Questions for discussion

Burnt home visit1. Explain the BtN story to another student.2. In your own words, describe the impact fires have had on

families living in the fire zone.3. How do you think Michael, Chloe, Anne and Louie felt knowing

the fires were near their home?4. How did their parents survive the fires?5. What mementoes did they save?6. How did Gizmo survive?7. How is the family being supported?8. What are their plans for the future?9. If you could ask the family a question, what would it be?10. What do you understand more clearly about the impact of the

bushfires on families?

Send a message or tell us what you think on the BtN Guestbook.

Fire zone kids1. What was the main point of the story?2. Use three adjectives to describe the images in the BtN story.3. What does `getting back to normal’ mean for the students

Sarah spoke to?4. Why is filming restricted in some areas of the fire zone?5. How do the students at Kinglake West Primary School feel

about returning to school?6. Why do you think school is an important place for them at the

moment?7. Where are some of the students living at the moment?8. In your own words, retell a student’s bushfire story. 9. What character traits do you think these students needed

during the bushfires?10. Write a short message to the students returning to school and

post it on the BtN Guestbook http://abc.net.au/news/btn/guestbook.html .

Use the Internet to research schools that have re-opened since the bushfires. Record the schools on a map.

Animal rescue1. Retell the BtN animal rescue story in your own words.2. Describe the impact the Victorian bushfires has had on native

animals.3. Explain the concern that some species may have become

endangered because of the fires.

© ABC 2009

EPISODE 3

3RD MARCH 2009

4. What is happening at Healesville sanctuary?5. What sort of injuries do the animals have?6. What is meant by the statement `in the wild you have to

compete to survive’?7. What has happened to the sources of food for many animals

affected?8. Why can’t the animals be moved to another area of bush?9. Why do you think animals might be described as the `silent

victims’ of the bushfires?10. How did this story make you feel?

Create an A-Z list of words about native animals.

Wall Street 1. Describe the significance of Wall Street.2. In which country and city is Wall Street?3. What are stocks or shares?4. Give some examples of companies or businesses that people

can buy shares in.5. What happens when a lot of people want a certain stock?6. Why does the price of some stocks go down?7. What is a stock market crash and why is it bad?8. What impact can a crash on Wall Street have on the rest of the

world?9. What is an index? Give an example of one.10. What do you understand more clearly since watching the BtN

story?

Complete the word puzzle about the stock market at http://www.younginvestor.com/pdfs/ExchangesAndMarkets.pdf

Orang-utan1. Briefly summarise the BtN orang-utan story.2. What does the word orang-utan mean?3. In which countries do they live?4. How do males and females differ in appearance?5. What is happening to the orang-utans’ homes?6. In which products would you find palm oil?7. Why is it difficult for consumers to know if products contain

palm oil?8. What did recent studies find out about orang-utan numbers?9. Why is palm oil important to countries like Borneo and

Sumatra?10. What do you think should happen next?

`Should jungle clearing be stopped to protect orang-utans?’ Vote in the online poll.Test your knowledge in the online quiz.

© ABC 2009

Fire zone kidsIn Victoria, families have begun the long process of getting back to normal. For some students, this means returning to school and getting back into a routine.

Focus Questions

11. What was the main point of the story?12. Use three adjectives to describe the images in the BtN story.13. What does `getting back to normal’ mean for the students

Sarah spoke to?14. Why is filming restricted in some areas of the fire zone?15. How do the students at Kinglake West Primary School feel

about returning to school?16. Why do you think school is an important place for them at the

moment?17. Where are some of the students living at the moment?18. In your own words, retell a student’s bushfire story. 19. What character traits do you think these students needed

during the bushfires?20. Write a short message to the students returning to school and

post it on the BtN Guestbook http://abc.net.au/news/btn/guestbook.html

Life after the firesStudents will explore an aspect of the Victorian bushfires through the following activities. Negotiate with students how many activities they will need to complete. Some web links have been provided at the end of this activity to support students. Understanding yourself Students will reflect on their own experiences of change and loss. Ask students to think about and record:

Significant changes in their life over the past few years Things that were lost (friendships) How they felt about the changes or loss (sad, angry, anxious) What they did to cope (talk to a friend or adult)

© ABC 2009

EPISODE 3

3RD MARCH 2009

Learning AreaSociety and Environment

Key learningStudents will explore an aspect of life after the bushfires.

