16 Terrace Review — Wednesday, January 20, 1988

The. 23rd Annual Terrace
Science Fair is coming in mid-
April. Brochures have been sent
home with students that describe
the various events and offer sug-
gestions for a number of science
projects and displays.

The fair will be divided into
two main categories, Elementary
and Secondary, and there will be
a variety of competitions in-
cluding Science Projects,
Science Displays, a. Two-Egg
Drop, the Straw Tower Building

Skeena library —" continued from page 11

Besides having magazines,
newspapers like the New York
Times, and a wide selection of
atticles on critical issues on
hand, one of the two micro fiche
projectors is capable of pro-
viding a printed copy of micro
fiche on a type of film-like
paper. This feature is quite
useful, considering that a page
in a magazine can consist of a lot
of notes. All in all, these
machines seem able to provide a
new, efficient means of diversi-
fying a student’s research.

The next stop on our tour is a
word processing station, where
students can actually get a pro-
ject done, once research has
been finished. Walker informs
me that students may also do
research on this machine by
means of disks which contain ar-
ticles on critical issues, like
AIDS, or the Iran-contra scan-
dal. There are approximately 25
issues in all, and more to come,
and each issue can have up to 25
articles written about it. The use
of the Apple [le station makes it
easier and more interesting for
students to learn about both
sides of an issue, like abortion
for instance, and therefore does
its job, says Walker.

I begin to wonder why these
things couldn’t have been
_ around for me to use when I was

in school. The main advantage
of this station is its word pro-
cessing capability, providing for
students who don’t have a com-
puter at home the ability to
create impressive written pro-
jects in a neat, organized
fashion, in much the same way
the average working adult does
in order to impress the boss.

At this point I have ap-
preciated all of these ad-
vancements in the library - but
what next? Surely this is enough
to impress someone who did not
share the same conveniences
when he or she was in school.
The next device would be the
highlight of my tour, an elec-
tronic encyclopedia. Walker
pointed this machine out with a

Privatization — continued trom page 7

designed to get around successor
status. Neither is Manitoba sell-
ing off their highway
maintenance operations.

I recall an N.D.P government
in B.C. purchasing several in-
dustrial plants in order to save
jobs because the profit sector
wanted out. Repap would not be
planning to expand the Prince
Rupert pulp mill today had it
not been for the N.D.P. crown
corporation that saved the mill
and the jobs.

Privatization we are told will
create new opportunities. In
Terrace we have an example of
those new opportunities and
how some workers got the shaft.
When Social Credit closed the
Tranquille institution in
Kamloops, jobs were lost and
then re-established in communi-
ty based group homes as patients

Contest, Scientific Pursuits and
a Paper Airplane Contest.
Science Exhibits and Projects
from both divisions will be dis-
played in the Caledonia gymna-
sium and will be open to the
public on Friday evening, Apr.
22. _
The first step for students is to
choose a topic that can be dem-
onstrated or proven by a scien-
tific experiment. A number of
topics have been suggested but
the imagination is the limit.

look of pride: an IBM com-
patable Laser computer, con-
nected to a printer and a CD-
Rom disk reader. Hey now, this
is definitely new, something I ex-
pected to see in a computer store
or demonstration before I would
see it in a school. Walker in-

forms me that this device makes ~

the Skeena library one of the
leading hi-tech educational
libraries in the province. He says
the CD-Rom disk is capable of
storing huge amounts of data
and the reader costs approx-
imately $1200.

I inform him that I’m aware
of the vast storage capabilities of
the compact disk in its audio
form, but not in its computer
data form. He answers by telling
me that the entire American
Academic Encyclopedia, which
is on the single compact disk the
library has, only takes up about
one fifth of the disk’s storage
space. He also tells me that the
disk is capable of holding about
10, twenty-volume = en-
cyclopedias. The American
Academic Encyclopedia version
that he has is something like 21
or 22 volumes, but the indexing
system that makes the program
so unique takes up about as
much space as all of the actual
entries.

