Crash Course Kids

Welcome to Crash Course Kids. In this first episode, Sabrina takes a look at why all living things need to eat. Plus, she shows you a way to investigate why all living things need to eat. This first series is based on 5th grade science. We're super excited and hope you enjoy Crash Course Kids!

FEED ME! In this episode of Crash Course Kids, Sabrina has a chat with us about what living things eat to get energy. What makes something an omnivore, or a carnivore, or an herbivore? And how do plants fit in to all of this? This first series is based on 5th grade science. We're super excited and hope you enjoy Crash Course Kids!

Welcome to the Neighborhood! Humans need a lot of things to survive (I'm sure you've noticed). We need food, water, and shelter and it takes a lot of resources to get all of those things. What are resources? In this episode of Crash Course Kids, Sabrina talks about what resources are and how we use them. And you might be surprised where all of it starts. This first series is based on 5th grade science. We're super excited and hope you enjoy Crash Course Kids!

Want a Pineapple? If you want a pineapple, it's possible you can just run down to the store and get one. But, if you wanted to grow one, that's a lot more difficult depending on where you live. In this episode of Crash Course Kids, Sabrina talks about how humans get the resources we need to survive, even though those resources may come from a long way away.

Hey... what's matter? No no no, not what's THE matter. What's MATTER? In this episode of Crash Course Kids, Sabrina talks about what matter is and the three states of matter: Solid, Liquid, and Gas. She also does a quick experiment that you can do at home to prove that air is matter.

Have you ever heard the phrase, "You look like a Million Bucks?" Well, you do... but you also look like a million particles. In this episode, Sabrina talks to us about matter and particles and that all matter is made up of particles. Also, she shows us how matter can change states from a solid to a liquid, a liquid to a gas, a gas to a solid, or a liquid to a solid.

So, if gravity pulls everything down, then why don't things on the bottom of the Earth get pulled down into space? In this episode of Crash Course Kids, Sabrina talks about gravity and explains that when we talk about gravity pulling things down, what we really mean is gravity is pulling things TOWARD the Earth. Really, it's all about attraction.

In this episode of Crash Course Kids, Sabrina talks about why things on the bottom of the Earth, don't just fall off into space. Plus... PENGUINS!

Every hear of "Sol"? Sure you have! It's our Sun! It sits at the center of our 8 planet solar system, providing us with heat and light. But how does that energy get to us? In this episode of Crash Course Kids, Sabrina chats about the sun; what it is, how it works, and how the energy gets to us here on Earth.

Have you ever seen a magic trick where one thing changes to another thing? Well, that's nothing compared to what plants can do through a process called photosynthesis. In this episode, Sabrina talks about how photosynthesis works!

The second part of our two part tale of the puzzle that is Earth. In this episode, Sabrina talks about the Hydrosphere and the Atmosphere and what is contained in each one. Let's dive in!!!

In this episode of Crash Course Kids, Sabrina talks about two of the four spheres that make up our planet; The Geosphere and the Biosphere. What's in these spheres? How do they affect us? How do they fit into the puzzle that is Earth? All is contained within!

Everyone eats, right? But how does that food get the energy to power you? In this episode of Crash Course Kids, Sabrina talks about the way energy moves, or flows, through an ecosystem and how that movement forms Food Chains!

We've talked about food chains and how energy moves through an ecosystem, but let's take a step back and see how everything starts... and ends. Decomposers!

So, have you ever wondered why we have seasons? Or maybe where the sun goes when it's night time? *Hint: It doesn't actually go anywhere* In this episode of Crash Course Kids, Sabrina talks about the Earth's rotation and revolution and how these things contribute to night and day and how Earth's tilt gives us seasons.

Have you ever wondered why your shadow is longer sometimes and shorter others? It turns out it all has to do with that marvelous big ball of light in the sky; The Sun!

