Pat's Picks for STEM Educators

Science and Language Arts

Pat Viele — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 17:58:24 +0000

Frequently I get questions about science books for children. Sometimes the person asking is involved in doing outreach with children. Sometimes the question comes from a teacher who wants to add a language arts component to her science lesson plan. For example, a teacher who participated in the Researach Experience for Teachers (RET) program spent her summer measuring the strength of spider silk and wrote a lesson plan for her 7th graders. She wanted to tie it to language arts. Using the Short Story Index, we found “The Finnegan”, a short story by Ray Bradbury. The story was about a gigantic, lethal spider and seemed just about right for 7th graders. By the way, this is a good example of when to consult with your librarian. For those of you who prefer to do it yourself, here are a few suggestions of places to look for science literature for children.

California State Dept. of Ed. Literature Links

Cooperative Children’s Book Center

Science Books and Films

The Royal Society

National Science Teachers Association Outstanding Trade Books

Database of Award Winning Children’s Literature

2think.org

Carol Hurst’s Children’s Literature Site

Good Science Books for Children

Science Tracer Bullets from the Library of Congress

In addtion to on-line book lists, one can check these volumes. They will probably be in your school library, or your public library: Best Books for Children: Preschool Through Grade 6, Best Books for Middle School and Junior High Readers: Grades 6-9, and Best Books for High School Readers: Grades 9 - 12. For young children, I recommend the book A to Zoo, which suggests good books for many topics.

Evaluating Information

Pat Viele — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 17:25:53 +0000

One of the most useful skills a person can have is the ability to evaluate information. Here are some sources that will help students gain that skill.

Kathy Schrock’s Guide for Educators

With the advent of the World Wide Web and the huge amount of information that is contained there, students need to be able to critically evaluate a Web page for authenticity, applicability, authorship, bias, and usability. The ability to critically evaluate information is an important skill in this information age.

New York Times Lesson Plans

CyberSmart

Web Site Evaluation

Reference Resources on the Internet

Pat Viele — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 17:41:41 +0000

Are there good, reliable reference resources on the Internet? Yes. This list is by no means complete. It is intended to give you a feel for what’s out there.

American Society for Indexing

http://www.asindexing.org/site/refbooks.shtml

Council of Science Editors

http://www.councilscienceeditors.org/links.cfm

Fact Monster from Information Please

http://www.factmonster.com/science.html

General Tables of Units of Measurement (NIST)

http://ts.nist.gov/WeightsAndMeasures/Publications/upload/h4402_appenc.pdf

How Many? A Dictionary of Units of Measurement

http://www.unc.edu/~rowlett/units/

HyperPhysics, HyperMath, HyperBiology

http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/hframe.html

tcaep.co.uk (constants for science, math, and astronomy)

http://www.scenta.co.uk/tcaep/

The World Almanac e-Newsletter

http://www.worldalmanac.com/wa-newsletter.aspx?show=200802

Physics Word Problems

Pat Viele — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 18:54:37 +0000

It seems that understanding and solving physics word problems is difficult for many students. Here are some web pages that may prove useful.

Polya’s Recipe for Problem Solving

Cooperative Group Problem Solving in Physics

A Logical Probelm Solving Strategy

Class Warm Up Activities

Pat Viele — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 15:30:32 +0000

Occasionally one finds a few minutes that need to be filled with a fun activity or an activity designed to stimulate discussion. Here are a few places to look for that sort of material.

teachertube.com I especially like the Brain Teaser series.

The Ford/MIT Nobel Laureate Lecture Series One example is “Defining the Boundaries: Homeland Security and Its Impact on Scientific Research”.

The National Academy of Sciences offers interviews with 10 female scientists. Women’s Adventures in Science

The Space Weather Center offers the Magneto Mini Golf game.

Television offers some web sites that are fun and informative. The Science of James Bond from the BBC, for example.

The Research Channel at Virginia Tech offers audio and/or video lectures on a variety of topics.

Popular Science News

Pat Viele — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 13:36:50 +0000

e! Science News is an automated news search engine whose sole purpose is to ensure that you have access to the very latest and popular science breakthroughs. Give it a test drive!