He then fires it up, and types
in a topic to research. The word
‘Hitler’ is accessed and the
screen lets us know that the
word appears something like 500
times in maybe over a hundred
articles in the encyclopedia.
Amazingly, the process only
takes seconds. He then types in
another word - “‘Jews’’ - to com-
plement the first, and the disk is
again accessed, and informs us
that both words appear in con-
siderably fewer articles. Still,
there are too many to read
through, so Walker types in the
word ‘holocaust’ and the
numbers are down considerably,
making it possible for us to look
through them. A list of titles
make it apparent that specific
approaches are easily located. -

Students can talk to their par-

ents, teachers or friends for help -

in getting started.

Once a topic has been chosen,
students must spend some time
describing the purpose of their
experiment, researching their
topic, organize the necessary
materials and then writing a
report on their experiment which
will describe its purpose, pro-
cedure followed, results, conclu-
sions and list the sources of
research information.

sec eee aba green wera

"Schools preparing for annual science fair

Some of the topics suggested
for elementary students are:
weather measurement, consum-
er tests, absorption, heat or elec-
trical conductors, soil analysis
and heating with sunlight.

Suggestions for secondary
students are more complex and
include topics such as: the effect
of various colors of light on the
growth of plants, the effect of
feed on the egg laying of hens,
measuring the speed of sound in
different materials, the charac-

Not only is the electronic en-
cyclopedia much faster than the
book form, it is. cheaper by
about $500 once a disk reader is
purchased. Yearly updates are
supplied for about $99. This
means that the owner of a com-
puter compact disk reader could
get a brand new electronic en-
cyclopedia for about $350, as
compared to about $850 for a
book set, and it could be con-
stantly updated. Unfortunately,
the disk reader is not capable of
reading audio compact disks and
the audio reader is not able to
support a computer.

All in all, the electronic en-
cyclopedia shouldn’t replace the
books but should help make in-
itial research easier, Updated
versions may have books that
contain more information on
specific topics. The system is im-
pressive and its usefulness is im-
measurable. It’s a device that I

would like to get to know better.

The next and last stop on our
tour of new equipment, is the
librarian’s desk, where an Apple
Ile is hooked up to a modem,
making it possible for the com-
puter to comimiuinicate with other’
computers by means of the
telephone. This is an impressive
display of technology. Walker

‘demonstrated by calling the

Toronto Globe and Mail com-
puter in Toronto, appealing to
my interests, The computer took
seconds to make the link, and
then Walker had to sign in and
type in the password. Then a
cheerful grecting told us that we
were now ready to explore the
newspaper’s computer. Walker
then further edged my curiousity
by asking for the day’s headlines
for the paper - before it had been
printed. Sort of gives you a
powerful feeling, the idea of
changing a few of these stories
had gone through my mind,. but
I knew there was no way we
could do it. The Globe and Mail
staff isn’t stupid.

According to Walker the
Globe and Mail is one of many
resources the school can access

were introduced to a new en-
vironment. The new jobs at Ter-
race group homes for mentally
handicapped adults are
significantly lower paid than
were those at the Tranquille
facility.

What does the average British
Columbia worker support? In
my view a liveable annual in-
come for his or her family, fair
benefits, medicare, an adequate

pension, quality education and a _

secure future for their children,

and less confrontation. Will sell-
ing off our public services and
assets assist to that end? I can-
not see how it will. It is time our
M.L.A., Dave Parker, took a se-
cond look at why he supports
privatization before the British
experience comes home to roost.

Unfortunately for British Col-
umbians, no room has been left

for dialogue and analysis of the —

planned sell off. Even the local
Northwest advisors to the
Skeena economic development
region, headed by Dave Parker,
will not be permitted input into
privatization. Yet privatizing
maintenance of our highways is
a regional issue. Our Northwest
economy depends heavily upon
our highways to get resources
and products to their destina-
tions.

Is not democracy defined as

‘ being of the people, for the peo-

ple, and by the people? Or is it

just ten seconds at the ballot box

on election day?