Remember pre-school? If not, IT WAS SO MUCH EASIER! But when you were stacking blocks and figuring out which block went into which shaped hole, you were learning about properties. In this episode of Crash Course Kids, Sabrina talks about what properties are and how we can measure them to tell us more about an object.

So now that we know what Properties are, how can we use them to figure things out? In this episode of Crash Course Kids, Sabrina uses them to solve the mystery of what she tripped over last night.

We've already talked about how the Earth is divided into four spheres (The Hydrosphere, the Biosphere, the Geosphere, and the Atmosphere). But, how do these different sphere interact with each other? In this episode of Crash Course Kids, Sabrina chats with us about how two of the spheres do, in fact, work together.

In this episode of Crash Course Kids, Sabrina gives us a real world example of how the Hydrosphere and Geosphere affect each other in the form of Weathering and Erosion. Think of Weathering as the force that makes a mess and Erosion as the force that cleans it up.

Ever wonder why we have seasons? A lot of people think it's because the Earth gets further away from the sun in winter, and closer in the summer. But, it's actually more interesting than that. In this episode of Crash Course Kids, Sabrina talks about how the Earth's tilt is responsible for Winter, Spring, Summer, and Fall.

Plants are amazing. Really! Photosynthesis is an incredible thing. But it also means that some plants can't live everywhere. They need to get the right amount of sunlight for the right amount of time. In this episode of Crash Course Kids, Sabrina chats about how the tilt of the Earth makes for both prime and not-so-prime growing conditions for things like pineapples.

You've heard of Engineers, I'm sure. But, what are Engineers? Well, it turns out that they're all kinds of people doing all kinds of neat work! Want to be one? Well, join Sabrina in this episode of Crash Course Kids where she talks about what they do and why they do it!

So, how do we go about being engineers? In this episode of Crash Course Kids, Sabrina talks to us about the Engineering Process and why we should do things in order, as well as many of the questions we should ask along the way.

Do you know how many people have been to the moon? Only 12! Part of the reason it's so few is because of how difficult it is to escape Earth and get into space in the first place. In this episode of Crash Course Kids, Sabrina talks about gravity, escape velocity, and how gravity works between two objects.

Sabrina gets a new set in this episode of Crash Course Kids. Do you want to be an astronaut? Would you like to someday walk on the moon? Well, you better learn a little about gravity so you can escape from Earth and head into space. Today, Sabrina chats with us about what it takes to get to the moon!

We have a lot of water on Earth, but we also can't actually drink much of it... or use it for farming. That's because most of the water on Earth is saltwater. We humans, like a lot of living things, need freshwater to survive. In this episode of Crash Course Kids, Sabrina talks about the difference between freshwater and saltwater and why freshwater is so important.

So you know about Freshwater and Saltwater now and you know that there's not that much Freshwater for us (and other life) to get to. So how do different animals deal with different amounts of water where they live? In this episode of Crash Course Kids, Sabrina talks about the adorable Nerpa and how they deal with rough conditions to live in Freshwater!

Quick, think of three words to describe yourself. TIME'S UP! What did you think of? Chances are you thought of descriptive words that we call Properties. In this episode of Crash Course Kids, Sabrina talks about how properties help us understand objects.

Even an empty lunch sack is useful to science. You can examine it and come up with some traits. In this episode, Sabrina chats about things like malleability, hardness, conductivity, and magnetism. And all with lunch!

Remember Sol, the closest star to Earth? We like to call it The Sun and we haven't talked about it in a little while. One interesting thing about the energy we get from the sun is that it's not absorbed the same way by different materials. In fact, even at the beach you can do a nice little investigation that shows this very well. In this episode of Crash Course Kids, Sabrina chats about how the properties of land and water differ enough for absorption and reflection.

So... what makes the wind? You might be surprised to learn that it has to do with two of Earth's spheres; The Hydrosphere and the Geosphere. In this episode of Crash Course Kids, Sabrina takes us to the beach to chat about how the wind comes into being and why that's pretty darn awesome!

