Check out a video by Taraneisha Nathaniels, a youth advocate in West Oakland, CA and part of Conscious Youth Media Crew. She tells us about growing up in the Acorn Housing Projects that are affected by pollution from the nearby freeway and the Port of Oakland. 

Youth Radio EATS spent last month learning about high fructose corn syrup. Here's an excerpt from a Youth Radio EATS blog post about the ingredient:

If you didn't know, sugar, including high fructose corn syrup, is a major player in the obesity game. Sugar based drinks, like soda and energy drinks, attract people young and old. In the United States, consumer foods and products are known to use high-fructose corn syrup as a sweetener. It has become extremely common to prepare processed foods and beverages this way. Especially in the U.S., where we put it in everything from breads, cereals, yogurts, and as pharmaceutical coating.

Youth Radio EATS decided to make a comedic video on the subject to bring awareness to our community regarding the dangers of Hgh Fructose Corn Syrup.

Here's another installment to our 7x7 series. In this video you will see Melody, a project associate in our health department. She researched headaches, and eye problems. These symptoms generally affect one's intuition, awareness, clear sight, and concentration.

Like an investigator, Melody discovered the Bates method ,an alternative approach to eyesight improvement and maintenance. It is based on the belief that errors in visual accommodation are due to mental strain, and that vision may be improved by appropriate relaxation techniques. After this breakthrough she went straight to the cook book in search of a recipe that could be used as a pain reliever.

The following aired on KCBS. 

By: kayla Seay

 I didn’t know that whatever I post online would live there forever.

There was a person harassing me in school about how I act and dress. I didn’t like it and I got angry with them, but I didn’t want to make a scene at school. I knew that if I said anything in person it would ruin my reputation as a nice girl. So, to be a little passive-aggressive, I decided to send a message to them over the internet.

I felt more comfortable about writing it, instead of saying it to her. I thought that I was sending a private message but soon I realized that it was public. I tried to take it back by deleting it, but people had copied the message over and over again, reposting it on their Facebook pages. At school I constantly had to tell people that it wasn’t their business.

I tend to be impulsive when messaging others on Facebook, especially when I see a hurtful comment about a friend. But then, I think about what happened to me and remember that nothing gets deleted on the internet.

Bicycle pump-powered rockets, lunch box speakers, and paper airplanes are just a few of the projects students have tackled in an after-school program launched by MAKE, a leader in the DIY movement that celebrates the “right to tweak, hack, and bend any technology to your will.”

For students who participate in the after-school program at McClymonds High School in Oakland, California, hacking, bending and tweaking translate into hands-on training in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM). Meeting twice weekly at two hours a pop, students learn soldering, circuits, and basic mechanical systems. Youth Radio spoke with Maker-in-Residence Alex Nolan and junior Dakila Grayson about the benefits of bringing DIY into the classroom, and making science and technology not only relevant but awesome in the eyes of youth.

Read more...

The following aired on KCBS. 

By: Deyantae Newson

A new study suggests that playing too many video games can negatively impact brain activity.

As a preteen, I was highly addicted to videogames. I used to go to my friends house every other weekend to play and I would sit for hours. I never noticed any changes to my behavior. However, researchers from Indiana University found that playing violent video games for one week can decrease function in the frontal region of the brain.

Although this is an important new finding, doesn’t it reinforce what we’ve always known, that too much of anything is dangerous. Since videogames don’t come with a warning about long term affects on our brain, it’s up to parents and kids to take responsibility how much they play.

My parents have set a rule restricting videogames during the school week. Although I’d love to play Mortal Combat all the time, the rule has kept me and my brain safe.

This story was originally published on L.A. Youth. 

By Miguel Molina

I started caring about the environment because of my sister. She’d tell me and my parents to recycle and not to throw trash in the gutters (because it ends up in the ocean). I realized it was important to protect the environment because pollution can harm animals and us. I joined a garden club called South Central Resistance. We’re growing plants in vacant lots to fight pollution because plants consume the carbon dioxide that is released into the air from cars and factories.

When I heard that President Obama was going to create more green jobs, I was interested but confused. The only green technology I’d seen were windmills and solar panels. I thought green jobs were just related to renewable energy. When I interviewed educators at Los Angeles Trade Tech, I found out that there are a lot more green jobs than I thought. I learned about mechanics who fix hybrid cars and people who make houses more energy efficient.

I also learned that California has passed laws that require technology to be better for the environment. As time passes there will be more green jobs because of these laws. If you’re interested in the environment, you should consider getting a green job.

L.A. Youth: What’s a green job?

Tom Vessella, professor in the Construction, Design and Manufacturing Department: Jobs that focus on energy conservation, material conservation and environmental need. You help protect the environment, you save energy and you use less materials. When they say what is a green job? This [weatherization, helping buildings conserve energy] is a green job. Old houses are broken because they don’t use energy efficiently. They have energy loss. If we insulate it really tight that means we don’t have to use as much [air conditioning and heating]. That conserves our natural resources and saves money. We change the efficiency of the appliances. We get a smaller furnace so now we use less energy.

Can you give me some other examples of green jobs?

What if some sort of technology existed that could test you for Anemia without the ever-intimidating needle and daunting wait? That’s just what Myshkin Ingawale, the co-founder of Biosense Technologies, has created and talks about in a recent video released by TED TALKS. The inspiration for this technology came after Ingawale visited Parol, a small village north of Mumbai, where a woman and her child had died during labor because of undiagnosed Anemia.

You know when you're getting ready to take a math test and you start to get all antsy? Your palms start to sweat, you suddenly really have to go to the bathroom even though you just went, and all of a sudden you can't remember what you're being tested on. Yeah, there's a name for that. It's called Math Anxiety and according to a study by researchers at Stanford  it's related to difference types of brain functioning. 

By: Denise Tejada, Turnstyle News

How did a $69 weather balloon, a $5 dollar Styrofoam cooler and a digital camera get from downtown Oakland, California, to hover 90,000 feet above the Bay Area region?

Engineering students at Youth Radio took those materials and created a weather balloon with a cooler attached with a camera inside. The camera took shots above through a hole drilled in the cooler.

The weather balloon was floated into “near space,” the region of Earth’s atmosphere that lies between 65,000 and 350,000 feet above sea level.

The students planned the launch of the balloon using Google Maps, the CUSF Landing Predictor and terminal area charts of the San Francisco Bay Area. They also programmed the camera to take pictures every couple of seconds , and installed InstaMapper software to track the balloon's trajectory.

The balloon was launched from a small practice field at Monte Vista High School in Danville, Calif. The weather was perfect for the launch, offering clear views for miles. It was retrieved two hours and 40 minutes later at an empty field behind Jeannie Womack Park in Elk Grove, Calif.

The balloon traveled a total distance of 48.8 miles from Danville to Elk Grove, Calif and reached an estimated altitude of 75,000 to 90,000 feet. During its flight, it took 835 high resolution photographs, one every ten seconds, of the earth at various altitudes.

The pictures taken offered spectacular views of the earth. At the height of its ascent, the curvature of the earth could be faintly seen.

To view full gallery go to Turnstyle News