TechIntersect

(Photo by Kuzytac)

Last summer we put on a Science Fun Day in the park for the kids. I was recently going through some old papers and came across a note I wrote to myself because it was so cute. I thought I would share it with you here.

How lightning works according to my daughter’s first grade classmate Jaysie B.-

1. Sky opens up
2. Light comes through
3. Sky slams shut (boom!)

That’s about right, isn’t it?

You can create simulated 3-D stereoscope photograph by wiggling two slightly different angles of the same pictures, as shown in this picture of my wife & daughter. I’ve been wanting to experiment with this for some time after reading about Wiggle Stereoscopy. I have created this image by showing two successive images in an animated gif picture made with ImageReady.

The two images I am using were not made with this technique in mind, but when I viewed them together it seemed to work. I think it might work better if I kept the camera on the same horizontal plane, rather than changing both horizontal and vertical viewing angle. But like I said, the two images were accidentally made.

We are able to see in 3-D because our two eyes see the world from slightly different angles. A Viewmaster toy is a good example of a true 3-D stereoscope. This technique is only simulated because you aren’t viewing both images at the same time. It’s still pretty cool, isn’t it? What do you think?

Exactly 40 years ago today, the crew of the Apollo 8 mission wished the people of Earth a Merry Christmas as they orbited around the moon. It was the first time human beings had viewed planet Earth from such a great distance. It must have been an awesome sight. This video is a recording of what the Apollo 8 astronauts said:

You can also read a written transcript on Wikipedia if you prefer.

Merry Christmas everyone!

*** Edit- Added amazing Hubble image ***

I have been thinking more about this. I found this amazing image from the Hubble space telescope some time ago, and thought I would share it here today.

You really need to take a look at the high resolution file to appreciate its beauty. (Caution: It is large- 4Mb) This is from a dimly lit area of the sky where the Hubble collected light from galaxies so far away, the light we can see originated 13 billion years ago in the early days of the universe. Back then, galaxies were grouped much closer together than they are now. Indeed, in the beginning, there was light.

Tags: science, space

Last summer, my daughter & I measured shadows cast by our basketball goal on the first day of summer. Today is one day before the first day of winter, we are doing the same experiment to make a comparison. The sun is shining but it was only 14º outside! Needless to say, we were not terribly excited to try to make a video or collect 3 hours worth of data. Instead, we collected five data points and found where the shadow was at its shortest length.

Last summer, the sun at mid-day was at an elevation angle of 73.25º. Today, the sun’s elevation angle was only 27.19º. I wish we would have recorded the temperature that day last June. I recall it was quite warm, probably in the 80’s or low 90’sF. Today, the temperature was in the teens, so there is about as big of a contrast as you can get.

We haven’t had a chance to discuss what we found yet, but it will be interesting to see what a first grader thinks is causing the different shadow lengths. Stay tuned.

While I rarely read a fictional novel, I will sometimes read biographies and other works of non-fiction for entertainment. This week I’m reading Alan Alda’s “Things I Overheard While Talking To Myself“. The book caught my eye in the school library because I’m a fan of the TV show M*A*S*H, in which Alda starred. I wasn’t really expecting to find much there to write about in my blog, only something interesting to read.

But I had forgotten that Mr. Alda hosted the PBS series Scientific American Frontiers and has a keen interest in science. While reading his book, I discovered a new brother– someone who appreciates both art and science, and constantly looks for connections between the two. I discovered a kinship with someone who shares with me a similar view of the world and of life. He writes:

Allowing this childish curiosity to continue on through my whole life has given me satisfaction and maybe even a sense of meaning. It stimulates a part of my brain that registers pleasure; and whether it has meaning or not, it feels as though it does. No matter how old I get, I have the feeling that if I can keep this curiosity flame lit, I’ll see the world in a way that never gets stale…

That’s it! That is precisely how I feel! I never want to stop learning and I don’t care if what I am learning about has a practical value or not as long as I am enjoying what I am learning. How can I convey this love of learning to my students? I can certainly identify with having apathy. I wasn’t always an eager student. It took me many years in the “University of Hard Knocks” to discover that I did have what it takes to be a successful student and an eager learner. How can I help my students bypass the drudgery and get to the love of learning straight away?

