SCIENCE YEAR NEWSLETTER - ISSUE 40 Week ending Friday, 26th October 2001 Hello again and welcome to another bulletin of Science Year news and grooves. Bats, daylight saving and Finagle's Laws of Scientific Research are just some of the highlights of this week's newsletter, so come on in, the water's lovely! WITNESS STATEMENT First of all - hands up anyone whose school took part in the Giant Jump but hasn't (yet) completed and sent us your witness statement confirming how many jumpers took part? Oh tut tut tut, you at the back...! But seriously - there are two great reasons to fill in your form. Firstly, you'll be sent a commemorative Guinness World Records certificate for your wall, Secondly, your statement will push up the officially recorded number of participants and hence make our two world records harder for anyone else to beat. (And thirdly we've got a sweepstake in the office here as to the final total, and Ian Foot our financial guru is due to scoop the whole £9 unless the total rises, so come on, think of the rest of us!) If you haven't filled in a witness statement yet, look out because you'll be getting a call from us sometime next week to give you any help you need in filling in the form and getting it to us. In the meantime, download and print off the witness form, then just get it signed and send it in - all details can be found on the form. WHO AM I? No, it's not a riddle, it's just a reminder about our online teachers' resources. As you are probably aware, our partners the Assocation for Science Education are creating five sets of curriculum based materials to be distributed throughout Science Year. The first of these is entitled 'Who Am I?' and contains materials to help enhance the teaching and learning about aspects of biology such as genetics, sex and the concept of race. WELSH APPOINTMENT TO SCIENCE YEAR Congratulations and a warm welcome to the new co-ordinator of Science Year in Wales, Sue Cavell. Sue's been known to the Science Year team for some time through her impressive work in science education and communication prior to this appointment, so we're really pleased she's been enticed aboard! Sue's Australian, but she and her husband have been living in Cardiff since last year... which put her in the right spot at the right time when this opportunity came up. Having already co-ordinated various similar projects such as National Science Week in Tasmania and a travelling science roadshow, she jumped at this opportunity and says, "I'm looking forward to the challenge of coordinating Science Year in Wales and will be encouraging all schools and community groups to participate." Please give her all the support you can! ONLINE MICROSCOPE RESOURCES AHOY! Science Year's Director, Nigel Paine, has just arrived back from Singapore where he was addressing the British Council/Singapore Ministry of Education 'Wired Islands' conference. While he was there, he learned that the Singaporean government has chosen to make available to their schools the same Intel digital microscopes that are being distributed in the UK as part of the Science Year Kit Pot. Our Singaporean counterparts have already developed online resources including video 'slides' of diverse substances and organisms as observed through the microscope... and best of all, they're going to make these available to Science Year. You'll be the first to know when you can take advantage of these web resources. There will also be other opportunities for partnership between Singapore and the UK that will emerge over the course of the new few months - so watch this space... ENGINEERING OUR FUTURE ... Did you know that engineering is one of the largest industries in the UK and is consistently one of the highest paid? That UK engineers are the highest in demand throughout the rest of the world and you don't necessarily need a degree to be one? No? Well perhaps that is why the industry is crying out for people to become engineers... The Engineering Employer's Federation have enlisted the help of presenter Philippa Forrester to prove that engineering is neither dull nor uncool - as any Robot Wars fan will testify to! Philippa is presenting the Apprentice of the Year Awards for South West England next Friday (2nd November) in Weston Super Mare and is supporting their national campaign to change the image of engineering and encourage young people to become engineering apprentices. If you are interested in a career in engineering call 0800 282 167 or visit one of these websites: www.dfes.gov.uk/modapp/ or www.engc.org.uk EDUCATION.COM'S SLEEPOVER CHALLENGE To mark Science Year Education.com are running a fantastic schools' competition. The Great Big Science Competition invites schools across the UK to submit National Curriculum based science projects in the hope of winning three amazing first