In our first science club session of the year at the Jean Rivard branch, we explored the world of attraction. We saw the affects of soap, magnets, and static electricity. We learned how to separate salt from pepper, and nickels from pennies without touching them, and we discovered some pretty interesting things about cornstarch.
Can you guess how we removed the pepper?
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Our science clubs are starting up again.
We have the following science groups:
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Have you ever seen a real live owl?
We had two owls and a falcon in the Jean Rivard branch of the library on October 22nd, and we learned quite a bit about owls. We invited the Ecomuseum to come teach us about owls and they sent Jenny to come and show us some owls and tell us about them. She showed us feathers from different birds and demonstrated how quiet owl feathers are.
The feathers of an owl are flexible and very quiet.
An owl's wing is large and soft.
She also shows us a claw from an owl. The parts that she showed us were from animals that had died. The Ecomuseum does not kill animals or buy animals. They keep injured animals and orphaned animals, animals that can not live in the wild.
See how sharp the owl's claw is!
The feathers and claw make the owls good hunters. What else do they need to be good hunter’s?
They need good vision! Owls have excellent vision and can see a mouse from 6 kilometers away! Their eyes are large and take up a lot of room in their head. Because their eyes are so large, they can not move them as we can. However they have an incredible ability to twist their entire head!
Falcons also are smaller birds of prey with eyes that very large in relation to their heads. Jenny showed us the skull of a falcon.
Note how large the openings for the eyes are!
If you would like to see some pictures of the live birds, check our our Jean Rivard branch blog.
Posted in 2010 | Tagged owls | 1 Comment »
This year in Science at the Jean-Rivard branch, we’ve been keeping busy with a variety of activities and experiments. We’ve explored everything from nature, the human body and chemistry to energy, physics and much, much more. Here is a sampling of some of the activities we have done.
One of the the highlights this past May was when we studied volcanoes. With the help of YouTube, we looked at clips of volcanic eruptions that showed not only how big and powerful volcanoes can be, but also their captivating beauty. The young scientists were very fascinated and curious. After looking at real volcanoes on the Internet, we made our very own volcanoes and made them erupt using a simple chemical reaction. Using flour, we made a dough to create the volcano itself. Next, for the eruption, we mixed water, a few drops of dish washing liquid, red food colouring, baking soda, and finally vinegar. It was exciting, as well as fun to see our volcanoes erupt and spew « volcanic ash and lava ».
Earlier this spring, we also explored the beautiful world of flowers. We learned the names of different types of flowers and the importance of pollinators like bees and butterflies for spreading flower seeds. After watching a short film on bees, the young scientists were fascinated by these complex, social creatures. After understanding the importance of pollination and flowers themselves, we planted our very own flowers! We planted pansies as shown in the picture above. A few weeks later, the scientists took the flowers home for Mother’s Day!
Keep an eye out on this blog for more science activities at the library throughout the summer!
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Our science program has undergone some changes. Check out the blogs for each branch to see what we have been up to!
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Our special guest in Science club for the month of November was Anthony Howell from McGill. He talked about what makes man different from other animals and showed the children how to make their own fossils.
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Microbe Twister
This month for a special Green Team feature we learned about the 6 different kinds of microbes thanks to the people at the Armand-Frappier Museum. For review the children played twister!
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For the month of October we invited the Granby Zoo to come visit and teach us about bats and spiders. We learned a lot!
Here are some pictures from the visit to our Jean Rivard branch.
Can you identify the following items?
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History of Science was presented by Bruno Paul Stenson on Sept 25 09.
Science is everywhere in mathematics, construction, astronomy, agriculture, and medicine. Where would we be without science ? We need medicine to cure us, science in agriculture to make food and income, mathematics to help construct buildings. Science is what we all depend on but pay little attention to it. Thanks to Bruno Paul Stenson the kids have a better grip on science and understanding it.
Science in mathematical problems (geometry) has helped us in the past and present to make wonderful constructions of buildings such as Roman empires and Egyptian pyramids. Did you know the Arabs invented the number zero ?
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A frog ready to eat.
On Sept 22 09 the Jean Rivard Branch had a special science presentation hosted by Brandon Ballengée. The theme of this presentation was amphibian conservation. There were all sorts of creatures Brandon brought to our library frogs, toads, leeches, a newt, salamanders, and a snake. The kids loved the slide show and asked many questions and even got to touch many of the amphibians. The staff of Jean Rivard are excited to have another science presentation coming up on the 25th of September, come check it out with us.
Look at the Goliath Frog!
Posted in Amphibians, Autumn 2009 | Tagged frogs, leeches, newts, salamenders, snakes, toads | Leave a Comment »
