April 2009

Cow eye tacos

April 28, 2009

In these tough economic times, waste not, want not, right? So, an enterprising Explainer at the Exploratorium thought well, there must be some good use for all these cow eyes we dissect on the museum floor every day. So, yup, you guessed it.  Kudos to those crazy kids for the following recipe: Tacos de Ojo [...]

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More Professional Development Opportunities for Teachers

April 25, 2009

They just keep on coming!  There are so many workshops for teachers, I wonder how useful it is to let you know about them.  But, if there’s one in your area, and you’re available, it never hurts to dip your toes into an enrichment experience, right?  See my previous post for other professional development opportunities [...]

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How to raise tadpoles in the classroom

April 20, 2009

Here’s a problem most of us never have.  How do you raise tadpoles in the classroom without killing them off?  Which species are best?  And then what about the resulting frogs?  A teacher recently raised this on the Exploratorium teacher email list, and perhaps others can benefit from these words of accumulated wisdom. First, you [...]

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Learning depends on what you already know

April 15, 2009

Firstly, I just have to say how beautiful the view is outside the airplane window right now.  It’s been an extraordinarily bumpy ride on my trip from San Francisco back to Denver, and I’m a real nail-biter when it comes to turbulence.  But now we are above the clouds and the sky is white with [...]

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On Being a Scientist

April 14, 2009

The National Academies has released another one of their stellar reports – On Being a Scientist. The report is a thoughtful look at the challenges facing scientists — ethics, personal, and professional issues. These reports are always so well-written, and serve as great guides for years to come. Here are some excerpts: Scientific research offers [...]

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The inner beauty of everyday objects

April 8, 2009

A (sort of) recent story in the NY Times highlighted the wonderful work of Satre Stuelke, a medical student and former art professor who co-opted the CT scanner for his own aesthetic purposes.  Below is just one of the images that resulted — a wind-up toy bunny: This is a tin wind-up drumming bunny toy. [...]

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What’s for dinner? (Teaching food chains)

April 6, 2009

Our latest Beyond Penguins and Polar Bears podcast from the NSDL is up! What’s For Dinner? Teaching Arctic Food Chains We already know why polar bears don’t eat penguins, but what do they eat? In this episode, we’ll share a simple activity that opens a window to understanding a unique ecosystem as one example of [...]

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Flounder x-ray & other beautiful things

April 3, 2009

Wow, I just stumbled upon this and it was so beautiful I had to share: Thanks to Tibchris on Flickr for posting this (and making it available with Creative Commons). If you’re looking for freely available images for presentations or in-class use, there are two great places to look: Wikimedia Commons images are all licensed [...]

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