prizes: sleep-overs for entire classes at science-related venues, including the first ever sleep-over at the Glasgow Science Centre, a weekend at the Centre for Alternative Technology in Wales and an interactive night at the London Science Museum. The Great Big Science Competition is split into three broad categories, each aimed at a specific age group, specific to the needs of the National Curriculum and with its own unique sleepover prize. * Key Stage 2 (age 8-11) - London Science Museum * Key Stage 3 (age 11-14) - Glasgow Science Centre * Key Stage 4 (age 14-16) - Centre For Alternative Technology (Wales) The idea behind The Great Big Science Competition is to engender an interest in science and technology in school children, to show them that science can be a fascinating subject with many applications in every aspect of life and to encourage them to embrace science as a future career. Entry is made via http://uk.education.com and the closing date for entries is 22nd February 2002. GRANTS TO PROMOTE PHYSICS If you've got a great physics-related idea that just needs a little bit of funding to make it happen, read on....The Institute of Physics is offering small grants to help fund physics-based projects of all sorts. Lectures, demonstrations, interactive science days and science theatre performances are all possibilities - it's your imagination that holds the key. Grants awarded will normally be for sums up to £500, and must be for events taking place in the UK and Northern Ireland. The grant scheme will primarily support events planned for National Science Week, 8-17 March 2002. However, applications will be accepted for events that are planned to take place at other times in 2002. For an application form and further information, go to http://physics.iop.org/IOP/grants.html or contact Shuk Kwan Liu in the Public Affairs Department at the Institute of Physics. Tel: 020 7470 4800 Fax: 020 7470 4848 Email: shuk_kwan.liu@iop.org NB The grant forms should be returned by 30 November 2001. Decisions will be made and grants issued in January. AN HOUR OF YOUR TIME As you'll be aware, the clocks go back this weekend (28th/29th Oct) and to note the fact, the Science Year team have put together some weird and wonderful information to all the media about what your body gets up to in an hour. Keep your eyes and ears open for interviews and features in the press and in the meantime ponder these facts and figures: In one hour, the average adult will: * Inhale 300 litres of air * Take 720 breaths * Produce 8.5 billion red blood cells (you actually produce 200 billion a day!) * Consume 15 litres of oxygen And... * Your body will make sixty millilitres of urine * The hair on your head (if you take every strand into account) will grow to a total length of 150 centimetres * Your heart will pump between 4,200 and 4,500 times MR DAYLIGHT SAVING HIMSELF Meanwhile, if you're in or around London, you might like to go and visit the memorial sundial that was erected in tribute to William Willett, the man whose campaigning led to daylight saving in the first place. Thanks to the London City of Science website, you can find a map and more information at: http://www.londoncityofscience.co.uk/places/ar_0000000008.asp SCIENCE THEATRE ON TV Switch your video recorders on and settle down in front of the telly to catch the latest and greatest from Y Touring Theatre and the BBC Production Centre at the Open University. Two contemporary, ground breaking dramas tackling some of the most controversial scientific topics of the day - cloning and genetic selection - are being screened on BBC2 each Friday at 12.30pm. 'Learning to Love the Grey' and 'Making Astronauts' by Jonathan Hall are both challenging pieces of drama specially created to get people thinking. The series will run until November 23rd, and we strongly recommend you check it out! For further info about Y Touring check their website on www.ytouring.org.uk ONLINE SCIENCE QUIZ Attention science teachers! Win a Mimio electronic whiteboard simulator kit with New Media's Online Science Quiz (see what it looks like at: www.mimio.com Friend of Science Year, New Media have announced a national competition for schools - which they also hope will set a new World Record for the largest number of schools ever participating in an on-line quiz, live. By taking part in the Science Quiz you could help your school win ICT equipment for the classroom. The competition is suitable for 11-16 year olds and consists of two rounds of multi-choice questions on a variety of scientific topics. Interested? For more info visit 'Online Quiz' (scroll down if you can't see it immediately). Or go directly to the New Media site at www.new-media.co.uk/scienceyear/quiz.asp And good luck! USING ART TO TEACH SCIENCE A second mention for this project in which art is being put to use for teaching science students to think about the interdisciplinary nature of their work. 