Ask a science teacher with Jill Jensen
Jill Jensen is the president of the Minnesota Science Teachers Association.
Submitted
You’ve probably heard about NASA’s Artemis mission. But did you know that bumblebees play with balls just for fun? Or that Tiger Sharks are carrying cameras to map the ocean floor? Sometimes you just need to ask a science teacher to find out more.
Jill Jensen is the president of the Minnesota Science Teacher’s Association, and a 7th grade life science teacher at Scott Highlands Middle School in Apple Valley. She joined host Cathy Wurzer to talk about the latest news in science.
Use the audio player above to listen to the full conversation.
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Audio transcript
INTERVIEWER: I know you've heard about NASA's Artemis mission, right? It's breaking new records in space. Here to talk about that, plus tiger sharks and a whole lot more as Jill Jensen. She's a seventh-grade science teacher at Scott Highlands Middle School in Apple Valley. She's also the president of the Minnesota Science Teachers Association because sometimes, you just need to ask a science teacher. Welcome back, Jill. How are you?
SUBJECT: I'm good. How are you?
INTERVIEWER: Good, good.
SUBJECT: Good.
INTERVIEWER: Well, I think Artemis is absolutely fascinating. Remind us about the mission.
SUBJECT: Yes. I am super fascinated by it, as well. The Artemis mission launched on November 16, and it was a 25-day mission. What's really exciting about it is this is really the first baby step towards thinking about getting people to Mars. So some of the goals of this mission are just testing out some of those systems.
And some recent events that are exciting, back on November 21, it did a flyby of the lunar surface. It came within 80 miles of the surface and kind of skimmed right over some of those previous Apollo landing sites. And from there, it moved on to what's called a distance retrograde orbit. So you can imagine maybe if someone was walking down a sidewalk and someone faster came up behind them and then looped in front of them and then started doing circles, and they kept walking. So that's what this is doing right now.
And when it did that-- well, the Orion spacecraft is what got further away from Earth than we've ever sent any craft designed to hold humans. So that was super exciting. NASA was super excited about that, and what they were doing is testing out some navigation systems, testing out some solar arrays, and testing out some thrusters that are on that craft, all with the purpose of getting ready to have people in it the next time that it launches.
INTERVIEWER: Wow, isn't that interesting? Geez. All right, so let's talk about some other news, some other science news. COP27, right? The 27th Annual United Nations Climate Change Conference that was last month, but as we sift through all that was talked about, any big developments from that conference?
SUBJECT: I guess for me, a couple of big things is I point out to my students just the fact that it occurred, and that the COP27 what it stands for is this is the 27th time this group of people are coming together to talk about climate change, which I think is significant to point out that climate change is something happening but that it's also being worked on and that there is this group of people dedicated to trying to solve this issue and work towards solutions.
One of the solutions that they came up with was this loss and damage fund to help countries who are really being hit by those climate disasters. And as a recap of some of the goals, really trying to keep our global temperature to [INAUDIBLE] degrees or below, and some of that requires some really big changes at a systems level. But I also like to point out that some of those changes can also be made at a really small level.
So things just like turning off our lights, turning down the temperature, and even thinking about our driving habits, and trying to maybe not do a Target run every time you need just one thing, but trying to think about making sure that we're being efficient in the times that we do need to make some trips to places.
INTERVIEWER: Mhm-mhm. You mentioned that it's important to be at least a little optimistic that things are being done because do you find your students getting down or depressed as they hear about some of the bad news from the climate conference?
SUBJECT: I don't know that I see visibly showing that it's overwhelming, but I feel like it can be overwhelming. And I think, like you said, it's really important to balance that there are good things, and there are solutions, and there are innovations being done along with the reality of some things that are happening. So I think trying to keep that balance is an important part of having those conversations.
INTERVIEWER: Now, there was some interesting news from the conference, something about seagrass. Seagrass, what is that? What happened?
SUBJECT: Yeah. So it wasn't necessarily related to the conference, but I found a connection to it because, of course, one of the ways that we can reduce global temperature is by helping make sure that we are bringing carbon dioxide levels down. And the beautiful thing about plants is they naturally help bring carbon dioxide levels down through this magical process of photosynthesis.
