Tuesday, 17 November 2015
Monday, 26 October 2015
Friday, 17 April 2015
Beekeeping in Gisborne
Every month at the moment I am flying to Gisborne to work on a project with some beekeepers. They are worried that some plants are being sprayed with chemicals (insecticides) which are killing their bees. This doesn't happen immediately but seems to make the bees sick for a while first.
This is my science team. When scientists try and solve a problem, they find it easier to work with other people rather than just working by themselves. This lets them bounce ideas off each other. They are very good at brainstorming lots of ideas, some sensible and some crazy. They are also really good at sorting through the ideas and guessing which ones might work. They talk about why they think a thing might or might not work and let everyone share their ideas. They don't get annoyed when someone disagrees, they just ask them to explain their thinking.
Really, it's not too different to being at school in SOLE.
This is my science team. When scientists try and solve a problem, they find it easier to work with other people rather than just working by themselves. This lets them bounce ideas off each other. They are very good at brainstorming lots of ideas, some sensible and some crazy. They are also really good at sorting through the ideas and guessing which ones might work. They talk about why they think a thing might or might not work and let everyone share their ideas. They don't get annoyed when someone disagrees, they just ask them to explain their thinking.
Really, it's not too different to being at school in SOLE.
Monday, 16 March 2015
A tour through the university physics department.
What is physics?
It is a type of science that looks at forces and interactions.
The physics4kids website tells us that "everything in the universe has an effect on every other thing. Physicists study those effects.
Physics is a science that relates to all other sciences: Chemistry, Biology, Geology, Astronomy, Meteorology and Engineering.
Everything on Earth, everything in the solar system, the galaxy and the universe moves and interacts and forces play a big part in that.
Motion, heat, electricity and light are all studied by physicists.
You can measure sound waves using an oscilloscope.
When you spin the wheel there are forces which act on it to get it moving or to change its movement. What do you think these forces might be?
There is a swing in the physics lab. The scientists look at the way it moves when you are swinging. They look to see if there are any patterns.
Take a look at the video clip on work from NASA.
http://www.physics4kids.com/
It is a type of science that looks at forces and interactions.
The physics4kids website tells us that "everything in the universe has an effect on every other thing. Physicists study those effects.
Physics is a science that relates to all other sciences: Chemistry, Biology, Geology, Astronomy, Meteorology and Engineering.
Everything on Earth, everything in the solar system, the galaxy and the universe moves and interacts and forces play a big part in that.
Motion, heat, electricity and light are all studied by physicists.
Take a look at the video clip on work from NASA.
http://www.physics4kids.com/
Wednesday, 18 February 2015
Science Teaching Leadership Programme
For the first two terms of this year I will be based at Victoria University in the School of Biological Sciences. Yes, that's right, I am going back to school. I am going to be learning all about social insects.
What do you think social insects are?
Well, they are social, meaning they live in groups and work together. Bees, wasps and ants are all social insects.
What do you think social insects are?
Well, they are social, meaning they live in groups and work together. Bees, wasps and ants are all social insects.
Tuesday, 17 February 2015
Honey Bees
Over the last few weeks I have been doing lots of reading about honey bees. As you all know, I think honey bees are pretty wonderful. They live in communities where there is a queen, who is a girl. Her job is to lay eggs and grow the colony. She is much bigger than all of the other bees.
The worker bees are girls and are all the queen's daughters. They do all the jobs in the colony. They feed the queen and the drone bees, they gather the nectar and pollen from the flowers, clean the hive, build the beeswax where the honey and pollen are stored and where the baby bees grow, look after the babies (nurse bees) and protect the hive (guard bees).
The other type of bees are the boys and they are all the sons of the queen. They are called drone bees because of the low pitch of noise they make when they fly. The boys do not do any work in the hive, they do not even feed themselves, the worker bees do that for them. The boys only job is to mate with a queen bee from another hive and be the father of a new hive of bees.
Because bees live in communities, they are called social insects. Ants, wasps and termites are other kinds of social insects.
The bees live in a hive which can either be something found in nature, maybe a tree stump, or a man-made hive. Last summer a swarm of bees flew to the Hemming's house in Raukawa Street. They have made their home in a tree stump.
Mr Hemming had covered the stump with a piece of wood and the bees built beautiful honeycombs inside. On Sunday, we had a look and there was lots of honey. You can see me holding a big piece of honeycomb in my hand.
Why do you think I was wearing a hood with a face mask and gloves?
I bet you can answer that.
Mrs C
Queen Bee, Photo: Wikipedia, /Creative Commons
The worker bees are girls and are all the queen's daughters. They do all the jobs in the colony. They feed the queen and the drone bees, they gather the nectar and pollen from the flowers, clean the hive, build the beeswax where the honey and pollen are stored and where the baby bees grow, look after the babies (nurse bees) and protect the hive (guard bees).
The other type of bees are the boys and they are all the sons of the queen. They are called drone bees because of the low pitch of noise they make when they fly. The boys do not do any work in the hive, they do not even feed themselves, the worker bees do that for them. The boys only job is to mate with a queen bee from another hive and be the father of a new hive of bees.
Drone Bee Photo: Heather Callaghan / Creative Commons
Because bees live in communities, they are called social insects. Ants, wasps and termites are other kinds of social insects.
The bees live in a hive which can either be something found in nature, maybe a tree stump, or a man-made hive. Last summer a swarm of bees flew to the Hemming's house in Raukawa Street. They have made their home in a tree stump.
Mr Hemming had covered the stump with a piece of wood and the bees built beautiful honeycombs inside. On Sunday, we had a look and there was lots of honey. You can see me holding a big piece of honeycomb in my hand.
Why do you think I was wearing a hood with a face mask and gloves?
I bet you can answer that.
Mrs C
Friday, 13 February 2015
My New Room Mates
I am sharing a room with some wonderful people here at Victoria University and I also have a couple of other room-mates, Falcor and Errol.
This is Falcor. He is an axolotl. He is the youngest of the two axolotls and he has his own tank. There are two reasons for this:
Firstly, we don't know if he is a boy or a girl.
Secondly, he and Errol might fight each other.
Do any of you have an axolotl as a pet? Do you know very much about them?
They are amphibians. (Check that out in a dictionary)
They come from Mexico.
They are very endangered in Mexico.
They can do some pretty amazing stuff. They can regrow their body part if something happens to them. Imagine if you could regrow an arm if you had an accident and were badly hurt. Do you think that this ability makes them an interesting animal for scientists to study?
http://kids.nationalgeographic.com/content/kids/en_US/animals/mexican-axolotl/
http://www.kidsbiology.com/animals-for-children.php?animal=Axolotl
http://seaworld.org/animal-info/animal-bytes/amphibians/axolotl/
This is Falcor. He is an axolotl. He is the youngest of the two axolotls and he has his own tank. There are two reasons for this:
Firstly, we don't know if he is a boy or a girl.
Secondly, he and Errol might fight each other.
Do any of you have an axolotl as a pet? Do you know very much about them?
They are amphibians. (Check that out in a dictionary)
They come from Mexico.
They are very endangered in Mexico.
They can do some pretty amazing stuff. They can regrow their body part if something happens to them. Imagine if you could regrow an arm if you had an accident and were badly hurt. Do you think that this ability makes them an interesting animal for scientists to study?
http://kids.nationalgeographic.com/content/kids/en_US/animals/mexican-axolotl/
http://www.kidsbiology.com/animals-for-children.php?animal=Axolotl
http://seaworld.org/animal-info/animal-bytes/amphibians/axolotl/
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