Author: Dale

Journal via text messaging during field trip

Dale 1 Comment

Last week I took my physics students on a field trip to the Yerkes Observatory and the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory.  This is the forth year I’ve done this trip, and each year I offer the students a variety of assignments to pick from.

This year I added text messaging as one of the assignments.  Students used their cell phone to journal about things they saw while on the trip.

Students send their messages to an account they created at Twitter.com. Twitter is a micro-blog that allows you to post messages (up to 140 characters long) from the web or from your cell phone. The site also allows you to follow other people’s posts; this makes Twitter an impressive networking tool. (Note: there are many teachers exchanging ideas on Twitter; you can find me at: twitter.com/basler.)

Twitter on field trip

I took advantage of the social networking side of Twitter by setting up an account that followed all my students as they posted messages during the trip.  The students who couldn’t go on the trip were able to watch their classmates add messages in real time.

Here is a sample of the messages posted by my students.

You should keep a few things in mind if you plan to use Twitter.

  • Students may incur fees when texting from a cell phone. My assignment wasn’t required; student could pick another assignment if they didn’t wish to send text messages.
  • Twitter is blocked at many schools.  My students had to set up their accounts at home.
  • Make sure your students set up and test the service. I had all my students get things working before the trip.
  • As always, remind your students to not disclose personal information online. For example, all my students used fake names for their username at Twitter.

Library of Congress will do your research

Dale

A few weeks back I saw a little blub in PC Magazine on the Ask a Librarian website provided by the Library of Congress. The site provides an online reference service that promises to reply to your question in just five business days.

Ask a Librarian

I decided to give it a try. My question? Which U.S. college has educated the most Nobel Laureates? I thought this wouldn’t be something that could be answered with a simple Google Search.

Three days after I submitted my question, I received their reply:

I have not found a comprehensive list of Nobel Laureates by undergraduate or graduate affiliation. The top schools in the United States for total Nobel Prizes awarded are: Harvard, Stanford, M.I.T., CalTech, and Columbia, and tied with Berkeley is University of Chicago.

But the information didn’t stop there. They sent a myriad of data (see it yourself). Everything from breakdowns by category to links to where the information can be found.

The next time I need some research done, I think I’m going to put the Ask a Librarian service to work.

Find free book online; Audio-books too!

Dale 2 Comments

Beowulf the MovieBeowulf opens in theaters this Friday. I vaguely remember reading this in high school my Senior year. Since Beowulf is in the public domain, I decided to refresh my memory of the story by reading it online.

There are several great sites that offer free books online. Here are a few that I’ve come to love:

Create stop-motion videos and learn physics

Dale 3 Comments

Inspired by the most recent Sony Bravia commercial, I decided to have my physics students create stop-motion videos for a Halloween themed project.

Students were asked to create a video that:

  • was at least ten seconds
  • contained at least two seconds of constant acceleration
  • had a Halloween theme

I gave the students a handout with guidelines, rubric and some suggestions for a successful project. Students created the videos using Windows Movie Maker and uploaded them to Brightcove.tv (YouTube is blocked at our school). I used Jing to provide students with screencasts that explained how to use Movie Maker and Brightcove.tv.

After the videos were created, students used a video analysis program (LoggerPro) to analyze and confirm the acceleration.

I wasn’t sure what to expect when I assigned this project but I was truly shocked by all of the amazing videos that my students produced.

Here is an example:

See all the videos here.

Bus routes and Google Maps help teach physics

Dale 2 Comments

Transit MapMy freshman have been learning about speed, velocity and displacement. I’ve also been trying help them brush up on their unit conversion skills. It’s tough because you run out of real-life examples. I can only do so many labs with toy cars.

To drive home the lesson, I had students use Google Maps to map out different bus routes in our area. Students were paired up and assigned a route. With help from our local transit system’s website, each pair had to:

  • map out the route with a line (this gave them the route’s distance)
  • find the average time needed for the bus to make a complete loop
  • calculate the average speed of the bus
  • display the results on the map

Bus StopsStudents with extra time could earn more points if they placed a pin at each stop and entered the arrival times in each stop’s description. They could also calculate the average speed from stop-to-stop.

The project was a success and the students seemed to enjoy it. The class was a full of discussions about things like: which bus goes by which landmark or which bus is always late. One group even brought in a paper map to use as a guide. It was fun to watch the students work.

All the maps were shared using the embed tags and students could see all the routes on one big map. The project made my lesson plan for the following week much simpler since I now established an example that everyone had an understanding of.

Here is an example map.

Organize your Outlook inbox with colors

Dale

Like almost everyone these days, I get lots of email. My work inbox is overstuffed with internal memos, notes from parents and spam.

I like to sort my messages by color coding them based on a few parameters. For example, I make all messages that are sent only to me green. Messages from the principal are colored red.

Color your inbox

We have one teacher in my build who is a traveling teacher. She sets her inbox to display messages in the color that represents the school from which they were sent. So all messages from East High are red and all messages from West High are orange.

To set this up in Outlook go to the Tools menu choose Organize and then select the “Using Colors” section, hit the “Turn on” button next to “Show messages sent only to me in Red.”

Below is a step-by-step video to help you get started:

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For more flexibility, click “Automatic Formatting” in the upper right corner.

Download old presidental TV ads for class

Dale

The Living Room Candidate on ColbertA few weeks back, on Comedy Central’s The Colbert Report, I saw David Schwartz discuss The Living Room Candidate— a website that archives presidential campaign television commercials. The site has ads going back to 1952. They even have lesson plans in their ‘For Teachers’ section.

The site can provide a great history lesson. Many of the commercials showcase the issues that were on voters’ minds at the time. I think there are a lot of possibilities for this site’s use in the classroom.

Perhaps an assignment where students are asked to act as the candidate and make their own commercials could be created. That’s just one idea; I’m sure you have many more.  If so, share them in the comments section below.

18 technologies every teacher should know about

Dale 3 Comments

18 TechnologiesYou don’t have to use them all, but I think every teacher should become familiar with the technologies on this list.

Many things, such as RSS feeds, Skype and wikis, are powerful tools that will save you time and allow you to do remarkable things in the classroom.

Knowing about these technologies may also help you learn more about your students. Some items on this list, like iTunes, instant messaging and social networks, are becoming a part of every student’s entertainment and social life.

  1. Audacity: a free and easy to use audio recording and editing program
  2. blog: they started as online diaries, but blogs have become an easy way to create websites
  3. Firefox: an Internet browser that is better than the one that comes preinstalled on your computer
  4. Extensions: little applications that make Firefox do just about whatever you want
  5. Creative Commons: licenses that provide a variety of protections and freedoms for artists, authors, and educators
  6. Google Earth: this is a map on steroids, it allows you to fly around a virtual Earth; download it and check out the Grand Canyon
  7. IM: instant messaging allows you to chat with a group of people; it’s like real-time email
  8. iTunes: buy music and movies, download podcasts using iTunes; iPod owners need this program to put files on their device
  9. iPod: the most popular portable media player; this is a pocket entertainment system
  10. mp3: a file type that is used for audio; mp3 files can be relatively small in size because the technology removes the frequencies of sound that we don’t need
  11. PDF: the most common way to share documents online that are usually printed; typically used for things like manuals, prospectuses, newsletters and forms
  12. podcast: an audio or video program that is set up to be downloaded automatically to your computer on a regular basis
  13. RSS (News Feed): a way to allow websites to deliver their new content to your computer without you having to visit each site
  14. Skype: this program allows you to talk to anyone in the world for free; it also does chat and video conferencing
  15. social network: when you’re online this label refers to websites that have create an easy way for you to share your favorite pictures, websites, music, recipes and much more with others; MySpace and Facebook are two of the most popular social networks
  16. TiVo: like ‘Kleenex’ for facial tissue, the word ‘TiVo’ refers to the technology that allows you to save your TV shows to a hard drive so you can watch them on demand; TiVo is just one brand of digital video recorders or DVRs
  17. Wi-Fi: this allows you to connect to the Internet wirelessly; laptops come standard with this technology but other devices with Wi-Fi, such as printers, are popping up more and more
  18. wiki: a website technology made famous by Wikipedia; wikis allow users to edit the content of a webpage; a great way to work collaboratively on projects

Of course, I don’t claim that this list is exclusive. I’m sure I’ve missed a few. I welcome you to make suggestions in the comments.

PBS premieres WIRED Science

Dale

WIRED ScienceWhat do you get when you combine a great technology magazine with PBS’s ability to create science-rich television? WIRED Science.

On Wednesday, October 3rd, PBS will premiere its new weekly series- WIRED Science. The first episode will feature:

…an Internet botnet attack of Estonia’s banks and newspapers; WIRED Science reports on cardiac surgery performed by a “RoboDoc”; Adam Rogers explores the disappearance of home chemistry sets; and Ziya Tong delves into technology that is helping children with Asperger’s Syndrome by translating facial expressions into emotions.

The fun doesn’t end in your TV, their website also promises:

  • full episode segments online
  • access to exclusive content
  • activities for the classroom

Can’t wait until tomorrow? Visit the WIRED Science website to watch their pilot episode.