(girl) San Diego is known for palm trees, but they're not even from here.

Let's suck some bugs!

Our question was what kind of impact Canary Island palm had on our ecosystem.

We got this, and we're awesome!

[all cheer] (Izzie) Major funding for "SciGirls" is provided by the National Science Foundation-- supporting education and research across all fields of science and engineering.

The National Science Foundation-- where discoveries begin!

(woman) Additional funding provided by L'Oreal USA.

For girls in science... you can learn more at ForGirlsInScience.org And by PPG Industries Foundation-- committed to bringing positive impact to our communities.

(girls) S-C-I-G-I-R-L-S (Izzie) We need you (girls) S-C-I-G-I-R-L-S (Izzie) Come on!

When I need help, and I've got a question there's a place I go for inspiration Gotta get to the Web, check the girls' investigation What girls?

(Izzie) SciGirls!

Whoo!

(girls) S-C-I-G-I-R-L-S (Izzie) I need you!

(girls) S-C-I-G-I-R-L-S (Izzie) Come on!

You've gotta log on, post, upload, pitch in!

Yeah!

Wanna get inside a world that's fascinating?

The time is right 'cause SciGirls are waiting, (girls) S-C-I-G-I-R-L-S (Izzie) We need you!

(girls) S-C-I-G-I-R-L-S (Izzie) SciGirls!!

(Jake) See, look how depressed he is.

Eh, I don't know; he kinda looks the same as he always does to me.

There's definitely something wrong.

Me and Fang, we're on the same wavelength.

[laughs] Now that I believe.

Look, I got him this sweet new pad, and he's not even excited.

Maybe he doesn't like it.

Doesn't like it Check it out, it's got an eat-in kitchen, infinity pool, a rec room and 2-1/2 baths!

Yeah, maybe those things aren't exciting to a mouse.

Who's not excited about a pool and a rec room?

The 2-1/2 baths are important for the resale value.

Come on little buddy, I did your whole room in cheddar yellow.

Um, maybe a condo in South Beach style isn't what mice are into.

If not this, then what?

Uh, I don't know.

Hey, let's see if the SciGirls can help us out.

SciGirls, little mouse, big problem, what have you got for us?

Watch for the arrows!

They're clues for the "Pick'M, Stick'M" game on the website.

(SciGirls) I think living in Southern California is really great for beach days like this, it's really nice just go out and relax.

I'm Alicia; I have lived in San Diego my whole life, so I'm a San Diego girl.

[laughs] What I really like about San Diego is that people are actually trying to help our planet.

With Girl Scouts, we did a lot of beach cleanup, and I think it was really cool 'cause you get to see the nature around you, and you're actually having fun, but then you're also making your beach a lot nicer.

(Ashley) I love living in San Diego because it's always warm.

Even when it's cold, it's not that cold.

I'm Ashley.

I love San Diego because stuff grows year 'round.

Right now we're in winter, even though it doesn't look like it.

Oh whatever.

Whatever!

Let's take a picture, okay?

Lea brought her camera because she loves scrapbooking.

(Lea) To live here is amazing, and you don't need to ask that-- just look around.

[laughs] I'm Lea.

I like volunteering and helping the environment, and I think it's a really great thing to help your community, and I think it makes you well-rounded.

Today we planted a willow tree here near the San Diego riverbank, and it's to help restore the natural native plants because there are a lot of nonnative plants that are taking over the area.

If you were to cut this arundo, in a week it could be knee-high, in a month, it could be head-high, that's how fast it grows, so that's why it can outcompete some of the native species here.

(Ashley) It's not like the arundo plant is bad, but we don't want too much of it.

Are you familiar with some of the other introduced plants?

(Lea) We met Theresa, and she's an ecologist at the Scripps Institute of Oceanography.

Actually, I have a project just across the river, where I'm looking at the effects of an introduced plant on the native species, so mostly looking at insects and some of the arachnids, but maybe you guys could come check it out.

That would be fun!

Miss Theresa brought us to some traps that were set underneath a palm tree and a willow tree, and we looked at the different types of species that fell in.

(Theresa) The pitfall trap as you'll see is just a little white bucket that we put flush in the ground.

And we want to see what animals are living here.

(Lea) We really had no idea what we were doing, and we didn't really know what pitfall buckets were until we opened our first one.

It's a stinkbug.

Ah, oh I see it, I see it.

I see little spiders.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Spiders.

I don't see any beetles in there so far.

(Theresa) We have a few more pitfall traps set up that we're going to collect today, but let's move on out.

