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SCIENCE YEAR NEWSLETTER - ISSUE 59 Week ending Friday, 22nd March 2002  It's here, it's here - spring is in the air. And that's official - the Equinox has been and gone so for the next several months our days will be longer than our nights ... and in just over a week's time Easter Eggs will be on mega-discount in the supermarket again. So not a bad time of the year at all. And meanwhile, on an (even) more frivolous note - what's gold, has a boy's name and can change lives (or at least showbiz careers)? An Oscar of course. The big night's on Sunday, when Oscar and his friends will be live on BBC2 from 1am ... so we thought a few movie-science related items might be appropriate. But meanwhile, in the category 'Most Informative Newsletter News This Week', the nominations are: THE CURRICULUM REVIEW You may remember that the Science Museum in London is currently involved in carrying out a Science Year-funded project called 'the Curriculum Review'. This potentially revolutionary educational initiative invites people who have recent experience of studying science at school to give structured feedback on what it was like - and more importantly, suggest ways in which they think school science could be improved. Ultimately it's hoped that the project will inspire valuable changes to the school curriculum.  On Wednesday, students had the opportunity to meet and discuss a range of curriculum-related issues with members of education related bodies including the exam boards, ASE and the QCA. They also presented their work to the Schools Minister Cathy Ashton, and gave formal evidence to the Science and Technology Select Committee, which is currently investigating the 14-19 curriculum. The day was a huge success - and you can read the BBC Online coverage of it here. And - if you're at a secondary school or sixth form college and haven't taken part in the survey yet, please do. The questionnaire is still live online, and we'd like to see as wide-ranging and representative a number of people taking part as possible. What's in it for you? Only the chance to influence how science is taught to future generations ... Oh - and everyone who takes part will be entered for a prize draw to win various prizes including IMAX tickets and digital microscopes. It takes about 10 minutes to complete, so click now to: http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/review. > top WRESTLE WITH REPTILES  And from the curriculum, to the croc-ulum. If you're a regular viewer of the National Geographic Channel, you'll know all about their resident herpetologist - or 'croc doc' - Dr Brady Barr. Dr Barr is a courageous hunky figure of a man who knows all about identification, tracking and humane capturing of our reptilian friends.On-screen he travels the world and reaches the parts other croc docs can't normally reach... And on the Science Year website now, you'll find him popping up cartoon-style to challenge you with a couple of games to test your own reptilian reactions...  The first is 'Crocs & Logs', and the second is 'Cobra Fest'. They're both easy enough to figure out, and each is accompanied by hideously catchy music and sound FX you have been warned. But as an extra tip, if you're not so hot on mouse control we suggest you try Cobra Fest first because it would appear to be a danged flippin' site easier!! But that's just a personal opinion.... AND FLY TO FLORIDA When you've done with the crocs & cobras, why not enter our joint competition to win a family trip to Florida - or a class outing to the London Aquarium. And you really should - you know those very very easy multiple choice questions they do on GMTV? Well this question is even easier - so do not delay! > top THE ENERGY INITIATIVE  Meanwhile, this week's Science Year creative challenge is supported by that innovative provider of home services, npower. Using nothing but your own inspiration, your mission should you choose to accept it, is to create a Sustainable Science Year Energy slogan. Not only will the winning slogan be put to good use later on in the Year, but the winners themselves will get to fly high above the countryside in the spectacular npower Hot Air Balloon without a care in the world! And runners up will receive prizes of personal CD players plus some great education resources. To get yourself into the running, here's what you need to know: Jackie Jones has won the lottery and has a bright idea - to start a new renewable energy company and help rid the UK of all its energy woes. The new company will be lean and green, dealing in all the major renewables - wind, water, geothermal and solar power. There's just one problem though. She doesn't know how to sell the energy the company will make, for people don't realise renewable energy is an option. Help Science Year to help Jackie out - devise a slogan, in less than 30 words, that gives a strong and positive message about renewable energy and helps people sign up to the scheme. Entries should be sent to: ideas@scienceyear.com by 5pm on Friday, April 5th. The subject header should read "Energy". Please include your name, age and contact details. For more details, visit the Wired section of the Science Year website soon. You can also visit npower and find out more about their free resources at http://www.npower com . > top WHAT'S DIET GOT TO DO WITH IT? If you're a teacher, here's a reminder about another resource that's been developed for Science Year - and is yours for the asking.  Marks & Spencer have developed a teaching pack and survey about diet and health for children aged 11-14. The project's called 'Are you what you eat?' and it's been developed to support the curriculum requirements for this age group in England, Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland.The free resource pack includes activity cards, information sheets, teachers notes, poster and the 'Are you what you eat?' survey form itself. As with the Curriculum Review, someone somewhere has decided that a little bit of extra incentivising might not go astray, so as well as giving away free packs, they're also offering participants the chance to win £1,000 for your school. You can order the pack by calling the helpline on 01634 729833 or by visiting the website at www.marksandspencer.com/schoolsciencesurvey where you'll also find a downloadable copy of the questionnaire. > top CALLING ALL SCIENCE CLUBS IN THE SHEFFIELD AREA - or beyond The Kelham Island Industrial Museum in Sheffield is running events especially for science clubs - and they want to hear from you if you think you'd like to come along. Their next event takes place in mid-April (on the 15th/16th) and will have a distinctly spacey