video – Page 13 – Montessori Muddle

You Value Learning More if You Discover Things for Yourself

A key tenant of Montessori is that students have an innate desire to learn, so, as a teacher, you should provide them with the things they need (prepare the environment) and then get out of the way as they discover things themselves.

In the book, The Upside of Irrationality, Dan Ariely explains from the perspective of an economist how people tend to value things more if they make it for themselves. He uses the example of oragami (and Ikea furniture that you have to assemble yourself), where he finds that people would pay more for something they made themselves, as opposed to the same thing made by someone else.

Just so, students value things more, and remember them better, if they discover them themselves.

(video via The Dish)

It All Depends on Your Point of View-2

Here’s a neat little video, which holds the Milky Way (galactic-centric) steady as the Earth rotates relative to it.

For comparison, here’s the original video by Stephane Guisard and Jose Francisco Salgado, showing the geocentric view of the sky moving:

It is always revelatory to see things from unexpected perspectives. Brian Swimme was amazed by the immensity of it when he first truly recognized that he was standing on a planet that was rotating through space orbiting the Sun.

The inner planets. (from my Solar System Model).

I’ve always been struck by the opposite point of view. To think that if you hold still enough, and think about it a bit, from one point of view you could be the central reference point for the entire universe, with everything else moving relative to you: the Earth still beneath your feet; the Sun (almost) orbiting around you; and the planets arcing through their epicycles.

planets-geocentric-all-2 — Orbits of the inner planets viewed from the Earth (a geocentric perspective). Paths plotted using Gerd Breitenbach's neat little applet.

History of English in 10 Minutes Video

This is the first of an excellent series covering the history of English from The Open University. They make for a great spark-the-imagination lesson for etymology.

There’s lots more interesting videos at The Open University’s YouTube channel.

(via The Dish)

Voyager Explores the Electromagnetic Field at the Edge of the Solar System

This video from NASA (via physorg.com) includes a nice little section showing the movement of charged particles (cosmic rays) through the Sun’s magnetic field. What’s really neat, is that the Voyager spacecraft (now 33 years old) have discovered magnetic bubbles at the edge of the solar system that make the particles dance a little. It’s a wonderful application of the basic principles of electricity and magnetism.

Storm: Life is Precious

I try not to post things with anything approaching obscene language, but sometimes, as in this piece, called “Storm” by Tim Minchin, it’s a small part in the service of a much bigger, more significant idea. Anyway, this one might not be for the kids.

Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer

The BBC has an excellent article on the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS) launched on the second to last shuttle flight to investigate the origins of the universe. NASA’s page is giving regular updates.

What’s nice is that the basic physics of magnetic spectrometers, where magnets are used to deflect the motion of charged particles, should be accessible to middle school students once they get into electricity and magnetism.

_52795039_spectro464x306 — How the AMS works. Image from CERN via the BBC.

Transition Radiation Detector determines highest-energy particle velocities
Silicon Trackers follow particle paths; how they bend reveals their charge
Permanent Magnet is core component of AMS and makes particles curve
Time-of-flight Counters determine lowest-energy particle velocities
Star Trackers scan star fields to establish AMS’s orientation in space
Cerenkov Detector makes accurate velocity measurements of fast particles
Electromagnetic Calorimeter measures energy of impacting particles
Anti-coincidence Counter filters signal from unwanted side particles

— Amos (2011): Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer to go on Endeavour shuttle on the BBC.

For additional information, that really gets into the nuts and bolts, you can go CERN’s technical site or get more general info at their public site, which has a wonderful set of videos and animations.

Consider Camouflage

Consider just how effectively this octopus camouflages itself.

And a Comet Hits the Sun

cme-150-sk1 — Comet colliding with the Sun coincides with a coronal mass ejection. Image from the NASA SOHO Observatory.

SOHO scientists think that coronal mass ejection that happens right after the comet hits the Sun was probably not caused by the collision. But it looks really cool.

SOHO has a nice glossary of terms for understanding the Sun that’s specifically for middle school students (there is also a more general one). They also have some much higher quality video.