Panel: "Clearing the Air: Managing Air Quality to Benefit Health and Climate in India"
Sarath Guttikunda, assistant professor at Desert Research Institute and founder of Urban Emissions.Info in India; William K.M. Lau, chief of the laboratory for atmospheres at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center and senior science adviser to the Hong Kong Observatory; and Danielle Meitiv, climate specialist at the Clean Air Task Force, will discuss this topic.
Radiation from Japan reaches B.C. shores
March 28, 2011
Simon Fraser University researchers are attributing increased levels of the radioisotope iodine-131 in B.C. seaweed and rainwater samples to the Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear reactor situation in Japan.
See also http://at.sfu.ca/SjllyC
What Is Bullying?
In this short video, bullying is defined with facts and stats. Some key elements are power imbalance with intent to harm physically or verbally. This would be a good resource for a teachable moment in the classroom or for a guidance session on reminding students about what bullying is. Content is appropriate for upper elementary. (0:45)
Water Safety for Families with Children with Special Needs
This video addresses the unique needs for water safety for families of special needs children. Special considerations for children with cognitive disorders and wheelchair bound children are discussed. This is a good resource for any adult working with special needs students/children such as parents, teachers, caregivers, and/or babysitters. (3:32)
Stand Up Speak Out-Acceptance
This Public Service Announcement was created by a group of Canadians to teach acceptance. The children and teenagers in this video share that we all should be accepted regardless of our looks or religion. The theme is to "Stand Up and Speak Out". It is a brief but good reminder that our differences make us special. Content is appropriate for upper elementary and middle school students. (1:02)
King Leads the March on Washington
the March on Washington (3:10) On August 28, 1963, a quarter million people gather to support civil rights, and share Dr. King's "dream" of equality. This video is highlighted by King's "I have a dream speech" and the reaction to it. The efforts of the federal government to enforce civil rights is explained as well as how the March was organized and where.
Children Learn Zoo Animal Names Quickly in Spanish
In this video, students will learn various zoo animal names in Spanish. An animated picture of the zoo animal is shown with the Spanish name and then a real photograph is shown. This is a fun teaching resource for a lesson/unit on zoo animals in the elementary classroom. (3:42)
Books of the month: Young novelists
Two new novels, "The Tiger's Wife" and "Swamplandia!", explore death and grief through a delicious blend of fantasy and reality
Tijd voor taal 4 : Lesvoorbereidingen bij thema 8 en 9 Diverse lessen bij Tijd voor Taal 4: Handleiding B:
Get the Word Out at McDonalds©!
Students will be asked to be part of a hypothetical scenario that challenges them to inform customers at a local restaurant of how their use and disposal of plastics relates/contributes to the Great Pacific Garbage Patch (GPGP). What they ultimately must do is to research information on the GPGP and place that information into a short, eye-catching newsletter that they can “hand out” to restaurant customers. This activity focuses on teaching students to gather their own additional informatio
Putting It All Together: Peripheral Vision
This activity will finally bring students to the point of writing the code to solve the Grand Challenge. Students will write their code in a derivative of C++ called QT. All code is listed in this lesson. This code will take the two images captured by the robots and combine them to create an image that can be focused at different distances, similar to the way that a human can focus either near or far.
Designing Medical Devices for the Ear
Students are introduced to engineering, and more specifically, to biomedical engineering and the engineering design process through a short lecture and interactive, hands-on activity (approximately 30 minutes long), where students design their own medical device for retrieving foreign bodies from the ear canal. In this lesson, the teacher first reviews the basics of ear anatomy then discusses how ear infections occur and how they are treated. Following antibiotic treatment, the most common treat
Dam Impacts
While the creation of a dam provides many benefits, it can have negative impacts on local ecosystems. Students learn about the major environmental impacts of dams and the engineering solutions used to address them.
Engineering in Sports
Imagining themselves arriving at the Olympic gold medal soccer game in Beijing, students begin to think about how engineering is involved in sports. After a discussion of kinetic and potential energy, an associated hands-on activity gives students an opportunity to explore energy absorbing materials as they try to protect an egg from being crushed.
Acid Attack
In this activity, students explore the effect of chemical erosion on statues and monuments. They use chalk to see what happens when limestone is placed in liquids with different pH values. They also learn several things that engineers are doing to reduce the effects of acid rain.
Shapes of Strength
Students are introduced to brainstorming and the design process in problem solving as it relates to engineering. They perform an activity to develop and understand problem solving with an emphasis on learning from history. Using only paper, straws, tape and paper clips, they create structures that can support the weight of at least one textbook. In their first attempt to build the structures, they build whatever comes to mind. For the second trial, they examine examples of successful buildings f
Rolling Blackouts & Environmental Impact – What are our Electricity Options?
The goal is for the students to understand the environmental design considerations required when generating electricity. The electric power that we use every day at home and work is generated by a variety of power plants. Power plants are engineered to utilize the conversion of one form of energy to another. The main components of a power plant are an input source of energy that is used to turn large turbines, and a method to convert the turbine rotation into electricity. The input sources of en
Heat It Up!
Through a teacher demonstration using water, heat and food coloring, students see how convection moves the energy of the Sun from its core outwards. Students learn about the three different modes of heat transfer (convection, conduction, radiation) and how they are related to the Sun and life on our planet.
Our Big Blue Marble
Students are introduced to the fabulous planet on which they live. Even though we spend our entire lives on Earth, we still do not always understand how it fits into the rest of the solar system. Students learn about the Earth’s position in the solar system and what makes it unique. They learn how engineers study human interactions with the Earth and design technologies and systems to monitor, use and care for our planet’s resources wisely to preserve life on Earth.
