Archive
June 21, 2012 - 2:16 pm
Once the exams are over summer term is all about trips. If you haven’t booked yours yet, then you’re in luck! You can have a fun, free day out at the Big Bang North East.
This annual celebration of all things STEM will be held at Newcastle University on Wednesday 4 July and there are still a few places available for both visiting schools and projects stands.
Visit the fair – come along 10am-2.30pm to enjoy a packed programme including a selection of these highlights
- Two amazing science shows: Punk Science’s ‘Know it all?’ and Science Junkies ‘In the Zone’
- Hands on workshops including catapults, radio technology, cryoscience, sustainability and cell biology
- Two drop-in activity zones with giant bridges, robots, sports science and the ever popular ‘Welding with Chocolate’
Enter the competition: if your pupils have project work they’d like to show off they could win hundreds of pounds in prizes and places at the national Big Bang Fair
To find out more or to book contact northeast@thebigbangfair.co.uk
or ring Colin Wilkinson on 01642 740400.
You can also book online at www.thebigbangfair.co.uk/northeast
June 8, 2012 - 10:28 am
Entries are open for the Society of Biology amateur photography competition. The theme is “How Biology Can Save the World!
Biology is at the heart of many challenges we now face, including: food security, disease, sustainability, climate change, species extinction, an aging population, and more. We want to see, in pictures, the biological problems and solutions that are important to you. This could be a piece of research that has the potential to cure disease, an environmental issue that needs more urgent attention, or a subject matter that you are particularly passionate about.
Photography has the power to capture the attention and interest of everyone, leaving them wanting to find out more and asking their own questions about what they see. Entries should aim to make the audience mindful about the issue that is being illustrated.
Short-listed entrants will be invited to an awards ceremony duringBiology Week.
There are two categories of award:
• Photographer of the Year (over 18) – Prize £1000
• Young Photographer of the Year (18 and under) – Prize £500
(There will be additional prizes for the runner-up and highly commended entries to each competition)
Closing date: midnight on 31st July 2012
For full details and to enter visit www.societyofbiology.org/photocomp
June 7, 2012 - 12:21 pm
Science Songwriter of The Future! is a national competition to find Britain’s best science songwriters aged 18 or under. Simply record a song about science and submit an mp3 to sciencesongwriter@gmail.com by July 13th.
Some experts from the worlds of science and music have been roped in to judge your songwriting skills and there are some AWESOME prizes on offer. This year, there’s also a special Institute of Physics category for the best song on the topic of “The Social Physicist”, with its own mini-prize.
THE PRIZES:
Grand Prize:
Weekend-long tickets and train fares for the winner and a guest (or guardian) to go to Green Man Festival and take part in a science songwriting workshop in Einstein’s Garden.
A recording session at London’s House of Strange studios – to record the winning entry in style.
2nd Prize: £50 iTunes voucher
3rd Prize: £25 iTunes voucher
“The Social Physicist” prize: £50 iTunes voucher
More info can be found here: http://geekpop.co.uk/2012/06/06/science-songwriter-of-the-future-2012/
- 11:53 am
Newcastle College have launched their summer school course guide with 5-day courses available in Science, Engineering, Computing and Aerospace and all free for 16-18 year olds.
Information can be found in the course handbook here.
To sign up to a course call 0191 200 4000 or come along in person at one of the Open Events at our Rye Hill Campus:
• Wednesday 4 July: 10am to 7pm
• Wednesday 8 August to Saturday 1 September at any of the following days and times:
- Monday to Thursday: 11am to 7pm
- Friday: 11am to 4pm
- Saturday: 11am to 2pm
June 6, 2012 - 4:52 pm
The SciScreen series has been running for a good number of years in various locations across the country and it’s about to land in the North East!
Have you ever wished that you worked for NASA? Of course you have! NASA are known to use “Armageddon” (1998) in their management training programme to see if their trainees can spot all 168 scientifically impossible events in the movie (averaging one a minute). Sound like fun? Now you can have a go too! “Armageddon” is being shown at the first SciScreen event and you will have the chance to click along as you spot the scientific inaccuracies!
The event is being held in collaboration with the ARC and the North East England Branch of the British Science Association with guest speaker David Hughes from the Sunderland Astronomical Society, who will be giving a quick primer talk before the film is shown and will then do a Q and A afterwards where you can check your answers, and the discussion can be taken into the bar afterwards.
Monday July 2nd – 7.30pm. Price: £6 Concessions:£5
Get your tickets early! They can be bought here: http://www.arconline.co.uk/detail.php?id=2993
June 1, 2012 - 2:08 pm
STEM Outreach recently visited Boldon School’s STEM club where students helped to build a jelly baby wave machine and learned about light waves, reflection and refraction. Hannah and David obviously breaking the stereotype of white coats and goggles as one of the students remarked, “You look more like you’re from a rock band than scientists.” \m/ To build the tasty wave machine they used gaffa-tape, kebab skewers and jelly babies.
Students tested the wave machine by moving a jelly baby skewer at one end of the machine; setting off a Mexican-wave of jelly babies across the length of tape.
They then got to “test” the jelly babies by eating half of them. A wave was set off along the tape again but with one half stripped of jelly babies. This simulated a wave travelling from a dense (with jelly babies) to less dense medium (without jelly babies). The students observed changes to the wave as it passed along the length of the tape and explained what was happening.
To round off the session, Hannah and David talked about refraction and how refracted light allows you to see transparent objects such as clear glass. Students were amazed by glass objects “disappearing” in a beaker of glycerol (which has the same refractive index as glass).
The wave machine will be making another appearance this weekend at Newcastle Community Green Festival where STEM Outreach will be appearing with STEM Ambassadors as “Science Pirates” to communicate some of the amazing science research happening in and around the North East alongside some great bands, crafts and food. Event details here.
