NSTA Reviews: Innovations in Communications

'Innovations in Communication'
Crabtree Publishers have introduced a new series called 'Innovations', with six titles: 'Innovations in Everyday Technologies', 'Innovations in Safety', 'Innovations in Health', 'Innovations in Communication', 'Innovations in Transportation', and Innovations in Entertainment'.  Each book has a similar format in terms of the design, contents, index and glossary.  At the beginning is a brief introduction describing inventors, innovators, and engineers.  At the end is an explanation of the 'Engineering Dsign Process' with a challenge called 'Thing Big!'  Moreover, there is a good balance between historic inventions and 'spot lights' on young inventors and innovators.

'Innovations in Communication' by Cynthia O'Brien outlines the enormous advances made in communication, particularly in the past one hundred years. It's practically impossible for a child to imagine not being able to text mom or Skype Grandma.  'Innovations in Comm' rightfully illustrates one of the biggest innovation in communication: the Gutenberg printing press (pp6-7).  O'Brien makes Gutenberg relevant with the inclusion of Martin Hart's e-books digital library: Project Gutenberg (p7).  Part of the book's success is the juxtaposition of history, such as the invention of Braille by Charles Barbier de la Serre (p8) with the 'Young Inventor Spotlight' of Shubham Banerjee's inexpensive, Lego Braille printer (p9).  The author puts Antonio Meucci's (p12) contribution to the telegraph right next to Alexander Graham Bell and Elisha Gray (p13).  I'm a little disappointed the African American inventor, Granville T. Woods (often called, 'The Black Edison') isn't included here.  O'Brien does include a young African inventor, Joshua Nghaamwa's satellite booster to connect more people to the internet (p19).  These stories should spark fascinating discussions about new ways to communicate and the importance of STEM.  Imagine no cell phones!  I can hear the screams now!

NSTA Reviews: Innovations in Safety

'Innovations in Safety'
Crabtree Publishers have introduced a new series called 'Innovations', with six titles: 'Innovations in Everyday Technologies', 'Innovations in Safety', 'Innovations in Health', 'Innovations in Communication', 'Innovations in Transportation', and Innovations in Entertainment'.  Each book has a similar format in terms of the design, contents, index and glossary.  At the beginning is a brief introduction describing inventors, innovators, and engineers.  At the end is an explanation of the 'Engineering Dsign Process' with a challenge called 'Thing Big!'  Moreover, there is a good balance between historic inventions and 'spot lights' on young inventors and innovators.

'Innovations in Safety' by Cynthia O'Brien is a terrific vehicle for STEM instruction, especially for kids.  I love each entry in the Innovations series; 'Innovation in Health' includes loads of examples of innovations kids encounter everyday: smoke detectors (p6), fluorescent clothes (p11), modern seat belts (p14), and traffic lights (p18).  I'm confident the 'Young Inventor Spotlight' about the Hot Seat Alarm (p15) invented by Alissa Chavez will resonate with kids.  Alissa Chavez invented the alarm after hearing about children accidentally left in hot cars.  A librarian or teacher could use such a few excerpts like this one before issuing a design challenge to her students using the Engineering Design Process (p28) and a safety challenge such as 'Tripping hazard at home or school' (p29).  Likely, the kids can brainstorm existing hazards at school.  'Innovations in Safety' affords excellent opportunities to understand how STEM impacts us every day.

NSTA Reviews: Innovations in Transportation

'Innovations in Transportation'
Crabtree Publishers have introduced a new series called 'Innovations', with six titles: 'Innovations in Everyday Technologies', 'Innovations in Safety', 'Innovations in Health', 'Innovations in Communication', 'Innovations in Transportation', and Innovations in Entertainment'.  Each book has a similar format in terms of the design, contents, index and glossary.  At the beginning is a brief introduction describing inventors, innovators, and engineers.  At the end is an explanation of the 'Engineering Dsign Process' with a challenge called 'Thing Big!'  Moreover, there is a good balance between historic inventions and 'spot lights' on young inventors and innovators.

