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Stardate Friday 19 January 2007 Issue 215

It’s January.  The bills are coming in and your waistline is going out.  The mornings are dark and miserable and all you want to do is sleep.  Hibernation is a great idea. Trust the animals to get it right. Did you know that certain animals can lose up to 50% of their body fat during hibernation ? No need to join the gym then.  Just sleep it all off! Wake me up in 10lbs time please.

The line-up this week:

  1. Creature Feature – The Slender Loris
  2. Activity of the Week: Matchstick lift
  3. Stump the Scientist: Wind.  Not THAT sort of wind…
  4. Mouses at the Ready for Supporting Physics Teaching CDs
  5. Noticeboard: FYI
  6. Recommended websites of the week
  7. The Winners’ Enclosure
  8. Joke of the Week

1. Creature Feature – The Slender Loris

Now here’s a creature that doesn’t need to lose any body weight.  Kate Moss eat your heart out.

The slender loris is a small, nocturnal primate found only in the tropical rainforests of Southern India and Sri Lanka. This little critter is about the size of a chipmunk with long, pencil-thin arms and legs.

You can’t miss the two large, closely set, saucer-like brown eyes. It has small fingernails on its digits and the second digit on the hand and foot are very short and move on the same plane as the thumb.  Pretty handy for helping them grasp branches and twigs which is just as well since they spend most of their life in trees.

The slender loris eats insects, but they will also eat slugs, young leaves, flowers, shoots, and occasionally eggs and nestlings. They can stretch and twist their long arms and legs through the branches without alerting their prey. How sneaky is that? They also eat a lot of noxious and bad smelling insects. In particular they have a penchant for the acacia ant whose bite can numb a human arm. They also like toxic beetles and roaches. But here’s the rub – in order to soothe or defend against the sting of these toxic insects the slender loris will engage in urine washing, or rubbing urine over their hands, feet and face. Charming!  Tell me Norris, what is the name of that aftershave you’re wearing? You don’t want to know.

For more information click here

Alas the number of slender lorises are declining and action must be taken else we lose them altogether.

http://www.edgeofexistence.org/conservation/slender_loris.asp
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2. Activity of the week

How can you lift an icecube with a matchstick? Easy if you know how! This week’s activity comes courtesy of the Institute of Physics in Ireland

You will need:

  • An ice cube
  • A matchstick
  • Salt

 What to do:

  1. Sprinkle some salt on top of the icecube.
  2. Place the matchstick lengthwise on top of the icecube with part of the stick extending.
  3. Wait a few seconds.
  4. Now try lifting the matchstick up.
  5. The matchstick is frozen to the ice. So the icecube can be lifted using a matchstick.

What’s going on?

The matchstick becomes attached to the ice cube because the salt lowers the freezing point of water and melts the ice. The top of the ice cube quickly re-freezes which traps the matchstick. Simple eh?  Plus a great trick that you can do whilst waiting for your food to arrive next time you’re out for dinner.
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3. Stump the Scientist

This week’s question comes from Dani Haydock who says

“Perhaps not a very scientific question but then I'm not a scientist - does wind make a noise? Or is it just the stuff that gets in its way that makes the noise????     Hmmm. My 9 year old says it does make a noise - he's learnt it at school!”

Over to you then scientists.  Hope it doesn’t put the wind up you.

If you can help or have a burning question of your own then send us an email with STUMP THE SCIENTIST in the subject line to planet-science.news@nesta.org.uk
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4. Mouses at the Ready

Supporting Physics Teaching 11-14 is a CD-ROM pack aimed at
non-specialist teachers who teach physics in KS3.

It is designed to help them to gain a better understanding of physics, to allow them to experience for themselves something of its fascination and to develop greater confidence in their teaching of it.

The topic areas covered are:

  • Forces
  • Energy
  • Light and Sound
  • Electricity and Magnetism
  • Earth in Space

And we have EIGHT sets of this fantastic resource to give away!

If you’d like to win one, send an email with your name and address, and the words I SUPPORT PHYSICS in the subject line, to planet-science.news@nesta.org.uk.

The draw will take place at 5pm on Wednesday 24th January.

The CDs cost £10 per set and can be purchased online at http://shop.iop.org  (they are having technical difficulties today (Friday 19th Jan) with this page but it is the right address)

For more details click here

If you have any further questions please email Joanne Page, the Project Administrator, at spt@iop.org
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Noticeboard



 

The January What’s in a Year? Quiz

If you get all the questions right you’ll go into the prize draw for a Blue Glow Brick – a nifty non energy using bulb that absorbs daylight and gives off a blue glow at night – perfect for those dull, dark evenings!
 

