Ara Library will be hosting FabLab Christchurch on Wednesday the 31st October for a pop-up makerspace event. We would like to invite all interested staff and students of Ara to come along and take part.
Staff from FabLab Christchurch will transport us into the fascinating world of Virtual Reality. We will also investigate the transformative power of 3D Printing and will have a number of printers in the Library for you to use. If you have any .stl files for a project you would like to try on the 3D printer please bring them with you.
The Makerbot Replicator 2 as used by FabLab Christchurch
The event will be running from 10 am to 1.30 pm on the ground floor of the Library, at the City Campus, Ara Institute of Canterbury. Please contact us in the Library for further information.
We liaison librarians are always on the lookout for things we can add to the library to help our students develop autonomously within their subject: readings and projects that might help to develop your love of your subject while providing a bit of hands-on experience.
As the liaison for the School of Engineering, I think I’ve hit on a book for all you mechanical engineers who can’t wait for a phone call from NASA to start work on your rocket. And with Kickstarter projects like ArduSat aiming to democratise space experimentation, there’s never been a better time to get your feet wet.
With that in mind, I recently purchased I still have all my fingers by Dan Pollino, shelved at TL844POL. It’s a very simple book that gives detailed, step-by-step instructions on how to build a simple, reusable rocket, from scratch, that can, according to the blurb on the back, reach almost 2km into the air at speeds of over 600km/h. Rather than write about it, I thought I’d let the author make the sales pitch for me. So take a look:
I can vouch for the simplicity of the instructions- I’m pretty tempted to give it a go myself. But if you fancy reaching for the skies in a literal sense, why not assemble your own A-team, and unleash your inner rocket scientist.
(As an aside, We have a bunch of books and ebooks on Primo to help you learn Arduino, if you have a mind to make something to run on ArduSat. Just search for Arduino.)
With all the drama surrounding the Olympics and world affairs, it can be easy to forget that towards the end of last year, the Mars Science Laboratory, containing the Curiosity rover blasted off from Cape Canaveral. Ancient history this may be, but this evening, at about 5:30pm Christchurch time, the Curiosity Rover is set to make a dangerous descent into the Martian atmosphere, and if all goes according to plan, will land in the Gale Crater on the surface of Mars. Here’s a 5 minute video on the descent:
Although there is a significant chance that the rover will crash, as Mars has claimed several missions already, everything about the flight is so far going well.
If it makes a successful landing, Curiosity will begin experimenting on the area surrounding the landing zone. The primary mission is to search for present or past microbial life, but the scientists behind the mission have excelled themselves- the craft is loaded with experiments and sensors, which should provide a whole new understanding of the red planet.
Many of you, like me, might chose to follow the landing out of a sense of shared purpose as humanity continues to take faltering steps from our home planet. I am awestruck by our technological capabilities- that it’s possible for us to overcome all the barriers to interplanetary flight, and I can’t wait to see the news trickle back about the rover’s findings, if the landing is successful.
Those of you who are studying Engineering or Computing, however, can watch the landing with ulterior motives swimming about your devious minds, however. With stories about the commercialisation of space on the increase in the media, you might begin considering what steps might be required to spend your career in developing hardware and software to help us expand our horizons. As ever, the library is here to help, we have quite a lot of material on helping get yourself airborne on a variety of topics, like control systems, propulsion and communications technology.
If, like me, you’re more interested in watching the landing unfold, you can point your browser at NASA’s TV site, and see if the Curse of Mars will claim another victim today- or perhaps we are about to gain a host of new and fascinating information about our wandering neighbour.
Click on any title below to view its details in our Primo Library catalogue. If you would like to request any of these, sign in first and then select Request. (Hint: thesign in is in the top right corner once you have clicked on the resource.
For more resources on science be sure to visit the subject guide .
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Click on any title below to view its details in our Primo Library catalogue. If you would like to request any of these, sign in first and then select Request. (Hint: thesign in is in the top right corner once you have clicked on the resource.
For more resources on science be sure to visit the subject guide .
To follow our blogposts on the topic of science paste the following URL into your favourite RSS feed reader or just click this link to subscribe to this RSS feed.
This latest edition of the text maintains the clear, accessible, and engaging writing style of past editions with the solid framework of pedagogy that highlights an emphasis on evolution and scientific inquiry that have made this a leading textbook for students majoring in biology.
“Nutrition, Exercise, and Behavior: An Integrated Approach” takes a multifaceted, public health approach to examine all factors contributing to weight management issues and includes detailed coverage of treatment approaches and prevention strategies.
