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01. TWO MORE GRILLERS BORN IN CAPTIVITY
If you're a teacher and you haven't checked out the Planet Science Grillers yet, please do, we think you'll like them. They're a series of worksheets for pupils designed to test their knowledge of topics on the Planet Science website, and we modestly believe they are both highly educational and highly enjoyable too... The whole troop can be found here And the Griller family are proud to announce two new arrivals, the Goth Griller, and the Green Scene Griller. The Goth Griller is a 20 question quiz on matters of darkness and horror you'll learn if you - and your pupils - dare to visit the super-spooky 'Gothic Mansion' that can be found here. The Green Scene Griller relates to the eco-site that can be found in the Out There section of the Planet Science website here. This is a bit of a Friday afternoon one, a bit more lighthearted, and the idea is to get your pupils rapping about, well... wrapping! So check it out man Don't just chuck it in the can. More Gorilla-shaped information coming up in this week's Recommended Websites.  |
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| 02. ACTIVITY OF THE WEEK: WHO'S THAT HEADLESS WONDER? This week's demonstration should also prove popular with pupils. It was sent in by groovy science guru Andrew Harmsworth from the Leys School in Cambridge. It's a quasi-magical activity called: Make Your Teacher's Head Disappear! As at Hogwarts, the power already lies within each pupil - in the shape of his or her optic nerves and its blind-spot. All that's required is some expert teaching... You will need: * a blackboard or whiteboard * chalk or marker pen * a teacher What to do: (instructions for pupils) 1. Clean the black/white board. 2. Draw a cross on the board at the height of your teacher's head. 3. Instruct said teacher to stand 3m to the left of the cross. 4. Stand about 2m in front. 5. Close (or cover) your right eye. 6. Stare at the cross with your left eye. 7. Use your peripheral vision to check the teacher's head (ie. keep staring at the cross, but notice what you can see of them out of the side of your eye). 8. Ask your teacher to move very slowly towards the cross. 9. Keep checking their head with your peripheral vision 10. Eventually, you will 'see' your teacher (peripherally) with no head... Just like in those teacher-recruitment TV ads! Extra thoughts: Our in-house experiment tester found that 3m / 2m was just about at the limit where the head disappeared, and she felt it may be easier to do it by getting the teacher to stand still, and having the experimenter/pupil shuffle towards and away from the board until they're able to find the 'headless zone'. She added that it's easiest to do this demo without glasses on as the edge of glasses can interfere. The other tip is to make sure the cross on the board is very prominent, and to have the teacher wear something very bright on their head, like a cycle helmet/yellow wig/dayglo disco-hood etc. It's easier to see when the bright object disappears than a normal head, and hey it adds extra entertainment to the experience too. For some more blindspot experiments have a look at NEUROSCIENCE FOR KIDS at: http://www.univ.trieste.it/ |
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| 03. JUNIOR JUDGES WANTED FOR AVENTIS BOOK AWARDS If you're involved with a science club, a reading club or a homework club whose members love science and enjoy a good book, here's a really fun opportunity. The organisers of the prestigious Aventis Prizes for science books are looking for junior judging panels to vote on which book in the Junior category should win the prize. These are serious duties, which involve the reading of six books, and careful assessment in accordance with the competition guidelines which will be issued to each panel involved. Last year the winning book was 'The DK Guide to the Oceans', which beat off competition from 'Horrible Science: The Terrible Truth About Time' by Nick Arnold, 'Get in Gear' by Sholly Fisch, ' Leap Through Time: Dinosaur ' by Nicholas Harris, the 'Why Can't I..? Series' by Sally Hewitt and 'The Way Science Works' by Robin Kerrod & Dr Sharon Ann Holgate. Judging panels will be issued with a copy of each of the six books that make this year's shortlist, and a guide to 'how to be a judge'. Later, you'll also receive a certificate. You can read a little more about the awards themselves at http://www.aventisprizes.com (this year's shortlisted titles have not been announced yet but will be soon). If you'd like to take part, or even just find out more, send an email to Ros Mist on: books@scizmic.net |
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| 04. DEBATES WITH A DIFFERENCE Meanwhile, Ros would also like you to know that SciZmic are running a series of what they describe as "Debates with a Difference" on the topic of stem cell research. These will be taking place at a number of science centres across the UK, and there are free places available for 10 students per school. She says, "Debate Days give you time and space to investigate a hot topic in science - stem cells. You don't know what a stem cell is? Don't worry, it's the first thing you'll find out. Next, you'll meet some top scientists, people who might benefit from the research and some who are more cautious about it. "You'll work in a team of about ten people with a trained facilitator. Each team will be set tasks, but exactly what you find out will be up to you and your team. You'll have the chance to ask 'experts' what they do, to ask others what they think about stem cells, to explore the Internet, and to see whether you think journalists have given the topic a fair hearing. Something else you want to do? Ask HQ and see whether they can arrange it! "Once your team's research tasks are completed, you get down to business and debate one of the big issues. For example 'Should stem cell research be conducted using human embryos?' "Finally, we'll ask you to deliver a policy statement on the topic to HQ. You'll need to come up with something you can all agree on, which may not be as easy as it sounds." Over the next few months the are happening in: Newcastle 18/19 March Bristol 24 March Sheffield 25 March Cardiff 27 March Manchester 23 and 26 March Glasgow 6/7 April If you'd like to make a booking, give Ros a ring on 01483 420261, or email her at ros@scizmic.net. |
