- Coming up on "Extra Credit," we build our own straw rockets, learn about space food and make our own comics.

There's so much more in store, so stay tuned.

(lively music) Hi there, I'm Mrs. Pizzo and I'm so happy you're here.

Welcome to "Extra Credit," where we meet interesting people, explore new ideas and discover fun places together.

Today's theme is space, and trust me, today's show is out of this world, but first let's say hi to our cohost.

Hi friends, my name is Yash, and I'm so excited to be here with you for our space episode.

Have you ever thought about what it would be like to go into space?

We'll get to think more on this and hear from a real life astronaut, but before we do, let's make a straw rocket together.

(electronic music) (fun music) (electronic music) - [Narrator] An astronaut is a person trained to travel and work in space.

The International Space Station where astronauts currently work while in space is 356 feet across and 290 feet long and weighs approximately 940,000 pounds.

To become an astronaut, applicants must first be selected for the astronaut candidate program.

Among the eligibility requirements for program selection are US citizenship, at least a bachelor's degree in biological science, computer science, engineering, mathematics, or physical science, and at least 1000 hours or three years of experience in piloting a jet aircraft.

Astronauts train to prepare for space travel and life aboard the ISS, plan and conduct scientific experiments that need to be performed in a microgravity environment and speak to the public about their experience in space.

Astronauts need to have mechanical skills, math skills and teamwork.

Being an astronaut is rewarding in so many ways.

- Being on a mission is very exciting.

There are a lot of things that you enjoy on many different levels.

One of them is just the experience of being in space, which is so different than being on Earth.

One's obviously the opportunity to see the Earth from space, which is something astronauts never get tired of space.

- Exploration is such a huge part of our country's history, our world history, and to have been a part of history and in whatever capacity, big or small, I think has been one of the most rewarding parts of this job.

- Everything we've learned in NASA will be a benefit to the commercial industry and the private industry.

We've laid the groundwork, we've laid the foundation, we've gained a lot of information that can be helpful to the success of our commercial industry.

And I look forward to NASA moving into our next phase of doing deeper space exploration.

- Space exploration is about exploring and really pursuing and touching the edge of our knowledge and our capabilities.

And we need people from all sorts of walks of life to bring in their experiences, to really make the best solutions that we can.

(star chiming) - I am an astronaut here at Johnson space center.

Space exploration is such a huge part of our country's history, our world history, and to have been a part of history in whatever capacity, big or small, I think has been one of the most rewarding parts of this job.

Going through the atmosphere and this basically controlled explosion happening underneath you, is one of the most, I don't know, enthralling events possible.

And it's unlike any rollercoaster you've ever been on.

A rollercoaster's momentary compared to a launch.

I mean, there you feel like G-forces that last for maybe five seconds or so, but this is eight and a half minutes long until you get to orbit, and then you've got the whole floating thing to look forward to.

Know yourself, know what you like and what you don't like.

And I think when you begin to understand that about yourself, then you start to walk in the direction of those things which interest you the most, and then the best advice I can give is to recognize when you're interested in something and recognize the importance of that.

It's very important, because that's when you're going to give everything you got.

So launch or landing, which is more fun?

I would have to say that that in terms of anticipation, launch is a lot of fun because you've got all this to look forward to, and it's just this incredible amount of manmade energy underneath you, propelling you and every stage of it.

And from, you know, taking off from the earth and wow you could spend a lot of time talking about the difference between a shuttle and a soyuz and how that plays a role into it, but just going through the atmosphere and this basically controlled explosion happening underneath you is one of the most, I don't know, enthralling events possible.

And it's unlike any rollercoaster you've ever been on.

A rollercoaster's momentary compared to a launch.

I mean, there you feel like G-forces that last for maybe five seconds or so, but this is eight and a half minutes long until you get to orbit, and then you've got the whole floating thing to look forward to.

But landing, I have to say, especially on a soyuz vehicle, because you land much like they did in Apollo where the capsule comes through the atmosphere and it kerplunks, but in the ocean, it kerplunks on dry land, that's pretty sporty.

The shuttle, you know, it's this nice little, you know, glider, and though it's got some dynamics of its own and it's to be highly respected, it's rather gentle ride back onto a runway, unlike that of a soyuz And that whole thing is, it's like a controlled car crash I've had it described before, and it's pretty similar.

I mean, it's like a train wreck followed by car crash.

And it's very impressive coming back through the atmosphere.