Interestingly, in a graduation speech (Alda’s book is full of graduation speeches) to a group of CalTech graduates, Alan Alda has some recommendations:

I’m asking you today to devote some significant part of your life to figuring out how to share your love of science with the rest of us…

Like the young man so head over heels about his sweetheart, he can’t stop talking about her; like the young woman so in love with her young man, she wants everyone to know how wonderful he is… show us pictures, tell us stories, make us crave to meet your beloved.

Don’t just tell us science is good for us and therefore, we ought to fund you for it… be lovers!

Look, we’re accustomed in our culture to know when a commercial is coming. We know how to turn it off. But love we can’t resist. (read the full text of his speech here)

This is where so many teachers go wrong; it’s where I’ve gone wrong. We get so caught up in being taken seriously. We want to be viewed as the expert. We want to wow them with our knowledge, and we forget to show them our love and our passion for what we are doing.

I have decided that to show my passion for what I do, I will no longer be afraid to have a little fun and to be a little silly to make my love for my subject known to my students. If I lose some credibility with some because of it, I’m not worried because I am being my genuine self. I am a little silly, I do like to have fun, and I do love learning! I want my students to see that the stuff I teach doesn’t have to be tedious and boring. I think we can have deep, serious learning while still being a little silly at the same time.

It is an interesting paradox. Recall the young man and young woman in love that Mr. Alda speaks of– few people are sillier than when they are first enjoying a new love, but few people are more serious at the same time. Somehow if we can only convey the romance, the excitement, and the true joy of learning, how can we fail as teachers?

I just spent an amazing evening with a group of Kansas science and math  educators. After a formal presentation by Kenneth Wesson on brain function and cognition, an impromptu group of interested educators met last evening to discuss how to implement some of the things we have been learning in this conference. Ken is an amazing man, and easily the best conference speaker I have heard in a very long time. He is also the first speaker I have ever seen who was willing to come back for an informal impromptu session with conference participants after the formal sessions had ended! (I heartily give the thumbs up for this man if you need a conference speaker on brain research.)

As the teachers spoke, I began to grasp what is wrong with our education system in this state; perhaps even what could be changed to improve education throughout this country.

Aha! We need to promote innovation.

If there is one thing that we could change to improve the education system, I think it would be to encourage more innovation in the classroom. Our system is designed to encourage conformity. We want our students to conform to the status-quo, and heaven help the teacher who tries to branch out and implement some new instructional methods. There is no support mechanism or reward system in place for innovative teaching. Doing it the same, safe way is what is rewarded, while those who try new methods are ignored at best, and possibly are even punished for their efforts. The end result is our teachers feel powerless.

Human beings have an innate urge to control their environment. Take away all control and you will either have a depressed or confrontational human being. Teachers feel as though they have little control over how and what they teach in the classroom. I recently asked my daughter’s teacher about the science curriculum in the first grade. We don’t really have much time for science with the emphasis on math and reading, was the reply. What?!? We are in a time of tremendous upheaval and opportunity in the world today! We are living in the most amazing time in human history, what do you mean there’s no time for science, I thought to myself. But this notion was echoed by the science teachers I heard last night. Apparently, one cannot teach reading and math while at the same time teaching science.

In listening to the science educators last evening, I got the impression that those who are trying to engage their students in experiential learning activities often go unsupported and unnoticed. If we are expecting improvements in academic performance, this isn’t how it should be. We should reward those teachers out there working hard on professional development, who are learning how to teach better and setting an example of leadership and innovation in their schools.

If I were an Obama advisor.

The time is ripe for change in this country. President-elect Obama ran his campaign on the theme of change. Mr. Obama, I have a dare for you. I dare you to unshackle teachers for a period of one year to unleash their creative solutions on the problems that plague this nation. This means a freeze on formal, government run assessments. Leave the assessment of student learning up to the professionals that we have trained and hired to teach our young people. In other words, LEAVE THEM ALONE for a whole year! Just let them teach! Good teachers pay attention to what they are doing and learn through experimentation. That is the essence of assessment. Finding out what works and what does not work.

Of course, this is a pipe-dream, and Obama doesn’t have the authority to implement what I propose. The real authority comes from our local and state elected officials. The state legislature, which allocates the funding for our schools has the real power to bring about change.

I suggest that a one-year moratorium on state reporting would be sufficient to bring about a radical change in how we teach in this state. It would free up so much time for professional development of our teachers, we would have an an amazing time of innovation in our schools.

