Local elementary students use technology to help chick with broken leg
SEBRING, Ohio (WKBN) — Sixth-grade students at Beatrice L. Miller Elementary School are using technology to help a baby chick born with a broken leg.
The chick was born down the hallway from the sixth graders as part of third grade's annual 'chick hatching' project. When students learned that one chick was born with a broken leg, they hatched a plan to help, according to a news release from a district spokesperson.
Mrs. Naples' sixth-grade classroom is outfitted with a 3D printer as part of a 'Project Lead the Way' technology program. Earlier in the school year, students completed an orthosis project in which they created braces using the 3D printer for cerebral palsy patients. The project challenged students to create various prototypes for braces, scaling them to a variety of sizes, the release stated.
The students used this technology to help the chick named 'Tiny,' using the 3D printer to make a brace for the chick's leg.
'This is a full-circle learning experience for our students. They are applying a previous lesson to create a real-world solution. Plus, they are helping a chick and fellow classmates. It has been rewarding to see students excited about what they are learning,' said Sebring B.L. Miller Elementary Principal Nichole Hanley.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


National Geographic
2 days ago
- National Geographic
How conservation icon David Attenborough holds onto hope
Sir David Attenborough's newest documentary film is 'Ocean with David Attenborough.' PHOTOGRAPH BY CONOR MCDONNELL © SILVERBACK FILMS AND OPEN PLANET STUDIOS Interview by Brian Resnick For seven decades, Sir David Attenborough has traversed the globe to document the kaleidoscopic diversity of Earth's ecosystems. At the age of 99, he's narrated so many television programs that his voice has become synonymous with the wonder of the natural world. But in his long career full of wild encounters, one memory still stands out. In 1957, when Attenborough was in his 30s, he traveled to a shallow warmwater cay on Australia's Great Barrier Reef, where, for the first time in his life, he donned scuba gear to examine corals up close. 'It was a sort of sensory overload,' he says. 'The countless tiny fish swimming between coral branches; the differences between the different coral structures. It opened up for me a whole new appreciation of the intricacies of life in the ocean.' Today that same view is likely to look disastrously worse. Globally, corals have suffered tremendous loss as a result of human-caused ocean warming, a fact that's not lost on Attenborough. In the new National Geographic documentary special Ocean with David Attenborough, the pioneering filmmaker reflects on the enormity of loss seen in his lifetime. Sure, there are still sumptuous images of the abundance of ocean life in the film, but they are met in equal measure with depictions of mechanized death and destruction—carbon-sequestering seagrass meadows are violently mowed down by commercial fishing trawlers, great glistening masses of writhing fish are hauled aboard ships by the thousands. Attenborough doesn't mince words: 'Ships from wealthy nations are starving coastal communities of the food source they have relied on for millennia,' he narrates. 'This is modern colonialism at sea.' (Fish flee for their lives in rare, chilling video of bottom trawling.) The film's final message, however, is remarkably optimistic. Attenborough fiercely believes in the ocean's power to recover when the right environmental protections are set in place. He holds hope even for that mesmerizing cay in Australia. 'I'd like to think that the reef I first dived on is one of the lucky ones.' David Attenborough introduces Prince Charles and Princess Anne to his pet cockatoo in 1958 at the studio where Zoo Quest, the BBC show that launched his career as a wildlife presenter, was filmed. PHOTO: CENTRAL PRESS/GETTY IMAGES BRIAN RESNICK: The film seems starkly different from much of your past work in the way it contends with topics like animal death and destruction. Why? DAVID ATTENBOROUGH: Unlike chopping down a rainforest on land, which can be clearly seen, trawling the ocean floor is largely hidden from view. Most people have no idea it's happening or of the scale with which it occurs. We wanted to be clear that this film is not antifishing. Humans have always gathered food from the sea, and biologically there's no reason that that cannot continue to happen. Indeed, many fishing operations and fishing communities do fish sustainably. But there are some forms of fishing, and some locations where fishing occurs, that damage the ocean for all of us. By showing the distinction, we hope that viewers will appreciate the difference between fishing that can and should continue well into the future and fishing that is destroying the ocean and depriving fishing communities of their livelihoods. In your narration, the audience might detect anger in your voice. Is 'anger' the right word? I certainly feel the senseless loss of the natural world, and I hope that emotion comes across. What is your advice for people dealing with grief over climate change or loss of the natural world? We shouldn't lose hope. It can be tempting to give up when confronted with the scale of humanity's consumption and the speed with which we are changing the climate and losing the natural world. But nature is our greatest ally. Wherever we have given nature the space to recover, it's done so, and, as a result of its recovery, our own lives are improved. The solutions