A busy Science Week

The annual Science Days has come to an end, and it was a long stretch for us at the Science Center. We had two successful days at the Science Faire in Tromsø, and our booth was awarded as the second best presentation. A total of 5000 people visited the Faire these two days.


Our stall presented some simple ice experiments, focusing on the increasing meltdown of the Arctic icecap. And kids and adult alike could make their own UV critter for free. Luckily it was two sunny days, and the kids were running around outside the tent after visiting us, to test their UV beads.

SciencePub, a collaborative Polar Year science project between geologists, archeologists and science centers, shared the second place with us. Being a member of the SciencePub project, it was a tribute to us as well. They had a sandbox where kids could excavate real archeological items found in Northern Norway.

The winner was Medical Faculty, bringing a infrared camera to the Faire. I want one for our Science center! It is an excellent way to display the difference in temperature between the body core and the limbs. I am one of those with constant cold hands and feet, and this cam clearly visualize that I have cold feet and a warm heart.

The week after we visited another faire at Finnsnes, with the same topics as in Tromsø. We also visited a TechFest at Skjervøy the same week, where all 4th and 10th graders in five counties were offered a variety of science activities in one day.

Giant critters at Science Fair

In two weeks time we are attending the annual Science Days (Forskningsdagene 2007), celebrated across Norway. We are doing lots of outreach work during the 8 day festival, visiting Longyearbyen at Svalbard, Høgtun, Heggelia, Skjervøy and Finnsnes, joining the two day Science Faire in Tromsø and arranging Researcher's Night at the Science Center.

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!

To prepare our contribution to the Faires, I have been busy today preparing some decorations and large scale instructional critters. It was much more laborous to complete than the normal size UV animals, but I had fun doing it. And I think the giant critters (named UVar and Åmund) turned out rather well, and quite alike the original instructional drawing made by Anne. The bigger ones have "bead" size 5 cm, the smaller ones 3 cm. In the middle you see the original UV critter, made by UV sensitive ponybeads, and the material pack we will offer at the Fair.

Gunda the Dragon

These days I am busy preparing a chemistry program for young kids (age 4-9). It is inspired by a program developed and used by Navet in Borås, Sweden. They have for several years now had a program called "Do chemistry with Berta the Dragon". They start with story telling about Berta and her doing an experiment. Then they do the experiment with the kids. Afterwards they go to the laboratory and do some more experiments, after dressing up with real lab coats. They presented Berta at the Ecsite conference in Lisbon in June, and their presentation can be found here. Berta has been a huge success for Navet and they are now publishing books about her (in several languages).

I am developing a similar program to use locally, using a dragon (for now, it might be changed to a different creature), but creating my own setting and select my own experiments. I didn't want to photocopy the Navet version, rather bring to it some of my own personality and interests.

My dragon is called Gunda and she has a baby brother called Georg. Gunda loves the action of chemistry, while Georg is a bit nervous and prefers to deal with numbers. Georg is part of a math project, which is being developed by my colleague Anne. Using puppets and drama is one of the elements we wish to bring into many of our programs, because research from Britain shows that kids up to 12 gets a better learning experience when puppets are added as a learning tool.

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.

I will let you in on the details when I am finished with the whole thing. It will be launched at a school visit in Lavangen the second week of October, and at a seminar in Bodø just days later.

Update: If you wish to buy puppets, Living Puppets and Alveslottet (norwegian) are excellent sites too. Living Puppets also offer custom made puppets, if you want your own unique puppet.

"Anti-helium" at The Tonight Show

Everyone knows the effect of helium gas. Who hasn't inhaled a party balloon and had fun talking like Donald Duck? Kids today are at least familiar with this phenomenon.

At Jay Leno a couple of months ago, Josh Duhamel demonstrated the behaviour of a different gas heavier than the components of air. He described it as "anti-helium", the correct name is SF 6 (Sulfur Hexafluoride). This is a nice demonstration at science shows. The gas is harmless to people (in moderate doses), but harms the ozone layer. So please consider the risks for the environment if you wish to use this demo.

Make a glowing tomato

I just saw this amazing video made by The Shooting Eggs Production, and I can't wait to try it for myself. It does not look like a fake to me. It requires three household chemicals, match phosphorus, bleach and hydrogen peroxide. The chemicals have to be strong, though (according to a comment to the video), so take care with your hands and your eyes if you want to give it a go.

Happy birthday LEGO!

Last Friday was the 75th birthday of the danish toy company LEGO. I have played with the bricks since I was a toddler, and still enjoy to play with them, both with my son and at work. This summer I visited Legoland Billund with my family, and my son claimed it had been the best day of his life! I must admit, I enjoyed it tremendeously as well. We were the last people to leave when they closed....

For those of you who haven't stopped playing with LEGO, and wish to try something new (as I do), check these links I found at the Make:blog:

DIY Lego ice trays

Lego refrigerator magnets

A desk of Lego

Lego bird cam

Lego flash drive

LEDs into Lego minifigures for Halloween

Old video games in Lego

Lego minifig costume for Halloween

Lego knitting machine

Lego PC

Rolling ball clock

Escher's "Relativity" in Lego

And finally; the top 10 strangest creations in Lego, as nominated by the Tech Blog staff

Round two failed

It was reported from work around July 20th that 6 eggs had hatched. I returned to work a couple of days later and found an empty nest. We don't know what has happened, but we believe that other birds have visited the nestbox and robbed the chicken (meaning; food). Anyone out there who knows more about this than me?