If you look out your window, you'll probably notice a bunch of things; houses, streets... hopefully a tree. But beyond that you'll see things like mountains, rivers, volcanoes... well, hopefully not a volcano. These are landforms and they come in different varieties. In this episode, Sabrina chats about how things like mountains, volcanoes, and plateaus come into being.

The world changes. It really does! But sometimes it changes so slowly that we don't notice it. Other times it changes REALLY FAST!!! In this episode of Crash Course Kids, Sabrina talks about some of the reasons things can change quickly or slowly.

So, how do engineers even figure out what problem needs to get fixed? And what's the difference between identifying a problem and just complaining about something. In this episode of Crash Course Kids, Sabrina talks about how we can all be better Engineers by understand what problems we want or need to solve.

In our last episode, Sabrina talked about how Engineers define the problems they need to solve. But how do you know when you've actually solved a problem? What do you expect to happen that would equal success? In this episode, Sabrina chats about how Engineers look at results to help them know when they've achieved success.

So you know that iced tea you like so much? Or that sweet soda drink? They're actually a few different things combined to make a new thing. In this episode of Crash Course Kids, Sabrina talks about all the different mixtures, solutions, and ants that can be at a picnic.

We've talked about mixtures and solutions, solutes and solvents, but what about things that can't be undone? What about Chemical Changes? Would it surprise you to know that baking a cake is a Chemical Change? Or striking a match? In this episode of Crash Course Kids, Sabrina talks to us about how to tell if you have a chemical change on your hands.

So you know what a star is, right? Well, if you don't, you should. We've talked about that big one in the sky a few times: The Sun! But there are a lot of bright dots in the night sky and not all of them are stars. Today, let's play a game of "Star or Not a Star" to learn a little more about everything that's up there.

So, have you ever wondered why some stars are brighter than others? You might think it's because they're closer to us, but that's not the whole story? In this episode of Crash Course Kids, Sabrina chats about how stars glow and how astronomers judge their brightness. Also, she talks about a really, really, really big star.

How would a Polar Bear do if you put it in the desert? Not well. But why? Why can't anything live anywhere? Well, this has to do with Habitats and how animals (including humans) are suited for living in one place over another. In this episode, Sabrina talks about how these Habitats form Food Webs and how those Food Webs help us understand a lot about the world.

Last time we put a Polar Bear in the desert and we still feel bad about that, but there's a lot more going on in ecosystems than just temperature. In fact, there are so many elements in ecosystems, that if just one leaves or gets out of whack, it can be terrible for the whole thing. But today, let's talk about Spider Monkeys.

So, why doesn't the moon just crash into the Earth? And why doesn't the Earth crash into the Sun? What are orbits exactly and why do they happen? Well, it has to do with gravity and velocity. In this episode of Crash Course Kids, Sabrina talks to us about how these things work and why we don't need to worry about the moon colliding with us.

Last week we talked about the orbits of the Earth and our Moon. But today we're going to go a little bigger... well, a lot better. Did you know that there is a massive Black Hole at the center of our Galaxy? Or that Pluto's orbit is really... weird? Today, Sabrina talks about these things and more on Crash Course Kids.

So when water evaporates, what happens? Where does that water go? Does just vanish? Is it no more? Can matter every just go away? Well, the answer is no, it can't. But it can LOOK like it does. In this episode of Crash Course Kids, Sabrina shows us how Conservation of Mass actually works with Sugar and Water.

Playing with LEGOS is fun. But, they can also teach us something about matter. In this episode of Crash Course Kids, Sabrina chats about chemical reactions and the Conservation of Matter.

Water travels... a lot. In fact, the water cycle is amazing and takes water all over the planet by using evaporation, condensation, and precipitation. In this episode of Crash Course Kids, Sabrina shows us how the water cycle works and how you can create a mini water cycle right in your own kitchen!

