Science Explanations

A great visual resource on learning goals

January 30, 2012

I wish I could embed this visual tool here so that you’d see how awesome it is and jump up and down in your seat like I did when I first saw it (at least, if you’re an edu-geek like me). But no, I can only provide you with a link and say go here. [...]

Read the full article →

Electron flow vs current flow? (Repost)

September 1, 2011

The geekgirl is going a little nutty over here, hence the silence on the posting front.  I’ve got a good excuse — I’m getting married in about 10 days.  So cut a girl some slack.    Fun facts — we’re getting married on 9/10/11 — which only happens 11 times in every 100 years, and [...]

Read the full article →

Science Myths Unmasked

July 21, 2011

Quite some time ago I was sent a charming little book by its author, David Rudel, with an offer to review it.  Eight months later I finally managed to get through the other items on my reading list and spend some time reading it through   (Let this be a word of warning to all [...]

Read the full article →

Phylm – make a film about physics!

March 23, 2011

Phylm /’film/ n. [physics + film] The fourth annual Phylm Prize is now open!  Until May 13, anyone can enter a film — though students are especially encouraged — about physics.  The first year’s winners were a set of students with the Special Relativity Rap.  The second year was Science Made Fun about black holes [...]

Read the full article →

Ask Dr. Ryan: Environmental videos for the classroom

December 25, 2010

It is such a pleasure to see something done well.  And that is the case with the latest initiative from one of my fellow scientists and science communicators here in Boulder — Ryan Vachon.  Ryan’s got a PhD in geology, and is now plying his trade making educational videos on science.  And man, this guy [...]

Read the full article →

Geeky treats #5: The Science of Cooking

December 10, 2010

Did you know that when you whip egg whites, you’re not just beating in air but you’re actually unfolding, or denaturing, the proteins in the eggs? The same thing happens when you heat up eggs, but as you heat them the unfolded proteins make bonds with other proteins, which is what makes them firm up. [...]

Read the full article →

Geeky Treats #4: Freezing food is cool

December 9, 2010

Got liquid nitrogen?  Apparently you can have an awful lot of fun with it.  I heard secondhand about a party at the Exploratorium where treats like candy, caramel corn, and whipped cream were dipped in liquid nitrogen to make a flash-frozen dessert.  One of the favorites was to take a ladle of whipped cream and [...]

Read the full article →

Geeky treats #3: The nose knows

December 8, 2010

Here’s a fun science experiment that you can do around taste.  You need to work with a partner on this one.  Get yourself some lifesavers, or other hard candy.  Plug your nose, cover your eyes, and have your partner give you a piece of candy.  Try to guess the flavor.  It’s really hard!  A related [...]

Read the full article →

Geeky treats #1: Electrical Cake (Just like Ohm-made)

December 6, 2010

There’s nothing cooler than something geeky that’s also yummy in your tummy.  So, this post is the first in a series about some cool science that that we can eat. There’s more than one way to bake a cake.  For one, why bother to let the convection of heat in your oven bake your cake [...]

Read the full article →

Friction is your friend…. A climber rests easy in her knowledge of physics

November 11, 2010

I was recently offered the chance to do a guest post for Expand Outdoors (a local blogger’s site about how the outdoors can be a powerful force for life transformation).  So, what would I write it on?  The physics of climbing, of course. Here is an excerpt of what I wrote for her site.  Or, [...]

Read the full article →

Why can’t I hear right? Stephanie researches her ears.

July 12, 2010

[[NOTE:  The update on my symptoms and the resulting diagnosis is in the comments if you're curious.  I get a lot of comments on this post asking for updates, so please look in the comments for the answer!]] I’ve had the most distressing symptoms over the past week, which sparked my biophysics curiosity.  At first [...]

Read the full article →

The science of the winter olympics

January 15, 2010

NBC Learn has a bunch of free online educational videos, such as word roots and documentaries.  Now, with the NSF, they also have a set of videos all about the winter olympic games!  The science of snowboarding, hockey, figure skating, and more!  I took a look and was favorably impressed — they’re about 5 minutes [...]

Read the full article →

What happens to air in your lungs at altitude?

October 10, 2009

Here’s a provocative question about the atmosphere, from one of those most curious citizens of the world — 6th graders. “At sea level you take a breath and fill a sandwich bag with it easily.  On Mt Everest, not using bottled air, could you do the same thing? I guess the question is “How full [...]

Read the full article →

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 [...]

Read the full article →

Why does soap form bubbles?

May 2, 2009

I got a good question on my Adopt a Physicist forum last week, from an 8th-grader named, for privacy purposes, “S.F.”  I asked them to look around for interesting things around them and ask me about the physics of them.  He/she wrote: Actually today I did notice some strange things.  I was washing my hands, and [...]

Read the full article →

Electron flow vs. current flow

February 27, 2009

I just got this question from a teacher on Webconnect (which lets teachers ask science questions): “In the past when I taught electricity I always understood that it flows from the negative terminal to the positive.   The CPO books and materials have the opposite – from positive to negative.  This doesn’t make sense to me [...]

Read the full article →

How big is the full moon?

January 2, 2009

In keeping with my previous post on the International Year of Astronomy, this week’s 5-minute  Science Teaching Tips podcast is about our perception and the size of the moon.  What coin would just barely cover the full moon? You may be surprised. TI director (and recovering astrophysicist) Linda Shore explains how our brains distort the [...]

Read the full article →

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 [...]

Read the full article →

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 [...]

Read the full article →

The temperature in a plasma TV

October 8, 2008

Here is a question posted to a teachers’ listserv: In discussing phases of matter, one of my students inquired about plasmas. We briefly discussed the ionized gasses and I told him that plasma TV’s actually contain such gasses. He knew that the temperatures of plasmas is very high and we both wondered if the actual [...]

Read the full article →

← Previous Entries