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Nature Knows Best: Planes Inspired by Nature

22 minutes

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Show's intro montage with Danni Washington in the middle, the show's title card, and an airplane overlayed in the back like it's coming into frame.

It’s no secret that birds were the inspiration for the first airplanes, but in this episode, host Danni Washington takes a look at how exactly that connection succeeded. She’ll fly planes in tight formation to try to mimic the energy-efficient flight patterns of migrating birds, look at how engineers are inventing wings that change their shape while in flight, and even jump out of a perfectly good plane to test out an innovation based on the flying squirrel. Part of the "Nature Knows Best" series.

Media Details

Runtime: 22 minutes

Show's intro montage with Danni Washington in the middle, the show's title card, and an airplane overlayed in the back like it's coming into frame.
Nature Knows Best
Season 1 / Ep 1
22 minutes
Grade Level: 7 - 12
Two men wearing hard hats stand on a mechanical lift, coating a building's exterior in a layer of white paint. Protective plastic covers the glass doors, windows, and railings.
Nature Knows Best
Season 1 / Ep 2
22 minutes
Grade Level: 7 - 12
Bird with white spots on its black wings perches on a tree. Overlaying this photo is a 2-D animation of a silhouetted swarm of flying birds and dozens of neon green dots.
Nature Knows Best
Season 1 / Ep 3
22 minutes 1 seconds
Grade Level: 7 - 12
Bald man wearing a T-shirt on a boat in the sea looks over to the right.
Nature Knows Best
Season 1 / Ep 4
22 minutes 1 seconds
Grade Level: 7 - 12
Just below the surface of the water, a whale is in the process of rolling over itself on its side.
Nature Knows Best
Season 1 / Ep 5
22 minutes
Grade Level: 7 - 12
Danni Washington looks at us, standing in front of a green field, as the show's animated title emerges onto the screen.
Nature Knows Best
Season 1 / Ep 6
22 minutes 1 seconds
Grade Level: 7 - 12
Close-up of a golden dragonfly holding onto a stem amid a backdrop of green leaves.
Nature Knows Best
Season 1 / Ep 7
22 minutes
Grade Level: 7 - 12
Bearded man wears a metal apparatus strapped to his chest, gesturing with a gloved hand as he talks.
Nature Knows Best
Season 1 / Ep 8
22 minutes
Grade Level: 7 - 12
Microscopic imagery compares bacteria cells in neat rows on a sharklet surface versus clusters of bacteria cells on a standard surface starting to spread.
Nature Knows Best
Season 1 / Ep 9
22 minutes 2 seconds
Grade Level: 7 - 12
Danni Washington walks outside along a sunny, paved lot.
Nature Knows Best
Season 1 / Ep 10
22 minutes
Grade Level: 7 - 12