theme... Graham Dolan from the Royal Greenwich Observatory will be reaching for the heavens in his talk about astronomy, and there will be other space-related activities on the go too. If you are involved in a science club in or around Sheffield and would be interested in taking part in this event, or hearing about the rest of their packed science clubs programme please email Katy Armstrong at the Museum on: education@simt.co.uk. And if you're involved in a science club in another area and want to find out more about what's on offer for you - please contact Rosalind Mist (ros.mist@the-ba.net), the Project Manager for the Science and Discovery Clubs Network, or have a look at the BA's website at: http://www.the-ba.net and click through on Science Discovery Clubs Network. You can even join in on-line at http://www.think.com. > top ASSEMBLY IDEA - WHERE DO RAINBOWS COME FROM? This week's winner of the £25 book or CD voucher goes to Jo Lyal for her Cool School Idea for an assembly - and "science-magic" demonstration - about how rainbows are formed.  All you need to enthrall a whole hall-full of primary children are a few simple bits of equipment and one or two colleagues to act as your lovely assistants. And you'll be able to find all the instructions and a script for the whole assembly in the Cool School Ideas area of the Science Year website very soon. And Jo will be able to find the voucher in her postbox very soon too.Please keep those Cool School Science Ideas coming ... we have more vouchers to give out! > top BOB'S YOUR (FROZEN) UNCLE Going back to Sharon Ford's tip last week about using 'self-heating' and 'cooling' beauty packs to demonstrate exo and endothermic reactions to her class, Ian Parsons has a suggestion if you can't find such things at your local beauty counter. He says, "Try your nearest horse riding shop, they keep cooling packs for putting onto swollen bots of horse (I think) made in Lincoln and costing a couple of quid a time. Just squeeze them to mix the ingredients and bob's your (frozen) uncle. I also believe that some specialist outdoor suppliers do the same thing for heating you up in an emergency." Thank you Ian - and check it out! > top MICROSOFT XBOX WINNERS ANNOUNCED !! Following the successful launch of the Microsoft xbox across the nation last week, the time has come to reveal the winners of our highly-competitive, extremely creative Science Year Creative Games Challenge... You'll remember, the entrants had to complete the following sentence, "It was a cold winter's day and I was sitting around twiddling my thumbs. I was just deciding what to do when suddenly..." and incorporate six xbox-related words, all in just one paragraph. What a challenge! However, the quality of entries was x-tremely high, and we'd like the x-press our thanks to all who entered.  Sadly though, there can only be two winners - and they are...Patrick Randall, from Warden Park School in West Sussex and Ruth Norris from Bottisham Village College in Cambridge. Both are 13 years old and both excellent entries. CONGRATULATIONS! A member of the Science Year team will soon be visiting you to present the awesome x-box prizes. If you entered but didn't win, don't despair. You may still feature on the Science Year website, as the best of the short stories will be posted up soon in tribute to the nation's literary flair. > top SCIENCE LINE MOVIE QUESTIONS OF THE WEEK From the files of your local friendly free science-question answering service, we have two tantalisers for you - and the web addresses for the answers... Q. Would it be possible to run across the backs of alligators like they do in the movies? A. http://www.sciencenet.org.uk/database/Physics/ And still on the don't-try-this-at-home theme: Q. In the film Goldfinger, one of the women was painted in a non-porous paint which killed her. Would this really happen? A. http://www.sciencenet.org.uk/database/Biology/ If you have any other sciencey questions - movie related or otherwise, Science Line are standing by to find out the answers for you. You can give them a ring on 08008 800 4000 (Mon-Sat, 1-7pm), or go to their website at http://www.sciencenet.org.uk and type it in there... > top RECOMMENDED WEBSITE OF THE WEEK First of all, if you're into movie-stunts and science, a quick reminder of the BBC/Open University classic series 'Hollywood Science' in which Robert Llewellyn and Jonathan Hare investigated empirically the 'credibility rating' of the stunts in such films such as Speed, Die Hard and Ice Cold in Alex. The url with the lowdown on their experiments can be found at: http://www.open2.net/science/hollywood_science/ and good fun was evidently had by all - check it out! Meanwhile, if you'd like to find out about the science behind a movie screen - all the answers can be found at: http://www.howstuffworks.com/movie-screen.htm And if you liked that, and want to find out how movie SOUND works, you can scoot along to: http://www.howstuffworks.com/movie-sound.htm Oh... and just for fun - why not try the BBC's inspired 'Random Oscars Acceptance Speech Generator'? Just fill a few personal details and favoured speech mannerisms, hit 'submit' - and quicker than you can say 'I'd like to thank my agent', you'll be presented with your own personal award-winning speech... Quite amusing! (And while you're at the site, you can also hone your reactions re. unselfish delight / noble disappointment on hearing who's won. Another valuable skill for all nominees...) Here's the link: http://www.bbc.co.uk/choice/60seconds/oscars/fun.shtml > top JOKE OF THE WEEK A boy was crossing a road one day when a frog called out to him and said, "If you kiss me, I'll turn into a beautiful princess." He bent over, picked up the frog and put it in his pocket. The frog spoke up again and said, "If you kiss me and turn me back into a beautiful princess, I will stay with you for one week." The boy took the frog out of his pocket, smiled at it and returned it to his pocket.  The frog then cried out, "If you kiss me and turn me back into a princess, I'll stay with you and do ANYTHING you want." Again the boy took the frog out, smiled at it and put it back into his pocket. Finally, the frog asked, "What is the matter? I've told you I'm a beautiful princess, that I'll stay with you for a week and do anything you want. Why won't you kiss me?" The boy said, "Look I'm an engineer. I don't have time for a girlfriend, but a talking frog is cool." > top ANY OTHER BUSINESS As ever, we would love to hear from you if you have any valuable information, news, recommended websites or anything 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 Everything else - check out our website. And have a great week! > top  |