Oh, I see a beetle.

There's just a lot of spiders.

Ah!

Just kidding.

[SciGirls laugh] (Lea) It's really dry under here; it's really protected from the rain.

(Theresa) It's protected, right, so there's a lot of leaf litter, it's sort of dry.

(Ashley) There's not that many bugs though really.

There's something else.

Argentine ants.

This is a ground beetle.

If he sits still, you can kind of see his little jaws on him.

Like little itty-bitty sticks that are walking on you.

Oh, he pooped on me!

That's part of the job of being a scientist.

You want to hold that Ashley?

Can I do bare hand?

Bare hand?

At first, I was a little freaked out because, I don't know, it's a beetle.

laughs] Then like after you see it crawling around on other people's hands, you're like okay, I can hold that.

(Theresa) And then when you poke 'em, they ball up, which is why they're also called pill bugs.

Oh, it's so cute!

Oh look at it!

It's a baby lizard.

It looks like a western fence lizard.

The lizard was pretty cool; we named him Jeffrey and he was cute and he was really small and very cold.

I think he does look like a Jeffrey!

[SciGirls laugh] The other bucket that we found, it's completely different from all the other ones because it has a lot less spiders.

It makes you think maybe it's the area that it was in.

I think he ate all the spiders in there.

Yeah, that's why there's no more spiders.

He's so cute!

He weighs like, a penny.

You can feel the scales inside.

Hi Jeffrey.

Finding Jeffrey the lizard made my whole day.

Bye Jeffrey, say bye.

Bye Jeffrey.

(Theresa) So all these palms you're seeing in San Diego-- not native, not from here.

I had no idea that palms were not from the U.S., let alone San Diego or Southern California.

(Ashley) San Diego is known for palm trees, but they're not even from here, which is surprising.

(Theresa) It's the Canary Island date palm, so it's from the Canary Islands, which is an island in the Atlantic.

(Alicia) When they wanted to build missions here, they came with the palm tree and they started planting some of them, and then they ended up spreading out everywhere.

So for your project, we might pursue that more, of looking at the differences between palm and willow, and how those differences translate to maybe what animals are using them.

(Lea) I'm not really sure what I want to study right now, there's a lot of different opportunities, but I think we'll come to something soon.

We should really compare the willow tree, you guys think, and the Canary palm.

Yeah, alright.

'Cause one's not native and one's native.

Why one tree's leaves are thicker than the others.

So like the strength comparing them?

It would probably show why bugs would like it better, because it's easier to chew.

Our question was to see what kind of impact the Canary Island palm had on our ecosystem.

So how many like, trees do you guys want to check out?

We could check out like maybe 2 or 3 each.

We're not tall enough to get in the trees, so how do we do that, how do we check what lives up there?

Maybe we could check in the bark, because maybe some... (Theresa) Morning ladies.

We have some ideas that we would like to try out.

First we were thinking of checking out what lives up in the trees and seeing what plants surround the trees, 'cause you get how some trees get more sunlight.

From the willow tree and the palm tree, if you have like, some way to measure the density of the leaves.

Of the leaves, good, good.

The first test, we wanted to see what kind of bugs and insects live in the willow tree and in the palm.

Our second test was to see leaf toughness and our third test was to see what kind of plants live underneath the palm and the willow tree.

So we were thinking maybe we could collect some bugs off of the tree and maybe test them, or see like, maybe there's different bugs on the different trees.

Oh, that's excellent; what I have in the car is, it's basically a leaf blower that's reversed, so it's a giant bug vacuum, and what we'll do is use that to vacuum as far as we can reach up into the canopy of the willow and the palm.

I'm very, very excited because we're going to suck the bugs off of the tree, then we're going to inspect them in the lab.

Hi, I'm Lea, I'm 13 years old and I live in San Diego, California.

Lea's room, my room, come on in.

Something I really love doing in my free time is painting nails, especially my cousin's nails.

Something else I like to do is play soccer.

This is my dog, Lucky.

Something I like to do in my free time with her is run.

Bye!

[drums play in syncopated rhythm] [whirring] (Lea) When Theresa walked towards us with the bug sucker, she looked like a ghost buster.

Like a bug buster, 'cause we're going to get some bugs.

Is that the bug sucker?

(Theresa) The bug sucker!

This is going to be so much fun; we're going to suck up bugs-- literally!

[laughs] We'll go back and forth, and one of us will be timing, then when 20 seconds is up we'll say, then you can stop.

It's the first palm.

Smile, let's suck some bugs!

[roar of the engine] That was really fun-- it was like shaking!

