Science Fair is a rite of passage for the Lower Fourth at Francis Holland, and this week they began work on their projects.
To start things off, Miss Lawrence, the friendly neighbourhood librarian, visited each class to run a session on research skills. The girls learnt about the resources in the library and what was available online, how to evaluate sources, and how to use an index to find out interesting information.
Here are some of their favourite fun facts from the session:
- Scientists have named a fungus Spongiforma squarepantsii after the famous cartoon character.
(John Wright, The Naming of the Shrew: a curious history of Latin names) - In winter, Monarch butterflies gather on trees at such high densities that their branches bend under the weight.
(Ben Hoare, Animal Migration) - Invisible ink, made from Cobalt, has been used since the 17th century.
(Paul Parsons and Gail Dixon, The Periodic Table: a visual guide to the elements) - Nanotube structures have a diameter of only a few billionths of a metre but are one of the strongest materials discovered so far.
(Nigel Saunders et al., SuperSimple Chemistry) - Neptune is 4350 million km, or 4 hours rocket travel, away from Earth.
(Brain Cox, Wonders of the Universe)
Next, the girls will be taking some time to choose a topic that interests them and then the investigations will begin. What will they discover?
