Creative, Collaborative, Lifelong learners

goodbye

2010-12-31T12:22:00.002+13:00

so long, farewell, auf wiedersehen, goodbye.

After 12 months

34 blogposts

9,365 pageviews
(Blogger stats, each view is counted as a hit)

5409 visits from all around the world
(Clustermaps, each computer is counted only once over a 24 hour period of time)

Ms Beaker is putting away her goggles, hanging up her labcoat and shutting down her laptop.

Thank you to those of you who have followed and encouraged me along the way, both in person and in cyberspace, I have appreciated your comments and emails.

Here is an overview of how the year has gone

Audience (stats from Blogger stats)
United States 4450
New Zealand 834
United Kingdom 727
followed by Australia, Canada and India

Most popular blogposts
lateral, thinking and logic puzzles: Feb 3rd 2130 page views
end of term videos: July 1st 887 page views
periodic table problems: June 24th 737 page views
as well as learning styles, moodling, flash, bang, wow attention grabbers

Ms Beaker's version of Wikileaks
For legal reasons, this video was removed from all internet sites, except this blog!
Quiet Now Please: Aug 19th

what every parent should know
moving with the times, Dec 30th 2009
learning styles: Feb 14th
mobiles in the classroom: March 17th
internet privacy: May 23rd
creativity is crucial: July 23rd
feedback: Nov 30th
the apple of my eye: Dec 21st (absolutely essential reading for all parents)

rainy day activities
lateral thinking and logic puzzles: Feb 3rd
superpower: March 21st
weird and wonderful wonders: April 25th
end of term videos: July 1st
quiet now please: Aug 19th

blogposts with loose links to global news
moving with the times (future employers): Dec 30th
social networking (Chilean Earthquake): Feb 28th
PD or PPD (Eyjafjallajökull volcanic eruption): April 19th
Eurovision song contest: May 28th
Football (World Cup 2010): June 10th
The great escape (Chilean miners): Oct14th
Climategate (global warming): Nov 7th

blogposts with an ICT theme
moodling: Feb 21st
social networking: Feb 28th
mobiles in the classroom: March 17th
superpower: March 21st
the ipad or back to the books: May 4th
me, myself and eye: Oct 24th
a picture is worth a thousand words: Oct 31st

useful teaching resources
flash, bang, wow attention grabbers: April 1st
PD or PPD: April 19th
water hydrant: May 12th
Eurovision song contest: May 28th
football: June 10th
periodic table problems: June 24th
end of term videos: July 1st
back to basics: July 16th
rocket scientist: Aug 9th
spring is in the air: Sept 1st
social networking (part 2): Sept 19th
crime scene investigation: Sept 30th
the great escape: Oct 14th
me, myself and eye: Oct 24th
burnt toast: Nov 18th
dry ice: Dec 16th
jeans: Dec 24th
auld lang syne: Dec 29th

Most searched terms
zooley
alien periodic table
Merry men of Matterdom

I have many, many more resources to share and pass on, please email me at mizzbeaker@gmail.com if you have any specific requests and at some stage in the future I may take a few minutes out of retirement to throw them up here.

Farewell. Best wishes to you all for a Happy and Healthy New Year.

Ms Beaker

Auld lang syne

2010-12-29T18:37:00.011+13:00

" Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
and never brought to mind ?
Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
and auld lang syne..."
Robert Burns 1788

As we wind up the year, here are some of the many science tales (including one tall tale amongst them!) of 2010 that were/are worth a mention in your Science lessons.

21st January

"Meet the creatures that live beyond the abyss. It is pitch black, icy cold and the pressure is phenomenal. The deepest parts of the ocean are some of the least hospitable places on Earth - yet footage from recent expeditions reveals that life in the oceanic trenches is thriving."

BBC News

18th March

"The driver of a car filmed being shunted sideways along a motorway under the front bumper of a tanker lorry at 60mph telephoned the emergency services and yelled: "I'm going to die", she has recalled.The terrifying incident was filmed by a passenger in another car, and the footage has been watched by hundreds of thousands of people since it was uploaded on YouTube last week. Rona Williams, a 31-year-old vet from York, said she had joined the A1(M) near Leeds when her Renault Clio was clipped by the lorry and spun around, ending up lodged beneath the bumper. The truck driver, oblivious to what had happened, continued to drive at around 60mph."

The Guardian

19th March

"A compound of iron and nitrogen is about 18% more magnetic than the most magnetic material currently known, a team of materials scientists claims. If such magnets could be produced commercially, they could, for example, allow electronics manufacturers to equip computer hard drives with smaller "write heads" capable of being crammed with more information. A material's magnetism originates with its spinning electrons. Each electron acts like a little magnet with its field aligned with the axis of its spin, and when more electrons spin in one direction than in the opposite direction, the material becomes magnetic.
However, Jian-Ping Wang, a materials physicist at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, and colleagues say that a compound of eight parts iron and one part nitrogen, Fe₁₆N_2,exceeds this limit by roughly 18%. The key to the material's extremely high magnetism lies in its complicated crystal structure."

sciencemag.org

1st April

"The dangers, uses and potential threats posed by this chemical, Dihydrogen monoxide, are widespread, and some feel, terrifying. Here is just a small taste of what Dihydrogen monoxide (DHM) is:
Some call Dihydrogen monoxide the "Invisible Killer"
Others think Dihydrogen monoxide should be Banned
Dihydrogen monoxide is linked to gun violence
Dihydrogen monoxide was found at every recent school shooting
Athletes use Dihydrogen monoxide, or DHMO, to enhance performance
Dihydrogen monoxide has been found in our rivers, lakes, oceans and streams
Dihydrogen monoxide is a major component of acid rain
Thousands die each year after inhaling dihydrogen monoxide
Dihydrogen monoxide can be deadly
Find out the truth about Dihydrogen monoxide"
DHMO.org

additional information available here

6th April

"Scientists have discovered a new heavy element. For the moment, the discovery will be known as ununseptium, a very unwhimsical Latinate placeholder that refers to the element’s atomic number, 117.
The team produced six atoms of the element by smashing together isotopes of calcium and a radioactive element called berkelium in a particle accelerator about 75 miles north of Moscow on the Volga River, according to a paper that has been accepted for publication at the journal Physical Review Letters."

New York Times

20th April

"Yale University engineers have found that the defects in carbon nanotubes cause T cell antigens to cluster in the blood and stimulate the body's natural immune response. Their findings, which appear as the cover article of the April 20 issue of the journal Langmuir, could improve current adoptive immunotherapy, a treatment used to boost the body's ability to fight cancer."

PhysOrg.com

A scanning electron microscope image shows a carbon nanotube bundle used to
cluster antigens and boost T cell production. Credit: Tarek Fahmy/Yale University

15th May

"In May at the J. Craig Venter Institute (JCVI) in San Diego, California, Ham Smith and Clyde Hutchison team announced that it had built a 1-million-base-pair genome — the longest working piece of chemically synthesized DNA yet assembled — and used it to restart a bacterial cell. Although some scientists disagree on whether the resulting microorganism, called 'Synthia' in the popular press, is indeed 'synthetic' — the synthesized genome sequence was cribbed from a related bacterial species rather than being built to a novel design — few deny the technical skill demonstrated by such work. "The ability to synthesize and put together so many nucleotides without a mistake really requires guys on the level of Smith and Hutchison," says David Botstein, a geneticist at Princeton University in New Jersey who has worked with Smith. "I don't think many other people could have done it."

naturenews.com

1st October

"A newfound Earth-sized planet discovered in the habitable zone of a nearby star looks very promising for the possibility of extraterrestrial life, but many unknowns remain.
The planet, Gliese 581g, is one of two new worlds discovered orbiting the red dwarf star Gliese 581, which now has a family of planets that totals six. [Tour the six Gliese 581 planets.]"

Space.com

22nd October

Veolia Wildlife photographer of the year was Bence Mate with A marvel of ants. Have a look at overall winners her at the National History Museum website or even better go and see the exhibition for yourself at the Museum in London until 11th March 2011.

March 24th 2009

"A video clip showing a Creme Egg being squashed by an elaborate home-made wrecking device has become an internet sensation on Youtube.The device, dubbed the 'Rube Goldberg Machine', uses a series of weights, balls, swings and wires which combine in a giant chain reaction to smash the Creme Egg. It was created as an entry for Cadbury's "Unleash The Goo" competition, in which entrants must find the most creative way to break a Creme Egg.
New Zealander Joseph Herscher took six months to build the contraption using 30 sticks of hot glue, 480 pins and most importantly, according to the credits, the support of "the world's most tolerant flatmates". To date more than 700,000 people have watched the clip which took 3 days to film consisting of 200 takes."
The Irish Independent

for further science related news have a read of Nature news 2010: The year in which...

and now for best of the rest from 2010, expressed in the form of satirical cartoon snippets...

http://www.motherboard.tv/2010/12/15/what-the-zuck

jeans

2010-12-24T14:20:00.027+13:00

there's jeans and there's genes...

Everyone (well almost all) has jeans and genes. It's a fascinating topic, genes that is... Here's a range of different resources that I have used with my students when leaning about genetics...

image and text from Starting Science, book 1

video and related resources from teachersdomain

link to a powerpoint "secrets of a cell"

Nova, cracking the code of life

Extracting DNA class experiment, do this!
and provide little vials for the students to take their sample of DNA home, they absolutely love this activity.

Puppy DNA activity: Genetic Science Learning Center

video and related resources from teachers domain


CELS: from DNA to protein

use the classtools jackpot machine random name picker
to assign a research assignment about a genetic disorder to your students

NOVA, how cells divide

meiosis and mitosis activities produced by Madeline Ware, Kerikeri High School, NZ

reference unknown: this is a superb and very original idea for reinforcing understanding of punnet squares

Spongebob squarepants genetics: The Science Spot

video and related resources from teachers domain

reference: unknown answers here

reference unknown

Dolly the sheep picture dictation to download and info here from the Science Museum

and you've heard about the fainting goats? worth a mention...

and finally, I just had to put in a Christmas themed task...

resource with teacher info from science upd8
and on that note...

the apple of my eye

2010-12-21T08:48:00.008+13:00

"Poor Richard was to me as an eldest son, the apple of my eye"
Sir Walter Scott, Old Mortality, 1816

Your sons, your daughters, our students. We, teachers and parents alike really want the best for them. I recommend the following publications about raising and teaching boys and girls to help them achieve personal excellence, to guide them on their personal journey and set them off on their path in life. The following books and references are enlightening, truly inspiring and written in a manner that is accessible to all and provide a significant number of anecdotes.

I will start with Dr Leonard Sax MD PhD who has considerable experience as a family doctor and psychologist. In recent years, Dr Sax has spent his time visiting and observing girls and boys in different schools, learning more about gender differences and providing professional development opportunities for teachers in different countries.

"Every time I make any statement about how girls and boys are different, I will state the evidence on which my statement is based. Every statement I make about sex differences will be supported by good science published in peer-reviewed journals. I will list some of the stated differences that are relevant to teachers in the classroom and why may of course, be very relevant to parents also."
Dr Leonard Sax, Why gender matters, 2005

He does, 38 pages of source notes at the back of his book Why Gender Matters, what parents and teachers need to know about the emerging science of sex differences.

See below my précis of Why gender matters by Leonard Sax.

__________________________________________________________________

Every child is unique. The fact that each child is unique and complex should not blind is to the fact that gender is one of the two great organizing principles in child development - the other principle being age.
Hearing

Boys don't hear as well as girls

eg boy sitting at the back of a classroom, staring out the window, he isn't paying attention, not because he has attention deficit disorder, but because he cannot hear the softly spoken teacher. Girls won't learn as well in a noisy classroom.

eg experienced teachers usually seat the boys at the front of the class and the girls at the back, which is the opposite of how girls and boys usually seat themselves.

Sight

Our retinas are made up of layers, the photoreceptor layer contains rod and cones which send signals to the next layer, the ganglion cells. Some ganglion cells are very large (magnocellular) aka M cells, others are small (parvocellular) aka P cells. P cells in our retina compile information about texture and colour, M cells compile information about movement and direction. The male retina has mostly larger, thinker M cells, as a result

eg. boys prefer to simulate motion in pictures that they draw and usually prefer colours such as black, grey, silver and blue. Girls prefer colours such as red, orange, green and beige and will find the texture of a richly textured object such as a doll more appealing than a moving truck.

Brain

eg.Women typically navigate using landmarks that can be seen or heard or smelt. Men are more likely to use absolute landmarks such as north or south or absolute distance such as kilometers or city blocks.
Young women use the cerebral cortex while young men use the hippocampus, a nucleus deep inside the brain that is not activated in women's brains during navigational tasks.

Emotions

eg. A 7 year old will not be able to tell you why he/she is feeling sad. Negative emotional activity in response to unpleasant visual images seem to be localized in phylogenetically primitive areas of the brain, specifically the amygdala. The part of the brain that does that talking, up in the cerebral cortex, has few direct connections to the part of the brain where the emotion is occurring, down in the amygdala.

eg. Likewise a 17 year old boy will not be able to tell you why he is feeling sad because brain activity associated with negative emotion remains down in the amygdala. For girls a large fraction of the brain activity associated with negative emotion moves up to the cerebral cortex, which is the same division of the brain that is associated with higher cognitive functions - reflection, reasoning and language.

eg. Which is why a 17 year old girl is far better able to explain why she is feeling sad in detail and without too much difficulty.

Risk taking

eg. Many boys enjoy taking risks and most boys are impressed by other boys who take risks, especially if the risk taker succeeds. Girls are less likely to enjoy risk taking for its own sake and are much less likely to be impressed by risk taking behaviour in others. Girls may be willing to take risks, but they are less likely to seek out risky situations just for the sake of living dangerously. A boy is much more likely to do something dangerous when he's in a group of boys than by himself. Boys systematically overestimate their own ability, while girls are more likely to underestimate their abilities.

Stress

The female autonomic nervous system has been shown to be influenced more by the parasympathetic nervous system, which is energised by acetylcholine rather than adrenaline and which causes an unpleasant, nauseated feeling rather than the "thrill" of the sympathetic nervous system.

eg.When young boys are exposed to threat and confrontation, their senses sharpen and they feel an exciting tingle. When most young girls are exposed to threat and confrontation, they feel dizzy and "yucky".

Exposure to stress enhances the growth of neural connections in the male hippocampus while it inhibits growth of connections in the female hippocampus.

Bullies

eg. A teenage girl who bullies is often a "good girl", polite to adults and clever at hiding her traces. A girl who victimises other girls in an "alternative aggression" manner is often the most socially skilled and may even be one of the most popular girls, just the opposite of the typical boy bully who may have few friends, be socially inept and may not be doing well at school.

Learning

eg. Most girls will naturally seek to affiliate with the teacher. They expect the teacher to be on their side, to be their ally. Most girls won't hesitate to ask the teacher for help when they need it. Educational researchers have found that girls are more concerned than boys are with pleasing the teacher and more likely than boys to follow the teachers example. Girls are more likely to do their homework even if the particular assignment doesn't interest them. Girls want the teacher to think well of them.

eg, Boys on the other hand will be less motivated to study unless they find the material intrinsically interesting. Likewise, most boys will consult the teacher for help only as a last resort.

Friendships

Girls friendships are about being together, spending time together, talking together, going places together. Friendships between boys on the other hand usually develop out of a shared interest in a game or activity.

eg. If you are working with a girl, smile and look her in the eye when you're helping her with a subject. That gives her nonverbal reassurance that you like her and you're her friend.

eg If you're working with a boy, sit down next to him and spread out the materials in front of you, so that you're both looking at the materials shoulder to shoulder. Don't hold an eye-to-eye stare with a boy unless you're trying to discipline or reprimand him.

Groupwork

Small group learning is a good strategy for girls because you can be confident that if they get stuck, at least one of them will come to you for help. However, if a group of boys get stuck there is no guarantee that any of them will ask for help, unless one of the boys is a geek and even geeks know that asking the teacher for help lowers their status in the eyes of the other boys.

Stress

eg. When a girl is under stress, she looks to other girls for support and comfort, they want to be with their friends more. Few young girls will flourish in a high pressure, time constrained environment.

eg. When boys are under stress, they usually want to be left alone. In the classroom, moderate stress improves boys performance in tests whereas the same stress degrades girls performance on tests. Many young boys are energised by confrontation and by time constrained tasks.

Spatial tasks

eg. Girls are more likely to use visible landmarks whereas boys are more likely to use compass directions.

Women use the cerebral cortex, the most advanced part of the brain for such tasks, men use the hippocampus, a phylogenetically primitive area of the brain that is prewired for spatial navigation.

Maths

Similarly, girls and boys use different parts of the brain for maths tasks, because boys use the hippocampus, an ancient nucleus buried deep in the brain, with no direct connections to the cerebral cortex.

eg. To get girls of a similar age eg 12 years old excited about "pure" maths and geometry, you need to connect it to the real world.

Reading
Girls and boys like to read different things

eg. most girls prefer fiction, books where they can be analytical about a charachter's motives and behaviours. Boys are more likely to prefer non-fiction, action, stories with male protagonists that are exciting.

Dr Sax gives a wonderful example of a class of boys studying "Lord of the flies", the boys were asked to prepare a 3D map of the island. They had to read the book carefully to be able to construct their map. Most girls would prefer a task of writing an essay describing "How would you feel if you were Piggy?"

Sports

Participation in extracurricular activities and especially in competitive sports, raises girls self-esteem.

eg. Low self esteem is a major risk factor for drug and alcohol use among girls, so raising self-esteem lowers the risk of drug and alcohol use among girls.

eg. Boys are different, they don't drink or use drugs to assuage low self-esteem. They drink and use drugs because they're sensation seeking or because they want to look cool.

It may be the case that boys who are the greatest risk-takers are also the most likely to participate in competitive sports, in which case participation in sports may be a marker for boys who are at higher risk for drug and alcohol use.

Discipline

eg. Boys respond well to strict and authoritarian discipline, the stricter the parents discipline style, the better the boys social-cognitive skills. A "warm and fuzzy" parenting approach appeared to retard boys acquisition of social cognitive skills.

eg. For girls, the results were just the opposite. The "warm and fuzzy" approach promoted social skills whereas strict discipline had a slight negative effect on girls social development.

Learning

There are no differences in what girls and boys can learn. But there are big differences in the best ways to teach them.

___________________________________________________________

I have been very fortunate attend lectures given by Dr Leonard Sax. Besides Why Gender matters, Dr Sax has also written Boys adrift: The five factors driving the growing epidemic of unmotivated boys and more recently Girls on the edge. If an opportunity arises for your school or institution to host Dr Leonard Sax, take it up. Dr Sax's webpage with contact details is http://www.leonardsax.com/ and on his webpage there are a considerable number of other recommended readings which you may find of interest.

My second summary is of a lecture presented by Nathan Mikaere-Wallis MEd, a lecturer at The University of Canterbury, New Zealand. Nathan's contact details are http://www.eshd.canterbury.ac.nz/people/mikaerewallis.shtml

Nathan is a superb public speaker, he explains different concepts about the brain and brain research in a manner that is accessible to all. He is another highly recommended speaker for your school or institution.

__________________________________________________________

The 90's were the "decade of the brain", there were a number of new methods available such as MRI scans which made it easier for the brain to be studied.

The first three years of a child's life is a crucial time, they must have as limited stress as possible, they need cradling, love, care, eye contact. Calm a crying baby quickly. The main caregiver (who may be a birth parent, parent, family member, friend) should be nurturing, sympathetic and understanding. This is the time when a child's cortex must be given the opportunity to develop as fully as possible.

If a child under three is exposed to repeated stress then their brain stem will develop which will adversely affect the growth of their cortex.

A frightened child cannot learn. Teachers need to listen to their students and use positive reinforcement.

A two year old has emotions but lacks the ability to control them. A three year old will need repeated requests (maybe up to 100 times!). It is not enough to tell a child not to do something, they need help to know what to do. eg. say to a child to "use gentle hands". You must explicitly describe what it is that they should do, and as mentioned above repeat that many times.

A teenager's frontal cortex is "shut for renovations", their brain is similar to that of a two years old, but don't worry that does not reflect how the teenager will be as a adult.

The following image shows two brain scans, one of a person who had a loving, caring upbringing (left side) compared to a person who was subjected to trauma, abuse and neglect (right side). Both images were taken while the persons were at rest, it is visually clear that the brainstem of the of the abused person is very active , so they are in "stress mode while their reasoning, thinking part of the brain the cortex is significantly less active that that image of the person who was subjected to a childhood of trauma.

The following is an image of a brainscan of a "normal" person compared to a brainscan similar to 92% of the people who are on death row. The visual differences are clear and indicate that the cortex of the "normal" person is active, shown in red while the cortex of the murderer hasn't developed properly while their brainstem is over developed.

Excerpt's from a similar talk given by Nathan's have been uploaded to WikiEducator, click here

________________________________________________________

I found Nathan's talk fascinating and enlightening while at the same time very concerning.

In Canada, early childhood teachers are paid more than university lecturers, this is in recognition of the huge importance the early years have on a child's development. Economically, wouldn't it make more sense to spend that little bit extra on early childhood education as opposed to having to spend money putting steps in place in deal with the social impacts of numerous teenagers and adults who as a result of traumatised, abusive childhoods have an enlarged brainstem and a under developed cortex.

Stop press: This cartoon (by Rod Emmerson) and article "New Zealand is letting it's children down" (by Paula Bennett, Minister of Social Development for New Zealand) published today in the New Zealand Herald emphasises how incredibly serious this issue is.

We, as teachers, parents and members of the community need to take even more responsibility for the mental, physical and social health of our young people and I not talking about specifically within New Zealand. This is is a global problem, one that is (in my view) even more important than global warming. The impact we have on our young people has a direct impact on their mental health and a resultant indirect effect on the short and long term health of our planet.

This is a global problem, spread the knowledge and let's work together to raise happy, healthy, confident young adults.

On another note, as I step down from my soapbox...

Have a wonderful break over the Christmas period, be sure to catch up on your holiday reading....

dry ice

2010-12-16T14:58:00.008+13:00

It's been a wee while since I've blogged...I've been busy sipping iced cooled drinks and lathering on layers of sunscreen....meanwhile family, friends and colleagues in Europe have been battling along with an insanely cold start to the winter, -17'C in Llysdinam, Wales. Brrrrrr....how cold is that!

Experiments with dry ice must be done. To not carry out experiments using dry ice with your students is to deprive them of a memorable and valuable learning experience.

As a lesson intro, a guaranteed attention grabber is to have a range of different sized beakers, conical flasks, round bottomed flasks etc set up on the teachers table, each containing hot or warm water and a few pieces of dry ice, a squirt of universal or other indicators such as phenolpthalein or methyl orange will add a range of colours. After a couple of minutes put in a squirt of dilute NaOH which will neutralise the excess carbonic acid that has formed and watch the rainbow effect work its magic. The visual effects are stunning and memorable and open up a wide range of questions. The younger students are then left with no doubts that you are indeed a typical "crazy" scientist! If it's attention grabbers that you're after for the start of the year then please see my previous blogpost "flash, bang, wow attention grabbers"

quick pub quiz question: what film features the crazy scientist shown above?

Firstly, set up 2 glass petri dishes, one containing a few cubes of dry ice (solid CO2, sublimes at -78'C) and another containing a few cubes of wet ice (solid H2O, melts at 0'C). This is useful for students realising why dry ice is named as such and is commonly used as a coolant because it conveniently "disappears" as opposed to leaving wet puddles of water that result when wet ice melts.

Secondly, click here for a set of 6 activities that your students can carry out in pairs. Encourage the use of cameras, mobile phones or laptops to take photos so that students can reflect and comment on their experiences, then provide detailed scientific explanations for what they saw happening....

and don't feel that dry ice is restricted only to the younger ones, I put together this series of experiments using dry ice for an introductory lesson to IB (International Baccalaureate) Chemistry although it would work well as an intro for any examining board.

The series of introductory experiments are set out in the following categories

1) Macro: what can be seen eg changes in colours, states...
2) Sub-macro: what cannot be seen with the naked eye eg atoms, molecules, ions
3) Subject specific vocabulary eg aliquots, enantiomers
4) Text language eg Na, Pb, Cl-
5) Symbols eg aq, delta, dipole
6) Representational eg equations
7) Mathematical skills eg calculating uncertainties, percentage yield
8) Logical reasoning eg.working out concentrations, identifying mystery substances

Click here to download the Chemistry Introductory lesson activities, they work brilliantly as an intro lesson.

So which film?
Back to the Future of course, the mad scientist's name is Dr Emmett Brown or just Doc Brown.

feedback

2010-11-30T22:27:00.050+13:00

feedback....ooops, I mean feedforward, it's the newish politically correct term for providing your students with guidance on past assignments and exams with a view to improving their future performances.

[Feedforward not feedback]
"Focusing on solutions, rather than mistakes, on the future, rather than the past, will enhance the self-image of business leaders and employees alike and propel them on the road to success."

Dr Marshall Goldsmith

In this blogpost, I'll refer to feedback as I think it is...feedback by hey call it feed up, feed down, feed sideways whatever you like. Now, let's get down to the gist of it all, what do we actually mean and does it really help our students?

To me this means valuing making mistakes, reflecting and learning from past experiences rather than classifying an experience as a failure. In my experience, girls are generally far less willing to take risks than boys and on the occasions where (usually) high achieving girls achieve at a level lower than they are used to their self esteem takes a real knocking which has a resultant effect on their learning in the classroom. More on how boys and girls learn another time...

So as teachers, what kind of environment and beliefs is conducive to providing feedback?

"A recognition of the profound influence that assessment has on the motivation and self-esteem of students. A belief that every child can improve. The establishment of a classroom culture that encourages reflection and interaction and the use of assessment for learning tools. The establishment of a safe, non-threatening, affective learning environment in which students see making mistakes as an integral part of learning. Active involvement of students in the learning process. The negotiation and use of learning criteria and goals. The tracking of individual student progress, through the criteria towards those goals"

OECD Improving Learning in Secondary Classrooms (2005)

Well, one would hope that all of the above applies in every learning environment.

"Feedback is forward looking with a positive focus on next steps for improvement"
Sutton, R School-wide assessment, Improving teaching and learning.
NZ Council for Educational Research (1998)

"Feedback to any pupil should avoid comparisons with other pupils which can lead to failure avoidance rather than a failure tolerance pattern of motivation"

Black and Wiliam: Inside the Black Box (1998)

Ruth Butler’s research of 132 Year 7 (12 year old) students, cited in Black and Wiliam's article above suggests that assigning grades or marks:

l"is not conducive to learning,
l tends to undermine the motivation of weaker students
l encourages students to become more concerned with model answers or finding the right answers or trying to guess what the teacher wants rather than focusing on the learning process, their own ideas and how they can progress towards learning goals."

Butler’s research shows that:

l"Students given only grades or marks made no gain from the first to the second lesson
lStudents given only comments scored on average 30% higher
lStudents given marks or grades in addition to comments cancelled the beneficial effects of the comments."

and we thought we were doing a good job scrawling detailed (legible/illegible!?!?) comments on our students work!
The following comments on evaluative and descriptive feedback are excerpts from a number of different sources which include "Feed Back…Feed Forward: Using Assessment to Boost Literacy Learning” by Anne Davies.
Feedback is generally classified into 3 groups: motivational, evaluative and descriptive.

Motivational Feedback is to make the learner feel good. I have found it particularly useful with lower ability students although irrespective of ability, I feel that a feedback session should always start with some Motivational feedback.

Feedback that is intended to encourage and support the learner.

—

—does not give guidance on how to improve the learner’s reasoning.

examples of motivational feedback are...

“I like how you completed the assignment.”

—

—“You accurately found the number of students in Year 7 who wear size 8 shoes."

Evaluative Feedback (ego related)

The goal is to measure student achievement with a score or a grade. Students in general like to know their personal grade in terms of percentage, marks out of etc.. and others like an idea of the class median and mean to get an idea of their placing. Top placing particularly appeal (in general) to boys competitive nature.

