Middle School Chemistry investigating Atoms and Molecules

The Middle School Chemistry site is a brilliant resouce for all science teachers from the American Chemical Society.

This website is pure quality, from it's look, feel, consistency and printable resources. The focus is on Science by Doing. There are six main topics, each consist of 5-9 sub-topics. Each subtopic has it's own page where the introduction lays out the:

• Key Concepts
• Summary
• Evaluation
• Safety
• Materials for Each Group

After the introduction the units consist of Engage, Explore, Explain and Extend sections. The webpages are all supported with downloadable pdfs of the webpages and student activities.

The Multimedia section includes graphics and videos to support your lessons.

Be sure to explore then bookmark/favourite/tag this site. Time spent exploring this site would be well worth it for any science teacher.

Life Photo Archive hosted by Google

Google has taken images from the seminal magazine LIFE, and created Google Life Photo Archive. I have a copy of LIFE magazine from 1965 featuring the first space walk, it took me seconds to find the cover.

The photos reflect the high quality of the publication in their composition. There are millions of photos in the archives and most of them have not appeared in the magazine. This would be useful in a history class to view the world through the eyes of middle class America.
If you specify a year eg "1965 source:life" in Google Images you firstly see all the covers from that year and then pictures taken in that year. Just note the images are copyrighted.

Physical Education Resources

This is my first blog post about Physical Education (PE), otherwise known as Gym class. The PE teachers I know find YouTube a wonderful resource show students technique or engage students with inspirational sporting moments. You can turn any YouTube into slow motion to analyse technique two ways:

1. Use Embed Plus which allows you to view embedded video with slow mo and instant replay.
2. Or download the clip and play in a media player that allows slow motion eg VLC several options under the playback tab.

However this blog post was stimulated by being shown the exercise section in Bodybuilding.com. This site has a huge amount of resources for anyone interested in toning their body (or completely bulking up).

You can choose an area of the body you want to work on.

You can select exercises that cater to beginners:

You can select for the equipment you have:

You can choose the exercises by the types of results you are after:

A series of exercises is the generated, all with user ratings:

Click on the exercises and you get a video showing you exactly how the exercise is performed, you have a choice of male or female demonstrators:

 

It shows you a muscle map describing areas targeted:

The site has a wealth of resources to explore - it even generates complete exercise programs with resources like

• warm up exercises
• weekly exercises
• calorie calculators
• macronutrient calculators
• information on essential fats
• hydration tips
• progress charts proformas

I can imagine that if I was a PE teacher I could use this site in so many ways!

Google Custom Searches

Younger students can be very haphazard in their internet searches and need scaffolding if they are going to find quality information. The world wide web can be a bewildering place! Teachers can create their own customised searches where students are confined to sites only they specify. To make your own customised search is easy. Firstly go to Google Custom Searches.

From there it is easy,  follow the steps, agree to the terms of service, then click next. You have some options of the appearance of your search box, then Google generates embed code for your custom search.

You can then place the embed code into a webpage such as a Google Site, a blog or wiki.

Here is a search box that has my blog as the only site. Test it out, you will see that there are ads generated before the search results. Ads are a necessary evil I suppose - there is no such thing as completely free, we all pay in one way or another. Test the box you see below...

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You don't need to exclude the rest of the web either. By clicking on "manage your existing search engines" you can ensure that your chosen sites are at the top of the search results.

You could even get students to make their own google searches on a major topic and share with the rest of the class.

LaTex - Writing Maths, Chemistry or Physics Equations

When using digital media it can be problematic to write maths, chemistry or physics equations and formulas. A few years ago I attempted to create a series of Power Points for my physics class and eventually gave up - writing formula and equations were all too difficult. I even bought a graphics tablet and found that my somewhat mediocre handwriting looked even more mediocre when digitised. To add insult to injury the next upgrade of Office did not integrate with the tablet software, so the tablet was a complete fizzer. I went back to overhead transparencies, however I fear that the humble overhead projector may be an endangered species.

Microsoft Word has Equation Editor - but what happens if you are not using Word? What if you want to use PowerPoint, Open Office, Google Docs, Google Sites, blog or another format? Open Office has only the most rudimentary equation editor. You can use software like FX, however I don't find the user interface intuitive and it costs money.

This is where  LaTex Online Equation editor (pronounced "latek") comes in handy. It provides a free, intuitive interface where the equations can be downloaded as a gif or generates html code that you can embed. The real functionality is that you can drag and drop straight into a document such as a Google Doc or Google Presentation - EASY!

I generated the Law of Conservation of momentum very quickly...

You can also generate chemical formulas

If you are comfortable using equation editor then you will find the interface familiar. Share the link with students so they can improve their assignments and practical reports.

Google Wonder Wheel - refining internet searches

Sometimes students are a little stuck for what to type into search boxes, however Google's Wonder Wheel can help. You find this on the Google search page down on the left hand side.

Let me give you an example of a recent assignment that I was given at Uni. The assigment was on "motivation and learning" - using that to start my search, Google search finds 41 million results. To refine the search I hit "Wonder Wheel".

This compartmentalises my search into topics (similar to the Carrot2 search engine).

I then click on the Wonder Wheel option that is headed in the direction that I am interested.

The wheel then expands to show me further refinements. I then choose "cognitive theory psychology" and so on and so on. In this way the search results are limited to only those areas that you are interested in looking at. Happy Googling!

Google Teacher Academy Sydney

On the 20th of April 50 educators from all over the world arrived at Google HQ in Sydney to attend Google Teacher Academy. I felt extremely privileged to be selected for a day of intensive professional development - only two GTA's are held in a year. We had attendees from such far flung regions as Japan, Russia, Belgium, America and New Zealand. Quite a few of us footed the bill for our own transport and accommodation and I feel confident that every participant felt it was worth every cent.

I hope that through my blog, conference presentations, in the classroom and through other conduits I can disseminate the knowledge I gained during the day and as a new member of the Google Certified Teacher community. It was a fantastic, unforgettable experience and I would urge anyone who is passionate about technology use in education should look out for the next GTA.

New Ways to View a Blogger Blog

If you read a Blogger blog like mine, you may wish to display the blog in a whole new way. Just by adding a suffix of  /view/flipcard#!/ you can see my blog as a flipcard.

You can also see my blog as mosaic, a snapshot, timeslide or sidebar. Great options for visual consumers of information like myself.