The Top 75 ‘Pictures of the Day’ for 2012 *Update: The Top 100 ‘Pictures of the Day’ for 2012 have just been published. Click here to check out the most up-to-date post! After the positive reception from last year’s “Top 50 ‘Pictures of the Day’ for 2011“, the Sifter promised to highlight the top 25 ‘Pictures of the Day‘ at the end of every quarter, eventually culminating in an epic Top 100 for 2012. It’s hard to believe we’re already into the final quarter of 2012. *Please note the photographs themselves were not necessarily taken in 2012, they just happened to be featured as a ‘Picture of the Day’ this year. Enjoy! Collection Online Featuring nearly 1600 artworks by more than 575 artists, the Collection Online presents a searchable database of selected artworks from the Guggenheim’s permanent collection of over 7,000 artworks. The selected works reflect the breadth, diversity, and tenor of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation’s extensive holdings from the late 19th century through the present day, and are continually expanded to include a larger representation of the museum’s core holdings as well as recent acquisitions. In addition to highlights from the Solomon R. Learn More about the Collection
Density Tower - Magic with Science at Steve Spangler Science Start your column by pouring the honey into the cylinder. Now, you will pour each liquid SLOWLY into the container, one at a time. It is very important to pour the liquids slowly and into the center of the cylinder. Make sure that the liquids do not touch the sides of the cylinder while you are pouring. It’s okay if the liquids mix a little as you are pouring. The same amount of two different liquids will have different weights because they have different masses. To test this, you might want to set up a scale and measure each of the liquids that you poured into your column. Density is basically how much "stuff" is smashed into a particular area... or a comparison between an object's mass and volume. The same goes for the small objects that you dropped into your density column. In the materials, we had you grab a bunch of miscellaneous tiny objects. When all the liquids and small objects have been added to your density tower, you will have what appears to be a magic column.
Video: MIT's Latest User Interface Employs Gravity-Defying, Levitating Metal Orbs The future of user interfaces seems to be gesture-based, at least if one simply looks at where research dollars are flowing and what products--yes, like the Kinect--are coming to market. But the peripheral is not dead. Jinha Lee at the Tangible Media Group at the MIT Media Lab sees a different future, one that dispenses with gravity to create a much more tangible yet futuristic UI that lets users move and interact with floating, gravity-defying objects in 3-D space. Lee's prototype ZeroN is a small metal orb floating in free space that users can manipulate by moving around and placing in midair. For instance, the ZeroN can be used as the stand-in for a camera in a 3-D scene (imagine a scale architectural model placed in the ZeroN's working space; the ball can be moved around the model, changing the point-of-view of the 3-D representation in a graphic representation). The trick to all this is a precision electromagnet fitted to a moving actuator above the ZeroN's workspace. [Co.Design]
Bloggingheads.tv A List of Books | 623 of the Best Books Ever Written Schools Should Teach Science Like Sports Suppose you wanted to teach children to play baseball or softball. How would you go about doing it? One approach might be to sit them down and start having them memorize the rules of the game, the dimensions of the field, the names and statistics of past players, and a host of other facts. You would stop teaching them periodically to review the material in preparation for multiple-choice assessment tests. The students who showed a great aptitude for memorizing large numbers of facts could go into honors classes where they would memorize even larger numbers of facts. At the end of the process, without ever leaving the classroom, how well do you think the children would be able to play baseball or softball? Why have we thought that this process would work with teaching science to children? The Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) are intended to be a cure for this approach. Here is an example of one performance expectation, taken from high school Earth and space science courses:
Earth Exploration Toolbook Awarded Science Magazine's Science Prize for Online Resources in Education (SPORE), September 30, 2011 AAAS Press Release What is the Earth Exploration Toolbook? Developed by teams of scientists and educators, the Earth Exploration Toolbook (EET) is a collection of online Earth system science activities. Within the context of a case study, each chapter guides users through a step-by-step process in which they access data and use analysis tools to explore real issues and questions in Earth system science. Who is it for? Earth Exploration Toolbook chapters are written to the teacher, generally at the secondary and college level. How can I learn more? Come on into the site! Photojournal: NASA's Image Access Home Page BanksyInside - A Digital Magazine Dropping What's Fresh on the Web The mysterious Banksy just released some new paintings on his website. You heard it right, Banksy painted on a canvas. All Banksy fans will appreciate. Here are a few of my favourites.
5 Quick Tips for Secondary Classroom Management That Actually (I Promise You!) Work This fall I will begin my sixth year of teaching, which is still weird to see written down because it seems like just yesterday I was struggling through my first. (And second. And probably third, too, for good measure.) Classroom management was my biggest struggle in those beginning-teaching years. I went in suspecting I would have classroom management in the bag because I'd had pretty extensive experience working with kids from babysitting, being a camp counselor and other volunteer-type roles. In my first year, I had no procedures in place and thought that my students wouldn't learn if I wasn't always nice to them. In my second year, I overcompensated for my leniency the previous year and behaved somewhat like a dragon. My third year is when things started to even out. Classroom management isn't like following a recipe, where you follow exact steps and end up with a beautiful finished product. 1. A quiet voice is way more effective than a loud one in the long run. 2. 3. 4. 5.
Rashad Alakbarov Paints with Shadows and Light Artist Rashad Alakbarov from Azerbaijan uses suspended translucent objects and other found materials to create light and shadow paintings on walls. The best part is that you can easily create something similar at home – all you need is one or two lamps and some items from your desk. The stunning light painting below, made with an array of colored airplanes has found its way to exhibitions like the Fly to Baku at De Pury Gallery in London. Rashad adds, “Above the cloud with its shadow is the star with its light. Above all things reverence thyself.” Comments comments
When are we ever … | Teaching Calculus The following answer to a question we’ve all been asked was posted yesterday on a private Facebook page for AP Calculus readers. The author, Allen Wolmer is a teacher and AP Calculus reader. He teaches at Yeshiva Atlanta High School, in Atlanta, Georgia. I reprint it here with his kind permission. Thank you Allen. A colleague of mine teaching high school math asked me the following: “So some of my kids are struggling with the math concepts and ideas (why do I need to learn this? I have answered these questions, with responses like financial jobs, accounting, econ, but they have no interest in these types of jobs/real world applications. I have also talked about logic, problem solving, and puzzles. Here is my reply: “Glad to help. So, I turn it around. And that’s why we study mathematics: to strengthen our mental muscles. We’re learning how to pay attention to detail. Then I tell them never to ask that #$%^%$# question again and to shut the #$%^&*&^% up and get back to work! Like this: