UBC Let's Talk Science Partnership Program E-Newsletter December 2005 volume 9, issue 2 ______________________________________________________ In this issue: - Volunteer of the Month - Calendar of Events - Class Visits - Community Events - All Science Challenge - Wanna make a kit? - Mentorship - Recruiting New Volunteers - Lost Volcano - Science Joke of the Month ______________________________________________________ November 2005 Volunteer of the Month Congratulations to Theresa Liao!!! Theresa helped head up the November GSS Saturday Science Day, which was a resounding success. Theresa also has been very active during the summer, leading the GSS Saturday Science Day - CSI in August and she responded to our cries for help for the Monck Provincial Park Day Camp and headed out to Merrit with only a day's notice. You've done a fantastic job Theresa, keep up the great work! As always, our volunteer of the month receives a $20 gift card at the UBC Bookstore. Enjoy! ____________________________________________________ Calendar of Events Global Citizenship Series 1st speaker -- David Orr (Sustainability guru from Oberlin College) Friday, January 13th, noon @ the Chan Centre for the Performing Arts (www.terry.ubc.ca) ***We are arranging a group ticket package, if you want a ticket without having to trudge up to the Chan Centre, just email us at lts@gss.ubc.ca with your (and any friend's) student number so we get the "free" price category. SIS Workshop -- teaching volunteer scientists new and exciting ways to bring science alive in the classroom Wednesday, January 18th, 5-8:30pm @ Science World, large boardroom ***RSVP required, email us if you are interested Eliot Phillipson, "The importance of Science to Society" lecture Thursday, January 26th, 4pm @ Hugh Dempster Pavilion (6245 Agronomy Rd), rm 310 ***No RSVP required, just show up! Global Citizenship Series 2nd speaker -- Stephen Lewis (United Nations Special envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa) Monday, February 6th, noon @ the Chan Centre for the Performing Arts* (www.terry.ubc.ca) ***We are arranging a group ticket package, if you want a ticket without having to trudge up to the Chan Centre, just email us at lts@gss.ubc.ca with your (and any friend's) student number so we get the "free" price category. ___________________________________________________ Activity Reports November and December have been busy months for our volunteers! A lot of great activities have been conducted and many of them are available (or will be soon!) on the LTS website: http://www.gss.ubc.ca/LTS/activities.htm ___________________________________________________ Class Visits Gina Rossi and Pamela O explored bats and bat anatomy using a paper cut out activity with their K-2 class at Charles Dickens Elementary. Seth Gilchrist and Paul Lusina investigated why smaller tires are better in the snow and discussed beamforming with their grade 12 class at John Oliver. Rachel Moll and Mona Wu did a physics activity with their grade 5,6,7 class at Graham Bruce. Claire Stilwell explored the properties of light with her grade 4 class at Nootka Community Elementary. Parisa Zaini looked at the growth and benefits of trees, examined environmental issues and studied how sawdust pellets make fuel with her grade 3,4,5 class at Lord Beaconsfield Elementary. Tony Tang discovered why adults like their tea hot and examined how stuff dissolves with his grade 6,7 class at Lord Byng Elementary School. Lillian Ting did a neat activity exploring plate tectonics using chocolate pudding, fruit roll-ups and graham crackers with her grade 7 class at Our Lady of Perpetual Help School. Erika Eliason and Rebecca Goulding examined light and optics using lenses, mirrors and prisms, glasses of water and flip sticks with their grade 6,7 class at Admiral Seymour Elementary. Meryn Bowen used one of the physics activities that Rachel Moll demonstrated at her Professional Development session in November to investigate the path of light with her grade 5 class at St Judes. Melinda Diver and Andrea Tegzes also investigated the path of light with their grade 5 class at Sir Mathew Begbie Elementary. Katie Dinelle examined Extreme Environments and broke her grade 6 class into small groups to consider the difficulties of a human mission to Mars. Did you do an activity this fall 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 The Activity Evaluations are really important. They allow us to recognize you for all the great work you do, keep us informed as to what everyone is up to and helps us get funding so we can keep the program running (and expanding!) successfully. ___________________________________________________ Community Events GSS Saturday Science -- Microbiology Theresa Liao, Lars Rose and