Month: September 2007

Ted.com

Mny of the best resources on the internet involve video-clips which unfortunately are not available in most schools.

One resource which is available is www.ted.com

As it says itself “Inspired talks by the worlds’ greatest thinkers and doers”. wonderful

Science and Astronomy talks are there, along with much, much more.

Many of these involve concepts which should be part and parcel of out students’ education, but because of the inertia involved in education will probably never appear on a syllabus until they in turn have become obsolete. If nothing else it’s nice to listen to a talk in the background while doing other work on the computer.

It “brings together the world’s most fascinating thinkers and doers, who are challenged to give the talk of their lives (in 18 minutes)”.  It tends to be the antithesis of our conventional educational system in that it encourages interdisciplinary links rather than pigeon-holing knowledge into autonomous subject areas.

This talk by James Watson of The Double Helix fame is a perfect example. We / I need to show these more often in class.
http://www.ted.com/talks/view/id/35

Currently listening to ten ways the world could end:
http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/167

quiz with a difference

Saw this recently in a physics education journal (IOP Classroom Physics).
I’m probably the last person to have come across this, but still . . .

When giving a quiz why not give the answers and have the troops figure out the questions?
It gets them thinking, as opposed to simply vomiting back up the facts they learned off the night before.
Here are some sample questions / answers for junior cert magnetism:

1. Iron, cobalt and nickel
Which elements are magnetic?

2. They repel each other
What do two north poles or two south poles do when they are near each other? 3. It lines up with the magnetic field
What does a magnetic compass do?

4. A region of space where a magnetic material experiences a force
What is a magnetic field?

5. Increasing the number of coils on an iron core
How could you increase the strength of an electromagnet?

6. Away from the north pole and towards the south pole
Which way does a compass needle point when near a magnet?

7. You end up with two smaller magnets
What happens when you break a magnet in half?