♪♪♪ (Jessica Russell) Hi, everyone!

My name is Jessica.

Welcome to the Vegas PBS STEAM Camp science lab.

"STEAM" stands for science, technology, engineering, arts and math.

While it may sound like these are just subjects we learn in school, it's way more than that.

STEAM helps improve our lives and our community.

Today with the help of experts, we're going to learn about the STEAM that's all around us in Southern Nevada, which you might have never noticed before.

Then I'm going to show you some fun activities you can do at home to learn more.

Let's get started by investigating a question.

(ringing sound) It sounds like I'm getting my first video call of the day from my friend Carter.

Hi, Carter.

-Hi, Jessica.

-Do you have a question you've been wondering about?

-I was wondering, how do animals survive in the desert?

-I love that question.

Let's visit my friends Chris and Katrina, who work at the Springs Preserve, to help us find some answers.

♪♪♪ Hi, I'm Katrina Smith.

I'm a zoologist here at the Springs Preserve.

-And I'm Chris Sakmar, one of the naturalists here at the Spring Preserve.

Today we're studying animal adaptations.

-And how they survive in our extreme climate here in the Mojave Desert.

♪♪♪ Welcome to the desert tortoise habitat at the Springs Preserve.

Right now we're going to head inside and learn about how they adapt to life in the desert.

♪♪♪ All right.

We've come to one of their burrows.

The burrow serves as not only a warm place to stay for the winter but most importantly, it will keep them nice and cool in the summertime.

Summer gets so hot here, temperatures over 115 degrees.

Underneath in the burrow, it stays in the 80s so it's a nice place.

♪♪♪ We use radio tracking to identify that there are two tortoises inside, and they're about to come out anytime.

But right now they're being like sleepy teenagers.

They come up, they'll be a little bit hungry because they are brumating.

It's like hibernating but they don't actually sleep the total time.

They just kind of slow their metabolism down and just kind of sit and wait.

All their favorite foods are in bloom right now, and it's the best time to have a delicious salad here at the Springs Preserve.

They're going to come out of their burrow, but they're not going to wander too far from here because they do spend 95% of their living life in a burrow underground.

This is their area; it's where they're safe and where they live.

And tortoises, they can't take off their shells.

Their shell is actually part of their skeletal system.

It's attached to their bones.

The shells of these tortoises are a nice greenish brownish color.

It blends them in with the outdoors.

It's what protects them.

They're actually camouflaged for living right here in the desert.

They have really no natural predators.

The only trouble can come from us.

-Hi.

So I'm here at Cottonwood Grove, and behind me you can some ponds.

I'm going to go down there, and we're going to talk about some fish, frogs and water here in our desert.

So we are down here at our Cottonwood Grove ponds.

There are actually two ponds here.

They're separated by just a little waterfall.

Now, here in Las Vegas, we have a long history of water.

Our city was actually founded here because there was water.

We have spring mounds; we have natural-occurring water sources here.

Now, in our ponds here, we have fish and frogs.

So we have Pahrump pool fish, and we have relict leopard frogs.

♪♪♪ Now, if you're a frog, you can jump around on the ground, you can come out of the water and you can come out and catch some bugs.

(mmmm yummy!)

But if you're a frog baby or a tadpole, you have to live in the water.

You have no place to go; you don't have legs.

♪♪♪ Now, fish are specifically tied to water.

So if you are a fish that lives in the desert, you need a source of water that's there year-round.

Now, these frogs and fish actually take advantage of those perennial pools.

So they need water year-round.

♪♪♪ And now we're looking at one of my favorite animals.

This is the Gila monster.

♪♪♪ Oh, it sounds like he's a ferocious animal because, you know, Gila monster.

You think it'd be huge, but he's actually pretty docile.

Gila monsters are one of the only venomous lizards in the world, and what's more as you can recognize, Gila monsters, they went a different way with their colorization.

It's called "aposematic colorization."

It means a warning, you know.

So they use their colorization to let you know they're dangerous.

They're very much-- very chill.

That's what they do, sit and just relax.

They have a very sedentary life, and that's a great way to survive in the desert where food isn't very frequent.

You don't get a lot of meals, so he can live off one quail egg for several months at a time.

What he's doing is about the extent of his activity.

Oh, we might get-- oh, okay.

We got one inch of movement.

♪♪♪ So as a zoologist here at the Springs Preserve, part of my job is to take care of the animals that we have in captivity.

So any of the animals we have at our animal habitatic area and animals we have behind the scenes in the clinic, and kind of get people excited about animals and nature and things they don't necessarily think they like but maybe they can gain more respect for.

