Junior Field Naturalists SA

Newsletter - February 2020

Hi Junior Field Naturalists,

February Meeting

When: Thursday 27 February, 7.00pm, in the Activity Room of the

Bellevue Heights Primary School

Topic: Fossil Aliens in South Australia

Overview: So you thought aliens were just imaginary beings described in books or shown in

science-fiction movies?

Then you’ll be surprised to hear about the wide range of aliens that lived in our very own

state, some 500 million years ago, a time when animals were beginning to roam our oceans.

Come and see for yourself - and touch! - their remains, which have been fossilised in the

rocks of the Flinders Ranges and Kangaroo Island since those ancient times.

Speaker: Our speaker is Dr Diego Garcia-Bellido

and he will give us an exciting insight into South

Australia's half-a-billion year old fossil aliens. He

is an Associate Professor at the University of

Adelaide and a Senior Researcher at the South

Australian Museum, working on Cambrian Emu

Bay Shale fossils and the Ediacara Biota.

Joining the Club

To hasten enrolments at our meetings, new and returning members can download an

application form from our web site at: http://jfnsa.com.au/downloads/

Fill it in and bring it along on the night. We accept cash or cheque payments, or you can do a

direct bank deposit - details are on the form.

Program of Talks and Activities

Below is our current schedule of dates for 2020. We will be including more activities as the

year progresses, so this list will be updated as we lock in additional dates and programs.

Have a particular topic or field trip you would like us to include? Let us know and we'll see

what we can do to make it happen.

27 February - Dr Diego Garcia-Bellido: FOSSIL ALIENS OF SOUTH AUSTRALIA

Sat 21 March: FIELD TRIP at CLELAND WILDLIFE PARK

26 March - speaker to be advised

30 April - SPECTACULAR SCIENCE SHOW! & AGM

28 May - tba

Sunday 7 June: BIRD BANDING FIELD TRIP (Newland

Head Conservation Park)

25 June - tba

Sunday 26 July: FUNGI FORAY FIELD TRIP (Belair

National Park)

30 July - tba

27 August - tba

24 September - tba

29 October - tba

3 December - DAVID CHRISTOPHEL MEMORIAL QUIZ NIGHT

Parents attend meetings and field trips with their children and are responsible for their

supervision.

Cleland Membership

Each child member of Junior Field Naturalists SA receives FREE membership to Cleland

Wildlife Park for 2020. This membership allows the child member unlimited free entry into

the Park for 12 months.

We extend our thanks and appreciation to Cleland Wildlife Park and

its Director, Prof Chris Daniels, for this substantial support of our

nature club. We are privileged to have Chris as the Patron of Junior

Field Naturalists SA.

Promoting our Club

Help us to spread the word about Junior Field Naturalists SA:

Facebook: Check out our club's Facebook page and "Like" us.

Brochures: We will have a supply of our brochures available at each meeting. You are

welcome to take some to spread around at your local library, school, community centre and

so forth.

The Tonsley Science and Innovation Fair

The whole family will enjoy this interactive

science fair. Come and see, touch, explore and

discover a range of STEM activities and learn

about the cutting edge innovation at Tonsley.

When: Sun 22 March | 9am - 4pm

Where: Tonsley Innovation District

Cost: FREE

More info: www.sciencealive.org.au

Our club will have an interactive stall at this

event and we could do with a few helpers

throughout the day. If you have a couple of

hours free on the Sunday, join us on our stall.

Please let Rona know if you are able to help

out. It's a lot of fun!

Some upcoming public events that might be of interest to club

members:

Science at the Fringe

Discover a wealth of wonderful science-themed shows in the Adelaide Fringe. Check out the

Science at the Fringe Guide at the Inspiring SA web site: inspiringsa.org.au

Here is a taste of some of the shows suitable for children - with lots of fun and learning!

Erth’s Dinosaur Zoo - Hot on the heels of sell-out seasons at the Edinburgh

Festival, Sydney Opera House and London’s South Bank, Australia’s prehistoric sensation

returns to Adelaide for the first time in five years. Get up close and personal with the rock

stars of the Stone Age - meet the dinosaurs that ruled the earth. The coolest family show in

(pre) history! | AGES 0-12 | 22-23, 29 Feb, 7-8, 14-15 March, various times

Science Magic - Donal Vaughan ‘Science Magic’ is

back. Always exciting and sometimes very messy, learn

about science and laugh your pants off while you do. | AGES

5-12 | 15 Feb - 15 March, various dates and times

The Alphabet of Awesome Science -

Join professors Lexi Con and Noel Edge for a thrilling

voyage through the alphabet - where BIG words inspire BIG

science! | AGES 5-12 | 7-15 Mar 2:15pm

The Scientific Bubble Show - with Marty

McBubble. Marty will explore the amazing science of

bubbles as he creates bubble tornados, volcanos, jellyfish,

rockets, cubes, caterpillars and more, and attempts to put

10 children inside one giant bubble! | AGES 3-12 | 7

March, 2pm

Have fun with science ...

MAKE YOUR OWN QUICK SAND

You will need:

Half a cup of water

1 cup of maize cornflour

A large plastic container

A spoon

What to do:

This one is simple! Just mix the cornflour and water thoroughly in the container to

make your own instant quick sand.

When showing other people how it works, stir slowly and drip the quick sand to show

it is a liquid.

Stirring it quickly will make it hard and allow you to punch or poke it quickly. This

works better if you do it fast rather than hard.

Remember that quick sand is messy! Try to play with it outside.

Always stir instant quick sand just before you use it.

What happens?

If you add just the right amount of water to cornflour, it becomes very thick when you stir it

quickly. This happens because the cornflour grains are mixed up and cannot slide over each

other due to the lack of water between them. Stirring slowly allows more water between the

cornflour grains, letting them slide over each other much easier.

Poking it quickly has the same effect, making the substance very hard. If you poke it slowly,

it doesn't mix up the mixture in the same way, leaving it runny. It works in much the same

way as real quick sand.

Did you know ...?

Fleas can jump around 130 times their own height.

A person’s sneeze can travel at speeds of about 160 kilometres per hour!

Three-fourths of the earth is covered with water. When astronauts first saw the

planet from space, they could mostly see water, so they called it the ‘Blue Planet’.

Squirrels plant more trees than an average human in their lifetime! How?

The first computer of the world, the ENIAC, weighed around 27 tonnes and occupied

an entire hall.

Rona Sakko, President - Junior Field Naturalists SA

0419 827 723 jfnsa.com.au

ronadel@dodo.com.au or rona.sakko@gmail.com

Patron: Prof Chris Daniels

Image from acidcow.com

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