The H.R. McMillan Space Centre! by Sophia and Eleanor

Astronaut Sophia!

Sophia here. Last week we went on a field trip to the planetarium.  We watched a science show about extreme environments, because space is an extreme environment. I thought it was really interesting that scientists are studying extreme environments here on earth, because some extreme environments on earth are very like environments you can find in space. If scientists can find living creatures in extreme environments here on earth, they may be able to find similar living creatures in space as well. We learned about scientists testing buggies on deserts here on earth before the buggies are taken on missions to Mars. I thought this was very clever.  I know that sometimes astronauts are trained to use space suits and space ships in great big pools, because the feeling of being underwater is much like the feeling of having less gravity in space.

Even before I went to the planetarium, I had read about sub-glacial lakes in Antarctica. When we watched the Extreme Environments show, they mentioned a lake called Lake Vostok. I remembered reading about frozen lakes in a science magazine that I like. The reason why sub-glacial lakes were in a planetarium science show about space, was that scientists have found similar looking sheets of ice on Jupiter and it's moons, specifically an ice moon, called Europa, which we also learned about in the Solar System show we saw.

Tomorrowland over the moon and out!

This me, Eleanor, making myself an alien encounter. Choosing my planet, and the size and temperature of my planet, and also if it has more water or land. All those things make a huge difference as to what the creature would look like on the planet. I usually like to have a medium or large planet with more water and hot temperature.

Now this is what I would look like if I had an alien encounter! It is a picture of my face changed to look like a creature on the planet I created. My planet was hot, with mostly water an a large planet.

(Eleanor) We went to see a space science show called "Surfing the Solar System" and it was super duper fun. It was in a big black dome with a whole bunch of seats in it. We would lay back in the seats and we would go all around space. We went to one of Saturn's moons, called "Pan", and also we looked at the "shepherd moons" that keep Saturn's rings in place with their gravitational pull, and saw all around the solar system. We I am amazed how many solar systems there are in the universe. There was a map of how many there are, and it blew my mind crazily. Pluto is also still a planet, it is just a dwarf planet. 

We also got a special Grade 3 science bonus - we went to look at the Solar System and got a whole private show about Rockets (except for this one other guy wearing a red shirt with curly hair) and learned a whole bunch about gravitational pull and forces!

The show about Rockets was amazing. We learned about Newton's three laws of motion, and I got to shoot a cannon at Sophia! The reason we shot a cannon was to test the difference between how far a light ball and a heavy ball could go. Almost everyone guessed the light ball would go further than the heavy ball. And it did go further than the heavy ball!

Here I am in a NASA space suit! Tip to astronauts: never toot in your own suit!

This is a station where you can learn what it feels like to be in space. In space your sense of up and down gets all mixed up, so this was a simulator that showed you how it felt to get all mixed up!

More Random Science Fun! By Sophia and Eleanor

This term we went to the SFU Science Fair. They were making liquid nitrogen ice cream and also some fun buttons. There were lots of different exhibits about this kind of science, that kind of science, every kind of science!

The POWER OF MAGNETS they aligned atoms!

Sophia was making electricity by pedaling this bike.

Nori does a probability experiment.

Here we are look at a van de Graaff generator. More electricity fun!

Here is Eleanor sitting on a tractor at the Birchwood Dairy farms. There were cows there. Or as they say in Latin taxonomy terms, Bos taurus. Fun fact: every Holstein cow has a spot pattern on it as unique as a fingerprint.

Farmer Eleanor

Us looking at the calves in the maternity calf barn.

Us looking at a bunch of water flooding a cow pen. There was a lot of sewage!

Eleanor makes a sundial!

And Eleanor had a really good time learning about structures and forces with her roller coaster science book.

Eleanor's Grow Your Garden Brownie Badge and Earth Science!

Helllo, it is I, and I am back again, and again, and I am sure I will be back again - good thing you guys like me, and if you don't like me , then stinky that!

Well, now time to get on to my Brownie badge. I had to identify 3 gardening tools and learn how to use them. 

