The perfect drop!

I am very proud of my brother in law, not only because he has married my sister, and that alone is quite a challenge , but also because he is very creative and a phenomenal Photographer.
His determination and patience, that have allowed him to live peacefully with my sister for so many years (something I never managed to achieve… I mean leave peacefully with her) was craftily developed and mastered in his photographic sessions. In fact, who could take so much time and care and persist until they captured the perfect drop?

I love this photo and I believe it could be a great asset in teaching Physics. The symmetry in this photo is simply unbelievable and he just captured the instant in which the drop reaches it’s highest point before separating from the rest of the water below, which has also a perfect symmetry. If the water drop were not still in this frame, you wouldn’t see a perfect sphere. I assumed he used a high frame per second camera to achieve this impressive effect, but he rightly pointed out that there wouldn’t be enough light to take many photos per second. He truly made many attempts until he got this!

Check out his website, because there are many more breath taking photos of drops, animals and landscapes. You can find him here and the drops series here.

ASUS Transform-ing note taking!

This blog post has two aims. One is to continue the series of posts on my experience of the ASUS Transformer, which is becoming a really inseparable “friend” in my work, and the other aim is to give you an update of the Science on Stage Europe Conference held in Copenhagen last month. The reason I am marrying the two is because I used my Transformer to keep a sort of journal of the event…
So, my adventure in Copenhagen began by using my Tablet on the plane to read the Conference programme I had conveniently and easily downloaded beforehand as a pdf. Two stuarts on the plane asked me if I had broken my laptop in two pieces when they saw me holding the tablet detached from the docking station and on this note I have to correct my earlier concerns about the locking system. I have to say that now that I got used to it, and that I have read the symbol on the lock properly , attaching and detaching the keyboard is very easy and quick!
To take my notes I tried different tools, starting from evernote. It is a shame that iMindMap has not developed a version of their amazing software for Android platforms, or I would have certainly used that. However, Evernote didn’t seem to be the best option for the venue I was in. In fact, for problems with the filters in the network (I believe) Evernote would not allow me to sync my previous notes properly, so I had to abandon the app for Polaris Office, the built in Office equivalent for Android. I was very pleased with the choice and I cannot see any difference, and certainly nothing inferior, to the iPad versions. One of the best things was to be able to capture a photo directly inside the document I was writing from a workshop, or a talk. The integration between the front and back camera and the Polaris Office package is really neat and handy.
So, here is a short account of my favourite parts of the Science on Stage Conference in Copenhagen.
1) Meeting up with the Italian Contingency was a real treat, especially looking at the clever free fall experiments from Giovanni Pezzi (Palestra della Scienza del Comune di Faenza) who attached a wireless webcam inside a box which would contain some experiments (e.g. a mass on a scale) that would go crazy when he dropped the box from a 5 m staircase.
2) The gravitational lenses in teh calssroom workshop where Rosa Ros demonstrated how she uses the base of wine glasses to simulate the effects of gravitational lenses in her classes. Other really fascinating resources can be found on the EAAE’s website.
3) The amazing Mithosis Mamba that Richard Spencer got us all to dance in the “wake up session”. This was an hilarious and very clever way to memorize processes and I can’t wait to make my own dances to teach about physical processes to my classes
4) The awards ceremony where a number of inspiring projects were given the recognition they deserved:
- High Speed/slow motion –> Micheal Vollmer, Klaus-Perter Mollmann Germany
- Colourful Science –> Catherine Tattersall Ireland
- Thermoelectric Solar Energy –> Inma Abad, Pere Compte Spain
- Cosmi Wants to Know –> Ida Regl Austria
- Studying Chemistry with Pliny the Elder –> Gianluca Farusi Italy
- From Rainbows to the Chemistry of Colours –> Elias Kalogirou Greece
- See the sound, hear the light –> Jan Pavelka, Ondrej Pribyla Czech Republic

A teacake in Space! – Starship BrainPOP

I was really surprised and pleased to receive an invitation from two personal heroes of mine, Tim and Moby, after I pointed @BrainPOP_UK towards my Blog post “Blowing Head“, which generated much discussion and constructive feedback from so many of you who still follow my waffle on this Blog
Apparently BrainPOP UK was looking for some resources to go with their Starship BrainPOP, their space focussed collection of topics, and they asked me to put something together along the lines of my two recent Blog posts about unprotected bodies in space. It was great fun to think about some activities for this task and I have to admit I wouldn’t have made it without the kind contributions of all the people who posted, or emailed comments, links and were willing to share their knowledge and opinions, so thanks to you all.
Anyway, I think the resources came out quite nice and there should be plenty of opportunities for learners to develop thinking and think critically. You can find these resources I made on BrainPOP Talk here.
Please let me know what you think of them.

