Balanced Media Connecting Kids and Questions 4 Richard Branson

Great to connect kids to the world and Richard Branson. I like the fact that the authors of the website say that the news is true and the kids get all sides. If that is true, then great idea!

http://htekidsnews.com/about/

Welcome! Here There Everywhere is a news website/blog designed for elementary school-aged children. Its purpose is to show kids how they are connected to their world and introduce them to the people and events shaping it. It credits children with being interested in and being able to understand some of the more newsy topics (though there will be lots of the fun stuff, too!). HTE can be read with a caregiver or without.

Why News? Kids, this is for you.

News is really a kind of storytelling, only the stories are all true and it pretty much all just happened. Knowing what’s in the news is a way to be connected to our community, nation and world; it can give us important information about something we may need to know, or information to help us make the best possible choices. It can inspire us, and it’s a way to share ideas and help form opinions – especially when all sides of a story are heard. It helps us understand each other better (and that’s important these days). Knowing what’s going on in the world around us also teaches us the importance of staying curious and asking questions.

There’s a lot that goes on in the world every day. A lot. And since we can’t hear about everything, we have to choose some things to talk about over others, figure out what’s most important or most interesting … and start there. Some of the news is serious, some of it’s funny. Some of it resonates immediately and we see its relevance right away. Some of it we never will, and that’s okay too.

One of the things I love about news is that people have communicated about their world since the beginning of time. Sharing experiences is something that’s done no matter where in the world people live, and no matter what point in time they live. News is in our nature.

Here are questions kids asked of Richard Branson.

http://htekidsnews.com/you-asked-sir-richard-branson-answered-part-2/

You Asked, Sir Richard Branson Answered! Part 2
February 13th, 2012

Recently, we posted Part 1 of billionaire-adventurer-businessman Sir Richard Branson taking YOUR (HTE children readers!) questions about just one of his ambitious projects … to embark on the five deepest submarine ocean dives in history with his Virgin Oceanic team.

And what a success Part 1 was! In addition to Sir Richard Branson treating your questions with respect and giving great answers, comments poured in from all over about how great your questions were — how smart they were, how honest they were, how interesting they were, how thoughtful they were! Great job and congratulations to you! To see Part 1, click here. To read HTE’s original post on his submarine dive, click here.

Here is Part 2 — the final ten questions and answers — of our very special exchange with Sir Richard Branson. You can also read it on Richard Branson’s blog by clicking here.

11. Can kids be Ocean Elders? Mrs. Hanson’s 3rd grade class

They can certainly join our community! Everyone is invited to go to www.oceanelders.org and post and vote on their favorite ocean conservation ideas. I hope you will join us!

12. Will kids be able to go into space and will your trips offer space walks? Mrs. Hanson’s 3rd grade class

My dream is to open up the wonder of spaceflight to all- including kids! It may take awhile to get the regulations to allow it, but we will get there. Our sub-orbital flights will not have the option of space walks, but in the future when we are taking people into orbit around the Earth, we certainly hope to offer space walks. I am hoping to get to do one myself!

13. What was it like to be a child and have trouble with reading because I have the same problem? Also, I like your amphibious vehicle, does it have a roof? Emma, age 8

At the age of eight I still couldn’t read. I was soon being beaten once or twice a week for doing poor class work or confusing the date of the Battle of Hastings. One of the positive things about being dyslexic is that we look at things differently. We simplify things, we can see things more clearly. This is what’s helped me in business.

As for the amphibious vehicle that crossed the English Channel in, it does not have a roof but does have a sort of bimini top (like a canopy) that you can use while out to protect you from the sun. But not having a roof is not nearly as unusual as not having any doors!

14. Which creatures do you expect to find in the deep ocean? Will you able to take photos and video? If so, I can’t wait to see them! Sammie, no age given

I expect to encounter a number of different animals from sea spiders, to jellyfish, to squid and shrimp type things, and fish, but the deeper we go the less anyone will have seen these things at those depths before. Very little of the full volume of the ocean has been explored so there is still a lot we do not know. A bunch of new exotic deep sea creatures were discovered last year and I expect we will keep discovering more and more as long as we keep looking. Our plan is to take video and photos of everything so that we can bring it back to scientists to study and for people like you to enjoy!

15. How are you going to navigate the rocks that you’ll encounter? Ms. Montalvo’s 3rd grade class

We plan to have a sonar system to scan the water column ahead for rocks and other obstacles, it works a bit like a bat’s sonar sending out sound signals to see if the device can detect them bouncing off a rock or something else in your path. Hopefully that will be enough to keep me from getting closer than I want to into a rock face.

16. How much food are you going to pack … and what if you run out? Ms. Montalvo’s 3rd grade class, and Mrs. C’s 2nd grade class

I haven’t decided yet. It is about a 7-hour mission, so I could do it without food it I needed to. But it probably makes sense to take some along, maybe some energy bars or something. If I run out then I will probably just be extra hungry when I get back on board the mother ship.

17. How are you going to see underwater, we watched your video but is it going to be like that? Mrs. C’s 2nd grade class

The front of the sub has a great big window and the there are a number of headlights and wing lights that will help light up the scene ahead (the ocean gets very dark very fast). The video makes it seem light enough at the sea bottom to see the rocks, but in reality if we are not shining our flashlight directly on it, we will not be able to see it. It is pitch black down there.

18. How long do you plan to stay when you get down to the bottom? Mrs. C’s 2nd grade class

About 2 hours. It is 2.5 hours to get down, 2 hours flying along the bottom and 2.5 hours ascending to the surface again.

19. How do you practice withstanding that much pressure from the water as you go deeper? anonymous

Luckily I don’t have to! Since I will be on the inside of the pressure hull, the pressure inside the vehicle will stay the same as at sea level (which is 14 lbs per square inch- basically the weight of all the air and water vapor above your head all the way up into the vacuum of space). The Carbon Fiber hull however will have to withstand 16,000 lbs per square inch (that is like having the weight of an elephant balance on one square inch of your head). The 16,000 lbs of pressure comes from the weight of nearly 11 km of water pressing down on the submarine (think about how much just 1 liter of water weighs…).

20. Do you want to or plan to follow the sperm whales around down there since they live so deep and there’s not many of them left? Lois, age 5

We have talked about that being one of the coolest things we could do with the submarine. Now let’s just hope we find a sperm whale just about to dive so we can try it out!