(Theresa) It was 20 seconds right there.

It was like really surprising.

That's how you really caught the bugs, you know, I thought it would be something more scientific, but really it's a leaf blower in reverse.

[laughs] Nice job Alicia!

Our second test was to see leaf toughness.

(Theresa) This is called a penetrometer and what it does is, it measures pressure.

The penetrometer kind of looks like a toy needle, and you hold the leaf and you puncture it, and then it'll tell you how strong or how tough the leaf is.

It's measured in kilograms per square centimeter.

So we want to get a nice green leaf, and that was going to take some pressure, but whatever it takes to break that leaf.

(Lea) Set go.

(Theresa) 1.0-- that's how many kilograms per square centimeter.

(Alicia) And our third test was to see what kind of plants live underneath either the palm or the willow tree.

Ideally we would do a bunch of these quadrats all around the tree.

(Lea) A quadrat is a square and you put it down on the ground, then you decide how much is the percentage of each thing that's inside there.

(Theresa) What percent of this quadrat is taken up by green plants?

what percent is taken up by plant litter, so dead leaves and twigs, and what percent is open space.

(Alicia) So we had 75% for leaves, 15% for open and 10% for plant, does that sound right?

We picked three pairs of palms and willows to test.

Willow number one.

♪ ♪ .25.

10% open and 10% leaves.

80% plant.

Let's suck some bugs!

[roar of the engine] ♪ ♪ There's some Argentine ants, palm number two.

There we go.

It's 100% litter.

Plants can't live underneath the leaf litter because it's blocking all the sunlight and rain from going through there.

Now 1.5.

[roar of the engine] This is willow number two.

80% plant, 5% litter, and 13% open.

.25 kilograms.

Here's palm number three.

Okay, that's cute.

Oh.

95% litter, 5% plants.

I think palms provide a house, but they're not as good as a food source.

1.5.

[motor purrs, then stops] (Lea) Towards the end of our day with the bug sucker, this wouldn't turn on anymore, and so Theresa was like trying to start them over and over and over.

It's frustrating; we're out here, everybody's here, everybody's excited, and it's nice to wrap up, but also you have to expect these sorts of challenges that come up.

(Lea) I was feeling a little frazzled, considering we really planned to have 3 done, but we already had two samples done from each tree of all the steps.

It was okay because we already have something to compare.

(Alicia) Tomorrow we're going to look at our bugs that we caught today with a microscope.

We're going to sort them out and collect data from it and see how many bugs were caught in each tree.

Hi, my name's Alicia, I have 2 cats and 3 dogs.

I love riding my scooter.

This is my dad and we're going to play ping-pong.

I'm going to show you guys some tricks that my dogs can do.

Trick, trick.

This is my friend Nairobi, and we're going to do boxing.

Bye, thanks for watching!

(Lea) Today I am excited to look in the microscopes and to compare the willow tree and the palm.

You each get a guide to ID the animals today.

A field guide is like a little book of like, the bugs that we might find in there, like some of the beetles.

And it was very helpful.

And we're sorting through all the different types of insects and bugs.

In willow vial number one.

Yeah, I really think that's the wasp, because the coloring, the texture of the wings.

Oh maybe, it kind of looks like that.

Well sort of, but... Yeah, I could see that.

Be like that one I think.

So leaf beetles.

A small grasshopper.

Lea, yeah, that's definitely a leafhopper, don't you think?

Yeah, I think that's a mesh web weaver.

They both have hairy abdomens.

In willow one we found 10 categories of different kinds of insects.

Okay let's look at palm number one.

Oh, there's a spider.

No, this one, this one, this one.

The ant mimic spider.

Yes, the ant mimic spider.

Oh hey you guys, it's this one, you just ripped off his leg.

So like he needed it!

It seems like palm one has a lot less bugs than like, willow one.

This is palm two.

I think Argentine is probably the most popular.

Okay, so probably not the bark lice, because the wings aren't like that.

Maybe it's the brown lacewing.

I think so too.

Okay you guys, this is our last sample, willow number two.

That's an ant.

I think it's a sweat bee.

That's a wasp.

Yeah, that is a wasp.

(Theresa) Hey, how's it going?

Oh, you've got a lot done.

I thought sorting the bugs was actually pretty fun 'cause when you look at them without the microscope, they just look like a fly, but when you look at the field guide and like, you see like it could be a wasp or a bee or some type of flying insect.

What do you think that is?

(Theresa) That is a true bug, a hemipteron.

(Lea) A true bug is something that is actually truly a bug by its qualities.