And it's, if you didn't know what to expect, for instance, you know you've got a timer and these events are sequential and you know that this thing's going to happen at this time, and 30 seconds later, the shoot's going to open.

And then you're going to feel this shock of it opening and swaying and swirling.

And these were all normal, as long as you know to expect them, but if you were someone that was just stuck in there and someone wanted to be really mean to you, just send you back down to earth and not tell you what to expect, you think your life was over because of all the bangs, bells, whistles, jerks, jams and bangs.

Your whole seat cocks up at some point.

And that's kind of fun, especially if you know what's happening.

But if you didn't, you'd think that you were going right through the panel and being a ejected.

It's almost funny, but then you land you land on the Earth and then you just feel like you weigh a thousand pounds.

So it's exciting, but it's not as fun coming back at landing because you know, she got a lot of bad juju to get through when you land.

The world's gotta stop spinning, you gotta get your strength back.

And it's just not a very inviting atmosphere that we have protecting us from outer space.

And it takes some work to get through it, just like it did to get going through it uphill.

But coming back home is, um, it's tough.

- When you think of space food, what comes to mind?

Probably dried ice cream, Jell-O and food in a tube, right?

But really, space food includes everything from mashed potatoes to chocolate pudding.

Let's explore more about space food.

(electronic music) - You want the cold hard truth?

Astronauts don't really eat the chocolate, vanilla and strawberry freeze dried stuff we call ice cream found in every science museum gift shop.

(munching food) Mmmm.

I'm Sheril Kirschenbaum, and on this episode of "Serving Up Science," we're talking about food that's out of this world, literally: space food, and stick around until the end to find out an orbit friendly snack that you can find at your local grocery store.

Humans have been orbiting Earth for decades, but when they finally make it to Mars, how will they prepare food for an 80 million mile, three year mission without the convenience of grocery stores and fertile soil?

The first person to eat anything in space, John Glenn, didn't have a lot of options.

Mercury astronauts of the early 1960s brought bite-sized cubes, freeze dried powders, and aluminum tubes of semi solids on their missions to space, which probably weren't too tasty.

Eating from the tubes was a pain and rehydrating the freeze dried stuff was challenging too.

Mmm, freeze dried food, mmm.

Any crumbs left behind had the potential to cause major problems if they got into the equipment.

- Careful, they're ruffled.

- By the mid sixties, space food got a little better.

During the Gemini missions, a special plastic container was invented to improve reconstituting food.

- [Producer] Try the freeze dried strawberries.

Have you ever had them?

- I love them, I eat them all the time.

Gelatin was added around those bite sized cubes to reduce crumbling and astronauts could enjoy more variety in their diets.

Thanks to Johnson Space Center, we have some examples today of what you might find on the shuttle, like vegetarian chili.

Looks good, doesn't it?

(camera clicks) Or vegetarian chili in a different container.

(camera clicks) To butterscotch pudding, I think we have some of that somewhere here.

Nope, that's sweet and sour chicken.

(camera clicks) But certain things like candies, nuts, even dried fruits are allowed as is, provided they meet microbial requirements and don't need to change shtate before eaten.

So here we have.

- [Producer] Shape or state?

- [Male Producer] She said shtate.

- Shtate, they don't need to change shtate.

Well that might be the Russian on the back, the shtate.

- [Producer] It's just Sean Connery talking.

(producers laughing) - Their food can't change shtate.

By the early 1970s, Apollo astronauts were able to use hot water to rehydrate meals and brought thermo-stabilized pouches or packaging that was treated and sealed to prevent food from spoiling and heat processed to destroy harmful germs and enzymes.

Still tasting strawberry.

(camera beeps) A new Skylab featured a dining room and table where three-member teams could sit, well, sort of sit, because they were still in space and they could use utensils, and there was even a freezer and refrigerator as well as an extensive menu with 72 different options.

But you're still not allowed to bring anything like, say, peas that can get loose and clog up instruments.

No peas allowed.

Salt and pepper are available, but they've been suspended in liquid.

Probably a little bit of a different experience.

Now keep in mind, orbiting around Earth isn't exactly easy on our bodies.

Upon entering zero gravity, the fluid in astronauts' legs and the lower parts of the body move up toward the head, making the person's face feel and look swollen.

The first few days of flight can be dizzying and cause an upset stomach.

With more fluid in the head, space travel can feel like having a head cold without being sick.

And that dulls our sense of taste.

So many astronauts prefer spicier foods in orbit.

There's even Sriracha in space.

