Crossing the Digital Divide 📶

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Description

🥇 Hear 5 ways US voters made history with this year's elections *(hint: it wasn't only about the Presidency)* 👩🏽‍⚕️ Get the latest on the coronavirus vaccine (with correspondents Jacob & Olivia Rosencwaig from the Curious Kid Podcast) 📶 Hear how online school works (or doesn't work) if you don’t have internet access ❓❓ Guess the answer to the Trivia Question of the Day: what kind of animal was gifted to US President Martin Van Buren? 🪐 Learn today’s Fun Fact about the depths of space!

Links

🥇 Can you guess 6 records the 2020 election broke
📶 You really should learn these Digital divide facts for kids
🐊 Think President Van Buren's gift was strange? Check out The 9 Strangest Pets Owned by Presidents
💌 We love email! Send us your stories, your trivia, your tired, your poor, your huddled masses: hello@thetennews.com

Transcript

Bethany Van Delft: [00:00:00] What's the latest on the coronavirus vaccine? How does online school work if you don't have internet access? And which president kept a flock of sheep on the White House lawn? I'm Bethany Van Delft and we'll get into all this and more on today's The Ten News. The show where in the time  it takes Joey Chestnut to eat 75 hotdogs, we find out what's up in the world.

[00:00:27] Okay, let's get into The Ten News.

Various Voices: [00:00:30] Ten, nine, eight,  seven, six, five, four, three, two, one.

Bethany Van Delft: [00:00:37] Want to hear something? This year's election wasn't only about the presidency. Here are five ways voters made history happen all over the country. In Missouri, Cori Bush, a nurse, pastor and Black Lives Matter activist was elected the state's first Black Congresswoman. In North Carolina, [00:01:00] 25 year old Republican Madison Cawthorn became the youngest person elected to Congress since 1965. In New York, Mondair Jones and Ritchie Torres became the first openly gay Black men elected to Congress.

[00:01:17] In Delaware, Sarah McBride was elected the first openly transgender state Senator.

[00:01:26] And in New Mexico, Deb Haaland, Yvette Herrell and Theresa Leger Fernandez won all three of the state's congressional districts, making it the first state in history to elect all women of color to the US House of Representatives.

[00:01:47] Maybe you've heard all the buzz lately about scientists getting closer to creating a coronavirus vaccine. So what's going on? Let's go to friends of The Ten Jacob and Olivia Rosencwaig from the [00:02:00] Curious Kid podcast for an explanation.

Jacob Rosencwaig: [00:02:04] Hey everybody. I have some great news about the coronavirus.

Olivia: [00:02:08] Is there even such a thing as great news about the coronavirus?

Jacob Rosencwaig: [00:02:12] A lot of the stuff we hear about the Coronavirus, isn't good, but sometimes we do get promising news. And the news that came out last week about the coronavirus is very good. Last Monday, a company called Pfizer announced that the coronavirus vaccine they are working on has been over 90% effective, which means we could be really close to having the coronavirus vaccine we need to bring an end to the Coronavirus quicker.

Olivia: [00:02:38] How does the vaccine work?

Jacob Rosencwaig: [00:02:40] How it works is really interesting. Have you seen what the Coronavirus looks like? If you have, you know, that a kind of looks like this sphere with a bunch of spikes on it. The word Corona actually comes from Latin and means crown. If you've seen the movie Frozen, you may remember that Ana has her coronation day in the beginning of the movie.

[00:03:00] [00:02:59] That's the day she got her crown. That's why it's called the Corinatation Day. The word coronation comes from "Corona" because Corona means crown. Well, when scientists looked at the Coronavirus through an electron microscope, they thought the spikes of the virus resembled a crown.

Olivia: [00:03:16] That's interesting, but what does any of this have to do with the vaccine?

Jacob Rosencwaig: [00:03:20] It has a lot to do with the vaccine and here's why our bodies do not make spike proteins that look like the Coronavirus. And that's where Pfizer's vaccine comes in. When you get the vaccine, it sends a message to your body to make spike proteins after the body makes those harmless spike proteins that look a lot like coronavirus, it will defend itself and make awesome antibodies to destroy the strange looking spike proteins.

[00:03:45] After getting the vaccine, our bodies will be prepared if they get exposed to the harmful and dangerous Coronavirus, because our bodies already had experience destroying spike proteins.

Olivia: [00:03:57] That's really neat. So what are we waiting [00:04:00] for? Let's go get our coraonavirus vaccine.

Jacob Rosencwaig: [00:04:03] Well, it's .Not available for everyone to use just yet.

[00:04:06] There are a few obstacles. First in order to be effective, the vaccine needs to stay chilled to about negative 112 degrees Fahrenheit before it is injected so a plan is being put together to make sure that the vaccine is stored in ideal conditions before being used. Also, it looks as though two doses of the vaccine will be needed for immunity.

[00:04:26] So lots and lots and lots of doses need to be made. Pfizer hopes to have 1.3 billion doses available before the end of 2021, which is great, but there are seven and a half billion people in the world. Thankfully, lots of other companies also have Coronavirus vaccines they are working on that should be available soon.

[00:04:49] It looks very likely that within the next couple of months, people will start getting vaccinated. The plan is for the high risk, the elderly, and healthcare workers to get vaccinated [00:05:00] first. But for everyone to have the opportunity to get vaccinated before the end of 2021. As Thanksgiving approaches, we are so thankful for the scientists working on a vaccine to end coronavirus once and for all.

