Lab Out Loud®

I know many of you are still fighting for Pluto (let it go, it’s over). You might find tonight’s NOVA special, The Pluto Files on PBS, helpful as you work through your loss. Host Neil deGrasse Tyson (also author of the book The Pluto Files) walks us through Pluto’s story from rise to fall.

Check out the trailer. After tonight’s airing, you can watch the video at the show’s website.

Also at the site is:

• hate-mail from third graders,
• a name your favorite planet contest
• a place to share new ways to remember planet names.

Haven’t had enough, check out the book The Pluto Files.

By the way, I’ve heard Neil deGrasse Tyson speak several times. He is a frequent guest on shows like The Daily Show and The Colbert Report. His enthusiasm is simply awe-inspiring. He is a true fighter for everything science. I recommend following everything he does.

We had a chance to meet and later interview Neil deGrasse Tyson for episode 32 last May. He talked about science literacy and other science education matters; his comments on grades really struck a cord with me.

We’ve talked about laboratory safety in the past here at Lab Out loud, but we’ve never put our thoughts to song.

Fortunately, the folks at The Sounds of Science hit the right notes for us.

While reviewing early recommendations for new social studies standards, a review team for the Texas State Board of Education decided to remove Neil Armstrong from the ’science strand’ of their fifth grade social studies textbook.

Their reasoning? Armstrong wasn’t a scientist.

Now, I understand what this team is trying to do. They wish to keep the focus on learning instead of memorizing names and dates. But come on, he walked on the moon! He’s on one of the shortest short-lists of all time.

Nevertheless, this isn’t what bothers me the most. Saying Armstrong isn’t a scientist is preposterous. If being part of one of the most monumental investigations known to humanity doesn’t make you a scientist- what in the world (or out of the world) does?

I stress to my students that science is for all of us regardless of the careers we choose. As citizens, we all need to be scientists. So many of the issues that our country is struggling with (climate change, health care, energy) have roots in science. How do we explain to our students that they are qualified to join the scientific community and examine issues critically and rationally when others don’t even consider walking on the moon enough to be called ’scientist’?

Even if Armstrong isn’t technically a scientist (which I disagree with- engineers count in my book) he should still be included as an important part of science since he represents the ultimate citizen scientist.

Last night Dr. Mark Devlin appeared on The Colbert Report to talk about BLAST the Movie. The movie is a documentary about an experiment in 2006 that involved launching a car-sized telescope in Antarctica using a balloon.

Before Lab Out Loud, we did a podcast for the Wisconsin Society of Science Teachers called Periodicity.  Dr. Devlin, a graduate of University of Wisconsin, spoke to us in January 2007- shortly after his return from Antarctica.

You can listen to the interview as Dr. Devlin discussed the science involved with the BLAST experiment, the struggles they encountered and the importance of basic research. As you listen to Dr. Devlin describe his experiences with such passion, it quickly becomes apparent that this experiment’s story has everything a compelling movie requires to keep you at the edge of your seat.

Our show notes also provided links to blogs that several of the graduate students maintained while they were in Antarctica. They provided a personal glimpse into the lives of scientists as their Antarctic mission unfolded. They also posted some amazing photos.

Find links to all of our old Periodicity episodes at:
http://www.wsst.org/podcasts.asp

This weekend Brian and I are happy to be in Las Vegas attending The Amaz!ng Meeting7 (TAM7). TAM7 is a conference sponsored by the James Randi Educational Foundation (JREF) that showcases speakers and guests that focus on critical thinking and skepticism.

You might remember our discussion with Phil Plait (a.k.a. The Bad Astronomer) in episode 12 when we talked about the importance of skepticism in science education. Plait is now the president of the JREF and we were excited to finally meet him in person.

Phil Plait, President of JREF

The conference opened with a keynote by Bill Prady, Executive Producer of our favorite sitcom The Big Bang Theory. Prady’s show has some wonderful examples that can be used in the science class. (We hope to get a chance to talk to him more about this in our third season.)

Bill Prady, Executive Producer of 'The Big Bang Theory'

‘The Big Bang Theory’ is a show I started watching after our conversation with Jennifer Ouellette in episode 28. Ouellette also spoke at TAM7 this afternoon.

Jennifer Ouellette, Science and Entertainment Exchange

If you’re here at the conference, please stop us to say hello (we’re wearing our Lab Out Loud t-shirts today). Can’t attend the conference? See what’s happening by following our Twitter feeds (@basler and @bbartel); the entire conference is also available via live stream.

