(upbeat music) - Coming up next on Newsdepth, a wildfire destroyed an historic town in California.

A training academy is creating the next generation of firefighters.

How does the Earth's orbit affect seasons?

And a Kansas high school begins a new tradition after sidelining football.

Newsdepth is now.

(upbeat music) A fire ripped through one of California's oldest Gold Rush towns and now much of Chinese Camp's history has gone.

I'm Gabriel Kramer.

Thank you for joining us.

Chinese Camp was a once thriving Gold Rush town built by Chinese immigrants in the mid 1800s, but last week, a fire tore through the historic site destroying many of its iconic structures.

For historians and locals alike, the loss is deeply felt.

A chapter of California's history now charred and closed.

Peyton Headlee has the story.

- [Peyton] Inside the California State Library, books paint the picture of what Chinese Camp was like in the mid 1800s.

- People came in from all around the world.

- [Peyton] Chinese gold miners flocked to the foothills and built stores, banks and hotels.

- It was very, very simple construction, but simple lasts and so yeah, many of those buildings would've dated back to the early days of California Statehood.

- [Peyton] Many of those buildings stood the test of time until fire tore through Chinese Camp, damaging many of its once iconic landmarks.

The historic post office is on the right of the street.

The Odd Fellows hall on the left.

The gold mine era structures are still standing, but they're just shells.

Everything inside is destroyed.

The Chinese Camp Science Academy with its pagoda roof is still there.

So is the white Catholic church, but few homes are.

- We have so precious few Gold Rush era places left in California that have any authenticity at all.

So to have this one go is just heartbreaking.

- [Peyton] Shelly Davis-King is a long time Tuolumne County resident and anthropologist.

- This is 1856 to 1858.

- [Peyton] In 2024, she taught a class at Sonora's Columbia College about the history of Chinese Camp.

- It's one of the only surviving towns in California that truly has a relationship to an ethnic group like this.

- [Peyton] To have lost so much of it, she says is devastating.

- These were really spectacular buildings that told an important part of the history of our state and now that's gone.

- [Peyton] Gone and closing a chapter in this storied community.

- The fact that we had Chinese Camp to kind of take us back to the past to be a place that we could visit and see how California was in the years before was really valuable.

- Thank you Peyton.

Volunteer firefighter numbers are down across Ohio and some departments are turning to the next generation for some help.

The Ohio Youth Fire and Emergency Medical Services Training Academy is giving teens a taste of what it's like to be a firefighter.

Ty Carpenter takes us inside the camp at Hawking College.

(water whooshing) - [Ty] In a real fire, every second counts.

While this exercise is just a test, for these students, it's as real as it gets.

- When you go in the building, they have it completely smoked out.

You can't see.

They pretty much teach you how to do everything from ladders to searching, forceable entry, all the good stuff that you would need to know to become a firefighter.

- [Ty] At Hawking College in Southeast Ohio, 43 students aged 14 to 18 are learning what it takes to become a firefighter before they even graduate high school.

The week long program gives students proper training before placing them into real world scenarios with real equipment, they can cut open a car, extinguish a fire, or perform a search and rescue.

Many students return each year and some even go on to become instructors themselves.

- We make it as real and as safe as we possibly can, and those that actually go on into the job, a lot of 'em credit what we do here as to why they continued into the fire service and EMS.

- [Ty] Volunteer firefighting numbers across Ohio have been dropping, placing rural communities at increased risk of limited fire protection.

The program has been hosting students from Ohio and New Jersey since 2004 in hopes to increase those figures.

- What we wanna do is produce more firefighters.

We want to help youth develop into firefighters.

I've been on for 50 years and one day my day's gonna stop, and if we don't look for the youth to bring it up, then we're not doing our job as firefighters.

- [Ty] While the program is only one week in the heat, for many, it's a critical step towards helping their community.

- I care very deeply about the future of the fire service and if this is what I can do to bring back a little, little piece of my joy of the job to these kids to maybe get them excited about being a fireman, that's what keeps me coming back year after year.

- Special thanks to our friends, Ty Carpenter and Atish Baidya from WOUB in Athens, Ohio for sharing that cool story with us.

Students and teachers if you liked that special segment, please let us know by filling out this survey.

You can also find the link at the bottom of this episode page.

It's now September.

