Sorry I neglected to write a post with real content last week, but I have one in the works!  Stay tuned.  For now, though, here’s a note about an science festival event in DC that they’re trying to create some advance buzz on.  I’m a big fan of science festivals — bring science to the streets, and have people run across it who wouldn’t usually go out of their way to go to a science museum or science talk.   We have art festivals, music festivals, why not science festivals?  There’s a big tradition of this in Europe, apparently, and we’re trying to learn their style.  I know there were a lot of sessions on science festivals at the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) meetings several years back.  Apparently this festival (which is the first nationwide festival!) are inspired by those international efforts.  Interestingly enough, it’s led by an entrepreneur and venture capitalist (Larry Bock), with a science bent, rather than a scientist.  Kudos.  Sounds like someone who knows how to get things done!

Here’s the info on the event in DC:

USA Science & Engineering Festival Expo Dates: October 23 & 24, 2010; 10:00am-5:30pm; This event is free of charge – no tickets required
What is the universe made of? Why did dinosaurs go extinct? What do magic tricks and hip-hop have to with math? What can amphibians and reptiles tell us about the environment? What do engineers have to do with baseball? Find out at the first ever USA Science & Engineering Festival Expo on the National Mall! Explore science & engineering with hundreds of free, hands-on activities and over 40 science shows on three different stages. The two-day Expo is perfect for teens, children and their families, and anyone with a curious mind who is looking for a weekend of fun and discovery. Build an underwater robot, chat with a Nobel Laureate, explore the science behind the magic of Hogwarts Academy and see a car that drives itself. From bugs to birds, kitchen chemistry to computer games, environmental monitoring to electronic music – the Expo has something for everyone and is completely free of charge. The Expo is the pinnacle event of the inaugural USA Science & Engineering Festival to be held in the greater Washington D.C. area October 10-24, 2010. The USA Science & Engineering Festival is a collaboration of over 500 of the nation’s leading science and engineering organizations. For more information on all Festival events and how you can get involved, visit www.usasciencefestival.org

Get involved now: join the over 400 organizations that have already signed up to host an Expo exhibit, become an official Festival Partner, organize a Satellite Event in your community, host a Festival Event, check out our cool school programs like Nifty Fifty and Lunch with a Laureate, volunteer, donate, become a sponsor, participate in one of several contests, buy a Festival T-shirt, follow our blog, and stay on top of it all by signing up for our bi-weekly e-newsletter. Will you be there when science takes over the National Mall?

I am a science education and communications consultant -- view my website for my full range of services.

I recently wrote a guest editorial for the American Physics Society’s Forum on Education newsletter, on my experiences as a science educator and communicator:

As a young physicist, I’ve had the immense good fortune to work with several expert communicators, like David Kestenbaum, to learn the best ways to bring science to diverse audiences. I realized in graduate school that I was more interested in helping people understand and appreciate physics, than in creating more physics myself. Those were back in the days of early global warming skepticism, and I was appalled at the general lack of trust and understanding of science. I wanted to do my part to change that. This article will tell you a bit about how I was able to get involved in science outreach, and the best practices that I’ve taken away from those experiences.

See the full article here.…

I am a science education and communications consultant -- view my website for my full range of services.

I’m working on an abstract for the AAPT.  What do people think about this idea?

Facing Facebook:  Social media in and out of the classroom

Your students are already using tools like Facebook and Twitter.  In fact, they’re often using them when you’d rather they’d be doing something else (like paying attention in class). How can we turn the potential obstacles of Web 2.0 and social media into an opportunity for effective teaching and learning?  I’ll share some techniques instructors are using for communicating with their students and each other, including class blogs, real-time aggregated conversations in class, tweeted answers to student questions, dedicated YouTube channels, wiki-based class contracts, and more.  Through these tools, we may choose to leverage social media to promote conversation about things that we care about, using platforms that students find familiar and fun.

I am a science education and communications consultant -- view my website for my full range of services.

And now I have visual proof…  (that’s me in pink)

I am a science education and communications consultant -- view my website for my full range of services.

Many teachers know the value of finding those surprising science experiments and demonstrations that hook kids’ attention.  One popular one is to have kids predict whether soda cans will sink or float, which turns out to be a nice hook for ideas of density.  Kids generally figure that if one thing of a kind sinks or floats, so will all the others.  So when the regular soda sinks, most will predict that all the other ones will sink too.  Much to their surprise, the diet soda generally floats.  Why?  Regular sodas are loaded with sugar, and that increases the density of the soda.  Diet sodas have aspartame, and a lot less of it per volume (take a look at the side of the can).  Steve Spangler’s site has a nice description of this activity.

