BY BILL FERRIS
Win a trip to Antarctica. Yes, that’s supposed to be an incentive.
PolarTREC will send 36 teachers to the Arctic or Antarctic to work with polar research teams. They’ll take a mittens-on approach to learning about atmospheric chemistry, biology, history and culture in the coldest places on earth. (more…)
BY BILL FERRIS
For this month’s random roundup, we’ve selected the Library of Congress, our nation’s storehouse of pretty much everything worth knowing. As you’d expect, a lot of great resources for teachers have been derived from the Library. See your tax dollars at work by reading the articles linked after the jump.
Ever wonder what’s the lifespan of a flea? Or how sunscreen works? Or who developed the Nobel-worthy invention of the TV dinner?* Of course you haven’t, but that’s not the point. As any person who has won a trivia contest will tell you, it’s fun to show off knowledge of obscure facts in any subject. Like music and sports, science is a subject that lends itself especially well to this sort of trivia. You can find lots of it at Everyday Mysteries: Fun Science Facts from the Library of Congress.
The site groups its facts into categories like physics, technology, zoology and plant life. Personally, I enjoy browsing through the questions listed on the site and just see what I can learn. Everyday Mysteries is a great place to begin stockpiling questions for a classroom trivia contest, or if you’re in the mood to learn fun facts about a particular topic. -BILL FERRIS
Everyday Mysteries: Fun Science Facts from the Library of Congress
Think you know geography? Take this quiz
* 30-90 days, by combining organic and inorganic active ingredients, and several geniuses, respectively.
Photo credit: mastrobiggo on Flickr.
Quick! Name five famous discoveries honored by the Nobel Prize…(crickets chirping)….Um, Al Gore won one, right? Ask your students and you’ll likely get a similar response. The people at Nobelprize.org decided that they didn’t want children growing up not understanding the significant accomplishments honored by the Nobel Prize. By visiting the educational outreach section of the website, you can introduce your students to these accomplishments in a fun and engaging way, as well as teach your course content.
The site offers several interactive activities for each category of Nobel Prize — physics, chemistry, literature, medicine, peace, and economics. There are games, readings, and simulations in each section. In my class, I’ve used the blood typing game to help students understand the differences between blood types. In the physics section, there is an interesting simulation about microscopes. By using this, you could show students what the different types of microscopes can do. There is also a microscope quiz that could be used to assess understanding. Another neat feature is the readings. In the DNA-RNA-Protein reading, for example, you can select a “Basic” or an “Advanced” text. This would be excellent for differentiating instruction.
Lest you think this site is only good for Science, there is a section about the Nobel Prize in Literature, and a game about William Golding’s classic, Lord of the Flies. I’m kind of a science gal, so I didn’t do so hot on that game; maybe your high school English students will do better. Regardless, you will find this site useful. -REBECCAH HAINES
Educational Games via Nobelprize.org
You can find a lot of interactive periodic tables online, but periodictable.com has one thing the others don’t — the easiest-to-remember URL.
Seriously, though, this periodic table is more than just a pretty web address. You can click on any of the elements, bringing up lots of information and high-quality photos, so you can finally see what reclusive elements like bismuth look like.
Periodictable.com is brought to you by Theodore Gray, a science and chemistry columnist for Popular Science and co-founder of Wolfram Research. He takes science education seriously, and this site has information sections for teachers and students, as well as scientists. Gray says, “This site is entirely ’school safe’ in the sense that while the writing is lively and entertaining, students will not find anything inappropriate here, and links to external sites are limited to other reputable websites.” [EDITOR'S NOTE: Little does he know riff-raff like us are linking to him, however.]
If you like the look of periodictable.com better than the wrinkled old chart of the elements you’ve got hanging in your classroom, you can order a poster version. For your students, however, the site itself will likely be enough, and it gives them all the information on the elements they’ll need.