Today we continue our exploration of the Water Cycle by drinking some dinosaur pee. Yep! Well, it's a little less gross that it sounds. It turns out that all of the water on Earth is just constantly recycled in what we call a closed system. No water comes in and no water goes out. So that means that, at some point, it's possible the water we're drinking was once dinosaur pee... or tears...

So... how big is the Universe? It's big... really big... no, bigger than that... it's big. In this episode of Crash Course Kids, Sabrina gives us some perspective on this whole Universe thing and how we fit into it.

Down here, on Earth, if you look up at the night sky, it seems like all the stars up there look the same. Or maybe at least similar. But, it turns out that stars are very different and we shouldn't stereotype them. Some are bigger, some burn through their hydrogen faster, some are one color, and some are another color. In this episode of Crash Course Kids, Sabrina chats about their difference and tells us what those differences mean.

So, there might not be just one solution to a problem. I know that may sound weird, but it's true. So, how do you come up with multiple solutions? In this episode of Crash Course Kids, Engineer Sabrina shows us how to do that.

Selecting which solution is the best solution to a problem may seem difficult at first. But if you are patient and think about what you need an effective solution to be, you can do it. In this episode of Crash Course Kids, Sabrina shows us how to do just that by going back to our original problem at the gorge.

So... do plants need dirt? The truth might shock you. In this episode of Crash Course kids, Sabrina talks about how plants get energy and how that energy is transported around them. Also, she talks about dirt.

Plants! We absolutely depend on them. Oxygen, food, and looking super nice to boot! But, plants have a lot more going on than meets the eye. How do we know that? Investigations and Experimentations!

So we have Weather and Climate... but are they the same thing? No, no they are not. But they are both super important to how the geosphere is shaped. In this episode of Crash Course Kids, Sabrina chats with us about the differences between Weather and Climate.

So, what's the difference between "weather" and "severe weather"? Is it just how hard the wind is blowing? Is it just thunder and lighting? Well, it can be some or all of those things. In this episode of Crash Course Kids, Sabrina talks to us about what makes Severe Weather and how it interacts with the Geosphere and Biosphere.

Variables: What are they? In the case of engineering, variables are a condition or value that can change. Sometimes we control a variable, sometimes we don't. In this episode of Crash Course Kids, Sabrina chats to us about how variables affect our choices as engineers.

So how can a game teach us about engineering? Pretty easily! When you're trying to solve a game, or a puzzle, or whatever, you will have a bunch of variables. The trick is knowing how to change one variable at a time to see what changes. In this episode of Crash Course Kids, Sabrina plays a game with Catbot to show us how!

Today we're going to take a hike up Mt. Kilimanjaro so we can talk about how the geosphere changes based on many different things. On the same mountain we can travel through many different habitats like rain forests, savannas, and moorlands. Let's take a walk with Sabrina and see how!

Last week we went up up up a mountain. Well, today we're going down down down into the ocean to see what habitats await us there. Yep, the ocean has layers and the types of things we encounter there change the deeper we go.

So, you know about stars. But what if those stars formed a super group like The Avengers? Well, then you have a Constellation! In this episode of Crash Course Kids, Sabrina chats about stars, constellations, and how humans have used constellations to tell stories for a really long time.

Let's say you're looking for a specific constellation in the sky, but can't find it? That could be because you're on the wrong part of the planet to see it. In this episode of Crash Course Kids, Sabrina talks about how the Earth's rotation and axis can affect what we see in the night sky.

So, what would happen if you dropped a hammer and a feather at the same time, from the same height? Well, the hammer would hit the ground first, right? But why? You might think it's because the hammer is heavier, or has more mass than the feather. But it's actually not because of that at all. In this episode of Crash Course Kids, Sabrina shows us that the rate at which things fall to Earth has to do with something called air resistance... oh, and we take a trip to the moon.

Air resistance! It's a thing! In this episode of Crash Course Kids, Sabrina does her own Astronaut Experiment to show us how we can prove it!

