Extra Credit Science

These five books bring tell the fascinating, and at times, scandalous or tragic, tales of scientific discoveries and people behind them. We can't give you extra credit for reading them, but you will be glad you did.

 

500 BRY  A Short History of Nearly Everything. By Bill Bryson

Bryson attempts to summarize all that we know from biology, earth science, chemistry, physics, and astronomy, from the Big Bang, the origins of life, the size of the Earth, and well, nearly everything.

537 BOD  Electric Universe : The Shocking True Story of Electricity by David Bodanis

In Electric Universe, David Bodanis gives a history of the discovery and development of electricity and how it has impacted our lives. He also offers fascinating lives and sometimes bad behavior of the scientists who helped shape our understanding of it.  

546 KEA. The Disappearing Spoon : And Other True Tales of Madness, Love, and the History of the World from the Periodic Table of the Elements by Sam Kean

Science Magazine writer Kean tells the sometimes sordid tales of scientists who contributed to the development of the periodic table. Find out why Gandhi hated iodine, how Marie Curie provoked jealousy in the colleague’s wives and why the Japanese used Cadmium missilesto kill Godzilla.

551.7 FOR Earth : An Intimate History. By Richard A. Fortey

Fortney takes us on the a global geologic tour across time, explaining how the earth has changed over millennia as land masses broke apart and mountains, volcanoes and other geologic phenomenon have shaped the world we live in today.  Did you know that Appalachian Mountains used to extend all the way to Scotland?

616.02774 SKL The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot

Henrietta Lacks was a poor African American Southern tobacco farmer and mother of five who was undergoing treatment for cancer in 1951. Doctors removed tissue samples from her without her knowledge or permission. The cells grown from that sample went on to become known as the famous HeLa line. They were vital in the development of a polio vaccine and helped to uncover secrets of cancer and viruses and countless other discoveries. Yet she lies in an unmarked grave and her family never saw a penny from the use of her cells.

2011 is Chemistry's Year

The United States launch of theInternational Year of Chemistry is on February 1st. Check out
A Day Without Chemistry, a video produced by the American Chemical Society.





Here are some Chemistry Teaching Resources:


The ChemCollective
http://www.chemcollective.org/
The site is a collection of "virtual labs, scenario-based learning activities, and concepts tests." It was created by a group of faculty and staff at Carnegie Mellon University for college and high school teachers.

ChemEd DL
http://www.chemeddl.org/
This site provides a colleciton of materials for teaching Chemistry, including tutorials , lesson plans and 3D models.

Slate.com: Blogging the Periodic Table
http://www.slate.com/id/2258112/entry/2258111/
Sam Kean wrote the book The Disappearing Spoon, a collection of anecdotes about the stories behind the various elements of the Periodic Table. In July-August 2010, Kean wrote a series of blog posts on Slate.com where he shared a shorter version of some of those anecdotes.


There are plenty of creative approaches to presenting the Periodic Table of Elements on the Internet. Here are a few of them:

Periodictable.com
This site has stock photos of each elemen, as well as photos of products that use each one.

The Comic Book Periodic Table of the Elements
click on an element and you will be linked to a page from at comic book that involves that element. There are also links to the WebElements website where students can find comprehensive scientific information about each element.

The Periodic Table of Videos
Each element in this table leads to a Youtube video where scientists explain its characteristics.

Dynamic Periodic Table
Links from the elements on this site lead to information from other sites, including Wikipedia. Plus, the site gives you many ways to view the date, all from one page.

Science Videos and News

Science360 is a great resource for Science and Math videos and news. From the description on their website:

"Science360 Knowledge Network immerses visitors in the latest wonders of science, engineering, technology and math. We gather the latest science videos provided by scientists, colleges and universities, science and engineering centers, the National Science Foundation and more. Each video is embeddable to put on your own personal websites, blogs and social networking pages. Science360 engages the general public, science junkies and students alike in the cutting-edge discoveries and big science stories of the day."

The site includes The Science of NFL Football (also hosted on NBC Learn).

Science360 Videos
http://science360.gov/files/

Science360 News Service
http://news.science360.gov/files/

Study: Better to be good with people than just being smart.

Scientific American's 60 second science podcast reports on a study that shows that groups with good social skills was a better predictor of success on a task than considering the intelligence of individual group members.

http://www.scientificamerican.com/podcast/episode.cfm?id=groups-with-good-social-skills-outp-10-09-30

Two Teachers on the Tube

Two guys with way too much time on their hands who have made videos to save you time.

Khan Academy
Khan Academy is a non-profit run by one man, Salman Khan. There are tons of videos on topics in math, science, economics and other areas. All the videos are posted on YouTube, but you can also download the videos and other materials from Curriki.


WOWmath
Brad Robb has posted over 555  (as of this writing) on Youtube. He is a math teacher in California and records most of his videos while he is teaching the lessons. On his website WOWmath he has organized the videos and other materials.