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 This week's newsletter is dedicated to the SUMMER HOLIDAYS! And as if there wasn't enough fun to be had during this glorious season, we've raided the Planet Science games cupboard and come up with a giant trailerful of classic activities, games and other child-distractors to make the next few weeks go with a swing. We've also rounded up some freebie tickets to one of the year's most talked about 3D experiences, and some information the science of sandcastles... 01. SUMMER HOLIDAY ACTIVITY 1: SPOTTO! 02. MOUSES AT THE READY FOR 'THE VIRTUAL MUMMY' 03. SUMMER HOLIDAY ACTIVITY 2: MAKE A PERISCOPE. 04. 'OPERATION FIX-IT' BOOK ON OFFER 05. SUMMER HOLIDAY ACTIVITY 3: SWIM FOR IT 06. THIS WEEK IN SCIENCE HISTORY: THE HEAD IN THE SAND... 07. SUMMER HOLIDAY ACTIVITY 4: QUIZZES FOR THE CAR 08. RWW: SCIENCE WORLDS - AND SANDCASTLES 09. AWKWARD QUESTION - and answer 10. WINNERS OF THE IMAX CLUB DRAW 11. JOKES OF THE WEEK Are you ready? OK, here we go... |
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01. SUMMER HOLIDAY ACTIVITY No 1 : SPOTTO!
Got a long car journey ahead? With several children in the back? Here's what you need. (Apart from ear-defenders.) 'Spotto!' is an Australian observation game, dreamt up by someone who knew how to keep young people fully occupied and not hitting each other. The idea is simple, if you're the first to spot one of a list of designated items, eg. a wind turbine, a pub sign with an animal name in it, or a pylon, you yell "Spotto!" and the appropriate number of points are marked up on the scoreboard under your name. It's not a complicated game at the best of times, but we've made it even easier, by compliling picture of all the items, with their points and a readymade scorecard. We've also given the game a science/technology slant in our choice of objects... Print off your sheets here.  |
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| 02. AMOUSES AT THE READY FOR : 'MUMMY : THE INSIDE STORY' If you've got time in your packed summer schedule for a trip to the British Museum, here's a special treat that may be of interest, in the form of free tickets to the BM's new exhibition, 'Mummy: The Inside Story'. You may already have seen snippets of 'Mummy' footage on tv, but unless you've experienced the real thing, with your 3-D goggleson, you've never lived... The star of the show is a mummy called Nesperennub, a man who during his lifetime, was a priest at the Egyptian temple of Khons. His burial case has never been opened, and was chosen for this particular project because it's in particularly good condition. The idea was to investigate the mummy non-destructively, using the latest "see-through" imaging techniques available. This meant subjecting it to the same delicate CT scanning procedures now used in medicine to explore the insides of living patients... However, what doesn't normally happen on the NHS is that the resulting images of Nesperennub have then been further processed to create a virtual 3-D experience, which can now be enjoyed by visitors to the museum. The resulting journey through the inside of an embalmed pharoah reveals how mummies were made, the amulets that were embalmed along with the body, and the probable cause of the poor man's death. Members of the Planet Science team who have seen the Mummy for themselves, reported back that it was "brilliant" and "amazing", and they are hard to please. The museum's website has a few pictures and information on booking tickets can be see at: http://www.thebritishmuseum.ac.uk/mummy/index.html Funnily enough though, there's even more information about the exhibition itself on the BBC website at: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/arts/3839523.stm Fancy getting in the draw for a free pair of tickets? If so, send an email entitled I WANT MY MUMMY! to planet-science.news@nesta.org.uk with a note of your name and address. Please note that duplicate emails will BOTH be eliminated from the draw (sorry to be so strict, but we've got to crack down). The draw will take place next Thursday at 5pm. Good luck! |
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| 03. SUMMER HOLIDAY ACTIVITY No 2 : MAKE A PERISCOPE Have you explored the Planet Science Spybox yet? What? You've not make invisible ink? Sent coded messages? Or created your own mobile phones? You've been missing out, M. Here's where you'll find them all. Any by way of an ACITIVITY OF THE WEEK, here are the full instructions for making your own periscope, so that you can keep an eye on things around the next corner... You will need: * A long thin box (or two orange juice cartons taped together) * 2 small mirrors small enough to fit inside your box. * Scissors * Load of sellotape. What to do: 1. Cut a hole in the side of the box, right at the very end. The hole should be a similar size to that of your mirrors. 2. Next cut a hole in the opposite side of the box at the other end. Again, this should be about the size of your mirrors. 3. The tricky bit is to insert the mirrors. The mirrored surface needs to face outwards and it should sit at an angle of 45 degrees to the hole. Tape the first mirror into place. 4. The other mirror goes in the other hole, again facing outwards and at an angle of 45 degrees to the hole. You may need to adjust each mirror slightly to make sure you can see through the periscope properly. PS: If you're confused about the positioning of the mirrors, here's another site that can help: http://www.exploratorium.edu/science_explorer/periscope.html What's going on? The reason periscopes work is because light travels in straight lines. When a light beam meets a mirror it bounces, but it will continue to travel in a straight line. So by clever positioning of your two mirrors, you can get the view of the dastardly Special Agent Argozauk around the corner, to travel to Mirror 1 in you periscope, bounce off it to Mirror 2, and bounce off that into your eye ... even though you are safely out of sight of Argozauk yourself. So, ha hah! Foiled him again... |
