The 5 Famous Works of Art Mimicked at Ho Chunk Nation Head Start

The 5 famous works of art [unintentionally] mimicked by Ho Chunk Nation Head Start children during an outreach event.

1. Head of a Woman, Pablo Picasso--1960

 

 Picasso's version:

2. The Scream, Edvard Munch--1910

 

Munch's version:

 

3. Apparition of Face and Fruit Dish on a Beach, Salvador Dali--1938

 

Dali's version:

 

4. Mona Lisa, Leonardo da Vinci--1517

da Vinci's Version:

 5. The Son of Man, René Magritte--1964

Magritte's version:

Wisconsin Science Festival

The Wisconsin Science Festival is a state-wide celebration of curiosity, meant to engage all members of the community in scientific activities. This year, the 2013 Wisconsin Science Festival featured many exhibits including a Cave Tour, Birds in Art, and the Discovery Expo at the Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery.

The "Ask a Science Librarian" booth and the 2013 Wisconsin Science Festival, in all its glory.

The Discovery Expo featured an 'Ask the Science Librarian' event so, of course, The Water Library was there to show off their sea lamprey (aka double-dog dare children to touch the lamprey's teeth) and teach young people how to use a dichotomous key to identify Wisconsin fish.

Anne Moser, head librarian at The Water Library, teaches a student how to use a dichotomous key. "Think like a scientist" she says.

Many librarians from other University of Wisconsin science libraries, including the Ebling Health Sciences Library and Steenbock Library, joined The Water Library.

Ann Combs from the Ebling Health and Sciences Library answers questions on practically every topic. 

Many of the participants were able to answer trivia questions before the science librarian was able to answer. One young man, already a skilled fisherman, was able to identify every fish species on flashcards at the booth without even using the dichotomous key. The future of scientific discovery could be found everywhere during the Science Festival.

Honey, we shrunk the scientists.

10 Great Moments in UW Parents' Weekend

On Friday, September, 20th the Wisconsin Alumni Association kicked off its annual Parents' Weekend. 

UW Sea Grant Institute, committed to informing citizens about everything from invasive species to hypothermia, hosted the Hypothermia Challenge at the Parents' Weekend Exploration Stations event. 

The premise of the challenge is for participants to hold their hand in a cooler of 38-degree Fahrenheit water for 45 seconds; the participant is then given 10 seconds to try to pick up as many dimes at the bottom of the cooler as possible. The purpose of this activity is demonstrate how quickly a person loses dexterity in cold water.

Librarians from The Water Library were on hand to capture the 10 Greatest Moments from the event:

10. When this girl's parents were delighted by how much she hated the cold water. 

9. When the parents got too wild with our scoreboard. You rascals. 

8. When this guy rued the day he ever decided to visit his son at college.

7. This parent's surprised face at the first touch of ice water. 

6. When this mother-daughter team prevailed in the face of adversity!

5. When this gentleman's son claimed his dad only succeeded at the challenge because of his, "Ginormous competitive spirit and sausage fingers."

4. When this woman laughed at her husband's pain.

3. Also, this woman's willingness to volunteer her husband for the challenge--all in the name of science!

2. Jim "Ice Cube" Madsen demonstrating his patented scooping technique.

1. Meeting Badger Families from all over! (Aw, so sweet)

Madison Public Library: Central Branch Sneak Preview!

On Monday, September 9th librarians from Wisconsin's Water Library joined other members of University of Wisconsin-Madison's librarian community, for a special tour of the newly refurbished Central branch of Madison Public Library (MPL).

Although the new library has a sleek, modern design, patrons will still feel at home relaxing with a book or a newspaper (in print or electronic format).

Swarms of UW librarians descend on the Central branch of MPL. 

The tour started in the former basement of the old Central building. This basement has come to life as the new children's area. Some of the features of the children's area include wall prints done by local artist Derrick Buish, scaled-down modern furniture, and colorful flooring.

Edward Berge's Wildflower is ready to delight future patrons.

Librarian Anne Moser test drove a rocking chair in the children's area--she gave it two thumbs up.

The first and second floors of the new branch of the library feature more open space and 325 available seats--a 148% increase over the seating available in the old building.

Part of the new teen area. This space offers an open design with added privacy.

These floors also boast lovely wall prints done by Sofia Arnold, a cafe from Chocolaterian, and an area just for young adult patrons.

The third floor of the Central Library features an art gallery and community room. The art gallery is currently featuring an exhibit called 'Q & A' which invites onlookers to investigate and speculate about question and answer themes found in each piece of artwork.

Adjacent to the gallery space is a beautiful patio area that overlooks Madison. Featured on the patio is a statue titled Heiroglyph by the artist V. Shaffer. Tables and chairs make the patio an ideal area for reading, relaxing, and sipping coffee.

The partially-green roof will collect storm water and contribute to cooling and insulating the building.

From the children's area to the partial green roof-- the refurbished Central branch of MPL is the perfect marriage of modern, industrial, design and comfortable library ambiance.

Wisconsin's Water Library is looking forward to enjoying all the fun of the Central branch's Stacked event on September 19th and its grand opening on September 21st.

