Science Buddies Blog tag:www.sciencebuddies.org,2009-03-12:/blog/1 2010-02-05T02:16:41Z News about Science Buddies science fair project ideas and student, parent, and teacher resources for science fairs and general K-12 science education. Movable Type 4.24-en Wringing Ringtones tag:www.sciencebuddies.org,2010:/blog//1.81 2010-02-05T01:04:45Z 2010-02-05T02:16:41Z Like most of us, I would be lost without my cell phone. It's not that I talk on the phone all the time. It's not even that I spend endless time sending texts. Cell phones have just become a seemingly... Amy Like most of us, I would be lost without my cell phone. It's not that I talk on the phone all the time. It's not even that I spend endless time sending texts. Cell phones have just become a seemingly indispensible part of our culture. At 3PM, I know that a certain cell phone will start ringing on the schoolyard where we hang out after school. I've got three wake-up alarms set for my mornings, every half hour, each with a different ringtone. I see cell phones on the teachers' desks. Like many of you, I use my phone to Tweet, to Facebook, and to snap and share photos.

While I use the phone all the time, the phone doesn't really ring all that often. When a call does come in, chances are that it's one I need to take... it's someone that needs to reach me. Which brings us to the "ring"... in an age of customization and digitization, ringtones are highly personal things.


Your "Cell" Style

You might have a cool skin for your phone. You might have rubber bumpers for your edges. You might protect your touch screen with a clear overlay. You might have a cool case. You might have custom wallpaper for your display. There are many ways to customize your phone to fit your own personality.

But it goes without saying that your ringtone will be noticed.

(You know what you think when you hear a ho-hum, status quo, oh-so-not-original ringtone, right? One of the canned tones that every user of this or that network seems to have? What ringtone does your mom use? What ringtone does your teacher or colleague use? Have you ever noticed?)


Using What you Have

I've got a pretty big digital music collection, and I spend my share of time on the Pandora and iTunes sites setting up playlists, finding new tracks, and otherwise creating the musical backdrop that underwrites my days. Oddly enough, however, I have never spent time searching for (and buying) ringtones. (Okay, I really don't want to buy ringtones even if they do cost less than a bag of chips or a cup of coffee, and I am really not a fan of the thousand-and-one gimmicky feeling ringtone sites.)

When I got my current phone, however, it came with a really small set of canned choices, none of which I liked. Unwilling to settle on any of the ones available, I did some poking around to see if I could use a song I already own as a ringtone for my phone. Bingo!


An Online Interface

While I've got a good bit of experience using Audacity for audio recording, I was happy to find an easy-to-use and efficient online resource for selecting a portion of a song and saving it as an MP3 for use on my phone. A simple enough process: upload the file, find the segment you want, export it as an MP3, download it, email it to your MMS-enabled phone. Voila!

I set up two ringtones, tagging one for general calls and one for work-related calls. Unfortunately, while it was created from a favorite song, not all songs are suited for ringtones. The one I'd set up as my "work-related" ringtone simply wasn't loud enough to be heard over the general buzz of the day. Repeatedly, I missed calls simply because I didn't hear the phone ring, even with the volume all the way up.

This week, I decided I'd missed one call too many calls, and so I took a few minutes and headed back out to create something louder, something likeable but impossible to miss, something I could live with. In my library, I found the perfect upbeat tune, something those of you with an affinity for Shrek would immediately recognize.

I had the perfect song, and yet as I went through the steps for converting the file, I ran into the one "gotcha" that comes into play when you make your own ringtones.

Size matters.


How Small Can You Go?

Each phone will have a different size limitation for ringtones. (To find out yours, check your user's manual or do an online search for the "maximum ringtone size" for your phone.) You might, for example, find that your phone can only use a ringtone that is less than 200K. To put that in perspective, a single minute of a CD-quality song is approximately 10 megabytes (MB)!

In practical terms, this means you have to choose between quality and quantity. You might be able to get a few more seconds of ringtone in at a lower quality. But, what kind of variation in quality will you see as you lower the bitrate (Kbit/sec)? The slider on the application I used goes all the way from a high of 320 Kbit/sec to a low of 32 Kbit/sec. That's obviously a huge range. As you might expect, where your ringtone falls in that range can have a dramatic impact on the quality of sound.


The Science of Compression

There's a great short-term project in the Science Buddies' library of Project Ideas that can help reveal the ways in which compression, MP3 algorithms, and bitrate come into play. How low is too low? Does the threshold change depending on the type or genre of song? Can you get by with something even lower for a ringtone?

To get started sampling your own tracks, mixing your own ringtones, and finding your own levels of acceptable degradation, take a look at this project:


Favorite Sound

What's your favorite ringtone ever? Head over to Facebook and let me know, or leave a comment here.


