by on February 8, 2012 1 Comment

NAT GEO The Wild Mississippi

NAT GEO presents The Wild Mississippi, a three-part TV program on Sunday, February 12.  I viewed the three episodes today, and recommend that you tune in Sunday night at 8:00 P.M (Eastern) to view the first of the three episodes.  The second and third episodes follow at 9:00 P.M. and 10:00 P.M.  Check the schedule and details here.

Join the Wild Mississippi Blog Carnival here.

If you are teaching life science, high school biology, earth science, or an ecology or environmental science course, you will find these programs great resources for your students.  I viewed the shows on my 27″ Mac, and the imagery is gorgeous as we travel the river, and witness the wildlife, and power of the Mississippi from its beginning in Minnesota and to the Mississippi River Delta in the Gulf of Mexico.

  • Episode 1: Wild Mississippi: Deep Freeze
  • Episode 2: Wild Mississippi: Raging Waters
  • Episode 3: Delta Blues

Gibson, LA: Wide shot of the bayou from the bow of the boat. (Photo Credit: © NGC / Whitney Beer-Kerr)Thibodeaux, LA: Cameraman Jeff Wayman leaning over the front of the boat. (Photo Credit: © NGC / Whitney Beer-Kerr)

Thibodeaux, LA: Cameraman Jeff Wayman leaning over the front of the boat. (Photo Credit: © NGC / Whitney Beer-Kerr)

Here are links to two videos that will show you the impressive quality of the shows. According to NAT GEO, they explored the length of the Mississippi for an entire year, traveling the full length of the river (2350 miles).

The Mississippi is an amazing river, and every time we cross this river, we are awed at its majesty as it traverses the the continent.

Video 1: Fishing with alligator snappers
Video 2: Bobcat prey

 

 

Share on TwitterSave on DeliciousShare via email
Filed Under: Biology, Earth Science, Environment Tagged With: , ,
by on August 1, 2011 1 Comment

3 Inquiry Lessons to Begin Your Science Course This Year

Do you have your plans worked out for the first days of the courses you will teach beginning this month or in September?  Here are three ideas you might consider, especially if you want to begin the year engaging your students in a science inquiry activity.

I introduced these projects in the last post as Web 2.0 technology projects.  You can do these projects with your students either with or without using the Internet.  However, there are websites for each project, and you are free to use the Website, activities, and forms you will find at each site.

Three science inquiry projects are described here that engage your students in hands on activities, and would be great to use at the beginning of the year.  It would give you an opportunity to observe your students doing inquiry, and also help them learn to work together in small collaborative teams.

Project Green Classroom

The Project Green Classroom Web site. Use the site to organize your students as they investigate the environmental quality of your classroom.

How green is your classroom?  Your school? How would rate the environmental quality in your classroom?

In this project your class is divided into six teams, each responsible for investigating one aspect of your science classroom—yes the actual physical space of your classroom.

As you can see from the screen shot of Project Green Classroom website, there are links for each team (Weather, Air quality, etc), and links for your students share their data, and access data from other classrooms.

The materials you need are listed on the website under each of the tabs (weather, air quality, dimensions, population, microorganisms, trash).

Project Ozone

Project Ozone web site.

Advanced Planning: To do this project, it is advised that you order in advance Eco-Badge Kit that your students will use to measure the ground-level ozone in the air either around their school, or at their home.

In this project, you students will not only learn about ozone (stratospheric and ground-level), but will also monitor ground level ozone using the Eco-Badge system.  The Eco-Badge is a chemically treated piece paper.  Using a colormetric chart (included with the Eco-Badge Kit), students can compare the color change on the paper strips with the chart to determine the ozone level in part per billion.

Late summer is a good time to do this project because of the high temperatures in Northern Hemisphere schools.  Southern Hemisphere schools can participate and provide interesting comparative data.

Project River Watch

Project River Watch Website

Advanced Planning:  Dissolved oxygen kits from Chemetrics are recommended to be used in this project to measure the dissolved oxygen level in the water. Other materials you will need include: pH paper, meter stick, stop watch, thermometer, rubber boots, gloves, safety goggles, collection devices (jars, pails), pencil, paper, crayons, smart phone (for digital images and movies).

In this project, your students will monitor various attributes of a local stream, or river, or another body of water.

As with the first two projects, all of the data forms that you will need are available at the project wesite.

Special note:  Some teachers have brought the stream into the classroom by making a video tape of the stream and area of data collection.  By bringing in samples of water, and soil, students can complete most of the activities in class.

