In the video above, a third grader gets to use a rather striking example of 21st century technology to talk about some common topics in science, namely earthquakes and volcanoes. As was mentioned in this blog before, back at the 2009 National Science Teachers Association’s national conference, Arne Duncan mentioned in his keynote that, “You [...]
Here’s a taste of NSTA San Fran. More on this later, but many of the tech tools are open-ended allowing for student/teacher defined uses. Overall, the future looks like a fun place to teach!
“To know the road ahead, ask those coming back.” —Chinese Proverb A team of science educators has developed a new NSTA position statement acknowledging the value of 21st-century skills within the context of science education (available here). The statement advocates for the science education community to support 21st-century skills consistent with best practices across a science [...]
Video analysis is a powerful tool to help physics students understand motion and other phenomena. For example, in this video by Dale Basler (physics teacher and co-host of Lab Out Loud), students can analyze the speed and position time graph of the camera in a grocery store checkout line. Grocery Store Conveyor Belt Stops from [...]
I’ve never felt inferior because I use a calculator, nor when I supplement my travel memory with a digital camera. Or even when I ignore the myriad of squiggly red lines underlining the words as I type this. My GPS guides me. My calendar beeps when its time. And my music plays whether I’m listening [...]
Whenever we talk about preparing kids for the future, we usually include collaboration and teamwork as a valuable skill. Our students also need to realize that science is not conducted by individuals in isolation. Successful scientists and engineers must be able to work effectively with people from different perspectives and backgrounds. In fact, this diversity [...]
It’s amazing how we put such faith into a computer where we risk national-make that global scrutiny as it preforms tasks autonomously that carry immense scientific and philosophical weight. Let’s listen in for a moment… [Watson] I’ll take Valentine’s Day Computers for $1000. [Alex] The computer in question, sports a RAD6000 central processing 32-bit unit [...]
“She’s afraid that if she leaves, she’ll become the life of the party.” —Groucho Marx What does this phrase mean? Is it funny? ? Don’t you have to be at the party in order to be the life of it? Why would someone be afraid to be the life of a party? Is she shy? [...]
The other night, I could hear my daughter in her room talking; well more like explaining what sounded like schoolwork. Rather than opening the door, I assumed she was recording her voice on her iPod, something she had done for years. This was understandable because not 15 minutes earlier I had pulled the plug on [...]
There is an old physics joke about a professor who gave a test that included a question that required to the student to explain how to measure the height of a tall building using a barometer. In essence, the punch line is found in a humorous exchange where a divergent thinking student butts heads with [...]