What happens to a single ecosystem when the amount of freshwater available in it changes? Not really much good. In this episode of Crash Course Kids, Sabrina talks about ecosystems and how one small change can lead to a cascade effect in the entire ecosystem.

So, how are people fixing their water problems? In this episode of Crash Course Kids, Sabrina talks about a few different examples how some freshwater sources were good, then bad, then made good again. Also, Sabrina talks about parasites, fish, and dams!

What are air currents? Air currents are like rivers of wind caused by areas of high and low pressure.The air above the land is warmer and less dense, so it rises. The air over the water is cooler and heavier. The cool air rushes in toward the low-pressure zone over the land, forming a lovely sea breeze. But what about Jet Streams? In this episode of Crash Course Kids, Sabrina chats with us about all things relating to Air Currents.

Why is my weather app sometimes wrong? Well it has a lot to do with wind. Jet Streams, air cells, the shape and movement of the Earth... there are a lot of things that make weather a little unpredictable. In this episode of Crash Course Kids, Sabrina talks to us about how Ocean Currents actually work with Jet Streams to move weather around.

Have you ever thought about all the different kinds of groups you’re a part of? Like, there’s the friends you hang out with and your family, your hockey team, your Crash Course fan club, and that’s just for starters! And even though these groups are totally different, in each of them there’s something that all its members have in common. We've learned that all objects---that is, all things made of /matter/--- have properties, qualities that make them different from one another. Like, the metal water bottle we had in our lunch bag was a good conductor of heat, and the fruit strip was more malleable than the potato chip. Just like groups of people have major things in common, so do different materials. So how does that work? How can we group materials by their properties?

What exactly can we tell about an unknown substance by it's properties. We already know that a substance is matter that’s made of one kind of atom or molecule, and that has specific properties and that some substances are elements, which means they can’t be broken down into other substances through physical changes or chemical reactions. We also know that we can group substances and elements by their properties like we found that all of the metal things from the bottom of my backpack were shiny and attracted to a magnet. So metals have high reflectivity and magnetivity. What else do we know about metals?

So, what happens when there's not enough water? Well... not good things. Do we let homes have more water for showering and cooking? Or do we let farms have the water for growing crops? There aren't any easy solutions, but today Sabrina chats with us about how water scarcity can cause problems.

How can we fix water shortages? Well, we know that shortages are a problem and can cause fighting because water is a resource. When you limit a resource, things get scary. But, in this episode of Crash Course Kids, Sabrina talks about ways that we can help to fix problems like this.

We've talked about constellations; groups of stars in the night sky that we assign names to. But there are a certain group of special constellations called The Zodiac that Sabrina is going to chat about. Gemini, Sagittarius, Scorpio? You've heard of them and now is your chance to get to know them a little more.

So, what is the Ecliptic? Well, it has to do with the Zodiac constellations and our sun and how they move in relation to one another. It's kind of cool! In this episode, Sabrina chats about this imaginary line called the Ecliptic and its cycle in the sky.

Did you know that all living things change their environments? It's true. Beavers, deer, worms, and humans all change their environments. It just so happens that humans change our environments in big, obvious ways. In this episode, Sabrina chats about how humans have been changing our environments for a long time!

What do beavers, termites, and prairie dogs have in common? They all change their environments! Last time we talked about how humans change their environments, but humans are animals and all animals change their environments just by living in them.

So, variables. There are lots of them when trying to test an idea. The trick is to isolate one variable at a time to get reliable results every time. But, how do we do that? In this episode of Crash Course Kids, Sabrina shows us how to isolate variables at the bowling alley!

We've talked about variables and solving problems. But how do we keep working on a problem if the first solution doesn't fix it? Trials! In this episode of Crash Course Kids, Sabrina shows us how to use Trials to figure out what the problems are with our solutions.

So, we know what materials are, but can we make new materials? Or improve the materials we already have? In this episode of Crash Course Kids, Sabrina shows us how Material Scientists are working on these two things today. Also, your cell phone holds the answer.

