The Science of Fall | Compilation

[Music] well squeeks the leaves are changing there's a chill in the air it sure looks like fall out there which means summer is pretty much over huh buddy you don't look so sad summer is fun but fall is pretty amazing too there's so much to see and do and learn about like you know how I mentioned all the leaves we're changing those cool colors well do you remember why they do that let's watch this to refresh our memories hi guys what's it like outside this time of year where you live in our part of the world the days are getting shorter and the weather is getting cooler and some of the leaves on the trees are starting to change colors this might be happening where you live - or it might be happening pretty soon that's because we're heading into one of the most colorful times of the year autumn nothing says autumn or fall like lots of brightly colored leaves to break and jump into or just to pick up and admire now some trees like pine trees spruces and firs stay green all autumn and winter but for many of the trees that have leaves instead of pointing needles this time of year means their leaves will turn different shades of red orange and yellow and eventually drop to the ground have you ever wondered why this happens to find out let's take a close look at a green leaf leaves on most plants and trees are green because of a colorful chemical inside them called chlorophyll chlorophyll is bright green but it does more than just look pretty it has a special job because it's able to capture the energy that's in sunlight leaves use this light energy to make sugars which the tree can then use for its own energy so chlorophyll is what plants use to make their own food from sunlight but chlorophyll isn't the only thing in tree leaves that gives them color leaves have lots of other colorful chemicals called pigments inside them that are red yellow orange and even purple if you've eaten carrots cabbage or cherries then you've not only seen these pigments you've had them for lunch all of these colorful pigments have special jobs but only chlorophyll helped a plant make the sugar that it needs to live and since chlorophylls job is so important there's way more of it in green leaves than any of the other pigments in fact there's so much chlorophyll that it's green color covers up all of the other colors so through a spring in summer we don't see the red yellow and orange pigments in the leaves we just see the green chlorophyll but as the summer starts to turn into fall and the days get shorter less and less sunlight hits the tree's leaves so the tree starts to make less and less chlorophyll then the leaves become less green and we're able to see more of the other colors that were there all along and when that starts to happen you might want to take the time to enjoy these pretty leaves well you can because not long after they turn color they begin to fall they fall because without their chlorophyll to help them make energy the leaves don't really have a job to do so as winter approaches the energy that the leaves have made flows into the tree and gets stashed away then when the time is just right they break off from the branches and fall to the ground the tree can then live through the winter using the energy that it saved up until the day start to get longer and warmer then it grows new leaves to capture the sunlight and the cycle starts all over again so when you start to see yellow orange and red leaves showing up where you live remember those colors were there all along autumn is just their time to shine well the trees and other plants all over our neighborhood are changing color and losing their leaves lots of the animals that live around here are making their own changes to get ready for the coming winter some birds like our pal Dino are getting ready to fly somewhere warmer but other animals like squirrels are preparing to sleep through most of the coldest parts of winter and one way they prepare is by storing lots of food for when they wake up hi everyone what's it squeaks you didn't say anything huh I wonder what it is let's look at the yard cam oh look there's a scare of digging in the yard you know she reminds me a lot of our friend ruffles the squirrel and she sounds a little like you squeeks I miss ruffles too buddy ruffles is squeeks his pen pal she's an Eastern grey squirrel who lives far away in Chicago so they keep in touch by writing letters to each other but we haven't heard from her in a while because it's been winter and when it's very cold squirrel spent a lot of their time sleeping the squirrel in our yard probably spent most of the last few months sleeping too fast it's harder for squirrels to find food during the winter they eat lots of different things some of their meals come from plants like nuts and fruits and they'll also eat small animals like insects but there aren't many nuts or fruits around in the winter and insects spend most of it in a type of deep sleep so there aren't a lot of them around either since there's so little food for them to eat in the winter squirrels save as much energy as they can by sleeping most of the time they might only wake up once every few days they also spend a lot of time preparing for the winter by storing away some food beforehand and guess where they hide it that's right in the ground it's like they create their own personal