Issue 3 March 2016
Happy Easter Junior Engineers! Hello for the ďŹ rst me in 2016! How has your year been so far? Busy we bet! With Summer holidays a distant memory, you’ve probably forgo$en just how much you’ve grown! But we know you’ve probably had to get new shoes, new uniforms, clothes and hair cuts all organised before school began. We’ve been talking about growth all last month. If you’re a mailing list member, we’ve sent out sunower seeds for you to have a go at growing. We’ve been trying to be gardeners, even in the e-struct oďŹƒce. Here are some progress pictures of our plants. They love the window sill in our kitchen.
Gallahorn
From three li$le cups to eight big pots! Our seedlings are 4 weeks old.
Extatosoma aratum is the scien ďŹ c name for the spiny leaf insect. It sounds like a spell from Harry Po er, but the two part name is made up of Greek words meaning: to be outside your body & like a leaf. And it acts like a leaf! It ‘blows in the wind’ if it feels a breeze and it dances if it is stressed!
Also James, our geotechnical engineer, has given Jade and I baby spiny leaf insects to take care of. Because I misheard him and thought we I also dance when I’m stressed, were receiving a s ck insect, I called mine Mys c (Miss S ck), but that but less scien ďŹ cally. was a bit inaccurate! Jade’s son named theirs Gallahorn which certainly had more character! And just yesterday, James brought in a newly hatched baby, named Turbo, to join Gallahorn in the Spiny Leaf insect tank Jade’s set up. They are pre$y low maintenance pets—you give them a light spray of water, twice a day (like dew forming on trees in their habitat) and feed them eucalyptus leaves, fresh ones Eggs every few days. Like all animals, you can tell how happy and healthy Images from www.strikingimages.com.au/ they are by checking out how they’re growing, whether the leaves are being nibbled at and how much poo they produce (Yes they do poo, a Tiny Turbo lot!) My biggest lesson this month is that female insects can lay eggs without male insects being involved and they s ll hatch. This form of reproduc on is called parthenogenesis and happens in some but not all egg laying animals such as ďŹ sh, amphibians, birds and rep les. I don’t think Easter eggs are aected!
Mys c
Science—Space Set some me aside to look at the night sky. The next few months have treats in store for you. Right now you can see five planets without a telescope! And Jupiter was at its closest to us last Friday. You’ll only see Mercury just before dawn though! Have you ever seen a shoo ng star? They’re properly known as meteors. A meteor is an asteroid or other object that burns and vaporizes upon entry into the Earth's atmosphere. If a meteor survives the plunge through the Eyes up on May 6 & 7! The Eta Aquarids Meteor Shower happens! This shower is capable of producing up to 60 meteors per hour at its peak! Don’t miss it! PLUS—it is Interna onal Star Wars Day on May the Fourth. Enjoy it you must! Why not peek through a telescope while the skies are clear this month? Aside from the Planetarium, try contac ng your local Astronomer’s Society to see if they hold viewing nights. We’re planning on a$ending one hosted by the Mornington Peninsula Astronomical Society. They charge $20.00 for admission for a family of two kids and two adults. During their introductory presenta on last me I went, they passed around a meteorite to hold. It was an incredible feeling holding a rock that had travelled through space to Earth!.
Technology— LEGO Online! I stumbled across this fun free game LEGO© Creator Islands! You begin with easy builds and each house you build rewards you with blocks. Collect the blocks and keep building. Each house has a minifig as an occupant, whether it be a li$le person, a robot or even a duck! As you get the hang of things you can customise your buildings and build more difficult things. Plus its as easy to put away as turning a computer or iPad off. No pieces underfoot or in the vacuum! Most importantly, it’s fun!
Play online: h$p://biomediaproject.com/bmp/files/ LEGO/gms/online/Creator/Builder'sIsland Download the App: h$p://www.lego.com/en-us/ creator/apps/creatorisland Kobe trialled this for me and rated it 3 ½ out of 5. He said it was a lot of fun, but that the game was some mes a bit ‘glitchy.’
Engineering—Introducing Sage Quick from Frankston Library’s After-School Lego Club AJer a big move to Melbourne from Mildura, 7-year-old Sage Quick was taken to a local garage sale. A red Lego train caught her eye. Her father bought it for her and ever since she has been hooked on Lego. “Lego is really therapeu c and crea ve, I s ll enjoy building, especially the more technical sets as they offer a challenge to me.” Sage has been working as a volunteer at the Frankston Library since the end of 2014. She has completed her Cer ficate 4 and her Diploma in Librarianship at Chisholm in Cranbourne and ini ally volunteered so she can get some experience before star ng work. Now she’s a regular volunteer working alongside Stephanie Daniels who is part of the Events Management Team at Frankston Library. Sage inspires the kids to try out new ideas and praises their engagement. She facilitates the group with a lot of energy and enthusiasm and occasionally brings along her own construc ons to show the kids. Last year, she brought along li$le Lego animals that she had created from simple one and two unit blocks. They were a hit! And as you can see by the photo, my girls adore her. Our Junior Engineers building at Lego club and at home.
We love seeing your
con-
Mathematics—Happy International Pi Day!!! Pi (which is the name of a Greek le$er that looks like this π) is a special number in Maths. We need it when we measure circles. It can help us calculate the perimeter of a circle (the measurement of the circle’s edge), the area of a circle and the volume of a sphere. It also helps us work out measurements for cone shapes and cylinder shapes. We need to know this when we build things like swimming pools or biodomes or when we make things like balls and dishes, tubes and ice-cream cones, lenses for glasses and telescopes— really anything that involves a curved shape! To celebrate the importance of pi, it has it’s own day where you can, well, eat pie! The value of pi is (approximately) 3.14. in America, when they write a date, they put the month first and then the day. Pi day is celebrated on14th March, because in the USA they write it like this 3/14. To find out more about pi, check out www.mathsisfun.com/numbers/pi.html for how to calculate pi and h8p://www.piday.org/ to discover how pi is celebrated all around the world. Yummy Maths is always a great idea!
Don’t forget to join us on Good Friday! There’s free entry and very reasonably priced ac vi es. Come and construct with us for a gold coin dona on!
Our clever junior engineers exploring STEM! Have you been running flight tests? Building? Drawing? Experimen ng? We love receiving your photos! juniorengineers@e-struct.com.au
www.facebook.com/groups/estructjuniorengineers is proudly supported by e-struct
consul ng engineers.