'Primitive Streak' is a collection of dresses designed by artist Helen Storey in collaboration with her sister and developmental biologist Dr Kate Storey. They're currently on display at Kings College, London and full details on how they're being used as a teaching aid can be found in last week's newsletter. We would like to apologise profusely to Katharine Rabson, King's College's Business Development Manager for spelling her name incorrectly last week - particularly as she's the point of contact for more information. If you would like to find out more about Primitive Streak, please email her on: katharine.rabson@kcl.ac.uk BATS ABOUT BATS This week our question from the Science Line files is: Why doesn't the blood in bats run to their heads when they're hanging upside-down? Any guesses? Well, you can find the correct answer and explanation at the ScienceLine website on: www.sciencenet.org.uk/database/Biology/0108/b00997d.html This is partly by way of reminding you that if you have any scientific queries of your own you'd like answered, Science Line is a super-helpful service that will provide you with the information you need. There's no charge for their brainpower, they just want to encourage people's curiosity about science ... Their phone number is 0808 800 4000 and the lines are open from 1pm - 7pm Monday to Saturday. Alternatively visit their website at www.sciencenet.org.uk. But back to the bats... if you want to know more about these creatures, we recommend the Bat Conservation Trust website. It can be found at: http://www.bats.org.uk/ RECOMMENDED WEBSITE OF THE WEEK The lives and times of 'real' scientists in the UK is the focus of the Acclaim website at www.acclaimscientists.org.uk The site was developed at Sheffield Hallam University and was funded by the Royal Society. It features information and interviews with scientists such as vulcanologist Stephen Sparks, expert on autism Francesca Happe and the recently Nobel-Prize honoured medical researcher Paul Nurse. And that's not all ... Have a look! And on a totally, utterly different note ... Have you ever wondered whether those amazing feats that just seem to happen in the movies really could happen, scientifically? Producers at BBC's Open University production centre did ... and reckoned it would be good fun to find out. So they made a series of investigative programmes about it featuring movie moments from films such as 'Die Hard', 'Speed' and 'Ice Cold in Alex'. You can check out the OU tv listings AND follow the movie-busting experiments at: www.open2.net/science/hollywood_science/ To give you just one example ... could Paul Newman really have eaten 50 eggs in one hour without throwing up? Hollywood Science works out the probability using their scientific knowledge of the human stomach - and the properties of the hard-boiled egg. (As opposed to a certain cable channel that recently put the same idea to the test empirically with three volunteers ... if you caught it, we hope you weren't eating your dinner at the time!) JOKE(S) OF THE WEEK We have two this week - a short one and long one. First of all Kerry Parker, the Editor of Physics Education sent us what she describes as an 'oldie that might pass as a science joke, being slightly anatomical' (she's clearly worried that we may have high quality control standards on these jokes - bless!) Here it is: 'If your nose runs and your feet smell, you're built upside down!' Cheers Kerry! And thank you Ped Saunders for these laws of scientific research. FINAGLE'S LAWS: 1. If an experiment works, something has gone wrong. 2.1 No matter what result is anticipated, there is always someone willing to fake it. 2.2 No matter what the result, there is always someone eager to misinterpret it. 2.3 No matter what happens, there is always someone who believes it happened according to his pet theory. 3. In any collection of data, the figure most obviously correct, beyond all need of checking, is the mistake. 4. Once a job is fouled up, anything done to improve it only makes it worse. ANY OTHER BUSINESS Thank you to everyone who wrote in saying they'd be interested in reviewing science related materials and events for us over the coming months. We'll get back to you shortly, and in the meantime, we'd love to hear from anyone else who thinks this kind of thing might be up their street ... As ever, we would love to hear from you if you have any valuable information, news, jokes, websites or anythying else you'd like to pass on to other newsletter subscribers. So please get in touch if you have a contribution or any comments to make. The email address for newsletter and web enquires is anne.mcnaught@scienceyear.com And have a scientastic week! Return to archive