Easy Parenting: Brood Parasites Get Someone Else to Do the Hard Work

Friday, September 25th, 2020 | Petrina Duncan | No Comments

For most birds, reproduction is a life process that takes up a lot of time and energy. There are huge energetic costs to a female bird with respect to mating, egg-laying, incubating the eggs and feeding hungry chicks for many weeks or months. Some birds also migrate vast distances across land and sea before breeding can commence, using up even more time and energy. Breeding for a bird is a lot of hard work.

So, if a bird found an easier way to become a successful breeder, we would expect that behaviour to be favoured by natural selection and become fixed. In about 1% of all bird species, that’s exactly what has happened: it’s called brood parasitism.

Brood parasites are birds who have learned how to make the parenting process much easier. They still have to find a partner and mate successfully, but instead of the female bird laying her eggs in a nest that she and/or her partner made, she stealthily lays them in the nest of another bird. Intraspecific brood parasites lay eggs in nests belonging to birds of their own species, compared to interspecific brood parasites who target other bird species.

Common cuckoo chick in the nest of a tree pipit.

Benefits and advantages for the brood parasites:

Increased breeding output
Minimal energy expenditure because they don’t defend a nest, incubate eggs or feed chicks.
Genes passed on to the next generation.

Costs and disadvantages for the host birds:

Decreased breeding output
Expending more energy raising someone else’s offspring, especially if the parasitic chick is very large as more food will have to be found.
Not passing on genes to the next generation.

Generalists and Specialists

Some brood parasites put their eggs into the nests of a wide variety of other species. These are called generalists. An advantage of this behaviour is the flexibility it offers. Generalists can be successful in many different places and at almost any time, as long as a suitable host bird is nesting nearby.

Alternatively, brood parasites can be specialists. They will target one species to be the host of their egg/s. The limiting factor in this approach is the lack of flexibility, as parasites must live close to their host species or spend time and energy travelling to find them during the breeding season.

Brood parasites in New Zealand

Cuckoos are the most famous brood parasitic birds worldwide. In New Zealand, two migratory species of cuckoos arrive on our shores in September and October each year. The shining cuckoo/pīpīwharauroa (Maori name) is the smaller of the two species. These small birds fly all the way from the Solomon Islands and the Bismarck Archipelago, a distance of more than 5000 kilometres. On arrival in NZ, shining cuckoos/pīpīwharauroa seek out their target host species, the tiny grey warbler/riroriro, in forests and gardens across the whole country.

Shining cuckoo/pīpīwharauroa being fed by its host parent, a grey warbler/riroriro.

Long-tailed cuckoos/koekoeā fly to NZ from even further away. They spend winter in an arc of Pacific Islands which extends from Henderson Island (Pitcairn group) in the east to Palau in the far west of Micronesia. A long-tailed cuckoo/koekoeā migrating from Palau to NZ will fly more than 6700 kilometres – perhaps that’s why they don’t have the energy to be a ‘normal’ bird parent. They arrive in NZ in September and October to begin searching for their target host species. In the North Island, they look for a small bird called the whitehead/pōpokatea in tall, mature forests. The forests of the South Island have two host species for long-tailed cuckoos/koekoeā: the brown creeper/pīpipi and the rarer yellowhead/mohua. All three of these host species are endemic to NZ and closely related.

Whitehead host parent feeding a young long-tailed cuckoo

Strategies of a successful brood parasite

Be selective. Brood parasites take their time to find the best host ‘mum’ to be a surrogate parent for their offspring. In human terms, this is a like parents shopping around to find the very best day care centre for their toddler. Before putting her eggs into a host’s nest, the parasitic bird will watch a potential ‘mum’ closely to appraise her age, condition, singing ability, territory location, size of the nest and its location. These factors will contribute to the parasite’s final choice of the best host for the job.

Team Work. Some parasitic bird pairs work together to achieve their goal. For example, male great spotted cuckoos in Southern Europe will stage an attack on an unsuspecting pair of magpies. The male cuckoo appears in full view of the magpies to divert their attention and launch a pretend attack. Meanwhile the female cuckoo sneaks into the magpies’ nest to quickly lay her egg. This risky egg-laying behaviour is only possible because both the male and female are working as a team to ensure the hosts don’t see what’s happening.

Egg mimicry and timing of laying. Parasitic bird eggs have evolved over time to look and feel very similar to the host’s eggs, a concept called egg mimicry. This reduces the chance of egg rejection by the host. Their eggs also usually have thicker shells than the host’s eggs. Parasitic birds will also strategically time their egg laying. By waiting until the host has already laid a few eggs, the parasitic female ensures that incubation is already underway.

The larger blue egg is that of the parasitic common cuckoo. The cuckoo’s egg looks very similar to those of the host, a common redstart

Chicks who are bullies. Brood parasite eggs generally hatch earlier than the host’s eggs. The parasitic chicks use strategies like pushing the host’s eggs and chicks out of the nest or stabbing chicks with a special hook on their beak. Imposter chicks also tend to make louder, more frequent begging sounds to ensure they get all the food from host parents. Some species like NZ’s shining cuckoo have chicks who can mimic the begging call of a grey warbler’s chicks, ensuring the host is fooled into feeding them.

Total destruction of eggs. Sometimes a cuckoo misses the chance to lay her eggs at the optimum time. As an extreme measure, she will destroy the entire egg collection in the host’s nest. This behaviour is like a reset for the host bird to start over with breeding. She will probably mate again and lay another clutch of eggs while the watchful parasite bird prepares to intercept at just the right time.

Common cuckoo chick in host nest

Can host birds fight back?

Brood parasitism is a classic coevolutionary “arms race”. Each time a host species evolves a new behaviour to defend against brood parasitism, the parasite species evolves a new trait which makes its breeding strategy more successful. Here are a few ways in which hosts can fight back.

Egg recognition. Many host birds have evolved to be experts at egg recognition. They will recognise and then reject eggs which look different to their own. Sometimes a host will even leave its nest entirely if a strange looking egg appears. However, brood parasites have adapted to this selection pressure by either becoming generalists (they parasitise multiple species) or producing eggs which are almost identical to the host’s eggs (egg mimicry).

Chick recognition. Some host ‘mums’ are able to recognise and reject chicks which are not their own. However, rejecting chicks carries the risk of mistakenly rejecting their own chicks. If the rate of parasitism is very high, selection for accurate chick recognition will be stronger.

Nest features. Species that commonly get parasitised may deploy nesting tactics to minimise interference. Their nest may be well camouflaged to avoid detection. The nest’s location could be away from places where parasitic birds can sit. The nest entrance may be too small for the brood parasite to enter. For example, the grey warbler’s nest entrance is tiny, preventing shining cuckoos from entering. But the cuckoo manages to parasitise their nests regardless. Researchers suspect the egg is laid elsewhere then carried in the cuckoo’s beak up to the warbler’s nest and carefully deposited inside.

Should we be concerned about brood parasitism?

As our climate changes and the human population continues to increase, natural habitats such as forests are disappearing due to fires, logging, agriculture and urban sprawl. For bird species that are already in decline due to habitat loss, brood parasitism may pose a significant threat, especially if generalist parasites increase in numbers. Reproductive success will be compromised at a time when the population is already decreasing. The combined pressures could become too much, putting the species at risk of localised extinction.

On the bright side, a brood parasitic species can’t survive without its host species. Parasitic birds often wait until their target host has raised one clutch of offspring before parasitising the second nest. This is a behaviour which will give rare host species a helping hand.

Grey warblers will often raise a family of chicks successfully early in spring, before the shining cuckoos arrive in NZ from their long migratory journey. Even if the grey warbler’s second nest gets targeted by a shining cuckoo, they have already contributed their genes to the next generation and hopefully the behaviour of early nesting was also passed on to their offspring.

For rarer NZ bird species such as the yellowhead/mohua and whitehead/pōpokatea, being less successful breeders due to parasitism by long-tailed cuckoos/koekoeā is a concern to conservationists. Long-tailed cuckoos are also able to parasitise the nests of the more common brown creeper/pīpipi in the South Island. As yellowhead numbers decrease, brown creeper numbers may also begin to decline due to being parasitised at a higher rate. In the North Island, whiteheads are increasing in numbers due to human conservation efforts which will hopefully help to mitigate the negative effects of brood parasitism.

Conclusion

Brood parasitism represents a rare and unusual parenting strategy. There are many benefits for the bird who does the parasitising such as avoiding most of the hard work involved with being a parent.

Brood parasitism is a great example of coevolution in which the evolutionary “arms race” is played out in the privacy of a nest or within the boundaries of a territory. There will always be winners and losers in this host-parasite exploitative relationship. What we must try to do is reduce or eliminate human-related pressures which adversely affect the breeding success of birds. By helping to conserve native bird species and their habitats, we’ll be supporting them to withstand the negative impact of brood parasitism long term.

Further reading:

NZ Birds Online:- Shining cuckoos/pīpīwharauroa
NZ Birds On Line:- Long-tailed cuckoos/koekoeā.
The coevolutionary biology of brood parasitism: a call for integration

Photo Credits:

Common cuckoo chick in the nest of a tree pipit.
Vladlen666/WikiMedia Commons (CC1.0)
https://www.sciencenews.org/blog/wild-things/cuckoos-may-have-long-lasting-impact-other-birds

Shining cuckoo/pīpīwharauroa being fed by its host parent, a grey warbler/riroriro.
Photography by Robin Colquhoun. From NZ Birds Online: http://www.nzbirdsonline.org.nz/species/shining-cuckoo#bird-photos

Whitehead host parent feeding a young long-tailed cuckoo. Photography by Adam Clarke.
From NZ Birds Online: http://nzbirdsonline.org.nz/species/long-tailed-cuckoo

The larger blue egg is that of the parasitic common cuckoo. The cuckoo’s egg looks very similar to those of the host, a common redstart. Photography: Dr. Tomas Grim. https://phys.org/news/2018-05-russian-cuckoo-invasion-alaskan-birds.html

Common cuckoo chick in host nest. Photography by Per Harald Olsen (CC BY 2.0)
https://www.birdorable.com/blog/bird-term-brood-parasite/

The Unknown Explorers of Prehistory

Friday, July 31st, 2020 | STEPHEN BRONI | No Comments

As a boy I had a fascination for Arctic explorers; Nansen, Nordenskjold, Peary, Franklin Cook, and a Scot by the name of John Rae. Many years later when working as an interpretive tour guide at Denali National Park in Central Alaska I found myself working alongside Yupiks, Athabascan and Aleuts and was reminded that as my boyhood heroes pushed north in their clunky wooden-hulled ships in search of that elusive Northwest Passage they encountered people already living on that frigid landscape and who had been for thousands of years.

Where did they come from? When did they arrive and how did they get there?

The classic story I learned at school was that first Americans crossed the land-bridge (Beringia) from Siberia at a time of warmer interglacial climate around 11,000-14, 000 years ago.

However, this is assertion is increasingly being challenged by recent archaeological finds.
What is emerging is evidence of a much earlier arrival than previously thought at a time of `Glacial Maximum’ when the `land-bridge’ was buried under kilometre thick ice sheets.

Who were these men and women – these nameless explorers of prehistory – and could they really have crossed a Beringian ice-cap?

Anatomically they were the same as you or I but what did they wear, how did they navigate, how did they survive such hostile conditions?

What were their hopes, dreams, aspirations and fears as they pushed further and further into an increasingly hostile environment? Were they driven by the pursuit of something new and better or fleeing from something bad?

Or is it simply that the urge to make ‘split-infinite journeys’ and “boldly go where no-one has gone before” is inherent in us as a species. That pull of the far horizon, to explore, took us out of Africa and remains with us today as we plan to colonise other planets.

The more one delves into what we know of these earliest of Arctic explorer/colonisers one can’t help but admire the tenacity, resilience and bravery they must surely have had to cross from Asia to Alaska and down through the Americas.

Until recently the commonly held theory was that the first human inhabitants of the Americas arrived somewhere around 11,000 years ago. Known as the Clovis people after a characteristic type of stone tool first found at a site in Clovis, New Mexico in the 1930’s their stone tools have subsequently been found across the Americas.

Then, in the 1990’s evidence began emerging from a number of sites of earlier occupation, the most famous and controversial being the Monte Verde site way down in Southern Chile. Monte Verde sparked intense controversy within the archaeological community as it claimed evidence of occupation as early as 14,500-18,500 years ago. To have reached Southern Chile by then those first colonisers would have had to have crossed Beringia much earlier than previously thought. ‘’Not possible” say the glaciologists! Beringia would have been covered in kilometre deep ice sheets at that time.

Could they have snuck around the southern coast of Beringia? Perhaps these tenacious early colonisers coastal hopped up the east coast of Asia, round to the Alaskan Archipelago, down the British Columbian coast to California, Mexico and beyond to South America.
This Coastal-Settlement Theory is gaining more and more traction with archaeologists as new sites are discovered.
Sea levels at that time of Glacial Maximum would have been up to 120 metres lower exposing many coves, beaches and islands submerged today. The single longest sea journey might well have been less than 200km.

Marine Archaeology is challenging at the best of time but nowhere more so that around the Bering Sea and Alaskan coast, so gathering evidence for the coastal- settlement theory remains challenging. While only a few coastal sites have been found dating from about 11000-15000 years ago the search continues as new archaeological techniques and technology develops.

What we do know is that as early as 60, 000 years ago proto-Melanesians were a seafaring people. There is evidence of voyages of 150- 450 km by 32,000 years ago. All of which supports the idea of a possible coastal settlement path up the coast of Asia and across to the Alaskan Coast of the Americas.

The Chiquihuite Cave Site
Now a newly discovered site in Mexico has pushed the arrival of the first Americans back even further -a whole 15,000 years earlier than previously thought!
Chiquihuite Cave is located far inland in a remote mountainous region at a height of nearly 3000m. Over 2000 stone tools have been unearthed along with other evidence that push the arrival of the first Americans back to 25,000-30,000 years ago!
“We don’t know who they were, where they came from or where they went. They are a complete enigma. We falsely assume that the indigenous populations in the Americas today are direct descendants from the earliest Americans, but now we do not think that is the case.
By the time the famous Clovis population entered America, the very early Americans had disappeared thousands of years before. There could have been many failed colonisations that were lost in time and did not leave genetic traces in the population today”. Says Archaeologist Dr. Ciprian Ardelean.

No human remains or DNA has yet been found at this site so it is not possible to know for sure the genetic lineage to possible founder populations in Siberia and Beringia.
The traditional view that most Native Americans (in both North and South America) are mainly descended from the same ancient peoples that most Chinese, Japanese and other East Asians are descended from is now also being challenged by recent genomic research. This suggests that the initial peopling of the Americas was probably carried out by a different group of people partly related to ancestors of modern-day Australian aborigines, Papua New Guineans, Andaman Islanders and Mamanwa people from the Philippines.

Whether those early explorer colonisers fought their way on foot across expansive glaciers and down an ice-free corridor within Alaska or battled stormy seas around the fringes of a frigid Beringia they must have been remarkably tough and resilient individuals and communities.
The individual identities of the very first to make the crossing will remain forever unknown. Since we have no Nansen, Nordenskjold or Peary to be our Arctic explorer heroes from that era we are left with a collective reverence for an unknown people who had the tenacity, endurance, drive and fortitude to make the toughest migration since our species walked out of Africa somewhere around 80,000 years ago.

Sources & Further Reading:

YouTube Links:

Most archaeologists think the first Americans arrived by boat. Now, they’re beginning to prove it
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=6&v=CmxhFgpIacI&feature=emb_logo

How the First Americans Got There
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5dyjZBJt-Yg

Landmark find rewrites world’s prehistory as it is currently known
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/archaeology/archaeology-discovery-americas-us-human-story-prehistory-a9632161.html

Earliest humans stayed at the Americas ‘oldest hotel’ in Mexican cave
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/07/200722112726.htm

Evidence of human occupation in Mexico around the Last Glacial Maximum
Ciprian F. Ardelean, Lorena Becerra-Valdivia, […]Eske Willerslev : Nature (2020)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-020-2509-0

Illustration credits:
1. Tyler Jacobsen
2. Kenneth Garrett
3. Chris Burns
4. Dr. Ciprian Andelean

Using Podcasts to Learn About Science

Thursday, April 30th, 2020 | STEPHEN BRONI | No Comments

Written by Petrina Duncan

If you enjoy listening to stories and are naturally curious, podcasts are a way in which you could learn more about almost any topic you can think of. There are lots of benefits of listening to podcasts: you can do other tasks such as exercising at the same time, a wide range of global topics are covered, you will hear a range of communication methods, and you can visualise as you listen which engages multiple parts of your brain. Learn about other benefits here.

The diversity of podcasts is huge, so here is a list of some science-based podcasts accessible online which you can browse through to find topics you are interested in or curious about. Enjoy the show!

New Zealand Podcast Series:

Our Changing World This excellent science and natural history series has been running for many years on Radio New Zealand (RNZ). The weekly show is currently hosted by the very talented Alison Ballance, a zoologist, wildlife filmmaker, writer and radio producer. Alison often goes on location for her stories to labs and field sites in remote and rugged places, eg. Antarctica, Codfish Island and the Chatham Islands. Highly recommended. Also worth listening to is Alison’s four-part series called Voice of the Iceberg set in Antarctica.

Critter of the Week Presented by Jesse Mulligan (RNZ) and Nicola Toki (Department of Conservation’s Threatened Species Ambassador), this weekly session combines a friendly chat with a scientific description of uncharismatic but loveable, lesser known species in NZ. For example, learn about the NZ antlion, Bryde’s whales, basking sharks, or Smeagol the gravel maggot. Who knew there was a maggot named after Smeagol?

Science Express Presented by Te Papa museum in Wellington (see their blog), these podcasts are recordings of live interviews with experts, recorded in front of an audience. Learn about diverse topics such as the psychology of criminals, fossil hunting for dinosaurs and drilling into the Alpine Fault. Not a weekly series.

