Have you ever heard someone talk about "Light Pollution" before? It doesn't mean that lights are putting out harmful chemicals into the air, but rather that modern lights block much of the night sky from being visible to us down here on the ground. 

Lights at night can impact both the biology and ecology of species in the wild. Some examples include:

• the disorientation of sea turtle hatchlings by beachfront lighting
• nesting choices and breeding success of birds
• behavioral and physiological changes in salamanders
• disturbances of nocturnal animals
• altered natural light regimes in terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems

There's an organization dedicated to documenting the trend of increased light pollution around the world. GLOBEatNight.org works hard via their website to have everyday visitors document visible stars at their locations. It's even possible for regular Joes like you and me to submit data! How cool is that?!

January 21, 2012 was a great day for the Agriscience Component!  If you've read Kerry's blog, you know that each week Theresa, our wonderful volunteer, has brought chicks that were born on Thanksgiving for the teens to see as they grow and get used to handling.  Four of the hens will live here at the Science Center this summer.  The Agriscience teens will take care of them and we will have fresh eggs!

This past Saturday, Theresa also brought Zeus, the rooster, and Helen, the hen, who are the chicks' parents.  The teens quickly learned why we can't keep roosters in the city.  We heard cock-a-doodle-dooing throughout the Taylor building all day!!  Check out Kerry's blog for great pics of the teens with the chicks, Zeus and Helen.

In addition to chickens, we had Eric Schwarz, the Sustainability Coordinator for Habitat for Humanity Saint Louis.  In December, Kerry and I attended a workshop at the Habitat ReStore on how to build cold frames (mini-greenhouses that will extend our growing season on Science Corner) using old windows and wood frames. Eric taught the workshop and we told him about our program.  He offered to come and help us build cold frames with the teens!

As I've mentioned this semester in Energy and Biofuels we're working on building our own devices. The stipulations given are  that they must utilize a free source of fuel to boil water. we chose boil water as a standard for being successful at cooking a product. Each group needed to come up with a name, logo, and mission statement. After those were solidified we needed to brainstorm three fuel ideas. This week we'll be researching those three concepts and choosing the one that we'll be developing in our final project. We'll have all of our team's progress updated on the windows by the Wet Lab so be sure to stop by and check in. I'd like to introduce our new project teams! (drum roll......) Our new teen groups are: Stove/In/Outs, Cookers on the Move, Free to Shine, Inc., and BioBuddies. We also have a supervisor and volunteer team called Fenix Fuels. (ta da!)

Last Saturday in Agriscience we worked on making cold frames.  These are windows on frames that can be put over seedlings in early spring.  The cold frames protect the seedlings and increase warmth, just like a bigger greenhouse.  However, cold frames are small and can be moved around.  We were also visited by our chicks' parents, the rooster Zeus and the hen Helen. Some of the teens were scared of Zeus, but many pet him.

 

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