A bug needs to have 6 legs and no more or no less.

Do we have more species on palm or on willow?

Then if there's more species on palm, all those other measurements we took, we could try to infer or make up an explanation why.

What I'm seeing here is that there's a lot more bugs off the willow tree than the palm.

(Lea) Our conclusions are heading towards the willow being a better tree overall for the animals and the plants than the palm tree.

Okay, from sucking up the materials under the bed where Fang used to sleep, we've learned two things.

What are they?

Number one, you don't clean under your bed very often.

Bunny slippers, socks from I don't know when.

[sniffs] Um, 2009 I think.

Didn't they stop making lava chips with red dye number 3 when we were like, in 5th grade?

I'm preserving this wrapper as a piece of fluorescent snack history.

Mmm... like new!

So what else did we learn?

Oh yeah, that mice are afraid of vacuum cleaners.

Fang?

Hey, why don't we let Fang tell us what he likes.

[shutter click] So mice like grass, flowers... a cozy place to curl up.

And witness the Jake's natural habitat, a beanbag, chips, and bunny slippers.

Hm.

Does evolution ever go backwards?

(Lea) We went to the Point Loma Native Plant Garden to get some more research about native plants.

All the plants that are in here are all native to San Diego.

This is a Cleveland sage; sages are low water using plants.

This is called toyon.

They grow Lavatera here at the garden because it's habitat for birds, and some other good alternatives in trees-- scrub oaks, the arroyo willow.

Torrey Pines, we have a lower area that we're today was called like, the Palm Tree Forest, and we're taking out all the palms.

Palm trees suck up all the surface water, the native plants aren't able to get water, so they have to remove all the palm trees around the native garden.

What's going to go here once they're all gone?

(Shannon) It's a good question.

It may be something you guys could help provide suggestion or input on.

Maybe we could even have a butterfly garden by just putting a bunch of hot rocks in front of the native flowers.

That sounds like a really neat idea that if you guys wanted to explore further, we'd be very interested in.

Shannon thought our plan was amazing!

I think it would be really good to get our school involved, and it's really nice that we can help our community, and we're able to come to come up with these ideas on our own.

Hi, I'm Ashley; this is my dog Roxie.

And this is my guinea pig, Peanut Butter.

This is Petey, this is my room.

And I have a big orange foot on my wall.

I love volleyball!

This is my microscope; I love baking, especially my own homemade chocolate chip brownies.

[timer rings] I think they're done.

Mmmmm.

Bye!

(Lea) Okay, you guys ready to get started?

(Ashley) Yup.

We wanted to make the butterfly garden, so we were going to see if our class is interested in it.

Maybe we can make it a school project.

We could get them and tell them like, if you help, you should come help us build it, and say like it's going to be there forever, and it's like leaving their footprint there.

Maybe we can show like, a slide show of how much fun it is there, and so maybe they'll want to go if we do that.

We decided to just bring it to our class and ask them if they want to make a butterfly garden with us.

And we're going to pitch that idea to them.

We wanted to teach our class about native and nonnative plants too, so we decided we were going to show them the graphs that we made and then tell them a little bit about the project that we wanted to do with the butterfly garden.

(Lea) But to kick it off, we should ask, do you know the difference between a native and a nonnative plant?

We should put two pictures, what comes from here, and we should put a palm tree and a willow.

Right now we're creating our Powerpoint for our presentation tomorrow, and we're trying to see what ideas we want in there, seeing what roles we're going to do.

Oh look at that; this is a nice picture.

Maybe this one.

So what's the next one?

Like insects and bugs.

What about that?

What is that?

Okay, what's the next one going to be about?

The same thing.

To get the idea, like let's jump into this headfirst and get started, but we needed some sort of experience so we would know how to handle things and know what to expect.

Maybe instead of worrying about all this, we should just start practicing.

(Lea) I am feeling very frazzled right now, 'cause I don't really know what I'm supposed to say, and there's been a lot of last-minute changes.

You guys, this isn't working.

Okay, well, let's practice, knowing what we know.

Well, what we've been learning about the past week is about nonnative and native plants.

Wait, am I doing the butterfly garden or what?

We only have two.

No you don't.

Yeah I do.

I'm not doing the lab, you're doing the lab.

So then am I explaining about microscopes?

You're doing the quadrat.

No, you were doing the quadrat.

What are you talking about?

It's the quadrat, and then it's the labs.

Now we need to practice like, one time really quickly.

Tell them 3 more minutes.