My favorite webcomic, XKCD, recently featured a hilarious senario that reminded me of our interview with Crittercam installer Mike Heithaus.

So maybe this is how Mike decided at the early age of five that he was going to pursue scientific research.

It was early spring of 1998 and I was student teaching in a 7th grade Life Science class. Now, I’m not a biology person – not certified to teacher it at all – but here I was trying to teach kids about the parts of the cell to the tune of Gilligan’s Island. Desperate times called for desperate measures.

The nucleus is the control center,
the ribosomes make proteins
The endoplasmic reticulum,
is the cell’s transport system

The lysosomes are the clean-up crew,
they break down the cell’s waste,
The mitochondria are powerhouses,
they make the cell’s energy
they make the cell’s energy

Vacuoles are storage tanks,
the cell membrane lets things in and out
These parts float in the cytoplasm,
it’s a jelly-like material
—— a jelly-like material

These were the parts of an animal cell,
plants have a few things different,
There’s a cell wall—– for their support,
They have chloroplast—– to make food,
no lysosomes,
usually one vacuole and it’s real large,
In a plant cell

Not only did I write the song but I also recorded myself singing it. Here is the oldest audio recording of me ever posted online. (I think my voice even had more hair back then.)

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Download the audio directly: gilliganscell.mp3

On Jay Leno’s Garage, Jay introduces us to the new wind turbine destine for the house of Ed Begley Jr.

The new design uses magnetic levitation to reduce friction, noise, vibration and other forms of energy loss.

I wonder how this will affect the rivalry that Ed has with his neighbor Bill Nye?

I only have a half day of school the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. With only twenty minute classes, some might wonder if there is enough time to do anything.

Well, I make my class all about turkeys on this day. Turkey wishbones to be more precise.

First, we examine the age old tradition of breaking the wishbone to see who pulls harder. Using two Vernier force probes, we split this tradition in half. I give my students a quick handout (that I modified from Vernier’s Thanksgiving Experiments page) to get the students on their way.

For the rest of the class period, we try to perform a wishbone balancing act. See what it’s all about in the video below.

What I like about these two activities, is that there is a good chance the students will be talking about them with their family the next day. I have had several students make wishbones so they can try the wishbone balancing act out with their family.

When students take science home, everyone wins. And I’m thankful for that.

Share your Thanksgiving related activities in the comments below.

As the 2007-2008 school year was coming to a close, I came across an article written in the New York Times by physicist Dr. Brian Greene. With graduation just days away, final grades to enter and textbooks to collect, I skimmed through the article and went back to closing out the school year. Yet, I could not get the points in Dr. Greene’s article out of my head. All summer long, it kept me thinking about how I teach science.

Dr. Greene’s article, Put a Little Science in Your Life, emphasized the importance of making time in your science lessons to discuss the big questions. He argued that topics like the formation of the universe or origins of life take a back seat because we are too focused on working our way through our standards-driven curriculum. Dr. Greene points out that science teachers are shackled to a sequence of topics laid out in our curriculum which leaves no room for discussions about cutting-edge experiments and discoveries that are happening right now.

Dr. Greene wrote:

We rob science education of life when we focus solely on results and seek to train students to solve problems and recite facts without a commensurate emphasis on transporting them out beyond the stars.

As a physics teacher, I start each year teaching motion, then forces and so on. Almost every concept in our physics curriculum was nailed down over 400 years ago. But Dr. Greene’s article got me thinking- what about the physics that is being investigated today? Modern physics is full of extraordinary stories. It deserves to be showcased with more than a few videos and a couple Einstein activities scattered throughout the year.

My school as a model of the LHC

So now I’ve entered the 2008-2009 school year with a new goal- to weave current, cutting-edge science into my lessons. Fortunately, the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) went online early this morning. To mark the event, my students converted our school’s third floor into a model of the new accelerator (it helps that I teach in a round school). We strung yarn around our circular hallway to represent the two beams. Students hung posters along the hallway that described things like quarks, string theory and the Big Bang. Other students put up posters where the yarn beams cross to describe the experiments that are taking place in our model of the LHC.

This year I still plan to teach motion and forces, but my examples won’t be just about cars, arrows or balls. I hope to throw in a proton or muon from time to time too.