Julianna: March 2011 Archives
A new climate survey began last week and everyone in the UK is invited to take part. There’s a list of four things you can do to help:
- Look out for aircraft trails (contrails)
- Watch cloud movement to record wind direction
- Record how hot or cold you feel, and
- Blow bubbles to measure wind speed and direction near the ground.
Yes, you’ve read number four correctly: blow bubbles. You don’t even have to buy a bubble blowing kit — just watch this video from Open Air Laboratories (OPAL) and learn how to make your own bubble blower cone using only a couple of sheets of paper:
OK, fun and easy, but… why? It’s not as loopy as it sounds — if you blow bubbles outdoors, the way they move can help you determine airflow patterns and speed close to the ground. The meteorologists at the Met Office and the Royal Meteorological Society have written a well-illustrated field guide to show you what to do, and explain what they hope to learn from the data you and thousands of others submit.
The results from all four activities will be published on the OPAL website. You can ask experts questions about the climate, find activities, games and the latest news, and share your weather photos.
Also: lovely idea for a film, no?
We haven’t talked much about it yet, but we’re also doing the Twitter and Facebook things. Do join us: @scicast on Twitter and our Facebook page.
A few weeks ago we had the pleasure of attending another amazing awards ceremony for short science films: SciCast North Somerset 2011.
The North Somerset Council, through the North Somerset Independent State School Partnership, started running this local version of SciCast in secondary schools last year. This year it returned with 19 entries made by 93 students from 10 schools. Impressive!
The showcase event was held at the Curzon Cinema in Clevedon, North Somerset. We sat in the world oldest continually-running purpose-built cinema — opened way back in 1912 — eating popcorn and drinking coke whilst watching this year’s films on the big screen.
From eggs and cheddar cheese to parachuting hamsters, the two tightly-fought categories were: Best Picture and Best Scientific Explanation. Congratulations to everyone, and especially to the winners and commended teams.
Huge thanks to the organiser Mark Nelson and his lovely team. We hope we’ll be sharing all the fantastic films we saw here on SciCast, where they have the chance to be recognised nationally. If you haven’t submitted yours yet, please do!