kitchen cabinets underground that's probably why the squirrel in our yard was digging she was looking for the extra food she buried before the winter started maybe some delicious acorns it's not so easy for squirrels to remember where they put all their food so they have a few tricks to help them know where to look one trick is to dig it up every few days that way they can remind themselves where it is and at the same time they can check on it to make sure it's not spoiled their nose helps to they can smell where there might be food buried underground which helps them remember where they put it sometimes they'll also sniff out food buried by other squirrels they might even take some by slowly eating the food they've stored away they're able to make it through the long cold winter they do sometimes forget where they put some of their food if a squirrel buries an acorn and doesn't dig it up again it might start to grow into the type of tree that makes acorns an oak tree eventually oak trees can grow huge a full-grown oak tree is about 25 meters or 82 feet that as tall as a building with eight floors all from a tiny little acorn one squirrel buried and forgot about but now that it's almost spring squirrels will soon be able to find lots of food again nuts and fruits will start growing on the trees and there'll be lots more insects and other small animals around too then they won't have to spend so much of their time sleeping to save that energy anymore so if raffles isn't awake yet I bet she will be soon how about we write her a letter to say good morning okay I'll get the pencils paper oh good idea I'll get some crayons too we can draw her lots of pictures of what we've been up to this winter one of my favorite things about the fall is all of the yummy vegetables and gourds that are being harvested I love squash soup and buttery mashed potatoes oh yeah squeeks his favorite fall squash isn't just one you can eat but that you can also carve into a decoration can you guess what it is that's right pumpkins it's fall and that means harvest season lots of the fruit that has been growing around us are ready to be picked harvested and eaten including pumpkins they're one of my favorite fall type fruits and they're more than just delicious they're also really fun to carve into jack-o'-lanterns yep pumpkins are fruit even though they're really hard on the outside and they aren't very sweet a fruit is the part of a plant that protects the plant seeds and then helps spread the seeds around once they're ready to grow into new plants yeah I want to see those seeds too and you know when scientists want to learn more about something a lot of the time they'll open it up to investigate that's called dissecting and we can do it too let's open up this pumpkin and find out what's inside to dissect a pumpkin you'll need a grown-up helper a pumpkin carving tool or knife a spoon and a bowl to put the insides in oh and of course you'll need a pumpkin before we cut it open let's see what we can learn by examining the outside of the pumpkin on top there's this stem which was part of the vine that connects the pumpkin fruit to the rest of the pumpkin plant and carries nutrients to the pumpkin fruit what else do you notice about the outside of the pumpkin yeah it is big people all over the world actually have competitions to see who can grow the biggest pumpkin and they can get really huge can you imagine trying to lift something like that the farmers have to use special machines to move their giant pumpkins this one's a little more normal-sized although it's still pretty heavy the outside of the pumpkin is also really hard if you knock on it with your fist it's kind of like knocking on a door that hard skin is called the right and these lines on the side are called ribs the tough ride works kind of like a suit of armor protecting the seeds from the outside world that's right squeeks it's about time we cut this thing open let's see what's inside first we're going to cut a big hole in the right right around the vine you should probably get a grown-up to help you with this part because it can be pretty tough once you have the circle you can use the vine to pull off the top like this guys the inside of the pumpkin looks so different from the outside it's full of feet we can pull them out using our hands or we can get a spoon to get a closer look see how all these seats are attached by these long gooey strings they're called fibrous strands and each one connects to a seat while the pumpkin fruit is still growing on the vine the strands connect the seeds to the vine so that all kinds of nutrients and plant food can travel through the strands and get to the growing seat then once the seeds are fully grown they can just pop off of the fibrous strands after that they're ready to grow into new pumpkin plants all they need is a nice patch of soil but they're still inside the pumpkin fruit how are the scenes going to get planted if they're still stuck inside that's hard right well think about what you do with other fruits that's right you eat them lots of fruits have tasty bits that convince animals to come and eat their seeds once the animals eat the seeds they moved somewhere else and eventually they poop that leaves some seeds on the ground ready to grow into new plants and since the seeds are in a different place now that means they aren't growing right