While the field of online periodic tables is a crowded one, periodictable.com distinguishes itself with great photos, good info, and a URL you don’t have to write down. The snazzy black background is nice, too. -BILL FERRIS
See the periodic table in context at WebElements
Upgrade Your Knowledge of the Elements with the Dynamic Periodic Table
Have a Look at This: Visual Elements Periodic Table
Art and Science Collide in the Periodic Table Printmaking Project
Everyone would agree that learning is important. If we didn’t, none of us would be doing what we do. But are we practicing what we preach to our students? Are we, as educators, continuing our education in the same way we urge our students to do every day? In the past, unless you were willing to shell out thousands and thousands of dollars for additional schooling, continuing education was tough to come by. Not anymore.
Academic Earth is an organization founded with the goal of giving everyone on earth access to a world-class education. In conjunction with top-level universities such as MIT and Princeton, Academic Earth brings the best content together in one place and creates an environment where that content is remarkably easy to use.
There are thousands of lectures currently available from the world’s top scholars. You may already be familiar with the MIT Open Courseware project or the Open Yale courses, which make thousands and thousands of lectures and courses available online for free. Academic Earth includes these resources but has added lectures from Berkeley, Harvard, Princeton and Stanford.
Currently, 17 subjects are represented ranging from Astronomy to Religion. All subjects include individual lectures, but many of them also offer entire courses. For example, if you’re interested in Computer Science, you can view all 32 lectures in Introduction to Computer Science I by David J. Malan at Harvard — for free. All of the videos at AE can be shared to a Facebook page, emailed, or embedded into a blog or wiki. Academic Earth also gives users the ability to create your own custom play list to make future visits a tad easier.
So the next time you’ve got the urge to learn a little about “The Fourier Transform and its applications” or “Convex Optimization,” Academic Earth is the place to go. - JERRY SWIATEK
Professional development is just a “tweet” away
Science professional development in your PJs
Find cool tools for teachers: interactive professional development in Second Life
I really got my hopes up when I heard about Bad Science. I figured it would be filled with death rays, time machines and laser beams. Alas (or fortunately, depending on your perspective), Bad Science actually deals with the misconceptions and bogus scientific “facts” many people harbor. This site debunks misguided ideas such as the notion that raindrops are shaped like teardrops, or that the Apollo moon landing was faked.
Bad Science consists of several branch sites like Bad Chemistry and Bad Astronomy, which are pretty much what they sound like. According to Alistair B. Fraser, the site’s creator, “When I created this page, in January, 1995, I naïvely expected that other frustrated teachers would rush to build sites devoted to, say, Bad Archeology and Bad Biology. It has not happened. Apparently, most teachers believe everything they teach.” [EDITOR'S NOTE: He didn't mean Instructify readers, of course.]
If you’re wondering if you or your students have any scientific misconceptions, hop on over to Bad Science and take a look. Just let me know if you see any entries for time machines. -BILL FERRIS
Watch Out for Common Science Misconceptions
Photo credit: Dunechaser on Flickr
At Instructify, we’re bombarded with requests for songs explaining scientific concepts. And by “bombarded,” I mean, “it’s never actually happened.” Which is a shame, because you can find several such songs out there. Much like how The Element Song covers the periodic table, The Biochemists’ Songbook tackles several scientific ideas like respiration, protein biosynthesis and photosynthesis, setting them to well-known tunes that will make them easier for your students to remember.
The songs were originally penned by Dr. Harold Baum, a professor at Chelsea College of the University of London, who created them as a gag for his department’s annual Christmas party. The songs were eventually recorded and released on tape in the 1980s, but have since gone out-of-print. Fortunately, some bored kind soul created .mp3s of the songs, and even got Dr. Baum’s permission to distribute them online (the book of lyrics is still in copyright, however, so you’ll either have to buy it or Google the lyrics yourself).
