Junkyards in Coachella are transforming into pot farms, SoCal's smog has worsened for the second year in a row, how 'blended learning' works.
SoCal smog levels rise for the second year in a row
Emissions may be down, but you might not know it considering Southern California smog has worsened for the second year in a row. So far this year, 145 days have violated federal health standards for ozone levels.
Ozone comes about when pollution chemicals bake in warm air. The particles from the process have been known to cause health complications.
Air health experts contend that the past two years have been unusually warm, resulting in more harmful ozone than in recent years.
"You have these weather patterns that settle in. You get these multi-day episodes of heavy smog when you get high heat and stagnant air," LA Times reporter Tony Barboza explains to Take Two.
"We've clamped down so much that we're seeing what you would call 'diminishing returns' as time goes on after many years of progress battling smog."
Press the blue play button above to hear what might be done to combat smog.
From junkyard to pot farm: how Coachella will transform its wrecking business
As California prepares for the legal sale of recreational marijuana, an industrial area in the Coachella Valley is cultivating a new kind of industry. Junkyard owners are cleaning house and starting to grow pot.
"My family has owned this business since 1978 and we've got a lot of blood, sweat and tears into it," said Brent Zimmer, who owns Desert Truck and Auto Parts. "It was a difficult decision to make, but because where the industry is going and the wishes of the city, we decided to make this choice."
Desert Sun reporter Alena Maschke joined Take Two to talk about the economics of the transition.
"Environmental regulation plays a big part of the wrecking business's decline," Maschke said. "The price of steel, which the wrecking yard depends on, has been really unstable."
Even though there is still social stigma attached to pot farming, some junkyard owners are encouraging the public to educate themselves.
"I've seen pot do a lot of good, and I'm totally on board with it," Zimmer said.
In the Coachella Valley, "almost all wrecking yards will be converted, "Maschke said. "Most of these property owners have no experience in cultivation, so they will be partnering up with seasoned growers."
Click on the blue media player above to hear the full interview
How Iranian Americans can help with earthquake relief in Iran
A deadly earthquake shook the Iran-Iraq border Sunday, killing more than 530 people and injuring thousands. And the Iranian community here is trying to lend a helping hand.
LA County is home to almost 100,000 people of Iranian ancestry, and many of them have family members back in Iran. But their ability to provide assistance overseas is complicated by U.S. sanctions against the Iranian government.
Take Two sat down with Reza Goharzad, political analyst and host at KIRN Radio Iran in Los Angeles to talk about how the community is responding to the disaster.
Following are some of the relief organizations the National Iranian American Council approves:
- Center for Disaster Philanthropy via Google
- Red Cross
- Child Foundation
- Iran Relief
- Children of Persia
- Moms Against Poverty
Click on the blue media player above to hear the full interview
School-within-a-school: Some parents want out of iGranada's 'blended' program
Is blended learning the future of tailor-made education?
The "blended learning" program at Granada Hills Charter High School has moved some parents to protest. Parents are upset that a charter guaranteeing admission to local public school students placed their kids in a program that relies on digital learning.
Take Two’s A Martinez spoke with Michael Horn about the theory behind mixing in-class and internet-based instruction. Horn specializes in the future of education with a focus on improving the student experience.
Interview Highlights
Blended learning: a day in the life
For an elementary school student, what you’ll often see is a student might be in a very traditional classroom rotating among different stations, one of which would be computers. So they would be spending maybe 20 - 30 minutes online doing some individual work. Then spending maybe 30 minutes with the teacher in small group in small group instruction. And then, maybe spending 20-30 minutes in group projects with their fellow students.
As you get older and students move into high school, students have more autonomy or control over that experience, often. And students will maybe learn far more online, or decide this doesn’t work for me. The online learning is directing my learning, but I might choose to do significant chunks of it offline in projects or reading traditional books.
A tailor-made education?
The big benefit in my mind is personalization. Basically, the fact that all students have different learning needs at different times… The advantage of technology is that it allows us to personalize learning much as a tutor would do. A tutor is able to adjust pace, use different explanations to reach you. Technology can do the same thing and free the teacher up from having to lecture to the median of the class to spend more time... one-on-one with the students.
Too much of a good thing...