I want to say more about the soda can activity (and why it is, in a way, a bit of a lie!) but first a few asides:

- This is, of course, also a great lesson in why sugared sodas are so bad for you.  That’s a lot of sugar.  Another astounding experiment I saw in this regards was to have kids weigh a piece of sugared gum, like Bazooka.  Then chew it, while the teacher talks about density and weight and stuff.  Then weigh the gum again.  It is surprisingly lighter.  Where’d all the weight go?  Look and see how many grams of sugar are in the gum.  That’s now in your belly.

- Kids have a lot of trouble with density.  They often think that “light” things float and “heavy” things sink.  Take a piece of soap and show that it sinks.  Break it in half and ask them to predict whether it will sink or float.  Many will predict that it will float, and will be visibly astounded when it still sinks.

- Another great density experiment is to take a piece of aluminum foil.  When it’s flat, it sinks.  When it’s crumpled up, it holds air, and floats.  More info here.

- Lastly, I’m forever enamored with the work of Dan Schwartz, who has kids invent the solution (for example, the formula for density) before telling it to them.  He calls these invention activities “Preparation for Future Learning” and there’s a lot of evidence to show that they’re effective.  For example, for density, he shows kids a bunch of cars with clowns in them and asks them to come up with a “crowded clown index.”  The index has to differentiate between, for example, the small cars with many clowns and the small cars with few clowns, as well as a large car with few clowns and a small car with few clowns.  Even if they don’t come up with the standard formula for density, students are ready to hear the expert solution, and also understand why density is a useful construct.  This goes along with the idea of giving a need for a vocabulary word before introducing the word itself.

OK, so now for why the soda can trick is (sort of) a lie.  It doesn’t always work.  It’s important to test the cans before you do this as a classroom activity (unless you want to turn it into an investigation of ‘why didn’t we see what we expected?’).  There is some variability in how sodas are canned, both within and across brands.  Is the advertised volume actually in the can?  (The only way to know is to open the can, though you can also weigh the can, as long as the same mass of aluminum is used).   Sometimes there might be extra air in the can, turning what should be a “sinker” into a “floater.”     Also, sometimes a bubble can get trapped under the can (so tip it sideways).   The temperature of the water also changes its density, so conceivably the temperature of the water could change the outcome of the experiment, though I’d be surprised if this was a large effect.

So, it’s a bit of a “lie” because you never know, perhaps you chose a floater and a sinker that float and sink because of different amounts of trapped air in the can, rather than because of density.  One could imagine turning it into an inquiry experiment, where students try to confirm the teacher’s hypothesis that the floating and sinking is due to density differences — a simple weight and volume determination of the soda in the can could do the trick, and would be a great experiment for students to suggest.  After all, don’t believe it just because teacher said so!

Image from Ngchikit under CC Share Alike (more info here).

I am a science education and communications consultant -- view my website for my full range of services.

Our PhET interactive simulation project was just featured on Voice of America. It’s a nice short piece that gives information about PhET and why it’s helpful for student learning. Kudos to my boss Kathy Perkins who was succinct and clear — not always an easy task.

Below is the text from the VOA site

And here is the audio MP3

Website features interactive science experiments

You won’t need a one-gig internet connection to check out our Website of the Week.

This time it’s an educational site where principles of physics are illustrated with interactive animated experiments that you can perform on your own computer.

PERKINS: “The PhET website is a collection of 85 simulations for teaching and learning science. So our main goal is to help students better understand the science of the world around them, but instead of telling students how something works, our simulations let them discover important science concepts for themselves and really learn and engage through scientist-like exploration.”

Kathy Perkins is co-director of the Physics Education Technology, or PhET Interactive Simulations website, at phet.colorado.edu.

Despite the name, the site also includes animated simulations in biology, chemistry, and other disciplines, as well as physics. You can build your own solar system, model the hydrogen atom, or explore the properties of a gas as you change its temperature and other variables.

Another simulation allows you to design and modify a simple electrical circuit.

PERKINS: “So when you open up, you can drag out wires and batteries and bulbs. And as you connect them, as soon as you complete a circuit, you’ll see the light bulb light up and the electrons shown in the wires circulate around the circuit.”

The simulations look like entertainment, but Perkins says the design of each has been tested for its educational value and can be used in the classroom, or you can just run the sims yourself and learn by doing online at phet.colorado.edu, or get the link from our site, VOAnews.com.

