Puzzles for December 2020

Our Crossword Puzzle is called Famous Skeptics (3).

126 December 2020 Famous Skeptics (3)

It’s a belated follow-up to our earlier Famous Skeptics Crosswords published  in December 2014:

December 2014 SKEPTICAL CROSSWORD PUZZLE

and in July 2016:

July 2016 Skeptical Crossword

Of the twenty-three people featured in this month’s crossword, all but one are different to the twenty-six skeptics of the 2016 crossword. That common link, fittingly, is James Randi.

There’s also a new batch of Picture Puzzles, Mixed Bag Questions (Trivia/General Knowledge), and a Logic & Maths Problems set with worked solutions.

All on the PUZZLES PAGE.

Enjoy!

Puzzles for November 2020

November’s puzzles include our 100th Logic & Maths Set.

The Skeptical Crossword Puzzle this month has “Job Titles and Descriptions“ as its theme.

The usual seven picture puzzles and twenty trivia / general knowledge type “mixed bag” questions accompany. Go to the top of the PUZZLES PAGE.

Enjoy!

The Science Talent Search 2020

Thanks to the  Science Teachers Association of Victoria’s Janice Teng and her team of volunteers, the Victorian Science Talent Search has continued its unbroken run of sixty-nine years. The question was never “Can STS continue, given the unprecedented restrictions imposed by the Corona virus?” but “How should STS run in 2020 to best effect?”

Each year, a theme is set for the thousand or so entries that are submitted for judging. This year, the theme was Deep Blue – Innovations for the future of our Oceans.

Vic Skeptics and Australian Skeptics Inc. have jointly supported STS for many years, and are consistently among its major sponsors.

This year we were delighted to provide cash bursaries to sixty-six participants.

Science / Maths/ Logic Puzzles for Students

Here’s an announcement – or a reminder – about the motivational student worksheets available in .pdf from this site. They take the form of crosswords, word searches and cryptograms and are pitched variously at age groups from primary to senior secondary.

Topics include General Science, Astronomy, Biology (including Evolution and Human Reproduction), Botany, Chemistry, Health, and Physics.

This material, which was designed for classroom use has been in unexpectedly high demand for home schooling and enrichment during 2020. There’s a lot of great stuff available on the www; we hope you find our contribution useful.

Go here: https://vicskeptics.wordpress.com/useful-info/puzzles-worksheets-for-science/

Skepticon 2020

Skepticon 2020 is Nearly Here

The annual Australian Skeptics Convention takes place on Saturday 24th and Sunday 25th October.

Gold Coast Skeptics and Queensland Skeptics have teamed to produce the first On-line Australian Skeptics convention, with an exciting array of presenters.

For more information and bookings (all welcome!), go to: https://www.skepticon.org.au/

Puzzles for October 2020

For October we’ve added the usual picture puzzles, mixed bag questions, Skeptical Crossword and Logic & Maths set to the top of the PUZZLES PAGE.

Our “Special” puzzle sets for those in quarantine or lock-down have proven to be popular, so we’ve added some more. Just continue scrolling down past the October Puzzles to the heading ADDITIONAL PUZZLES & DIVERSIONS – SEPTEMBER PUZZLES.

Enjoy

Puzzles for September 2020

The PUZZLES PAGE  has September’s Picture Puzzles, Mixed Bag Questions and Logic & Maths Puzzles, as well as a  Skeptical Crossword Puzzle with the theme of General Skeptical Issues.

There are more “Special” puzzle sets as well, particularly for those who are self-isolating or experiencing some degree of lock-down or quarantine.  Just scroll down; and enjoy.

Puzzles for August 2020

Go to our PUZZLES PAGE, for this month’s Picture Puzzles, Mixed Bag Questions and Logic & Maths Puzzles. The Skeptical Crossword Puzzle is (unsurprisingly) about Conspiracy Theories, and (also unsurprisingly) is quite large and time-consuming.

We’re continuing to provide new sets of “special puzzles” of various kinds to cope with whatever regime of home isolation prevails in your area. (Here in Victoria Australia, it’s pretty full-on.)

