The plight of the Amur tiger: Teaching food chains and energy losses
The story Last week saw the International Tiger Conservation Forum being held in St Petersburg, Russia where high-profile representatives from 13 countries met to pledge to help save this engendered species from extinction.
A micro pig is not just for Christmas
The story Micro-pigs are the latest celebrity pet craze after Paris Hilton has been with a tiny pig in her handbag and Posh spice has reportedly bought two for David Beckham.
Kinect the dots – applying knowledge of EM waves
The story The latest must-have gaming gadget was released in the UK last week. Microsoft’s Kinect for the Xbox allows gamers to interact with a games console in a completely new way.
Lizard lunch
The story The award for ‘most observant scientist during his lunch break’ this week must go to Ngo Van Tri of the Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology who noticed something odd about the tank of lizards at his local restaurant.
Moonwatch
The story The society for Popular Astronomy is organising a Moonwatch event which starts this Wednesday (17th) and runs until the following Sunday. During this time the Moon will go through a number of phases from crescent to full. They have a website dedicated to the event which encourages teachers to study the Moon with […]
Is alcohol the most dangerous drug?
The story The headlines that hit every news broadcast that I heard on Monday reported that ‘alcohol is more dangerous than heroin’. This was taken from a report put together by the Independent Committee on Drugs of which Professor Nutt, the sacked government chief drugs advisor, is a member.
Bonfire night bonanza
Bonfire night gives a great opportunity to put an exciting spin on chemistry. Of course – you can demonstrate flame tests; sprinkle iron filings into a Bunsen flame to make a pretty sparkler affect or carry out a spot of fire-writing (see weblink below). All of these are fun but tend to fill the lab […]
Space tourism
The story How long will it be before visiting space will be as common an event as boarding a flight to Spain? And will we be holidaying on Mars rather than Marbella in the future?
Spooky Science
With Halloween falling at the end of half-term week this year a spooky science lesson is a great way of celebrating the end of (half) term or the beginning of a new one. Teaching idea I have found lots of great ideas from the web but my favourite collection is from Arbour Scientific (weblink below) […]
Bats and fats – novel ways of teaching the scientific method
Searching through the web as I do on a daily basis I come across many weird and wonderful scientific studies. You know – the kind of things that make you wonder why they bothered.