This went down well at the ISTA conference in Letterkenny at the weekend where I was demonstrating as part of the Science on Stage team and I promised people I would let them know where I got it, so here it is:
teachersource.com
There is a lot more where this came from. I posted a brief note on the site recently , so browse the entire site. Remember the dollar has rarely been this low.
I will stick a video of the kit in action on youtube sometime this weekend (hopefully).
Just over one per cent (2.3 million people) of the population of America is in jail at the moment.
One in 15 adult black men is incarcerated; this becomes one in nine black men aged between 20 to 34.
In case you missed that: ONE BLACK MALE IN EVERY NINE AGED BETWEEN 20 AND 34 IS CURRENTLY IN JAIL.
America really is a country of contradictions.
Meanwhile, we got our own problems
Are these young people all “scumbags”? Certainly your heart goes out to whoever has to live in these areas and put up with this level of lawlessness.
I often wonder how I would have ended up if I grew up in an environment like this.
I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t be good news.
But damned if I have any of the answers.
How does school
Just read about these boys on Damien Mulley’s blog
John Collision is in fifth year in Castletroy College in Limerick. During transition year (and into his holidays) he and his brother Patrick set up an IT company. They later merged with two similar-minded colleagues from the UK.
Their company – Auctomatic – was recently acquired “in a multi million-dollar deal” by a Canadian multinational:
The Auctomatic mission is making selling online easy. We think it should be simple to take your stuff and list it on marketplaces like eBay, Amazon and Overstock. But it shouldn’t end there. Auctomatic does more than just let you list your items and manage your sales – it teaches how you can maximize your profits and to increase the success of your business. With Auctomatic you can be running your own successful online business in no time.
Must be kinda hard as a teacher to give out to someone who has earned more in a couple of years than the teacher has made over their whole career.
“Now John, one of these days you will be coming back to us for a reference . . .” 🙂
John studies Physics and Applied Maths as part of his Leaving Cert course. It would be interesting to hear his views on what -if anything – he has learned from his formal education.
The Institute of Physics used to run “Paperclip Physics”; a competition where students had five minutes to present/teach a given topic in an interesting fashion.
This year they have replaced this competition with “Planet-Scicast”, where students have to put together a two and a half minute video-clip on any aspect of Science.
It’s a wonderful idea. Entries are closed for this year but I hope to encourage some of my own students to think about it over the Summer and enter next year. I know that I learned more Phyiscs in my first year of teaching than I did in the previous six years of preparing for exams. Hopefully students will benefit in a similar fashion.
In the clip above there is a wonderful moment when the student says
It takes 365 days for the Earth to orbit around the Sun, but 366 on a leap year.
Wouldn’t it be great to be able to ask the class why this might be so? 🙂
Hats off to the teacher – it is wonderful teaching, and much more importantly, wonderful learning
My job appears to be rather mundane; three minutes into watching this clip I began to feel decidely queasy.
I can’t believe they don’t wear some kinds of safety harness
I mentioned The Leidenfrost Effect in a previous post
I tried it recently and couldn’t believe that it worked every time. Really simple but cool demo.
A few more very impressive videos on this effect here
I mentioned Michael Grehan in a previous post. Michael teaches Science and Physics in Belvedere College, Dublin.
He has just received an IOP (Institute on Physics) Phyics Teacher award. These are awarded every year to teachers in Great Britain and Ireland, but there’s not necessarily an Irish recepient every year.
Very well deserved. Congratulations Michael. What are you going to do with the two million euros winner’s prize?
In the photo above Michael demonstrates Heron’s Fountain at the ‘Frontiers in Physics’ teachers conference at NUI Galway (20 Sept 2003).
One of the few advantages of the downturn in the US economy is the favourable exchange rate. The most impressive Science Shop I have come across is teachersource.com from the good ol’ U S of A.
I must have paid the guts of €40 for the Hyman Fire Piston from TechnologySupplies.co.uk from England, which admittedlyis also a very useful site.
Teacher Source has it here for $18.95. Maybe €12 or so?
They are also amazingly prompt. I used them quite a few times and delivery is usually within ten days, sometimes even within the week. I did get caught with Customs Tax once though.
Loads ‘n loads of cool toys educational resources!
Stumbled across this today while browsing through a page on the Department of Education’s website. I was really impressed that the Department was on the ball here; classroom blogs – Absolutely, way to go.
It would appear I misread.
It is so true what Francis Bacon said all those years ago: “For what a man would like to be true, that he more readily believes.”
Think for Yourself 
