From DSC:
With thanks going out to Mr. Mike Amante (@mamante) for posting this item out on Twitter.
On 02/05/2013,
in biology, chemistry, engagement / engaging students, lifelong learning, physics, science, social learning / networks,
by Daniel Christian
Also see:
- Science cafes offer a sip of learning — from reuters.com by Barbara Liston — with thanks to Annie Murphy Paul (@anniemurphypaul) who used twitter to ask: Americans resist studying science in school, but they flock to “science cafes” on their own time. What gives?
.
Excerpt:
(Reuters) – Americans may be turning away from the hard sciences at universities, but they are increasingly showing up at “science cafes” in local bars and restaurants to listen to scientific talks over a drink or a meal.
On 12/31/2012,
in engagement / engaging students, faith, hearts -- matters of the heart, neurodivergent/special needs, physics, relationships, teachers,
by Daniel Christian
Mr. Wright said he decided to share his son’s story when his physics lessons led students to start asking him “the big questions.”
“When you start talking about physics, you start to wonder, ‘What is the purpose of it all?’ ” he said in an interview. “Kids started coming to me and asking me those ultimate questions. I wanted them to look at their life in a little different way — as opposed to just through the laws of physics — and give themselves more purpose in life.”
.
From DSC:
My thanks go out to Mr. Joseph Byerwalter for this very powerful piece…
On 04/17/2012,
in cloud-based computing / apps / other cloud-related, digital learning, interactivity, mathematics, physics,
by Daniel Christian
Comments (emphasis DSC)
- If you ever wanted to know what four dimensional geometry could be like, install this app. For the low, low price of $2.99, you’ll take an exciting journey into the Fourth Dimension. “Textbook” doesn’t do this app justice, virtually every page is interactive. — Nicholas Nguyen March 19, 2012
- “The app is very cool, and it’s unlike pretty much anything we’ve seen in the App Store.” — Sam Byford, The Verge
- “This is one of my most favorite iOS apps ever.” — George Musser, senior editor at Scientific American and author of The Complete Idiot’s Guide to String Theory
- “Fantastic! This is what someone really smart, and who really knows how to teach well, can do with a tablet. And the authors are funny, too, which is a neat bonus.” — DNY
- “Blew my mind. I generally don’t use ‘learning’ apps as they’re mostly gimmicks. This one, though, truly made me think. I hope this developer comes out with more outstanding apps such as this one. Bravo!” — Iceitic
- “Fantastic app. I work at a leading UK university. If only all our material was this well written and presented. Definitely worth buying and then spending a bit of time with over a day or two to get your head around the fourth dimension. Great app!” — JulesFM
Also see:
- fourthdimensionapp.com
- ‘The Fourth Dimension’ for iOS: learn to see in 4D (hands-on) — from the Verge.com by Sam Byford
It’s priced fairly low ($2.99 for a universal iPhone/iPad app) and uses innovative design to explore a single, focused concept, and while you’ll be done with it after twenty minutes or so that actually adds to the appeal. It’s a bite-sized chunk of brain training that’s a lot of fun to wrap your head around, and it probably couldn’t have been produced any other way. That’s about the most you can ask for in an app these days.
On 02/20/2012,
in 21st century, physics,
by Daniel Christian
.
Description:
A better understanding of the fundamental interactions is a key to physicists’ search for a new, underlying theory of the physical world. One starting point is to investigate the microscopic description of forces: electromagnetism, gravity, and the two nuclear forces, strong and weak, with increasingly energetic collisions. The Large Hadron Collider at CERN has not only the highest energy yet achieved in a particle accelerator, but also the highest luminosity—with events measured in millions of collisions per second. This presents a challenge for physicists to capture only the most interesting events and to find reliable ways to analyze these to reveal interactions that have never been seen before.
Featured Scientists
On 10/13/2011,
in adjunct faculty, blended learning, collaboration, communities of practice, data related items, face-to-face, faculty, higher education, hybrid learning, innovation, learning ecosystem, learning theories, physics, social learning / networks, strategy, teachers, teaching & learning,
by Daniel Christian
Building Learning Communities 2011 Keynote: Dr. Eric Mazur — from November Learning
Excerpt:
Today, we are officially relaunching our opening keynote from BLC11 with Dr. Eric Mazur. Dr. Mazur is the Area Dean of Applied Physics and Balkanski Professor of Physics and Applied Physics at Harvard University in Cambridge, MA.
In his keynote, Dr. Mazur shares his vast research on teaching and learning. Students in Dr. Mazur’s class are moving far away from the traditional stand and deliver lectures given in many k-12 and university classrooms around the world, and they are gaining a much deeper understanding of the material being taught in the process.
As you watch this video, we invite you to take some time and respond to one or more of the following questions…
From DSC:
What I understood the key points to be:
- Teaching and learning should not be about information transfer alone; that is, it’s not about simply having students “parrot back” the information. That doesn’t lead to true learning and long-term retention.
- The more a teacher is an expert in his/her content, the more difficulty this teacher has in understanding how a first time learner in this subject struggles
- Rather we need to guide and use peer instruction/social learning/collaboration amongst students to construct learning and then be able to apply/transfer that learning to a different context
- Lecturing is not an effective way to create a long term retention of information
- Peer instruction/human interaction creates effective learning
- “The plural of anecdotes is not data.”