.

If students feel comfortable, they can share their experiences with others. Remind students that people respond differently to change and loss. There is no right or wrong way to feel.

Understanding othersStudents will be conducting role-plays with one person taking on the role of someone affected by the bushfires and the other a friend offering support. Before the role-play begins, students need to brainstorm ways to support someone affected by grief or loss. Also consider what the needs and feeling of that person might be.Students share their role-plays with other students and reflect on changes they would make.

Visual SpatialYou have seen a number of images of the Victorian bushfires on Behind the News in the past few weeks. Drawing on your memory of the images, create an artwork that depicts a particular image.

Using languageResearch and create a fact sheet relating to bushfires. Possible topics could be bushfire safety or coping with bushfires. Ask students to use a variety of sources to create their facts sheets and record each source. Support students to publish their fact sheets in a creative way (webpage, Microsoft Publisher).

Musical expressionCreate a song, soundscape or poem about the Victorian bushfires. Students can source images of the bushfires to accompany their song.

8 Related Research Links

ABC Behind the News – Bushfire disaster story and web linkshttp://www.abc.net.au/news/btn/story/s2488554.htm

ABC News – Children of the bushfires face emotional recoveryhttp://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/02/10/2487808.htm

Child and Youth Health Bushfires and childrenhttp://www.cyh.com/HealthTopics/HealthTopicDetails.aspx?p=114&np=141&id=1893#6

© ABC 2009

Animal rescueThe fires in Victoria have had a huge impact on wildlife in the area. Lots of animals have been killed and many more injured.

Focus Questions

11. Retell the BtN animal rescue story in your own words.12. Describe the impact the Victorian bushfires has had on native

animals.13. Explain the concern that some species may have become

endangered because of the fires.14. What is happening at Healesville sanctuary?15. What sort of injuries do the animals have?16. What is meant by the statement `in the wild you have to

compete to survive’?17. What has happened to the sources of food for many animals

affected?18. Why can’t the animals be moved to another area of bush?19. Why do you think animals might be described as the `silent

victims’ of the bushfires?20. How did this story make you feel?

After the fireAfter watching the BtN story about animals surviving the bushfires, ask students to write down what they think the following key words mean:

Endangered Habitat Native Territorial Species Sanctuary

Ask students to share their definitions with another students and then change or add to them. They can then use a range of sources to check their understandings. Students will be investigating how bushfires affect native animals, pets and livestock. Ask students to complete the following chart as they go through the inquiry process. This can be done individually, as a group or a whole class.

© ABC 2009

EPISODE 3

3RD MARCH 2009

Learning AreaSociety and Environment

Key learningStudents will investigate the impact of bushfires on native animals.

.

What do I know?

What do I want to know?

How will I find out?

What have I learnt?

Some key questions that students may want to consider include:

Investigate ways animals are able to survive a bushfire What are the feeding patterns of those animals affected? Which animals have a better chance of survival during bushfires

and why? How can native animals, pets and livestock be protected in the

event of a bushfire?

Students can choose to present the information in a number of ways:

Poster or brochure Written report Oral presentation

8 Related Research Links

ABC News – Animals not forgotten in Vic recovery efforthttp://abc-for-kids.com/news/stories/2009/02/13/2491059.htm?section=australia

ABC News – Wildlife the silent victims of deadly fireshttp://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/02/18/2494478.htm

ABC Melbourne – Help with animalshttp://blogs.abc.net.au/victoria/2009/02/help-with-anima.html?program=melbourne_bushfires

Children’s BBC – Animals recovering from bushfirehttp://news.bbc.co.uk/cbbcnews/hi/newsid_7880000/newsid_7888400/7888466.stm

Department of Primary Industries – Help for animals affected by bushfireshttp://www.dpi.vic.gov.au/dpi/nrenfa.nsf/LinkView/8F28DD70CE9F3EA7CA25755A000E858D6166E48F26CF64DACA256EDD0082EDF1

NSW Department of Primary Industries - Caring for native animals after bushfires

© ABC 2009

http://www.dpi.nsw.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0003/96816/caring-for-native-animals-after-bushfires.pdf

© ABC 2009

BtN: Episode 3 Transcripts 3/03/09

On this week's Behind the News:

The kids who survived the Victorian fires. We visit them in school and see their homes,

“That's amazing, what's that come from? The car.”

