Science in Action

Discovery has launched a new website called Discovery Parent Corner.  The website is designed to “Parent Corner provides parents and others a powerful suite of free digital resources that can help bridge the gap between home and school, and ensures that parents and other caregivers have the digital tools they need to help students continue to learn once they leave the classroom.” (Dale Fulton, Senior Vice President of Curriculum Development, Discovery Education).

The site offers parents digital content that engages learners of all ages.  The site resources include:

Motivation Station - Offering tips and suggestions about fitting in at school, managing homework, dealing with sibling rivalry, and more.

Homework Help - Providing  thousands of online videos, simulations, texts, and links – are useful study aids that engage students of all ages in learning.

WebMATH - A digital tool that generates answers to specific math questions and problems, WebMATH answers are generated and displayed in real-time, demonstrating how the solution was reached, after a user types in their math problem and clicks “solve.”

Head over there and check it out.  Once you see the powerful tools available for parents with children of all ages I feel certain you will want to add it your class website, blog, or wiki.

On Wednesday, August 12th at 4am ET the Perseid Meteor Shower will be visible.  The Perseids appear to come from the constellation Perseus but are actually bits of debris from the Swift-Tuttle comet, which has been orbiting the sun for centuries. The Earth passes through these streams of shooting stars every August.  The key to a good view will be finding an area with little light pollution.  Astronomers expect up to 200 meteors per hour, although many of the fainter fireballs will not be visible due to moonlight.  If you want to help your students better understand what meteors are or how meteor showers occur check out the great content on Discovery Education Science.

Google Earth continues to impress me with the features they add.  If you want to experience what the Apollo astronauts experienced then you have everything you need.  With Discovery Education Science you have nearly 40 video segments from the missions themselves that you and your students can watch.  With Google Earth Moon you can:

• Take tours of landing sites, narrated by Apollo astronauts
• View 3D models of landed spacecraft
• Zoom into 360-degree photos to see astronauts’ footprints
• Watch rare TV footage of the Apollo missions

Now if you really want to enhance your experiences your students can embed the videos from Discovery Education Science onto the Apollo sites provided by Google Earth.  You and your students can watch each mission from start to finish and then experience the sights from the moon.  If you do not have access to Google Earth in your classroom, do not dispair.  You can still experience the sites by going to Google Moon.   This will not provide th same 3D experience as Google Earth and it is not possible o embed video, but it will work for those without Google Earth.

It is hard to believe it has been 40 years since Neil Armstrong first set foot on the moon.  What is next for mankind.? Do we head back to the moon or do we head to Mars?  These are he questions scientist and scholars have been asking and will continue to ask for years to come.  For those curious the last manned trip to the moon was on December 11, 1972.  For those who remember the first landing on July 20, 1969 it is amazing to hear how riveted the world was by this amazing feat.  If you have never had the pleasure of talking to someone who remembers that day, take the time and sit down with someone who does.  It is an amazing experience to see their eyes light up as they tell their story of that day.  For those you who would like to learn what scientist have learned from our visits to the moon you can check out are great interactive video called “The Moon, it’s Composition, and and Origins”.

As I read a discussion on wind power the other day I started thinking about how little our students understand the concept of alternative energy.  In Discovery Education Science there is a great virtual lab called WOW! Windmills.  This is a great lab for students to explore how the location of windmills can effect the power being generated, but I thought there might be more students could to explore the concept once they have a greater understading of wind power.  As I searched for some ideas I found a great lesson from the UK that showcased the power of blending science with Google Earth.  The resources and image are from a site called Juicy Geography and is an example of students researching a proposed Wind Farm in England to and providing the students with all of the data and concerns to help develop their discussions on the proposed wind farm.  What I loved was that students created the wind farm virtually in Google Earth using Sketchup.  To see their creation download the kml file.

I found plenty of other possibilities for bringing Google Earth into the Science classroom as well.  For some examples check out these sites:

Designing and Creating Earth Science Lessons

Google Earth - Earth Science Directory of Resources

Earth Learning Idea

Due the popular response from the comic life post.  I decided to share my full presentation “Learning Through the Funnies” from our NECC pre-con.  In the session I shared with teachers how they can use such sites as GoAnimate, Xtranormal, Pixton, and Comic Life in their everday activities with students.  The one below is from Xtranormal.  It is very basic, but shows the power of using the green screen feature of Xtranormal and video content from Discovery Education Science.  You can find the other examples I shared as well as my full presentation in MediaShare.

Also keep an eye out for a special webinar series that will highlight new features within Discovery Education Science.  I expect to announce dates and times by the end of this week.

Are you or your students a fan of the Sunday funnies?  Check out Comic Life for a new way to engage your students with curriculum content.  As I started playing with Comic Life I found an amazing collection of science resources created by students.  I also found a wonderful collection of templates that help get you started.  With the great collection of images correlated to curriculum units within Discovery Education Science get a trial of Comic Life and give it a try.

If you live on or near the coast you are well aware that Hurricane Season is here.  Having lived on the coast of North Carolina for 5 years and experiencing five hurricanes in those five years I have witnessed first hand the power of these storms.  For many of our students though, hurricanes are something that they hear about on the news and really don’t understand how they work or why they are so damaging.  There are some great resources within Discovery Education Science to help explain these concepts to your students.  This includes allowing students to work with the conditions that impact hurricane development and strength.

With the growth of the human population the impact on the environment is inevitable, but until recently we would hear about it and maybe see before an after pictures.  Now NASA has put together time-lapse videos showing the impact man can have on the environment, some bad and some good.  The videos are hosted on YouTube, but Wired has provided some basic background information in case you are interested.  These could make for some very powerful discussions in classrooms across the country.

Time-Lapse Videos of Massive Change on Earth

If you are looking for a great way to bring the digital world into your Science Class then check out glogster or the education only version glogster/edu.  You first question is probably “What is a Glog?”.  Well a glog is a graphical blog where individuals or groups can share information.  Glogs allow users to incorporate all forms of multuimedia, including text, animations, video, and audio to name a few.  They are very easy to create and allow students to bring their creativity to life when presenting information.  So how can this translate into science?  Check out these great examples to see the possibilities:

Jane Goodall

Science Class Study Guide

Nanotechnology

Life Cycles

Nobel Gases