Feedback with performance standards with numbers to indicate ratings
typically uses a single measurement

—may compare students to each other

—does not give students information about specific elements (knowledge, skills) they perform well

—may encourage competition

—sometimes linked to rewards vs. punishments

—stifles learning

—generally summative type of assessment

—

—feedback that is intended to summarize student achievement.

—

—does not give guidance on how to improve the learner’s reasoning.

examples of evaluative feedback are...

That’s a good essay.

You’ve done well.
typically uses a single measurement

73%

You’ve shown improvement

You need to try harder

performance standards with numbers to indicate ratings

8/10

checks on a checklist

letter grades

Descriptive feedback (task related)
The goal is to improve student achievement by telling the learner what steps to take in order to move forward in the learning process.

Feedback that is specific about what is working and points out next steps in the learning

describes features of work or performance

—relates directly to learning targets and/or standards of quality using exemplars, rubrics and/or samples

—points out strengths and gives specific information on how to improve

—provides strategies for moving forward

—promotes learning by increasing motivation

—formative assessment

examples of descriptive feedback are...

"In your essay you have successfully covered the main points related to energy conservation. What could you add to the section on the water conservation to deepen your reader’s understanding of the issue?”
“Most of your spelling is accurate. I found only two errors. See if you can find them.”
“You used a lot of details as was shown in our samples. You mentioned seven different things you liked about dogs.”
“Your map legend has all of the required key elements needed to identify the geographical landforms.” “You accurately found the number of students in Year 7 who wear size 8 shoes. You now need to divide this number by the total number of students to get the overall percentage of students in Year 7 who wear size 8 shoes."

Clarke states that

"Teachers give their students too many criteria making it very difficult for specific feedback to be given too much information in their marking which students find overwhelming and difficult to take in."

Clarke suggests that

"when giving written feedback that teachers highlight three successes in the student’s work and one area here some improvement is necessary."

Clarke: Feedback that fits, (2001)

If you're interested in some more relevant readings on feedback have a look at... Fisher and Frey: Feed up, Back, Forward (2009) and S Brockhart: Feedback that fits, (2008)

"The most powerful single modification that enhances achievement is feedback. The simplest prescription for improving education must be ‘dollops of feedback."

Hattie, 1992

Here are some more suggestions on how to provide feedback to your students.

PMI (plus, minus and interesting)

2 stars and a wish (Two "I really liked how you"... and one "I think you could improve your work by..."

one-on-one personalised feedback discussion in class time while other students are occupied or outside of class time.

insert track changes in Microsoft Word (tools, select track changes), type in comments, insert ticks (insert symbol, search for wingdings: tick), while you're there you might as well create a shortcut for future use eg CTRL t
I have found track changes particularly useful for providing feedback to students on their attempts at longer "discussion" or "evaluate" style questions

students to use a marking schedule to write comments on to their own work, then peer or teacher comments

peered marking of assessments (provided that you are totally confident that students will be respectful of other students work, if not) try marking of fictitious persons answers

teachers can post general class or individual feedback on a cyberwall with "stickies", I recommended Wallwisher for this.

and finally here's some actual exam answers, which is a bit of a worry!

burnt toast

2010-11-18T20:51:00.004+13:00

burnt toast, graphite, diamonds, buckyballs and the relatively recently discovered nanotubes all have one thing in common....they are made up of carbon atoms.

Organic Chemistry is the study of carbon compounds. There are are close to 10 million carbon compounds, they make up 99% of all of known compounds, so, organic chemistry is pretty important, now that's an understatement!

This video from NOVA and adapted by Teachers Domain gives a lovely intro to carbon before getting our teeth into the nitty, gritty stuff.

More often than not I find that students have real difficulties with Organic Chemistry, they "can't see the forest for the trees". As teachers, and particularly Chemistry teachers we usually work on small sections of a topic and build on students knowledge piece by piece, a little like doing a jigsaw puzzle. It's wonderful when that lightbulb flicks on and one day they just "get it". However, with Organic Chemistry I have found that providing my students with an overview at the beginning of the topic helps them to see where we are going with the topic. See below the basic organic and detailed organic overviews that I have produced, they are available to download from here but even better on completing the topic get your students to produce their own overview using Inspiration or a good ol' pen and paper.
Here's my overview of basic organic chemistry...

and an overview of more detailed AS level organic chemistry...

See below for a list, a long one...of useful organic chem resources, most references are stated, just click on the titles to download

Fractional distillation

Cracking

Alkanes and Alkenes

Molymods are an essential tool for helping students to visualise the structure of hydrocarbons, if you don't have any, plastercine or polystyrene balls and cocktail sticks will work almost as well. The 3D visualisation too, Chime (as mentioned on one of my previous blog posts "water hydrant") is also very useful to help students get a clear picture in their mind of what these molecules actually look like.

See below a link to a powerpoint and video on alkanes and alkenes from Continuing Chemistry by Anne Wignall and Terry Wales.

Powerpoint on Alkanes and Alkenes
which covers cracking, addition and substitution reactions by reaction with bromine water, Markovnikov's rule, formation of diols using potassium permanganate

Continuing Chemistry is designed for students sitting exams in New Zealand but without a doubt would be beneficial for those studying organic chemistry in a secondary school anywhere around the world. This highly, highly recommended resources is so much more that just a 226 page book with CD. Continuing Chemistry has straightforward explanations, clear examples, original questions with answers, interactive revision tasks, interactive and write on examination style questions. The Powerpoints and accompanying videos are of a consistently high quality. Continuing Chemistry and other related resources are available to purchase here.
This book and CD are without question in my top 5 of recommended resources to Senior Chemistry students, irrespective of what country and which examination board they will be assessed under. But, don't take my word for it, buy a copy and judge for yourself.

Use of a "double bubble" helps students to reinforce their understanding of the differences between alkanes and alkenes and their reactions.

This is a good opportunity to introduce data books to your students as they research the melting and boiling points of alkanes and alkenes before plotting a graph of the melting/boiling points in relation to the number of carbon atoms in the molecule. Sure, they can find out the answer on google, but every chemistry student should have the experience of gripping a data book and sifting through the pages to find the information that they require and ensuring that they take the time to reading the keys for the titles of the columns correctly. The first time they do this it will seem a little daunting.

Isomers

Click here to download a pdf which summarises the different types of isomers: chain, positional, functional group, geometric and optical.

Optical isomers give you the opportunity to discuss thalidomide because it exists as two optical isomers, one of which levororatory (L) is a severe tetragen. Caraway seeds and spearmint are made up of the same molecular structure but have quite distinct and different odours due to being optical isomers of each other. Click on the text for a good teacher explanation and student experiment info sheet

and the following 3 animations help students to grasp and understanding of polarised light and enantiomers.

Combustion of alkanes and alkenes
One can recap on the use of a bunsen with the door open (oxygen in, noisy blue flame, therefore complete combustion) and door closed (limited oxygen in, orange flame, therefore incomplete combustion) but there are far more exciting demo's available such as methane bubbles and exploding can as shown in the videos below

and students can practise balancing equations using the animations below, this is also a good opportunity to discuss the importance of using gas fuelled cookers, heaters etc in a well ventilated area with a carbon monoxide alarm at hand. First Alert Carbon Monoxide alarm

Polymers
These are great last day of term activities, make a polymer superball, make slime and the nylon rope trick and the following animations help students to visualise what's actually happening to the molecules as they form polymers

Alcohols

To introduce alcohols I usually carry out the whoosh bottle demonstration, burning money and errie green glow, they are outlined on my previous blogpost flash, bang, wow attention grabbers

By lighting a few ml's of different alcohols in a watch glass students can observe the differences between the alcohol flames undergoing complete and incomplete combusion.

Aldehydes and ketones

This giant silver mirror example of the usual Tollen test for identifying aldehydes is very spectacular, worth a try!

RSC - a giant silver mirror

Esters

Students enjoy the experiment of making esters although the smells produced range from glue to vomit smelling, not as fruity as they should be, see below a handout on making esters and an copy of "Making methyl salicylate" which is 1 activity from a booklet of 37 of high quality thinking skills activities (with answers) for Senior Chemistry students. This is produced by McTogi, click here for an order form.
Soap
See below a good powerpoint outlining how to make soap (both in theory and practice) as well as clear diagrams on how soap works.

Real life organic chemists and their stories
Another good end of term suggestions is real life stories or real life organic chemists, the videos and additional information are from Teachers Domain

the impact of technology - nylon	synthesising a steroid	synthesising a alkaloid

fuel cells	the hydrogen car	Catherine Drennan

Finally, a couple organic chemistry beauty tips...

Elizabeth Arden Eight Hour Cream is perfect for lips, elbows, knees. The active ingredient is petroleum jelly aka soft paraffin (56.8%). Petroleum jelly is a semi-solid mixture of hydrocarbons with a chain length of 25 or more carbons. However, a tub of Vaseline will do the trick for a fraction of the price or for those health conscious ones amongst you, beeswax is a better option.

Estee Lauder has a extensive range of luxurious face creams and there are hundreds of different body moisturisers out there. My tip, ask for a tub of Cetomactogol cream at your local pharmacy, it is a top quality moisturiser and apparently the base for many expensive face products and being available so cheaply it makes a wonderful body moisturiser too.

L'Occitane Shea Butter soap is gentle on the skin, however a soap made from glycerol aka glycerin helps the skin to retain moisture and is safe to use on eczema and the most sensitive skins.

Time to put my face mask on, feet up and relax,
Have a great week!

climategate

2010-11-07T12:48:00.003+13:00

Climategate, the phrase coined by James Delinpole on his Daily Telegraph blog, to describe the scandal revealed by the leaked emails from the University of East Anglia's Climatic Research Unit in November 2009.
In the video below, Edmund Jenks gives his take on those hacked emails and the response from the media and conspiracy theorists around the world.

and The Huffungton Post has a well documented slideshow on The six most dubious claims about the supposed "Global warming hoax".

So...global warming as a result of increased levels of CO2 in the atmosphere, thus resulting in a warming of the Earth's atmosphere in a effect similar to that of a greenhouse, hence referred to as The Greenhouse Effect. Have we, humans caused this increase in levels of CO2, thus setting our atmosphere a little out of kilter, or is this a natural occurance?

Well there's two camps...one, it is real, it is happening and has been occurring since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution....two, it just a natural cycle of warming and cooling.

Where do you lie? which side of the fence? hmmm...you want evidence for global warming...here it is....

The Annual Mean Global Temperature increase, there is more info from RealClimate here

Thermometer based temperature trends compiled by NOAA (The US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) with data from NCDC (National Climatic Data Center) and CRU (UK Hadley Center Climate Research Unit), there is more information from the NOAA National Climate Data Center here

The Arctic Ice cap is thinning, there is more info from NASA here

The Arctic Ice cap is also shrinking, there is more info from NASA here

Northern Hemisphere Sea Ice anomaly, more info from NSIDC here

There are interactive animations on the sea ice in both the Northern and Southern hemispheres here at Cryosphere.

Antarctica areas where melting occurred for a greater number of days (indicated in red) see additional information from NASA here

Antarctic changing temperatures since 1957, more information from NASA here

Antarctica ice loss has speed up, see more information from NASA here

The first six months of 2010 were the hottest on record, see graphs and information from NASA GISS (Global Institute for Space Studies)

Carbon dioxide does cause global warming, more information from Zfacts here

This research paper "Stabilizing climate requires near zero emissions" states" H. Damon Matthews and Ken Caldeira,, GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH LETTERS, VOL. 35, XXXX, 2008 Matthews and Caldeira state that

"International climate policies aimed at climate stabilization must reflect an understanding of the lasting effect of Greenhouse Gas emissions: year 2050 emissions targets currently being proposed are likely insufficient to avoid substantial future climate warming. Stable global temperatures within the next several centuries can be achieved if CO2 emissions are reduced to nearly zero."

and a related article from the New Scientist

William R. Wilson has a superb series of posts titled "Evidence for global warming",

Finally, an interactive timeline from The New York Times on the Science and Politics of Climate Change

and if you haven't been bombared by enough facts, figures and graphs watch the Oscar winning documentary film "An Inconvenient truth" presented by the former United States Vice President Al Gore, the man who helped make climate change the number one dinner party conversation.

Convinced yet??
Now, what changes will you make to reduce your carbon footprint???

a picture is worth a thousand words

2010-10-31T17:31:00.004+13:00

Many National Qualifications require students to answer multiple choice questions, carry out simple recall eg colours, names, formula, write short three line explanations etc. Other country's National Qualifications such as NCEA (National Certificate of Educational Achievement), New Zealand's National Achievement Qualification requires a deeper level of thinking, it isn't better or worse than other National Qualifications, just different!

Students aren't required to write "big words" but have clear "big images" in their mind so that they can state, describe and explain scientific concepts in "big detail".

So, to help your students capture visual images of "big ideas", here's a few truly innovative, creative and collaborative suggestions...

Piclit creative writing by matching beautiful images with carefully selected key words

Tag Galaxy explores images in Flickr

simply enter a tag and explore an option that interests you via a virtual Galaxy of words

until you are transported to a globe where you view the relevant image(s) related to your original tag

Tagxedo turns words into a tag cloud

there are many, many ways to use this in a classroom, see 101 ways to use Tagxedo for some inspiration

wordle another means of generating word clouds

see the presentation here on using wordle in the classroom

Shape Collage

download this free program to create your own picture collages

Make a timeline using TimeRime

Glogster EDU for making interactive posters

How can students put these "big images" into "big detail"? The literacy suggestions outlined below work, and they work well. Students apply the technique of providing clear, detailed information on a scientific concept using a familar everyday activity of cleaning teeth.

Set the task: Provide all students with the State, Describe and Explain in detail guidelines. Ask students to write/type individually their ideas on...

How to clean teeth

State in one sentence eg. Put some toothpaste onto a toothpaste and use it to scrub your teeth.