aren't all about sacrifices and aren't all decades away. The marine protected areas we show have all brought benefits in just a few years to the people who live by them, and at the same time, those reserves have drawn down carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and allowed marine species—from turtles to sharks to tuna—to recover. This is a real win-win for nature, for people, and for the climate. We just need to plan for the future, rather than only chasing immediate gains. What keeps you working? Because people I like working with keep asking me to. I enjoy the process of filmmaking. But stepping back, I can also see that this sort of storytelling has never been more important. Many of our societies have never been more removed from nature, less in tune with its rhythms and changes. That has brought many benefits, of course, but it does also mean that we don't necessarily notice the changes to our world as acutely as we once would have done. Whilst scientific publications and debates are vital, most of us are far more likely to engage with a story or a documentary. Our species has always used storytelling to create a shared identity and give explanation and context to the world around us. We are naturally interested in the stories of other people and places, so the onus is on all of us, as well as broadcasters and publishers, to find the ways to tell stories of the natural world and our relationship with it. (6 of the best Sir David Attenborough series to watch.) In the film, you talk about entering a later stage in your life. As you reflect on your life, how would you like your work to be remembered? I hope the collection of work, from Life on Earth through to the films I'm making now, will be seen as the documentation of the natural world in the late 20th and early 21st centuries as we understood it at the time. Perhaps one day it might also be seen to have documented the beginning of a new relationship between humanity and nature, a time when we realized that for our own species to thrive, we require the natural world to also thrive. 'Ocean with David Attenborough' begins airing on National Geographic June 7 and streams globally the next day, World Oceans Day, on Disney+ and Hulu. The film is currently in cinemas in select countries outside the U.S. This interview has been edited for length and clarity. A version of this story appears in the July 2025 issue of National Geographic magazine.
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Yahoo
Moline High recognized as Project Lead the Way Distinguished School
Moline High School has been recognized as a 2024-25 Project Lead The Way (PLTW) Distinguished School, according to a news release. It is among a select group of high schools across the U.S. to be recognized for its commitment to inspiring and engaging students to unlock their potential through its PLTW Computer Science and Engineering programs. PLTW is a national nonprofit organization that creates transformative learning experiences and empowers students to develop in-demand knowledge and skills for future careers. 'Project Lead the Way has been an amazing partner in providing solid curricular support forour STEM programs,' said Chris Moore, principal of Moline High School. 'We are honored bythe recognition, and we continue in our commitment to providing quality STEM and career andtechnical education for MHS students.' The PLTW Distinguished School recognition honors schools committed to increasing studentaccess, engagement, and achievement in their PLTW programs. To be eligible for the designation, Moline High School had to meet criteria in the 2023-24 school year such asnumber of PLTW courses available to students, percent of students enrolled in PLTW, andpercent of students taking more than one PLTW course. Moline High School currently offers four engineering courses and two computer sciencecourses: Engineering courses: Introduction to Engineering, Principles of Engineering. Computer-Integrated Manufacturing, and Civil Engineering and science courses: Computer Science Essentials and Computer Science Principles. 'We are proud to honor Moline High School for their commitment to providing students withexceptional educational experiences through PLTW programs,' said Dr. David Dimmett, PLTWpresident and CEO.'This achievement celebrates their dedication to student achievement andtheir focus on empowering students with the knowledge and skills necessary for success in school and a wide range of post-secondary opportunities.' PLTW high school programs prepare today's students for the careers of tomorrow, by not onlyincorporating STEM skills into their learning but also building students' collaboration, teamwork and communication skills so they can be ready for whatever path they take. For more information about PLTW's Distinguished Program Recognition, visit here. For more information on Moline High School's PLTW Computer Science and Engineeringprogram, contact MHS teacher Zachary Bostic, at 309-743-8879 or zbostic@ Bostic serves as Moline High School's industrial technology teacher, Project Lead The Way coordinator, and CNC & welding apprenticeship coordinator. About PLTW For nearly 30 years, Project Lead The Way (PLTW) has prepared PreK–12 students for careers,college, and life by equipping them with the STEM knowledge, credential preparation,transferable skills, and confidence to succeed. Its hands-on, real-world learning, deep industrypartnerships and clear, scaffolded curriculum guide students from early career curiosity topost-secondary readiness. With strong professional development taught by a