As for a future trip to Mars, scientists are working hard to extend the shelf life of space food, which would need to last for five years and we're not there yet.

(loser buzzer) And then there's also the mass and weight challenges of getting that food all the way to Mars.

We don't have a Mars planet, but you get the idea.

The average distance between Earth and the international space station is 240 miles, or close to 400 kilometers.

At that distance, we resupply the space station every three months with food that needs to be shelf stable for a year and a half.

Mars is much further away, varying between 33.9 million and 250 million miles from earth.

And I hope we show what that is in kilometers, somewhere in this clip.

(bell dinging) Sending food and other supplies to a team out there would take more than 26 months, assuming all goes according to plan.

And that means food delivery to Mars is really complicated.

I'm just going to keep snacking.

But there is a good deal of exciting research happening to address those challenges, including farming experiments in space.

- I colonized Mars.

- Astronauts are now growing lettuce, using blue, red and green light emitting diodes or LEDs.

The ice cream is making my mouth feel weird.

The lettuce only actually needs the reds and blues, but 5% of the LEDs are green because those make lettuce look more appetizing to eat.

And that means that NASA scientists aren't just thinking about taste and nutrition.

They're also thinking about psychology of food choices.

(electronic music) - Space walks, oh, that in and of itself is a dream come true.

You think getting to spaces is enough?

You know those commercials, just came back from, you know, a space mission, what are you going to do next?

I want to do a space walk!

Everybody wants to do a space walk.

Cause when else are you ever going to be your own satellite?

You yourself, being in your own self contained space suit, orbiting the Earth.

It just doesn't happen every day.

And I've been an astronaut for what I consider to be a long time, and for over a decade, I've wanted to do that.

If you can imagine, wanting something so bad that you put a lot of your heart and soul into doing it.

And then the moment comes and there you are, you are getting dressed, I mean, everything.

It's not just the going outside and experiencing the vacuum of space and seeing the Earth through nothing but a visor.

It's all the preparation I've discovered looking back on it.

It's all the preparation it takes to get there.

Even when I was inside the space station and I was preparing for my space walk for me and my partner, doing simple things, like putting my suit together, charging batteries, putting together my workstation, which holds all my tools, the very simplest things, even getting ready my underwear, my underclothes, all was a part of the experience because I knew I was going to go out there and fulfill this dream.

And it wasn't just going out there and walking in space.

I was actually going to do a job.

I had not a whole lot of time to get a whole lot of work done.

And that, as I said, the space station had a critical failure and it was critical not just because it was a very important piece of equipment that failed and we needed to go fix, but because we didn't have a whole lot of time to fix it, it really mattered that we got this done timely and quickly.

And so I went out there not just to do a space walk, but to do a job.

And I can't tell you how meaningful that is, to attach your dream to something that important, where it becomes not just important to you, but important to a lot of people.

So like I said, there's a lot that goes into doing a spacewalk, but once you're out there, it's, some parts of it are scary.

The unknown, scary.

What do I mean by that?

It means that you have all this anticipation, the hatch is about to open, you're in this cumbersome white suit that is full of air.

And every time you move your arm, whether it's out or in, even your little finger, when you bend it, you're bending against pressure.

And it's really hard, you've got to have a lot of strength.

You gotta have a fair amount of coordination and you learn all this in training, but you're sure hoping that the moment that you need it, that it all comes to work for you.

And so just getting yourself out of the crew lock, where you entered at atmosphere and all the air got pumped away and you're about to introduce yourself to the vacuum of space, where there is no air, that, all of that comes with such anticipation that you haven't even begun the eight hours of work that you're about to do outside, but then on my first spacewalk, we opened up the hatch and the sun had already set.

So what was beneath me?

not a bluff brightly blue, glowing plump planet, but a sheet of darkness.

There was nothing, I couldn't see, I couldn't even make out lights on the Earth.

So it was, it felt like I was in the middle of outer space for sure.

But once I got outside of the hatch and I could look around at the structure that surrounded me called the International Space Station, it was pretty comforting because I had been training for so long in the environment at our training facility.

It's a pool with a space station mock-up underwater.

And it's very, very lifelike.

It's very, very similar to what we have in space.

It's just a minus the big plump earth beneath you.

But walking out there was a comfort to see that, amidst all of this strangeness that you just only parts of it can you simulate on the ground.

So you're experiencing all of this together at once.

And when it's your first space walk, it's a lot to take in, but then mission control starts to talk to you and tell you what they need you to do first.