]]> Going for the Gold: The Science of Winter Sports tag:www.sciencebuddies.org,2010:/blog//1.78 2010-02-02T01:08:47Z 2010-02-02T01:46:50Z The 2010 Winter Olympics will be held in Vancouver February 12-28. With a list of sporting events that includes Alpine Skiing, Bobsleigh, Figure Skating, Freestyle Skiing, Ice Hockey, Luge, Skeleton, Ski Jumping, Snowboard, and Speed Skating, you know the... Amy

Skeleton photo; Wikipedia public domain


The 2010 Winter Olympics will be held in Vancouver February 12-28. With a list of sporting events that includes Alpine Skiing, Bobsleigh, Figure Skating, Freestyle Skiing, Ice Hockey, Luge, Skeleton, Ski Jumping, Snowboard, and Speed Skating, you know the snow and ice will be flying as athletes dazzle audiences and challenge the laws of physics with various rotations, jumps, loops, spins, twists, and turns.

Even from the couch, I can't pinpoint a perfect triple lutz a crisp Alley Oop or a flawless Backside 720. And the thought of hurtling down the Whistler track at speeds nearing 135 km/m on my stomach (skeleton) or on my back (luge) or hunkered down in a bobsleigh makes my head spin. This doesn't mean, of course, that I can't marvel at successfully landed moves and groan with the rest of the viewing audience when something goes wrong.

I'll be watching. And in between events, I'll be thinking a bit about sports science, about balance and dizziness and equilibrium, about speed and wind and friction, and about the many ways in which differences in equipment can be a determining factor.

A Balancing Act

While success in many winter sports boils down to gathering and maintaining and not disrupting accumulated "speed," many of these sports also require a good grip on balance. Torquing too far one way or another can send even the most seasoned athlete tumbling. For a look at what's going on, check out these Science Buddies science project ideas:


A Wheel in Motion...

Dive a bit deeper into issues that effect speed and accuracy in these project ideas:

On and Off the Ice

The following abbreviated project ideas offer concepts related to winter sports that can be expanded and crafted to create a unique and individual science fair project or study. As the Olympic games get underway, spending time as a class or group talking about the kinds of questions raised in these project ideas encourages creative and scientific collaborative thinking and problem-solving.

For other sports-related project ideas, visit our Sports Science section.

]]> Scientist's Pick: Smart Slime tag:www.sciencebuddies.org,2010:/blog//1.79 2010-01-29T23:31:18Z 2010-01-29T23:37:24Z Note: This month's "Scientist's Pick" is from Science Buddies' staff scientist, David Whyte. David presented this project to the Science Buddies' team last fall. It's very cool! ~ Science Buddies' Editorial Staff Project: Smarter Than Your Average Slime: Maze-solving by... Staff Scientist Note: This month's "Scientist's Pick" is from Science Buddies' staff scientist, David Whyte. David presented this project to the Science Buddies' team last fall. It's very cool! ~ Science Buddies' Editorial Staff

Project: Smarter Than Your Average Slime: Maze-solving by an Amoeboid Organism
Scientist: David Whyte
Science Buddies' Difficulty Level: 7-9

I was doing some background research on simple organisms that might be used in science projects when I came across an article entitled "Maze-solving by an amoeboid organism." The article contained just what I had been looking for—the basis for a novel project that was both cutting-edge science and also well within the reach of the kitchen scientist.



Materials Tip!

Kits for growing the organism, Physarum polycephalum, can be purchased from several science supply stores online.

The basic finding of the research presented in the article was that Physarum, a common inhabitant of wooded areas around the world, can find the shortest path through a maze set up on an agar plate. Physarum, also called slime mold, typically forms a large amoeba-like mass that moves over dead leaves and rotting logs looking for organic matter to consume.

Announcing their findings in the journal Nature, the researchers said they believe the organism changed its shape to maximize its foraging efficiency and therefore its chances of survival. They went on to claim that "This remarkable process of cellular computation implies that cellular materials can show a primitive intelligence."

In the lab, Physarum can be grown in Petri dishes that have a layer of agar on the bottom, so I decided to put Physarum to the test at home.

Conducting the Experiment

To set up the experiment, I placed pieces of slime mold in a 30-square-centimeter (five-square-inch) maze on an agar plate. On that same plate, I strategically placed a food source at two spots in the maze.

What happened?

The pieces of slime mold coalesced, and the organism condensed its entire body to form a mass that stretched between the two food sources and connected them. In each trial, the slime mold showed its ability to both solve the maze and find the food. Each time, it adopted the shortest possible route, effectively solving the puzzle.

The project idea I created for Science Buddies lets you devise your own maze to see for yourself how the slime mold behaves. You'll have to decide for yourself—is the slime mold "intelligent"? Are there limits to its intelligence?

Other questions you might ask as you work with the Physarum include:


  • What environmental cues is it using and how does it process information in ways that allow it to adapt?

  • What other tests can be devised to further explore how these remarkable creatures respond to the world as their senses experience it?

For me, any project that involves "cellular computation" and "primitive intelligence" in an amoeboid organism has lots of potential. In this project, what I discovered is that Physarum is a simple organism - one that you can experiment with at home—but it is not really so "simple" after all.

David

If this project sounds like fun, you might want to explore other Project Ideas in our Zoology section.

