The main topic this year is Melting ice - climate change. We are focusing on Melting ice, doing ice-related experiments with the kids. And we are focusing on pollution, the ozone layer and UV radiation. Everyone visiting us at the Faire in Tromsø and in Finnsnes, can build and keep their own UV critter. The University of Tromsø and Nysgjerrigper/The Norwegian Research Counsil are sponsors of the UV beads. Thanks!
Gunda and Georg are Tellatale puppets from The Wooden Gnome Store. I have made some modifications to Gunda to make her blow flames. If you wish to know how-to, drop me a note. On the photo to the right I am doing one of my first pyrotechnique tests. Anne is the blixtlight speed photographer here. The action takes just parts of a second, and is difficult to catch on film. The flame was four times longer at its maximum. This ought to impress the youngsters, and motivate them to learn some chemistry.
Living in a country stretching 1800 km North-South, with a very elongated form, comprising fjords and mountains, most Norwegians are very concerned about the weather. The weather varies a lot, and the regional differences are often extensive. Where I come from, we are used to having three seasons in a day, every day. It is just the way it is - and we have a saying sounding something like this: "There is no bad weather, only bad clothes". If you will see this yourself; take a look at our local university's weathercam. At this site you will find years of weather statistics and great time-lapse videos.
Marte and I spent several days last week making a visual display to accompany the indoor panel to the weather station. We made a board where the kids can display their weather readings from the last 24 hours and a map of Northern Norway where they can create their own weather forecast.
Being busy preparing our summer science club, I have not written about our nest box since the tragic, yet natural events taking place almost two weeks ago. After loosing three young ones the parents managed to rear the four chicken left, and they all survived until they could leave the nest. They grew remarkably fast, although there were huge differences between them. The two birds sitting closest to the box opening seemed to get more food than the modest ones at the back of the nest, and they were obviously developing at a different pace. As soon as they got feathers they started polishing them and flap their wings.
With July a few days away, here is a craft activity with a scientific twist. From a number of science toys dealers you can buy pony beads sensitive to UV light. I have bought mine from Educational Innovations - 240 beads for $6.95. Out of the sun they are white, and when they are in the sun they change to various colours like yellow, orange, red, purple and blue. This is an excellent reminder to use suntan lotion if you have tender skin like me.
Nature is harsh! The last couple of days there has been a dramatic reduction of the number of chicken in the nest. From the original seven, they dropped to six, then five and the third day there were only four young ones.
Yesterday I checked the nestbox and was a bit worried about one of the chicken. It was smaller and weaker than the others, and was not able to fight with its siblings to grab the food. The parents seemed a bit disturbed, they came into the box multiple times without bringing any food, as if they were stressed about something.
Since then we've monitored them closely, and taken films and photographs daily. They change remarkably from day to day, and now being one week old they have huge problems cramming into the tiny nest. The last egg never hatched, and it was probably the one that was laid last. Shortly after the hatching this last egg disappeared, and we don't know if it was removed from the nest or simply eaten. I've read elsewhere that the female adult eat the egg shells after hatching, probably to refill her calcium reserves.
And we've got some press coverage lately because of it. Both the local papers has stories about it in their net editions; called "Are you ready for Bird Brother" (why didn't we come up with this title ourselves!) and "A close look at the Great Tit". The University of Tromsø has linked to us with the heading "Songbird reality-TV" and even our national TV has written about it with the title "Busy Great Tit Mom".
Tomorrow my colleagues and I will attend the Ecsite Conference in Lisbon. I look forward to days filled with inspiring talks about Science Center topics, and hope to bring back home some new ideas for a small Science Center up north. I also look forward to meeting Science Center colleagues from Europe and elsewhere. If you are going there, and are reading this, I would love to meeting you there!
The other day I made the Blinky Mosquito I had planned to. It turned out rather well, but I will change the design a bit to make it easier for small hands to make. I soldered all the electronic, and used string to attach the legs and the wings (because I didn't have any glue available, will use hotglue next time). I tried using a pantyhose to make the wings more correct, drawing veins onto it. But my string was to soft, and the wings collapsed. So for the next time, the string must be less flexible. If you have any suggestions to modifications, please send me a note :)
There has been major changes in our nest box since I last wrote about it. A few days after we had put it up in the tree, we had to do some changes. The battery supply turned out to be unsufficient, and we had supply the camera with a wired supply instead. When doing this, we discovered a nest in the box, and got both excited and worried. Would our fixin' make the birds leave the nest? But luckily, the birds stayed and we got great images from the tiny home. It was a couple of Great Tits (I can't believe I just wrote that!) that had settled down at our humble extension of the Planetarium.
Ok, this was May 9th. One week later we discovered the first eggs, and right now there are eight of them. One bird stays with the eggs almost constantly, while the other one brings food to the nesting one. According to experts we can expect hatching after 13-17 days, which means at the end of the month or early June. Exciting days ahead!
