Elizabeth Jacobides
Check out RBKC's Community Science Programme, ...

RBKC's Community Science Programme is already underway! From the 7 to 26 October 2017 science is taking over the Mayor’s Parlour at Kensington Town Hall, Hornton Street, W8 7NX.

Head to Ely for a Science Festival on Astronomy! May 19-June 2nd, 2019

https://www.elycathedral.org/events/ely-cathedral-science-festival-the-skys-the-limit

https://www.elycathedral.org/events/ely-cathedral-science-festival-the-skys-the-limit

I have not yet been to Ely, but this Science Festival might just change that! Roughly 90 minutes by train from London, the impressive Ely Cathedral will soon host a ‘Museum of the Moon’, suspended from the its ceiling along with multiple weeks (May 19th-June 2nd) of other astronomically awesome events. Mark your calendars, and see you there for a wide sweep of events, including many oriented for children/families.

A few of the awesome events in the programme (more events found in the full programme linked here):

Sun 19th May: Keynote Lecture by Lord Rees, Astronomer Royal

Mon 20th May: A night at the Cathedral – explore the cathedral by night and take a look at the ‘Museum of the Moon’, suspended from the cathedral’s ceiling. Also includes exhibits and interactive displays.

Tue 21st May: TV presenter and author Dallas Campbell takes you on a ‘tour’ of the science and history of human spaceflight, to mark the 50thAnniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landings.

Fri 24th May: Christopher John Lintott FRAS is a Professor of Astrophysics in the Department of Physics at the University of Oxford. He presents “I want to believe: An Astonomer’s Search for Aliens”.

Sat 25th May: Fly me to the Moon with 78RPM Big Band: spend the evening listening to jazz vocalist Joanna Eden, with selections from Glen Miller, Ella Fitzgerald, David Bowie and Van Morrison.

Tue 28th May sees Matthew Bothwell from the Cambridge Institute of Astronomy, presenting a children’s lecture at 4pm, followed by an Adult lecture at 7pm.

AND LOTS MORE!



Mark Your Calendars! The Imperial Science Festival is Coming in JUNE!

JUNE 28-30, 2019: This year, the Imperial Festival will take place as part of The Great Exhibition Road Festival from Friday June 28th through Sunday June 30th, 2019.

This combined festival celebrating science alongside the 200th anniversary of the birth of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert’s and their vision for the Great Exhibition, promises to be much like years before, but with the added space of Exhibition Road for even more stalls to share the excitement curiosity, discovery, and exploration that is science.

There promises to be:

  • Creative workshops

  • Inspiring talks

  • Hands-on exhibitions

  • Hundreds of demonstration and experiments

  • Behind-the-scenes tours

  • Huge street food market

Registration is free and signs you up to receive updates and announcements: https://www.greatexhibitionroadfestival.co.uk

Saturday 11am to Sunday 5pm

#ExRdFest

*Heads up, as this information for Friday is only found about 5 clicks in on the registration page:

Note: The festival will begin on Friday with a series of separately ticketed events at our partner institutions. To attend the festival on Saturday and Sunday, please make sure to register for free.


 

How to Save Our Coral: A Case Study in the Caribbean

Elkhorn coral, Bonaire. Credit: Erik Freeland for The New York Times

NYTimes
2019/2/18

Bonaire: Where Coral and Cactus Thrive,
and the Sea Soothes the Soul

photo credit: Erik Freeland for The New York Times

photo credit: Erik Freeland for The New York Times

Look at all those lively coral polyps!

After running a second Scientist in Residence workshop—Collaborative Construction of a Coral Reef Research Station—and exploring the questions ‘What do we know?’ ‘How do we know it?’ and ‘What could we build to learn more?’, I am thrilled to see that for all the rather dispiriting news about coral death, there is this glimmer of hope offered by Bonaire.

… it has successfully experimented with underwater “nurseries,” which are treelike and fiberglass, to grow new coral from tiny bits of living coral, to transplantable size. When the baby coral grows to about the size of a basketball, after about six months, volunteers and a few interns again transplant it onto the reef floor. Some 20,000 coral transplantations are thriving on reefs around Bonaire and more are being planted all the time.

Click on either image to the left to link to the NYTimes article, complete with more beautiful coral images!


Views of Science from a Theoretical Physicist

.... The way Lawrence speaks about his work provides a great insight into the ways of scientific working--despite the image given by lots of chem/bio/physics science classes, being a scientist is more than being able to memorize a collection of previously discovered "truths."  Being a scientist is about being creative enough to imagine possible explanations and to be resilient as you test them out, because most good ideas don't match up with nature. Failure is a necessary part of being a good scientist!

