The Teacher List » #scichat

Create A Kaleidoscope

Tue, 24 Jun 2014 14:14:08 +0000

My grandfather used to collect kaleidoscopes so I enjoy seeing them discussed and shared online. Here’s a Victoria and Albert Museum / Museum of Childhood project that allows students to create their own kaleidoscope patterns based on this 1817 invention.
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The URL: http://www.vam.ac.uk/vastatic/microsites/moc_kaleidoscope/

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ISS Live Feed

Mon, 12 May 2014 16:01:29 +0000

I had a recommendation all ready to go until I realized this morning that the ISS has a live HD feed both in and out of the station. You can view the goings-on of daily life and sometimes, when the external cameras are on, there are stunning views of the Earth’s cities and storms.
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The URL: http://m.ustream.tv/channel/live-iss-stream

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Fri, 25 Apr 2014 17:56:17 +0000

My brother, Brian, showed me this galactic perspective from Google’s Chrome Experiments. 100,000 stars is a tour of the closest stars to our own Sun. It’s completely interactive and I would suggest taking the short tour to begin. You can spend a lot of time on this one!
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The URL: http://workshop.chromeexperiments.com/stars/

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CondorWatch

Wed, 16 Apr 2014 14:25:23 +0000

Surrey, B.C. teacher, Nicole Painchaud, sent me a note about a Zooniverse project: Condor Watch. From the site: “There are only around 200 California Condors living in the wild and they are in serious danger from lead poisoning, which they get by eating carcasses shot with lead bullets. Getting a better idea of how they interact and socialise is crucial to ongoing conservation efforts. Using camera traps, ecologists in the US have been observing them in the wild. However the sheer volume of images is now overwhelming. Starting today with people’s help they want people to look through the first set of data: 264,000 images of condors eating, socialising, and nesting. Ecologists need everyone’s help to identify the individual birds from their numbered tags. Your efforts on this project will help preserve an endangered species – and we think that’s really special.” There are several educational resources on the site and students are encouraged to participate in analyzing the photographs.
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The URL: http://www.condorwatch.org/

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Simple Battery Test

Mon, 03 Feb 2014 18:16:54 +0000

I viewed this clip the other day and got thinking that it would be a great way to introduce how to make an hypothesis. The technique appears to be sound and repeatable, and I was able to prove the concept at my desk. Other than it just being interesting, there is a seed of a good lesson here…
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The URL: http://bit.ly/Ls1mjx

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Wring Out A Towel In Space

Thu, 23 Jan 2014 15:59:37 +0000

My dad shared this fascinating video with me a while back. Commander Chris Hadfield, conducted this experiment on the ISS and shared the video of it on YouTube. The question that frames the experiment is, “What happens if you wring out a wet towel while floating in space? The water shouldn’t fall toward the floor because while orbiting the Earth, free falling objects will appear to float. But will the water fly out from the towel, or what?” Don’t read the text under the clip – it’s way more fun to make a few guesses and then watch.
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The URL: http://1.usa.gov/1c77nge

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Science and Technology Knowledge Quiz

Wed, 08 Jan 2014 15:49:05 +0000

Take this Pew Research Center quiz to test your knowledge of scientific concepts. Then see how you did in comparison with the 1,006 randomly sampled adults asked the same questions in a national poll conducted by the Pew Research Center andSmithsonian magazine. There is a full report available that analyzes the findings.
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The URL: http://www.pewresearch.org/quiz/science-knowledge/

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Turn Your Smartphone Into A Digital Microscope

Fri, 25 Oct 2013 14:07:03 +0000

List member, Todd Austman, sent this excellent DIY project the other day that tells you (or your students) how to rig up a smartphone-to-digital-microscope project. Using commonly found materials, it’s easy to create a microscope that is powerful enough to view plant cells. I’m thinking now that if you attach your device to a projector, you can extend the idea to include a projectable digital microscope.
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The URL: http://www.instructables.com/id/10-Smartphone-to-digital-microscope-conversion/

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Geology Animations

Wed, 05 Jun 2013 15:23:08 +0000

Thanks goes out to Edmonton teacher, Corey Karvonen Lee, who found this collection of animations that support the teaching of geology. Founded by the W. W. Norton Group, students can visualize many aspects of geological study from the hydrologic cycle to more advanced concepts such as the formation of ocean crust and igneous rocks.
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The URL: http://www.wwnorton.com/college/geo/geolab/animations.aspx

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Science.gc.ca – Science Activity Book

Wed, 03 Apr 2013 16:21:54 +0000

Long-standing List member, Lorne Cooper, showed me a @gc_science site that provides a series of downloadable Science Activity Books. These are real treasures that each contain dozens of experiments that cover elementary, middle and senior high ages. This is activity book number five but you can download all of the previous ones as well to boost your experiment repertoire.
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The URL: http://www.science.gc.ca/ab

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