Here are a few eggy experiments to help you celebrate Easter weekend:
Suck an egg into a bottle (from The Naked Scientists): You'll need a hard boiled egg, a bottle with a slightly smaller neck, a little oil and a match (or you can try it with boiling water). You'll light the match and put it in the bottle, with will warm the air inside and cause it to expand. As the air cools, the egg will be sucked into the bottle. Read through the link for full directions, as well as instructions for getting your egg back out again.
Egg Geodes (from The Happy Scientist): You'll need clean egg shells and an egg carton to hold them, epsom salt, food coloring, and hot water. You'll finish with cool crystalized eggs. Read through the link for the directions.
Naked Egg or Rubber Egg (from Steve Spangler Science): You'll need an egg, a glass, and a lot of vinegar. Basically, you let the egg sit in the vinegar until the acetic acid in the vinegar reacts with the calcium carbonate in the egg shell and breaks it down. I saw a few other websites that said you could bounce it against your table, but do so at your own risk! Read through the link for full directions.
Did you know that the Jefferson County Public Library is getting a new website? It will go live next week, but if you're curious (like I always am!) you can preview it today. A few things to note:
-Check out the new teen page to access teen-specific homework help, events, book reviews, and our updated Crazy Readerz blog.
-You can search the library catalog from every page of the website. Just use the search box in the top right corner. There are two tabs--one to search the catalog and one to search the website.
-There is an "Ask Us" link at the top and bottom of every page. Use this to connect with a librarian through email, chat or phone.
-Did you know the library checks out ebooks, downloadable audiobooks, and electronic magazines? Try the new "Downloads" page for more info.
Need something to do over Spring Break? Come to the Golden Library tomorrow at 2:30 and make your own book safe. Create a hidden compartment in a book and baffle your nosy little brother looking for your private stuff. He'll never check a book!
The world is a big, awesome, crazy place full of amazing weirdness! If you keep your eyes open for it, you can spot it all around. Some of my favorite weirdness comes in the guise of… SCIENCE!
Here are a couple of my favorite ‘science’ books that put a new spin on things. They might make you reconsider how you view the universe.
The Dancing Wu Li Masters : An Overview of the New Physics by Gary Zukav: This book introduced me to particle physics but not in a boring, academic way. The voice is conversational, the science is real, and the possibilities that exist in and around us are mind blowing! You will never look at the world the same way again.
The Hidden Messages in Water by Masaru Emoto: Water holds memory and, according to the studies of Dr. Masaru Emoto, intention as well. Dr. Emoto exposed water to words and then froze the water into snowflakes which he would film. He noticed that positive words like ‘love,’ and ‘truth,’ would cause the water to transform into beautiful, perfect snowflakes. Negative words like, ‘hate’ or ‘pollution’ caused the water to transform into distorted, ugly snowflakes. This happened whether you spoke to the water or just put a sign close by the water with the word written on it. Crazy! But sooooo neat!
Some of you may already know how much I loved the Clarity books by Kim Harrington. When I realized she had a new book out I was a little worried; what if I didn’t like it? Never fear! It was amazing!
The Dead and Buried is a ghost story. A very spooky ghost story. Jade’s family moves into a new house they never should have been able to afford. When she starts poking around she realizes that the reason the house was so cheap is because the most popular girl in school, who also happened to be the meanest of mean girls, was murdered in the house last spring. And then Jade realizes that her little brother can see the ghost. And that the ghost can move her stuff around and destroy things. And it can possess people and make them do whatever it wants. Now the ghost needs Jade to solve the murder before it can move on, but it’s not very patient and it’s not very nice about it. Can Jade solve the murder before the ghost destroys her family?
The Book Thief by Markus Zusak has a release date of January 17th, 2014. Geoffrey Rush and Emily Watson have been cast and Brian Percival is the director. When the official trailer comes out we will share it. For now enjoy both of the following homemade movie trailers.
