Tag: Science

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7 Videos That Will Prove That Science Rocks

It seems like there are a thousand videos on every known scientific topic, with most hardly more engaging than Ferris Bueller’s Day Off‘s econ teacher (“Anyone? Anyone?”). But every now and then, we stumble across something truly inspiring. Here are seven that take my breath away–and may they do the same for you and your students!

Inner Life of a Cell (3:12) by Harvard University & XVIVO

When I was first introduced to this video nine years ago in my college biology course, I actually cried for the beauty presented. This animation by Harvard University and XVIVO is every bit as moving now as it was then. Click here for the full 8 minute version with labels. 

The Miracle of Life (12:15) by Silvio Falcinelli

I came across this video when my daughter asked for details about her little brother’s growth in-utero. It may or may not have been what prompted her to contradict our storytime librarians when they explained that mammals don’t come from eggs… But at any rate, this detailed animation is a wonderful way to show a baby’s journey from conception to birth, and to inspire the wonders of life science.

The Known Universe by AMNH (6:31)

This astronomy animated film takes viewers from the Himilayas all the way to the furthest reaches of the known universe–and then back again. It is an incredible way to orient students to our minuscule relative position in space. A similar, but shorter video can be found here, entitled “An Animated Flight Through the Universe.” It is not labeled, so students may not understand what they are seeing, but it is beautiful nonetheless.

Massive Black Hole Shreds a Passing Star (1:02) by NASA

You’ll probably want to watch this brief NASA animation more than once.

Why Do I Study Physics? (3:14) by Shixie

This is a phenomenal stop motion sketched animation by Shixie. It addresses one student’s complex relationship with the subject of physics in a personal, playful, and thought-provoking manner. 

Beautiful Chemical Reactions (6:30) by L2Molecule

Witness various examples of eight different chemical reactions, sped up to view every intricate detail. Published by L2Molecule.

Animation Explores the Beautiful Circles of Our World (2:06) by National Geographic

This video could make a thrilling provocation or conversation-starter for students studying shapes, nature, patterns, and more.

What are other high-quality science videos you’ve come across? Please share in the comments!

featured image: Bureau of Land Management

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3 Reasons We Hate Science Fair–And How to Fix It

The day my school decided to move science fair to sixth grade instead of fifth, we all cheered–students, teachers, and parents alike. Years later, I’m reflecting on the root of our mutual animosity toward the project. And it seems to come down to three problems–and solutions!

Lack of Teacher Modeling

We ask students to dig deep. To ask questions that don’t have an answer yet. In short, to go beyond comparing popcorn brands. But how often do we model how we develop our own original questions? Share our honest, raw wonderings? Demonstrate our process of Googling to refine an idea?

Creativity and innovation are skills, and science fair projects are an advanced exercise of these skills. If we expect our students to suddenly showcase skills we’ve never helped them cultivate (or worse, that we’ve never cultivated ourselves), we are setting them up for failure–or just another diaper absorbency project.

  • SOLUTION → Metacognition: MindShift recently wrote about 5 inquiry tools to help students “learn how to learn.” These metacognitive strategies encourage students to honestly reflect on their own learning processes and emotions when facing challenges (see also “Smart Strategies that Help Students Learn How to Learn”).
  • SOLUTION → Teach questioning: If you want students to ask “measureable questions,” teach them how to do so long before introducing science fair. Strategies like frequent use of Visible Thinking protocols trains students how to develop and refine their questions. (see also Tubric).
Lack of Existing Student-Driven Project-Based Learning

The science fair should not be an isolated experience of students taking ownership over and driving their own learning process. If it is, it’s unlikely that many will rise to the freedom in ways that will fuel their passion and motivation.

  • SOLUTION → Project-Based Learning: Make it your next weekend project to create one new PBL opportunity. Guides like this one found on Edutopia can help you get started.
  • SOLUTION → Student Voice & Choice: Mindfully consider your students’ choice and voice in their day-to-day learning. When we gradually let go of control and allow our students to steer the learning, they will grow in confidence and self-understanding.
Lack of Engaged and Authentic Audience

Even if students do manage to find a passion-driven project, how often does their work ever go beyond a cardboard trifold display in the gymnasium (unless they happen to move on to regionals)? Too often, we only allow our students small sips from locally limited audiences–when we could lead them to the very fountain of global conversation with our fingertips. It’s time to throw open the floodgates and watch what happens when our students swap ideas with peers, scientists, and experts across the world.