Scigest Described as ‘podcast-sized servings of digestible science from the world of Plant and Food research’, this has something for everyone. Within their numerous podcast episodes, learn about topics such as the future of food, the personality of a snapper, stink bugs and the career path to becoming a scientist. A must for future scientists, especially those interested in plants, food, horticulture, biosecurity or genetics.

Stupid questions for scientists Although not strictly a NZ podcast, the presenter is an award winning science communicator, Dr Michelle Dickinson, better known as Nano Girl, who now teaches at the University of Auckland. Described as “a brilliantly entertaining, while delightfully educating podcast which brings together top comedians and scientists. Topics include animal intelligence, medicinal majijuana and the science of attraction. Riveting stuff!

Australian Podcast Series:

The Science Show A weekly radio series produced by the ABC in Australia. The Science Show provides unique insights into the latest scientific research and debate, from the physics of cricket to prime ministerial biorhythms. Hear about the future of space research, how young people view science, life at extreme ocean depths and amazing stories about blood.

Great Moments in Science Another ABC Australia production, host Dr Karl Kruszelnicki reveals ‘groundbreaking and life-saving’ science stories, as well as a few ‘wacky and implausible’ ones. Be absorbed by topics such as why humans are no longer cannibals, why 5G won’t kill you and the intelligence of spiders.

Science Friction Described by the ABC as ‘science, culture and everything in between’ this series focuses on topics which might be slightly contentious, edgy or controversial. Hosted by award-winning science presenter/journalist Natasha Mitchell. Check out their recent podcast on bats, pandemics and China’s wildlife markets with relation to the COVID-19 virus. Great interviews with relevant experts.

British Podcast Series:

5 Live Science Podcast Join Dr Chris Smith and the ‘Naked Scientists’ for a weekly update of science news stories and analysis from the BBC radio. Their topics are diverse, their humour is entertaining, and they even answer questions from the public about science topics. Episode examples: beached whales, bright Neanderthals, the Coronavirus, veganism, gene editing. Great listening.

Costing the Earth An excellent BBC radio series which covers a wide range of global environmental and conservation topics. They often go on location and interview lots of different experts. Episode examples include: eco anxiety, how young people are taking on climate change issues, and ending the age of plastics. Subscribe and upskill.

Discovery Explorations into the world of science from BBC radio. The presenters often interview leading scientists who have made significant discoveries in their field of research. Episode examples include gene research, stem cells, COVID-19, locust plagues and micro-plastics in the ocean.

CrowdScience The BBC take ‘questions from the public about life, Earth and the universe to researchers hunting for answers at the frontiers of knowledge.’ Updated weekly, you can hear answers to questions like: Can science explain why I love shopping? Why are we obsessed with crime? Would humans still exist if dinosaurs were alive? Fascinating stuff.

BBC Inside Science Dr Adam Rutherford and guests illuminate the mysteries and challenge the controversies behind the science that’s changing our world. Of particular interest to NZ biology students will be their podcasts about human evolution, eg. The hidden history in our DNA – Part 1 – Sex and Disease and The hidden history in our DNA – Part 2 – Travel and Culture.

American Podcast Series:

Sciencemag A weekly science podcast show, produced by the AAAS (American Association for the Advancement of Science). Two or three topics are discussed each week, including interviews with expert scientists. They currently have a strong focus on COVID-19 related stories (like most science podcasts!). Other topics include: visiting a near-Earth asteroid, why adults are always badmouthing the next generation, and the limits on human endurance. Something for everyone.

Overheard at National Geographic Each week, the presenters ‘dive into one of the curiously delightful conversations they’ve overheard around National Geographic’s headquarters. You’ll be introduced to the explorers, photographers and scientists at the edges of our big, bizarre, and beautiful world.’ Hear about zombie mice, the hidden cost of the perfect selfie, and how beavers work as carbon releasers of the permafrost environment. The National Geographic website has lots of other wonderful things to explore.

Scientific American If your attention span is short, these podcasts might suit you. They are short, snappy and always interesting. Learn about worm-like creatures which are our ancient ancestors, puffins using tools, COVID-19 updates and fungi on flaky scalps. Delightful !

Hopefully this list of science podcasts inspires you to tune in, get inspired and practise the art of listening. Remember that podcasts are also available through itunes, spotify, iHeart radio, Google Podcasts and radio network websites like the BBC, ABC, RNZ and our own local Dunedin based OAR FM: Science Academy(OUASSA) Student Podcasts and University of Otago Science Notes.

Are ALL Viruses Bad?

Thursday, March 26th, 2020 | STEPHEN BRONI | No Comments

With all that is going on around us, all across this beautiful planet of ours and the word `virus’ dominating everything we see, hear, read in the media at the moment I found myself thinking “Are all viruses bad? Are there any useful, beneficial viruses? And why ARE bats such good carriers off so many nasty diseases – over 60 of them!”

It seems highly likely that viruses do play a substantial part in maintaining a healthy body. You have probably heard of our `microbiome’ but what about our ‘virome’
Read more here:
How ‘good’ viruses may influence health
Here:
Not All Viruses Are Bad For You. Here Are Some That Can Have a Protective Effect
And here:
Viruses Don’t Deserve Their Bad Rap: They’re The Unsung Heroes You Never See
[In the embedded Ted-X talk in this link, the always engaging, Peter Pollard also illustrates some illuminating facts about how much C02 freshwater ecosystems pump into the atmosphere, due in part to viruses… everything is linked! ]

And on the question of why bats are such good carriers of disease.
Check out:
Why Do Bats Transmit So Many Diseases?

BEFORE YOU CLICK- Spend a minute thinking about what you know of bat behaviour and basic physiology …. (The answer may take flight in your head…(hint))

However, when all is said and done our thoughts are all on one virus at the moment.

Ever wondered how the tests for Coronavirus work?
May you never have to take one!

P.S.
Need a refresher on just exactly what viruses are and how they work?
Check out this great Khan Academy Tutorial on Viruses and the text Q&A that follows.

Stay safe
Be patient

Science Academy 2019 Student Podcasts

Wednesday, October 2nd, 2019 | STEPHEN BRONI | No Comments

Exploring effective techniques for communicating science to a public audience is a key component of Science Academy (OUASSA). Every year our students undertake a project under one of four science communication streams:- Interpretive Science Talks, Science Film Making with your cell phone or Ipad, Museum Science Communication, Science Radio Podcasting.

This year Shannon Colbert and Domi Angelo-Laloli from Community Access Radio’s OAR 105.4FM Dunedin mentored eight of our students through the process of constructing a short science podcast by means of interactive workshops in the studio and on-line support throughout the year.

Below is a list of the topics they covered

Physicists on the Pitch
by Abdul Ahmadi from Mangere College

Discover the science behind Soccer! From Newton’s Laws of Physics, to the Magnus Effect and the use of `Cleats’.

Operation: Space-cial Exploration
by Jessica Marshall from Opihi College

Billions of stars, hundreds of planets, a black hole or two, but how do we know this? What feats of engineering were needed to bring us this knowledge and what will be needed to further understand the world around us?

The Periodic Podcast
by Niamh Frizzell from Awaptapu College

This podcast is about history of the periodic table, the `International Year of the Periodic Table’ and the celebrations that surround it.

Error 1387 Gene Unavoidable
by Seruwaia Matairavula from Wesley College

In this podcast I discuss Genetics at Otago University and how the study can benefit humanity. I am accompanied by Sean, a Masters student studying genetics, and Science Academy attendee, Cameron Bergin from John Paul II High School in Greymouth.

The Extra-terrestrial Podcast
by Corban Taylor from Opotiki College

If you want to listen in to a good friend and I talk about aliens and all that jazz then listen in, as we discuss our views on alien beliefs.

Are We Living in a Simulation?
by Maddison Ridder from Verdon College & Cameron Bergin from John Paul II High

Have you ever felt like you have no control, like your whole life is set out for you? Have you ever thought that maybe you’re living in a simulation? Well, it’s more possible than you’d think. This podcast is going to investigate the reasons why we could be part of a simulation.

Lost in Translation
by Gemma Marnane from Central Southland College

If you are willing to deny convention, it becomes more worthy of attention. For all the knowledge, all the fear, we forget to speak of the meaning, which is hidden. Take this, imagine a world in words. It forms languages and societies, stipulates mutations, natural selection and forms gene pools and populations. It’s the world. We are all just a little lost in translation.

Becoming a Midwife
by Tamel Robertson from Aurora College

My podcast is based on the life of a midwife and the duties in her role. I will be interviewing midwife Margaret Gardner to gather information for the listener as well as myself as I plan on beginning my study to become a midwife next year, in 2020.

Have a listen here at https://oar.org.nz/event/science-academy-chat/

Happy Listening!

I’ve been thinking….

Friday, August 30th, 2019 | Wendy Dunn | No Comments

Actually it starts with listening, thinking, reading and then some more thinking. The nature of Science learning! This year I have had the luxury of having the opportunity to listen to the radio while I am working. I find my ears prick up and I tune in when an interesting science item comes on. Radio New Zealand is my frequency of choice. Even if it’s not yours it is well worth dipping into for anyone with an interest in keeping up with the latest Science news. They are easy listening and many of the programmes and interviews are available as podcasts (see below). The RNZ website is easy to search and there is a RNZ App if you like to listen while on the move.
Here are a few recent items that you might find interesting.

A very ugly lamb

A rare lamb was born in Rotorua that is basically bald – a lamb without wool. What would happen to this genetic rarity in the wild?

https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/checkpoint/audio/2018710142/woolless-lamb-one-of-the-ugliest-lambs-i-ve-ever-seen

The Mosquito. Our deadliest predator and a fascinating discussion about Sickle cell.

https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/ninetonoon/audio/2018709821/the-mosquito-our-deadliest-predator

Professor Timothy Winegard of Colorado Mesa University talks about the impact of the mosquito – the deadly diseases it carries have killed as many as 50 million people. One such disease is malaria. Individuals with the genetic condition sickle cell anaemia have resistance to malaria.
I found the section on American Football players who had sickle cell anaemia dying, or, coming close to dying, after pushing their body to the limit, particularly interesting. The deformed cells cannot carry enough oxygen and clog the blood supply to the muscles and tissue leading to tissue death and potentially a heart attack. Those of you who follow sport know that playing sport at high altitude, where there is less oxygen, is difficult and when players with sickle cell take to the field they are particularly vulnerable. This happens when the American Football players with sickle cell play at high altitude meaning they have to take precautions.
How did such a harmful condition end up being selected for?
Since the average age of a person with sickle cell is 23, there is enough opportunity for this trait to have been passed on before the person succumbs to the condition. It persists too because this mutant gene gave an evolutionary advantage against malaria (which must have been a strong selection pressure).

Engaging Students in Science

Thursday, March 21st, 2019 | Wendy Dunn | No Comments

As a teacher it’s always great to get a few more ideas or to be reminded of some techniques you have used in the past but have dropped off the radar.

Don’t forget to model your interest in trialling new techniques and your own enthusiasm for the content. It is infectious!

So what is engagement and what does it look like? How do you know someone is engaged?

Engagement is expressed via:

Asking and answering questions (a sign of curiosity)
Willingness to participate in learning activities (rather than passively being spoon fed)
Completion of tasks including reading and writing tasks both individually and in groups
Meeting deadlines, completion of problem solving tasks, and participation in discussion

Cultivating a thriving classroom atmosphere also relies on relationships within that classroom although that is not the focus of this blog. We know that once this culture is created students are more likely to take risks and let’s face it risk taking is essential in science – the willingness to try something new, often fail and learn from this.

An example of testability of the scientific method in the cultural context from NZ Science Teacher

Similarities: Both Indigenous Knowledge and Empirical Science involve repeated practical tests and are based on the “test of time”. Pasifika people were able to make repeat voyages.

Differences: The principle difference is that tests of IK largely involve trial and error, while ES tests are ideally conducted in a laboratory/in the field with strict control of variables.

Giving opportunities for choice can increase engagement:

What variables do they want to control in an experiment? (see examples below)
What current event do they want to present to the class?
What element of the periodic table do they want to research?

Using topics students are passionate becomes a great context for teaching Science content.

e.g. Climate Change. Many students took to the streets to take part in a global student strike in March 2019.

Juniors look at elements, compounds, states of matter, the water cycle and atmosphere. Sources of carbon dioxide, methane and then problem solving – What action can they take as individuals, a class, a school, community that makes a difference? Perhaps use Tony Ryan’s Thinking Keys for some ideas on how to extend exploration with engaging activities.

Seniors you could explore the importance of variation within a changing environment. Already we are seeing evidence of some species living at higher latitudes and altitudes. Which species/groups of organisms are more vulnerable to the rapid environmental change?

Whatever strategies we employ for Maori and Pasifika students will also benefit other students. This excellent NZ Science teacher article has more detail. Below are some of their contextual examples.

Essentially, using relevant contexts will make science education more appropriate. The areas of environment including ecology, medical and pharmaceutical knowledge along with genetic modification are key areas for Maori. There are, of course, many other applications in the Science Curriculum.

Examples from NZ Science Teacher:

Investigate colour differences in flax varieties and the influence of soil, climate, disease, and pests
Investigate time taken for yogurt to “go off”. Variables include temperature, flavour and brand.
Discuss cultural weapons and how they were used when discussing ‘force and energy’

Try to remember to get the students involved in preparation of activities rather than passively participating – e.g. writing quiz questions, not just doing a quiz. Practicals, group work and activities that require problem solving and critical thinking are crucial. Include some movement where possible.

Employing differentiation strategies (e.g. Jigsaw) allows you to group by learning style, or topic or simply a chance for students to take ownership of their knowledge by becoming familiar with it and teaching others, often several times. This repetition is key along with reciprocal learning and teaching. If catering to learning styles then different presentation styles can be employed.

What else?

Think, pair, share
Flash cards
Science facts in cards: sort into piles: I know, I sort of know, I didn’t know. Do at start and end of topic. Do on own or in pairs – discuss and explain your understanding or lack of for each fact. What do you have in common? Where do you differ?
Word games to help with Scientific symbols and terminology: Hangman, Pictionary, Bingo, Scrabble, Odd One Out, Charades, and online versions e.g. Kahoot and Quizlet
Word parts: Lots of scientific terms can be broken down. Students get 2-3 parts that they have to match up along with a definition, e.g. Prefix = Photo (light), Synth (make), isis (process). Helps them identify new terms in the future. Students can relate to other languages.
Supply terms which students must place in order (e.g. smallest to largest: cell, tissue, organ, organism) either as cards on desk/board OR they hold them up and arrange themselves in order. Then make sentences linking terms or explaining the relationship with examples.
Online Science Games. Try this or this NZ site – don’t underestimate how even some of the simple ones are actually very useful to a range of ages and abilities
Use of Aps in the classroom. Students can explore cells, use light meters. I like this one
Students identify and share good science feeds to follow on Twitter
Analyse a movie for its scientific accuracy. Check out 10 STEM ones here (first few are for younger viewers but the supporting ideas are good for the others)
Field trips, Virtual Science fieldtrips and practical work
Thinking maps to link between concepts. There are also sites students can create online
Write learning objectives as questions at the start of the lesson. Draw attention to them so that students know what is happening and why this strategy will help their learning. Check understanding with students answering questions at the end.

Another article in NZ Science Teacher focuses on Physics. It gives a strategy to enable structured explanations as DELA (Define, Explain, Link, Answer the question).

“The student must not imagine physics as a process of ‘finding the correct formula to use, rather they must experience the need to understand physics”.

Whakataukī (proverbs) are a key part of Māori culture.

Whāia te iti kahurangi ki te tūohu koe me he maunga teitei.

Aim for the highest cloud so that if you miss it, you will hit a lofty mountain

Try creating a proverb for some aspect of science e.g. ‘He who gains speed most quickly will have the greatest acceleration.’

Me and the Hive

Friday, September 7th, 2018 | STEPHEN BRONI | No Comments

Me and the Hive

by Jehu Brogden Stratford High School

Jehu Brodgen head shot

Buzz, buzz, buzz. Stay still Jehu, you’re a statue, think calming thoughts like ice cream, like this bee kindly flying away. These were my thoughts as I stood petrified on a summer evening, out beekeeping with my father. As always, I was wondering how the heck my father had talked me into doing this. Sure, their honey is sweet, but their barbed stinger is sharp and there are approximately sixty thousand₁ of them. All armed and ready to go. Then I feel it, the soft griping of the insect’s six legs, as it slowly starts to crawl up my overalls. I see it’s “abdomen is abruptly bent downward₂” its readying for the sting in the exact moment my body tenses. I feel the hot burning sensation as the barbed dagger enters my body, I know the bee is dead. But I need to run.

Bees may not form an angry storm cloud like we see in films, but they do work together to get rid of a threat to the hive. I run as fast as I can, my legs pumping, and I swear that I have never run so fast in my life. I arrive at home in a world of pain, but thankfully I know what to do. I sprint to the kitchen and seized a packet of sodium bicarbonate (or as I knew it at the time baking soda). Next I quickly removed the stinger as it was still pumping its venom into me (which is composed of 88% water and is acidic with a ph. between 4.5 and 5.5₃). Once I had done this I spread the paste on thy skin and let out a sigh of relief as I knew that the acid in the venom was being neutralised. This was the first time that I can remember using science, because science to me is not just knowledge but being able to apply this knowledge.

Some days later…

The bees are surrounding us once again with their ugly buzzing, crashing into my bee suit like kamikazes. They have no remorse, just like me at this moment. I was fed up with this queen rearing business. The hives are even more unhappy than usual, although to be honest I can’t blame them. After all we had just split the hive and made it queen-less. But when you are getting stung daily you do start to question your father’s choice in hobbies. At least painting doesn’t hurt.

