January 22, 2012 - Posted by Ginny Stone - 0 Comments
Whenever she can, Ginny likes to make her presents and last Christmas (okay – it was only a few weeks ago) she decided to have a bash at tie-dying.
Don’t know what tie-dying is… we’ll show you.
It’s great fun and really easy. Ginny tie-dyed new pillow cases, because she was going to use them as gifts, but you can also use old pillowcases, revamp t-shirts, turn old sheets into stunning new ones (or use them as table clothes) and you can fix clothes that get messed up with grass stains – like Ginny did after Luan slid around in the muddy river in his white shorts!
What you need:
Item that you want to tie-dye (maybe try using something old the first time, to experiment with – until you know what you are doing)
Fabric paint
old plastic cool drink bottles (350 ml) plus extra lids
old plastic container (margarine containers work well because they have corners which makes pouring easier)
water
elastic bands (medium sized)
black plastic garbage bag (or a green one, or a blue one…)
4 stones (or something heavy to anchor the bag on the grass)
Black bag laid out on the grass - aka your working surface
Make sure you are wearing old clothes, or an apron – you don’t want to get paint splodges on your good clothes.
Step 1: First things first – sort your paint out. Decide what colours you want to use. You usually need at least 3 different colours when tie-dying to create a good effect.
Take a few teaspoonful’s of one colour and put it in the plastic container. Add some water (about half a glass) and mix it up gently. When the paint has more or less dissolved into the water, carefully pour it into one of the plastic bottles. If there is still some paint left in the bottom of the container – add a bit more water, swish it around and add it to the paint in the bottle. Put the lid back onto the bottle and shake it well.
Bottles of paints and lids
Wash the container and tea-spoon well (you don’t want to start mixing your colours now already). Follow the same process for the rest of the colours. Each colour must be in its own plastic bottle.
Take the extra lids and make little holes in them (like the top of a watering can) you can do this by using a compass point or a nail and a hammer. Once you have shaken up your paint bottles well , replace the lids with the ones with holes in them
Step 2: Almost getting to the fun part… take the item that you are planning on painting, grab a small portion of the fabric and wrap an elastic band tightly around it. Do this many times. You can either take a small bit, or are larger bit – depending on how big you want your circles to be on your fabric. (Check out the pics if you are not sure what to do.)
Once your whole piece of fabric looks like a wonky hedgehog, you are almost ready to start tie-dying.
Step 3: Do this outside on the grass – if you can, near a washing line. Lay your black bag down and anchor each corner with something heavy to stop it flapping around. Put your fabric item in the middle of it. Sprinkle one colour all over the fabric (both sides). Moosh it in with your fingers a bit (told you this was the fun part). Then sprinkle another colour on certain parts. Do the same thing with the third colour, and so on until your fabric is all covered with paint. Smoosh it around the black bag to mop up any extra paint.
wonky hedgehog hanging on the line...
Step 4: Hang your item up on a washing line, or drape it over a fence or a bucket or something. It needs to get dry. (And don’t even think about taking out the elastic bands until it is totally dry.)
Wash your hands with soap immediately. Sorry – but sometimes you do get paint in your nails that stays for a day or two – so if this is going to bother you rather use plastic gloves.
Replace the holey bottle caps with the whole ones. This way the bottle is sealed and if you have not used up all the paint – you can save it and use it another time. Don’t throw the holey caps away – wash them and save them for next time too. Fold up the black bag when it’s dry – if it’s full of paint you may want to wash it too, or throw it away if it’s really messy, but usually we just recycle them back into the kitchen drawer.
Step 5: Once your fabric is dry, you can then remove the elastic bands – do it carefully because you can use them again. You may find that you need to hang it back up on the line to dry where the elastic bands have been.
Step 6: Stand in front of the washing line and admire your gorgeous piece of art. Call your family and get them to admire it too.
Luan's revamped white shorts that he had ruined with mud and grass stains!
