In a couple of days, a large meteor will pass between the Earth and the Moon’s orbit. The Asteroid named 2005 YU55 is 400 meters long and at its closest point will pass 325,000 kilometers from the Earth traveling 13 km/s (30,000 mph).
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
(A guest post by Seth. R. Hawkins, Besteiro Middle School)
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
Almost 25 years ago, Presenter for the Macintosh II was the start of a revolution in presentations, in much the same way that word processing was a revolution in writing. Later, Microsoft bought Presenter and renamed it PowerPoint. The advantages for well-done presentations with PowerPoint are evident. With the popularity, however, there are critics and unengaged audiences. To be fair, it isn’t necessarily PowerPoints fault that a presentation is bad. PowerPoint Bullets don’t kill people; people kill people. It is the case, however, that the omnipresence of PowerPoints means that students won’t be excited just because the room goes dark and a PowerPoint is being shown.
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?”
The President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology prepared a report (September, 2010) with the following recommendations:
(1) STANDARDS: SUPPORT THE CURRENT STATE-LED MOVEMENT FOR SHARED STANDARDS IN MATH AND SCIENCE
(2) TEACHERS: RECRUIT AND TRAIN 100,000 GREAT STEM TEACHERS OVER THE NEXT DECADE WHO ARE ABLE TO PREPARE AND INSPIRE STUDENTS
(3) TEACHERS: RECOGNIZE AND REWARD THE TOP 5 PERCENT OF THE NATION’S STEM TEACHERS, BY CREATING A STEM MASTER TEACHERS CORPS
(4) EDUCATIONAL TECHNOLOGY: USE TECHNOLOGY TO DRIVE INNOVATION, BY CREATING AN ADVANCED RESEARCH PROJECTS AGENCY FOR EDUCATION
(5) STUDENTS: CREATE OPPORTUNITIES FOR INSPIRATION THROUGH INDIVIDUAL AND GROUP EXPERIENCES OUTSIDE THE CLASSROOM
(6) SCHOOLS: CREATE 1,000 NEW STEM-FOCUSED SCHOOLS OVER THE NEXT DECADE
(7) ENSURE STRONG AND STRATEGIC NATIONAL LEADERSHIP
The report begins with this summary of the importance of STEM:
The success of the United States in the 21 century – its wealth and welfare – will depend on the ideas and skills of its population. These have always been the Nation’s most important assets. As the world small measure by the effectiveness of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education in the United States. STEM education will determine whether the United States will remain a leader among nations and whether we will be able to solve immense challenges in such areas as energy, health, environmental protection, and national security. It will help produce the capable and flexible workforce needed to compete in a global marketplace. It will ensure our society continues to make fundamental discoveries and to advance our understanding of ourselves, our planet, and the universe. It will generate the scientists, technologists, engineers, and mathematicians who will create the new ideas, new products, and entirely new industries of the 21st century. It will provide the technical skills and quantitative literacy needed for individuals to earn livable wages and make better decisions for themselves, their families, and their communities. And it will strengthen our democracy by preparing all citizens to make informed choices in an increasingly technological world.
Chapter 5 focuses on teachers and begins with this statement:
Anyone who has set foot in a classroom knows that teachers make a huge difference in the lives of their students. While not everyone can recall the influence of a legendary teacher like Jaime Escalante, many people have stories about the crucial role that a teacher played in sparking their passion for a subject, teaching them a lifelong skill, or helping them surmount an obstacle. Indeed, most people who work in STEM fields or who simply have an interest in STEM can point to teachers who excited about them about the beauty and power of mathematics, the wonders of science, or the power of technology – and who helped them learn that they could gain mastery of these subjects. Sadly, though, many adults also point to experiences in school that convinced them that STEM subjects were inherently boring, cryptic, or beyond their grasp.
The report correctly points to the importance of STEM for our nation, and suggests compelling steps to improve what we do.
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
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