And you just get right back down to Earth and start doing the job you've been trained to do.

And it's only in those moments where there's a brief break in the communication or mission control is asking you to wait, standby, that you have a moment where you can actually look off to the side, out your visor and see that Earth going by.

And it just takes your breath away.

And then you see your feet dangling there.

And there's the earth in the background.

And it just kind of freaks you out a little bit that, wow, I am floating above the world.

And not only am I floating above it world at 250 miles above the surface, but I also am traveling at Mach 25, 17,500 miles per hour with nothing but a little leash attaching me to the space station.

All sorts of all sorts of fascinating thoughts, go through your head and especially if the sun is coming up after the Earth has just had this eerie blackness come over it.

And then the sun comes up, and when the sun comes up, it comes up so fast and furious, and the colors change.

It's incredible, it's miraculous, the colors.

It goes from this eerie black and dark blue to pinks and yellows and oranges, and they just shimmer.

And then you have this sun beating down on you, greater than any sun ray you've ever experienced on Earth.

And then the space station lights up, and it's incredible.

And then mission control starts talking to you and tells you they need you to do the next thing.

That totally breaks your reverie.

And that's kind of what a space walk is like.

(electronic music) - Welcome fitness friends to "Impact at Home," where we practice interrupting prolonged sitting with activity.

I'm Samantha Weins-Wice, and I'm here to help you get moving for the next eight minutes.

You'll be surprised at what these moments of movement can do for you and the rest of your family so you can stay active and healthy at home.

So go ahead, get up and let's start moving.

For this movement activity, we're going to be playing rock, paper, scissors, show.

So just like the game rock is rock, paper is flat, scissors is scissors.

So here's how it works: we're going to go rock paper scissors, and on show, you're going to pick one and I will show you what I have picked.

So if I picked scissors and you picked rock, you won.

So if you are a winner, you do jumping jacks for 30 seconds.

For our jumping jacks, we want nice big stars.

Everything out, everything together, as fast as you want to go.

If you lose, so I was scissors and you were paper, then you would do burpees or modified burpee for 30 seconds.

So let's start with the full burpee.

Hands down, jump it back, push up, jump it in, jump it up.

If that's a little too hard for you, we'll try it modified.

We'll walk the burpee, hands down, step it back instead of jumping, push up if you can, if not, no worries.

Step it back up, little jump and we're good.

If you tie me, like we both picked scissors, then we would do flutter kicks.

So for our flutter kicks, we lay down on the ground.

We want our feet out, toes pointed, hands wherever they feel comfy for you.

And we're just going to lift our feet off the ground and flutter, nice straight legs.

Watch out for those bicycles, we want long pointed legs and toes.

All right, friends, I think you're ready, let's do this.

Okay, so here we go.

Rock, paper, scissor, show!

Oh man.

I'm scissors.

So if you were rock, you have jumping jacks.

If you were paper, you have burpees.

And if you were scissors, you're going to do flutter kicks.

I'll do them with you.

Ready?

30 seconds.

Three, two, one, go.

I know it gets tiring, keep moving.

We're almost there, keep going friends, keep going, working on those fitness, win lose or tie.

Lots of fitness fun.

Four, three, two, one, nice job.

All right, let's do it again.

Ready?

Rock, paper, scissor show.

This time I was paper, so if you were scissors, you won, you're doing jumping jacks.

If you were a rock, you lost, your on burpees.

And if you were also paper, you tied me.

I'll do flutter kicks with you again.

Ready friends, on your mark, get set, and go.

Some of you are doing awesome jobs with your fitness.

I like it.

Some of you are very good guessers, keep working friends.

Oo, I can feel the burn in my ab, lots of flutter kicks Four, three, two, one, good job.

All right, next round, here we go.

Rock, paper, scissor show, this time I was rock.

So if you were paper, you have jumping jacks.

If you were scissors, you have burpees.

And if you were also a rock, you're on flutter kicks.

This time, I'm going to do some jumping jacks.

Ready?

Three, two, one, go.

(jumping jacks clicking) Keep those movements going.

Don't forget to breathe friends, nice job Four, three, two, one, done.

All right, let's do it again, ready?

Rock, paper, scissor, show.

I went back to scissors this time.

So if you were rock, you have jumping jacks.

If you were paper, you had burpees.

And if you tied me with scissors, you have flutter kicks.

I'm going to go ahead and do burpees this time.

Ready friends?

Three, two, one, go.

Whoo.

We're having lots of fitness fun today.