Step 7: When it is totally dry, you need to iron the fabric (on the wrong side) to set the paint, so that it does not wash out or fade.
Have fun.
November 10, 2011 - Posted by Ginny Stone - 3 Comments
Me! (The redrawn cutie Sibo - not Ginnys dodgy version!)
Christina Scott and Ginny met long before I, Sibo, was even thought of. Back in the days when Ginny worked at iThemba LABS in Faure – running the outreach programme. They were having a mini-conference for school girls – to celebrate National Women’s Day and profile different science-related jobs.
The ladies working at iThemba Labs gave short talks about their various career paths. The range was vast. From physicists to radiographers, human resources to scientific secretaries plus the matron of the Faure Cancer Hospital and a materials scientist – to name but a few.
From then on, Christina was always writing snippets about what was happening at iThemba LABS. Ginny was wildly impressed – Christina used to make her outreach stuff sound so snazzy.
In 2005 Christina handled the publicity for the South African Institute of Physics Conference (jointly hosted by iThemba LABS, SAAO and UWC). She researched the international delegates and found different angles to punt – interesting ones that Joe Blogs the non-scientist would also enjoy. There had never been such publicity around a “boring old physics conference” before. Ginny can remember Christina pitching up at the conference site, brandishing bits of newspaper that she proceeded to stick up on the notice boards. Her cutie little daughter, Ali, accompanied her – weighed down by the latest Harry Potter book that was almost bigger than she was. Ali hopped up on a table and proceeded to read. Perfectly at home with all the geeky scientists!
Another incident Ginny remembers vividly was when Christina invited them to Martin’s birthday celebration at their house in Rondebosch. They had never met Martin or Nozipho before. They duly arrived at the designated time but Christina was missing. She’d gone off to do something with Ben and Ali. After a bit of uncomfortable coughing and shuffling around, they all introduced themselves and got stuck into the champagne. Christina pitched up an hour later!
Christina would often call Chris – a materials physicist, whenever she needed something in particular clarified or explained. Chris is good at explaining complicated things simply.
In 2007 Chris and Ginny moved to Springs. They had not even moved out of their temporary accommodation when Christina popped up. She was in Joburg for some or other business and the premier of The Lion King was showing at Monte Casino – did they want to go?
On another occasion she invited them to accompany her to the Vodacom Awards. Ginny worked out what she was going to wear, and then at the last minute was in a frantic flap because Christina had called to check and decreed “it better not be black”.
Christina saved Ginny’s van de Graaff hair in Springs. Gave new meaning to a bad hair day – full of static and totally crap! Beyond crap in fact. She was at her wits end, having a good old moan to her friend on the phone… “On the highveld you need to use loads of conditioner” Christina advised. It worked. It still works.
Somewhere in between all of this – I came into being. Ginny wrote the first Sibo story – Sibo Moves the Fridge. (In fact, it’s now the middle chapter of “Sibo Makes a Difference”, but back then it was a stand alone booklet of 20 verses.) She illustrated it herself (must say – am much cuter now) and emailed it off to Christina to see what she thought.
Christina liked me! She forwarded the story to Leonie Joubert… and Leonie liked me too! Of course, it wasn’t exactly all plain sailing (gory details) but my first book was published in time for the 2008 Cape Town Book Fair in June.
Christina, vaguely outraged that there had not been a proper launch for “Sibo Makes a Difference”, decided such an event was in order. (Our publishers – Lets Look – are totally divine but they are not really the “launchy” types.)
Julie Cleverdon offered the MTN Sciencentre as a venue. Four ladies – Anusuya, Betty, Christina and Ginny – had recently each had a book published. They’d launch them all together at the MTN Science Centre. Lynne Smit was also roped in and designed a very cool invitation. Ginny was bullied into approaching Uncle Pete, the Publisher for food money! (She’s not good at stuff like that – but Christina’s wrath was the bigger of the two evils, so she did it anyway). The two of them had great fun raiding Woolies for all their samoosas and other finger food.
