Click for an UPDATED version of this experiment and with a great new video. It’s always great when a student or a teacher sends along a report, picture or a video of something cool going on in the classroom. Or, as in this case, a cool experiment during vacation. This is a first attempt at creating a Ruben’s standing wave…
Tag: science
Science and technology heroes
It was Dean Kamen – the inventor of the Segway and a version of the artificial heart – who established F.I.R.S.T.* His vision was: “To transform our culture by creating a world where science and technology are celebrated and where young people dream of becoming science and technology heroes.” Last year we introduced lego robotics to 5th and 6th grade…
Butterfly Waystation
The sixth grade began planning this in science class in the fall when the monarchs stop by PDS on their migration south. They located at area on campus that was already wild, got permission and then planned how to add plant diversity to attract and support butterflies on their journey. Here they are planting milkweed and asters and other late…
Science Symposium 2009
The sixth annual Science Symposium meant 7th and 8th graders ready to share their work with the school community. As always – an impressive display of investigation, collaborative work and erudition. These students know their work and why it matters. And they are more than happy to share their research. In a new departure this year, the 5th and 6th…
Thicker than water
I was sorry to miss this event but Lynn sent me pictures.This was a lesson in viscosity. They started with water and added oil. They placed three separate dry ingredients into the water/oil, one at a time: sugar, salt and baking soda. They counted the number of bubbles that rose up, observed their size and frequency and made comparisons. They…
Brain Surgery
Can you tell the anterior cortex, amygdala, and parietal lobe from the optic chiasma and the corpus collosum? If not then you could benefit from Tanya’s Cognitive Science course. I visited this week. I was not up to speed on the science, but I did learn that the students in this elective are incredible well-informed. The task was the dissection…
Electricity Trade Show
The American Flashlight, Game Boards, Quiz Shows, a Climbing Tree, Cop Car, Electric Robot and more. All at the Electricity Trade Show in the 3rd and 4th grade yesterday. Here are a few pictures. More on Flickr
New semester in motion
It’s day one of the second semester in the high school. That means the start of new high school courses. Here we are at the first meeting of Physics of Motion. The first experimental challenge: Find the relationship between the distance a ball runs down an incline and the time it takes to roll. Students are looking for patterns by…
Saving the Children from Science
There’s another of those scary science stories in today’s NYTimes: Split Outcome in Texas Battle in Teaching Evolution. The real scary part is such ignorance is still alive and kicking, and not just in Texas. And when it comes to textbooks – as Texas goes, there goes the nation. Meanwhile next month we celebrate the bicentenary of Charles Darwin’s birth.…
In the microscope
PDS has new science laboratories. Time for a poem from the Czech poet-scientist Miroslav Holub. In the Microscope Here too are the dreaming landscapes, lunar, derelict. Here too are the masses, tillers of the soil. And cells, fighters who lay down their lives for a song. Here too are cemeteries, fame and snow. And I hear the murmuring, the revolt…
An Amazing New Periodic Table
Take a look at this fantastic tool. How many of these skills do you have at your mousetip? Since 1996 I’ve worked in schools where laptops are ubiquitous for older students. Back in that day we had lots of conversations about visual literacy. I think we may have had in mind an illustration here, a graph there and lots of…
Construction Begins: June Progress Report
Out with the old hoops, in with the new floor. The gym is looking good. Checking the plans in the parking lot, checking the rock shelf in front of Gilkeson Moving the rock in the playground and the summer camp has lunch on the porch of Kenyon House.
The pH rises … Science Symposium 08
The pH rises and the bubbles stream out; pop, From the misty stream. The water running and the fish swimming wildly from the broken dam A single river peacefully and calmly Over the rock’s rage Bubbling test tubes Images of science class A beautiful sight! Elements make up Things around the universe They are what makes us ! Water is…
A World Lit by Shooting Stars
The exhalations whizzing in the air Give so much light that I may read by them. Julius Caesar Act 2 scene 1 The annual Perseid meteor shower was not quite that spectacular but the shooting stars were out last night as our planet sailed through a stream of ancient cosmic dust emanating from the constellation of Perseus. Out in the…
Those Apocryphal Flying Cats of Borneo: The Real Story
The flying cats of Borneo – apocryphal? Hyperbole? Fantasy? Jungle legend? Imaginary animals? In response to a request from a professor at The University of Iowa I provided one piece of the story of Operation Cat Drop backed by the official record. When I first heard of this improbable story and the ridiculous claim of 14,00 cats parachuted by the…