We quickly took out a frame of brood and returned to our shed. It was time to start grafting. I was nervous at this point because, if I mucked this up then all work we had done in the last week would be for nought. I turned on the cold light and held the grafting tool loosely. It was shaped like a pen but had a spatula at the end. It’s just a game of Operation I say to myself. The goal is to very, very gently slide the spatula down the side of the comb and then gently remove the larvae without rolling or squashing it. Then I had to gently place them into the prepared queen cell. Once I had repeated this 10 more times and placed the frame inside the hive the anticipation mounted, as there would be no way of knowing if any were undamaged. We had to wait 8 days from the time we put them into the incubator till the queens emerged from their cells. We do this to separate the queens because otherwise “should other queens emerge they fight when they meet₄”. On the eighth day I found that six queen’s cells had hatched. My father and I were excited as this was my first attempt and his previous try had failed.

Science has helped me and my father because beekeeping relies heavily on observation. This is because first we had to observe the bees’ behaviour to gain the knowledge we needed and then we had to learn how to apply this knowledge. This skill is useful as a lot can go wrong with bee hives including American foul brood, varroa and robbing. The ability to observe the hive’s behaviour and have the knowledge to diagnose the problem is essential to beekeeping and other areas in life.

Sources:

1: Contemporary Queen rearing by Harry Laid Law Jr pg1.
2: The hive and the honey bee collaboration of: E. L. Atkins, R Banker, Dr. C. G. Butler, G. H. Cale, Sr., Dr. G. H. Cttzale, Jr., Dr. E. Crane, C. C Dadant, W. J. Diehnelt, Dr. A. Dietz, Dr. B. Furgala, Dr. N. E. Gary, Dr. T. A. Gochnauer, C. E. Killion, Sr., Dr. E. C. Martin, Dr. E Oertel, J. Powers, Dr. F. Robinson, Dr. W. C. Rothenbuhler, Dr. F. Ruttner, Dr. H. Shimanuki, Dr. R. W. Shuel, Dr. R. E. Snodgrass, W. A. Stephen, G. F. Townsend, Dr. J. W. White, Jr., Dr. P. C. Witherell, and H. F. York, Jr. pg 110.
3: http://www.beeculture.com/bee-venom-chemistry-ouch/
4: Contemporary Queen rearing by Harry Laid Law Jr pg 8.

The Food of Your Future

Wednesday, August 22nd, 2018 | STEPHEN BRONI | No Comments

AquAdvantage Salmon

The Food of your Future

Joe Glancy South Westland Area School (2018)

Who doesn’t enjoy a perfectly cooked salmon with a freshly baked loaf of bread. Mmmnnmmm! I know I do! This seafood that we know and love is becoming increasingly popular in our diet, but will it be the same for our grandkids – will it last?

In 1989, research began on the AquAdvantage Salmon which scientists claim can reach market size almost twice as quickly as normal salmon. The creation of AquAdvantage salmon begins with the selection of two DNA sequences: one from a Chinook Salmon ; the other from an eel-like fish called the Ocean Pout.

The Ocean Pout lives in the near freezing waters of the North Atlantic Ocean. The growth hormone gene from the fast growing Chinook Salmon is combined with the antifreeze promoter of the Ocean Pout (a promoter is a sequence of DNA that ‘turns on’ a gene). By genetically joining these two DNA sequences, scientists are able to create a gene that keeps that internal, fast growing, hormone factory switched ‘on’ during those cooler winter months. Something that salmon normally do not do. This means that they can be farmed year-round and in any climate. Resulting in a fish that reaches market size in just 18 months rather than three years for normal salmon. These are the offspring intended for our dinner plates on those warm summer evenings.

This AquAdvantage Salmon is the very first of its kind. Never before has a genetically modified animal been approved for human consumption. In 2015 the United States approved the production, sale and consumption of the AquAdvantage Salmon. Many other GM animals have been developed and tested but politics and public fears have kept them off our dinner plates. The FDA claims that this salmon will have no effect on consumers … that’s you and me … and will look, feel and taste just like a normal Atlantic Salmon, which is what we all want.

The company that produces AquAdvantage Salmon believes in sustainable seafood production. They claim that their product is better for both consumers and the environment. The Salmon will be raised in land based farms, meaning that there is no risk of escaping salmon entering wild populations and no risk of diseases spreading out of containment. All waste water is filtered extremely well and reused; the small amount that is not required is cleaned of all contaminants and used on nearby tomato farms as fertilizer.

GM salmon use roughly 20% less feed then normal salmon, therefore making it a whole lot cheaper to feed them. Also these AquAdvantage salmon are grown in land based systems close to the production factories. This eliminates the cost to transport them to the place where they cut them up. This has created a salmon that is just as tasty as a wild one but costs a whole lot less to produce.
Business man, Brendan Borrell, claims that the normal salmon cost almost $1.50 to make whereas the AquAdvantage Salmon has a cost of less then $1.00!
A major environmental implication of farmed salmon is the increased preservation and protection of wild populations, populations that have been in decline since at least the 1950’s. By eliminating the need of wild salmon commercial fishing and introducing more land based farms, many threats to the wild salmon are removed. Currently these threats include reduced food supply caused by over-exploitation of the salmon feed, parasites
spread by water based fish farms and destructive fishing techniques. By introducing land based systems such as the one used by the AquAdvantage Salmon, the wild salmon will be protected from these threats and be allowed to live their lives largely uninterrupted.

David Suzuki, Canadian academic and environmental activist, feels very strongly about GMO’s. For years he has been promoting outright bans on GMOs, despite the fact that many scientists have declared them perfectly safe for all of you to consume. He and other anti-GMO activists have been able to stall crucial experiments with GM crops that are designed to improve yields and nutrition, which would benefit poor people around the world.

Ronald Stotish, chief executive of AquaBounty, also claims that the main advantage of the salmon is that the fish can be grown in tanks inland, greatly reducing the effects on the environment. “Demand for global protein is increasing,” he says. “We have to do a better job and we have to do it efficiently.”

Personal:

Now then, I know those of you that get out
there and have been to South Westland
Salmon Competition, you will know just
how little fish are around. In fact, just in the last few months, I have been out chasing
salmon on the Waitaha River several times. Even though I have had no luck recently, I thoroughly enjoy the feeling of a wild salmon fighting with your line. This is a feeling that I strongly want our future generations to experience.

Personally, I am all for the Genetically Modified AquAdvantage Salmon.

From my research, I think that it is an incredibly well thought out process that takes into account all the various viewpoints. I was especially impressed with its environmental impacts. In order for one of the prime cattle beast from your local dairy farm to put on just 1 kg of body weight, it requires 8 kg of food. Whereas a GM salmon needs just 1kg of food to put on 1 kg of body weight. This shows that the salmon is among the most economically sustainable protein source for humans. All of a sudden this GM salmon has become one of the few animals that puts on weight in equal proportions to its feed. However, currently the NZ ministry for the environment does not allow you and I to purchase and enjoy any fresh meat, fruit or veg that is a GM product. I think that they should change their stance on this. If we can convince them to allow the sale of AquAdvantage Salmon here in our hometown, then we would be giving the wild populations of salmon in our local rivers a much better chance of surviving. I am talkingabout the Wanganui, the Waitaha, the Whataroa, the South Westland fishing competition. All of these places will be able to host a larger population of salmon for your future generations to enjoy.

If you are interested in finding out more please take time to look at the
AquAdvantage Salmon home website Aquabounty.com

Reference List:

https://www.biofortified.org/2010/10/salmon/
https://scienceprogress.org/2011/09/the-gmo-salmon-struggle/
https://gmoanswers.com/9-things-you-need-know-about-gmo-salmon http://aquabounty.com/
https://www.fda.gov/AnimalVeterinary/DevelopmentApprovalProcess/GeneticEngineering/GeneticallyEngineeredAnimals/ucm473237.htm
https://pacificwild.org/take-action/campaigns/protect-wild-salmon
http://www.mfe.govt.nz/publications/hazards/gm-nz-approach-jun04/genetic-modification- new-zealand
https://www.organicconsumers.org/news/10-world-organizations-have-taken-stand-again st-gmos
https://geneticliteracyproject.org/2018/05/02/viewpoint-david-suzukis-views-on-gmos-well-outside-the-scientific-mainstream/
https://www.ft.com/content/ab9b81ae-c94e-11e7-8536-d321d0d897a3
https://www.businessinsider.com.au/this-salmon-will-likely-be-the-first-gmo-animal-you-eat-2014-6?r=US&IR=T
https://www.seafoodsource.com/news/supply-trade/aquabounty-sells-first-batch-of-genetically-engineered-salmon

Futuristic Animals from the Past?

Wednesday, August 15th, 2018 | STEPHEN BRONI | No Comments

Futuristic animals from the past?

Harriett Spoelstra – Ruawai College

The enclosure is empty; the dinosaur has disappeared! Scientists are unable to control this creature, this monster – deadly but amazing. We’ve all yelled at the screen as movie characters act dramatically stupid; at the scientists in Jurassic World who create a creature too powerful to control or understand; at the cartoons with the evil scientists who accidentally make a supervillain. This hunger to learn everything, to create something just because you can is what makes these characters so memorable.
Scientists (a term that covers a whole range of people and jobs) have greatly contributed to making the world what it is today, and scientists who have a passion to help and learn about our world are the key to a future that we would like to come true.

What if it were possible to bring back species long extinct?

Let the moa and the mammoth walk again? Or let a dinosaur once more paw the earth, or even make something new move and breathe? That power so often found in books or movies may soon not just be in our heads but in our hands.

New Zealand is a land of paddocks full of sheep, cows and chickens. If we were to
take a look at these creatures in the past, they would look quite different to the
domesticated version we are so used to. Through intensive selective breeding,
domesticated animals have been transformed so they better suit our needs; they
can produce more meat and grow more quickly. Breeding has also been used to
reduce infection and avoid diseases.

Living on a farm myself, I can
easily see how our ideas and
inventions influence the land and
in turn influence our lives. This is
one way we have used scientific
methods in an attempt to create a
world which can better support us.

Modifying animals for our own purposes can be a terrifying and controversial concept, but human nature seems to dictate that we will continue to pursue this.

Genetic modification in the lab is different to intensive selective breeding but ultimately both are using science to change animals to suit us. De-extinction is a term that can be misleading, as we wouldn’t be able to bring back a creature that was extinct but rather create a hybrid with a close living relative, and so make a proxy of the extinct species. De-extinction is a concept that seems rather terrifying yet exciting. However, I wonder how different a creature made in this way would be from its ancestors, and I wouldn’t want to create a new creature that doesn’t fit into our world. An animal’s interaction with its environment is what influences its behaviour and quality of life. We may have to give ourselves limits on what we do, for the sake of our ethics; what would be the point of ‘bringing a species back to life’? Where would they live and how would they be able to survive in a world of humans, especially if humankind was a cause of their extinction?

The temptation to bring back species, or even help prevent endangered species from becoming extinct would be very great but I think we should be careful not to try and ‘rule’ over animals but rather do something that benefits the world as a whole and its future as well as humankind, especially when this science is not at all cheap. We may intend to help animal-kind as well as human-kind, but this technology may give us the feeling that we don’t have be proactive in protecting animals because we could always just bring back extinct species at will. Of course, I am talking about extreme circumstances and a future which may be more fitting in a sci-fi movie than reality but a version of this future could be real and may be not so far away.

In a world without science, there would be no new knowledge contributed to society, no inventions; the paddocks dotted with designer cows I see whenever I look out the window would not be possible. Science, and our understanding of it, has developed alongside the development of humankind. It is a part of me and my life, and the life of everyone who has ever wondered how something worked or used a cell-phone, turned on a light, or even just ate food cooked in a kitchen. Through science humans have developed the ability to influence genetic modification for our own purposes and technology is rapidly advancing right at this very moment.

We must always remember that our curiosity and scientific methods have made our present world and will make our future, but just because we have the power to genetically modify animals and humans doesn’t necessarily mean we should.

References
● https://www.nzherald.co.nz/index.cfm?objectid=12039710&ref=twitter
● http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-3459168/From-giant-GM-salmon-buffed-Belgian-Bluecattle-animals-eat-looked-like-humans-began-breeding-food.html
● https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_genetic_engineering

Photo credits:

Why `Knowledge Forum’ & Some Tips on Use of the `Scaffolds’

Thursday, February 15th, 2018 | STEPHEN BRONI | No Comments

It’s great to see some of you getting in and using Knowledge Forum!

While acknowledging that the front end of the KF software is not the most eye-catching compared to other software you may be used to using, the concept of a community mind map and that of applying scaffolds to the posts you make is important in encouraging you to go beyond simply stating opinions and start to build knowledge as a community.
Knowledge Forum is part of a long term study that Wing has been running since OUASSA began in 2011. To date Wing has published a number of research papers demonstrating the efficacy of developing the knowledge building approach to knowledge creation in High School students. So by participating you are not only developing your knowledge building skills but also contributing to a growing body of evidence on efficacy of this approach to learning.
Science is an evidence based process. Theories are based on evidence. New information/research provides evidence that lends weight to or casts doubt on a theory, from which may come a new theory.
As Wing explained at the January camp KF is a knowledge building tool. You are all part of a Knowledge Building community and as such you build knowledge by seeking out and presenting evidence. Evidence discovered through research.
The critical evaluation of information is an essential skill when conducting quality research. Assessing and evaluating information involves common sense, knowledge, scepticism, and verification.
At the end of this post is a link that will help you develop your research skills.
For now here are some tips for using the scaffolding tabs in KF

Tips for using the Scaffold Tabs in Knowledge Forum

My Theory:
A theory without evidence is an opinion. So don’t be afraid to cite the evidence that leads you to that theory
“My theory – Why was film originally created? Are we still using film in the way it was intended or has that change? If so for good or bad and why/how do we know this?
While there are some really interesting questions in there, this is more of an
“I need to understand” scaffold. Michaela is seeking information to answer a question (…or two…or three!)

My theory ” I think Film was originally used for entertainment, but over time I think, as people started to realise the large audience that film acquired as it became more popular, it started being used for other things such as education.”

This is an interesting theory that now needs backed up with a “New Information” scaffold that cites some reference/ research that the original use for moving pictures when first invented was for entertainment. By doing so you lift your statement from an opinion to a theory backed by evidence.

The “New information” scaffold should be one of the most used in the scaffolds tool box. Use it to cite references, link to articles, Youtube clips etc. that build on a theory or a “Need to understand” post.

As a particular stream of posts grows and the amount of new information and new theories grows, there comes a time when you might feel the need to pull the various threads together under a “Putting our knowledge together” scaffold. Look on this scaffold as a kind of “So this where I think we have got to…” with this theory, our collective knowledge so far etc.

If you have a better theory that one that is proposed click the “A Better theory” scaffold but don’t just state another theory of your own and leave it at that. Try and state why your theory is better backed up by evidence in form of information/references etc. under, “New Information”

Using Knowledge Forum, like everything else that’s new, takes a little time to master, but the techniques are not difficult and the rewards will come in your school work later this year and when you go on to Tertiary studies. So don’t be afraid to give it a go.

Another advantage of KF is that all your OUASSA colleagues have the opportunity to help by contributing to each growing discussion, the development of which is so much easier to see in the mind-map interconnected post layout than a linear discussion on other social media platforms. Many hands make light work so use each other’s expertise to help you build your knowledge, you don’t have to be in the same group to help out someone else.

So get into KF and try using the scaffolds to build on a theory, to build on and idea, to build knowledge!

Finally, as promised here is a link to a module on on-line research literacy that you might find useful:
Evaluating Information Sources

The importance of where we are to where we are going?

Friday, October 27th, 2017 | STEPHEN BRONI | No Comments

I came across this short TED talk the other day and found it intriguing in its application of maths and geo-positioning physics. Not to mention the claims for its implications to future global society.

A precise three-word address for everyplace on earth

But just what really are the pros and cons of this system?

Get your critical thinking cap on and let us know your thoughts.

You might also want to check out what YOUR 3-word address is here.

Putting pen to paper…

Tuesday, May 30th, 2017 | EMILY HALL | No Comments

For this week’s blog, I thought I would look at an area that many OUASSA 2017 teams seem to be struggling with, breaking up the work for the team presentation. I have put myself into the roll of the team leader. I wrote up the presentation outline (which I did alone but really the team leader should be doing this with input from their group) and then I thought about how I would break up the work of the presentation to a hypothetical group of 6 team members. I picked 6 because that 7-9 is the group size for our OUASSA 2017 students.It didn’t actually take me very long to think about the outline and write it out. The most important thing to remember at this stage is that it is a work in progress. As we research and craft the presentation, some of the things I have written on my outline may change, and that is ok. It is a guide to myself and my team for where we are generally heading with our presentation. Having a good outline will ensure that my team is on task and not wasting time on research we won’t be using for our presentation. It also helps everyone in my group have a clear idea of what the big picture will look like, and where their piece fits in.

So on to the mechanics of it. I wrote what I was thinking each step so hopefully my handwriting is legible to all 🙂

The final step was filling in the rest of the form. I thought about what I needed people to understand to convey my message. I need people to understand what is fission, fusion and the difference between them. I have a really broad idea of how I want the introduction and conclusion to look but it’s not finished yet. For a first draft, this is totally fine, we’ll come back and tweak this while developing the presentation.

Finally, how will my group divide the labour so that we do the work that needs to be done but don’t waste time on anything else? This is what I came up with:

1 person will write a brief introduction to the talk as a story with an ordinary kiwi family. This should only be a minute or so long so emphasis on BRIEF.
1 person will research fusion and come up with a brief explanation to report to the team
1 person will research fission and come up with a brief explanation to report to the team
Once that is done, 1 person will do a 1 minute compare and contrast summary
1 person will use the research to do our visualisations of each concept
1 person will write the conclusion

We will manage everyone’s ideas and contributions in a google doc that we can all contribute to. I know that some of my team are really busy with winter sports in June so they will do the research so that their part is finished early on. Those of us not as busy closer to camp will do the parts that depend on the research.

At camp we will rehearse our visualisations together and tweak our presentation before we show our presentation to the panel for feedback. This shouldn’t take long if everyone has done their part.