Describe in three or four sentences eg. Place a pea sized amount of a toothpaste onto a manual or electric toothbrush. Rub the toothbrush sideways and up and down on all teeth. Rinse mouth out with tap water. Then, wrap a piece of dental floss around your index fingers and move the dental floss sideways between all teeth to remove any plaque. Rinse mouth out with tapwater.

Explain in detail by comparing and contrasting, relating to everyday life, link to scientific ideas. Students should write a detailed paragraph in which they compare and contrast eg a manual with an electric toothbrush, discuss the neutralising effect of toothpaste on acid in the mouth (pH < 7) after eating which should help prevent tooth decay, suggest using mouthwash etc...

Another topic that works quite well for introducing this literacy task is My favourite holiday destination.

For younger students I usually ask them to write a SEXY paragraph on a certain topic

The Task: Write a SEXY paragraph on Global Warming

S - statement Global Warming means an increase in the temperature of the Earth's atmosphere.

E - explanation Carbon dioxide gas traps heat energy which results in an increase in the temperature of the Earth's atmosphere. Ultra violet rays from the sun are highly penetrating and are able to pass through clouds of carbon dioxide, however, once they hit the surface of Earth they lose energy and become low energy infra red (or heat) and are unable to escape through the thick clouds of carbon dioxide.

X - example burning of fossil fuels contributes to an increase of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere

Y - consequence As a consequence of global warming the ice caps could melt at an increasing rate and result in the flooding of low lying areas and the sinking of some Polynesian islands.

"A picture is worth a thousand words", in everyday life - yes, in examinations, unfortunately no!

me, myself and eye

2010-10-24T16:18:00.009+13:00

In an era of Bebo, Myspace and Facebook the world of our students has changed, they are becoming more self absorbed and egocentric. Not the most desirable traits of human nature. However, let's embrace their self obsession and build on their creative talents by setting our students the task of producing something that tells us, as teachers a little more about them. We can then tailor our science topics around their interests so that we are putting together individualised programs for them (apparently the phrase "differentiated programs" is passe.)

Students can tell us more about themselves through multimedia such as filming their own video, singing and recording a song, making an animated caricature of themselves, the list goes on. A quick, simple and easy option is to produce a concept star using MWord or sketch one out on paper.

or a personalised apeaking avatar using a free website such as Voki.com.

Spend some time asking your students about their travel experiences or travel the world using Google Earth so as to link what students are learning about in the classroom to the outside world eg take an interactive tour around the Galapagos Islands while studying evolution, adaptation, habitats, endangered species etc...

On 30th August 2010, an interactive video known as "The Wilderness Downtown"was launched following a collaboration between Google, the artist Chris Milk and the band Arcade Fire Viewers start the experience by typing their childhood address (or any address) and are taken on a tour of their hometown thanks to Google Maps and Google Street View.

That's me... myself... now eye.

Eye dissections are so much fun and a good challenge for your students. If they can't carry out the dissections for cultural, religious or personal reasons then they can carry out one of the many interactive eye dissections, just click on the screenshots below to link to the interactives.

See the table below for links to a series of eye experiments that I put together from a range of sources. This activity is best set up as a circus of activities around the lab, usually takes about 30 mins with another 10 - 15 mins for a discussion of their results.







		teacher list of eye test experiments

Finally, are you an optimist or a pessimist? old or young? I'll leave you with one of my favourite optical illusions is young girl/old woman which was first seen on a German postcard in 1888, but then adapted by British cartoonist W.E.Hill.

See the powerpoint here for a collection of other optical illusions that I put together, there are many, many more on the net.

"The story of life is quicker than the blink of an eye, the story of love is hello, goodbye"

Jimi Hendrix

The Great Escape

2010-10-14T20:08:00.025+13:00

33 men.
69 long, dark nights.
An agonising wait for 33 wives....plus 1 mistress!

Through determination, creativity, hard work, perseverance of the rescue team and a small miracle all 33 Chilean miners are all alive and at this time perched on the surface of the Earth as opposed to 700m below. The Daily Telegraph has put together a good timeline of the events leading to their rescue.

Now here's a cave that I wouldn't mind being stuck in...the subterranean spectacle that is Naica's Cave, also known as Mexico Cave of Crystals. Although bearing in mind that Naica's Cave has a humidity of 100% on top of a temperature of about 50'C one wouldn't want to be in there for more than a few minutes without wearing any protective gear. This famous cave contains some of the largest crystals ever discovered.

Students of all ages are fascinated by crystals. Here's a few suggestions for making crystals in the classroom, they have been put together by Salters Chemistry Club, UK.

	crystal growing	teachers notes
	crystal gardens	teachers notes
	silver fractals	teachers notes
	zinc Christmas tree	teacher demo

Students can investigate the effect of the rate of cooling on crystal size by carrying out this experiment with salol as described by the Royal Society of Chemistry

salol fast cooling
this represents crystals in eg. basalt

salol slow cooling
this represents crystals in eg. granite

If rocks rock your world, the following interactives to identify rocks and minerals are worth a look...

source: Exploring Earth

source: Brooke Weston

source: The Potteries Museum

The RSC have put together a collaborative learning experience called "False diamonds" with teacher notes
It links well with their podcast on Zirconium, click on Zr (element number 40) within this Interactive Periodic table

Linking these rocks back to chemistry, all crystals are made up of ionic bonds. To reinforce students understanding of ions, see the activities below, sources are all written on them, to download click here. The ionic jigsaw powerpoint is from Pete Hollanby, who has produced a significant number of useful resources for secondary school students.

There are numerous interactives online representing movement of electrons for form an ionic bond, here are some of the ones that I use, sources are on all animations, to download click here. If your students are kinaesthetic learners, why not try roleplay with your students acting as atoms as they transfer sweets/cards etc as the electrons.

...and here's an interactive and couple of quizzes (ionic bonding and stability and reactivity) from the Royal Society of Chemistry on ionic bonding as a part of their chemical misconceptions series. These are superb and great for reinforcing students understanding of ionic bonding. See my previous blogpost on back to basics for an animation which really helps students to visualise an ionic compound dissolving in water.

APECS (Able Pupils Experiencing Challenging Science) was set up by The Universities of Cambridge, Reading and Roehampton and as a result of the project Dr Keith Haber put together a superb resource "Enriching School Science for the Gifted Learner. One of the lessons "judging models in Science" encourages students to "evaluate the usefulness of competing/complementary models in two different contexts by examing whether the models can explain data."

The following logic and collaborative learning puzzles are also worth a look, they are original and innovative, the first is from JChemEd, Ionic Compound logic puzzle, the other two are produced by Flinnsci and follow the pattern of a tournament with certain ions or compounds progressing on to the final. I posted a few other science related logic puzzles on my previous blogpost, lateral thinking and logic puzzles.

If the intricate detail of crystals fascinates you, then you will be bowled over by the relatively new BBC series "Invisible Worlds" where Top Gear presenter Richard Hammond "goes beyond the limits of the naked eye and explores the hidden secrets of the invisible world around us."

This weekend, wherever you are in the world raise a toast to The Great Escape. Cheers to the 33 Chilean miners, their families and of course, the rescue team. I hope they are all enjoying a few cold beers as they look up at a deep blue sky and smile at that shimmering golden orb. The lyrics in "A Beautiful day" by U2 say it all....

Crime Scene Investigation

2010-09-30T21:16:00.008+13:00

So it's a cold, wet, windy evening, you're having a quiet night in, just channel hopping through the TV stations. Wherever you are in the world you are bound to stumble upon two things; one: trashy reality shows and two: superb crime dramas.

The crime dramas are usually made in the US although you can't beat the likes of Miss Marple and Poirot from the UK. There are the courtroom dramas of Law and Order, the forensic science in Bones and CSI, maths problems in Numb3rs, the body language in The Mentalist and the psychological profiling in what is my favourite, Criminal minds. A discussion of these programs can usually enthuse even the most apathetic science student so why not use CSI in your science classroom to help your students to learn about the use of forensics in real life scenarios and encourage collaborative learning.

Following on from my previous blogpost in February where I discussed (from an ICT perspective) a unit on Forensics that I carried out last year with a class of 14 year olds.

Once they had cracked the code to enter the relevant site on the school intranet (run on the moodle program), they had to solve the crime by collecting evidence from a set up crime scene, then carried out research, interviewed suspects and presented their findings both through ongoing media reports and a mock court where they used their solid scientific evidence to name the perpetrator of the crime.

This unit required a lot of organisation but once the crime scene and resources were gathered together it ran itself for a couple of weeks. It was very rewarding to see the students work so collaboratively as they distributed the workload and organised the practicals amongst their team while building on their personal interest and skills. I am looking forward to running the unit again in a few weeks time.

Click on the images below to access relevant files for this Forensics unit. Feel free to use and adapt any of the information provided. The teacher scheme of work and information are here.

Here's some additional suggestions on carrying out interactive Crime Scene Investigations in your classroom.

	The Case of the Barefoot burglar: students use their observation skills as they solve the crime for ages 10+ years
	Interactive Investigator: is a good literacy problem solving task from the Canadian Heritage Information Network for ages 12+ years
	The Human Torch: This an educational computer game which aims to make learning about combustion reactions, safety and risk more exciting, by harnessing students enthusiasm for games and the paranormal, as in the X Files for ages 14+ years
	The Killer's trail: helps students to learn more about forensic methods that are used in real life crimes, this activity is based on a real life, unsolved murder from 1985 in the USA, it gives good scientific background with interactives on fingerprinting and 3D mug shots. for ages 14+ years
	Crime Scene Investigator: students use logic to link together the clues, gather information about the suspects and solve each of the 5 crimes. for ages 14+ years
	Autopsy of a murder: there are excellent visuals in this interactive as students once again collect clues and learn about forensic analysis techniques. for ages 14+ years

Finally, one of the best "who dunnits" on the net. This interactive is called "Mixed Reception" and designed by Chemistry and Drama students at Carnegie Melon University

This activity requires students to have a basic knowledge of organic chemistry, stoichiometry and enough time (I would recommend a week for them to work at home and "marinate" on the problem). It can be downloaded for free or run online from here.

I have put together some teacher notes on this, but if you like this interactive why not email the Chemistry and Drama students at mixedreception@chemcollective.org to express your gratitude.

Have a great week, I'm off to solve the mystery of my missing sock....you know the usual scenario, you pop a pair in the washing machine and one "disappears"!

social networking (part two)

2010-09-19T19:39:00.015+12:00

You are alone in a dimly lit room, staring at a flickering computer screen while tip tapping away on a keyboard. I ask the question... really, honestly, how social is social networking?

My thoughts, perhaps it's as social as we want it to be, On one hand, a person can be a listener, a recipient of news, information and opinions without actually being in active conversation with the "chatterboxes" on the other end of the line, so to speak. On the other hand, one can be actively engaged and participating in conversation with others via instant updates on Twitter (which I feel, quite frankly is a complete and utter waste of time, perhaps I am clearly clueless as how to maximise its benefits) or on Facebook by commenting on friends profiles, exchanging images and videos (usually from YouTube), while also having face to face conversations using Skype, playing online chess....the list goes on...and on...

I set this blog up 9 months ago, purely for fun, as a wee challenge, to see if I could fiddle around with HTML, learn how to embed objects, share resources and give me some incentive to sort through the many that I have accumulated over the years. See my previous blog post from the beginning of the year on social networking. I have been surprised and to be honest a little thrilled to see that as of today there are over 2000 hits (according to ClustrMaps). Of course, it's very possible that many people stumbled upon this blog, had a quick skim read and moved swiftly on if Rod Liddle, writer of a recent Sunday Times article is to be believed,

"...Bloggsville incarnate - the very essence of that vast network of talentless and embittered individuals tapping away at their keyboards in the intellectual vacuum of cyberspace, only occasionally leaving their computer screens to heat up a Tesco microwave-ready mini filled garlic and corriander nan bread with Indian dip selection before returning to spew out some more unsubstantiated bile."
Rod Liddle, The Sunday Times

For fear of boring you with yet more "unsubstantiated bile"...let's get back to the task at hand which is to encourage Creative, Collaborative, Lifelong Learners...shall we have a look at what other bloggers have been blogging about, specifically their creative suggestions for innovative and collaborative learning in and around the classroom.

"Now I appreciate that many people will think that there is not a lot to learn about chewing gum but I think it is a fascinating subject!
I also think it is also a good example of how a Curriculum for Excellence can allow us to teach topics that will capture the imagination of children but at the same time provide depth, core knowledge and skills."
Ollie Bray
_______________________________________________________

"A Dashboard Physics lesson: For several years I’ve turned my students loose with a rather boring video of my speedometer as I traveled around town. The best part of this video is that I don’t need to come up with an assignment.I just play the video. It doesn’t take more than a minute for questions to start bubbling out of the students?

How long did you do this?
Where did you go?
How far did you drive?

And there it is. A physics lesson. I send the students off with a challenge: “tell us everything you can about my trip.”

Dale Bashler and Brian Bartel
________________________________________________________

"I do not talk of grace in the classroom. I talk of fusion in the sun, of energy flowing through us, or matter recycling around us. I talk of what we know, what we can know, and of what we cannot.
I talk of descent with modification, of DNA, of life.
I told the kids on Friday I would bring back a shell or two of the critters I planned to hunt over the weekend. I want them to wonder, as I do, why the inside of a quahog shell holds a purple streak almost too intense too bear."
Michael Doyle
________________________________________________________

"But now, I want to tackle the death of the pen which is quickly being replaced with digital writing tools like laptops, cell phones, iTouches, iPads, Smartpens etc. etc. etc. The same rumblings happen when it comes to the passing of the pen.

But I love the feel of the pen on the page.
Taking notes (an outdated skill) with a pen helps me understand what I’m hearing.
I need an ink pen to be able to capture my thoughts, the keyboard just isn’t the same.
My advice: Get over it and join the 21st century so you can be relevant to yourself, your colleagues, and most importantly your students.
Why? Because...
Ditching pens allows you to do more, do it faster, do it more efficiently / effectively, and most importantly share it with an audience."
Lisa Nielsen
_________________________________________________________

"About a week ago I was at a conference and was asked what do you do with those teachers fast approaching retirement who don’t want, or feel the need to integrate ICT into their learning. The problem with arguing with people about this issue is that they try to elevate it to an intellectual / rational level, whatever their position. The reality though is that whenever there is poor teaching, students are disadvantaged, they are harmed. Not integrating ICT is poor teaching if your students live daily in a digitally rich environment. In addressing this issue we need to include the voice of those that are harmed by it.

