UBC Let's Talk Science Partnership Program E-Newsletter November 2005 volume 9, issue 1 ______________________________________________________ In this issue: - Volunteer of the Month - Volunteers Wanted -- Unpaired Teachers - Reading Week and Mini School Project Training Sessions - Rural visits - Gentle Reminder - Upcoming Events - Help Needed! - Professional Development and Volunteer Meet and Greet - Joke of the month _____________________________________________________ Volunteer of the Month Congratulations to Seth Gilchrist!!! Seth led a team of volunteers out to Langley's Science and Nature Company to deliver two fantastic activities -- one on column building (where there was some serious MacGyver action on our set-up and a fine competition with prizes from the store) and a second circuit building activity that culminated in a 10 year old kid breaching protocol and setting up three-way parallel and series circuits controlled by switches!!! Major thanks go out to Jessica and Hemanth who also helped out a tonne at the event and were rewarded with Orange Julius'. _____________________________________________________ Volunteers Wanted -- Unpaired Teachers Are you interested in taking on another teacher partner? We still have some teachers without volunteers and we would like to get them paired up with volunteers if possible. Of note, we have a few teachers from outside of Vancouver, so if you are interested in working with any of the following teachers, please let us know! -A grade 2/3 teacher in COQUITLAM would like someone to conduct activities about "matter, stars and planets, and plant growth and changes." -A grade 3 teacher in SURREY would like someone to conduct activities about "engineering, environment, earth science, architecture/engineering/structures, or plants & space science." -A grade 4/5 teacher in WEST VANCOUVER would like someone to conduct activities about "chemistry." _____________________________________________________ Reading Week and Mini School Project Training Sessions: All volunteers who expressed an interest in Mini School or Reading Week will be receiving an email about a training session to take place in the upcoming weeks - attendance will be mandatory for participation in either project. ______________________________________________________ Rural Visits: Visits to Gold River (Vancouver Island) and Castlegar (Kootenays) are being planned for this term - volunteers who indicated interest at training sessions will be emailed about these activities and past volunteers are encouraged to indicate their interest in participating by sending us a quick email. Other visits currently on the agenda are: Osoyoos/Oliver (Okanagan Valley), Houston (Northern BC), Pemberton/Whistler/Squamish, and Kelowna. Please also let us know if you have strong contacts in any of these areas (or others in rural BC) ****This just in!**** We are hoping to plan a trip to Castlegar for November 14th and 15th. We realize this is super short notice, but if you are interested please email us ASAP! This is a great opportunity to see other parts of BC and spread the LTS love around. ______________________________________________________ Gentle Reminder Please email us to let us know that you've contacted your teacher and fill in a Volunteer Evaluation Form once you've completed an activity. ______________________________________________________ Upcoming Events - Help Needed! Girl Guides Sparks Workshop - Nobody has offered to take up the offer to travel to White Rock/South Surrey to deliver the CSI Chocolate Bar Workshop on Weds. Nov 16 from 6:30 to 7:30 pm, so unless someone jumps at the opportunity, we'll be sending the prepared activity out to them (minus the grad student). Please let us know if you are interested in accompanying the kit! Langley Science and Nature Co - This Saturday Nov 5th, Alfredo Franco Cea has planned a chemistry magic show demo and we need some folks to help him out with this - you don't need to be a chemist to participate! We have one brave volunteer so far (Anna Machala) and would like to have a couple more - I did a similar activity with Alfredo this summer and it was a BLAST! GSS Saturday Science Day - Growth and Spread of Germs Theresa Liao and Anson Chan have kindly agreed to run a variation of the Growth and Spread of Germs Workshop on our website. It involves some cool experiments with the Crazy orange goo that is only visible under UV light (we’ve all seen it in the biosafety demos... right?). It'll be easy and fun, so please let us know if you can come! ______________________________________________________ Professional Development and Volunteer Meet and Greet Keep your eyes peeled for individual emails to come out on two Professional Development Days in the month of November. One workshop will be run by a graduate student in the faculty of education, while the other will be run by David Ng (Head of the Advanced Molecular Biology Laboratory at Michael Smith) Also, we'll be hosting a get-together for volunteers to get to meet up and be a little more social. We'll provide some refreshments at a local pub (maybe Koerners, maybe off campus)... so be ready to jump on some free bevvies! ______________________________________________________ Special Seminar by Nobel Laureate on Using Science Tools to Teach Science - NOVEMBER 21st ***Please let Let's Talk Science (lts@gss.ubc.ca) know if you will attend, and we can organize a meet-up and small chat afterwards for those interested*** The Institute for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning; the Offices of the Vice President Academic & Provost, Research, and Students; the Faculty of Science; and the Faculty of Education To A Very Special Event on the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning Monday, November 21st, 4:00 pm - 5:30 pm Life Sciences Centre, LSC-2 Lecture Theatre, 2350 Health Sciences Mall, UBC Wine and Cheese Reception to follow Dr. Carl Wieman, University of Colorado, Boulder Nobel Prize Winner in Physics, 2001 Will speak on: Science Education in the 21st Century: Using the tools of science to teach science* To register, visit www.tag.ubc.ca/programs/series-detail.php?series_id=178 ______________________________________________________ Joke of the Month The last words of a chemist: 1. And now the tasting test. 2. May that become hot? 3. And now a little bit from this... 4. ... and please keep that test tube alone! 5. And now shake it a bit. 6. Why is there no label on this bottle? 7. In which glass was my mineral water? 8. The bunschen burner *is* out! 9. Why does that stuff burn with a green flame?!? 10. *H* stands for Nitrogen - and that does *not* burn... 11. Oh, now I have spilt something... 12. First the acid, then the water... 13. And now the detonating gas problem. 14. This is a completely safe experimental setup. 15. Where did I put my gloves? 16. O no, wrong beaker... 17. The fire alarm is just being tested. 18. Now you can take the protection window away... 19. And now keep ith constat at 24 degrees celsius, 25... 26... 27... 20. Peter can you please help me. Peter!?! Peeeeeteeeeer?!?!?!? 21. I feel it how long 15 seconds are! 22. Something is wrong here... 23. Where do all those holes in my kettle come from? 24. Trust me - I know what I am doing. 25. And now a cigarette...