I have attached my full outline form: ScienceShowOutline.

Hopefully this will give you guys a bit more guidance on how to distribute the labour and what we expect you to be doing. Remember, we are only an email or phone call away if you need any help.

Tell me what I want to hear…

Friday, May 12th, 2017 | EMILY HALL | No Comments

OUASSA 2017 students have been working towards a presentation to the public at the Otago Museum which will take place on July 14th. The research for their presentations are in full swing and things should be starting to come together for their presentations. Some recent experiences have reminded me of the importance not only of researching your topic, but of evaluating the information that you find.

Evaluating the information you find is especially important when researching topics that are emotional or controversial, where people are inclined to have opinions based on anecdotal evidence from the world around them. Many of the topics that are being researched for presentations in July fall into this category. People feel very strongly about topics like Climate Change, Genetic Modification and Medicine in the Third World. It is important in a presentation to the public that you are presenting the science behind the issue and relying on provable facts rather than popular (or unpopular) opinion.

The internet is a great place for research because you can very quickly find a lot of information. The downside though is that unlike a book or a research publication, anyone can put information on the internet without any verification that it is actually true, and present it as fact.

For that reason, it is very important when you are researching to make sure that you evaluate the sources that you are using. Although after researching, you may have formed a personal opinion on the issue, it is important that when researching, you are looking at unbiased information based on fact (or at least that you are conscious of the bias and are looking at the information with that in mind).

The library have produced a nice little reference for evaluating internet sources using the acronym BAD URL. You can find a copy here. How_to_Evaluate_Websites

If you want to really dig deeply into how to evaluate sources, this is an e-learning module produced by the University library designed to help you learn about different types of information sources and how to evaluate them.

In July, the students will be having a presentation on “What your brain does when you’re not looking.” Unconsciously, we all are influenced by our bias and frame the world through our own experiences. It is important to make sure we are aware of this and do as much as possible to limit bias in our work and promote impartiality.

Once Upon a Time…

Monday, March 27th, 2017 | EMILY HALL | No Comments

“Many years later, as he faced the firing squad, Colonel Aureliano Buendía was to remember that distant afternoon when his father took him to discover ice.”
—100 Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez

“It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.”
—Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

“Mother died today. Or maybe yesterday; I can’t be sure.”
—The Stranger by Albert Camus

“The Man in Black fled across the desert, and the Gunslinger followed.”
—The Gunslinger by Stephen King

“As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams he found himself transformed in his bed into an enormous insect.”
—The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka

These are the first lines from some random, well known stories. You can find lists of best first lines or exciting first lines all over the internet. No matter what story they come from though, they all have one thing in common, the first line needs to set the scene but also leave you wanting more.

There’s no doubt that a good story has the power to hook us, reel us in, and capture our imagination until the tale is through. Everyone, young and old loves a great story. A good story can be a powerful vehicle to impart information.

Building on the idea from two weeks ago that to engage an audience, you need to:

Validate the audience’s thinking
Take them on a journey
Be framed within their values
Fall within social norms
Involve pictures and graphs (and I would add audience participation!)

Think about the stories that you have enjoyed, did they do these things? Did they validate your thinking? Take you on a journey? Were they framed within your values?

The point is – storytelling is a powerful tool. It may be the most powerful tool that you have to engage with your audience. When you are developing your presentation, think about the story behind it. Take the audience on a journey with you through the story you tell.

Here are a couple of examples for you to look at:

Example 1: Fergus McAuliffe speaking at the TEDX in Dublin tells a story about frogs. I particularly like this example because he has no slides, and only a few simple props, but at the end the audience is absolutely silent and spellbound.

Example 2: Tyler DeWitt speaking to high school science teachers. This one I chose because in contrast to the previous example, he uses visual aids behind him to tell the story. The story was part of a talk to teachers about the differences he found when presenting the material in a traditional way and using the story format (in the video clip) again, an engaging story that makes the science relatable to the audience.

Example 3: This is a LONG story but it is a good one. Jay O’Callaghan was commissioned to make a story as part of NASA’s 50^th Anniversary. He tells a love story between two young NASA interns in modern times but interwoven is a lot of science and history of NASA. He tells it with no props, no visual aids, just a story. Engaging the audience with nothing more (or less) than a story.

Forged in the Stars – Jay O’Callaghan

Video killed the radio star??

Thursday, April 7th, 2016 | EMILY HALL | No Comments

The other day, looking for a quick video on the Science of Sport to show a Physics class as a little starter, I went to the Veritasium website to look for some inspiration. I found these two videos which I think have been posted before but are definitely worth a re visit for Science Teachers.

This is going to REVOLUTIONIZE education!

Effectiveness of Science Videos

Just as an aside, I ended up going with this video: Bungy Jumping What I did was show the video to the students as a starter. They watched, I paused it when you need to select an answer. No one was keen to volunteer their answer to the question so I just un paused the video and let it finish. What they didn’t know was that no answer is actually given in the video! So, when the video was over, they HAD to discuss and work it out and talk with each other because they really really wanted to know the answer. SO we ended up having a great discussion on forces in the fall, what is that rope actually doing, we talked about transfer of energy and all kinds of good stuff. I’m definitely going to check out some of the other little starter videos and try and sneak one in again 🙂

Finding information…

Monday, March 7th, 2016 | EMILY HALL | No Comments

I was just looking for some materials to help my class become better at researching and found the awesome self help guides from the library.

http://otago.libguides.com/selfhelp

The library self help website that has TONS of tutorials and videos on how to research and also write reports. It is designed for uni students but I think it is still useful for the last year of high school as well! Particularly I am going to use http://www.otago.ac.nz/library/modules/power_searching/ which is about making effective online searches. And there are a bunch of resources on Google searching on the right hand side.

Also if you click on how do I improve my essay writing and report writing skills on the left hand side there are links to tutorials on essays, scientific reports etc

Happy researching!!

Gravitational Waves

Monday, February 15th, 2016 | ouassa | No Comments

Was sent this image this morning and thought it was too good not to share 🙂

http://m.imgur.com/gallery/EXlzn

Can Meat Actually be Eco-Friendly?

Wednesday, July 22nd, 2015 | STEPHEN BRONI | No Comments

In a country that relies heavily on agriculture- all be it heavily swayed towards dairy rather than meat production, for now at least- this a question worth investigating.
I came across this article as part one of a series of three articles on the question

Should we eat meat?

Writer, Nathanael Johnson, author of All Natural: A Skeptic’s Quest to Discover If the Natural Approach to Diet, Childbirth, Healing, and the Environment Really Keeps Us Healthier and Happier. looks at this question from 3 perspectives:
• Environmental sustainability,
• Morality,
• Practicality.
In the first of these articles he asks the question
Can meat be sustainable?
You may find some of what he discovered on this topic quite illuminating.

Poster contest

Tuesday, July 21st, 2015 | EMILY HALL | No Comments

Otago teachers and students – get crafting a wicked classroom poster for the Centre for Quantum Science’s poster competition.

Details here

Let there be light – part II!

Thursday, July 2nd, 2015 | EMILY HALL | No Comments

The photography competition mentioned in the last post (see poster below) has been extended to Wednesday the 8th of July – perhaps something to work on those first few days of the school holiday??

Additionally there are some cool public lectures coming up as part of Luminescence: The Spectrum of Science – a schedule can be found here: Luminescence Lectures

Let there be light!!!

Monday, June 15th, 2015 | EMILY HALL | 1 Comment

Here are a couple of links to some events in honour of 2015, International Year of Light. There is a photo competition and a Year of Light expo suitable for all ages. These are being run by students from the Physics department including OUASSA alumni! Great to see alumni getting into science!!

quantum.otago.ac.nz/luminescence2015
quantum.otago.ac.nz/photocomp2015

“A frightening and potentially dangerous technology”

Wednesday, May 13th, 2015 | STEPHEN BRONI | No Comments

That was how Otago University Prof Peter Dearden from Genetics Otago described a recent paper by a groups of chinese scientists describing the first genetically modified human embryos and opening a route to germ-line modification of our own species.

Check it out and add your own views to the Sciblogs comments page.

Soup in a can – a lesson in exothermic reactions.

Monday, April 13th, 2015 | EMILY HALL | No Comments

A while ago, a friend gave me this can that she had been given as a novelty prize somewhere somehow.

Anyway, because it was “science-y” she thought I might enjoy it.

I must admit it’s been sitting on the shelf for a wee while. Mostly because every time I look at it and think I should try it out, something else comes along to distract me. Also due to being vegetarian for most of my life, the contents of the can have never really screamed my name. Recently though, I have heard advertisements on the radio for a similar or possibly the same product. I decided to pull out the can and give it a try. I don’t eat meat so I decided to use my carnivorous children as taste testers.

The can itself feels squishier than a regular can, like it is covered in foam under the label. I think the indicators on ours were not working because, as you can see, although the instructions said they would turn from black to green, both indicators were white initially.

Before we started, I went to the hotcan website to find out what was in there to produce the heat (water and calcium oxide) mostly because I wanted to cut the can apart after the experiment and didn’t want any chemical burn surprises

Pushing in the bottom of the can made a popping noise immediately.

Shake it like a polaroid picture. We shook the can the required amount of time and then set it on the bench as specified in the instructions. Almost immediately, the can began to dance on the kitchen bench and steam was billowing out the bottom. (I told the kids to get back because I actually thought it was going to blow, thankfully this stopped fairly quickly)

After waiting the required time and using the ultra scientific method of feeling the can with our hands (broken indicator, remember?) we decided it was done and had a look/taste.

Reviews of the soup were favourable. The temperature was hotter than expected (said the tasters) there were no chunks, just a smooth soup. Taste was what you would expect from tinned soup. The boys did mention that there was less soup in the can than they had expected. The reason for this became clear when we opened up the can.

Inside the can you can see there is a cylinder coming up through the centre of the can – presumably this is so the soup heats from the middle to the outer layer. The foamy consistency of the can is a layer of insulating foam between the label and the can which would help with the soup heating, staying hot, and not burning your mitts off when you hold the can.

When we took the bottom off we saw this:

Slightly hard to see from the image but it is like a bladder of what I assumed was water originally surrounded by a chunky white powder.

I asked the children (12 and 11) as I was writing today (2 days later) what if anything they had learned/remembered from this whole experience.

Water and calcium oxide produce heat which is transferred to heat the soup. You have to shake it to make it work better
When you burst the water packet, the water seeps into the calcium oxide, they must have measured the water and the calcium oxide so it produces only a certain amount of heat

An interesting and easy little experiment!

I found this Limestone Lesson Plan on the Royal Society of Chemistry website and thought it could be paired with the hot can for a great Chemistry lesson. Look at the Chemistry of Limestone lesson (which includes heating the limestone to make calcium oxide and then testing it with water to see the exothermic reaction) and then apply the knowledge to how the hot can product works.

Chemistry detour…

Tuesday, March 31st, 2015 | EMILY HALL | No Comments

My next post was going to be on the chemistry behind the hot-can and I am part way through what I think is a neat little experiment/lesson involving this cool (or hot rather) invention. Today though, I was derailed by another Chemistry resource!

I’ve been a fan of MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) open courseware for a while and I used snippets of it with classes and the OUASSA tutorials last year. I especially recommend their Highlights for High School where you can pick a topic and subtopic and be directed to a specific resource that may help you. Meaning for example, you don’t have to watch the whole lecture series on Classical Mechanics to help you in your struggles with Projectile Motion, the folks at MIT have pulled the relevant bits out of their screeds of material and collated it all for you. I must admit though to being so focussed on the Physics resources available, I was missing this little gem.

Chemistry Boot Camp is a multi episode show that follows 14 students as they go through a three week intensive lab course at MIT. The show is compelling for two reasons, first, it offers a glimpse into what life is like as a student at MIT and second, there is some really cool Chemistry going on. What I liked most about the show was that instead of just glossing over what the students were doing, there was an effort made to explain the Chemistry behind what they were doing and why.

The episodes are short – only 5 minutes ish in length and not counting the bonus episodes there are 11 in total, I managed to binge watch the entire series in a lunch break. A nice light Science meal to set up your afternoon.

The future of airline travel??

Monday, March 16th, 2015 | EMILY HALL | No Comments

Air travel and the continuous increase of numbers of passengers and planes in the sky has long been cited as one of the contributing factors to global warming. Airplanes fly high in the sky meaning that any greenhouse gases they are producing are immediately sent into the upper layers of the atmosphere, potentially increasing their harmful effects.

Emissions from aircrafts are not only harmful for our planet but also have some in your face side effects that impact us more directly. A report published in the science journal Nature Climate Change forecasts that increasing CO₂ levels will result in a significant increase in in-flight turbulence experienced by trans-Atlantic airline flights the middle of the 21st century. A 50% increase in fact. Now that is a very real and scary prospect indeed.

Enter Solar Impulse II – at this very moment, the world’s first ever Earth circumnavigation by a solar plane is taking place. The Solar Impulse II, a fully solar powered aircraft took off from Abu Dhabi on March 9^th. Solar Impulse II has the wingspan of a 747 to support the 17,000 solar cells that it uses for energy. Despite this, it weighs only the size of an average car. The plane can fly night or day as, during the day, the solar panels charge rechargeable lithium batteries. Not a single drop of fossil fuel is required.

It is making several stops on its journey around the world and is currently in Ahmedabad, India. You can keep up with the progress of Solar Impulse II here:

http://www.solarimpulse.com/

This website allows anyone around the world to read updates from the crew, watch live take off and landings and check out where the plane is in real time. In addition, the crew post updates and information about other solar projects happening in the countries that they visit. For example, when I looked today, there was a post about solar wells in India. Another amazing idea!

Of course, at the moment, the Solar Impulse II is one of a kind, and a fair way from being a production ready commercial airliner. The concept though, that we could potentially use solar power to travel in the future, is an exciting one.

Maths-o-Magic!!!

Wednesday, October 1st, 2014 | EMILY HALL | No Comments

At morning tea the other day, our IT wizard mentioned this website which is an amazing collection of mathematical goodness.

You can type in any equation and get it solved with steps here:
http://www.wolframalpha.com/

Or if you go to the examples, you can pick something you would like to learn about (to study for example hint hint) and have a play with changing up the numbers in the example questions.
http://www.wolframalpha.com/examples/Math.html

There’s even a spot where you can get them to generate problems for you to practise online with feedback – this is not free but you can get a 7 day trial, just in time for exam study.

So sit back, relax and play with Maths this holiday!!!

Would you be willing to exchange your clothing for plumage?

Thursday, September 11th, 2014 | STEPHEN BRONI | No Comments

Ever heard of ‘Transhumanism‘?

Over the past few years, a new paradigm for thinking about humankind’s future has begun to take shape among some leading computer scientists, neuroscientists, nanotechnologists and researchers at the forefront of technological development.

“Transhumanism” is the name for a new way of thinking that challenges the premiss that the human condition is and will remain essentially unalterable.

`Transhumanists’ say this assumption no longer holds true. Arguably it has never been true. They argue that such innovations as speech, written language, printing, engines, modern medicine and computers have had a profound impact not just on how people live their lives, but on who and what they are.

What might happen in the next 20, 50, 100 years ?

A new book entitled the The Proactionary Imperative presents a the cultural, intellectual and ethical `justification’ for the emerging transhumanist movement and in so doing paints an ethically challenging and scary scenario for the future of the human race?

“Fancy living forever, or uploading your mind to the net? The Proactionary Imperative embraces transhumanist dreams, but reminds why we need medical ethics”.

The blog post… of SCIENCE!!!

Friday, August 1st, 2014 | EMILY HALL | No Comments

I am outting myself here as a huge nerd from childhood. When I was growing up I used to LOVE watching Bill Nye the Science Guy on TV. I actually think at one stage I even wrote him a fan letter because I wanted to do exactly what he did when I grew up. He made Science look so fun and cool.

Flash forward to the other day when I was watching Epic Rap Battles: Sir Isaac Newton vs Bill Nye and my Year 13 girls actually asked me who is Bill Nye the Science Guy (insert startled look and gasp here). After I recovered from the shock I set about looking for some old episodes and found this:

Bill Nye Archive for Education on YouTube. Full episodes of Bill Nye the Science Guy! These are suitable definitely for junior school but my seniors enjoy them as a treat for times like when we are about to start a new topic and I want them to just think about the bigger picture rather than the maths and details.

Calling all Biologists…Chemists…and maybe even Physicists

Tuesday, May 13th, 2014 | STEPHEN BRONI | No Comments

Daniel has posted a great question on the
Knowledge Forum Biology Curriculum: Human Evolution Discussion View:

Q: What are the best examples in the world today that support the
theory of evolution?

I’m putting the challenge out there for you all.

This is a great opportunity to get back into Knowlege Forum with a topic at the heart of the biology curriculum.

Is the evidence all from Biology?

If you have forgotten how to log-in to Knowledge Forum and build on a post we will be putting up a link to refresher tutorial very soon but flick us an email in meantime and we’ll get you in there right away.

PS When you get into the Knowledge Forum – Biology Curriculum: Human Evolution View you are looking the build-on the post titled ‘Support’ on the far right of the Discussion View.

Cool resource for Physics and Chemistry

Monday, March 31st, 2014 | EMILY HALL | Comments Off on Cool resource for Physics and Chemistry

I ran across this website a couple of years ago but for some reason didn’t use it at all.

http://www.gpb.org/chemistry-physics

On the site is a complete course in Chemistry and a complete course in Physics for high school level in Georgia, USA. They consist of a series of videos, one on each topic listed with note taking guides and study guides. The videos are only about half an hour long and come with a problem set based on the video.

I am going to trial one of these in class today and also show the girls the link in the hopes that they might use the videos at home for their own revision. I was thinking too it might be a good activity for them if I am away so they can still move forward with their learning even when I am not there. We have a set of netbooks they can use and watch the material on their own if the reliever doesn’t have a laptop to show the whole class at once.

I’ve eaten so much fish oil I may grow gills, but I still didn’t ace the Calculus internal…..

