Science fairs

We didn't do science fairs at school when I was growing up in the UK. I think they're a cool idea - though the quality of the projects can be extremely variable. I would have been incredibly stressed if I'd had to do one, thinking that I had to come up with something original. Nowadays there are books and, of course, websites where you can get all kinds of ideas for your project. It seems rather like cheating to me to start by Googling "Science Fair project ideas", but having seen some of the same experiments year after year ("A comparison of the relative strengths of different brands of paper towels") I would guess science teachers and science fair judges welcome anything that seems a little more interesting.

Of course, there are also the kids whose parents do the entire project for them. I remember one that involved hamsters, light sensors, and a computer program that tracked which side of the cage the hamsters spent most of their time. At least the kid was honest enough to tell us that he didn't really understand how it worked because his dad had put it together! I'm sure a kid following the directions for a published science fair project would have learned more!

Google has now taken the science fair one step further and has set up a global science fair "looking for the brightest, best young scientists from around the world to submit interesting, creative projects that are relevant to the world today." The submissions must be in the form of a 2 minute video or 20 slide presentation and include the following elements:

1. About me/the Team: Initial introduction to the Entrant/Team and explanation of what winning would mean to them.
2. Project question: The scientific question about their hypothesis.
3. Hypothesis: Leading on from the question.
4. Research and Works cited: The research conducted to help them shape their question and hypothesis and to put their work into a relevant, real-world context.
5. Experiment: Demonstration, using good experimental techniques, including a detailed description of the experiment.
6. Data: Collected during the experiment to support a conclusion, recorded accurately and precisely, and presented clearly.
7. Observations: Description of the patterns or trends supported by the data.
8. Conclusion: An explanation of how the experiment answers the question or why it fails to do so and whether or not it supports the hypothesis.
9. Bibliography, References and Acknowledgements: References for sources of information that they have consulted and/or referenced and acknowledge any assistance received 

Wow! That's a lot to pack into 2 minutes! I do wonder how they are going to figure out which projects were really put together by the parents? There are some pretty cool prizes, like a trip to the Galapagos - my kids are too young, otherwise I might be tempted to push them to put an entry together ;-) If you're interested, you'd better get cracking as the application deadline is April 4th!

Helping in a practical way

The whole world has been shocked by the devastation wreaked by the earthquake and tsunami in Japan. A little girl I know has decided she wants to help in a practical way.

 Can you help too?

ShelterBox's HQ is in Cornwall in the UK. There are 18 international affiliates. Each box that they send out supplies an extended family of up to 10 people with a tent and lifesaving equipment to use while they are displaced or homeless.

It's a small world

I live in a small New England town - the kind of place where you have to be careful what you say about anyone because there are days when it seems like everyone knows everyone else. All kinds of people that you wouldn't think would know each other, do. They went to school together, or they are related by marriage, or they work(ed) together. It's actually one of the reasons I like living here. I wouldn't want to live in a city where, I'm told, people often don't even know who their neighbors are.

The world can be small like this New England town too.  I was once working at a school where we had an exchange teacher from Europe for a year. She had a friend from the UK come to visit, and somehow we figured out that the friend had been my parents' neighbor 30 years earlier when they were working in Turkey and I was a baby!

Last week, Danielle of brit abroad in USA and I figured out that not only did we grow up in the same corner of the UK, but in the same town and a few houses apart on the same street! Given the efforts most bloggers make to preserve their anonymity, it's really pretty amazing that our conversation got that far. Once we had made that connection, I am sure Danielle suddenly worried if I knew her older sister who has been so unpleasant to her. Fortunately, I don't - in fact, given that Danielle is younger than me, and her sister is older, I didn't know either of them when we lived on the same street.

It's a good lesson in how, although we may try to hide behind a blog name, in the end we are not as anonymous as we would like to think. We give things away about ourselves with every post. Some bloggers, in addition to using a pen name and being careful about what they say, choose not to make their email address public or use a special email address for their blog. DO NOT assume that your 'real' email address will stay private though. If you have associated it with your blog by having copies of comments sent to it rather than the one on your blog, you run the risk of having that email address exposed. I am assuming that if you have created an email address to go with your blog (as I have) then that's the one you would prefer the world of strangers out there to know.