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| 04. 'OPERATION FIX-IT' BOOK ON OFFER Who wants to go in to hospital for a heart operation? Not may people, and certainly not many kids. Despite lovely staff, visitors and bulging toyboxes, hospitals can be horribly strange places if you're a young child. Everything's different from what you're used to, and some of the procedures associated with having an operation would make adults shudder, never mind younger people... To help prepare children for what will happen to them it they're having a heart operation, the British Heart Foundation have produced a beatifully colourful, bouncy book, called 'Operation Fix-It'. The main character is a very smiley boy called Tom, and the story follows what happens to him, from the day before his operation, through the whole hospital experience, to the day he finally gets to play football again with his friends. Things end well, with Tom's health much improved, his family relieved, and a big fat goal in the footie match, but along the way the book brings up many of the things that Tom dosen't like about the hospital, and some of the worries he has before the operation. Will people forget him? Will the operation hurt? And why does he have to wear a horrible gown with a split up the back, and no pants on? Coming out of the operation isn't much fun either, as he feels terrible. This seems a great book to read with any child who's going in for a heart operation. By reading about Tom, they'll realise that lots of children experience the same thing, and it explains what's meant by words like 'play therapists', 'pre-med' and 'going under'. The British Heart Foundation have given us a free copy to give away, so if you have a young friend you'l like to give this to, just send and email entitled OPERATION FIX-IT to planet-science.news.@nesta.org.uk. Read more about the book - and have a look at Tom at: http://www.bhf.org.uk/publications/ And here's the main BHF site, as there's loads of heart-friendly advice on offer for all of us: http://www.bhf.org.uk/index.asp |
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| 05. SUMMER HOLIDAY ACTIVITY No 3 : SWIM FOR IT Many thanks to everyone who wrote in with comments and tips relating to last week's sneal preview of our new online challenge, 'Swim for It'. These have now been incorporated, and Swim For It can now be found in pride of place on the Planet Science website here. Teacher Elizabeth Welbourn was one of those who emailed us, and she commented, "I hope it will be around next December/January, when I take my GCSE Applied Science group to the local swimming pool, to look at science in the workplace. It would be a really useful acitivity to do, to give them some starting information about pool." Funny you should say that Elizabeth, because we've also created a teachers' resource to help maximise the benefit of the game for school students. It's another Griller - ie. a quiz based on the content contained in the game - and it's currently splashing about in the water here. |
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| 06. THIS WEEK IN SCIENCE HISTORY : THE HEAD IN THE SAND... This week brings the discovery that revolutionised our view of the origins of the human race. On 17th July 1959, an anthropologist named Mary Leakey discovered a fragment of what was then the oldest human skull ever found. The location was the Olduvai Gorge in the Serengeti Plains of Tanganyika (now Tanzania) in East Africa. Mary was the wife of Dr Louis Leakey, a maverick scientist who had staked his career on the conviction that the human race had its origins in Africa, rather than in Asia as was then commonly believed. The Olduvai Gorge skull was the first important find in hte couple's 30-year exploration of the region. Mary's initial discovery sparked an excavation which uncovered over 400 bone fragments, eventually assembled into an almost complete cranium. Unique in early human evolution, this species' large skull showed a broad concave face, enormous flat molars and extremely powerful jaws. Since these are all features of an animal which eats tough, low-quality foodstuffs, the Leakeys named this species Zinjanthropus boisei ("Nutcracker Man"). The find was dated to about 1.8 million years ago, a staggering age, which forced scientists to rethink our evolutionary history and extend it futher back in time than previously thought. Later, the skull was re-classified as 'Australopithecus boisei', but it is now not considered to be a direct ancestor of the human race. Altogether, the story of human origins has turned out to be much more complicated than was thought in the 1950s and 60s. Instead of being a branch of a 'family tree', our race really began as part of a 'spiky bush' of many hominid animals ("hominid" being the term for all early human-type animals, not just humans). For long periods of our evolutionary history, various different hominid species co-existed and competed with each other. And, as with other compting animal species, some evolved and survived, while others became extinct. As modern-day humans, we are members of the only surviving species from that prehistoric competition. To get an idea of just how complex our early origins were, look at: http://www.mnsu.edu/emuseum/biology/humanevolution The Leakey family as a whole are famous in science history because they played such a crucial role in the early description of our 'family bush'. Two years after the discovery of the boisei, Mary's son Jonathan found a second type of hominid, one that was larger-brained and less robust. The Leakeys named this individual 'Homo Habilis', ("Handy Man") because they thought it/he was the first human ancestor to use tools. Then, in 1965 Mary and Louis discovered the one-million-year old skull of 'Homo erectus'. The fascinating story of the Leakey family is told in detail at: http://www.leakey.com More recent discoveries have spectacularly deposed Australopithecus boisei as the oldest known hominid and we are now looking as far back as seven million years. For details of recent discoveries, have a look at the New Scientist article at: http://www.newscientist.com/news/print.jsp?id=ns99992533 |
