UBC Partnership Program Volume 7, Issue 1

December 2003 Newsletter

UBC Partnership Program Volume 7, Issue 1

Hello Let's Talk Science (LTS) Partnership Program volunteers and friends,

This year has already been exSCIting for the partnership program at the UBC due to a large interest in LTS, and a great volunteer turnout at both training sessions! In fact, we have so many volunteers this year that many people have been assigned a teacher in pairs - these connections provide terrific opportunities to build your community at the UBC and share skills in how to teach science in experiential, meaningful ways to elementary and high school students. By now, most (if not all!) of you will have been partnered with a teacher and you are hopefully in the process of contacting them. Remember to be persistent! While it can be challenging to make contact with your partnered teacher, once you accomplish this step, you are well on your way to showing students that science is interesting, fun, engaging and important. Please keep us updated on your progress - let us know if you are having problems at any stage, if you need help with activity ideas or resources, if you need to borrow supplies (remember the sphygnomenometer?) and if you need to be reimbursed (up to $20/visit -- keep receipts). Also, please remember to submit activity forms once you have been in the classroom and help us keep a record of what you've accomplished (hint: we send a letter to the Dean of your Faculty and your involvement in this highly regarded organization goes on file. Last year, Forestry volunteers were acknowledged with gift certificates from the faculty!). The record of your involvement also means that you may be eligible for the national volunteer of the year award, as well as the self-satisfaction of crossing something off your list of things-to-do. What could be more satisfying??

Lastly, but most importantly, please tell us what you would like to see in these bi-monthly newsletters (that's once every two months, not twice a month): more activities, more support, more jokes, more pizza... we can't promise it will all come true, but we will try!

So, what are you waiting for? Get out there and share your knowledge. If you respect the students you work with, guaranteed they will amaze you with their smarts and insights - and you will be able to do the same for them.

All the best,

Beth Simpson Yona Sipos Randor

PhD Candidate, Human Nutrition MSc Candidate, Forest Sciences

Coordinators, UBC Let's Talk Science Partnership Program
University of British Columbia
2205 East Mall
Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z4

Phone: (604) 222-1025
Fax: (604) 822-5143
Email:

Q: What did the male stamen say to the female pistil?
A: I like your "style".

In this article, you will find:

·  one activity to inspire you and get you started

·  science jokes (all from http://www.juliantrubin.com/author.html)

·  many acknowledgments of volunteers and funders

·  one job posting

Q: What did one lab rat say to the other?
A: "I've got my scientist so well trained that every time I push the buzzer, he brings me a snack.

People, habitat and climate change

http://earthnet.bio.ns.ca/english/start_activities.html

Objectives:

Students will be able to

n  identify the components of habitat

n  recognize how humans and other animals depend upon the intricate balance of habitats

n  interpret the significance of loss or change in habitat due to climate change

Materials: (none needed)

Age Group: K-grade 4/5

Procedure:

Introduction:

This activity is adapted from the Project Wild Activity Guide in order to take into consideration how Climate Change can affect habitats. The major purpose of this activity is for students to become familiar with the components of habitat, and to recognize that just having food, water, shelter and space is not sufficient by itself for animals to survive - those components of habitat must be in a suitable arrangement. This activity takes very little time - but can have a lot of impact!

Main Activity:

Ask the students to number off from "one" to "four". All the "ones" go to one corner of the room, the "twos" to another, etc. As the students move to their corners, clear a space in the centre of the room. Better still, go outside to a clear, grassy area. Assign each group a concept as follows: "ones" food, "twos" water, "threes" shelter, "fours" space.

Now, it's time to form a circle! This is done by building the circle in chains of food, water, shelter, and space. A student from each of the four groups walks toward the cleared area. The four students stand next to each other, facing in toward what will be the center of the circle. Four more students - one from each group - join the circle. Keep adding to the circle in sets of four until all the students are in the circle.

All students should now be standing shoulder to shoulder, facing the centre of the circle. Ask the students to turn to their right, and take one side step toward the centre of the circle. They should be standing close together, with each student looking at the back of the head of the student in front of him or her.

Don't panic - this will work. Ask everyone to listen carefully. Students should place their hands on the shoulders of the person in front of them. At the count of three, you want the students to sit down... on the knees of the person behind them, keeping their own knees together to support the person in front of them. You then say, "Food water, shelter, and space in the proper arrangement (represented by the students' intact, "lap-sit" circle) are what is needed to have a suitable (good) habitat".

The students at this point may either fall or sit down. When their laughter has subsided, talk with them about the necessary components of suitable habitat for people and animals.

Climate Change Aspect:

After the students understand the major point - that food, water, shelter, and space are necessary for any animal's survival and, in their appropriate arrangement, comprise a suitable habitat - let the students try the circle activity again! This time ask them to hold their lap-sit posture. As the students lap-sit - still representing food, water, shelter, and space in their appropriate arrangement - identify a student who represents "water". Then say, " It is a drought year because of Climate Change from global warming. The water supply is reduced by the drought conditions". At this point, have the students who were identified as "water" remove themselves from the lap-sit circle - and watch the circle collapse, and suffer from the disruption in arrangement.

