Exploring Changes in Matter

Science club this week provided an opportunity to explore changes in matter, we had two types of ice (salt ice and freshwater ice ) We talked about the temperature and how water is still water when it's frozen.... lots of fun was had as we tasted the ice...We also got to use the new thermometers and noticed the salt ice was a little colder than freshwater ice. The salt ice was -1 degrees and the freshwater ice was 0 degrees. 

Exploring Colours

At science club, the budding scientists got to explore colour by making a spinning wheel. 

Colour Mixing Wheel Instructions

Science Roadshow Fun

This year students were chosen by classroom teachers. Students who show an aptitude for science were invited to attend the roadshow. Some students wrote application letters.

This year the science roadshow programme focused on learning about temperature and combustion and the second show was about the characteristics of living things: humans, other animals and plants.

Tree planting at Mangemangeroa Reserve

The first day of winter was (uncharacteristically) gorgeous - sunny and calm, a perfect day for planting at the Mangemangeroa Reserve.  Eco-warriors from Cockle Bay, students from Howick College, Friends of Mangemangeroa, the Gecko Trust NZ, parents and Environmental Services from the Auckland Council all worked together to plant 250 grasses, flaxes and trees.  It is great to see such a sweeping collaboration and Citizen Science in action.  

One of our activities, facilitated by Cate Jessep, the sustainable school adviser from the Auckland Council, was to listen to the sounds of the reserve.  Intermingled in the traffic noise and overhead aeroplanes, was the melodic sounds of tui.  In the future, as our native plantings mature, they will encourage more native birds back into the area. 

If you look carefully, you can see the new plantings follow the fence line.

Fungal Foray 2018

“Where is Mrs Bear these days?” you might be asking yourselves. 

Mrs Bear is still working at Landcare Research – Manaaki Whenua as part of the Science teachers Leadership Programme.   Her latest big venture has been attending the New Zealand Fungal Foray 2018, held in Lake Brenner in the Southern Alps. Scientists from around the world meet to learn more about fungi, and to focus their search to a different location each year, in the hope of finding new species of mushrooms.

                 

Every morning, scientists (65 in all) set out in small groups to forage for fungi in different collection sites around Lake Brenner.  In the afternoon, everyone gathered to identify, examine and verify the finds of the day.  A pop up science lab was set up in the local community hall with banks of microscopes, driers, laptops, camera stations and tables to help with the ID process.  The evening was set aside for further discussion and analysis; there was even a (successful) night hunt for bioluminescent fungi, that glow in the dark.

You have to look closely to find some of the smaller mushrooms.

A tiny selection of some of the mushrooms found near Lake Brenner.