If you’ve used a search engine like Google or Yahoo anytime in the past two years or more, you have undoubtedly run across results from Wikipedia. If you haven’t been exposed to Wikipedia, the idea may surprise you. Wikipedia is a user-created, -edited, -maintained, and -patrolled, encyclopedia. Anyone can sign up for an account and add information about the topics covered in the encyclopedia. That information is then reviewed by other users, verified when possible, or marked as unverified if necessary. Wikipedia is a shining example of the collaborative power of the Internet. It is also possible to have that collaborative power in your own classroom, usually for free!

What Is A Wiki?
Wikipedia is just a large example of this month’s teacher tool: the wiki. The name comes from the Hawaiian word for “quick.” In its most simple form, a wiki is a web site that can be edited by multiple users. Wikis in Plain English, a video from Common Craft, gives a quick overview of a simple form of the wiki.

The wiki web page starts in a very simple, very blank form. It resembles a blank word processing document. Anyone with basic word processing skills can get started working on a wiki. Learning to use the “Link” button is what makes the wiki come to life. In Wikipedia, terms in each entry are linked to their corresponding Wikipedia entry. In your classroom wiki, you could have one main page that contains an outline of an intended course of study for the year, with hyperlinks to pages with information about each topic. What makes a wiki different from a static web page is the fact that you, as the teacher, will not be the only person entering information.

Wikis in the Classroom
Let’s take the course of study mentioned above as the example: Start with a single wiki page that outlines the concepts that will be covered throughout the year. Focusing a little more specifically on science, let’s say you intend to cover: weather, systems of the body, and electricity. Obviously there is a tremendous range of information that can fall under each of those categories.

As with any teaching strategy, wikis can exist as teacher-directed or student-directed exercises. On the teacher-directed end, some teachers choose to use their classroom wiki to seed their students’ learning. An example of this would be finding several web sites or videos online and linking or embedding them into the page for weather. This page can be used to give students an overview before they start the unit. The teacher controls the layout of the wiki, perhaps even locking the page for editing by others.

On the student-directed end, other teachers use the same idea, but allow their students to scour the Internet for the information. This allows students to choose what information is important to their learning.

Another idea involves using the wiki to summarize class information. For example:

After completing a section on the water cycle, Jeffery goes in the wiki and posts information about each of the stages. Jeffery happens to not be your most studious child, and he mixes up the concepts of evaporation and condensation. Allison logs on and reads the water cycle page, catches the error, and is immediately able to go in and fix the mishap. Allison also notes that there is more than one type of collection, giving details of surface runoff and percolation. Brittany, who hates to read, logs in and embeds a video from YouTube showing the stages of the water cycle.

But What If
The exchange between Jeffery, Allison and Brittany above probably sounds like the ideal. The reality is, at some point, Angel is going to log in and post some colorful explanation of a system of the human body, or delete someone’s hard work…or any number of other scary possibilities. The great thing about a wiki is that all changes are archived. As the teacher, you are capable of seeing just who made each and every change, when they worked on it, and go back to a previous version of the wiki before Angel’s little stunt.

Wikis in the K-2 Classroom
The revision and editing ideas above are perfect for students who are familiar with the computer and word processing. For the younger student, a wiki is a wonderful tool for introducing word processing. The K-2 classroom wiki will likely be more about adding information than editing. For example, in a class unit on community helpers, students could be grouped together to come up with sentences about firefighters, police officers, doctors, and other community helpers. Once all students had a sentence about a community helper, they could add that information to the wiki.

Another possibility would be to use the wiki to keep track of weekly spelling lists. The teacher could post the list and link each word to a page where students could add the definition and sentences using the word. This would be a wonderful tool to use when new students move in during the school year. Parents could review the words that the class had studied previously. This, of course, would not be limited to new students; any parents could help their child review previous learning. Though the younger students might not get to use all the aspects of the wiki, there are still plenty of possibilities for this tool.

Setting Some Ground Rules
The ground rules you set from the beginning will determine the success or failure of a wiki. They must be put in place early and adopted by all users to ensure the greatest value from the wiki. These rules can include everything from how often changes should be made, to what types of content can be uploaded, and down to the nitty-gritty aspects, like what font sizes and colors to use.

One major issue in this new digital world is copyright. Wikis provide an excellent opportunity to focus on the topic of documentation. Here the issue is not so much plagiarism as it is verification of information. Students often think citation of sources is a way for teachers to “get them” when they don’t do it correctly. With a wiki, the focus shifts to documentation as a way for users to get more information about a topic.

Another slippery slope with technology tools like a wiki is equitable access and grading. There are ways of grading a wiki that involve students making “significant contributions” to the wiki during a certain time period. The key is to make sure there is a clear definition of “significant contribution.”

Ideally, the grade for the wiki is only a small portion of the student’s overall grade. It is difficult to know for certain when Allison and Brittany come to you and say they were working together over the weekend but only Allison logged in. Your relationship with your students is important in these situations.

Yet another major point is picking a wiki service that allows you to create the usernames and passwords for your students. Some services require that students have email addresses, others do not. Wikispaces, one of the more popular wiki providers, inputs the teacher’s list of usernames and passwords so the teacher can know who logs on and when.

Getting Started
Starting a wiki is a simple process. One big decision to make at the start is who will have access to your wiki. Some wikis are public, which means they are open for all users to read and edit, like Wikipedia. Others are protected, available for everyone to read but only registered users to edit. Some wikis are kept entirely private and only registered users are able to read or edit the pages. You can start your wiki as a private wiki until “things are rolling” and then open it up for outsiders to view.

One wiki service provider, Wikispaces, is currently giving free private upgrades for teachers (the private space normally costs $5 per month). To start your wiki with this service visit: http://www.wikispaces.com/site/for/teachers100K.

The site walks you through the basic process. First you must create a username and password. This username allows you to access your wiki, as well as any others to which you may decide to subscribe.

Next, you will be asked some questions about your wiki. Create a space name which will become the URL for your wiki. Decide about the visibility of your wiki - public, protected, or private. Certify that you will use the Wiki for educational purposes and you’re on your way. Wikispaces provides a tutorial to get you started once you’ve registered.

The last thing you need to get your wiki rolling is usernames and passwords for your students. Wikispaces makes this easy. Rather than having the students sign up for Wikispaces accounts, you are able to control their usernames and passwords. All you have to do is create a comma separated document with your students’ names, usernames, and passwords. For example: Allison Smartypants, asmartypants, wiki*01

Students may figure out that they can later change their usernames, but remind them that as you track changes to the wiki, you only know the usernames you set up. This can be played up as necessary to prevent changes, since you can’t give BabyGurl1229 a grade because you don’t know which student she is!

A Powerful Tool
Wikis really are one of the most powerful tools of Web 2.0. The implications for education are immense. We are teaching students who have grown up in a digital world and need to see the relevance of the topics we are covering. Wikis provide a way to make classroom content relevant as well as technology content. Students will be allowed to take part in a collaborative experience that will be useful in their later job experiences. Remember, however, since creating the wiki is a collaborative process, the ideal is that no one person has too much control over the finished product. Not even you as the teacher!

Useful Links

Three wiki service providers:

PBWiki
http://www.pbwiki.com/

WetPaint
http://www.wetpaint.com/

Wikispaces
http://www.wikispaces.com/

For more information about wikis and wiki service providers:

WikiMatrix
http://www.wikimatrix.org/
A website that compares different wiki providers. You input features you are interested in, and it lists available sites.

WikisAcrossTheCurriculum
http://wikisacrossthecurriculum.wikispaces.com/
A wiki about wikis created for the North Carolina Middle School Association Conference in March 2008. Includes links to examples of classroom wikis and other resources.