MUSIC: Michel Petrucciani – “Laws Of Physics”

You’re listening to Our World, the weekly science and technology magazine from VOA News. I’m Art Chimes in Washington.

I am a science education and communications consultant -- view my website for my full range of services.

The Exploratorium museum houses many wonderful science and perception exhibits, one of which is the anti-gravity mirror — a simple perception exhibit consisting of a big mirror with a platform hidden on the back side.  The explainers (the high school kids employed by the Exploratorium to do a lot of the demos and help visitors in the museum) just posted a really great video of a lot of the fun tricks you can do at the anti-gravity mirror.  Very fun!

I am a science education and communications consultant -- view my website for my full range of services.

In the midst of winter’s snowfalls, it’s time to consider what you (and your students) might be doing this summer.  Here is a list of all the different summer program  opportunities for science teachers and students I’ve run across recently.
Firstly, NSTA publishes a list of professional development opportunities here. Their list includes:

• The STORM Project (June 20-25; Deadline Feb 26th for priority). Learn about air quality and meterology at the University of Northern Iowa; for middle school and high school science teachers. Expenses paid. Information here.
• Connecting Humans and Nature through Conservation Experiences. Penn State course in environmental science and conservation biology through a practicum in Costa Rica and Panama. Application by Feb 28th. Information here.
• A field course in measuring and monitoring biodiversity at El Eden Ecological preserve. August 7-14; Deadline March 15. Study tropical biodiversity near Cancun. Email Daniel_Bisaccio@Brown.edu
• Sheila Schwartz Family International Leading Science Teachers Seminar. Learn cutting edge science in Israel. July 7-15, Application deadline March 31. Information here.
• Botanical Society of America’s Summer Institute. June 21-29; Deadline April 9. Learn to develop student-centered plant investigations. Information here.
• PlantIT Teacher Institute. HS science teachers exploring investigative cases in biology. July 12-23 at Texas A&M. Deadline April 9. Information here.
• Deep Ecology and Sustainable Living Short Course. July 25-August 7 in Costa Rica, Deadline April 23. Information here.
• Physics of Atomic Nuclei. Free residential summer program at Michigan State. Learn about research at the superconducting cyclotron and conduct experiments. August 1-6 (teachers), Aug 8-13 (students). Information here.

Exploratorium Teacher Institute (June 21-July 16; Deadline April 1)

This is where I cut my eyeteeth in hands-on inquiry learning and I can’t recommend it enough.  These institutes are the best 4 weeks you’ll ever have, and you’ll become part of a vibrant and intelligent set of science and math teachers.  If you want to know more about what you might be getting into, listen to the podcasts that I made about the institute on the bottom of the page.    Information here.

Galileo Learning (Varies)

Galileo Learning is a Bay Area company looking for educators to run its summer camps:  Galileo Summer Quest (for entering 5th through 8th graders);
The Tech Summer Camps (for entering 4th through 8th graders).  More information here.

Yellowstone (Varies)

Write off your vacation by taking a class in the Yellowstone Association summer field seminars.   Information here

Astronomy Camp (Varies; March-October)

A teacher says, ” I did the teacher version of this astronomy camp a number of years ago and it remains the best PD I’ve ever done (Exploratorium notwithstanding, of course) with lots of time on very large telescopes. One of the highlights from my experience was “discovering” Pluto. [But]… the website (which has drastically improved) still doesn’t do a good job on conveying the experience.  And Don (the guy who runs the thing) is fantastic.”  Camps run March through October.  Information here.

Univ of California – COSMOS (July 11-Aug 7th, San Diego; ?? Irvine; Deadline March 1 & 15)

Deadlines for San Diego and Irvine are in March.  Each Fellow works with a team of university faculty to implement the academic portion of COSMOS. Teacher Fellows serve as the pedagogical bridge between high school student learning and university faculty teaching. They directly participate in all classroom and laboratory work as well as field trips, typically a Monday – Friday, 8 a.m. – 5 p.m. commitment.   Check here

Cornell Institute for Physics Teachers (July 5-17 and 25-30)

Get graduate credit in physics in this intensive summer institute, which was recommended by a teacher.  The CIPT graduate courses contain lectures, lab tours, and innovative, inquiry-based laboratory experiments. Lectures and lab tours are designed to update high school physics teachers on recent advances in diverse topic areas.   Information here.

