Staying Smarter:  Do you know what the summer slump is?

The summer learning slump happens when you do not have enough learning opportunities over the summer vacation to maintain your current level of knowledge.  

The summer slump occurs when you stop learning new skills  and practicing using the skills that you gained the past year.

You can prevent the summer slump by doing at least 3 of the following activities during the summer vacation.

Become a Science Citizen: 

Bioblitz Opportunity

inaturalist:  Join for free and contribute to science observations

Learn how to add an observation on a mobile device

Learn more about animals – animal cams

Learn a language – duolingo

Learn a new skill – Code academy

Work in a garden – School Garden

Learn how to identify plants – leaf snap

Volunteer helping kids to read – Burnaby Public Library Reading Buddy Program

Visit your public library and join the reading program 

Bring your math skills into the world

Visit a Science Museum – Beaty Biodiversity,

Science World 

Visit Google Arts & Crafts

Participate in outdoor hiking or water sports groups

Join a program at your community centre

What is the role of carbon dioxide from volcanoes in building Earth’s Atmosphere?  What is the most important chemical reaction that removes carbon dioxide from the atmosphere?

A Scale Model of the History of the Universe:
When did life begin in relation to the history of the Universe?

Screen time for people aged between 5 and 17 should be kept to 2 hours per day (MAX).  Learn why

How Many Satellites are orbiting around Earth? 

NASA Names Artemis II Crew for Mission to Fly by Moon in 2024

Astronauts are expected to travel 6,400 miles beyond the moon’s far side before speeding back to Earth

NYTIMES:  Science April 3, 2023

Humans have not ventured more than a few hundred miles off the planet since the return of Apollo 17, NASA’s last moon mission, in 1972. After Artemis’s experience on the moon, NASA hopes to chart a path to putting humans on Mars, while scientists expect to use what is found there to answer questions about how the solar system formed.

Astronauts in 2023 are much different from those when the United States was in a race to beat the Soviet Union to the moon. During the Apollo program, 24 astronauts flew to the moon, and 12 of them stepped on the surface. All of them were Americans. All of them were white men, many of whom were test pilots.

They are Reid Wiseman, the mission’s commander; Victor Glover, the pilot; Christina Koch, mission specialist; and, Jeremy Hansen, also a mission specialist. The first three are NASA astronauts, while Mr. Hansen is a member of the Canadian Space Agency.

“When we were selecting astronauts back then,” Mr. Glover said in an interview, “we intended to select the same person, just multiple copies.”

Ms. Koch will be the first woman to venture beyond low-Earth orbit, and Mr. Hansen, as a Canadian, the first non-American to travel that far.

Mr. Hansen noted that the United States could have undertaken the Artemis missions by itself but instead chose to pull together an international collaboration with Canada and the European Space Agency. That agreement reserved a seat for a Canadian astronaut on Artemis II. “All of Canada is grateful for that global mind-set and that leadership,” Mr. Hansen said.

Light has multiple uses, to entertain, to improve our health and to learn more about the natural world.

Get ready to be entertained and educated in the light fair

The Exploratorium has many interesting science Snacks to help up learn more about light

Science Snacks:  “Bird in a Cage

Bird in a Cage:  How to get started?

What the Research says:

Learn more about the Atomic Scientist who set the Doomsday Clock:

Learn more about the Atomic Scientists:

Site selection for Canada’s Nuclear Waste Geological Repository – Canada stands on the brink of a momentous decision: selecting a final resting spot for its spent nuclear fuel waste

Canada: An impending decision despite roadblocks

Canada generates around 15 percent of its electricity generation from 19 nuclear reactors at four power plants—all of which are of the CANDU (Canada Deuterium Uranium) design, a heavy-water reactor that uses natural (unenriched) uranium fuel (National Energy Board 2018). Canada’s four nuclear power plants, three of which are located in Ontario and one in New Brunswick, have produced a stockpile of approximately 3.1 million spent nuclear fuel bundles that increases at a rate of about 90,000 bundles per year (Gobien and Ion 2021). If all the currently operating plants live out their licensed lifetimes, Canada estimates that it will have to dispose of 5.5 million bundles.

Learn about the structure of the honey bee eye:

Learn more about how bees identify flowers:

How to vaccinate a honey bee?