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Transcript: Alen
Green Squad
Descriptive Transcript
CHILD: Wheee!
[Child giggles, pop, playful music plays]
[Logo] T.V.O. Kids Original.
[Rock music plays]
DESCRIPTION: On a screen with a play bar at the bottom, Alen sits in front of a fireplace that has trophies on the mantel. He has short brown hair and wears a pink shirt.
ALEN: Hi squad, I'm Alen.
[Drum music plays]
DESCRIPTION: Alen plays a keyboard. In the Green Squad headquarters, Shakira, Eric, Lisa, and Kyle sit around a small table with a tablet propped up on it.
GREEN SQUAD: Hi, Alen.
[Green Squad imitates drumming and an electric guitar, piano music plays, drumming, graphics pop]
DESCRIPTION: At home, Alen plays the piano and a hand drum. Graphics of a calculator, a math equation, a racquet, a soccer ball, a volleyball, and a football appear.
ALEN: I love music, compete in math competitions, play sports, I'm always trying to look for new ways to improve the environment.
DESCRIPTION: In the Green Squad headquarters, Lisa nods.
LISA: I like the way he thinks.
[Water flows, water sprays, upbeat music plays]
DESCRIPTION: In his kitchen, Alen fills a cup with water from the kitchen sink and drinks. In the backyard, he sprays water from a hose on his garden.
ALEN: Water is a precious resource, and we're lucky that we have clean drinking water that comes out from our taps. But I feel like I waste too much drinking water on our veggie garden. And I really want to use less.
DESCRIPTION: In the Green Squad headquarters, the squad sits on the couches.
ERIC: I know how we can avoid using drinking water altogether.
KYLE: But first, we should see where our drinking water comes from. It's pretty cool.
DESCRIPTION: In his living room, Alen sits in front of the fireplace.
[Piano music plays]
ALEN SINGS: Help me, squad…squad…squad.
[Upbeat music plays]
DESCRIPTION: The Green Squad smiles.
[Text reads] Lisa.
DESCRIPTION: Lisa wears a red blouse, and her long brown hair is tightly braided. She holds a reusable shopping bag and smiles. Graphics of food, a light bulb with a plug, and a shopping bag fly out of her bag.
[Text reads] Kyle.
DESCRIPTION: Kyle holds a red backpack. His dark brown hair reaches beneath his ears. Graphics of a bicycle, a skateboard, shoes, and a truck appear.
[Text reads] Shakira.
DESCRIPTION: Shakira, a girl with long black hair, turns. She wears a sleeveless black shirt and a white skirt. Graphics of a sewing machine, scissors, and safety pins appear.
[Text reads] Eric.
DESCRIPTION: Eric holds a long work bag and smiles. His short black hair is straight, and he wears a blue t-shirt and brown overalls. Graphics of a fence, gardening tools, a wheelbarrow, and a watering can appear. The Green Squad dances.
[Opening credits] T.V.O. Kids presents. An Apartment 11 Production.
[Title] Green Squad.
DESCRIPTION: The Green Squad poses together.
ELECTRONIC VOICE: Green Squad.
[Upbeat music plays, pop, knock on the door]
DESCRIPTION: Eric and Kyle approach a house door and knock.
[Text Reads] Hi Squad!
ERIC: I'm Eric.
KYLE: And I'm Kyle.
ALEN: I'm Alen, and this is my mom and dad.
DESCRIPTION: Alen’s mom and dad stand behind him in the doorway. His dad has short brown hair and a beard. He wears a black t-shirt. Alen’s mom has long brown hair and wears eyeglasses and a pale blue shirt.
ERIC AND KYLE: Hi!
ALEN: Come on in!
ERIC: All right, show us this place.
DESCRIPTION: In the backyard, Kyle, Eric, and Alen sit in red Adirondack chairs.
KYLE: What sparked your interest in the environment?
[Upbeat music plays, graphic pops]
DESCRIPTION: A pencil graphic and an Earth graphic appear. Alen’s drawing shows a lush green forest on the right and a tank, a barrel pouring oil into a river, and smoke rising from factories and cars on the left.
ALEN: Last year, I was in my school's eco team. There was this drawing competition. The topic was about saving the environment. I thought I'd reduce, reuse, recycle. I drew that in a big circle. In the middle on the left side is what will it look like if we don't protect the environment? Like all the pollution. On the right side, what does it look like if we do protect the environment? We have flowers, everything. I've won the competition.
[Confetti pops]
DESCRIPTION: In animation, confetti falls around Alen.
[Text Reads] That’s awesome!
ERIC: Wow!
KYLE: So, anything else you'd like to do in your spare time?
ALEN: Play the…
ALEN SINGS: Piano.
KYLE: I play the guitar, I sing.
[Pop]
DESCRIPTION: A graphic of music notes appears.
KYLE: Maybe we got to write a song over the course of this episode about the environment. What do you think?
[Mellow music plays]
ERIC: Alen, why don't you show me your veggie garden?
ALEN: Sure. We're right here.
ERIC: Wow! This is such a cool garden. So tell me, what have you been growing?
[Pops]
DESCRIPTION: Graphics of a bean, a zucchini, a red pepper, a cucumber, and a cherry tomato appear.
ALEN: Well, I have beans, zucchinis. Those are peppers. Some cucumbers, cherry tomatoes.
ERIC: Do you think your plants drink more water than you?
ALEN: Yes, of course.
[Whoosh, thump]
DESCRIPTION: A stamp reads, “Top Secret.”
KYLE: But I want to give you a really great reason to reduce your water consumption. See, I've got this access to a top secret, super cool place.
DESCRIPTION: Eric wears a graphic of a fedora and sunglasses.
ERIC: I'm ready for a top-secret mission. You?
[Thump]
ALEN SHOUTS: Let's go! Yeah!
KYLE: Let's go!
[Upbeat music plays]
DESCRIPTION: Alen, Eric, and Kyle run across a bridge and then pose at the end, crossing their arms.
ELECTRONIC VOICE: Green Squad.
[Upbeat music plays, door squeaks, remote beeps]
DESCRIPTION: Alen, Eric, and Kyle approach a closed wrought iron gate across a two-lane driveway. Kyle waves to a man with short, grey hair in a guardhouse on the other side of the gate.
KYLE NARRATES: This is a super-controlled facility. And they don’t just let anybody in. But it's a good thing that we got backstage passes to this awesome place.
[Chimes]
DESCRIPTION: Alen gestures for the gates to open.
ALEN: Open sesame.
ERIC: Oh, it worked!
[Pop, the music stops]
DESCRIPTION: They enter a large building.
ALEN: So cool.
KYLE: Wow!
ERIC: Awesome.
DESCRIPTION: A woman wearing a hard hat, a white shirt, an orange and yellow safety vest, and jeans stands in the lobby.
WOMAN: Good morning. Welcome to the Arthur P. Kennedy water treatment plant.
KYLE: Hi!
[Pop]
DESCRIPTION: The woman, October, a Supervisor of Water Compliance and Optimization, has short red hair.
OCTOBER: My name is October. I'm sort of like the water police. My team enforces the law to make sure the water is safe.
[Upbeat music plays]
OCTOBER: Safety first. Can you please put on a hard hat and a safety vest?
[Footsteps patter]
DESCRIPTION: Kyle, Alen, and Eric put on hard hats and safety vests, and then follow October back outside.
KYLE: All righty. Well, we're excited to get learning about water. And when it comes to safety, we'll follow your lead and go with the flow.
