"Great job so far gang! And there's still more exciting stuff to do!" _____________________________________________________ UBC Let's Talk Science Partnership Program E-Newsletter vol. 8, issue 5 March 2005 ______________________________________________________ In this issue: - Volunteer of the Month - Volunteer Appreciation Night! - Science Fair Judging - Need help with an activity? - Need an idea for an activity? - Science 101 Opportunities - 2nd University Bookstore Family Fun Day - Aboriginal Student Summer Camp - GSS Saturday Science Day - UBC TREK Learning Exchange Mini-School Project - Reading Week - Class Visits - New Supplies @ LTS - Science Joke of the Month ______________________________________________________ February's Volunteer of the Month is: Rebecca Goulding!!!!! Rebecca spent 4 intense days (and countless prep hours!) over Reading Week working with Lyndy McMurchy's grade 6/7 class from Seymour Elementary. Rebecca was invaluable to the project, providing fabulous hands-on activities, insightful commentary during group discussions and lots of laughs! In addition, Rebecca helped out at the Windermere Science Fair. Way to go Rebecca! ______________________________________________________ Volunteer Appreciation Night! You guys have been doing a great job! We'd like to recognize all the hard work you've been putting in and have a Volunteer Appreciation Night March 29th at 6pm at Koerner's pub. It's a great opportunity to meet some of your fellow LTS volunteers, chat about what we've all been up to and eat some free pizza! Please RSVP by email by Friday, March 25th. ______________________________________________________ Science Fairs -- Three to go! And now that three has been made the magic number, remember that for judging three science fairs, you get a $20 Gift Certificate at the UBC Bookstore! Sign up now for the final three! School: Lord Nelson Elementary Date: March 17th, 2005 Time: 4-7 p.m. Greater Vancouver 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 the last two science fairs (the GVRSF and the CWSF), I 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? ______________________________________________________ Need help with an activity? Or would you like to help someone else with an activity? Email LTS and let us know! There are a couple of volunteers without teachers who would love to help someone out with an activity. A number of single volunteers have said they would have liked to have a classroom helper--if this sounds like something that you're interested in please contact us! ______________________________________________________ Need an idea for an activity? Be sure to check out the "Activities" section of our website. Activities are added as new visit reports are received and recent additions include: -The Growth & Tranmission of Germs (including culturing bacteria and using UV light/UV dye to simulate the transmission of germs) by Catherine Dunn & Rebecca Goulding -DNA PowerPoint (including extracting DNA, building candy DNA models and a crimesolving activity) by Sara Harbord -Playdough Pig Genetics and a Natural Selection Game by Samuel Chang, David Kent & Marta Szabat -an Ecosystem Game and Pacific Spirit Regional Park field trip handouts by Tanya Seebacher and Shannon Ripley -The Magic Blue Bottle (demonstration of a redox reaction) by Lauren Scott -Electricity activities by both Jim Cooke and Beth Simpson Check out all of our activity ideas online at http://www.gss.ubc.ca/LTS/activities.html ______________________________________________________ Science 101 Opportunities Briefly, Science 101 is a multidisciplinary science course offered by the UBC Faculty of Science to residents of Vancouver's Downtown Eastside. Currently, they are recruiting volunteers, both UBC professors and graduate students, to lecture and/or tutor for the program. If you are interested in doing some work in the downtown eastside, this might be your calling, let Dave know if you are interested. ______________________________________________________ 2nd UBC Bookstore Family Fun Day After the very successful Healthy Heart Demonstration performed by Linda Hanson and David Kent last month, the UBC Bookstore has asked us back to help out with the next Family Day entitled ???Nature All Around Us??? on Saturday April 9th from 12-2PM. There will be on-going, hands on display by the Richmond Nature Park and they would like some of our volunteers on hand to talk to the kids (about 20-25 of them) about Nature and its relationship to humans. Please let Dave know ASAP if you are interested in helping out. Also, there is wind of a Harry Potter event at the UBC Bookstore on the release of the new book this summer -- more to come! ______________________________________________________ Aboriginal Student Summer Camp I've had interest from a few people concerning the camp this summer and it looks amazing so far! The camp will run from August 8th to 19th and we are still looking for as much help as we can get. Your commitment can range from a single morning or afternoon lecture to a whole two weeks of mentorship! The urban Aboriginal community continues to be one of the most undersupported groups in Vancouver, let's see what we can do to offer some