Coal Nina and the Neurons: Earth Explorers

# If you've got a question and you don't know where to go

# Ask Nina for some help cos she's got a science show

# She makes sense of her senses by helping all her fans

# By doing her experiments with potions and with bangs

-# Tough your tongue

-Tongue

-# Fingers

-Fingers

-# Eyes

-Eyes

-# Ears

-Ears

-# Nose

-Nose

# Nina and the Neurons find out what you need to know

# Nina and the Neurons find out what you need to know

# Luke he helps us with our eyes and Felix with our touch

# Ollie sniffs out smells and scents and Belle she hears so much

# Bud is Ollie's brother he helps us with our taste

# They're Nina's little Neurons and they're coming to your place

-# Touch your tongue

-Tongue

-# Fingers

-Fingers

-# Eyes

-Eyes

-# Ears

-Ears

-# Nose

-Nose

# Nina and the Neurons find out what you need to know

# Nina and the Neurons find out what you need to know

# Oh, yeah! #

Hello, I'm having a bit of a barbecue outside later

and I'm just checking I've got everything.

Oh, and this is charcoal. I'll burn the charcoal to heat my food.

Oh, I can't wait!

Cooking and eating outside is so exciting.

ALARM BEEPS

I hear a beep, I see a flash, I wonder what they're going to ask.

ALL: Hi, Nina!

Hi!

We've got a question for you.

Where does coal come from?

That's a great question.

Where does coal come from?

We use coal in our fires for heat,

it's a bit like the charcoal in my barbecue.

Where does it actually come from?

Come down to my workshop and we'll investigate?

ALL: See you soon, Nina. Bye!

Bye.

Well, I'm going to need some help to answer this one

and I know just who to ask.

OK, Neurons, time to get to work.

ALL: Neurons at the ready, Nina.

Today's question is - where does coal come from?

Which Neuron do you think will be most useful

in helping us find the answer?

ALL: Me! Me! Me!

Will it be fabulous Felix?

I can help so very much, if you need the sense of touch.

Will it be beautiful Belle?

I send messages to brain from ear,

if there's a sound, I'll help you hear.

Will it be lovely Luke?

For looking and seeing day or night,

I'll help you with your sense of sight.

Will it be awesome Ollie?

If it's pongy or whiffy, but you can't tell,

my messages help your sense of smell.

Or will it be baby Bud?

Sour, salty, bitter or sweet, I'm your taste buddy whenever you eat.

It's Ollie!

ALL: Go Ollie! Go Ollie!

Standing by to smell and tell, Nina.

Today's question is - where does coal come from?

Because we can smell coal when it burns,

Ollie will be helping us today, but stand by, Neurons,

I have a feeling I may need help from all of you.

I need to get the workshop ready before the Explorers arrive.

Jaden loves breakdancing.

Mia loves eating fishcakes.

And Cameron loves his cat Whiskers,

but all they all want to know - where does coal come from?

Coal is black.

Coal looks like a rock.

What is coal?

So for today, for one day only,

Jaden, Mia and Cameron become the Explorers!

-Hi, guys.

-ALL: Hi, Nina.

Welcome and thank you for your great question -

where does coal come from?

To find out the answer, let's start by using our senses.

ALL: Whoop-wooh! A senses experiment. We're ready, Nina.

First, let's find out more about what coal is

by having a look at some coal.

You've got some in front of you there. Let's have a feel.

Another messy experiment.

It is a bit dirty, sorry, Felix.

-What do they feel like?

-Hard.

Yes, it is quite hard, isn't it?

And that's because coal is actually black rock.

Coal is a rock, Nina? Well, I never.

Yes, Felix, coal is a black rock.

It's a bit like charcoal,

although charcoal is a special type of wood,

but they both can be burnt to make heat in the same way.

And when coal burns, you can smell it.

Years and years ago,

a lot of people had a coal fire in their house to keep them warm.

Coal is also used in factories and in steam trains.

But today, coal is mostly used by power stations

to make electricity for our homes.

Where does coal come from, Nina?

Let's find out.

-Hands, Nina.

-Oh, thanks, Felix, better clean our hands first.

Here we have some crunchy snacks, but they're not for eating.

Oh, Nina!

Sorry, Bud.

Instead we're going to pretend they're small trees

that have died and fallen over and piled up on top of each other.

I'm going to put this block on here like it's heavy mud.

Let's cover the trees.

Let's see what happens if I squash our pretend trees really hard.

Here we go.

Oh, I think they should be squashed enough.

