This month I was invited to work with Lee Hartwell (Nobel Prize winner for his work on cells that had important implications for cancer research) and his team at the Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. While not as important as cancer research to save individual lives, our work can contribute to the goal of helping to sustain an individual planet. We are developing a sustainability course for Arizona State University that will be taken by all elementary education students.
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.
One of the major themes that runs through many facets of science is the notion of surface area to volume ratio. I remember being a Peace Corps Volunteer in Kenya and using an experimental, guided-inquiry curriculum, inspired by the British Nuffield science program. Students made plasticine cubes of various sizes. I’m not sure why British people have an aversion to clay, but plasticine seems to be their school sculpting material. Then students measured the surface area of the cubes and calculated the volume. Then they calculated the surface area to volume ratio and discover that the larger the object, the smaller the surface area to volume ratio.
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.
In a semi-darkened classroom at Coronado High School, the recessed computer projector shined down upon a slightly cushioned floor. David Birchfield, politely told me, “We only walk on that after we take our shoes off.” So I quickly jumped off. Ms. Mills and her physics class came in, and the students sat in chairs around the perimeter of the square mat, almost as though they were there for a martial arts exhibition.
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.
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.”
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.
We all want to avoid having children get hurt doing school science. We also don’t want teachers to avoid doing hands-on science because of fears related to safety issues in the science classroom. For the elementary school classroom there are a couple of valuable resources that can help teachers and administrators develop safer practices for science instruction.
Many of these practices have been written with common sense in mind. And if you are safety minded, you are on the lookout for all the potential things that can go wrong and ways to prevent these accidents. Unfortunately, K-5 classrooms would not have some of this safety equipment, such as eyewash fountains, fume hoods, and safety showers, and probably most middle school science classrooms would come up short in these areas.
While going all virtual to avoid safety problems may be tempting, a more pragmatic solution is to avoid dangerous hands-on materials and be very careful to try science activities before hand, and monitor student behavior.
Technology For K-6 Science Safety
While technology is often thought of as electronic stuff, a better and wider view is that it is any human made products that make our lives better or safer. With this in mind, I present my top ten safety technologies.
1. Teacher Developed Safety Rules Contract: A teacher and students who are safety minded is probably the best defense against accidents. There should be no toleration of inappropriate behavior when doing hands-on science.
2. Goggles: Chemical splash safety goggles should be worn whenever what you are working with has the potential to hurt or damage eyes. Please don’t adopt the view, such as, “I use ammonia at home without goggles, so it is okay to use it in school without goggles.” An adult can decide not to use goggles at home and it is at their peril. If a teacher decides not to have students wear goggles with materials that could harm eyes, and eyes are damaged, the teacher will probably be held culpable, as will the administrators, the school, and the district.
3. Disposable Nitrile Gloves: From dissections to handling chemicals, these can prevent problems. And if a student is bleeding for any reason, an adult should put on gloves to help with the situation.
4. Locked Chemical Cabinet
5. Fire blanket and extinguisher
6. First aid kit
7. Proper waste containers
8. Rubber covered muslin aprons
9. Safety posters and signs
10. Non-mercury thermometers
Teachers should be urged to provide hands-on experiences for their students. But teachers are also responsible for the safety of their students.
It is always exciting to experience the sites and sounds of an NSTA conference. From my first science teacher conference, it was an awakening for me to find out that there are others like me who share my passion for science and education but who did not have an abundance of money to buy materials and who feel time compressed—despite perceptions that teaches have a lot of free time.
I brought my family along for this trip because it corresponded with my sons’ spring break from school. Okay, I admit, I probably wouldn’t have taken them to New Orleans if not for these reasons. I do think, however, exposure to other cultures is a good thing, and New Orleans’ has more than its share of culture. We were even able to go to a locals only crawfish boil (see photo). That my sons might be too young to appreciate New Orleans culture could be suggested by both of them liking the cool stuff in the conference exhibitor’s hall better than any other part of their visit. They were particularly taken by the science curiosities of “Steve Splangler Science” store, where the energetic folks did some intriguing square bubble demonstrations for them and then they were able to activities including tossing bubbles with gloves and making gummy worms. They also liked Flinn Scientific where they watched an engaging rep make foam, just like the stuff I use to close holes in and around my house. Now, they are flying home with a bag full of free materials from Insect Lore including two butterfly larvae that should form a chrysalis in two weeks.
It seems that the giving of t-shirts has achieved greater popularity. I don’t recall, in my first ten years of conference going, ever getting a t-shirt. Then the tech folks started giving away t-shirts and now so are the science folks. My wife doesn’t understand my interest in getting t-shirts, and she has already placed two of them (from Learning.com) in the piles of stuff to give to our son’s teachers. But there is one shirt I intend to keep; it is by far the nicest t-shirt I received, and it was a gray-background and white lettering SPARK t-shirt. I received it from Pasco when I attended a presentation on their SPARK system. Pasco seems to have a great understanding of the needs of a science teacher! So often science technology companies seem like they are devoted to the AP physics or chemistry teacher, who doesn’t have a family, social life, and is not pursing coursework. These rare folks might be able to take the time to figure out how to use complicated tech stuff to do one lab, but most regular teachers find it daunting. SPARK appears to be a solution that is easy to implement, cost effective, and has lots of uses. It acts like a mini-computer with a monitor, and it has its primary function—using probeware. So the yearbook teacher won’t want to borrow your class set!
I have the good fortune to be in beautiful Austin, Texas today for the Texas Computer Education Association’s (TCEA) annual convention. Austin is a delightful city, and this conference is huge. In a couple of hours I am going to be doing my presentation “Critical Thinking and TEKS Science Content Via Online Activities.”
I am placing the PowerPoint file here for participants and anyone else interested in this topic. Below are some titles and resources from the presentation.
demonstrate basic relationships between force and motion using simple machines including pulleys and levers (TEKS: 7.6)
http://2dboy.com/games.php
Creature Creator
prelude to Spore
Free trial edition
How can students making creatures
Develop science content?
Develop critical thinking?
Or both?
Adaptive Curriculum Activity Objects
Dancing with the Bees
TEKS 6.12: responses to external stimuli
Determining Planet Layers from Seismic Waves
TEKS 6.6 identify forces that shape features of the Earth; 7.2: organize, analyze, make inferences, and predict trends from direct and indirect evidence
Groundwater
TEKS 6.1: make wise choices in the use and conservation of resources; 6.14 groundwater
Much as we may try to deny it, we teachers have known this truth for years:we’re boring.Oh, we fight back gamely, but in a world of television and movies, music and video games, capturing students’ attention is a real challenge.A decade or two ago, the problem was bad enough, but now!Now there are iPods!Now students have music, games, and videos on their cell phones!What chance do we, poor teachers have?
Two years ago, I decided to try an experiment with my Physics class.I decided to fight fire with fire.If the kids want movies, let’s watch movies.And I don’t mean those “educational videos”; I mean real, blockbuster Hollywood movies.No one ever accused Vin Diesel of being boring.No one ever accused Arnold Schwarzenegger of being an old stick in the mud.No one ever accused Keanu Reeves of droning on and on in a monotone…um, yeah…
Speaking of Keanu Reeves, the classic example of bad movie physics is the delightfully improbable Speed, with its climactic scene of a city bus jumping across a 50-foot section of missing freeway.The kids know that such a thing could never happen, but when they work through the calculations to show that it couldn’t, they really gain a better understanding of why it doesn’t work.For an extension activity, students can calculate how large a take-off angle the bus would need in order to make it across.It’s not as large as one might think (or it wouldn’t be if one could ignore air resistance the way we so often do in introductory physics courses).
I recently completed Superhero Week, in which I had my class analyze scenes from Superman, SupermanReturns, Batman, BatmanBegins, and Spider-Man, looking for examples of directors playing fast and loose with the laws of physics.Just to cite a few examples from the first of the Christopher Reeve Superman movies, Superman meets Lois on her rooftop and takes her out flying.Why doesn’t she freeze?How can she breathe at that altitude?How come she can fly as long as she’s in contact with Superman, even when it’s just their fingertips touching?When their hands come apart, why does she plummet straight down, rather than following the normal parabolic path of a projectile?When Superman catches her, after many seconds of free-fall, how does she survive the impulse?Shouldn’t she at least have a few broken ribs?Bruises?
In the interests of honesty and full disclosure, I should admit that I did not arrive at the idea on my own.A long-time fan of science fiction and fantasy novels, I first thought of using that avenue to generate interest, but as I searched for resources online (why reinvent the wheel, after all?) I stumbled across a fabulous website:Intuitor’s Insultingly Stupid Movie Physics, now also available in book form.
As I dug further, I turned up even more resources:Bad Movie Physics: A Report Card, and 9 Laws of Physics That Don’t Apply in Hollywood. And then there’s my personal favorite (yes, I know; as good as Intuitor is, I think this one might be even better), a book called Don’t Try This at Home! The Physics of Hollywood Movies, by Adam Weiner.My first year of doing this, I pretty much stuck with the suggestions from Intuitor and Adam Weiner.Then, as I gained more confidence, I began searching out my own for movies to use.Once you start looking, they aren’t hard to find.