And so, scientists recently discovered this gigantic bed of seagrass off the coast of Bahamas, and they estimate it to be like the size of Florida. And seagrass is important because it can capture carbon 35 times faster than even a tropical rainforest. So it would be this [INAUDIBLE] just the coast of Florida, the size of that. But if you can imagine-- some scientists are trying to map the state of Florida by themselves, how difficult that would be and how time-consuming it would be.
So scientists spread in some sharks to help them. So they got these eight tiger sharks, brought them on board a ship, and then strapped them with some cameras, and then released them. And because these sharks are naturally roamers and can go great distances, they were able to fairly accurately map this newly found seagrass area, which is now super important for us to know about and kind of helps with that climate change conversation.
And I think one of my favorite visions of reading the story is trying to imagine scientists who pitched this idea to their colleagues, like, hey, how should we map this? I don't know. How about if we bring some sharks in? And the fact that it worked, I think, is amazing, and I feel speaks to that ingenuity of science and the ways that people are creatively working towards solutions.
INTERVIEWER: And wouldn't you love to have seen them attach the cameras to the tiger sharks? Very carefully did they do that. Yes, exactly.
SUBJECT: Absolutely.
INTERVIEWER: Before you go, I think this is kind of a fun story. Now, I'm a big fan of bees, and I understand that bees don't just work, right?
SUBJECT: No, yeah. So this was a super fun discovery, as well, so yes. So some scientists in England discovered that bumblebees actually really like to play. So they put them in this container, where they had two options to get through, one that was just a blank kind of pathway, and one that was filled with these wooden balls.
And what they found is that the bees really liked to play and roll around on these wooden balls for no purpose. They get no benefit from doing it other than for the joy of grabbing this wooden ball and rolling it around. And I'd encourage you, if you do a search for bumblebees and playing this super cute video of these bees, they just look like they are just having so much fun. They are just grabbing these balls, and roaming around, and just having a good time.
INTERVIEWER: And that will leave you with that mental note of bees being very happy, rolling balls around. I like that. Jill, thanks so much. I hope you have a good rest of the week.
SUBJECT: Thank you. It was great talking to you.
INTERVIEWER: Jill Jensen is a seventh-grade science teacher at Scott Highlands Middle School in Apple Valley, and she is the president of the Minnesota Science Teachers Association. To read more about any of these interesting science stories, we have links on our website, mprnews.org.
SUBJECT: I'm good. How are you?
INTERVIEWER: Good, good.
SUBJECT: Good.
INTERVIEWER: Well, I think Artemis is absolutely fascinating. Remind us about the mission.
SUBJECT: Yes. I am super fascinated by it, as well. The Artemis mission launched on November 16, and it was a 25-day mission. What's really exciting about it is this is really the first baby step towards thinking about getting people to Mars. So some of the goals of this mission are just testing out some of those systems.
And some recent events that are exciting, back on November 21, it did a flyby of the lunar surface. It came within 80 miles of the surface and kind of skimmed right over some of those previous Apollo landing sites. And from there, it moved on to what's called a distance retrograde orbit. So you can imagine maybe if someone was walking down a sidewalk and someone faster came up behind them and then looped in front of them and then started doing circles, and they kept walking. So that's what this is doing right now.
And when it did that-- well, the Orion spacecraft is what got further away from Earth than we've ever sent any craft designed to hold humans. So that was super exciting. NASA was super excited about that, and what they were doing is testing out some navigation systems, testing out some solar arrays, and testing out some thrusters that are on that craft, all with the purpose of getting ready to have people in it the next time that it launches.
INTERVIEWER: Wow, isn't that interesting? Geez. All right, so let's talk about some other news, some other science news. COP27, right? The 27th Annual United Nations Climate Change Conference that was last month, but as we sift through all that was talked about, any big developments from that conference?
