June 2009

Cutest Lynx kitten *ever*

June 30, 2009

Well, I bet they’re all that cute. But I don’t care how big and manly you are, you know you’re moved to scritch it behind the ears and say “who’s a cute little kitty? That’s right, you’re a cute little kitty. Waschawhaschawhuh.” From the original article at National Geographic. June 29, 2009—The discovery of ten [...]

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Phylm (Physics + Film) – $100 prize!

June 26, 2009

Need a class project?  Here’s one that could get you some cashola to boot.  Former physics teacher David Colarusso sponsors a contest for the best video to meld physics and film.  He particularly would like to see contributions from students and teachers!  If you’ve got some videos already posted on YouTube, just submit them here!  [...]

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Hands on Science Sunday: Ticker-tape timer for measuring motion

June 21, 2009

A pretty standard lab for introductory physics is to chart what constant speed (or constant acceleration) looks like, and graph it versus time.  There are all different ways to do this, but one is to use a ticker-tape timer, which I think is wonderfully cool.  The idea is to attach a piece of ticker tape [...]

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Why clickers?

June 19, 2009

A good little post by Derek Bruff recently details his arguments why clickers are useful in college classrooms.  If you’re a skeptic, or trying to convince a skeptic, it’s worth checking out his post We’ve also got a video that shows many of these same points — here that is. Once again, here are a [...]

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A good multiple choice clicker question…? Help!?

June 18, 2009

I’m giving a workshop on the use of clickers in K12 classrooms next week.  I need your help!  The research says that teachers focus too much on the surface features of “example” questions that you give them.  If they’re a science teacher, they tune out during a literature question.  If they’re a history teacher, the [...]

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Visualizing flow

June 18, 2009

Wow, check out this beautiful video of visualizing fluid flow with a special tracer fluid (courtesy of Sebastien at the Exploratorium).  Stunning!

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What does the digital world mean for today’s college classrooms?

June 15, 2009

I guess that I’m the last person to see this, but this YouTube video on digital technology and college education from Kansas State University made the rounds a while back.  It’s a very moving presentation of how distanced students feel from their own learning and the role that technology plays in that. From a teacher’s [...]

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Can a vacuum become a conductor? OR The physics of electron flow

June 11, 2009

Here was an interesting discussion on a science teacher’s listserv, which came down to the question — can a vacuum become a conductor?  What is it that we really need in order for charge to flow between two points?  What is the physics of electron flow?  The physics teacher in question wrote: The Paul Hewitt [...]

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New blog! A Schooner of Science debunks the myths about lemmings

June 8, 2009

I came across a new science blog recently – A Schooner of Science — and really enjoyed Sarah’s fresh and funny writing style about all sorts of things that this blog doesn’t tend to cover — namely, biology and chemistry.  (I write about them when I can, but, well, it does all come down to [...]

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BEST bad physics movie EVER. (Laughingly bad science in “The Core”)

June 6, 2009

I’ve had a set of “bad science movies” on my Netflix queue for a while, and every once in a while I dip into it.  Each time it feels a bit risky, like trying some weird new combination, like cherry dip on my mint chocolate chip ice cream cone.  Sometimes it’s OK.  Sometimes it’s not [...]

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Al Gore’s speech to AAAS

June 3, 2009

Al Gore spoke to the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and gave an updated and truncated version of his “Inconvenient Truth” speech.  I recommend taking a look at it (you can watch it over breakfast if you’re like me and don’t like to sit and watch videos on your computer… I get [...]

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