Thursday, March 6th, 2014 | EMILY HALL | No Comments

Products to increase or enhance memory are seemingly endless, foods, vitamins, minerals, brain exercises… Seems like a lot of work to make my brain, well, work!!

Sooner than you think fair students, you will be writing the last exams of your high school careers, and as part of that process, you will need to call upon your brain’s extraordinary power and memorise/assimilate the subject related knowledge to get you through those externals!!

Whether you want to believe it or not, one of the tried and true exam techniques is NOT leaving it to the last minute or even last term to study, but starting with regular revision now. This could be especially important for external topics covered at the beginning of the year. If you keep touching them regularly, there won’t be a big amount to try and cram into your head all at the end.

Another technique – teaching! Teaching something to someone else makes you think hard about your own understanding of the topic. If you are struggling with a question, try to explain the problem to a friend who is not studying the subject – this can force your brain to work out a solution and someone with little to no knowledge of the subject can make you reconsider information you had taken for granted. Even just speaking the information out loud and trying to explain concepts in your own words helps.

So start studying now, teach your cat some Physics and get ready to see Excellence at the end of the school year. In the meantime – spend some time checking out the Student Learning Centre. This is an invaluable resource for your first year of University but their study tips and writing tips can help you out in High School as well!! They also have a nice printable study planner that is generic enough you can start using it today!

Student Learning Centre

Happy Birthday Alessandro Volta!

Tuesday, February 18th, 2014 | EMILY HALL | No Comments

Happy Birthday Alessandro Volta!! Who the heck was he you ask? Well, the clue is in the name. The unit for electric potential, electric potential difference and emf are all Volts which comes from Volta. Volta made the Voltaic pile which in an improved form is known today as the battery!! Watch this cool movie from some lads at MIT to find out more about how he made this discovery.

Alessandro Volta Video

Once you’ve seen the video, look online for some pictures of the modern battery which, on the inside, all look much the same as the voltaic pile.

Finally, You can make your own voltaic pile at home using some copper/zinc coins alternated with some paper towel soaked in vinegar or lemon juice. You will need to use non NZ coins or old coins though as the current 10 cent piece is copper and steel! Also give the coins a sand to expose the zinc insides to the weak acid. Attaching your pile of 7 or so coins to an LED should bring forth light!! Of course you can always go the other route and get yourself a handy potato clock – same principle!

When one door closes, another opens….

Tuesday, November 5th, 2013 | EMILY HALL | No Comments

Or something like that anyway. As you all know, we are rapidly approach the end of the school year, and the end of secondary schooling for the majority of our 2013 intake. Next year our 2013-ers will be off at University, Polytech, gap years, working and more! If you are off to University though, consider this tool for helping you choose a major to focus on. No Major Drama. Yes it is an odd time to be thinking about University but it only takes a few minutes and could be a fun yet useful little exam break (although my top degree path came out as Medicine followed by Dentistry at number 2 and Physics all the way down at number 11!)

Remeber to study hard, make sure to schedule in some breaks, and if you need help, we are only and email/phonecall away 🙂

– Emily

Fight Like a Physicist

Wednesday, September 25th, 2013 | EMILY HALL | No Comments

I have spent much of my spare time of late preparing for a presentation at the New Zealand Institute of Physics biennial conference coming up later this week. The presentation that I am giving is called “Fight Like a Physicist” and will detail a project that I am working on about learning mechanics through karate.

All this karate mechanics made me think. I know that all sports have huge amounts of Physics in them – but have you really stopped to think about what the Physics applications are in your favourite sports. You can start with the Level 1 basics like conservation of Energy and Newton’s Laws of motion and move all the way up through the mechanics curriculum to the level 3 concepts of rotational motion. As well, depending on the sport, there are all kinds of other fun Physics concepts to be unearthed.

So go out and find out what is the Physics behind your favourite sport. I have listed some cool websites to help you search!

The Science Learning Hub: Sporting Edge

The Science Learning Hub: Cycling

And finally some good resources on the Physics of Karate!

KarateChop – Physics– the physics of breaking boards

KinematicsAnalysisofTechniquesHSScience: A program in Italy where a physics teacher and karate teacher work together to provide workshops for students of mechanics.

scientificamerican0479-150: I really like this article not just for its karate content but it is 34 years old and I found the techniques they used to analyse without the equipment we have available currently really cool!!

A classic Chem3.4 type question worth learning.

Wednesday, June 19th, 2013 | walda41p | No Comments

Have you ever wondered how to go about explaining the relationship between enthalpy of vaporization, boiling point and intermolecular forces? A thorough understanding of these 3 concepts is essential when it comes to tackling many questions that are often asked in the Chemistry 3.4 external standard.

Notice how the presenter uses graphes and diagrams to aid in his explanation.Old addage of “a picture says a 1000 words”. Use them as they can save you both time and space during the final exam.

Also, it is a good approach to draw the moelcules one beside the other, so you can make quick comparisons between the structures themselves and the resulting bp’s and/or enthalpy of vaporistion.

This a very common type of question, regularly asked in the external exam for Chemistry 3.4- Demonstrate understanding of thermochemical principles and the properties of particles and substances

http://www.noodle.org/learn/details/206549/1713-relate-enthalpy-of-vaporization-boiling-point-and-intermolecular-forces-ib-chemistry-hl

Biology resource from OUASSA teacher PD!

Thursday, May 30th, 2013 | EMILY HALL | No Comments

Thanks again to Susan Yardley for her engaging presentation about her Endeavour Scholarship work last night. If you missed the presentation, you can find it here: https://connect.otago.ac.nz/p8ffdabve7k/

Also if you would like to check out the resource she developed, you can find it here: http://www.landcareresearch.co.nz/resources/identification/plants/styx-mill-biodiversity

What does a Scientist look like??

Tuesday, April 23rd, 2013 | EMILY HALL | No Comments

Do a google image search for Scientist and you get a lot of images that look like this guy in the picture. Although I was somewhat heartnened to see that some were women, by far the vast majority were men and most were white. Somewhat foolishly, I then google image searched Physicist and it was white males as far as the eye could see. I’m not sure why I didn’t see that one coming.

The first day of class in my Year 12 Physics class every year, I always get the students to draw a Physicist. Because I am in a girls’ school and 3/4 of the Science department are female, you’d expect to see lots of women in the mix, but year after year I get pictures like the one on the left. We then go through the exercise of talking about Physicists who are not stereotypical in an attempt to get them to see that Physicists are real people and that anyone, including them, can be one.

I recently ran across this http://lookslikescience.tumblr.com/ and had to share it. Allie Wilkinson, an American journalist, solicits pictures and short bios from anyone doing Science who wants to submit. The result is a collection of people of all ages, ethnicities and genders doing Science but also dancing, skating, running, being human.

Definitely going to show this one to my classes and hopefully it will help them see Science not as some unreachable thing but something that is accessible to people just like them.

Fun Friday Films!!

Friday, April 19th, 2013 | EMILY HALL | No Comments

The school holidays are upon us and while you students are busy with work, fun and hopefully some study, I’m sure there’ll be times when you think to yourself “boy, I could sure do with a serving of Science right now!”. Well you are in luck because someone recently suggested one of these 3 minute films to me and I found myself watching more and more of them. And for teachers, I showed a couple to my class yesterday at the end of the period and they really enjoyed it. They are interesting little snippets that can serve as a good starting point for discussion and only 3 minutes long so not a huge investment of time.
http://focusforwardfilms.com/ is the website
This one http://focusforwardfilms.com/films/78/you-don-t-know-jack appealed to the students as it is about a 14 year old boy who makes a breakthrough in cancer testing.
My 10 year old son was particularly fascinated with this one: http://focusforwardfilms.com/films/30/solar-roadways where they talk about a new way to “pave” the road with solar cells!

Anyway I’ve managed to watch maybe 1/2 dozen of the films on here and haven’t yet found one that I didn’t think was cool on some level.

Another film site that I’ve been sent at least 3 times in the last little while is one by astronaut Chris Hadfield on the ISS.
http://www.youtube.com/user/canadianspaceagency?feature=watch
He has videos on all kinds of things from making a sandwich in space, to sleeping in space, toothbrushing in space to wringing out a washcloth in space!! Again cool Science of everyday objects and good starting point for discussion! I really hate flying but Chris Hadfield makes me want to be an astronaut it looks like the most amazing “job” ever!!

Have a happy safe holiday to all the students and teachers!!

Grab a steaming cup of 1,3,7-Trimethyl-3,7-dihydro-1H-purine-2,6-dione…

Friday, April 12th, 2013 | EMILY HALL | No Comments

So this week I went looking for some cool chemistry resources. I stumbled into the Royal Society Chemistry page and found a couple of things I thought were really cool!

First – Feb 2016 marks 175 years of the Society and one of the things they are doing is a 175 faces of Chemistry. Little bios of Chemists and their lives. They reminded me a little of the Applications books where they use a real life example of someone doing something cool to explain some Science and I thought maybe they could be useful to get kids thinking about the relevance of Chemistry to them. The one I thought was super cool was a high school Chemistry teacher turned Fireworks guru – insert explosive learning puns here! Anyway – check them out: http://www.rsc.org/Membership/175-faces-of-chemistry/

Also on the website, they have resources for teachers, I took a quick stroll through those and I am going to use the one about the 100m race and acid/base chem in my Year 10 class next term. They are nice because they are ready to go ppt and notes with worksheet etc but also I was thinking with the 100m one it is loose enough we can add in some things as we go. All their resources are here: http://www.rsc.org/learn-chemistry/resource/listing?searchtext=&fcategory=all&filter=all&Audience=AUD00000001&displayname=teachers

And finally, the part of the site that dragged me furthest away from any useful work and perhaps proved to myself yet again what a massive nerd I am was the ChemSpider. This is the neatest little tool – you type in the name of a chemical (it was almost morning tea time so I started with caffiene) and it gives you the name, formula, 2d and 3d pictures as well as links to papers written about your substance of choice and all kinds of other useful information. Very easy to spend a lot of time in here exploring chemicals around us!! Fall down that particular rabbit hole here: http://www.chemspider.com/

And that is all from me for now, I have to get back to chemspider!!!

Phun Physics Phriday resource…

Friday, April 5th, 2013 | EMILY HALL | No Comments

Quickie post to share this resource from IOP. Every day this term I have been writing on the whiteboard in my classroom a “Tody in Physics” that I found from the IOP website. (http://www.iop.org/resources/day/index.html) The students enjoy seeing what has happened “on this day” and the couple of times I haven’t gotten around to updating it they complain!! We’ve also had some good discussion come from them asking questions about what exactly the discovery means or who that person is or why would anyone want to know that? 🙂

If you have some time – make sure you take a look at the rest of the IOP website – there is a lot of good stuff there about teaching/promoting Physics.

Hope the short week was good to you!

Emily

The Dawn of De-extinction. Are you ready?

Friday, March 15th, 2013 | STEPHEN BRONI | No Comments

“Throughout humankind’s history, we’ve driven species after species extinct: the passenger pigeon, the Eastern cougar, the dodo …

But now, says Stewart Brand, we have the technology (and the biology) to bring back species that humanity wiped out. So — should we? Which ones? ”

Check out Stewart Brand’s TED Talk here at

http://www.ted.com/talks/stewart_brand_the_dawn_of_de_extinction_are_you_ready.html

Is it the answer to every conservationist’s prayer?

Or,
As Barry Hillman muses in on one of the responses,
“Sure, we have a responsibility to un-do the damage we’ve done,let’s try to change our thinking and become a more caring society that has no need to damage our world and then we can spend more of our valuable and limited time on earth creating instead of repairing.”

What do you think?

There’s a follow-up here, a panel video discussion `hot off the press’ from March 15th : http://tedxdeextinction.org/

(OUASSA students: You can now comment on our Blog-posts, but after clicking ` Comment’ box, you will have to sign-in using your Otago University login given to you at the January camp)

Friday – Fall Further down the rabbit hole…

Friday, February 22nd, 2013 | EMILY HALL | No Comments

I ran across these little Physics related videos the other day. Each one is only about a minute long so a nice little break. They are also aimed at presenting ideas rather than answering questions so could be a good way to stimulate a discussion or a starting point for more research. Cute and accessible for many year levels. Access the videos here.

Have an explore of the site while you are there – they have some other resources online mostly related to quantum physics. I also liked this one which explains some “big ideas” in an accessible way.

Have a great weekend!

I had to get up anyway…

Tuesday, February 12th, 2013 | EMILY HALL | 1 Comment

This morning my lovely 11 year old nieces woke me up from a dead slumber with a 5am facetime request. I can forgive them because they live in Canada and don’t really have a handle on time differences. Of course their first question was “why is it so dark?” since for them it was 10am and daylight…

Anyway – I have been thinking about sleep lately because the latest issue of New Scientist covers the issue of sleep in depth. Recommended reading if you can get your hands on it. While thinking about sleep I also spent some time here warning though there are so many interesting interactive things to play with you could end up spending more time than you planned!

Finally nothing to do with sleep but I recently received an email with a link to the Quantum World song from this website. I watched a couple of the other ones and thought they were pretty neat. The planets one is good, and not just because Neil de Grasse Tyson is wearing a super funky tie in it. I have put the link to the Climate Change one on Knowledge Forum under the Climate Change question. They’re all worth a look though if you have a spare few minutes – maybe some soothing science music if you’re having trouble sleeping?

Avian Influenza: H5N1 Researchers Ready as Moratorium Nears End

Friday, January 4th, 2013 | STEPHEN BRONI | No Comments

“Just because we can does it mean we should?”

Researchers who study the H5N1 avian influenza virus will soon be able to do some science that’s been off-limits for nearly a year.

This has sparked renewed debate on the dangers of developing a strain that can move between mammals.
Fearing that such “gain-of-function” experiments could enable terrorists or a lab accident to start a deadly human pandemic, critics demanded stricter controls on science that could be used for good and evil.

Read on for the full story on how scientists globally are trying to address this issue. http://www.sciencemag.org/content/339/6115/16.full

The Fish With A See-Through Head

Friday, October 19th, 2012 | STEPHEN BRONI | No Comments

Macropinna Microstoma: The Fish with a See-Through Head

Every once in a while (well, actually more often than you might think) nature comes up with something so bizarre it leaves you shaking your head and pondering “How? How? How?” and puzzling “Why? Why? Why?”

Found 600m or more down off the coast of California, the species lives in nearly total darkness. A transparent fluid-filled sack replaces the top of the head and two spots above the mouth, called nares, act somewhat like human nostrils, chemically sampling the water.

Experts think the fish hangs motionless in the current with its eyes swivelled upwards to spot the faint silhouettes of its prey. If it spots something it likes the look of, it rolls its eyes back to the forwards position and swims up to intercept it with its small, toothless mouth.

Check it out on this short video clip

Macropinna microstoma A deep-sea fish with a transparent head and tubular eyes

So, what’s the evolutionary advantage of a see-through head?
Would you want one for yourself?
( Might make wearing a beanie compulsory for some of us!)

Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine 2012: stem cell research

Tuesday, October 9th, 2012 | smida55p | No Comments

This year’s Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine goes to two researchers for their work on induced pluripotent stem cells or IPSCs. The Prize recognises the achievements of the two researchers in this promising field of science – one of whom first published on the subject 50 years ago.

IPSCs are formed from mature body cells that have been effectively ‘reprogramed’ to a pluripotent state so that they resemble the cells in an early embryo. Early embryonic stem cells are pluripotent and so have the highest potency of any stem cells. This means that (under the right conditions) they are able to develop or differentiate into any type of cell.

Many medical researchers think that stem cells have a lot of potential for therapeutic uses such as tissue repair, regeneration and replacement, as well as providing a source of human cells for experimentation, investigating cellular processes and modelling the action of drugs. Early research into pluripotent stem cells involved the use of early human embryoes. IPSCs are of significant interest in medical science as they could provide pluripotent stem cells from a non-embyronic source.

Read about this exciting story of stem cell research at http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/10/121008082955.htm

Clambake Extinctions, Volcanic Deccan Pies & Demise of Dinosaurs

Friday, September 14th, 2012 | STEPHEN BRONI | No Comments

“Most researchers think the dinosaurs, many plants on land, and much of the life in the sea succumbed to a huge cosmic impact 65.5 million years ago. But new evidence from the sea floor just off Antarctica points to a major extinction there a geologic moment before the impact. The culprit in this earlier cataclysm may well have been humongous volcanic eruptions in India—the same eruptions that some researchers have credited with wiping out the dinosaurs.”

Read the full story here
http://www.sciencemag.org/content/337/6100/1280.full

Gene mutation events linked to ‘milestones’ in human evolution

Wednesday, August 29th, 2012 | smida55p | No Comments

In the third online OUASSA biology tutorial I introduced the idea that a type of chromosomal mutation known as gene duplication may be important in “providing evolution some spare genes to play with”.

Many scientists think that gene duplications have contributed to some evolutionary changes, from the evolution of antifreeze proteins in polar fish (http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/01/110112122511.htm), the divesification of a group of calcium binding polypeptides in vertebrates that are important in tooth and bone formation and production of milk and salivary proteins in mammals (http://www.frontiersinzoology.com/content/2/1/15), to the evolution of true trichromatic colour vision in African apes. (http://anthro.palomar.edu/primate/color.htm; http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10413401).

A lovely example of the role of gene duplication in evolution for Level 3/Scholarship Biology – that is truly relevant to us all in the widest possible sense – can be found at http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn21777-the-humanity-switch-how-one-gene-made-us-brainier.html. This article tells the story of how the repeated duplication of a gene involved in neural development may have been involved in two major advances in brain cell organisation and thinking power that correlate with some big leaps forward in our own biological evolution. Enjoy! Darren.

Ever wondered how we know so much about genetics? “DNA from the Beginning” tells the stories of the experiments behind the biology.

