Stardate Friday 9th September 2005 Issue 149

Yes, every year we try to send out something that will grace your classroom or lab, and help spread the word on the education grapevine about Planet Science. Hm… grapevine… hang on, that would be a great visual theme for our poster, yes, picture it, lots of information about the site and newsletter on the back, with inspiring quotes from real teachers so your colleagues will know we're not just bigging ourselves up for no reason, and on the front a massive logo with silhouettes of favourite Planet Science characters and colour and shiny leaves!

And all for no money at all! How can you resist?
http://www.planet-science.com/grapevine/

This is what they are looking for…

Every year the Institute of Physics rewards outstanding physics and science teachers with their Teachers’ Awards. These teachers inspire their students, motivate their colleagues and have introduced imaginative ways of teaching and promoting science. Teachers are nominated by their peers, pupils and parents.

If you know of an excellent teacher who you think deserves recognition we would be delighted to hear from you.”

To download forms and nominate someone and to find out much more information about the awards, including past recipients go to:
http://teachingphysics.iop.org/teacher_support/teacher_awards/index.html

Isn’t it getting dark early?  If you are missing summer already here is a little experiment to make believe spring is coming around again. There is a myth that it is only possible to balance an egg on its end during the Spring Equinox – around March 20^th.  The question is… is it possible to balance it at other times of the year too?

You will need:

• An uncooked egg
• Some salt

What to do:

Part 1 – For you to show off…

1. Pour a little salt on the table (a smooth, dry table is best).
2. Carefully balance your egg on the salt, pointy end down if you really want to show off.  It takes a little practice but not much.
3. Now blow the salt away  - this is more tricky as you don’t want to blow your egg over. 
4. Take pictures and have your friends admire your perfectly balanced egg.

Part 2 - For friends who think they would like to have a go…

5. Give your friend a boiled egg.
6. Watch as they can’t get it to balance, even if you let them in on the salt trick.

What’s going on?

Being able to balance an egg has nothing to do with the time of year.  It’s all about practice and a slightly cheating trick.

Eggshells are not perfectly smooth, they contain all sort of dimples and bumps.  Believe it or not these bumps will allow you to balance an egg without the salt, with a great deal of practice and a steady hand.  The salt grains act as tiny stabilisers, only the crystals which are actually necessary and supporting the egg’s weight can withstand being blown away.

Fed up with life on Earth?  Think you could design the solar system better?  Roger Frost, ICT guru, invites you to use your interactive whiteboard to explore the planets, or build your own.

			Solar System Given the number of resources about planets that are around, anyone might think we’ve a problem teaching about them. But as this ‘interactive’ proves, there is plenty of space for one that shows the planets’ orbits and rotation with pizzazz. This does more than just look good.  It lets you experiment with a planet’s orbit, its surface, atmosphere and distance from the sun to see how ‘planet ten’ and any lifeforms survive. So it’s something to use as a lesson starter, middle, finish or all three. Planet 10 hails from Science Year, before the days of whiteboards, and merits a top place with those other resources. Planet 10 from Science Year: http://www.solarsystem.org.uk/planet10 And for non-whiteboard users: www.planet-science.com/planet10/ Rating: Five Planets

Thanks Roger!

The Science Enhancement Programme Sorry to those who where disappointed when they clicked on the link but couldn’t find their way to the fab new Science Enhancement Programme website.  The problem was entirely at our end, so here is the link again without the errant full stop! www.sep.org.uk

Bad Astronomy So did you get your egg to balance in this week’s activity?  If you’d rather put in some more practice than blame the motion of the planets then you’ll enjoy Bad Astronomy.  This extensive site (explore it all) has a wonderful section of myths and misconceptions.  And it’s not all about eggs… blue skies, the dark side of the moon, tides and the seasons all come under scrutiny because there is simply so much bad science out there.  This is a website for everyone – even if you think you understand it all you’ll undoubtedly find something new.

Planet Science – Parents and the National Curriculum School has started for another year and for all the parents reading this, Planet Science has not forgotten you.  We may not be able to help with your frantic mornings but we can help you with figuring out just what will be on your kids’ plate this year.  It’s all in the National Curriculum, and if that seems impenetrable this fab site will sort it out.  How does the curriculum break down and where does science fit in?  Find out here!

http://www.sep.org.uk

http://www.badastronomy.com/bad/misc/index.html

http://www.planet-science.com/parents/school_pack/01_tnc.html

Thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed it! Please send in your comments and contributions to planet-science.news@nesta.org.uk, particularly if you can do better than these jokes!

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