Does your body blow up in Space?

What great tools are Blogs and Twitter! I twitted about my previous blog post “Blowing Head!” and on the second day, after about 150 people had read the post and left positive comments (not all 150 actually), I get a Tweet back from Ashley Kent (@AshleyKent), who not only too the time to read my post, but also pointed out that NASA research suggests that a human body would not explode, or freeze immediately, in Space. Ashley gave me this link that explains some of these findings and tests made by NASA.

My previous post doesn’t mention exploding bodies actually, it just asks questions, so I could just tell you that of course I knew, but I would be lying. It was an interesting surprise to me to find out what NASA  has discovered and predicted. However, there are some effects of exposure of a human body to vacuum which resemble what happens in tea cake in the vacuum coffee saver, as suggested by this article. An interesting part of the article says:

“When the human body is suddenly exposed to the vacuum of space, a number of injuries begin to occur immediately. Though they are relatively minor at first, they accumulate rapidly into a life-threatening combination. The first effect is the expansion of gases within the lungs and digestive tract due to the reduction of external pressure. A victim of explosive decompression greatly increases their chances of survival simply by exhaling within the first few seconds, otherwise death is likely to occur once the lungs rupture and spill bubbles of air into the circulatory system. Such a life-saving exhalation might be due to a shout of surprise, though it would naturally go unheard where there is no air to carry it.

In the absence of atmospheric pressure water will spontaneously convert into vapor, which would cause the moisture in a victim’s mouth and eyes to quickly boil away. The same effect would cause water in the muscles and soft tissues of the body to evaporate, prompting some parts of the body to swell to twice their usual size after a few moments. This bloating may result in some superficial bruising due to broken capillaries, but it would not be sufficient to break the skin.”

So, it might not be as dramatic as it looks in the demo in my previous blog post, but the demo is certainly a very interesting activity that could be turned into a great investigation of the effects of a vacuum on different materials and tissues. We have the opportunity here to do some real Science with our kids and pose some questions that will really challenge their experience and create a metacognitive conflict, which will make the activity even more interesting and enjoyable for them!

Any suggestions on the things we could stick inside this coffee saver vacuum chamber? What about simulating a lung in vacuum with a balloon? Where is the limitation of this analogy? What would happen if the balloon were filled with water? Please make your suggestions…

Blowing head!

This blog post is about a great demonstration I got from David Featonby from the Institute of Physics and a little adaptation I thought about after seeing his version. He tipped us all up on a really cool vacuum container to store coffee which you can find here. Then, he put a teddy bear shaped marshmallow in, closed the lid and sucked the air out. The effect is really dramatic as you see the teddy bear mallow increasing in size and become “huge”. My boys think it is a Humongous Mallow (only avid Ben 10 fans will understand the reference).

Anyway, the advantage of using this container instead of a normal empty bottle of wine is that you can put much bigger things inside and that’s where I thought of this additional demo to do with this device. There are various ways in which you could introduce the demo. For example, you could watch a bit of a scientifically questionable Sci-fi film and ask your kids “Is it possible?” The clip I have in mind is Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back, when Han Solo hides the Millenium Falcon inside an Asteroid cave (which turns to be a giant worm’s belly). In that part of the film the crew goes out of the spaceship wearing their normal clothes and just a tiny breathing mask, as if

The point here is that if Han Solo and friends were on an asteroid in outer space, they would be surrounded by almost perfect vacuum and their internal body pressure would cause them to pop as soon as they get out of the ship! So, what would your students think? Would they believe it is possible?  Would they think they would just freeze?

At this point you can show your coffee saver and put a tea cake inside. Then, ask the kids what they think would happen if we could take most of the air out!

And see their faces as this happens!

You can now go back and ask the same question from the Star Wars clip. Is it possible? What would happen to Han Solo and his crew?

Please, see my next blog post as there is an interesting update pointed out by Ashley Kent (@AshleyKent) that suggests that your body wouldn’t actually blow up in space! So, the demo is becoming even more interesting and pedagogically really valuable, as we have the opportunity to really confuse our kids up to then let them construct a new and stronger meaning. This is active Constructivism and Metacognitive Conflict brought to its extremes

Thank you Ashley for pointing this out!