Last week I toured the Lofoten islands, with the topic "Soldering certificate". The new Science theme "T&D" requires skills new to Norwegian kids, and soldering is one of them. To be able to design, make and evaluate their own electronics, they need the basic skills and then some!
March 1st the International Polar Year was launched, running till March 1st 2009. IPY is a large scientific programme organized through the International Council for Science (ICSU) and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO).
My Science Center is involved in a project called SciencePub, focusing on "Arctic Natural Climate and Environmental Changes and Human Adaptation: From Science to Public awareness". 
Svalbard has had some news coverage lately. The Svalbard Global Seed Vault, nicknamed the "Doomsday Vault" by the media, is being built as we speak, outside Longyearbyen at an abandoned mine. The Arctic Seed Vault will rescue and store 95% of the biological diversity of the world's food crops, and will function as a backup for many of the international gene banks around the world. Several gene banks are vulnerable because of inadequate maintenance capacity, natural disasters or conflicts.
Last week I built a nest box for the Science Center. It was the ordinary type, with a drilled opening suitable for Pied Flycatcher (Ficedula hypoleuca/Svarthvit fluesnapper) and Great Tit (Parus major/Kjøttmeis). But I did one change to the prototype, I made it 10 cm taller to make room for a wireless webcam.
Hopefully it will work when we get it. And hopefully we will fix it before the (if any) action starts outside. We are a bit late. The breeding season is just around the corner, if it hasn't started already. We are crossing our fingers for a pair of latecomers, who will find our accomodation suitable to hatch at.
The other day I made my first blinkybug. All I want to do now, is make another one and improve my own design.
Technology and design is a new topic in the school curriculum here in Norway. At the Science Center we have a toy construction activity for the mid-level classes called Speedmonster. The activity is designed by Elisabeth Kanebog and Marte Karidatter Skadsem, as a collaboration between "Den kulturelle skolesekken" and the Science Center. Elisabeth is an art teacher excelling in design and the design process and Marte is our tech expert in the house. Speedmonster is partially based upon old mechanical toys and the activity is divided in three parts;
Cut away excess clay and make sure you have a thicker layer of clay on the sides, to fit the two screws placed on each side underneath the shell, before the shell is baked in an oven. The shell will crack if you try to screw the screws into the clay after it has hardened in the oven.
Today the 22nd of April is Earth Day, and has been so since 1970, when it was initiated by Gaylord Nelson, a United States Senator from Wisconsin. (Not to be cunfused with the United Nations Earth Day, celebrated each year on the vernal (March) equinox.) According to Wikipedia April 22nd is celebrated by 500 million people in 175 countries. I must admit, I had not heard of the day until today. Reading the news of a Norwegian newspaper, I became aware of the way Google celebrated the day. Their logo today is a sinking iceberg, and by clicking the logo you get a list of hits as if you had seached for "Earth Day". Top ranked is the Earth Day Network, a nonprofit organisation coordinating the events worldwide. They use the slogan " A call for Action on Climate Change", and ask you to get involved in different ways. One is Project Switch, asking you to save energy by changing your inefficient light bulbs. They are also asking people to be Carbon Neutral, by "Reduce what you can, offset what you can't".
The Chairman of the 4th Assessment Report, Dr Rajendra K. Pachauri, is coming to Tromsø June 5th, which is the United Nations World Enviroment Day. Tromsø is hosting the main celebrations of the day, which is commemorated each year on this date. This year the agenda is "Melting Ice - a hot topic?". In Tromsø there will be a conference and many other events focusing on the topic. The Science Center is going to participate, teaching children about ice the whole "Environment Week". 
A project I have wanted to test for some time now, is developed by Dag Atle Lysne, Bjørn Tore Esjeholm and Stig Misund at the Finnmark University College. By using the Robolab products from Lego, you can build and program an automated small scale greenhouse. According to the developers it requires about 12 hours to complete this process. After finishing the building and the programming, this greenhouse is a nice tool to sample various plant growth information. The project description of the greenhouse project is in Norwegian, but I can translate it if anyone wants it in English.
I visited a school out of town today. Anne and I went to Hamnvåg Montesorri school in Malangen, approximately two hours from Tromsø. We travelled with three topics in our car trunk, a give away geology collection, energy (Lego Education) and solids, liquids and gases. They are a part of the Lego generation, just as I am. I must admit, I still play with it. I play with my son, and I play at work. There are many like me out there. This winter we have been amused by an elderly man working at the University and sharing office space with us. He has bought two Lego NXT robots, to play with his grandson, and he enjoys it so much he keeps chatting about it all the time, with great enthusiasm. He makes us smile, and wish for many playful years ahead.