Teachers First Wiki-Walkthrough
http://www.teachersfirst.com/content/wiki/
An overview of the use of wikis in all content areas.

Junkmail
No one is immune from receiving junk mail, but just how much of it is really finding its way to your address? In this simple activity, data collection and analysis are a key part of a project to learn about the importance of recycling. For one week, students count and record the number of pieces of junk mail received in their homes. The display and organization of the data can be modified to address the data and statistics topics the class is working on.

Numerical and Categorical Data
In this unit of three lessons, students formulate questions that can be addressed with numerical and categorical data. They then collect, organize, and display relevant data to answer those questions. As they collect categorical data, they consider how to word questions and how to record and display the data. As they collect numerical data, they focus on how to obtain measurements and how to represent and analyze the data by describing its shape and other important features. The final lesson examines specifically the differences in representing and analyzing categorical and numerical data.

Population Growth
This series of activities explores the mathematical and environmental aspects of population growth. How fast is the population growing? Has it always grown at this rate? Are the populations of different countries growing differently? How can we predict the population in the future? How will a growing population impact the environment? Using archived census and demographic data as well as up-to-the-minute population estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau, students will learn how to model population growth and study the implications of a changing population.

Boil, Boil, Toil and Trouble: The International Boiling Point Project
Be part of an annual event: Enroll your class in this free Internet-based collaborative project. Students discover which factors — room temperature, elevation, volume of water, or heating device — have the greatest influence on boiling point. Students boil water, record their data, and send it via email to be included in the site’s database of results. After gathering the data, activities focus on analyzing the compiled data to find answers to questions about how and why water boils.

We Need Your Help

We want and need your ideas, suggestions, and observations. What would you like to know more about? What questions have your students asked? We invite you to share with us and other readers by posting your comments. Please check back often for our newest posts or download the RSS feed for this blog. You can also request email notification when new content is posted (see right navigation bar).

Let us know what you think and tell us how we can serve you better. We want your feedback on all of the NSDL Middle School Portal math publications. Email us at msp@msteacher.org.

Largest machine
Fastest racetrack
Coldest place
Emptiest space
Hottest spot

on earth?

It’s the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) that is scheduled to be “turned on” September 10, 2008. The LHC is a gigantic scientific instrument near Geneva, Switzerland that is 100m underground. It is a particle accelerator where two beams of subatomic particles called hadrons will travel in opposite directions inside a circular accelerator, gaining energy with every 17-mile lap, and finally collide. Physicists are using the LHC to recreate the conditions just after the Big Bang, by colliding the two beams head-on at very high energy. The collider is currently cooling down to its final operating temperature of approximately
-271.25 °C (1.9 Kelvin).

There are many hypotheses as to what will result from these collisions (including the end of the world as we know it). Collisions in the LHC will generate temperatures more than 100,000 times hotter than the heart of the sun. Physicists hope that under these conditions, protons and neutrons will ‘melt’, creating a state of matter that probably existed just after the Big Bang when the universe was still extremely hot. Measurements on the particles created in the collisions – their paths, energies, and their identities – will be recorded and analyzed. Physicists are also hoping that the LHC will help them understand why our universe appears to be composed almost entirely of matter, but no antimatter.

The physics behind the LHC is, of course, beyond the understanding of middle school students. However, the LHC is a wonderful example to use when talking about the differences between science and technology and that technology provides tools for investigations, inquiry, and analysis.

Facts and Figures
This fact sheet describes the amazing specifications of this machine.

A Giant Takes on Physics Biggest Questions
This 2007 article from the New York Times describes the history of the project and provides a description of Higgs-boson, aka the God particle.

Doomsday Fears Spark Lawsuit
This March 27, 2008 blog post by MSNBC.com science editor Alan Boyle describes the lawsuit brought against the builders of the LHC “…over fears that the experiment might create globe-gobbling black holes or never-before-seen strains of matter that would destroy the planet.”

