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01. PLANET SCIENCE WHODUNIT?
 It’s been months in the planning, gallons of midnight oil have been burned, and top showbiz agents have been approached and persuaded to provide the glamour-factor... Please stand well back as we unveil: THE PLANET SCIENCE WHODUNIT. The P.S.W. is a hands-on forensic science event for schools, featuring all the ingredients of a classic crime thriller: • a devious crime • clues found at the scene • a colourful selection of suspects • an investigation • ... and a denoument, in the form of a dramatic courtcase The Whodunit will take place over the next three months, and what’s special about the event is that school classes can get involved for themselves in testing the evidence, and determining … whodunit! And all entrants who get the correct answer will go into the running for a selection of extremely cool prizes. 30,000 school groups will be able to receive their own free kit containing ‘mock’ crime scene clues and full instructions as to how to analyse them using authentic forensic techniques. Meanwhile, a stream of breaking news and background information will be available online on the Whodunit site, as the case proceeds… And while the Whodunit crime itself is fictional, there’s nothing made-up about the celebrities we've persuaded to get involved. It’s all hush-hush for now... but next week we’ll reveal the exciting line-up which includes Brit award winning popstars and an England footballer... (no Z-listers here – oh no!) The activity is suitable for pupils in KS2 and KS3, and the kits are available for all schools in England. The materials and further competitions on the Whodunit site are open to everyone though – and anyone in the UK can win a prize. Read all about it, and register now to receive your kit before the case opens on 12th May here  |
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02. WHAT'S THAT ON YOUR PLATE?  GM Food - are you for it or against it? Or do you instead have a slight/major lurking worry that, perhaps like with the fine print of the Maastricht Treaty, you don't reeeeeeally know enough to claim an informed opinion? Whatever your state of GM-IQ, you may be interested to know about a new show called 'Future Foods: A Dramatic Debate'. The production will be taking to the stage at various cities around England over the next few weeks and the majority of performances are free, though advance booking is essential. So what's it like? It's like a debate/play combination and the show is structured so as to take the audience on a journey through various scenarios and explore the moral and ethical issues involved in GM technology. Along the way, the thoughts and views of the audience will direct the story and stimulate further debate... The event is aimed at two separate audiences - teenagers and adults - and the shows coincide niftily with the Government's current National Public Debate on GM Foods. The dates are as follows:
Full booking details are on the Events page of the BIONET site here: http://www.bionetonline.org/English/events.htm Even if you can't make any of the shows, you can still update your GM knowledge in the Future Foods section of the site at and we'd recommend you do, it's really well laid out. http://www.bionetonline.org/English/Content/ff_intro.htm (As an EEC funded website, it's also multi-lingual so and you can flip through to the same information in a range of other languages too... Enjoy!) |
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03. ACTIVITY OF THE WEEK: CLUCKING CUPS No, not an expression of exasperation, 'Clucking Cups' is in fact an activity which involves making a very basic musical instrument to explore the wonderful world of sound and sound-creation... You will need:
What to do:
What’s happening? Vibrating a piece of string in the same way with a damp cloth produces a sound, but it's very quiet. Adding the cup to the end of the string creates a larger surface to vibrate, amplifying the sound. Want more? You can do exactly the same as above, but on a bigger scale, with a bucket. Or better, use a variety of differently sized buckets, with bowls and cups and even bins. If you can get a really giant bin (half a metre in diameter) you get a really deep noise that sounds more like a cow than a chicken! Many thanks to the Education Team at Techniquest in Cardiff for supplying this activity for the Little Book of Experiments, where you can find this and many other cool activities... |
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04. PRIMARY SCIENCE ACTIVITIES And speaking of cool activities ... Katy Hewis has been in touch to let you know that her online primary science resources, 'Mr Zippy's Trainers' and 'Kitchen Chaos' have been revised and even further improved thanks to feedback from teachers. The sites are free to online visitors, and you can find them at http://www.eblo.org.uk (look down towards the bottom of the homepage). There are also teachers' notes to support them which are available free to schools in Lincolnshire & Rutland and at a small fee for schools elsewhere. In addition to the activities on the web, Katy and her colleagues have created two practical activities that can be done in the classoom. Thanks Katy! |
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05. SCIENCE BEHIND THE NEWS This week saw the completion of the world's biggest rollercoaster, the world's Top Thrill Dragster, which is twice as tall as Nelson's Column. How can such a thing possibly be saaaaaAAAAAAaaaaaafe???' shrieked Science Line as they launched in on their investigation of how well our bodies can withstand the fun of the fair... Read what they discovered here: http://www.sciencenet.org.uk/slup/CuttingEdge/Mar03/ rollercoaster.html |
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| 06. RECOMMENDED WEBSITES OF THE WEEK This week we'd like to draw your attention to the... YOUNG PEOPLE'S TRUST FOR THE ENVIRONMENT http://www.yptenc.org.uk  The YPTE is a charity which, as they say, “aims to encourage young people's understanding of the environment and the need for sustainability”. To this end, they run all sorts of out-and-about stuff like environmental holidays and an award scheme, but you can also go on a mini-adventure without even leaving your swivel chair... Check out their online Animal and Environmental factsheets, and print off their ‘Action Sheets’ with instructions and information on building Nestboxes, Making Paper, and Recycling. Oooh and by the way, they might even come out to your school and give a free talk... “We carry our own slide and video projectors and an average session usually lasts about an hour - but this can be adjusted to suit your requirements,” they say - and they emphasise that this is all about education with “absolutely no fundraising strings attached.” And so to a bit of light relief. Try this: THE FLASH MIND READER http://mr-31238.mr.valuehost.co.uk/assets/Flash/psychic.swf  It claims to be psychic... but... can you work it out?! |
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07. JOKES OF THE WEEK A man walks into the doctor’s surgery. He has a cucumber up his nose, a carrot in his left ear and a banana in his right ear. “What’s the matter with me?” he asks. “You’re not eating properly!” the doctor replies Aaaaaaaaah... you’ve got to laugh. What? You DIDN’T laugh? Ok try this one then: - Waiter, how long will my sausages be? - About 10 cm. |
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| 08. AOB Right that’s it then. Any contributions for future newsletters, should be sent to Anne McNaught on anne@planet-science.com. In the meantime, have a great weekend, have a great week, go wild and prosper! |
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