Did you know we can actually make diamonds in a lab? It's true! We can! And this is both really good and really cool. In this episode of Crash Course Kids, Sabrina shows us how materials scientists have done just that and why it's so important.

Have you ever heard of the Peppered Moth? It's a great example of how living things can change because their environment has changed. And it's not just them! There used to be giant insects roaming the world, but they got smaller through time because their environments changed. In this episode of Crash Course Kids, Sabrina gives us some examples of how and why living things change because of their environments.

How does climate change? And what happens to environments and ecosystems when it does? In this episode of Crash Course Kids, Sabrina shows us the effects that climate change can have and how one small change in an ecosystem can throw everything off.

We all know that failure is bad... but is it? Actually, Engineers need things to fail so they can understand how to make things better. In this episode of Crash Course Kids, Sabrina chats to us about failure points and how they can help us find better solutions to problems.

Now that we've talked about failure points, let's talk about how to fix them. In this episode of Crash Course Kids, Sabrina shows us how to set up models and trails to find and fix failure points.

Do other planets have weather? It turns out that, yes, they do! But, the weather isn't all the same on other planets because of things like atmosphere. In this episode of Crash Course Kids, Sabrina takes us on a tour of the weather on the rocky planets in our solar system.

Last time, we learned that there is in fact weather on other planets. But those were the rocky planets, like Earth. What about the big Gas Giants? What's the weather like there? In this episode of Crash Course Kids, Sabrina takes us on a virtual tour of the Gas Giants and shows us what kind of weather we can expect.

It's time to design some trials. Sometimes engineers need to figure out how to test ideas. In order to do that, we need to design trials to find failure points and see how things are going to work in the real world (with gravity, wind, and human error all factored in). In this episode of Crash Course Kids, Sabrina takes us to the fair to help us design a trial.

More trials! This time we need to figure out what to do if you don't have all the things you'd like to have to perform your tests. How do you isolate a variable across multiple tests? A good engineer will work to find a way to make it happen. In this episode of Crash Course Kids, Sabrina shows us some ways to do just that.

Have you ever wondered if there is anyone (or anything) else out there in the universe? Well, you're not alone. But what would alien life look like? And what would their food chains and food webs look like? In this episode of Crash Course Kids, Sabrina gives us some ideas about what we might find out there... some day.

So we know what life needs here to work, and we've talked a little about what life COULD look like on other planets. But what about plant life? What could plant life look like on other planets? In this episode of Crash Course Kids, Sabrina chats to us just about that.

Ever heard of Oobleck? How about Non-Newtonian fluids? Well, today Sabrina is going to show us that things can sometimes behave like a solid, and sometimes like a liquid depending on how much force is applied to them. In this episode of Crash Course Kids, we'll talk about some weird stuff that's still... normal.

So, what happens to normal stuff (like water) when it goes to not so normal places? What happens if you take a glass of water to the top of Mt. Everest? Or Space? In this episode of Crash Course Kids, Sabrina shows us how matter is affected by different pressures and how that make water do some weird things.

Robots! They're everywhere. We use them for all kinds of things that we can't, or don't want to do. In this episode of Crash Course Kids, Sabrina shares a problem with us that can probably be solved by building an awesome robot. So let's take the robot challenge!

If we want to build a place for us to live, or to hang out, or do eat dinner with our friends, we're going to need a special kind of engineering called architecture. In this episode of Crash Course Kids, Sabrina gets us to help her build a place where she can have some alone time and rock out to Taylor Swift.

So, we've built a lot of things over the last year and we've become awesome engineers in the process. But now it's time for a real challenge. Let's build a city! That's right, you heard me! In this episode, Sabrina shows us what we need to think about when we start engineering something as huge and full of problems as a city!

It's the end of this first year of Crash Course Kids and we've learned so many things. In this episode, Sabrina takes us on a tour of some of the ideas we've talked about and how they fit into our lives. Also, what all of these ideas mean for our future.