- Eric is seeking data and feedback to sharpen his theories of how to optimize learning
- Technology serves pedagogy — technology should afford a new mode of learning
- Towards that end, Eric and team working on “Peer instruction 2.0”
- How do I design good questions? Optimize the discussions? Manage time? Insure learning is taking place?
- Eric is working with several other colleagues to create a system for building and using data analytics to give useful information to instructor about who’s “getting it” and who isn’t; about how we learn
- Peer instruction not without issues — how people group themselves and who students choose to collaborate with can be problematical
- Why not have the system do the pairing/grouping?
- System uses algorithms, facial recognition, posture analysis; cameras, microphones
- Surveys also used
- The system is attempting to help Eric and his team learn about learning
- The system being used at Harvard and by invitation only
Eric ended with a summary of the 2 key messages:
- Education is not about lecturing
- We can move way beyond the current technologies and use new methods and technologies to actively manage learning as it happens
From DSC:
After listening to this lecture, the graphic below captures a bit of what he’s getting at and reflects some of my thinking on this subject as well. That is, we need diagnostic tools — along the lines of those a mechanic might use on our cars to ascertain where the problems/issues are:
On 08/10/2011,
in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, A/V -- audio/visual, biology, chemistry, digital learning, digital video, innovation, learning spaces, mobile learning, more voice more choice more control, multi-touch, multimedia, online learning, physics, science, smart classrooms,
by Daniel Christian
Stanford researchers designed software that allows a viewer to zoom and pan while streaming online courses. They recently released the code to the public.
On 07/27/2011,
in biology, chemistry, computer science, engineering, health, mathematics, physics, programming, robotics, science, student-related,
by Daniel Christian
On 07/24/2011,
in 21st century, architecture, business, computer science, economics, ethics, mathematics, media/film, physics, real-world assignments, technology (general),
by Daniel Christian
Kevin Slavin: How algorithms shape our world [TED]
Description:
Kevin Slavin argues that we’re living in a world designed for — and increasingly controlled by — algorithms. In this riveting talk from TEDGlobal, he shows how these complex computer programs determine: espionage tactics, stock prices, movie scripts, and architecture. And he warns that we are writing code we can’t understand, with implications we can’t control.
Relevant to mathematics; shaping our world; ethics; media; culture; society;
computer science; technologies; stock markets/business; architecture.
From DSC:
First of all, I ran across this item:
Which reminded me of this item:
Which reminded me of some great feedback from Randall Pruim, Associate Professor of Mathematics and Statistics at Calvin College, who wasn’t impressed with the importance or mysteriousness of this particular sequence or the above video clip…but who also provided me with some papers, each with the words “The Unreasonable Effectiveness of Mathematics” in the title:
- Wigner, E. (Feb., 1960). The unreasonable effectiveness of mathematics in the natural sciences. Communications in Pure and Applied Mathematics, Vol. 13(1). New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Retrieved at http://www.dartmouth.edu/~matc/MathDrama/reading/Wigner.html.
- Hamming, R.W. (Feb., 1980). The unreasonable effectiveness of mathematics. The American Mathematical Monthly, Vol. 87(2). pp. 81-90. Retrieved from http://www.math.lsa.umich.edu/~mduchin/UCD/111/readings/hamming.pdf
Anyway, I can’t say I understand all of this. But I believe God’s fingerprints are on many events, things, and changes that we experience — some of these things we see, but many are invisible.
May your Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Easter morning be especially meaningful this year for you and yours! Here’s to our Creator, Redeemer, and Friend!
Peace,
Daniel Christian
On 04/04/2011,
in biology, chemistry, geography / geology, physics, science, simulations, Virtual Reality (VR) / worlds / learning,
by Daniel Christian
Science Simulations: A Virtual Learning Environment — from Journey in Technology by Dolores Gende
Where do I find simulations?
One of the best websites for science simulations is PhET from the University of Colorado at Boulder. Originally founded by Physics Nobel Prize laureate Carl Weiman, PhET provides fun, interactive, research-based simulations of physical phenomena for free. These simulations can be downloaded or played directly on your browser.
Teachers can access the Teacher Ideas & Activities page for teacher-submitted contributions, designed to be used in conjunction with the simulations.
These are the links to the core science courses simulations. The PhET website also contains excellent Math simulations.
Simulation Resources
- Biology Online Labs
Comprehensive list to virtual labs and simulations - Anatomy Online Labs
- Comprehensive list to virtual labs and simulations
- Chemistry Online Labs
Comprehensive list to virtual labs and simulations
- Geology Online Labs
Comprehensive list to virtual labs and simulations
- Physics Simulations
My website contains links to hundreds of simulations.
On 02/28/2011,
in biology, chemistry, mathematics, online learning, online media, open courseware and systems, physics, science,
by Daniel Christian
On 02/21/2011,
in digital video, physics,
by Daniel Christian
Video abstracts at the New Journal of Physics
Video abstracts are a brand new content stream for New Journal of Physics, aimed at increasing yet further the visibility of our authors and their work. Through this video media authors can now go beyond the constraints of the written article to convey their research, and provide a new, enhanced user experience for the journal’s global audience.
NJP articles with a video abstract are flagged with the 
symbol. Full details about this new feature can be found in the video abstract guidelines. You can also read some of our author quotations.