Share on TwitterSave on DeliciousShare via email
Filed Under: Citizen Scientists, Environment, Humanistic Science, Pedagogy, Technology Tagged With: , , , , , ,
by on July 31, 2011 Leave a Comment

Three Web 2.0 Science Projects for Your Science Courses

The Web 2.0 science projects described in this post will enable your students to interact with students around the globe.

Web 2.0 refers to using the Web in a more interactive, and social way where students can create, share, publish and work together in collaborative groups.  Over the years, science teachers have created a variety of Web 2.0 projects for K-12 students.

This post is to announce the availability of three Web 2.0 projects that you can use with your students.  The projects are geared to students in grades 4 – 12, and they can be used in a variety of situations.  They could be used as an interesting way to begin the year (especially Project Green Classroom), individual or small teams of students could use any of the projects as a starting place for a project or a science fair investigation.  You could use any of these as part of your ongoing curriculum.

The Projects

  • Project Green Classroom—you and your students try and answer the question: How green in our classroom?  Off to the project.
  • Project Ozone–students explore the quality of the air they breathe, and also investigate two aspects of ozone: the good and the bad.  Read more…
  • Project River Watch–students learn to monitor a local stream or river, and use the data collected to make an evaluation of the quality of the stream’s water.  Further information…

Websites

Each project has its own website from which you can work with your students, and connect with students and teachers in other schools.

Access and Further Information

Please go to Web 2.0.  Here you will find details, and links to each of the project websites.

Share on TwitterSave on DeliciousShare via email
Filed Under: Biology, Citizen Scientists, Environment, Health & Medicine, Technology Tagged With: , , , , ,
by on July 5, 2011 Leave a Comment

Summer Science Film Festival

The Learning Network of the New York Times sponsored a series of films in their Film Festival that focused on “classroom worthy” documentaries. One of the days was devoted to science, and the feature film, Footprints (synopsis shown below) is available to you free from Snagfilms.

Follow this link to see all of the featured summer films that focus on technology, history, science and the arts.

Watch more free documentaries

Share on TwitterSave on DeliciousShare via email
Filed Under: Environment, Technology Tagged With: , ,
by on June 30, 2011 Leave a Comment

AAAS Vigorously Opposes Attacks on Climate Change Researchers

Yesterday, the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) published an open letter on its website with the headline: AAAS Board: Attacks on Climate Researchers Inhibit Free Exchange of Scientific Ideas.  In the letter, the Board said:

Scientists and policymakers may disagree over the scientific conclusions on climate change and other policy-relevant topics. But the scientific community has proven and well-established methods for resolving disagreements about research results. It uses a self-correcting system in which research results are shared and critically evaluated by peers, and experiments are repeated when necessary.

The harassment of leading climate scientists is exemplified by the American Tradition Institute’s suit against NASA (in particular climate scientist Dr. James Hansen).  In this case, the ATI is going after a scientist who has been a leader in NASA’s climate science research program.  This is a serious intrusion in the way science is conducted.  Hansen’s work has been published in major scientific journals and his work has been subjected to peer review process which science used to verify the reliability and validity of research papers.  The ATI, which does not use the same peer review tradition as used in scienc, relies on media outlets and its own website to claim it is presenting the “otherside” of environmental findings that have been documented and established as credible science in scientific  journals.

Here is the approach taken by the ATI.  Instead of doing research that might shed light on global warming and the effects of CO2 on global temperatures, they instead file this request:

This request seeks records of longtime, taxpayer-funded activist Dr. Hansen, to determine whether Dr. Hansen has filed applications for outside employment, like speeches, books (emails obtained already indicate NASA staffed worked on this), cash awards and other gifts, and other support.

Does this organization provide a list of references that call into question some of Hansen’s findings.  No, they want to uncover any dirt they might find on the “taxpayer-funded activist.”  Instead of providing credible evidence that disputes Hansen’s findings, they take a “legal” approach to try and sue NASA and Hansen, and in so doing change the way science proceeds.

But this is the way individuals and groups deal with scientific findings that oppose personal or corporate beliefs.  That is to say, they realize that they can not compete in the scientific world of journals and research papers, and instead rely on courts, and media outlets to propel their ideas into the public.

So, how is a teacher to deal with this sort of bias?  How does the science education community respond to groups such as ATI?  How would explore this your science classroom?

Share on TwitterSave on DeliciousShare via email
Filed Under: Climate Change, Environment, Politics, STSE Tagged With: , , , , ,
« Older Posts