Keep moving Four, three, two, one.

Whoo!

We are done with that one, ready friends?

Here we go, rock, paper, scissors, show.

Oh, I went with scissors again.

So if you were rock, you have jumping jacks.

If you were paper, you have burpees.

And if you were scissors, you're on flutters I'm going to go back to jumping jacks, ready friends?

Three, two, one, go.

I'm going to have some fun with my jumping jacks.

Oo, to the side.

Got to have fun with our fitness, friends.

Four, three, two, one, done.

All right fitness friends, here we go, ready?

Rock, paper, scissors, show.

I was paper.

So if you were scissors, you won, you have jumping jacks.

If you were a rock, you have burpees or modified burpees.

And if you were also paper, you tied, we have flutter kicks.

I'm going to go back to burpees again.

Ready friends?

Three, two, one, go.

Remember if you need to modify your movements, do it.

Woo, all right, thank you fitness friends for playing some rock paper scissors show with me.

I hope you enjoyed today's movement break.

"Impact at Home" is a chance to apply the skills you may have learned in your PE class to improve your health.

To learn more about the health benefits associated with daily movement, visit impactathome.umich.edu.

Now don't forget to fill out your daily log.

We will see you again during our next workout.

Bye fitness friends.

(electronic music) - I think it's definitely okay to disagree with people that you're working with in a respectable way, of course.

- It's really important to have disagreements and to have creative disagreements.

I think as a result of disagreements, we create better products.

- So when you're working on a team, there are three important things you want to remember.

- Appreciation, curiosity, and compromise.

- Appreciation: you want to appreciate that your team has lots of ideas, even if you don't agree with all of them.

Remember that everybody wants the project to be the best it can be.

- Curiosity: be curious about different ideas.

How's it different point of view interesting?

Being curious means really listening before you say or decide anything.

- Compromise: you want try and find a solution that takes parts of all the different ideas that your team has and puts them together to make something even better.

- Everybody has something that they can bring to your team.

Even if you don't see it at first, it's there.

And so you have to find it, because once you do, then the project is so much better and everybody on the team is a lot happier.

(electronic music) - Hi everyone, Mr. Lineberger.

I'm so excited about my upcoming camping trip.

I'm headed to the woods with a few friends to spend some nights under the stars.

But if there's one thing I've learned about camping, it's really important to plan things out ahead of time.

You want to make sure you've got enough food, water, and supplies, and you want to spread out the weight so that one person, especially me, isn't carrying everything.

I Hope that you'll all help me figure things out today.

And to do that, we're going to use the power of math.

I know I'm going to be carrying this pack for the next three days, So I'm going to stash it away right now so I can talk to you, I'll be right back.

Okay, I'm back.

So let's start thinking about this by starting with one of the big items, food.

Since we're camping for three days, we have to bring a good bit of food.

There are five of us going on this trip.

If you can imagine all our food in one big pile, we will eat one-third of the food each day.

So one third plus one third plus one third, that equals one.

So by the end of the third day, we will have eaten all the food.

But how much food should each person eat each day?

I could think of the problem in this way.

I'll draw three rectangles to represent the food.

Each rectangle then is one-third of the total food or how much we'll eat in a day.

The question is how much of the total food will each person have in a day?

Really, if you want to put this in math terms, the question is what is one-third divided by five?

Since each day has to be divided into five parts, I'll separate the rectangles into five sections.

One, two, three, four, five, there.

Now I'll do the same for the other two rectangles.

How many total parts are there?

Let's count them.

Five in this rectangle, plus five more, plus the other five, that's 15 total parts.

So, how much does one person eat in a day?

1/15th of the total food.

Knowing this is really going to help us pack.

I'll take all the food, divide it into 15 bundles, and each person will take one bundle per day.

Since we're going to camp for three days, each person will take three bundles, or 3/15ths of the food.

We figured that out.

Let's try another one.

While we're on this trip, we plan to make some little braided key chains made of cord.

I brought seven meters of cord, and each key chain will take one half of a meter to make.

So I wonder, how many key chains can we make on the trip?

Let's think about this one as a number line.

Our number line goes from zero to seven.

Seven meters is the total amount of court I'm bringing.

The math problem here is seven divided by one half, because I need to know how many halves it takes to make seven meters.

To do this, I'll count in increments of one half.

Each time I count, that's another key chain I can make.

One half, one, one and one half, two, two and one half, three, three and one half, four, four and one half, five, five and one half, six, six and one half, seven.

