As a youngster I was deprived of a model train set - something that I bring up from time-to-time at family functions with the sole purpose of winding up my mum!
Now this video clip takes toy train sets to the next level - it really is lovely to watch.
It is about a wee boy who wants to send his model train (Stanley) into space (his dad helps him make it happen!).
They even use Google Earth to re-locate the train after it falls 18 miles out of the atmosphere!
Thanks to @swissmiss for the link.
I'm not sure that the ants would be particularly happy about this research project but the final result is really quite amazing.
Basically, researchers pump concrete into a giant ant hill. It takes a little bit longer than they expect (3 days to be precise) and they get through 10 tonnes of concrete.
Then they leave the concrete to set and three weeks later start excavating the site to revile what the inside of the colony looks like. The result is an intricate structure, equivalent in labour to humans building the Great Wall of China.
Worth a watch and a great resource to support the teaching of science.
Via: Boing Boing
I love gadgets and the Education Show is always great for good EduGadets!
Last year my favorites included Great Gizmos and Education Harbour. This year I had a good chat with some of the staff at Mind Sets On-line.
They produce some great early years robotic sets – this is so important if we are serious about developing a future digital economy and also a progression & ethos of content creation by children from an early age.
I was impressed with their Energy and Power sets to help develop an understanding of renewable energy and was also particularly fond of the soil clock!
However my absolute favorite product that they were showcasing was an electric motor powered paper plane launcher! – The more I think about it, the more I think I’m just going to have to get one!
Google Body is a detailed 3D model of the human body. You can peel back anatomical layers, zoom in, and navigate to parts that interest you. Click to identify anatomy, or search for muscles, organs, bones and more.
You can also share the exact scene you are viewing by copying and pasting the corresponding URL. In order for it to work you will need a web browser that supports WebGL, such as Google Chrome.
This is an amazing classroom resource from Google that should find a place in any science classroom or in any lesson where you are trying to teach young people (or adults) about the human body.
The YouTube Video below shows some of the features of Google Body, but why don't you just go and explore yourself...
Google is looking for the brightest, best young scientists from around the world to submit interesting, creative projects that are relevant to the world today.
The Google Science Fair seems like a great way for Google to expand their education programme for young people. It will also be really interesting to see how Google manages a competition on such a large scale. I already love the idea that they are asking for judges to help assist on a ‘local’ level.
More details about the Google Science Fair here and the YouTube video below explains the completion in more detail.
5) Finally, along the same sort of theme it is great to use tools like the Bing World Wide Telescope App to compare the stars in the sky that you have seen to the stars in the sky in a different part of the world.
Here is a topical example:
i) Pick a place on the earth
ii) See what the stars would look like above your head and explore the sky
Yesterday I wrote a post about geocaching. The location of geocaches in your area can be found by looking at geocaching.com and downloading the coordinates. Educaching is an evolution of the activity that contains some of the core ideas of geocaching (eg: it includes GPS).
The main difference, as I understand it, between the two activities is that geocaches tend to be quite permanent and educaches tend to be a little more temporary. Most educaches tend to be hidden for the duration of the learning activity and contain information or items help solve a problem or that are needed to progress with a task.
There are lots of examples of educaching on the Internet. But the example of learning about dinosaurs from Jen Deyenberg is the one that I have been talking about in my resent presentation.
1) The class have been learning about dinosaurs. As part of their learning they have been finding out about Waterhouse Hawkins. Waterhouse Hawkins (8 February 1807– 27 January 1894) was a sculptor and natural history artist. He was the first person in the world to re-model dinosaur bones to create standing skeletons of dinosaurs. He is probably the most famous for recreating the 32 life-size models of dinosaurs in the Crystal Palace Park, London. So, as part of their learning they read the book with the teacher on "The Dinosaurs of Waterhouse Hawkins".
3) Back in the classroom the children had to put the bones together as they were all muddled up.
4) Remember the project was linked to Waterhouse Hawkins who was one of the first people to take the bones are create 3D replications of the dinosaurs. So the class then took the bones and imagines what the dinosaur would have looked like before turning it into a 3D scaled model. There was discussion about why some of the dinosaurs would not stand up and what could and could not be fossilized.
5) The class then video conferenced with another school who had completed a similar activity and were able to talk in more detail about the process of fossilization.
6) Finally the children shared their learning on their personal class blogs.
Now, what I like about this particular activity is that the teacher could have achieved the objectives of the lesson by not taking the children outside at all and also by not using the technology. But instead the lesson used a combination of books, outdoor learning, technology, 3D modeling, collaboration and sharing.
In short it was a really blended lesson involving a variety of pedagogical styles. Some of the children would have been engaged because of the book, some because they went outside, some because of the GPS, some because of the video conference and some because of the physical modeling. But, they all would have been engaged, somehow and that is what the best learning and best lessons are about.
I’ll be writing more on educaching in the future.As far as I’m concerned you can’t beat products that turn drink cans into robotic bugs! or a weather station that fits on the top of any plastic bottle (which becomes a mini greenhouse allowing plants to grow).
They had lots of examples of great little solar powered products that I thought were fantastic and therefore would be highly appropriate for young as well!
In particular I really liked the ‘Solar Powered Frightened Grasshopper’.
I also liked their 6 in 1 solar powered product as I felt that not only would it be good for teaching children about construction, energy and renewable source but it also gave them a real choice in what could be created and built.
These would be fantastic kits to introduce young people to problem solving activities and creative thinking though science.
NBC Learn has some fantastic resources up on their website to help teachers make links to science through the context of the Winter Olympic Games.
The 16 part on-line video resource includes interviews athletes, coaches, and scientists. The series deals with the physics, biology, chemistry and materials engineering behind the Olympic Winter Games and Winter Olympic Sports.
Titles include:
I watched a few of the videos and thought that they were fantastic.
10 - Element 114 Confirmed (looks like the Russians were right!)Even better, once you have finished going through the above list with your class and discussing why each of the breakthroughs was important. Why not get the students in your class to predict their top five or ten scientific discoveries for the 2010 or perhaps even for the next decade.
9 - Progress Toward a Vaccine for Dengue Fever
8 - Breathalyzer Detects Lung Cancer
7 - Computer Program Predicts Drug Side Effects (to difficult to explain more information here)
6 - Jellyfish may stir the oceans with as much power as winds and tides.
5 - Bisphenol A in Plastics Harms Humans (its in plastic bottles by the way)
4 – Life Extension Breakthrough (for Rodents - as much as 13 years)
3 – Schizophrenia in the Genome
2 – Ardi Usurps Lucy (the closest creature we have to the last common ancestor of humans and chimpanzees)
1 - Gene Therapy Makes a Comeback (amongst other things researchers at the University of Washington cured two adult monkeys of colorblindness)
Better still, get your students to send an email to their future selves and include their predictions in their email. There a few websites that allow you to do this but my favorite is www.futureme.org. I’ve used this site lots of times with students and even adults to remind themselves of their aims from conferences and workshops. If you have not seen it – it’s definitely worth a look.
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