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| 05. MOUSES AT THE READY: PICK UP A JAGUAR TODAY If you're based in the Midlands and you're a Top Gear-loving car-o-maniac... have we got news for you. A brand new display featuring the Jaguar XJ has just opened up at ThinkTank in Birmingham, and we have four family passes to give away. A state-of-the-art car like that can't be a museum-piece already can it? Well... it is because this exhibition is designed to explore and demonstrate the pioneering use that's been made of aluminium in the Jaguar XJ's bodywork. The exhibit is called 'The Lightweight Car'. It features two Jaguar car body shells positioned vertically on their bumpers side by side. One is the new XJ made of aluminium, the other the former steel XJ model. You're invited to lift each one, if you can, to see just how different in weight the two are. There's also an interactive display which allows you to find out more about the car, the properties of its bodywork, and the effect of its weight on fuel consumption and other aspects of performance. And when you've finished with the Jaguar, you can have a look at the other examples of cutting edge engineering in the Futures gallery, such as nanotechnology, tiny flying machines and even an emotional robot. After that, there are nine more galleries to visit, so it could be a big day out. If you fancy a family ticket, just send an email to anne@planet-science.com with the words I'M NO LIGHTWEIGHT! in the title, and a note of your name and postal address. The draw will take place at 5pm next Thursday. Meanwhile, find out more about what they've got at Thinktank by clicking to: http://www.thinktank.ac. |
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| 06. THIS WEEK IN SCIENCE HISTORY On March 6, 1970, the British government announced a complete ban on people bringing their pets into the country. This wasn't an anti-pet policy, it was designed to make sure Britain stayed free of rabies, something which only a few islands - and Scandinavia - could claim. Alison Begley has been investigating: In 1970 it was realised that the incubation period for the rabies virus was longer than 3 months, and that animals thought to be 'clear' of the disease were being released only to develop symptoms later. The answer was longer quarantine for those animals already in the country, and a ban on new ones entering. Today there are laws in place which keep the UK rabies-free. All incoming pets are put into quarantine for six months unless they are vaccinated against rabies at least six months before they enter, and can prove this with a special 'pet passport'. Are there really no cases of the disease in the UK? Bats have been found to have a bat strain of the virus, but this is different from the one that infects cats and dogs and so doesn't count as a true rabies infection. However, this doesn't mean that people aren't at risk ... Only people who are likely to come into contact with rabies are vaccinated against rabies such as those who work with bats, or vets who work with quarantined animals. If you ever get bitten by one of these animals, the best thing to do is clean the bite with soapy water then with alcohol. If you haven't been vaccinated, you will then be given an injection of rabies immunoglobulin, the body's own defence against the disease, followed by a series of five vaccination injections. (You don't want to be scared of needles!) Don't worry too much though; Britain has been rabies free since 1922. But with even the most vigilant security, it's the strip of water that divides us from the rest of Europe that has really helped in preventing this disease. Find out more about rabies here: http://www.netdoctor.co.uk/travel/diseases/rabies.htm Have a look at how your immune system might try and fight off a disease like rabies: http://science.howstuffworks.com/immune-system.htm Learn how your body can fight off infection itself, or with a little help: http://www.learn.co.uk/default.asp?WCI=Unit&WCU=1586 |
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| 07. RECOMMENDED WEBSITES OF THE WEEK Did you know that the average household produces about one tonne of rubbish every year, amounting to about 27 million tonnes for the UK each year? And furthermore, do you realise that that equals weight of about 2.7 million Diplodoci dinosaurs - or about the same number of people who live in the Greater Manchester area? The RECYCLE-MORE website at http://www.recycle-more.co.uk/ is packed with information like this - plus lots more, all in the name of trying to encourage us to be more green in our relationship with rubbish. There are various sections, with useful material for households and businesses (such as a postcode search engine to help you find your local recycling facilities), but if you click through on the Schools section, you' ll find all sorts of worksheets, information, and ideas for recycle-related games and activities to use in the classroom. The activities are divided into two age groups: 5 - 11 (KS 1&2 England, Wales and N. Ireland; Scotland P1-7, attainment levels A-D) 11 - 16 (KS 3&4 England, Wales, and Northern Ireland) (Scotland P7 and S1&2, attainment level E) They're not all specifically related to science either, as they've devised activities that could also be used by Maths, English, Geography, PSHE, ICT, Technology and even P.E. and music. Whatever activity you choose though, it'll raise awareness of just how much refuse and rubbish comes into your house and goes back out, why that might cause concern, and how even an individual person can make a difference.  