Anson Chan headed up November's GSS Saturday Science Day. There was a much better turn out of kids this time around and parents and kids alike had a fantastic time. Great work gang! Langley Science and Nature Company -- Chemistry Magic Alfredo Franco-Cea and David Kent headed out to the Langley Science and Nature Company in November to wow the crowds with some classic chemistry explosions. They did a great job and we're looking forward to heading back! White Rock Sparks Visit Despite some initial car issues, Linda Jennings managed to make it out to White Rock to do some cool CSI-style activities with the White Rock Sparks Group. Terrific work Linda, and good luck with your car! __________________________________________________ All Science Challenge We are looking for volunteers interested in helping to plan and run the All Science Challenge (ASC) to be held at UBC in the spring. This event, based on the highly successful ASC created last year by the LTS Partnership Program at McMaster University, will engage grade 6-8 students in a competition of their scientific prowess. Volunteers are needed to help write the biology & biotechnology chapters of the student handbook, and to plan & run various aspects of the event. Interested? Contact us for more information! __________________________________________________ Wanna Make an Activity Kit? Have you done a cool activity and wouldn't mind writing it up so that other volunteers borrow your ideas? If so, please email us! We want to make the kits user-friendly so that volunteers from a different discipline will feel comfortable teaching foreign concepts. We'd like the write-ups to include: 1) Learning Objective(s) (this can be very short) 2) Equipment Needed 3) Age Range 4) Brief Intro (what you would say to introduce the topic) 5) Procedure 6) Explanation of what's happening (KEY-- this is where many of us feel most uncomfortable...) 7) Diagram of set-up if necessary, references, anything else needed Be forewarned: I may email those of you who have already done an activity to expand on your activity reports in order to make them more complete! The more kits we have, the easier it is for you guys!!! Please help us out! We have some fabulous Let's Talk Science memorabilia -- travel coffee mugs, pens, pencils, maybe even a t-shirt -- we can offer you in exchange for a great kit! __________________________________________________ Mentorship We're going to start a major push this term to start up some small group mentorships. One of the major target groups that we would like to reach out to is Aboriginal youth between grades 4 and 12, but we are also going to attempt to reach as many under-accessed students as possible. We're currently looking for some of you to help us brainstorm the most effective ways of achieving this goal and, as always, some volunteers who would be willing to act as mentors to students. Please email us if you would be interested in helping out with this type of initiative -- it is really wide open right now and could range anywhere from after-school programming to science fair coaching. ______________________________________________ Accepting New Volunteers We are planning to do another volunteer recruitment drive over the next few weeks. If you know anyone in your department who might be interested in volunteering with us, please give them our contact info and direct them to our website (www.gss.ubc.ca/LTS/). We are always accepting new volunteers and are hoping to crack 200 this year! _______________________________________________ Lost Volcano Our volcano seems to have grown legs and wandered off. If anyone has seen it, please let us know! _______________________________________________ Science Joke of the Month A lonely guy decided that life would be more fun if he had a pet. So, he went to the pet store and told the owner that he wanted to buy an unusual pet. After some discussion, he decided on a centipede, which came in a little white box to use for its house. He took the centipede home, found a good location for the box, and then decided he would start off by taking his new pet out for a walk. He walked over to the box and asked, "Would you like to go to out for a short walk with me?" But there was no answer from his new pet. This bothered him a bit, but he waited a few minutes and then asked him again, "How about going out for an evening walk?" But again, there was no answer from his new friend. He waited a few minutes more, thinking about the situation. He decided to ask him one more time; this time putting his face up against the centipede's house and shouting, "Hey, in there! Would you like to go out for a walk!!!?" An agitated little voice came shrieking from the box, "I heard you the first time...I'm putting on my shoes!!!"