In the last week, pretty much all the Blogger blogs I have posted on have 'bounced' my comments back to me. I say 'bounced' because that's the email message I got, even though my comment appeared just fine on the blog. I've been getting messages from blogger.bounces.google.com with the subject line Delivery Status Notification (Failure), and the message

Delivery to the following recipient failed permanently:

followed by the email address. In many cases, that address is NOT the email address that is posted publicly on the blogger's website, but one that is clearly a more personal one. (i.e. 'Smithfamily@isp.com' or 'yourname@placeofemployment.com' instead of 'bloggername@yahoo.com') So, if you want to keep that more personal email address private, don't have comments forwarded to it! Otherwise you may find the world becoming smaller than you would like as people figure out more about you than you had intended!

On the buses

I entered a giveaway on the Pond Parleys website at the beginning of the month for a set of pictures from Miniature Picture Cards and was delighted when I actually won! That's the third prize I've won online in the last six months out of five contests I've entered. If only I had that kind of success rate in buying lottery tickets!

The Miniature Picture Cards site is based in the US, but owned by an expat Brit, Roger Penycate who brought his business trading in miniature pictures and reproductions with him when he immigrated to the US in 2002. Roger has  large collection of cards portraying many different subjects, not all British. I said that if I won I would like a set of pictures of British buses. One of my grandfathers was a tram driver, and then a bus driver when the trams were replaced by buses, so although there are no Birkenhead Corporation buses in the selection Roger sent me, the set is still meaningful to me.

It's spring somewhere

That white stuff outside the window? 18" of snow and ice :-(  Thank you Trader Joe's - $3 was cheap for a little bit of spring!

Images of winter

Stop the snow! This is the end of our street. There's a road under there somewhere! (More snow forecast for Feb 21st - at least it's a holiday anyway, so we don't have to have a 'snow day' from school!)

Waiting for the bus. Climbing the snow pile is a necessity so the school bus driver knows you are there and doesn't drive on by . . .

My neighbor is not going gray. She walked her son to the school bus stop with damp hair and her hair froze!

 A sign of spring on its way - signups for Little League baseball have started! Summer camps are advertising too.

Got summer?

Shoveling snow off a school roof - why they put up so many buildings with flat roofs in the northeast of the US is beyond me!

Ice sculpture downtown

What else can I tell you about Britain?

Every year thousands of American students spend some time studying in the UK. Most are participating in exchange programs, but a select few are participating in elite programs such as the Rhodes Scholars program or the Marshall scholarships.

Dominick Chilcott, Deputy Head of Mission at the British Embassy, Washington said to Marshall scholars leaving the USA last fall to study in the UK:

“What else can I tell you about Britain? There is beautiful countryside to explore and places of historical interest on every corner. Even our food is winning plaudits these days. In comparison to the United States, we have (pretty) efficient public transport, and you won’t have to worry about health care. I am confident that if you can navigate the classic British characteristics of self-deprecation, ironic understatement, and traditional reserve you will form some lifelong friendships. And if you like soccer, public sector broadcasting, damp weather and warm beer, there really is nowhere better to be.”

Loooking at my blog stats . . .

. . . I noticed this entry for last night:

Maybe someone at the Department of Homeland Security was just bored at work on a Sunday evening? No returning visits (yet!) and they didn't stop around for long!

Happy Valentine's Day

Ice sculpture downtown this weekend

Not everyone in the world celebrates St Valentine's Day, although Hallmark is working hard at changing that. Despite the word Saint in its name, it's yet another holiday with pagan origins. I had heard the story of a man called Valentine who was put to death in Roman times, but didn't know some of the other details. Women lining up so that men can hit them, believing that would make them fertile?? I'll take the Hallmark version of the holiday, thank you very much!

Such a thoughtful child!

DS suggested this evening that we might like to celebrate Valentine's Day on Sunday because it's not a school day and we won't be so rushed in the morning. He shared with me that he is giving his sister $2 as a present, and is giving his father $5 "because sometimes you and Daddy are a little short of money." I've already got my present - a piece of artwork he did at school this week.

What's that beep?

There's nothing quite like being woken up by an insistent beeping, realizing it's not your alarm clock and then figuring out it is some kind of alarm. My first thought was that it was the carbon monoxide detector. We've had that go off a couple of times in the past - although that was at the last house where we had a wood stove. One time I arrived home from work and could hear the alarm going off before I even got in the house. I called DH at work, who said it was probably a malfunction and I should ignore it. Instead, I called the fire department who arrived promptly and headed into the house wearing their full respirator gear. They didn't come out until they had opened every window in the house and the basement hatchway - in the middle of January, mind you - because the carbon monoxide levels in the house were lethal, even on the top floor of the house!!