As so to gorillas. They're great. And they're also officially, Great Apes. Here's a nice simple site that's packed with information about these amazing creatures. For younger children (or anyone!) there's also a range of sheets that can be printed off with line drawings of the gorillas and more information. It's ALL ABOUT GORILLAS at http://www.allaboutnature.com/subjects/apes/gorilla/ Grrrr. |
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| 08. AWKWARD QUESTION OF THE WEEK Last week's tantalising teaser was this: If the number 43 hasn't come up on the lottery for 20 Saturdays running...does this mean that next Saturday it has more chance of coming up than average? And why? Or, why not? Here's the answer: There are two ways of looking at this puzzle, one is right and one is wrong! The right way is to realise that each week any number has the same chance of coming up, and this is about a 1 in 10 chance of being picked. It works like this... there are 50 balls, so the number 43 has a 1/49 chance of coming out as the first ball, a 1/48 chance of coming out the second ball, a 1/47 chance of being the third ball and so on up to the 6th ball. If we add up all these probabilities then each ball has a 0.13 chance of being picked each week. It doesn't matter what happened the week before or what is going to happen the next week; each ball has the same chance of being picked. So 43 may not have been picked for 20 weeks but it still has only about a 1 in 10 chance of popping up this week. Now for the wrong way... Based on the calculation above, we might expect 43 to pop up about every 10 weeks so it is a bit of a surprise that we haven't seen it for 20 weeks. The probability of it not showing up for 20 weeks is small, about 1 in 17. It is easy to think that it 'must' then show up in week 21 because the chances of it not being picked are an even tinier 1 in 20. But that doesn't mean there's a 19 in 20 chance of it coming up. Because ... All we have worked out here is the chance of 43 not appearing for 21 weeks, there is a 19 in 20 chance of 43 appearing in ANY of these 21 weeks. It is NOT the probability of it showing up on week 21. The number 43 has the same chance of popping up on week 21 as it did on week 1... and if it doesn't we can be surprised again! Here's another one. All names are fictional. A distraut Lady Alicia Fothergill is at the front of carriage of a train moving at 200 miles per hour. She is facing backwards, and pointing a gun at Sir Hector, her philandering husband, at the other end of the carriage. She fires the gun at Sir Hector, and the bullet travels towards him at 200 miles an hour, in the opposite direction to the way the train is moving. Miss Marple is, by chance, standing on the platform, with her hawk-like eyes, watching all this happen as the train passes by. What does she see - and who does she think is responsible for what happens to Sir Hector? |
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| 09. TEN REALLY ROTTEN WINNERS Those 'Really Rotten Experiments' books on offer last week proved enormously popular. The entries rolled in all week, and the draw took place yesterday at 5pm. And the lucky winners are: Sally Thurlow of Greendown Community School in Swindon Shona ColaÁo from Hampton in Middlesex Tessa Newson of Kingsbury High School in London Zoe Chandrasekera, aged 4, from London Catherine Etwaroo of Meeching Valley Primary School in Newhaven John Dodd of Dean Hole CE Primary School in Newark Teresa Butler from Cleethorpes Susan Joyner of Bursted Wood Primary School in Bexleyheath Carole Sullivan from Swansea and Elizabeth Akhurst from Romney Marsh in Kent Congratulations to you all, your books will be in the post as soon as they arrive from the warehouse. |
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| 10. JOKE OF THE WEEK A double whammy this week. First a joke sent in by Mike Ryan - though he insists the credit/blame must be taken by one of his Upper Sixth Formers, Adam Brown. A tarmac road goes into a bar and meets a concrete road. They buy drinks. A little later another road walks in and tries to buy a drink. The first two shout to the barman, "Don't serve him, he's a cyclepath". Secondly, from an apologetic Simon Cochrane: Q: What do you get if you put some potatoes into a nuclear reactor? A: Fission chips! And another one that he says he used in a recent Year 8 lesson on adaptations: Q: Why do birds fly south in the winter? A: Because it is too far to walk! Simon, have you considered a career move into Christmas cracker joke-writing? No, seriously, you're well qualified! t That's all for this week, other than to say thanks to everyone who contributed to this week's newsletter. If you have any news, freebies, ideas, recommended websites of even a joke or two for inclusion in a future newsletter, please send them to: Anne McNaught on anne@planet-science.com. Thanks very much... have a great week! |
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