-Shall we have a look?

-ALL: Yeah!

Here we go.

What do our pretend trees look like now?

A big clump.

Yes, they are in a big, hard lump.

And they take up a lot less room now they've been squashed.

And coal is made in the same way.

Many years ago, before there were dinosaurs,

there were lots of plants and trees that grew in wet, muddy fields.

Eventually those plants and trees died

and they got covered in lots of dirt and mud

and over years and years and years the heavy mud squashed

the dead plants until they turned into black rock.

And that's what coal is.

Here we have some dead plants and if they got squashed underground

for a really long time, they become like this...

And after a really long time being squashed

they turn into rock like this...

Coal.

People don't make coal.

It's made underground as part of the world around us.

But it takes so long for coal to form

that we need to be careful how much we use as it could run out.

Today, we're trying to use other things to make electricity

like wind or sunlight or even waves.

How do they get coal from underground?

That's a great question.

Well, let's go somewhere a bit darker to find out.

Where do you think we're going today?

Nina said we're going somewhere darker.

Not too dark, I hope.

We'll not be able to see a thing.

I'm sure Nina's brought a torch.

She's always very prepared.

A bit like myself.

Look, everyone, we're here.

In order to find out more about where coal comes from,

we've come here to a coal mine which is a place where

they dig things out of the ground.

People who work in a mine are called miners.

There are lots of different types of mine.

This used to be a coal mine, but it's now a museum.

We've got permission, but you should never go underground on your own

because it could be dangerous.

-Are you ready to go down the mine?

-ALL: Yeah!

-Let's go.

We're here in the coal mine really deep underground.

Let's see what it's like if we turn our lights off.

Where did everyone go?

Hello!

Don't worry, little Bud, they're there. It's just very, very dark.

It's so dark.

This is so far underground that the sunlight can't get down here,

so miners bring lights with them so they can see.

Let's put our lights back on.

Oh, that's much better. Let's go and explore!

That was great fun.

People have been mining coal for hundreds of years

and miners used to use tools like these to dig out the coal by hand.

-Do you remember seeing the rail tracks underground?

-ALL: Yes.

Once the miners dug the coal out, they put it into carts like these to

move it above ground and they would use these tracks to move the carts.

But today, miners use machines to help them.

But getting coal is very dirty and difficult work.

We can't see coal because it's underground,

how do people know where to dig?

That's a great question, Luke, let's go this way to find out.

This is our pretend ground.

Underneath the ground you can see there's lots of different layers

of different types of rock, soil and sand.

But on top of the ground, where we are, we can't see the layers.

But if we were to see underground, it would look like this.

Can you see any coal?

Yes, there.

Yes.

It looks like a nice layer of black coal. It looks quite far down.

How do scientists know it's there?

They would use special equipment that looked

a bit like this long tube.

They push it into the ground to check what

the layers are like underneath. Shall we have a look?

Hey, what can you see?

Lots of layers.

-What's that?

-Coal.

Yay, we've found coal!

So we know this is a good place to dig

and we'd also know how far down the coal is.

Scientists do the same thing -

they pull out a very long thin bit of earth, like this,

so they can see what the layers are like underneath the ground.

But this is just our pretend earth.

Scientists dig much further down that this.

Coal isn't found in many places,

so it's important you know it's there before digging.

Your question was - where does coal come from?

And I think we've answered it.

Coal is a black rock.

It's formed when lots of trees

and plants get squashed for a really long time underground

until they become rock.

Coal is dug out of the ground in mines.

Scientists pull up a long bit of earth, if they find coal,

they know exactly where to dig.

I hope that's answered your question.

ALL: Thanks, Nina. Bye!

You're welcome. Bye.

If you want to know more about the science all around us,

go to the Nina's section on the CBeebies website. Have fun.

# Everyday the sun comes up, it brightens up the sky

# A brand-new day to understand, a chance to ask ourselves why?

# Why

# There's a world of possibilities outside our front door

# So everyday take a look around and explore

# Exploring in the garden

# Rocks

# Exploring in the park

# Rivers

# Exploring in the day time

# Mountains

# And even when it's dark

# Planets

# Look at the earth, look at the sky

# Look at the world before us

# We're always on the lookout

# We're Earth Explorers!

# We're Earth Explorers!

# We're Earth Explorers! #

Exploring is about looking at the world around us, asking why

and finding out the answer.

Whether it's deep underground, at the end of your playground

or way up above the clouds, let's keep exploring our exciting world.

-See you again soon. Bye.

-ALL: Bye!

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd