What time is it?

It's Science Time!

♪ Oh, it's Science, Science, Science Time ♪ ♪ Let's all stop and just unwind ♪ ♪ One, two, three, four, here we go ♪ ♪ Learn so much, your brain explodes ♪ ♪ Lessons so cool, so fresh ♪ ♪ Feats so big, you'll lose your breath ♪ ♪ Learning facts and real cool stuff ♪ ♪ Scape 'em off, can't get enough ♪ ♪ It's Science Time ♪ ♪ It's fun, you'll best believe ♪ ♪ Explore and learn new things ♪ ♪ Come and join me, please ♪ I'm Mister C, and this super smart group is my science crew.

Working together with my crew makes learning so much fun.

Actually, you should join us.

Let's give science a try with a simple DIY.

Today, we're learning about birds.

What time is it?

[Crew] It's Science Time!

Welcome back to "DIY Science Time".

My name's Mister C, and I'm so excited that you're here to be part of our crew today.

(whip snaps) This show is for the birds.

-(birds chirping) -(drum bangs) No, literally, it's for the birds.

We're talking bird science.

And we're gonna have some fun building some cool stuff, so you can explore birds where you live.

Hey, question.

Why do birds, specifically chickens, love classical music?

Bach, Bach, Bach, Bach, Bach, Bach, Bach, Bach, Bach, Bach!

(Mister C laughs) Check out these materials you're gonna need to follow along.

Let's feed our curiosity, and build a bird feeder to give our feathered friends a snack.

For this activity, you'll need bird food, a glue gun, scissors, an empty container with a lid, strong rope or string, skewer sticks, and if you wanna be a know-it-owl, your hooty-hoo-hoo science notebook.

A science notebook is a tool that every scientist should have, because it gives us a place to record all of our learning.

Taking notes and being organized allows us to be better scientists.

A science notebook allows us to go back and review all of the data and information we've gathered during our experiments.

Plus, it allows us to share results with other scientists who might be interested in learning more about what we've discovered.

Whenever you see the notebook pop up on the screen like this, it's a reminder that this is a good place for us to jot down new information during the show.

I've already added a title and a list of materials for today's activity, but our crew is still going to have lots of information to collect and organize as we go through our experiments.

Most importantly, the more you use a science notebook, the better you'll get at taking notes and recording data.

If you don't have a science notebook already, download a copy of Mister C's science notebook from the website.

What makes a bird a bird?

Birds share many of the same unique characteristics.

For example, all birds have feathers with important purposes.

The color of a feather can attract a mate, or the type of feather can help keep a bird warm.

Some feathers help birds glide and fly long distances.

Other birds have feathers that help them silently swoop and pounce on their prey.

Most birds have hollow bones.

This allows them to fly more easily.

And all bird species have two legs, and they lay hard-shelled eggs.

Bird parents warm and protect their eggs until they're ready to hatch.

Good job, little mama.

(bird chirps) If you want birds to come to your neck of the woods, well, we need to feed 'em.

And the best way to feed 'em is to build a bird feeder.

And bird feeders are great because you can draw all sorts of birds to your home, and you can observe them.

And that's what we're doing today.

Focusing on birds!

(bird chirps) Let's get started.

You can use a bottle like this, you can use a two liter bottle, or if you have like a juice bottle at your house, you can use one of these too.

It doesn't matter, because the principle of the bird feeder is basically the same.

For this one, I'm going to use the smaller one for now.

All right, I'm going to draw a nice oval, and I'm gonna go to the other side.

I'm gonna try to draw a matching oval that's about the same size.

(Mister C laughs) It's not the same size, but it'll work.

It's close.

I'm gonna take these sharp scissors, and poke a hole in carefully.

I'm gonna do that on both sides to get it started.

Now I'm gonna use my other scissors here, and I'm just gonna use my line, and I'm just gonna kinda cut and make that circle.

-(plastic crunching) -(mellow music) They're about the same.

More importantly, that the height here is close to this one.

