21 Feb	International Mother Language Day link
21 Feb	Café Scientifique, Tauranga 7pm on Our Big Blue Back Yard. Must register
23 Feb 1954	First mass inoculation of children against polio with the Salk vaccine (Pittsburgh)
25 Feb	Science is Cool 8 – online conference. Info here
25 Feb	online 5-week course The Physical World in primary school. Starts today 4-5:30pm
27 Feb 1932	The neutron is discovered by James Chadwick.
1-31 Mar	Melanoma March www.melanoma.org.nz/news-events/recent-news
1-31 Mar	Hearing Awareness Month https://www.nfd.org.nz/hearing-awareness-month2020
1-31 Mar	Whio Awareness month https://www.doc.govt.nz/whioforever
3 Mar	World wildlife Day http://wildlifeday.org/
3 Mar	World Hearing Day
5-13 Mar	Sea week. http://seaweek.org.nz/
Moon	3Q Feb 24    NM Mar 3    1Q Mar 10    FM Mar 18

1. A webinar on marine megafauna for Seaweek, 7pm Thurs, 24 Feb. Info on Facebook. Register here

Info

1. Culturally Responsive & Relational Pedagogy:
   • Te Reo Puāwai Maori and Te Reo Manahua Māori online programmes for learning te reo Māori. $345 + GST each.
2. Mātauranga Māori
   • New Science Learning Hub resource – a #mātaurangaMāori story about food preservation and/or seaweed, Pōhā – rokiroki kai: https://bit.ly/3I8YQeV
   • Buy mātauranga Māori units developed with teachers https://tepunareomaori.co.nz/reo-rangatahi/
3. Pedagogy:
   • Supporting students with special educational needs https://www.stem.org.uk/news-and-views/news/support-pupils-with-send
4. Professional reading/watching:
   • Set 2021: no.3 has several articles of interest to science teachers https://www.nzcer.org.nz/nzcerpress/set/set-2021-no-3
5. Student opportunities:
   • BLAKE Inspire is an all-expenses-paid, week-long environmental leadership programme for yr 11-13 students. Apply by 20 Feb.
6. Science Careers:
   • A video on What is engineering and info on different types of engineers and activities that use an engineering design process. [It’s National Engineers week in US]
7. Digital support:
   • LEARNZ virtual field trips for this term that may be relevant for science:
     • Te Tapa whenua / Naming the land : a focus on Mt Cook – from 23 Feb
     • Kohunga Kutai: finding a replacement for plastics in mussel farming – from 7 Mar
     • Our Changing Climate: a focus on the Rakaia awa – from 28 Mar
   • For those now remote teaching,here is last year’s red cross parcel https://www.mikesnews.co.nz/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/Red-Cross-Parcel-2021.docx and this year’s https://www.mikesnews.co.nz/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/Red-Cross-Parcel-2022.docx
   • For those new to teaching students at home, and to help old hands build their repertoire, does anyone have science lessons that they are prepared to share?

Resources

1. Biology:
   • Owls, mice, shrubs is a predator-prey game that collects data https://www.neefusa.org/education/environmental-education-group-games-activities
   • Video How Wolves Change a River looks at complex system – the effects of a predator on an ecosystem. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ysa5OBhXz-Q
2. Earth & Space Science:
   • An article on the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram with a useful colour image
   • A 3D animation of ocean currents https://divediscover.whoi.edu/deep-ocean-circulation/circulation-videos/
   • Misconceptions about deep time https://ncse.ngo/deep-time-really-really-deep-man
3.  Chemistry:
   • Cosmos article on ice-cream chemistry https://cosmosmagazine.com/science/chemistry/science-of-ice-cream
   • Teaching log scale with respect to pH https://about.dataclassroom.com/ready-to-teach/how-does-a-log-scale-work
4. Physics:
   • As renewable energy will be unable to fulfill global needs for the foreseeable future, this activity asks pupils which alternative source might plug this gap.
   • Article on the history of radio astronomy https://www.sciencenews.org/article/radio-astronomy-history-cosmos-black-hole-planet-universe
5. Primary & intermediate:
   • Article about how the asteroid belt was formed https://education.australiascience.tv/how-was-the-asteroid-belt-formed
   • Use your knowledge of food chains to solve the mystery of why krill are disappearing. An activity for Yr 7 students. https://education.australiascience.tv/aad-whos-eating-who-an-antarctic-murder-mystery
6. Nature of Science:
   • Science capability activities for years 7-8: https://www.mikesnews.co.nz/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/Some-Science-Capability-activities-for-yr7n8.docx
7.  EfS:
   • an activity making an infographic about climate change https://www.earthproject.org/boosters/visualizing_data_to_take_climate_action
   • Interested in getting involved in cleaning up a local beach and adding to citizen science surveys? https://litterintelligence.org/action/
8.  Science:
   • A series of articles on analysing blood stain patterns https://science.howstuffworks.com/bloodstain-pattern-analysis.htm
   • Science Learning Hub activity make ice cream

Help Offered

1. Auckland Grammar School has over 200 Cambridge AS & A Level Chemistry coursebooks in good condition, $5 each. Pick up from AGS. Contact Sunit s.keshwara@ags.school.nz

Professional Learning & Development (PLD) Opportunities

1. The American Meteorological Society is offering 2 teacher PD workshops. Both have pre- & post- online learning modules as well as learning face-to-face. Apply by 25 March.
   • Project Atmosphere Jul 24-29, National Weather Service TC in Kansas City, Missouri.
   • Project Ocean July 17-23, Washington College in Chestertown, Maryland.
2. Science Learning Hub’s webinar on Local curriculum, mātauranga and science features Shawn Cooper,  3 March, 4:00–4:45 pm. Register here
3. Cosmic Pursuits offers Fundamentals of Stargazing, an online course for those in the northern AND southern hemispheres. Easy to understand basics, detailed sky tours, how to choose the best tools, as well as an expert to answer your questions. USD $197, til 6 March.

Technicians

1. A helpful video on minor microscope repairs. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cs0vVFCIFNc
2. Beware this statement in the new Health & Safety in Science documentation  “Synthetic fingernails are not recommended in the laboratory; they are made of extremely flammable polymers that can burn to completion and are not easily extinguished.”

Cheers, Mike

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