Yes, these tunes are a little on the cheesy side, but it’s amazing what sort of knowledge can get stuck in students’ heads if they’re set to music. You’ll never hear “Auld Lang Syne” again without thinking of photosynthesis. -BILL FERRIS
If you’re a teacher who likes your science to be of the mad variety, then you might already know about the Ig Nobel Prize. For those who don’t, each year, Annals of Improbable Research, a magazine of science-humor, honors scientific research that’s as funny as it is thought-provoking, all in the name of stoking public interest in the sciences. Since part of your job is to get your students fired up about science, this stuff should be right up your alley.
What sort of research wins an Ig Nobel? Projects like electronically modifying the crunch of a potato chip to make people believe it’s fresher than it actually is. Or measuring how one armadillo can thwart an archaeological dig. Or the groundbreaking discovery that fleas living on a dog can jump higher than fleas living on a cat. Any one of the winning projects are great discussion-launchers about science for science’s sake. Also, during election years, candidates love questioning how obscure research projects like these got funding. This may be a good opportunity to talk about what benefits this sort of work has that may not be readily apparent. For bonus points, maybe your class can brainstorm some ideas worthy of an award of their own.
You can listen to a condensed version of the awards ceremony via podcast from Talk of the Nation’s Science Friday with Ira Flatow. In addition to hearing about these great projects, you’ll also hear the 24/7 lectures — complex scientific studies summed up in 24 seconds, and then again in a mere seven-words — as well as some hilarious acceptance speeches from award winners brave enough to attend (and no Oscar-style long speeches, either — if a speech goes on too long, the long-winded winner hears a small child say, “Please stop, I’m bored,” over and over).
The Ig Nobel Prize is a fun way to introduce science to people who might otherwise have no interest in it. Conversely, it may also make a few of the winners rethink how they’ve elected to spend their lives. In the words of the Ig Nobel committee, “If you didn’t win an Ig Nobel Prize this year — and especially if you did — better luck next year.” -BILL FERRIS
Ig Nobel Prize ceremony via Talk of the Nation/Science Friday
I was never great at remembering the periodic table, except for knowing the symbol for iron is “Fe” for “ferrous,” which sounds like my last name. Maybe I struggled with the rest of the table because I didn’t have an equally catchy way to relate the other elements to my life. Too bad I didn’t have WebElements back then.
WebElements lets you look at the periodic in different contexts, depending on your specialty or interest area. For example, if you’re a biology teacher, you can click on the Biology tab. Then if you select, say, hydrogen, WebElements will display information on hydrogen most relevant to biology. Same goes for physics, chemistry, geology, and even history (some elements, like gold, are more historically interesting than stuff like caesium or ununtrium). For English majors like me, you can hear an audio pronunciation for each element — now I can say ununquadium properly (it comes up more often than you’d think).
The best thing about WebElements is that it lets you learn about the elements in whatever context works best for you. If they ever add an “English” tab, I may just have to become a scientist myself. -BILL FERRIS
Upgrade Your Knowledge of the Elements with the Dynamic Periodic Table
They Deafened Me with Science: The Element Song Returns
Have a Look at This: Visual Elements Periodic Table
Art and Science Collide in the Periodic Table Printmaking Project
Last year we reviewed Kidipede - History for Kids. Not to be labeled a one-trick insect, Kidipede has just rolled out a science site. Designed for middle-schoolers, Kidipede - Science for Kids offers useful info about biology, physics, chemistry, geology, as well as mathematics, the language of science.
You’ll find articles, videos, plus recommendations for further reading. Each article links to dozens of sub-articles, so if your students are reading about tectonic plates, they can feel free to go off on learning tangents and read up on earthquakes and volcanoes while they’re at it. Kidipede has more bits of information than a centipede has legs. -BILL FERRIS
Uncover Thousands of Years of History at Kidipede
Prove it with Evidence: How Do We Know What We Know?