This is the first tool, a small shovel called a trowel. You use it for hand digging, in a garden when you are planting small flowers, peas, seeds or bulbs - stuff like that. Or if you want to, you can pretend to do something dangerous, like I am pretending to do here, to Amy. Oh, this is my neighbour Amy. SHE IS SO CUTE!

This is a gardening fork. You use it to poke little holes in the ground when you are planting seeds. Like tomato seeds , oregano seeds, maybe some basil or bell pepper seeds. (That would be a good Greek salad!)

That is a bush snipper. You may use it to snip a rose bush, or a tree - if you wanted to trim a really baby tree and you didn't want to be growing somewhere you can take the bush snipper and go SNIP!

This is a rake. You rake with it.

This is a bulb which we planted, the bulbs have already bloomed into flowers before we got a picture, and now, they're sort of dead. But we had daff-a-down-dillys (that's what they call daffodils in The Secret Garden) and tulips this year, which grow from bulbs.

And now I'm re-planting the bulbs so they can grow again next year and my mother can exclaim, "oh, they are so beautiful!"

Now we are planting little wildflower seeds. I hope they grow. We planted them all over.

Here I am learning how to do safety clipper things. You have to close the clippers so someone doesn't get hurt accidentally. 

This is us watering the plants after we planted the seeds.

This is me showing rake safety. This is a yes-yes.

This is a no-no.

And this is why.

It would very muchly hurt!

This is Amy showing rake safety.

This is terrarium that I built and I planted seeds in it.

These are the holes that I punched in the bottom so then if I put in too much water, it could go out.

In Grade 3, I am also learning abut erosion, plants, rocks, soil and all that good stuff. Erosion is when either sand, or water, or wind, rub or blow on something and change it's shape by rubbing off the rock over time. For example, Let's say you have a big rock in the middle of the Gobe desert. And then, a big windstorm comes up and blows a whole bunch of sand against the rock. Let's say it was a 5-year-long windstorm (which is unrealistic) but, this is an example, so anything can happen. And then a camel, riding in the windstorm, pulls out a popsicle and gives it to a tiny baby who was suffering in the windstorm - look I told you anything could happen! But seriously, things can really, really wear down over time.

This is my Granny, the best Granny in the world, teaching me all about it.

This is a huge wood sort of waterfall. It is in Goldstream Provincial park in Victoria, BC. It is called Goldstream Park because during the gold rush in BC miners first found there. And BINGO! they got gold. But not a lot.

My Mum thought it was a rock, but I knew it was wood. We were trying to debate if it was a rock, wood, an old tree fallen over or someone suggested maybe it was an old bridge fallen down. I saw this, and I was thinking, "Oh, this has to be erosion!" because the water moving against it for so long had worn it down.

This is the end. Thank you for listening. And I'll be BACK.

A "POWER"ful Field Trip by Sophia, Eleanor and Miranda

 Two weeks ago we (Sophia, Eleanor and Miranda) went to the Stave Lake Visitors Centre (SLVC). The SLVC is the place where we can learn about BC Hydro and the dam and the power that is made there. This power goes into our homes and powers our lives, like this computer we're writing this report on and like the computer you're probably reading this on!

We loved this field trip because of our time outdoors. We went to Hopcott's the best place ever, and we got stuff to have an amazing picnic with, including macaroons and pate and goat cheese. It was a beautiful day and we liked the field trip and the picnic.

At the SLVC, one of our favourite things was the Electrica room, a room with lots of exhibits about electricity and places it comes from. One exhibit we liked there taught us what NOT to do at downed power line. 

You have to keep your feet on the ground and shuffle if you ever are at a downed power line, and this is because if you take a full step the electrons go up one leg and travel through your whole body and make your whole body an electric circuit and you will be electrocuted!

Miranda: There were lots of exhibits about renewable resources. Renewable resources are resources that can used again, like wind power, solar power, geothermal power and hydro power. Hydro is using water, and that is the kind of dam we went to, where the movement of water creates energy which is turned into power.

One of my favourite exhibits was a machine that shows how energy sparks work. When you pull back two balls and let go of them, it shoots energy through a line of balls and the energy goes through to the last ball and the last ball hits a switch that turns on a light. This shows how potential energy turns into kinetic energy!

