SCIENCE YEAR NEWSLETTER - ISSUE 32 Week ending Friday, 31st August 2001 A loud ticking sound can now be heard throughout the Science Year building … causing the team to look up from their work now and again, and comment to each other calmly, ‘Gosh, listen to that clock counting down towards the major multi-venue launch of Science Year… It’s getting quite close now!’ All very serene. Or … is it more like a group of over-caffeinated Duracell bunnies, running about shouting ‘CANCEL ALL SOCIAL LIFE FOR THE NEXT TWO WEEKS! ’? Hmmmmm – well, it’s probably a combination of the two, though not in equal proportions! Those high numbers have certainly disappeared from the DAYS and WEEKS panels on the clock display as the 7th September approaches. Very exciting in terms of the year ahead, but just a little bit tense in terms of the gigantic launch planned, whereby eight major venues around the UK will be launching Science Year simultaneously, tele-linked to each other by satellite. But if the Eurovision Song Contest can manage such a feat – so can we! THE GIANT JUMP Preparations for the Giant Jump are in very good shape. All groups who have registered and who have given us their postal address, have now been sent a letter containing all the information necessary, and it should be with you on Tuesday. If you didn’t fill in the form that asked for your address, don’t panic – because you’ll receive the same information by email. (And so will anyone else on our email list even if you’re not a Jumper – sorry to spam you if you’re not jumping, but it’s the best way to be sure we get to everyone who IS!) SPRINGS IN THEIR HEELS Question: what’s jumpy and catchy at the same time? The answer is of course, the Giant Jump Theme tune. It was composed and performed by Simon Doherty, Michael Hindle and David Bass, three music technology students at Derby Tertiary College in Wilmorton, who already made a big splash as in-house musicians at the Tomorrow’s World Live earlier this year. It’s now the soundtrack for the Giant Jump promotional video, and proving impossible to shift out of your head once you’ve heard it more than a couple of times … Have a listen ... We hope you like it! DIAL 1,2,3 TO JUMP IN TIME Timing is everything, as they say. And so too with the Giant Jump. It’s UTTERLY IMPERATIVELY CRUCIAL that everybody in the UK jumps for the same minute – ie 11.00am to 11.01am on Friday 7th September. As you probably know, there’s a clock on our website to help you sychronise, but servers are sometimes slow, so to guarantee that you’re bang on time, you should synchronise with the Speaking Clock on 1,2,3 on the morning of the Jump. DESIGN A JUMPSUIT COMPETITION The competition to design a groovy outfit designed for jumping in is still open … so if you’ve got some good ideas, or you know someone else who might have, get them to enter! There are wondrous prizes to be won … but you’ll have to beat the entries we’ve already received, and they’re pretty innovative! The address to send your design to is: Science Year Giant Jump Design Challenge, 11 Tufton Street, London SW1P 3QB. URGENT! INTERNATIONAL JUMPERS WANTED! As we've been adding up the Giant Jump tally (3200 schools so far and still rising!) we've noticed a sad shortage of Giant Jump registrations in certain nations. England and Wales seem to have high levels of Jumping enthusiasts, but Northern Ireland and Scotland are slipping behind! So, we need your help to reach out and get everybody jumping. Tell your friends, colleagues, pen-pals and peers - the Giant Jump is coming to you, so jump on it while you've got the chance! And to continue our international update, the Giant Jump doesn't just stop in the UK. We have had confirmed sightings of people limbering up in Australia, New Zealand and the USA, and hear that many people are planning to log on to our website no matter what the hour of day or night. The Giant Jump Team now wonders: could this be the start of a Giant Jump International Challenge? THE GREAT DANDELION HUNT And so to DANDELIONS. The tenacious yellow-flowered plant may be a source of aggravation for the lawn-proud … but they’re at the centre of a UK-wide mega-lab experiment being co-ordinated by 4Learning. And they need as many participants as possible. 'Dandelions' is a project which invites schools and individual pupils to take part in a national collection of scientific data, namely information about dandelions, their particular characteristics and their habitats. The idea is that children can go out, find dandelions, measure them and record their location, and contribute their information to a national database which can then be searched to find answers to questions such as 'Just how adaptable is this common weed?'