The Impact Earth website allows you to calculate the impact of various asteroids if they were to hit the Earth. In this case if the YU₅₅ did hit Earth we could expect the equivalent of 8.49 x 10¹⁸ Joules = 2.03 x 10³ Megatons TNT or a 6.8 size earthquake. If it hit the deep ocean, 45-meter Tsunami waves between 2.3 meters (7.6 feet) and 45.7 meters (150 feet) would be expected.  But you will be happy to know that the average interval between impacts of this size somewhere on Earth during the last 4 billion years is 1.1 x 10⁵years (and if you need a brush up on your scientific notation, just move the decimal point five space to the right so it is 110,000 years). And just to be precise about the vocabulary, when it is traveling in our solar system it is an asteroid, but when it crashes through our atmosphere and breaks up into pieces that hit the Earth, they become meteorites.

Impact Earth data for 400 m Asteroid

It is interesting to use Impact Earth to see the effects of various size asteroids on the Earth. Indeed, student exploration will allow them to realize some of the parameters that will affect the collision including speed, density of asteroid, and angle of impact. The Impact Earth calculator is a good start but it leaves me a bit flat. No matter what size Asteroid, the impact animation is always the same. The depicted size of the asteroid should resemble the number that was entered. But the data are useful, and students could ask and answer many questions about asteroid impact, producing deeper asteroid understanding and inquiry skills.

Famous Asteroids from Adaptive Curriculum Animation

Instead of just sliding objects on an air table, the Activity Object shows clearly what each block represents in our basketball situation, as shown in the scene below. This helps students establish the real-world connection.

Then the rich scaffolding begins. First students join different orange blocks, the spring, and the red block, and set them in motion by releasing the compressed spring. Students have to examine the data for which physical property (mass or volume) is important in determining the block’s speed. The analysis of data indicates that the mass is important.
After the exploration, an explanation describes momentum, and explains the equation and units for momentum. In the elaboration phase, students now tackle the driving question of the basketball players. The students now join the orange and red blocks with a spring but also place the blue block on the table. When the blocks are launched, the orange block moves to the left, the red block to the right where it collides and joins with the blue block. Just as in the starting investigation, students see the actual motion of the blocks, so the data they explore is more meaningful. Then the momentum of each block (orange, red, and red joined with blue) is calculated, and all of these momenta are the same. This helps students to progress in their understanding of conservation of momentum.

This understanding is further developed with an animation describing conservation of momentum. Then students are introduced to other applications of Newton’s Third Law and momentum, including rocket launches, automobile-truck collisions, and Newton’s cradle. After the Activity Object, a ten-question multiple-choice evaluation helps teachers know which concepts students have mastered and where they may need additional work. There is a well-designed Enrichment Sheet for homework where students read a few paragraphs and then answer questions about momentum and solve problems.
As wise of a man as Vic Mayer was, I’m still not sure that all hands-on activities are simulations but I do know that some simulations are better, more economical, and easier than other simulations. “Conservation of Momentum in One Direction” shows the power of a virtual simulation in scaffolding and developing deep understanding of concepts, using the 5E learning model, and helping students realize how classroom science concepts apply to their lives.

Today is Labor Day (thus the casualness of it all) and my son and his friend were shooting some video segments of, well, shooting as well as backwards slow motion (see http://www.youtube.com/user/YouKnowMeHy). I asked them to film a demonstration I did this week at an inservice professional development workshop I did for middle grade teachers.

My son filmed with his little Sony Cyber-shot camera (a still picture camera that also does video) and then edited it with Apple’s iMovie.

For another discrepant event please visit my blog posting on surface area to volume ratio.

Teacher: “Class, today we’re going to learn another important feature of the Moon called an eclipse.”

Female Student: “I love Eclipse! Edward is so hot!”

Male Student: “Oh sir, I hate that show. I wish I had a stake for that…”

Teacher: “No, no, wait! Not the movie ‘Eclipse.’ I’m talking about the scientific phenomenon in which either the Sun or the Moon seem to temporarily disappear.”

(Cue disappointed groan from entire female class population…)

Going into this lesson, I knew I couldn’t compete with a vampire that shimmers and a werewolf with abs that make washboards jealous, so getting my students to focus on the interactions of the Sun, Earth and Moon during solar and lunar eclipses was going to be a challenge. It’s not that eclipses are boring – quite the opposite – but they are definitely a concept that seems very abstract unless they are seen in person. Since I don’t have time to wait for June and July to view a lunar and solar eclipse respectively, I knew I had to find some way to model this for my students. Of course, the day I wanted to do this demo I couldn’t find my globe and my flashlight was dead. No worries, a teacher anticipates these little problems. I turned to my reliable friend Adaptive Curriculum and was thrilled to find a module on lunar and solar eclipses.