So when I realized it wasn't the alarm I was hearing, my first thought was that it was the carbon monoxide detector. I sent DH off to investigate. He returned looking confused and said it was the house alarm. Something electrical had tripped and thus set off the alarm. (The house alarm has a battery backup - when the power to the alarm goes off the battery backup kicks in and the alarm beeps until you unplug it or the power comes back on. Very annoying when the power goes off in a thunderstorm, which it often does.) Anyway, DH unplugged a few things and then tried resetting the breaker, but nothing seemed to work - every time he plugged the alarm system back in, it eventually started beeping again.

We had a feeling it probably had something to do with the ice dams on the roof, especially when mid-morning we found water pouring down the front of the house from the porch roof - water was clearly coming through the roof.

It wasn't until this evening that we finally figured out what had actually tripped the breaker. I wanted to take a photo for this blog of our Christmas lights, which are still on the bushes outside the front door because with all the snow and ice we haven't been able to remove them yet. DH had finally unplugged them this morning. I plugged them back in, but no matter how I fiddled with the timer they would not switch on. We unplugged them from the timer and plugged them directly into the outlet. Still no lights.

We think the voles that killed one of our trees last year by chewing off the bark all the way around have chewed their way through one of the wires for the lights. It will be some time before we are able to remove the lights from the bushes though to find out.

At least now that the lights are unplugged DH has been able to reset the breaker and the alarm is plugged back in! And if we make it through this winter with nothing damaged other than one set of Christmas lights, we'll be doing better than our next door neighbor who has over $1,000 worth of damage to his garage walls because of the ice dams on his garage roof.

2 to 4 more inches of snow forecast for tomorrow night.

Now where did that compost bin go?

Following up to the last post . . .

I went out to the compost bin yesterday.  I followed the path that DH had snowblowed across the lawn and into the woods.

Where I found this:

There are three compost bins under there somewhere. Yes, what's in the bins does stay frozen for much of the year, but we keep adding to it anyway. The currently 'active' bin is the one in the middle and I couldn't (be bothered to) get to it yesterday. I picked the one closest to me and cleared just enough snow to be able to open it. Amazingly, it wasn't frozen shut.

Serious about recycling

We try to be good about recycling as much as we can - we have several containers in the garage for paper, plastic glass and so on and most of the 'trash' that I take to the dump n a Saturday morning is actually recycling. The town requires it, we are perhaps more conscientious about it than many, everyone here is supposed to recycle. Recently they started a composting program, which they charge an additional fee for. You can take compostable food scraps to the dump and they use them to make  . . . compost. We haven't signed up for that program because we do our composting at home.

We have a shoebox-sized tupperware-type box on the kitchen counter and all the food scraps get put in there. (Not meat or stuff that is greasy - just things like fruit and vegetable peelings, coffee grounds and tea bags.) It usually takes about a week to fill the box, and then it gets dumped into the compost bin at the far end of the garden, just on the edge of the woods. It's not huge chore - though the children hate to do it because they are scared to go out to the compost bin by themselves in case there are bears around. We haven't seen any bears, or any evidence of them being around in a long time though. It can also be difficult in the winter to open the compost bin as the lid often freezes shut.

More of a problem this coming weekend, when the box will fill up again, was going to be the fact  that there is a layer of snow over three feet deep on the ground. So DH decided to make sure we could get to the compost bin. As usual, once the snow stopped, he had to clear a path from the front to the back of the house so that we can get heating oil delivered. (The oil guy will leave without delivering rather than trek through snow and we definitely don't want to run out!) He decided to keep going with the snow blower and headed all the way out to the compost bin and back around the house!

Raking the roof

One of the things my husband was hoping to avoid when we moved house was having to do too much raking in the fall. Our old house was surrounded by trees and the raking took forever. This house has plenty of trees close by, but because of the prevailing winds and a lack of fences or hedges, most of the leaves just blow away.

This year is the first year ever though that he has had to rake the roof! Not for leaves, obviously, but snow. Usually there's enough of a break between storms, and the temperatures are warm enough that the snow melts. This year the snow has been building up. Looking at our neighbor's house, I would guess they have 18 inches of snow on the roof right now. Getting the snow off the roof is important for two reasons. 1) If there's enough of it, it can actually cause the roof to collapse.  2) Heat from the house causes snow on the roof to melt. The snow and ice in the gutters does not melt as fast, so the water coming off the roof has nowhere to go and it can end up backing up under the shingles and into your house.