September means the end to summer, but now it's time to break out the sweaters, drink a little pumpkin spice latte.

It also means looking forward to the fall foliage.

Foliage is just another word for leaves on the trees.

Jenn Sullivan looks at how this summer's extreme heat and heavy rains could impact the autumn colors.

- [Jenn] The end of summer means the vibrant green leaves will soon transition to the warm hues of orange, yellow and red.

Turning mountain ranges into mosaics of full colors.

- It's a really great opportunity to just get yourself outdoors.

Look at something beautiful.

- [Jenn] Brett Keller is the CEO of Priceline.

The travel site recently came out with a list of the best places for leaf peeping this year and clocking in at number one was the Hudson Valley region in New York.

- We typically look at accommodation trends and we also are able to understand how far away those consumers are from those accommodations.

- [Jenn] These radiant colors generate a lot of green for local economies.

In Vermont alone, the state estimates the fall foliage brings in around $1 billion in visitor spending.

- It is a major driver of our tourism industry.

- [Jenn] William Keaton is a professor at the University of Vermont.

He says there are a variety of factors as to why some areas experience more vibrant colors than other regions.

One being the vast contrast between temperatures during the day and at night, the variety of tree species and the landscape.

- Fall foliage is a delicate dance between a number of things and climate is one of the most important.

- [Jenn] This summer brought intense heat and excessive rainfall to parts of the country.

Keaton says those extreme weather patterns impact how vibrant the colors will be and when the leaves will begin to change.

- These kinds of extremes create stresses in trees.

They begin to brown up and drop their leaves sooner than they otherwise would.

- Keaton says climate change could also cause the fall foliage season to shorten over time.

If you do wanna carve out time to see the fall colors, they typically peak in the beginning of October in the Northeast.

- Thanks Jenn, I love fall so much.

I love when the seasons change, but have you ever wondered what creates the seasons?

How come winters in Ohio can be so cold, but summer's so nice and warm?

Well, as Jeff explains in this week's Spot on Science, it's all because Earth has a 23 and a half degree tilt that creates the seasons.

Check it out.

(upbeat music) - Why are days shorter in the winter and longer in the summer?

Why do we even have seasons on earth?

The answer is because the earth is tilted.

Earth's axis, it turns out, is a bit wonky.

23 and a half degrees off center to be exact.

Here's what I mean.

Picture the earth orbiting the sun.

It takes 365 spins or days to go all the way around the sun at the center of our solar system.

That's one earth year.

Each year is divided into four separate seasons, depending on where the earth is in that orbit, the Earth is tilted compared to the it takes around the sun, so for part of the year, the north is pointed toward the sun and part of the year the southern hemisphere is pointed toward the sun.

Those extreme points of the orbit are called the summer solstice and the winter solstice, the summer solstice, also known as the longest day of the year is when we get the longest amount of sunlight.

The halfway points between those extremes mark the beginning of spring and fall.

Those are called the vernal equinox and the autumnal equinox.

Earth's tilt means that when it's wintertime in Ohio, it's summer in the southern hemisphere.

When we're throwing snowballs at each other, kids in Australia are enjoying the hot days of summer.

The tilt of the earth has long been known to sailors and map makers.

That's why we have a line in the middle called the equator.

The equator is the imaginary line that separates the two hemispheres.

We also have two more imaginary lines, one above and one below the equator known as the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn.

Those lines mark how far the earth tilts each summer and winter.

The seasons can be really dramatic at the extreme northern and southern parts of the world.

We're talking about the north and south pole here.

In the far north, inside the Arctic Circle, the sun never sets during the summer and it stays dark all the winter long.

People living at these latitudes have to find ways to adapt to the endless nights of winter and the endless days of summer.

Ohio is located in what's called the temperate zone, a part of the northern hemisphere where winter, spring, summer and fall are not too extreme compared to the poles or the tropics.

(bright music) - Thank you, Jeff.

That brings us to our poll for the week.

It's an easy one this time, what's your favorite season?

Slide over to our poll page to vote.

You can choose between summer, fall, winter or spring.

On our last episode, we learned how sleep and nutrition can help us be successful in the classroom.

And for our episode survey, we wanted to know which healthy habits do you use to stay sharp?

72% of you said you prioritize sleep.

About 68% of you said you love being active every day.