Twists in the Doomsday Debate
This August 19, 2008 blog post by Alan Boyle brings us up-to-date with the lawsuit and how the collider is still on schedule.

We Need Your Help

We want and need your ideas, suggestions, and observations. What would you like to know more about? What questions have your students asked? We invite you to share with us and other readers by posting your comments. Please check back often for our newest posts or download the RSS feed for this blog. You can also request email notification when new content is posted (see right navigation bar).

Let us know what you think and tell us how we can serve you better. We want your feedback on all of the NSDL Middle School Portal science publications. Email us at msp@msteacher.org.

___________________________________________________________________________________________________

Over the last few years, blogs have evolved into an exciting web-based publishing tool for individuals who want to communicate opinions and ideas, participate in online communities, or share their knowledge and experiences. As of February 2008, the blog search engine Technorati was tracking more than 112 million blogs, which is probably just scratching the surface. Thanks to free blogging software, anyone can “blog” and obviously does!

What is a Blog?

A blog (combining the words web and log) is a web page on which the owner can publish, or log, many entries. The entries are displayed as they are added and can look like journal or diary entries. Authoring a blog, maintaining a blog or adding an article to an existing blog is called “blogging.” Individual articles on a blog are called “blog posts,” “posts” or “entries.” A person who posts these entries is called a “blogger.” Posts consist of text, hypertext, images, and links to other web pages and to video, audio and other files. The most popular blogs (the ones that have the most viewers and links from other web pages) cover politics, gadgets, and entertainment.

Why Do Teachers Blog?

Unfortunately, not many of the most popular blogs are educational, but blogs do have many uses in education, including knowledge-sharing among teachers, students, and parents. Teachers will often start a blog to communicate with students and parents. This can be just the posting of homework or other assignments in one easy-to-find location. Other times a blog can be a rich description of the things taking place in the classroom, drawing the parents into what their children are working on or helping a student who is absent.

Teachers can take advantage of the comment feature of blogs, allowing students and parents to ask questions or for clarification of a post. Teachers can also use a blog to post questions about current subject matter as a way to introduce students to responding in writing and contributing collaboratively in online discussions. For instance, a teacher might pose thought-provoking questions about a book the class is reading and ask students to respond through the comments feature with their ideas. Teachers can blog for other teachers, in their school or around the world, about teaching experiences, philosophies, and methodologies.

Getting Your Students Blogging

Not all students will take to blogging (just as not all students enjoy writing), but with some students blogging creates enthusiasm for writing and communicating their ideas. Blogging can give students experience in real-world digital knowledge management, working with groups, and information sharing.

Consider providing older students with an individual blog. Younger students could take turns posting to a class blog. Whether done through software programs that allow teacher control and filtering of posts and comments, or through publicly available Internet services with oversight, blogs give students an opportunity to discover the work and joy of communicating their ideas in written form, and then getting feedback from others. Blogs don’t have to be accessible to the public; feedback can be confined to classmates or other approved individuals. With older students, the feedback can come from the wider audience of the World Wide Web. Student blogging has to be overseen with coaching and training to make sure that personal information is not shared and that blog posts are appropriate.

Home Delivery

Instead of going to a blog site every day to see if new posts have been added, readers can subscribe to services, commonly called news feeds or web feeds, that deliver the latest content to their desktop, PDA, or cell phone. RSS is a subset of the XML programming language that supports the distribution of content over the World Wide Web. Feedburner is a subscription service that delivers the actual content of the post to your email inbox. Not all blogs support these services but most do.

Getting Started

Starting a blog is easier than you think. Here are five steps** to consider when starting out.