Invitation for the 4 x 4 book launch at MTN Sciencentre.
Needless to say, that wicked Christina had weaseled out some information about Ginny’s slightly dodgy past which she had great fun revealing when introducing her as a speaker. Ginny was torn between groveling under her seat in mortification and laughing hysterically. She opted for the latter.
Great fun was had by all.
Christina really put me on the map when she wrote an article for the Mail and Guardian (July 25-31 2008 pg 16)– which was reproduced in bits and pieces all over the country – proclaiming that Ginny had written the first children’s story book in South Africa on the topic of global warming. Nobody ever refuted the fact so maybe she was right.
She also got Ginny on several radio shows – coached her long and hard about smiling whilst being interviewed, using people’s names, and repeating the question so that listeners who had just tuned in knew what was going on.
A year later, one Thursday night, she had arranged for Ginny to be interviewed (over the phone) on her own SAfm Science Matters show to talk about the fourth book in the Sibo series. Ginny’s never sick – but this particular day she’d spent in bed groaning. High on pain pills – she eventually decided she’d have no option but to cancel the interview.
But Christina was having none of it. “You’ll be there and you’ll smile dammit” was what she said to the poor sick woman! She then proceeded to call Ginny a “hopeless overachiever” on air – because she’d written so many books so quickly. (She obviously never realized that there’s not much to do in Springs!)
The last time Ginny spoke to Christina was a few weeks before she died. A whole bunch of friends – Christina, Julie, Anusuya and goodness only knows who else were having their usual morning coffee in Rondeboch. Christina called Ginny with wacky ideas for Sibo books… they were all laughing and joking. Ginny mentioned that the dog book was about to be published. Never mind a dog book, Christina retorted – you need to do one on dinosaurs!
Yes, without Christina, I would never have received such publicity – in fact, I may never have existed at all.
Christina and Ginny - sitting in the princess chair in the kiddies section of the Cape Town Book Fair - 2009.
September 15, 2011 - Posted by Ginny Stone - Comments Off
Staple artwork.
Ginny has a stapler that drives her crazy.
Sometimes it works perfectly the first time and sometimes it doesn’t. Usually it goes on strike when she’s in a hurry and desperately needs to constrain several pages into one neat pile.
She puts the pages in (not too many – she knows the limit) and gently presses down on the lever.
It only half works. As in – the pages at the back are all loosey goosey and fall onto the floor.
She picks them up and tries again. But this time she put the stapler on the desk and thwucks it firmly instead of being ever so gentle.
The staple sticks – half in the papers, half in the stapler.
She gives it a yank. Half of the weaselly staple flies off into the air.
She grovels around looking for it. Does not want that wretched Fudge to either eat it or step in it. (Fudge is a spoilt brat – if you want to read more about her – go visit the Dog’s Blog.)
She gouges out the other half of the staple from the innards of the reluctant little doo-dah with the special pair of pliers she keeps in her desk.
This can happen quite a few times before it finally works.
She used to pile all the staples carefully on the edge of her desk, and then toss them into the bin.
Then she had a better idea.
She got a magnet and put it on the metal base of her desk lamp. (Yes – that is a toilet roll core you spotted on the picture – it’s a multi-tasking lamp). Each time the stapler malfunctions and produces nasty sharp shards of metal – she sticks them onto the magnet.
The pile grew.
Chris, her husband, offered very kindly to buy her a jazzy new stapler for her birthday last month. Ginny used some language that I’m sure little girls should not hear and said that if he did – she would staple his goolies together.
Not sure I should have heard that either.
The pile grew some more.
One day she was chatting on the phone. It was a long chat (probably grandma) and she started playing with the little jagged pieces of metal.
She piled them high and made a precarious tower. Looped them around. Attached them to each other’s ends. Dangled them together.
Then she made an interesting hedgehog of straggly metal bits.
Oh my hat!
A nifty little desk toy was born out of recycled staples.