I can always make this one lower.

And the reason that's important is, we're going to want to be able to get the dowel rod through this thicker part of the plastic, the bottom part.

Now you can take a nail... (plastic clatters) And I'm gonna take that nail, and I'm going to match it on the other side, right under my oval.

(mellow music) There we go.

And then I can use my scissors to widen up that hole.

I'm gonna check my dowel rod to see if it fits.

And it does, and it comes straight across.

It's perfect.

Just like that.

And because I don't want this to slide out while my birds are hanging out, I'm going to hot glue this.

But I'm just going to place some glue here to lock this in place.

And I'm gonna do it on the other side as well.

(mellow music) While that's drying, we're gonna work on the cap.

Now the cap is where we're going to actually put the string through to hang this up anywhere we want.

And it's simple.

We're going to... Actually, I'm gonna use the bottle for this.

I'm just going to take the nail.

I'm just gonna push the nail through the bottle.

All right.

I'm gonna use the nail, push a hole through it, And then you can use the nail, or your scissors, to widen up that hole.

There we go.

Most importantly, be careful.

If you need help from an adult, this is a perfect time to ask for help, because the scissors are sharp.

Now we have our hole in the bottom of it, and we're going to use another piece of dowel to actually connect our strings.

So what you're going to do is you're gonna cut the dowel small enough so it just sits on the inside of the cap.

So I'm just going to sort of eyeball it and measure it.

And then I'm going to take my scissors, and I'm just going to take the scissors, I'm just gonna score it.

And what that means is, I'm just taking the scissors, and I'm just rolling it across the same point.

And once you score it, it literally just pops off.

And here's the test.

-Lays in perfectly!

-(crowd cheers) Now, you're gonna take that, you're gonna tie your string around it.

So I'm gonna start a knot first, like that.

And then I'm gonna put this in.

And then when I pull it tight, it'll be right there around it.

I'm gonna tie another knot, just to get it into place.

Keep it there.

Look at that.

And now when we push this through...

I'm gonna use the nail to help me push it through.

Once it comes through, grab it on the other side, and boop, perfect.

Pull it all the way through.

And now, when you tighten up that lid, nothing's going to get in the way, and it's going to be nice and snug.

And it's going to be able to hold our bird feeder really well when we hang it up.

-(bird feed rustles) -(mellow music) So, I need to pour my food.

(bird feed rattles) Yay!

This is so cool.

(mellow music) And there we have it!

Our very own bird feeder.

(crowd gasps) That's so cool.

I can't wait to put this outside.

We're gonna get all sorts of cool birds, and we're gonna try to get some videos to show you guys.

Build one of these!

Get birds to come to your neighborhood, so you can explore what kind of birds live in the environment where you live, and keep track of them in a bird journal.

Awesome.

♪ Oh, look what we have for our beautiful hook ♪ ♪ We've got a bird feeder, yeah ♪ (people clapping) Okay, now we let it hang, and we invite all of our feathery friends to come join us.

(uptempo lighthearted music) (uptempo lighthearted music continues) A great way to learn about birds is to observe and track them in your neighborhood.

And a great place to record that information is in a special bird journal.

Grab a few sheets of white paper, and a sheet of your favorite color of construction paper.

Fold all of the paper in half.

Carefully punch three holes along the folded edge of your papers.

Be sure to space them evenly.

Use a dull sewing needle and a thick thread to sew the pages together.

Start at the center hole, and weave in and out of the holes to bind your pages together.

Be sure to leave some extra string at the first hole, because you'll use this to tie it off.

Start at hole two, move to hole one, and then back through hole two.

(uptempo music) Now to hold three, and back to tie it off.

(uptempo music) Make notes about the types of birds you see.

Or if you get the chance, try to observe them while they're eating.

Meet the only bird in the world that is able to fly backwards.

It's your friendly neighborhood hummingbird.

These tiny little birds get their name from the humming sound they make while flapping their wings.

They can flap their wings 80 times per second.