Thursday, August 16th, 2012 | smida55p | No Comments

“DNA from the Beginning” is a fantastic resource that tells the stories of the science and scientists that have helped to build our knowledge of DNA and genetics:

Explore http://www.dnaftb.org/

It is packed with great animations, stories, activities, quizzes and summaries of key concepts, and is ideal for anyone studying 90715 “Describe the role of DNA in relation to gene expression”. 10/10! – Darren

Here’s a local “evolution in action” story you may have missed…

Thursday, August 9th, 2012 | smida55p | No Comments

New mutation produces “hairy and hot” dairy calves in the Waikato – would this be considered a problem down in the cool South? Read on at:

http://www.stuff.co.nz/waikato-times/farming/7428205/Genetics-company-refuses-to-cover-defective-calves

Follow your `Curiosity’

Friday, August 3rd, 2012 | STEPHEN BRONI | No Comments

Here’s one for all you fans of extra-terrestrial science

NASA’s most ambitious mission to Mars is landing August 5, 2012.

“The rover, nicknamed Curiosity, has a greater range than any rover before and it carries an impressive array of science instruments. It will explore terrain on Mars where water once flowed, searching for evidence of life.”

Check out this cool 5 min video from The Futures Channel website
http://www.thefutureschannel.com/dockets/realworld/mars_science_lab/

Tune into the landing on August 5th
http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/participate/

Great resource for Processes and Patterns of Evolution

Thursday, July 19th, 2012 | smida55p | No Comments

This is a one of my favourite websites for simple, clear and valid content for learning about evolutionary processes and patterns from Berkeley:

http://evolution.berkeley.edu/evosite/evo101/index.shtml

Heaps of wonderful images, explanations and examples for revision or note-taking.

Physics at the University of Otago & Physics World

Friday, July 13th, 2012 | hamvi58p | No Comments

For those of you interested, here is the link to the physics outreach page at the University of Otago. There are useful links aimed at teachers but these links will also be useful to many of our OUASSA students also. http://www.physics.otago.ac.nz/node/89 –

Physics World has published its Physics and Sport issue in the run-up to the Olympics. It can be downloaded for free for a limited (but unspecified) time from http://physicsworld.com/cws/download/jul2012.

“Chemistry Matters” – Once more into the world of hydronium and logarithm; but never mind the mole

Wednesday, July 11th, 2012 | hamvi58p | No Comments

Once more into the world of hydronium and logarithm; but never mind the mole

By Associate Professor Allan Blackman: This article was orignally published in the Otago Daily Times on Wednesday 4 July 2012.

<!–Tel: +64 3 479 7931

–><!–Location: Science II, 5n4

–><!–blackman@chemistry.otago.ac.nz

–>

Last month I attempted to explain the meaning of pH in around 500 words. To my chagrin, I found that this was an impossible task. The column was littered with arcane terms like ‘hydronium ion’ and ‘logarithm’, and numbers like 0.0000001 and 1 × 10^-7, things that do not make for easy reading. So let’s take up where I left off and see if I can’t do a better job in explaining what pH actually means.

What was hopefully obvious from last month’s column was that pH is far from a simple concept. For starters, it is a logarithmic function. In simple terms, this means that a change of 1 pH unit corresponds to a 10-fold change in the hydronium ion concentration – at the risk of upsetting the chemistry purists, one could say that a solution of pH 3 is 10 times as acidic as one of pH 4. To put this in a more understandable context, suppose we had 1 litre of a solution of pH 3 – if we added 9 litres of water to this (i.e. a 10-fold dilution) the final solution would have a pH of 4.

The useful pH scale ranges from 0 (a very acidic solution) to 14 (a very basic solution). Because of its logarithmic nature, this means that it spans a hydronium ion concentration range of 1 × 10¹⁴, or 100,000,000,000,000, between these pH values. To give some idea of the pH values of common substances, lemon juice, for example, has a pH around 2.3, orange juice, around 3.5, milk, around 6.7, seawater, around 8, household ammonia, around 11.5, and oven cleaner can be as high as 13, depending on its composition. Although it is supposedly common knowledge that pure water at 25 °C has a pH of 7.00, measurement of the pH of a sample of any water under all but the most stringently controlled conditions will yield a value somewhere between 5 and 6; this is because the water sample will contain dissolved carbon dioxide from the air, which renders the water very slightly acidic through formation of small amounts of ‘carbonic acid’.

So this is where we get to the importance of pH. Nature has evolved so that many of its important chemical reactions, particularly those that occur in living systems, are optimised to occur at particular pH values. If the pH of the system becomes too high or too low, then critical chemical reactions are impeded, and this can be fatal for the organism. For example, normal human blood has a pH between 7.35 and 7.45 – if our blood pH lowered to 7 or increased to 8, we would probably die. Nature has therefore developed a series of chemical species we call buffers, which ensure that the pH of blood does not change significantly.

Sadly, despite all I have written here, a true appreciation of exactly what pH means is contingent on understanding the mole, a chemical concept which is usually first introduced in 6th form (Year 12) Chemistry and is not necessarily understood by all even when University rolls around. My explanation of pH has only scratched the surface and is extremely simplistic – but hopefully it had given you some idea of what pH is all about.

Of course, the fact that pH is conceptually difficult doesn’t stop advertisers telling us that their clients’ products are ‘pH balanced’ ‘pH neutralising’, and other such meaningless terms. Treat all such claims with caution.

Revenge of the Weeds

Friday, June 22nd, 2012 | STEPHEN BRONI | No Comments

Plant pests are evolving to outsmart common herbicides, costing farmers crops and money

“It’s a story suited for a Hollywood horror film, yet it’s also a tenet of evolutionary biology. Introduce a toxin to a system, and you inevitably select for resistant survivors. These few individuals gain a reproductive advantage and multiply; sometimes they can’t be stopped with even the most potent chemicals.”

Read on for some sobering thoughts:

http://the-scientist.com/2012/05/20/revenge-of-the-weeds/

NZ International Biology Olympiad Registration, Now Open!

Monday, June 11th, 2012 | hamvi58p | No Comments

In 2014, New Zealand will be hosting the 25^th International Biology Olympiad: the world’s top biology educators and secondary school biology students will converge on the University of Waikato for a week of intense academic effort – but there’ll also be time for making new friends, sharing ideas, and experiencing some of what New Zealand has to offer. “The lead-up to this event will involve a huge amount of work,’ says NZIBO Chair Dr Angela Sharpies, “and we’re very keen for more teachers and academics to join the NZIBO committee and become involved with this awesome event.”

On-line registration for the 2013 NZIBO programme is now open at www.nzibo.org.

For students whose schools have never participated in NZIBO, the fee is $15 per student, while the cost for students from schools that have been involved is $30.

All Year 11 and Year 12 biology students are encouraged to enrol.

Registrations close on the 1^st of August and the entrance exam will be held in the fourth week of Term 3 on Wednesday August 8, 2012.

The two hour long, multi-choice exam consists of a series of questions designed to test students thinking and problem solving skills.

The NZIBO programme is an excellent opportunity for Gifted and Talented biology students.

Following the initial exam, approximately 60 students will be invited to enter the tutorial programme.

Full details of the scheme with costs can be found on the NZIBO website.

In 2013, the International Biology Olympiad will be held in Bern, Switzerland. For further information, please contact the NZIBO secretary, Dr H Meikle, at: nzibo.register@gmail.com.

Jessie McKenzie Teaching and Learning Specialist——————————————————————————————The Royal Society of New ZealandDDI: +64 4 4705 789 | MOB: +64 21 254 9114 | SKYPE: jessie.mckenzie.rsnz 4 Halswell Street, Thorndon, PO Box 598, Wellington 6140, New Zealandwww.royalsociety.org.nz

New OUASSA Staff Member

Friday, June 8th, 2012 | STEPHEN BRONI | No Comments

Hi everyone

My name is Darren Smith.

I’ve just joined the OUASSA team and will be helping out Kate and Steve for the rest of the year.

I’m a biology teacher and the sea has always been my playground, passion and study – and has been since I was old enough to gut a fish and focus a microscope. I have a Masters degree in marine biology and have worked on science research projects looking at the effects of nutrient enrichment on coral reefs and fishing impacts on seafloor communities. I’m also really into sharks, but hopefully not as a potential prey item!

I’m here to help you get the most out of your OUASSA experience and am really looking forward to reading your posts on Knowledge Forum and helping you find the answers to your biology curriculum questions. I’ve been following your progress on KF and have made a few posts on the Marine Science Project A, so maybe take an opportunity for a look.

See you all soon at the July OUASSA camp for an awesome week of fun, challenging and rewarding science!

Solar Landfills: The future?

Friday, May 25th, 2012 | STEPHEN BRONI | No Comments

An innovative approach to alternative energy
Using landfills to generate solar power.
Mark Roberts of HDR Engineering is working on two of these solar landfill projects in Texas and Georgia.

Have a listen to the 7 min audio clip below from Radio NZ National’s ` This Way Up’ programme. ( Scroll down to `Solar Landfill’)
http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/thiswayup/20120519

and check out the detail on this website
http://www.waste-management-world.com/index/display/article-display/0438199780/articles/waste-management-world/volume-11/issue-6/features/solar-landfills-the-future.html

Why don’t parts of standing waves form in open pipes?

Wednesday, May 23rd, 2012 | EMILY HALL | No Comments

At school today we were looking at the different harmonics and how they set up in strings, open and closed pipes. One of the students asked a cool question. He could see the closed pipe and string examples where there was “something” at the end of the length to reflect the wave, but didn’t understand why the waves would set up in the open pipe since it was open at both ends. Why didn’t the wave “fall out” the ends of the pipe? Or set up only partly in the tube and partly in the air or whatever medium was outside? Well, the answer is to do with the fact that although in the Year 13 book we are using at my school, and in most texts, the wave is represented as transverse, it is actually a longitudinal wave. This means that it is compressing and rarefacting in the pipe. The pressure at the ends of the pipe come in to play because the wave is setting up between these two areas of pressure which kind of act like the ends of the string. This is a pretty easy to read explanation of what is going on here. Also there’s a whole course of Physics lectures from MIT on waves online here. video 9 is where he goes into fundementals, harmonics and relates it to musical instruments.

“Chemistry Matters” – Radioactivity in you and me

Tuesday, May 22nd, 2012 | hamvi58p | No Comments

Radioactivity in you and me

By Associate Professor Allan Blackman. This article was orignally published in the Otago Daily Times on Friday 18 May 2012.

Late last month, a soccer ball that had washed up on Middleton Island in the Gulf of Alaska, was discovered by a technician at the radar station there. The ball was found to have come from a school in Japan, some 6000 km away, which was struck by the Tsunami of March 11th, 2011. In addition to the enormous amount of debris swept into the Pacific Ocean, the Tsunami also caused extensive damage to the Fukushima nuclear power plant, and released significant amounts of radioactive material into the environment.

It is a tragedy that the cities of Fukushima, Hiroshima, Nagasaki and Chernobyl will for ever be associated with the word “radioactivity”. It is, in my opinion, fair to say that a significant number of people think of radioactivity as resulting solely from the actions of human beings, by way of nuclear power stations or nuclear weapons, and that it didn’t exist prior to the 20th century. So it may come as some surprise to you that your body, my body, and, indeed, the bodies of everybody on planet Earth, are teeming with radioactive atoms, the majority of which derive from a natural source – the element potassium.

Potassium (elemental symbol K) is an essential element for life. Humans require around two to four grams a day, and this is generally obtained from such foods as potatoes, spinach and bananas. But it turns out that, of all the potassium atoms we ingest, a small percentage are radioactive. Natural potassium consists of three isotopes, ³⁹K, ⁴⁰K and ⁴¹K. All three contain 19 positively-charged protons in their nucleus, but differ in the number of neutrons – 20, 21 and 22, respectively. The ⁴⁰K isotope is radioactive, and comprises about 0.012% of all the atoms of potassium on Earth. It has a half-life of just over one billion years, meaning that one half of any sample of ⁴⁰K will disappear over this time, and it decays by emitting beta particles and gamma rays, both of which are potentially harmful to humans.

An ‘average’ 75 kg person contains about 150 g of potassium. Of that 150 g, 0.018 g is due to the radioactive ⁴⁰K isotope. This might not sound much, but when this mass is converted to an actual number of atoms, we find that it corresponds to about 270,000,000,000,000,000,000 atoms of radioactive potassium in the body. That’s a lot. Given the billion year half-life of this isotope, you might perhaps expect that not many of these atoms would decay over our lifetime, but again, you may be surprised to find that around 7000 ⁴⁰K atoms decay per second. Each of these decays can potentially lead to DNA mutation, and there’s absolutely nothing we can do about it! Obviously it is impossible for us to gauge the health effects of these radioactive decays, as it’s rather difficult to prepare a potassium-free human.

Like it or not, natural radioactivity, whether it be in the form of ⁴⁰K, the most abundant radioactive isotope in the body, ¹⁴C, which we ingest primarily through breathing in ^₁₄CO₂ from the air, or literally hundreds of other radioactive isotopes, is ubiquitous, and will always be with us – well, at least for the next few billion years, anyway.

Scholarship Opportunity – Engineering Technology 2013

Friday, May 18th, 2012 | hamvi58p | No Comments

As part of the Maintenance Engineering Society of New Zealand’s objective to encourage New Zealand students into tertiary education in the field of engineering technology, a MESNZ Engineering Scholarship worth up to $5,000 is being offered for the specific purpose of covering tuition fees in 2013. This scholarship is available to assist students commencing study towards an IPENZ accredited engineering degree, diploma or certificate from any year level through a New Zealand University, Polytechnic or Industry Training Organisation. Exemplar qualifications include Bachelor of Engineering or Bachelor of Engineering Technology degrees, National or New Zealand Diplomas in Engineering and the National Certificate in Mechanical Engineering (Maintenance Engineering).

Applications are now being sought from candidates interested in maintenance engineering as a career.

Please would you forward the attached information sheet and application form to any final year students at your school who may be considering, or you think may be interested in, study towards a relevant engineering qualification. Please note that applications close on 31 August 2011.

Further details are available on the MESNZ website http://www.mesnz.org.nz/scholarship/

Knowledge Forum: Synthesis of Project A Discussion Views

Tuesday, May 15th, 2012 | STEPHEN BRONI | No Comments

Hi All
Your task is a simple one:
You are each to make to a New Note that pulls together the knowledge you have gained from the knowledge building discussion on your Project A View (Maths, Physics, Marine Science or Zoology).

We have added a new set of scaffolds entitled ‘My Synthesis’ to help you do this.

Use these scaffolds to help you synthesise what you have learned from your Project A discussion and to highlight the ideas, posts and links that helped your knowledge building most.

Post your synthesis as a New Note titled `My Synthesis’ within your Project view.

This task should take you no more than 30 minutes.

Date Due: Fri 25^th of May

We look forward to reading your ‘My Synthesis’ post.

Don’t forget if you have ANY technical problems using Knowledge Forum let us know right away. For those of you who haven’t been in for a while, have forgotten how to use the software or have lost the starter guide given you at the January camp, we are happy to email you another copy and/or run a short refresher on-line using OtagoConnect.

Soon we will be posting the Project B views (Chemistry, Biochemistry/Genetics, Computer Science and Geography) to create an on-line discussion and to synthesize ideas generated between now and the July camp.

May we take this opportunity to remind you that we expect you to access Knowledge Forum at least once a week to read the posts of others and to make a new note. This is your contribution to the Academy between camps and is part of the commitment you undertook when you applied to The OUASSA.

Don’t forget the Curriculum Views are there to post questions asking for advice or assistance with internals and externals etc. We will gladly help where we can!

Science Alert – Website

Tuesday, May 8th, 2012 | hamvi58p | No Comments

An excellent website with the latest news and research developments. http://www.sciencealert.com.au/ There are many great articles to read and links to follow…. here is an example of a good article about human endogenous rhythms and the potential role of the liver. All of you Y13 Biology students will be studying biological timing mechanisims in preparation for the external AS ‘Describe animal behaviour and plant responses in relation to environmental factors’.

Liver helps ‘set’ body clock

The University of Sydney

Friday, 04 May 2012

A disrupted body clock can cause a higher risk of obesity and diabetes, but this breakthrough suggets a new target for treatments to ‘reset’ the clock.

International travellers, shift workers and even people suffering from obesity-related conditions stand to benefit from a key discovery about the functioning of the body’s internal clock.
Professor Chris Liddle, from the Westmead Millennium Institute for Medical Research, the University of Sydney, worked with a team from the Salk Institute based in California, to demonstrate the importance of circadian receptors found in the brain and the liver. Their findings are published in Nature today.
“The research is important as these are the first core component of the circadian clock identified that can be targeted with drugs, which could provide relief for those affected by disrupted circadian rhythms,” said Professor Liddle.
The circadian clock is an internal daily body clock that controls alertness, appetite, sleep timing and hormone secretions.
“Previously we have known that there are body ‘clocks’ not only in the brain but in most other body tissues including the liver, part of the focus of this study. While the brain clock is mainly cued by light, these other clocks are cued by factors such as exercise and diet as well as receiving nerve and hormone signals from the central clock in the brain.”
People with circadian disturbances tend to have a higher incidence of health concerns such as obesity, diabetes and related metabolic disorders. It is much more than simply a problem of disturbed sleep.
“People tend to think that the clock is just something that happens in the brain but it’s a whole-body issue. Literally you do not feel like exercising and your metabolism slows when you are in a certain part of the cycle. This contributes to obesity-related problems.
“When you fly overseas, not only do you wake up in the middle of the night, you probably notice you want to eat in the middle of the night, and that during the day you have reduced energy. The liver is a key player in the regulation of energy and we now understand quite a bit more how liver genes ‘clock in’ to the circadian cycle.”
Professor Liddle, a liver expert who has worked on liver genes for more than a decade with the Salk Institute, said the team had been able to show that these receptors in the liver were important in controlling the metabolism of fats and other genes related to diet, nutrition, digestion and energy expenditure.
“This is a very exciting discovery. We have now shown that these receptors in the body’s tissues do not have a peripheral role but are core components for setting our body clock that we can potentially use drugs on.
“The promise of this research for the future is that we can specifically target drug treatments at these receptors. The hope is that not only problems like jet lag and disturbed sleep can be more easily managed but other associated health concerns can be addressed more effectively,” Professor Liddle said.