[Awed music plays]
[Text Reads] What?
DESCRIPTION: They enter a long building and stand on a bridge over pipes in a multi-storey room.
OCTOBER: Hope you're not afraid of heights.
ERIC: Oh, look at this place.
[Whir, upbeat music plays]
DESCRIPTION: October points at Lake Ontario through a window at the end of the building.
OCTOBER: Look over there. That's Lake Ontario. You can see the Marina. That's where we're taking the water from. And then it goes through lots of processes to make it safe to drink.
ALEN: How many people drink this water?
OCTOBER: Our water goes to 1.5 million people, including your house.
ALEN: Cool.
KYLE: What do you say we check out the first step in the water treatment process?
[Poof]
[Text Reads] Yeah! Let’s go!
[Water bubbles, upbeat music plays]
[Text Reads] Step one: ozone.
DESCRIPTION: October leads Alen, Eric, and Kyle into a room with large vats and pipes.
[Sign Reads] Ozone Generation Room. Fire Door. Do Not Obstruct.
[Water bubbles]
DESCRIPTION: In an animation, green ozone gas bubbles in the water and destroys red bacteria.
OCTOBER: In these giant structures here, we're making a special gas called ozone using oxygen and electricity. The ozone gas is bubbled through the water to kill bacteria.
[Footsteps patter]
[Text Reads] Step two: carbon.
DESCRIPTION: They enter a room and walk on platforms that are suspended over water.
OCTOBER: This is our biologically active carbon contactor room. Inside each of these tanks is carbon granules like black sand.
[Pop, water splashes, slide whistles]
DESCRIPTION: In an animation, a tank appears with 3 metres of black carbon particles floating in the water. Two and a half cut-outs of Alen stand in the tank. In an animation, dark grey circles representing carbon granules appear on grey charcoal. A cross-section of a granule shows a root-like opening that catches yellow circles. Red bacteria float around the granules.
OCTOBER: That's about three meters deep at the bottom. That's like 2.5 Alens tall. The water has to trickle down between all these carbon granules, and the surface of each granule is full of little nooks and crannies, like the surface of a sponge has all those dimples. All those nooks and crannies grab particles out of the water. But also hiding in those nooks and crannies are good bacteria. Those good bacteria help clean the water even more.
[Footsteps patter, machines whirr]
DESCRIPTION: They enter the large room with the pipes and look down from a third-storey balcony.
OCTOBER: If you look over the railing, you can see our U.V. units. These purple structures here. Inside that purple unit is U.V. light.
[Upbeat music plays, pop]
[Text Reads] Ultraviolet.
DESCRIPTION: In an animation, the sun wears sunglasses.
ERIC: U.V. stands for ultraviolet. And yes, the exact same rays that come from the sun that can be harmful to our eyes. But it's very, very important in the water purification process.
OCTOBER: That's why we have to keep it encased. It can be dangerous to us. So we have a demonstration over here. Do you want to turn on the light?
ALEN: Sure.
[Click, water flows, U.V. zaps]
DESCRIPTION: Alen walks to a machine on a table and flicks a switch. Inside the machine, tubes of green light glow. In animation, red bacteria float in water between the lights. Bacteria are zapped and turn brown.
OCTOBER: Here, you can see how the water would have to flow in between all those bulbs so that all the bacteria and germs are exposed to the light. By doing that, those bacteria and germs are inactivated, which means that they're incapable of reproducing and making us sick.
[Pop]
ALEN: Whoa!
OCTOBER: Let's go see the membranes.
[Text Reads] Step 4: Membranes.
[Footsteps patter, machines whirr]
DESCRIPTION: Eric, Alen, and Kyle follow October to the Membrane Gallery East door, and they enter a small hallway with glass windows on one side. Through the windows, they look at tanks filled with water, where debris floats on the surface. October walks to a sample of the membrane molecules and touches them. She shows Alen a drinking straw.
OCTOBER: Inside these tanks, we have membrane molecules that are like super filters. Here's an example of what's underneath the water surface. And each of these little fibres is like a straw, like this.
[Pop, upbeat music plays, water splashes, dings]
DESCRIPTION: In an animation of the membranes, water flows into the centre through small openings, but bacteria bounce off the outside.
OCTOBER NARRATES: Where the water gets sucked through the walls of the straw into that hollow center. Now, bacteria are too big to get through the walls of the straw, but some of the smaller viruses can get through. So, we add a little bit of chlorine downstream and that takes care of those.
[Text Reads] Awesome!
OCTOBER: Let's go to the lab.
[Footsteps patter, upbeat music plays, water flows, background chatter]
[Text Reads] Step 5: Test!
DESCRIPTION: They enter a Wet Lab filled with water flowing out of small pipes into long metal basins. Everyone wears safety glasses. October fills a vial with water and adds a drop of liquid. She shakes the vial.
ERIC NARRATES: So we're testing the water to make sure the amount of chlorine in it is safe for drinking. The amount needs to be between the number 0.5 and 1.5.
KYLE: Let's see what the result is.
OCTOBER: In it goes.
DESCRIPTION: Alen slides the water sample into a device.
ALEN: In it goes.
OCTOBER: Let's see where it is.
[Beep, triumphant music plays, hands slap]
DESCRIPTION: On a scale of zero point five to one point five, the sample registers as one point two. Everyone high-fives.
ALEN: 1.26
OCTOBER: Excellent.
KYLE: Nice!
[Upbeat music plays, water flows]
KYLE: Alright, well, I feel like we learned so much today about what goes into making our water drinkable. I know you're musical, and I'm pretty musical. And I think today's inspired me to write a song. Wanna help me out?
ALEN: Sure.
KYLE: All righty, here it goes.
[Rock music plays]
[Text Reads] La la.
DESCRIPTION: A cut-out photograph of a microphone appears by Kyle. In animation, music notes float.
KYLE AND ALEN SING: Water on tap.
KYLE SINGS: Better make it last.
KYLE AND ALEN SING: Water on tap.
ALEN SINGS: Don't waste it, just drink it.
KYLE SINGS: Water on tap. Drink it.
[The music stops, water flows, upbeat music plays]
ERIC: Okay. Boys, boys, boys. That's an awesome song. But we have a lot of work to do today, and we got to head back to the house. Thank you, October.
ALEN: Thank you.
ERIC: Let's get out of here.
OCTOBER: Bye, guys!
KYLE: Bye.
[Upbeat music plays]
DESCRIPTION: Shakira, Eric, Lisa, and Kyle bob up and down.
[Text Reads] Green Beat.
[Upbeat music plays]
DESCRIPTION: In the Wet Lab, cut-out photographs of Eric and Kyle appear by the water flowing out of the small pipes.
KYLE NARRATES: That drinking water is super clean. No bad stuff in it at all.
[Water splashes, boing]
DESCRIPTION: In an animation, a ladybug floats in water. A person takes a strand of hair out of a bowl of soup.
ERIC NARRATES: You wouldn't want to find a bug doing the backstroke in there. Just like you wouldn't want to find a hair floating in your soup.
DESCRIPTION: A video clip shows a barrier filled with hair in a stream.
KYLE NARRATES: Yeah, but guess what? Finding lots of hair in water can actually be great. Hair is really good at collecting oil.
[Splash]
DESCRIPTION: In animation, drops of black oil fall on Eric’s head, and Kyle pours shampoo over Eric’s head.
ERIC NARRATES: That's why we shampoo.