While I have a computer lab in my classroom, I opted to do this activity as a class, hoping to generate some discussion and clear up any misconceptions before they became firmly rooted.

My class is very familiar with Adaptive Curriculum. We do a module about once a week. When I told them we were going to use Adaptive Curriculum, they gave the obligatory “I’m a middle-school student and I’m going to complain about this even though I really don’t mind doing it” groan – you know the one I’m talking about – but any apprehension quickly melted away when they saw what the eclipse module had to offer. My students were instantly transfixed by the animated explanation of various cultures’ beliefs in the meaning of eclipses and were even more interested in the lab-like setting presented in the module.

Learners manipulate models of the Earth-Moon-Sun system to observe eclipses.

Using the SmartBoard, we first modeled the solar eclipse. By manipulating the variable of the distance of the moon between the Earth and Sun, my students clearly saw the result on Earth. By changing camera views, they saw how the eclipse appeared on Earth. The ensuing questions provided by the module were perfectly aligned with what I would have asked myself. We repeated the process for the lunar eclipse with similar success.

Not entirely sure how well my students grasped the concept, I headed into the quiz. After the quick, five-question quiz, I was amazed at how well my students had mastered solar and lunar eclipses. I remember how monumental a challenge teaching this concept had been last year and I never felt my students understood eclipses at a level I expected of them. No problem this year. While I attribute much of that to an especially bright group of students, I know the way Adaptive Curriculum presented eclipses was in a way that was easy to understand and remember. As I asked follow-up questions, my students answered them by referring to the demo in the module.

As a teacher, Adaptive Curriculum is an invaluable asset. Not only does it keep my students engaged and on task, it also hits the objectives I want covered. I especially appreciate how Adaptive Curriculum makes a focus to incorporate process skills that students constantly need to practice.

Another benefit of Adaptive Curriculum is in its modeling of labs. Labs can be expensive, time-consuming to prepare and clean up, and aggravating when students don’t follow procedures. While there is nothing that can replace the experience of an actual lab, Adaptive Curriculum provides many safe and secure lab experiences in which students can manipulate variables and quickly and accurately measure results. Now what’s more scientific than that? Even a vampire would agree.

About the Author:

Mr. Hawkins and his students dissecting a frog.

Seth Hawkins is a 7th and 8th grade science teacher at Besteiro Middle School of Brownsville Independent School District in deep subtropical South Texas. A member of Teach for America, Mr. Hawkins came to Texas to help students realize and achieve their full potential. A self-proclaimed tech guru, Mr. Hawkins enjoys everything technology and also teaches Technology Applications and Web Design courses. When he manages to squeeze away from the classroom, Mr. Hawkins enjoys spending time with his beautiful wife and brilliant daughter. Questions or comments can be sent to him at srhawkins@bisd.us

So I got out my probeware and Spark (from Pasco) and put it to the test. First, I determined that the coffee in our coffee pot is 80° C (degrees Celsius or 176° F ).  To test the mug, I filled it almost full (350 mL) with water at about 80° C (beverage heating for 12 ounces in our microwave) without plugging into my USB. Then I dumped this out and started again and I tested it with 80° C water with it plugged in.

From the first graph, after about 80 minutes it had a temperature of 46° C. From the second graph it kept a constant temperature of 60° C after

Graph 1: Cooling Curve with No Electrical Heating

falling for the first 28 minutes. So clearly heat is being added with an equilibrium (heat lost=heat gained) established at 60° C with a room temperature of approximately 20° C. But is it worth the bother to plug it into my computer and have a tethered cup? Without heating the cup, the

Graph 2: Cooling Curve with USB Electric Heating

water stayed above 60° C for approximately 30 minutes. It seems like both cups took about the same amount of time to cool to 60° C so there is no advantage for my first cup of jo in the morning, as that usually doesn’t last 30 minutes. Later in the morning, when I tend to let the coffee sit longer, it might pay to have it plugged in. But coffee at 60° C doesn’t give me that coveted deep-warming feeling. So good thing I bought this at Big 5 Sports, as they are quite good at accepting returns.

