Deserts 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 While helping all her fans

# By doing her experiments with potions and with bangs

-# Touch your tongue

-# Tongue

-# Fingers

-# Fingers

-# Eyes, Ears

-# Eyes, 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 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

# Eyes, ears

-# Nose

-# Nose

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

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

# Oh, yeah! #

Oh, hello there.

These are my cactus plants.

I love all their different shapes and sizes.

But I have to be careful because of their prickly spines.

They stop them from being eaten by animals.

Hmm, I'm quite thirsty.

Some lovely cool water.

Now, plants usually need water

but cacti don't need very much at all.

They can go without water for a very long time.

BEEPING

Oh! I hear a beep, I see a flash,

I wonder what they're going to ask.

BOTH: Hi, Nina!

Hi.

We've got a question for you.

What is a desert?

That's a great question.

What is a desert?

Deserts are huge areas of land that are very dry.

But what makes deserts so hot and dry?

Oh, this'll be a brilliant question to explore!

Why don't you come down to my workshop

-and we'll investigate.

-BOTH: 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.

OK, today's question is, "What is a desert?"

Which Neuron do you think will be most useful

in helping us find the answer?

-Me!

-Me!

-Me!

-Me!

-Me!

-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 Felix.

CHEERING

ALL: Go Felix! Go Felix! Go Felix! Go Felix! Go Felix!

Go Felix! Go Felix!

Marvellous. A little touch can mean so much, Nina.

Today's question is, "What is a desert?"

Deserts are places that feel hot and dry.

So, our touch Neuron Felix will be helping us today.

But stand by, Neurons,

I have a feeling I may be needing help from all of you.

Right, I need to get the workshop ready before the explorers arrive!

Abbey likes playing beauty parlour

and Luca loves playing on his scooter.

They want to know, "What is a desert?"

Deserts are very dry and sandy.

I want to know, what is a desert?

So today, for one day only, Abbey and Luca become the Explorers!

-Hi, guys.

-BOTH: Hi, Nina.

Welcome to my workshop and thanks for your great question,

"What is a desert?"

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

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

First, let's look at some pictures.

How would you describe these deserts?

There's lots of sand.

Yeah. And some deserts have huge mountains of sand dunes.

And they're very hot.

Some deserts are sandy and some are rocky,

with different sorts of plants.

But all deserts are very dry.

And because deserts are so dry,

it's difficult for plants and animals and people to live there.

But being dry is what makes it a desert.

What are those plants, Nina?

Those are cactus plants

and here's a cactus plant in this desert.

Cacti and some animals, like camels, survive well in the desert

because they're able to store water

and they can go for a long time without a drink.

Where are the hot deserts, Nina?

That's a brilliant question! Let's experiment.

Now, we are going to pretend that this torch is the sunlight

and that these pieces of card are the ground.

And I need to dim the workshop lights.

Now, let's make some sunbeams with our torch.

Oh!

Now, what can you see on the card?

-A circle.

-Yeah, a circle!

Now, can I ask you, Abbey,

to draw around that circle for me?

Fantastic job!

Now, let's try again,

but on this piece of card that's tilted.

Well, what's happened to our sunbeams now?

They've spread out.

Yeah, they have.

Now, can I ask you, Luca, to draw around this shape for me, please?

Excellent work!

Fantastic. Now, let's put the lights up

and see what's happened.

We can see that our torch sunbeams have spread out more

on the tilted card than on the flat card.

And the same thing happens with the real sun.

The sun shines straight down onto the earth around its middle.

And further away from the middle, the sunshine is more spread out,

just like our tilted card.

Oh, yes, Nina,

I see the sunshine is spread out much more away from the middle!

Now, let's dim the lights again...

..to show you this globe.

The sun heats the Earth.

And because the sun shines straight down onto the middle of the Earth,

this is where it's hottest.

But further away from the middle, the sunshine spreads out,

so it's not as hot. Can you guess where the hot, dry deserts are?

-Around the middle of the Earth.

-That's right, Belle.

Hot deserts are around the middle of the Earth.

Where the sun shines straight down.

