Tuesday, June 20, 2023
Parliament passes the Voice bill; a Rubik Cube record; Kids learning life lessons and the plague of stinky, gooey bugs.
LINKS
Squiz Kids Classroom Survey: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/Classroom
Kids learning practical skills and doing good for the local community: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-06-18/volcano-produce-farmer-helps-hands-on-learning-and-food-share/102473418
Cricket invasion: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/jun/17/mormon-crickets-nevada
Squiz Kids Shortcut to Refugees: https://www.squizkids.com.au/squiz-kids-shortcuts/refugees/
Squiz Kids Book Club: https://www.squizkids.com.au/book_club/may-2023/
Classroom Companion:
Teachers! Want to access free, curriculum-aligned classroom resources tied to the daily podcast? Sign up to be a Squiz Kids Classroom and download the Classroom Companion each day. Made by teachers for teachers, differentiated to suit all primary school ability levels. And did we mention it’s free?
Newshounds
Get started on our free media literacy resource for classrooms
https://www.squizkids.com.au/about-newshounds/
Stay up to date with us on our Squiz Kids Instagram!
Got a birthday coming up and you want a shout-out? Complete the form on our Squiz Kids website. Link: SHOUT OUTS or / send us an email at [email protected]
THE LOWDOWN
——-
It’s official, Australians will have the opportunity to vote, and have their say in having an Indigenous Voice to Parliament.
There was a huge applause in Canberra yesterday when the Senate passed the Voice bill; 52 votes to 19 – paving the way for an upcoming referendum.
What does that mean? A referendum is when people can vote on a political matter, where the outcome of that vote can change a policy or law.
And that referendum will now be held within 2 and 6 months time, with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese expected to announce the exact date shortly.
So this means all Australian citizens over the age of 18 will have the opportunity to change the constitution.
What is the Constitution? The Constitution is the set of rules and laws by which a country is run.
And the only way to amend the Constitution is by holding a referendum.
If the vote is in favour of The Voice – it would mean a group, called the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice – will be able to make representations to Parliament on all matters relating to Indigenous people.
SPIN THE GLOBE
——–
Each day we give the world globe a spin and find a news story from wherever it stops and today we’ve landed in California in America, where the Guinness World Records hosted a speed cubing competition.
Hands up if you’ve ever solved a Rubik Cube? You know the cube that has 6 sides and each side has 3 squares across and 3 squares down. The aim is to get all the same colour squares on the same face. I mean we have a Rubik Cube at home, and it took months to solve, so I can’t even believe that a speed cuber; That’s the professional term for a Rubik cube player managed to solve a Rubik Cube in an astonishing 3 point 1 3 seconds. 3 seconds and Done, Finished, Solved! It’s so crazy.
Guinness World Records filmed this amazing effort, so I’ll post a link of the video in your episode notes. Basically the Rubik Cube was hidden from 21 year old Max Park under a cup. Once the cup was removed, the clock started ticking. Max is seen carefully looking at the 6 different faces of the cube, then in a flash, his hands move so fast he moves the cubes into the correct pattern, completing the puzzle.
Max is a well known speed cuber, he also holds the record for the 4 by 4 by 4 cube, the 5 by 5 by 5 cube among others and there’s also a Netflix documentary about his achievements.
Max has autism and his parents wanted to find ways to help him develop his fine motor skills and once he picked up a Rubik’s cube, they realised how much the puzzles helped. Max’s motto is ‘don’t think. Just solve.’
SQUIZ KIDS SALUTES
—-
How good is this? A farmer who grows excess veggies to help people in need has joined up with local schools, teaching children how to harvest. These kids are learning invaluable life skills, they get to go outside and enjoy being on school excursions, because let’s be honest, how fun are school excursions? But they get to see how their hard work can go a long way to helping people in need. It’s a win win, win win.
Farmer Ben Pohlner grows vegetables at his property in Tower Hill in South West Victoria. He grows more vegetables than he needs, on purpose, so he can have leftovers to give for free to those in his local community who can’t afford fresh produce.
Farmer Ben says “If you see a problem, and you know you’ve got an answer, of course you’re going to have a go at resolving whatever it is.”