Sophia: I liked learning about Nikola Tesla and how he wanted to make free energy.  

The Story of Nikola Tesla

Once upon a time when light bulbs weren't very popular, there was a man named Nikola Tesla. He was trying to invent ways to use electricity. He had a couple of people who were giving money to help him do his experiments. They thought to themselves, "When he gets electricity, we'll make people pay for it AND GET A BUNCH OF MONEY!" Nikola believed he could harness energy from the earth and make free energy for everyone. When the people who were giving him money for experiments found out he wanted to give electricity away for free, they aid, "No way we're going give money for that, dude!" and they stopped giving money for experiments which is why we don't free electricity today.

The End

The picture above is a model of a Tesla coil we saw demonstrated when we were there. I think the tesla coil releases electrons though the air, and jumped on to the light bulbs, because the light bulbs lit up.

Eleanor: When I was at the SLVC I was focussing on STRUCTURES. One of my favourite structures there was a big, big, structure that looked like a waterslide. If you stacked three men on top of each other, that would be how tall and wide it is. They are called comstocks, they were used for taking the water from the lake and putting into the power station. 

Sophia: The water would come into the turbines, which look like huge water wheels, and they would send the turbines around, and the outer wall of the turbine would have magnetic lining and because of the magnetic lining, the electrons would jump around all thingy wingy all over the place and make ELECTRICITY! This is an awesome example of how potential energy turns into kinetic energy.

We learned about the history of building the dam, and that there was a whole town that was built when they built the dam. Only men would work on building the dam, but because the dam was being built in the middle of nowhere, they made a whole town for the men and their families, and they tried to make it as friendly as possible. There was no alcohol allowed, they made a bank, a church and a school, there were shops, and the world's shortest railroad - like a skytrain - between the dam and the town.

People thought electricity was scary when it was first invented - like witchcraft! We love how on this old ad it says "Safe! Children can turn the switch!"

It was really cool getting to go to the SLVC. We sure gained some "POWERful" knowledge! 

Thanks for reading, and see you on Tuesday for bowling. Cara, bring me my mangoes!

Eleanor Studies Ocean Plants by Eleanor

Hello, this is Eleanor Pallister again, in a new year. I am quite excited to be seeing you again. Right now, we are talking about the sea, and plants under there, and other great things in the water. 

Have you ever heard of algae? (Pronounced AL-gee.) Have you ever heard of baleen? Have you ever heard of krill? I can tell you all about them. But why don't you watch this video up here to give you a start?

Now that you've watched the video, you may have heard me talk about phytoplankton. Phytoplankton, means "plant drifter" Phytoplankton produce a large amount of oxygen, for creatures in the ocean AND creatures on land. But it's not like you could just walk up to some ocean water, scoop it up, take a whiff, and have unlimited amounts of air forever. The phytoplankton would eventually die.

Plankton are quite, quite tiny, and you can only see them with a very fine microscope. If you do have a very fine microscope on hand, take a dropper, drop some of the ocean water on to a the top of a microscope slide and then take a look. You will probably be able to see very small sort of creature thing eating each other. it's very interesting.

Now away from plankton. Let's talk about baleen. (Pronounced BAY-leen.) Now, first of before we get into what baleen is, whales don't have teeth, instead they have baleen, which is sort of like a strainer - you know, how when you strain macaroni? Baleen acts like a strainer for whales, they use baleen like teeth, they don't chomp down, like us, instead they strain the ocean water with their baleen and get tiny animals like krill, and things.

Now, time for krill. Krill are these little tiny animals which are very important to sea life. Without krill, a  lot of the food web would not be there, like whales and fish and many other things which I will not mention because there are too many. Krill are very tiny, I'm not quite of the size, but make an estimate in your head.

And now you know three things about tiny ocean life (except for the big whale part). Now you have a start off all about plants in the ocean. Please watch Bill Nye the Science Guy's video "Ocean Life" or visit your local aquarium to find out more. Thank you, I'll be here all week!

Touching sea cucumbers and starfish at the Aquarium

Helping animals