August 16, 2011 - Posted by Ginny Stone - 1 Comment
Those clear plastic bits you can see... old coke bottles
Ginny has been very industrious lately… she’s making a bead curtain out of old plastic bottles.
Rubbish! I can hear you say.
Well – yes, exactly that. She’s making it from rubbish.
Just so that you know I’m not talking complete bolly – check out the photo. It’s not finished of course – she’s only done about 5 strings and we reckon that it is going to need 20 or more, so it’s a long term project (except that Ginny is not very good at long term things – she’s a bit impatient and likes to finish things chop chop.)
You are all probably busting to know just how she’s using those coke bottles in this bead curtain… it’s not that hard – but if you are a small person, please get an adult to help you.
You need the following stuff: plastic bottles (coke or whatever); fishing line, beads, bells and other cool stuff to thread or tie on, 2 pieces of 80gm paper, iron, sharp knife, scissors, glue, sharp point (use your compass or a nail).
First things first, wash your plastic bottles well – don’t want sticky or oily goo all over everything now, do you.
Using a sharp knife, make a slit in the middle of the bottle. Then using scissors cut the plastic into strips. (It’s easier to work with strips than huge bits.)
Believe it or not – that plastic is sharp, so work carefully. And be careful not to leave little bits of plastic lying around either – Ginny has a few dents and dings in her fingers from doing just that.
Once you have the plastic cut into the shapes you want – don’t make them too small – We used round shapes, a bit smaller than the bottom of a glass. (Don’t bother to make them perfectly round – when you get to the next step you’ll see why.)
Next step… again get an adult to help you and for goodness sake – ask your mom first if you can actually use her iron. Ginny has an old one that she uses for fabric painting (plus she’s actually the mom – so if she ruins her own iron – toughies hey!). Although we should point out that it does not actually ruin the iron – as long as you don’t iron directly onto the plastic that is.
Heat up the iron. Not on steam setting though. Put one piece of paper on a flat surface. Lay your plastic bits on top of it – only one or two at a time. Put the other piece of paper on top of the plastic bits.
Iron them flat. Actually – you’ll have to experiment a bit and see which way works best for you. Ginny found if she put them with the curved side on top, they shriveled into very funny shapes. If she turned them over – they stayed flatter with just the sides curling in. Either way – she found a use for most of the plastic bits she ironed.
Very important – like we already said, do not iron the plastic without a sheet of paper on either side.
Once you’ve got a whole pile of ironed odd shaped plastic bits – you can start making your curtain strings. Be sure to have a long enough piece of fishing line. Put something nice and heavy at the bottom – like a big bead or tie on something else interesting. Make small holes in the plastic bits (using the nail or compass) and thread them onto the fishing line. You can also glue beads onto the plastic – or make lots of holes in them and thread the beads through.
Go wild, use mirror bits, feathers, old nuts and bolts, pretty beads, old beads, you can even thread bottle tops and straws. Just make sure you tie or stick them properly, otherwise they’ll fall off at some stage.
Of course, you don’t have to make a curtain either – you can just make a pretty mobile or dangly thing for your room, or for a friend.
Main thing to do is have fun in the process.
Feel free to send pics to Ginny (http://www.sibo.co.za) and she’ll put them on the website so that the whole world can see how creative you’ve been.
The finished article - 28 strings.
August 12, 2011 - Posted by Ginny Stone - Comments Off
Puppet show: Carbon and Oxygen help simplify chemistry for young learners. Photo: Madelene Cronjé
Pg 13 – August 2011 theTeacher National Science Week
Making chemistry magical by Thabo Mohlala
Puppets are helping learners to get to grips with the subject on a molecular level
Meet Carbon and Oxygen. These newly created puppets are on a quest to make chemistry fun and interesting for young learners.
Their creator, Rudi Horak, the manager of the Sci-Enza science facility at the University of Pretoria, produced the puppets to help simplify chemistry for learners from grades two to four. Horak, who is a qualified teacher, said she always wanted to
stage a puppet show to highlight it as an effective classroom teaching tool.