Of course, such a proposal would meet stiff resistance. How would we have teacher and school accountability without state reporting. How could we compare our school with the one down the road?

I would argue that the model of freeing up time just to think and create is exactly the model followed by some of the best and most creative companies in the world.

Look at how the best and brightest companies treat employees. Businesses which innovate best do not weigh down talent with burdensome reporting in the name of accountability. Instead, they do all they can to encourage a release of creative energy.

For example, in my week internship at the Wichita Boeing plant (now Spirit Manufacturing) a few years ago, I participated in a weekly staff meeting. My team spent approximately 15-20 minutes on accountability where each staff member brought the team up to speed on the progress made toward personal goals. The rest of the hour meeting was spent brainstorming on ideas of how to reinvent the new company that was forming. What an amazing concept. A quarter of the time spent on accountability for the staff, and three quarters spent on innovation ideas. That was one hour out of a forty hour work week. The rest of the week, the workers were pretty much left alone to do their jobs and do them well, because they are professionals.

Can you imagine if the accountability process for teachers involved a one hour meeting once a week in which groups of ten teachers met with a team leader to discuss the goals they had set for the week?

Little Susie scored an “A” on the math test this week. She’s been really struggling, but things are finally making sense to her. To me, that is a report worth making, because it would provide an opportunity for immediate feedback from colleagues. High fives, congratulations, the works!

Instead we are obsessed with standardized achievement tests, and endless reports that rarely provide any direct, meaningful feedback to the teachers doing the hard work of teaching.

We are in the most amazing of times. The earth is flattening through technology. Paradigms are shifting. Indeed our whole notion of how to be successful through teamwork and collaboration are changing how we do work. These changes need to be implemented in our educational system if we want to prepare our students for the world in which they will live.

I have no illusion that the standardized assessments and government reporting will discontinued at any time in the near future. But I do believe that the time has come to encourage our elected officials and school administrators to start finding ways to reward creative, innovative and effective teaching.

After a rain shower yesterday, I made these cool photographs of a spider repairing its web and of it capturing a nice snack.

The spider has captured a housefly and readies it for storage.

Repairing the web after a rain shower.

My wife and son look on as the spider rebuilds the web damaged by the rain.

I liked the setup for this last photo best, however I couldn’t get my subjects to cooperate and let me make adjustments. I would have liked the spider in front of a somewhat less busy background. But you get the idea.

While I was taking photos, a fly lit on the web and in an instant, the spider was upon it, wrapping it up in a cocoon for safe keeping. My wife was startled by the speed at which the arachnid could move. Needless to say, she keeps a safe distance from all things creepy-crawlie. But at least she tolerated my fascination with the scene, and included our son as well.

It was pandemonium in the Clyde, KS city park last Saturday as more than 40 kids took part in Clyde’s first ever Science Fun Day. Designed for kids in grades K-3, but fun for kids of all ages, there were animals to see and pet, rockets to launch, sticky goo to play in, and much more.

While DelRay Capper and Katie George helped me lead the activities, the project was documented by the children themselves using new Flip video cameras that will soon be available for checkout at the Clyde Public Library. These cameras are so simple to use that even a small child can operate one successfully. The videos they made will be compiled, edited and posted for viewing on the Clyde website at www.clydekansas.org.

With a national shortage of science, technology, engineering and math workers that is only expected to worsen, having activities like the Science Fun Day becomes ever more important to help with the problem. I was especially pleased with the number of young girls who participated. In contrast to a longstanding stereotype about girls in science & mathematics, a recent NSF study found there are no significant differences between girls and boys scores on standardized math tests. Parents, it’s ok to encourage your young girls to explore math and science careers! With a national shortage, we can no longer afford to discriminate against women in these areas. I think it’s important to get all kids thinking about these careers.

When we asked what the favorite activities of the day were, many replied that they really liked the baking soda and vinegar rockets, and the cornstarch goo. Many of the kids were asking me how to repeat these experiments at home, and since they were mostly household items, I can share with you here how some of these are done.