I counted out 14 increments, so seven divided by one half equals 14.

I'm feeling good about this trip.

Thanks for helping me with my math.

My next problem involves water.

We have four big water jugs.

I know from a past experience that a person needs to drink one fourth of a jug of water each day while hiking, I've got to figure out if four jugs will be enough to get us to the end of the trip, or if I'll need to bring more, Can you help me here?

I'm going to start by imagining my four jugs.

As I imagine, they'll appear floating in the air next to me.

There, four jugs.

Now, let's divide each jug into four parts, because I know that each person will need one-fourth of a jug each day.

Four jugs divided by one-fourth.

How many servings of water do we have?

Let's count them.

I'm going to count by fours.

Four, 8, 12, 16, okay.

16 servings of water.

We've got five people in our group and we're going to camp for three days.

Five times three is 15.

We'll need 15 servings of water to get to the end of the trip.

That means we'll have enough water and a single serving leftover.

So if we want to drink all the water on the last day, I can take that last serving and divide it by five.

I'll represent it as one divided by five or one over five, that's one-fifth.

On the last day, everyone will get one serving of water and an extra one-fifth of a serving.

We are figuring out so much of this trip using math.

I've got another part to think about.

I've mapped out the route and I know that there's some steep terrain that we'll have to hike.

Some of it is so steep, we're going to need to stop to rest quite often, especially if we're carrying heavy packs.

I've tracked the steepest parts on the map and it looks like there's a total of five miles of very steep trail.

If we need to stop for a breather every one-third miles, I wonder how many times we'll have to stop When we're on those steep sections?

I need to divide a whole number, five, by a fraction, one-third, to get this answer.

I'll use a number line this time to get the job done.

First, imagine my number line that goes from zero to five, the number of miles we're talking about.

I'll break it up in increments of thirds, So three sections per mile.

Now I can skip count by three to determine the number of breaks we'll take.

Three, six, nine, 12, 15.

15 breaks.

Five divided by one-third equals 15.

Okay, last problem.

I'm bringing a special treat for my friends.

You've seen granola bars before, right?

I'm going to take granola bars to a whole new level.

I've created the next trend in camping food: the granola brick.

This bad boy is sure to give everyone plenty of energy.

I'm going to keep it in my pack on the first day.

No one will have any trouble on day one.

But when we stopped for lunch on day two, I'm going to surprise them with the granola brick.

This will be just for them, I've got my own food.

I'll give them half the brick on the second day and the other half on the last day.

My question is, how much will each of my friends get on the first day?

I'll have one half of a brick divided four ways.

What's one half divided by four?

Let's start by imagining the brick.

We've split it into two parts.

So each part is half of the brick.

Now let's split each half into four parts.

because that's what we're doing, dividing by four.

How many total parts do we have?

You got it, eight parts.

So on day one, each of my friends will get one eighth of the brick and the same thing on day two.

Thanks for helping me pack for my camping trip.

Today, we learned about dividing fractions by whole numbers, like we did with the food example where we figured out one-third divided by five.

We used the same approach with the water when we divided five by one fourth to figure out how many servings of water we will carry.

We also learned how to divide whole numbers by unit fractions or fractions with a one in the numerator position.

We did that with the cord problem, where we divided five by one half.

That's also what we did with the problem where we calculated the number of breaks we would need to take while hiking the steepest trails and everything came together when you helped me figure out how to divide up my granola brick.

That's a lot of math to learn today.

Thanks for your help, and I'll see you on the trail.

(pack rattling) - Well, friends, I heard that we have another member from the Dr. Blotch family empire demanding some brilliant writing from us.

Let's find out more about our new challenge, which involves creating comics.

(electronic music) ("Dr. Blotch Theme") - Hi there, My name is Courtney and it's my absolute pleasure to welcome you to 826 Michigan's writing challenge!

- [Dr. Blotch] Um, excuse me, Courtney?

Who's writing challenge?

- Wow, it doesn't matter what time it is or where I am.

Dr. Blotch, pardon me.

It is Dr. Blotch's Writing Challenge I mean to welcome you all to this week, friends.

- [Dr. Blotch] Audience, I, as Courtney has said, am Dr. W. Blotch, otherwise known as the first doctor Blotch's great-uncle's cousin.

And I've come up with quite a marvelous discovery.

- Pardon me.

Oh, what exactly have you discovered, Dr. Blotch?

- [Dr.Blotch] Thanks for asking!

