_____________________________________________________ UBC Let's Talk Science Partnership Program E-Newsletter vol. 8, issue 4 February 2005 ______________________________________________________ In this issue: - Class Visits - January’s Volunteer of the Month - Graduate Student Society “Saturday Science” Pilot Program - Aboriginal Students Summer Camp Planning - Science Fair Judging - Bookstore Certificates (UBC Bookstore, not Chapters!) - Greater Vancouver and Canada Wide Science Fairs - New Item to Borrow: Digital Camera! - Science Joke of the Month ______________________________________________________ Class Visits Lauren Scott and Bruce Rebner conducted a visit on Edible Sugar Crystals in their grade 3 class at Our Lady of Perpetual Help. Alison Wallace and John McDonough visited their grade 4 class at David Oppenheimer Elementary twice, making body maps to learn about the major internal organs. Rob Cameron conducted two visits with his grade 1,2,3 class at North Creek Montessori one exploring “How we breathe” using straws, pop bottle, balloons and plasticine and the other exploring the human senses, constructing model tongues with plasticene. Susan Dean and her grade 2/3 class at Queen Elizabeth Annex made fossils using plasticene, plaster of paris and plastic shell models. Karen Long and her grade 5/6 class at Simon Fraser Elementary explored static electricity. Lillian Ting and her grade 7 class at Our Lady of Perpetual Help discussed the scientific method, gave a short demo on floating eggs and then designed an experiment as a group. Cheryl Martin visited her grade 5/6/7class at Sir Osler Elementary twice, exploring Global Warming. Erika Eliason took a field trip to the Vancouver Aquarium, doing the marine mammals tour, with her grade 6/7 class at Seymour Elementary. Jim Cooke and his grade 4 class at Carnarvon Elementary class learned about electricity by using jelly beans to model protons & electrons and role-playing as electrons themselves! Contruction of model tongue, discussed human senses, various regions of the tongue, made models with plasticene. In the realm of Community Events: Beth Simpson and Lauren Scott were among presenters from several local science groups at the kickoff event for the new Vancouver chapter of the Canadian Association for Girls in Science (CAGIS), attended by over 100 children. Lauren had the kids sinking eggs in water, and floating eggs in salt water, to demonstrate the concept of density, and doing the “Magic Blue Bottle” experiment to demonstrate reversible chemical reactions. Beth brought the LTS microscopes with prepared slides, including blood smears, dog fleas and other gross things! Beth Simpson, Dave Kent and Erika Eliason attended the 2nd Annual Musqueam Invitational Post-Secondary Fair, where they discussed the science of nutrition, including a demonstration of the amount of sugar in soda pop and using a radish as an acid-base indicator. David Kent and Linda Hanson, in recognition of February being Heart Month, showed a heart model and played a "how your heart rate goes up and down game" with kids at the UBC Bookstore Community Day. Have you conducted an activity but you don't see your name here? That means we haven't received a visit evaluation form from you! Please take a few minutes to fill out the visit evaluation form (available to download or to fill out online at http://www.gss.ubc.ca/LTS/volunteers.html)! We would really appreciate it if everyone who has completed activities so far could get their reports in ASAP! ______________________________________________________ Volunteer of the Month - $20 Gift Certificate to Bookstore New for 2005 – You guys are working so hard that we’ve come up with a new volunteer appreciation initiative – we’re going to recognize an outstanding volunteer every month! The winner will be chosen based on activities conducted during the month and will receive a prize, have their name immortalized in the e-newsletter and on our website (and just think how snazzy “Volunteer of the Month” will look on your C.V.!). So, without further ado, the Volunteer of the Month for January 2005 is: LAUREN SCOTT! Lauren went above and beyond the call of duty in January by coming out to the Canadian Association for Girls In Science kickoff event, getting over 100 kids (not to mention parents and teachers in attendance) excited about science! Congratulations Lauren! Now, remember, in order to be eligible to be the Volunteer of the Month, you have to submit your Visit Evaluation Forms promptly – because we won’t know what outstanding things you have done unless you tell us! ______________________________________________________ Graduate Students Society (GSS) Saturday Science Day Did you know that almost 15% of grad students have kids? Dave has