Dear #ESFICE teachers,
Happy World Teachers Day from ‘down under’ and thank you again for the invitation to share ideas with you in sunny Hong Kong!
Below are all the links I promised during my keynote and the workshops. Please let me know if I have missed anything or if you would like more information. Have a terrific term in the classroom and I would to hear about you and your pupils’ science stories.
Warm regards,
Ruben
Keynote Links
Michael Faraday’s Christmas Lectures for Children you can watch them here
Tattoos and laser removal Catalyst | ABC TV
Retinal Injuries from a Handheld Laser Pointer New England Journal of Medicine
Optimism #1 – Teaching: the most influential profession
UNESCO Recommendation concerning the Status of Teachers (1966)
Brooke Topelberg – 2011 Prime Minister’s Prize for Excellence in Science Teaching in Primary Schools
Nobel Laureate Professor Brian Schmidt donates prize money to Primary Connections
Optimism #1.1 – Children: passionate optimistic conservationists
Plastic bag + Water + Pencil demo Turtle eating jellyfish video (Arkive.com)
Turtle eating plastic video (Arkive.com)
Dead seabirds full of plastic – by photographer Chris Jordan
ABC TV Catalyst story about marine plastic pollution
Optimism #2 – More peaceful
The Better Angels of Our Nature the book by Professor Steven Pinker (2011)
The surprising decline in violence Steven Pinker’s 20min TED Talk
Steven Pinker: A History of Violence 37min talk at the Singularity Summit
Violence Vanquished essay featuring the two graphs in my slides
Optimism #3 – The Flynn Effect
The Mean IQ of Americans: Massive Gains 1932 to 1978 James Flynn (1984) Psychological Bulletin Vol. 95 No. 1
The Flynn Effect summary of the hypotheses by Indiana University’s Dr Jonathan Plucker
Why our IQ levels are higher than our grandparents’ Prof James Flynn’s TED Talk
Optimism #4 – The Bystander Effect
“The bystander-effect: A meta-analytic review on bystander intervention in dangerous and non-dangerous emergencies.” Fischer, P. et al. (2011) Psychological bulletin Vol. 137 No.4 *subscription required
Bystander Effect YouTube video (3min 35sec)
The Murder of Kitty Genovese Wikipedia page with good citations to further reading
Optimism #5 – Unsolved Mysteries
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
A brief history of the universe from Dr Karl’s Great Moments in Science
How do we know the universe is expanding also by Dr Karl
Search “Mysteries in Science” and you will find dozens of lists like these:
Seven things that don’t makes sense about gravity New Scientist
Top 8 Science Mysteries Popular Mechanics
Workshop Notes
Magic Flowers & Toothpick Stars
Magic Flowers – 6 COLOURED FLOWERS
Magic Flowers – 6 UNCOLOURED FLOWERS
Magic Flowers – 6 BLANK FLOWERS
Magic Flower video (Surfing Scientist – 40 DIY Science Gizmos book promo)
Toothpick Star Cotton balls in hot & cold water
An amazing simple ice demonstration we don’t fully understand
Watch water and olive oil freezing
Science Puzzles / Riddles / Conundrums
Will it float? So simple! Kids love predicting whether various household objects will sink or float
Lots more conundrums / puzzles / riddles here…
M&Ms in Water
M&Ms in Water (Play School version)
M&Ms in Water – Lesson Plan format
Ice cube in salty water demonstration – another way of demonstrating the thermohaline circulation
Squishy Circuits
Squishy Circuits Website includes a link to AnneMarie Thomas’s TED Talk
Play Dough Circuits #1 – Intro to Play Dough Circuits (ABC TV Play School)
Play Dough Circuits #2 – Series and Parallel Circuits
Play Dough Circuits #3 – Sculptures
Sugar in soft drinks / Energy in Food
Floating / Sinking Soft drink cans demo
Food Exercise & Energy Lesson Plan
When you lose weight, where does it go? (Catalyst – ABC TV)
Mentos & Diet Coke
“Diet Coke and Mentos: What is really behind this physical reaction?” Tonya S Coffey (2008) American Journal of Physics Vol. 76 No. 6 *subscription required
Diet Coke and Mentos on David Letterman’s Late Show (1999) This is apparently the first time the demonstration appeared on television
eepybird.com these blokes gave up their day jobs and now make their living with the Diet Coke + Mentos demo