 

Salmonella: From Farm to Fork Competition for KS3 and 4

Produce an eye-catching leaflet to inform the public about the risks of Salmonella food poisoning and how to avoid it.

The Microbiology in Schools Advisory Committee runs the competition annually with cash prizes for students and schools. Each participating student receives a certificate for their record of achievement and every school entering the competition is sent a pack of teaching resources.

Closing date 31 March 2007

For more details click here
 


 


Grow your own potatoes 2007 – primary schools

The British Potato Council’s Grow Your Own Potatoes project is a simple, convenient and fun way to support primary teaching on:

  • how things grow
  • where food comes from
  • the importance of a balanced healthy diet

You receive a growing pack and can access factsheets not to mention Potato Cam which will go live when the project starts!

Click here for more information

Deadline for registration: 9 February 2007

Project starts: 1 March 2007

www.potatoesforschools.org.uk
 

 

National Science and Engineering Week Small Grant Scheme for Schools

If you’ve got ideas for activities in NSEW but lack the funding then check out www.the-ba.net/ 

The deadline for applications is Friday 26th January 2007.

PS.  NSEW is 9 – 18 March 2007
 

 

WANTED – we spotted this advert for a Schools Liaison Co-ordinator GlaxoSmithKline Harlow

“As a key member of a small busy team you will be expected to promote curriculum related general science at primary level and narrow the breadth to chemistry, biology and medicine at 16-19 level.  We need someone with recent classroom experience of teaching science at Key Stage 3/4 and post-16 biology and/or chemistry.  Your role will be wide ranging with the freedom to be creative within our operating principles.  Aspects will involve developing work related workshops and resources to enhance our AtWorkWithScience web site, managing our Science and Engineering Ambassadors programme and delivering workshops in primary and secondary schools.

We hope to attract a science teacher with 2-4 years relevant experience who wants a new and rewarding challenge.  You would work on a temporary contract basis through one of our preferred suppliers with the salary being based on the teachers’ main pay scale.  The anticipated starting date is mid-April.

Please apply with a CV and a focussed covering letter outlining how your skills fit our requirements.  These should be sent to frank.2.ellis@gsk.com in the first instance.”

For details of GlaxoSmithKline's education resources see www.gsk.com/education
 

 

WANTED - science communicators in the East Midlands

Creative Partnerships Nottingham are looking for science communicators in the East Midlands who would like to be involved (and paid to take part) in the Sci-Lympics – a set of school-based science games events, during National
Science and Engineering Week.

This is supported by the East Midlands Development Agency (emda) to raise awareness of science amongst young people and the wider public across the East Midlands and also Nottingham's designation as a Science City. If you’d like further information, please contact Sai Pathmanathan on: sai_path@yahoo.co.uk.
 

6. Recommended Websites of the Week

If you are looking for science simulations to
run and interact with on a whiteboard, or on
individual computers then try

www.crocodile-clips.com/science .

It is free to register and The Crocodile Science player is a cut-down version of the simulation software programs Crocodile Physics and Crocodile Chemistry.






If you are struggling to find images then try ARKive - a fantastic resource of photos and movie clips of life on Earth.

Janet France writes in to say “I thought you might be interested in sharing some good websites we have found.

They are - 


They are all science based, fascinating and fun.”

Thanks Janet!
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So who won the three copies of the book ‘What is science education for?’?

Well they are, in no particular order as they say on the X-factor: 

  • Jackie Rea of Hampshire
  • Chris Elliss of Lincoln
  • Emily Burke of Preston

Congratulations! They will be winging their way to you very soon.
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8. Joke of the week

Sensible joke no. 1:

The Unjust Salary Theorem asserts that scientists can never earn as much as sales people. This theorem is proved as follows. Start by using the physics formula

Power = Work / Time

Now you probably have heard that Knowledge is Power and Time is Money. Substitute these tautologies into the formula for power to obtain

Knowledge = Work/Money

Solving for Money, one finds

Money = Work / Knowledge.

Therefore, the less you know, the more you make.

Silly joke no.2:

Q: How does the barber cut the moon's hair?

A: Eclipse it.
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That’s all for this week but remember – if you’ve got anything to add then drop us a line:
planet-science.news@nesta.org.uk. We’re open to contributions 24/7.

Have a great week!

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