_____________________________________________________ UBC Let's Talk Science Partnership Program E-Newsletter volume 9, issue 3 January 2006 ______________________________________________________ In this issue: - Volunteer of the Month - Stephen Lewis Talk - RSVPs needed - Science Fair Judges Needed! - UBC Health Sciences Bookstore Event - Healthy Heart Day - Rural visits - Help Needed! - Activity Reports - Win Canucks tickets! - Office Hours - Writing Contest - Win Cash! - XX Evening at Science World - Joke of the month _____________________________________________________ Volunteer of the Month - Dec 2005 Congratulations to Katie Dinelle!!! This is Katie's second year volunteering with the UBC LTS PP program. She has been an outstanding volunteer and did a super cool activity with her grade 6 class from Henry Hudson Elementary in December. Her class has been learning about extreme environments, and Katie took her class on a virtual tour of Mars, examining the difficulties of a human mission to mars. Great work Katie!!! As always, our volunteer of the month receives a $20 gift card at the UBC Bookstore. Enjoy! _____________________________________________________ Stephen Lewis Talk - RSVPs needed If you want us to pick up tickets for the Stephen Lewis talk on February 6th at 12 noon, you need to RSVP by midnight on Monday, January 23. (We can arrange a time for you to pickup your tickets from us before the day of the talk). _____________________________________________________ Science Fair Judges Needed! It's that time of year again -- Science Fairs are fast approaching and we need judges. As we did last year, we are offering a $20 UBC Bookstore gift card to any volunteer who judges at 3 or more science fairs. The science fairs we currently need judges for (and we expect more to crop up in the coming days) include: 1. Sir Charles Tupper Secondary - Thurs. Feb. 16 from 1:15-3pm 2. Vancouver Technical Secondary - Thurs. Feb. 16 from 11 am to 3 pm. Refreshments provided. 2. Windermere Secondary School - Thurs. Feb. 16 from 5-8:30 pm Judges get a free dinner at 5 pm, followed by a night of judging science fair projects from 5:45-8:30 pm. 3. Vancouver District Fair Sat. March 4th and will be held from 9 am to 3 pm. Helded at Vancouver Technical Secondary School. Refreshments provided. 4. Lifesong School - Thurs. April. 6 ~10 am to 12 pm. We are expecting to need judge for at least two more science fair events (Prince of Wales School Science Week and the Greater Vancouver Regional Science Fair -- details on these two events will follow when we get them). If you would like to volunteer for one or more of these events, please let us know as soon as possible! _____________________________________________________ UBC Health Sciences Bookstore Event - Healthy Heart Day We need some volunteers to help out with a half hour Healthy Heart activity to be held at the UBC Health Sciences Bookstore on Saturday February 11 from 1-1:30 pm. The event is aimed at kids and is intended to _____________________________________________________ Rural visits - Help Needed! We have two rural visits coming up in February for which we need volunteers. 1. Squamish - this one will be great for anyone wants to take part in rural visits, but can't spare several days -- at this location isn't too far away. 2. Interested in visiting somewhere a little more remote? Why not join the trip to Gold River on Vancouver Island? Rural visits are a great opportunity to see parts of BC that you might not otherwise get out too (all expenses paid!) and to provide provide science outreach to kids who may not otherwise have the chance to meet a real scientist. If you are interested in volunteering at either of these events, or if you would just like more information, contact us ASAP! _____________________________________________________ Activity Reports - Win Canucks tickets! Alrighty Team, in the effort to have every single visit conducted by our volunteers reported in an Activity Evaluation Form, we are holding a contest! For every COMPLETE Activity Evaluation Form submitted to us, we will enter you into a draw to win a pair of Canucks tickets for Monday, April 10th! Ideally, we'd like the report to be complete enough that another volunteer will feel confident trying to replicate the activity you have conducted. Louise Kuchel explored the solar system with her grade 2/3 class at Quilchena Elementary School. They made models of the sun and earth and wrote postcards to their families about what it would be like to travel to the sun! Lars Rose and Kendra Getty used the hovering globe, magnets, iron filings, compasses and fish (with paper clip noses) to discover magnets and matter with their