48% of you said healthy meals are a must to feed your brain.

About 27% of you said you focus on your mental health and 26% reported never missing a doctor's appointment.

Thank you all for voting.

The exciting thing about the new school year is that we get to meet lots of new friends, some even from other countries.

More than two dozen high school students from the Philippines, Fiji and the Pacific Islands are experiencing life in the US for the very first time.

Thanks to an annual exchange program hosted by a nonprofit called PH International.

Despite funding setbacks and travel restrictions, these teens have made it to Vermont where host families are opening their homes to them.

Jackson Stover speaks to the students about their most unforgettable memories so far.

- [Jackson] More than two dozen high schoolers from faraway places are here on US soil for the first time.

- Where to begin.

- All thanks to an annual exchange program hosted by nonprofit PH International.

- When I heard that I got accepted and I can't believe I'm here.

- [Jackson] These teenagers from the Philippines, Fiji and the Pacific Islands are matched up with a host family in Vermont for the next few weeks.

They'll have the opportunity to see US cities and learn more about American Customs.

- It's amazing how our host families didn't hesitate to take us in, and I think that it takes so much courage to just welcome strangers into your home and much less show them how the American lived daily.

- [Jackson] But it took longer than usual to get them here this year.

In April, the Trump administration stopped the flow of funding needed to run the program.

Additionally, a travel ban was placed on Burma, keeping many students from participating at all.

Something organizers hope isn't a factor next spring.

- If one of the countries we work with, Burma, isn't able to come, we can welcome more students from the Philippines and Pacific Islands to make up for it.

We didn't have the time to do that this year so that's why we had a slightly smaller group than we were hoping for.

- [Jackson] For those that could make the trip this year, they're squeezing in everything they can from seeing the Boston and New York skylines.

- Three.

Two.

One.

- To getting VIP access to our own NBC 5 studio.

- Does everyone know how a green screen works?

- Yes.

- Right, okay.

- [Jackson] Students got to see themselves on the big screen in the Weather Center, pose for pictures behind the wheel of the First Warning Weather Lab and meet the faces of our newsroom.

- I see a lot of monitors that actually I don't understand.

It's actually pretty complicated, but I salute everybody behind the camera.

- [Jackson] All just one stop in a packed itinerary for their once in a lifetime adventure.

- The moment I got here to Vermont, I just felt this urge to try out new things and explore, especially the food, the people, and the places.

- Thanks for the story, Jackson, and good luck to the students.

For the past few years, a group of high school runners in Minnesota have been favoring a certain route.

This route takes the runners past the house of a woman who's known fondly as the Popsicle Lady.

As Boyd Huppert shows us while the runners get a sweet treat, the woman says she's the one who gets the biggest reward.

- [Boyd] Up with the birds.

As Blooming Prairie's awesome blossoms.

- Hey, RJ.

- Wing their way.

- Sophia's coming right?

- Toward another cross country season.

- It's our first day of practice.

Okay, ready?

Go.

- Coach John Bruns warms up his runners, while across town, Sandy Bass has her team frozen.

- 18 twin pops, orange, cherry, banana.

- Popsicle Lady.

- Lime.

- That's what we call her.

- And grape.

I buy 'em in bulk.

- [Boyd] They may start fresh at the school, but it's 7th and Center.

- Morning guys.

- Runners are known to pick up their pace.

- So you're ready for a popsicle?

Hi Andrew.

Are you yellow?

- This started.

- Can I have a blue please?

- [Boyd] More than a decade ago when a runner who'd asked to use Sandy's bathroom was offered a popsicle.

- Yes, there is a red just for you.

- Let's go to the Popsicles Lady' house.

Then we can also get a walking break too.

- For a long time, I didn't know exactly what was going on.

One of the days, I was with one of the groups and all of a sudden she's calling 'em up for popsicles and they're like, oh, and they were kind of worried that they're gonna get in trouble and like, no, this is awesome.

That's great.

- We even kind of like moved it into like track season too.

- [Boyd] Though the distance runners have been known to taunt the sprinters.

- They stay on the track.

We bring our popsicle sticks back to make sure they know.

- [Boyd] Today, Sandy's meeting her new runner.

- You're Joey, I know Joey.

- Something that our team can experience and something that we can all enjoy.

- What color would you like?

- Yellow, please.

