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17th December 2004 Issue: 14

In this week’s Hay-Wire, help yourself to a feast of Christmas activities and experiments to keep you amused during the holidays...
CRASH BANG 1 - How Polar Bears Keep Warm...

Could you ‘bear’ temperatures of -10ºC? A polar bear could and often does in the Arctic! A thick layer of fat (called blubber) underneath a polar bear’s skin helps keep the polar bear warm. A polar bear also has two types of fur. They have thick, woolly fur close to the skin to keep them warm. They also have hollow guard hairs, which protect the bears from getting wet. Find out in this experiment how the guard hairs also keep polar bears warm...

Stuff You Need:

  • Clear plastic biro
  • Black plastic bag
  • Dark room
  • Small bright torch

What To Do:

  1. Unscrew or remove the end of the biro and remove the nib and ink tube.
  2. Stick one end of the clear outer biro tube through the plastic bag.
  3. Switch off the lights and hold your torch to the end of the biro tube.

What’s Going On?

A blob of light shines from inside the bag. This is light from the torch that reflects through the plastic biro tube. In the same way, light from the sun shines into the polar bear’s hollow guard hairs. A polar bear’s skin is actually black so the light reflects down to the black skin. The skin then soaks up the light and heat energy, and it warms the bear. Polar bears actually get too hot in strong sunlight and keeping cool is major problem for the animals!
CRASH BANG 2 - Freeze Your Very Own Snowflakes...

Cross your fingers for a white Christmas so you can complete this investigation!

Stuff You Need:

  • Piece of black card
  • Magnifying glass
  • Snow

What To Do:

  1. Put the piece of card in your freezer. Snowflakes melt very quickly so you need to have your card frozen ready for when it snows.
  2. When it does snow, go outside and let some flakes land on the black card.
  3. Before the snowflakes melt look at them through your magnifying glass.

What’s Going On?

All snowflakes are different, but they each have six sides. This is because of the way water molecules join together. You will see lots of broken snowflakes through the magnifying glass, so you might not see all six sides. However, if you look hard enough, you should find some beautiful whole snowflakes.
CRASH BANG 3 - Feed The Birds This Christmas...

The winter is a tough time to stay alive for birds living in Britain. There’s little food to eat and shelter from the cold weather is hard to find. Why not make your own bird-ball to feed the birds this winter?

YOU WILL NEED ADULT SUPERVISION

Stuff You Need:

  • An adult to help
  • One packet of lard
  • Wild birdseed
  • String
  • Net curtain material cut into 30 x 30 cm squares
  • Old newspaper
  • An adult

What To Do:

  1. Ask an adult to help you chop the block of lard up into smaller pieces. Place the pieces in a saucepan and ask the adult to gently heat the lard whilst stirring it. When the lard has melted, remove from the heat and add the wild bird seed and mix well. You know you’ve added enough seed when you get a mixture that isn’t too runny and it sticks together.
  2. Leave the mixture to cool until it starts to solidify.
  3. Then use a large spoon to scoop some of the mixture onto the square of netting.
  4. Gather up the corners of the netting and tie them together with string to make a bundle.
  5. Remember to use enough string to allow you to tie the food ball to a tree in your garden.
  6. Make as many balls as your mixture allows you to.  

What’s Going On?

By treating the birds to a good feed this winter, the birds will treat you by regularly visiting your garden! Why not invest in a bird book so you can name the birds in your garden? 
INFORMATION OVERLOAD

All that’s left to say is have a MERRY CHRISTMAS and a HAPPY NEW YEAR from all of us here at Planet Science.

The first Hay-Wire of 2005 will be hitting your inbox on Friday 14th January when Hay-Wire will be coming to you fortnightly instead of weekly. But don’t worry because there’ll still be all the usual science news, facts, fun and frolics!

SEE YOU IN 2005!