Everyone makes mistakes, and that includes journalists. Introduce your students to the concept of trust and transparency in journalism. In this lesson, they’ll look at examples of mistakes and wrong information, as well as the ways in which news outlets can correct errors.
In How Do Journalists Earn Our Trust?, host Radzi Chinyanganya explains how journalists can earn our trust in a world of viral social media and misinformation. He highlights the importance of accuracy in the story of a rescue operation of a little girl named Frida Sofia after a devastating earthquake in September of 2017 in Mexico. International media, including The New York Times and the Associated Press, picked up the story and Frida went viral. In the end, the story wasn’t based on fact, and no one named Frida had ever even attended the school. Being transparent and admitting their mistakes can help journalists earn trust. This video is excerpted from BBC’s My World, a program created for teenagers eager to learn more about the important stories shaping our world.
What happens when a zoo animal gets sick? For most of the history of zoos, that question had an answer most visitors never saw. Now, one of the world's oldest zoological societies is building a facility designed to change that — and what they're planning goes well beyond routine checkups.
The Zoological Society of London is constructing a new wildlife health center that will allow visitors to observe animals receiving medical care firsthand. Some of what they'll see will be routine — weight checks, dental exams, the kind of maintenance that keeps zoo populations healthy. But onlookers may also get a window into surgical procedures, and in some cases, postmortems. It's an unusually transparent approach for an institution that has traditionally kept its medical operations behind closed doors.
Not everyone is convinced. Critics argue the center is more about capitalizing on public curiosity than genuinely benefiting the animals in its care — that making medicine into a spectator sport serves the zoo's revenue more than its residents.
ZSL pushes back on that framing. The center is designed to be more than an exhibit. It's intended to function as a global training resource for wildlife vets, a hub where expertise in animal medicine can be developed and shared across institutions worldwide. The argument is that visibility and conservation aren't in conflict — that showing people what it actually takes to keep wild animals healthy is exactly the kind of thing that builds the public understanding zoos increasingly depend on to justify their existence.
The deeper question the center raises isn't really about one zoo or one building. It's about what zoos are actually for — and whether letting people watch is a compromise of that mission or an extension of it.
The article "The Poop-Propelled "Headless Chicken Monster" of the Deep Sea" from BBC's Science Focus explores the Enypniastes eximia, a bizarre deep-sea sea cucumber. This transparent, glowing creature feeds on marine snow and can shed its skin to evade predators, playing a crucial role in deep-sea ecosystems.
In 500 Meters Down: Residents of the Twilight Zone, narrator Sir David Attenborough describes life in the ocean's twilight zone. Watch parasitism, jellyfish predators, and transparent animals living in the twilight zone. This video is excerpted from BBC’s Blue Planet, a definitive documentary series diving into the mysterious depths of the sea to discover the natural history of the world’s oceans and the rarely seen marine life that reside there.
In Camouflage in the Jungle, narrator Sir David Attenborough explores the understory in Costa Rica where animals use camouflage and mimicry to avoid becoming prey. The glass frog avoids detection with its transparent body. The pattern on its back mimics the young egg sacs it is protecting, allowing it to confuse and fight off attacking wasps. This video is excerpted from BBC’s Planet Earth II, a breathtaking documentary series that highlights the natural wonders of our planet.
Everyone makes mistakes, and that includes journalists. Introduce your students to the concept of trust and transparency in journalism. In this lesson, they’ll look at examples of mistakes and wrong information, as well as the ways in which news outlets can correct errors.
In How Do Journalists Earn Our Trust?, host Radzi Chinyanganya explains how journalists can earn our trust in a world of viral social media and misinformation. He highlights the importance of accuracy in the story of a rescue operation of a little girl named Frida Sofia after a devastating earthquake in September of 2017 in Mexico. International media, including The New York Times and the Associated Press, picked up the story and Frida went viral. In the end, the story wasn’t based on fact, and no one named Frida had ever even attended the school. Being transparent and admitting their mistakes can help journalists earn trust. This video is excerpted from BBC’s My World, a program created for teenagers eager to learn more about the important stories shaping our world.
What happens when a zoo animal gets sick? For most of the history of zoos, that question had an answer most visitors never saw. Now, one of the world's oldest zoological societies is building a facility designed to change that — and what they're planning goes well beyond routine checkups.
The Zoological Society of London is constructing a new wildlife health center that will allow visitors to observe animals receiving medical care firsthand. Some of what they'll see will be routine — weight checks, dental exams, the kind of maintenance that keeps zoo populations healthy. But onlookers may also get a window into surgical procedures, and in some cases, postmortems. It's an unusually transparent approach for an institution that has traditionally kept its medical operations behind closed doors.
Not everyone is convinced. Critics argue the center is more about capitalizing on public curiosity than genuinely benefiting the animals in its care — that making medicine into a spectator sport serves the zoo's revenue more than its residents.
ZSL pushes back on that framing. The center is designed to be more than an exhibit. It's intended to function as a global training resource for wildlife vets, a hub where expertise in animal medicine can be developed and shared across institutions worldwide. The argument is that visibility and conservation aren't in conflict — that showing people what it actually takes to keep wild animals healthy is exactly the kind of thing that builds the public understanding zoos increasingly depend on to justify their existence.
The deeper question the center raises isn't really about one zoo or one building. It's about what zoos are actually for — and whether letting people watch is a compromise of that mission or an extension of it.
The article "The Poop-Propelled "Headless Chicken Monster" of the Deep Sea" from BBC's Science Focus explores the Enypniastes eximia, a bizarre deep-sea sea cucumber. This transparent, glowing creature feeds on marine snow and can shed its skin to evade predators, playing a crucial role in deep-sea ecosystems.
In 500 Meters Down: Residents of the Twilight Zone, narrator Sir David Attenborough describes life in the ocean's twilight zone. Watch parasitism, jellyfish predators, and transparent animals living in the twilight zone. This video is excerpted from BBC’s Blue Planet, a definitive documentary series diving into the mysterious depths of the sea to discover the natural history of the world’s oceans and the rarely seen marine life that reside there.
In Camouflage in the Jungle, narrator Sir David Attenborough explores the understory in Costa Rica where animals use camouflage and mimicry to avoid becoming prey. The glass frog avoids detection with its transparent body. The pattern on its back mimics the young egg sacs it is protecting, allowing it to confuse and fight off attacking wasps. This video is excerpted from BBC’s Planet Earth II, a breathtaking documentary series that highlights the natural wonders of our planet.