- No kid at Sandy's house.

- Hi, how are you?

- Gets turned away.

- Blue.

When I go through the checkout, they just say, do you like popsicles?

And I said, yep.

I said, I have a lot of kids.

- A lot of kids with the unofficial Awesome Blossom team college.

- [Boyd] Who gets the bigger treat?

- Me.

Me, definitely.

- That's pretty sweet, thank you Boyd.

Sticking with school news, high school football is back.

In Kansas, teams are gearing up for the new season, but one Wichita school will be taking the field in a different way due to low enrollment for the team.

The Panthers have punted on football to receive a new tradition with school pride still at the starting line.

Micaela Dea takes the field.

- [Micaela] Wichita Independence Football history dates back nearly 30 years, but this season, there will be a blip in the record books.

- During the spring, we were thinking about if we were gonna have football or not.

It was difficult for me because I enjoy football, you know, I love Friday nights football games when it's nice and cold and chilly out.

- [Micaela] For the first time in the program's history, the Panthers will not be suiting up this fall with low turnout at the high school level.

- Really, most of the schools that we compete against have 30, 40, 50 kids on their roster.

And when we have 10 or eight or 15, that's really tough to field tackle football.

- [Micaela] And low turnout isn't the only concern.

- Now not having football this year is not a lack of support for football because we love it and it's not a statement on where society is wrestling with whether or not to have it.

For us, it's a safety reason, a practical reason.

- We were worried about kids getting hurt and concussions and we just didn't feel like it was the right thing to do right now for us, which is why we transitioned into Panther Night Lights.

- [Micaela] Turning it into a positive, students at Independent proposed this new idea of Panther Night Lights to keep the school's spirit alive.

- Just coming up with the ideas of thinking what would be fun to still have everyone come out here and just spend Friday nights together, and obviously to have a lot of fun for all the the players.

- [Micaela] This new alternative will feature plenty of competition including kickball, dodgeball, powder puff, and even softball games with students competing against faculty.

- After I realized that there's only like two or three guys that were gonna be interested and able to play, I really enjoyed the idea of having this competition between our school.

- I think having the student rivalries, I know I'm looking forward to competing against some of my fellow students in particular, Ultimate Frisbee, they're going down.

- [Micaela] A new tradition to help fill the void of a lost season.

- I think everybody was a little bit disappointed that there was no football, but we all very much embraced this new tradition that we were trying to build and I have received a lot of support from all my peers, my family, other parents as well, to just make this as great as it possibly can be, and I think we're all really excited for it.

- Thank you Micaela, and Go Panthers.

Now we would love to hear about your school's traditions.

For our write to us this week, we want to know all about how you and your classmates celebrate your school.

Students can use our inbox form online or send us an email to newsdepth@ideastream.org to share their school pride.

And if you attach a photo or two, we might be able to showcase your school on our next episode.

Last week, we learned that the origin story of Superman actually started right here in Cleveland, Ohio at the public library downtown, not too far from Newsdepth headquarters.

In the spirit of Jerry Siegel and Joe Schuster, we asked you to create your very own comic book.

Let's see what you came up with by opening our inbox.

Tayshona from John P. Parker in Cincinnati sent in a comic called Dr. P and the Procrastination Ray.

Dr. P, a slightly disheveled but brilliant looking inventor, stands triumphantly over a large ray gun like device.

He is wearing a lab coat and goggles.

Dr. P says it's finally complete.

Behold the procrastination ray.

With it, people can be frozen in their tracks and Dr. P can finally get ahead on the to-do list.

Dr. P steps outta the lab and into a crowded city street thinking now to test it on a deserving subject.

That guy who keeps walking his dog past the window at 5:00 AM That's a pretty fun gadget.

Great job Tayshona.

Prunelle from Groveport Elementary in Groveport wrote a story to teach kids, never judge a book by its cover.

The story goes, it was a nice day, but little did he know aliens were coming.

Beep, bop, bop.

They were nice.

They made peace and lived happily ever after.

Not the ending I expected, but great story, Prunelle.

Fiona from Harding Middle School in Lakewood sent in a great short panel.

Elsa and Ranger are at the dog park on a sunny day.

Elsa yells Ranger, come over here, I have to show you something.

Ready, ready?

Ranger says, yep, and Elsa shows him if I run fast enough, I will catch a squirrel.

