Little Mad Scientist

GIFTED in FRANCE

September 26, 2011“

Curiosity is the very basis of education and if you tell me that curiosity 

killed the cat, I say only the cat died nobly.”

~ Arnold Edinborough

LITTLE MAD SCIENTIST'S CLUB

Ages: 4-7 years-old

Date: Sunday 9 October 2011

Location: PALAIS DE DECOUVERTE

Meet: in the lobby at 10h30

Avenue Franklin Delano Roosevelt

75008 Paris

Museum: 01 56 43 20 20

Click HERE for map: 

more info click here:   http://www.palais-decouverte.fr/index.php?id=339

Must RSVP by 4 October, by email, Julie Harris julie.harrisguiader@gmail.com

Dear Friends,  

We are kicking off the 2011-12 Little Mad Scientist season, with a meeting on Sunday 9 October at 10h30, at the Palais de la Decouverte. The purpose of this group will be to expose children to all things science throughout the year.  

The meeting place will be in the lobby at 10h30, just in time to buy entrance tickets (7 euros for adults, free for under 6's, 4.50 euros for ages 6-25).  In addition to their temporary and permanent exhibits, each day (or by 19h00 the day before) the museum releases a schedule of activities from which to choose. Here's an example of one for today. The "Electrostatique spectaculaire " is a crowd-pleaser, for example. (It's usually a popular activity, so you want to be in place ahead of time.)   When you get to the museum, you can either walk around with GiF members and discover the museum on your own, or join in one of these activities, providing it's age-appropriate. (Please note that if you have a membership to the Cites des Sciences, it usually works at this museum, so bring it along. There's also a coat and stroller check-in and there should be plenty of room on a Sunday morning before the midday crowd pours in.) 

The group can pause for lunch around 12h00  (bring your own lunch or buy it at their small snack bar.)  After lunch, you can opt to choose a second or third activity according to interest, go to a nearby park or leave for the day. 

For this outing, please RSVP to Julie, julie.harrisguiader@gmail.com Subject:  Little Mad Scientist. This event is open to GiF members.

We look forward to developing and growing the Little Mad Scientist Club. We welcome parents leading talks, doing show and tell, and sharing their expertise with children. 

Thank you Julie for leading the October 9th event, and thank you to Heather for leading last April's visit.  We hope to hear from more parents who can volunteer for other science-related venues in the coming weeks and months.

Best regards,

Helen Sahin Connelly

Gifted in France

giftedinfrance.blogspot.com

 parisfrancespellingbee.wordpress.com

Plasma/Tokamak 3...

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GIFTED in FRANCE
September 9, 2011 

Sometimes I think the surest sign that intelligent
life exists elsewhere in the universe is that
none of it has tried to contact us.
~Calvin and Hobbes

PLASMA FUSION (Part 3)
with guest Physicist Steve M. Elliot:

(design by S. M. Elliot)

Workshop on Tokamak Pulsed Confinement Magnets            

DATE: Sunday October 9, 2011

TIME:   14H00-16H00

AGES:  9-14+up

LOCATION: Same as before

RSVP:  September 20th, Cost: 10 euros

NOTE: PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS TIME BOTH AGE GROUPS WILL BE COMBINED INTO ONE AND WE ARE NOT SURE IF WE CAN ACCOMMODATE EVERYONE, SO PLEASE RSVP ASAP IF YOU PLAN TO ATTEND. YOU HAVE PRIORITY IN RESERVING YOUR SPACE, AFTER THE CUT-OFF DATE, THE EVENT WILL BE OPEN TO OTHERS, SPACE PERMITTING.

Description

High magnet fields are required to compress the plasma in the Paris Small Tokamak, which is being created under the direction of Mr. Elliot.  "Practical magnets cannot be operated continuously due to a severe heating problem. The problem may be solved by operating the magnets with very short, high power pulses followed by a cooling rest period. The workshop will focus on challenges and solutions for designing suitable magnets and a pulsed power supply to drive them. An experimental plasma compression magnet used with the Paris Small Tokamak will be demonstrated along with new computer simulations of Paris Small Tokamak operation. Attendees are encouraged to bring a digital camera or cell phone with a camera function, if available, for recording observations of Tokamak operation." Also, bring your notebooks, and handouts.

Resources: 

1.   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnetic_confinement_fusion

2.  Two-minute video from ITER. 

Parents are invited for a brief introduction to the activity at drop off time, and a summary at the end. During the workshop, parents are invited to gather at the nearby Cafe Les Ondes for a little brainstorming and friendship session.

Note to our young scientists: We will also be getting ready to start our own blog on what we've done to date.  If blogging, graphics design, illustrating, or writing... --even writing songs and poetry about our beloved Paris Small Tokamak -- is of interest to you, please let me know as soon as possible. When emailing about the blog project, indicate your area of interest, if you have one, though it's not mandatory. This is all a work  "in progress," and we'll figure it out as we go.

As always, we are indebted to Mr. Elliot for all his time and devotion to this project. 

See you all soon! 

Best regards, 

Helen Sahin Connelly

Gifted in France

giftedinfrance.blogspot.com