SCIENCE YEAR NEWSLETTER - ISSUE 49 Week ending Friday, 11th January 2002 New Year Bumper Edition! Long, but we think entirely worth the effort. So, 2002, a palindromic year if I'm not much mistaken! Huge vote of thanks to Daniel Sanford Smith of ASE for taking on some of the Newsletter this week, you'll find his special contribution, mainly for the teaching folk amongst you, after the joke section. While Anne McNaught, your usual writer, is sunning herself on the ash piles of Sydney, it falls to me, Katie Walsh, her trusty assistant, to continue our great traditions - I only hope I can do the awesome responsibility justice. Anne's just sent me a text message telling me to get on with it, so here goes.... Contents of this Issue: • Intel Microscopes for Primary Schools • Win Faraday! • BETT Stuff, Evaluation, FutureLab and Science Trail • Website Update • Science Teaching Award • Curriculum Review Plug • Interstices Competition • Science Week • South West Teachers Event • Science Art Gallery • Quiz Results and New Quiz • Question of the Week • Mnemonics • Recommended Website of the Week • Jokes Section • Liver-Science • Read My Lips • Biotech Biz • Creating Sparks • Rom Register • ASE Membership Offer • Opportunities in Chemistry • PPARC Posters Intel Microscopes to all Primary Schools Announced at BETT on Thursday, every maintained Primary School will receive a free Intel digital microscope together with curriculum links and resources. This is part of the Science Year Kit Pot Fund, which offers science teachers equipment to enhance science teaching. The microscope connects to a PC to allow whole classes to see magnification of up to 200%, and then record the data or make time-lapse or moving images. They are going out in phases, but if you haven't received yours by the end of March, please call Tag Learning's customer services team on 01474 357 350. Win a Faraday for a day! This year at BETT, the educational technology show running from 9th-12th January at London's Olympia, visitors will get the chance to win the famous scientist Michael Faraday. As part of its support for Science Year, Oracle corporation's Think.com will be holding a competition where visitors taking in a demonstration on the stand will get the chance to win an actor playing the part of historic scientist Michael Faraday. By answering three simple questions teachers will be entered into a prize draw where the winner will be able to bring Michael Faraday to life in their own classroom! Actors representing Charles Darwin and Robert Stephenson will also be at the show demonstrating how 'Hotseats' on Think.com allow children to ask questions of experts from their own computers in the classroom. Visitors to the show can visit stand D70 on the day for a demo, or those who can't make it can visit http://demo.think.com between 9th - 16th January 2002 to enter online. BETT Your Bottom Euro I don't know about you, but I found wandering round Olympia on my short visit to BETT totally overwhelming. It raised questions in my mind like how on earth does anyone decide what educational software or hardware to get for their specific needs? And how do I find my way back to the Science Year Stand? Luckily Baroness Ashton came to the rescue with the first question, announcing that Becta will run an exercise to identify a range of approved suppliers to provide schools with as many high quality computers as possible for this part of the DfES's £100 Million Laptops for Teachers money. I also bumped into a nice lady from TEEM, www.teem.org.uk which is a DfES supported company who evaluate digital content. Hope that helps navigate you through the torrent of information, if not the giant maze which is BETT. If you would like to know more about the Laptops for Teachers scheme please look at http://lft.ngfl.gov.uk Or ring the helpline on 0870 241 4679. FutureLab Needs YOU! I also met up with Steven from Nesta's FutureLab project. Launched in December last year, their declared aim is to do for educational software what Lara Croft did for triangular Tshirts, or something like that. If you have any ideas for innovative and very engaging digital educational content, and you would like funding to take it from pipedream to prototype, take a look at their Call for Ideas page on the Nesta website. You too could have your own stand at BETT in a couple of years time! Science Trail at BETT Another way not to feel overwhelmed at BETT is to pick up the special map leaflet for the Science Trail at the entrance and glide smoothly round the stands most appropriate for Science Teachers. All tailor made to ease your day. Aren't we great? Website Update Only the first proper week back in the New Year and already we have new and exciting stuff for you on www.scienceyear.com - for example Nightsky. If you are an insomniac with or without a telescope get a few hints on what to look out for in the heavens. This is in the Out There section. On the software page in Sci-Teach the January Software is ready and at your disposal, and the ASE's 'Is there life' is now also available in the Sci-Teach section. Science Teaching Award If you've been mulling over whether or not to nominate a brilliant science teacher you know for the Teaching Awards then mull no more! Just go to www.teachingawards.com and complete the eeeeeeasy registration form. This is the only year BP are sponsoring the special BP Award for Science Year, so go on, get nominating. Apart from the kudos of the award itself, the teacher also wins a staggering