My answer was to get half a dozen student and parents from that teacher’s class and get the teacher to discuss their position to this audience. When exposed to the victims of their actions, most people will change their position."

Peter Kent
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"Steve Spangler Science serves as both a catalog and on-line business dedicated to offering its customers educational toys and one of a kind learning resources. The company’s unique business strategies and attention-getting creations have been featured recently in the Wall Street Journal, Inc. Magazine and TIME Magazine where on-line readers voted Steve Spangler #18 in the Top 100 Most Influential People of the Year for 2006.
So, what is Steve doing right now.
He’s probably making some gadget ooze, bubble, fizz, bounce, smoke, or maybe he’s creating a new idea to get another human being turned on to life’s small wonders."
excerpt from Who is Steve Spangler?

___________________________________________________

and on another note, however much we aspire to being ultra creative, our students super collaborative and all of us lifelong learners, hey, we're only human... here's a few descriptions from down to earth, honest bloggers who state the realities of a day in the life of a teacher...

"You know that saying, about there being an 'elephant in the room': something that everyone knows is there, but no one is willing to point out, for fear of what might happen if they do? Well, in teaching, there isn't just one elephant in the classroom, there's a whole herd of them, rampaging through the room. In this blog I plan to turn a spotlight on some of these elephants, to highlight the unspoken and sometimes unpalatable truths about our noble profession. Because if we can't be honest about what makes a good learning experience, or an effective school, and equally what makes a bad learning experience, or a bad school, then everyone loses. As the saying goes: 'Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me.' There's no point in denying these truths, no point in turning our back on that herd of elephants, because they will still be there when we turn back around. Or to put it another way, just because you're paranoid, doesn't mean there isn't someone following you."
Sue Cowley
_____________________________________________________

"Lots of teachers return to work tomorrow and no Head can resist making a little speech to start the new term. A few will be inspirational, creating a warm feeling of comradeship and making every teacher feel wanted, appreciated and keen to do their very best. Most however will be dreadful, filled with cliches and wild new ideas which make no sense, but are greeted with wise nods by the SMT. They also include desperate pleas to work harder, interspersed with complaints about 'under-performance' which make everyone want to look for a job elsewhere.
However, you need to stay alert because at some stage during the day (usually morning break) you will hear someone utter Chalk's Teachers' Moan No 1:
"It doesn't seem like we've been away!"
Do us all a favour and shoot this person."

Frank Chalk
______________________________________________________

and I'll leave you with this clip from intelligence squared where Stephen Fry discusses The Catholic Church and it's prejudices. I acknowledge that this speech is controversial and that yes, this speech will, I have no doubt offend some readers. However, don't pre-judge but take the time to listen to the numerous valid points that Mr Fry discusses in a powerful and articulate manner.

To conclude, the internet is an incredible social networking tool, let's continue to make the most of diverse methods to discuss, debate and share with from others from far corners of the world.

Spring is in the air

2010-09-01T10:19:00.007+12:00

Allright everybody, sing along after me...Spring is in the air, tra la la da doo de da....

What a perfect time of year to teach plant and human reproduction. While many newly qualified teachers (NQT's) aka beginning teachers (BT's) shudder at the thought of having to talk about "the birds and the bees" to a class of thirty giggling teenagers with hormones surging (or about to) through their bodies, those who approach this topic with the right attitude and appropriate level of humour ensure that an enjoyable learning experience is had by all.

My survival guide to this topic is...
1) start with plant reproduction and disect a flower
2) plant reproduction has a natural progression on to the next section of the topic, human reproduction
3) before starting human reproduction, have a class brainstorm on the "ground rules"
4) referring to number 3, never reveal any personal information
4) where appropriate, use humour
5) make use of videos starring real people, with real bodies who have real life stories to tell
6) provide your students with correct information so that they can make informed decisions for themselves
7) play the STI game to show how easily infections can be transferred
8) give each of them a raw egg "baby" to mind for a week, they love the experience, have tales to tell and besides, the egg "baby" turns out to be a pretty good contraceptive...yes, really!

The keen bunnies in class will be thrilled to be given the opportunity to use a scalpel and tweezers to dissect a flower, if you teach little terrors blunt the scalpels blades beforehand, they'll never know! Obviously count them in and out. Get your students to stick the flower in their book and label it, key words on the board can help the less able ones.

If using scalpels isn't an option for your students, click on the image below for a very cool model of the flower that students can cut, stick and colour. This was designed by Mike Beester, Edgemead High School.

and the cartoon below always gets a laugh...

and clear, simple video on the growth of a pollen tube

There is a wonderful though now quite dated book called Living Things: Certificate of Secondary Education Biology by V. Slaughter and published by Edward Arnold. The copy that I have dates from 1980. If you can get your hands on a copy of it then do and clasp it firmly. It is a superb book, the drawings, explanations and questions are first rate and it covers all basic aspects of plant and human biology. Highly, highly recommended. See here for some pdf's from the book, it is available for sale from Amazon for only £2

So on to puberty...I like to show this video produced originally for the NEMO Science Centre from Fonztv.

It is a 3 minute animation which seems odd initially but certainly gets the message across of the difficult journey through puberty showing the progression from "ugly ducklings" to emerging "beautiful swans"and a paragraph about a person called Chris outlining changes occuring to him/her during puberty, after reading this students discuss and decide if the story related to refers to a Christopher or a Christine.

Here's a couple of info, colour in and ques sheets from User Friendly Resources. There are many animations online relevant to male and female reproductive organs, particularly good is the BBC puberty demo and I quite like this animation of the menstrual cycle from The American Medical Association.

The BBC Human Body series, episode titled "Raging teens" has a wonderful true to life account of how teenagers feel and the changes that they undergo during puberty, this is also available to purchase from Amazon This award winning series is presented by The Right Honourable Professor Lord Robert Winston.

So...onto the birds and the bees and what better way to start than with this Mitsubishi car ad.

and that wonderful opening scene from "Look who's talking" featuring the voice of Bruce Willis.

and "The inside story" from Discovery Health which touches on the science of it all. There are clear info and diagrams available to purchase from User Friendly Resources on the start of new life.

It'll be yet another well deserved plug for the BBC as I recommend "An Everyday miracle" which shows the development of a foetus in the womb which culminates with, by far the quietest and seemingly easiest labour that I have ever seen or heard of!

As regards contraceptives, no doubt your local family planning association will be delighted to chat to your students about the different methods of contraceptive available to them. Whenever I teach this topic I issue each student with an egg to mind for the week, they name it, draw a face and hair on it. As part of the task I suggest that they don't leave the egg unattended and need to find a "babysitter" for it if they're playing sports etc... if possible they keep a diary of what they did with their egg and how easy or difficult the experience was. Usually they find it a difficult task and a class discussion gets the message across that despite being a difficult task, it would be considerably more so if their egg was a real life baby who cried, needed feeding, nappy changing etc..

Something else that works well for teenagers is having other teenagers through the local family planning association come into school and talk to the students about the difficulties (and they are usually difficulties) that they have had as a result of being a parent during their teenage year. This banned commerical highlights one of the difficulties of parenting...

The Brook Advisory Centre, UK devised an interactive game called "The Body fluids game", it's pretty straightforward to carry out with a class of students as the starch and iodine solutions required are readily available. Without question "The Body fluids game" gets the message across as to how easily STI's can be transmitted from one person to another.

Some of you may have heard of the very popular "Grapevine Sex education game" which has now been relaunched as "Sexplanation" from the National Youth Agency (UK)

So I'll conclude with the Johnny condom song this was created in 1997 by the Frank Foundation and features puppets from the Spitting Image crew.

Sing along after me...Johnny condom, Johnny condom...tra la la da doo de da....

quiet now please

2010-08-19T20:04:00.012+12:00

"Quiet now please..." requested a teacher at the beginning of a whole school assembly, which may sound like just another ordinary day...but no! The assembly was attended by The Edge radio station and unknown to Ms X her requests were recorded (gasp, shock horror!) and streamed live to a DJ, Dominic Harvey who subsequently passed it to a colleague who produced this wonderful "song" which was then aired on their radio station. I have nothing but compliments for Ms X who was polite, persistent, assertive and well spoken (she has a wonderful Scottish lilt). I like this audio version and think that Grant Brodie did a damn good job producing it.

Go on press play...you know you want to!

You remember Roald Dahl, the writer of the very popular "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory"? One of the charachters who won a golden ticket was Violet Beauregarde, within no time at all she had ballooned (literally!) and resembled an oversized blueberry.

Click here for a poem about the chewing gum addicted Violet, which is wonderful for handing out to students to write out if they continually chew gum in class. Very old scool, I know! and on the same note, click here for a document with a valuable lesson in time management, again it can be written out for students who frequently arrive late to your lessons.

Amongst the best student management advise manuals out there is "Getting the buggers to behave" by Sue Cowley and video clips with sensible and realistic suggestions for managing students here.

Talking of old scool, here's a glimpse of how it used to be..

Have a look and a laugh at "Seven periods with Mr Gormsby", the satirical comedy series from New Zealand featuring an "old school" teacher who isn't at all politically correct. It's bloody hilarious!

and Summer Heights High, the Award winning Australian mockumentary starring the multi talented Chris Lilley as three different charachters, guaranteed most of you will have taught a Jonah or twenty.Available from Amazon here

Jonah Takalua	Mr G	Ja'mie King

Have a great week, I'll be sipping champagne at a wedding. Hope my students behave for the reliever!

rocket scientist

2010-08-09T09:23:00.010+12:00

"Miss, I wanna be an astronaut"

Hey, don't we all! So, how do you reply when a student of average academic ability tells you of their lifetime goal, their dream for the future? To become a doctor, professional footballer, rocket scientist...? However unrealistic it may seem to us as teachers or parents, a dream is a dream, without dreams we are nothing, so without question most teachers encourage their students to pursue their personal goal(s) and bring it as close to reality as is possible. Although I will add that I feel it is so important to open our students eyes to the range of options available to them, so that they don't set themselves up for failure.

For those budding astronauts, NASA offers a number of scholarships open to students from all around the world, local observatories give students the opportunity to catch a glimpse of outer space and students can make the most of hands on activities and learn from displays at the space exploration section of most Science Museums. For those millionaires amongst us, (that'll rule out the teachers then), good ol' Sir Richard Branson has made a trip into space a possible reality through his Virgin Galactic Space program. It'll set you back.$200,000 (US). If I win lotto, I'll be online and have my flight booked in a tick.

There are a huge number of reference sites to learn about the planets, I'll start with this mnemonic.

Very

Easy

Method

Just

Speeds

Naming

Planets

(although given that now Pluto is no longer a planet, this mnemonic is out of date but no doubt,

your students can think up a mnemonic of their own for the 8 planets)

and I recommend this simple overview of the solar system from CELS at Nottingham Trent University and this very cool 3D viewer from ForgeFX which also has a brief bit of info on the planets and one that I suggest to students for their own research is A multimedia tour of the Solar System. As mentioned already, there are many more...the NASA site is obviously a good starting point.

If you like the look of the screenshot above then definitely be sure to view the Earth (or the moon) from different perspectives using this superb, truly excellent Earth and Moon viewer has been compiled by John Walker using information provided from satellites and a number of other sources. It ranks in my top ten of favourite urls, no doubt about it!

Have you got a sense of humour? Then have a laugh at this video clip with "proof" that the Moon landings in 1969 were faked.

Moving swiftly on... we have just passed the 41st anniversary of the first moon landing. July 20th 1969 was the momentous day as can be seen from this post 1969 edited version of a copy of The Times newspaper.

and here is a powerpoint that I put together on the moon landings with evidence for and against them being a fictitious Hollywood movie.

And some useful moon related resources, some of which will lend themselves well to collaborative learning experiences for your students.

and there's more...

Science concept cartoons open up more possibilities for creative, collaborative learning, leave your students in groups to discuss and debate their thoughts and ideas using the concept cartoons as a focal point, available from Amazon here

and this fabulous computer animated video clip of the Rover landing on Mars, produced by NASA, no surprises there!

and an excellent resource document "To Mars and beyond" which was put together by School Program Officers at the National Museum of Australia and The Melbourne Museum.

Astronomy is such a fun topic to teach, although I rarely find that I "teach" it as such but my students come up with questions which inevitably lead to more questions that they discuss and research by themselves individually or in groups. Exploration and knowledge of "what's out there" is akin to finding a black hole and being unable to escape as a result of the pull it has on you and the endless myriad of questions that develop.

image from http://jila.colorado.edu/~ajsh/insidebh/intro.html

creativity is crucial

2010-07-23T15:41:00.004+12:00

"Schools kill creativity"

"Creativity is as important in education as literacy and we should treat it with the same status"

"If you are not prepared to be wrong you will never come up with anything original"

"We are educating people out of their creative capacities"
Sir Ken Robinson

Watch and listen to creativity expert Sir Ken Robinson who challenges the way we are educating our children. He champions a radical rethink of our school systems, to cultivate creativity and acknowledge multiple types of intelligence.

His talk could also double as a stand up comedy act, it is a highly recommended must watch video.

There are many more videos of talk worth watching on TED, the site for videos of talks with "ideas worth spreading."

Have a look at this movie "The Hero 2, a movie about someone you know, or you". for top notch originality and creativity.

This wonderfully original, innovative and creative film is the second viral film that was used by the Swedish broadcasting company Radiotjanst to bring peoples attention to broadcast fees and thank them for paying it. The ad reminds people what is good about nationalised tv and the "hero" can be anyone, just upload their photo. No doubt you can find a use for it in your classroom. Make your own film here.

Thank crunchie its Friday! Have a great week!

back to basics

2010-07-16T16:10:00.009+12:00

Many students find Science difficult, it really doesn't have to be.