The show is part of a series of educational events hosted by the Sci-Bono Discovery Centre to celebrate 2011 as the International Year of Chemistry.
The events aim to highlight the importance of chemistry to humankind, because “everything in the living and technological world is made up of chemical elements and compounds and is controlled by chemical reactions”.
Horak said puppets make it simple to teach complex chemistry in an entertaining, stimulating and interactive way. In the show the two characters, Carbon and Oxygen, take learners on a journey to get a better understanding of atoms, molecules and other related chemistry terms.
Horak’s initiative is linked to author Ginny Stone’s latest Sibo series, Sibo Mixes Things Up. Stone uses the series to teach young children about the importance of looking after the environment and it has become such a valuable teaching resource that the department of basic education has added it to the national book catalogue for grade three.
In the series Stone tackles green issues by promoting practices such as recycling, reducing and reusing among young children. “I think it is important to start learning that saving the planet is a responsibility that involves everyone, including the young ones,” said Stone.
Stone thought that puppetry is a suitable teaching instrument, praising its immediacy as one of its strengths. Referring to her series of books, she said: “The book, like those published earlier, is rich in pictures, uses rhymes and can be read in four
lines of verses, which makes it easy for children to read.”
Stone said the book lightens and gets across some of the more serious and complex issues in a less threatening way. This enables children to engage with the subject more easily — they listen and take what the characters say seriously.
Horak has been hosting shows for schools at the Sci-Enza science facility, where three shows a day are seen by about 150 learners a show. The puppets are part of the National Science Week and Sasol Techno X Expo in August.
BASF, the chemical company, has sponsored the printing of 3 000 copies of Sibo Mixes Things Up and has also bought a mobile theatre. The books will be distributed free of charge to schools, said Horak.
For more information visit www.sci-enza.up.ac.za or phone 012 420 3767.
To see the Sibo series visit www.sibo.co.za
May 31, 2011 - Posted by Ginny Stone - Comments Off
Okay – apart from the fact that smoking is just plain BAD for you, it’s also stinky. For years people have been more worried about the effect of the smoke pollution in the air and the bad effects of breathing it in.
Lately scientists have figured out (duh!) that it’s also one of the most abundant types of litter found around. That means there are plenty of butts out there. (Studies estimate that 4.5 trillion cigarette butts find their way into the environment each year.)
Yuk.
Worse, much much worse, it’s one of nastiest, deadliest forms of waste.
People who would not dream of pitching a cool drink tin out of the car window will happily chuck a burning butt out. Not particularly caring that it can set fire to something. And they do too – burning butts are often the cause of serious veldt fires.
People also drop them on pavements or into gutters, where the wind will blow them into storm waters and all sorts of other places.
Beaches are ideal for putting out butts. One huge ashtray – right? Wrong!
Or… they flick butts casually into water – dams, the sea and rivers.
But you probably wouldn’t flick a cigarette butt into your swimming pool – would you? Why not? Because you or your family might swallow it whilst swimming and that would be nasty and dangerous.
So why not care if a fish, bird or animal chomps it instead?
Cigarette butts are tiny little bundles of toxins. In other words – poisonous. They get into our marine ecosystems and cause havoc with the wildlife and the quality of the water.
And we all know that water is extremely precious – right?
Due to the fact that cigarette filters are specifically designed to accumulate toxins, each cigarette butt can contain up to 60 known human carcinogens including… arsenic, formaldehyde, chromium and lead. (In fact, there are around 1,400 potential chemical additives!)
Toxicological data has shown that these chemicals from discarded butts are capable of leaching into surrounding water where they can hurt aquatic life. Nicotine has been shown to be lethal to species of fish, crustaceans, zooplankton, and other aquatic organisms, as well as being a known insecticide.
On top of leeching toxins, cigarette butts present an ingestion, choking and poisoning hazard to wildlife who mistake them for dinner!