'Innovations in Transportation' by Larry Verstraete will appeal to kids.  The photos of kids racing solar cars (p5), roller blades (p7), the hovercraft (p18), and the hoverboard (p26) are certain to spark discussions.  I can see kids wanting to built simple balloon hovercrafts or launch rockets after reading this book.  The images carry this book, especially Duru's Omni hoverboard (p27) as Duru flies!  The challenges at the back of the book under 'Think Big!' (P 29) are less inspired.  I think kids are more apt to want to design a hoverboard than to solve a problem 'Helping seniors cross busy streets safely or Shielding bicyclists from rain or snow.' (p29).   Aside from needing livelier challenges, the book reinforces STEM in society.  I think a teacher or librarian could use a few excerpts to introduce an interesting design challenge making hovercrafts from balloons and CDs.  Those are my plans!

NSTA Reviews: Innovations in Entertainment

'Innovations in Entertainment'
Crabtree Publishers have introduced a new series called 'Innovations', with six titles: 'Innovations in Everyday Technologies', 'Innovations in Safety', 'Innovations in Health', 'Innovations in Communication', 'Innovations in Transportation', and Innovations in Entertainment'.  Each book has a similar format in terms of the design, contents, index and glossary.  At the beginning is a brief introduction describing inventors, innovators, and engineers.  At the end is an explanation of the 'Engineering Dsign Process' with a challenge called 'Thing Big!'  Moreover, there is a good balance between historic inventions and 'spot lights' on young inventors and innovators.

'Innovations in Entertainment' by L.E. Carmichael is terrific!  Makers, STEM instructors, and kid inventors can find inspiration here.  Have you ever considered how innovative a Lego brick is?  Anyone who has seen a Lego display or attended BrickFair can attest how Lego fuel an imagination.  Entertainment provides any number of inventions or innovations relevant to kids: crayons (pp 10-11), Monopoly (p 12), frisbees (pp 14-15), and Legos (p26).  The 'Young Inventor Spotlight' features Robert Patch, a six year old who invented and patented a transformer truck. (p13).  Who knew?  'Innovations in Entertainment' has fabulous photos.  My favorite is George Nissan with a kangaroo on his invention, the trampoline (p16).  Another young inventor highlighted is eleven year old Richie Stachowski.  He created and marketed Water talkies, underwater walkie-talkies.  What a genius idea!  Did you know the same man who invented video consoles, Ralph Baer (pp24-25), also created the electronic game, Simon?  Kids will love this book!  I like the challenges for kids under the 'Think Big' section (p29): 'A new board or video game' or 'A new sport for rainy days'.  These design ideas are perfect!  The librarian could position this book along side of a Lego table.  The classroom teacher might save this book for a dreary Friday afternoon to inspire kids to design their own board game.  'Innovations in Entertainment' drives home to kids STEM is creative, original, and fun! Perfect!

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Apologia Physics: Horse power lab

Rob's been working from the Apologia textbook on problems for Chapters 7, 8, and 9.  I've been ill for the past two months.  Ugh.  I do have another lab--this horse power lab.  For this lab, you'll need to weigh yourself, measure each riser in a stair case and count the number of stairs in the stair case you use.   Now get someone to time you climbing the stairs as quickly as possible.  Repeat a minimum of three times.  Fun, right?

Apologia Physics: Friction Lab with Formal Lab Report

Today, the guys did a Friction Lab in order to calculate the coefficient of Friction.  Mainly I wanted to have another lab and make the guys write a formal lab report. This is a great lab.  You need a ramp and a block.  We brought wooden ramps, cardboard, a vinyl binder, and a tile plank.  Then, we made available parchment paper, wax paper, sandpaper, and aluminum foil available.  I brought out density cubes and a wooden block.  The guys had to both design and implement their experiment.  Rob had them do the calculations both ways described in the experiment.  The lab report is written is the third person, present tense, indicative mood, and active voice.  (Ex.  The first step is to set up the ramp and block.)  The lab report should have a title, Coefficient of Friction Lab, purpose, To understand friction, background, an explanation of the coefficient of friction, a hypothesis, the copper block has more friction than aluminum block, materials, scale, block, ramp, procedures, One places the block on the ramp, a data chart in Excel with the equations, the calculations, a photo, and a conclusion, The data either supports or refutes the hypothesis.  The lab report is typed and emailed.  When the guys finish, I'll post examples.

