Giant's Causeway 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 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. Yeah!

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

# Oh, yeah! #

There you go. A nice big drink for you.

Oh, hello! You've caught me talking to my plant.

Some people say it helps them to grow. Isn't that right?

Look, this mud's dried out and made some lovely patterns.

I'll be able to wet it again and use it for some other plants.

BEEPING

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.

-What's the Giant's Causeway?

That's a great question. What is the Giant's Causeway?

The Giant's Causeway is a place in Northern Ireland

where there are lots of very special rocks.

How was it made? Come to my workshop and we'll investigate.

CHILDREN: 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.

NEURONS: Neurons at the ready, Nina.

OK, today's question is what is the Giant's Causeway?

Which Neuron do you think would be the most useful in helping us

find the answer?

NEURONS: 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

NEURONS: Go, Felix. Go, Felix. Go, Felix. Go, Felix.

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

Today's question is what is the Giant's Causeway?

Because the Giant's Causeway if full of rocks that we can touch,

Felix will be helping us today. Stand by, Neurons.

I've a feeling I may need help from all of you.

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

Blane loves little puppies.

Zak loves to play with his baby brother Luke

and Adam loves making his own robots.

But they all want to know what is the Giant's Causeway.

The Giant's Causeway is near my house.

-The rocks are funny shapes.

-Why do the rocks look like that?

Today, for one day only, Blane, Zak and Adam become the Explorers!

-Hi, guys.

-ALL: Hi, Nina.

Welcome to my workshop and thank you for your great question.

What is the Giant's Causeway?

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

NEURONS: Woo-woo! A senses experiment.

We're ready, Nina.

First, let's have a look at these photos of the Giant's Causeway.

The Giant's Causeway is a place where rocks have formed

in a very special way.

Do they look different from the rocks

you'd normally see at the beach?

-Yes, they're in shapes.

-Yes, they're in really interesting shapes.

They all fit together.

It's like someone's made a big rock jigsaw.

It is, Luke. But someone didn't make these rocks this shape.

They formed naturally in the world around us.

Here we have some soil and some water.

Soil is what plants grow in.

You can see it in gardens and parks.

Does anyone know what we get when we mix them both together?

ALL: Mud!

Exactly, and to learn more about the shaped rocks at

the Giant's Causeway, we're going to get our hands dirty

and make our very own mud.

BOYS: Ewwww!

Let's get mixing.

Here we go again. Another messy experiment.

-Oh, we've got some really thick mud now. How does it feel?

-Wet.

It feels wet and that's because we added water.

I wonder what happens when mud dries out.

Let's clean our hands and watch the mud drying.

It's going to take a long time for that mud to dry.

I think you might be right, Belle.

I know. We can look at the dried-out mud from

when I was watering my plant earlier. I've got it down here.

Ooh, what does that remind you of?

The Giant's Causeway.

Yes, it's cracked into lots of different shapes

a bit like the Giant's Causeway.

We can also see shapes like this when paint dries out

or when you take biscuits out of the oven. They cool down and crack too.

-How does the mud look?

-Dry.

It looks dry and it feels dry. It feels more like soil again.

When things dry out, they lose water.

Here, the water has dried out, leaving just the soil.

We've seen that the Giant's Causeway has rocks that form in shapes

that all fit nicely together.

And when mud dries out it cracks into shapes.

A bit like the Giant's Causeway.

Maybe that has something to do with what makes

the shapes in the Giant's Causeway.

I think you could be right, Neurons.

Let's go somewhere really rocky to find out.

Where do you think we're going today?

Nina said we were going somewhere really rocky.

Oh, not another boat trip.

-That's too rocky for my liking.

-# Row, row, row your boat... # Ha ha!

Look, guys. We're here.

To answer your question "What is the Giant's Causeway?"...

what better place to come than the Giant's Causeway?!

CHEERING

-Let's go exploring.

-CHEERING

I've never seen so many strange-shaped rocks.

192, 193, 194, 190... I can't count any more!

-That was fun. Did you see the different-shaped rocks?

-ALL: Yeah!

For a long time, no-one knew how the rocks came to be like this

so people made up stories about them being made by a giant.

LAUGHTER

That's why it's called the Giant's Causeway.

But scientists have worked out how these rocks were really made.

Look at this.

Many years ago,

hot melted rock from deep under the ground came to the surface.

And collected in a dip in the ground.

It took a really long time to cool down and go hard.

As it cooled, it cracked into shapes.

Eventually, it became these rocks - the Giant's Causeway.

So the Giant's Causeway wasn't made by a big giant?

-Why did it crack, Nina?

-That's a great question.

Let's go to the workshop to do one final experiment.

You asked, what is the Giant's Causeway?

So far, we've found out that the Giant's Causeway was made

when hot rock from underground came out

and cooled down very slowly, cracking into shapes.

We want to know why hot rock cracks when it cools down.

I have something that might explain. This is very hot sugar.

It's so hot, it's melting. Just like ice cream on a hot day.

Be careful around hot things.

I think it's time to pour.

It's all in one piece

and it's so sticky, it's stuck to the board.

Wow, that sugar looks really stuck. It's not going anywhere.

We're going to see what happens

when we cool down some very hot sugar in this very cold water.

Remember, Nina has been specially trained to do this.

You should never try anything like this yourself.

-What's happening?

-It's cracking.

As the sugar cools down, it shrinks, which means it takes up less space.

This sugar was stuck down so it couldn't move.

Because it couldn't move, the shrinking made it crack.

Did that happen at the Giant's Causeway?

Yes! A long time ago,

the hot rock at the Giant's Causeway cooled down and it shrank.

It got smaller and took up less space.

Because the rock was stuck down, when it started to shrink,

it cracked into shapes like these.

The same thing happened with the mud earlier.

As it dried out, it took up less space and cracked into shapes.

The hot rock cooled, shrank and cracked into shapes.

That's brilliant.

It's more than brilliant, Belle.

It's very unusual for rocks to form in this way and that's why

the Giant's Causeway is such a special place.

Your question was, what is the Giant's Causeway?

I think we've answered it.

We found out that the Giant's Causeway is a place where

rocks have formed in a very special way.

Hot melted rock from deep underground came out.

And cooled down very slowly.

When the hot rock cooled, it shrank and cracked into shapes.

Making lots of funny-shaped rocks,

and that's why the Giant's Causeway is so special.

-I hope that's answered your question.

-ALL: 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.

# 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 every day take a look around and explore

# Explore, explore, explore, 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

# Explore, explore, explore, explore

# We're always on the lookout We're earth explorers

# We're earth explorers

# We're earth explorers. #

Remember, 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.