inspiration! ______________________________________________________ GSS Saturday Science Day Alfredo and Karen have joined forces with Dave and GSS admin (Yashar and Satya) to coordinate the first ever GSS Saturday Science Day on April 23rd (we think anyway!). We're still in the very early planning stages, so if you're still interested in helping to plan it, or in helping out on the actual day, it'll only be two hours on a Saturday morning showing some fun science to the children of your peers! ______________________________________________________ UBC TREK Learning Exchange Mini-School is also going full steam ahead. Derrick, Lisa, Katriina, and Dave have completed the first of four visits to two classrooms at Laura Secord Elementary in East Vancouver. The first day was all about the scientific method and experimental design with a demo on DNA extraction. The students are really motivated and the mini-school project will culminate in a super-fantastic science fair in late April! ______________________________________________________ Reading Week The TREK Reading Week Project was a resounding success! Erika Eliason and Rebecca Goulding joined 14 undergraduate volunteers for 3 intensive days of field trips, hands-on activities, demonstrations and workshops. Highlights included playing with UV sensitive ink, checking out the sea turtles, emus and alligators at Dave Jones's lab, extracting DNA from wheat germ and making water wheels from egg cartons. The opportunity to spend a concentrated amount of time with the Seymour Elementary students allowed the volunteers to create meaningful relationships with the students that most partnerships don't permit. It was a memorable experience for everyone involved! ______________________________________________________ Class Visits Justin Bourne, Chad Petersmeyer, Cathy Safadi did a demo and hands on experiment on hydrogeology with their grade 7 class at General Wolfe Elementary. Grace Lam and Ron Do discussed pH and used cabbage as a pH indicator with their grade 3 class at Tillicum Community Annex. Shannon Ripley, Tanya Seebacher went on a forestry field trip to Pacific Spirit Park with their grade 4 class from General Brock Elementary. David Kent, Samuel Chang, Martya Szabat looked at Mendelian Genetics using Playdo pigs with students from the University Transition Program. Lauren Enright studied C.elegans chemotaxin using sodium chloride with students from Graham Bruce Elementary. Erika Eliason and Melinda Driver talked about energy and made pinwheels with their grade 6/7 class at Mt Pleasant Elementary. Erika Eliason and Rebecca Goulding along with 14 undergraduate students spent 3 days over Reading Week with a grade 6/7 class at Seymour Elementary and studied things like health and bacteria, DNA and energy. Lisa McDonnell and Heather Coleman did some chemistry activities with their grade 8 class from Briannia Community and looked at acidic breath, homemade pH indicator, carbon snake and a polymerization demo. Barbara Gajda did an experiment looking at air pollution and biomonitoring species using lichen growth with her grade 7 class from Simon Fraser Elementary. Barbara Lelj did a chemistry and physics activity with her grade 3 class. Derrick Randall did two activities with his class from Our Lady of Perpetual Help. They looked built miniature ecosystems and discussed niches and also compared calories in different foods. Sara Harbord made DNA out of candy, extracted DNA from onions and did a CSI-style case with her grade 6/7 class from Stratford Hall. Erin Drew, Jeff Duenas looked at how shape, force and friction affects motion with their grade 1 class from Quilchena. Cheryl Martin attended student presentations from her grade 5,6,7 class at Sir William Osler Elementary. Beth Simpson and David Kent explored circuits and electricity with their grade 3/4 class from Lord Beaconsfield Elementary. Mona Wu and Arefeh Arouhi did an activity on volcanoes with students from Charles Dickens Annex. Susan Dean discussed rainforests and made anteaters with her grade 2/3 class from Queen Elizabeth Annex. 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! ______________________________________________________ New Supplies @ LTS We now have a complete class set of electric circuit supplies including batteries, wires with alligator clips, light bulbs, bulb holders (and even a few switches and buzzers). If you'd like to borrow these for a class visit, just send us an email. To check out all the supplies we have to lend out, check out http://www.gss.ubc.ca/LTS/lts_resources.html ______________________________________________________ Science Joke of the Month A biologist phones his wife from his office and says, "Honey, something has just come up, I realize it's not my field season, but I have to visit my field site for a week. So, would you pack my clothes, my field equipment and my blue silk pajamas? I'll be home in 1 hour to pick them up." A week later he returned. "Did you have a good trip, dear?" his wife asked. "Oh, it was just a typical field trip, you know, work, work, work," he exclaimed, and added "But you forgot to pack my blue silk pajamas." "No I didn't," she replied. "I put them in the box with the field equipment!" _____________________________________________________