[Upbeat music continues, chimes, water drips]
DESCRIPTION: A person wears gloves and pats hair clippings. The clippings move in a machine that creates square mats of hair. A person pours black oil onto water, places a hair mat on the water, and pushes it below the surface. They lift the mat out of the water, and the water beneath it is clear and clean.
KYLE NARRATES: There are organizations around the world using hair to clean up oil spills and waterways. They collect hair clippings and even pet fur and turn them into matted squares, absorb pollutants like oil from the water. In fact, human hair can absorb about five times its weight in oil.
[Dog barks]
DESCRIPTION: A dog wears a colourful clown wig.
ERIC: That's fur-tastic. I'm wigging out about how cool that is. The cut-out of Eric wears a wig with long violet hair.
[Upbeat music plays]
DESCRIPTION: In front of trees, Eric sits on a concrete barrier and drums the air with two sticks. Alen uses a stick as a microphone, and Kyle dances, using a longer stick as a guitar.
ELECTRONIC VOICE: Green Squad.
[Upbeat music plays]
DESCRIPTION: Kyle, Alen, and Eric walk up a driveway.
KYLE: What did you think about all the steps that it took to make our water clean and drinkable?
ALEN: Now I understand why it's so important to save drinking water instead of wasting it on our garden.
DESCRIPTION: They enter Alen’s backyard.
ERIC: Have no fear, Alen, I think I have a way of capturing water from the sky.
[Thunder rumbles, water splashes]
KYLE: I think he means rain. And he's right, though. Rain is, in fact, free, and it is a clean resource so that we can have water to use on our garden.
[Thump]
DESCRIPTION: Eric jumps on a small deck and hits the top of a rain barrel.
ERIC: When we were at the water treatment center, I had my buddies come and deliver and install this rain barrel. Let me show you how it works.
[Upbeat music continues, water bubbles]
DESCRIPTION: In animation, a dotted blue line moves down a downspout into a white overflow container. A tube connects the overflow to the rain barrel.
ERIC: So the rain falls off of the top of your roof. Goes into your gutters. They get filtered in this overflow, and the water flows from the tube here, all the way into this big barrel. Now, if you open the top, have a look inside.
[Lid clatters]
DESCRIPTION: Eric removes the lid, and Alen looks at the water in the barrel.
ERIC: It already rained a bit while we were gone.
[Lid thunks, words tap]
DESCRIPTION: Eric puts the lid back on the rain barrel.
[Text Reads] Do NOT drink this water!
ERIC: Very important that you do not drink this water. Okay. Ever. You'll only feed it to your plants when it's a hot summer day. And you think that your plants need water. And it hasn't rained in a while.
[Water splashes]
DESCRIPTION: Eric picks up a hose attached to the bottom of the rain barrel and puts it in a red watering can.
ERIC: You can take this hose, and then you stick it into your watering can, and then you're able to go water all your plants. Very cool, huh?
[Pop]
[Text Reads] Awesome!
ALEN: I think it's awesome!
ERIC NARRATES: It is awesome. But you don't need to buy a brand-new rain barrel. We can actually make one with a few simple things from around the house.
ERIC: What do you think?
ALEN: Sure! Why not?
ERIC: Kyle, you in?
KYLE: Absolutely! And you know what, I think I saw a bin out front we can use.
ERIC: Why don't you go grab that? I'll have my tools, and let's get building.
[Hands slap]
DESCRIPTION: Eric and Alen high-five.
ALEN: Yeah!
[Birds sing]
DESCRIPTION: Later, Eric and Alen take tools out of his bag and sort them on the ground as Kyle arrives carrying a blue garbage bin, lid, and a drainage tube.
ERIC: Yeah, we'll take this out.
[Taps bin]
KYLE: So good news, everybody. Alen, I asked your parents, and they said it was okay if we repurposed this old garbage bin into a brand-new rain barrel.
[Upbeat music plays]
DESCRIPTION: Alen and Kyle put on safety glasses.
ERIC: Awesome. Put on these glasses.
ALEN: Safety first.
[Gear pops]
DESCRIPTION: Eric puts on his safety glasses. A graphic of a first aid medical cross in a gear appears.
ERIC: Safety first. I'm going to need you to wear some gloves. Um, Alen. And we're going to get to it.
[Tool rattles, cutters snip, thump, upbeat music plays]
DESCRIPTION: Eric cuts a hole in the lid, then he and Alen use heavy-duty cutters to cut a square out of the lid. Eric cuts a hole near the bottom of the bin, and Alen pushes a spout through.
ERIC: So we're going to cut a hole here. And then you're going to have a spout here at the bottom.
ALEN: There we go, perfect.
[Birds chirp]
DESCRIPTION: They place a mesh cover over the top of the bin and secure it with a string around the bottom of the rim at the top of the bin.
ERIC: You're going to have a mesh here that will be super easy for you to clean. We're going to do an overflow.
[Water drips]
DESCRIPTION: Kyle watches Eric make holes with a hand crank drill, then Eric holds the bin, and Kyle drills a hole. A cut-out of Alen appears beside the number, 553 litres. In animation, water drips from a spout.
ERIC NARRATES: Did you know that in North America, every person uses about 553 Litres of water every day? That's enough to fill almost 12 garbage bins like this one.
[Thump]
DESCRIPTION: Alen hits the top of the lid and picks up the bin.
KYLE: Now that's done, let's go install it.
[Birds sing, bin thumps]
DESCRIPTION: Eric puts the bin by the edge of a small concrete deck.
ERIC: All right, now we need to lift the rain barrel and put it at a height so that the watering can can fit.
[Upbeat music plays, rocks clatter, bin thumps]
DESCRIPTION: Kyle stacks flat stones, and Eric puts the bin on top.
ERIC: That was rockin' and rollin'.
[Bang, creak]
DESCRIPTION: Alen and Kyle pull the bottom of a downspout off.
ALEN: Pull this out.
ERIC: Yep.
DESCRIPTION: They fit the drainage tube over the bottom of the downspout, and Alen drills it into place.
ALEN: Perfect.
[Drill whirrs]
ERIC: It's done. We built it.
[Text Reads] We made it!
[Hands slap]
DESCRIPTION: Alen high-fives Eric and Kyle.
ERIC: Yeah.
KYLE: Let's go, team!
ERIC: Look at that!
[Thump, birds sing]
DESCRIPTION: Eric puts his hands on the lid.
ERIC: Well, now there's only one thing we need, and that is rain, ladies and gentlemen.
KYLE: But how do we get rain?
ERIC: Let's do a rain dance.
[Water drips, upbeat music plays]
DESCRIPTION: They dance and, in animation, raindrops fall around them.
THEY SING: Rain dance!
KYLE: Okay, now sprinkler.
[They imitate sprinklers]
DESCRIPTION: They move their arms like sprinkler water sprays.
ERIC: Eco sprinkler!
[Upbeat music plays]
DESCRIPTION: Shakira, Eric, Lisa, and Kyle bob up and down.
[Text Reads] Green Beat.
[Upbeat music plays]
DESCRIPTION: In a flashback, Eric and Alen look into the rain barrel, and then Eric puts the lid on.
ERIC NARRATES: The rain that Alen will collect is way cleaner than it used to be.
DESCRIPTION: A sepia-toned photograph shows a scientist wearing a lab coat beside beakers. A cut-out photograph of Eric wears a colourful headband and rose-coloured sunglasses.
ERIC NARRATES: Back in the sixties, scientists were like, yikes!
PERSON: Ew.
