Chemistry activity: Determination of Density

Link to lesson plan for measuring densities. 

Density is a property of materials which can be vital in determining an unknown material. This is because each material has its own unique density value. 

Density is defined as the amount of mass packed into a given volume of space, or                              Density = Mass/Volume, D = M/V. This is therefore a relatively easy value to determine in the laboratory, if one has a balance or scale to measure mass, and containers such as beakers or graduated cylinders for measuring the volume of displaced water when an object is put into the water. Here is an example of a table of elements, arranged from lowest density to highest density. Here is a extensive list of densities for different materials. 

It can be fun to have students to take some small number of objects, determine their densities, and then find the closest match on these lists to see if they can identify what the object of made of! 

Donate to EducAid - Evanston fundraising for female hygiene

 A group of my students are doing fundraising in our school that will be sent to EducAid in Sierra Leone. The goal is for this money to be used to help girls attain feminine hygiene products, which are often difficult for them to come by or afford. They also want to raise awareness of menstrual shaming so many girls suffer just about anywhere in the world. If you are able to help out, even small donations add up and allow for good things to happen on the ground!! 

The Progress in lighting up the world

 One of the reasons for the SEE-SAW project is the lack of access to electricity for too many people around the world. Obviously, the lack of electricity is devastating on how one can do scientific investigations, let alone have access to this blog since you would not have computers with Internet access. 

While this is one of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), that is, to have all countries and people with access to electricity by the year 2030, what is the progress towards the goal? This site uses data from the World Bank from 1998 through 2019, and it is estimated that the number of people without electricity dipped below 1 billion in 2015. Keep in mind that the first power plant for any city was built in 1882. Let's hope this trend continues and does, in fact, we can light up the entire world!

The New Global Student Prize - Read and Be Inspired by what young people can and are doing!!

 The Varkey Foundation, which has run the Global Teacher Prize Program since 2015, has now started the Global Student Prize, where a student (high school through college) can win up to $100,000 as a top award. If you want to learn of some AMAZING impacts students have had all around the world, and on national and global scales, check out the Top 50 Finalist students! This is not necessarily STEM related, but reading some of the stories could be fun for you. 

Public Science - The Zooniverse (if you have Internet access)

You may have heard of public science, or maybe not. In most fields of science, there are datasets that are SO LARGE that there are not enough actual scientists in those fields to look at it all. And there are some things that people are still better at seeing and identifying or classifying from a dataset than computers are. How do scientists handle the analysis of such large datasets? 

Bring in the global public! 

If you have access to the Internet, you can get involved in actual, cutting-edge research! 

Some non-professionals are even getting their names on published papers for their contributions to new discoveries, such as new exoplanets.

Check out the Zooniverse website - there are over 80 big data projects that you can participate in, no experience required. Check out all the options, in dozens of different fields! 

Activity: Distance vs Displacement vectors

Link to Distance vs Displacement Lab Activity

 Early in physics classes, in mechanics, we often get into the topics of distance and displacement, or speed and velocity. These are issues of scalar vs vector. 

To demonstrate the differences between scalars and vectors, and specifically distance-displacement (and you can include speed-velocity, too), this mapping activity is useful for students since it actively gets them walking on paths that will clearly distinguish the differences between distance-displacement and even speed-velocity, if the teachers chooses. 

The only equipment needed is some sort of ruler or meter stick, ideally graph paper (or just paper), and if you want to include speed and velocity you will need some type of clock or timer. 

UNESCO Science Report 2021

Here's some motivation for tomorrow's scientists, engineers, and researchers in whatever technical field you are interested in. Most of the big global problems we face will require STEM to help find viable solutions. Get a sense of where the world is in the short video below on sustainability research, coming from UNESCO, the UN branch for science and education. There is a great need for more research and work into sustainability topics that matter for literally billions of people, but so much effort and resources (both human and financial) goes into things like artificial intelligence and robotics, sustainability and other global issues are often forgotten, and little funding exists for them. This is especially true in poorer countries, of course, but those are often the same countries that suffer from poverty and lack of STEM talent or resources. 

The full Report is here. It will take a minute to download, it is over 750 pages long, but check it out by sections that interest you.