  • SOLUTION → Student Blogging: Encourage your students to blog not only the final presentation, but their entire process along the way. Then, teach them how to ask for feedback to fine-tune their ideas.
  • SOLUTION → The Wonderment: This is an especially wonderful platform for younger students to collaborate safely online.  They can upload photos, videos, and text, asking questions and getting inspiration from kids around the world (see other excellent blogging alternatives here).

Let’s break the mold of hating science fair this year. What are some of your strategies to do so?

Featured Image: Andria via Flickr

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Top Online Games for Upper Elementary Students

Whether you are looking for games to add to your class blog or to your class computer bookmarks menu, we have compiled ranked lists based on games most visited and praised by 5th graders over several years!  All the games are free and kid tested.  Be sure to check out other ways to improve your classroom blog here! (All links last checked for safety and functionality on July 29, 2016).

Continue reading “Top Online Games for Upper Elementary Students”

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10 Earth Day Activities

Earth Day in 2014 will be on April 22nd. Whether you’re looking for ideas for your class or to personally make the world a greener place, check out our 10 activities here…

#10: Share Acts of Green

When you do anything for Earth Day, share your “Act of Green” to the earthday.org website to help reach them reach their goal of 2 billion Acts of Green (currently just over 1 billion)!

#9: Watch some videos

We’ve listed some inspiring Earth Day videos below:

#8: Take a clean-up nature walk

As a class or as an individual, this is a great way to take care of our earth in a simple and immediate way!

#7: Explore the outdoors to appreciate nature
Danilo Urbina
Danilo Urbina

Have class outside on Earth Day!  Also, be sure to look up events organized in your area for outdoor Earth Day celebrations.

#6: Take your Global Footprint quiz

Earthday.org provides this interactive Global Footprint quiz to help you explore ideas to change or improve your footprint.  Nature Conservancy also has a similar Carbon Footprint Calculator.

#5: Learn about composting

This Earthday.org link about composting provides detailed instructions as well as a pledge!

#4: Contact your local representative to take action

Various green legislation is currently being evaluated, such as Environmental Education.  This is an especially great option if your class has been studying government this year!

#3: Learn about various donation programs

If your administration approves, perhaps your class may choose to have a fundraiser to contribute to!  Even if a fundraiser isn’t an option, it’s still great for students to discuss and perhaps bring home ideas for action!

  • Adopt an Acre with the Nature Conservancy’s program to conserve coral reef, African grasslands, and more.  Donations start at $50
  • The Canopy Project with Earth Day Network to plant 10 million trees. Donations start at $35.
  • Species Adoptions from WWF. Donations start at $50, and you will receive a plush animal, bag, and picture in return!
  • Plant a Billion Trees Campaign with Nature Conservancy.  Donations start at $25.
#2: Send a nature Ecard

This is a great way to share the beauties of nature and to encourage its protection.  Plus, it’s free!

#1: Utilize social media

Pick your favorite social media platforms to spread the word on Earth Day!  Below are a few resources to try out!

*View additional Green Actions with accompanying lesson plans on earthday.org’s website here.  Happy Earth Day!

Photo Credit:

John (little time)

Danilo Urbina

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Chemical vs. Physical Changes: Let’s Get it Straight!

Breathing, cooking, exercising, and more: we are surrounded by changes every day! But how do we keep straight which are physical and which are chemical?

Physical Changes

Physical changes involve chemicals getting rearranged in a new way, but without getting destroyed or irreversibly combined. The molecular structure of the original substance(s) is the the same after the change, which means it is still the same substance. A common example is of water freezing; the liquid water becomes a solid, but it is still water. Ripping paper is another example because while it may be in pieces, it’s still paper. Signs of a physical change include:

  • Expected color change
  • Change in size or shape
  • Change in state of matter
  • Reversible
  • No new substance formed!

Chemical Changes

Chemical changes, or reactions, involve chemicals getting rearranged in irreversible ways. We bring in the term “reaction” when dealing with chemical changes because the chemicals involved actually react with one another to form a new substance (that’s why we call the parts in a chemical reaction the reactants). The ways chemicals can react are many: two substances can combine to create a totally new one (Direct Combination), a substance can permanently break apart, separating into different substances (Decomposition), or maybe a substance combusts as it reacts to oxygen (Combustion) (see more types of reactions here). Whatever the reaction, it’s important to recognize that one or more new substances are formed! Burning wood is a common example of a chemical reaction because as the wood reacts with oxygen after it has been ignited, it creates smoke and ashes. Signs of a chemical reaction include:

  • Unexpected color change
  • Change in temperature as energy is released or absorbed
  • Gas created
  • Irreversible
  • New substance formed!

