August 2008

NASA Images Site

August 31, 2008

Phil Plait over at Bad Astronomy just spread the word about a sort-of-new NASA site with beautiful zoomable images from NASA. Phil writes: They have a ton of very cool images there, I must say. When they load, they are fitted to your screen, but then you can zoom in or out, which is fun. [...]

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Everyday language helps students learn

August 29, 2008

A new study at Stanford finds that using everyday language helped students learn. The results are only preliminary, since it was a small study and they don’t have a lot of data on students’ english language proficiency, but it is still an interesting and promising bit of research. An excerpt from the Stanford Report tells [...]

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Large Hadron Rap (OR why is geek humor so funny?)

August 28, 2008

If you’re one of the three people (like me) who hadn’t seen the Large Hadron Rap yet — absolutely divine. A worthwhile 5 minutes of your time. In the spirit of science raps you can also check out the Exploratorium Explainer’s fabu rap for Einstein’s birthday (which also happens to be Pi Day… March 14). [...]

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Using Wikis in the K-12 classroom

August 26, 2008

I just wanted to direct my K-12 teacher readers to a really nice post from one of the NSDL sponsored blogs “Exemplary Resources for Middle School Math and Science” about using wikis in the K-12 classroom. Here’s an excerpt: Wikis in the Classroom Let’s take the course of study mentioned above as the example: Start [...]

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Air has mass (and how to prove it!)

August 26, 2008

A teacher asked for a good experiment to show 8th graders that gas has mass.  “We have used balloons in the past,” she says, “but some of the kids still don’t make the connection.” Paul Doherty replied: I like to get a big weather balloon from a surplus store , inflate it until it is [...]

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Who am I, and why do I blog?

August 24, 2008

Over at Living the Scientific Life, GrrrlScientist writes about a study matching the Big Five Personality Traits to people who blog Are there particular personality traits that make certain people more likely to write a blog? If so, what are those personality traits? Do you have them, too? A team of scientists, led by psychologist [...]

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Make a stripped-down motor

August 22, 2008

I posted a new podcast – “Ooh you make my motor run” on my Science Teaching Tips podcast.  One of the Exploratorium staff educators, Modesto Tamez, tells how he gets students exploring electromagnets, a great preparation for making an electric motor. Here’s the Stripped Down Motor activity: www.exploratorium.edu/snacks/stripped_down_motor.html

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Blogroll for August 22

August 22, 2008

OK, ok, I’ll start a blogroll. It seems to be the happenin’ thing to do, and I do read so many great articles on other blogs and want to acknowledge them in some way! So here’s Steph’s geekgirl picks for the last handful of weeks: Cocktail Party Physics – Pretty Poison — on how men [...]

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Sciencegeekgirl fails the geek test

August 21, 2008

Oh dear, do I have to rescind my “sciencegeekgirl” moniker? Twisted Physics just posted about a “Test your Science Savvy” quiz that was posted on World’s Fair. I got two wrong on that quiz (which disqualifies me from being a geek, by their scoring), but it was because I was thinking too hard, in a [...]

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How to tell if glasses are nearsighted or farsighted

August 21, 2008

A neat observation from one of the staff physicists at the Exploratorium: Here is a little game to play with farsighted and nearsighted glasses. Ask all your students who wear glasses to put them on and stand up. Walk up to each of them, look into their eyes and you will be able to tell [...]

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The physics of swimsuits

August 20, 2008

Physics Today just published an article about the weirdo swimsuits we’ve been seeing in the Olympics. I knew there had to be something special about them, because they’re full-body suits. There’d be no reason to cover over the swimmer’s skin unless the suit itself had less drag than skin. Turns out that’s the case. The [...]

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Yup, changed my tagline

August 19, 2008

Trying to zero in on what it is that I’m actually writing about (instead of what I thought I was going to write about last year), so I changed my tagline from “science & how to talk about it” to “the intersection between science, education, communication, and me”. I’d be curious if any of my [...]

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Britney Spears and physics

August 19, 2008

I might get flamed for posting this after the lively discussion on women, science, stereotypes, and smart vs pretty.  But I’m never one to skirt around an issue.  Ahem.  Last week A Blog Around the Clock posted an article about Science vs. Britney Spears, about how the public is more likely to be surfing the [...]

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Praise them what they DO, not what they ARE

August 17, 2008

In the comments to the last post, Pannlife wrote: In the course of my education, I come across much concerning the differentiation of genders. Recently, I read something that suggested that you should praise effort rather than results; praise kids for things that they control and do, rather than things that they just are. My [...]

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Flirt harder. I’m a physicist

August 17, 2008

So, I’ve got this bumper sticker, which has sort of become my little badge of fame, “Flirt harder. I’m a physicist.” I love it — I’ve had motorists pull up beside me, motion to roll down my window, and yell “What kind of physicist?” I once saw the driver of the car behind me taking [...]

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Eclipse photos from earlier this month

August 16, 2008

The Exploratorium has a Flickr site devoted to images of the eclipse, and a link to a really neat video of the eclipse as seen at 27,000 feet.

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Everything You Ever Wanted to know about Gender Issues in Science/Math Education

August 16, 2008

Richard Hake and Jeffry Mallow have compiled over 700 research papers on how males and females learn — and are taught — science and mathematics.  Wow! You can download the PDF of their work here. If that link stops working at some point, the permalink is in Reference 55 here. The first page reads: This [...]

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Make your own phonograph (podcast)

August 15, 2008

TI staff educator Eric Muller explains how to make your own record player! See my previous longer post about this activity, too. Groovy Sounds activity (PDF) More of Eric Muller’s activities

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Sucky schools and how to repair them

August 15, 2008

Here’s a fantastic post from An Amazing Mind about the state of mathematics education and what can be done about it.  A very nice review of education reform and the reasons for it.  He starts out: A musician wakes from a terrible nightmare. In his dream he finds himself in a society where music education [...]

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Activities for the first day of class!

August 14, 2008

The first day of class is coming up — here are some nice activities you can use on the first day, or anytime you need a warm-up activity. One teacher suggests: Look at the Nature of Science activities at the ENSI website. There are many, many fun and interesting ones to choose from and you [...]

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