Science and particularly Chemistry, requires students to visualise particles, atoms, molecules etc on a microscopic scale. So, most teachers frequently use models on a macroscopic scale to help students with this crucial part of the learning process. Here's my back to basics on the particles that make up water.

Place 3 beakers containing ice, water and steam on a desk at the front of the room. Get your students to draw a quick sketch of what they see.

If you work in a laptop school, students may like to use diagram maker or lab equipment for their sketches, but hey, there's nothing wrong with a simple pen and pencil.

Next step, ask your students to draw particles in the beaker that make up the 3 different states of water. Students usually represent particles as circles (although they could be shown as triangles, squares, hexagonals, any shape really!). Here's 3 simple animations showing the particles in water in 3 different states.

animations are from the Royal Society of Chemistry

There are many experiments that can be carried out that involve a change of state, students can make models, do a class roleplays etc... The bottom line is that science students need to have a clear idea of the movement and energy of the particles and their resultant effect on the volume, shape and relative density of solids, liquids and gases.
Following on from the movement of particles, students may carry out a heating curve experiment, plot a graph and analyse each step in detail, see below a graph showing the changes of a state.

animation from Footprints

Finally, onto step 3...recap on the chemistry term for water being H2O, which can be shown visually as

and moving away from the phrase "particles" but making use of the words atoms and molecule to describe water, get your students to sketch the beakers of ice, water and steam in terms of atoms and molecules. Vision Learning has 3 superb and clear animations detailing the molecules of water in the 3 different states, see the screen shots below.

images from Vision Learning

For senior students, hydrogen bonds between the water molecules are shown.

As a teacher, you may be surprised the learn that the majority of students assume that in the gas state, the water molecules separate to form oxygen and hydrogen atoms, this isn't the case. A simple demo of the hydrogen balloon (or hydrogen and oxygen balloon) and prior knowledge that a match near water vapour from a kettle does not result in an explosion, will help students to realise this.

Also, worth a mention is this interactive animation "Particle viewer of objects in a room", whereby students can click on different objects and get a peak at how the atoms are arranged. This again, helps students to visualise the atoms in the objects on a microscopic level.

And molecule 3d, mentioned on my previous blog "water hydrant" in which students can make up their own simple molecules, then view them in 3d. It's quick and straightforward, although for senior students I'd recommend Chemsketch and Chime.

This document titled "On the Ball" from The University of Southhampton, 2001 emphasises the importance of using models in the teaching of Science and has many suggestions and ideas on the uses of models in junior science.

This report "Beyond appearances, students misconceptions about basic chemical ideas", Vanessa Barker highlights in detail many misconceptions that students have and suggestions on what we can do as teachers to help students develop the "molecular spectacles" required to progress further with their chemistry knowledge.

Finally, here is a wonderful animation on dissolving salt in water which shows clearly that even though the salt cannot be seen it has not "disappeared" and that the mass of the beaker containing dissolved salt and water is not the same as the beaker of water. Yep, another couple of common misconceptions there.

Senior students will find this animation useful to help them to visualise and explain in detail the solubility of an ionic substance such as NaCl in a polar solvent such as water and here is a worksheet from the RSC on mass and dissolving.

I hope those of you in the Northern Hemisphere are enjoying a steaming and stinking hot summer, I'm off to splash about in puddles as its raining cats and dogs down here.

ps: to download any animations shown above...

1) use Mozilla Firefox to open this internet page

2) top of page click Tools, then select Addons and Get Addons

3) type in "Embedded Objects"

4) restart Firefox

5) click the little green arrow (bottom right) and the animations/videos from any site you visit will be saved to your computer

end of term videos

2010-07-01T23:18:00.038+12:00

I'm weary...worn out....11 week term was too long...light at end of tunnel...end of term tomorrow...YAY!

I'm officially too tired to teach tomorrow so it'll be a video day of "popcorn lessons" for me and my students.

Here's my top ten (well actually, nine) list of end of term videos...in no particular order...

March of the Penguins

Documentary film narrated by Morgan Freeman: A wonderful, emotional and very visual journey that relates to adaptation and habitats.

"The film depicts the yearly journey of the emperor penguins of Antarctica. In autumn, all the penguins of breeding age leave the ocean, their normal habitat, to walk inland to their ancestral breeding grounds. There, the penguins participate in a courtship that, if successful, results in the hatching of a chick. For the chick to survive, both parents must make multiple arduous journeys between the ocean and the breeding grounds over the ensuing months."

BBC Blue Planet
Time flies as you sit back and effortlessly watch any of the 8 of these 50 minute episodes with links to adaptation. I recommend episode 2 "The Deep".

"The Blue Planet has been described as the first ever comprehensive series on the natural history of the world's oceanseach of the eight 50-minute episodes examines a different aspect of marine life. My favourite is episode 2 "The Deep", it's just extraordinary. The underwater photography includes creatures and behaviour that had previously never been filmed."

Man on Wire

WOW! I'm a little speechless, what an incredible lifetime dream that was achieved by Philippe Petit! Show this in class after teaching a unit on forces, it is a gripping documentary and a well deserved winner of numerous Film Awards.

"On August 7th 1974, a young Frenchman named Philippe Petit stepped out on a wire illegally rigged between New York's twin towers, then the worlds tallest buildings. At 7:15 AM, Philippe took his first step on the high wire 1,350 feet above the sidewalks of Manhattan. James Marsh's documentary brings Petit's extraordinary adventure to life through the testimony of Philippe himself, and some of the co-conspirators who helped him create the unique and magnificent spectacle that became known as the artistic crime of the century"

Atom Bond, the atom with the golden electron

I cannot recommend this highly enough, it is superb, a fun, creative and informative summary for Senior Chem students on bonding and intermolecular forces. Available to purchase from Classroom video.

"The scientific concepts are presented as a parody of a James Bond movie: Gold Metallic Bond is sent off to investigate why carbon, nitrogen and other atoms are training themselves in other types of bonds. He discovers their 'bond' school and university, finding that they are all working towards Project D. Complex information is presented in a way that is designed to be fun at the same time."
Winner of a Gold Dragon at the International Science Film Festival 2001 Beijing and gold medal for the Most Innovative program at the Questacon (CSIRO) Awards 2001.

BBC Life of Plants
A wonderful series, written and presented by David Attenborough. Due to time constraints it's unlikely you'll be able to show all six episodes, I recommend episode 1 "Travelling", which introduces students to many weird and wonderful types of seeds and their methods of dispersal.

Man v's Wild

Hosted by Bear Gryllis (surely, not his real name!). Have a look at the Namibian desert episode (season 2, episode 9) where he puts together a makeshift water distiller and finds sources of water in the desert, there are loose links to distillation and adaptation.

I came, I saw, I redoxed

Another favourite from the Classroom video crew this is an excellent summary of redox chemistry for your senior Chemistry students.

"This video explains or redox reactions via an animated story in which the mighty caesium and his legion of atoms set out to conquer the world. A number of reactions are covered and the properties of different types of atom explained."

Wallace and Gromit by Nick Park of Aardman Productions.

These plastercine charachters are very popular with students, all three of the 20 minute episodes are worth a look. I recommend "The Wrong Trousers" with links to levers and forces, this episode alone has won over forty top international awards including the Academy Oscar, and has become one of the most successful animated short films ever made.

As a side note, there is a "Wallace and Gromit, World of cracking ideas" exhibition on at the Science Museum in London until November

Atoms and their electrons

The synopsis below sounds cheesy, because it is! This is a fabulous summary of ionic, covalent molecular, metallic and covalent network bonding. Another highly recommended video, available to purchase from...yes, you guessed it, a very creative and talented group of professionals at Classroom video.

"This program provides a history of our understanding of the atom including the pioneering work of Dalton, Thomson, Rutherford and Bohr. It features an animated love story of chlorine and sodium, showing how 'at the disco' atoms combine in various ways. Carbon forms a show of network covalent models, we see evolving molecular shapes C02, H20, NH3, CH4, and N2. Chlorine is asked to dance with Ca, Al and C but waits for Na. They dance and transfer an electron. Love at last."

Happy holidays! Enjoy a relaxing and restful break :-)

Periodic table problems

2010-06-24T19:00:00.005+12:00

Six months have passed since I started this blog and can you believe it, not once have I mentioned the Chemist's "bible", the Periodic Table... There are many, many versions of the Periodic Table online, I recommend these two...

WebElements Periodic table

Visual Elements Periodic table

For Senior students, the David Whizzy Periodic table is excellent

David Whizzy's table (screenshot shown above) has good, clear visuals of the electrons in the s, p, d orbitals along with the charachteristic emission spectrum for each element.

Extension students of all ages may be interested in taking a look at the progression of the Periodic table over the centuries and can view the many different forms of the Periodic table here on the informative Periodic Table Formulations site

A fun way to introduce the Periodic table is with the Tom Lehrer "Elements song" from 1952, as mentioned on my previous blogpost titled "Eurovision song contest"

There is a small selection of periodic tables below which enable students to experience some of the frustrations of the early chemists as they tried to arrange the elements, I'd recommend that students work collaboratively is small groups as they discuss one of all of these.

	Periodic table discovery activity
	Periodic table of extraterrestrial elements
	Merrymen of Matterdom image and teacher guidelines here

I like this 4 minute video from Teachers Domain called "The elements forged in stars", it "illustrates the critical role that the stars play in creating the elements".

and for revising previous knowledge of the Periodic table try this Alien Periodic table with teacher answers here.

and for more Senior students a good challenging problem is the Periodic difficulties with teacher answers here.

and a concept map of the Periodic table from the Royal Society of Chemistry.

A finally a Periodic table of Comic books, who would have thought! The links to elements are a little loose but may certainly inspire your students to think up and then sketch their own cartoon strips that illustrate the properties of, sources of or uses of elements in the Periodic table.

Go the All Whites!!! Who would have thought, good on you New Zealand, that small island on the edge of the Pacific, that was a wonderful goal and unexpected draw against the World Champions. Best of luck against Paraguay in a few hours time.

Football

2010-06-10T20:00:00.009+12:00

"Football is not about life or death. It is more important than that."

Bill Shankley, former manager of Liverpool Football club.

Well it's rolled around again... FOOTBALL (most certainly not soccer!) fever. I wonder what surprises the FIFA World Cup 2010 has got in store for us? There have been the usual dramas and injuries leading into these finals, Thierre Henry's "Hand of Frog" didn't go unnoticed by anyone, oh except of course the ref!

Injury has dashed numerous players (and their fans) World Cup dreams, the English and German teams will be the most affected without Beckham, Ferdinand, Ballack, Adler, Traesch and Westermann. Before it all kicks off, take a trip down memory lane and have a look, a cheer at these top 50 World Cup moments from The Daily Telegraph.

So how can we encorporate the Football World Cup into our science lessons? Here's a few suggestions...

1) Analysing distance-time graphs, produced by ASE in 2001
Students will look at actual video footage from an FA Cup 4th round match between Manchester United and West Ham United. It is a little dated as it was played back in 2000, however, there are 6 different stages and students should make a note of the key point for each stage. The accompanying key point worksheet is here.

2) video "The Science of Football"
Encourage your students to improve their science knowledge and football skills (with a lot of practice!) after viewing this engaging video on the science of football.

3) Article "The physics of football" by Physics World
Senior Physics students may like to read this article which discusses the spin, velocity and forces as a football is kicked with a curve.

Finally, you must have seen the Nike Football "Write the future" adverts. I like this overwhelmingly positive review on the Nike Football ads from the soccerbible.com

"Starring some of the world’s best players, including Cristiano Ronaldo, Didier Drogba, Wayne Rooney, Fabio Cannavaro, Franck Ribery, Andres Iniesta, Cesc Fabregas, Theo Walcott, Patrice Evra, Gerard Pique, Ronaldinho, Landon Donovan, Tim Howard and Thiago Silva... this epic football journey unfolds through a match of goal line clearances, game-winning tackles and lightning footwork that literally send a ripple effect across the world."

Have a fantastic month cheering on your team. Enjoy the excitement, tension and tears of joy. Relish in that sense of camaraderie and the community feel of it all during the most watched sporting event in the world.

Eurovision Song Contest

2010-05-28T07:52:00.004+12:00

The Eurovision Song Contest...it's tacky, cheesy, the outfits are horrendous, hairdoos over the top, the music is catchy - in a very irritating way and the songs are usually awful but boy do we love it! Growing up in Ireland in the 70's and 80's, my family would gather together to watch the annual "Eurovision", not at all for the music but to fall over ourselves laughing at the outrageous commentary from the extremely popular Terry Wogan. His acidic, sardonic comments and ability to take the absolute mickey out of the hosts and presenters was wonderfully irreverant. His predictions of the usually extremely politically biased voting was just spot on. Sir Terry Wogan, as he is more correctly referred to has been replaced (no that's impossible!) succeeded by an almost equally witty man Graham Norton. Incidentally, both men were born in Ireland, there must be something in the water.

Actually, the one good thing to come out of the Eurovision Song Contest was ABBA, and that was back in 1974!

The final of The Eurovision Song Contest for 2010 is being held is Oslo this weekend, Sat 29th May. What a laugh! It'll be on Sky TV and broadcast around the world as it is one of the most popular non-sports programmes. Tune in and join in the fun :-)

So, back to the classroom, students love singing, give some of these suggestions a go but even better, get your students to make up their own songs, record them on their mobiles or a laptop and edit using the free download Audacity, see instructions on how to use Audacity here.

The first two were written by an old colleague of mine, they are great for acid/base equations

"nitric acid nitrate
sulfuric acid, sulfate
hydrochloric makes chlorides
they're the salts acids make"
to the tune of Happy Birthday

"carbonates make CO2
and a salt, water too
carbonates make CO2
with all acids"
to the tune of London Bridge

a very popular, cute song on photosynthesis from Peter Weatherall

and a bit of rock n'roll here which is catchy and worth a listen when introducing the elements to junior students

but more easily recognisable is that famous Tom Lehrer song, written in the 50's, great when introducing the Periodic table, I have embedded the song below but personally, I prefer the flash version here

Click here for the link to a pdf with the lyrics for "The Atoms song" which is sung to the tune of the Adams family (and check out the old toothpaste ad at the end of the credits!)

