Learning about water quality down at the lake

On Thursday 15th June, 20 pupils who have expressed an interest in taking part in a local project on water quality had their first field trip down at the lake. Led by Chris Arbuckle of Aspiring Environmental and supported by Marine Biologist Marc Schallenberg, the young scientists studied samples of water taken from the outlet of Bullock Creek. As well as worms and snails the children found mayfly larva, which according to Chris and Marc is a positive indicator of the health of this water. The children had fun feeding the eels off the wharf and then did a rubbish sweep to see what ends up on the lake-shore.

Chris Arbuckle introduces the project to the pupils.

Focused on finding out what lives in the lake.

Mayfly larva

Marc Schallenberg shares his expertise 

Champions of the lake!

Longfin eels - Manaaki Tuna

Meeting the local duck population

Getting organised for a beach-sweep

Despite the lake-shore being cleaned every morning we still found this "hidden" rubbish.

Science Engagement survey

Click on this link to complete the survey:
https://www.nzceronline.org.nz/

Colour and Light

Last week we had Esther Haines from Otago University helping us to deliver some hands-on workshops on Colour and Light. We also had a hugely successful community evening with over 100 families attending our "Fun with Colour and Light" event. Thanks to all who came and especially to the students who set up activities for everyone to try. Here are some photos from the workshops and the evening event.

Science Leaders meet NASA scientists

On Friday afternoon, 27 Year 5 and 6 Science Leaders visited Wanaka Airport to find out more about NASA's balloon launch operation. The communications manager, Jeremy Eggers, introduced us to Gabe, a NASA science engineer who gave us a detailed presentation about the history of ballooning, the development of stratospheric balloons, weather balloons and how the NASA balloon program has developed.

 We learnt that Wanaka has been selected as the best location for the current program which aims to find out more about deep space astro physics. This involves the study of the sun, stars and light particles that cannot be seen from the ground. Wanaka is the only current launch location that enables the balloon to fly around the whole world and the goal for this year's mission is to achieve 100 days of flight.

We got to feel some of the material from which the balloon is made and learnt about how the balloon is deployed (brought down again) once it has completed its mission.

Chris, a NASA meteorologist explained how weather conditions on the ground and up in the stratosphere were carefully monitored to ensure the best launch conditions. Once launched the balloon travels up to 30-33km above earth, which is one third of the distance before space (out of the atmosphere) is reached.

Gabe showed us the crane which is in place ready for the launch day, and the huge tankers filled with helium.

 Jim Adams, one of NASA's lead scientists showed us the payload which will be attached to the balloon. In his words it is "just a camera"! However, this camera takes 400, 000 pictures in a second. The aim is for it to take photos of and film streaks of light or protons (light particles) that can give us new information about space. It will help scientists to answer questions about how the universe, stars and planets formed and evolved.

 Debbie Fairbrother, the chief of the Balloon Office Program, showed us the balloon itself which was wrapped up carefully to protect it until launch day.

Here are a few links related to the mission:
Link to balloon tracker (once it launches): https://www.csbf.nasa.gov/newzealand/wanaka.htm

More on NASA’s Scientific Balloon Program: www.nasa.gov/scientificballoons

The Blog on the super pressure balloon that is launched from Wanaka: https://blogs.nasa.gov/superpressureballoon

Full video of last year’s launch: MP4 Web Version

https://www.dropbox.com/s/pwa79jpr0xkyl0w/NZ%20SPB%202016_FULL%20SEQUENCE_ProRes%20FIXED.mp4?dl=0

Video of Principal Investigator Angela Olinto talking about the Extreme Universe Space Observatory mission:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FNZhhbv_QMQ&t=6s

Fun Fridays in the Science Lab

We have had a busy and fun-filled science lab over the past two weeks. Science lab is run by the Year 5 and 6 science leaders and is open to all Year 1- 4 pupils on Fridays at 1pm. Here are photos of the children exploring magnets and sound.