1. Choose a Free Blog Service

First, check with your school’s technology center, which might provide a blogging service or have specific recommendations. The following free services have typical RSS features and much more.

ePals offers a free blog tool, called Schoolblog, to schools worldwide. Teachers can set different levels of monitoring, even for individual students. Teachers and students can make pages public, or limit blog views to particular audiences, including workgroups within a class. Students can upload files or photos, create polls, and use a calendar. The technology received an award for excellence from Teaching & Learning Magazine in 2006. With free student email from ePals, teachers can connect students to classrooms in 200 other countries and territories.

Edublogs is built on WordPress technology, which means bloggers can also create static pages, manage comments, password protect individual posts, and create multitiered and complex web sites without ever needing to know html. The system is ready-made for podcasting, videos, and photos. There are excellent video tutorials. By the way, this blog is based on WordPress.

Blogger is the easiest of the three to use, but it is designed for the general public, not just for K-12 educators. There is always the possibility for students to go to web sites they shouldn’t visit, so we do not recommend using this service for student blogs. Blogger allows simple customizations and interacts with Google mail accounts. You can hide the top navigation bar so unsuitable content is harder to find. You can also set up comment moderation so that comments come to your email before they are published.

Edublogs and Blogger allow you to choose RSS feeds as you set up your blog. To add the free Feedburner subscription service go to the home page and click on Blogs and Get Started. Feedburner supports Blogger and WordPress blogs - Edublog has a WordPress backend so click on WordPress if you are using Edublog.

2. Pick Your Audience

Is your blog directed to students, parents, other educators, or your family? Stay true to your audience.

3. Stay Focused

Precise, coherent, newsy, and insightful blogs on a specific topic attract readers. If you are focused on a single topic, search engines are more successful in helping direct users from around the world to your blog.

4. Include a Variety of Media

Mixing your text with images, multimedia, and presentations in your posts can be very compelling. There are many places to find images that can be published without special permission or fees. Be sure to follow the rights information found with the image you want to use. One caveat - make sure to follow your school’s policy on using student pictures or work on public web sites.

YouTube and TeacherTube are two sources of videos you can share with your audience. Slideshare allows you to upload your own PowerPoint presentations and link to hundreds of PowerPoint presentations.

Image Databases:

Creative Commons allows you to search multiple collections. A Creative Commons license means that images are available for re-use, provided that certain conditions are met.

Flickr is a site that allows users worldwide to upload and share pictures. To find images that are free for use, use the “advanced search” option and search for images licensed under a Creative Commons license.

National Science Foundation Multimedia Gallery includes images, audio, and video from NSF-funded research. Permission to use images and clips can be requested by contacting the webmaster.

All digital images on the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) web site are in the public domain and available for use.

The Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Online Catalog is a diverse, searchable collection. You can also search particular collections of interest.

5. Post Often With Meaningful Content

Keep on readers’ radars. Don’t blog about anything you don’t want your daughter, your principal, or school superintendent to know. Set a good example for your students.

One thing to keep in mind before you decide to start blogging: some personal information makes the blog more credible but address and phone number aren’t required. Once you are a pro at blogging, you might want to check out widgetbox, where you can choose from a gallery of photos, games, animations, functions and more to enhance your blog. Happy Blogging!

**The five steps were modified from the print article “Blog design and writing tips for newbies,” written by Nora Carr. The article appeared in the May 2008 edition of eSchool News.

Resources

Need examples or more information? Here are some blogs and posts to get you started!

Background Information Posts

Rationale for Educational Blogging

Blogging for Teachers and Students, Made Easy

Using Blogs in Science Education

Education Blogs

ScienceGeekGirl: Bad Science

Blogs for Learning

MiddleWeb: Middle School Blogs

National Science Teachers Association (NSTA) SciLinks: Middle School Blog

Links to School Bloggers

Thoughtful Blog Posts

Learning to Blog: The Elementary Way

Middle School, Day By Day From a Teacher’s Point of View

Almost Monday: Wildwood’s Weekly Staff News

Working Hours: How Much Time Do Teens Spend on the Job?
This activity challenges students to interpret a bar graph to determine the average number of hours teenagers work per week. A hint suggests that students assume that 100 students participated in the survey. Interesting statistics about the hourly wages and annual salaries of various occupations are given.