grade 2 class from Quilchena Elementary School. Anne Dalziel and Tifenn Jeanniard Du Dot explored dirt with their primary class from North Creek Montessori using the "Dirt on dirt" activity found on the UBC LTS website (www.gss.ubc.ca/LTS/). Did you do an activity recently and don't see it listed here? Then we didn't receive an Activity Evaluation Form from you! Please fill one in ASAP online (http://www.gss.ubc.ca/LTS/ve1.html) or email it to us at: lts@gss.ubc.ca ____________________________________________________ Office Hours Now that we officially have a storage space and our office will be somewhat organized (soon anyway!) we are planning to hold office hours twice a week starting January 31st: Tuesday from 11-12 Friday from 11-12:30 These are great times to drop by to submit receipts, check out our supplies and books or just drop by to chat! If you can't make it during these times, no worries, you can still email us and we can set up a time to meet. Our office is located in the Brock Hall Annex, room 2357B (the "B" is important!). ____________________________________________________ Writing Contest - Win Cash! The UBC Bookstore and Terry are pleased to announce a writing challenge, and a grand one at that. There will be three sets of prizes available, which involve the hunt for pieces in the following categories. 1. Creative pieces that perhaps work best to subtlety elicit awareness of the myriad of global issues presented in this website. These pieces could take the form (but are not limited to) poetry, fiction, literary humour, visual, audio, and/or personal essay. 2. Being subtle is one thing, but what is it that makes an individual rise up to action? We are certainly curious. Therefore, the second category seeks out non-fiction pieces, that can take the form of academic essay, review/textbook article, commentary, and/or critical analysis. More importantly, these pieces should discuss some aspect of the general themes that our speakers represent, in an attempt to help formulate (whether by describing methodology or simply by education) proactive responses. 3. Oh and by the way - the first two categories are limited to those from the UBC community (students, staff and/or faculty). But rather than confront the ensuing anger from our non-UBC readers, we are pleased to also present a third category, open to all. This simply entails submissions culled from the general public that would fit in either category, perhaps even both. Well, maybe not both. Well, who’s to say really. Pieces should be no longer than 2000 words (because our eyes might actually turn off at that point), and can happily be something you have to write anyway for your courses. The deadline for submissions is March 31st, 2006. Previously published material (where permission is obtained) is just fine although may be considered less competitive than original works. Please inquire with specifics regarding audio or visual pieces. Note that the author retains full copyright of any work published on our site, although we would love to be credited with showing it off. Oh yes, and all of this, please send to tscq@interchange.ubc.ca, subject heading “Terry.” Now, the prizes… In all categories, we are please to have a first, second, and third prize available (that’s nine prizes in total), in the sums of $500, $250, and $125. Prizes will be available as UBC Bookstore giftcards which are valid in all retail locations and can also be used on the store’s website. Also, note that UBC winners may be asked to participate in a UBC Bookstore promotional event. Then, of course, they kissed, handed in that paper/creative piece that they had to write for a course anyway, and lived happily ever after. ______________________________________________________ XX Evening at Science World SCWIST (Society for Canadian Women in Science and Technology) invite women studying science to a networking evening at Science World on Monday March 6, 2006. Agenda for the Evening: 5:15 Registration Please arrive by 5:30pm. For security reasons, no late-comers will be admitted 5:45 Panel discussion Hear real success stories and get some good advice 7:00 Pizza and Networking Chat with potential mentors 8:30 Omnimax film Wired to Win Door prizes!! You must pre-register : Call Science World at 604-443-7551 Or email sisinfo@scienceworld.bc.ca There is a $12 entrance fee that covers the refreshments and the film. Please ensure you have correct change (CASH ONLY) to ensure quick check-in when you arrive! _____________________________________________________ Joke of the Month...watch out! It's a groaner!!! Two beakers are sitting on a hot plate. One says "Man this is hot!" The other says "Oh my God! A talking beaker!"