Kids’ Science Challenge was proud to partake in the Girl Scouts of Greater Los Angeles’ Annual Family Science Festival on Sunday. The event was themed “Imagination Meets Innovation”. Held in association with the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the event brought over 2,000 Girl Scouts and their families to a fun-filled day of exploring the wonders… of science, technology, engineering and math. It was an amazing day!

This is one of the drawings that Jet Propulsion Lab (JPL) artist Wilson Huang did of TJ Hutchinson’s  ”Imagine Sports on Mars” winning idea. You’re seeing details of some of the apparatuses that would make the game possible – gathering magnetic sand through a hoop when you’re playing Martian basketball!

The Floppy Flyer challenge came from an idea by Kids’ Science Challenge winner Olivia Smith Donovan. She noticed how maple seed pods slowly twirl to the ground and wondered if their design could be used to deliver emergency packages. Click here to learn more about Olivia.

You can create your very own flying invention, When you take the Floppy Flyer Challenge, you’ll make your own paper flyer based on nature’s design of maple seed pods. Then, you’ll test how fast your Floppy Flyer flies to the ground and write down your results. Click here to get started!

As many of you know, the oil is spreading  all over.  We would love for you to send in some ideas to help stop the oil from spreading.

Many people are out of jobs because of it, many sea creatures and the population in the ocean are being affected. It is brutually harming the enviroment like sea gulls and CORAL REEFS. As i have said before, it takes many, many, many years for a coral reef to grow. Also, many creatures eat and  live in and around the coral reef. Coral reefs are an important part of the food chain!

If you have any questions or comments please send i in the comment box!

Thank you,

Caitlyn Taylor

Posted from KL in Tunis:

Tell us how you utilized KSC in action!: Wow this was fun! My younger brother, Jack, and I are living in Africa so we don’t normally join many contests except for ones we find online. My 5th grade teacher showed my class the site in January. My project was BioInspired about how the bull frog’s expandable cheek molecules could be looked at and transformed into better purses and wallets. My brother had a hovering magnetic board idea for Sports on Mars. This was really fun and I can’t wait ’till next year!

Do you have any suggestions how engineers could best repair the leak and clean up the oil spill in the Gulf? Oil-eating bacteria?  Hair?  Please send in your ideas.

Jim Metzner, Producer

The Kids’ Science Challenge

Throughout 2010, we’re doing KSC science outreach workshops for kids in the Los Angeles area. This project is made possible by the American Honda Foundation.

Check out some images from the previous workshops: [...]

L.A. Outreach

L.A. Outreach

L.A. Outreach

L.A. Outreach

Wow! About a week ago Mason and i went on a great adventure at the Smithsonian Marine Station in Ft.Pierce, Fl.  We met up with Sherry Reed. Sherry is a diving safety officer and assistant researcher. After being with her and learning about her job i think that Sherry has one of the best jobs!! (Can you believe how any times i have said that someone i met has one of the best jobs?

  While working with Sherry we were looking at samples in the lab, touched differnet marine animals,  lifted up panels to see how much barnacles and things have gotten on it, and talked a little bit about coral reefs!!

SAMPLES IN THE LAB!!                  In the lab we were looking at differnet samples of sediment in the microscopes such as before and after hurricanes,  also before and after a place has been dredged. It is amazing what a microscope can show you. Especially the microscope we were using!!

MARINE ANIMALS!!                  My favorite was the sea slug. To me it looks like a small black baby planket. Have you ever seen Finding Nemo? Well, do you remember the shrimp that cleaned Nemo when he arrived in the Dentists office? FYI  he is REAL! I got my finger cleaned by him, not eactly him but another one of his family memebers! It tickles….

BARNACLES ON PANELS!!           We also went to the dock to look at panels to see if any barnacles have come onto it. There are differnt amounts of black or silver paint to see which paint from boats attracts barnacles…

So, thats what we did! Thank you for reading and we will update you on some more things soon!!

Caitlyn

About a week ago Caitlyn and I went to the Smithsonian Marine Station down in Fort Pierce, Florida. We met up with a research scientist Sherry Reed. She is also a dive safety officer. She does experiments for people in other states that can’t do the experiments they want to. We had fun with seeing what she does about every day. She is working on a experiment testing what paint that goes on boats has more barnicles on them.

In the lab we got to look at sedament from after a hurrcane. And sedament at a dreged area. What we were looking for was forums. We looked at the sedament under a electronic mycroscope that was so 3D it was amazing! The part that was the best was that we were able to touch many different marine animals. My favorite animal that we touched was a lobster.

Sorry I couldn’t blog sooner, but I was really busy last week.  Here’s what happened: When I got to the University of California research labs in Merced, I met Mr. Viney and we got straight to work.  I showed him a diagram of a maple seed I sketched at home.  We also looked at the flight of actual maple seed.  I had brought a baggie of maple seeds from Delaware because I thought it would be useful to have them because there are not very many in California. 

Mr. Viney drew me a diagram explaining the thrust, drag, lift, and gravity effects on a wing.  If an airplane is taking off, the lift has to be more than gravity, and thrust has to be more than drag, and vice versa for landing.  When the plane is in the air everything is about even, except the thrust is a little higher than drag so it moves forward. On a maple seed, the lift has to be a tiny bit lower than gravity because it still has to drop, but it has to drop very slowly so the seed is not harmed.  A maple seed design would be good for dropping emergency supplies because the design causes it to fall, but slowly so nothing breaks.

Mr Viney showing wing design (Photo by Roger J. Wyan)

Mr. Viney, me, Chancellor Kang, my dad, and Jim from KSC (Photo by Roger J. Wyan)