SCIENCE YEAR NEWSLETTER - ISSUE 29 Week ending Friday, 10th August 2001 Welcome to another update on the progress of Science Year, plus other science-related information, news ... and some light relief. HITTING THE PRESS Depending on your choice of news media, you may well have found yourself reading about the Giant Jump over the last few days. 'Children are asked to jump for science' headlined BBC Online, while the Times Educational Supplement went for 'One giant leap for science' and the Sun announced 'We'll quake the record!'. The Scotsman homed in on the safety angle with 'Stunt chiefs insure against a leap of faith'... and the first paper to use the inevitable 'b' word - "boffin", that is - was the Daily Star, as in "Boffins hope to record a minor tremor". HITTING THE AIRWAVES Following the morning's press coverage, Science Year director Nigel Paine spent the day being interviewed on various radio and TV networks. The coverage was regional, national ... and even international, as it turned out when following one of Nigel's BBC interviews the office received a call from the Tokyo Broadcasting Service who are particularly interested in following the experiment, because Japan has so many earthquakes ... Closer to home, Radio 5Live were keen to establish the ratio of primary to secondary children taking part in the Giant Jump, "because secondary school children weigh more than primary school ones..." Good point...?! SIGN UP NOW Of course the correct answer to the question is that we simply want as-many-participants-as-POSSIBLE to register and take part. And if you've not done that yet, or just want to read more about it - click here and click through to the Giant Jump pages. Meanwhile, preparations continue with Guinness World Records to ensure that all the necessary documentation is in place and ready to go should the Giant Jump - as we hope - set a new world record. David Hawksett from the company gave the attempt a double thumbs-up, saying, 'This will be the greatest simultaneous jump in history - a true ground-breaking Guinness World Record*! The more people jumping, the harder this record will be to smash. I'm sure this 'giant leap for mankind' will be a great start to Science Year." SCIENCE AND CITIZENSHIP On a very different note... You may be aware that in recent years 'citizenship' has become an increasingly important school subject, and it will become a statutory part of the secondary curriculum from September 2002. Being an active, informed member of society clearly covers a wide range of subjects, but the Department of Education and Skills is currently focusing its attention on citizenship as it relates to science in particular. Together with the Association for Science Education and the Wellcome Trust, they're in the process of developing guidelines and case studies on relevant subjects, so that teachers can have the confidence and knowledge to open up class discussions on ethical aspects of science and society. If you're interested in finding out more about this, or sharing your experiences of teaching subjects like these, please contact us here (email address at the end of the page) and your email will be forwarded to the ASE. At the same time - as part of Science Year, we are planning to host a number of online discussions on science-in-society topics. If you'd like to suggest particular issues for us to address, please get in touch. PPARC LUMP OF MOON ROCK, ANYONE? Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council (PPARC) has actual examples of moon rocks and meteorites that are available on free loan to schools, colleges, museums and societies. We have four educational packages containing lunar samples, meteorites and support material, that can be borrowed for periods of typically one or two weeks at a time. The packages are designed to appeal to everyone, from a young child, to an interested adult or a serious scientist. Loans are allocated, provided security measures are met, on a `first come- first served basis'. Experience has shown that borrowers find the opportunity to actually see rocks and dust from the moon and to hold ancient rocks from space both exciting and inspiring, and we have many repeat borrowers. If you are interested in borrowing the samples or finding out more, please contact me. joanna.evans@pparc.ac.uk or visit the PPARC website www.pparc.ac.uk So get rocking! SCI-TEACH Say goodbye to Chalk-face ... say hello to SCI-TEACH. The area of the Science Year website devoted to teachers and teaching resources has finally been renamed. We received dozens of great suggestions from Newsletter-readers as to what the new name should be, so thank you very much to everyone who sent their ideas in. We hope that some of the other suggestions can be put to good use within the site as it expands. In the meantime, it was important to pick a name that would leave no doubt to a casual viewer that this is the 'teacher' bit of the site, hence Sci-Teach was the clear winner. Congratulations to Stuart Duke of Birmingham University. Your prize is on its way to you! RECOMMENDED WEBSITE OF THE WEEK Thank you also for emailing in favourite and/or useful science-related weblinks. They will be reviewed and dispatched to our Links Library as soon as it's been overhauled... which should be soon. In the meantime, this week's recommended website is the Tyssen Primary school website. The reason is, their collection of science sites is really impressive - as you'll see. Go to http://www.tyssen.hackney.sch.uk/ then click on Resources, then go to Learning. (If you want to visit the Buffy the Vampire Slayer site, or Sabrina the Teenage Witch instead, try the Children section - it's good too!) THE ENGINEERS STRIKE BACK There's been a backlash following last week's anti-engineer joke. OK, only a two-joke backlash but... engineers presumably have better things to do with their time than berate their fellow professionals. Not Howard Cherry or Stuart Robinson of the Engineering Council though (only kidding!) First of all here's Howard's guide to the sciences: 'If it moves, it's biology; if it smells, it's chemistry and if it doesn't work, it's physics...' And a joke from Stuart: A group of managers were given the assignment to measure the height of a flagpole. So they go out to the flagpole with ladders and tape measures, and they're falling off the ladders and dropping the tape measures. The whole thing is just a mess... An engineer comes along and sees what they're trying to do, walks over, pulls the flagpole out of the ground, lays it flat, measures it from end to end, gives the measurement to one of the managers and walks away. After the engineer has gone, one manager turns to another and laughs. "Isn't that just like an engineer? We're looking for the height and he gives us the length." ANY OTHER BUSINESS As ever, we welcome any comments or thoughts you have about the newsletter, and any information you want to send us about about forthcoming events, good websites - or even good jokes. Please drop a line to: anne.mcnaught@scienceyear.com And meanwhile, have a good week! Return to archive