Have you seen a Little Free Library? American Profile (which comes in the Denver Post) recently did a great article about them. Little free libraries are popping up all over the country. People build and decorate little boxes and then stock them with books. You can take a book, return it whenever you want, or replace it with a different book. And they're all different designs, too. Check the article for more pictures, or do a Google image search. I saw one in Denver the other day I was so excited that I had to take this picture!
Richard Feynman is a rare person who had both a sense of humor and also was an amazing scientist. He was instrumental in such events as inventing the atom bomb and also discovering the cause of the Challenger spaceship explosion. Feynman was a key scientist in the study of quantum physics, which explains the behavior of miniscule particles. While at Cornell University Feynman worked on an explanation for how particles interact with each other. He calculated all the possible ways a particle could move between two points, this is the path integral. He then created a graph that would calculate a particles path integral in both space and time showing how the particle moves. This graphic is appropriately called a Feynman Diagram.
Some interesting personal information about Feynman: He was rejected from the World War II draft for mental reasons. Apparently, he was too literal in the interview. He performed in the student production of South Pacificat Caltech. He was an expert safe cracker.
Sherlock Holmes sure is making a comeback these days. In addition to the different TV shows and movies that are out right now, there are also a few good teen books that you might want to try:
Secret Letters by Leah Scheier: Dora travels to London to meet Sherlock Holmes, who might be her biological father, and ask for his help in a blackmail case. Along the way she gets some help from a handsome young detective.
Death Cloud by Andrew Lane: This is the first in the Young Sherlock Holmes series and tells the story of a fourteen-year-old Sherlock on his first murder investigation. If you like this one there are three more in the series.
Eye of the Crow by Shane Peacock: This is the first book in the Boy Sherlock Holmes series (not to be confused with the Young Sherlock Holmes series mentioned above). In this one, thirteen-year-old Sherlock ends up a murder suspect and must solve the crime to clear his name.
No Place Like Holmes by Jason Lethcoe: An aspiring detective gets a big break when he goes to England to visit his uncle who lives next door to Sherlock Holmes.
And don't forget, there's always the original stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle as well. Have you read any of them?
Have you read The Selection yet? I think it reads like a cross between a reality TV dating show and the royal wedding. When the prince needs to find a wife, 35 young women are selected to live with him in the palace. They are sent home as he weeds them out until only one woman remains--the one who will become Queen. All this is broadcast on TV and the families of the women are rewarded depending on how far the girls make it in the competition.
The Selection was optioned for a TV show right when it came out, and now the CW has approved a script for the pilot. I'm excited to see how this turns out because it was such a fun book! Here's a trailer for the book, which may give you some ideas for what the show could look like:
While we wait for the show, get yourself on the hold list for the sequel, The Elite, which comes out April 23.
Have you read the book Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson? I couldn't put it down when I read it. Something happened at a party at the beginning of the school year and now Melinda has stopped talking. She drifts through school trying to avoid any contact with other people. Dave, the art teacher, finally starts to break through Melinda's silence. The movie stays close to the plot of the book and is one of Kristen Stewart's first movie appearances. Check it out today from the library.
Are you interested in leadership, advocacy or teen health issues? Do you want to improve your communication skills? Check out the 2013 Colorado Youth Summit on Saturday, April 20th from 8am - 4pm at North High School in Denver.
Highlights of this year's summit include:
Workshops on communication, advocacy and leadership skills
Games, team building and a community art project
Free breakfast, lunch and snacks for the first 100 participants for RSVP
Contests and Prizes!
Create the official Youth Summit logo and win a $100 cash prize
Participate in a poster competition with prizes up to $300 and a chance to win a professional promo video
Ready! Set! ACTion! award presentation (www.readysetaction.org)
RSVP today at Coyouthsummit@gmail.com with your name and your contact phone number.
"Great white shark, or white shark (Carcharodon carcharias)." Gale Science in Context. Detroit: Gale, 2010. Science In Context. Web. 16 Mar. 2013.