Nice job Fiona.

Madeline from Meadowlawn Intermediate School in Sandusky sent in her comic named Hound Dog's Adventures and Battles.

Hey, Hound Dog ready for an adventure?

Gabe said, cheerfully.

Bark, bark.

Let's go, buddy.

While walking, they found a ball of yarn.

Bark.

Hound Dog looks at the yarn.

It's just a yarn bud.

Hound Dog growls at the yarn.

New enemy, ball of yarn.

Hound Dog pounces, but ends up getting tangled.

Oh my goodness Hound Dog, Gabe groans, woof.

Silly Hound Dog.

Great work Madeline.

Logan from Claggett Middle School in my hometown, Medina included a familiar furry friend in his comic, the Evil Bob.

There was this monster named Bob.

Bob was nice to everyone but got nothing in return, so he turned evil, breaking everything in his path.

But then Newshound saved the day.

He remains victorious.

Great plot twist, awesome work.

Gotta love Newshound.

Thank you all for writing in.

You know, one of my favorite memories from when I was a student is of my classroom pets.

My second grade teacher had some pet frogs.

When I asked my colleagues here at Ideastream what they had as classroom pets, they told me all kinds of critters ranging from a Pacman frog to a hedgehog to piranha.

Yeah, you heard me.

One of my colleagues had a pair of piranha in his seventh grade science class,.

we met some students from Gilles-Sweet Elementary School in Fairview Park, Ohio, who have a pair of pretty unique pets who are lending a hand or hoof or paw to learning.

For that, Ms. Dudra's students are this week's A+ Award winners.

Maisy the cow who lives on the Four Pines farm in Tuscarawas County is not your ordinary class pet.

It all started when we joked about how we could send a cow to space.

We started to research what would happen for a cow to survive space travel, and it all took off from there Mohammad told us.

Ariana added that they were interested in intergalactic cows to see if they could provide food for astronauts.

Travis explained that dairy is a great source of protein and calcium.

Maisy has been a great learning partner this year.

Ms. Dudra's students are learning about science, math and economics.

If you have a herd of 900 cows, you can earn about $12 million Emmy told us, that's not all.

Thanks to a little help from Ms. Dudra's grandmother, the class also adopted a panda named Mango.

Mango teaches us all about conservation and geography Cam told us.

This week's A+ Award goes to Miss Dudra's fourth grade students at Gilles-Sweet Elementary School in Fairview Park for having unique classroom pets that are wonderful learning partners and it's a great school tradition.

Well, that's all the time we have for today.

(dog barking) Newshound, I was joking.

I could never forget about you.

I mean, your desk is right next to mine.

You seem pretty excited about this week's petting zoo story, so take it away, Newshound.

(upbeat music) (dog barking) Hey there Newshound.

Wow, look at him go.

He must be on the trail of something good.

Oh, you found a story about a cattle farm in Vermont that is working hard to rescue an endangered herd.

Cattle is the general term for large domesticated livestock like cows and bulls.

- I think we just have a passion for just trying to bring the numbers back.

- [Sophia] The Randall family started breeding Randall cattle in the early 1900s in Sunderland.

Relative Kimberly Pinsonneault says they're resilient in Vermont's cold, hard workers, good for beef and a moderate amount of dairy.

- For small homesteads, small farms, these cows can do it all for you.

- [Sophia] After almost going extinct in the 1980s, Pinsonneault and a small group of farmers began breeding Randalls.

- I think our ultimate goal is just to really work to restore this critically endangered species of cow.

- You can check out the full story on our website and YouTube channel.

Great job finding a story related to our A+ Award.

Thanks as always Newshound.

And that's a wrap for today's episode, but you can keep the conversation going and there are plenty of ways for you to stay in touch with us.

You can write to us, we're at 1375 Euclid Avenue, Cleveland, Ohio.

Our zip code here is 44115.

You can email us at Newsdepth@ideastream.org.

Plus you can catch all of our special segments on YouTube.

Hit subscribe if you're old enough so you don't miss out on any of our new videos.

Thank you for joining us, I'm Gabriel Kramer.

We'll see you next week.

(upbeat music) - [Narrator] Newsdepth is made possible by a grant from the Martha Holden Jennings Foundation.

(upbeat music) (bright music)