Maui’s dolphins’ survival near ‘point of no return’

Monday, April 30th, 2012 | hamvi58p | No Comments

CLOSE TO EXTINCTION: A Maui dolphin and her calf.

The survival of the critically endangered Maui’s dolphin species will soon be “past the point of no return” unless emergency action is taken, an expert says.

What is believed to be a Maui’s dolphin was found dead by a member of the public in Taranaki last week. The dolphin was found on a beach near Pungarehu, south of New Plymouth.

It was collected by the Conservation Department and taken to Massey University for an autopsy.

It is not yet known if the dead dolphin is a Maui, of which only 54 are believed to be left, or a closely related Hector’s dolphin. The latest population survey found a couple of Hector’s mingling further north than usual with Maui’s dolphins.

If confirmed, it would be the second Maui’s dolphin found dead in Taranaki this year. Another, a female, was accidentally killed by a fisherman in January.

Otago University zoology professor Liz Slooten said the species was at a level where any loss would have a huge impact.

“Basically all bets are off already, natural processes could take them away. If we stopped catching them in fishing nets tomorrow we would still hold our breath … so we really need to pull out all the stops or soon we’ll go past the point of no return.”

Set net bans are imposed on the coastline between Dargaville to north Taranaki.

“As a biologist it’s really frustrating. I’ve done surveys there and wrote an article in 2005 to say the Maui is going much further south than the protected area,” Prof Slooten said.

The Fisheries Act included allowances for emergency protection measures to be put in place “literally overnight” in cases of sudden stock declines or unprecedented events, she said.

Submissions on laws to further protect the Maui’s dolphins closed on Friday. The laws want to extend the current ban on set nets along the west coast of the North Island and also extend a marine mammal sanctuary.

The fishing industry will argue against the ban, saying the dolphins have not been seen in the Taranaki area for years.

Keith Mawson, of Egmont Seafoods in Taranaki, earlier told the Seafood Industry Council that a proposal to extend the set net ban was a knee-jerk reaction. A ban would be disappointing for the fishing community, which was being used as a “scapegoat”, he said. By Michelle Robinson and Shane Cowlishaw.

Seven Equations that Changed the World

Wednesday, April 25th, 2012 | STEPHEN BRONI | No Comments

Having trouble seeing the relevance of all those formulae in maths?

“THE alarm rings. You glance at the clock. The time is 6.30 am. You haven’t even got out of bed, and already at least six mathematical equations have influenced your life. The memory chip that stores the time in your clock couldn’t have been devised without a key equation in quantum mechanics. Its time was set by a radio signal that we would never have dreamed of inventing were it not for James Clerk Maxwell’s four equations of electromagnetism. And the signal itself travels according to what is known as the wave equation.

We are afloat on a hidden ocean of equations. They are at work in transport, the financial system, health and crime prevention and detection, communications, food, water, heating and lighting. Step into the shower and you benefit from equations used to regulate the water supply. Your breakfast cereal comes from crops that were bred with the help of statistical equations. Drive to work and your car’s aerodynamic design is in part down to the Navier-Stokes equations that describe how air flows over and around it. Switching on its satnav involves quantum physics again, plus Newton’s laws of motion and gravity, which helped launch the geopositioning satellites and set their orbits. It also uses random number generator equations for timing signals, trigonometric equations to compute location, and special and general relativity for precise tracking of the satellites’ motion under the Earth’s gravity.

Without equations, most of our technology would never have been invented. Of course, important inventions such as fire and the wheel came about without any mathematical knowledge. Yet without equations we would be stuck in a medieval world.

Equations reach far beyond technology too. Without them, we would have no understanding of the physics that governs the tides, waves breaking on the beach, the ever-changing weather, the movements of the planets, the nuclear furnaces of the stars, the spirals of galaxies – the vastness of the universe and our place within it.

There are thousands of important equations. The seven I focus on here – the wave equation, Maxwell’s four equations, the Fourier transform and Schrödinger’s equation – illustrate how empirical observations have led to equations that we use both in science and in everyday life”.

Intrigued?

101Science.com

Tuesday, April 17th, 2012 | hamvi58p | No Comments

http://101science.com/

This website has a huge quantity of resources and links to some really fasinating sites. This site would be a good go-to site for background science reading, information gathering and for studying just some of what you will be covering in your classes.

The site covers Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Maths, Electronics and even Photography.

Cell Animation – TED

Monday, April 16th, 2012 | hamvi58p | No Comments

http://www.ted.com/talks/david_bolinsky_animates_a_cell.html

This is a very iinteresting clip from the TED talks. Interesting for keen biologists and students with an interest in garphics, animations, etc.

Medical animator David Bolinsky presents 3 minutes of stunning animation that show the bustling life inside a cell.

David Bolinsky and his team illustrate scientific and medical concepts with high-drama animation. You’ve never seen the life of a cell quite like this.

Each of us has about 100,000 [kinesins] running around, right now, inside each one of your 100 trillion cells. So no matter how lazy you feel, you’re not really intrinsically doing nothing.” (David Bolinsky)

Was Human Evolution Caused by Climate Change ?

Wednesday, April 11th, 2012 | STEPHEN BRONI | No Comments

Neanderthals at the cave site of Trou Al'Wesse in Belgium, clinging on as climate deteriorated. (Credit: Digital painting by James Ives)

Although an African origin of the modern human species is generally accepted, the evolutionary processes involved in the speciation, geographical spread, and eventual extinction of archaic humans outside of Africa are much debated. An additional complexity has been the recent evidence of limited interbreeding between modern humans and the Neandertals and Denisovans (a newly discovered group from Siberia). Modern human migrations and interactions began during the buildup to the Last Glacial Maximum, starting about 100,000 years ago. By examining the history of other organisms through glacial cycles, valuable models for evolutionary biogeography can be formulated. According to one such model, the adoption of a new refugium by a subgroup of a species may lead to important evolutionary changes.

“Ultimately, this model explains why Homo sapiens as a species are here and the archaic humans are not.” Dr J.R. Stewart

The research also leads to interesting conclusions as to how and why Neanderthals, and indeed the Denisovans, evolved in the first place.

Check out the full article here

http://www.sciencemag.org/content/335/6074/1317.full

An Introduction to Practical Electronics: Resource

Wednesday, April 4th, 2012 | STEPHEN BRONI | No Comments

Thanks to Lynne Newell from FutureIntech for this link

http://www.techideas.co.nz/

An introduction to Practical Electronics, Microcontrollers and Software Design is a PDF book (800 pages+ and growing) written by Bill Collis from Mount Roskill Grammar School for students who are starting out in electronics. It is based around the PCB CAD software Eagle, the ATMEL AVR microcontroller and the BASCOM-AVR cross compiler. It aims to help students use software like Eagle and Sketchup for their chosen projects, and how to write and plan successful code using statechart principles. There are many examples of block diagrams, circuits, layouts, flowcharts, statecharts and code in the book for many different interfaces and products.

http://www.techideas.co.nz/

Y13 Biology Plant and Animal Responses to the Environment

Monday, March 26th, 2012 | hamvi58p | 1 Comment

I found this in a Google search for Y13 Biology Resources. This may be a useful revision accessory for you… I would recommend that you use this in conjunction with your own class notes.

http://quizlet.com/7829469/ncea-level-3-biology-plant-and-animal-responses-flash-cards/

Some teams look at the big picture

Wednesday, March 21st, 2012 | hamvi58p | No Comments

By Associate Professor Allan Blackman: This article was orignally published in the Otago Daily Times
on Saturday 10 March 2012. blackman@chemistry.otago.ac.nz

My students do little chemistry. By this, I don’t mean to impugn their reputation by suggesting their work habits aren’t all that they could be. Rather, I’m saying that they do chemistry on a small scale. They measure masses in milligrams or grams, and volumes in millilitres whenever they carry out chemical reactions. There is generally no need to work on larger scales, as no new information will be obtained. Financial considerations also often play a part in determining how much material is used in any reaction – chemicals can be surprisingly expensive!

On the other hand, some researchers do big chemistry, whose scale is limited only by their imaginations (and money again, of course). Big chemistry usually requires the collaboration of lots of research groups around the world and is often aimed at addressing big questions. One such example of big chemistry recently resulted in a group based in the Chemistry Department at the University of Otago, along with workers at NIWA in Wellington, winning the Prime Minister’s Science Prize for 2011. The big question these workers addressed was ‘what can we do to reduce carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere?’

It is a fact that levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere are increasing. This could potentially lead to both an increase in the Earth’s temperature, and the oceans becoming more acidic, neither of which would be beneficial to life on this planet. It therefore makes sense to plan for such eventualities, and investigate ways in which carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere could be controlled if necessary. And this is where the work of the groups at Otago and NIWA becomes relevant. It had been proposed that phytoplankton in the oceans could potentially absorb significant amounts of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere during photosynthesis, the process by which green plants convert carbon dioxide to organic materials and oxygen. While this hypothesis could potentially be tested in the laboratory, it would really take a large scale experiment to demonstrate its viability.

And a large scale experiment it was. Truly big chemistry. It involved seeding a small area of the Southern Ocean with iron (about 1.7 tonnes!), to encourage the growth of phytoplankton, and then monitoring the changes in carbon dioxide levels, using a variety of methods including satellite surveys. You can imagine the wealth of coordination and cooperation required to carry out such a study. The results were interesting; while it was found that enhanced absorption of carbon dioxide into the ocean did occur in the seeded areas, it was also found that the phytoplankton themselves released other potent greenhouse gases, such as nitrous oxide, into the atmosphere. This demonstrated that such an approach would not be effective at mitigating greenhouse gas levels in the atmosphere.

This might appear at first sight to be a negative result, but thanks to the big chemistry carried out, we now know that we must look for other ways to avert the deleterious effects of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. The Prime Minister’s Science Prize is worth $500,000. Given that a Nobel Prize is worth $1.8 million, I think that’s pretty generous. Time to get my students working harder…

An article for the Physicists!

Monday, March 19th, 2012 | hamvi58p | No Comments

A first! Neutrino message sent through ground

www.msnbc.msn.com

For the first time, scientists have used neutrinos – the exotic fundamental particles that routinely pass right through Earth – to send a message through the ground.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/46748654/ns/technology_and_science-science/#.T2JhXxy15og

New study says ancient hominid males stayed home while females roamed

Friday, March 16th, 2012 | STEPHEN BRONI | No Comments

The males of the two bipedal hominid species that roamed the South African savannah more than a million years ago were stay-at-home kind of guys when compared to the gadabout gals, says a new high-tech study led by the University of Colorado Boulder. Dr Petrus le Roux from the Department of Geological Sciences at UCT was part of a team which studied teeth from a group of extinct Australopithecus africanus and Paranthropus robustus individuals from two adjacent cave systems in the Sterkfontein-Swartkrans area in South Africa.

The research team used high-tech laser ablation mass spectrometry to measure isotope ratios of strontium in the hominid tooth enamel in order to identify specific areas of landscape use. A naturally occurring element, strontium, is found in rocks and soils and is absorbed by plants and animals and becomes incorporated in the enamel of their teeth during development. Since unique strontium signals are tied to specific geological substrates – like granite, basalt, quartzite, sandstone and others, they can be used to reveal landscape conditions where ancient hominids grew up Sandi Copeland, UC Boulder Adjunct Professor and lead study author explains, “The strontium isotope ratios are a direct reflection of the foods these hominids ate, which in turn are a reflection of the local geology”. The researchers found that the strontium isotope signals in half of the female teeth indicated that they were derived from outside the local area, which contrasted with that of the males. In the latter only about ten percent suggested that they were from elsewhere, implying that the males probably grew up and died in the same area. Sandi Copeland said, “One of our goals was to try and find something out about early hominid landscape use. Here we have the first direct glimpse of the geographic movements of early hominids, and it appears the females preferentially moved away from their residential groups.” She said that the new study results were somewhat surprising as they had assumed that more of the hominids would be from non-local areas, as it is generally thought that the evolution of bipedalism was due in part to allow individuals to range longer distances. “Such small home ranges could imply that bipedalism evolved for other reasons”, Copeland said.

Professor Matt Sponheimer, UC-Boulder anthropologist and a co-author of the article, says, “It is difficult enough to work out relations between the sexes today, so the challenges in investigating the ways that male and female hominids used the landscape and formed social groups over a million years ago, are considerable. Disembodied skulls and teeth are notoriously poor communicators, so the real difficulty with a study like this is finding new ways to make these old bones speak”. The female dispersal pattern seen in the two hominid groups is similar to that of many modern humans, chimpanzees and bonobos, but unlike most other primates, including gorillas, where one or two males dominate a group of females, explained Copeland. “This study gets us closer to understanding the social structures of ancient hominids, since we now have a better idea about the dispersal patterns”, she said.

From:

Contact: University of Cape Town, Faculty of Science Newsletter, March 2012, Page 11

Studyit!

Friday, March 16th, 2012 | hamvi58p | No Comments

New Zealand’s most popular student website turned eight on 1st March. Studyit www.studyit.org.nz began supporting NCEA students on March 1 2004. Studyit is a free, safe and successful online support site developed and managed by CWA New Media, a business unit of Learning Media.

Studyit has everything needed to get achieve, merit and excellence, written in student
terms, as well as fourteen very active forums where expert teachers answer student questions at night, in the weekends and during holidays.

Recent feedback from Studyit students includes:

I got straight E’s in maths, thank you very much for all your help on this website, it really helped me
I just wanted to say a huge thanks for all the help I received from Studyit for my level 1 papers last year (I got 100% excellence!)
Studyit made a huge difference to the way I approached the exam! I tried to make my answers biologically detailed but concise even though I was really stressed for time.
Seems that all us Studyit users found the exam went incredibly well even though 3 News said it was really hard. I think this just goes to show the positive impact of Studyit on our performance
I went into the exam feeling a lot more confident knowing that I had prepared as well as I could – and a great deal of that preparation could not have been done without Studyit. It was so great to have such quick replies to all my questions, even on weekends and holidays.

Studyit gives students more confidence!

www.studyit.org.nz for NCEA maths, science and English students.

Studyit facebook
Winner of the 2008, 2009 & 2010 Net Guide People’s
Choice Award for Best Education Site
and
2011 Best Student Site
Winner of the 2006 TUANZ Education Innovation of
the Year Award
Finalist 2011 Australia and New Zealand Internet
Awards

CWA – a business unit of
Learning Media Ltd.
Email: ashley@cwa.co.nz
Mobile: 027 227 8603
Fax: +64 4 382 6509
Web: www.cwa.co.nz
Postal: PO Box 19090, Wellington, New
Zealand

Excellent Revision Site for Chemistry, Physics & Biology!

Monday, March 12th, 2012 | hamvi58p | 1 Comment

Many of you may already be using this site, but it you are not, then I thoroughlly recommend taking the time to have a look around and print off some of the useful resources within.

Site: http://www.nobraintoosmall.co.nz/

There are flash cards, revision activities/notes, test yourself activities and powerpoint presentations etc. The site has been created and is maintained by a group of NZ high school teachers with knowledge and expertise in the NZ curriculum as well as NCEA.

You could even recommend this site to your subject teachers as they too would find it useful.

Teachers – Chemistry support website

Friday, March 9th, 2012 | hamvi58p | No Comments

About ChemTeach

This website is designed to be a one stop shop for chemistry teachers. It contains internal and external assessment resources, teaching resources, news, interesting articles about chemistry in the community or cutting edge research, information about chemistry education initiatives, competitions, links to other useful web pages and you will get rapid responses to chemistry queries via our questions page.

The site is supported by the University of Canterbury Outreach Programme, the New Zealand Institute of Chemistry (NZIC) and Victoria University of Wellington.

There is an extensive question and answer archive on the site, courtesy of Ian Torrie. It covers a wide and extensive variety of questions that have been asked by chemistry teachers since the introduction of NCEA. They range from the trivial to the bizarre and while they are not “official” responses in all cases a variety of “expert” and experienced sources have been used to give the best answer available at the time.

http://www.chemteach.ac.nz/whatis.shtml

Struggling with Genetics?

Wednesday, March 7th, 2012 | hamvi58p | Comments Off on Struggling with Genetics?

This link is to a website from the University of Utah. It covers the basics of Y12-Y13 Genetics and covers such topics as ‘What is DNA? What is a chromosome? What is a protein? What is Heredity? What are traits?’ etc

The pace is slow enough that you can make your own notes during the animation or you can simply click through frame by frame and work at your own pace.

There is also a link to ‘What is Meiosis and Mitosis?’ that many of you will find useful to cement these concepts.

http://learn.genetics.utah.edu/content/begin/tour/

What motivates you as a scientist?

Monday, March 5th, 2012 | hamvi58p | No Comments

To tie in with the latest Nature Outlook, Lenses on Biology, the Nature Communities team asked five biological scientists at different stages of their education or careers to tell their personal stories in a guest blog post. Each scientist studies, works or has an interest in one of the five research fields featured in Lenses on Biology ― cancer, stem cells, synthetic biology, ocean health and climate change ― and they share what motivates them in their chosen subject. You can read their stories below, and discuss your own motivations here or on the posts in question.

http://blogs.nature.com/naturejobs/2012/03/02/what-motivates-you-as-a-scientist#wpn-more-152

Chemistry Matters articles

Tuesday, February 28th, 2012 | hamvi58p | No Comments

“Chemistry Matters” is an ongoing monthly column by Dr Allan Blackman of the University of Otago’s Chemistry Department, on
topical chemistry subjects of interest to the general public, published in the
Otago Daily Times newspaper, and reproduced on the Chemistry Outreach website. His articles are interesting and are all about chemistry and the world around us.

http://neon.otago.ac.nz/chemistry/magazine

The University of Otago has a great Chemistry Outreach team and on their website you will also find many more useful links to chemistry related topics.