]]> A Better Cup of Tea tag:www.sciencebuddies.org,2010:/blog//1.80 2010-01-27T17:05:56Z 2010-01-28T17:35:57Z While I do cook my pasta the amount of time noted on the box (which may or may not be necessary), I'm one of the laziest sorts of tea drinkers. I drink dozens of cups of tea a day, and... Amy While I do cook my pasta the amount of time noted on the box (which may or may not be necessary), I'm one of the laziest sorts of tea drinkers. I drink dozens of cups of tea a day, and each time I follow the same highly unscientific, though orderly, process:

  1. I grab my cup.

  2. I grab a tea bag (from the "tea drawer").

  3. I grab my sweetener (there are science fair project ideas on that, too!).

  4. I rip open the tea bag and drop it in my cup.

  5. I rip open my sweetener and dump it in.

  6. I push the cup under the instant hot water dispenser.

  7. I fill it up.

  8. And then I move on with whatever I'm doing.

I don't turn on a timer. I don't look at the time. I don't lift the bag in and out to speed or spread. I don't stir. I don't swirl.

I wait a few minutes before my first sip. But even once I start drinking, I don't take the tea bag out of the cup.

I guess it means that from first sip to last, I'm getting tea of varying strength. Which do I like best? How strong is it really? How much does it change between the strength it is say 2 minutes after the tea bag is submerged in the water and a half hour later when I might drink the last drop?

I don't know. I've never thought of my tea as a budding cup of chemistry, but it is exactly that! There's a chemical extraction going on with each cup I brew. And the resulting infusion varies based on time (and based on other variables like the kind of tea I choose to drink and the temperature of the water used to steep the tea).

A look at the Wikipedia's information on tea suggests that I'm enjoying a less than perfect cup of tea by leaving my tea bag in: "Black teas are usually brewed for about 4 minutes and should not be allowed to steep for less than 30 seconds or more than about five minutes (a process known as brewing or mashing in Britain)."

How much does the tea really change? How many minutes marks the point of no return?

Thanks to a Science Buddies Project Idea geared for budding food scientists and electrical engineers among us, I can find out exactly how the strength of tea progresses over time and how it all boils down to "light" — or how "opaque" the tea is as time passes.

If you want to put your tea (or you mom's tea or your teacher's tea) to the test, you'll find out all the details here:

If I knew exactly when I should pull the tea bag out — and what difference it would make — I might change my habits!

If you're wondering about the packet of sweetener, you might also explore this Abbreviated Project idea:


If you like your science in the kitchen, check out other Project Ideas in the Cooking & Food Science area.

]]> Pasta Efficiency tag:www.sciencebuddies.org,2010:/blog//1.77 2010-01-19T16:44:02Z 2010-01-19T16:51:05Z Is pasta on the menu? If you are considering spaghetti and sauce, you may find yourself staring at the pot...waiting for the water to boil. It's best to bring the water to a boil first, right? And it's best to... Amy Is pasta on the menu? If you are considering spaghetti and sauce, you may find yourself staring at the pot...waiting for the water to boil. It's best to bring the water to a boil first, right? And it's best to use the amount of water noted on the box, right?

What happens if you cook with less water?


What happens if you put the pasta in with the water at the start?

What happens if you use hot water rather than cold water?

What happens if you use a different kind of pasta?

These are all questions that a seemingly simple dinner of spaghetti can raise.

If you're feeding a crowd, take a look at this science project idea:

Not only will this add a scientific boost to your dinner preparations, but you'll have built-in rapidly boiling dinner conversation full of gluten and just a bit al dente.

Twelve Pounds of Pasta?
If you're curious about the outcome of this experiment but can't justify making twelve batches of pasta all at once, set up your lab notebook to record your results and try a different approach over the next few pasta nights in your house.

Taste Test
The project recommends taste-testing to determine if the pasta is al dente. Throwing it against a wall to see if it sticks or not... is a recipe for a mess, not necessarily a formula for perfectly done pasta!

]]> The Golden State Star Party - III tag:www.sciencebuddies.org,2010:/blog//1.76 2010-01-18T16:52:00Z 2010-01-18T16:58:10Z The Golden State Star Party - III Photo: Kenneth Hess, 2009. Specs: Stack of 17 images, 85 minutes total exposure time on a Nikon D3. The telescope was an Astro-Physics 155mm f7 StarFire EDF Triplet Apochromatic Refractor. [View full-size image.]... Ken The Golden State Star Party - III

Photo by Kenneth Hess



Photo: Kenneth Hess, 2009. Specs: Stack of 17 images, 85 minutes total exposure time on a Nikon D3. The telescope was an Astro-Physics 155mm f7 StarFire EDF Triplet Apochromatic Refractor. [View full-size image.]

I wrote earlier about my trek to the northeastern corner of California to attend the Golden State Star Party, as well as the process of taking deep-space images.

In this final installment in the Golden State Star Party series, I want to discuss the nature of the galaxies that I photographed.

One of the reasons that I like astronomy is that it continually stimulates me to contemplate the vast scale of the objects I observe. M81 is the dominant galaxy in a nearby group of galaxies, about 12 million light years from our own. (A light year is the distance that light travels in one year.) Knowing M81's distance and apparent size in the sky, we can readily calculate that it is about 90,000 light years in diameter.

This has the mind-bending consequence that not only did the photons of light illuminating my camera's image sensor leave M81 over 12 million years ago, but since the photons on the far side of M81 had a greater distance to travel, they had to start about 75,000 years before the photons from the near side. (M81 is tipped from our viewpoint. Otherwise they would have had to start a full 90,000 years earlier.) So, while we think of a picture as representing a moment in time, my picture of M81 is actually smeared out over 75,000 years!

