Events Calendar August 1-2 Moon near Saturn and Antares August 7 Full Sturgeon Moon (and partial lunar eclipse that is not visible in our part of the world) August 10-13 Perseid Meteor Showers August 17-18 Moon near Venus August 21 SOLAR ECLIPSE!!!!!!!!! August 24 11:50 a.m. Vandenberg Space Launch of Falcon 9 Rocket Science at Charter Thank you to Charter parent, Brian Emery, for sharing the link to this video. It shows an interesting blend of art and science. An artist and scientist collaborate to make homemade lava flows. Brian writes "My kids claimed to not enjoy it but while it was on they were riveted." https://eos.org/articles/homemade-lava-flows-fuse-science-with-art-on-video If you have anything science related to share please email me at [email protected] The Night Sky This Month This month has some amazing astronomical events including the Perseid Meteor Showers on the weekend of August 12 and 13 (see tips for viewing the Perseids here) and THE GREAT AMERICAN SOLAR ECLIPSE ON MONDAY AUGUST 21!!!! This is the first total solar eclipse visible in the United States since 1979. If you are lucky enough to travel to the places in the United States that are in the path of totality you will be able to see the sky get dark and the stars become visible!!! Unfortunately we in Santa Barbara will not be in the path of the total solar eclipse but we will be able to see about 62% of the sun covered by the moon. This will cause enough darkening to affect the electricity produced by solar panels (Loss of 5,611 megawatts expected during eclipse). It is also fabulous to view with solar glasses or a pinhole viewer. The eclipse will start around 9:06 a.m. reach maximum eclipse by 10:21 a.m. and ends at 11:45 a.m. The Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History has a list of talks and events about the eclipse here: SB Natural History Museum Resources and Presentations on the Eclipse and will broadcast the eclipse live online at https://www.facebook.com/sbmnh/ on August 21 from 10:00AM- 10:30AM. Don't miss it. The next total solar eclipse viewable in the United States won't be until 2024. If you would like to learn more about the solar eclipse you can view the NSTA (National Science Teachers Association) special report on eclipses at http://static.nsta.org/extras/solarscience/SolarScienceInsert.pdf Or Earthsky.org has plenty of information about the eclipse. http://earthsky.org/astronomy-essentials/total-eclipse-of-sun-august-21-2017 Please remind your child never to look directly at the sun even during an eclipse. Either use official solar viewing glasses or you can make a pinhole viewer as described here: https://www.nationalgeographic.org/activity/build-a-solar-eclipse-viewer/ Or for a cheap and easy way to view the eclipse requiring no equipment - overlap your fingers to make a grid and view the shadow created by your hands as described here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GSHxInLDVDw Try This at Home In preparation for this month's Great American Solar Eclipse try some experiments that relate to the energy we get from the sun. Younger kids can try finding out what melts in the sun. frugalfun4boys.com/2015/06/11/simple-science-experiment-for-kids-what-melts-in-the-sun/ Older kids could build a solar oven from a pizza box. www.homesciencetools.com/a/build-a-solar-oven-project In The News
Flatworm returns from space with two heads!! NASA scientists sent some cut up flatworms into space and some of them came back with two heads - one on each side of its body. Though flatworms have long been known to regenerate despite being cut into pieces - this type of rare regeneration was unexpected. If flatworms (Planaria) fascinate your child you can order them here and raise them. This could make for an interesting science fair experiment.
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Leise Thomason-BA Biology Brown University Categories |