next to the older bigger pumpkin plants where they might not get enough sunlight water or soil you're right there is a lot left in this pumpkin even though we've taken out the seeds and the fiber strands the thick section between the ride and the cavity is called the pulp and it's the tasty part of the pumpkin when a pumpkin fruit is ripe the ride gets a bit softer and animals like deer moles squirrel and mice can get through it to the delicious pulp and the seeds even though other animals eat pumpkin pulp raw lots of people prefer to cook it or make it into pies muffins pancakes and all sorts of yummy treats the seeds are also really tasty but I'm going to make sure to plant some of them to become next year's pumpkin plants hey squeaks when you think about the fall what animal pops into your head first turkeys me to here in the United States we have a holiday called Thanksgiving in the fall and for a lot of people turkeys are a big part of that oh I have a fun idea squeaks let's trace our hands and make them into turkeys while we check out the last time we talked about turkeys there are lots of great fall decorations out in our neighborhood and one of the most common ones squeaks and I see are turkeys you might know that turkeys are connected with Thanksgiving in the United States and Canada and people sometimes raise them on their farm but did you know that there are also wild turkeys and there are pretty cool birds there are lots of other fun things to know about turkeys too from the sounds they make to how they eat to the little flaps of skin on their beaks you might already know one of the sounds a turkey makes on the count of three let's all try to make that sound ready one two three did you make a sound like this yes turkeys say something that sounds like gobble gobble but not all of them only the Tom's the male turkeys make that famous doubling sound and they only make it some of the time both Tom turkeys and female turkeys called hens can make other sounds too like this and this so if you ever hear a turkey make that gobble gobble sound you know it's a Tom turkey and I'm going to let you in on another secret about how to tell the toms and hands apart look at their poop yes their poop if a pile of turkey poop looks like a spiral it came from a head if it looks more like the letter J or a question mark then it came from a Tom turkey one thing that's the same about Tom and hen turkeys is what they eat adult turkeys munch on things like berries and seeds and even sometimes small animals like salamanders but like all birds turkeys don't have teeth so they can't chant their food the way we do instead they have another body part that kind of does the same thing it's called a gizzard and it's a really important body part for turkeys and other birds the gizzard is a small pouch that has a lot of muscle and if we could see inside of the turkeys body we could see that the gizzard is right here a Turkey's gizzard is full of tiny stones and pieces of other hard things like gravel the turkey picks up these hard pieces from the ground and swallows them and they stay in the gizzard if a human tried to swallow a stone it would be dangerous but for a turkey the stones in its gizzard act like teeth when food gets into the gizzard the muscles of the gizzard squeeze it mixing the food with the stones inside this matches the food up and grinds it into smaller pieces then the turkey can use it for energy the gizzard is just one of the neat body parts that a turkey has and like the word gizzard they're also pretty fun to say turkeys have two special body parts on their head the flap of skin that hangs over the turkeys beak is called a snood and the skin around the turkeys neck is called its waddle bird experts can tell a lot about how a turkey is feeling by looking at its mood and its waddle the student model are normally kind of pink or red in color but if the turkeys not feeling well its nude and white will get lighter in color and if the turkey is scared they can even turn blue okay time for one more turkey fact you might have heard that turkeys are not very smart well that's not true turkeys can be just as smart as other animals they can learn to get along with people and other animals and they can even learn from each other all right squeaks check out my handprint turkey now let's check out yours I love it great job squeaks so squeaks are you still sad that summer is over and fall is here yeah fall is fun now let's get you a cozy sweater head outside and find some pretty leaves to decorate the fort what's your favorite fall activity we'd love to hear about it ask a grown-up to help you leave a comment below or send us your questions through our website at patreon.com slash scishow kids thanks and we'll see you next time here at the fort [Music]

Channel: SciShow Kids

Views: 796,737

Rating: 4.5649071 out of 5

Keywords: scishow, scishowkids, Jessi Knudsen, Jessi Knudsen Castaneda, Squeaks, science, kids, children, learning, education, school, sci, show, hank, green, home, curriculum, kindergarten, activities, fall, season, turkey, autumn, pumpkin, weather, squirrel, hibernation, bird, migration, jack-o-lantern, halloween, celebration, fun, animation, cartoon, puppet, thanksgiving, holiday, compilation, leaves, trees, chlorophyll, animal, biology

Id: xB2DiiAOpCg

Length: 15min 40sec (940 seconds)

Published: Tue Oct 16 2018