end of term videos

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

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

"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

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.