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1. New Year Anniversary Quiz
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New Year = New Quiz. We’ve put together questions about anniversaries that fall neatly into 2006. For Example…
5 Years Ago… In July 2001 a Titanosaur skeleton was found in Madagascar. At 15 metres long, what were these dinosaurs thought to have eaten?
a) Take-out
b) People who couldn’t run fast, or
c) Plants
Spot the answer? If you get all 10 answers right you go into the draw to win a clock that glows a different colour every hour, so you don’t need your specs if you wake up in the night, you just need to memorise 8 colours in the right order, and remember them when you’re half asleep – fantastic!
www.planet-science.com/quiz/
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2. Lichen it very much!
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(I’m aware that punning headline doesn’t work if you pronounce Lichen Litchen, as some people do, but an unscientific NESTA office survey reveals 5 out of 6 people agree - it’s lichen, pronounced liken.)
The British Lichen Society are running a competition with a prize of £250 for A’Level or degree students, studying, as you’d expect, the subject of lichens. Here’s a bit of blurb from the BLS themselves:
“Any aspect of lichen ecology, taxonomy, physiology, structure, evolution or chemistry, or an area of particular local interest, such as ongoing changes in lichen communities, may provide the focus of the study.
The work should be complete in itself, but this need not preclude topics related to broader studies, within which the study of lichens forms a significant part.”
So if you are studying lichens, and you can submit your work by the 31st May, have a look at the Society’s website www.thebls.org.uk or contact bphilton@eclipse.co.uk for more information about the competition.
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3. Planet Science Workshops
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Ever clicked on a section on www.planet-science.com and just lost the will to live because there’s soooo much to explore? We do understand! Often the last thing science advisors or teachers have time for is to traipse around a big website, however useful it might be, so there’s two things you can do.
- Sign up to the Planet Science Newsletter where you’ll always know what’s new on the site. (Oh, you have? Of course!)
- If you are in the Yorkshire and Humber, or the West Midlands regions, you can sign up for a free Planet Science website workshop, lasting three hours, which will give you an overview of the PS site and let you have time to discuss and muse with colleagues how best to use the materials you’ll find there.
The workshops are aimed at science advisors, and others who can disseminate widely, but teachers are all most welcome to apply, priority will be given to science advisors if there’s a rush on places. Workshops will be taken by Katie Walsh, Planet Science Editor.
Please apply through the Science Learning Centre’s (our hosts for these workshops) websites:
Yorkshire and Humber Region, based at Sheffield Hallam University, 25th Januar
West Midlands Region, Based at Keele University 8th February (please note, there is a charge for the workshop here, but it is redeemable for a voucher to be spent at the West Midlands Science Learning Centre.
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4. Europe Calling!
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It would be interesting to know what goes on in European science lessons, wouldn’t it? Science in School is a new European (not-for-profit European Commission funded) journal that aims to present the best in science teaching and current research and to bridge the gap between the worlds of research and school. It will be published quarterly, freely available on the web www.scienceinschool.org from Spring 2006, and a limited number of print copies will be available too. Science in School will cover biology, physics, chemistry, earth sciences and mathematics, plus all fields that pupils learning science at school may go on to study.
The success of Science in School depends on science teachers getting actively involved. Would you be interested in say…being a small help by just filling in their questionnaire, or putting more into it by:
- Joining the panel of reviewers
- Sending your best teaching materials for publication
- Telling them about inspiring education projects you are involved in
- Telling your colleagues about the journal?
If you fancy volunteering in these or other ways, send an email to scienceinschool@embl.de.
To receive an alert when the first issue is published, send an email with the subject 'Subscribe to Science in School' to scienceinschool@embl.de. Include your postal address to receive a print subscription, if possible. More information is available at www.scienceinschool.org.
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5. Activity of the Week: Magic Balloon
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 Huge multi-tasking thanks to the Institute of Physics for this week’s activity, which has saved a bundle of guest editor research time!