amount of cash for their school. Curriculum Review Plug School Science reality check! Many ASE delegates were hoping to get the inside story on the forthcoming the 14-19 curriculum consultation. We are already beginning to see greater flexibility in Science with the introduction of the vocational GCSE and also the QCA\York project to develop a GCSE with a greater emphasis on scientific literacy. In the light of this we are really looking forward to seeing the results of Science Year's young people's curriculum survey, please make sure that you check it out, or if you are a teacher, get your students to complete the survey at www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/review/ Interstices They may sound like small bones in the foot, but interstices are in fact the tiny films that go inbetween television programmes, and it just so happens that Science Year are running a competition to find a talent bucket to make the sixth of the five Science Year Interstices that are already running. The minimovies are 20 seconds long and feature a fun experiment, the result of which is an encouragement to 'Put Your Teacher On The Spot!' to explain all. We want loads of entries so click here to check it out. OK. Cut! That's a wrap! It's Never too Late..... .....to fall in love, or too early to start preparing for Science Week which starts March 8th. Science Week is going to be even bigger than ever this year to celebrate Science Year. It is co-ordinated by the BA and they will encourage you, help source funding for your event, offer free resources and activity ideas, and give you advice about organising and publicising your event. Register online at www.the-ba.net or you can ring the hotline on 020 7973 3062 and you will be sent the Sixty Second Science challenge pack, which is full of short curriculum based activities for all ages, and a plethora of ideas for running your event. You can't say fairer than that can you? Ahoy South West Teachers! January 2002 launches a brand new idea for the South West region - and invites Teachers everywhere to make a New Year resolution to focus on their own learning needs! Located at the Westpoint Centre in Exeter on the 31st January and 1st February, this major Event will be dedicated to the South West education profession and is the first of its kind to be organised jointly by Educational Exhibitions and the NAHT. It beckons Education Managers, Advisors, Governors, Head teachers, Teachers, Teaching assistants, Trainee teachers and other education professionals from across the entire region to start the New Year with some serious learning activities for themselves! It even features our very own Science Year Director, Nigel Paine, who is speaking on the 1st Feb. Almost 40 professional development seminars and 100 exhibitor stands offer visitors attending new experiences and vital information about the future developments in education for the region. Exhibition: Entrance to the Exhibition is free. Contact details for readers requiring more information about the Event, the Exhibition and how to book advance seminar places please contact Education Exhibitions at edex@educational-exhibitions.com or telephone 0208 445 1757. Brochures giving details about the individual seminars and special offers are available upon request. Beautiful Science Thing Gallery Have you ever been amazed at the beauty of Science? Have you ever spilled a flask of goo on a bench and accidentally created Whistler's Mother only better? Have your experiments gone wrong, but left a residue so gorgeous that you've wanted to frame the result? Back in Australia, Science Year's own Bobby Cerini once took over a downtown art gallery and displayed the accidental results of a physics project that involved firing electrons through gold. Where the electrons hit a plate at the other side, gold patterns of lovely randomness formed and apparently were a big hit with the art punters of Melbourne. Well you cats, let's see what we can conjure up for the Science Year Virtual Art Gallery. To qualify, your picture will need to be a scan or digital photo of an accidental artwork, or your own arty photo of a beautiful accidental science created image that you have noticed. Please no hilarious 'That's Life' misshapen vegetable experiments, or anything you have created on purpose as an artwork. There's no prize or anything, this is science-art for science-art's sake! Please send your picture digitally, in the maximum size of 800 x 600 pixels - can be either portrait or landscape orientation, 72 or 92 dpi (resolution / dots per inch) and JPEG format only please. Please send your name if you would like credit, a title and/or short explanation too! To: sarah@telepathy.co.uk Quizzical Results Unbelievably, and for the first time, NO-ONE, not one single entrant got all the answers right to our Festive Digestive. Too stuffed full of seasonal fare to think straight were you? Was it the tasteful question about farts that had you foxed? Oh no! I'm turning into Anne Robinson, you are all the weakest....aggh! And breath.....well, don't worry about it for one more second, because though there were no 100% wins there were three very creditable 80% winners, namely Runny Nose [sic] Age 21 (old enough to wield a hanky I would have thought), Adam Motraghi Age 13, and Alison How. Now all of you should go to the quiz archive page on our website and look up the right answers! They win a selection of three 'Hotpackmeals', self heating grub as used by all the best location crews and Fire Rescue Departments.......which leads me seamlessly on to the Next Quiz which is all about FIRE. Our Quiz setters have surpassed themselves this time with many a cheeky red herring - and let's hope that this time for the Fire Quiz you aren't all FLAMING IDIOTS! ....and breath.....