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Summer Newsletter #3
Happy July, from the Office of Science Outreach! One of the exciting things about Science-U summer camps at Penn State's University Park campus is showing campers the great facilities and natural areas that Penn State and its community has to offer! In past summers, campers have toured the Breazeale Reactor, Penn State's own nuclear reactor, and others have explored local streams and parks. Take a look at our 2019 Ecology Camp video below to see some natural areas for Science-U field trips! Also in this newsletter, we provide information about the Breazeale reactor and nuclear energy, include a fun Science-U @ Home activity, and share science activities completed by virtual campers!
Until next time,
-The Science Outreach Office
Introduction to Robots and Coding
Our Virtual STEM Camp for High School Students on the Autism Spectrum will be held August 3-6, 2020, in conjunction with the National Autism Conference. This virtual camp is available to students on the autism spectrum who will attend grades 9-12 in the fall! We will use Zoom for face-to-face group interactions between campers and instructors, and provide campers with engaging STEM activities that they can do at home! Thanks to our partnership with PaTTAN, there is no cost for this virtual camp, but on-line registration is required.
Nuclear Energy
Each year, some of our high school campers tour the Penn State Breazeale Reactor. The PSBR is the nation's longest, continuously operating research reactor! Penn State students and faculty use the PSBR to conduct experiments. Other nuclear reactors throughout the country provide electric power to multiple states. Nuclear power is considered to be a viable, clean source of power for the future and an exciting area of research.
The Assistant Director for Education and Outreach at Penn State's Radiation Science and Engineering Center has shared several videos to help explain nuclear reactors and nuclear energy. Take some time to understand more about this sustainable form of energy!
- The Breazeale Reactor at Penn State, filmed by a Penn State student.
- Take a virtual field trip to the Idaho National Laboratory, a leading nuclear research facility!
- Explore the Palo Verde Generating Station, the largest power plant in the U.S. See how nuclear energy can be environmentally friendly.
- Enjoy browsing Navigating Nuclear.com, a classroom resource for teachers, that provides several educational activities and videos for students of all ages.
Are you ready for a blast?
Check out this fun video of a classic Science-U activity! By putting Mentos candies into a 2-liter bottle of diet cola, you can create your very own soda geyser! What do you think causes such a big explosion? Be sure to try this activity outside - it can be a sticky mess! (All the more reason to try it!) If you want to conduct cleaner experiments inside, visit Science-U @ Home and filter for options based on the Mess-o-Meter.
Starry Skies Update
Thanks to Michael from Philadelphia, PA! He sent in his drawing of some major stars and constellations that he observed in the night sky! For other stargazers, it's not too late to send us your drawings to share!
Also, astronomy aficionados may be interested in a comet, called C/2020 F3, that should be visible about an hour after sunset on the northwestern horizon underneath the Big Dipper. Binoculars will help, but it should be barely visible to even the unaided eye from a dark location!
Virtual Science-U Camps
This summer, the Science-U team decided that two Science-U camps for middle school campers could be reconfigured into a virtual format. The selected camps, Designing the Future and Finding Your Roots, are more conducive to at-home activities than our other camps which rely more on university equipment or field trips. Students who were previously registered in these camps agreed to join us for our first virtual science camps! Over four to six weeks, virtual campers were sent a list of activities or challenges to complete at home. When the assignments were completed, they emailed us photos of their results! Below are photos of DNA extracted from strawberries from the Finding Your Roots Camp and pictures of spaghetti structures designed using geometry from the Designing the Future Camp. Great job virtual campers!
Click on the links above to find directions to do these activities yourselves! If you'd like, take a picture of your experiment and send it to us. You could be in the next newsletter!
We want to hear from you!
Email us at outreach@science.psu.edu
- If you try an activity in this newsletter, let us know how it went!
- Share nature or experiment photos that you take!
- Let us know what you would like to see in a future newsletter!
Please submit items to be included by July 25, 2020.
By submitting photographs or information to the Office of Science Outreach, we reserve the right to use them in our next electronic newsletter.
