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09/03/2010

BA Science and Engineering Week (12 – 21 March)

..can you guess what the theme is?

Lots of science, engineering and technology events all across the country. All the details are HERE as well as a nice FLIKR gallery of last year's events

The resources and materials to download before and after the events are all HERE

Posted at 13:41 by tscommunity | Permalink | Email this Post | Comments (0)

08/03/2010

Cambridge Science Festival (8-21 March 2010) - NOW ON

Coming up very shortly is the Cambridge Science Festival.

Running between 8 and 21st March all across Cambridge, this really is one of my favourite science events of the year, possibly because I can walk to everything but also beacause the program has a wide selecton for all tastes.

All the details are HERE

A nice video clip from the 2009 festival with participants talking about their favourite scientific discoveries is HERE

unilogo

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27/02/2010

Push those possible A level Chemists (and yourself)

The RSC has been running a project based on supporting lab skills for A level chemistry students.

Some PGCE chemists I have been working with have played with it recently and rate it highly. The official line from the RSC:

Discover LabSkills
A joint Royal Society of Chemistry and Pfizer educational project.

The resources in LabSkills provide an excellent opportunity for new teachers to familiarise themselves with the common errors that students make in the laboratory and a chance to increase their own confidence in setting up and performing the experiments typically found at this level.

And well worth checking out, details are HERE and HERE. There is a free trial to play and get a feel but alas it costs after that (but there is a lot of quality work there!). PGCE students may find a way to get a free copy, possibly. Lorna Thompson at the RSC is the person to ask nicely.

LABSKILLS

LabSkills

Posted at 20:41 by tscommunity | Category: Chemistry | Permalink | Email this Post | Comments (0)

20/02/2010

The picture quiz returns

After an overwhelming response, here is another one.

This time it's is sort of clear what it is but lots of good discussion and you can repeat this with a plasma ball (you can get them for less than £10 these days, I bought a USB one in Staples before christmas) and a flourescent tube or even an energy saving lightbulb.

More details at Richard Box's site.

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16/02/2010

Here Comes Science

You may remember They Might Be Giants from their fantastically catchy Birdhouse in Your Soul from 1990 or the theme from Maclom in the Middle.

I loved them for all of that as well as the use of the accordion in popular music, a wonderful instrument that is much unloved as a result of the uncoolness of Morris Dancing.

Anyway, in the last few years they have developed a dual identity as a rock band as well as childrens entertainers par excellence. After the sucess of their spelling and numbers albums Here Come the A B Cs and Here Come the 1 2 3s (worth it alone for Triops Have Three Eyes).

But, even more wonderfully - Just released is

HERE COMES SCIENCE

Fun, Fun, Fun - and some proper sciecne. Get the CD and you also get a DVD with some animated videos for all of the tracks. It seems to be only available from Amazon on import or directy from the band but worth the wait.

perhaps SCIENCE IS REAL should become all of our theme songs.

Posted at 08:42 by tscommunity | Permalink | Email this Post | Comments (0)

03/02/2010

The best teacher ever?

I'm a physicist but even so reckon that the best teacher in the UK ever that has taught more people about some of the wonders of science and captured the imagination of so many is this man.

His most recent BBC series that reminded me of his wonderfulness was called Life Stories. A weekly collection of 15 essays on various living things. Captivating and just about short enough to play to a class without encouraging bored chaos.

Some episodes seem to be still live on Listen Again on the BBC website HERE but the whole series has been released on CD and so you can get it HERE (or many other retailers)

Posted at 18:42 by tscommunity | Permalink | Email this Post | Comments (0)

23/01/2010

A logic puzzle from Richard Wiseman

Well, I guess he got it from somewhere else but he's pretty cool and worth checking out. The CASE folk tell us we should be getting our students to think so how about this for a homework.

There are two lengths of rope. Each one can burn in exactly one hour. They are not the same length or width as each other. They also are not of uniform width (they might, for example, be wider in middle than on the end), thus burning half of the rope is not necessarily 1/2 hour. By burning the ropes, how do you measure exactly 45 minutes worth of time?

burning rope

Answer is below. (highlight the white text on white background to see it). But do go to Richard Wiseman's site for more stuff and a regular Friday puzzle as well as discussions on why the answer may well be wrong.

Burn one of the ropes from both ends, and the other rope from one end. After 30 mins hour the first rope will be burnt away. At that point, set fire to the other end of the second rope. When that rope has burnt completely burnt, 45 minutes will have elapsed.

Posted at 09:01 by tscommunity | Permalink | Email this Post | Comments (0)

18/01/2010

Another Picture Quiz

What or where on earth (or not) is this?

Not sure that there is much I can add... (but it's not a Tattooed woman which was the last guess I was given)

Ok, well it's a bit of a cheat as it is a 'enhanced' photo but a wonderful starter- Lots more and and the answer is HERE

Posted at 16:06 by tscommunity | Permalink | Email this Post | Comments (0)

13/01/2010

Spectroscopy in a Suitcase and Chemistry for the Future (NE)

The RSC are running an interesting pilot called Spectroscopy in a Suitcase as part of their Chemistry for the Future program.

The Spectroscopy in a Suitcase (SIAS) project is part of the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC)-led Chemistry for our future (CFOF) initiative, funded by the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE). Launched in the north-east region, at Parkview Community School, Chester-le-Street, the pilot project aims to provide local schools and colleges with portable, state-of-the-art equipment designed to help teachers demonstrate the principles of optical spectroscopy and provide hands-on experiments for Key Stages 3-5.

You can get more details HERE and the printed materials are available HERE and more will no doubt follow. I've had a quick look at some and they seem pretty impressive and whilst they are not always cheap to set up, all the costs and what is needed is well set out clearly on the first page of the PDF files. it'll be difficult without access to some of the facilities needed but might help give you some ideas or enough enthusiam to hassle the RSC and/or get in touch with the Science Learning Centre North East to work out how to get involved.

Posted at 15:27 by tscommunity | Permalink | Email this Post | Comments (0)

12/01/2010

Crayons, Physics, Birthdays, Radiohead and New Year Bargains

If there are any regular readers to this blog, you may remember this post and this one where I got all excited about Crayon Physics Deluxe. Well I still love it and untill the 15th January to celebrate their first birthday they are doing a Radiohead style 'pay what you want' to get the game so I strongly suggest you go and get it.