(note to self: must lay off the henna and stop winking). Your prizes? Nothing less than 6 state of the art, super tech Smoke detectors called Fire Angels. Click here for more information about them. Good luck and may the best pyromaniac win! Question of the Week Before she left us for OZ, Anne thought of this question to go with the Festive Digestive Quiz. She was inspired by my intense dislike of Bananas, which I felt I had to fight through to benefit from the uniquely nutritious slimy yellow things. If you look very hard into your screen now you will just be able to make out my great big smile on reading Science Line's answer! Question: Should you eat food you don't like? e.g. should Katie Walsh our web assistant force herself to eat bananas 'because I know they're good for me' even though she can't stand them - or are her tastebuds + guts telling her that bananas cause some sort of probs and are NOT good for her body for some reason. For the answer click here PHEW! You too can feel the balmy influence of scientific truth on your life. If you have a question, it can be answered absolutely free by contacting Science Line on 0808 800 4000 (open 1pm - 7pm weekdays) and the website is www.sciencenet.org.uk. Mnemonics Sue Kay wrote to say: "I've enjoyed the mnemonics in the last two newsletters, but wonder if anyone has a good one for the waves of the electromagnetic spectrum? I've tried to make one up several times, but I always forget it afterwards. Someone must know a really memorable one!" Sounds like a challenge to me.....well, the electro-magnetic spectrum: Gamma-ray, X-ray, Ultra-violet, Visible (or Optical), Infra-red, Sub-millimeter, Radio Makes: G X U V I S R or G X U O I S R For gluttons for punishment, break the ultraviolet up into the Extreme UV, the Far UV, and the Near-UV, and break the Infra-red into the Near-IR and Far-IR. The full sequence then becomes G X E F N O N F S R, which would be a long mnemonic or a short novel depending on artistic merit. Personally I need a mnemonic to remember how to spell nmnenomic, if you see what I mean, but good luck to all you wordsmiths willing to give this one a go! Recommended Website of the Week Neanderthal Nosh Turns out that our ancient forbears, if they didn't get crushed in an ancient bison stampede, would have been very healthy happy specimens of protohumanity. With no processed food, no sugar, not much saturated fat and a very high fibre diet, they wouldn't have been plagued with heart disease, diabetes and cancer like we are today. I think I'll have a salad tonight......to read more about them click here. How do we know about ancient diets? Apparently it's all in the hair! Click here for more. If you want to find out more about prehistoric grub, here's a page of handy links from About. Now, I think I'm off clubbing later - if I can find my club that is...... Joke Section And many, many thanks to Peter Hill of The Romsey School who sent this joke from his brilliant Year 9 group: "We have just thought of the name of the next element to be discovered - it has got to be Nellie!" Peter added that "though at the time it seemed quite funny, I'm not sure it qualifies as a joke!" Peter please! Have you not been reading the Joke section? A lollipop stick with only Walls Mivi written on it would qualify. Anyway - this next is a car game really, so feel free to play it on your next long journey, it goes like this: Person 1: I'm in business! Everyone else: What kind of business? Person 1: (e.g.) The small metal ball industry! Everyone else: How's business? Person 1: (e.g.) Bearing up!! That's the format, a science version might be: Person 1: I'm in business! Everyone else: What kind of Business? Person 1: Preparing the particles at CERN Everyone else: How's Business? Person 1: Going down the tubes!! And repeat for as long as you can stand it! NOW..... Light applause. Drum Roll. Heavy applause, whistling, cheering and stamping of feet. Yes, Ladies and Gentlemen go wild and crazy for Director of Curriculum Support at the Association for Science Education, ASE's Science Year Project Overseer, AND this week's Science Year Guest Writer, I give you Daniel Sanford Smith!!! The first newsletter of the year, and my first (hence the less reader friendly style!) but definitely not the first of Science Year! Any of you who were at the ASE Annual Meeting in Liverpool will have been able to see how much has already happened in Science Year - here's hoping Science Year continues to get bigger and better as the year continues. Liver-Science Annual Meeting Report 3rd to 5th January 2002 Over 3000 intrepid delegates at the ASE Annual Meeting in Liverpool braved the near arctic conditions to explore a huge variety of lectures, discussions and workshops. This year the meeting was held during the school holidays. For future events the ASE's Director of Conferences would like to know whether holiday or term time dates are preferable, and, if the latter, what inducements are required to persuade schools to release teachers as part of their continuing professional development. Please send comments to Belinda Blakeney at belindablakeney@ase.org.uk Read My Lips A first for the Annual Meeting was the use of