been speaking with the President of the GSS, Yashar Khaligi and has set the wheels in motion for a new pilot project aimed at giving graduate students with children the opportunity to come out and socialize while their kids learn! The first of the “Saturday Science Days” will take place in March or April, but really needs a motivated group of volunteers to help plan and run the event. The GSS has agreed to cover most (if not all!) the expenses attached to the event – all we have to do is develop about 2 hours worth of fun science activities. Let Dave know ASAP if you are interested in being involved with this event or in championing its organization! This will probably be the first of many such events if we make a good start! ______________________________________________________ Science Fairs are still under-judged! Science fair season is upon us! We have four school-level science fairs, as well as the Vancouver District Science fair looking for judges. Here are the details: School: Vancouver Technical Secondary Date: February 17, 2005 Time: 11 am to 4 pm School: Sir Charles Tupper Secondary Date: Feb. 22, 2005 Time: 1:30 and 3:30 pm Vancouver District Science Fair Location: Vancouver Technical Secondary Date: March 3rd, 2005 Time: 2-8pm Note: food will be provided for you! School: Lord Nelson Elementary Date: March 17th, 2005 Time: 4-7 p.m. So, if you are interested in judging at one or more of these science fairs, please let us know! Remember there is a $20 Gift Certificate at stake if you judge in three science fairs! Speaking of which, though… they’re now going to be from the UBC Bookstore instead of Chapters! However, if you were really banking on the Chapters one, let us know and we’ll go pick one up for you! ______________________________________________________ Greater Vancouver and Canada Wide Science Fairs Also, two really big science fairs are at UBC this year -- the Greater Vancouver Regional and Canada Wide Science Fairs: April 7 4:30 p.m. - 10:00 p.m. (Greater Vancouver Regional Science Fair) May 17 7:30 a.m. - 4:00 p.m. (Canada Wide Science Fair) May 18 7:30 a.m. - 3:30 p.m. (Canada Wide Science Fair) If you could answer the following for these two science fairs, we will forward it onto the judging coordinator: 1. Which division(s) would you like to judge in? biotechnology, earth and environmental sciences, engineering and computing sciences, health sciences, life sciences, and physical and mathematical sciences. 2. What is your general area(s) of specialty? 3. What is your highest post-secondary degree? 4. Are you fluent in French? _____________________________________________________ Aboriginal Student Summer Camp Dave is regularly meeting with Tim Michel, Science and AgSci’s Aboriginal Science Coordinator, to plan this summer’s Aboriginal Student Summer Camp. The Camp is set to take place during August month and NEEDS some volunteers! Right now, volunteers are needed on the planning end of things, and during the summer we’ll harass you to take part in running the activities! Once again, if you’re interested in planning this type of event, let Dave know ASAP. ______________________________________________________ UBC TREK Our Reading Week Project is in full swing this week and things are going great! The kids are fantastic and we’re in for a lot of surprises (we’re working with a grade 6/7 class that has 24 boys and 6 girls…yikes!). Day One was a success and the kids really loved swabbing “dirty” surfaces and “clean” surfaces for their Health and Bacteria activity. Rebecca Goulding did a wonderful job and there is lots more fun to come. If you are interested in volunteering in an inner city classroom, there are lots of opportunities out there! Please contact us for more information. ______________________________________________________ New Item to Borrow: Digital Camera! Want to take pictures of your class visit or other LTS event? We now have a digital camera (thanks to the UBC Bookstore’s donation!) that you can borrow for LTS events. Just send us an email if you want to borrow it! ______________________________________________________ Science Joke of the Month Three freshman-engineering students were sitting around talking between classes, when one brought up the question of who designed the human body. One of the students insisted that the human body must have been designed by an electrical engineer because of the perfection of the nerves and synapses. Another disagreed, and exclaimed that it had to have been a mechanical engineer who designed the human body. The system of levers and pulleys is ingenious. "No," the third student said, "you're both wrong. The human body was designed by an architect. Who else but an architect would have put a toxic waste line through a recreation area?"