M81 probably contains on the order of 100 billion stars revolving around the center in one of the most beautiful spirals of any galaxy we can see. With my telescope, they all blend together, and even the brightest star is far too small to see. However, a supernova would be visible, and indeed an amateur astronomer discovered one in M81 during 1993. The individual stars surrounding the galaxies in the photo are actually stars in our own galaxy, the Milky Way.

The other galaxy in my photo, M82, was once thought to be an irregular galaxy; however, modern astronomy has confirmed that M82 is also a spiral. Some tens of millions of years ago it had a close encounter with M81, and it was dramatically disrupted. The red at the center is from a giant cloud of dust that is undergoing a massive burst of new star formation.

Other nearby galaxies?
Look at these maps to see the location of other nearby galaxies:


Projects Ideas

The speed of light is one of the most important constants in physics and astronomy, and it took millennia for mankind to discover a means to measure it. Now you can measure the speed of light in your kitchen using either of these two Science Buddies Project Ideas:


Ken Hess is the Founder and President of Science Buddies.

]]> Tracking the Sun tag:www.sciencebuddies.org,2010:/blog//1.75 2010-01-15T20:32:02Z 2010-01-15T20:42:36Z A new science fair project idea on the Science Buddies website caught my eye today because the apparatus shown in the photograph looks like a most amazing piece of sculptural scrap art. In fact, the "Helio Tracker" shown in... Amy Sunflower facing sun; public domain photo
A new science fair project idea on the Science Buddies website caught my eye today because the apparatus shown in the photograph looks like a most amazing piece of sculptural scrap art.

In fact, the "Helio Tracker" shown in the Build Your Own Helio Tracker--a Self-powered Mechanical Sunflower that Turns with the Sun abbreviated project idea demonstrates an ingenious and forward-thinking approach to the challenges of going green.

The principles of phototropism tell us that many plants will grow in the direction of their source of sunlight. There are plants, however, like sunflowers, that shift throughout the day in response to the progression of the sun from East to West. These plants are heliotropic. In essence, they "follow" the sun.

Solar panels that can mimic this behavior and reorient themselves throughout the day offer improved efficiency. High-tech solutions exist, but as the science fair project on which this idea is based demonstrates, there is something to learn from a sunflower.

For other projects ideas that involve "building" a solution, browse our Mechanical Engineering Interest Area, sponsored by Seagate.

]]> In the Wake of Shake tag:www.sciencebuddies.org,2010:/blog//1.74 2010-01-13T17:03:35Z 2010-01-13T17:05:56Z While smaller US earthquakes made recent news, like the 6.5 magnitude shake in Northern California that was felt up into central Oregon, the 7.0 magnitude earthquake that struck near Port-au-Prince, Haiti yesterday, has brought earthquakes into the foreground of national... Science Buddies While smaller US earthquakes made recent news, like the 6.5 magnitude shake in Northern California that was felt up into central Oregon, the 7.0 magnitude earthquake that struck near Port-au-Prince, Haiti yesterday, has brought earthquakes into the foreground of national news and media reports - and thus in the awareness of students.

According to reports, the quake in Haiti, an area where earthquakes are not common, was the strongest in 200 years. The world map of earthquakes in the last 7 days on the USGS site shows four earthquakes in the Haiti area, including a 5.3 magnitude shake this morning. While the extent of the damage has not yet been determined, the immediate and visible effects indicate that the quakes were devastating to the small Caribbean country.

The following Science Buddies Project Ideas can help students and classes talk about both the geology of earthquakes as well as civil engineering and the kinds of considerations that go into designing stronger and more earthquake-resistant structures.

Geology of Earthquakes:

Structural Engineering:

Note: The "Set Your Table for a Sweet and Sticky Shake" project contains a video clip of Courtney Corda, Science Buddies Vice President and "Science Mom" performing the experiment on an episode of "View from the Bay."

For other projects in these areas, please browse our Civil Engineering and Geology interest areas. Our Geology Area of Interest is sponsored by a grant from Chevron.

]]> Lab Notebooks tag:www.sciencebuddies.org,2010:/blog//1.71 2010-01-07T06:42:12Z 2010-01-07T17:13:39Z Journals and log books are used by researchers and writers in almost every field. To make note of "what we do as we do it," we keep a record. To ensure we don't forget what happened on this day, we... Amy Journals and log books are used by researchers and writers in almost every field.

  • To make note of "what we do as we do it," we keep a record.
  • To ensure we don't forget what happened on this day, we jot down a quick note.
  • To remind ourselves later of the affect of this agent on that substance, we document.

A quick look at samples from the over 13,000 pages recorded (often in reverse, mirror-image cursive) by Leonardo Da Vinci shows the range of materials that can appear in a notebook - and the ways in which such notes can later be referenced to track a project or idea. A good journal or lab notebook becomes a historical reference for projects and can help shape future research.

excerpt from a lab notebook

No matter what size project you are working on, you want to make a habit of keeping good records. If treated properly and used diligently, a lab notebook can make a big difference in the process of putting together a final project, a report, or a presentation on results.