Plus a look at how animals are coping after the disaster.

Hi I'm Nathan Bazley welcome to Behind the News.

Also on the show today is what you buy at the supermarket wiping out some very cute redheads.

Those items later but first to our top story:

Fire Zone KidsReporter: Sarah Larsen

INTRO: This week Victorians are still trying to control the bushfires that swept through the state three weeks ago, causing enormous damage.

It's unthinkable that families still trying to recover from such a huge disaster might be hit again.

Many are still living in emergency accommodation as they attempt to move on and start rebuilding.

© ABC 2009

It'll be a long process that will take a lot of courage and hard work. Sarah's payed them a visit to find out what they're facing.

SARAH LARSEN, REPORTER: I'd seen pictures on TV, but it was nothing like the reality of driving through the fire zone. Whole areas are vaporised. It's like being on the moon. We're on our way to some of the places hit the worst on Black Saturday.

REPORTER: We're here at the CFA staging ground in Whittlesea and we're about to go up into Kinglake which is just up on that hill there and we're going to meet some kids in a school there. But we have to have a special police escort take us up because a lot of the roads around here are still closed and still quite dangerous.

Once we're in the car police say our cameras have to go off because a lot of people died in these hills. The area has been declared a crime zone. Police don't want anyone disturbing evidence or filming anything that could upset anyone. But in the middle of the devastation we find a little oasis and bunch of tough kids who are getting on with things. This is Kinglake West Primary School.

REPORTER: If you were just standing here looking around it looks normal, doesn't it?

LUKE: Yeah but when you're actually on the ground looking around all the trees on the ground, plenty of houses gone, yeah.

The kids have only been back here for one day after spending two weeks at other schools. A lot of the town has gone but amazingly, the school survived.

REPORTER: So how do you feel about being able to come back here?

© ABC 2009

SHANNON: A lot better it's green, yeah it's nice and green. If you're at home it's mostly black but when you're here it's green so it feels quite normal to be here.

It means so much to these guys that their school survived. A lot of them lost their houses, like Phoebe, who's staying with friends.

REPORTER: What's that like?PHOEBE: Well there's lot of people 'cause they've got families? It's like school camp.REPORTER: How's getting to the shower?SHANNON: Oh, like two second showers each.PHOEBE: There's two showersSARAH: Is there anything else you fight over? PHOEBE: The TV. Yeah, the TV. Who's watching what.

Just about everyone has a fire story to tell and they're pretty amazing.

KHYLE: The house was on fire so we had to get out so we ran out the door and we got to the door and the roof fell down. So we ran down the street for three k's with exploding cars and gas bottles exploding everywhere and we went to the first house we stayed at and eventually that house caught on fire so we had to go and we ran to the second house and that second house caught on fire too. So we had to go to the third house and the third house we stayed at until the fire was through because the third house had an underground bunker and we were safe.

SAM I stayed in the car with aircon on, put face against window and it was boiling and the fire got all across the grass.

REPORTER: What was the sky like?

© ABC 2009

WYATT: Well all of a sudden it turned all black. It was like daytime and then thirty seconds later it was night time.REPORTER: How does it feel to be back at school?WYATT: Pretty good, so I can see my friends again.

And that's something the kids all agree on. Plus they say something else has been really important. The messages of support from you guys and the help from all over Australia

Burnt Home VisitReporter: Sarah Larsen

INTRO: Those messages you sent really did make a difference.

As you saw there, lots of kids have lost their homes and are having to live with friends or in caravans. Some of them invited Sarah to see what happened to their house.

SARAH LARSEN, REPORTER: So this is your bedroom?ANNE: That's my bedroom, the kitchen.

On black Saturday Michael, Chloe, Anne and Louie weren't at home but they knew the fires were near their home and their mum and dad were in danger.

ANNE: Losing contact with parent I think that would have been the most scariest thing and the hardest thing for us to take in. MICHAEL: But when we heard that they were alive, it was like a miracle.ANNE: When we found out that we'd lost our house we kinda burst into tears there.

Their parents survived by hiding down here for two hours.

© ABC 2009

ANNE: So this is our fire escape slash cellar.