I’m sure you’re familiar with the periodic chart of elements. Here’s a bare-bones rundown of how it’s laid out: hydrogen and helium are hanging out at the top all on their own, elements in the same row have something in common, and so do elements in the same column (but not all columns). And that’s the basic scheme. Cool with everything so far? Great. Now all you have to do is go through the painful, tedious memorization of each element on every square. Awesome, I’ll see you in a week or two.
So maybe rote memorization of the periodic chart isn’t quite cutting it for your students. Maybe it’s the opposite: your students have taken such an interest in the periodic chart that they’ve not only memorized it, but now they have you cornered and are demanding further explanations for Ununbium and Protactinium. Whichever direction things are going in your science classroom, The University of Nottingham’s Periodic Table of Videos has you covered. They provide a video for EACH AND EVERY element on the periodic chart, with concise explanations and several demonstrated experiments.
I’ll also point out that Professor Martyn Poliakoff isn’t afraid to rock the Dr. Emmett Brown/Einstein hairstyle, which, to me, gives him more street cred as a scientist.
–NICK YINGLING
Art and Science Collide in the Periodic Table Printmaking Project
Have a Look at This: Visual Elements Periodic Table
They Deafened Me with Science: The Element Song Returns
Upgrade Your Knowledge of the Elements with the Dynamic Periodic Table
If you or your students ever take a walk in the woods on a field trip, it’s a good idea to know the potential dangers. I’m not just talking about bears, either. You can find a lot of plants that can harm humans through ingestion, or even by simple touch.
Before heading into the wild, arm yourself by reading this list of the 20 Deadliest Plants on the Planet. You’ll find the usual suspects like hemlock and deadly nightshade [editor's note: that's a really cool name for a plant], some wolves in sheep’s clothing like the angel’s trumpet, plus a couple surprises - I knew poison ivy makes you itchy, but I had no idea if you burned it, the smoke can kill you if you breathe it in. Don’t miss the doll’s eyes plant, which looks a lot like what it sounds like. The berries are chock full of cardiogenic toxins which can give you a heart attack, but the fact that the berries look like eyeballs will probably be enough to dissuade even the most curious (or hungry) eaters. -BILL FERRIS
20 Deadliest Plants on the Planet via PurpleSlinky
Start the Cure for Nature Deficit Disorder with A Walk in the Woods
Who Knows What Evil Lurks in the Briny Deep? Monsters of the Deep Sea
From the “Pretty Much What it Sounds Like” Department comes this Chemical Equation Balancer. True to its name, it balances chemical equations. Just type your equation in and hit the “Balance” button, and you’re set to go. I’m really struggling to say more about it, but there’s not very much to this no-frills app (that’s an asset, not a flaw, by the way).
This is a handy way for students to check their work. Though there are multiple ways to balance an equation, this should help them figure out if they’re on the right track. -BILL FERRIS
Find two school programs with less in common than art and science. Okay, maybe band and auto shop don’t have much in common. But for our purposes today, let’s say art and science are polar opposites within most schools. They’re on different sides of the building (if the art program hasn’t been cut altogether), and they attract very different students.
Or do they?
The lines between art and science blur in the Periodic Table of Elements Printmaking Project. Ninety-six printmakers from around the country joined forces to create prints for every element on the periodic table. Each print is inspired by the element it showcases (for example, the metal potassium depicts what looks like a bunch of robotic bananas).
The uses of this table are twofold: having a visual aid can help students memorize the elements easier. It’s also a fun project idea if you’re an art teacher and want to show that anything can be made into art. The table’s only drawback is that not all prints show all the information, so supplementing it with a standard periodic table is a good idea. But it could be an indispensable tool for art students in a science class, or visual thinkers of any discipline. -BILL FERRIS
Periodic Table of Elements Printmaking Project
Related Stuff:
Have a Look at This: Visual Elements Periodic Table
Upgrade Your Knowledge of the Elements with the Dynamic Periodic Table
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