(upbeat bright music) (ball bounces) (birds sing) (bushes rustle) - Hello, I'm Ashley Payton, the early learning specialist for GPB Education, and welcome to Camp GPB!

Planet Earth is the best place to live.

I mean, it is our home, and we all have to make sure that we are keeping planet Earth nice and clean and safe, but we're not doing our best.

There's trash everywhere.

There is trash on the ground.

There's trash in the ocean.

There is even trash in outer space!

So we have to figure out what can we do to create a solution to this problem.

This is something that engineers do.

Engineers create solutions to problems.

Now, I wanna ask you, do you know of any ways that we can create less trash?

I'll give you a hint.

There are three words, and they all begin with the letter R. (relaxed elevator music) (gentle music) That's right, friends, you got it.

Reduce, reuse, and recycle.

Let's say it together.

Reduce, reuse, and recycle.

Now, someone may ask, what exactly does that mean?

To reduce, reuse, and recycle simply means to create less trash by using something again instead of throwing it away.

Now, there are different things that you can recycle at home, things made out of plastic, things made out of cans, even things made out of paper.

So join me today as we put on our engineering hats, and we are going to build and create a solution to this problem using the PBS Kids engineering design process, and we're also gonna use recyclable items that you can find right in your home.

So there are five steps to the engineering design process, and I wanna tell you all about them.

The first step is to define a problem.

The second step is to imagine and plan.

And last but not least, the last few steps is create, test, and improve.

Now, my good friend, Miss Olivia Theodore, also known as Libby Rock, helped us come up with a song to help us remember these five steps to the engineering design process, and I'm gonna sing it, and I hope that you'll join in with me.

All right, friends.

All we have to do is give me a clap, a clap, a clap, a clap.

And one, two, three.

♪ Define a problem (snaps) ♪ ♪ Imagine and plan (snaps) ♪ ♪ Create, test, improve (snaps) ♪ ♪ Create, test, improve (snaps) ♪ ♪ Define a problem (snaps) ♪ ♪ Imagine and plan (snaps) ♪ ♪ Create, test, improve ♪ ♪ Create, test, improve ♪ That's that, friends.

That is the song.

Now that is the song to help you remember the engineering design process.

Well, friends, we gotta get started on our design.

Come on in, let's go.

(upbeat music) All right, now the first part of the engineering design process is to gather your supplies and your materials.

So the first item I have here is recyclable cardboard.

Underneath this beautiful colorful construction paper is a five by 16 piece of cardboard that I just recycled from old boxes.

The next thing you're gonna need is glue, tape, glue and tape.

You're also gonna need construction paper.

Now, construction paper's what we use to kind of decorate our device, so it's optional.

You're also going to need rope or string, because you're gonna need to hang your device from an actual tree or a fence or some type of fixture.

Then you're also gonna need scissors.

Next thing you're gonna need are plastic cups.

Now, I just recycled these plastic cups after I drank out of them instead of throwing them away.

What did I do?

I reused them.

And, last but not least, we have two skewers.

Now these are totally optional.

You do not have to use these, but I chose to.

All right, friends, let's get started.

So the first part of the process for the engineering design is to define a problem.

Well, we know what the problem is, right?

There's too much trash, and we must reduce trash.

The second part of the engineering design process, which is step two, is to imagine and plan.

So, we imagined that we're gonna create a world with less trash.

And the way we're gonna plan to do that is by today designing a device, which is a bird feeder.

A device is anything that is human made that is used for a purpose.

So today our plan is to build a bird feeder.

The next day is to create it.

So let's get started with the process, my friends.

Step one is creating the base for our bird feeder.

So as you know, we have a five by 16 piece of cardboard, and so I kind of prepped it today.

So all I did was wrapped purple construction paper around it.

I also gathered yellow construction paper, as you can see here.

(calm music) I used yellow construction paper.

And I measured the top, and I just cut a little strip of yellow construction paper for both sides.

And then I just glued those pieces of construction paper onto the base of our bird feeder.

Next step we wanna do is we wanna add the face of our bird feeder.

Now this is totally optional, friends, but I chose to do this.

So, we have the eyes made out of construction paper.

We also have the beak made out of construction paper and, last but not least, the feet.

Now these are really cool cutouts.

All I did was used my white construction paper and my black construction paper to make the eyeballs.

And then I used my orange paper to create the beak.

All I did was drew a large diamond shape and cut it out for the beak.

Next I used heart shapes.

So there's a really cool trick to this, friends, that you can use to make a heart shape.

So I would say fold your paper in half, and the way that this works is you have to make sure that you fold it on the end that is creased.

And you're going to take a marker or pen and you're going to draw half of a heart just like that.

This is a great trick to making sure that your heart is symmetrical.

So then you're gonna cut that heart right on out.

(upbeat music) And there you go, a heart (laughs), or in this case feet for our bird feeder.

So if you want to make two copies of these, you would fold the paper over twice, not just once.

So that's how I got my bird feeder.

I mean, my feet for the bird feeder.

So let's get started.