They ran in here with the dog and a few treasured mementos.

ANNE: Yeah I did that in grade five, it was one of the photos mum grabbed because she absolutely treasures it.REPORTER: And what have you got there?CHLOE: A picture of me in kindergarten.REPORTER: So did your mum grab that off the wall too?CHLOE: Yeah.

The kids are still sifting through the ashes and finding bits and pieces that survived along with some scary reminders of just how hot the fire was. But one of the happiest and most amazing finds was this.

REPORTER: Hello Gizmo! Now how did Gizmo get out?ANNE: Well she was actually under the car over there the whole time through the fire!REPORTER: And she managed to get out okay, not even singed!ANNE: Nope, not touched!

The family are now living just down the road in a house they're renting.

LOUIE: This is my sister’s room and my room, and we made a cubby house.REPORTER: Did you guys share a room before the fire?CHLOE: Ahh No.REPORTER: So what's it been like sharing?LOUIE: Scary. She's always messy!

© ABC 2009

Everything you can see in here is new, donated or borrowed, from their clothes to these toys which came from a relief centre. Outside there's room for Sascha the dog and life’s starting to get back to normal.

REPORTER: And what about now, three weeks afterwards? How do you feel about it?ANNE: Well still a little bit shaken up, I shed some tears at night but really that's nothing, but other than that we're taking it as easy as we can

But even though their sad at losing so much, they don't want to leave the area. They've already planned their new house and want to build a new future together.

Animal RescueReporter, Sarah Larsen

INTRO: Gutsy kids. While Sarah was in the fire zone she thought she'd check out how animals were coping.

Experts think millions might have been killed and injured by the flames.

A famous animal sanctuary is actually in the disaster area at Healesville. It was so close to the fire they had to evacuate.

But now the vets have set up shop again and are working hard to help those that can't ask for help themselves.

SARAH LARSEN, REPORTER: ‘Squeaks’ the possum is pretty content drinking a special milk mix made up by her new mum, Kim. But things were very different a few weeks ago when she was found starving and alone in the fire zone.

© ABC 2009

KIM: Apart from being orphaned and needing mum she also had wounds to her nail bed.

Every day people are finding animals like Squeaks in places like this. They've been hurt or lost all their food and have nowhere to live. But here at the Healesville sanctuary vets and volunteers are working around the clock to help as many as possible.

SARAH: What have we got here?GERRY: This a little swamp wallaby who's come in from the fires and she's actually getting transferred to Melbourne zoo today so they can help us out with some of our burns victimsSARAH: So you've got a lot to look after then? GERRY: We sure do.

Like many animals here this wallaby's got burns on her feet. They're painful and treating them takes a lot of time and care.

RUPERT: Hello. OK, let’s have a look. It's Mandarin.

Mandarin is an adult ringtail possum with some pretty nasty burns.

Kim and Rupert are about to change her bandages to help prevent infection. They put her to sleep so it doesn't hurt. It's delicate work. If mandarin's ever going to survive in the wild she'll need her paws to heal perfectly.

Despite what you see in cartoons, the wild isn't an easy place to live. These guys will have to fight to survive, to find food, to get away from predators, if they've got scars that will be harder.

There will be many more bandages changes for Mandarin but she has a good chance of recovery.

© ABC 2009

It’s not just injured animals keeping the vets busy. Gerry is looking after a glider who got away from the fires without serious injuries but was left with nothing to eat.

GERRY: These guys came in quite skinny because there's not much bush left where they came from so not much gum leaves left so he had a few days without food

It could be a year before some of this bush grows back and animals like Squeak get to go home.

REPORTER: Why can't we just move them to another bit of bush?

KIM: These guys and a lot of our native animals are territorial so that means there will already be similar species living in that area and if we introduce her to that area, um, she will have to I guess sort of fight with them to establish her own home. Some won't be going back to the bush. Mary is a pet wombat whose owners lost their home so she's staying at Healesville and lapping up lots of love. There's no shortage of that here at Healesville and hopefully with that and hard work these guys will eventually get back on their feet.

PresenterAnd you can still send you messages of support to the bushfire kids on our website. Just hit abc.net.au/btn. Now let’s catch up with some of the week's headlines.