When it comes down to it, I would like to find a coffee heater that has a

Image from "Melting and Boiling Points: Heating Curve" from Adaptive Curriculum

heating curve, rather than a cooling curve.  Perhaps I need a hot plate, like the one shown in the image from Adaptive Curriculum to the right. Bring on the heat!

Lib Guides for the course have been developed and vetted by Dr. Hartwell, as sources for helping teachers teach sustainability better.

Ice Candle and Specific Heat, December 30, 2010

Science Prezi-tations: A Break from PowerPoints, December 22, 2010

Sounds for Science Educators, November 27, 2010

Great Science Teaching: An Iterative Process, October 25, 2010

Report To The President Prepare And Inspire: K-12 Education In Science, Technology, Engineering, And Math (Stem) For America’s Future, October 21, 2010

Engaging Starts and Video of Class, October 1, 2010

Titles for 2010 www.ed-tech-4-science.com placed into Wordle

The Context of Learning and Learning with Style, September 15, 2010

Animals in the Science Classroom, August 29, 2010

What is Science? July 31, 2010

Readers and Science Education, July 12, 2010

Electric Cars, Tesla, and Sustainability, June 28, 2010

Sports Drinks, Young Athletes, and Summer Heat, May 29, 2010

Guided Inquiry and Surface Area to Volume Ratio, May 26, 2010

Happy Earth Day, April 22, 2010

Scale of the Universe, April 10, 2010

NSTA Presentation, March 19, 2010

SMALLab Physics, March 3, 2010

My Mendel Moment and a Review of Sprout & Grow Window, February 8, 2010

Testosterone and Who We Are, January 20, 2010

Science and the Haitian Earthquake, January 18, 2010

Science Shows by Undergraduate Students, January 13, 2010

“After Armageddon” on the History Channel, January 5, 2010

One thing that science teachers appreciate more than your everyday person is the extremely high specific heat capacity of water. The high specific heat capacity of water has great demonstrations (for example “Flaming Hands”) and all sorts of implications such as more moderate climates when living near a large body of water and why water is so good at putting out fires. Adaptive Curriculum just released a new Activity Object entitled “Specific Heat.” Through a series of virtual experiments, students are led to an understanding of the amount of heat transferred or absorbed (Q) = mass (m) x change in temperature (∆T) x specific heat (c).

This Activity Object from Adaptive Curriculum is a fantastic way to help students develop a deep understanding of concepts related to heat transfer that are important in both physics and chemistry.

* * *

Time lapse Mathmos Thaw From Think-Geek.com

“Thermodynamics is a funny subject. The first time you go through it, you don’t understand it at all. The second time you go through it, you think you understand it, except for one or two small points. The third time you go through it, you know you don’t understand it, but by that time you are so used to it, it doesn’t bother you anymore.” Arnold Sommerfeld (1868-1951) From:  http://www.eoht.info/page/Arnold+Sommerfeld

The hottest name in science presentations is Prezi, which creates a non-linear way to depict concepts and multimedia. Prezi calls itself “the zooming presentation editor,” which captures part of it but it really should be called an “animated zooming presentation creator.” The really engaging part is how it zooms to different parts. Take this Prezi presentation that is designed to be an introductory lesson on physics. You can’t appreciate how cool the zooming works until you see Prezi in action. You fly about the word Physics as students are brought to topics they will learn throughout the year.

A Prezi presentation introducing physics.

Great teachers view the world and wonder how can I use this in my teaching. There are teachers who see a tool and instantly think about how they can use it to present science better. Then, there are those that instantly think about how they can put it into students’ hands so they can use it to learn science. Check out this Prezi, which is designed to present info for students to do a “Solar System Prezi-tation.”

Prezis are kept on the internet, so you can access other teacher-created science prezi-tations. Hopefully, they will categorize their site but for now you can do a keyword search. I did a search for “photosynthesis” and found 650 presentations. You can easily have your students go to these websites. I like Adaptive Curriculum because you can embed internet resources with the assigned Activity Objects.

A lesson plan from Adaptive Curriculum includes Activity Objects and Internet resources.

Further, if you believe in the importance of concept mapping in science education (as I do), then Prezi is a great tool for this as well. You can present teacher created or student created concept maps (see below).

But if you are going to Prezi, you better get their quick. This tool will grow in popularity until one day students might say, “I keep getting motion sickness in all my classes from Prezi. Can we please go back to PowerPoints?”