Week 6 - To Be or Knot to Be? Möbius Strips with the Mad Scientists!

OM NOM NOM nom nom!

Sadly, last Thursday was our last Mad Scientist meeting at the Beaver Valley Public Library :( since this Thursday will be our Summer Reading Club Party, see my post about that here: http://beavervalleylibrarykids.blogspot.ca/2012/08/whats-happening-this-week-party.html

Today for out theme I thought science is awesome and so far this summer we've had lots of fun looking at science themed stuff, from biology, zoology, chemistry to math, so I thought more science is always a good thing!

Voila! You see? A simple piece of paper, one loop with a twist (Mobius Strip) and a circular loop!

So, the day before I practised my Möbius strip making and paper loop making! The above and below pictures are the before and after of my loops! The fascinating thing about Möbius strips is how simple, yet complex they are! All a Möbius strip is a loop that has a twist through it! (see above picture on the left!)

Tada!

The Strange ... But True? fact about a Mobius strip that makes it so weird, is that it is characterized as a surface with only one side and one edge, WHA- what!?!! right?

But its true and you can totally try it out for yourself its easy! Cut out a strip of paper and give it a twist before you tape your loop! Then with a pen or pencil start in the middle at a point in our loop and draw a continuous straight line down the middle until you connect the line. :O

The Möbius strip was found by two great German mathematicians, August Ferdinand Möbius (for whom the Möbius strip is named for) and Johann Benedict Listing in 1958.

I'm probably not it explaining it right, but there is this great story on YouTube, that introduced me to Möbius Strips! It's a video done by Vihart, who calls herself a Mathmusician and has a YouTube channel full of crazy, awesome math and music related videos that will blow your mind!

Anyways, I played the story of Wind and Mr. Ug for the Mad Scientists, its a good story that may make you cry :( its a little sad but also well told! I'll post the video here for you to watch! Let me know your thoughts!

What's Happening This Week? PARTY!

PA-PA-PAR-PAR-PARTY!!! (P.S. this picture was featured on the second page in the Trail Daily Times today! Much better in colour, though, no?)

So, from all of us at the Beaver Valley Public Library, you are invited to ...

Our Flyer for the Event!

Yay! I'm so excited, yet also a little sad, since this marks our last week of the Summer Reading Club and therefore drawing to a close my time this summer at the Beaver Valley Public Library! :(

Sara, Zoe, Michael and Sam are getting excited for our party this Thursday!

In the meantime though, I am looking forward to the bouncy castle!!!, the tie-dye-ing!!!, and games and just EVERYTHING coming up for the party at the Montrose Park this week! I hope to see you there!

Today, Susan and Stephanie joined me to practise some tie-dye-ing at my house, since we are planning to have a section at the party this Thursday devoted to tie-dye-ing capes! We shall indeed be assembling some super heroes at the party!

Our materials and finished product!

Guest Wednesday! - Hanne Smith: African Tales/Tails

Welcome Sign!!

Hanne giving her presentation!

So my lovely momma is an avid gardener, like seriously, there are plants in our house that are older, taller and much more quieter (as my mom likes to remind me) than me! My mom likes to call them her favourite children ... it really makes my sister, brother and I feel REAL special! Thanks Mom!

Recently, a couple years ago we moved to our new house and the year of my graduation from high school my mom started her new project of renovating her garden with the help of her creative and genius landscape designer friend, Buena! Now that my mom's garden is finished, she's been fostering and weeding like crazy over her outdoor friends. 

So, this year my mom found out about some Bee Pollinator Seminars/Movie Documentary Nights being hosted by Rossland Real Food (see website here: http://www.rosslandfood.com/) where a local entomologist was also going to be hosting some field trips into local farms/gardens give tours that expound on producing bee friendly gardens! 

I, sadly, missed the movie night! The documentary to be shown was called "Queen of the Sun: What Are the Bees Telling Us", here's the trailer: 

Anyways, this summer I made up for my absence by attending 2 of the field trips! One to a lovely local Fruitvale Organic Farm and the other to a quaint and beautiful home garden in Rossland!

And looooooong story short (too late!) that's how I meet Hanne Smith! She works for Rossland Real Food and organized our field trips - and did a fantastic job, I might add!