These are the smallest species of bird in the world, and often travel over 20 miles per day searching for nectar.

The bee hummingbird is the smallest of all.

It measures less than three inches, and usually weighs less than a dime.

-(horn blows) -Career connections.

My name's Rebecca Jaramillo, and I am the director here at the Glen Helen Raptor Center.

So at the Raptor Center, we do wildlife education, and we do wildlife rehabilitation.

We take in just raptors and vultures.

The definition of a raptor is a bird that eats only meat, and it uses the talons on their feet to catch their food.

So if you think about "Jurassic Park" and the raptors, they had those big claws on their feet, and they were meat eaters and hunters.

Basically, that's what these guys are, with the exception of the vultures, which technically aren't raptors, but they're really cool, so we take care of them as well.

So let's go over and look at Ari.

Ari is one of our oldest residents here.

You poofing out?

Yeah!

Are you gonna say good morning?

(Ari hoots) Good morning, Ari.

So, this is Ari.

He is a barred owl, so not like the white ones, those are the barn owls.

But he's barred, like the barred as the stripes on his belly.

He is one of our educational ambassadors that came to us, because somebody actually found him out in the woods as a baby, and they didn't understand how barred owls fledged.

So when barred owls are babies, they come out of the nest, and they run around on the forest floor, and they're supposed to do that for about a week or so before they can fly.

That's natural, it's part of their process.

But not everybody understands that.

And so somebody saw him down on the ground as this little baby owl, and understandably thought that he needed to be rescued.

So, unfortunately, they rescued him by bringing him home.

And that wasn't really the best outcome for him, because he got a little bit too accustomed to people, and he decided that being with people was a lot easier than hunting on his own.

So he doesn't really hunt for his own food, he relies on people to bring him food.

But he's a great example of how we can take a story that maybe isn't the best, and teach people about, "Okay, so what could we have done in this situation?"

So that if they then find an orphaned animal, they'll know what to do for that animal.

(Ari hoots) In rehab, you know, we obviously mimic hunting as best we can, but for our resident ambassadors, so the ones that are gonna be with us for the rest of their lives, we use training with food as a great motivator.

We can use food as like that reward.

So with Flash, she asked her to move to a different platform, and when she did, Flash got a Tidbit.

And then she asked her to step up on the glove.

And when Flash stepped up, she got a Tidbit.

And so food is just always that reward, that thank you for doing what we asked you to do.

-(mellow synth music) -(Flash screeching) But it's a way that we can reinforce their training to make it all choice based.

You know, really trying to give the birds choice in their life.

They can't leave here, but they can still have choices and be, you know, an active participant in training.

And so, we just like to do as much of the birds' choice as possible, and then using food as that reward or that motivator.

I really love that every day is a little bit different.

I like that there's a basic kind of structure, underlying structure to my day and routine, but every day is different.

Some days I'm working training a bird, and that bird is, you know, maybe challenging me, or getting me to think differently.

I just love that unknown little bit.

I never know what my day's gonna look like, or maybe I think I know what my day's gonna look like, and then I get a phone call, and there's a bird that needs help, and I kinda have to shift gears and think on my feet, and just always moving, and I never get bored, 'cause it's always a little different.

(mellow synth music) And then this goes right here.

And then just hold right there.

(Rebecca chuckles) Oh, are you gonna... Oh!

[Mister C] Oh!

[Rebecca] That's called a rouse, and that's him just getting comfy.

Hi, buddy.

You are pretty.

You are so pretty.

It's amazing having him this close, because the talons are way bigger than I thought.

Like, in proportion to his body, they are ginormous.

And that's a falcon thing.

So the falcons have these really long toes, and really long talons, because essentially that's a bird net.

They're bird hunters.

And so the bigger their toes are, and the longer their talons are, the bigger that surface area is to grab onto their food.

He keeps looking at me like, "Uh, I'm not sure about this guy."

[Rebecca] Oh, he's super comfortable.

See how his feathers are kind of over the wingtips there?