I think the cons are when you create a program that says every student has to be on the computer for this many hours. Or you minimize the role of the teacher such that the student’s only recourse is to learn through the computer. And then you want to be mindful of the amount of screen time students have. Particularly at younger ages, being on the computer non-stop is not a beneficial thing. You want to give them plenty of offline experiences that engage their whole body in learning.
Learning disabilities in the blended classroom
Blended learning is actually most effective with students with special needs because it creates a preponderance of options when it’s done well for how that child can learn. It can create many different learning modalities to explain a concept… The idea is that it increases the amount of time a teacher is able to spend in quality interactions with that student and allow them to get the right learning at the right time and get more explanation than they would in a traditional environment.
But if someone is saying this is the only program through which you can learn and you don’t have access to a teacher in real time, that might be frustrating and might not be the best option.
Quotes edited for brevity and clarity.
To hear the full interview about blended learning, click on the media player above.
K2 Sports: Colin Kaepernick goes GQ and shoplifting UCLA players come home
Three UCLA basketball players, LiAngelo Ball, Cody Riley and Jalen Hill, embarrassed the University when they were accused of shoplifting in China.
But hours after President Donald Trump said he talked to his Chinese counterpart, all charges were dropped and the teens were allowed to leave. Today, they held a press conference where the school announced that they were suspended from the team indefinitely. The players thanked President Trump and apologized for their arrests in China.
And GQ magazine has jumped into the NFL national anthem protest story by naming Colin Kaepernick as Citizen of the Year.
We'll talk about that, and a lot more with
The next frontier for theme parks? Virtual reality and immersion
The International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions is in the middle of its annual Attractions Expo in Orlando. Theme park industry professionals and observers from all over the world have gathered to get a glimpse of how the parks will continue to entertain people in years to come.
"It's kind of like walking into a little time machine that's giving you a glimpse into the future of the theme park industry," said Robert Niles, founder of the website Theme Park Insider.
announces new 360 degree VR attraction: Q-Ride! Experience smooth motions and visuals in this new attraction that brings VR to a new level. Visit them at Booth #: 5815 Brogent Technologies, Inc.
— IAAPA (@IAAPAHQ)
@Brogent_Tech announces new 360 degree VR attraction: Q-Ride! Experience smooth motions and visuals in this new attraction that brings VR to a new level. Visit them at Booth #: 5815 Brogent Technologies, Inc. #IAE17 pic.twitter.com/OwRZepvPl0
— IAAPA (@IAAPAHQ) November 15, 2017
After his tour of the show floor, Niles believes that the next step for places like Knott's Berry Farm and Disneyland is heightened levels of immersion. That will likely come through technologies that other entertainment entities like video games and movies have already leveraged like virtual reality and 3D.
"What they're doing with that is just trying to blend a whole bunch of things in unique ways that allow them to tell compelling stories in a way people want to experience," Niles said.
This sort of thing is already being seen at parks in Southern California, like the New Revolution Virtual Reality Coaster at Six Flags Magic Mountain in Valencia. But this type of integration hasn't been without its problems.
"The challenge has turned out to be capacity," Niles said. The constant calibration of the headset for each individual rider combined with the number of people lining up to experience it is a bad combination. "People love the experience. They just don't love to wait for it."
Never done before,
debuts the all-new, Dueling Dual-Looping, Harley Quinn Crazy Coaster for
, with a combined speed of 70 MPH! See the vehicle on the
floor at Booth #: 5808.
— IAAPA (@IAAPAHQ)
Never done before, @SkylineAttrax debuts the all-new, Dueling Dual-Looping, Harley Quinn Crazy Coaster for @sixflagsDK , with a combined speed of 70 MPH! See the vehicle on the #IAE17 floor at Booth #: 5808. pic.twitter.com/zQgFDKlVl9
— IAAPA (@IAAPAHQ) November 14, 2017
But that's just the first step of what Niles says is just the beginning. People at the IAAPA Attractions Expo know that new technology will grow their businesses. And if they have to go through a few bumps on the road to full integration, so be it.
"There are so many different options out of the house for entertainment these days. Theme parks have to come up with something unique. So just putting on that same old tram ride, look at the dancing puppets or sit down and watch a movie, that's not going to cut it anymore."