Cigarette filters are also composed of cellulose acetate, a form of plastic that can hang around in the environment for long periods of time. Plastics of this sort have been found in the stomachs of sea turtles, fish, birds, whales and other marine creatures.
DISGUSTING!
And yet you know what is also really scary – even those people who put their cigarettes out in the designated places have no guarantee that their butts won’t also end up in the water. The bins get emptied. Butts are chucked onto rubbish dumps. Here they are blown around and it is highly likely that they end up where they shouldn’t as well.
So what is the answer?
Whilst scientists are trying to find a practical use for cigarette butts maybe people should consider stopping or cutting down smoking… or at least disposing of their butts in a responsible way.
May 19, 2011 - Posted by Ginny Stone - Comments Off
Sci-Enza (University of Pretoria) was instrumental in obtaining funding from BASF – The Chemical Company. This was for 3000 copies of the latest title in the Sibo Series written by Ginny Stone – Sibo Mixes Things Up. (Specially written to celebrate 2011 being International Year of Chemistry.)
In addition, the funding covered a puppet show. This was loosely designed around the book and especially developed as part of SciEnza’s contribution to Scifest Africa.
Scifest is an annual event held in Grahamstown, South Africa where the who’s who of the science zoo congregate, exhibit, share their knowledge with thousands of children and generally have a blast in the process.
The puppet show was designed to appeal to young children whilst sneakily introducing a bit of chemistry on the side. Nothing mind-boggling, just the very basics. To compound the knowledge taken on board during the show, the kids also enjoyed a hands-on workshop afterwards – where they built molecules using sweeties. Hence the name – The Chemistry Party!
Whilst the original idea of the puppet show was the brain child of Rudi Horak (Manager of Sci-Enza), the three young scientists from Sci-Enza… Kagiso Matshika (Sibo), Irene Schoeman (Carbon) and Puleng Tsie (Oxygen) had written the script and worked out the act for the puppet show. Obviously the BASF funding also covered the delightfully cheeky-looking puppets and theatre.
Behind the scene - Puleng (l) and Irene (r)
The show was held at the Victoria Girls Primary School for the first three days of the festival – thereafter it would move up to the monument where the bulk of the festival is held.
Lets Look – publishers of the Sibo Series (and many other awesome resources) – also had an expo at Scifest for the first time and so I only managed to get to the school to check out the puppet show on the second day. By then, all glitches (such as the sound system, or lack thereof) had been worked out and it was running smoothly.
What an awesome puppet show this turned out to be!
I was in stitches half the time. Partly from the puppets themselves and partly from the comments from the kids.
First Sibo (Kagiso – a real live girl – not a puppet) made a mess whilst mixing her cool drink. The little children watched round-eyed as the green cooldrink fizzed and bubbled over the rim of the glass. Poor Sibo was distraught, wondering what on earth she had done wrong. Up popped puppet Carbon (Irene) to help her out.
Sibo makes a mess
The kids loved the puppets and screeched with infectious laughter often.
Oxygen and Carbon having a chat.
As did I when Sibo asked the kids for examples of what jewelry was made out of? BEADS – yelled half the audience. DIAMONDS yelled the other half. Eventually they caught the hint when Sibo’s demented fingering of her earrings gave the game away. GOLD they all yelled! One of the audience was invited up to the front to show everybody where gold (Au) was on the Periodic Table of Elements.
There was plenty of audience participation and the children watched, enthralled.
Children making CO2 with their hands.
The girls found out that not only did the littlies like it, but that it had big-person appeal too.
The show was also scheduled for a sunset show on Saturday evening - the hall was full of mainly older kids and adults. My heart did a little flip-flop for the girls, wondering how they were going to pitch it.
They just rolled with the flow, or should I say, the show!
Irene and Puleng ad-libbed generously with cheeky comments that more than did the trick. I giggled as I watched all the sophisticated students breathing out “caaaarrrbon-diiioooxxxidddeee” along with the little cuties.