Does It Make a Difference Where You Shop?
In this online activity, your students compare soda prices from two stores using data displayed on a scatterplot graph. Students are shown how the line y = x can be used to analyze the data and draw a conclusion. Further problems involving scatterplots compare car mileage and the performance of NBA players.

The Global Sun Temperature Project
This web site allows students from around the world to work together to determine how average daily temperatures and hours of sunlight change with distance from the equator. Students can participate in the project each spring, April-June. You will find project information, lesson plans, and implementation assistance.

New York Times Daily Lesson Plan: Mathematics
These lesson ideas from the New York Times offer suggestions for ways to draw on real-world issues and statistics to develop lessons in mathematics. Each lesson idea includes a description of the activities along with handouts and questions for discussion. Links to related Times articles provide an interactive aspect to each of the lesson entries.

We Need Your Help

We want and need your ideas, suggestions, and observations. What would you like to know more about? What questions have your students asked? We invite you to share with us and other readers by posting your comments. Please check back often for our newest posts or download the RSS feed for this blog. You can also request email notification when new content is posted (see right navigation bar).

Let us know what you think and tell us how we can serve you better. We want your feedback on all of the NSDL Middle School Portal publications. Email us at msp@msteacher.org.

Down the Drain: How Much Water Do You Use?
In this Internet-based collaborative project, students collect data from their classmates and their household members about water usage. The goal is to determine the average amount of water used by one person in a day. They can share that information with other classes online and compare the average amount of water used per person per day in other parts of the country and the world. The project goes beyond merely collecting data to considering some real questions on wasted water. Information on how to set up the project, how to share data online, and how to publish student findings is included.

Boil, Boil, Toil and Trouble: The International Boiling Point Project
Which do you think has the greatest influence on the boiling point of water: room temperature, elevation, volume of water, or heating device? To answer this question requires input from people all over the world, and this online collaboration allows your students to enter the investigation. They will boil water, under controlled conditions, record information, and post it online. They can analyze the data sent in by others worldwide and reach their own conclusions on what makes a pot of water boil.

Musical Plates: A Study of Earthquakes and Plate Tectonics
In this series of lessons, students use real-time data to solve a problem, study the correlation between earthquakes and tectonic plates, and determine whether or not there is a relationship between volcanoes and plate boundaries. The science and data analysis are more demanding in this project than in the first two, but still within the range of the upper-level middle school student. Four activities, each designed to be used in a 45-minute class period, teach students how to access and interpret real-time earthquake and volcano data. “Real-time” actually does mean data on volcanic and earthquake activity that is going on during the time of your class investigation! Three enrichment lessons follow in this teacher-friendly unit.

We Need Your Help

We want and need your ideas, suggestions, and observations. What would you like to know more about? What questions have your students asked? We invite you to share with us and other readers by posting your comments. Please check back often for our newest posts or download the RSS feed for this blog. You can also request email notification when new content is posted (see right navigation bar).

Let us know what you think and tell us how we can serve you better. We want your feedback on all of the NSDL Middle School Portal publications. Email us at msp@msteacher.org.

Geoboards in the Classroom
This unit deals with the length and area of two-dimensional geometric figures using the geoboard as a pedagogical device. Five lesson plans are provided.

The Online Geoboard
An applet simulates the use of an actual geoboard without the usual limitations of working with rubber bands. Most materials designed for real geoboards may be used with this online version.

Rectangle: Area, Perimeter, Length, and Width
This applet features an interactive grid for forming rectangles. The student can form a rectangle and then examine the relationships among perimeter, area, and the dimensions of the rectangle as the rectangle dimensions are varied.

Investigating the Concept of Triangle and the Properties of Polygons: Making Triangles
These activities use interactive geoboards to help students identify simple geometric shapes, describe their properties, and develop spatial sense.

