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2. Enough blathering, here are several things I found that I could use TODAY in my classroom IF I had easy access to the web/projector/smartboard etc. (which I don't have right now):
 * 1) I spent some time poking around for Assignment #4 (Using Technology in the Classroom)--I am pretty much blown away by what I found (and so quickly!!). I teach Physics and one of my goals (besides helping my kids raise their game in critical thinking/problem solving) is for my kids to **make** **connections** between what they are learning and the real-world around them. I do lots of little (Physics) demonstrations and describe lots of little real-world (Physics) events--like the mini-story of me teaching my 15 year old daughter (11 years ago--wow!!) how to drive and I had her panic brake from 55mph to raise her driving confidence that brakes are designed super-tough, convince her that she can control a car that is screeching to a stop and that brakes stop wheels, tires stop cars!! Anyway, after even a short time looking around I found lots of websites that have exactly what I do all the time: 1 to 3 minute video clips that I can integrate into my lectures, demos, labs etc. right now. Before we break for teachers convention I will have a quick chat with my building pricipal and request from her that I be put on the "next" list for a smart board in my classroom. I want and need that technology ASAP. I am 58 and although getting up to reasonable speed in technology is a pretty steep hill for me to climb right now, I know I will become an even better teacher even in my twilight years with improved technology access. Bob Wagner and April both have told us that the stuff we are going to learn in this MTE program will be directly applicable to the stuff we do in our classroom. Assignment #4 has shown me that very clearly!!

2.1 TEACHERTUBEis just awesome. I found a [3:48] blurb on "Titanic: Past & Present" I will use this as an ice-breaker (wow what a great pun!!) for my lessons on momentum and inertia. 2.2 Also from WWW.TEACHERTUBE.COM I can use the [5:04] "Top 10 Algebra Mistakes" as a part of the ACT post-mortem that I help the Guidance Department teach in the spring at my school.com 2.3 I also found 3 excellent "Slow-Motion Video" sites: [|WWW.ULTRASLO.COM] LucidMovement [|WWW.VISIONRESEARCH.COM]

From the visionresearch site I quickly found two short video clips that I will use: "Horses can fly!" {The high-speed photography shows that for a part of a horses stride at full gallop that all four of the horse's feet are off the ground at the same time. There is even enough data about the photography given that I can have my honors students actually calculate how long the horses feet are all off the ground!! The beauty of this is that I can show the clip to my regular Physics kids as well as my Honors students. But then I can assign the "feet off the ground" calculation as a HW problem for the Honors students!!

The second clip is "Hummingbird in flight" Here the hummingbird is shown "hovering", one of the few birds that can do this (they can also fly backwards--the ONLY bird that can!!). After watching the short clip I can use it for my regular Physics kids to show the beautiful forward and backward wing-beats that are the secret to why it can remain in the same place (i.e. hover) while "flying". But I can also require my Honors students to sketch a simple vector diagram (called a Free-Body-Diagram) to show how all the relevant forces cancel out so the HB can hover. These "real-world" video clips are a treasure-trove for my students and the way I interact with them--some of the lessons/HW problems almost write themselves!!

I will now try to add the appropriate links.

HERE ARE 3 TECH-BASED LESSON PLANS FOR MY PHYSICS CURRICULUM:

1. THE "POWERS OF TEN" VIDEO: [|WWW.POWERSOF10.COM]

In 1977 charles & Ray Eames produced a 9 minute film called "Powers of Ten". It still stands today as a classic for helping to teach the concepts of big vs. small, connecting those ideas to the scientific notation ideas of scaling by factors of 10. The authors blurb says: "Starting with a sleeping man at a picnic, the film takes the viewer on a journey out to the edge of space and then back into a carbon atom in the hand of the man at the picnic, all in a single shot." Dramatic, thought-provoking and timeless, this film gently forces the viewer to really consider how big we are and how big is big and how small is small? This is great science that seamlessly becomes philosophy and some would argue becomes religeous in its impact.

I will use this website to have students view the "Powers of Ten" video for discussion purposes plus I will have students explore, on their own, the supplementary exercises provided where students can explore powers of 10 from 10(-18) up to 10(+24).