Yeah, just relaxed.

[Rebecca] That's a sign of comfort.

He's chill as can be.

He's like, "Whatever."

And they're native to Ohio, right?

Uh huh.

They're the smallest falcon we have here in Ohio.

Believe it or not, they're not the smallest falcons in the world, but they're the smallest you'll find here in Ohio.

And really throughout North America.

Something that I always like to tell people is that having a connection to wildlife, whether it's endangered or really common, it's that connection to wildlife that's going to translate into you protecting it, by kind of inspiring people, and giving them that connection to anything.

You know, they're really empowered to then help to protect it.

So, that's really important to me.

I always tell kids, "You're a superhero."

You don't necessarily know it yet, but the power that we have as people is tremendous.

And we've got really great powers to just protect our little bubble.

That's part of what I love about working with these birds, and being able to bring the birds into classrooms.

It's not just about birds, but they're the hook.

They're hopefully what'll inspire that kid to be excited about something.

That's really important to me.

You know, I tell kids, "If it's a flower that motivates you, learn everything you can about that flower.

If it's birds, great.

If it's polar bears, great.

Whatever it is, just always keep learning."

And if you do that, your life is really exciting.

And you don't get bored, because you're always out there learning new things.

Did you know that a group of flamingos is called a flamboyance?

Flamingos are filter feeders, and get their bold colors from the food they eat.

Baby flamingos have white feathers.

Eventually, those feathers will change colors once they eat more of their favorite food.

Brine shrimp and blue-green algae.

That sounds like an interesting choice of food.

Birds are amazing.

They have beaks, talons, feathers, and most have the ability to fly.

But did you know that the beak structure determines what type of food they eat?

We can see how a specific bird beak is able to only eat specific types of food.

A small cone shaped beak is perfect to pick at little seeds or insects.

And then there's nectar in flowers, which is perfect for hummingbirds, who have those straw-like beaks to reach in and eat.

Without hands, birds have to rely on their beaks to pick up their food.

What type of beak would you need to eat your favorite meal?

Cacaw-cacaw!

We're gonna build a monocular, which is a type of telescope that's going to allow us to see farther distance and bring far objects into focus.

How do we do it?

With some lenses.

That's right.

Here I have two different types of lenses.

A double concave lens, and the double convex lens.

Now, these lenses are slightly different, and that means they behave differently.

Here, check this out.

If I take this lens like this, and I literally lift it up... (whimsical whistling) [Crowd] Ooh!

Isn't that cool?

It gets smaller.

My head is getting smaller.

That's because the light is bending.

It's changing the way the light is coming out of the lens.

Here, lemme show you what it looks with the double convex.

-(mysterious ringing) -(mellow synth music) Isn't that so cool?

It's making my head get bigger.

And so these two lenses paired together, allow us to see distances really far away up close.

So let's get started.

All right, I've had my eye on this experiment for quite some time.

(Mister C laughs) All right, I'm gonna slide these lenses over.

And for this, it's simple.

You need two pieces of construction paper, and these two lenses.

All right, first thing, you're going to roll up one piece of construction paper.

And we're going to attach the double convex lens first.

Now the thing is, I want the construction paper to be just slightly smaller than the diameter of the lens.

So right now, I think I'm pretty close.

And the reason for this is, I'm going to tape the lens to the front of it so that it doesn't fall into the tube.

So now that I have it pretty much where I want it, I'm going to take a piece of tape, and just put a piece of tape down the side to hold that construction paper in place.

I'm gonna put one more piece right down the center, so that it's nice and sturdy.

So I'm gonna get a bigger piece of tape.

That's huge.

Turn it upside down on my table.

I'm gonna put the lens right in front, touching it like this.

So I'm gonna bring this up closer to the edge, so that now when I have this here, I can wrap this over, gently, like that.

And I can bring this piece over, all the way around.

And now I'm not blocking any of the lens.

And that's the goal.

We don't wanna block the visibility of the lens.