When you sit down to write up your project , it will be much easier and less time-consuming if you have thorough and detailed notes of every stage of the process rather than relying on your "memory" of what happened at various points along the way.

Every project differs, so how you approach setting up your book will have a lot to do with your specific project, what kinds of lab-testing you are doing, how many trials you are running, how frequently you measure and collect your data, and even what kinds of background research you are conducting.

There are, however, tried and true practices that can make a difference in how useful your lab notebook is when you get ready to right up your project.

The team of scientists at Science Buddies put together the following set of tips and tricks for using and keeping a lab notebook.

Picking a notebook:


  • No sticky notes! A pile of loose paper or sticky notes won't work for a lab notebook. Use a good quality "bound" notebook, so that pages can't be lost, shuffled out of order, or pulled loose.

  • Page numbers help. Use a notebook with pre-numbered pages or number the pages yourself. This allows you to easily reference data on other pages via page number.


    Tip: Before you start writing in a new lab notebook, go through and number all pages in a consistent location (the top right-hand corner, for example).


Organizing your notebook:

  • Claim your book. Put your name, address, phone, email, or other contact information on the first page. It does happen that notebooks and journals get dropped, accidentally left behind, or lost. A lost lab notebook can be frustrating and can really set your project behind. If you've included your contact information, the person who finds your lab notebook can contact you to give it back.

  • Organize as you go. Label the second page of your notebook "Table of Contents." As you make entries in your lab notebook, write the page numbers and a description of the experiment or data in the table of contents for easy reference later.

  • Neatness counts. All entries should be neat, legible, and complete. Many times you will have to refer back to data that you recorded a while ago. You do not want to be confused by what you wrote because you were in a hurry and made a sloppy entry.

  • Keep it in order. Be sure and date each entry you make in your notebook. The entries should be sequential, but dating entries is standard practice.

  • Beware the smear! Use a smudge-proof pen when making entries. If you make a mistake in your notebook, simply cross it out and initial below the crossed out section.

When and what to write in your notebook:


  • It all counts! Your lab notebook is like a science diary. Write down all of your hypotheses, questions to look up later, and background research. As you are working, write down all your experimental observations or thoughts, no matter how small or insignificant they may seem to you at the time. The little detail you don't record might be exactly what you need to know later -- or what will help you answer a teacher or science fair judge's question!

  • Who said that? Write down the names, phone numbers, or email addresses of people you have contacted for your experiment.

  • Never leave home without it. Always have your notebook with you when doing your experiments.

  • Start fresh. Open your notebook to a blank page before you start experimenting during each new lab session. You do not want to start an experiment and then have to stop because you have nowhere to record data.

  • A picture can be worth a 1000 words. Draw pictures of your experimental set-up, experimental results, and so on in your notebook. You can also take photographs and paste them in your notebook.

  • Include the extras. You can add printouts and other documentation. Just remember to tape or glue in the material in the proper chronological location. Tip: Add notes describing the attached data so it is clear later "why" you've included the material.

  • Don't wait. Record data right away in your lab notebook. Don't rely on your memory because you can forget what happened when you performed the experiment.

  • Only in the notebook! Don't be tempted to record data anywhere else but in your lab notebook. Scraps of paper can be lost along with important data.

  • Be thorough. Include enough information about what you are doing so that you, or someone else, could reproduce your procedure.

  • Add it up. Whether you are figuring out how much of a reagent to add or analyzing your data, make sure to do all your math calculations in your lab notebook. This way if something goes wrong later, you can go back and double check to see if you made a simple arithmetic error.

  • Don't jump around. If you need to skip pages between entries for a project, add notes saying where the next entry can be found and where the previous entry occurs.

  • Track edits. If you need to go back to a page to change or correct something, use a different colored ink and initial and date the changes.

Special thanks to Sandra, Michelle, Kristin, and Dave for helping pull together their best tips and tricks for using a lab notebook!


Advanced Recordkeeping

Want one more tip that professional researchers and scientists use? Do not leave large parts of pages blank. If part of a page is blank, you might be tempted to scrawl an unrelated note in the blank space later (or someone else might pick up your notebook and make a note in a blank space). When you finish taking notes during a lab session or after recording data on a given day, draw a diagonal line through the unused portion of the page. This clearly marks any "unused" sections. You'll know later that no data or notes should appear in those spaces as you review your work.


Special Giveaway for Teachers

We are giving one lucky classroom a box of 24 lab notebooks, courtesy of Carolina Pad. To be entered in the drawing, please leave a comment at Facebook in our "Lab Notebooks Giveaway" post (from January 7, 2010). Please include your name and school name. If you have a favorite lab notebook tip, please share it! We'll draw one winning teacher's name from all entries received by January 21. (Be sure that we can contact you via Facebook so that we can reach you for shipping information if your name is chosen!) (Terms: Open to US teachers only. K-12 classrooms.)

(Note: Maximum of one entry per person. Giveaway limited to teachers.)


Share Your Tips!

Do you have favorite tricks of your own? Leave a comment to share your favorite lab notebook practices so that others can take advantage of what you're doing right!