national network of more than 116,000 trained teachers in 12,200+ schools across all 50 states, PLTW enablesschools to design scalable, future-focused programs that inspire students, empower educators,and connect learning to life after graduation. Visit here to learn more. PLTW Computer Science The PLTW Computer Science interdisciplinary courses engage students in compelling, realworld computer science challenges. As students work together to design solutions, they learnmore than just how to code, developing computational thinking and communication skills for the increasingly technology-based economy. PLTW Engineering PLTW Engineering empowers high school students to step into the role of an engineer and adopt a problem-solving mindset. Students engage in collaborative, real-life activities like working with a client to design a home, programming electronic devices or robotic arms, and exploring algae as a biofuel source. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
22-05-2025
- Yahoo
Nanoplastics Stick to Toxic Bacteria, Forming a Deadly Combination
We're all awash in plastic fragments, with many of the smallest particles ranging in size from a micrometer down to a single nanometer across. The health effects of these tiny 'nanoplastics' are still largely unknown, but the infinitesimal size and environmental abundance of them makes these synthetic fragments a potentially outsized threat – and not just for humans. In fact, not even just for organisms with cells as complex as ours. According to a new study, nanoplastics also seem to cause stress for pathogenic E. coli bacteria. That might sound helpful for us, in a "the enemy of my enemy is my friend" sense, but it isn't that simple, the study suggests. Nanoplastics did not significantly affect the survival of E. coli, although they did affect other traits of the bacteria, such as biofilm development and overall growth. Perhaps most importantly for us, exposure to nanoplastics apparently prompts E. coli to become more virulent. The study offers a novel glimpse into this dynamic, says senior author Pratik Banerjee, a molecular microbiologist in the Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. "Other studies have evaluated the interaction of nanoplastics and bacteria, but so far, ours is the first to look at the impacts of microplastics and nanoplastics on human pathogenic bacteria," Banerjee says. The researchers focused on E. coli O157:H7 – a notorious pathogen often implicated in outbreaks of food poisoning – and made nanoplastics from polystyrene, a synthetic polymer and one of the most widely used plastic types. They found that nanoplastics with a positively charged surface are more likely to cause physiological stress in this E. coli serotype, prompting a defensive response. The stressed bacteria make extra Shiga-like toxin, their characteristic illness-causing chemical. Due to the bacteria's negative surface charge, the researchers suspected E. coli might be harmed by positively charged nanoplastics. They tested this by applying either a positive, neutral, or negative charge to the particles before introducing them to E. coli. "We started with the surface charge. Plastics have an enormous ability to adsorb chemicals. Each chemical has a different effect on surface charge, based on how much chemical is adsorbed and on what kind of plastic," Banerjee says. "We didn't look at the effects of the chemicals themselves in this paper – that's our next study – but this is the first step in understanding how the surface charge of plastics impacts pathogenic E. coli response," he adds. In addition to producing more toxin, free-swimming bacteria were slower to multiply when exposed to positively charged nanoplastics, and slower to collectively form biofilms when first exposed to the charged plastics the study found. Gathering into a biofilm can offer unique benefits for bacteria, including the formation of a protective extracellular coating. While previous studies have explored the effects of nanoplastics on free-swimming bacteria, little is known about how nanoplastics affect biofilms. Given the importance of biofilms in real-world conditions, the authors of the new study hoped to learn how nanoplastics affect E. coli in this state. They did so by giving the bacteria a surface to colonize, waiting a week or two for a biofilm to form, and then adding charged nanoplastics. Even in a biofilm, the bacteria still became stressed when exposed to positively charged nanoplastics, and they still produced additional Shiga-like toxin. In addition, positively or negatively charged conditions influenced changes in virulence genes. "Biofilms are a very robust bacterial structure and are hard to eradicate. They're a big problem in the medical industry, forming on inserts like catheters or implants, and in the food industry," Banerjee says. "One of our goals was to see what happens when this human pathogen, which is commonly transmitted via food, encounters these nanoplastics from the vantage point of a biofilm," he says. Needless to say, increased virulence is an ominous sign for a pathogen that's already responsible for widespread foodborne illness. More research will be needed to build on these findings, the researchers say, and to help illuminate the different ways nanoplastic pollution can affect E. coli as well as other pathogenic bacteria. The study was published in the Journal of Nanobiotechnology. Expert Explains FDA's New COVID Vaccine Rules in The US Your Perfume Could Be Messing With Your Chemical Force Shield Sitting Could Be Shrinking Your Brain (And Exercise May Not Help)