So I am going to add the eyes here.

I'm going to glue this little black pupil here.

And don't worry, you're gonna see little wet marks from your glue, but that's okay.

That's all a part of the process.

It will dry.

And if you use clear glue, it will dry clear.

All righty, so, once you glue the black circle into the white circle, you have your eyes.

So what we're going to do is now glue the eyes onto the bird feeder.

(upbeat music) And don't worry if the little pupil move around.

You can just move it around, the glue is still wet.

So you have plenty of time to move it around before it dries up.

All righty, and so you wanna try to measure them, put them in the same spot.

Next is we're going to glue the beak.

So I like to turn the beak over on the opposite side and do a strip of glue right in that crease.

And then, hold that crease down, and to secure it, I'm going to fold these two pieces in like that.

And then you take your finger and go right down the middle to secure it.

And you can hold it for a couple of seconds.

That usually helps.

(upbeat music) Wonderful, we have a beak!

Our bird is coming together.

So now, this part of the process, I don't use glue for the feet, because they won't stick too well with just glue at the bottom of this piece of cardboard box, because it's really thin.

So what I use is heavy duty tape.

If you're gonna use tape, you have to make sure that the tape is really, really sticky.

(upbeat music) So you don't want your tape too thick.

I tape two pieces.

I tape one piece to the bottom and tape it to the bottom of the foot and then the bottom of the construction paper like that, and I do that to both feet.

(upbeat music) And, friends, you don't have to do it the exact same way that I'm doing it.

I'm just showing you my process, but everybody has different processes, and that's totally okay.

So then I'm gonna cut another piece of tape, and then I'm going to tape it from the top onto the feet, the top of the feet to the front of the cardboard piece of paper, cardboard box.

(laughs) All right, there we go.

We have feet.

All right, so, this part is fairly easy.

(laughs) All we're doing now is we're taking the plastic cups and we're taping them down to the cardboard paper.

Now there's different ways you can do this.

If you have a hot glue gun, which, remember, safety first, only adult can help you with that, because a hot glue gun is very dangerous.

You can glue the plastic cup onto the cardboard paper just like that, and it would really work really well with securing it.

But today, I just wanna show you basic at home materials that you probably will have access to easily.

So I am just going to tape these down.

And remember, I'm adding skewers, and these are just something for birds to rest on.

You can use wooden skewers.

You can use old wooden spoons.

You can use old plastic utensils.

You can use many different things for this, but I'm using skewers.

So I've already pre poked holes through them.

And, again, safety first.

Whenever you are using scissors, please ask for an adult to help you if you are a child..

So I pre-poked the hole through just so the skewer can go through like that.

You can take your permanent marker, and you can mark each side.

You can poke one hole through one side and then mark the other, whichever way works for you.

So first what I'm going to do is I'm going to put the skewers through the cup.

And make it about even on each side.

And I'm going to do, ooh ooh, (laughs) the same with this side.

And there you have it.

So now I'm going to take my really, really, really sticky, sticky tape and I'm going to glue the cups down to the construction cardboard.

(upbeat music) All right, so you're gonna take nice, big chunks of tape.

And so you're gonna glue... Not glue, but you're gonna tape the cup down.

(upbeat music) And, again, it doesn't have to look perfect, because it's not gonna look perfect.

You can also take this a step further by, perhaps, painting the cups or wrapping construction paper around the cups just to add more color.

(upbeat music) And now I am going to glue the other side.

(upbeat music) I'm gonna cut this piece of tape.

(upbeat music) And remember it's okay if it's not perfect.

We are focused on being Earth protectors, (laughs) not perfectionist.

Okay, friends, there we go.

And just like that, we have our two cups placed.

Now the purpose of a cup is to add the bird food towards the bottom of the cup.

So it would sit up like this and the bird food would go at the bottom, and the birds will be able to easily access.

Your last step is to poke holes at the top, so that you can put your string through, so that you can hang your bird feeder up.

All right, so let's try (upbeat music) the hole puncher.

Ah, works perfectly.

If you have a hole puncher, I recommend using that.

All right, so remember, you have two pieces of string.

They should be even.

They should be the same length.

You're gonna stick one piece through this side, and you're gonna stick the other piece through this side.

(upbeat music) And wa-la!

You got it, a bird feeder.

(upbeat music) All right, friends, the next part of the engineering design process is to test, test and make improvements.

Now, this may work and it may not.

So, maybe you need to make your holes closer up, or closer together, or maybe your string isn't long enough, but whatever improvements you need to make, this as the time to make them.

So you can take them outside.

Take your bird feeder device outside and hang it up and see if it works.

Add your bird food, and you're ready to go!

Great job.

Friends, we practiced engineering today, because we built a device as a solution to a problem.

We are officially Earth protectors now.

Give yourselves a round of applause.

(audience applause) Now we would like to see what devices you can build at home as a solution to reduce, reuse, and recycle.

You can share them with us by emailing, or you can share on social media.

Thanks so much for joining us today with Camp GPB, and we can't wait to see you again.

Until next time, see you later.