]]> A Healthy New Year tag:www.sciencebuddies.org,2009:/blog//1.72 2009-12-29T16:13:54Z 2009-12-29T16:25:11Z In a blink, the hustle and bustle of December holidays has passed, and the close of the year and the start of the new year is upon us. Do you have "goals" for the New Year? Are you hoping to... Amy In a blink, the hustle and bustle of December holidays has passed, and the close of the year and the start of the new year is upon us. Do you have "goals" for the New Year? Are you hoping to do more of "this" or more of "that"? The first of January is notoriously a day of making resolutions to help guide the year as it begins to unfold. While resolutions run the gamut from serious to playful, getting in shape is a resolution many share.

A casual poll of friends and family members may turn up a surprising number of wanna-be exercisers as the ball drops later this week in Times Square. If you tried out one of our cookie dough projects, or if there was one too many slices of pie in your December, you, too, may be considering vowing to eat better, to exercise more, or to make the next year one focused on healthy choices and healthy living.

Whether exercise makes your own list of resolutions or not, with friends and family around you plugging in their treadmills and loading up their mp3 players for the morning jog, you may find yourself in prime position to tackle one of these health-conscious Science Buddies Project Ideas and to unravel things anaerobic, aerobic, and even neurotrophic.

For more health-oriented projects, browse our Human Biology and Health Project Ideas.

]]> Double Cookie Duty tag:www.sciencebuddies.org,2009:/blog//1.73 2009-12-15T22:42:37Z 2009-12-29T23:02:10Z Image by Geraldine, via Wikipedia Commons Earlier this month I looked through the Science Buddies' library of Project Ideas for cooking projects that seemed perfect for the holidays, for winter break, and even for snow days when young scientists... Amy




cookie dough image
Image by Geraldine, via Wikipedia Commons

Earlier this month I looked through the Science Buddies' library of Project Ideas for cooking projects that seemed perfect for the holidays, for winter break, and even for snow days when young scientists and their parents may be cooped up indoors. With two kids of my own, I thought some lab-time in the kitchen might be fun.

I realized this week that I may have missed a great project! This is one that I know will be a hit in my kitchen. It's got all the right ingredients for an easy and tasty project.

What do you need?

  • A favorite cookie dough recipe (or use the chocolate chip one in the project
  • Ingredients to make two batches
  • Taste-testers
  • Willingness to eat cookies in the name of science

What's not to love!

If making cookies is already on your to-do list in the days to come, why not make double... and give everyone the chance to test out the science behind refrigerating the dough - or not.

If you bake double and put this to the test, let me know how it turns out! Which one tastes better?


(Parents and Teachers: Make sure you have your bakers make a hypothesis first about how things will go. This is a perfect project for practicing and reinforcing the "write a hypothesis" step in a science project.)

]]> Scientist's Pick: Worth a Smile tag:www.sciencebuddies.org,2009:/blog//1.70 2009-12-01T16:41:06Z 2009-12-01T20:45:05Z Note: This month's "Scientist's Pick" is from Science Buddies' lead staff scientist, Sandra Slutz. Did you miss last month's "Scientist's Pick" write-up? Do you speak Ollie? ~ Science Buddies' Editorial Staff Project: That's a Real Smile! ...or is it?... Staff Scientist Dimpled Smile: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:VirgilGriffithFace.jpg

Note: This month's "Scientist's Pick" is from Science Buddies' lead staff scientist, Sandra Slutz. Did you miss last month's "Scientist's Pick" write-up? Do you speak Ollie? ~ Science Buddies' Editorial Staff

Project: That's a Real Smile! ...or is it?
Scientist: Sandra Slutz
Science Buddies' Difficulty Level: 5-7

Maybe it's the fact that the holiday season is starting, or maybe it's the funny antics of my toddler - but either way I've been noticing people's smiles. And the truth is people smile a lot! But after a bit of people watching (a favorite activity of mine), I've noticed that not all smiles are created equal. For example there are the "I'm having a really good day" smiles, the "nice to meet you" smiles, and the "I'm going to plaster this grin on my face and look happy even if I'm not" smiles. There are probably a dozen more that you could separate out if you sat and watched people for a while.

So do you think you're any good at detecting "genuine" versus "social" smiles? After all that people watching, I sure thought I was! But after taking a 10 minute long Spot the Fake Smile test I was surprised to see how hard it is to tell the difference between a true smile and a false one. Sitting in the café watching people it seemed so easy; probably because of all the other social cues and context. But when it came to just watching videos of people smiling out of context, I wasn't very good at distinguishing the real smiles from the fake ones.

All this piqued my curiosity about the science behind smiles - and our instinctive ability to interpret or accurately read them. After a couple of hours of digging around in psychology literature, I realized that I'm not the only one who is fascinated by smiles. Scientists have been researching smiles for centuries! In fact it was the nineteenth-century French neurologist Guillaume Duchenne who first noticed that we use different muscles for genuine smiles versus social smiles. These two types of smiles also correlate with activity in two very different parts of our brains.

All these observations and research culminated in my writing a Project Idea about smiles for science buddies: That's a Real Smile!...or is it?

This science fair project, which is my scientist's pick of the month, lets you explore how good a group of people are at detecting different types of smiles, as well as their confidence in doing so. I had a lot of fun researching and writing the project. Hopefully, it will be just as fun for the scientists who try it out!