National Library of Virtual Manipulatives: Geometry (Grades 6—8)
This site has a number of virtual manipulatives related to the NCTM geometry standards.

We Need Your Help

We want and need your ideas, suggestions, and observations. What would you like to know more about? What questions have your students asked? We invite you to share with us and other readers by posting your comments. Please check back often for our newest posts or download the RSS feed for this blog. You can also request email notification when new content is posted (see right navigation bar).

Let us know what you think and tell us how we can serve you better. We want your feedback on all of the NSDL Middle School Portal publications. Email us at msp@msteacher.org.

Precisely measured the age of the universe
Found evidence of dark energy
Took images of distant galaxies in the young universe
Captured the “best ever” image of Mars
Provided proof of black holes
Gave first views of star birth
Showed how stars die
Caught spectacular views of Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9’s collision with Jupiter
Confirmed that quasars are galactic nuclei powered by black holes
Gathered evidence that the expansion of the Universe is accelerating

In January 2004, NASA decided to let nature take its course and not send any more servicing missions to Hubble. The outcry from astronomers and the public was amazing. In November 2006, the space telescope escaped its death sentence when NASA approved a shuttle mission to service and upgrade the instrument. And with the state-of-the-art instruments delivered by Servicing Mission 4 (SM4), the Hubble Space Telescope will be able to look onto the universe with new eyes, surpassing even its previous vision. The mission is scheduled for October 8, 2008. Veteran astronaut Scott D. Altman will command the final space shuttle mission to Hubble.

The first objective is to extend Hubble’s operational life by at least five years. Over a series of five spacewalks, astronauts will replace all six gyroscopes, install new batteries, and exchange a degraded Fine Guidance Sensor with a new one. They will also install replacement thermal insulation on critical component bays of the telescope, and attach a mechanism that will aid in Hubble’s final de-orbiting.

The second objective is to enhance Hubble’s scientific power. Astronauts will install two new instruments, the Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) and the Cosmic Origins Spectrograph (COS). WFC3, which sees in visible, infrared and ultraviolet light, will improve Hubble’s sensitivity 10-30 times because of improvements in technology and design that have occurred since the last instruments were installed. COS, Hubble’s new spectrograph, will improve Hubble’s sensitivity at least 10 times. Spectrographs are instruments that break light into its component colors, revealing information about the object emitting the light. COS sees ultraviolet light, which is particularly important because most of the ultraviolet light from space is absorbed by the Earth’s atmosphere, making ground-based telescope observations impossible.

The third objective is to repair Hubble’s out-of-commission instruments, the Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (STIS) and the Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS). STIS stopped working in 2004 and ACS failed in 2007. ACS is Hubble’s most prominent camera. Its wide field of view and ability to see in wavelengths from ultraviolet to visible light allows it to conduct broad surveys of the universe, study the nature and distribution of galaxies, and examine some of the universe’s earliest activity. ACS was responsible for the Hubble Ultra Deep Field Image, NASA’s deepest view of the cosmos.

STIS is a spectrograph. It separates light into its component colors, allowing scientists to examine the object’s temperature, chemical composition, density and motion. STIS can see in ultraviolet, visible and near-infrared and has been used to examine black holes, quasars and planets.

If these objectives can be successfully carried out during the servicing mission, then Hubble will be at the apex of its scientific capability, with six working, complementary science instruments. These upgrades will keep Hubble functioning at the pinnacle of astronomy well into the next decade.

Behind the Pictures
The Hubble Space Telescope is noted for providing beautiful and often bizarre color pictures of galaxies, planets, and nebulae. Do the pictures really reflect the colors these objects would have if we visited them in a spacecraft? Why do some of the pictures have an unusual stair-step shape?

Hubble On The Go
Get the newest images and discoveries from Hubble sent directly to your email box or PDA.

Showcase of Hubble’s Smash Hits
This slideshow of Hubble’s greatest images is breathtaking. You can also download wallpaper, images, and murals.

We Need Your Help

We want and need your ideas, suggestions, and observations. What would you like to know more about? What questions have your students asked? We invite you to share with us and other readers by posting your comments. Please check back often for our newest posts or download the RSS feed for this blog. You can also request email notification when new content is posted (see right navigation bar).

Let us know what you think and tell us how we can serve you better. We want your feedback on all of the NSDL Middle School Portal publications. Email us at msp@msteacher.org.

The Factor Game
This is more than a game; it is a full lesson plan, complete with handouts, including the game board, and questions for discussion. Students practice finding factors and then analyze the winning strategies. It’s this analysis that leads them to talk about prime, composite, abundant, deficient, and perfect numbers. The plan is downloadable and printable. (See the online version below.)

The Factor Game (i-Math Investigations)
This is the same game but online and interactive. One advantage here is that a single student can play against the computer. What is missing, however, is the winning strategy analysis, so rich in discussion. If you decide to use this version, you can simply borrow the discussion questions from the pdf version above.

Coloring Multiples in Pascal’s Triangle
Good practice in finding multiples of small factors! Students roll a number cube, then color in the multiples of that number in Pascal’s triangle. As they click on all the multiples of the number rolled, they also practice multiplication and observe the surprising patterns that form in the triangle.

Factor Tree (grades 6-8)
The activity starts with building a factor tree, but then moves to finding common factors and reviewing those old friends: GCF (greatest common factor) and LCM (least common multiple). The student must first find the prime factors for a pair of numbers. After two factor trees are built, the student drags the prime factors from each tree to a Venn diagram, showing the common factors of the two numbers in an overlapping area. Finally, the student enters the greatest common factor and the least common multiple, which can be checked immediately. This activity is interactive, visual, and good review!

We Need Your Help

We want and need your ideas, suggestions, and observations. What would you like to know more about? What questions have your students asked? We invite you to share with us and other readers by posting your comments. Please check back often for our newest posts or download the RSS feed for this blog. You can also request email notification when new content is posted (see right navigation bar).

Let us know what you think and tell us how we can serve you better. We want your feedback on all of the NSDL Middle School Portal publications. Email us at msp@msteacher.org.

Approximating Pi
Mathematics and science owe a great deal to Archimedes, including a way to approximate pi. Here is historical information along with an applet to approximate pi using the perimeter lengths of polygons inscribed within and circumscribed around a circle.

The Beginnings of Probability
Teachers can share some of this mathematics history as they work with students to compute probabilities for simple compound events, an NCTM expectation for students in grades 6-8.

The Golden Ratio
This rich site connects linear measurement, ratio and proportion, art, and mathematics history.

Measuring the Circumference of the Earth
This Internet project is hands-on, real-world, and historical. Students join with classes around the world to repeat the experiment of Eratosthenes — measuring the shadow of a meter stick and making calculations to approximate the circumference of Earth.

Pythagorean Puzzle
The Pythagorean theorem is at the intersection of algebra and geometry. At this site, learn about the life of Pythagoras and the development of the Pythagorean theorem. And use an applet to explore the meaning of the most famous equation in algebra.

Manipula Math with Java: Pythagorean Theorem
Here is another applet offering a more sophisticated approach to affirm in a visual way the validity of the Pythagorean theorem.

Tortoise and Hare Race
Uing an applet, students can vary parameters for the race. There is information about Zeno’s paradox along with exploration questions for students that can lead to a discussion about infinity.

We Need Your Help

We want and need your ideas, suggestions, and observations. What would you like to know more about? What questions have your students asked? We invite you to share with us and other readers by posting your comments. Please check back often for our newest posts or download the RSS feed for this blog. You can also request email notification when new content is posted (see right navigation bar).

Let us know what you think and tell us how we can serve you better. We want your feedback on all of the NSDL Middle School Portal publications. Email us at msp@msteacher.org.