Now, we live up here, and the sunshine is more spread out up here,

so it doesn't get as hot as the desert.

Now, I'm just going to turn the lights back up.

What else happens in a desert, Nina?

Well, to explore the other things that happen in deserts,

we need to visit one of the hottest places on Earth.

Oh, goody. I love this bit. I wonder where Nina is taking us.

Nina said it's one of the hottest places on Earth.

May be it's a scorching-hot kitchen

with sizzling pans of sausages! Mm!

With aromas of roasting, hot food fresh from the ovens. Mm.

There's no food, but it does look very hot.

Today we're visiting a very special desert -

Death Valley in California, America.

This is one of the hottest places on Earth.

I'm sensing warm, salty smells.

Everything looks so flat and white.

We are here, next to the desert floor,

where the sun is beating down,

making everything feel hot and dry,

and that makes it a great place to do this experiment.

Here we have a little bit of water mixed together with salt,

and we want to see what happens if we leave this out in the sun.

So, I'll just pop outside with it quickly.

Ooh, let's see what has happened with our experiment.

-What can you see?

-The water's gone.

Yes! The sun has dried the dish, and the water's dried out.

It's just like when the sun dries the ground at home after it's

been raining. And look - all that's left in the dish is the salt.

And the same thing has happened here, in Death Valley.

Many, many years ago, this part of the desert used to be a huge,

salty lake. All the water from the salty lake has dried out,

leaving just the salt behind. Deserts are huge, hot places,

and the sun dries up everything around them.

Are deserts hot all the time, Nina?

That's a great question,

and I know a brilliant experiment to help us find out.

Let's go, Explorers.

So, you asked, "What is a desert?"

and so far we've found out that deserts are big, hot places

where the sun shines during the day and dries everything out.

But what happens in deserts at night?

Is it still hot, or does it get cold?

Well, let's find out. In here...

I have some very special mats.

They're special because they change colour

to show if they're hot or cold. If they're hot, they go yellow or red,

and if they're cool, they go black or blue.

-We're nice and shaded right now, so what colour are the mats?

-Black.

Yes, they're black, because they're cool.

We're going to pretend these mats here are the ground in the desert.

Our hands are warm, so we'll pretend our hands are the sun, beating down,

making the ground warm.

So, let's put our hands onto the mats.

That's it. Push down.

That's it.

Now let's take our hand off.

'Look - the mats have changed colour.'

-What's happened?

-They've changed colour.

Yes, they've changed colour because they've heated up,

just like the desert ground with the sun beating down all day.

-What's happened now we've taken the heat away?

-They're black again.

Yes. Because the heat has been taken away, the mats have cooled down.

The same thing happens in a desert at night, when the sun goes away.

The ground doesn't keep the heat.

It's only warm because the sun is heating it.

So, you asked, "What is a desert?" and I think we've answered it.

Deserts are dry places with very little rain.

Hot deserts are around the middle of the Earth.

Because that's where the sun shines straight down.

Hot deserts get cold at night-time, because the sun disappears.

And the ground becomes very cool.

Just like me, Nina! Ha-ha.

So, I hope that's answered your question.

-BOTH: Thanks, Nina! Bye!

-You're welcome. Bye!

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

go to the Nina section on the CBeebies website.

Have fun.

# Every day, 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 word of possibilities outside our front door

# So every day Take a look around and explore

-# Explore,

-explore,

-explore,

-explore

-# Exploring in the garden

-Grass

-# Exploring in the park

-Rivers

-# Exploring in the daytime

-Mountains

-# And even when it's dark

-Planets

# Look at the Earth Look at the sky

-# Look at the world before us

-Explore,

-explore,

-explore,

-explore

# We're always on the lookout

-# We're Earth explorers

-O-oh, o-oh

-# We're Earth Explorers

-O-oh, o-oh

# We're Earth Explorers. #

Exploring is about looking at the world, asking why, and finding out

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

playground, or up above the clouds, keep exploring our exciting world.

See you again soon. Bye!

-# Nina and the Neurons. # ALL:

-Bye!

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd