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 Greetings bargain-hunter! Once again we have a full trolley’s worth of lo-cost/no-cost science solutions to make your week go with a whoosh. Make your own music and explore the science of sound … Then recreate an ancient time-keeping device, find out what keeps you standing up straight, sign up your kids to our free junior newsletter and have a go at winning two free tickets to the undersea blockbuster ‘Shark Tale’. Ready? Here we go: 1. SOUND CHECK: You’ll be lost in music … 2. Activity of the Week: WATCHING THE (WATER)CLOCK 3. HAY-WIRE: the e-mag for primary school kids 4. Mouses at the Ready: for free entry to SHARK TALE 5. WHERE’S THE SENSE IN THAT? A question of balance 6. RECOMMENDED WEBSITES OF THE WEEK 7. WHAT A WINNER: Young Scientist CD-Electro Lab 8. JOKES OF THE WEEK |
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01. SOUND CHECK — TESTING, TESTING ….
Got much lined up for the weekend? No? Good, because we have a whole new online ‘music and sound’ playground for you to explore. It moves, it grooves, and what’s more, nestled within it is a specially-created sound recorder and sequencer that’ll keep you busy composing for hours … All you have to do is click here. When you get there, you’ll find everything you ever wanted to know about the science of noise — from classical music, to thumping rock, to that early morning racket the bins make when the dustmen come round. All the basic concepts, like frequency, wavelengths and timbre are explained, and colourfully illustrated too. But there are also sections devoted to the wonderful world of echoes, music technology, careers in audio, and our Top 10 Sound Activities (counted down in reverse order, naturally). Can you guess what’s at number 1? Sadly, we can give no clues, you’ll just have to look for yourself! Home activities are one thing, but at the high-tech end of the spectrum we also have the wonderful ‘PS100x’, a unique online sound sampler and recorder on which one could easily arrange a nifty fanfare — which would be very nice to play right now as an introduction to this pioneering bit of programming! Not only can you help yourself to the pre-recorded sounds in the library, you can record in your own noises, monkey about with the pitch and duration of any of the sounds, and then combine them to create your own multi-tracked sequence. Make sure you’ve made yourself a cup of tea before you start, then read the instructions, download the necessaries … and off you go. Time will fly … and speaking of time:  |
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| 02. ACTIVITY OF THE WEEK: WATCHING THE (WATER)CLOCK What did we do before mechanical clocks were invented? Here’s a different way to measure the passage of time … You will need: * a large sheet of heavy cardboard (at least 30cm x 75cm) * a piece of blutack * 5 paper polystyrene cups * 5 drawing pins * a large clear glass jar * an old tea towel or cloth * a stopwatch or timer * food colouring * a jug * a strip of paper * sellotape * a marker pen What to do: 1. Use a drawing pin to puncha hole in the bottom of each cup. Tack the five cups to the cardboard, one under the other at intervals. 2. Make sure the piece of cardboard is propped up vertically. You may want to use blutack to fix it against a cupboard or fridge door. 3. Tape the strip of paper vertically on the glass jar, and put the jar beneath the bottom cup. 4. Put an old tea towel under the jar in case of spillage. 5. For a test run, fill the top cup with water from the jug and make sure the water drips smoothly through each cup. 6. Now pour out the water from the test run. 7. Add a little food colouring to a jug of water. This will make the water easier to see. Fill the top cup again. Use a timer and, at the end of every five minutes, mark the water level on the paper taped to the jar. 8. When all the water has dripped into the jar, you'll be able to use this 'clock' to keep track of time. 9. For example, start your water clock again and use the five-minute marks to time how long it takes you to do your homework, practice playing an instrument, or setting the table. This experiment was taken from the National Geographic Kids website at: http://www.nationalgeographic.com/ngkids/trythis/try10.html, but here’s some extra background information: Water clocks were among the earliest time keeping devices. It’s believed that the ancient Greeks began using water clocks, called clepsydras ("water thieves") around 325 BC. A clepsydra was made of two containers of water, one higher than the other. Water travelled from the higher container to the lower container through a connecting tube. The containers had marks around their sides showing the water level, which indicated the time. While these clocks weren't totally reliable, they worked indoors, at night, and on cloudy days, so they were much more useful than the sundial, which was the only other clock in use at the time. Water clocks were common across the Middle East, and were still being used in North Africa during the early part of the twentieth century. To find out more about early clocks and water clocks, have a look at The National Institute of Standards and Technology Physics Laboratory at: http://physics.nist.gov/GenInt/Time/early.html. |
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| 03. FREE SCIENCE NEWS AND GAMES FOR PRIMARY-AGED CHILDREN Did you know that Planet Science runs an e-club for primary school aged kids called ‘Hay-Wire’? It’s absolutely free to join, and the main benefits of being a member are that you receive a weekly newsletter and have a exclusive access to the games and information inside the Hay-Wire online Clubhouse, via your secret password … As a member, you can also ask for the answers to scientific questions, or even suggest ideas for games or other activities. This week’s edition of the Hay-Wire magazine, for example, features SHARKS. Find out all about these scary but impressive, and endangered, creatures; check out the new film Shark Tales; win a family ticket to The Deep, and enjoy a few shark-related gems — like … Q) What is a shark’s favourite game? A) Swallow the leader! The bulletins are brilliantly written by Emma Lewis and as an extra incentive to potential members, we’ve just had a new consignment of frisbees to give away to new members — while stocks last. Know someone who’d like to join? All you need to do, is visit the Hay-Wire Clubhouse here. PS if you’re a parent or teacher and you’d like to visit the Clubhouse and do a recce to make sure there’s nothing "untoward" in there, be our (secret) guest. The password is "sciwoof" — but don’t tell anyone else, ok?? |