Sharks date back to the time of the dinosaurs. They have a reputation as being the great killers of the ocean but this is not necessarily true. The largest shark is the Whale Shark which can be as long as 59 feet. This shark is extremely gentle and feeds on zooplankton. The smallest shark species is the Dwarf Lanternshark which can fit into a man's palm. According to the Science in Context Database: " in the year 2012 there were eighty confirmed unprovoked shark attacks on humans world-wide. This included fifty-three attacks in U.S. waters, mostly occurring off beaches in Florida."
All sharks are cartilaginous. This means their skeletons are made completely of cartilage. Unlike fish, sharks don’t have scales, but rather spiny projections known as denticles. Sharks also have a third eye, called a pineal eye, which is used to sense light.
Fish have air bladders that allow them to float in the water but sharks do not. Most sharks must be in constant motion to stay afloat. One thing that does help them stay afloat is their fatty liver.
-School debate coming up? -Argumentative research paper? -Argumentative friend?
Opposing Viewpoints in Context is a great resource for all these things and more! They take current events and ethically controversial topics and give you all the information you would need to make an informed argument. For example, I looked up school uniforms. First I get an article outlining all the background info I need, such as the difference between dress codes and uniforms, court cases, the cost of uniforms, and issues with sweat shops. I can also read arguments for and against school uniforms, such as “School Uniforms Stifle Freedom of Expression” or “School Dress Codes are Necessary and Constitutional,” which lay out the pros and cons of the issue and include great examples. Then I can read through magazine and newspapers articles about the topic, listen to audio files, watch videos, get statistics, and link to other websites. And all of this information is in one place and easy to use!
You can access Opposing Viewpoints in Context by going to jeffcolibrary.org and then clicking on “Research Tools” and then “Subscription Databases A-Z.” You don’t have to be in the library to use it—just log in with your name and library card number. Search for what you’re interested in, or click on “Browse Issues” to get ideas. Winning an argument is always fun; now you can be prepared!
Yes. That’s right fearless fans, Stan Lee with be at Denver Comic Con May 31st – June 2, 2013. If you didn’t get a chance to go to the inaugural DCC last year, definitely make an effort to go this year.
There are great booths to visit, artists to chat with, and panels to sit in on to learn all the ins and outs of your favorite graphic novels and comics. And of course you don’t want to miss the cosplay, cuz it’s so much fun! (Remember! If your costume has a ‘gun’ – you need to have an orange tip attached…just sayin’.)
Other featured guests for the three day event include: George Takei, Greg Guler, Felicia Day, George Perez, Wil Wheaton, Jeffrey Brown… Tickets for Teens range from $12 for a one day Friday pass to $30 for a three day pass.
The Stan Lee Silver and Gold Add On packages will be available soon at a mysterious price to be determined later. So get your tickets now, and then check the website compulsively until they post the Stan Lee info.
If you go, and you’re in costume, make sure you post a pix on our Facebook page! Hope to see ya!
In this post-apocalyptic world, people have chosen to live one of two ways, as Dwellers who live in pods that protect them from the aether (electrical storms that ravage the earth) or on the outside in tribes facing nature and a hard scrabble existence. Dwellers spend the majority of their life traveling virtual realms and when Aria is cast out of the Reverie pod accused of mayhem and murder, it is an almost certain death sentence. Aria’s one hope is to find her mother who is working in another pod, Bliss, and prove her innocence.
Perry, a member of the Tides tribe, is heading toward Reverie, to rescue his nephew who was taken by Dwellers when he finds Aria in the desert near death. He shares his food and water and they discover that they can help each other. He can help Aria stay alive and find her mother. Aria’s knowledge of the pods can help him get his nephew back. It’s an uneasy alliance born from need and desperation rather than respect because they both have been raised to fear and hate the other’s way of life and people.
You'll stay up all night with this one. The second book, Through the Ever Night was released last month. Put yourself on the hold list as soon as you check out Under the Never Sky. You will want to read it as soon as possible!
