Been to our website yet? Find activity ideas and much more, at http://www.ubclts.com! ______________________________________________________ UBC Let's Talk Science Partnership Program E-Newsletter Volume 12, Issue 4 December 2008 ______________________________________________________ In this issue: Teacher Partnerships Volunteers Needed - Mentorship - SMaRT - Reading Week - Rural Trips 2009 Job available - After-school Science programming - with honorarium! Upcoming Events - King George Day at UBC (Dec2) - Counselor Information (Dec 2) - "Arts in Science" exhibit (in planning) Recently completed events - Newly logged classroom visits - Professional Development session (Nov 5) - Rural Trips to Terrace + Prince Rupert / Vernon + Kelowna (Oct/Nov) - Global Citizenship Seminar Series (Nov 7) - Musqueam Math and Science Club (Nov 5, 19) - Mentorship training (Nov 18) - Terry Talks (Nov 22) - Science Creative Literacy Symposia (Nov 12, 27, 28) LTS in the media Volunteers of the Month Science Joke of the Month ____________________________________________________ == Teacher Partnerships == Many of you received emails this week about your teacher partnerships, and it is great to know that many of you have already visited your teacher. Well done!!! If you would like to work with a teacher partner but have yet to be assigned one, please email us at lts@ubclts.com so we can connect you with a teacher. We still have 20 teachers left so don't be shy! :) ____________________________________________________ == Volunteers Needed == ++ Mentorship We still need 3-4 more grad students to mentor students on their science fairs at either Britannia or Templeton Secondary. Visits to the schools will happen on Friday afternoons in January and February 2009 and we will provide all training, so if you're interested in working with Grade 8-10 students on their science fairs, please drop us an email! ++ SMaRT We had some cancellations of SMaRT pod leaders so we are now looking for more. We are currently hiring teachers for the SMaRT program and it's shaping up to be another great year. Training will happen in January, so if you want to lead 4 undergraduate students to do several pre-written exercises all in the same classroom, let us know. ++ Reading Week The UBC Learning Exchange is looking for LTS volunteers to act as Student Leaders for Reading Week Projects 2009 (Feb 16th–18th). Student Leaders will work with a Project Leader and School Leader to assist in designing the project scope, logistics of the project and assist in leading reflection activities as well as team building activities; a unique and rewarding leadership experience! If interested, please email Elske (elske.hopcraft@ubc.ca) by December 5th. ++ Rural Trips 2009 We are planning 3 rural trips for the first half of 2009: 1) Vancouver Island (Courtney/Campbell River) – Reading Week (Feb 16-20) 2) Castlegar/Nelson – likely April 1-4 (Castlegar) and April 5-8 (Nelson) 3) Kamloops and area – likely mid May If you are interested in volunteering for these trips please contact Lisa at lts.rsvp@gmail.com _____________________________________________ == Job available == ++ After-school programming – with honorarium! There are currently 4 Youth Engagement Intern positions available with the Vancouver School Board's West 1 Community Schools Team in the category of Science. Each intern position is responsible for delivering interactive science programs for school-aged children at a number of elementary schools. You will commit to at least one evening per week (usually from 3:00-5:00pm inclusive of set up and clean up) for a minimum of three months, and you will work with and empower high school student leaders to deliver science experiments, demonstrations, and lessons for elementary school students. At the end of the 3-month placement, Interns will each receive an honorarium in the amount of $50 and a professional letter of reference from the Vancouver School Board. Interns will also be considered for part-time employment with the VSB. Applications will be accepted until no later than December 8th 2008. Please see attached document for more info or contact Marisol Petersen (West 1 Community Schools Coordinator, mpetersen@vsb.bc.ca or 778-229-9787) if interested. _____________________________________________ == Upcoming Events == ++ King George Day at UBC (Dec 2) When: Dec 2nd, 13:30-14:30 Where: Hennings 105 John Nakane (Lab Director of the UBC Engineering Physics Project Lab) will be showing his teaching lab (Hennings 115) and projects to 10 international students. Feel free to pass by and take a look if you want to do a similar lab tour with your own class! ++ Counselor Information (Dec 2) When: December 2nd, 9:30–11:30am Where: Atrium, Forest Sciences Center This is an annual event - organized by the UBC central recruitment team - for teachers and Grade 12 students. Feel free to pass by to see what UBC has to offer to new recruits! ++ "Arts in Science" exhibit (in planning) When: March/April 2009 Where: TBD Ever what to do more than "just science" with your teacher partner? Now you can! Ask your students to make a science-inspired art piece (ie. a drawing, a sculpture, a model) and we will try to get it displayed somewhere on campus and make an evening out of it with other LTS volunteers, students, and teachers! Email us if you have ideas on where on campus we can hold this sort of event, thanks! _____________________________________________ == Recently completed events == ++ Newly logged classroom visits Oct 28: Zoe Gallagher and Zoe Lohn gave a talk with Nina Hooker's charges. Nov 04: Charlie Zhang floated some eggs (and more) with Dorothy Goodison's classroom. Nov 04: Sarah Kimball created fossils with her group of children. Nov 04: Shannon Obradovich presented the a digestion activity to Jim Embree's classroom. Nov 11: Sonny Thiara talked about Global Warming to Kristin Harbut's classroom. Nov 12: Lisa Månsson and Andy Sham visited Tony Wong's Grade 1's at Trafalgar Elementary. Nov 13: Jason Moore mined cookies with an enthused bunch of learners. Nov 18: Shannon Obradovich talked about BC marine ecosystems to her classroom. Nov 18: Charlie Zhang did some more physics wonders. If you did a classroom activity but did not find yourself here, you might not have logged your activity on the portal (www.letstalkscience.ca/login) yet; please log it now so we can acknowledge you in the newsletter and more importantly so you will get your official volunteer certificate from the national LTS office in June! Thanks everyone! ++ Professional Development session (Nov 5) Thanks again to everyone for coming out to our professional development session/activities demo on Nov 5 and contributing to a great learning experience. All materials and ideas that were bounced around that night can be found here: http://ubclts.com/activityideas ++ Rural Trips to Terrace + Prince Rupert / Vernon + Kelowna (Oct/Nov) Minnie Dai, Sherie Duncan, and Sonya Powell headed up to Terrace and Prince Rupert in October. They had great success, receiving very positive feedback from students and teachers. They also delivered activities at a Community Science Celebration. Thank you Minnie, Sherie, and Sonya! Casey Mok and Mykola Kulakov also had great success on their trip to Kelowna. They visited over 250 students in classes and over 1000 adults and children at the Community Science Celebration. Well done Casey and Mykola! ++ Global Citizenship Seminar Series (Nov 7) Dr. James Orbinski from doctors without Borders gave an amazing speech in the Chan Centre titled "Creating the space to be Human". Thanks to all volunteers who attended the event, and we will keep you posted on future seminars. ++ Musqueam Math and Science Club (Nov 5, 19) Thanks go out to Erin Prosk, Tina Li, Kristin Bowden, and Byeong Kim! On November 5th, Erin Prosk brought her gravity activity to the children. It was a big hit with the kids as well as the organizers. Then on November 19th, Tina Li and Kristin Bowden went back for their third visit. We have two more dates to go: Erin will handle the one coming up on December 3rd and then we'll have a final wrap-up day on December 17th, so more to come in the next newsletter! ++ Mentorship training (Nov 18) Science Fair Mentorship is underway! The grad Mentors were trained on November 18th and are set for their first visit on the 28th at Britannia and Templeton Secondary. We are still in need of 3-4 more Mentors (see above) so please email us if you can help out! ++ Terry Talks (Nov 22) "Terry talks" inaugurated with a bang on November! The presentations were truly inspiring, and we had a booth organized by Rena Tabata and Heidrun Spohr at the event. Check out www.terry.ubc.ca/terrytalks/ for the list of talks, and your own opportunity to present at next year's conference. ++ Science Creative Literacy Symposia (Nov 12, 27, 28) Check out the kids' videos coming out of our arts/science think-tank here: www.youtube.com/user/UBCLTScom. _____________________________________________ == LTS in the media == UBC LTS-PP volunteer Philip Edgcumbe was recently featured on CBC Television presenting the activities he regularly runs with his Vancouver school. We'll upload the stint over the next month. Thanks Philip for keeping us in the loop on this! We also got some coverage in the most recent UBC APSc in the news feature: http://www.apsc.ubc.ca/news-events/in-the-news/in-the-news-08-10.php UBC LTS-PP volunteer regularly find themselves in the limelight of the media. To save room we won't include them here but feel free to check them out at http://ubclts.com/ltsmedia. Enjoy! ____________________________________________________ == Volunteers of the Month == Congratulations Charlie Zhang and Kristin Bowden for being our Volunteers of the Month! Charlie has already done several class visits with his teacher partner, and Kristin has been giving a steady hand for the Musqueam Math and Science Club. As always, our VOTM receives a $20 UBC bookstore giftcard. Enjoy! ____________________________________________________ == Science Joke of the Month == It is reported that Copernicus' parents said the following to him at the age of twelve: "Copernicus, young man, when are you going to come to terms with the fact that the world does not revolve around you!"