-Well, as a naturalist, I get to work exclusively with children and kind of convey that excitement into what they're feeling.

Here we are in the middle of Las Vegas and there's nature everywhere.

-Yes.

Here at the Springs Preserve, we have plants, we have animals, we have tons of wild animals, road runners, lizards, like just all the cool stuff.

Thanks, Katrina and Chris!

Let's review what we learned.

Mojave Desert animals have developed adaptations over time to help them survive.

Desert tortoises spend most of their lives in a burrow underground to keep cool.

Their tan color acts as camouflage to blend them into the desert environment.

Relict leopard frogs and their tadpoles live year-round in springs, which is natural water that comes from the ground.

Gila monsters have aposematic coloring to warn predators to stay away.

Being sedentary or sitting still helps Gila monsters conserve energy so they can survive without food for a long time.

Now it's our turn to think like scientists to learn more about animal adaptations.

I noticed the desert tortoise at the Springs Preserve uses camouflage to blend into our desert environment.

Its brown and tan color helps it hide from predators who could harm it.

That makes me wonder, are brown and tan animals camouflaged in every environment, and can any other colors provide camouflage?

So here's the plan.

You're going to investigate which colors provide the best camouflage for animals in different habitats.

To do this you'll need 80 toothpicks, a red marker, a green marker, a brown marker, a stopwatch, a data collection chart and a grown-up's help.

Use your markers to color 20 toothpicks red, 20 toothpicks green and 20 toothpicks brown.

You don't need to coler the last 20 toothpicks.

Keep them plain.

After you color your toothpicks, you're ready to get started.

Select an environment around your home that's about 10 feet wide by 10 feet long.

It could be somewhere outside like grass, desert landscaping or concrete.

Then make a prediction.

If we imagine these toothpicks were animals, which color would have the best chance of surviving in the habitat you chose?

Then close your eyes while your grown-up randomly scatters the toothpicks over the area-- and no peeking!

After the toothpicks are scattered, your grown-up will give you 15 seconds to collect as many toothpicks as you can.

When the 15 seconds are up, count the number of each colored toothpick you collected.

Then subtract each number from 20.

Doing this subtraction problem for each color will tell you how many toothpicks are still left in your environment.

I'll give you an example.

If I collected 9 red toothpicks, I would subtract 9 from 20.

This means there are 11 surviving red toothpicks still in my environment.

Record your data on your chart.

Then collect all your toothpicks and repeat the experiment one more time in the same area and log your results in another column.

Repeating the experiment will help you see patterns so you can draw conclusions later.

After you conduct the experiment, ask your grown-up to help you find the average number of survivors for each color and write that number in the last column.

Then analyze your data.

Were your original predictions correct?

How does camouflage and color affect the survival of animals in a particular habitat?

Now let's check in with Carter who is doing this activity at home right now.

-My mom is going to hide different colored toothpicks-- yellow, green, brown and red-- all over my backyard.

I'm going to try to find them in my grass.

♪♪♪ The easiest color I think is going to be easy to find is yellow.

♪♪♪ I was right-- yellow was the easiest to see, and I think that's because it has a brighter color in the grass.

I only found one green, and it was very difficult because well, I thought it would blend in because well, the grass is green.

But I think it was difficult because the grass is longer and it really blends in with the grass.

-Thanks for sharing your work.

An important part of being a scientist is sharing your work with others.

Visit our website at vegaspbs.org/steamcamp to submit videos or pictures of your results to us at Vegas PBS with your grown-up's permission, or ask your grown-up to share it with us on social media by tagging @vegaspbs.

Keep in mind if you're submitting a video, make sure we can see what you're doing and hear what you're saying.

Also, you'll want to try to keep your video to one minute or less.

We will post some of your projects on our website, and if your project is selected, we will mail you this awesome PBS Kids bag and a new book.

When you visit our website, you will also find a copy of the chart we used to keep track of our data and links to PBS Kids shows and activities to learn more about animal adaptations.

Now let's visit the library to discover books you can check out to help you learn more about this topic.

♪♪♪ Hi, everyone.

I'm Dani Dewar from the Sunrise Library.

I heard you took a visit to the Springs Preserve and learned all about some amazing animal adaptations.

I've got some books here with me that talk all about those animals, one of which is the Gila monster.

The Gila monster is the gem of the Nevada desert.

They've got some amazing adaptations, one of which is my favorite, their coloration.

They've got that bright, beautiful orange and black coloration to tell predators to stay away because they're really dangerous, and it's not a bluff.

They're one of a handful of venomous lizards in the world.