Rockets

To make a fun and simple rocket find an empty plastic 35mm film canister, the clear Fuji Film kind work best. Open the canister and pour a small amount (1/2 tsp) of baking soda into the lid. Now pour a little vinegar (1 tsp or less) into the canister. Quickly snap the lid onto the canister so the vinegar & soda can react together. Set the canister lid-side down and back away. Be sure to do this experiment outside, because these rockets can shoot up in the air 20 feet high! When the baking soda (a base) and the vinegar (an acid) combine, they produce carbon dioxide gas that pressurizes and eventually pops the top of the film canister.

Cornstarch Goo

With the right combination of water and cornstarch, you can mix a batch of goo that becomes a non-Newtonian liquid. Isaac Newton said that liquids only change viscosity by varying temperature, and for most liquids this is true. Just think about how pancake syrup thickens as it gets cold or how it becomes runny when warmed. However a non-Newtonian liquid such as cornstarch goo also changes viscosity with pressure. Applying sudden pressure causes the molecules to align into a temporary solid arrangement. Release the pressure, and it becomes a liquid again. When you have the right mix of water and cornstarch, you can roll it into a doughy ball, like play dough but when you stop rolling it, it becomes a liquid again right in your hand.

The kids had a lot of fun with this experiment because it was so messy. I saw kids, sticking hands and feet into it, and even jumping and running on it with bare feet. This one is also messy and probably best for outdoors, but when the goo dries, it hardens into a cornstarch residue that can be easily washed away or swept up.

Diet Coke Geyser

This experiment was made famous on internet sites like YouTube. Drop a packages of Mentos candies into a 2 liter bottle of Diet Coke and stand back! The foaming soda shoots high into the air out of the bottle. Scientists believe that this is a physical, not a chemical reaction. The carbon dioxide gas is trapped inside a mesh of water molecules in the Coke. The candy breaks the mesh and provides lots of nucleation sites where CO2 bubbles can rapidly form, allowing the pop to come shooting out of the bottle. It is essentially the same as what happens when you violently shake up a bottle of pop. The molecular mesh breaks and the tiny bits of CO2 can join together and rush to the surface. If you have no Mentos, many other items can have the same effect. We successfully used ice cream rock salt for our experiment.

Merry-go-round

I’ve been showing Emily and Thomas the merry-go-round trick for several years now. Conservation of angular momentum is a physics concept easily demonstrated on the playground using a merry-go-round. A group of kids piled into the center of the merry-go-round will turn faster than the same group of kids hanging out on the edges. Spin the merry-go-round then have your kids move in and out again so they can change the turn rate. We didn’t discuss the idea in the park, but the same thing happens as the Earth orbits the sun in the solar system. When the Earth is closer to the sun, it is moving through space faster than when it is farther away in its orbit. Comets experience this even more dramatically, speeding up as they approach the sun and slowing to a crawl as they enter the outer reaches of their orbits.

For a first-time event, I think we can call this a success. I’m really looking forward to trying this again next summer and will be on the lookout for new ideas to try. In the mean time, I will try to get the videos posted soon so everyone can see what fun we had at Science Fun Day 2008.

My family and I visited the Milford Nature Center today at Junction City, Kansas. If you ever find yourself traveling through Kansas on I-70 in need of a rest stop, this is one stop that is well worthwhile. I have seen the signs while passing through the area many times but today was the first time we have ever stopped for a visit.

Located at 3415 Hatchery Drive just north of Junction City, this is a hidden gem that I have always passed by without stopping until today.  Tomorrow is the first day of school for my daughter, so we decided to squeeze in one more family outing.

I was very impressed with what we found, and you can’t beat the price… free! We found several wildlife exhibits, including reptiles, birds of prey, and a very cool butterfly house we could walk through. There were a couple of amazing dioramas of Kansas wildlife scenes. We spent a long while trying to find all of the different creatures that were hidden in the display, in “Where’s Waldo?” fashion.

My favorite thing we saw today was the Milford fish hatchery located near the Milford nature center. We just happened to arrive at feeding time, and my kids were amazed as the big “wiper” fish thrashed about chasing after their meal. We saw bass, catfish, and wipers. According to the official website, guided tours are offered on weekends at 1:00 pm or by appointment. I would highly recommend this to any class in the region looking for a field trip destination. There are plenty exhibits to see, including some hands-on activities. There is a very nice playground area and a beautiful nature trail that I’m glad we took the time to explore.

This was one of the best Kansas destinations we have visited as a family in a very long time. It includes a very reasonably priced souvenir & gift shop. Check it out if you get the chance!

Tags: wildlife fishing