You'll recognise a familiar tune here as John Otway's sings his "Bunsen Burner" song on "Top of the pops" for his 50th birthday. (yes the quality is terrible!)

There's Monty Python's Galaxy song, always guaranteed to bring a smile to the face of even the gloomiest student (perhaps recommended for older students, preview it first).

and continuing the outer space theme, "Why does the Sun shine" by Lou Singer and Hy Zaret in 1959.

and finally, one of my all time favourite songs "A wonderful world" sung by Louis Armstrong but what you're looking at here is the extremely clever and creative shadow puppet effects created by Raymond Crowe,
just perfect when teaching light.

there are many, many more, the list goes on... feel free to comment and recommend your favourites.

Have a great weekend, I'll be in hysterics at a "Sing Star" party as we enjoy another Eurovision commentary.

internet privacy

2010-05-23T14:43:00.006+12:00

internet privacy...ha!...now there's an oxymoron for you! In light of the ongoing Facebook fuss regarding privacy here's ten tips on how to adjust your Facebook privacy settings and a couple of You Tube videos that I stumbled upon during the week. Show them to your students - today! It gets the message across to them, loud and clear.

On another note, who has caught onto the fever accompanying the new doodle (Google's term for its events and holiday specific logo's) the interactive Pac man to celebrate 30 years since the launch of the familiar smiley face. How cool is that! It's very, very addictive, takes me back to my youth!

If you're a techie yourself, a zip folder of the files to download, thanks to azabani are here. The sound doesn't work so here is a tip from dwelc at google support on how to get the sound working

"I downloaded the GooglePacman.zip, and extracted it. At first, the sound didn't work. Then, you have to go to the Flash Control Panel at http://www.macromedia.com/support/documentation/en/flashplayer/help/settings_manager04.html, then press "Edit Locations", then "Add Location", then "Browse for Folder", then select the folder you extracted the files to. After that, the sound worked fine for me!"

and finally, have a look at macek's redesigned "insert coin" option here

Well as someone twittered a couple of days ago, "they can't ban Google in schools" so keep a look out for Pac man addicts in your classroom.

water hydrant...

2010-05-12T19:51:00.009+12:00

Have you heard that phrase from Mitchell Kapor "Getting information off the internet is like taking a drink from a fire hydrant!" How true!

As a link from my previous post on the iPad here is a long list of online textbooks and bare essential online resources that I recommend from Science and Chemistry teachers, note that I use the term "textbook" very loosely. I shall post another blog on superb video clips, relevant songs, excellent interactives that help students to visualise particles on a microscopic scale, contextual resources etc.. Well here goes, don't drown in it all...

Chemistry specific online textbooks

W.W. Norton & Company. Chemistry The Science in context, 2nd edition Paid registration is required for the ebook however the quizzes, flashcard, animations & interactives are freely available.

Chemguide, Jim Clark This is very text orientated but is easy to follow with good explanations and simple images.

An introduction to Chemistry, Mark Bishop There are powerpoints, animations and tutorials all as a part of this e-book.

McGraw Hill Online Learning Center Another good online textbook with wonderful visuals showing microscopic images of particles in solution and quizzes that give immediate feedback.

Re:act Nuffield Advanced Chemistry contains text, audio, quizzes, suggestions for investigations and encourages students to submit questions for the authors to answer.

Pearson Prentice Hall Chemistry: The central science has multiple choice quizzes with instant feedback and good videos to accompany the text

Avogrado Chemistry Choose a chapter from the drop down menu and after reading the text students can try the interactive activities and quizzes which have instant feedback.

IB Chemistry interactive syllabus 2009 An excellent summary with useful images and animations on the usual Chemistry topics that are assessed for the International Baccalaureate as well as most other syllabus's.

To view molecules in 3D, Chime is what you'll want to use, download Chime for free from here http://www.umass.edu/microbio/chime/getchime.htm Chime will show up in a browser, usually Internet Explorer for all .pdb files (protein database)

3D Virtual Chemistry library set up by Imperial College, London, UK contains 150 molecules relevant to most curriculums.

Get students to make up molecules using Chemsketch, then convert them to a .pdb file to view in 3D, download Chemsketch for free from here http://www.acdlabs.com/resources/freeware/chemsketch/ It is pretty straightforward to use, if needed there is a user guide here http://bbruner.org/obc/chemsket.htm

Students can design their own molecule and upload it to Hull University website

For something quick and easy that required no additional programs use this....molecule 3d.

Finally, from a Chemistry point of view, it's also useful to download the RSC Chemistry font here, once downloaded move the folder to Start -- Control Panel -- Font

Chemistry plus Biology and Physics textbooks

Vision Learning An excellent site that relates science to real life and contains many interesting anecdotes, interactive activities and glossaries that are available in both English and Spanish

Physics

Fear of Physics, there is a good range of videos, text and help for students who need some help with their physics

PhET simulations, go there...use these activities, they are superb!

PhysicsLAB from Mainland school, Florida has excellent, easy to understand text with clear diagrams and some animations

Physics for you, endless creative and original resources from Professor Messer to accompany the very popular quality textbook of the same name.

Science online textbooks

Skool, UK Choose either Key Stage 3 or 4 from the top of the webpage. Key Stage 3 (11 - 13 years of age) or Key Stage 4 (14 - 16 years of age) contains excellent tutorials followed by end of topic quizzes.

BBC Bitesize Revision quick tutorials, excellent images, animations and audio which can be followed by a test which gives instant feedback.

Active Science there are some good resources here to download and some good interactive games.

Teachers domain, as recommended on one of my previous blogs. There are just superb videos, animations, worksheet, additional teacher information here, register as a user (for free) and download resources that are relevant to your curriculum, tell your colleagues in other subjects about it too.

School Science this one is a bit of a resource bank, it'll take you some time to work through it, once again, sift through what is useful for your students

Woodlands Junior School, Kent Well done to Mandy Barrow who has put together a range of interesting revision activities in an engaging and easy to use manner for 11 - 14 year olds

PBS Teachers Science concepts are linked to everyday experiences via the usual multimedia, spend some time here and pick and choose what interests you.

Scholarnet, Online Learning Paid registration is required however there are some free demo versions available with online text and animations to reinforce understanding

This is just the tip of the iceberg, I have many url's on specific topics to recommend which I'll post up to my Delicious account when I have a minute or 20.

The beauty of the internet is that it is a library at our fingertips, you surf the net to get information about something which leads you to ask yourself more questions so you continue surfing to find out about a (usually) related topic and so it...it's a vicious cycle....a spider web....domino effect which is very addictive....

the iPad or back to the books?

2010-05-04T11:50:00.002+12:00

So the Apple iPad...what do we think of it?

On the one hand it's been a negative response from some bloggers

"The iPad is like a computer only more expensive and doesn't empower students"

Gary Stager

"Why I won't buy and iPad (and think you shouldn't, either)

Cory Doctorow

"You can’t just make some single wonderful shiny demo product. You need to keep producing them; you need some way of economizing that process. And you need to stop others from making their shiny thing cheaper than, yet interchangeable with, yours."

Danny O'Brien

While on the other hand, there is a positive view of the iPad from other bloggers

"whatever else, this thing will be awesome in the classroom."

Wandering academic

"I truly believe the iPad will revolutionize the classroom in a multitude of ways....In my opinion, the six biggest things the iPad will change in schools and education are textbooks, note taking, paperless classroom, studying and reviewing, student interest level, and individualized curriculum."

Trevor M

Sam Thompson who is a Technology instructor working at a school in Utah has started a blog titled "All things related to the iPad in schools". Each week he intends to showcase an iPad application that has a potential use in education by testing it in the classroom and suggesting how teachers or students could use it. I'm looking forward to hearing more from him and learning about his successes of using the iPad in the classroom.

I am very fortunate to work in a laptop school, every student has a laptop. In most other schools around the world students access to computers through a computer lap, the school library and COWS (portable Computers On Wheels that can be moved from one classroom to another). I'm wondering what are the advantages (if any) of the iPad over a student laptop (either a PC or an Apple), here's my thoughts...

Advantages

Number 1: The iPad will read ebooks out loud with auto dictation.

That is fantastic for teachers and students who are visually impaired, perhaps also useful for those learning foreign languages. It remains to be seen as to whether the Author's Guild will issue copyright violations against Apple as they did against Amazon's Kindle 2 reader last year, which resulted in Amazon giving rights-owners the choice to disable the audio function of their books.

My thoughts: Well that's all well and good but thanks to the net there are phenomenal range of superb up to the minute podcasts available to students as it is without having an iPad.

Number 2: The iPad reduces the need for students or schools to purchase numerous textbooks thus reducing cost to students, reducing the weight that they'd have to carry to and from school. Besides online textbooks are so much more than just text but blended with animations, video clips and interactive activities. Text on the online textbooks can be underlined and highlighted.

My thoughts: Most textbooks come with a DVD of which the textbook is available as a pdf with can have sticky notes and text highlighted using Adobe Professional. Also, a screen print of the text can be taken and then edited in Fireworks. As with all online texts these days the textbook is accompanied by a DVD with numerous videos and interactive activities.

Number 3: Students can use a iPad to take notes in class by writing on the iPad screen with a stylus, the words are converted to typewritten text and saved. If students are absent from a lesson they can get the class notes emailed to them from their teacher or a friend.

My thoughts: Nothing fancy there, many students type notes for themselves in class, others write their own personal class notes and given that their end of year exams will be in a written format, I usually encourage them to do so. Students have access to word docs (such as class notes and laboratory instructions) powerpoints, animations etc that they can download from the school intranet. If students are absent they usually email me and I send them on the relevant class notes. Similarly, students email their homework to me and I edit and mark it in Microsoft Word using tools -- track changes.

Number 4: Differentiated student centred learning is encouraged through the use of the iPad applications which encourage students to work at their own pace through different interactive activities.

My thoughts: It's my belief that the 21st century classroom should be students centred with teachers acting as facilitators. Every classroom is mixed ability, therefore teachers should provide a range of differentiated activities for their students. Without question, a school intranet set up on a platform such as moodle can provide a range of differentiated learning activities for students such as specific urls, graded hot potato quizzes and interactives. Similarly as can a range of science investigations, creative work and group collaborative discussions. The iPad is yet another means by which to provide a range of differentiated activities.

Some more disadvantages from my point of view...

As yet there is no discount for educational institutions.

As yet, the iPad does not have a webcam which is really useful for students to social network and discuss their work via Skype.

iPad applications need to be purchased but there are many free flash animations, videos etc available for free online.

The iPad is a viewing device for media but shouldn't we be encouraging our students to rest their eyes from the flicker of a computer screen and read their way through a leaves of a good ol fashioned book!

The iPad is a viewing device, it doesn't encouraging our students to be creative learners.

So all in all, to conclude...yes, the iPad is yet another aesthetically pleasing piece of technology from Apple but for now, I'm quite happy using my laptop to access free flash animations, online textbooks, videos and interactives etc that are all available online.

I'm off out for a coffee and a browse through the newspaper at the top ten recommended books (paper ones!) to read this week.

weird & wonderful wonders

2010-04-25T12:32:00.005+12:00

Students love a good yarn! There are many weird and wonderful holiday snapshots and stories that help our students to realise that there is so much more to science than the 4 walls of the lab that they go to a few times a week. On the first day of a new term I usually ask if any student would like to volunteer a story from their holidays, where possible we link their story to science.

For me, experiencing the solar eclipse at approx 11:15am on 11th of August 1999 while perched on a clifftop at Land's End on the southwest coast of England was the most phenomenal natural wonder that I have ever experienced. The excitement of the hundreds of people waiting patiently as they gripped nervously onto their overpriced mirrored lenses glued into a flimsy cardboard frame. The concern at the increasing number of clouds in the grey, gloomy sky on what was a typical English summers day. The metallic, reflective, calm sea growing darker as the moon started to block the sun's light. The fast forward effect of only 15 minutes for darkness to fall from daylight. The birds stopped singing, dogs stopped barking and the mood felt quite errie as silence descended over all of us. The strange sensation of sitting in complete darkness for what seemed like an eternity but was only really a couple of minutes. Once the golden rays from that soon to be orb in the sky started to shine through the clouds there was complete joy and excitement accompanied by loud cheers and clapping as we had all shared this magical, one in a lifetime experience of a total solar eclipse.

There are endless tales we can tell of geological areas, nature parks, theme parks that we have visited that all link back to science in the classroom eg. with links to geology, diversity, evolution, forces etc... It makes science so much more real and interesting for our students.

I have lifted the following images and text from this website http://webecoist.com/2009/01/18/nature-phenomena-wonders-natural-world/. The images of these 7 different natural wonders speak for themselves.

Number 1: Sailing stones

"The mysterious moving stones of the packed-mud desert of Death Valley have been a center of scientific controversy for decades. Rocks weighing up to hundreds of pounds have been known to move up to hundreds of yards at a time. Some scientists have proposed that a combination of strong winds and surface ice account for these movements. However, this theory does not explain evidence of different rocks starting side by side and moving at different rates and in disparate directions. Moreover, the physics calculations do not fully support this theory as wind speeds of hundreds of miles per hour would be needed to move some of the stones."
image & text from http://webecoist.com/2009/01/18/nature-phenomena-wonders-natural-world/.

Number 2: Basalt columns

"When a thick lava flow cools it contracts vertically but cracks perpendicular to its directional flow with remarkable geometric regularity – in most cases forming a regular grid of remarkable hexagonal extrusions that almost appear to be made by man. One of the most famous such examples is the Giant’s Causeway on the coast of Ireland (shown above) though the largest and most widely recognized would be Devil’s Tower in Wyoming. Basalt also forms different but equally fascinating ways when eruptions are exposed to air or water."
image & text from http://webecoist.com/2009/01/18/nature-phenomena-wonders-natural-world/.

