Twitter
Google+
PinterestThis week’s newsletter features invisibility cloaks for buildings, lab-grown hamburgers and how to charge a mobile phone using a T-shirt.
Flipping forces
Next Tuesday is Pancake Day and to celebrate the flipping fantastic feast that it is, here is an idea that can be used to reinforce knowledge of force diagrams with KS2 or KS3 students.
Using the downloadable resource, students create their own diagrams to show the forces involved when flipping a pancake. More
Science in the news-letter #2
Another five science new stories from around the world feature in this week’s edition.
Thank to you all those who sent me such positive comments about the newsletter – I am glad it proving to be useful.
Chemistry speed dating
Using anthropomorphism is a really useful technique when it comes to teaching the more challenging concepts in chemistry.
After all, atoms behave just like people in a lot of ways, including matters of love.
Science in the news-letter
This idea came from @ejw232, a teacher on Twitter, who asked if there was any website that supplied print-off news headlines she could display in her classroom. I’m never one to shy away from a challenge, so here is the first (I’m hoping of many) science in the news downloads.
It includes five of the most interesting, and relevant to school science, news stories of the past week. Each story has QR code and URL which will send students to the news story and a question to get them thinking. This could used as an enrichment activity, competition or homework.
I would love feedback on this new idea. Please let me know if this is useful or if there is anything you want added to make it more useable in the classroom.
Thanks!
Cell alchemy
Credit: Karin Pierre, Institut de Physiologie, UNIL, Lausanne.
The story
Researchers in California have successfully converted mouse skin cells into brain cells, eliminating the need for stem cells.
It is hoped that the same procedure could be carried out on human cells, bringing the possibility of stem cell therapy for conditions such as Alzheimer’s closer to reality.
This is a great story to use in a GCSE lesson on stem cells. Students could discuss why this is a better alternative to using those from embryos.
Weblinks
Great stem cell teaching resources from the Learn Genetics website.
Global warming in fast-forward
This video comes courtesy of NASA and shows how global temperatures have changed over the last 131 years. It would make a great starter to any lesson on climate change. You can clearly see that temperatures started to showed a significance increase from the 1970s due to an increase in greenhouse gas emissions from energy production, industry and vehicles. Students could be asked to spot this trend and come up with an explanation for it.
Spider-goat, spider-goat…
Credit: the prodigal untitled13 @ Flickr
…does whatever a spider-goat does.
Can she swing
from a web?
No she can’t
she’s a goat…
…however, she can produce spider silk proteins in her milk.
The father of genetics
This is a great video about Gregor Mendel and his work – a topic found in most GCSE science specifications.
It was produced by Nottingham Trent University for their ‘My favourite scientist’ project. You can find videos about other scientists on their website.
Fertility treatments
A couple of links and short lesson ideas based on recent news stories to use in lessons on fertility treatments.