Materials

Here is a message from my husband, Rob.  We ran into a problem with Excel.
During class today we noticed that excel returned the wrong numbers when we used the sine and cosine functions with the degrees of the angle we measured during our friction coefficient lab.

The excel functions for sine and cosine use radians not degrees.  To correct for this you must convert degrees to radians.  Use =radian(degrees you measured) to convert degrees to radians.  Then =sin(radians calculated) to get the proper number to use in your calculations.  Check your answers with a graphing calculator or a sine/cosine chart.

We were validating our calculations by using both equations to calculate the friction coefficient.  We had a large margin of error.  Please recalculate the equations using the proper way of calculating sine and cosine.  Please show your calculations in excel.

Fling Science Physics

Look at this cute post.

Newton's First Law Demos

The Hidden Life of Toads NSTA Review

Doug Wechsler’s children’s book, The Hidden Like of a Toad is lovely. The author is a photographer and the graphics are compelling.   Toad describes the life cycle of toads.  Life cycles is an important concept in early elementary science.  Typically, kindergarten and first grade classrooms study butterflies.  But why not substitute toads?  Wechsler removed toad embryos from a nearby pond to study and photograph at home.  Teachers can take embryos from local ponds for classroom study, too.  The Hidden Like of a Toad is so detailed, the teacher can use this book for reference as the tadpoles develop.

Toad answers the questions curious children want to know.  What are the long ribbons of black eggs in ponds?  Embryos! (Day 1).  How do they breathe? Gills (Day 9) and lungs (Day 45).  What do they eat?  (Day 70) Wechsler did his homework; the book contains an updated taxonomy under Toad Facts, at the end of the book.  (The book is unnumbered.)  Toad answers a question I had.  How do toads survive the winter?  They burrow into the mud over the winter (Day 70).  The photos are clearly labeled, such as the vocal sac (Day 1097 opposite Brrrrrr!)  At the end of the book is a glossary and comparison between frogs and toads.  (What’s the difference between a frog and a toad?)  Additionally, at the back are Toad Facts, Saving Toads (Toad Detour), an explanation how Wechsler got the photos, and a resource page.  I read Toad to my favorite six year old, Paul, who is a big fiction fan.  Nonfiction?  Not so much.  He was engrossed, high praise from any child.  The Hidden Like of a Toad and its lavish photos is perfect for the early elementary classroom and any library.  My copy is promised to Paul’s school library.  

Apologia Physics: Excel Quiz and POGIL Intro to Newton's Laws of Motion

The first thing we did was test the guys' spreadsheet skills by entering their equations into Excel or Google Sheets.   It took forever!  Then we did an intro to Newton's Laws with POGIL, specifically this exercise with Newton's First Law , Second Law, and Third Law.  POGIL is slow--but effective.  I scanned answer sheets to use as keys.  Here are Newton's First Law and Newton's Second Law Pogil Answer Keys.  You need to use deductive reasoning.  I like POGIL as an introduction to a new concept.  POGIL was originally developed for Chemistry classes at colleges.  This approach works to both review material and hammer in the basics, in this case, Newton's Laws of Motion.  What I'm not finding are answer keys.  The Taskstream site from Ms. Knapps has a number of websites listed and is designed for Physical Science more than for Physics.

Here is a good Newton's Laws Labs Introduction and POGIL practice.

Update: The key for Newton's Third Law (above) is now available.  We wrote out the keys--there may be errors.  We crossed out a great deal of awkward wording.  Keys were difficult to locate because the authors want them away from students.