The pleasure of finding things out a video interview with Richard P Feynman (Google Video broke the link so I removed it).
A great mind expands upon our recent post: Science for Kids. He provides some good insight into learning.
Related book: Classic Feynman: All the Adventures of a Curious Character packaged with an hour-long audio CD of the 1978 “Los Alamos from Below” lecture.
A Solar Prominence from SOHO – NASA photo of the day.
How can gas float above the Sun? Twisted magnetic fields arching from the solar surface can trap ionized gas, suspending it in huge looping structures. These majestic plasma arches are seen as prominences above the solar limb. In September 1999, this dramatic and detailed image was recorded by the EIT experiment on board the space-based SOHO observatory in the light emitted by ionized Helium.
It shows hot plasma escaping into space as a fiery prominence breaks free from magnetic confinement a hundred thousand kilometers above the Sun. These awesome events bear watching as they can affect communications and power systems over 100 million kilometers away on Planet Earth.
Previous post on solar storms and the affect on communications and power systems
Why is the sky blue? Facts you should know (sadly phb’s broke the link so I removed it)
Read answers to these questions (phb broken link), and others, by leading scientists. For example:
by Helle Gawrlewski, Johnson & Johnson (and the article author’s mother)
Single-Shot Chemo – Nanospheres that target cancer cells and gradually release drugs could make treatment safer and more effective
Photo – Three prostate cancer cells have taken up fluorescently labeled nanoparticles (shown in red). The cells’ nuclei and cytoskeletons are stained blue and green, respectively. By Omid Farokhzad and Robert Langer at MIT.
‘Sciencing’ with kids by Prakash Rao:
Children’s experiences need to be real, concrete and [tangible]. We should never get carried away by just contents and facts. Link experiences to children’s life. Then they will feel a desire to know.
Children are naturally inquisitive. Mainly we need to provide opportunities for them to do what they would do naturally. In previous posts we have highlighted many ways to give kids the chance to learn and figure out how things work.
US wants to replicate India’s technology education success by Bibhu Ranjan Mishra:
Press release from the US Department of Education: U.S. Science Lessons Focus More on Activities, Less on Content, Study Shows
A video study of 8th-grade science classrooms in the United States and four other countries found U.S. teachers focused on a variety of activities to engage students but not in a consistent way that developed coherent and challenging science content.
In comparison, classrooms in Australia, the Czech Republic, Japan, and the Netherlands exposed 8th graders to science lessons characterized by a core instructional approach that held students to high content standards and expectations for student learning.
The National Center for Education Statistics in the U.S. Department of Education’s Institute of Education Sciences today released these and other findings in a report titled Teaching Science in Five Countries: Results From the TIMSS 1999 Video Study that draws on analysis of 439 randomly selected videotaped classroom lessons in the participating countries.
The results of the newly released science study highlight variations across the countries in how science lessons are organized, how the science content is developed for the students, and how the students participate in actively doing science work.
For example, in Japan, the lessons emphasized identifying patterns in data and making connections among ideas and evidence. Australian lessons developed basic science content ideas through inquiry. Whereas in the Netherlands, independent student learning is given priority. Dutch students often kept track of a long-term set of assignments, checking their work in a class answer book as they proceeded independently.
In the Czech Republic, students were held accountable for mastering challenging and often theoretical science content in front of their peers through class discussions, work at the blackboard, and oral quizzes.
In the United States, lessons kept students busy on a variety of activities such as hands-on work, small group discussions, and other “motivational” activities such as games, role-playing, physical movement, and puzzles. The various activities, however, were not typically connected to the development of science content ideas. More than a quarter of the U.S. lessons were focused almost completely on carrying out the activity as opposed to learning a specific idea.
The science report is the second released by TIMSS 1999 Video Study. The first report, focused on 8th grade mathematics teaching, was released in 2003.
To view the reports and for more information: Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study
via: Study suggests U.S. science teaching falls short on content
National Conference on Service Learning in Engineering
May 24th and 25th, 2006, National Academy of Engineering, Washington, DC. There is no charge to attend but space is limited.
Video of Rube Goldberg devices from Japan (link broken unfortunately)
Related:
Great Moonbuggy Race – Huntsville Center for Technology High School and Pittsburg State University win their divisions.
More from the NASA education site
Previous posts about science fairs, engineering challenges, science competitions, etc.