Category Archives: Uncategorized

A BIG thank you to all of the students who worked so well together to participate in the 2015 Balloon Car Challenge.  Don’t forget to enter your team by the March 15th deadline.

2015 Car Challenge – on your mark, get set ….

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The folks who designed the Canadian Passport – made it into one big party under Black Light!  The first picture shows what the image looks light under black light.   The second picture shows what the image looks like under natural light.

Go Celebrate Canadians!

Fluor Contest Rules – 2015 Challenge

Learn more about how a cheap material can cut the cost of energy.

Learn more about how evolutionary biologists are revising their understanding of how evolution works.  Biologists have described a form of phenotypic plasticity in fairy-wrens.  The Red-backed fairy wren displays a different feather colour (red and black vs brown) depending on the nature of their social interactions.   The type of plumage colour is determined by how much testosterone the male birds have prior to the breeding season.  Testosterone production is regulated by social interactions between the male Red-backed fairy-wrens.  If the male fairy-wren is higher ranked (more successful  in attracting female attention) the feather colour becomes brighter.  The colour change is not permanent.  Lower ranked male fairy-wrens can change to the bright plumage colour in subsequent years.

Learn more how scientists discovered that certain frequencies of visible light caused insect larvae to be killed.

2015 is the year of soil.  Enjoy the many opportunities to learn about how soil is formed and used to sustain ecosystems.

Track Santa 

The Canadian Government received a failing grade on how well they are preserving endangered species.  Canada is at risk for losing the animal species that makes Canada unigue .  The Canadian Government uses a two-step process to try to protect species at risk.

In the first step, a committee made up of scientists makes a list of the species that are at risk of extinction.  The scientists on the committee also makes a set of recommendations that the Canadian Government should follow to protect the animals habitat.  Preservation of animal habitat is the top way to protect species from becoming extinct.  Animals need habitat to survive.

In step 2, the Canadian Government decides whether or not to act on the recommendations of the scientists.  A recent study shows that Canada has failed to follow the advice of the Species at Risk Act 87% of the time.

It is time to save the whales!

A new Consumer Report study (available January 2015) found dangerously high levels of arsenic in rice grown in states other than California.  Because rice is a popular choice for infant food and cereals people are advised to limit their consumption of rice grown in certain states.

Learn more

What is arsenic?