Randomised Friday 6th February 2009 Issue 22
How very Random (ised)! Snowed up completely. What fun - for penguins and polar bears that is. Oh alright - and for you too!
- Planet Picks - Come and visit us!
- Planet Super Powers
- Gear Giveaway - Evolution Revolution book
- Over 2U! - Frosty the Snowman
- Winners - A desktop clock/calendar
|
|
1. Planet Picks - Come and visit us!
Planet Science Show and Tell, 20th Feb
In case you are in London, (or fancy being in London), in half term, we're planning an event at PS HQ NESTA. There is room for more, so we'd like to extend the invite to Randomisers this week and invite you, with your favourite adult of course.
We are also inviting people from organisations with a science bent to come and meet you, young people who use and like Planet Science. We'd love you to sit with the other guests and show them games you like to play, interactive that have grabbed you, bits of the newsletters you like, films you like on SciCast, in short, to tell them what the site means to you - good or bad. There won't be any standing up in front of everyone or anything like that, it'll be small groups around tables.
The reason for this event will be revealed shortly.
All this will be in Half Term on Friday 20th, from 1pm. We will provide a slap up lunch, and tea and nice biscuits in the afternoon, you'll be free to go from 4.30pm. We'll reimburse you (and your adult) for your travel to and from (and within) London, (even if you stay longer than just Friday), and to say thank you you'll get £50 worth of M&S vouchers or iTunes Vouchers, (your choice).
If you, or someone you know, is interested please write to PS Editor
katie.walsh@nesta.org.uk with PS Show and Tell in the subject line by Wednesday 11th, including a short paragraph outlining what you'd show and tell the other guests. We'll get back to you as soon as possible after that with details (If there are too many people from this invite we'll need to sort out the best combination of Show and Tell subjects as there will be a limit on space.)
>>> Back to top
2.Planet Picks - Planet-Super-Cast-Quiz
>>> Back to top
3. Gear Giveaway - You’ve got to be in it to win it...
To coincide with the 200th anniversary of Charles Darwin, and the 150th anniversary of Darwin's ground-breaking On the Origin of Species, Dorling Kindersley are happy to announce their new book The Evolution Revolution.
Join Robert Winston for an amazing look at the story of evolutionary science. Explore lands of fire, meet curious creatures, and peer into the future, as you follow Darwin on his epic voyage in search of the origins of species.
View the 3 minute video overview of Robert talking about evolution.
And those wonderful folks at DK have given us a copy to give away! So remember - in this case, it’s survival of the fastest - get emailing quick with your name and address, and the words ‘EVOLUTION’ in the subject line, to randomised.news@nesta.org.uk
The draw will take place at 5pm on Wednesday 18th February.
>>> Back to top
4. Over 2U! - Science experiments for you to try at home...
Grow Your Own Snowman
You will need:
1. An adult to help with this
2. Cardboard tube from kitchen roll or toilet roll
3. Felt tip pen
4. Scissors
5. Salt
6. Teaspoon
7. Cup
8. Shallow dish or saucer
What to do:
1. Draw a snowman outline on one side of the cardboard tube. (If using a kitchen roll tube cut it in half first so that it’s shorter - after all, who makes a tall thin snowman?)
2. Cut around the outline of the top of the snowman making sure that you leave a thin circle of cardboard at the base of the tube. i.e. leave the base intact so that the snowman is supported but from the front you should see a snowman shape. (Be careful when using scissors)
3. Pour 100ml of warm water into a cup. (A tablespoon is about 15ml)
4. Add a teaspoonful of salt and stir till dissolved.
5. Continue adding salt in this way until no more will dissolve and you have some salt left at the bottom of the cup. This is known as a saturated solution.
6. Pour the solution into a shallow dish or saucer and stand the snowman in it.
7. The solution should slowly start to rise up the cardboard. Now leave the whole set-up in a safe place for a few days.
What's happening?
The salt is dissolved in the water to form a saturated solution. As this solution starts to travel up the cardboard snowman the water evaporates leaving behind salt crystals. In time your snowman will look as if he is glistening! Behold Frosty the Snowman! As more salt solution travels through the cardboard it allows the small salt crystals to grow even bigger. You may have seen this effect in grow-crystal-tree kits. You could try this experiment with sugar instead of salt.
Now you are such an expert on crystal growing, try making a snowflake. Twist three pipe cleaners together to make a six-armed star. You need to tie cotton around one of the arms then suspend it in a jar full of a saturated solution of salt or sugar. Make sure that your star is fully immersed in the solution but not touching the bottom of the jar. Try adding food colouring to the solution if you’d like a coloured star. How pretty!
Got any ideas for an experiment or demo? Checkout Planet SciCast for inspiration!
>>> Back to top
5. Winners - Has your name been picked out of the bag?
Last time we were offering a desktop clock/calendar. The lucky winner is Connor Davis of Cowbridge. No excuse for oversleeping now Connor!
We hope you enjoyed them!
>>> Back to top
THAT'S ALL FOR NOW
You've been Randomised!
Send any questions, comments, jokes or experiment ideas to: randomised.news@nesta.org.uk
Bye for now!
