December 2008

sciencegeekgirl incorporated?

December 30, 2008

I’m starting my own business, doing freelance science education, writing, blogging, podcasting, and anything else that comes my way.  (Got a contact or job for me?  Send it my way at riggmailgeek at yahoo dot com — resume here.  My experience is broad, but in a nutshell I’m well-suited to create innovative education and communication [...]

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How do I teach physics?

December 30, 2008

I finally just checked out the Pathways Project, which provides pre-recorded video answers to your questions about how to teach physics.  Color me impressed.  I chose a teacher from the drop-down menu and asked a question — in my case, “How do I teach electrostatics?”   I was told that my chosen teacher (Paul Hewitt) [...]

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Why does snow squeak when it’s cold?

December 29, 2008

I’m cross-posting this from a fun little discussion we just had over at Morning Coffee Physics. (Perhaps ironically, all my posts took place in the wee hours of the night, sans coffee). Jasper wrote a really neat little post about why snow sparkles and I asked him if he knows why snow crunches underfoot when [...]

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Who’s afraid of Marie Curie?

December 27, 2008

That’s the title of a very well-done  book that I just finished (Who’s Afraid of Marie Curie by Linley Erin Hall) which outlines a lot of the challenges facing women in science, technology, and medicine, from grade-school to college, graduate school, post-doc, and faculty and professional positions, plus concrete recommendations based on the research on [...]

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Science for the holidays

December 26, 2008

A few cool things about science that relate to the holidays.  I wrote this *before* Christmas, but, oh well, better late than never? Dot Physics has a wonderful post on why Christmas tree lights stay lit even when one of them burns out, which is an unusual way for a series circuit to work.  Some [...]

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What happened in physics this year?

December 21, 2008

Yup, it’s time for those “top 10″ lists for 2008.  I don’t generally post other peoples’ lists here, but heck, this is one area where I know that I haven’t been paying close enough attention to know what’s important.  So here is an edited version of the Physics Findings for 2008 from Physics News.  Phil [...]

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Teaching abroad

December 19, 2008

For this week’s episode of Science Teaching Tips, I’ve got a story from a veteran teacher about her first year of teaching — which was quite unusual.  She was placed in a rural school in Guatemala.  You think you’ve got it tough?!  Hear about her challenges in Episode 63 – Teaching Abroad.

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Several great YouTube science videos

December 19, 2008

Here are some great gems from some really old posts over at Swans on Tea. Thanks to Rhett at DotPhysics for the technical assistance. Robots doing amazing things: Carbon dioxide is heavier than air (neat thing to try at home) Weird psychology trick (how does he do that?)

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Exchange of scientific ideas

December 17, 2008

I just read this lovely discussion of how a more open scientific culture (think open-access science) could improve the collective memory of science. This was on the Back Page of APS News (subscribers only) and here is the author Michael Nielsen’s blog post about the topic too, with some additional information. His basic premise is [...]

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We remember our 20′s and 30′s more because of what happens to us then

December 16, 2008

That long blog post title is the summary of a very interesting piece of research just written up in Cognitive Daily.  This is worth going over and taking a peek at the original post, because it’s quite an interesting piece of research. The research question was whether people’s memories follow a predictable pattern.  After all, [...]

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New study on synthesia

December 16, 2008

I got a lot of comments on my previous post on synthesia, so it seems there’s some interest there.  Check out this post on Cognitive Daily about a study of the rarest form of synthesia – tasting words. For more common (or rather, less uncommon) forms of synesthesia, the most convincing evidence that it’s real [...]

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Why do your fingers wrinkle?

December 14, 2008

Why is it that your fingers get all wrinkly when you’re in the bath too long? It’s a pretty simple little answer.  You know how a spongue gets bigger when it gets wet.  The outer layer of our skin is like that too — it soaks up a bunch of water and gets swollen.  But [...]

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Mastery learning in K-12 classrooms

December 12, 2008

Two local teachers in Colorado (Jon Bergmann and Aaron Sams)  just put together a wonderful little video about how they completely transformed their high school chemistry classrooms, so that students would actually master the material.  In the video, two dynamic presenters show and talk about how they used video podcasts to make better use of [...]

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Find that sound!

December 12, 2008

This week’s episode of my Science Teaching Tips podcast actually features, well, me! Yay. It’s nice to record myself, not always other people, though the folks at the Exploratorium are so darned clever and fun, I feel it’s my mission to document every last scrap of their wisdom and energy. I’m trying… So, this time [...]

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Free webinar with Michio Kaku for teachers and students

December 11, 2008

Wow, I was just sent this information about a wonderful chance for teachers and students to connect (for FREE) with a really dynamic scientist, Michio Kaku.  You can see my previous post about a talk he gave on the Physics of the Impossible at AAPT last summer — he was an incredibly gifted speaker. Funny, [...]

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Scotch tape is crazy stuff

December 11, 2008

Yeah, yeah, I know, this is old news, but I finally got around to reading the articles about the fact that Scotch tape emits x-rays. I’ve known for a while that when you stick scotch tape to something and then peel it off, the scotch tape gets charged (negatively for those who care). This is [...]

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Make your own phonograph (Repost)

December 6, 2008

I’ve got so many different posts that I want to write… scribbled notes on different science myths and beautiful everyday things, but I have been so very busy. I’m sorry. I will get back to writing detailed posts in a few weeks! In the meantime, I’d like to recycle a good old post on making [...]

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The mathematics of a bouncing ball

December 5, 2008

Have you ever really listened to the sound of a bouncing ball? There’s some elegant mathematics to be had in this simple thing. In this episode of my Science Teaching Tips podcast, staff educator and physicist Tom Humphrey takes us to the most perfect bouncing ball I’ve ever seen (or heard) — an exhibit at [...]

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Myths about the earth

December 4, 2008

Ooh ooh ooh, Bad Astronomy posted (a while ago) a fabulous list of Ten Things You Didn’t Know about the Earth. If you dig my science myths, check this one out. Such gems as “The earth is smoother than a billiard ball,” “Destroying the earth is hard,” and “Mt. Everest isn’t the biggest mountain.” See [...]

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Ask a science education question

December 2, 2008

I just found out about a neat free service for science educators.  It’s mostly for those in Colorado, but those outside Colorado are welcome to use it as well.  It’s a free email servicer for teachers to ask questions directly of a science education expert, who will go out and find the answer for you.  [...]

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