Using gooey balls, in the “World of Goo,” to make towers and bridges is an engaging way to build conceptual ideas in physics, engineering, and chemistry. The game made by a team of two guys (Kyle Gabler and Ron Carmel) at “2D Boy” won the Innovation Award and Technical Excellence Award at the Independent Games Festival. Goo is available for PCs, Macs, and the Wii. IGN named Goo the best Wii game of the year.In my house, the free trial download version of Goo won the “Win Over the Skeptical 11 Year-Old Award” for totally engaging my son—who proclaimed, “This is addicting!” My eight-year old son called it “very fun.”
That shows the power of Goo. A game that requires no instructions, but you proceed from level-to-level building things to transport the living goo balls. There is something satisfying about building the goo structures, and something powerful about completing the puzzle at each level. Okay, the goo ball creatures and game remind me a bit of the Zoombinis, and the puzzle contexts are not the greatest, but building the structures to solve the puzzle is intriguing and satisfying. And who wants to waste time learning elaborate storylines when there are goo structures to build?
In my trial of the free on-line sample, I built towers and then bridges. Then my 11-year old son took over, starting anew, and quickly blazed past me to get to build balloon structures to help fight gravity. Neither of us met the minimal goo ball rescue at the “Impale Sticky” level, but fortunately we were able to skip this level when we were left a few balls short.
Building a goo structure is difficult to describe but easy to do. You pull one of the goo balls and separate it from the structure. Two or three white “lines of force” (my term not theirs) appear and when you stop pulling it, the white lines become goo links joining the ball to the previous structure. Of course there is a lot of jiggling and the pull of gravity is evident. If you pull a ball too far away from the others, the lines of force disappear and you realize you need to put it closer.
Science Education and Goo
Linking goo balls forms triangular tresses, which are important units of engineering design. Through trial-and-error learning, we experience that triangle goo formations are easy to build and stable. It is a nice contrast, because it seems in the world of play (from Lincoln Logs™ to Legos™), rectangular formations dominate. The tresses are then used to build towers, bridges, and dangling structures. There is a nice science (and international touch) in the use of metric measurements such a “you have 4.4 meters to go.”
The physics of Goo feels pretty real, and this can be a bridge to many physics concepts. As you build structures, the notions of a good foundation and center of gravity come into play. Build it one way too far, and it falls down; keep the center of gravity above the base, and the tower rises. There is also a sense of harmonics/resonance/vibration in that if your structure starts to bend and bob, you have to be careful that your additions don’t cause more of this in an undesired direction.
At some higher levels of Goo, buoyancy comes into play, along with levers and moments, as balloons lift up lever arms. When this is applied to building a bridge, the balloon placement is critical because too much lift or too little gets the balloons popped. Placing the balloon closer or further from the pivot point can decrease or increase the lift.
For chemistry, the most obvious notion is the idea of adhesion and cohesion. Goo balls being attracted to other goo balls is cohesion. When they stick to something else, like the level where you have to climb up out of a canyon and make them stick to the walls, you have adhesion.
How do you Goo?
If you are teaching an engineering class, I think you have good justification to buy a class set of the “World of Goo.” I also think this would make a great addition to the computers of an elementary school computer lab. I can imagine Mr. Cosgrove (my fifth grade teacher) saying: “After you finish your graphs, if you have time you can Goo.” But for stepping softly into the “World of Goo,” give your students an extra-credit assignment to download the free version (link) at home and complete a certain number of levels. They can use screenshots to prove (and display) their work.
Edu-Goo
Winning awards is great and selling lots of this game must be pretty exciting to the creators. But I think the next endeavor should be an Edu-Goo product line. The possibilities are endless so I will just name three: (a) Online competitions between classes, schools, or the world to see who can build the Goo bridge to support the most weight, (b) three-dimensional Goo structures so students can explore using triangular versus rectangular tresses, (c) DNA Goo, where students can construct DNA double helix molecules. Less exciting but useful are worksheets that can guide exploration and discovery. Edu-Goo could have a teacher contribution page so teachers can contribute ideas about educational uses of Goo.
Much as we may try to deny it, we teachers have known this truth for years:
As I dug further, I turned up even more resources:
Using gooey balls, in the “World of Goo,” to make towers and bridges is an engaging way to build conceptual ideas in physics, engineering, and chemistry. The game made by a team of two guys (
How do you Goo?
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