The latest lot of Special Puzzle .pdfs comes just after the August Puzzles, and if you continue to scroll down past the July puzzles, the sets posted in May, June and July are still available.

Enjoy, and stay safe.

Puzzles for July 2020

The crossword puzzle this month has been compiled by a  Skeptic casting a somewhat bemused eye over events of the last few months. You’ll find it HERE and also near the top of the PUZZLES PAGE, along with July’s Picture Puzzles, Mixed Bag Questions and Logic & Maths Puzzles.

In May, we started an additional collection of sets of “special puzzles” of various kinds to help those of you who are stuck at home to pass the time. You’ll find that growing collection of .pdfs on the Puzzles Page if you scroll down past the July puzzles. Enjoy, and stay safe.

 

Skeptics Café via Zoom – Update

Vic Skeptics Cafés monthly public meetings will now be on-line, for the foreseeable future.

Join us every third Monday of each month.

Next: Citizen Science with Brendan O’Brien

Monday 15th June 8:15 pm chat, 8:30 pm (1030 UTC) presentation

Details on the EVENTS page

Puzzles for June 2020

New Puzzles for June are on the PUZZLES PAGE.

Last month we gave you a link to puzzles and diversions of various kinds (not specifically Skeptic-related).

Here are some more:

May 2020 Special Number 1 (Where’the Ball)

May 2020 Special Number 2

May 2020 Special Number 3

May 2020 Special Number 4

Science Talent Search – 2020 Style

The Science Talent Search of the Science Teachers Association of Victoria will continue to run in 2020, celebrating its 69th consecutive year of operation in 2020. Planning around The Covid – 19 situation
requires that the usual Judging Day will not proceed; instead ALL student projects will be electronically submitted and judged remotely this year.

The Science Talent Search has been enthusiastically supported by The Australian Skeptics for many years now.
Here are some letters of thanks that we received from students whose cash bursaries we funded last year.

Puzzles for May 2020

May’s usual Picture Puzzles, Mixed Bag Questions,  Crossword Puzzle and Logic & Maths Questions are at the top of the PUZZLES PAGE .

This month’s crossword is about General Skeptical Issues.

In addition, here are twenty sets of puzzles and diversions of various kinds (not specifically Skeptic-related) which you might find helpful if you are stuck at home.

April 2020 Special Number 1

April 2020 Special Number 2

April 2020 Special Number 3

ATTENTION! Skeptics Café via Zoom

We are having our first virtual Skeptics Cafe TONIGHT (Monday 20th April) at 7.30.

From Vic Skeptics President

Hi everyone,

Tonight Clem Stanyon will be giving us a great talk about his work in the biotech industry and the GMO crops that he is involved in producing.

We will be trialling this event on zoom.us. You don’t need to create an account, you should be able to follow the link below.

Cheers,
Chris

Patents and Portents: In Insider View on the Production of GMOs

Born to English migrants from the war generation, English teachers both, I have lived and worked in 5 cities in 3 countries on 3 continents: Perth and Melbourne here in Australia, Detroit and Seattle in the US, and Lyon in France, in which work I have been consistently employed to create DNA constructs for making genetically modified organisms. I currently work in the Victorian government agricultural sector, for the first time making GMOs that are not for research purposes only, but for commercial purposes, working mainly on constructs for canola and wheat.

Clem’s talk starts at 7:30pm sharp.
We encourage questions to be posted on the Q&A chat.

Follow the zoom link:
https://unimelb.zoom.us/j/95223630701

Or join by phone:
Dial (Australia): +61 3 7018 2005 or +61 2 8015 6011

 

From The Vault

Videos produced with, for or by Vic Skeptics

2009

The Bed of Nails – Faith or Physics?  1 min 15 s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JXj24tYimOI

2011

Great Ocean Road Skeptics – 10:23 Homeopathy Challenge Bells Beach Australia 2011  3 min 55 s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XhDA07jYncU

10:23 Campaign Against Homeopathy – Melbourne, Australia 2011 4 min 53 s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kvgRMcfo0Yk