Now Courtney, have you ever heard of this thing, how do you say it, comics?

- Oh yes, I actually love comics.

I've got a ton over here.

- [Dr. Blotch] You sound like the medium is so common Courtney, so any way.

I was reading the Antarctica Times Newspaper yesterday morning with a piping hot cup of earwax tea.

I decided that since I'll be living down here in my antarctic mansion for a while, social distancing and all that, I might as well stay up on the local news.

You know, local interest stories, weather reports, penguin sightings and all that.

So I subscribed to the newspaper, and do you know what they had on the third page?

- You know, this is, a wild guess, but I'll say... - That's precisely right, comics.

I'd never seen such a thing before.

I have PhDs in seven different subjects, so I've seen quite a lot of things in this world, but I've never before seen pictures and writing come together to tell a story in this way.

You know what Courtney, I want to read more of these.

They're more delightful than an anchovy, pocket-lint and Brussels sprouts smoothie.

- Oh, that, that sounds scrumptious to you, but um, wow.

For this week's writing challenge, is it that you want our writers to create comics?

- Precisely, but Courtney, the writers should be strategic about it.

There are three things in particular that I love about comics.

The first technique I'd like to see them use involves faces.

Writers can use character's facial expressions to help tell the story.

When the character is feeling surprised, you can make them have raised eyebrows.

If they are feeling sad, they can have a frown.

When you're writing a novel or a poem or whatnot, you have to use words to tell the reader about the characters emotions, but with a comic, writer's can use pictures to help tell the story.

They don't have to do it all with words.

- I love it.

And I totally understand.

I think this is what I've got in my head.

You're saying if I'm writing about a triceratops who just found that she can't go to her favorite bands concert, I'll show her with a beak like mouth frowning and big eyes that maybe have some water in them, you know, tears?

- [Dr. Blotch] Indubitably.

Now Courtney, the second technique that writers should use is a panel.

That's a box in the world of comics that shows a whole scene before the scene begins.

Instead of telling readers that you're in a particular scene, you can show them the whole scene before you show them what happens there.

- Okay, that makes sense too.

So if my triceratops character, we'll call her Sparkles, is crying in her dinosaur castle, I should begin the scene with a panel that shows the whole castle to let my readers know that that's where sparkles is when she gets her bad news.

- [Dr. Blotch] Indeed.

Now the third and final technique I'd like to see, and this is a very common one, is speech bubbles to show that a character is talking or captions to show a narrator's words and writers should remember that they don't have to put everything in words like in a traditional story.

Comics are pictures, and words creating a story together.

- Okay, I totally get it, so something like this.

- [Dr. Blotch] You've nailed it!

Now writer's should be on the lookout for my comic planner, which will help them think through their characters and the stories problem and solution before they begin writing, and I'll also make sure that Megan sends along some comic paper so they can print it out if they'd like, but writers can also make their own by drawing simple boxes and rectangles on a piece of paper.

- Okay, well I promise, we're on it, Dr. Blotch.

- [Dr. Blotch] Yes yes, all right.

Talk soon, goodbye.

- Talk soon.

("Dr. Blotch Theme") (electronic music) - [Girl] This is a video about how to make sure sugar cookies that look like the sun.

First, you mix a quarter cup of softened butter with a quarter cup of sugar.

The butter should be soft so it will mix well.

It was hard to keep everything in the bowl.

Once it's mixed into sugary lumps, you can add one egg, half a teaspoon of vanilla extract and then mix it again.

I had to keep pushing it down the sides of the bowl with a spatula.

Next you add one and a quarter cups of flour, and one teaspoon of baking powder, and then mix it again.

It took a long time to push the mix into a ball.

I started with the spoon and then used my hands.

Finally, it felt like dough.

Spread some flour on a pastry cloth or on the counter if you don't have one and then get some flour on both sides of the dough and flatten it a little.

Roll it out flat, go in both directions and stop when it's about as thick as a pencil, then cut it out into sun shapes.

We tried two different ones.

You can even use an empty jar to make circles.

Put them on a metal pan covered with parchment paper if you have it.

Bake them in the oven at 375 degrees for 10 to 12 minutes.

You should have an adult do this part.

Carefully take them off the pan and let them cool for a little while as you're making the icing.

Add milk slowly to one and a half cups of powdered sugar.

Keep adding and mixing until it's starts to feel a little runny.

It goes fast at the end, so be careful.

Divide into two bowls; to make yellow frosting, add three drops of yellow food coloring.