(Lea) We were really all kind of freaking out, but I know we know what we were talking about, and we know all the facts.

We got this...

Okay.

...and we're awesome.

Yeah.

And if the slides don't work, don't worry about it, because we know everything, we just learned all of this.

Yeah, and if any one of us like, freezes, we have to fill in.

[all cheer] So welcome to our presentation.

So we're pretty much going to talk to you guys about what we've been doing this whole week.

We've been really focusing on native and nonnative plants.

This is a palm tree.

Now raise your hand if you think this is a native plant.

Well, if you raised your hand, you're wrong, I'm sorry.

So we did 2 willows and 2 palms to see which tree had more different types of species.

This is Jeffrey.

This is a picture of us using a bug sucker.

(Alicia) Since the willows are native, how much more bugs or insects does it get than the palm, which is nonnative?

So according to our charts, we saw that the willow tree has a lot more types of animals than the palm.

It's in this diversity, it's the number of species that we found.

And we found on the willow there was a lot more than the palm again.

The next one is abundance, the total number of individual bugs and insects were found more on the willow than the palm.

So as you guys can see, there's a lot more bugs and insects on the native plant, the willow, than the nonnative, the palm.

So we were thinking okay, why is this?

Is it because it's a native tree or is it because bugs like it more?

We found out that it's because of the leaf toughness, it's softer, so insects and bugs want to eat the softer leaf than the palm that's a lot harder.

It was a great source of food for the bugs and insects.

(Lea) These are some of the alternative options you can plant instead of using a palm or something nonnative when you're decorating your yard or landscaping.

(Alicia) This is kind of an idea of the project that we really want to do.

(Ashley) At Point Loma Native Plant Garden, there was this open spot where the palm trees were cut down, and we wanted to put in a butterfly garden.

We were wondering if that would be something that you guys would be interested in doing?

And it's like leaving your footprint in our community.

So raise your hand... please.

Our class, we all worked together really well, so I think it'd be a really cool to do it as a project.

Thank you guys for listening, and hope you guys enjoyed it.

I thought that their presentation was very informative.

I think it was really good; I learned a lot of new stuff I didn't get to know before.

They knew what they were talking about, they seemed organized, and ready to teach us some lessons.

I thought the girls' presentation was fantastic.

I thought they presented it in a way that kept the class totally engaged, showed what they had learned and got everyone excited about the topic too.

I'm very proud of them.

Thank you so much Theresa.

Thank you.

Thank you, you taught us a lot.

Oh, it was so much fun.

(Lea) I really, really enjoyed the fact that Theresa helped us.

I think Theresa really admired our conclusions, considering she told us that we were amazing.

(all) Jeffrey!

We all did really good as I thought we would, so... [laughs] I'm very proud of Ashley and Alicia and how we were able to work so well together.

And we learned so much, and the final product was amazing, but how we're still going to work on it more.

Got some clues?

Head on over to the Web and play "Pick'M, Stick'M" at pbskidsgo.org.

Grass, flowers, and someplace to curl up.

Come on little buddy.

Yes!

Look how happy he looks.

Yeah, I'll take your word for it.

Hope you like your new habitat, little buddy.

Oh no!

Where's he goin'?

Mice might like tree trunks, but Fang's my little dude.

And his natural habitat isn't complete without my bunny slipper, ha-ha!

Wow, you really are on the same wavelength!

We have a song for Jeffrey.

Yes, dedicated to our lizard.

Oh Jeffrey, you're so fine, you're so fine you blow my mind.

Go Jeffrey, go Jeffrey, Go Jeffrey, go Jeffrey!

Jeffrey, Jeffrey, Jeffrey, Jeffrey, we don't want you to go.

We just want to let you know we love you so.

Word!

We gotta go, bye!

Bye!

I play apps all the time; I never even dreamed that I would be able to make one.

How soon do you need the app?

By Friday.

There it is!

I was like this the whole time.

Are you kidding me?

The video worked.

I don't know how they're going to fix it.

I multitask; I'm crocheting, and I'm watching TV.

We're trying to figure out how kids are multitasking.

We created a survey.

We listen to music while doing schoolwork.

Is the quality of work lessened when you're multitasking?

This is a wonderful experiment.

(Izzie) Major funding for "SciGirls" is provided by the National Science Foundation-- supporting education and research across all fields of science and engineering.

The National Science Foundation-- where discoveries begin!

(woman) Additional funding provided by L'Oreal USA.

For girls in science... you can learn more at ForGirlsInScience.org And by PPG Industries Foundation-- committed to bringing positive impact to our communities.