This April, when you raise money for a Bring Back the Wild animal, you’ll also be helping us protect some of Canada’s cutest critters. Plus, you’ll earn some cool rewards along the way.
us your best animal joke! Submit your joke by April 30, 2019, at 11:59 pm ET for your chance to win an awesome Earth Rangers t-shirt! Click on the show notes for more details.
Hello! Bonjour! Hola! Today’s podcast is all about communication. Join Earth Ranger Emma as she discovers what kind of bird can make the sound of a chain saw (really!), hikes through Algonquin Park with an expert on animal communication, and explores the four ways animals can communicate. It’s time to try and talk with the animals!
Just click the play button on the player below and get ready for another adventure!
Earth Month is our favourite month of the year and this year it’s time to “stand up for the little guys”! This April, when you raise money for a Bring Back the Wild animal, you’ll also be helping us protect some of Canada’s cutest critters. Plus, you’ll earn some cool rewards along the way.
animal jokes! Submit your joke by April 30, 2019, at 11:59 pm ET for your chance to win an awesome Earth Rangers t-shirt! Click on the show notes for more details.
Did you know that animals can get hurt by our household waste and recycling? They might get trapped in it, choke on it or cut themselves with it. If we aren’t careful about how we dispose of our containers, bags, cleaners, food, and other waste, it can mean real danger for animals in our neighbourhoods.
When you accept this Mission, you’ll get access to the R.A.W.R. Mission Brief, along with tons of tips that will help you make your household waste and recycling wildlife-safe!
To complete this Mission, you must:
– Read through the Mission Brief to learn why your household waste can be dangerous for hungry and curious critters
– Follow the tips to make your recycling safe for animals
– R.A.W.R. by taking the pledge to make your recycling wildlife-safe
– When you’re done, come back and let us know how it went!
Don’t forget to take it to the next level by decorating the area where you keep your recycling or your recycling bin! Use paint, markers, stickers, pictures and signs to remind you and your family to make your recycling wildlife-safe! We can’t wait to see what you create!
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Hey STEMologists! Have you accepted the Re-set the ‘stat Mission? It’s all about fighting climate change by adjusting the temperature of your home, and a great tool that can help you do this is a smart thermostat. 
It’s just one of the many smart devices that make our lives easier, but have you ever wondered what makes them so smart? Keep reading and find out!
You know how you use the internet to look stuff up and chat with your friends? Smart devices use the internet too! Things like appliances, cars, and yes, even thermostats, can use the Internet of Things (or IoT for short) to receive and exchange information.
Each device that is connected to the internet makes up the IoT. They share information through something called the cloud – no, not the ones in the sky, but the technology cloud.
The technology cloud lets devices and computers that are really far away from each other connect and share information. It is a network of different systems that stores data like photos, videos and other information (cloud storage), allows you to make updates 
to that data (cloud services) and has really powerful computers that run apps and websites (cloud servers).
Through the cloud, you can control your smart devices and access their data from anywhere just by opening an app on your tablet or phone.
Thanks to the IoT and the cloud, we can now access all sorts of new data from technology and devices that have been around forever. Now, we have…
• thermostats that know the current temperature of your home
• watches that can read a heart rate and/or body temperature
• weather devices that read wind speeds and humidity
• tools used during surgery to guide surgeons
• sensors on a car that can detect potential collisions
First, you need to know what a thermostat does: it lets you control the temperature of your home. If you’re too cold or too warm, just adjust the thermostat and you’ll be comfy in no time, but be careful about how much you adjust it because heating and cooling your home uses a lot of energy. 
Here’s where smart thermostats come in. Imagine you’re at school and your parents are at work. Your parents could adjust the thermostat from their phone so it wouldn’t have to work as hard to keep your house warm or cool from 8AM to 4PM, allowing you to save energy. Some smart thermostats can even ‘learn’ when you’re home or away and adjust the temperature on their own. If you’ve shared your phone’s location, your smart thermostat can even warm or cool the house as you get closer to home.
• Smart devices are ‘things’ that are connected to other ‘things’ through the internet. Together, they make up the Internet of Things (or IoT for short).
• Smart devices share and store information (data) using the cloud (the technology cloud, not the white fluffy things in the sky).
• You can control your smart devices using apps on your tablet or cell phone (which are also smart devices)
IBM and the IBM logo are trademarks of International Business Machines Corp., registered in many jurisdictions worldwide.
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