Library YA Book Review: The Leviathan Trilogy

"Leviathan"
"Behemoth"
"Goliath"

                   by Scott Westerfeld

                   illustrated by Keith Thompson

These books are the reason I type here before you suffering from tired eyes and sleep deprivation, and really it was so worth it!

Goodness me, I love Scott Westerfeld! I discovered the Uglies Series in the Crowe High School Library and then moved on to read most of his well known books: the Midnighters Series, the Uglies Series, the subsequent add ons to the Uglies Series, like the manga for Shay's Story! (I bought it at Crockett's in the Mall back when I thought they were closing and everything was on sale! Perhaps I'll review that in the near future!), and So Yesterday. (FANTASTIC BOOK!)

I also discovered that Scott Westerfeld is a writer friend of my favourite writer, John Green! MAKES ME LOVE HIM EVEN MORE! :) Seriously, so cool.

So I read "Leviathan" the first of the series, a couple of years ago, but I hadn't keep up with the series as the books came out! And I love it when you get the chance to read a series and all the books are already out! No need to wait in anticipation like the pain of waiting for the new Harry Potter, when I was younger! (although sometimes the wait is fun!)

Now first off all these books are gorgeous, they were published on super thick, lovely paper and are adorned with awesome illustrations from Keith Thompson! And plus it reminds me of a steampunk version of Airborn by Kenneth Oppel!! Love Kenneth Oppel! See my review of his newest book, "This Dark Endeavour" here: http://beavervalleylibrarykids.blogspot.ca/2012/07/library-book-review-this-dark-endeavour.html

So I may not be the biggest fan of studying history and stuff like that, but it doesn't mean I can't appreciate it! And I love the premise of this series, it totally reminds me of my favourite videogame "Bioshock" (which you young kids should stay clear of, lest you wish to be sleep deprived and haunted by scary scary zombie-like monsters!! Oh! and its rated M, so definitely stay away!)

Seriously, how beautiful are the inside pages??!?! Look at this map!

But "Bioshock" is set in the past and creates an alternate reality on past events, which I loved, everything looked snazzy and 50's/60's glam.

And with the Leviathan series, the same sort of alternative reality is made where in the past during and before the WWI, the main super powers of the war are divided by two different sciences. For instance, the Central Powers of the German Empire, Autro-Hungarian Empire are referred to as "Clankers", since here in this rewritten version of history, the Clankers are advanced in mechaniks and robotic-like war machines (very steam punk and AWESOME! ... but wait it gets even better!). And the Entente Powers, of the UK, France and Russia, are called Darwinists, and are super advanced in genetically engineering war monsters, that are seriously the coolest of the cool!

So anyways, the two powers don't get along, obviously, and in this story the Archduke Franz Ferdinand has a son named Aleksandar, and following the events of his father's assassination he and his trusty liege make for an escape to Switzerland.

The other half of our story follows a young and daring Scottish girl named Deryn who wishes to join the Air Force of England, however this is during a time were women don't even have the right to vote, much less join the Air Force! She disguises herself as a girl and soon ends up on board the great airship, the Leviathan!

I mean, this series is epic! I read through Behemoth and Goliath in a week and these are action packed books, that are just so fantastical! Plus, Scott Westerfeld is a genius at dialogue and really creating a world that is truly imaginative and amazing (along with the help of the illustrations, which are very beautiful!). I love the way the characters are developed and how each one has a specific way of talking and thinking, for instance the slang of the English Darwinists ("bumrag!") and the German Clankers ("Dummkopf!").

I don't want to spoil too much of the story for you, but if you like epic adventures, READ THESE BOOKS! :) please!

I mean seriously, read it. now. :D

All these books get a legit 5/5 from me! Let me know what you thought of 'em!

Week 6 - A Trick of Light? with the Young Professors!

Time to Colour! Wheeeeew!

So this Wednesday marked the second to last week of our Young Professors programming for the Summer Reading Club! (sad face :( ) The theme we talked about today was "A Trick of Light", so we discussed mysterious and uncertain happenings! We started off talking about sea monsters! So we all coloured some colouring sheets from the Summer Reading Club website: http://www.kidssrc.ca/

This is the colouring sheet we worked on:

After our colouring escapades we read through "Sophie and the Sea Monster" by Don Gillmor and illustrated by Michael Martchenko, a book that I've mentioned quite a few times this week, but you can definitely check out my review for it here: http://beavervalleylibrarykids.blogspot.ca/2012/08/library-childrens-book-review-sophie.html

The kids liked the book, as I read to them I asked them questions and quizzed them on why the moon orbits the earth! Answer: Gravity!