Number 3: Blue holes

"Blue holes are giant and sudden drops in underwater elevation that get their name from the dark and foreboding blue tone they exhibit when viewed from above in relationship to surrounding waters. They can be hundreds of feet deep and while divers are able to explore some of them they are largely devoid of oxygen that would support sea life due to poor water circulation – leaving them eerily empty. Some blue holes, however, contain ancient fossil remains that have been discovered, preserved in their depths."
image & text from http://webecoist.com/2009/01/18/nature-phenomena-wonders-natural-world/.

Number 4: Red tides

"Red tides are also known as algal blooms – sudden influxes of massive amounts of colored single-cell algae that can convert entire areas of an ocean or beach into a blood red color. While some of these can be relatively harmless, others can be harbingers of deadly toxins that cause the deaths of fish, birds and marine mammals. In some cases, even humans have been harmed by red tides though no human exposure are known to have been fatal. While they can be fatal, the constituent phytoplankton in ride tides are not harmful in small numbers."
image & text from http://webecoist.com/2009/01/18/nature-phenomena-wonders-natural-world/.

Number 5: Ice circles

"While many see these apparently perfect ice circles as worthy of conspiracy theorizing, scientists generally accept that they are formed by eddies in the water that spin a sizable piece of ice in a circular motion. As a result of this rotation, other pieces of ice and flotsam wear relatively evenly at the edges of the ice until it slowly forms into an essentially ideal circle. Ice circles have been seen with diameters of over 500 feet and can also at times be found in clusters and groups at different sizes as shown above."
image & text from http://webecoist.com/2009/01/18/nature-phenomena-wonders-natural-world/.

Number 6: Mammatus clouds

"True to their ominous appearance, mammatus clouds are often harbingers of a coming storm or other extreme weather system. Typically composed primarily of ice, they can extend for hundreds of miles in each direction and individual formations can remain visibly static for ten to fifteen minutes at a time. While they may appear foreboding they are merely the messengers – appearing around, before or even after severe weather."
image & text from http://webecoist.com/2009/01/18/nature-phenomena-wonders-natural-world/.

Number 7: Fire Rainbows

"A circum-horizontal fire rainbow arc occurs at a rare confluence of right time and right place for the sun and certain clouds. Crystals within the clouds refract light into the various visible waves of the spectrum but only if they are arrayed correctly relative to the ground below. Due to the rarity with which all of these events happen in conjunction with one another, there are relatively few remarkable photos of this phenomena"
image & text from http://webecoist.com/2009/01/18/nature-phenomena-wonders-natural-world/.

Does anyone have any suggestions regarding unusual wonders of the natural world or must see places around the world? I'd like to start planning my summer holidays and am need of some suggestions. Thanks!

PD or PPD?

2010-04-19T20:18:00.008+12:00

Who would have thought? Because of a volcanic eruption...in Iceland, there is a large scale grounding of airplanes in Europe and as a result many presenters aren't able to get themselves to schools around the world to deliver their allocated professional development (PD) sessions.

Fig. 1 is an illustration of volcanic ash dispersion up to 20,000 ft, issued at
7 am on 18 April. Advisory charts are issued every six hours, for up to 18
hours ahead, by the Volcanic Ash Advisory Centre. Met Office, UK.

However, in this day and age of e-learning that really isn't a huge problem. Presenters can upload their documents and powerpoints to a filesharing site, upload relevant videos to Youtube, use Skype to present their presentation, liaise with their clientale via email, take part in discussions with teachers using forums set up on a moodle page, upload information on their presentation to their webpage or a Wikispaces, type their thoughts into a blog, the list goes on...

Is it really all that easy? Well, being social animals, presentations given in person interspersed with humorous anecdotes are by far the most preferable option but I feel that where necessary, given the advances in technology it is possible for PD to be delivered via the internet.

Should PD be a "one size fits all"? I suspect not, what interests a bushy tailed, rose tinted spectacle wearing NQT (newly qualified teacher) may be of no interest (or use!) to one who has taught for 20 years or so. I am very fortunate to be working in a school whereby we can choose our own PD. Options are usually offered for thinking skills, literacy, ICT, assessment, managerial skills....the list goes on. Some teachers actually design their own Personal Professional Development (PPD) session and meet with a colleague(s) to work on something that is advantageous to their curriculum area, and no, I don't mean just catching up on marking.

See below some e-learning suggestions that you may find useful.

Times Educational Supplement Connect, UK

"TES Connect is the central focus for the UK teaching community to share their ideas, thoughts and views outside the staffroom. It is the world's largest social network for a single profession and allows teachers to connect with other professionals to find and share their best classroom resources and advice."

Teachers Domain, USA

"Teachers’ Domain is an online library of more than 1,000 free media resources from the best in public television. These classroom resources, featuring media from NOVA, Frontline, Design Squad, American Experience, and other public broadcasting and content partners are easy to use and correlate to state and national standards."

Teachers TV, UK

"Through engaging videos, practical resources and an active online community, Teachers TV supports the professional development of anyone working in school, enabling them to widen their skills, develop their practice, and connect with others in the field."

Royal Society for Chemistry

"The RSC is the largest organisation in Europe for advancing the chemical sciences. Supported by a worldwide network of members and an international publishing business, our activities span education, conferences, science policy and the promotion of chemistry to the public."

Have a look through at the many blogs registered at the International Edubloggers Directory or Science Blogs and find one or ten that interest you and suit your professional development needs.

Whether you are a presenter or a teacher being presented too, avoid at all costs death by Powerpoint (yawn!)

and remember that more often than not the best PD occurs over a coffee in the staffroom or a few beers in the local pub. Have a great week!

flash, bang, wow attention grabbers

2010-04-01T15:30:00.010+13:00

Ask someone what they remember from their science lessons at school and more than likely they'll recall the time that the tiniest lump of sodium whizzed around in a trough of water or the loud bang of a hydrogen & oxygen balloon exploding or the fantastic effect of dry ice placed in a large beaker of water with a couple of squirts of universal indicator, and if they are the mischevious type (hey wasn't that all of us as teenagers!) using the bunsen flame to melt the top of their biros when their teacher wasn't looking!

Students learn when they are involved, engaged and in a safe environment with positive learning experiences.

"Tell me and I'll forget

Show me and I may remember
Involve me and I'll understand"
Chinese Proverb

Health and Safety in most countries have clamped down on safety in school laboratories, as a result we are really limited with what "out of the ordinary but relevant" experiments that we can do in the classroom. See below some of my favourite flash, bang, wow attention grabbers.

I'd suggest letting your students carry out the experiments that are legal in your workplace, demo others if more appropriate while getting your students to video them using their mobile phones or laptops. Students can then describe and explain the science concepts behind the experiments by adding text to images using Macromedia Fireworks, editing the videos in Microsoft Movie Maker and adding audio using Audacity or perhaps using Microsoft Powerpoint to type text alongside images or video clips. I will post up another day with numerous recommended Science and Chemistry videos and interactive activities.

But first the disclaimer...I take absolutely no responsibility nor liability for death or injury that results to a person or persons who demonstrate or observe any of the reactions below or elsewhere on my blog pages. You must consult the Health and Safety guidelines for your own workplace and country and carry out your own risk assessment before attempting any of the experiments.

Never, ever risk your students safety.

to view a full screen image of the video rightclick, watch on Youtube	click on the name to download a detailed teacher information sheet	here is a brief description and link for the demonstration/experiment
	Whoosh bottle	A fast, furious reaction links to: combusion, organic
	Firewriting	Very easy to do, good for all ages links to: combustion, redox
	Fake blood	A wonderful, dramatic effect links to: redox, respiratory system
	Supercooling water	Do, definitely try this at home links to: states of matter, heat changes
	Ammonia fountain	Produces a little pink fountain links to: acids & bases
	Errie green glow	be sure the lights are out, a lovely green glow is produced. links to: combustion, organic
	Howling jelly baby	highly dangerous reaction, should only be carried out by a qualified Chemist. links to: redox, sound
	The copper cycle	What a neat little experiment, really fab! links to: redox, precipitation, neutralisation, thermal decomposition
	Thermite reaction	highly dangerous exothermic reaction, should only be carried out by a qualified Chemist links to: redox, reactivity series
	Making glass	colourful glass beads are produced links to: transition metals
	Rainbow tornado	rainbow colours with a tornado effect will certainly hold your students attention links to: acids & bases
	Balancing trick	Persevere with this one, it's worth it, also a great party trick. links to: forces, moments
	Hot air balloon	This works brilliantly, launch well away from main roads. links: convection
	Elephants toothpaste	certainly has the wow factor! you could also use MnO2 as the catalyst links to: states of matter, rates of reactions
	Cannon fire	little snap, crackle and pops will go off links to: redox
	Paper kettle	a fab experiment, boil water in your paper kettle with a bunsen, students won't believe that the paper doesn't go on fire! links to: convection
	Blue glow	turn the lights off and watch this illuminous blue glow, mesmerising! links to: rate of reaction
	Turning copper into gold	Act as an alchemist as you turn copper to silver (zinc coating) and then gold (brass) links to: redox, periodic table
	Coke fountain	stand well back, this is loads of fun, another one to try at home links to: forces
	The wine party	this demonstrates more redox reactions links to: redox
	Burning money	a good attention grabber at the beginning of a topic links to: combustion, organic
	Slime	this is a fun experiment that can extend into an investigation as students carry out tests on their slime links to: organic, investigating
	Volcano reaction	highly dangerous redox reaction, should only be carried out by a qualified Chemist. links to: redox, geology
	Oscillating Briggs-Rauscher reaction	students observe not just 1 colour change but ongoing colour changes for a few minutes links to: observations, rate of reactions
	Matchstick rocket	another one to try at home, once perfected this works well links to: forces
	Rainbow flames	another good lesson starter links to: flames tests, observations
	Extremely cold reaction	amaze your students as you lift some wood with some cold water links to: endothermic reactions
	Vacuum bazooka	another projectile launcher to try at home links to: forces
	Black snake	this is a good into to carbon chemistry links to: elements & compounds, organic
	Polymer ball	a good activity at the end of a few lessons on polymers links: organic
	Ferrofluid	You absolutely must purchase this fluid online, has to be seen to be believed links to: elements, magnetism

For additional recommended reading see the following resources
Chris Schrempp, "Bangs, flashes and explosions" demonstration manual and dvd's
RSC (Royal Society of Chemistry), "Surely that's banned", 2005
CLEAPSS School Science Service, "We don't do that. it's not safe anymore" 2004
Journal of Chemical Education, Chemistry comes alive

So without so much as a sizzle, pop or a bang I'm out of here for two weeks holidays in the sun and surf. Happy Easter everyone!

Superpower

2010-03-21T19:29:00.014+13:00

"Twenty years ago, a quiet British engineer was on the cusp of changing the world. Tim Berners-Lee was ironing out the wrinkles in a project that would become the "world wide web." As he readily admits, no-one could have predicted its significance."
Peter Horrocks, Director of BBC global news, 8th March 2010, Superpower blog

As the BBC Superpower Series draws to a close I'm taking a little time to reflect on the incredible experience that it has been.

Click on the image above to take you to the BBC Superpower Series which in their own words.

"Explores the extraordinary power of the internet"

This has been a phenomenal social experiment and experience. Bloggers have interacted with other as they posted their opinions, personal stories from every corner of the world and in many different languages on The Superpower Blog. Tweeters twittered with their reviews of blogs, podcasts and videos on Superpower on Twitter. Many entries were received for the "My World" competition where entrants uploaded a 2 minute video clip with a glimpse of the world as they see it.

The winning video was "Wash, rinse and spin" by Frederico Teixeira de Sampayo from Spain.

The BBC has a phenomenal range of podcasts, they are edited superbly with extremely professional journalists who keep you engaged as they set the scene, give you a sense of actually "being there" and if needs be step in when debates between locals get a little heated. But hey, don't take my word for it! Download iTunes and subscribe to the BBC podcasts that you are interested in.

They are all a little long for students to listen to in class but could be set as a homework task. There are endless Science podcasts for different agencies, one of my favourites are the 60 second podcasts from Scientific American, they are short, sharp and to the point. I have used them as a lesson starter or on occasions a guide to students before they are given the task of making their own podcast which they have edited using Audacity. I'll blog about Science podcasts in more detail another day :-)

On their "World have your say" site, the BBC provides the platform for discussions that take place between people from all around the world, on topics that they want to talk about. Some people blog, others tweet or contribute to the discussions be texting, phoning and emailing in when the programme is broadcast.

Here's a selection of the World Service podcasts, mainly documentaries that I've enjoyed listening to, they aren't all science related but general interest/social studies/business/studies/sports related.

The other internet
China patrols its cyberspace carefully. The government there closes down hundreds of websites each year and blocks access to many international websites.How do Chinese citizens get over the great firewall of China?

Internet Cafe Hobo - part 1
Nick Baker is on a mission to connect people, stories and places via internet cafe.

Internet Cafe Hobo - part 2
In Kenya and France he finds a remarkable story in Benin of a young man for whom a single search changed his life.

Internet Cafe Hobo - part 3
Nick find that internet cafes are not just a way to stay in contact with family, friends and football results.

The Crash: The bank that busted the world
What were the key moments that lead to financial meltdown, and what happened in the aftermath? The first of a three-part series that looks closely at the turbulent events in the autumn of 2008.

The Crash: The age of risk
The second of this three-part series that examines the boom before the bust of 2008 looks at how are attitudes to risk and debt changed with disastrous consequences.

The Crash: Back from the brink
The third part of the BBC's definitive series on the banking crash tells the extraordinary story of how politicians reacted, and asks what has been learnt from the entire calamity. Could it happen again?

Nina Robinson meets the community living in the shadow of the London 2012 Olympic games

Click on the links for archived BBC World Service broadcasts, Documentary podcasts, World have your say podcasts, Science podcasts, Outlook podcasts.

The quality of broadcasting and diverse mix of programmes from the BBC are among if not the very best in the world. As regards creative, collaborative, learners...the BBC leads by example, now it's up to us to spread the word, get our students making more (educational!) use of social networking and using that newly found information to produce creative resources using the diverse range of multimedia tools that are available to them.

Oh... and just for the record I have absolutely no business, personal or other connection with the BBC.