The Science Center organize the local First Lego League contest each year. Over the years we have observed the participating teams and seen a trend across the teams. They were all mixed teams with both girls and boys, and all collaborated in the same manner. The girls wrote the log and prepared the presentation, while the boys built and programmed the robot. Does it sound familiar?
Because of this we decided to gather our own team, girls only, and see if they took the front seat with the boys missing. So for the last two years we have organized and trained a girls-only team. All the other teams came from schools and could work on the project during school hours, while our girls had to work afternoons the whole two-month period. Despite their drawback of having less time available, they worked hard, had plenty of fun, gained new friends and learned lots about robots and programming. In 2005 they won the price for "Best collaboration" and last year they won the price "Best in show". I find it quite impressive, considering the hard competition they have had from teams with years of experience. Last year they ended as number seven, when six teams qualified for the final. Next fall we will set our goals higher, trying to focus more on the programming bit, to get a higher total score and get to the final. Because it is the robot and the programming that is most important in this contest, despite all the circus.
In the early nineties I took a university class in cell biology. We had an inspiring professor named Finn Haugli, and his student labs excelled beyond comparison. The lab I loved the most, was the one about embryology. Using the sea urchin as a model system, we collected eggs and sperm. While looking at it in the microscope, we fertilized the eggs with the sperm and saw the embryo form before our eyes. Remarkable!
When performing the actual fertilization, you need to be patient. The embryo forms quickly, but you have to wait patiently for the cell divisions. The species we used needed 2-3 hours before the one cell became two, and so on. It varied a lot between the individual embryos, but it is worth waiting for, to see a cell split into two and two split into four. There is nothing like it!
Gametes of sea urchins yield exceptional experiences in the classroom; teachers and students alike are riveted by being able to observe fertilization, cell division and embryonic development. The gametes are easy to use, the developmental stages are readily seen with the microscope and the rapidity of fertilization and early cell divisions allows the student to ask questions and obtain answers within the bounds of a normal classroom schedule. 
Although we learn that all living things contain DNA, it might seem a bit to abstract to many kids. And when we think of DNA, we picture the beautiful double helix, right? Well, it does sort of look like that, if we view it through the best microscopes there is. But if we look at it with our bare eyes, it looks more like snot. Or a blob, if you like. If you do not believe me, check it out for yourself. Exploring this fact is very easy, it is maybe one of the simplest experiments there is. There are many different protocols that work in the same manner.a sample of something living
cold water
salt (NaCl)
detergent (soap of some sort, containing sodium lauryl sulphate)
bicarbonate
isoprophanol
There are plenty of good resources on this in english too, the research language above all. I have probably only seen a small percentage of them, but here are a few excellent sites:
How to extract DNA from anything living The University of Utah (with a funny twist)
DNA extraction The Gene School (good explanations)
How to extract DNA from fruits Fun Science Gallery (descriptive photos)
At our latest science club for kids aged 9-12, our theme was technology and design. One of our activities was to make a steady hand game.
designboka" (2006) written by Eva Celine Jørgensen, Svein Briså and Rolf Ingebrigtsen.
As mentioned in a previous post, our Planetarium used to be a Northern Lights Planetarium, where tourists and locals could view the Aurora Borealis year around. Although it closed down in the late nineties, people still contact us and ask for the northern lights show. And at summer time, tourists come here with the same agenda. Unfortunately we have no show to offer them anymore. So we tell them to return in winter time to see the show for real. Because of our location at 69 degrees North, we have midnight sun two months each summer and the bright sky prevent us from seing the northern lights for approximately 4-5 months each year. Lots of tourist (mainly from Japan) do visit Tromsø midwinter to experience the northern lights dance across the sky. With a clear sky, the chance of seing the Aurora is quite good, and by checking the Northern Lights Forecast you can be prepared on what conditions to expect.
Until Easter we had the pleasure of hosting the exhibition Toy Tech, created by Invention Evangelist Ed Sobey at the Northwestern Invention Center. Ed is a remarkable man, and his "Invent to learn" philosophy is a learning strategy we found very intuitive and efficient.
"Invent to learn" philosophy at the workshop. The kids got a task to solve without getting an "instruction leaflet" from us. The idea is to learn by doing mistakes; make a prototype as fast as possible, then test it and correct one flaw at a time. Ed has written several books of this learning method, and I highly recommend two of his books entiteled Rocket-Powered Science: Invent to learn! Create, Build & Test Rocket Designs and Loco-Motion, Physics Models for the Classroom: 25+ Hands-On Projects. 
Here is another funny experiment for you! It is a great activity at birthday parties, both for kids and adults. And it is a nice ice breaker or a fun way to start a lesson about gases or air. As many as 10-15 kids, depending on weight of course, can stand on the table before the balloons start to explode.