Modeling Workshops (Varies)

Modeling Workshops are peer-led. Modeling Instruction is one of two K-12 science programs designated by the U.S. Department of Education as EXEMPLARY.  Modeling Workshops in high school physics, chemistry, and/or physical science will be held in summer 2010 in Arizona, Alabama, Miami FL, Iowa, New Orleans LA, Maine, Michigan, Minneapolis MN, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pittsburgh PA, northern Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Dallas TX, and Wisconsin.  Modeling Workshops will be held also in Georgia, Chicago IL, Kansas, South Dakota, and Washington, pending funding.  Modeling Workshops in 11th grade biology will be held in Pittsburgh PA and Tennessee, for teachers in Physics First/Capstone Biology sequences.  Stipends and/or free tuition at most sites, usually for in-state teachers.  Information here.

For Students

NASA programs in Mountain View, CA.  Information here.

Caltech Young Engineering and Science Scholars (YESS).  Information here.

JPL (the Caltech/NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory)  SpaceSHIP (Summer High School Internship Program) here.

Girls on Ice 2010 Expedition.  FREE, wilderness science education program for high school girls. Each year a
team of 9 teenage girls and 3 instructors spend 11 days exploring and learning about mountain glaciers and alpine landscapes through scientific field studies with professional glaciologists and mountaineers.  July 26 to August 5, 2010 on Mount Baker, Washington State.
Information here. (applications are due March 1, 201)

Summer Science Program (SSP).  A teacher says, “My younger sister did it and is now in a PhD program in Physics at Berkeley.  She loved it and met many other like-minded students there.”  Information here.

Astronomy Camp. A teacher says, ” I did the teacher version of this astronomy camp a number of years ago and it remains the best PD I’ve ever done (Exploratorium notwithstanding, of course) with lots of time on very large telescopes. One of the highlights from my experience was “discovering” Pluto. [But]… the website (which has drastically improved) still doesn’t do a good job on conveying the experience.  And Don (the guy who runs the thing) is fantastic.”  Camps run March through October.  Information here.

Image by freeparking

I am a science education and communications consultant -- view my website for my full range of services.

In my copious spare time (!), I do some freelance writing assignments.  I recently got a fun assignment from my acquaintance and colleague David Ehrenstein at Physical Review Focus.  (I met David many years ago at a National Association of Science Writers conference… before a talk started, I heard someone ask “Could you explain Dark Matter to me?  I sidled up closer to hear how someone could do that in 1 minute or less.  That someone was David.  Great explainer and writer.)

Physical Review Focus explains the articles in Physical Review for a broad physicists audience.  They’re not easy to write — you have to understand a technical paper in an entirely new field at a deep level, and then write about it in a way that explains the details at a sufficient level to make a physicist happy, but with a broad enough story arc so that a non-specialist can understand it.  It’s  a tough balance.

This latest one was about how things break.  As you can imagine, it’s tough to get a real microscopic snapshot of a crack shooting through a material as it breaks.  But that’s what we need to do in order to get a deep understanding of fracture, so we can understand why materials fail.  Everything cracks (yes, even your jet airplane), but what we want to do is to understand why those cracks grow – that’s what we want to avoid to keep the stuff we build from falling apart.

So, take a look at my full article — Cracking the story of fracture. Any questions?  Let me know.

Image by Christopher Thomas:  http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Glass_fracture.jpg

I am a science education and communications consultant -- view my website for my full range of services.

Project Tomorrow (which does really good work) is creating a new survey of teachers, to get the lay of the land in teacher prep.  This one is the first one, I believe, in which they’re including aspiring teachers.  Here is the blurb — if you’re seeking your credentials, consider contributing your voice to the survey!  Due February 19th.

Wanted: Aspiring Teachers to join the National Dialogue about Teacher Education!

Project Tomorrow is seeking Aspiring Teachers who are currently pursuing a degree or credential to participate in its nationally recognized Speak Up project.  The Speak Up for Aspiring Teacher survey is the newest in Project Tomorrow’s suite of Speak Up surveys and provides aspiring teachers with the opportunity to contribute to the national dialogue about teacher preparation.  This online survey asks participants questions about how they use technology in and out of the classroom for personal and academic reasons, how they are learning to use technology to facilitate learning or for professional tasks, and their aspirations for your future classrooms.

The national findings will be released during a Congressional Briefing in May 2010 and used to inform national, state, and local policymakers about key issues related to teacher preparation and training.  Your voice matters!  The survey responses are 100% anonymous, so let us know what’s important to you and your future teaching career.

It’s easy to share your ideas – all you have to do is take the survey on our website!

For additional information, please contact June Pai at june@tomorrow.org or 949/609-4660 Ext. 12 or visit Project Tomorrow’s website.

Remember, the survey closes on February 19th, 2010!

I am a science education and communications consultant -- view my website for my full range of services.