You could try this in several ways - removing one or more students from the circle. Conditions could vary: pollution of water supply due to rising water levels contaminating coastal area water, soil erosion impacting food supply, lightning from increased severe weather causing forest fires and destroying shelter, animals migration routes changed due to temperature increase and therefore can not find neither food nor space, etc. Since animals' habitat needs depend upon food, water, shelter, and space in their appropriate arrangement, "removal" of any will have an impact.

Conclusion:

Ask the students to talk about what this activity means to them. Ask the students to summarize the main ideas they have learned. They could include:

·  food, water, shelter, and space, in their appropriate arrangement can be called a habitat;

·  humans and other animals depend upon habitat;

·  loss of any of these elements of habitat will have a serious impact on the animals living there; and

·  changes in the world’s climates because of global warming, resulting from increased Greenhouse Gasses, can destroy habitats by directly affecting it’s elements.

JOKES JOKES JOKES

Three freshman-engineering students were sitting around talking between classes, when one brought up the question of who designed the human body.
One of the students insisted that the human body must have been designed by an electrical engineer because of the perfection of the nerves and synapses.
Another disagreed, and exclaimed that it had to have been a mechanical engineer who designed the human body. The system of levers and pulleys is ingenious.
"No," the third student said, "you're both wrong. The human body was designed by an architect. Who else but an architect would have put a toxic waste line through a recreation area?"

One day the zookeeper noticed that the orangutan was reading two books - the Bible and Darwin's The Origin of Species. In surprise he asked the ape, "Why are you reading both those books"?
"Well," said the orangutan, "I just wanted to know if I was my brother's keeper or my keeper's brother."

An unemployed biologist got a new job at the zoo. They offered him to dress up in a gorilla's skin and pretend to be a gorilla so people will keep coming to the zoo.
On his first day on the job, the guy puts on the skin and goes into the cage. The people all cheer to see him. He starts really putting on a show, jumping around, beating his chest and roaring.
During one acrobatic attempt, he loses his balance and crashes through some safety netting, landing square in the middle of the lion cage! As he lies there stunned, the lion roars. He's terrified and starts screaming, "Help, Help!"
The lion races over to him, places his paws on his chest and hisses, "Shut up or we'll both lose our jobs!"

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Awesome volunteers 2002-2003

We’d like to take a moment to acknowledge the work of some of our volunteers who completed several visits with their classes last year: Nathalie Gaudreault, Annick Gauthier, Kirsten MacKenzie, John McDonough, Ione Smith, Paul Smith, Jackie Stewart, Anne Todgham, Alison Wallace, Peter Wong, Sonia Ziesche

Funders of the UBC LTS Partnership Program

We’d like to acknowledge the following donors who support the Partnership Program through financial and in-kind support:

UBC President’s Office

Faculty of Science

Faculty of Forestry

Faculty of Agricultural Sciences

Faculty of Graduate Studies

Graduate Students Society

Pfizer (National Sponsor)

Petro-Canada (National Sponsor)

Visit Update

We’ve had our first visits of the 2003-2004 school year!

-Crystal Cinq-Mars explored Canada’s Food Guide to Healthy Eating with her grade 2/3 class at University Hill Elementary School.

-Justin Bourne, Alissa Krocenski and Cathy Safadi have completed two visits with their grade 6/7 class at Chaplain Heights – one involved an introduction to the the field of hydrogeology and the second visit called "Behind The Scenes: Acid Rock Drainage & Britannia Mine"

Great job Crystal, Justin, Alissa & Cathy!!

***Remember everyone – complete a visit evaluation form (available on our website) after each visit and you’ll get to see your name here in the newsletter!!

Q: How do you tell the sex of a chromosome?
A: Pull down its genes.

Let’s Talk Science

In-class Associate

Let’s Talk Science is a national not-for-profit organization that is striving to improve Science literacy through innovative educational programs, research and advocacy. We offer innovative learning opportunities involving fun, discovery and hands-on experiences as a basis to facilitate a child’s learning and skill development.

Let’s Talk Science is presently seeking 2 part time (approximately three days per week) In-class Associate to deliver our youth programming in the lower mainland.

Assets:

·  energetic individual with excellent communication and facilitation skills

·  Science or Education background

·  experience working with children and an ability to interact with teachers and children in a positive manner

·  flexible, well-organized individual capable of managing a potentially busy schedule

·  regular access to a vehicle and willingness to travel throughout a designated region (up to 150 km radius)

·  ability to facilitate workshops in English and French (one of the two positions)

Hours:

·  Responsible for three days per week. Hours will vary depending on bookings.

Wage:

·  $15.00 per hour for program delivery.

·  $10.00 per hour for initial training wage

Please fax or e-mail a cover letter and your resume by Friday, December 5, 2003, to:

Program Coordinator

Let’s Talk Science

3916 Hastings St

Burnaby, BC V5C 6C1

Fax: (604) 299 – 5409

E-mail:

www.letstalkscience.uwo.ca

Let’s Talk Science is committed to employment equity, welcomes diversity in the workplace and encourages applications for all qualified individuals. While we appreciate all applications, only those invited for an interview will be acknowledged.