Desert tortoises are amazing.

They've got these hard shells on their back.

They've got these jaws which they use to tear spiny desert plants and eat all the dandelions they can find.

And I've got a very special book I'd love to show you called a "field guide."

Field guides are amazing; I love them.

They are a comprehensive guide to plants and animals out in the desert.

So if you ever want to go outside and just look around and see what animals and plants you can find, always bring one of these with you.

It's got all sorts of species, over 1,700, and you can find these at the library.

♪♪♪ Welcome back to the Vegas PBS STEAM Camp science lab.

We still have time left, so let's investigate another question.

(ringing sound) Here's our next caller, it's my friend Royce.

Hey, Royce.

-Hi, Jessica.

-Do you have a question I can help answer on today's show?

-What is a robot?

-That's a great question, and luckily I have friends standing by in Pahrump, Nevada who are going to help explain this.

Let's go talk to them.

-Hi.

I'm Lewis Rubbo, an instructor of physics at College of Southern Nevada.

Today we're in Pahrump, the home of Awkward Silence, one of the FIRST Tech Challenge teams that competes in FIRST robotics.

♪♪♪ So we've all heard the word "robot" before, but if we think about it and try to define what a robot is, that becomes a little bit of a challenge.

In fact, if you go out and ask a bunch of people who do robotics for a profession, they may not give you the same exact definition.

♪♪♪ So classically when we think about what a robot is, we usually think about films, and we think of a humanoid robot.

That's something that has arms, legs, a torso, a head and looks very humanlike, maybe with a metal skin to it.

But that is just the fictional version of a robot.

♪♪♪ In our everyday lives, a robot can be found everywhere around us.

For example, a thermostat is a version of a robot because what it does is it measures the temperature of the room.

It will take that and process it and say if the temperature is not at a certain level, it's going to kick on the A/C or maybe the heat.

So that's an example of a robot that maybe we've overlooked.

So there's examples of robots in our everyday lives that sometimes we overlook just because they don't have arms and legs to them.

But one thing that all people agree upon is a robot is a physical thing that repeats a task over and over.

So this is a great example of what a robot might look like.

Here what we have is a FIRST Tech Challenge robot built by Awkward Silence in Pahrump, and it demonstrates the key central features of what a robot might have.

For example, on this particular robot in the front is a camera.

This is a type of sensor that measures the environment around it, takes in that information and feeds it into its brain.

In this case the brain for this robot is located in this black box in the back.

In this brain here, it takes in that information, processes it and makes a decision.

So during a competition, based on what the camera is seeing, this brain will make a decision to, or not to, move this arm.

♪♪♪ So a robot is, at the end of the day, a physical device built by humans.

So this is just a chunk of metal that on its own can't make its own decisions ahead of time.

What we have to do as roboticists is to teach it how to actually interact with the environment, and that's where the computer becomes involved.

What we do is we program the robot to learn how to take in information, process it, think about it and make decisions based on what we need as humans.

-Hi.

I'm Dylan, and this over here is the robot that Dr. Rubbo was talking to you earlier about.

♪♪♪ Our team, Awkward Silence, has been a team for the past four years.

I started getting into robotics in seventh grade when I joined the FIRST LEGO League team.

One thing about the FIRST Robotics program is that no matter what stage you are in the competition, it's all kid-driven.

We are all students that have gathered together in one location to help build a robot together.

I'm going to demonstrate some of the cool features of our robot such as movement as well as our arm.

♪♪♪ So one interesting thing to know about our robot is that I'm actually able to control it with this controller right here.

♪♪♪ So when I push forward on the joystick, the robot moves forward with it.

My brother's actually a part of the FIRST LEGO League Explorer program, and now we're going to see what his team is working on.

-Hello.

My name is Jaxon.

I'm 10 years old, and I'm part of the Team LEGO Miners.

This is the robot that we're building.

It's pretty much just the build that we were supposed to build at the beginning of the year.

The main build is connected by little stick things, and I have structure down here that can hold it up so it doesn't all just collapse down.

These are the motors which will run it.

This is how I make my robot move.

This is pretty much the program.

There's a start button right here, and then it will start spinning it.

And then this is the button you use to stop the robot.

So you can pretty much stop it wherever and then start it wherever.

-When we really dig deep, what we realize is the concept of a robot is actually kind of challenging, so what we think about is a sense, compute and act cycle where a robot is an object that physically brings in information from its environment.

It computes something about that information, makes a decision and then acts upon it.

So even though we think we understand what a robot is, the definition is actually quite wide and encompasses many things in our everyday lives.