What does nature really look like? Scientific instruments enable us to see far more of the physical world than ever before. These devices can register millions of invisible colours, look back in cosmic time some 12 billion years, peer behind and within seemingly opaque barriers such as skin and bone, and capture events that last a mere trillionth of a second. In this volume, images of scientific interest and of beauty are accompanied by Ivan Amato’s descriptions, which shed light on the images themselves as well as the technologies that created them.
Introduces basic concepts of nutrition, how the body uses energy and changes during exercise, and examines when and what to eat and what not to ingest for participation in sports or vigorous exercise.
Click on any title below to view its details in our Primo Library catalogue. If you would like to request any of these, sign in first and then select Request. (Hint: thesign in is in the top right corner once you have clicked on the resource.
For more resources on science be sure to visit the subject guide .
To follow our blogposts on the topic of science paste the following URL into your favourite RSS feed reader or just click this link to subscribe to this RSS feed.
The methods include sampling and sample preparation, measuring electrical conductivity and pH. Soil analysis includes chloride, carbon, nitrogen, phosporous, sulphur, potassium and carbonates as well as saturation extracts, ion exchange properties and lime requirements. The manual is aimed at practising chemists, analysts and laboratory technicians.
Understanding the periodic table of chemical elements is critical for success in the chemistry classroom and laboratory. In today’s classroom, students not only need to understand the properties of the chemical elements, but how these elements play such an integral role in industry, the earth and the environment, and in modern life. This book provides an ideal introduction, with extensive new and updated examples on the use of the chemical elements.
Modern and professional communication is required to realise the goal of sustainability in society. This book develops a theoretical and empirical framework, integrating interdisciplinary perspectives from communications theory, psychology, sociology, educational sciences, systems theory and constructivism. Its aim is to inform the establishment of sustainability communication. The book addresses the scientific community and students as well as communicators in all categories of sustainability communication.
Click on any title below to view its details in our Primo Library catalogue. If you would like to request any of these, sign in first and then select Request. (Hint: thesign in is in the top right corner once you have clicked on the resource.
For more resources on science be sure to visit the subject guide .
This volume is the second of three that provide a complete review and inventory of New Zealand’s entire living and fossil biodiversity – an international effort involving more than 220 New Zealand and overseas specialists and the most comprehensive of its kind in the world.
Chronic exposure to environmental toxigenic molds mycotoxins, especially in water-damaged buildings is an indoor environmental health problem to which escalating health and property insurance costs are raising concerns in recent times. Hence, controversies exist, some of which are based on misunderstanding and economic motives. Nevertheless, it must be stated that moulds and fungi in general have both pharmaceutical desired and toxicological undesired effects on human and animal environmental health.
This book arms engineers with the tools to apply key physics concepts in the field. A number of the key figures in the new edition are revised to provide a more inviting and informative treatment. The figures are broken into component parts with supporting commentary so that they can more readily see the key ideas.
This Tenth Edition of “Chemical Principles In The Laboratory, 10e, International Edition” maintains the high-quality, time-tested experiments and techniques that have made it a perennial bestseller. Author Wayne Wolsey, with the help of new co-author Rob Rossi, continues to offer complete coverage of basic chemistry principles and present topics in a direct, easy-to-understand manner. Now, to benefit the environment and reduce the overall cost of the experiments, the new edition features a deepened commitment to green chemistry by reducing the volume and toxicity of experiments as much as possible.
Chemistry can be a daunting subject for the uninitiated, and all too often, introductory textbooks do little to make students feel at ease with the complex subject matter. Basic Chemistry Concepts and Exercises brings the wisdom of John Kenkel’s more than 30 years of teaching experience to communicate the fundamentals of chemistry in a practical, down-to-earth manner. Using conversational language and logically assembled graphics, the book concisely introduces each topic without overwhelming students with unnecessary detail.
It is Research Week at CPIT, an annual opportunity to celebrate the diverse range of research activity happening around the Campus. There are a series of public lectures, and an exhibition of research posters shares the Atrium with the art exhibitions which opened on the 12th Sept.
There is a rich applied research culture at CPIT and presentation topics include the science of chocolate , the impact of the earthquake on nursing students, and research into peer instruction using tablet PC’s. Local, national and international issues are addressed by research staff from Creative Industries, Health Humanities and Science, and Commerce.
If you are interested in the science of chocolate you might also be interested to know that 2011 is the International Year of Chemistry. At last… a chance to celebrate chemistry!
There are a range of events, competitions, and activities, including knitting the Periodic Table. There is a New Zealand website where you can learn a few things … such as…
There is even a Chemist of the Week, and you can follow Chemistry celebrations on Facebook
So let’s celebrate Science and research. Follow up with some reading in the Library, you can start with a basic introduction to Chemistry and then learn how to knit…..so you can contribute to the periodic table.
..and finally, visit She Chocolat and savour the art behind the science, it’s good for you!
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