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| 07. SUMMER HOLIDAY ACTIVITY 4: QUIZZES FOR THE CAR Ok back to the fun of long car journeys! If you've not seen these before, they're well worth printing off for your car-bound afternoon (or pub quiz). These are the quizzes that boggled the brains of visitors to the Planet Science site back in the early days, when we were still known as Science Year... Food, sound, biomimetics, and that well known favourite topic 'miscellaneous' (or 'Tomorrow's World Live'!) Print them off, and let the games begin... Click here. |
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08. RECOMMENDED WEBSITES OF THE WEEK |
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| 09. AWKWARD QUESTION AND ANSWER Last week's awkward question went like this... What would happen if you were in a room with 100% methane gas and you struck a match? Hmmmmmm. Would things go with a bang? Or prove a bit of a damp squib? Here comes the answer: Striking a match in a room full of gas sounds like a recipe for disaster doesn't it? But in fact, you'd get more a quiet 'pshtt' than a life-ending 'KABOOM!' Here's why. For burning to occur, three things are needed. * One - a fuel (here it's the methane gas). * Two - some heat energy to kick the reaction off (in this case, from striking the match). * Three - oxygen for the combustion reaction to occur (usually present as about a fifth of the air, but mysteriously absent here). We've got only two out of the three things needed, so no combustion reaction will occur. Depriving a fire of oxygen is the reason behind the advice to close doors and windows if possible when evacuating a burning building. You may be wondering if the match can strike at all in an oxygen-free environment. The three ingredients listed above are still needed, and in this case, all are actually present, because the chemicals in the match head include tiny amounts of oxidising agents, which are chemicals that help combustion by supplying oxygen. The amount is so puny though that the oxygen supplied will be used up the instant the match is struck. So, the wood of the match won't burn and neither will the room full of methane gas. PS: Alert readers may have spotted a more real danger for the person striking the match. If there's no oxygen around to support combustion, where's the oxygen needed to breathe?! ******************** So. There you have it, nothing happened, nobody died. But we'll soon sort that out, with this week's question. Here it comes: In movies there's often a cliff-hanger scene ending up with someone falling (hopefully it's the bad guy). We hear a long continuous cry of horror growing fainter as they fall further and further down away from us. What is the usual error with this sound effect? Answer next week! |
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| 10. WINNERS OF THE IMAX CLUB MEMBERSHIPS Thanks to everyone who entered last week's draw to win a child membership of the Science Museum's Imax Club. The answer to the question was indeed 'Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban', everyone got that right ... But only three winners could be selected, and they were as follows: Peter Yarde Martin from Mill Hill in London Sue McKinney from Roehampton, also in London and Jayne Burford from Penkridge in Staffs Congratulations to you all, the Imax organisers will be in touch will you shortly. (And just to re-state, the membership you're being sent is a child's one, so if you're an adult, you won't be able to use it - so email us asap with the name of the young person you'd like to give it to instead.) |
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| 11. JOKES OF THE WEEK Thanks this week go once again to Dave Hart, and his joke-dealer Marianne Turner. Though you may not feel like thanking them after you've seen what they sent in. (Apparently, however, these are the best of an even worse bunch. Really?) Here we go: 1. Two vultures board an airplane, each carrying two dead raccoons. The stewardess looks at them and says, "I am sorry, gentlemen, only one carrion allowed per passenger." 2. Two Eskimos sitting in a kayak were chilly, so lit a fire in the craft. Not surprisingly, it sank, proving once again that you can not have your kayak and heat it too. 3. A grop of chess enthusiasts checked in to a hotel and were standing in the lobby discussing their recent tournament victories. After about an hour, the manager came out of the office and asked them to disperse. "But why?" they asked, as they moved off. "Because," he said, "I just can not stand chess-nuts boasting in an open foyer." ******************** No, you're right, we can't leave things like that. So here's an action-joke to get you through the week. Apologies if you've heard it before: A man is driving along the M4 when his wife calls him on his mobile phone. "Darling, be careful," she says, "I just heard on the radio that there's a car on the M4 driving the wrong way." To which her husband replies, "One? There are hundreds of them!" ******************** That's all for this edition of the newsletter. As ever, contributions for future newsletters are very welcome, whether news, ideas, jokes or even constructive criticism (best if kindly worded!) Send them through to Anne McNaught on anne.mcnaught@nesta.org.uk Have a great week! |
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