Homeschool 2.0 » science

Global Warming or Global Cooling

lynn — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 22:34:03 +0000

NASA now begrudgingly confirms that the hottest year on record in the continental 48 was not 1998, as previously believed, but 1934, and that six of the 10 hottest years since 1880 antedate 1954. Data from 3,000 scientific robots in the world’s oceans show there has been slight cooling in the past five years

Yet here’s what Barack Obama says:

All across the world, in every kind of environment and region known to man, increasingly dangerous weather patterns and devastating storms are abruptly putting an end to the long-running debate over whether or not climate change is real. Not only is it real, it’s here, and its effects are giving rise to a frighteningly new global phenomenon: the man-made natural disaster.

And Arnold Schwarzenegger:

We simply must do everything we can in our power to slow down global warming before it is too late. The science is clear. The global warming debate is over.

So, which is it? If the hottest year on record was 1934 and the oceans are cooling over the past five years how is it that political leaders cling to global warming? And if I don’t believe in a climate change crisis then I am a conspiracy theorist, industry parrot, puzzle-maker, scientist for hire and I just can’t let go of my flat-earth ways.

Data Storage: A Quick Picture History

lynn — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 20:22:30 +0000

See how far we’ve come and how blessed we are here. It is fun to see the data punch cards; I learned FORTRAN programming with them in college many years ago. They were a challenge. One line of programming per card and they must be in the correct order or there was no hope of a good program run. Batch runs were ready every morning so I couldn’t know if it worked until the next day.

EXPELLED

lynn — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 19:37:22 +0000

I’ve never seen Ferris Bueller’s Day Off but I’ve been an admirer of Ben Stein for many years. “Ben Stein’s Diary” is published regularly in The American Spectator. His overriding theme is one of gratefulness to God for liberty and family.

Now, Ben is kicking the beehive with his movie which will be in theaters this spring, EXPELLED: No Intelligence Allowed. The issue is one of academic freedom and freedom of speech. Scholars who teach or publish the possibilities of intelligent design or a creator God are mocked, scorned and even ostracized from the scientific community. There is no room for debate, objective peer review nor tenure for one who does not walk the line of neo-Darwinism.

There are inherent dangers to society if academic freedom is stifled and this film promises to address the issue. I’m looking forward to seeing it.

View the trailer here.

Study Hard and Work in Very, Very Cool Research Facilities

lynn — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 18:56:01 +0000

I’ve done a bit of research. You know the kind, literature reviews, data gathering and the tedious writing and editing process. It’s not glamorous. But things are looking up for some of those who are academic and studying the right stuff. Here’s a quick look at five amazing research facilities.

5 Cool Online Resources

lynn — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 20:52:55 +0000

The Discovery Channel is a great place to go for beautifully produced interactive online resources for science topics like volcanoes and weapons and much more. Discovery’s cable shows are also online at this site including our house’s fave, Mythbusters.
Essay Writing Center has guidelines for, well, essay writing. You’ll find the Basics, Writing Guides, and every Essay Type you can imagine. It’s aimed at college level but can easily be used for secondary grades.
Merriam Webster’s Visual Dictionary Online contains 6,000 color images linked to 20,000 terms arranged in themes to help you find that doodad thingy and figure out what it’s called. The Game of the Week is a fun vocabulary builder. (HT: Lifehacker) The OneLook Reverse Dictionary lets you enter a definition to find the word you’re looking for.
What the World Eats, a three-part Time Magazine Photo Essay that presents families from around the world and what’s on their dinner table and their weekly budget. Photos are from the book by Peter Menzel and Faith D’Alusio, Hungry Planet: What the World Eats.
Algebasics provides online Algebra tutorials in flash with audio. Example problems and concepts are organized so you can find the exact type of problem for review. Very handy.

Periodic Table: Even More Stuff

lynn — Thu, 08 Nov 2007 18:44:25 +0000

Who knew there was so much Periodic Table stuff. A shower curtain? Yep, it’s available from Amazon. Phillip Torrone has an ongoing list of things Periodic Table-related. A periodic table of comic books?

UPDATE: Barb the Evil Genius reminded me of the way cool poster at United Nuclear. Thanks, Barb!

Chemistry is More Fun if It’s Dangerous

lynn — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 20:55:45 +0000

This Wired Science video reminisces about the good old days when a kids chemistry set could make some noise and smoke and had an element of danger. Those days are gone with the era of hyper-safety and lawsuits. Chemistry sets today are downright boring, like watching a crystal grow. So, if you want some excitement in your chemistry experiments it requires resourcefulness.

Featured in the Wired video, United Nuclear is the place to order the hard-to-find stuff if you want to make smoke bombs, start fire with water, or extract uranium from ore. That’s right! Uranium. They have the supplies and lab procedures with common sense safety guidelines.

Fun Web Resources for History, Geography and Science

lynn — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 18:40:33 +0000

Maps of War is a handy site that collects, well, maps. Not basic maps but the best of interactive maps on the web from a variety of sources such as MSNBC, BBC, Los Angeles Times and others. Example maps are History of Religion, WW1 The Western Front, WWII in Europe and many others. Very cool stuff.

HT: Thinking 2.0

The Secret Life of Machines is a collection of videos and cartoons from the Discovery Channel TV series by engineer/cartoonist Tim Hunkin. There are quite a few machines presented including the washing machine, video recorder, word processor and 15 more. Each presentation has Hunkin’s cartoons and a video in four formats. I had the best luck downloading the videos rather than streaming. The 3gp format plays perfectly on my Motorola SLVR cell phone. There’s also a larger format for iPhones.

HT: Makezine

String Theory: It’s Time to Put on Your Thinking Cap

lynn — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 18:06:51 +0000

Discover Magazine has announced the winner of their video contest, String Theory in Two Minutes or Less. String theory is sometimes called the ‘Theory of everything,’ a way to mathematically describe everything in the universe. I’ve been seeing several projects or contests like this that require entrants to ‘teach us about blank in two minutes or less’ or ‘teach us blank with five images.’ It’s the 21st century, web2.0 version of the dioramas or poster board projects I made in school. Using these tools to present complex concepts simply and understandably is great for projects in the upper level grades.

Back to Discover’s contest, I guess there are actually two winners, one chosen by Columbia University physicist Brian Greene and another resulting from a poll of readers. Here is String Ducky, Dr. Greene’s choice. It is an animated video. Very possible for junior and senior high students.

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Lots of Chemistry Stuff

lynn — Wed, 24 Oct 2007 21:21:30 +0000

Our son is working on an introduction to chemistry and he’s having lots of fun learning about the periodic table of the elements. There seems to be an endless number of periodic tables on the web. But, here is a list of the best chemistry resources I’ve collected on the web, both scholarly and silly:

Chemicool Periodic Table: Interactive Table with links to Chemistry Dictionary, Chemistry Tools and other resources.
Chemistry Comes Alive: Videos of chemical reactions from the Journal of Chemical Education. My personal fave is the exploding ice bomb. Very Alaskan.
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