:) (genuinely),

Sandra

P.S. If you'd like to try another "science of smiling" science fair project check out Is Smiling Contagious?


If you enjoy watching people, check out the other projects in the Human Behavior section of the Science Buddies Project Ideas library.


]]> The Holiday Kitchen: A Hands-On Lab tag:www.sciencebuddies.org,2009:/blog//1.68 2009-11-30T18:07:12Z 2009-11-30T21:04:06Z As post-Halloween sugar highs ebb and trick-or-treat stashes wane, the days of pre-packaged, ready-to-eat treats give way to the smells of freshly-baked bread, pies, cakes, gingerbreads, and a variety of other family favorites. Indeed, as the year winds down... Science Buddies pie image

As post-Halloween sugar highs ebb and trick-or-treat stashes wane, the days of pre-packaged, ready-to-eat treats give way to the smells of freshly-baked bread, pies, cakes, gingerbreads, and a variety of other family favorites. Indeed, as the year winds down and the days shorten, the kitchen can become an epicenter of activity. With classroom potlucks, family dinners, and a string of potential holiday gatherings dotting the calendar for November and December, the making and baking of traditional classics, festive treats, indulgences, and comfort foods becomes a backdrop against which the days - and dinners - unfold.

These activities also set the stage for wonderful moments of cooking chemistry. Whether you are looking to improve a favorite, hoping to boost the health factor of something on the menu, or are just curious about the ins and outs of the recipes being prepared, holiday baking offers an inviting and accessible test-bed for exploring chemical reactions.

Even my youngest, at five, likes to help mix up muffins and baked goods. Cracking eggs is, of course, one of the chief (albeit messy) satisfactions for the youngest of bakers. But curiosity about ingredients and an awareness of how many things "go into" the batter or mixture starts early. For older students and budding chemists, this curiosity can easily be channeled into questioning "why" we use certain ingredients.

What can you substitute in a pinch and why? How precise do measurements need to be? What happens if you leave this out or double that?

The list of questions that might arise as you watch the liquids and the flour mix together in a swirl of vanilla and cinnamon and pumpkin are seemingly infinite. Those questions, in fact, often are the launching point of innovation, of a new recipe, of an updated twist on a classic, and... maybe... of a science moment in the making.

Whether it's over Thanksgiving or Winter Break, just a regular rainy weekend or snow day, or a special Friday afternoon in class, there's a lot to gain from turning the kitchen into a lab. Just be sure and wash hands first!

Heat up the kitchen with the following project ideas:

]]> A Look at Zero-G tag:www.sciencebuddies.org,2009:/blog//1.69 2009-11-19T18:58:19Z 2009-11-19T19:27:09Z Shortly after finding out she was one of thirty teachers selected to participate in a Zero-G flight as part of the Weightless Flights of Discovery Program, sponsored by Northrop Grumman, Erin Moore, an eighth grade teacher at Lincoln Avenue School... Science Buddies Shortly after finding out she was one of thirty teachers selected to participate in a Zero-G flight as part of the Weightless Flights of Discovery Program, sponsored by Northrop Grumman, Erin Moore, an eighth grade teacher at Lincoln Avenue School in Illinois, gave Science Buddies an inside look at her sudden shift from "teacher" to "astronaut" - in her student's eyes. Her awareness that her students had already put her in orbit, left her faced with a philosophical decision: correct their assumptions or enjoy the sudden spark of enthusiasm she saw in their eyes about something related to science. Clearly Erin is a teacher who thinks a lot about her responsibility to her students, to their education, to their understanding, and to their dreams. We at Science Buddies have little doubt that Erin's students are lucky to be learning both science and life from a teacher like Erin.

She may not have gone to space, but as you'll see from Erin's recap of her flight, the experience was transformational, to say the least. Here's a look at the flight in her own words:

Recently, I had the opportunity to experience weightless flight though a program sponsored by the Northrop Grumman Foundation. Now my task is to find words to describe feelings that go beyond ordinary description. To put it simply. I felt like all the rules of the world had been broken, and I was a child in a playground finding out how it all worked again.


Here's how it went.

    5:45: Day starts. Wake up and pack.


    6:45: Go to the meeting area and have a nice breakfast. It was more food than I thought they would allow. There were sweet breads and many of my favorite fruits, but remembering that I could easily get sick, I tried to refrain from eating too much.

    7:30: A pre-flight news and media event begins. Quickly we start to change into our flight suits and notice that our name tags are upside down. "That is on purpose, a tradition," I am informed when I point it out. The name tags should stay upside down until I have been upside down.

    7:40: There are cameras flashing, breaking the darkness of the room. Our eyes struggle to adjust to the presence of the media.

    8:00: Our pre-flight briefing is a movie. One of the first rules discussed is "no swimming." (We are told that the closest thing our body can relate to weightlessness is being underwater. So "no swimming.") Next, "no jumping" because we could easily hit our heads on the top of the plane. Lastly, "no kicking" because it could cause injury.

    10:00: After a lengthy check and re-checks from TSA agents, we are finally aboard the plane.

