Science, like teaching and education, is a cultural activity, but too often we tend not to think of it as such. The common image is one of a scientists, or team of scientists, at work in a lab. But cultural activities come in all shapes and sizes and so we are pleased to announce the upcoming Science Cafe session scheduled for Tuesday, September 25 at the Unicorn pub, downtown on eigthth avenue.
Sponsored by the Telus World of Science and the University of Calgary, Science Cafes will be taking place on the fourth Tuesday of every month. This month features "The Perfect Storm: Animals and Humans" with Dr. David Hart from the Faculty of Medicine and Dr. Maurice Maloney, the chief scientific officer of SemBioSys Genetics, Inc. - for a further schedule and more information, click on the Telus World of Science Link.
Monday, September 24, 2007
Wednesday, September 12, 2007
Environmental Schools
As much discussion as the talk about greening schools is getting, one of the ideas that rarely gets mentioned, is the idea of the rooftop garden, or "green roof". We first came across the idea in Germany and Italy a decade ago while travelling, and while we thought it was a neat idea, promptly forgot about it until we visited one of the newer schools in southeast Calgary. A large, multi-levelled building, it has a second floor meeting space that overlooks a flat first floor roof and the a small grove of trees on the lawn beyond. It did not tak much imagination to picture a door leading out to a rooftop garden to provide staff with a place to visit in the warm summer months.
Sadly it seems, even the CBC ran a story last week on the slowly growing trend for rooftop gardens, it appears that such a thing will remain years away. If school districts are struggling financially to maintian their existing infrastructure, the added expense of a rooftop garden looks to be an unattainable luxury.
Sadly it seems, even the CBC ran a story last week on the slowly growing trend for rooftop gardens, it appears that such a thing will remain years away. If school districts are struggling financially to maintian their existing infrastructure, the added expense of a rooftop garden looks to be an unattainable luxury.
Tuesday, September 11, 2007
Bring On The Iron Science Teachers!
Last year the Alberta Ingenuity Fund sponsored a province-wide competition for science teachers based on the popular TV cooking game show Iron Chef. Teams of science teachers battled it out in Edmonton's Science Stadium, designing highly creative lesson plans around the theme of colour. Calgary's very own (and good friends of ours) Iron Maidens, rocked the competition, taking home top honours. This year, the contest is going national and Calgary is hosting on of the regional Teach-Offs (if that's what they're calling them!).
Exploding Beakers will be looking to cover all the action, so stay tuned!
Monday, September 10, 2007
Updated links
The archived links section (hosted on the wetpaint site) has been updated with over two dozen links (not including the ones posted here). Click on over to check them out!
Saturday, September 8, 2007
A spirit of exploration!
What is the spirit of science class? Matt Cho, also a Father Lacombe grad but now a current Carleton mechanical engineering student, offers this opinion:
"Science, whether it is Chemistry, Biology or Physics, it is fun to learn. The fun comes from the experiences in class. Chemistry is fun because you are able to mix chemicals (under supervision of course) and watch a nice change of color, watch something form or even get a small explosion (though that rarely ever happens).
In biology, which I have never taken myself, is fun as a lot of people say. You have a chance to dissect parts of animals or even whole animals, learn about how things work in your body and be amazed at how much something inside your body can do or maybe even shine a bright light on insects and see how their behaviours change.
Physics, though it is mostly math, may sometimes be fun. You get to see how fast and how far u can shoot something, find out how much fore Superman needs to use to stop a train moving at a certain speed or, if you’re lucky enough, u might get to watch your teacher swing a bucket of water all the way around, then miscalculating how much velocity is needed for the water to stay in the bucket as it is at the top of the swing and gets water dumped all over him or her.
Science is not as boring as many people think, working hard and studying hard and you might just get rewarded with doing some fun labs and experiments."
"Science, whether it is Chemistry, Biology or Physics, it is fun to learn. The fun comes from the experiences in class. Chemistry is fun because you are able to mix chemicals (under supervision of course) and watch a nice change of color, watch something form or even get a small explosion (though that rarely ever happens).