It is regrettable that our Social
Credit government will not
allow loca! input on such an im-
portant issue.

.. Jim Lamb
nt Terrace

by modem for information on
topics like free trade. It’s an ad-
vantage students could most
definitely use when wanting to
get the most up-to-date informa-
tion, Walker informed me that
this device allows the library to
make use of other resource
centers having more advanced
materials, the University of B.C.
library for instance, a very
valuable capability indeed... one
of these days I’ll have to get
myself a modem,

In closing Walker showed me

‘an IBM PSII computer the

library is hoping to put into use
for organizing the books, as
soon as the school’s proposal for
a bar code system is accepted.
The use of a light pen could
make the Skeena library as
organized as the public library is
today with their system. Accor-
ding to Walker all the Skeena
library’s resources could then be
kept track of by means of a com-
puter, doing away with the old
card catalogue system and even-

tually making the library “yet

more efficient for the school’s
students. This pilot project is
unique to school libraries, and it
seems destined to spread
through the provincial school
system,

it TE a ae SSC
+e Mea ys soste

teristics of different kinds of —
woods and their. suitability for.
various purposes and - factors
that affect the rate of a chemical
reaction. ; .

Science project will be given a
mark out of 10 possible points
and will be judged on the basis
of the scientific process follow-
ed, the understanding of the top-
ic, neatness and clarity of the
display and the amount of effort
‘put into the project.

Suggested science displays in-
clude everything from the parts
of a flower or plant to how a
refrigerator works. The projects
will be marked on originality,
understanding, presentation and
the individual effort put into
constructing the display. ©

On Saturday, Apr. 23, Ele-
mentary and Secondary students
will be competing in the Straw
Tower Building Contest at 2
p-m, in Room 2 at Caledonia,
and they will participate in
Scientific Pursuits in the Cale-
donia Lecture Theatre at 10 a.m.

Two additional contests. for
Elementary students on Satur-
day are the Two-Egg Drop Con-
test at 10:15 a.m. and the Paper
Airplane Contest at 1 p.m.

January 45 to 34

35 VEARS OF SERVICE

Your Week Ahead Horoscope |

Mar. 21-Apr. 19

TAURUS
Apr, 20-Mfay 20

GEMINI
May 2 f-June 20

CANCER |
. June 24-July 22

LEQ
July 2.3-Aug. 22

VIRGO
Aug. 23-Sept. 22

LIBRA
_ Sept. 23-Oct, 22

SCORPIO
Oct. 23-Nov, 21

SAGITTARIUS
Nov. 22-Dee. 21

"CAPRICORN
Dec. 22-3an. 19

AQUARIUS
Jan, 20-Feb. 18

PISCES
Feb, 19-Mar, 20

A long standing relationship ends rather abruptly
and you reach toward new horizons—a rebirth
ofsorts, . .

Transiting planets point to major changes in the
financial picture. Old concepls give way lo new
ones. ;

Look for the unusual talent in your group of
friends and associates. There are many valuable
lessons lo experience.
Employment opportunity comes ina surprising
fashion through a friendship. You have much to
conteibute with your uniqueapproach.
Pleasurable activities tend to make you careless
in handling finances. Be wary of those who play
the con game. a

Conditions at hame may be a bit rocky, You
need lots of space for full expression.

Some new and startling ideas permeale your
awareness. A new course of study brings new ob-
jectivesto strive for.

There are tessons to be learned with respect to
gaining and holding material possessions. Plans
could backfire. 7
Impatience and irritability could stir up bad
feelings with good friends, Watch what you say: .
and how yousay it.

The light from an old flame is eckindled. Antici- .
pation of a clandestine meeting stirs up 4 little
excitement.

Group associalions undergo abrupt change.
Qul with the old. You are apt to look around for
more challenging situations.

Your professional status is enhanced, thanks toa
higher up who js interested in your career ad-
vancement,

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We cater for large and
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635-5440

4603 Park Ave. Terrace (across from the library)