Do Try This At Home is www.physics.org‘s activities in downloadable, printable and colourful cartoon form. It features two of my favourite animals (cats and dogs - why choose?), Marvin, a clever purple cat with fingers, and his side-kick Milo, a brown dog who sort of goes along with things. They’re adorable (well they are!) and any child would be inspired to have a go at these simple experiments with their parents at home – which, if you read the title again, is just exactly the idea. Marvin and Milo live here: http://www.physics.org/cartoons/cartoons.asp and this activity is the one called Magic Balloon, do have a look – it’s much better with pictures!
Anyway…air pressure, here we are….
What you need
- a clear plastic bottle (like a 1.5 or 2 litre fizzy drink bottle)
- a pen
- a balloon (blow it up a few times beforehand)
What to do
- Make a small hole in the bottom of the bottle with the pen.
- Push the balloon inside the bottle through the neck of the bottle and stretch the neck of the balloon over the mouth of the bottle.
- Blow up the balloon.
- Notice air is coming out of the hole in the bottle.
- Cover the hole with your finger and stop blowing.
What is happening
The balloon stays inflated! As the balloon expanded, it pushed air out of the bottle. That made the pressure inside the bottle lower than the pressure inside the balloon, so it wasn't strong enough to squeeze the air out.
Thanks again Institute of Physics! http://www.physics.org/cartoons/cartoons.asp
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6. Mouses at the Ready….Win an Interview!
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 In conjunction with ‘Edge into Space www.edgeintospace.com’, here’s a mini competition just for you Newsletter subscribers. If you’re a teacher or a parent with a couple of budding Year 10 or 11 science journalists on your hands then simply answer the question to go into the draw to get to interview NASA astronaut Pat Forrester for your school magazine/website/newsletter.
You and your students will get to interview Pat in person while he’s in the UK, in the first week of February if you’re able to do that, or the ‘Edge into Space’ team will arrange for you to do the interview by phone.
Here’s the question…
Who is the only British Female astronaut?
Know the answer? Email it to rebecca.irani@geronimocommunications.com with Interview Competition in the subject line.
Good luck!
A couple of Newsletters back issue 161 we featured ‘Edge into Space’, a national science competition open to 13 - 17 year olds involving problem-solving, creativity and hands-on skills. The prize is a once in a lifetime opportunity to spend a fortnight at the NASA space centres in the USA! (www.edgeintospace.com for more details)
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9. The Winners’ Enclosure
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Trotting round the paddock this week are winners of the fake polar bear fur covered and very cosy hot water bottle, (December Keeping Warm Quiz), Amanda Botterill of Surrey, Sue Reeve of Glasgow and Andrew Patterson of Banff. (Good work Scotland.)
The people who admitted to being great apes and winners of the King Kong Flipside Magazines from last week are: Cath Pountney, Laura Trees, Carol Brogden, Andrea Goetzee, Chanel Sharma, Joseph Krogulec, Kate Williams, Ian Shand, Patrick Bowen and Marcus Armitage.
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10. Joke of the week
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Could jokes from Christmas crackers be worse than the Planet Science Newsletter’s average? Let’s see…
Q. Why wouldn’t they let the butterfly into the dance?
A. Because it was a moth ball.
...turns out Yes!
Here’s a proper joke...
Patient: Doctor doctor, I keep thinking I'm a moth.
Doctor: Actually I'm a GP, and I think you need a psychiatrist.
Patient: Oh, I know that, but I saw your light was on.
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That’s all for another week! Thanks for reading and contributing and if you have know of any events, jokes, or activities please let us know at planet-science.news@nesta.org.uk
PS if you would like to unsubscribe from the newsletter at any time, just reply to this email with the word 'UNSUBSCRIBE' in the title.
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This week Roger Frost, ICT guru, bigs-up his own website, which seems a bit cheeky innit… but there are some free bits and pieces you can use if Advanced Level organic chemistry is your thang.
Here’s a little acorn that one day will be a mighty oak. A NESTA funded project that encourages students and teachers to make short movies to explain science stuff to their peers! Then share them with everyone else. It’s the brainchild of a group of teachers led by Mark Richardson, a Design and Technology teacher at Thomas Hardye School in Dorchester.