The Naked Scientists Online, Science Podcast and Science Radio Show

ESL Education: Strategies for Teaching English Language Learners Every teacher strives to make a long-term difference in the lives of children who attend their classrooms. Educators who teach English as a Second Language (ESL) have no doubts about their impact on students. Teaching English to speakers of other languages present unique challenges: Due to limited vocabulary range or nervousness, students may struggle to communicate or explain their confusion in full detail.Limited literacy in a native language (L1) can create an obstacle for literacy in a second language (L2).Cultural norms or classroom routines, such as raising your hand or brainstorming, are foreign concepts and acclimation requires time.

Home Common Compound Library A searchable database of over 800 common compound names, formulas, structures, and properties. Companion Notes Hyperlinked notes and guides for first semester general chemistry. Construction Kits Flash-based kits for building chemical formulas, names, equations, and problem solutions. Articles Featured articles, books, and tutorials. Toolbox Interactive graphing, popup tables, and calculators.  Synthetic Biology "Synthetic biology" is an umbrella term that refers to a new set of powerful techniques for manipulating the fundamental molecular structures of life, including genes, genomes, cells and proteins. Techniques being developed under the "synthetic biology" rubric include the modification of existing bacteria to produce useful substances or perform new functions, the creation of novel artificial organisms from "scratch," and — less noted to date — the modification of animal and human genes. Synthetic biologists foresee a host of human applications, including new methods to produce drugs, biofuels and vaccines; to diagnose, prevent and cure disease; and — far more controversially — to screen, select, and modify genes for specified traits in embryos, children, and adults.

What happens next? A teaching strategy to get students of all ages talking David Featonby, from the UK, presents some simple demonstrations to get your students thinking about scientific principles. Very often, meaningful discussion of science is limited to a small number of vocal students in a class. Here is a great way to get everyone in the class talking and thinking about science principles. The following approach not only lends itself to groups of all ages and abilities, but has opened up discussions between children who normally make few positive contributions to lessons. Furthermore, it can be applied in a variety of different cultures and educational systems, so could be used in different countries. When the approach has been tried as a full lesson, teachers have been most enthusiastic about the effect that it has had on their students, and the development of their thinking skills.

Tackling the world’s challenges We are committed to ensuring that the chemical sciences contribute to their full potential to tackling the major global challenges of today and tomorrow. The world’s population is projected to reach 9 billion by 2050. The standard of living around the world has been rising, but socio-economic disparities remain. Journals PLOS publishes seven peer-reviewed open-access journals. The journals vary in their selectivity and contain differing amounts of commentary articles from opinion leaders in a variety of scientific disciplines.The journals are editorially independent. They include PLOS ONE, which publishes all rigorous science across the full range of life and health sciences; the community journals (PLOS Genetics, PLOS Computational Biology, PLOS Pathogens, and PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases); and our flagship journals, PLOS Medicine and PLOS Biology, highly selective journals publishing fewer than 10% of submissions along with a range of informative and influential non-research content. You can search the journals for specific articles here and you can sign up for e-mail Content Alerts for all our journals here. We encourage authors to consider carefully each journal’s scope before submission in order to minimize delays in the review process.

Fun physics in school: students perform for students Herbi Dreiner and Tobias Strehlau describe how a university physics show inspired a secondary-school teacher and his students to perform their own school physics show. Why not try it in your school? The inspiration – at university

Electricity and Magnetism - Interactive Java Tutorials Interactive Java Tutorials Mag Lab U: Learning about Electricity and Magnetism - Visit our sister website for more interactive Java tutorials, a timeline of historical events, a museum of antique devices, and articles on topics related to electricity and magnetism. Russian Abacus - This tutorial explores how the Russian abacus was once used to do simple arithmetic. By moving a set of beads back and forth across a set of framed wires, the visitor can do use this tutorial to do simple addition and subtraction.