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Toys For Science Teachers
Science teachers from around the U.S. get together to discuss curricula and of course to be pitched by purveyors of classroom goodies. Gary points to this "photographic tour of this past weekend's convention. Palm demonstrated a science module and software that turns a Palm computer into a data logging and graphing machine. 33 color photos in all!" I'd like one of those USB-connected Intel microscopes, and a large barrel of LEDs ...
It is cool to have all these latest high toys, but how many schools can afford them? Many schools don't even have decent computers at this day and age, Palm? I'd rather have better libraries, computer labs that run GNU software. And with the way things are going, probably some metal detectors and armed guards :-(
But of course I am not say teachers shouldn't have fun. God forbidden if schools become boring. ;-)
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Codeala - Just another mindless drone
Given the local advocacy of science teachers, you should put your money where your mouth is, and donate school supplies to teachers. What the heck, search for science teachers, and give them only science toys! The site is TrueGift a charity that simply takes gift lists from teachers are tries to find donors to provide the basic necessities.
Thalia
Don't get too excited by the toys that interact with the Palms, they've had software that can work with TI-85s to do much the same thing for years. We actually had the software at our school (it did stuff w/o the TIs), and several students had TI-85s, but the school wouldn't buy the adapters, so the benefit was lost. I'd also like to point out that TIs are cheaper than Palms, and at least from my experience, cost is highly prohibitive in education.
Still though,the toys are pretty cool, I got to play with some of the Intel toys first hand. It'd certainly make class a bit more, uh, interesting... putting small, zoomable cameras in high-school guys' hands... ; )
Kurdt
Kurdt
I'm not anti-social. Just pro-technology.
The Discovery Store is cool, but is way overpriced for most stuff. What you really want is American Science and Surplus:
www.sciplus.com
They also have lots of cheap toys, usally much cheaper than places like Archie McPhee, including a complete collection of slime and glow-in-the-dark toys.
It doesn't have to be expensive to be cool.
One of the coolest things that I saw for high school science was a home built cloud chamber. For any aspiring physics nerds, it was WAY cool.
http://www.lns.cornell.edu/~adf4/cloud.html
You can also cheaply build your own X-Ray machine
http://www.noah.org/science/x-ray/
"Microsoft has made computing accessible to a population who would otherwise not be able to use computers" - B. Kernigha
It was a real treat to do expirements with the CBR because it made for much more detailed and accurate lab results, and helped you to learn the material better. We all did some pretty quality lab write-ups which our teacher took with him to a summer training/feedback session at the TI offices. I guess it payed off, because now they've got a whole slew of calc's out there that can do tons more than my measly TI-85!
Yes, private industry invading our schools is _exactly_ what we need.
"Can anyone tell me the atomic mass of Bolognium?"
"Delicious?!"
While this convention shows off the newest and coolest gadgets, education budgets are shrinking. I for one would rather see people develop inexpensive experiments for high schools that would allow students to learn science for a smaller price tag; it's win/win (except for the people who sell the cool gadgets...)
(story)
The other night my friend presented a neat toy he constructed, basically a Laser pen imbedded in a old Nintendo Zapper Light Gun. The trigger switch would trigger the laser. After playing with it for a while, someone suggested that we measure the wavelength of the light. Usually this lab is done with a diffraction grating. The laser beam is shined through the grating to produce a pattern on the wall. By measuring the pattern, the distance to the wall, and the width of the slits one can determine the wavelength of the laser beam. Usually, high schools have expensive He-Ne lasers and manufactured diffraction gratings; we had none of those things. It dawned on us that the opposite of a diffraction grating gives the opposite pattern against the wall. Since you get a interference pattern from a single narrow slit (see a physics text on why), we took the opposite of a single slit: a long, thin item. We eventually settled on a single staple and a .5 mm piece of (mechanical) pencil lead.
The result was the wavelength of the laser pen was about 750nm +/- 120nm. We suspect the laser pen is a cheap He-Ne laser with a (defined) wavelength of 632nm.
(/story)
The point is that we preformed a simple experiment with a significant amount of scientific value for about $20 ($15 for the laser; staples, pencil lead, ruler, etc. are all "free"). For a high school, this kind of experiment would be much more rewarding to the students that plugging things into calculators or Palm and churning out results. A science department could spend a minimal amount of money on laser pens (the $15 ones are good enough) and perform what my friends and I did. Rulers, pencil lead, and clamps are all equipment the school should already have.
As education budgets shrink, the experiment like the one above is a good example of what science can be done without a lot of money or without a lot of toys.
Anyway, my point is that if they're available, "toys" can be really benefit students, and excite them about science. Too many underfunded schools cannot afford them, it's true. That's why good science teachers are usually extremely creative individuals (my H.S. physics teacher showed us action/reaction with a wagon and a fire extinguisher from the hallway. He got in a little trouble for that, but nobody in that class will ever forget how a rocket works.)
Freedom: "I won't!"
I suggest that presenting science as flashy toys and videos may limit the spread of science.
First it makes it "kids stuff" which teenagers and adults then shun.
Second, it makes science seem too easy. Its a letdown when the real work of making measurements, analysing data, and publishing papers occurs.
Third, it hides the real meaning of science- as a way knowing things through repeatable observations. Science isn't entertainment like sci-fi and fantasy.
On the other hand, I think there is a lot of good in science-tainment.
First, it catches young minds who may eventually become scientists or at least science literate.
Second, it forces the author to be really sure about their material. I'm a firm believer if you can't explain clearly what you do to your spouse or children, then you probably don't understand it well yourself.
Third, its fun when well done.
No wonder our educational system is in so much trouble.
Really.
I wonder how that $400 compares to the yearly expenditure on gym equipment, balls for the sports teams, etc.
I'm willing to bet science gets at least 10x less than sports, even though I would consider science to be infinitely more important than sport.
C-X C-S
Actually, that laser pointer prolly has a (in the better ones) 633/650nm or (in the cheap ones) 680nm laser diode in it, rather than a HeNe tube, so your measurements prolly weren't that far off.
C-X C-S
I attended the conference this past weekend, as one of the exhibitors. However, instead of hocking prohibitively expensive pieces of tech, I was letting teachers know about a free online service that has cataloged over 19,000 resources for science and match teachers to use in the classroom.
The interesting thing about it all is, instead of teachers flocking to the FREE stuff they got cuaght up in all the glamour of CNN and TI booths. I will admit, once they stopped by our little 10 by 20 booth, they were surprised that what we offered was free. Moreover, about 10% of the resources we have cataloged are online and have free lesson plans and activities (as well as really cool pictures and virtual tours!).
My .org has been around for over 8 years now. We give away a free magazine and our online service is free of charge. Out of the 10,000 attendees at the conference, only 1/10th had heard of us, at best.
I liken the whole experience to open source v. Windows. People simply didn't know about their options and how to best utilize them.