Science Rap! Start to clap…

This sound like a really interesting competition. Get your kids to Rap about Science! Writing poem, rhymes and songs is a really engaging way for students to remember and understand Science concepts more deeply. In fact, writing a song which has certain parameters and with rhymes is a fantastic tool that helps learners to develop not only Literacy skills, but also thinking. A Rapper often uses his/her wit and humour to get their message across with the interesting way they have to play on words. Transferring this skill to Science is really useful, because it can help learners to represent difficult scientific concepts in a more memorable way and think deeply about the meaning of physical, chemical and biological processes as well as building their own models to consolidate understanding.

A good example is the first verse of this poem written by one of my yr 12 pupils last year:

The photoelectric effect is easy

UV light hits the metal causing it to become a little queasy

The metal releases a photoelectron without a fight

More electrons are released when the intensity is increased of the light

You can download the full leaflet about this competition launched by Hands on Science here HOS Rap competition A4

Oops, we did it again!

I am very proud and privileged to announce that Croesyceiliog School, for the second time in a row, will be represented at BETT for the great and innovative work its pupils produced in Physics. Last year our Yr12 students received a laptop each for their great News Report on how we used Google Wave to create a collaborative Physics revision club, but this year our “EM Spectrum Show” (that our Yr10 pupils produced to be broadcast live on the 17th December 2009) has been shortlisted  as one of three Finalists in U.K. at the Guardian Classroom Innovation Awards.

I am very grateful for all those who voted for our project and we hope you will continue to support us. We will present our project at BETT in the next few days and we would love you to come to the ASUS stand (K29) and vote for our project. I will present our project at stand K29 (ASUS) on Thursday 13th January at 11 am, so make sure you come and see us, if you are at BETT!

Thanks again for all your support.

Refraction Index Magic!

It is quite amazing what you can learn by a simple visit to your old school (well I am on a Secondment, so it is still my school…). And it is quite scary, because I got this really cool demonstration by the guy who is covering me for this year and I am starting to fear they will want to get rid of me to keep him :-S

His name is Jonathan Wallace and he is an NQT at Croesyceiliog School (Cwmbran in Sunny Wales) you can contact him at jonny.wallace@live.co.uk

Anyway, have you ever seen the trick of the jelly marbles disappearing in water? Well that happens because these marbles are superabsorbent polymers that get filled with water when the come in contact with it, so when you put them into water they seem to disappear, because, being filled with water they have the same refraction index as the water surrounding them, i.e. light goes straight through them without being refracted (bent)! There is a really nice explanation of this phenomenon on Steve Spangler’s blog and you can buy these jelly marbles quite cheaply here.

But what William (Oops, I meant Jonathan) showed me a really nice twist, especially because it uses items that are a bit more familiar to the kids than some superabsorbent polymers, although they are really cool! William (Blow! I’ve done it again, I meant Jonathan) pours glycerine in a Pirex beaker and an empty (and very clean) test tube inside.

At this point you can still see the test tube inside the beaker, because the air inside the tube refracts the light going through it! But what would happen if we add Glycerine inside the test tube too?

Magic! The test tube disappears in the Glycerine! So, has the Glycerine dissolved the glass of the test tube, is it real Magic, or just another wonder of Physics? What does really happen here?

The answer is quite simple and it is very similar to the jelly marbles. The Pirex and Glycerine have the same (or at least very similar) refraction index and, therefore, light is not refracted at their boundaries and carries on through its path undisturbed by refractive effects, which means that the test tube appears to be invisible!

Thanks to William Wallace (again? Sorry, I meant Jonathan; I know it’s not funny if you are not a member of staff at Croesy, but I have to take the mick) for this great demonstration!

 

Guardian Classroom Innovation Competition

Dear All,

I would like to introduce you to a very interesting competition organised by the Guardian. In this competition schools have made 3 min videos to outline how they have used technology in effective and innovative ways to make an impact on learning and teaching. Croesyceiliog School has entered with our “EM Spectrum Show“.

I would be very grateful if you could support our project (which we think was very innovative and had a major impact in our pupils learning experiences) by following the link below and casting your vote for our project (it is the third from the very bottom and you can see the thumbnail image below).

http://www.guardian.co.uk/classroom-innovation/award-video-entries

Thanks for all your support!

Alessio.

Convection Talk Show!

Hi, have I told you I work for NGfL Cymru? Probably a thousand times

In the video below I show a great animation on convection currents in a room heated by a radiator that you can find on our website here. However, I don’t just give a tour of the animation, but I show how you can use it to encourage your students to talk about Physics in a creative way. It is a role play where you introduce the animation as a talk show of the life of the “Particles” family, which is your class. Well, the rest is in the video and I don’t want to spoil it for you, but I believe this approach is an interesting way to develop Communication and Literacy skills in your pupils in a fun way!

As always, I really value your feedback, so spend 10 seconds to leave a comment, please!