a signer by a deaf teacher who was attending the sessions on science and inclusion. This is part of the ASE/NASEN project on Science and Special Needs. If you are interested in being involved in this project please contact Adrian Fenton at adrianfenton@ase.org.uk. Biotech Biz Another interesting initiative launched at Liverpool was the Pfizer/Biorad Biotechnology Project, which is providing equipment to enable trainee teachers to carry out the latest biotechnology experiments. Combined with the NCBE biotechnology kits being made available to schools, this project should ensure that one of the lasting outcomes from Science Year will be some really exciting and up to date practical work in schools. Keep an eye on the Science Year Website for futher details. Creating Sparks Talking of Trainee Teachers the ASE is running a competition for this group. Have you created a lesson with the WOW factor or do you know of a trainee teacher who has? Then why not share it through the ASE? The winning entries will be published on Science Year CDs, others will be shared through the ASE website. All entrants will receive a certificate for use in personal profiles. For further details please contact Jenifer Burden jenifer.burden@scienceyear.com Please enter or persuade a trainee teacher in your institution to enter. Rom Register By now all maintained secondary schools should have received the second of the ASE Science Year CD Roms - Is there Life? Over 750 schools have registered to receive the third CD, due to come out in late March. If you haven't registered yet please make sure you register by telephoning ASE Booksales 01707 283001 or by sending an email to jenifer.burden@scienceyear.com. Please include some feedback about what has and what hasn't worked on any email. Jenifer is still keen to hear from people who would like to help. As the next CD is due to come out shortly before the SATS we plan to include some tools to make revision more fun, so if you have any ideas or resources that you are prepared to share please let us know. We are also on the look out for people who would like to be involved in producing guidance and materials for ICT activities in Science. The idea is to try and find some new ways of using the technology to help make science lessons more exciting. If you have ideas about how you can use digital cameras/microscopes, scanners, interactive whiteboards etc, please get in touch. ASE New Year Sale! If you have ever thought about joining ASE but never quite got round to it, then now is the time to do it. To celebrate Science Year, ASE is offering reduced membership prices to new members. What do you get for your money? ASE members are part of a national network of teachers, advisers, lecturers, technicians and trainee teachers working together to provide a unique service, including advice and guidance, a full range of journals and other resources, specialist publications and a mail-order bookselling service, local meetings and national conferences, inservice training and continuing professional development, as well as free indemnity insurance and half price subscription to New Scientist. For details of the membership offers available contact the Membership department at ASE on 01707 283000 or email membership@ase.org.uk. Chemistry INSET and more There is a great deal happening at the Royal Society for Chemistry during Science Year. As well as courses for teachers on management and modern instrument techniques, there will be university summer schools. For further information on these events, please contact Ms L Hart, tel. 020 7440 3350; email hartl@rsc.org The RSC also employs a teacher fellow every year. This year Vanessa Barker will be producing materials for teaching contemporary issues in chemistry to 11-16 year olds. The final product will include practical experiments, discussion materials and other activities, based on a series of themes relating chemistry to everyday life experiences. Teachers are invited to participate by testing materials in schools and promoting discussion of the relevance of the topics selected with their students. If you have ideas for contemporary science issues or if you would like to trial any of the material please contact Dr Maria Pack in the RSC Education Department, tel: 020 7437 8656; email packm@rsc.org. Industrial Strength Project Standardbase is a three year project aimed at producing a database of industrial and commercial standard analytical procedures for quality control that can be used on vocational courses in European schools and colleges. 4Science are looking for institutions where staff could try out and adapt standard industrial procedure for use with advanced level students. If you are interested contact Dr Ken Gadd at ken@4science.org.uk. Incredible Journey Most of you will have seen the PPARC poster, Is there Life Out There. A second poster, Dream Journey into the Atom, is now available, as either an A2 poster or a set of 15 smaller posters. To order your copy contact the Public Understanding of Science Team on 01793 442123 or pr.pus@pparc.ac.uk Well, that's it from me, but before I go I'd like to wish you a very Happy New Year from all the ASE team. A thousand thanks Daniel - Next Week, your newsletter is brought to you by Jill Nelson of the BA; I hope you've enjoyed the double act this week! As ever if you would like to communicate your thoughts please use the old anne.mcnaught@scienceyear.com as this is the more trustworthy of our two email addresses. Bye then! Katie