EarthViewer for iPad Takes You Through the History of Earth EarthViewer is a free iPad app that takes you through 4.5 billion years on Earth. EarthViewer allows you to select eons and eras to view. Within each eon and era you can view tectonic plates, continental drift, and other geological events. You can view major biological events in EarthViewer too. Climate data for the last one hundred years is available in the app. EarthViewer users can manipulate the virtual globe to see how each continent has moved and been altered over time. EarthViewer could be an excellent resource to include in a science or geography lesson. Tags: biology, free ipad app, free ipad apps, geography, geology, science, science apps
Michael Pecirno's Minimal Maps Single Out American Land Use Patterns Most maps of the U.S. prioritize metropolitan areas. But "Minimal Maps" single out the nation's forests, crops, and waterbodies. Eighty percent of the U.S. population lives in "urban" areas, a staggering 249,253,271 souls. Yet these folks live in just 3 percent of the country's 2.3 billion acres of land. These are statistics that never fail to blow my provincially urban mind—in part, perhaps, because most maps of the country visually prioritize metropolitan areas. But London-based designer Michael Pecirno produces images of America that illuminate all land use patterns, type by type. "[C]orn fields take up 91 million acres of the American landscape," writes Pecirno in an email. All images courtesy of Michael Pecirno.
The Universe at Your Fingertips 2.0 DVD-ROM: AstroShop A Collection of Activities and Resources for Teaching Astronomy (on a DVD-ROM) Edited by Andrew FraknoiPublished by the Astronomical Society of the Pacific Wholesale and international orders please contact service {at} astrosociety.org or call customer service at 1-800-335-2624. This DVD-ROM is the most comprehensive resource and activity guide for teaching basic concepts and activities in space science ever published. It includes: 133 field-tested hands-on activities, from programs and projects around the US,17 topical guides to to the best sources of information in print and on the web,52 background articles on astronomy and education,12 short videos with instructions for doing some of the most often-used activities, and10 recommended sequences of activities to help students learn some of the topics most often found in the K-12 curriculum. Themes and topics include: Click here for the full table of contents (pdf file).
Powers of Minus Ten - Bone Brugstedet.dk Dark Side of the Earth 200 miles above Earth's surface, astronaut Dave Wolf -- rocketing through the blackness of Earth's shadow at 5 miles a second -- floated out of the Mir Space Station on his very first spacewalk. In this short, he describes the extremes of light and dark in space, relives a heart-pounding close call, and shares one of the most tranquil moments of his life. When we were putting together our live show In the Dark, Jad and Robert called up Dave Wolf to ask him if he had any stories about darkness. And boy, did he. Dave told us two stories that became the finale of our show. Back in late 1997, Dave Wolf was on his first spacewalk, to perform work on the Mir (the photo to the right was taken during that mission, courtesy of NASA.). Out in blackness of space, the contrast between light and dark is almost unimaginably extreme -- every 45 minutes, you plunge between absolute darkness on the night-side of Earth, and blazing light as the sun screams into view.
Click and Learn 9 Excellent Free Map Creation Tools for Teachers and Students 1- Umapper UMapper is a great mapping tool for educators. It allows its users to create and manage interactive maps and geogames online. 2- MapTiler This a tool that allows users to create overlay of standard maps like Google Maps, and Yahoo Maps and can also be visualized in 3D form. 3- Build A Map This is another cool tool for teachers to create maps. 4- World Map This one here is being developed by Center for Geographic Analysis at Harvard University and allows users to easily build their own mapping portal and publish it to the world or to just a few collaborators. 5- Map Faire This is a cool tool for teachers to create awesome maps and share them with their students. 6- MapFab This is a Google Maps editor that offers you a clever way to easily create and share your Google Maps . 7- Target Map Target Map allows you to : easily create customized Data Maps on Google Maps, locate & see your Excel data on Google Maps, and share your knowledge with others. 8- Scribble Maps 9- Animaps
REBROADCAST: Space Celebrate the 35th anniversary of the launch of Voyager 2 (it rocketed off Earth on 8/20/77 carrying a copy of the Golden Record), and tip your hat to the Mars rover Curiosity as it kicks off its third week on the red planet, with a rebroadcast of one our favorite episodes: Space. We've been space-crazy the past few weeks here at Radiolab -- from cheering on the scientifically epic landing of the Mars rover earlier this month, to staying up late to watch the Perseid meteor showers, to reliving a stomach-churning spacewalk with an astronaut in our live show In the Dark. We've been happily turning our thoughts and gazes skyward all summer long. So before the nights get too chilly, grab a blanket, cue up Space, and stare into that vast, glittering, perspective-shaking darkness with us.
Make a Splash with our new App - Ara Sarafian - ABC Splash - The Best of ABC Splash apps give you access to the ten hottest topics across Primary and Secondary year levels. These apps are just another wdonerful way to get Splash's outstanding, award-winning content into the classroom for free. Each topic has five videos and is supported by fun quizzes, teaching guides and curriculum links, so there are many great reasons to check them out. Spoiled for choice Each Best of ABC Splash app contains some of Splash's most engaging topics. There's a lot to choose from, and you can create your own list of Favourites. The Primary app takes you to Antarctica, lets you walk with the dinosaurs and gives students a closer look at minibeasts and the Australian wilderness. The Secondary app allows students to explore solar systems, extreme weather and interesting robots. Embracing digital learning Splash helps students, teachers and parents embrace online and digital learning. "... these resources are integral to a 21st century classroom experience." Get started!
The #1 reason people die early, in each country You're probably aware that heart disease and cancer are far and away the leading causes of death in America. But globally the picture is more complicated: (Vox / Anand Katakam and Joss Fong) It's worth stressing that "cause of lost years of life" and "cause of death" aren't identical. For example, deaths from preterm births may cause more lost years of life in a country than deaths from heart disease even if heart disease is the leading cause of death. But that makes the fact that heart disease is the leading cause of lost life in so many countries all the more striking, and indicative of those countries' successes in reducing childhood mortality. On the flipside, the world is getting better in a great number of ways: