Getting to Seattle early, I was able to walk around Lake Union, take a short boat cruise, and find a neat coffee house. As I was enjoying my coffee and the cool air from the open windows, I noticed a very sleek red sports car and then a sign that said Tesla. I had just read an article about the two electric sports cars trying to survive in the US and this was the showroom for one. I bustled over with my coffee and found that they were selling for $108,000. I asked if it was okay to take some photographs, and the receptionist said, “If you put down your coffee, you can get in, and I will take your picture.” Which was an offer that couldn’t be refused.

Sitting in this car, and thinking, “Wow, I am here to work on sustainability and here I am in this brilliant electric sports car.” Perhaps it was the forces of karma that seemed to bring these two events together, my mind actually started thinking of scenarios for me to purchase this car! If you know me, this is so far from who I am; I am a “buy and hold” car person (my small 1999 Acura, that I bought used, has 136,000 miles), who always pays cash for vehicles, and who treats cars as means to get from point A to B rather than as adornments. But the karma and sitting in this awesome vehicle contributed to a flight of fancy, that has now landed. Just as the fox called the grapes he couldn’t get sour, it was tempting to disparage as I walked away: “I could buy three foreclosed houses in Phoenix for this much money,” “It was kind of difficult to get into the car,” and “I want a car that I can drink coffee in.” I do, however, admit that I really hope this company succeeds, and electric cars become more than just curiosities. And to be honest, I don’t really want three foreclosed houses, I need to get more limber, and drink less coffee. I do also hope that you buy this car, keep it in great shape, and then sell it to me in five years for one-quarter the original cost.  Today is also the IPO of Tesla, I hope they are successful in raising capital for this venture.

As we move to sustainable ways of producing electricity, electric cars will be a much greener alternative. We need to capitalize on the interests of young people and help them understand how these cars work and why electric cars can contribute to cleaner environments and less use of fossil fuels. Adaptive Curriculum has an Activity Object on solar cars, which improves on the Tesla design by having solar panels. It is difficult to imagine solar panels on the Tesla, but I’m sure in the not-too-distant future we will be seeing paints that are embedded with hidden electronics that convert sunlight to electricity.

I confess, I went through a Gatorade, PowerAde, and Propel stage for our boys. My oldest son prefers Gatorade, my youngest Propel, and PowerAde was often the least expensive. When I would grocery shop I would always stop on this aisle to see if there were bargains to be had, and then I would stock up. The drinks, made by either Coca-Cola or Pepsi, contain electrolytes and sugar so they seemed to be meeting these basic needs. I like the clearness of the Propel, in that I prefer to not have artificial colors sweating out of the pores of my children (which I never understood why Gatorade thought this was an appealing commercial). Tedd Gorden, of MSU, describes the pros and cons of different formulas for sports drinks.

On hot days with long games or practices, we would send our sons with a large water container and a bottle of a sports drink. Their bodies seemed to tell them what was best, and they always drank far more water than the sports drinks. I have now moved to natural alternatives, so our oldest son is drinking Martinelli apple juice (which he says is the best tasting and comes in a fun round bottle) and our youngest Welch’s grape juice from 10 oz containers. The juices are about the same prices as the 32 oz bottles of sports drinks. So per volume, they cost three times as much, but per outing they are about the same.

If you could design your own sports drink what would it have in it? This intriguing idea is used by Adaptive Curriculum to engage students in the Activity Object “Osmosis.” From this engagement, students examine red blood cells in isotonic, hypertonic, and hypotonic solutions. Then students place raw eggs with the shell removed into different unknown solutions and then label what the solution must be based upon the weight gain or loss in the eggs. The Activity Object has a great engagement with multiple strong interactions. And when it comes to sports drinks, hypotonic solutions are best, whether it is made by Coca-Cola, Pepsi, or grown on a tree.

Which helps to explain many types of adaptations in biology and why individual cells can’t be the size of houses; they would simply not have enough surface area to absorb the materials they need, like oxygen, or to expel waste. From villi in the intestines to convolutions in the brain, our bodies have many adaptations to increase surface area.

Adaptive Curriculum has a guided inquiry Activity Object called “Surface Area to Volume Ratio in Organisms.” A clever engagement draws the students into the interactive experience. You have a plate of cheese with different size cubes that you are going to put into the microwave. But first, learners predict whether the large cubes or the small cubes will melt first.

Obviously, the small cheese cubes will melt before the larger ones. If you thought this, you have experienced a discrepant event. In actuality, the large cubes melt first. Since the microwave heats from the inside, the smaller cubes lose their heat faster than the large ones. The larger cubes, thus retain more heat and melt faster.  Discrepant events are powerful, because learners want to know why they were wrong.

From this, learners virtually change the size of cubes and see the changes in surface area, volume, and surface area to volume ratio. Then body sizes and shapes of animals are explored, as students learn about the implications of size and shape for heat loss.

My Peace Corps teaching and Adaptive Curriculum are different modes of guided inquiry and discovery learning, but both can help produce deep and life long learning.

Then the physics began. There was a handmade object that when you pushed a button it dropped its bottom. It had reflective tape so the mini-cameras around the room could pick up its motion and transmit it to a computer, which interpreted the data and then created dots on the mat to show the motion of the large object or the separated objects.

A student spun around in a circle and then pushed the button. The bottom sphere dropped and fell away from the object. From the dot pattern it was quite clear, and one student even said it spontaneously: “It moved away at the tangent.” No longer would these students have the misconception that a moving object would still hold the circular force because of its prior motion. Indeed, from Newton’s first law, it was apparent the straight-line motion of the object.

Students took turns trying it. Then to keep them engaged in their free exploration, there were a number of challenges issued, starting with “Let’s aim at Justin.” Then they aimed at a fixed target. Then at a target moving the same direction they were spinning, with a student walking and holding the target, and then at a target moving in the opposite direction.

After the class was over, I tried it as well, this time sans shoes. I have experienced the future, and it is on the floor. There is more power in an experience that is whole body, rather than just fingers on a keyboard or a mouse. Watching the physics class, there is also the learner interactions that make this a potentially powerful learning environment. To be sure, we will see applications like this in museums before it makes it into regular classrooms. Because it can be used with many content areas, some schools might have a SMALLab (Situated Multimedia Arts Learning Lab) for all their teachers to share. And no doubt the 3-D tracking system can be brought to use with interactive white boards, making their use more economical.

My thanks goes to Arizona State University’s David Birchfield, Kelly Phillips, Tatyana Koziupa, Mina Johnson, and Leanna Archambault for letting me experience the future. This will be a tool that will help students overcome misconceptions and experience science in a different way.

One of the many reasons I value living in other cultures, is that when I am removed from my culture, I have greater insight into my culture’s affect on who I am.

There is a fascinating radio show produced by NPR’s “This American Life” that explores the impact of testosterone on us. The first segment is a man who lost the ability to produce testosterone. In those four months he describes his loss of desire, not just the desire that we would suppose, but the desire for anything. To be sure , there was peace in not continually wanting, there was however also a sense of dismay in how much who he was dependant on testosterone.

Image from Adaptive Curriculum's "Human Body Systems"

The second segment was from a man who was born as a woman. Except for the growth of side burns and losing the ability to have a cleansing cry, this man didn’t describe how testosterone injections changed him physically. Perhaps it was assumed that almost everybody knows it can lead to secondary sexual characteristics, including bigger bones, stronger muscles, and a deeper voice. The change he described was on viewing women in a different way, and regrettably not being able to be as close to women any more.

Then in what seems like it could be fodder for afternoon TV, the folks at NPR sent in saliva samples to see who had the most testosterone. There was one group of five males and one group of four females. They all predicted relative levels first. Everybody thought that the woman in the office who made decisive decisions and spoke her mind would have the most testosterone. She even thought so, but hoped she was wrong. They were all right. There were differences in opinion for the males, as they displayed various tendencies, interests, and characteristics. The male who had the least was somewhat dismayed by the results. He said something like this, “I could have accepted this if I worked at ESPN’s Sports Center. But I work at NPR.” Then the “winner,” a balding, muscular, gay man (with almost twice as much testosterone as everybody else) wondered aloud, what is Sports Center? Which the least testosterone man took as another wound—he has more testosterone than me but doesn’t know what Sports Center is! It was a very funny radio moment.

The show ends with a mother reporting on and interviewing her very quiet 15 year-old son. In the process she presents how different her son and daughter are.

In high school biology we talk about hormones in general, and delve lightly into sex hormones. If you want a more interesting assignment (than answer Chapter 4 questions) for mature students, assign them this one-hour broadcast to listen to and ask them to write a one-page reflection. Lots of themes will emerge, and as you read your students’ work, you will have insights into who they are.

The show can be accessed or downloaded for free at: http://www.thisamericanlife.org/Radio_Episode.aspx?sched=1230. It can also be purchased at iTunes for 99 cents.

It is natural to wonder why or how. When students are ready, teachers may want to discuss  earthquakes and their causes.

The folks at IRIS have a website with a PowerPoint presentation and Quicktime movie that explain a lot of details associated with this particular earthquake and earthquakes in general. The PowerPoint has excellent pictures of the destruction to buildings, without presenting images of human suffering that would be difficult for some students. The image to the right is taken from the PowerPoint.

IRIS (AKA the Incorporated Research Institutes for Seismology) has lots of resources for learning about earthquakes including SeisMac 2.0 which allows Macintosh computers to become seismographs.

In the quest for Science Literacy, we strive to give students an understanding of natural events before they happen. Adaptive Curriculum has two strong Activity Objects, one is on determining the magnitude of an earthquake and the other is determining the location of the earthquake. The image below is from “Earthquakes: Measuring Magnitude.“

When I was doing my sabbatical at the University of San Carlos (Cebu, Philippines), Ed Van den

Berg (one of the really great guys in science education), would have the undergraduate secondary education science students put on physics and chemistry demonstrations for the local school children. It was a delightful way to give them experience teaching and expose children to the interesting world of science. In the picture, two of my students demonstrate their fire tornado. (See http://www.west.asu.edu/rillero/philippines.htm for more of my photographs from the Philippines.)

In this YouTube video below, a similar program is described called “The Little Shop of Physics.”

Tonight, as I understand it, “After Armadeddon” will air at 8 PM on the History Channel. It does present interesting opportunities for science teachers to talk about student ideas and feelings related to future and past disasterous conditions on Earth. It is part of a week of disasters at the History Channel. Here is a description of the show:

Tuesday, January 05, 2010
After Armageddon: – 08:00-10:00 PM

What have past acts of destruction taught us about what will happen to mankind after the apocalypse? Is it inevitable that disaster will someday strike America on an unprecedented level? How has history prepared us? History’s most dramatic events–Hiroshima, 9/11, Hurricane Katrina and others–are examined and analyzed with hard data gathered from their massive aftereffects. The disappearance of water and food supplies, the effects of deteriorated sanitation and health care on the remaining population, and the increased use of violence as a means of survival–all illustrate how societies have responded and survived.

I have an especially keen interest in this show as my son, Hy Rillero, spent just over two-weeks filming his segment, with many long days of work. I am hoping that much of his vignette survives the editing process for this two-hour special. No matter what happens it was a great experience for Hy to work with Director Stephen Kemp (Raw-TV). In Hy’s section, a respiratory virus has wiped out 80% of the US population and he chronicles his family’s quest to survive.  The photo is of Hy and his film mom and dad.

The electronic Ohaus scales that I ordered a few years ago are slowly dying. Only half the digits are readable on the numeric displays or in some cases there are no readable numbers. At NSTA in Phoenix, I stopped by the Ohaus booth and the representative was not surprised when I told her this. Unfortunately, she informed me, the scales have only a one-year warranty. From the initial lot we bought, half are unusable.

Using the scales in our science methods classes at Arizona State University, shouldn’t be taxing compared to ordinary high school, middle school, or elementary school use. So it surprised me that the LD50 (a biology term for half a population dying) was achieved so quickly. But maybe my expectations are out of line, our Honda Odyssey, my wife informed me today, has 170,000 miles on it. But a one-year warrant, really? That makes me wonder how confident the manufacturer is in their product.

I like how fast the electronic balances gave readings. No longer were drafts, fast walkers, or table shakers an issue in our classroom, as compared to the old reliable triple beam balance scales. I predicted the end to triple beam balances at the high school and an even quicker death to the elementary level pan balances. But, perhaps I was too hasty.

I am not sure if Ohaus scales are worse then others. The sales rep informed me that in the newer models, the problem has been addressed with the displays. That won’t benefit me; I will put my next order in with a different company. But she also told me of another issue that seems likely to affect most scales that are not top end. Adding too much weight can permanently damage the weighing device. Yikes! It seems like a common occurrence, especially when doing full inquiry experiences, that students would add too much weight. Indeed, it seems like there should be warning signs on the scales about maximum loads.And this brings up a final issue. Why is it that we can’t find good reviews of science apparatus? I have bought things that are great and things that are lousy; wouldn’t it be nice to have a place like CNET that helps us tell what is good and what is not. But if you have scale advice, please do leave a comment.

A couple of days ago, the Wall Street Journal did an article entitled “Why We’re Failing Math and Science: A panel of experts talks about what’s wrong with our education system—and how to fix it“

One of the experts they interviewed was Joel Klein, chancellor of the New York City Department of Education. He said the following: “we’ve got to use technology differently. In any field but ours, if you fell asleep 50 years ago and woke up today, you wouldn’t recognize what’s going on. In education, if you fell asleep 50 years ago, you still have the same discussions.”

While classrooms have changed, the major change seems to be whiteboards for chalkboards and not big technology gains. The power of technology has not been used to greatly improve math and science education. Nor has technology been fully utilized to make it easier for teachers to help students learn and assess learning. Joel Klien suggests New York City schools are starting this process. As a former New York City teacher (Lehman High School in THE Bronx) I hope he is right, and that other school districts fully embrace technologies, like Adaptive Curriculum, that can help all students learn science and math.