To make orange, use two drops of yellow and one drop of red.

Spread the yellow on first.

The drizzle the orange in a neat pattern.

It doesn't have to be perfect.

Then you can use a toothpick to mix the orange and make it look like the sun.

Be creative!

To make some spots, we use chocolate chips and cake-writing gel.

They are dark areas that are cooler than what's around them.

When the sun is active, it has more.

Sometimes the sun is quiet and doesn't have any.

So we like to keep a few cookies plain.

That's it, you're done.

(electronic music) - [Narrator] When something scary happens, it's okay to have big feelings.

You might feel sad, angry, scared, or a lot of feelings at the same time.

There are many things we can do as a family to help each other feel safe.

We can talk about what happened and how you feel.

You can ask questions and we can learn together.

We can look for the helpers who make our neighborhoods better every day.

We can prepare by creating supply kits and emergency plans together.

And we can all be helpers by reaching out to friends and neighbors who need us.

To learn more about "Meet the Helpers," visit meetthehelpers.org.

"Meet the Helpers" is made possible by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, a private corporation funded by the American people.

(electronic music) (star chiming) - Working with Cosmonauts has to be one of the most challenging yet rewarding parts of being an astronaut training for admission on board the space station.

It's a delight to work with people that have grown up in a completely different culture, completely different mindset, completely different language.

And yet you come together for something as important as this and discovering what those commonalities are and everything from your technical job to your personal life.

it's a fascinating discovery and some pretty strong bonds are are made because of it.

I spent a great deal of time training in Russia, not just for this mission, but throughout my career as an astronaut, I've been involved with supporting the International Space Station and working over in Russia.

So I've had a lot of experience over there, especially in the area that we train in near Moscow.

And I've learned, been learning the language since I was in graduate school.

So along with that comes understanding the culture and I'm constantly learning about that.

But then I also started training for this mission and launching and landing on a Russian vehicle.

It's a Soyuz rocket, soyuz vehicle attached to that rocket.

And in this mission, I was launching with two other Russians, the commander and the flight engineer and myself, and we work together to monitor systems as we were launching, and then of course to work as a pretty solid team as we were coming back down to Earth in the same vehicle, and of course spending 176 days in space with them and would, you know it, that the day that we were supposed to undock, from the space station, the first time in history, the first time in history, and this goes all the way back to the Mir days, I mean back several, several decades, our vehicle, the space station hooks would not let go of our vehicle.

And we sat in our vehicle for like five and a half hours, suited up thinking we were coming back to Earth and we weren't.

And we ended up having to abort the undocking and climb out of our spaceship, get out of our suits and live one more day on board the space station because of mechanism that had broken and needed to be fixed.

So it's interesting, I bring that up because my two Russian crew mates, the cosmonauts, that I flew with, we've been through some pretty dramatic things, all the way from this training in general, to launching in space on a vehicle, a vehicle that I'd never really been.

I'd never been in it, the real vehicle, unlike the shuttle and in an area that I had not spent much time in, they were a comfort to me in many ways, but all that you experience in life onboard a space station in an environment where things break suddenly.

We had a critical failure on board, a component that cools down the space station had broke, and this happened suddenly, and it required that we go outside and fix it.

I got to do three space walks with my partner Doug, we'd walk to go fix this.

When that happened, it happened to all of us on board.

And we all came together in a moment of great uncertainty.

And when that happens, you become even closer.

You don't even realize how close you've become with someone until months later.

And you're looking back on that time and you realize something has changed and it's changed for the good, and it's real, in some ways, even more rewarding than any other relationships, because you know that it was built on some form of communication that may not be common all around, but common to you both, because we never just spoke pure Russian, we never spoke just pure English.

It was sort of a combination of that and body language and just pure understanding one another.

And when you can do that with somebody who you haven't grown up with your whole life, who grew up in a completely different culture as you, and has a completely different technical background as you and you can come together and not only work together, but live together, it is one of the most rewarding parts of this job and something that I'll cherish I think forever in that experience I had living on board the space station.

- Today's show was amazing.

I really loved hearing astronauts Tracy describe her first spacewalk, what an adventure.

Would you want to be an astronaut?

On the next episode of "Extra Credit", you make paper rockets meet an engineer who helps people explore outer space and remember the life of an amazing woman known as the human computer.

Get your extra credit on the Michigan learning channel.

- [Announcer] This program is made possible in part by Michigan Department of Education, the State of Michigan, and by viewers like you.

(outro music) (chiming music)