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How To Get High-Schoolers Involved In Real Science?
Wellington Grey writes "I'm a physics teacher and have been wondering what ways it's possible to get students to participate in or donate to real science projects. I encourage my students to help out with things like Galaxy Zoo (which has just released a new version) and to get them to install BOINC on their personal computers. Do Slashdotters out there have any other suggestions that would be appropriate for the 11-18 age range? Extra credit if you can think of a way that I can track their progress so that I can give them extra credit."
I think the answer has something to do with a Poser model, a government mainframe, and a freak electrical storm...
Javascript + Nintendo DSi = DSiCade
"I'm a high school student and my physics teacher always comes up with ideas to get us to participate in or donate to real science projects. He even encourages us to help out with things like Galaxy Zoo (which has just released a new version, grrrr, dreadful updates again) and even gets us to install BOINC on our PERSONAL computers. Do Slashdotters out there have any suggestions that would be appropriate to satisfy this 35-year-old physics teacher? Extra credit if you can think of a way that I can fake my progress so that I can get extra credit."
Virtual Betting on Facebook for non-geeks.
Kelly LeBrock.
How To Get High - Schoolers Involved In Real Science?
Red Leader Standing By!
There's a great documentary on a teacher who faced the same challenges and found innovating ways to overcome them. He needed to give his students some projects that would have real-world results that could be measured. In the end, he helped a classroom of very talented kids construct some world-class devices that made breakthroughs in the areas of lasers, inertial guidance, optics, and more.
Very inspiration stuff, I highly recommend watching. Professor J. Hathaway should be commended for his innovative approach to this exact situation. More information on the documentary can be found here: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0089886/
When I was in school my physics teacher did the same thing, but he made the mistake of pushing the ball a little.
I heard the next year he used a chair to make the demonstration instead.
Pr0n
"Flyin' in just a sweet place,
Never been known to fail..."
When you're not doing that, you are desperately trying to find a new angle on old data to write a paper for publication. You need to do this in order to keep your reputation (and therefore pay and ability to get funding) hot. Once written, you'll spend more time trying to get it published somewhere, or peer-reviewing some other guy's paper.
Almost never will you get into the lab, and even when you do most of your time will be spent setting up, calibrating, tweaking, debugging and modifying your equipment. The chances of you making a discovery that will be named after you are infinitesimally small, as all the good ones are already taken. Even then, you'll probably be dead before anyone recognises the contribution you have made - or the true value of your work.
You best bet, if you want your children to become successful scientists, is to teach them how to stay awake in meetings, diss their colleagues while appearing to be friendly, engaging in office politics, learning to recognise who to scmooze and kiss up to and marketing old ideas with a new spin - every year for the rest of their careers.
politicians are like babies' nappies: they should both be changed regularly and for the same reasons
Easy - just borrow a piece from one of the students.
Scientists point out problems, engineers fix them
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No problem. If you can't fire a gun at a block of wood, then get one of the students to stand on a skateboard so you can just shoot him instead.
And that, my friends, is what the OP asked for.
"How do you get a high schooler interested in science?"
I present to you the butt experiment.
We made thermite in physics class and blew up a microwave. Also, we're building a sustainable heating economy for the entire state...
Just how much thermite did you PUT in that microwave?!?