The Wire

A 15 year old boy is in hospital after another shark attack in Sydney.

He was surfing with his father when he was bitten.

© ABC 2009

“I was just putting my wetties on and then we saw two guys frantically paddling in yelling out shark!"

It's the third attack in Sydney in recent weeks - but authorities say it isn't a sign that shark numbers are increasing.

“AUSTRALIANS ARE REACHING A STAGE WHERE WE HAVE TO COME TO UNDERSTAND THAT WE'VE ACTUALLY CLEANED UP OUR WATERWAYS WELL, WE'VE PROVIDED FOR THE OPPORTUNITY FOR OCCASIONALLY SHARKS TO COME INTO THOSE WATERWAYS WHERE PEOPLE WILL BE.”

If you want more info about sharks there's a special story about them on our website.

And a lot of people are upset after an Australian clothing company announced it will go overseas to get its clothes made.

Pacific Brands sells famous Aussie labels like Bonds and Hard Yakka but it now says it's too expensive to make them here.

The decision means 1800 workers will lose their jobs.

Quiz

OK let’s do a quiz.

What is a trillion dollars?

© ABC 2009

a) 1 hundred millionb) 1 thousand millionc) 1 million million

Answer: 1 million million

Wall StreetReporter, Nathan Bazley

INTRO: A million has six zeros, a trillion has twelve.

Now a place where that number comes up quite a bit is Wall Street - Last week, it fell to a 12 year low.

It's the headline you might have heard round the place but what does it actually mean?

Obviously we're not talking about walls falling down but this can actually do far more damage. Let's take a look at what the fuss around Wall Street is all about.

There are millions of streets all over the planet, but there is only one street mentioned on a daily basis in nearly every news bulletin around the world.

NEWSREADER: Wall Street.

So what makes this one street so important?

This is the place - Wall St in New York City.

It's not so much the road, though, that people are talking about. It's what's on it.

© ABC 2009

That's because this whole area is all about business - big business!

This building is the New York Stock Exchange and inside, brokers race around trading shares and stocks.

What are they? Well, people can buy parts of businesses. When they do they buy a share of the company, or stock.

A business can have thousands of shareholders all owning part of it and they can sell their shares to other people in markets like the New York Stock Exchange.

If lots of people want a certain stock, demand and therefore the price goes up!

But if everyone is trying to sell a certain stock, the price goes down.

If heaps of them go down that's called a crash and that's bad news for a lot of people!

That's why you'll see finance reports quoting the prices of stocks and shares and whether they have gone up or down.

NATHAN BAZLEY, REPORTER: The finance report probably seems like the most boring part of the news for you guys. But once you know the story behind the numbers, and the huge amount of money behind that, things become a whole lot more interesting!

Let's start with the term 'Wall Street'.

NATHAN BAZLEY, REPORTER: Often when the people on the news say something like this, they aren't just talking about one street.

© ABC 2009

Wall Street has come to represent the entire American financial industry.

So when they say "Wall Street has had a crash," they usually mean a lot of the American stock market has dropped in value.

NEWSREADER: The Dow Jones has dropped 5 percent.

NATHAN BAZLEY, REPORTER: Now this is another one you've probably heard before, but what on earth is the Dow Jones?! Well they're not actually talking about a particular stock, but a group of them.

The Dow Jones is what's called an Index and it's used to gauge, on average, how a group of stocks are doing.

Say we have three stocks on our BTN Index, Sarah, Catherine and Nathan.

On this day, the market does pretty badly. Stocks in Nathan and Catherine suffer huge losses, but stocks in Sarah gain a lot.

The BTN index would drop, because while Sarah made gains the rest had losses.

In this way it gives investors a general idea of how the whole market went!

Most countries - including Australia - have their own stock markets where you can buy a bit of, say, BHP, Woolies or Westpac.

But Wall Street is by far the biggest and most influential market.

© ABC 2009

In fact, it's so big that what happens there can affect markets all round the world.

A Wall Street crash can cause a crash in London, in Tokyo and even in Sydney.

Which makes Wall Street a potentially dangerous place for your cash to go for a spin.

The Score

OK let’s check out what's been happening in sport.

Melbourne has claimed its second A-League crown in three years with a controversial 1-0 win over Adelaide.

