Science Ventures February 23, 2010

We met today to perform the experiment "Cold as Ice" that we are thinking of sharing with Elementary School.

Work was so cooooooool and venturers were able to discover how to lower temperature of water to - 5 degrees Celsius while keeping it liquid.

Science Ventures February 16, 2010

"Science Venturers" are busy preparing for the Lab Week: Science Exhibit.

We are planning to share experiments with young learners from Pre-School and Elementary School.

Meanwhile,we discovered how Air can work as an insulator by using cotton and wool socks embeded in a water bath.

And we ventured into the world of Batteries and noted the differences among C, D, AA, and AAA Batteries in the Experiment "Are all batteries the same?"

Today we met and talked about Energy planning to draft the cycle of Food Energy.

Science Ventures January 12, 2010

Today we went "virtual".

Nicky and Chris defined biotechnology and identified why we need to make our genetically modified food items safe to grow, environmentally safe and safe to be used by humans. They learned also about the argobacteria and the corn borer and what is a genetically modified corn.

Tony went into a space tour where he was the commander of the spaceship and discovered the necessary items to survive starting by oxygen and ending by setting his own food menu!

All of these interesting and resourceful information yet fun and amusing are on the Children's Museum of Indianapolis site:

www.childrensmuseum.org/games/grades_6-8

Science Ventures January 5, 2010

Happy New Year!

Our return after this wonderful break was full of a motivating exprience and real-life examples.

A Quality Management Representative from Al Taghziah Group came over and joined our science adventures in a breathtaking, thorough yet scientific speech.

Ms. Lena Susan Halabi came over and joined our Club sharing with us her scientific knowledge on "Science of Food". She highlighted the differences between heat and cold processing as well as canning and vacuum packaging.

Ms. Halabi then talked about Quality Concepts in food processing and handling, and how to optimize foods in terms of nutritional value, cost and sustainability; not forgetting the sensory analysis.

At the end, she concluded that "the mission of a food scientist is to use the scientific knowledge to develop the industry in a safe, nutritious, environment friendly, and cost effective way; so that people of the world can have access to a wholesome food supply".

During all her Power Point Presentation, Ms. Halabi shared with us some real-life examples based on her experiences at Al Taghziah.

She also had two videos to share with us relating to the processing and packaging of food items at this institution.

Teachers commented that the presentation was so scientific yet smooth and student friendly.

Whereas our "Venturers" were so excited and motivated to share some of their knowledge with Ms. Halabi.

Christopher was inquiring about many details and sharing with us his own facts, whereas Nicholas was asking about some scientific infos and Sarah was listening curiously.

Thank you all for making this presentation such a wonderful experience and a positive input to our Club.

Science Ventures December 11, 2009

With great excitment and motivation "Venturers" are showing during the first break just to record their observations on our "precious" grains.
Sarah and Chris today sacrificed their morning break and...their breakfast just to watch over our red beans and lentils.
Gladly enough they are germinating some of which as we expected many others not really. Left to us to verify by next tuesday and discuss our findings.

I would like to add that we agreed today to have in our club a Blogger Update Manager Mr. Christopher Raffoul who is so eager to learn and apply his scientific knowledge with great keenness.

Science Ventures December 10, 2009

Tuesday December 8 we met to talk about Germination.


I picked up Germination as a subject for our experiments because it can reflect on our environment and it enhances the ability of the "Venturers" to relate the Carbon Cycle to the environment and draw conclusions on how it is impacted.


Two experiments were on the list:
1. To record effect of heat energy on germination: we heated 25 grains of red beans. When water temperature reached 10 degrees we took 5 grains and put them under light and room temperature on a wet mount in a petri dish. We repeated this step four more times taking each time 5 grains at 30, 50, 70 and 90 degrees.



Members learned that the experimental variable was temperature while keeping constant the number of grains and factors affecting their growth.

That day, the bell ring stopped us from doing the second experiment.
But motivated as they are, "Venturers" suggested to come second day during first break. Chris said 'I am so excited and would like to see today what is going to affect these lentil grains'.

Our objective is to compare using control and experimental variables the effect of temperature, water quantity, oxygen and light on the germination of 80 lentil grains.
Quickly and with such a lovely team spirit we gathered our hands to label, spread the cotton beds on petri dishes, count the grains and distribute them to see how these are going to germinate under the various conditions of study.



Venturers agreed to fill in a table of observation where they will be recording and docummenting on a daily basis for one week any change occuring to our "precious" grains.

Science Ventures December 3 & 4, 2009

Those two days were quite different. Students came but not to follow steps of an experiment or to discuss findings and draw conclusions but to agree on a LOGO for the club.

Mr. Tony Asfour was the "Venturer" who plotted for us the design and all members agreed.

As for our young "Lady-Venturer" Ms. Sarah Wehbeh she volunteered to plot the LOGO on behalf of her French-Section friends.

Thank you Venturers for the involvement and motivation you are showing!!