[Acid squelches, rain pitters]
ERIC NARRATES: When they found out rain was a hundred times more acidic than usual. They called it acid rain. How did it get that way?
[Beeps, upbeat music continues, letters tap]
DESCRIPTION: In an animation, green smoke rises from a factory smokestack with a radiation symbol on the side. Text beside the factory reads, “plus 0-2 plus H-2-O.”
ERIC NARRATES: They realized that when gas is produced by burning fossil fuels like coal and gasoline mixed with oxygen and water in the air, they made rain and snow more acidic.
[Splash, plant rustles, water splashes, rock squelches, words pop]
DESCRIPTION: In an animation, green rain falls, a plant falls, and a statue melts. Beside the rain, the cut-out of Eric stands behind an umbrella and holds his hand under the rain as he crosses his eyes and sticks out his tongue. A woman holds a megaphone, and speech bubbles appear at the end.
[Speech Bubble Text Reads] Fix this mess! Save our planet!
ERIC NARRATES: It killed trees, polluted rivers, even dissolved some kinds of rock. Scientists around the world said, "We gotta fix this mess for the good of the planet." Laws were passed, and people found new ways to reduce air pollution.
[Rain pitters, flatulence toots]
DESCRIPTION: In an animation, the green acid rain falling on the Earth changes to water. The Earth releases flatulence and clenches its teeth.
ERIC NARRATES: Thanks to their hard work, the skies got a little less gassy. This is a major eco success story.
[Chime, smooch]
DESCRIPTION: In the animation, the Earth blows a kiss to Eric.
[Upbeat music plays]
DESCRIPTION: In a park, Eric pitches a baseball, and Alen hits it with his bat. Alen runs in a circle around Eric as Kyle chases the ball. Eric makes a “safe” gesture, and Alen poses.
ELECTRONIC VOICE: Green Squad.
[Upbeat music plays]
DESCRIPTION: In Alen’s backyard, Kyle, Eric, and Alen sit in the Adirondack chairs.
KYLE: Well, guys, we got a whole lot done today.
ERIC: Sure did.
KYLE: But the real question is, how much rain do you think you're going to collect between now and the time we check in with you?
[The music stops, birds sing]
ALEN: I mean, really depends on how often it rains. If it rains enough, then first of all, I don't need to use the rain barrel water and the plants are still watered from the rain.
[Upbeat music plays]
DESCRIPTION: Kyle nods.
ALEN: So I just hope there's going to be enough rain that fills the rain barrel up. So I don't have to use the drinking water.
KYLE: More water. More veggies. And you're still saving the environment. Doesn't that sound cool?
[Poof, birds sing]
[Text Reads] Awesome!
ALEN: That sounds awesome.
KYLE: And when I want to know is who wins the song challenge? I think it's going to be me.
[Alen sings]
KYLE: Oh, it's tough competition.
ALEN: I think it's going to be me.
ERIC: I don't know, I think the squad might have to be refs. But in the next two months, you have to write a song and send it in to us.
[Pop]
[Text Reads] Yeah!
ERIC: Squad up.
[Whoosh]
DESCRIPTION: They high-five.
[Upbeat music plays]
[Text Reads] Check-In.
DESCRIPTION: The Green Squad dances. In the squad headquarters, Shakira, Eric, Lisa, and Kyle sit around the small table with the tablet.
[Upbeat music continues]
KYLE: Let's see how things are going with Alen.
[Birds sing]
DESCRIPTION: In his backyard, Alen rests his elbow on the homemade rain barrel.
ALEN: Hi, squad. It's been a few months. I'm excited to update you on everything. It was so fun making a homemade barrel with Eric. Since this barrel is really easy to make, well, I think I could do the exact same steps and make another one if I need to.
ERIC: That would be awesome.
KYLE: Oh, yeah.
[Leaves crinkle]
DESCRIPTION: In his backyard, Alen lifts the lid on the homemade rain barrel and shows the leaves on top of the mesh.
ALEN: So the mesh worked really well on capturing all the dead leaves and other things. I watered all of my plants, including the plants in my house, and there’s still so much water left.
DESCRIPTION: Alen lifts the mesh, revealing the water nearly filling the bin. In the headquarters, the Green Squad watches on their tablet.
KYLE: Wow! Looks like he's got enough to last the whole season.
[Water splashes, background chatter]
DESCRIPTION: In his backyard, Alen waters a tomato plant.
ERIC: Yeah. For sure. That just goes to show how much Mother Nature provides.
[Pop]
DESCRIPTION: In his backyard, Alen points to a small zucchini. Inside the house, Alen sits on a chair, and a graphic of a leek appears.
ALEN: My grandma used the leeks and the zucchinis to make dumplings, which I ate for dinner. They were delicious.
DESCRIPTION: In the squad headquarters, Kyle, Eric, and Shakira look at Lisa.
LISA: And I bet they tasted twice as delicious because the ingredients came right from his backyard.
DESCRIPTION: Inside the house, Alen sits in the chair.
ALEN: Well, ever since the water treatment plant visit, I changed my habits. Like, for example, where I'm taking a shower. I always think about the visit, and I think about each water droplet, how much processes it takes to treat the water. So I take shorter showers.
DESCRIPTION: In the squad headquarters, Eric moves his hands beside his head. Kyle and Lisa nod.
ERIC: The fact that he's actively thinking about it every time he uses water is a great step. I just love the new angle that Alen's approaching this.
ALEN: I did finish a song, and it is about saving the planet. It's not too late to make a change.
DESCRIPTION: In the squad headquarters, everyone smiles. Lisa, Kyle, and Eric lean forward.
ERIC: Come on, play for us.
[Green Squad claps a rhythm]
DESCRIPTION: At home, Alen sits on a stool in front of his piano. In animation, music notes and the word “la” float in front of him.
ALEN SINGS: Take care of environmental health, for the planet and for ourselves. Reduce, reuse, recycle, too. Do what we can, what we can do.
[Green Squad cheers, claps, upbeat music plays]
ALEN: It's pretty obvious I won the song competition.
DESCRIPTION: In a flashback, Kyle wears the hard hat and dances.
KYLE SINGS: Water on tap.
DESCRIPTION: The flashback ends, and the squad sits in their headquarters.
KYLE: I think Alen's 100 percent right. He definitely beat me in that song competition.
[Chuckles]
ERIC: I'm super impressed with Alen. He did an amazing job. Keep on singing in the rain, buddy.
KYLE: Yeah!
[Poofs]
ERIC SINGS: Go, Alen.
KYLE SINGS: Alen.
SHAKIRA SINGS: Alen.
LISA SINGS: Alen.
[The squad cheers, laughs]
[Upbeat music plays]
[End credits] The Squad: Eric Arsenault, Shakira Botticelli, Kyle Meagher, Lisa Pryce. Creator and Executive Producer: Jonathan Finklestein. Producer: Stephanie Blanshay. Director: Ella Cooper. Writer: Emilie Moorhouse. Executive Producer, T.V.O. Kids: Kirsten Hurd. Production Executive, T.V.O. Kids: Aaron Bala. Special thanks: Alen and his family, Arthur P. Kennedy Water Treatment Plant, October Bell, Janice Hatton, Teodor Kochmar, RainBarrel.ca, Larry Pomerantz, Peel Region, The City of Mississauga, Ontario. An Apartment 11 Production.
CHILD: Whee!
[Logo] T.V.O. Kids.
[Child giggles, squeak]
DESCRIPTION: A blue eye peers out of the Apartment Eleven Productions logo.
[Logo] Apartment Eleven Productions.
Descriptive Transcript
CHILD: Wheee!
[Child giggles, pop, playful music plays]
[Logo] T.V.O. Kids Original.
[Rock music plays]
DESCRIPTION: On a screen with a play bar at the bottom, Alen sits in front of a fireplace that has trophies on the mantel. He has short brown hair and wears a pink shirt.
ALEN: Hi squad, I'm Alen.
[Drum music plays]
DESCRIPTION: Alen plays a keyboard. In the Green Squad headquarters, Shakira, Eric, Lisa, and Kyle sit around a small table with a tablet propped up on it.
GREEN SQUAD: Hi, Alen.
[Green Squad imitates drumming and an electric guitar, piano music plays, drumming, graphics pop]
DESCRIPTION: At home, Alen plays the piano and a hand drum. Graphics of a calculator, a math equation, a racquet, a soccer ball, a volleyball, and a football appear.
ALEN: I love music, compete in math competitions, play sports, I'm always trying to look for new ways to improve the environment.
DESCRIPTION: In the Green Squad headquarters, Lisa nods.
LISA: I like the way he thinks.
[Water flows, water sprays, upbeat music plays]
DESCRIPTION: In his kitchen, Alen fills a cup with water from the kitchen sink and drinks. In the backyard, he sprays water from a hose on his garden.
ALEN: Water is a precious resource, and we're lucky that we have clean drinking water that comes out from our taps. But I feel like I waste too much drinking water on our veggie garden. And I really want to use less.
DESCRIPTION: In the Green Squad headquarters, the squad sits on the couches.
ERIC: I know how we can avoid using drinking water altogether.
KYLE: But first, we should see where our drinking water comes from. It's pretty cool.
DESCRIPTION: In his living room, Alen sits in front of the fireplace.
[Piano music plays]
ALEN SINGS: Help me, squad…squad…squad.
[Upbeat music plays]
DESCRIPTION: The Green Squad smiles.
[Text reads] Lisa.
DESCRIPTION: Lisa wears a red blouse, and her long brown hair is tightly braided. She holds a reusable shopping bag and smiles. Graphics of food, a light bulb with a plug, and a shopping bag fly out of her bag.
[Text reads] Kyle.
DESCRIPTION: Kyle holds a red backpack. His dark brown hair reaches beneath his ears. Graphics of a bicycle, a skateboard, shoes, and a truck appear.
[Text reads] Shakira.
DESCRIPTION: Shakira, a girl with long black hair, turns. She wears a sleeveless black shirt and a white skirt. Graphics of a sewing machine, scissors, and safety pins appear.
[Text reads] Eric.
DESCRIPTION: Eric holds a long work bag and smiles. His short black hair is straight, and he wears a blue t-shirt and brown overalls. Graphics of a fence, gardening tools, a wheelbarrow, and a watering can appear. The Green Squad dances.
[Opening credits] T.V.O. Kids presents. An Apartment 11 Production.
[Title] Green Squad.
DESCRIPTION: The Green Squad poses together.
ELECTRONIC VOICE: Green Squad.
[Upbeat music plays, pop, knock on the door]
DESCRIPTION: Eric and Kyle approach a house door and knock.
[Text Reads] Hi Squad!
ERIC: I'm Eric.
KYLE: And I'm Kyle.
ALEN: I'm Alen, and this is my mom and dad.
DESCRIPTION: Alen’s mom and dad stand behind him in the doorway. His dad has short brown hair and a beard. He wears a black t-shirt. Alen’s mom has long brown hair and wears eyeglasses and a pale blue shirt.
ERIC AND KYLE: Hi!
ALEN: Come on in!
ERIC: All right, show us this place.
DESCRIPTION: In the backyard, Kyle, Eric, and Alen sit in red Adirondack chairs.
KYLE: What sparked your interest in the environment?
[Upbeat music plays, graphic pops]
DESCRIPTION: A pencil graphic and an Earth graphic appear. Alen’s drawing shows a lush green forest on the right and a tank, a barrel pouring oil into a river, and smoke rising from factories and cars on the left.
ALEN: Last year, I was in my school's eco team. There was this drawing competition. The topic was about saving the environment. I thought I'd reduce, reuse, recycle. I drew that in a big circle. In the middle on the left side is what will it look like if we don't protect the environment? Like all the pollution. On the right side, what does it look like if we do protect the environment? We have flowers, everything. I've won the competition.
[Confetti pops]
DESCRIPTION: In animation, confetti falls around Alen.
[Text Reads] That’s awesome!
ERIC: Wow!
KYLE: So, anything else you'd like to do in your spare time?
ALEN: Play the…
ALEN SINGS: Piano.
KYLE: I play the guitar, I sing.
[Pop]
DESCRIPTION: A graphic of music notes appears.
KYLE: Maybe we got to write a song over the course of this episode about the environment. What do you think?
[Mellow music plays]
ERIC: Alen, why don't you show me your veggie garden?
ALEN: Sure. We're right here.
ERIC: Wow! This is such a cool garden. So tell me, what have you been growing?
[Pops]
DESCRIPTION: Graphics of a bean, a zucchini, a red pepper, a cucumber, and a cherry tomato appear.
ALEN: Well, I have beans, zucchinis. Those are peppers. Some cucumbers, cherry tomatoes.
ERIC: Do you think your plants drink more water than you?
ALEN: Yes, of course.
[Whoosh, thump]
DESCRIPTION: A stamp reads, “Top Secret.”
KYLE: But I want to give you a really great reason to reduce your water consumption. See, I've got this access to a top secret, super cool place.
DESCRIPTION: Eric wears a graphic of a fedora and sunglasses.
ERIC: I'm ready for a top-secret mission. You?
[Thump]
ALEN SHOUTS: Let's go! Yeah!
KYLE: Let's go!
[Upbeat music plays]
DESCRIPTION: Alen, Eric, and Kyle run across a bridge and then pose at the end, crossing their arms.
ELECTRONIC VOICE: Green Squad.
[Upbeat music plays, door squeaks, remote beeps]
DESCRIPTION: Alen, Eric, and Kyle approach a closed wrought iron gate across a two-lane driveway. Kyle waves to a man with short, grey hair in a guardhouse on the other side of the gate.
KYLE NARRATES: This is a super-controlled facility. And they don’t just let anybody in. But it's a good thing that we got backstage passes to this awesome place.
[Chimes]
DESCRIPTION: Alen gestures for the gates to open.
ALEN: Open sesame.
ERIC: Oh, it worked!
[Pop, the music stops]
DESCRIPTION: They enter a large building.
ALEN: So cool.
KYLE: Wow!
ERIC: Awesome.
DESCRIPTION: A woman wearing a hard hat, a white shirt, an orange and yellow safety vest, and jeans stands in the lobby.
WOMAN: Good morning. Welcome to the Arthur P. Kennedy water treatment plant.
KYLE: Hi!
[Pop]
DESCRIPTION: The woman, October, a Supervisor of Water Compliance and Optimization, has short red hair.
OCTOBER: My name is October. I'm sort of like the water police. My team enforces the law to make sure the water is safe.
[Upbeat music plays]
OCTOBER: Safety first. Can you please put on a hard hat and a safety vest?
[Footsteps patter]
DESCRIPTION: Kyle, Alen, and Eric put on hard hats and safety vests, and then follow October back outside.
KYLE: All righty. Well, we're excited to get learning about water. And when it comes to safety, we'll follow your lead and go with the flow.
[Awed music plays]
[Text Reads] What?
DESCRIPTION: They enter a long building and stand on a bridge over pipes in a multi-storey room.
OCTOBER: Hope you're not afraid of heights.
ERIC: Oh, look at this place.
[Whir, upbeat music plays]
DESCRIPTION: October points at Lake Ontario through a window at the end of the building.
OCTOBER: Look over there. That's Lake Ontario. You can see the Marina. That's where we're taking the water from. And then it goes through lots of processes to make it safe to drink.
ALEN: How many people drink this water?
OCTOBER: Our water goes to 1.5 million people, including your house.
ALEN: Cool.
KYLE: What do you say we check out the first step in the water treatment process?
[Poof]
[Text Reads] Yeah! Let’s go!
[Water bubbles, upbeat music plays]
[Text Reads] Step one: ozone.
DESCRIPTION: October leads Alen, Eric, and Kyle into a room with large vats and pipes.
[Sign Reads] Ozone Generation Room. Fire Door. Do Not Obstruct.
[Water bubbles]
DESCRIPTION: In an animation, green ozone gas bubbles in the water and destroys red bacteria.
OCTOBER: In these giant structures here, we're making a special gas called ozone using oxygen and electricity. The ozone gas is bubbled through the water to kill bacteria.
[Footsteps patter]
[Text Reads] Step two: carbon.
DESCRIPTION: They enter a room and walk on platforms that are suspended over water.
OCTOBER: This is our biologically active carbon contactor room. Inside each of these tanks is carbon granules like black sand.
[Pop, water splashes, slide whistles]
DESCRIPTION: In an animation, a tank appears with 3 metres of black carbon particles floating in the water. Two and a half cut-outs of Alen stand in the tank. In an animation, dark grey circles representing carbon granules appear on grey charcoal. A cross-section of a granule shows a root-like opening that catches yellow circles. Red bacteria float around the granules.
OCTOBER: That's about three meters deep at the bottom. That's like 2.5 Alens tall. The water has to trickle down between all these carbon granules, and the surface of each granule is full of little nooks and crannies, like the surface of a sponge has all those dimples. All those nooks and crannies grab particles out of the water. But also hiding in those nooks and crannies are good bacteria. Those good bacteria help clean the water even more.
[Footsteps patter, machines whirr]
DESCRIPTION: They enter the large room with the pipes and look down from a third-storey balcony.
OCTOBER: If you look over the railing, you can see our U.V. units. These purple structures here. Inside that purple unit is U.V. light.
[Upbeat music plays, pop]
[Text Reads] Ultraviolet.
DESCRIPTION: In an animation, the sun wears sunglasses.
ERIC: U.V. stands for ultraviolet. And yes, the exact same rays that come from the sun that can be harmful to our eyes. But it's very, very important in the water purification process.
OCTOBER: That's why we have to keep it encased. It can be dangerous to us. So we have a demonstration over here. Do you want to turn on the light?
ALEN: Sure.
[Click, water flows, U.V. zaps]
DESCRIPTION: Alen walks to a machine on a table and flicks a switch. Inside the machine, tubes of green light glow. In animation, red bacteria float in water between the lights. Bacteria are zapped and turn brown.
OCTOBER: Here, you can see how the water would have to flow in between all those bulbs so that all the bacteria and germs are exposed to the light. By doing that, those bacteria and germs are inactivated, which means that they're incapable of reproducing and making us sick.
[Pop]
ALEN: Whoa!
OCTOBER: Let's go see the membranes.
[Text Reads] Step 4: Membranes.
[Footsteps patter, machines whirr]
DESCRIPTION: Eric, Alen, and Kyle follow October to the Membrane Gallery East door, and they enter a small hallway with glass windows on one side. Through the windows, they look at tanks filled with water, where debris floats on the surface. October walks to a sample of the membrane molecules and touches them. She shows Alen a drinking straw.
OCTOBER: Inside these tanks, we have membrane molecules that are like super filters. Here's an example of what's underneath the water surface. And each of these little fibres is like a straw, like this.
[Pop, upbeat music plays, water splashes, dings]
DESCRIPTION: In an animation of the membranes, water flows into the centre through small openings, but bacteria bounce off the outside.
OCTOBER NARRATES: Where the water gets sucked through the walls of the straw into that hollow center. Now, bacteria are too big to get through the walls of the straw, but some of the smaller viruses can get through. So, we add a little bit of chlorine downstream and that takes care of those.
[Text Reads] Awesome!
OCTOBER: Let's go to the lab.
[Footsteps patter, upbeat music plays, water flows, background chatter]
[Text Reads] Step 5: Test!
DESCRIPTION: They enter a Wet Lab filled with water flowing out of small pipes into long metal basins. Everyone wears safety glasses. October fills a vial with water and adds a drop of liquid. She shakes the vial.
ERIC NARRATES: So we're testing the water to make sure the amount of chlorine in it is safe for drinking. The amount needs to be between the number 0.5 and 1.5.
KYLE: Let's see what the result is.
OCTOBER: In it goes.
DESCRIPTION: Alen slides the water sample into a device.
ALEN: In it goes.
OCTOBER: Let's see where it is.
[Beep, triumphant music plays, hands slap]
DESCRIPTION: On a scale of zero point five to one point five, the sample registers as one point two. Everyone high-fives.
ALEN: 1.26
OCTOBER: Excellent.
KYLE: Nice!
[Upbeat music plays, water flows]
KYLE: Alright, well, I feel like we learned so much today about what goes into making our water drinkable. I know you're musical, and I'm pretty musical. And I think today's inspired me to write a song. Wanna help me out?
ALEN: Sure.
KYLE: All righty, here it goes.
[Rock music plays]
[Text Reads] La la.
DESCRIPTION: A cut-out photograph of a microphone appears by Kyle. In animation, music notes float.
KYLE AND ALEN SING: Water on tap.
KYLE SINGS: Better make it last.
KYLE AND ALEN SING: Water on tap.
ALEN SINGS: Don't waste it, just drink it.
KYLE SINGS: Water on tap. Drink it.
[The music stops, water flows, upbeat music plays]
ERIC: Okay. Boys, boys, boys. That's an awesome song. But we have a lot of work to do today, and we got to head back to the house. Thank you, October.
ALEN: Thank you.
ERIC: Let's get out of here.
OCTOBER: Bye, guys!
KYLE: Bye.
[Upbeat music plays]
DESCRIPTION: Shakira, Eric, Lisa, and Kyle bob up and down.
[Text Reads] Green Beat.
[Upbeat music plays]
DESCRIPTION: In the Wet Lab, cut-out photographs of Eric and Kyle appear by the water flowing out of the small pipes.
KYLE NARRATES: That drinking water is super clean. No bad stuff in it at all.
[Water splashes, boing]
DESCRIPTION: In an animation, a ladybug floats in water. A person takes a strand of hair out of a bowl of soup.
ERIC NARRATES: You wouldn't want to find a bug doing the backstroke in there. Just like you wouldn't want to find a hair floating in your soup.
DESCRIPTION: A video clip shows a barrier filled with hair in a stream.
KYLE NARRATES: Yeah, but guess what? Finding lots of hair in water can actually be great. Hair is really good at collecting oil.
[Splash]
DESCRIPTION: In animation, drops of black oil fall on Eric’s head, and Kyle pours shampoo over Eric’s head.
ERIC NARRATES: That's why we shampoo.
[Upbeat music continues, chimes, water drips]
DESCRIPTION: A person wears gloves and pats hair clippings. The clippings move in a machine that creates square mats of hair. A person pours black oil onto water, places a hair mat on the water, and pushes it below the surface. They lift the mat out of the water, and the water beneath it is clear and clean.
KYLE NARRATES: There are organizations around the world using hair to clean up oil spills and waterways. They collect hair clippings and even pet fur and turn them into matted squares, absorb pollutants like oil from the water. In fact, human hair can absorb about five times its weight in oil.
[Dog barks]
DESCRIPTION: A dog wears a colourful clown wig.
ERIC: That's fur-tastic. I'm wigging out about how cool that is. The cut-out of Eric wears a wig with long violet hair.
[Upbeat music plays]
DESCRIPTION: In front of trees, Eric sits on a concrete barrier and drums the air with two sticks. Alen uses a stick as a microphone, and Kyle dances, using a longer stick as a guitar.
ELECTRONIC VOICE: Green Squad.
[Upbeat music plays]
DESCRIPTION: Kyle, Alen, and Eric walk up a driveway.
KYLE: What did you think about all the steps that it took to make our water clean and drinkable?
ALEN: Now I understand why it's so important to save drinking water instead of wasting it on our garden.
DESCRIPTION: They enter Alen’s backyard.
ERIC: Have no fear, Alen, I think I have a way of capturing water from the sky.
[Thunder rumbles, water splashes]
KYLE: I think he means rain. And he's right, though. Rain is, in fact, free, and it is a clean resource so that we can have water to use on our garden.
[Thump]
DESCRIPTION: Eric jumps on a small deck and hits the top of a rain barrel.
ERIC: When we were at the water treatment center, I had my buddies come and deliver and install this rain barrel. Let me show you how it works.
[Upbeat music continues, water bubbles]
DESCRIPTION: In animation, a dotted blue line moves down a downspout into a white overflow container. A tube connects the overflow to the rain barrel.
ERIC: So the rain falls off of the top of your roof. Goes into your gutters. They get filtered in this overflow, and the water flows from the tube here, all the way into this big barrel. Now, if you open the top, have a look inside.
[Lid clatters]
DESCRIPTION: Eric removes the lid, and Alen looks at the water in the barrel.
ERIC: It already rained a bit while we were gone.
[Lid thunks, words tap]
DESCRIPTION: Eric puts the lid back on the rain barrel.
[Text Reads] Do NOT drink this water!
ERIC: Very important that you do not drink this water. Okay. Ever. You'll only feed it to your plants when it's a hot summer day. And you think that your plants need water. And it hasn't rained in a while.
[Water splashes]
DESCRIPTION: Eric picks up a hose attached to the bottom of the rain barrel and puts it in a red watering can.
ERIC: You can take this hose, and then you stick it into your watering can, and then you're able to go water all your plants. Very cool, huh?
[Pop]
[Text Reads] Awesome!
ALEN: I think it's awesome!
ERIC NARRATES: It is awesome. But you don't need to buy a brand-new rain barrel. We can actually make one with a few simple things from around the house.
ERIC: What do you think?
ALEN: Sure! Why not?
ERIC: Kyle, you in?
KYLE: Absolutely! And you know what, I think I saw a bin out front we can use.
ERIC: Why don't you go grab that? I'll have my tools, and let's get building.
[Hands slap]
DESCRIPTION: Eric and Alen high-five.
ALEN: Yeah!
[Birds sing]
DESCRIPTION: Later, Eric and Alen take tools out of his bag and sort them on the ground as Kyle arrives carrying a blue garbage bin, lid, and a drainage tube.
ERIC: Yeah, we'll take this out.
[Taps bin]
KYLE: So good news, everybody. Alen, I asked your parents, and they said it was okay if we repurposed this old garbage bin into a brand-new rain barrel.
[Upbeat music plays]
DESCRIPTION: Alen and Kyle put on safety glasses.
ERIC: Awesome. Put on these glasses.
ALEN: Safety first.
[Gear pops]
DESCRIPTION: Eric puts on his safety glasses. A graphic of a first aid medical cross in a gear appears.
ERIC: Safety first. I'm going to need you to wear some gloves. Um, Alen. And we're going to get to it.
[Tool rattles, cutters snip, thump, upbeat music plays]
DESCRIPTION: Eric cuts a hole in the lid, then he and Alen use heavy-duty cutters to cut a square out of the lid. Eric cuts a hole near the bottom of the bin, and Alen pushes a spout through.
ERIC: So we're going to cut a hole here. And then you're going to have a spout here at the bottom.
ALEN: There we go, perfect.
[Birds chirp]
DESCRIPTION: They place a mesh cover over the top of the bin and secure it with a string around the bottom of the rim at the top of the bin.
ERIC: You're going to have a mesh here that will be super easy for you to clean. We're going to do an overflow.
[Water drips]
DESCRIPTION: Kyle watches Eric make holes with a hand crank drill, then Eric holds the bin, and Kyle drills a hole. A cut-out of Alen appears beside the number, 553 litres. In animation, water drips from a spout.
ERIC NARRATES: Did you know that in North America, every person uses about 553 Litres of water every day? That's enough to fill almost 12 garbage bins like this one.
[Thump]
DESCRIPTION: Alen hits the top of the lid and picks up the bin.
KYLE: Now that's done, let's go install it.
[Birds sing, bin thumps]
DESCRIPTION: Eric puts the bin by the edge of a small concrete deck.
ERIC: All right, now we need to lift the rain barrel and put it at a height so that the watering can can fit.
[Upbeat music plays, rocks clatter, bin thumps]
DESCRIPTION: Kyle stacks flat stones, and Eric puts the bin on top.
ERIC: That was rockin' and rollin'.
[Bang, creak]
DESCRIPTION: Alen and Kyle pull the bottom of a downspout off.
ALEN: Pull this out.
ERIC: Yep.
DESCRIPTION: They fit the drainage tube over the bottom of the downspout, and Alen drills it into place.
ALEN: Perfect.
[Drill whirrs]
ERIC: It's done. We built it.
[Text Reads] We made it!
[Hands slap]
DESCRIPTION: Alen high-fives Eric and Kyle.
ERIC: Yeah.
KYLE: Let's go, team!
ERIC: Look at that!
[Thump, birds sing]
DESCRIPTION: Eric puts his hands on the lid.
ERIC: Well, now there's only one thing we need, and that is rain, ladies and gentlemen.
KYLE: But how do we get rain?
ERIC: Let's do a rain dance.
[Water drips, upbeat music plays]
DESCRIPTION: They dance and, in animation, raindrops fall around them.
THEY SING: Rain dance!
KYLE: Okay, now sprinkler.
[They imitate sprinklers]
DESCRIPTION: They move their arms like sprinkler water sprays.
ERIC: Eco sprinkler!
[Upbeat music plays]
DESCRIPTION: Shakira, Eric, Lisa, and Kyle bob up and down.
[Text Reads] Green Beat.
[Upbeat music plays]
DESCRIPTION: In a flashback, Eric and Alen look into the rain barrel, and then Eric puts the lid on.
ERIC NARRATES: The rain that Alen will collect is way cleaner than it used to be.
DESCRIPTION: A sepia-toned photograph shows a scientist wearing a lab coat beside beakers. A cut-out photograph of Eric wears a colourful headband and rose-coloured sunglasses.
ERIC NARRATES: Back in the sixties, scientists were like, yikes!
PERSON: Ew.
[Acid squelches, rain pitters]
ERIC NARRATES: When they found out rain was a hundred times more acidic than usual. They called it acid rain. How did it get that way?
[Beeps, upbeat music continues, letters tap]
DESCRIPTION: In an animation, green smoke rises from a factory smokestack with a radiation symbol on the side. Text beside the factory reads, “plus 0-2 plus H-2-O.”
ERIC NARRATES: They realized that when gas is produced by burning fossil fuels like coal and gasoline mixed with oxygen and water in the air, they made rain and snow more acidic.
[Splash, plant rustles, water splashes, rock squelches, words pop]
DESCRIPTION: In an animation, green rain falls, a plant falls, and a statue melts. Beside the rain, the cut-out of Eric stands behind an umbrella and holds his hand under the rain as he crosses his eyes and sticks out his tongue. A woman holds a megaphone, and speech bubbles appear at the end.
[Speech Bubble Text Reads] Fix this mess! Save our planet!
ERIC NARRATES: It killed trees, polluted rivers, even dissolved some kinds of rock. Scientists around the world said, "We gotta fix this mess for the good of the planet." Laws were passed, and people found new ways to reduce air pollution.
[Rain pitters, flatulence toots]
DESCRIPTION: In an animation, the green acid rain falling on the Earth changes to water. The Earth releases flatulence and clenches its teeth.
ERIC NARRATES: Thanks to their hard work, the skies got a little less gassy. This is a major eco success story.
[Chime, smooch]
DESCRIPTION: In the animation, the Earth blows a kiss to Eric.
[Upbeat music plays]
DESCRIPTION: In a park, Eric pitches a baseball, and Alen hits it with his bat. Alen runs in a circle around Eric as Kyle chases the ball. Eric makes a “safe” gesture, and Alen poses.
ELECTRONIC VOICE: Green Squad.
[Upbeat music plays]
DESCRIPTION: In Alen’s backyard, Kyle, Eric, and Alen sit in the Adirondack chairs.
KYLE: Well, guys, we got a whole lot done today.
ERIC: Sure did.
KYLE: But the real question is, how much rain do you think you're going to collect between now and the time we check in with you?
[The music stops, birds sing]
ALEN: I mean, really depends on how often it rains. If it rains enough, then first of all, I don't need to use the rain barrel water and the plants are still watered from the rain.
[Upbeat music plays]
DESCRIPTION: Kyle nods.
ALEN: So I just hope there's going to be enough rain that fills the rain barrel up. So I don't have to use the drinking water.
KYLE: More water. More veggies. And you're still saving the environment. Doesn't that sound cool?
[Poof, birds sing]
[Text Reads] Awesome!
ALEN: That sounds awesome.
KYLE: And when I want to know is who wins the song challenge? I think it's going to be me.
[Alen sings]
KYLE: Oh, it's tough competition.
ALEN: I think it's going to be me.
ERIC: I don't know, I think the squad might have to be refs. But in the next two months, you have to write a song and send it in to us.
[Pop]
[Text Reads] Yeah!
ERIC: Squad up.
[Whoosh]
DESCRIPTION: They high-five.
[Upbeat music plays]
[Text Reads] Check-In.
DESCRIPTION: The Green Squad dances. In the squad headquarters, Shakira, Eric, Lisa, and Kyle sit around the small table with the tablet.
[Upbeat music continues]
KYLE: Let's see how things are going with Alen.
[Birds sing]
DESCRIPTION: In his backyard, Alen rests his elbow on the homemade rain barrel.
ALEN: Hi, squad. It's been a few months. I'm excited to update you on everything. It was so fun making a homemade barrel with Eric. Since this barrel is really easy to make, well, I think I could do the exact same steps and make another one if I need to.
ERIC: That would be awesome.
KYLE: Oh, yeah.
[Leaves crinkle]
DESCRIPTION: In his backyard, Alen lifts the lid on the homemade rain barrel and shows the leaves on top of the mesh.
ALEN: So the mesh worked really well on capturing all the dead leaves and other things. I watered all of my plants, including the plants in my house, and there’s still so much water left.
DESCRIPTION: Alen lifts the mesh, revealing the water nearly filling the bin. In the headquarters, the Green Squad watches on their tablet.
KYLE: Wow! Looks like he's got enough to last the whole season.
[Water splashes, background chatter]
DESCRIPTION: In his backyard, Alen waters a tomato plant.
ERIC: Yeah. For sure. That just goes to show how much Mother Nature provides.
[Pop]
DESCRIPTION: In his backyard, Alen points to a small zucchini. Inside the house, Alen sits on a chair, and a graphic of a leek appears.
ALEN: My grandma used the leeks and the zucchinis to make dumplings, which I ate for dinner. They were delicious.
DESCRIPTION: In the squad headquarters, Kyle, Eric, and Shakira look at Lisa.
LISA: And I bet they tasted twice as delicious because the ingredients came right from his backyard.
DESCRIPTION: Inside the house, Alen sits in the chair.
ALEN: Well, ever since the water treatment plant visit, I changed my habits. Like, for example, where I'm taking a shower. I always think about the visit, and I think about each water droplet, how much processes it takes to treat the water. So I take shorter showers.
DESCRIPTION: In the squad headquarters, Eric moves his hands beside his head. Kyle and Lisa nod.
ERIC: The fact that he's actively thinking about it every time he uses water is a great step. I just love the new angle that Alen's approaching this.
ALEN: I did finish a song, and it is about saving the planet. It's not too late to make a change.
DESCRIPTION: In the squad headquarters, everyone smiles. Lisa, Kyle, and Eric lean forward.
ERIC: Come on, play for us.
[Green Squad claps a rhythm]
DESCRIPTION: At home, Alen sits on a stool in front of his piano. In animation, music notes and the word “la” float in front of him.
ALEN SINGS: Take care of environmental health, for the planet and for ourselves. Reduce, reuse, recycle, too. Do what we can, what we can do.
[Green Squad cheers, claps, upbeat music plays]
ALEN: It's pretty obvious I won the song competition.
DESCRIPTION: In a flashback, Kyle wears the hard hat and dances.
KYLE SINGS: Water on tap.
DESCRIPTION: The flashback ends, and the squad sits in their headquarters.
KYLE: I think Alen's 100 percent right. He definitely beat me in that song competition.
[Chuckles]
ERIC: I'm super impressed with Alen. He did an amazing job. Keep on singing in the rain, buddy.
KYLE: Yeah!
[Poofs]
ERIC SINGS: Go, Alen.
KYLE SINGS: Alen.
SHAKIRA SINGS: Alen.
LISA SINGS: Alen.
[The squad cheers, laughs]
[Upbeat music plays]
[End credits] The Squad: Eric Arsenault, Shakira Botticelli, Kyle Meagher, Lisa Pryce. Creator and Executive Producer: Jonathan Finklestein. Producer: Stephanie Blanshay. Director: Ella Cooper. Writer: Emilie Moorhouse. Executive Producer, T.V.O. Kids: Kirsten Hurd. Production Executive, T.V.O. Kids: Aaron Bala. Special thanks: Alen and his family, Arthur P. Kennedy Water Treatment Plant, October Bell, Janice Hatton, Teodor Kochmar, RainBarrel.ca, Larry Pomerantz, Peel Region, The City of Mississauga, Ontario. An Apartment 11 Production.
CHILD: Whee!
[Logo] T.V.O. Kids.
[Child giggles, squeak]
DESCRIPTION: A blue eye peers out of the Apartment Eleven Productions logo.
[Logo] Apartment Eleven Productions.
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