A few years ago a group of teens were arrested for some high stakes robberies including Paris Hilton's house and Rachel Bilson's among others. The press called the group of teens the Bling Ring and their story has become a movie starring Emma Watson and directed by the great Sofia Coppola. Check out the trailer:
I guess Emma Watson's trying to get away from her Hermione image, huh? I'm in!
Looking for some good Snow Day books? Try one of these:
Trapped by Michael Northrop: Seven high school students are stranded at their school during a week-long blizzard that shuts down the power and heat, freezes the pipes, and leaves them wondering if they will survive.
Cabin Fever by Jeff Kinney (Diary of a Wimpy Kid #6: When a surprise blizzard hits, the Heffley family is trapped indoors. Greg knows that when the snow melts he's going to have to face the music, but could any punishment be worse than being stuck inside with your family for the holidays?
Blizzard! The Storm that Changed America by Jim Murphy: Presents a history, based on personal accounts and newspaper articles, of the massive snow storm that hit the Northeast in 1888, focusing on the events in New York City.
When the Snow Fell by Henning Mankell: Joel becomes a local hero to his small Swedish town when he saves an old man from freezing to death in the woods.
Phantoms in the Snow by Kathleen Benner Duble: In 1944, fifteen-year-old Noah Garrett, recently orphaned, is sent to live at Camp Hale in the Colorado mountains.
Join us after-hours on Friday, March 8, for a teen craft and film at the Evergreen Library! We'll be making zombie felties and watching a related movie. It's a remake of a 1984 short film of the same name (which traumatized me when I saw it as a kid), about a boy and his dog, Sparky. The new version was an Academy Award nominee for Best Animated Feature. Can you guess the title?
Teen Night: Movie and Zombie Felties Friday, March 8 6:30-8:30 pm Evergreen Library
Will Henry is the assistant to Dr. Warthrop, a monstrumologist who studies those dark creatures who haunt our nightmares. When a strange corpse is delivered to their doorstep Will Henry and Dr. Warthrop discover and attempt to destroy a pod of Anthropophagi living in their home town. Warning! This book is not for the easily scared (like me).
I’ve always had a soft spot for Pixar films, so I was excited to learn the studio was releasing a prequel to 2001’s Monsters, Inc. Monsters University, out June 21st, follows James P. Sullivan (voiced by John Goodman) and Mike Wazowski (voiced by Billy Crystal) as college students joining a fraternity and trying to get into the university’s prestigious scare program. This premise guarantees plenty of laughs and sight gags related to higher education.
In keeping with the college theme, Disney Pixar released a promotional website, cleverly structured like a university web page. The site includes information about academic programs (in which students can “excel in the art of extreme creepiness”), dining plans, athletics, and other aspects of campus life. There are even student and faculty profiles and a video message from the dean (voiced by Helen Mirren). If you need a break from actual college websites, take a look.
It is that peeps time of year!Are you feeling creative?Put together a library themed peeps diorama and submit it to the Lakewood Library Information Desk.
Did you know that your seemingly gentle house cat Fluffy is a stone cold killer? It's true!
America's cats, including house cats that venture outdoors and feral cats, kill between 1.4 billion and 3.7 billion birds in a year, says Peter Marra of the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute in Washington, D.C., a member of the team that performed the analysis. That's a whole lot of birds!
To figure out how much wildlife cats catch, Marra and his colleagues combed the scientific literature for the best assessments of how many cats live in the United States and of what cats there and in similar climates hunt. Roughly 114 million cats live in the contiguous United States, 84 million of which share people's houses. Forty to 70 percent of those household cats do at least some roaming outside. Between half and 80 percent of those outdoor cats hunt.
Attention high school students - are you a creative person looking for an internship opportunity?
The Museum of Contemporary Art Denver (MCA Denver) has a Teen Council (TeCo). TeCo is a school-year long internship for a select group of high school students. TeCo meets weekly during the school year and provides opportunities for teens to engage with contemporary art, artists and museum professionals.TeCo interns are selected in the spring for the following school year, although interested students can apply throughout the year. All high school students in metro Denver are eligible. For more information, visit the TeCo website.