All in all I watched the show 5 times. Not once was it the same. Each time it was equally entertaining.
Three cheers to Sci-Enza for doing such a great show and thanks very much to BASF – The Chemical Company for making it all possible.
May 17, 2011 - Posted by Ginny Stone - 1 Comment
SciFest Africa was just downright exciting!
Oh my hat! Mr Bones!
Lets Look Publishers had an expo. They had taken along stocks of their astronomy wall charts, periodic table of elements, plus some cool maps and stuff about global warming. And all ten of my books of course! Also catalogues featuring every single product they have… except for the latest hot-off-the-press electronics kits that they’ve just designed. The prototype kits themselves were also on display.
They had never been to SciFest before… and somehow Ginny had forgotten to mention the fact that there are gazillions of children roaming around. She’d mentioned that there are loads of teachers and home-schoolers, but missed out the reality that the major proportion of the visitors are children – all shapes, sizes and colours.
First day… Uncle Egbert (van der Westhuizen) paled slightly when he saw a horde of kids surging up the monument stairs. Our stand was one of the first that they spotted as they rounded the corner.
A large group of bright shiny faces looked up at him expectantly. He gaped at Ginny in horror.
I don’t deal with children. I deal with the Department of Education and teachers. Not children! Never deal with children. He shuddered with fright.
You do now, replied Ginny with a laugh.
Darn good job he did too. After a few hours he was giving impromptu workshops for the grades 10-12’s on the resister kits. The kids were all hugely interested and some of them had never seen the stuff in real life before – only diagrams on paper.
Egbert tells all...
A group arrived at the display of the Sibo Series.
What are these they asked?
These, replied Uncle Egbert, are books about literacy!
Erm… not quite.
Ginny pushed him out the way and took over. You’re at SciFest now she hissed at him.
He lies like a rug! These books are about science. Look! We have topics on Space, Nanotechnology, Biodiversity, Chemistry, Global Warming, Sustainable Resources, Water etc etc. She starts pointing out all the cool things – like the water cycle in “Sibo Saves Water” and the periodic table of elements in “Sibo Mixes Things Up”.
Of course the kids would have liked to get the books for free, and sloped off disappointedly when it was pointed out that they were, in actual fact, for sale. Mind you, this did not stop the odd few from filching some.
Lots of kids had an ah-hah moment when they recognized Sibo from the TV programme on eTV.
Clever Uncle Eggie had also brought along some globes – these were positioned either end of the display tables. The children and teachers alike fell on these and had geography lessons. Some of them quickly found Africa. Some of them didn’t have the foggiest where to look. To their great delight – Grahamstown also featured on the map. Naturally we informed them that we’d had them made especially for SciFest (bit of a fib – but sounded good).
Just when Egbert thought he’d seen and heard it all, a teacher pitched up and demanded to know what the significance of this was.
He waved his hand in the direction of the globe and the science kits.
Egbert assumed he was talking about the kits and started to launch into his usual spiel. In fact, he was talking about the globe. He’d never seen one before. Had no idea the world was round or that rotated. Poor dude was so shocked he had to go off and have some lunch to recover.
A little Sibo fan!
It was awesome to see all the children. Many of them visit regularly, but for some it was their first time. They get to experience hands-on workshops, hear interesting talks by scientists of note and see plenty of interesting exhibitions.
Bottom line… SciFest Africa was really cool!
Lots of Sibo fans...
April 10, 2011 - Posted by Ginny Stone - 1 Comment
I can hear you all saying…
SIBO! A book about Chemistry – have you lost the green plot entirely?
Not at all! Not even vaguely.
Besides – you never thought that with the book about Nanotechnology now did you?
Everything is linked. I discovered that chemistry makes up the world. No really – it does – even the people bits in it – like you and me.
Plus water has chemicals added to it to make it drinkable again, right?
Some veggies get sprayed with chemicals to make them grow better or keep the bugs off – or you also get the organic types that don’t.
