Parts of Canada and the US experienced an incredibly mild winter this year.

In some places, allergy season has started weeks ahead of schedule thanks to early-blooming plants. Some animal species – including birds and frogs – have come out of hibernation and begun migrating earlier than usual.

We often forget how tied we are to weather and the environment. A slight shift in temperature over a prolonged period of time can influence just about everything – from food production to our health to our living environments.

The weather is fascinating in many ways and provides students with a unique opportunity to study variety of scientific phenomenon simultaneously. With the help of our broad range of sensors and training panels, students can now enhance their understanding in a classroom and field setting. Our Weather Sensor (PS-2154) allows students to collect and observe six key measurements (temperature, barometric pressure, relative and absolute humidity, dew point and altitude). They can also measure other elements of the weather such as wind speed and wind chill using the weather/Anemometer Sensor (PS-2174).

Budding meteorologists can learn more about environmental science on our homepage.

March 2012, PASCO Canada attended the Science on Stage Canada (SoSC) flagship event at Appleby College in Oakville, Ontario. The main goal of SoSC is to inspire young individuals to explore the fields of science and technology by providing educators with essential tools to help transform their classrooms into innovative learning environments.

This was a four day event that brought together educators including teachers, researchers and professors from different parts of the country to share their experiences. They were able to display their accomplishments during the science fair, and were also able to propose possible solutions to each others obstacles throughout their teaching course during the pedagogical discussions. Several of the teachers in attendance have our SPARK dataloggers and they were able to provide insight into how such technology-based labs better engaged their students.

This was a well organized event and helped the educators gain an understanding of how they can incorporate a number of different tools to develop exciting lesson plans. There were incredible keynote speakers and AYVA was honoured to be one of the partners.

For more information on Science on Stage visit http://scienceonstage.ca

Back in June, PASCO’s SPARKscience™ learning environment landed a coveted spot on EdNET’s Best for 2011 list as one of the top five recipients in the Shining Stars category – adding it to a prestigious list of “game changers” in the education marketplace.

Described as a “whole new generation of science learning technology,” the SPARKscience environment is designed from the ground up to integrate inquiry-based science investigations within a research-based, state-of-the-art learning environment, while providing both teacher and student support for success in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) programs.

Another added bonus is that SPARK was created with today’s schooling environments in mind. It operates on Windows and Mac-based computers as well as on interactive whiteboards, netbooks (such as the Intel-powered classmate PCs), the iPad, iPhone and iPod touch – along with functioning as a standalone system.

And SPARK is popping up everywhere. Several dataloggers are being used at the TELUS Spark Centre in Calgary – and the Apple app is proving to be a popular teaching aid, granting students and educators alike with the flexibility to collect data anytime using their mobile Apple device.

As a PASCO distributor, we’re pleased to be playing a role in furthering science education, using cutting-edge technology like SPARKscience!

Click here to read more about SPARK’s EdNET designation.

Earlier this month, PASCO Scientific hosted its Global Science Partners Meeting in Roseville, California.  More than 35 countries from around the world were represented – Australia, Taiwan, Chile and Italy to name just a few.

PASCO launched several new products for both the post-secondary and K-12 markets and Distributors shared regional stories and successes.

During the day we had an opportunity to play with PASCO’s crown jewel for physics and engineering educators – the new 850 Datalogger and Capstone software.

At night we had an opportunity to mingle and mix it up with our Global Partners. We enjoyed an Awards Dinner at the Firehall Restaurant in Old Sacremento where our PASCO Canada Division was recognized for the third year in a row for growing the science education market in Canada.

But probably the most fun was the Pizza and Bowling Night where Team AYVA (pictured above) managed to hold their own amongst some stiff competition.

It was a great week and the culmination of a great deal of hard work by our wonderful hosts at PASCO Scientific.  We learned a lot and are anxious to share the latest developments and releases with our customers.

[Pictured: A rendition of the Curiosity Mars Rover. Courtesy: Wikimedia Commons]

February: IBM’s Watson computer defeats Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter, two (human) Jeopardy champions. This year, Watson will begin using its analytical skills to help improve patient diagnosis and treatment options.

March: Following the Japan earthquakes, the nuclear reactor in the Fukushima power plant becomes compromised, sparking fears of a massive meltdown akin to Chernobyl. Thanks to the tireless efforts of plant workers, a large-scale disaster was averted – although it will take years to properly clean up the site.

June: Taking a page out of science fiction, scientists at University of Southern California (USC) and Wake Forest University were successfully able to “insert” memories into the brains of rats via injection. This may be applied to humans in the decades to come – making it theoretically possible to master a task in a matter of minutes.

October: Apple inventor and CEO Steve Jobs dies. Widely described as a “genius”, Jobs is likely to go down in history as one of the greatest inventors of our time. Praised as a trailblazer for his conviction that electronics can be functional and aesthetically pleasing, Apple was the first company to successfully market touch screen devices – and the iPhone has revolutionized the smart phone industry.

November: NASA sends Curiosity – a $2 billion unmanned robotic probe to Mars. Equipped with a lab to drill and analyze soil samples on the Red Plant, Curiosity will reach its destination in August, 2012.

December: NASA telescope Kepler finds this first planet in the “habitable zone”, which means the planet could harbour temperatures that allow for the formation of liquid water, and possibly human life. The planet has been named Kepler 22b, and it is approximately 600 light years away.

December was also the month that physicists at CERN (European Organization for Nuclear Research) announced they are close to discovering the Higgs particle – which may provide information crucial to understanding the big bang theory.