In biology, which I have never taken myself, is fun as a lot of people say. You have a chance to dissect parts of animals or even whole animals, learn about how things work in your body and be amazed at how much something inside your body can do or maybe even shine a bright light on insects and see how their behaviours change.
Physics, though it is mostly math, may sometimes be fun. You get to see how fast and how far u can shoot something, find out how much fore Superman needs to use to stop a train moving at a certain speed or, if you’re lucky enough, u might get to watch your teacher swing a bucket of water all the way around, then miscalculating how much velocity is needed for the water to stay in the bucket as it is at the top of the swing and gets water dumped all over him or her.
Science is not as boring as many people think, working hard and studying hard and you might just get rewarded with doing some fun labs and experiments."
Thursday, September 6, 2007
Teaching About Climate Change
Climate change.
It seems everyone these days has an opinion or an interest in the matter. It's even the question of whether climate change is a debatable subject seems like an object of debate. The questions are not simply, is it happening or not, but do the scientists even agree, and these often detract from the overriding question of what are we to do?
As science teachers, the question "what are we to do" resonates in a different way altogether. The topic of climate change crops up in the K-12 curriculum at different places, and many teachers, wanting to be mindful of the many different public perspectives, are unsure of how far they can go in their teaching of climate change concepts.
Perhaps in recognition of just how much has changed since even the introduction of the new Science 10 curriculum in 2003, the Alberta Government, in conjunction with the Lethbridge Environment Week Committee, has developed Climate Change: Creating Solutions for Our Future to assist teachers in the matter. The document not only provides teachers and students with resources of study, but also creates the groundwork for a consistent dialogue across the province. To download the document, click here.
It seems everyone these days has an opinion or an interest in the matter. It's even the question of whether climate change is a debatable subject seems like an object of debate. The questions are not simply, is it happening or not, but do the scientists even agree, and these often detract from the overriding question of what are we to do?
As science teachers, the question "what are we to do" resonates in a different way altogether. The topic of climate change crops up in the K-12 curriculum at different places, and many teachers, wanting to be mindful of the many different public perspectives, are unsure of how far they can go in their teaching of climate change concepts.
Perhaps in recognition of just how much has changed since even the introduction of the new Science 10 curriculum in 2003, the Alberta Government, in conjunction with the Lethbridge Environment Week Committee, has developed Climate Change: Creating Solutions for Our Future to assist teachers in the matter. The document not only provides teachers and students with resources of study, but also creates the groundwork for a consistent dialogue across the province. To download the document, click here.
Tuesday, September 4, 2007
And they're off!
Thousands of students marched back to class today, and it seems we are not the only ones excited by the start of the new school year. Exploding Beakers asked current University of Calgary student John MacDonald (Father Lacombe, Class of 2006) to reflect back on his high school days:
"One of my favorite moments in high school physics was when my teacher demonstrated what most would call a “hoot” tube. It is basically a tube which you hold overtop of a bunsen burner and a resonant frequency (which corresponds to a wavelength of half the length of the tube) is the result. This experiment peaked my interest into the properties of sound, how it is made and how it propagates through various mediums. This interest later lead to an exploration into the properties of sound absorption in a research paper I wrote in grade twelve. I went to the university in search of information, conducted some laboratory experiments that I came up with myself and came to a solid conclusion about sound absorption in regards to materials used, shape and even how these materials react at various frequencies. It is amazing how a small classroom demonstration can invoke so much interest, that it allowed me to go beyond the scope of the curriculum to discover other aspects of science outside the classroom."
"One of my favorite moments in high school physics was when my teacher demonstrated what most would call a “hoot” tube. It is basically a tube which you hold overtop of a bunsen burner and a resonant frequency (which corresponds to a wavelength of half the length of the tube) is the result. This experiment peaked my interest into the properties of sound, how it is made and how it propagates through various mediums. This interest later lead to an exploration into the properties of sound absorption in a research paper I wrote in grade twelve. I went to the university in search of information, conducted some laboratory experiments that I came up with myself and came to a solid conclusion about sound absorption in regards to materials used, shape and even how these materials react at various frequencies. It is amazing how a small classroom demonstration can invoke so much interest, that it allowed me to go beyond the scope of the curriculum to discover other aspects of science outside the classroom."
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