♪♪♪ I love robotics because it's a great combination of everything from hands-on building to programming to design process.

It brings it all together.

This robot started as a pile of parts in the drawer and through a competition, the team had to come together and design this thing from the ground up.

If you're the type that loves to work with your hands, program or just design something, the design of this is amazing and just the aesthetics of it, the beauty of it, bringing together science, technology and creativity is a wonderful way to get into robotics.

♪♪♪ Thanks, Dr. Rubbo and Awkward Silence.

Today we learned robots are a device built by humans to repeat a task over and over.

Robots have a sensor which takes in information.

The sensor feeds the information to the robot's processor, which is like its brain, to make a decision.

To teach the robot how to sense, compute and act, humans need to program them using a computer.

Robots are found all around us in our everyday lives and can be as simple as the thermostat on our air conditioners.

Now it's time for you to become a roboticist.

Dr. Rubbo said in order to make a robot sense, compute and act, you need to program it.

Programming, or coding, is creating a very specific set of instructions that tells a robot or other technology what to do.

Sounds simple, right?

Well, we'll see about that.

Your challenge will be to program a grown-up to find a small object you have hidden in your house.

To do this all you'll need is a small object or toy to hide, a piece of paper, a pencil and a grown-up.

First, hide your object somewhere inside your house.

Then pretend you're grown-up is a robot.

Identify the location in your home where your robot will start the treasure hunt, like at your kitchen table.

Next, write detailed step-by-step instructions your robot will have to follow to find the treasure.

Your instructions are just like programming code.

Which direction will you make your robot move?

How many steps do you want your robot to take in one direction before it stops?

And how will you write your code so your robot avoids obstacles?

Your robot will have to follow your instructions exactly as written to find the hidden object.

When you finish your instructions, test it out.

Read your instructions out loud to your robot one at a time.

Your robot will do exactly what you tell it to do.

Did your robot find the treasure?

It's okay if your directions didn't work the first time.

Mistakes help us learn, and in programming, we call this "debugging."

Improve your code, then move your robot back to the starting location and try again.

Now let's check in with Royce who is doing this activity at home right now.

-Hi, Jessica.

Today my dad's going to be a robot.

He's going to have to find this fidget, and he's going to have to follow this code.

I made the code, and the reason I didn't make words is because I'm better at drawing than writing.

These arrows mean to turn left or right, and the down arrow at the end of this stuff means he's going to bend down and grab this fidget.

♪♪♪ "Walk 22 steps."

1 2 3 4 5... ♪♪♪ Turn right.

♪♪♪ Sorry!

♪♪♪ He got it!

My directions worked, except my dad ran into a wall once.

But it's okay because I redid the directions.

But everything worked and he got the fidget, so we did good.

-Thanks for sharing your coding skills with us.

That looked like such a fun family activity!

And kids, I want you to share the results of this activity with me.

Submit a picture of your instructions or a video of you and your family doing this activity through our website at vegaspbs.org/steamcamp with your grown-up's permission, or ask your grown-up to share it with us on social media by tagging @vegaspbs.

And remember if you're submitting a video, make sure we can see what you're doing and hear what you're saying, and try to keep your video to about a minute or less.

We will select some projects for our website, and if we choose yours, you will get this cool PBS Kids bag and a new book.

When you visit our website, you'll also find links to PBS Kids shows and activities to learn more about robotics and coding.

Now let's visit the library one more time to discover books you can check out to learn more about this topic.

♪♪♪ Hi, everyone.

I'm Ms. Marisa from Summerlin Library, and I'm going to talk to you all about robots.

You just learned how cool robots are, and you're going to code your parents to become robots, which is super cool.

So I found a couple books at the library that will help you extend this knowledge and maybe pique your interest a little more.

The first book I have is Rox's Secret Code.

Now, Rox has a superpower.

She can code.

She decides to make a robot that will do all her chores for her, which sounds pretty awesome until the robot goes off on its own and tries to sort and clean the entire town and chaos erupts.

Can Rox use her debugging skills to save the day?

You'll have to check out the book to find out.

But this book delivers an upbeat message about the advantages of knowing how to code and also debunks myths about girl power and gender stereotypes.

I highly recommend this book if you are interested in robots.

Another book I found is 25 Science Projects for Kids: All About Robotics.

Not only does this book cover the history of robotics and the future of robotics, it also has 25 projects you can do at home like building a high-five robot or a robotic hand or a mini flashlight, or my favorite, a vibrating solar robot bug.

How fun is that?

So come visit me at the library to check out these books or any other robotics books we have.

I'll see you soon!

♪♪♪