How about technology instead of science? There are lots of sorely needed gadgets. For example, a telephone-calling inactivity monitor for diabetics and seniors that calls your friends, not a $25 a month service.
The Wikipedia article at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coal_power_plant#Radioactive_trace_elements
says "The radioactive emission from this coal power plant is 100 times greater than a comparable nuclear power plant with the same electrical output"
We should criticize coal plants first, nuclear ones second if we are concerned about radioactive waste.
After we got electric typewriters I could take a class of grade 7 or 8 students and have all of them touch typing faster than they could hunt and peck (or hand write) in about 20 hours. This worked for a few years. Then it stopped working because kids were already very experienced at key whacking their own way when they came to grade one. Many can do 30 words per minute that way, and it takes quite a bit of work to do significantly better touch typing.
I help a few seniors in our town with their computers. They do like to have someone physically present to show them how to do new things. Recommend you find out if your senior has a neighbour who can help and go with the OS he or she is familiar with. Everyone uses Windows in this town. My experience is that seniors have no trouble with malware and a virus checker is probably unnecessary. I don't encourage banking on line. Use solitaire to learn mouse use. Forums like Worldwide Seniors and 50Plus are great if the senior can type at all.
Good advice, Squierstrat!
I used the textbook in math, wrote notes on the board in physics and in computer class, I provided my notes as word pro docs on the school network. Printing them out for the kids works well but expect a lot of loss.
Talk to other teachers, perhaps in other schools. Experienced teachers may well know less about computer science than you do, but they do know more about kids, classes and where the kids will be going next year. Most teachers love to share their notes and exercises.
Relax, you will be amazed at how little material you actually need because the kids need to play with each concept before going on to the text. Teaching to the whole class will only be 10% of class time; mostly you will be helping individuals to accomplish whatever task you have set.
Grade school teaching is bottom-up. You begin by getting them to learn specific skills, build on that to do something of somewhat practical use, and perhaps eventually get to put across some abstract points.
Kids very often think lessons are pointless. If you can work in something practical, you've got their interest. For example, one of my classes took on the job of creating the program booklet for the local junior hockey team.
I'm teaching a computer class for adults just now. The level of knowledge and skill is extremely low among adults who are not specialists in computing. I expect no more than 5% of the students in your class will become computing specialists. If so, the class's first goal should be to make sure every student goes through the process of editing movies, photos and creating websites so they have some idea what can be done. After that, it would be nice if they all could be left with the ability to do this for future classes, personal use and in whatever job they find themselves. The sophistication of such websites is not important (better simple, fast and clear rather than fancy, slow and glittery). I know they have to have fun, too, and perhaps they would have as much fun with something like GIF Construction Set as with Flash.
I hope, for goodness sake, you are not leaving your students with the impression they must have the most expensive tools available (however much they may be subsidized for school use in order to entice you). Remember, they take to heart what you do, not what you say.
I write software for teachers and schools on a very small scale. When I sell a copy I put the buyer's name or school name in an encrypted file with the software. The user is free to install on as many computers as he likes, but his name will appear on all printouts. This is very unobtrusive for the legitimate user.
It is not perfect. I watched a vice principal white out the name of another school on all the mark printouts he posted in his classroom for a whole year. I occasionally get a call from a teacher who asks innocently how to get rid of the name of another teacher on her printouts.
Put a continuous row of mashmallows in the microwave with no rotation. With the right time, the marshmallows puff up in the form of a standing wave. You can measure the wavelength of the microwaves approximately.
It seems to me that when we can't stop Chinese hot software from getting in, they can't stop western news either.
There must be thousands of ways. How about encrypting websites into music files (so much of it sounds random anyway) and distributing them via music sharing software? Have a friend in the west mirror a website at another address, substituting some key words? Send CD's by mail - no one can check every file. Use ham radio.
The curious thing is that Sony stock went up about 10% since the rootkit was discovered.
We need a catchy name for software that thinks it knows what's best for the user. Sony's software thinks I don't need to see files beginning with $$, my HP all-in-one driver thinks I want to devote 16 MB of RAM to it all the time when I only use it once a month. My ipod thinks I don't ever want to delete any files immediately after hearing them and just knows I want to use iTunes to organize ALL my music. My Brother laser printer thinks I want to see its "multiple page" window all the time. It goes on and on.
I'd like this in my camera, but I'd REALLY love to have adjustable eyes again. At about age 50, the eye's lens gets too stiff to see both distant and closeup objects - a real pain. If these new lenses can be made large enough for eye glasses, or uses as a lens implant, they could auto adjust to the range one is looking at using an ultrasonic ranging sensor. Many people over 50 would buy it if the price was at all reasonable. It's an idea with trillion dollar potential.
I've heard that it will soon be possible to replace the overly stiff gell inside the eye's lens so that it will work like a young eye, which would be even better than an electronic eye.
Optometrists beware - your unadjustable overpriced product may soon be obsolete!