. The website's data can generate a variety of graphs showing the relationships between the variables such as amount of light, stage of growth, number of leaves, length of longest leaf, length of shortest leaf, width of longest leaf at its broadest point, number of flower stems, length of longest stem and site of plant. (And you thought they were all the same?!) To put the study in context, at 11.25am on 27th September and 1st November, Channel 4 will be broadcasting two programmes about the collection and interpretation of scientific data. The programmes feature four projects … one of which is this one. Find out more at http://www.4learning.co.uk/wildlife and click on the dandelion to check out the site. JOB OPPORTUNITIES AT TECHNIQUEST As you may know, Techniquest, Cardiff’s science discovery centre, has been invited by the National Assembly for Wales to co-ordinate the activities of Science Year in Wales. The centre is now offering one-year contracts for two new members of staff to manage this responsibility with zest, zeal and top organisational skills. The roles are: 1. National Co-ordinator (full-time) 2. Administrative assistant (full-time or part-time) Candidates for both positions must have a background in science and/or education. Good communication and organisational skills will be essential, and fluency in Welsh will be required of one postholder. If you’re interested in either post, please send or email a letter of application and your CV to Mrs Angela Roostan angela@techniquest.org Operations and Staff Manager, Techniquest, Stuart Street, Cardiff CF10 5BW. Closing date: 19 September 2001. All applications received will be acknowledged, then a shortlist of candidates will be drawn up. Everyone on the shortlist will then be sent a full job description and further information. THE BA FESTIVAL ARRIVES IN GLASGOW … As you may be aware, every year at this time the British Association for the Advancement of Science hosts a gigantic festival of science-related talks, activities and events. The Festival is designed to act as a bridge between the science community and the general public, and there’s always a huge range of topics featured – something for everyone. This year, the Festival is being held at Glasgow University, so if you’re in Glasgow or thereabouts, why not pay it a visit? It runs from the 2nd to 7th September, and subjects this year include the Human Genome Project, space weather, green chemistry and forensic psychology. RECOMMENDED WEBSITE OF THE WEEK In a week of changeable weather in most parts of the country … this week’s recommended site is the Met Office site at: www.met-office.gov.uk/education/index The site contains lots of good information about what the Met Office does and how it does it, plus past and current meteorological data. It also features plenty of materials for teachers in curriculum and resources sections, and we found it very easy to navigate. And while we’re on the subject – good luck to the Met Office team who are organising a Giant Jump as part of the Science Year launch … Local school children will be joining them for their jump in the front entrance of their HQ in Bracknell. Thank you Jacquie Syvret for organising this meterological mega-leap! JOKE OF THE WEEK Longtime readers of the newsletter will remember the joke about the two atoms walking down the street........ "Cripes! I’ve lost an electron! " / "Are you sure? " "Yes – I’m positive! " This joke has now officially reached No1 in the top 100 of Science Year jokes, having been sent in by at least thirty different readers! Interestingly, sometimes the atoms are walking down the street, sometimes they’re in or just leaving the pub, and occasionally they’re in a police station reporting a theft. They get around those atoms. Always funny though, wherever they are! However – David Stancliffe at the University of Newcastle has a new one for you A neutron goes into the pub and asks for a pint of beer. "How much is that?" he asks. The barman replies ...."For you, no charge." What a winner! ANY OTHER BUSINESS As ever, just want to remind you that the newsletter is open to contributions from anyone with interesting, questioning or amusing science-related comments or information to impart. So please feel free to get in touch. The email address for all such contribs is: anne.mcnaught@scienceyear.com Bye for now – have a great week. Return to archive