So I'm just gonna wrap this around and tighten it up a little bit.

(mellow music) Okay, that looks pretty good.

So right now, it's basically just like a magnifying glass.

Gets bigger.

But I want to be able to adjust what that looks like.

So that's what we need our other lens for.

So I'm gonna roll this one up.

All right, that's pretty good.

(lens clatters) I'm just gonna put one piece of tape here.

And on this side, I'm actually not too worried about it being too small.

'Cause if I slide this in, this is gonna keep the paper from expanding and coming apart.

And so now, it actually applies pressure to the inside of the tube, and it actually just kinda keeps it in place so it's not as wobbly.

But now I still have to add my lens to this side.

It's still pretty good.

So I'm gonna do the same thing I did earlier.

Get a piece of tape.

(tape stretches) Place it sticky side up.

I'll put my lens right in front, tape it to the side.

I'm gonna try to wrap this around carefully so it doesn't fall off.

Try to keep it centered.

Okay, there we go.

(mellow music) All right, let's give it a test.

Whoa!

The camera's so close!

Oh, and then I can make it closer by pulling it apart, and I can make it look like it's further away by putting it together.

I think we should go out and give this a try and see if we can actually see some birds.

Don't you think?

(upbeat lighthearted music) Oh my goodness.

Oh!

(chuckles) It works so well.

(mellow lighthearted music) The bird right there, I got it.

(mellow lighthearted music) And what I love about this is literally by adjusting it back and forth, I can get it into focus.

(mellow lighthearted music) Penguins are birds and they have wings, but they don't fly through the air like other birds.

Instead, their wings have evolved to help them dive and swim.

A group of penguins on land is called a waddle, and a group of penguins and water is called a raft.

Ahoy, mateys!

We're ready to join your waddle.

I've been gathering lots of information about birds today.

I also added notes about Rebecca, and the work she does as an ornithologist.

Wouldn't it be so much fun to help all the birds at the Raptor Center?

You can also help birds in your neighborhood by making a bird feeder.

Does the shape or color of the container attract different types of birds?

What type of bird food do your neighborhood birds like best?

Watch all the birds with your crew, and jot down what you find in your neck of the woods.

What an amazing day learning about birds.

I feel like I've gotten my wings because I've learned so much.

(Mister C whistles) Speaking of which, one more thing.

Look at these birds here.

I'm wondering, what did you two eat for dinner?

(Mister C laughs) I bet it's something different, because if you look at this beak, this beak is designed to tear into flesh, and rip things apart.

This is the skull of a red-tailed hawk.

This is a bird of prey.

While this is a chicken.

Bawk!

This chicken, look at its beak.

It's designed to grab things off the ground, and peck at grain and worms, and things like that.

A little bit different than this one.

That's what I love about birds.

They're so unique.

They can fly, they have feathers, most of their bones are hollow.

It's amazing!

That's why you need your science notebook.

Hop online and download it so you can keep track of all the experiments, and all the things you're doing to observe birds.

And build a bird journal.

Because you're gonna be outside looking at all the birds after you make a bird feeder, because they're gonna come to your house, they're gonna be like, "You're taking care of me.

I love you so much!

You're feeding us!"

And when you're out there, one last thing, you're gonna bust out with your monocular.

You're gonna be like, "I'm gonna check out the birds!"

Why?

Because with this, you can see 'em flying through the sky.

Keep learning, keep exploring, keep having fun.

And remember, science is wherever you are.

This gotta get back outside and check out some birds.

There we go.

My scissors just broke.

(Mister C laughs) ♪ It's Science Time ♪ (plastic bottle clatters) Just in case you wanna build the exact same monocular... ♪ It's Science Time ♪ (Mister C laughs) I think we should get out... Buh.

♪ It's Science Time ♪ What am I supposed to say?

Part skeleton, it's a chicken.

Bawk!

Peck things off the ground.

(Mister C clucking) (Mister C laughs) Monocular.

♪ Yes, you best believe ♪