Army of Attack Packs

What's made of canvas and full of sea lamprey?

Attack Packs are ready to be sent out into your community. 

If you guessed University of Wisconsin Sea Grant Institute Attack Packs then you are correct.

You may be wondering, what's an 'Attack Pack'?

The Aquatic Invaders Attack Pack is a waxed canvas rucksack filled with books, pamphlets, examples of invasive species preserved in acrylic blocks, and a totally real sea lamprey. The purpose of the packs is to help educators teach about invasive species in Wisconsin's bodies of water: how invasive species spread, how they hurt the environment, and how to prevent/stop the problem.

Classroom guides, information about aquatic invasive species, and other educational materials are included.

The Attack Packs can be used in conjunction with the "Nab The Aquatic Invaders" website, hosted by the Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant.


And, just in time for the new school year, the Water Library's new Project Assistant was able to stuff about 65 packs full of invasive-species fun. And, yes, she handled 65 real (but dead) sea lamprey during the process!

The graduate Project Assistant holds up a lamprey for the camera.

So, how do educators get their hands on this resource?

It is easy. Just request an Attack Pack through University of Wisconsin's Water Library.

From there, the pack will be delivered to your local public library through the Library Delivery Network of Wisconsin.

More Summer Outreach: DoIT ITA!

They're not quite in high school yet, but this August Madison-area ninth graders participating in University of Wisconsin's DoIT ITA program are already preparing for college courses.

DoIT is University of Wisconsin-Madison's Division of Information Technology; each summer DoIT hosts a two-week Information Technology Academy (ITA) pre-college program for a group of high school freshmen from all over Madison.

As part of the ITA program, the Water Library and Steenbock Memorial Library teamed up to host an internet search strategy seminar for ITA student participants. The seminar theme was "What's in your water bottle?" and featured a whole host of activities designed to help the students learn more about searching scholarly databases while investigating the impact of bottled water.

The water bottle research guide (pictured above) helped DoIT ITA students
learn more about searching academic databases.

The seminar included a water taste test, which challenged students to choose the best-tasting water among 3 different samples. The students were also asked to guess which samples were bottled and which samples came from the library's tap. An overwhelming majority of the students preferred the taste of the library's tap water. Many were surprised by the results.

A short video about the increase of bottled water consumption was shown.

Finally, a database scavenger hunt challenged the ninth graders to find information about the growth in bottled-water consumption since 1980 and which university campuses in the US are banning the sales of bottled water. This scavenger hunt also helped introduce different scholarly databases and how to best use keyword searches.

This program is beneficial and fun for the high school participants. The Water Library is so grateful to be involved each year!

Enjoying the Summer!

With summer coming to a close, we would like to offer our readers a review of the unique outreach events that kept us busy over the past few months.

Grandparent's University: During a spell of beautiful July weather in Madison, Water Library staff had the great pleasure of joining other Wisconsin Sea Grant staff to co-present UW-Madison's Grandparent's University (GPU). Along with staff and emeritus professors from the Center for Limnology (CFL), grandchildren (ages 7 to 14) joined their grandparents to explore the Limnology "major" through hands-on activities, both on the water and in the classroom.

During the Great Lakes portion of the major (which Wisconsin Sea Grant teaches) participants joined in a rousing game of Great Lakes Trivia, much like the popular Jeopardy game on TV. They then explored Great Lakes fishes by first learning about one of the mightiest of fish - the Lake Sturgeon - then using a dichotomous key to identify some other native (and nonnative) fish found in Lake Michigan.

The third portion of the session introduced the participants to ROVs (remotely operated vehicles) and gave them an opportunity to test for buoyancy on their own personal coat hangar ROV. This young participant was the first to get her ROV to achieve neutral buoyancy:

The Water Library is already looking forward to co-presenting Grandparent's University next summer!

Story Time @ Madison Public Libraries:

During the summer (and throughout the year) we've had the pleasure of partnering with different public libraries in Southern Wisconsin where we present water-themed story times. This summer we visited two branches of Madison Public Library, Sequoya and Hawthorne. At both locations, we presented our"Sink or Swim" session which has become one of our favorites. After reading some wonderful story books - including Arthur's Dream Boat by Polly Dunbar and Boat Ride with Lillian Two Blossom by Patricia Polacco, the children got a chance to become "citizen scientists" themselves. Their experiment was to  to figure out whether certain household items (bar of soap, bendy straws, toothpicks, egg, etc) would sink or float in the water. They would make a hypothesis (Would it or wouldn't it?), test the item and then record their results. Finally, children were invited to create their own boats with kitchen sponges, bendy straws and foam sails and to test their boat to see if it would sink!

Story Time @ Cross Plains Public Library:

The library also hosted a pond-themed story time at Rosemary Garfoot Public Library in Cross Plains, Wisconsin. The children enjoyed Box Turtle at Long Pond by William T. George and other pond-themed books and then participants had the opportunity to create their own pond ecosystems:

Please contact the Water Library at askwater@aqua.wisc.edu if you would like us to come and visit!