Two questionable red cards were handed out in the match which was won courtesy of a long-range strike from Victory's Tom Pondeljak.

A young Aussie surfer has caused a big upset by knocking out the world number two in the season opening event on the Gold Coast.

Julian Wilson took to the air to defeat Bede Durbidge.

And the Manly Sea Eagles have become the world's best Rugby League club after downing English club Leeds in the World Club Challenge.

The 28 - 20 score line wrestled the trophy away from an English Super league club for the first time in six years.

© ABC 2009

Quiz 2

Q. What is one of the main differences between monkeys and apes?

A. Most monkeys have tails, apes don't.

Orang-utanReporter, Catherine Ellis

INTRO: And we'll stick with apes for our next story.

Next time you reach for a snack when you're cruising through the supermarket you may want to think twice after seeing this.

It's all about Orang-utans and how if humans aren't careful, they'll become extinct.

So what does that have to do with what you eat or how you shop? Here's Catherine to explain.

CATHERINE ELLIS, REPORTER: This is no cheeky monkey, this is an ape!

They're Orang-utans and they love mucking around, being tickled, a snuggle, kiss and the occasional tantrum.

LONE, BORNEO ORANGUTAN SURVIVAL FOUNDATION: She's just getting really upset because her milk is not ready yet. It's just like children in a supermarket when they can't have chocolate.

They're pretty similar to us.

© ABC 2009

And the word 'Orang-utan' actually means 'person of the forest'. They live in jungles in Asia on the Islands of Borneo and Sumatra.

And they spend pretty much all their time in trees. They even sleep up there in nests they build each night.

They have feet which are more like hands to help them get around.

CATHERINE: And while Orang-utans only grow to about the same height as Lily, their arms - when spread out - measure about two metres.

For food they eat heaps of fruit, leaves, bark and insects.

The males look a little different - they often have large cheeks and a sac under their chin to make loud calling noises to the females.

Mum Orang-utans have one baby at a time and look after it until it's about 8-years-old.

But these little babies are orphans.

They live in a camp and attend jungle day care to learn skills so they can one day return to the wild.

So where are their mums?

Well firstly let's look at what's happening to their homes.

© ABC 2009

For a long time the jungles have been bulldozed for timber.

But in recent decades the problem has got a lot worse because the land is being totally cleared to make way for palm oil plantations.

The palm oil from these trees is used in tons of products in our supermarkets.

Everything from shampoo and cosmetics to snack foods.

It's sometimes labelled 'palm oil' but often just 'vegetable oil' and with no warnings about whether it was grown on bulldozed forests.

Millions of hectares of the Orang-utans’ habitat has now been destroyed.

Some are killed by plantation workers and their babies are the ones who end up here.

LONE: This is not a natural disaster, this is a human caused disaster. It's the saddest thing that you can imagine.

Orang-utans are threatened with extinction.

A survey in North Borneo, which involved counting nests from the sky, showed the population has dropped more than 35 percent in 20 years - mainly because of habitat loss.

There was some good news however - researchers found the apes cope okay in damaged forests as long as there's some trees and food for them.

So they reckon this could help in their fight to stop the land being completely cleared for palm plantations.

© ABC 2009

The only problem is palm oil creates a good income for these countries, but somehow a balance has to be reached between money and wildlife.

Online Poll

Now we'll make that this week's online poll.Should jungle clearing be stopped to protect orang-utans?If you want to vote go to our website at abc.net.au/btn

Closer

You can leave a comment in the guest book as well.

Just before we go, the winners of a national poetry competition for kids had the chance to read their works on the weekend.

They were taking part in the Taronga Foundation Poetry Prize which is held to encourage a love of the environment.

I WONDER, I WORRY, ABOUT GLOBAL WARMING HEATING THE SEA, I WONDER, I WORRY ABOUT EXTINCTION AND ME.I WONDER WHERE THE POSSUM IN OUR PLAYGROUND IS HIDING TODAY,WHETHER THE TAWNY FROGMOUTH HAS STAYED.I WORRY IF HE'LL BECOME ROAD KILL, OR IF HE IS SMART ENOUGH TO SURVIVE.

Winners are published in a book called Poems by Young Australians.

© ABC 2009

Don't forget you can see BTN Daily every Monday to Friday at 5 to 6. Catch ya later.

© ABC 2009