Literature Search

Pat Viele — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 17:15:43 +0000

When I am faced with a need for information, my first instinct is to search the literature. If someone has written a good review of a topic, why re-invent the wheel? Access to various indexes varies from one institution to another. I am pleased to tell you about a service from the folks at the Astrophysics Data System (ADS) that allows one to search across several of the journals for science education at once. The Science Education Search covers Science Education journals such as American Journal of Physics, The Physics Teacher, Physics Education, and Astronomy Education Review. For example, a search on solar wind retrieved 24 citations. The find review articles feature allows one to limit a search to review articles in science education journals.

Another free source of science education materials is science.gov. One can search across all 12 sources, or limit a seach to a specific source, such as science education. Some of the materials found will be full-text, for example the ERIC (Educational Resources Information Center) materials.

Communities for Physics and Astronomy (comPADRE)

Pat Viele — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 20:44:32 +0000

comPADRE is the physics portion of the National Science Digital Library. It has a wealth of information for faculty at all levels and for students. Do yourself a favor and get acquainted with this valuable resource. The description below comes from Dr. Bruce Mason, Principle Investigator for the project.

Browsing the ComPADRE Collections:

Go to http://www.compadre.org. Collections are listed by the intended audience: student, teacher, researcher, etc.

Physical Sciences Resource Center- http://psrc.aapt.org
Comprehensive collection of resources from all topics

Physics Front- http:// http://www.thephysicsfront.org/
Support for pre-college teachers, especially new physics teachers, at the High School level and younger

The Nucleus- http://www.the-nucleus.org
Supporting undergraduate physics students

Quantum Exchange- http://www.thequantumexchange.org Resources to enhance quantum physics courses

Astronomy Center- http://www.astronomycenter.org
Resources and references for intro astronomy instructors

Physics to Go- http://www.compadre.org/informal
An online magazine of physics and astronomy for the public

PER Central- http://www.compadre.org/per
Resources and community tools for PER researchers and physics teachers interested in PER results

PTEC- http://www.compadre.org/ptec
Physics Teacher Education Coalition web site and resources

Open Source Physics- http://www.compadre.org/osp Simulations and curriculum for upper level physics courses.

Under development:

Advanced Laboratories- http://advlabs.aapt.org Tips & techniques, manuals, and equipment for the upper division laboratory experience.

Computers and Computation in Physics Education- Computational physics and the integration of computation into the physics curriculum.

Introductory Undergraduate Physics- Tools and and curriculum for introductory physics, from calculus-based courses to “physics for poets”.

Relativity- Recommended materials for courses in relativity.

Outreach by Institutions

Pat Viele — Sun, 08 Jun 2008 19:17:42 +0000

Institutions who have NSF grants must offer outreach programs. I will show links to the various outreach programs here at Cornell because I know Cornell best! But, other instituions also offer lesson plans that have been written as part of their outreach programs. For example:

Columbia University Summer Research Program for Science for Teachers–lesson plans

Below I list a few of the programs at Cornell. My point is–explore your home institution for similar resources.

Research Experience for Teachers–RET Modules

Labatory for Elementary-Particle Physics– teacher materials

Cornell Science Inquiry Partnerships –curriculum resources

Cornell Institute for Physics Teachers –labs & lending library

Cornell University Center for Advanced Computing — math and science gateway

Curious about astronomy?

Astronomy for High School Students

Pat Viele — Thu, 29 May 2008 14:07:07 +0000

The Perimeter Institute for Theorectical Physics offers curriculum called “The Mystery of Dark Matter.” It has been reviewed by a high school physics teacher who says: ” The
activities are very good and the information supporting the labs is thorough. Materials are well fit for an upper high school physics class (i.e. AP, Honors, or better Regents students.).”

The Mystery of Dark Matter

Science House, at the University of North Carolina, offers suggestions for high school astronomy curriculum.

Astronomy Curriclum

The Center for Astronomy Education at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, offers some ideas.

Center for Astronomy Education

The Cool Cosmos at the California Institute of Technology also offers some materials.

Cool Cosmos

The Astronomical Society of the Pacific also offers materials for educators.

Educational Resources

The Sky View Cafe offers and interactive planetarium

Sky View Cafe

Here is the link for Cosmos magazine materials.

Cosmos Magazine

The NSDL (National Science Digital Library) strand maps often have lesson plans attached.

NSDL strand map

F.R.E.E. (free resources for educational excellence)

F.R.E.E.