February 2008

You *can* take it with you

February 29, 2008

I’ve posted a new episode of my Science Teaching Tips podcast, “You *can* take it with you.” At the Exploratorium we run workshops for secondary science teachers (see the Teacher Institute website), but a lot of those teachers come in with great ideas and tips of their own. So in this podcast one of our [...]

Read the full article →

Songs for teaching science

February 29, 2008

There are a ton of great songs out there that classroom teachers can use to help bolster their science lessons. Research has shown that students learn better when seeing material presented in a variety of formats, so music is just one more way to get the message across. Plus, a catchy jingle can really help [...]

Read the full article →

Private theories

February 14, 2008

I’ve posted a new episode of my Science Teaching Tips podcast: Private theories. TI Director Linda Shore was one of the people originally involved in the Private Universe video (from Annenburg Media), which showed surprisingly persistent misconceptions in students. In the famous opening scene, they interview students as they graduate from Harvard and ask them [...]

Read the full article →

Happy Valentine’s Day!

February 14, 2008

Happy Valentine’s Day! Are you a science geek too? Searching for your true life’s companion? Make sure he or she can grok your geeky little brain by sending them a card with this message. This is the mathematical equation for a cardioid in polar coordinates, which is a heart-shape. You can find the full activity [...]

Read the full article →

Size Does Matter

February 8, 2008

I’ve posted a new episode of my Science Teaching Tips podcast, Size Does Matter. Dr. Thomas Humphrey is a physicist who’s been at the Exploratorium for a looong time. He works a lot with the teachers who come to workshops in the Teacher Institute, particularly to get at the connection between math and science. He’s [...]

Read the full article →

You’ll get a charge out of this…

February 8, 2008

This is a great little activity from Eric Muller’s While You’re Waiting for the Food to Come. Get a plastic drinking straw, in its wrapper. Unwrap one end, so the straw is still wrapped in the paper, and then slide the wrapper quickly up and down over the straw, until the straw and wrapper feel [...]

Read the full article →

Why we teach

February 1, 2008

I just posted a new episode of my Science Teaching Tips podcast — Episode: 27. Why We Teach This is a story about a young teacher’s first year of teaching. It’s hard, yes, but her story is an inspiring one. She ends in tears and so did many of us who were listening. If you’re [...]

Read the full article →

Science in Second Life?

February 1, 2008

There’s actually quite a bit of science in Second Life (the online virtual “massive multiplayer online role-playing game”). Second Life is a pretty popular place (42,967 online at the writing of this post), so in today’s age where it’s best to bring science to the people (because the people ain’t coming to science), having cool, [...]

Read the full article →