2. TREBUCHET [|WWW.WARWICKSIEGE.COM/]

I teach a very thorough unit on projectile motion while we are studying mechnanics. This website will supplement my classroom lectures/demonstrations and NOVA video "Medival Seige"(which by the way is referenced in this UK website--imagine that!!). Students can go to this website and learn all about the history of Trebuchets (essentially the "heavy artillery" of the middle ages) and their use to bust down castle walls. The website also provides lots of info about the building of the Warwick Trebuchet, the largest Trebuchet in the world (and they even shoot it a couple of times per day during part of the year). There is even a simplified (flash-driven) animation game wherein students can "fire" the Trebuchet and try to hit a target some 300m away. Students get 5 shots to hit the target and can adjust either the counterweight size or projectile size or both.

This website is clearly part of a "Tourist Destination/Marketing" situation at the Warwick Castle in the UK. but the science/history is excellent and will be a great supplement to my existing lessons.

3. VECTORS [|WWW.ANSWERS.COM] AND [|WWW.PHYSICSCLASSROOM.COM]

EN.WIKIPEDIA.ORG

I currently teach the very basics of vectors to my Physics students (most of whom have had NO contact with this powerful mathematical tool in school before). The "Physicsclassroom" website provides me with plenty of supplementary exercises for my students. To be honest, my current lessons are pretty bland (boring!!??). This is a great resource. I know there are lots of additonal sites for these resources so I will keep looking.

The "Answers.com" website is excellent, fresh stuff!! It provides a lucid coverage of "vector graphics" wherein the powerful and obvious connections to vectors in computers is explained. I will also link up a generic discussion on the subject from wikipedia. This is a very deep and wonderfully current subject but is probably going to be a supplement only for extra credit. Perhaps I can include it a bit more formally in my Honors Physics classes.

Here are some comments for Assignment #6:

I found Web 2.0 to be another mind mulch. I scanned the wikipedia pages that talked about what web 2.0 is and after ignoring what the experts love to argue about (and all the acronyms like RSS, AJAX etc--hey the web monsters have more acronyms than the military methinks!!) I surmise that web 2.0 is basically talking about "interactive websites" that don't just give you info to snoop but allow you to add, subtract (multiply and divide??) and manipulate data and info that the viewer brings to the party and hopefully make something new, wonderful and unique with it. I am not sure exactly how come so many of these sites are free but I will figure that out later. Anyway, here is what I found and what I think I can do with it in my classroom:

Basically, I found websites that will allow me to snip, edit, subtitle and in various ways manipulate VIDEOS I find on YouTube or in fact any video I find on the web or create myself. This fits perfectly with previous listings I made here on my wiki regarding Assignment #4: All sorts of short cool video clips are just what I need for improving and adding to my "demonstrations" that I use in my Physics class.

The sites I found look like they will be amazing and I can't, without more info/hands-on experience decide which one(s) will be best for what I do. I found them on a neat website called Cool Tools For Schools. So I guess at this point it is a toss-up between these four:

1. OVERSTREAM Their blurb: "Easily create and synchronize your sub-titles to any online video, store them on the overstream server and send the link to the subtitled video overstream to your friends or embed on your website."

2. RECORDR Their blurb: "Record yourself live just with a microphone and a web camera, and share it with your friends. You can also comment with video/audio to a web page you are viewing."

3. STORYBLENDER Their blurb: "Create your own vidos, enhance anything on YouTube. remake other blends."

4. TUBECHOP Their blurb: "find the video you want to chop, select and cut interesting parts of the video. share it with friends."

Here I go adding info about Assignment #7. I probably should put it into a new page but I'm not very confident about doing that yet so I'll put it here. My "fun" stuff is in two sections. First there is a website called "Educational Jargon Generator" which is just a blast--I have shown it to students (and of course my colleagues at High School). Most everybody likes it--it is super easy to use and can help you talk like a doctorate-educated pontificator!! It is clever, harmless fun. The website is: @http://www.sciencegeek.net/lingo.html

Next is a game that I show to select students in my regular Physics classes and usually to my Honors Physics classes. It is called "Conway's Game of Life" usually called simply "Life". It is a fascinating interactive game that simulates the birth, growth and death of "cells". Incredibly complex systems and designs are produced from the simplest initial designs and conditions. It can be mesmerizing! I reference the general info at Wikipedia and suggest interested people visit the hands-on website at: [] Lastly, this is just for pure fun for teachers. This is an MP3 audio about 1 minute long that I think every educator in the country will appreciate and enjoy. The website is: http://www.sciencegeek.net/lingo.html