I was surprised to find that there is actually a blog that is about nothing but roof rakes! I have to say, having tried to use ours this afternoon, I'd rather rake leaves. For one thing, the weather's usually a lot pleasanter when I'm out raking leaves!

Six Nations

Six Nations rugby is coming to BBC America again this year :-) Hmm - it conflicts with DS's basketball . . . What to do, what to do? (And no, we don't have a DVR!)

I have to say, BBC America's Trivia Quiz on rugby is a bit pathetic. The correct answers are blindingly obvious, even if you know nothing about rugby. I suspect the goal is to make Americans feel confident that they know enough about the sport to be able to watch it.

The good news this morning

1. Although the temperature is minus 28˚C this morning, it doesn't feel any colder than that because there is currently no wind chill.
2. The insulated window shades seem to be working - because otherwise the heat from the house would have prevented the ice building up on the (double-glazed) windows, right?
3. I tried the throwing boiling water into the freezing air experiment (see previous post) and it worked!

I'm beginning to hate winter

I spent 2 hours on Saturday morning outside our local supermarket helping my daughter's Girl Scout troop sell crack cookies. I thought I was never going to warm up again! I suppose it was worth it as they sold a box a minute. We then spent an hour and a half in the afternoon walking from door to door trying to get our neighbors to buy cookies too. Our rate of boxes sold per minute was much lower :-( Ah well, it was all in a good cause even if I do lose my toes!

We had yet another snow day last Friday (that makes 3 so far this year.) I was just looking at the weather forecast for this week, and with snow forecast for Tuesday and Wednesday I am doubtful that we'll get a full work week in. I wouldn't mind except for the fact that we have to make the time up in June anyway.

Of more pressing concern is how to dress for the wait for the school bus tomorrow. The bus arrives at the end of our street sometime between 7:12 and 7:25, so there is really no avoiding having to stand out in the cold and wait. But look at the temperatures for Monday morning at 7 a.m.:

The only day I wasn't cold at the bus stop last week was the day I wore my snowpants, so I think that's what will be called for tomorrow.

The kids will be off the wall tomorrow though as it will be indoor recess because of the temperatures. I think this calls for an after-school trip to the YMCA!

Ooh - maybe it will be cold enough for DH to try doing this - he really wants to try it!

Working up a sweat in the cold

As it's MLK Day, there is no school today. I was determined not to have the children stay inside watching TV all day (as they would if I gave them the choice of what to do) so we headed off to one of the local schools that has a great hill for sledding. DD spent 2 hours there yesterday with her Girl Scout troop. We got there a little later than I had planned, but that's OK as it was a holiday after all. We were very surprised to find few other people there - some of the time the hill looked like this:

This photo makes the hill look less steep than it really is. Plus, the section on the left that you see DD climbing was well packed down from the weekend's sledding, so it was icy and very fast.

I had (for once) planned ahead and brought a flask of hot chocolate and some snacks, so we had those after an hour. At that point I took the outer layer of my winter coat off as I was just too hot. The kids and I all worked up quite a sweat trekking up the hill, and even standing around in the sunshine at the bottom of the hill was quite pleasant so long as you weren't sitting on the snow. It wasn't until we were on our way home that I noticed what the temperature was on this glorious, too nice to stay inside, day: 17˚F (that's minus 8˚C!) You see, the cold is just fine if you're doing the right things and are appropriately dressed for it!

A bit parky

A few days ago Sarah was commenting that it was a bit parky in Oklahoma. I was feeling quite happy that it was warmer here up north. Not any more. It was -10 degrees Fahrenheit at 9 a.m. this morning. Brrrr! And just look at the forecast for the next week - ooh, look, it's going to be much warmer on Tuesday :-)

In Fahrenheit

In Celsius

I'm very glad I don't live somewhere that gets REALLY cold in the winter - the kind of place where you have to plug an engine block heater in to make sure your car's engine will start in the morning!

P.S. Did you notice the inconsistency in those screen shots -  the temp. was minus 10, but the weather forecast was still for a low for the day of 17. My maths is bad, but isn't that a 27 degree difference? Quite an error margin!

What's on your fridge?

The fridge was just a fridge when I was growing up. Nowadays, we decorate our fridges with magnets, kids' artwork, postcards, calendars, phone lists . . . and the fridge has become more than just an appliance. It says a lot about the people who live in the house. I'd been meaning to do a blog post on this for a while now, but Crankymonkeys beat me to it. So, in answer to her question "What's on your fridge?", here's my fridge. We seem to have rather more magnets than anything else! (The images are clickable for larger versions.)