After our story time we went into one of my favourite games, one that I generally call The Human Knot! You've probably played it before, SINCE ITS AWESOME! But here are the rules:

• you probably first want to alert everyone that hands will be held and you will be very very close to each other, so its always good to check that that's okay with everyone!
• now that that's cleared, get everyone to stand in a circle, a fairly close to each other! 
• get everyone to put a hand into the circle and get them to grab another person's hand, only one person should be holding the other person's hand! So no triple holding or grabbing someone's wrist! 
• Once that's done get everyone to put their other hand into the circle and grab someone else's hand, not the same person's hand! OK? OK!
• And now! We have our monstrous knot! Everyone's tangled and bunched and now working together the knot must unwind without letting go of any hands! 
• Make sure the kids don't hurt each other! And for an added challenge tell the kids that not to talk at all! :O It gets tough, and fun! 

Here's some pictures of the Young Professors trying to untie their knot!

Library Children's Book Review: "Sophie and the Sea Monster"

by Don Gillmor
illustrated by Michael Martchenko

Now in one of my previous posts I mentioned this book, "Sophie and the Sea Monster", Rhonda read it to the Little Einsteins this Tuesday and I loved it so I read it twice this week with the Young Professors and the Mad Scientists - who shared and agreed that this was a good book! You can see the post about the Little Einsteins reading this during their Dragon Week here (but I warn you, like all Little Einstein posts, this post is incredibly and astoundingly adorable!): http://beavervalleylibrarykids.blogspot.ca/2012/08/week-6-dragons-with-little-einsteins.html

So this story, written by Don Gillmor, follows a young girl named Sophie who is pestered by her brother about a sea monster under her bed! From the first page we learn about Sophie's many fears and thoughts. She's afraid of anteaters, pythons, bats! She's afraid of losing her homework! And she's also curious as to what holds the moon in the sky and fears that one day the moon will fall from the sky and land on her house!!

The illustrations, it's worth noting, is outstandingly done by the great Michael Markchenko, you may recognize the style from many Robert Munsch books, of which Markchenko illustrated! And I love his illustrations!  

So, to continue the story, Sophie must get up the courage and strength to look under her bed and discover whether or not their is a monster under her bed!

This is a lovely and heart-warming story that I think a lot of the kids could relate to from the pestering sibling, the elaborate and many fears Sophie has, and the sense of courage and curiosity that she has to grow and discover!

As I said, I read this book with the 6-9 and 10-12 year olds and Rhonda also read it to the 3-5 year olds, we all loved it! So it just goes to show how well this book can transition for all kids! The Young Professors laughed non-stop and the Mad Scientists totally related to losing their homework!

So thank-you Mr. Gillmor for a great, short and cute book about being curious and about finding your courage and not letting your fears stop you from having a good time! I give "Sophie and the Sea Monster" a happy 5/5!

Happy Reading!

Library Book Review: YA Fiction "My Favorite Band Does Not Exist"

by Robert T. Jeschonek

(American published I'm assuming so "Favorite" rather than "Favourite")

So I'm in Metrotown Chapters, waiting for my sister's plane to land ... and I thought, let's do a book review! Hurray!

So I finished off this book a couple of weeks ago ... and let me first say that I am a big fan of Young Adult Fiction, how else does one survive high school!? So now, working at the Beaver Valley Public Library, of course my eye is continually wandering back to the Young Adult Fiction area with longing!  And if you haven't checked it out already here's a post where I talk about the YA/Fiction books for YA that I recommend: http://beavervalleylibrarykids.blogspot.ca/2012/07/young-adult-novels-book-list.html

Anyways, this book caught my eye among the shelves and I was impelled by the summary on the inside flap! This book sounded different and interesting. It had this sort of meta-esque quality in how one of the main characters has an anxiety issue in thinking he's stuck in a book and that some ominous "author"/"fate" is in control of his life.