The New Year has certainly gotten off to a rousing start for A Time for Science.  Soon after the holidays passed, ATFS made a presentation on Jan 7 at St. Elizabeth’s Church in Farmville entitled “A Scholarly Look at the Star of Bethlehem.”  This program draws on modern knowledge of history, religion, philosophy as well as science to propose possible natural astronomical phenomena that could be behind the biblical stories of the Star of Bethlehem.  This was followed by our usual Second Saturday Family Fun Day on Jan 12.

On Jan 10, ATFS was interview “live-on-tape” for the program called “GPAT Neighborhood” on the local public access cable television channel, Greenville/Pitt County Public Access Television (Channel 23).  The program focuses, according to program host Steve Row, on “interesting local folks involved in interesting things.”  Conducted much like a Charlie Rose interview, the interview will be broadcast on GPAT TV on March 1 and March 8.  Mark your calendar and check the GPAT schedule.  You can also see the video below (YouTube).

A whole batch of science fairs had the benefit of at least one ATFS judge: starting with E. B. Frink Middle School in La Grange on Jan 12.  This was followed by Chicod on Jan 20, Lake Forest Elementary on Jan 24 then South Greenville Elementary on Jan 26.

For our first-time participation with ECU’s annual Martin Luther King, Jr. Service Day A Time for Science was fortunate to receive the enthusiastic and energetic services of 15 students.  We kept them busy on two major projects: performing the first trail maintenance on our 5K trail (which will be used on March 31 for the Third Annual L.A.S.T. Turtle Run to raise funding for the Boys and Girls Club summer science camps) and the clearing of downed trees and other debris from our water ways as the result of beaver activity and Hurricane Irene.

In addition to the local science fairs in preparation for the regional competitions of the North Carolina Science and Engineering Fair, ATFS again assisted ECU Professor Heather Vance-Chalcraft in conducting the North Carolina Student Academy of Science completions that were held on Jan 21.

The next day, Jan 22, over forty prospective volunteers came together for a chili/pot-luck informational meeting/party to begin the planning for the coming summer’s Boys and Girls Club science camps.   With the enthusiastic group that assembled that evening we are confident that we will be able to make the planned six “Upstream-Downstream Connection” camps full of nature experiences, science engagements and fun, fun, fun.

Another Telescope Making Workshop was presented by Charles Goodman at Pitt Community College on Saturday, Jan 28, and ATFS was again there alongside assisting Charles and the workshop participants in the creation of their scopes.  Later that evening ATFS hosted these participants for the exposure of their newly minted scopes to their first starlight.  At the same time we hosted a youth group from St. Paul’s Episcopal Church for a program including a Sky Show, telescope viewing and an introduction to opportunities to contribute to world-wide scientific research through the NASA “Globe at Night” Citizen Scientist program.   Finally on Jan 30 ATFS presented the “Globe at Night” program to pre-service teachers in the elementary science method classes at ECU.

All the while progress is being made on the infrastructure and both exterior and interior renovations to our Office/Classroom unit.  Keep an eye on the Website and Newsletter for notice of a ribbon cutting – it won’t be long now.

A recycling program was implemented at the 5 Pitt County Boys & Girls Clubs on October 1st. The initiative is a direct result from the Upstream Downstream Connection summer camp. The camps are a collaborative effort of Love A Sea Turtle and A Time For Science. Presentations have been made at each Boys & Girls Club to promote recycling, water conservation, river awareness, sea turtles and the Upstream Downstream Connection summer camps.

On Friday, Jan. 27, a Feed The Bin Day was held at the Firetower Road Club to celebrate the recycling program. B&GC members, along with Love A Sea Turtle, ECVC, Keep Greenville Beautiful, and ATFS enjoyed popcorn and a movie about recycling. The kids were given rulers made from recycled phone books.

For all ATFS followers who have participated in the GLOBE at Night Citizen Scientist campaign to study and raise awareness of the impact of light pollution (and all who would like to join in this program) the observation periods for 2012 are:

January 14 – 23
February 13 – 22
March 13 – 22
April 11 – 20

If you or your organization would like further information and/or a presentation about this program please contact Nancy Bray (Education Director), see the Contact page.

You can check our previous Turtle Runs in 2010 and 2011.

Please register on-line (below), by email (atfs@atimeforscience.org) or by phone (252) 746-4470 by Friday January 13.  A Time for Science is located at 5345 Contentnea Lane, Grifton 28530 in Contentnea Creek Estates between Ayden and Grifton.  Directions to the Center can be found on the website here.

Registration for this event is now CLOSED.  See our SFFD page for the next event.