    The weightless portion of my flight begins, and I begin to break every rule they have carefully explained to me.

    The first parabola was "martian gravity," about 1/3 my body weight. I would push off the floor and find it easy to push myself 2-3 feet in the air. I would then sink slowly back to the ground. The whole thing felt as I had dreamed for all these years that it might.

    The next 2 parabolas were Lunar gravity. I experimented with 1/6th of my body weight by doing push-ups and bouncing jumps. By this point, none of the teachers on the plane tried to maintain any pretense of composure. We were laughing, screaming, and shouting for joy. Even as I was constantly bumping into people, I was filled with happiness.

    The next 12 parabolas were zero g.

    The first time I felt myself lift from the bottom of the plane, it was effortless. I was floating away. "I'm floating." Those were the only words I could say.

    Just "being," surrounded perfectly by air, no struggle, no trying to keep that position... was magical. After 2 more parabolas, I laughed and played like a child who has just learned to balance a bike and takes off, soaring with freedom. I broke the rule of trying to swim through the air on a consistent basis. "Swimming" was the only way I could figure to try and affect my world, to move through it. Without gravity, I had no way of going from point A to B. I flared my arms like a bug turned upside down, but it was pointless.

    As I grew accustomed to weightlessness, I started to pull my legs behind me. I started to think of myself only as my rib cage and arms. My legs were useless. In a zero-g environment, I existed only in my upper torso. That was the only way to affect my world.

    The world had become a playground on that plane. We played with bubbling water and an air-zooka for propulsion. And, of course, there were floating M&M's, an astronaut favorite. I felt like a child with some idea of logic and no fear. I would try any experiment. Like a toddler first ready to walk, I was ready for the next step. Even in the noise of the airplane, there was a quiet stillness within me. I crossed my legs and felt... nothing, the nothing of being surrounded by air. The moment I was floating, tumbling upside, rolling over and over through air, I had achieved a dream set out by mother and myself 27 years ago.

    The laws of Newton were evident during the flight. I could not move if I did not have something to push off of, pull myself towards, or collide with. The middle of the airplane was a no man's land. In the middle, I could struggle but get nowhere, until gravity returned to claim me and pull me to the floor of the plane again.

    Every 20 seconds of zero-g, ended with me falling to the floor of the plane and laying on the floor. During the deep dives, gravity would take back its gift and exact a toll of 1.8gs. I felt the painful pull of Earth mostly in my ears and jaw, but I managed each time by focusing my eyes and concentrating on my breathing until I adjusted. I would spin, float, swim, and laugh for the next hour, hardly aware of the passing time.

    11:15: The flight ended. Now I was back at a re-gravitation ceremony. I had snickered to myself when I first saw this part of the day on the schedule. A "re-gravitation ceremony"? But it was truly needed. When I was back on the ground, I felt the real pull of the Earth in a way I never appreciated before. I felt the Earth pulling me, and I felt my slight pull back. It was at that moment -- and every moment since -- that I marveled at Newton. Issac Newton figured out his laws of gravity and motion without any benefit of weightlessness. It wasn't until I was weightless that I could say, "I get it!"

    So now the task is how to explain this experience - and the science behind it -- to my students. I will tell them that the world through the eyes of a scientist is a playground. A scientist is a person who appreciates every aspect of the world because she understands the incredible amount of magic involved. A scientist marvels at the millions of things that are going right to provide something as simple as a breath of air. To study and appreciate science means that you can dream of the incredible, fly through the air, sense the magic of life, and imagine what we can do. To look at the world in the way a scientist sees it is the happiest of ways. It reminds me of the joys of the greatest scientists, young children.

~ Erin


As Erin notes, it's hard to really "get" the concept of gravity until it's taken away. In talking with your students and classes about gravity, here are some Science Buddies Project Ideas that might be helpful and eye-opening:



Northrop Grumman's Weightless Flights of Discovery

A cooperative effort between Northrop Grumman, sponsor of Science Buddies' Aerodynamics Interest Area, and ZERO-G, the Weightless Flights of Discovery program began in 2006.

Many thanks to Erin for taking time from her busy school schedule to write this post-flight piece for us to use on the Science Buddies Blog!

]]> Leafy Science tag:www.sciencebuddies.org,2009:/blog//1.67 2009-11-12T16:56:10Z 2009-11-12T17:00:21Z Earlier this week, I talked about a paper chromatography project that offers a perfect opportunity for younger students to observe the pigmentation of Autumn leaves and then a make-your-own-markers project that can turn a pile of leaves into a set... Amy Earlier this week, I talked about a paper chromatography project that offers a perfect opportunity for younger students to observe the pigmentation of Autumn leaves and then a make-your-own-markers project that can turn a pile of leaves into a set of homemade art supplies.

For a different spin on fall foliage, the "Leaves and Light" project explores the two kinds of chlorophyll present in plants and the degree to which the color and wavelength of light affects the chlorophyll content of a leaf. With a Science Buddies' Difficulty Level rating of 2 and a time frame of approximately a week, this project is one that can be done at home or in a classroom over a span of days.

For more independent work with fall leaves, the "Chlorophyll Extraction" API offers an abbreviated project idea with a Science Buddies' Difficulty Level rating of 3.

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