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01. PLANET SCIENCE WHODUNIT
 Just in case word hasn't reached your ears yet, it was dastardly BMX-champion Zach Shaw who was found guilty of the crime of stealing Busted's guitar - you can follow the courtcase and the punishments administered on the Whodunit website. Thousands of school teams participated in the investigations and registered their results online. The names of those that deduced the guilty party through 100% correct results in the experiments were then entered into a draw per year group to win the amazing prizes on offer. And the winning teams were: In Key Stage 2 Y4: ‘The Bunnies’, Wellsmead School, Buckinghamshire Y5: ‘5VF’, Crooksbarn Primary School, Stockton-on-Tees Y6: ‘The Stokenham Sleuths’ , Stokenham Area Primary School, Devon In Key Stage 3 Y7: ‘The Heathfield Hobos’, Heathfield Community College, East Sussex Y8: ‘The Beaufort Investigators’, Beaufort Community School, Gloucester Y9: ‘G2’, Studley High School, Warwickshire Congratulations everyone - your prizes are on their way. And congratulations to everyone who identified Zach as the guilty party... and congratulations to everyone who took part! No congratulations to our culprit – we’ve got to be tough on crime, tough on the perpetrators of crime. (Seriously though, thanks a million to Zach for being a great sport… how many celebs would eat blue spaghetti in the name of science education?!)  |
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02. SCIENCE LIVE  And talking of science education, we can now unveil our new online database of science presenters, ScienceLive. This is a site that’s been specifically designed for teachers and youth group leaders to make it easier to arrange visits from science presenters. To help you find exactly the type of presentation you’re looking for, you can search by subject, by the age group of the young people involved, and by the region in England. You can also choose to search through only presenters that don’t charge for their services or only presenters who are suitable for audiences of S.E.N. children. You can book a presenter, and when they’ve been to your venue, write an online review for everyone else to read. And if you’re a presenter yourself, you can submit your details right now. Click through to explore for yourself here. |
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03. MOUSES AT THE READY FOR: BIRD GAZEBOS GOING CHEEP (in fact FREE!) As you may be aware, Planet Science is now in the very last stages of its orbiting lifetime. On the 30th of July, we’ll be locking the doors and the majority of of our activities over the last two years will be Finito (with the exception of legacy projects, the Planet Science website and this newsletter.) But what’s all this got to do with bird gazebos? Well, over our time in this building, quite a lot of “valuable artefacts” – as well as a lot of other things – have been acculumated in the basement. And two seriously de luxe bird-feeding gazebos are now up for grabs to interested newsletter readers. Not sure what a gazebo is? No, we weren’t too sure either until they turned up in the office – but you can take a look at a photo by clicking to the online version of the news here . Rather nice surroundings for any upwardly mobile garden bird, we reckon! If you’d like to get into the draw to win one for your local feathered friends all you have to do is answer the following question: What is the bird called the Lapwing also known as? a. The Green Plover b. The Green Pullover c. The Great Crested Pover Answers by next Friday 10am to anne@planet-science.com with the words GIVE US A GAZEBO! in the subject field, and a note of your name and postal address. The winners of the draw will be announced next week. |
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04. ACTIVITY OF THE WEEK: UPSIDE DOWN WATER This week: amaze your friends and family with your ability to turn a glass of water upside down over their heads without the water gushing out. (Gravity is soooooo last century darling…) Ok here we go... What you need: • A glass Water • Piece of thin card - a postcard or a playing card will do • (A towel in case it all goes wrong!) What to do: • Half fill the glass with water. • Place the card over the top of the glass making sure that it is completely covered. • Holding onto the card, turn the glass upside down. • Slowly remove your hand from the card. • Hey presto - the water remains in the glass! PS It might be wise to practise this a few times over a sink before you try it out on your granny. It's also recommended that you don't hold the glass upside down for too long - once the card gets too soggy, the "magic" runs out and the water will give someone an unwelcome shower. Oh alright then, there isn't any magic happening here. The water stays in the glass because of a surprisingly powerful force called air pressure. Although we can't see it, the air around us is exerting a pressure in all directions. When you turn the glass upside down, the pressure of the air pushing up against the card is greater than the effect of gravity trying to pull the water out of the glass and so the water stays put. When the card gets soggy it becomes flexible and deforms making it difficult for the air pressure to hold the card onto the glass. So before that happens, go ‘da-naaaa!’ with a flourish, accept the applause, and quickly return the glass to right way up. If you don’t, eventually the card will bend so much that the water does escape from the glass. And you know what that means: wet magician. |