Confusing Cases

In many cases, it may seem a simple task to distinguish between the two, but it gets more complex when we’re dealing with changes that seem irreversible when they’re not. For example, we may look at a glass of Kool-Aid and think to ourselves, “I made Kool-Aid. It was water and a packet, but now it’s dissolved together to make new drink, so it’s a new substance.” However, if you think back to the list of signs of a physical change, you’ll realize that not only was there an expected color change (the water didn’t turn purple when you added red Kool-Aid!), but that it is reversible–the water could evaporate in the form of gas, leaving red Kool-Aid residue behind! The water is still water, and the Kool-Aid is still Kool-Aid, and since no new substances were formed, it is a physical change!

Another example of confusion is in cooking eggs–after all, isn’t it still an egg before and after tossing it in pan? However, on a molecular level, the egg has changed completely as the proteins have bonded in new ways, making it a new substance. Additionally, because of the change, it is not possible for the egg to ever become raw again, and since a new substance was formed, it is a chemical change!

For some practice using the different lists of signs for each type of change, and to view several other examples in action, check out this Prezi below!

Photo credit: Faris Algosaibi

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Teacher Resources: Ever Heard of Reddit?

Where can you find a community of all different types of teachers who can post all kinds of resources? Ever heard of Reddit? Science, Math, English, College, Adult Ed, Art, and an almost unlimited supply of teachers can be found in this Internet community, and we’ve got a few suggestions of our own…

Reddit, directly from Wikipedia’s definition, “is a social news and entertainment website where registered users submit content in the form of links or text posts.” What does this mean for teachers? It means you now have a one-stop hub for all teaching resources you could need, not to mention worldwide feedback! Another great use for the resources on Reddit is to involve your students. There are a number of educational pages that students could use to reach out to others. See our lists below!

Don’t have an account? One of the best features about Reddit is that it takes just seconds to register an account. In the age of sharing personal information, it’s relieving to see a website ask for only what you want your username to be and what you want your password to be. Registering with an email is optional.

Don’t want to register? Fine! You can browse the site all you want, and unless you want to comment, nothing will be restricted if you simply want to “lurk.”

Now that you’ve joined the community, it’s important to understand that Reddit is divided into subreddits, which are communities of people that fulfill a particular niche. So you’re a teacher, hmm? Allow us to suggest a few subreddits to get you started:

  • /r/education: “The goal of r/Education is to provide a community in which educational stakeholders can participate in meaningful, reflective, and thought-provoking discourse about educational policy, research, technology, and politics.”
  • /r/AskAcademia: “This subreddit is for discussing academic life, and for asking questions directed towards people involved in academia, (both science and humanities).”
  • /r/highereducation: “A place to discuss and share articles related to higher education.”
  • /r/matheducation: “Anything math related that is useful for education, teachers, or students, with emphasis on usefulness for teachers, such as good internet resources, or ideas for how to teach a concept.”
  • /r/ScienceTeachers: “A place for science educators to collaborate on and contribute tips, ideas, labs, and curricula. We seek to encourage the sharing of interesting studies, experiments, videos and articles that will interest students of all ages and promote science and critical thinking in their lives.”
  • /r/teachingresources: “A place to share all your most amazing and useful resources. If we use this well, it could become a very efficient and effective way to enrich many classrooms with everyone else’s resources.”

And more:

And tons more–literally anything you could think of!

Now, get out there and contribute to the education of the masses!

*Obligatory NSFW warning, warning*: Reddit can sometimes have less-than-savory content. Most of the time, this is marked by NSFW, which stands for “Not Safe For Work.” That means you shouldn’t open that link or comments while at work, or you could violate the rules your employer likely has in place regarding Internet usage. You might also see NSFL, which stands for “Not Safe For Life,” meaning gore. If you still want to experience Reddit without these tags, take a look at the Reddit Enhancement Suite. It’s a completely free, open source browser extension that allows you filter out NSFW tags.

 

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Featured Image: Kyle Garrity