And… when we cook or bake its chemistry. In fact, just about everything we do involves chemistry, but we never ever think about it. Just take it all for granted.
It’s a subject that us kids always think is too hard or complicated. Really it’s not that difficult at all. The basic bits anyway.
Besides – 2011 is International Year of Chemistry. Fancy that! A whole year to celebrate the subject. Quite awesome.
We have “Sibo in Space” that celebrated International Year of Astronomy in 2009. “Sibo Likes Life” that celebrated International Year of Biodiversity in 2010. So… it makes perfect sense that “Sibo Mixes Things Up” comes along to celebrate International Year of Chemistry in 2011.
Check out my Sibo Website if you want to find out how to order the book (or any of the others) – or want to read an excerpt from “Sibo Mixes Things Up”. Plus as an extra bonus it has a really cool Table of Elements in the back of the book.
All Let’s Look Publisher details are readily available on the website too.
February 5, 2011 - Posted by Ginny Stone - Comments Off
Pre-talk calming down routine...
Quite a few months ago, way back in 2010 Ginny was invited to go give a talk at Greenside Primary School. For various reasons… soccer, holidays, exams… you name it, the visit just never happened. Eventually they settled on the first Tuesday in February.
Turned out to be February 1st 2011.
Ginny asked them nicely not to make it too early in the morning because of all the traffic. I mean, nobody in their right mind really wants to leave home at 06h00 so that they can be at school 75km away at 08h00. They settled on 10h00.
The day before the visit Ginny emailed the school. Just to check that all was in order and we were still expected. By 20h00 that evening there was still no answer. Hmmmm…. was the visit on or off. She checked early in the morning and yay… there was an answer. Yes – we were still expected.
Ginny’s daughter Emma is visiting at the moment. She was hoping the visit was off so she could sleep late. No such luck. Ginny stuck her head around the door and said yoo hoo – this visit is on. Wakey wakey! Shake a leg. Em just mumbled and buried deeper under the covers. Ginny invited Fudgie to bounce on the bed a bit and slobber all over Em. This was quite effective.
We left home at 08h30. We live in Pretoria and the school is in Greenside in Johannesburg. A fair distance away. Traffic was heavy and we crawled half the time. Almost panicked and thought we’d be late but we got there in the nick of time – at 09h55.
We duly reported to reception and announced ourselves. Said we had an appointment at 10h00 to talk to the kids. The lady looked a tad baffled, then said okay – you can set up in the hall and she’d get hold of the library lady.
Ginny went off to fetch the stuff, including Emma, out of the car. We sauntered into the hall and hauled out the banner. The library lady arrived and told us that it was break time from 10:10 to 10:20 and that the talk would be after that. She said we could go up to the tea room for coffee – but she had to run because she had a meeting with the principal.
Ginny bit her tongue. She gets a bit miffed when people give her the wrong time. All that stressing about being late for nothing.
The kids started streaming into the hall at around 10h30 and took quite a while to get settled. There were lots and lots of them. The hall was filled with children – from Grade RR to Grade 4. Oh my hat! Those Grade RR’s are soooo tiny!
Emma’s job was to wander around and take photos.
It’s quite an interesting task to pitch a talk at such a huge cross section of grades – because generally Grade RR’s have the attention span of goldfish and really like to chat. But then the older kids get bored so you need to interact on different levels all at the same time.
We did the “Books are FRIENDS” talk, told them about my books and how I need them all to help me save the world. Then Ginny read “Sibo Tackles Trash”. Shame – only the wee ones right at the front could see the pictures. Usually we read a whole book, but this time we only did a chapter. Those little bums right at the front were starting to wiggle and squirm after sitting for nearly half an hour.
There wasn’t much feedback from the teachers but the children were really enthusiastic and said that they would not waste water or electricity and would also try their little hands at recycling.
Hopefully we made a few recruits.
By 11h25 we were back on the N1 heading in the direction of Pretoria. In the middle of the day it only took an hour to get home.