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05. MILLION REASONS TO APPLY FOR FUNDING The Wellcome Trust would like you to know about their annual programme of funding for events and projects which will help to engage and inform the public about biomedical science. Here's what they say: Did you know that the Wellcome Trust, a major funder of biomedical research, also funds public engagement research and activities to the value of £3 million per year? This money is to enable people like you to arrange activities such as: • workshops, talks, discussions and events in public venues • arts projects for a variety of different audiences and age groups • teaching materials or techniques to wider discussions • activities of another format The purpose of this funding is to: • stimulate public interest in biomedical science • inform and facilitate public debate about biomedical science • improve understanding of the social, ethical, historical and cultural context of biomedical science. Partnerships between scientists and artists, or ethicists and educators are encouraged. Projects may also be funded in partnership with other organizations. More information about can be found here including details of pre-application workshops for those interested in applying to the Engaging Science grants programme. The workshops will deliver information on the aims and objectives of the awards, examples of previous projects and details of the application process. |
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06. VISIT YOUR LOCAL SOLAR SYSTEM If you're connected to a school in or around the Kent area, you may be interested in an email we've just received from teacher Phil Goddard. Not many school pupils get the chance to take a tour round the Solar System, but with the advance of technology and the goodwill of all concerned, it sounds like this could be your next daytrip! Phil writes,"Just to let you know about an exciting activity for pupils in Year 7. My school, the Wilmington Grammar School for Girls have just visited the Otford Millennium Solar System model. This is a time sensitive scale model of the Solar System set up in and around the village of Otford, near Sevenoaks in Kent. The man behind the Solar System model, Mr David Thomas, led our girls on a grand tour of the Solar system starting from the Sun and ending at Pluto, about 1.6 kilometres away, imparting lots of very useful information and complementing nicely the QCA scheme of work. We have followed up the visit with further work and a competition to make the best scale model of the Solar System." The award-winning model has been praised for its educational value as well as it's creative design by the likes of Patrick Moore and Anton Vanplew, the Blue Peter astronomer. It certainly looks pretty amazing to us - check it out here Mr Thomas is a very nice man who says he's willing to show other school parties around for the cost of a donation to the Otford Parish Council who sponsor the model and print the leaflet that goes with it. His email audreydavid@tesco.net and he's looking forward to hearing from you! |
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07. SCIENCE BEHIND THE NEWS Poor old George Best has been back in the news in the past week, and Science Line have been investigating what scientists know about alcohol addiction, and the drug treatments that have been developed in the hope of helping alcoholics manage their condition... Read all about it here. |
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08. RECOMMENDED WEBSITES OF THE WEEK As you may have heard on the news, the government announced on Monday that licences are to be issued for hundreds of wind turbines in a move to meet its targets for renewable energy. Environmental groups have welcomed the news, and the plans for t hree huge off-shore wind farms to be built off the UK coast. The electricity generated is expected to power 15% of all UK households, and create 20,000 new jobs in the process... You can read up on the background here on the BBC News site Looks like it's time we all learned a bit more about the wonderful world of wind, and here's a brilliant site for just that purpose. It's called WIND WITH MILLER and it's clear and colourful, and really interesting too... It's aimed particularly at kids and teachers, but we reckon it would probably suit people of all ages. Not only is the construction and working of wind turbines explained in simple fully-animated stages, there are interactive games to help explore the process of electricity generation, and the site is full of wind-related activities such as details for making a wind-sock, a kite ... and even a DIY mini-wind turbine. Have a look - that'll put the wind up you! |
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09. COMEDY CREATIVITY CHALLENGE  There are no science jokes to be found anywhere this week, so here are three random classics from the late great Mr Tommy Cooper... • I went to the butchers the other day and I bet him 50 quid that he couldn't reach the meat off the top shelf. And he said, 'no, the steaks are too high.' • So I went down my local ice-cream shop, and said 'I want to buy an ice-cream' He said 'Hundreds & thousands?' I said 'We'll start with one.' He said 'Knickerbocker glory?' I said 'I do get a certain amount of freedom in these trousers, yes.' And finally... I went to buy some camouflage trousers the other day but I couldn't find any. |
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| 10. AOB and LUCKY WINNERS Thanks to everyone who emailed regarding the set of 'MEGABITES' books - we received hundreds and hundreds of entries, so it's a shame there can only be one winner. But that's how it is... and the winner is: David Burton, the Science Co-Ordinator at Star of the Sea RC Primary School in North Tyneside. Congratulations David - your Megabites are on their way. As for the Jewellery quiz winners in Sugar Science, the winners of the three sets of sparklies were Kathryn Axby of Liskeard, Lisa Mowbray of Gateshead and Eloise Bucknor of London. Congratulations - and a reminder for all teenage girls everywhere that there's another quiz in the Sugar Science section right now... This one's all about colour and the prize is some v colourful make-up sets... So check it out if you think you're bling bling enough! Here's where to click Sugar Science. That's all for this week - please send any contributions for next week to Anne McNaught on anne@planet-science.com. Have a great week! |
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