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How about technology instead of science? There are lots of sorely needed gadgets. For example, a telephone-calling inactivity monitor for diabetics and seniors that calls your friends, not a $25 a month service.
The Wikipedia article at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coal_power_plant#Radioactive_trace_elements says "The radioactive emission from this coal power plant is 100 times greater than a comparable nuclear power plant with the same electrical output" We should criticize coal plants first, nuclear ones second if we are concerned about radioactive waste.
After we got electric typewriters I could take a class of grade 7 or 8 students and have all of them touch typing faster than they could hunt and peck (or hand write) in about 20 hours. This worked for a few years. Then it stopped working because kids were already very experienced at key whacking their own way when they came to grade one. Many can do 30 words per minute that way, and it takes quite a bit of work to do significantly better touch typing.
I help a few seniors in our town with their computers. They do like to have someone physically present to show them how to do new things. Recommend you find out if your senior has a neighbour who can help and go with the OS he or she is familiar with. Everyone uses Windows in this town. My experience is that seniors have no trouble with malware and a virus checker is probably unnecessary. I don't encourage banking on line. Use solitaire to learn mouse use. Forums like Worldwide Seniors and 50Plus are great if the senior can type at all.
Good advice, Squierstrat! I used the textbook in math, wrote notes on the board in physics and in computer class, I provided my notes as word pro docs on the school network. Printing them out for the kids works well but expect a lot of loss. Talk to other teachers, perhaps in other schools. Experienced teachers may well know less about computer science than you do, but they do know more about kids, classes and where the kids will be going next year. Most teachers love to share their notes and exercises. Relax, you will be amazed at how little material you actually need because the kids need to play with each concept before going on to the text. Teaching to the whole class will only be 10% of class time; mostly you will be helping individuals to accomplish whatever task you have set. Grade school teaching is bottom-up. You begin by getting them to learn specific skills, build on that to do something of somewhat practical use, and perhaps eventually get to put across some abstract points. Kids very often think lessons are pointless. If you can work in something practical, you've got their interest. For example, one of my classes took on the job of creating the program booklet for the local junior hockey team.
I'm teaching a computer class for adults just now. The level of knowledge and skill is extremely low among adults who are not specialists in computing. I expect no more than 5% of the students in your class will become computing specialists. If so, the class's first goal should be to make sure every student goes through the process of editing movies, photos and creating websites so they have some idea what can be done. After that, it would be nice if they all could be left with the ability to do this for future classes, personal use and in whatever job they find themselves. The sophistication of such websites is not important (better simple, fast and clear rather than fancy, slow and glittery). I know they have to have fun, too, and perhaps they would have as much fun with something like GIF Construction Set as with Flash. I hope, for goodness sake, you are not leaving your students with the impression they must have the most expensive tools available (however much they may be subsidized for school use in order to entice you). Remember, they take to heart what you do, not what you say.
I write software for teachers and schools on a very small scale. When I sell a copy I put the buyer's name or school name in an encrypted file with the software. The user is free to install on as many computers as he likes, but his name will appear on all printouts. This is very unobtrusive for the legitimate user. It is not perfect. I watched a vice principal white out the name of another school on all the mark printouts he posted in his classroom for a whole year. I occasionally get a call from a teacher who asks innocently how to get rid of the name of another teacher on her printouts.
Put a continuous row of mashmallows in the microwave with no rotation. With the right time, the marshmallows puff up in the form of a standing wave. You can measure the wavelength of the microwaves approximately.
so, can Apple get $100M from other OS makes who use a Heirarchial File System for their disk drives? Or is the patent system illogical?
It seems to me that when we can't stop Chinese hot software from getting in, they can't stop western news either.
There must be thousands of ways. How about encrypting websites into music files (so much of it sounds random anyway) and distributing them via music sharing software? Have a friend in the west mirror a website at another address, substituting some key words? Send CD's by mail - no one can check every file. Use ham radio.
The curious thing is that Sony stock went up about 10% since the rootkit was discovered.
We need a catchy name for software that thinks it knows what's best for the user. Sony's software thinks I don't need to see files beginning with $$, my HP all-in-one driver thinks I want to devote 16 MB of RAM to it all the time when I only use it once a month. My ipod thinks I don't ever want to delete any files immediately after hearing them and just knows I want to use iTunes to organize ALL my music. My Brother laser printer thinks I want to see its "multiple page" window all the time. It goes on and on.
I'd like this in my camera, but I'd REALLY love to have adjustable eyes again. At about age 50, the eye's lens gets too stiff to see both distant and closeup objects - a real pain. If these new lenses can be made large enough for eye glasses, or uses as a lens implant, they could auto adjust to the range one is looking at using an ultrasonic ranging sensor. Many people over 50 would buy it if the price was at all reasonable. It's an idea with trillion dollar potential. I've heard that it will soon be possible to replace the overly stiff gell inside the eye's lens so that it will work like a young eye, which would be even better than an electronic eye. Optometrists beware - your unadjustable overpriced product may soon be obsolete!