Crafting Robots and Connecting Conceptual Knowledge in Senegal

The Maker Movement in education is moving into Senegal, with the type of meaningful learning that can translate conceptual understanding of math and science into real life application. What a world we can build, if education gives students the tools to actively change the world they live in!

NYTimes op-ed: How to Raise a Creative Child.

Worth a read... my favorite excerpt is below. I tend to agree that if children are simply urged to learn existing knowledge and conform to established rules, they will not develop the skills to innovate and reshape the future.

The gifted learn to play magnificent Mozart melodies, but rarely compose their own original scores. They focus their energy on consuming existing scientific knowledge, not producing new insights. They conform to codified rules, rather than inventing their own.

http://mobile.nytimes.com/2016/01/31/opinion/sunday/how-to-raise-a-creative-child-step-one-back-off.html?_r=0

Mouldable glue that turns to rubber overnight!?!!

How cool is this!?!! Ohhhhhh the possibilities! People have used it to modify handles, repair broken toys and dishwashers, and even send a camera into OUTER SPACE?!?! So my questions is... what can we make with it NEXT?

Someone even used it to make their digital camera bounce-proof and super easy for little hands to hold. How awesome is that!?

Someone even used it to make their digital camera bounce-proof and super easy for little hands to hold. How awesome is that!?

Moo.com also did a great profile on its inventor, Jane Dhulchaointi. Read it by clicking here.

“
It all started with an idea and a small team of product designers and material scientists here in London. Our dream is to make fixing, modifying and making things easy and fun for anyone, and Sugru is our solution.

Our patented silicone technology is unique. Out of the pack, Sugru feels like play-dough, and it’s that easy to use too. It bonds to almost any other material and cures just by exposing it to air. Its durable cured properties mean it’ll stay strong and securely bonded anywhere from the freezer to a steamy hot shower, from the home to the great outdoors.”
— https://sugru.com/about

Sugata Mitra: How Much Can Children Teach Themselves?

This is a MUST-listen! A friend mentioned this story to me and after much searching I've found it to post to excite and amaze.

A fantastic story of Sugata Mitra, a physicist and computer scientist turned teacher education researcher who put computers in slums with no instruction and came back after a couple of months to find that children had taught themselves how to use them. It's the first 14 minutes of a much longer show about human learning, also worth listening to.

Imperial Science Festival--full of fun and inspiration!

Turning from Exhibition Road onto Imperial College Road last Sunday I walked straight into one of the coolest contraptions I have ever seen: CRUMBUCKET MECHANICAL DRAGON.
A perfect blend of creativity and structure.

Made by Keith, a musician whose children no longer needed their bikes and whose father no longer needed his tools, he designed and crafted this marvel of creativity and mechanics. With cranks, knobs, and bellows to turn flags, blow bubbles, and honk horns, kids and adults alike lined up for a chance to take part.

Next time I hope to be there when he dissembles the whole thing to fit into his van!

Inside and outside the buildings, the Imperial Science Festival was PACKED to the brim with interesting displays of boundary-breaking science; I watched a manned wheelchair turn, reverse, and go forward by eye movement of its pilot alone; I played Pac Man using a grabAble cube that helps patients regain muscle control in their arms by playing games. So many cool solutions to problems faced by people all over the world--and festival participants got to try them out. How cool is that?!

Whizzy demos, balloons, robotic limbs, super bugs, jelly worms, ancient microbes, flight simulator, brain waves, shoebox satellites--I can't wait until next year!!

 

"Science 'Squeezed out of Schools'"

This is precisely what WonderWorld and so many other supplementary science programs are working to counter!

The CBI (Confederation of British Industry) just published a rather incendiary report illuminating the pipeline issue of having too few graduates entering the workforce ready to pursue careers in science, and highlights the necessity of changing this starting with better primary science education.

The Flavor Connection [Interactive]: Scientists link common flavor compounds across the world's favorite ingredients

For those of you who marvel at the delicious chemistry of food--as thinkers, eaters, or both!--here's a rather densely informative infografic to whet your appetite. Don't let all the lines daunt you--click on one and only the other foods to which is shares a connection appear. Interesting on an intellectual level, but also rather practical for those cooks who like to riff in the kitchen without a recipe.

Institute of Making's Public Open day THIS SATURDAY!

It's not every day that the Institute of Making opens its doors to the public, but in celebration of its second birthday, they are having a METAL extravaganza this Saturday 07 March 2015 from 1:00pm - 5:00pm. It's FREE and no booking is required... so check it out if you can!

I'm most excited about the opportunity to "make your very own spoon from copper," but it looks like there are loads of other fun hands-on activities and interesting talks and presentations. Oh, and a chance to TASTE METAL?! I'll be there!!