Bethany Van Delft: [00:05:16] Thanks for that update. To learn more cool things from Jacob and Olivia, check them out on the Curious Kid podcast.

[00:05:27] Today's fun fact, comes to us from the depths of space.

[00:05:32] Did you know that scientists recently discovered a planet, hundreds of light years away from Earth, where oceans are made of lava and it rains rocks? So next time you think you're having a bad day, say to yourself, "Hey, at least it's not raining rocks!"

[00:05:57] This year, the coronavirus pandemic forced schools to close [00:06:00] all over the world. Many schools have reopened, but lots of students in the US are still learning remotely through online school. It can be really challenging. And as our correspondent, Ryan Nerz found out, it's even more of a challenge when you don't have internet access at home.

Ryan Nerz: [00:06:19] It all started with a Facebook post. The post showed a picture of a boy. The boy was lying on his back next to a building. He held a tablet up to his face. The woman who posted the photo, a former teacher named Sabrina Harbor wrote, "This is in Roswell, New Mexico. My hometown. This young boy has no internet at his home."

[00:06:43] The young boy in that post was well, let's let him tell it.

Jonathan Endicott: [00:06:47] My name is Jonathan Endicott. I'm a fourth grader in Military Heights.

Ryan Nerz: [00:06:53] While his mother was at work, Jonathan walked every day to Military Heights Elementary to use the school's [00:07:00] wifi hotspot. He felt safe there.

Jonathan Endicott: [00:07:02] The principal and the secretary came out to check on me during the day.

Ryan Nerz: [00:07:07] So Jonathan had supervision while using the internet. But during these isolating times of the COVID pandemic, there were other benefits as well.

Jonathan Endicott: [00:07:16] I felt like I was having a normal day at school.

Ryan Nerz: [00:07:19] He's certainly not alone in wanting a return to normalcy, but he's also not alone in lacking home internet access. In Jonathan's hometown of Roswell the superintendent says 43% of kids don't have internet access at home. More than 9 million American kids between the ages of three and 18 don't have home internet access. And statistics show that students of color and kids in rural areas are suffering the most from this problem, which has been called the Digital Divide.

[00:07:53] But unlike many kids Jonathan's story has a happy ending.

Jonathan Endicott: [00:07:57] I was on Facebook  and next [00:08:00] thing I know there's a GoFundMe for Roswell and for me.

Ryan Nerz: [00:08:04] An ex teacher named Shelby Dutton started a GoFundMe for the kids Roswell with a starting goal of $2,500. The campaign has earned nearly $20,000 in less than a month. Alread

[00:08:19] the donations have provided 25 Roswell students with home internet access, and guess who was one of those students?

Jonathan Endicott: [00:08:26] I'm happy. And I'm grateful that I got internet.

Ryan Nerz: [00:08:30] And Shelby Dutton says their GoFund me is making more kids like Jonathan happy. After she discovered other families were parked outside the school, using wifi in their minivans, she has used the donations to provide internet access to nearly three more homes each day. Dutton has started a nonprofit organization called KIDS, which stands for kindness inspires the development of students, but we still have a ways to go solve the problem of America's Digital Divide. [00:09:00] Let's hope Jonathan's story inspires, more kindness and more happy endings for kids across the country.

Bethany Van Delft: [00:09:07] Thanks for that report, Ryan. And thank you, Jonathan, for sharing your story with us, you can find more information about the digital divide and ways to help at thetennews.com.

[00:09:22] It's time for your trivia question of the day.

[00:09:28] Which of the following was given to President Martin Van Buren as a gift while he lived at the White House? Was it A) herd of elephants, B) a friendly  raccoon or C) a pair of tiger cubs? Did you guess it, the answer is C), but according to historians, Congress made the President give the Tiger Cubs to a local zoo.

[00:09:57] Also a herd of elephants was given to President [00:10:00] James Buchanan as a gift. And First Lady Grace Coolidge owned a pet raccoon named Rebecca. Oh, Rebecca, the racoon. Want to see a photo of the flock of sheep Woodrow Wilson kept on the White House lawn? Check it out at thetennews.com. Time's up. Oh, that's the end of The Ten for today.

[00:10:23] You can always catch new episodes on Tuesdays and Thursdays. That send news is a co-production of Small, But Mighty Media in collaboration with Next Chapter Podcasts and distributed by iHeartRadio. The Ten News writing team  is led by Editorial Director, Tracy Crooks, with contributions from Stephen Tompkins, Jacob Rosencwaig and Ryan Nerz.

[00:10:44] The creative producer is Jenner Pascua. Marketing is led by Jacob Bronstein with social media and web support by Steven Tompkins and Adam Pharr. Editing and sound design by Pete Musto under the production direction of Jeremiah Tittle, Executive Producer, [00:11:00] Donald Albright and show creator Tracy Leeds Kaplan round out the team.

[00:11:04] If you have any questions about the show, a story idea, or a fun fact, you want to share email us at helloatthetennews.com. And don't forget to subscribe, rate and review The Ten News on Apple podcasts, iHeartRadio, Spotify, wherever you listen to podcasts. I'm Bethany Van Delft Thanks for listening to The Ten News.

[00:11:25] Now go think about what you'd name, your pet raccoon. I've named mine. Rocco Rocco, raccoon, Rocco raccoon, your dinner has been served. What do racoons eat?

[00:11:42] Bye.