This week I'm posting an interactive Science Saturday. For fun here is something to try: Set out two bowls and cover the bottom with about 1/4 inch of milk. In each bowl drop 4 different colors of food coloring near the middle of the bowl but spread out from each other. In the first bowl add one drop of water in the center and watch what the colors do. In the second bowl add one drop of dish soap to the center and watch what happens to the colors. You can try this experiment again with different temperature milk, different fat content in the milk (skim, whole, 2%), try using more than one drop of detergent, try different brands of detergent. Tune in next week to see the answer behind what just happened!
The Lakewood Library Teen Times will be moving to the first Wednesday of the month. In January we will be building with Duct Tape! Make your new years resolutions stick at Teen Time. Share your favorite teen book of 2011. All supplies will be provided.
As we wrap up the end of the year everyone is making their lists of the best books of 2011. The teen librarians decided to make our own. Here are our favorite teen books from the past year:
I'm sure it is no surprise that we are completely obsessed with all things Hunger Games. So here's a little update on everything HG:
If you haven't seen the trailer yet, it's totally awesome! If you have seen it, watch again!
Next, in very important Hunger Games news, they will be releasing a line of Finger Nail Polish - check out the cool colors, and this wonderful ad featuring Effie Trinket--check out those eyelashes!
And... here is the latest poster for the movie which looks so cool!
And finally, if you haven't read the books, get on the hold list today. The list is long, but we have lots of copies!
If you're trying to play music or other audio straight out of something with a built-in speaker (like an iPhone or iPod or Android phone), the sound can be a little disappointing. Try setting it in a bowl or a glass; it amplifies the volume! I just tried it and it really worked. I found the tip for this on Real Simple's website.
Did you know you can check out and listen to audiobooks without coming into the library? You can download them to your computer, iPod, mp3 player or smart phone. Take a look at JCPL's downloadables page for more details.
This seems fitting today: try googling "let it snow".
Once you're done writing in the frost, check out a snowy day read! Our libraries will all open at 11 am today, except for Conifer, which is closed all day.
What's your favorite book to curl up with on a day like today?
I hardly ever read historical fiction, but with a little magic thrown in I loved it! Darker Still by Leanna Renee Hieber was such a fun read. Natalie's dad works for the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York in 1880, and when a new painting comes in (of a rather dashing gentleman!) Natalie finds herself especially drawn to it. As she spends more time looking at it she notices that the details change until she finally starts to suspect that the man in the painting is trying to communicate with her. The story of what follows is told through Natalie's diary, and has magic, ghosts, murder, and romance. What more could you ask for!
They met at a party. Dated. Had fun. And then broke each other's hearts. Now Min is ready to give back all the things she collected during her relationship with Ed. And she's going to explain why.
Illustrated a little bit like The Invention of Hugo Cabret, Why We Broke Up by Daniel Handler is due to be released at the end of the month. There's already lots of people waiting to read it; place your hold today!
Remember, all canned food and peanut butter donations will go to the Jeffco Action Center. Be sure to bring your can of food in before Tuesday, December 20th!
Why do they make you take all these booooring science and math classes in school? Here is one reason to study hard in the science classes: It takes a lot of math and science to put together large holiday light displays. Typically one strand of lights will use 1/3 of an amp. Most home outlets have 120 volts flowing. In order to do big displays you must calculate how many lights you can plug into one outlet: Power [Watts] = Voltage [Volts] * Current [Amps]. If you coordinate to music then you need a control board and to do some computer programming. All this science will pay off in the end if you can create displays like this:
Need a last-minute holiday gift? That doesn't cost money? Me too! Come and make a cool gift during next week's Standley Lake Teen Time! All teens are welcome and all supplies are provided. See you then!
Standley Lake Library. Wednesday, December 21st - 7-8pm
This holiday season has been inundated with many popular video game sequels. Here is a helpful guide to the new video games this season, and the person to buy it for.
Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim: This video game, an RPG, is for the nerd in the family whom you could imagine playing dungeons and dragons. Full of both, this will be one of the most popular video games of the year. Five stars out of five.
Zelda: For Wii players. Nuff said.
Batman: Arkham City: This game is for the comic book nerd you know. Batman kicks some tooshie and the Joker is just demented. Four stars out of five.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3: For the soldier to be in the family. Already breaking records, this game is your classic gun-toting army/marine game. Multi-player is a must play! Four stars out of five.
And speaking of holiday lights... stop by the Columbine and Belmar teen sections to add to our origami light strings and help us decorate the library. Want to make your own handmade decorations? Just place your origami balloons on a string of lights.
Artist Timm Schneider has created what he calls an "urban intervention." As far as I can tell, that's code for "Putting cartoon googly eyes on public things like trash cans and and toilets to make awesome creatures that you can stumble upon when you're walking down the street." Check it out!
This is the season of the Christmas cookies, eggnog and other tasty treats. How many calories are in these delicious confections? I don't even want to ask. What exactly is a calorie anyways? In its very basic definition it is a unit of energy. Originally, the term was used to define the heat needed to increase the temperature of water by one degree. Calories can refer to anything. For example, a gallon of gasoline contains about 31 million calories. So, don't drink gasoline. Food measurement calories are actually Kilocalories, which means 1,000 thermocalories, or 4,184 joules. How are food calories calculated? Calories in food are calculated based on how much energy that food contains.
A group of friends spend a week camping in the Australian outback and return to a world completely different than the one they left. Their families aren’t at home, pets have been left to starve, and they can’t find a single neighbor. Ellie and her friends soon discover that their country has been invaded and their town taken captive.
If you felt a little sad when you finished reading Mockingjay, (not because of how it ended, but because it meant the trilogy was over) try Tomorrow When the War Began by John Marsden.
Like Katniss, they have to decide whether to surrender themselves to the government, hide in the wilderness, or stay and fight. At times, it’s brutal, and once in a while a bit romantic.
What other books have you found for fans of The Hunger Games series?
James Hercules Martino has until the end of the summer to accomplish twelve tasks given to him by his uncle. These tasks will change the way he sees his life.
Not only is new vampire Doug doomed eternally to be fat, but now he must also save himself from the desperate host of a vampire-hunting television show.
The canned food drive starts today!! Be sure to bring in a can of food, peanut butter preffered, to your local library. Did you participate in the Teen Summer Reading Club? We set a goal of 85,000 hours read by teens in Jefferson County but we didn't make it. Originally, the teen librarians would have volunteered at the Jeffco Action Center but since we didn't make our goal now we have a new way to help. The libraries will be competing against each other to see which location can collect the most food. So bring your can in this week to the Lakewood Library...het hem..I mean your local library.
Did you participate in the Teen Summer Reading Club? We didn't make our worthy cause goal of 80,000 hours read. Help us make our new worthy cause goal of getting canned food to the Jeffco Action Center. Compete against other library locations to see if your library can collect the most food! Bring a can / jar of food in between Dec. 6-20th.
If you boil water and throw it up into the air when the outside temperature is below -22 degrees the water will instantly turn to snow. Don't try this at home as I don't want you to burn yourself and it isn't cold enough in Denver to make this work. Watch this video shot at the Mount Washington Observatory. Why does this work? In part it works because of rapid evaporation of the hot water in very cold temperatures. Mpemba effect also has a role in the flash freezing. This is where hot water will cool faster than colder water. This seems contrary to science right? It is named for a Tanzanian school student who noticed the ice cream he made would freeze faster if it started out hot. Scientists are not exactly sure why this is true but some theories are convection, solutes in the water and evaporation.
Are you looking for a beautiful decoration for your tree / locker / house? Do you need a last minute gift for your parental unit to cherish forever, along with the macaroni necklace you made in 2nd grade? If so come to the Lakewood Library next Tuesday to make a paper snowflake. All supplies will be provided.