Resource Link for Physics

Friday, February 24th, 2012 | hamvi58p | No Comments

http://victoria.ac.nz/physics-resource-centre//

This site has been reccommended by Esther Haines from The Phyisics Department here at the Univeristy of Otago as a very useful site for Physics students and teachers alike.

Revision website ‘S-cool’

Monday, February 20th, 2012 | hamvi58p | No Comments

http://www.s-cool.co.uk/a-level

High quality revision materials using S-cool’s straight forward 3 steps to success process. This site is from the UK and has a sepcific section for A-level revision (Senior Science). Each of your classroom subjects will be found on this website.

1. Revise it

Check you know the main principles by reviewing the list of different topic areas, either click on the topic heading to quick learn the whole topic or pick individual principles to brush up.

2. Test it

Now you have learnt the main principles, test yourself with these sample questions. If you get stuck, go back and review the principle again.

Exam style questions

3. Remember it

Print these out and carry them with you!

ESA Study Guides and Revision Books

Friday, February 17th, 2012 | hamvi58p | No Comments

Below is the link to the ESA Publications website. Hopefully all of you will be focussed on achieving to the very best of your ability at the end of the year and during your internal assessments. These books offer great support for a vast number of subjects at Y13 level. They are useful for end of topic tests also and have full vocab lists for all of that tricky terminology (especially useful for Bio!). I highly reccommend these books as a useful support tool.

http://www.esa.co.nz/?type=catalogue-books&page=61&where_type=0&where_year=13&where_subject=all

Cells Alive

Monday, February 13th, 2012 | hamvi58p | No Comments

A great website for students and teachers covering all aspects of cell biology from Y9 through to Y13 plus. The site has great animations as well as images, quiz questions and so on. Would reccommend!

http://www.cellsalive.com/

Great interactive website for maths

Friday, February 10th, 2012 | hamvi58p | No Comments

http://www.mathsisfun.com/

This site has been reccommended by our Applied Mathematics Project Leader as a great site for teachers and students alike. This site has fun games, resources, worksheets etc for all curriculum levels and abilities. Pass it on to your students/Maths Department/Homework Centre at your school.

Chemistry – Pathologist’s discoveries to dye for

Wednesday, February 8th, 2012 | hamvi58p | No Comments

By Associate Professor Allan Blackman

This article was orignally published in the Otago Daily Times
on Tuesday 7 February 2012.

<!–

Tel: +64 3 479 7931

–><!–

Location: Science II, 5n4

–><!–

blackman@chemistry.otago.ac.nz

–>

I was feeling a bit poorly a couple of weeks ago, so I crawled from my
sickbed and made one of my relatively infrequent trips to the Doctor, who
prescribed a course of antibiotics. While remaining bedridden and feeling very
sorry for myself, I had occasion to recall the interesting genesis of the first
synthetic antibiotic. It’s all to do with dyes, and a father’s great love for
his daughter.
Up until a couple of hundred years ago, brightly coloured clothes were almost exclusively the domain of the rich, as the dyes used had to be sourced from either plants or animals. The colouration of one of Julius Caesar’s purple robes, for example, reputedly came from the extracts of 10,000 molluscs, while to dye anything crimson required lots and lots of cochineal insects from far-off Mexico.
However, all this changed thanks to William Perkin, who in 1856, at the
ridiculously young age of 18, patented the first synthetic dye, the
purple-coloured mauveine. His discovery changed the chemical industry overnight,
and spurred an enormous amount of research into other synthetic dyes – indeed,
the chemical giant BASF was founded in 1865 for this very purpose.
In 1925, BASF, along with five other chemical companies, merged to form I.G.
Farben (‘Farben’ is an abbreviation of the German word for ‘dye industry’) and
it was to here that the German pathologist Gerhard Domagk took a leave of
absence from his Professorship at the University of Münster in order to further
his studies on bacterial infections. He was working on a virulent form of
streptococcus, and wanted to be able to ‘stain’ the bacteria so they could be
easily visualised. For this, he used a class of simple, highly-coloured
molecules called azo dyes, and found to his surprise that some of these showed
promising activity against the bacteria. Chemical modification of one particular
azo dye gave a molecule called Prontosil, and in 1932, Domagk showed that this
protected mice against lethal doses of streptococci.
While this was a huge breakthrough, it was by no means certain that Prontosil
would be as effective in humans. And here, fate intervened. In 1935, Domagk’s 6
year-old daughter, Hildegard, pricked herself with a needle and suffered a
streptococcal infection – in those days, such infections were often fatal. She
was rushed to the doctor, who recommended amputation of the arm to save her
life. Domagk, aghast at the suggestion, gave her a dose of Prontosil – two days
later the infection had subsided and, soon after, she was discharged from
hospital. This incident, along with other somewhat more controlled clinical
trials, confirmed Prontosil as the world’s first effective synthetic
antibiotic.
Domagk was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1939.
However, a law passed by the Nazis forbade any German citizen from accepting the
award, and he did not make the journey to Stockholm until 1947. Sadly, while he
was awarded the diploma and the medal, he didn’t receive the monetary portion of
the prize.
While Prontosil was soon overtaken by Penicillin as the antibiotic of choice,
Domagk’s work laid the foundations for all modern synthetic antibiotics. For
this, we should be very grateful.

http://neon.otago.ac.nz/chemistry/magazine/128

Essential Readings for Level 3 Bio Externals

Wednesday, October 5th, 2011 | hamvi58p | No Comments

http://www.becominghuman.org/

->Covers human evolution, this website has excellent video coverage and resources

site applying genetics to examples

http://learn.genetics.utah.edu/

->Genetics applications, an excellent site

http://dnalc.org/home.html

-> Gene Almanac, an awesome interactive

http://dnaftb.org/dnaftb/

-> DNA from the beginning, an excellent summary of level 3 genetics

http://www.dnai.org/

-> DNA Interactive, excellent case studies as applications of genetic practises and processes, an awesome site with case study approaches to assist in exam prep (especially for schol exam).

http://sci.waikato.ac.nz/evolution/index.shtml

-> NZ evolution examples, excellent site for evolution with lots of good NZ examples.

http://www.sciencecases.org/hemo/hemo.asp

-> Inheritance of haemophilia, an interesting case study, good practice for thinking.

http://www.biotechlearn.org.nz/

-> NZ science research, home grown examples of applications of science, a good site.

http://www.rsnz.org/education/gamma/

->Royal Society of NZ webiste, Gamma Series, Science behind the news, great articles modelling good writing.

http://www.nzqa.govt.nz/scholarship/index.html

-> scholarship information, details of scholarship, an essential for scholarship candidates.

http://www.nzqa.govt.nz/scholarship/subjects/resources.html

-> Biology Scholarship Information, details of exams etc, an essential for scholarship candidates.

http://www.tki.org.nz/r/ncea/bio3_supportmaterial_15feb06.doc

->NCEA on TKI supplementary materials, summary of genetics and evolution at level 3

http://www.tki.org.nz/r/ncea/bio3_supportgenetics_18dec06.doc

->NCEA on TKI supplementary materials, summary of Plant and Animal and ecology knowledge required for level 3 and scholarship

Scholarship support material

Wednesday, September 28th, 2011 | hamvi58p | No Comments

Hi there,

We hope everything is going well and that you are gearing up for your externals in November. If you are after scholarship support material in Bio/Chem/Physics and Math we can arrange access to the support material provided through Otagonet. You can access this material whenever you want and can work through a vast array of very useful resources/activities/readings and questions. Simply email me (Kate) at ouassa@otago.ac.nz and she will sort your log in and password details.

We are also in the process of arranging on-line tutorials for those of you after some extra support using OtagoConnect software. We will email you with details soon, alternatively email me and let me know if you are interested.

Keep up the good work,

Kate

Kahn Academy

Friday, September 16th, 2011 | hamvi58p | No Comments

This site has a vast number of resources covering much of your Y13 curriculum content… Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Maths (Calc and Stats) etc. Useful tutorials to watch when you are sick of writing out your own study notes etc and just want to keep learning….

http://www.khanacademy.org/

One minute Physics

Tuesday, September 13th, 2011 | KEV KNOWLES | No Comments

From New Scientist Magazine

http://www.newscientist.com/blogs/nstv/one-minute-physics/

Triple Helix Resources

Friday, September 2nd, 2011 | STEPHEN BRONI | No Comments

TRIPLE HELIX RESOURCES

is focused on the provision of quality biology and general science teaching materials.
Their aim is to produce resources that will not only help teachers to teach and students to learn but will also encourage a lifelong fascination with science and the living world

http://www.biologyresources.co.nz/

Biology Scholarship link

Friday, September 2nd, 2011 | hamvi58p | No Comments

You’ll obvioulsy know by now if you are doing Biology Scholarship at the end of the year. If so, as you’ll know already your best preparation is to read as widely as possible on all things biology related. Here is the link to guidelines and exemplars from the NZQA website.

http://www.nzqa.govt.nz/qualifications-standards/awards/scholarship/scholarship-subjects/scholarship-biology

Also, as mentioned in an earlier post, the website that I would most recommend to teachers and students alike is the Teachers Domain site: http://www.teachersdomain.org/collection/k12/sci/. Make some time to have a look at the resources for wider reading, animations, powerpoints etc on all manner of science related topics. This site will really help you with developing wider thinking skills to get your responses in exams up to that Merit and Excellence level that you are all striving for!

Tell your science teacher about the Teachers Domain site and this OUASSA site and make their day!

AC Circuits

Friday, August 26th, 2011 | KEV KNOWLES | No Comments

Great resource pages from Physclips, covers pretty much everything you need to know about AC circuits…

http://www.animations.physics.unsw.edu.au//jw/AC.html

Photoelectric effect

Friday, August 26th, 2011 | KEV KNOWLES | No Comments

From the “Einstein Year” website.

Good linking material for all you need to know about the photoelectric effect. Remember, this is what Einstein got his Nobel Prize for, NOT for relativity…

http://www.einsteinyear.org/facts/photoelectric_effect/

Where Human Evolution and Archaeology Intersect

Thursday, August 18th, 2011 | STEPHEN BRONI | No Comments

The archaeology of human evolution in depth.
Fresh voices in the field speak out on relevant topics.
Extensive reference guide and extremely thorough glossary.
http://www.archaeologyinfo.com/

“Making wise decisions in the face of uncertainty.”

Thursday, August 18th, 2011 | STEPHEN BRONI | No Comments

Statistics may be defined as “a body of methods for making wise decisions in the face of uncertainty.” W.A. Wallis

How confident are you with Statistical theory and practice?

Would you like to use state of the art analytical software on real problems to hone your skills?

Otago University has made a series of video clips of researchers talking about using statistics in their research. The clips include examples from zoology, nutrition, psychology, chemistry, physiology within the university and DoC and AgResearch Ruakua outside the University.

But wait there’s more….!!!!!

The videos come with matching data sets and a powerful, free-to-use menu-driven schools version of the statistical package GenStat .

A FREE school version of this software has been developed for New Zealand Schools. You can even access the software freely at home once your school is registered.

The video clips and data sets come with lessons using `GenStat Schools’ and all of the resources are available from the department’s website www.maths.otago.ac.nz/videos/statistics

A school can apply for a FREE GenStat Schools Licence at www.vsni.co.uk/software/genstat-teaching

If you haven’t heard of GenStat take this to your Maths Teacher right away and start making use of this great resource.

Isolating Mechanisms

Tuesday, August 16th, 2011 | hamvi58p | No Comments

http://www.teachersdomain.org/resource/tdc02.sci.life.evo.lacewings/

Check out the section called ‘Background Essay’….. brilliant for your revision, here is a sneak peak.

‘When explaining a breakup, couples will often say, “We grew apart,” or “We both changed in different ways.” That’s a good metaphor for how species are formed: members of a population somehow begin to diverge, usually as a result of being geographically separated from each other. Eventually, they can no longer interbreed, and at that point a new species has formed.

Yet if the two groups continued to live near each other, it’s likely that mating attempts between naturally varying members of the two populations would tend to allow the species to merge again. This is called “gene flow” between the two groups. What keeps this from happening, and what allows new species to arise and endure, are what are known as “isolating mechanisms.” These are either behavioral or structural differences between species that make mating impossible……’ see website for remainder of article.
Discussion Questions:

How might different songs keep species of lacewings from interbreeding?

Can you think of other examples of traits or mechanisms that would similarly isolate other closely-related species?

Speciation resource –

Tuesday, August 16th, 2011 | hamvi58p | No Comments

The Origin of Species

This is a great website for those wanting to apply themselves to what has been taught in the classroom. The extract below is the background reading, there are applictaion questions as well as the interactive slide show. A must for serious Biologists and Excellence/Schol. candidates!

http://www.teachersdomain.org/resource/tdc02.sci.life.evo.anorigin/

The term evolution refers to the cumulative change that occurs in populations of organisms over time. Sometimes evolutionary change is so dramatic that different populations of the same species diverge to become two or more distinct species. In the case of a group of birds called honeycreepers, for example, a single species that colonized the Hawaiʻian Islands about 5 million years ago ultimately diverged into 57 different species.

This process, which evolutionary biologists call speciation or adaptive radiation, can happen anywhere. However, it is most clearly demonstrated on geologically young land masses, such as newly formed islands or mountains. In these environments a population of organisms will typically find a set of environmental opportunities and pressures very different from the conditions they experienced in their place of origin. These environmental differences come in many forms and often cause sweeping evolutionary changes in a founding population.

Several environmental factors affect the process of speciation. The structural habitat of an area determines the ease with which creatures are able to move around and find shelter from weather and other organisms. Food, both the type and its availability, dictates the ease with which animals are able to acquire the energy they need to survive and reproduce.

Competition for various resources is another factor that can drive the process of speciation. Competitive pressure can come from organisms of the same species or from organisms of different species. Generally, in highly competitive environments, traits that minimize competition — traits that, for example, allow two different populations to feed on very different types of food — are advantageous.

Another factor that can influence speciation is predation. Predators typically reduce the rate of speciation because they limit other organisms’ access to resources. On newly formed land masses, however, the number of predators is typically lower than on older continents. These younger environments, therefore, provide more opportunities for species to evolve into new and different species

‘Out of Africa’ Hypothesis: Radio Interview

Sunday, August 7th, 2011 | STEPHEN BRONI | No Comments

Rebecca Cann is “Professor of Cell and Molecular Biology, and member of the International Scientific Advisory Panel of the Allan Wilson Centre for Molecular Ecology and Evolution. She co-authored the influential study which showed modern humans evolved from a single African population” but there is a strong Otago University link through Professor Alan Wilson way back in 1950’s. Check out the story on national radio podcast from Sat 6th Aug at 9.05 am http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/saturday

Zoology Students

Tuesday, July 12th, 2011 | hamvi58p | No Comments

Lisa and the Zoology Team have asked that the Zoology students read through the following information prior to their project work.

Dear Zoology students

You will find some activities attached here to help prepare you for the Zoology project during this camp. We will be focusing on invasive species, in particular species found within urban areas. As I’m sure you are all aware, this topic can be quite emotive, particularly when addressing issues of impact on native communities and management and control methods. We have asked you to research a couple of questions related to invasive species, gather some viewpoints on invasive species and control, and then finally to do a bit of research into a specific role. At the end of the project we will be undertaking a role play activity where you will be taking on a specific persona and have to argue your case for control. We do realise that the role you are assigned may not reflect your own personal view point, but sometimes they are actually the easiest to argue!

Just a reminder to make sure you bring warm clothes, sturdy boots and a torch or headlamp for our early morning excursion on the tuesday. Remember its COLD in Dunedin and snow is predicted this week already.

Looking forward to working with you all again.

The Zoology team.

Questions to think about over the holidays

There are many introduced species in New Zealand: >2,000 plant species, 32 mammals, and 33 birds have been introduced. But not all of them are considered to be invaders.

Can you think about the following, and be prepared to discuss when we meet.

What is the definition of an invasive species?

2. What makes an invasive species a pest?

Here are two quotes about possums: think about the implications of these different viewpoints of possums and be prepared to discuss them.

1. This quote is by S. Bracegirdle of Egmont Skins and Hides, in the Taranaki Daily News (June 2011), describing his business which collects dead possums, plucks them for fur to sell to wool factories for possum/wool garments:

“We’re turning a pest into something creative”

2. This quote is by Potts (2009, Society and Animals Vol 17: pp 1-20):

“Possums are positioned not only as unwanted and dangerous foreign invaders but also as unworthy of compassion and deserving of persecution: it is as if possums are responsible for the prejudice and malice they now face”

Finally, please gather three viewpoints from your family or acquaintances on possums as pests and their knowledge of current methods of possum control.

Role Play Exercise

Management and control of invasive species is often a very emotive subject resulting in a wide range of very different viewpoints. It is important that we consider all of these different views when planning and implementing management programmes. This exercise is designed to give you an opportunity to explore some very divergent view points.

Scenario:

It has been proposed by a group of local environmentalists that an area of land, which includes a cluster of farms (some dairy), significant remnants of native vegetation, and including some small urban areas, be managed to be predator-free with the purpose of improving its biodiversity value. Given that it has been recommended that possum management strategies should include the development of community processes that can assist in the design of appropriate strategies, the leader of the group proposing this plan has organised a meeting at which local stakeholders can express their opinions about the concept of the plan and the control methods used.

Each of you has been assigned an identity. Be prepared to make a statement based on your identity and defend your point of view. You need to agree on whether the eradication should go ahead, and the methods used to carry out the eradication. Feel free to immerse yourself in your role!

Roles:

Department of Conservation worker – Alise
Animal Health Board inspector – Rueben
Dairy farmer whose daughter’s dog died after scavenging a possum that had died from 1080 poisoning – Hannah
Fur trapper – Jenny
Animal rights activist and passionate Greenie – Jamie-Leigh
Urban dweller – Ellyce

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