So this is where the local primary school has come to help. While Ben can grow the vegetables, he needs help getting them from the fields and distributed to the local community.
The school kids, dressed up in their high vis vests and gumboots come to learn from Ben how to harvest. Walking in two lines through the farm, the kids pick the produce. They work together and fill boxes of vegetables. Then these vegetables are donated to people in need.
It’s a life cycle of doing good.
The kids are learning practical skills and the invaluable lesson of doing something good for someone who needs.
ANIMAL KINGDOM
—-
This is an odd one to wrap your head around, but the the US state of Nevada is facing an invasion of insects, who are not only making roads dangerous and slippery, they are also creating quite the pong in the air.
Millions of flightless insects, known as Mormon crickets are swarming the Western United States as they migrate.
I’ll post a link in your episode notes, so you can see pictures of them, literally just blanketing the streets. I mean, there are just so many of them on the roads – if you’re driving down the street, there is just no way of missing them.
As these insects get squashed under tyres, an usual thing happens. I mean, yes they get squashed, so that’s not so unusual. But as so many are being run over, their dead little exoskeletons leave a slimy goo on the ground. This makes the roads slippery, but not only that, when the insect is crushed – they start to stink.
Plows are being used to scrape the remains up from the streets, and under siege locals have tried many unusual ways of trying to get rid of them using vinegar, soap and leaf blowers.
And if you really wanted to know, apparently they smell as bad as dog poop or rotting fish. Ewwwwwww.
//
Hey teachers – Squiz Kids needs your help. We’re trying to find out how useful you find our Classroom Companion resource so we can make plans for the future. There’s a link in today’s Episode Notes to a quick five-minute survey which we’d really appreciate if you could take. One lucky survey respondent will win a $150 Officeworks voucher – because, let’s face it, you can never have enough stationary. And a big Squiz Kids thank you in advance …
//
THE S’QUIZ
—————–
This is the part of the podcast where you get to test how well you’ve been listening …
- Australians will vote on a Voice to Parliament later this year. True or False?
- Insects are swarming parts of Nevada, when they get squashed by cars – two unusual things happen. One, they release a brown goo and what is the second thing.
- A traditional Rubik Cube has 6 different faces. On each face, there are 3 cubes across and 3 cubes down. So, here’s a maths question for you; how many cubes are there on each face?
SHOUT OUTS
——————-–
It’s June 20 – It’s World Refugee Day and if you want to learn more about Refugees, we have a great Podcast, it’s called Squiz Kids Your shortcut to Refugees. Where you can find out all about people who have had to leave their home countries for a safer life.
It’s also a special day for these Squiz Kids celebrating a birthday today … Charlie and Kale from Cronulla, Mikayla from Flagstaff Hill, Ryder from Cannon Hill, Tilly from Helensvale, CJ from Brisbane, Azlan from Oran Park, Tahaawia from Lake Bolac, Spencer from Moorooka, Boyd from Mount Barker, Leon from Ryde, Taz from Rosanna, Maddy from Orange, Skye from North Manly, Mila from Millfield, Patricia from Yeppoon, Taj from Narraweena, Gabe from Collaroy and Sophie listening in Manchester, England and Scott listening over in Ireland.
And belated shout outs go to… Claire from Sydney, Leonardo from Mountain Creek and Tintu from Orange.
Classroom shout outs go to… classes 6A and 6B with Miss Pearson and Mrs Trewhella at Echuca Primary School, class 5R with Mr McCann at Saint Paul’s Catholic Primary School in Albion Park, class 3/4V and Mrs Vale at New Lambton Public School, Ms Kingdom’s class at St Dominic’s Centre in Mayfield and lastly to the students at the Snowy Mountains School in Jindabyne and happy birthday to their teacher Mrs Butler.
The S’Quiz Answers:
- True
- They stink
- 9
Don’t forget .. if you’ve got a birthday coming up and you want a shout out – or if you want a classroom shout out – drop us a line at [email protected] or fill out the form on our website.
That’s all we have time for. Thanks for listening to Squiz Kids Today – we’ll be back again tomorrow.
In the meantime, get out there and have a most excellent day. Over and out.