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| 04. MOUSES AT THE READY FOR: SHARK TALE Keeping up the Shark theme, this week we have two free Odeon cinema passes on offer for you and a friend to go along and enter the undersea mafia-esque world of ‘Shark Tale’. The film may be "for kids" officially, but if you’re an adult with a love of all things slightly immature, we’re sure you’ll enjoy it! To enter the draw, send an email entitled: SHARKS ‘R’ US to planet-science.news@nesta.org.uk. The draw will take place next Thursday at 5pm. So go on, get your teeth into THAT! |
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| 05. RECOMMENDED WEBSITE OF THE WEEK Reduce, reuse, recycle: that’s the message from our discovery this week, the excellent RECYCLEZONE website. As the name suggests, its focus is sustainability, and it’s aimed at a school age audience. It explores the whole issue of waste reduction, and in the most enticing way possible, details ways in which we could all tweak our lifestyles to make a difference to the environment. There’s plenty for pupils, but also a really helpful section for teachers (called "how to be a rubbish teacher"). The site is colourful and clearly laid out, but the best thing (we think) is its immense sense of fun, while dealing with a really serious issue. In fact, the ‘Fun’ section gets premier position on the front page, and that’s a great place for kids to start. Or adults! Highlights include a quiz to test "How much of a waster are you?", a brilliant game called the ‘Rubbish Challenge’ in which you have to battle against the clock to sort a right load of old rubbish, and an unbelievably catchy karaoke feature (with genuine bouncing ball to indicate what word you’re on) which will enable you, no matter how posh, no matter how straightlaced, to rap about rubbish with Cycler the Robot. That’s right, rap, as seen on Top of the Pops, about the benefits of being environmentally responsible - though Cycler the Robot would never be so uncool as to use those particular words himself. Have a go, it might take a few minutes to download, but it’s well worth it. Bet you never knew you could rap?! When you’ve finished there, there’s the Activity section, which explains how to recycle paper, make your own compost, and creating a worm composter. There are also ‘seasonal’ ideas, currently Easter-related, but hey, it’s hard work maintaining websites AND keeping them up to date, we all know that! There’s also an information section, with all the really scary facts and figures about how wasteful we are, and a ‘Cycler’ section which lists all the ways in which you can do your bit. Altogether a lovely site that makes environmental responsibility not just worthwhile but a cool way to live your life. Here’s the url: http://www.recyclezone.org.uk |
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| 06. WHERE’S THE SENSE IN THAT? IT’S ALL IN THE BALANCE… Yeowch, two puns there already to kick off our continuing series about the senses, and the bad news is, there’s another one just around the corner. This week the subject is ‘equilibrioception’ — or your sense of balance. Over to Ian Francis, our sense-ible guru… It’s ‘ear we go again’ this week (ow, that hurt) as we return to the ear, which is responsible for our sense of balance as well as our sense of hearing. The inner ear is home to the vestibular organs, which comprise three semi-circular canals and structures called the ‘utricle’ and ‘saccule’. These are the seat of our sense of balance, and aided and abetted by information received from the eyes and certain other pressure-sensitive cells in the body, they tell the brain whether we’re right way up, upside down, or in some other strange position. The semicircular canals lie in three different planes (or dimensions). One detects movement up and down. One detects movement left and right. The last detects movement forwards and backwards. Any movement of the head will cause the fluid in at least one the semicircular canals to move. Strictly speaking, the fluid in the canal tends not to move due to its inertia, and so ‘lags behind’ the movement of the canals themselves. But the important thing is that there is relative movement between the fluid and the canal. The movement of fluid stimulates sensory hair cells in a bulbous part of each canal, which then send impulses to the brain. The difference in the number of impulses from left and right ears allows the brain to determine which direction the head is turning. The utricle (which is largely horizontal) and saccule (largely vertical) detect the pull of gravity and any acceleration they are subjected to. Small mineral grains called otoliths are held above the hair cells. Depending on how much gravity pulls them down onto the hair cells, more or less nerve impulses will be generated in the hair cell. The cerebellum is the part of the brain that receives all this information about posture and balance. What do fish ears and the giant redwood have in common? Read on… Motion sickness is caused by over-stimulation of the nerves in the vestibular organs. When you make yourself dizzy, fluid is moving round in the semicircular canals, even though your head has stopped spinning, hence the temporary loss of balance. On board the International Space Station, in zero gravity, the semicircular canals still work. Not so the utricle and saccule, which rely on the force of gravity for their action. 100mg of alcohol per 100ml of blood (about three pints of beer) is enough to impair your sense of balance. It’s not called ‘falling down water’ for nothing! Meniere’s disease is a disease of the inner ear that can cause vertigo as well as the tinnitus mentioned a couple of weeks ago. Its cause is unknown. Otoliths are mostly calcium carbonate (chalk). Fish otoliths are well studied as they are relatively large and can be ‘read’ in a similar manner to tree growth rings. Cats have a very well developed sense of balance, enabling them to walk casually along thin fences and to land feet-first if they take a fall. |
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| 07. WHAT A WINNER! Last week we had a Young Scientist CD-Electro Lab on offer in our lucky prize draw, and the winner was … Georgina Knell of Whitburn in Sunderland. Congratulations Georgina — your CD-Electro Lab is on its way … |
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08. CLASSROOM CLANGERS / JOKES OF THE WEEK |
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