Doing science: 'Discovering' what the period of pendulums depends on

 This shows how students can go after determining what affects the period of a pendulum. 

Doing science: 'Discovering' Ohm's law

For schools that have electricity and equipment that can be used to set up simple circuits, this outlines an experiment where students can create an empirical formula for Ohm's law (and actually 'discover' Ohm's law). It shows how experimental science is done.  

Thoughts on Stopping the Science Brain Drain from Africa

 This is a relevant concern for many African nations. 

TED Talk: New Mindset for how we think about students, inspired by Quantum science!

  I wanted to share my TED Talk, just out, about the Quantum Revolution in Education. In order to break educators everywhere from the traditional mindset that all students will more or less get the same experience and learning from any given lesson teachers provide, we need a more realistic mindset that drives home the fact students are unique, with their own emotional and intellectual states! 

They DO NOT get the same experience from any lesson we do! We must then ACT and INTERACT with students in different ways if we really mean what we say with "No Child Left Behind." 

This mindset is inspired by quantum mechanics, of all things, so check it out. 

If you have Internet: Use Netlogo to learn programming and do computational science

 Northwestern University researchers created a programming platform called Netlogo some years ago, and it's likely a million students, graduate students and even professors have used this to learn how to program, run its hundreds of prewritten simulations in just about every STEM field for assignments, or used it for actual, high-level research that is agent-based. 

If you have any Internet access, you can use any type of computer to access Netlogo. 

By agents, we mean individual objects or even organisms. Netlogo is designed to, as easily as can be done, develop programs and simulations where individual entities interact with each other by some set of rules or mathematical law. You can do orbits, for example, since this is just individual objects interacting through Newton's law of gravity. You can do growth of bacteria, since those are individual organisms that follow some statistical rule for reproduction. You can simulate forest fires since each tree is an individual organism (an agent), and the spread of fire follows a relatively simple rule (if a neighboring tree catches fire, those trees next to it will catch on fire). 

It is worthwhile to check this out. You can download it, or run it on the Web, so even ChromeBooks can use Netlogo. There is a library with hundreds of examples, and you are free to modify the code for any of them to learn the language and create your own versions of the original simulation! 

If Everyone saw this TED talk, there would be fewer deniers of climate change

 If you can watch this video and still deny something weird is not going on with our planet, then I will not be able to understand what other evidence is needed (unless one has other agendas they're after, and the evidence is inconvenient). A wonderful classic TED talk by James Balog, showing what is happening to the world's glaciers and ice sheets through time-lapse photography. Check it out. It is pretty convincing. Happy Earth Day, and let's never stop trying to make change for the health of our planet and future generations...

Earth Day 2022 on April 22

 Earth Day is on Friday, April 22. Consider the U.N. SDGs again - are there little things you can do this week, and then perhaps every week, to help? Reducing time in the shower. Recycling. Turning lights and other electrical devices/appliances off. Composting food waste. Buying food you need, and reducing food waste and excess. Put some plants in the ground. Pick up litter in the neighborhood. Donate to and/or volunteer at a favorite organization doing good work. Post these types of actions on your social media platforms, encourage others to do the same (remember the multiplier effect on impact!). Be kind, compassionate and empathetic to others, while being grateful and respectful for what we have in our lives compared to most on the planet. 

Thanks for considering!! This is the only home we have, let's respect it and take care of it, always.