Eurovision Song Contest

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

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...

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?

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.