SUBJECT: I guess for me, a couple of big things is I point out to my students just the fact that it occurred, and that the COP27 what it stands for is this is the 27th time this group of people are coming together to talk about climate change, which I think is significant to point out that climate change is something happening but that it's also being worked on and that there is this group of people dedicated to trying to solve this issue and work towards solutions.
One of the solutions that they came up with was this loss and damage fund to help countries who are really being hit by those climate disasters. And as a recap of some of the goals, really trying to keep our global temperature to [INAUDIBLE] degrees or below, and some of that requires some really big changes at a systems level. But I also like to point out that some of those changes can also be made at a really small level.
So things just like turning off our lights, turning down the temperature, and even thinking about our driving habits, and trying to maybe not do a Target run every time you need just one thing, but trying to think about making sure that we're being efficient in the times that we do need to make some trips to places.
INTERVIEWER: Mhm-mhm. You mentioned that it's important to be at least a little optimistic that things are being done because do you find your students getting down or depressed as they hear about some of the bad news from the climate conference?
SUBJECT: I don't know that I see visibly showing that it's overwhelming, but I feel like it can be overwhelming. And I think, like you said, it's really important to balance that there are good things, and there are solutions, and there are innovations being done along with the reality of some things that are happening. So I think trying to keep that balance is an important part of having those conversations.
INTERVIEWER: Now, there was some interesting news from the conference, something about seagrass. Seagrass, what is that? What happened?
SUBJECT: Yeah. So it wasn't necessarily related to the conference, but I found a connection to it because, of course, one of the ways that we can reduce global temperature is by helping make sure that we are bringing carbon dioxide levels down. And the beautiful thing about plants is they naturally help bring carbon dioxide levels down through this magical process of photosynthesis.
And so, scientists recently discovered this gigantic bed of seagrass off the coast of Bahamas, and they estimate it to be like the size of Florida. And seagrass is important because it can capture carbon 35 times faster than even a tropical rainforest. So it would be this [INAUDIBLE] just the coast of Florida, the size of that. But if you can imagine-- some scientists are trying to map the state of Florida by themselves, how difficult that would be and how time-consuming it would be.
So scientists spread in some sharks to help them. So they got these eight tiger sharks, brought them on board a ship, and then strapped them with some cameras, and then released them. And because these sharks are naturally roamers and can go great distances, they were able to fairly accurately map this newly found seagrass area, which is now super important for us to know about and kind of helps with that climate change conversation.
And I think one of my favorite visions of reading the story is trying to imagine scientists who pitched this idea to their colleagues, like, hey, how should we map this? I don't know. How about if we bring some sharks in? And the fact that it worked, I think, is amazing, and I feel speaks to that ingenuity of science and the ways that people are creatively working towards solutions.
INTERVIEWER: And wouldn't you love to have seen them attach the cameras to the tiger sharks? Very carefully did they do that. Yes, exactly.
SUBJECT: Absolutely.
INTERVIEWER: Before you go, I think this is kind of a fun story. Now, I'm a big fan of bees, and I understand that bees don't just work, right?
SUBJECT: No, yeah. So this was a super fun discovery, as well, so yes. So some scientists in England discovered that bumblebees actually really like to play. So they put them in this container, where they had two options to get through, one that was just a blank kind of pathway, and one that was filled with these wooden balls.
And what they found is that the bees really liked to play and roll around on these wooden balls for no purpose. They get no benefit from doing it other than for the joy of grabbing this wooden ball and rolling it around. And I'd encourage you, if you do a search for bumblebees and playing this super cute video of these bees, they just look like they are just having so much fun. They are just grabbing these balls, and roaming around, and just having a good time.
INTERVIEWER: And that will leave you with that mental note of bees being very happy, rolling balls around. I like that. Jill, thanks so much. I hope you have a good rest of the week.
SUBJECT: Thank you. It was great talking to you.
INTERVIEWER: Jill Jensen is a seventh-grade science teacher at Scott Highlands Middle School in Apple Valley, and she is the president of the Minnesota Science Teachers Association. To read more about any of these interesting science stories, we have links on our website, mprnews.org.
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