Cool Tools:Shark!!!!!!!!!!

Hi everyone, Nancy here.

I hope you all have been having a great summer. We have been very busy in the SERC. We've already sent out our first round of Durham Public Schools Science Kits to the Year Round Schools. The students are starting their year off studying life cycles of plants, animals and invertebrates.

An animal that they won't be caring for in their classrooms however is getting a lot of attention this week.

Each summer, the Discovery Channel hosts Shark Week, the longest running week of television programming focused on a particular animal. Shark Week has been a fixture of the Discovery Channel for over twenty years.

If you've been out to the Museum lately and tried your hand at digging for marine fossils out at the dig site on the Dinosaur Trail, you may have found some shark's teeth. The mix of fossil "dirt" that you can explore was excavated from a phosphate mine in Aurora, NC. North Carolina was once part of an embayment that had lots of diverse sea life. Some of the shark's teeth found in the dig site at the Museum are from Sand Tiger Sharks, Whitetip Sharks and White Sharks. Some explorers to the quarry in Aurora have been lucky enough to find Megaladon teeth.

Discovery Channel's website has a lot of great shark resources including games, videos and an identification guide. Check out the link from our friends at How Stuff Works to learn more about how sharks' teeth work. Did you know that sharks can have up to 300 teeth? They can also have anywhere between 5-15 rows of teeth.

For more information on Shark Week, you can check out Discovery Channel's website.

Stay tuned, stay curious and if you live in Amity, stay out of the water...

-Nancy

Citizen Science: What to do with all those batteries?

So, how many items do we all have in our homes that are battery operated. I stopped counting at 25 (of course I think most of my daughter's toys consume batteries to make some noise ). Batteries are everywhere, and are of many different types. The other day while replacing a few I started wondering how to properly dispose of these things and came to a few realizations... Not all batteries are created equal!!

Most of the batteries that we purchase are alkaline batteries and unfortunately there aren't many recycling options for these. Fortunately legislation was passed to rid these disposable batteries of mercury and other harmful materials which previously was leaching out of landfills. The trouble is billions of the batteries are purchased by Americans every year and there are being used once and then discarded.

What can I do (or should I do) you may ask. Well think about using a rechargeable battery when possible. Yes, they do cost more money upfront but, you get many more uses out of them so the payback period is short. It would cost a ridiculous amount to operate my digital camera for instance if I kept putting disposable batteries in it. Additionally the main types of rechargeable batteries can be recycled at many easily accessible locations. So really it can be a win-win decision to buy rechargeable batteries for many of your devices.

We use A LOT of batteries in our DPS science kits too, Elecrticity and Magnetism uses 60 batteries per kit!  That adds up pretty fast when you are sending out 14-20 kits every rotation! 

As for how batteries work, here is a link to some great information. And, for those that are really curious and want to do some hands on experiments with making a battery or electrical energy source out of household items, the SERC has a Science in a Suitcase kit that will allow you to do just that!  

Citizen Science: 2009 Year of Science (YoS)

YAY! YoS, finally a whole year dedicated to learning, teaching, communicating and discovering more about science!  I am very excited about 2009:)

To many teachers and parents science can be a little bit over whelming and understandably so...but if you break it down to the fundamentals, it is pretty easy to develop a child's curiosity and desire to investigate and learn more about science.  

The scienctists behind YoS have set out to make science easy and fun to communicate to one another. They have broken science down into 12 topics, one per month, then into grade groups, giving examples of activites, images, teacher resources and assesment tools...these folks have really covered their bases!  

January's topic is : Process and Nature of Science; Communicating Science.  The title sounds a bit long and once again over whelming....but use this flow chart to help you discuss science with your kids.  Start by asking them what they want to learn about (science related), read them stories about that topic and about the scientists involved.  Ask them questions to get their wheels spining, try to re-create the experiment or do an activity that goes along with their topic.  

You can rent a Science in a Suitcase kit that includes activities and materials already prepped and gathered, our Schoolyard Science kit  would be GREAT for understanding the nature of science & communicating science!!  If you would like to set up an appointment to come in and see the resource center, email me at kristenw@ncmls.org.  

I will be back to talk about Febuary's topic:  Evolution.  If you have any Evolution activities that you would like to share, please do so! 

Kit Tidbit:Getting ready for a DPS kit rotation!

The resource center has so many functions! We are here for our own employees, our members, teachers, home schoolers and parents. We also work with Durham Public Schools (DPS) to supplement their science curriculum. The students get a chance to get down and dirty with science!!!

This is going to be a super quick overview of DPS's Science Initiative...I know you're excited :) The program works with Kindergarten through 6th grade. There are 4 kit topics per grade level, all are designed to target the NC Standard Course of Study. We (The Museum) help DPS by refurbishing all of these kits. The schools receive them on a rotational basis, and they will get all 4 kit titles each year. Every kit is unique, with everything needed for all the experiments from pencils and paper down to the gravel and animal cards!

One kit in every grade receives a title that is animal focused. This means that it comes with an animal card; which means when the teacher receives the kit, she will order his/her animals for that kit. They will come to him/her in the mail. These science kits are really cool and there's no better way to learn than to actually use your hands and do it!

So, we are getting ready for our third rotation this year, we have about 3 weeks to refurbish
A LOT of kits! We are making labels, counting supplies, shopping and getting mentally prepared to do this! It's a lot of work, but it is such an awesome program and that makes it totally worth it!

(This picture is of the first grade Solids and Liquids kit!)