Other Layer B Awards

Best Hand Drawn Infographic

This infographic has tremendous thought and planning behind it.  Not only is it visually stunning with its cubic cleavage, it is organized and laid out so that it is useful for anyone trying to identify any minerals.  When one first encounters a mineral, one visually inspects the mineral first which is why the artist puts visual properties on the left.  The infographic has minimal, well chosen words and aided the explanations with objects allowing the reader to quickly get an idea of what each mineral test entails.  The infographic was pretty exhaustive and informative.  The only issue I have with it is that the artist labelled 'chemical properties' under physically identifying minerals.  

Best App-Aided Infographic

This was an infographic that was done by piktochart.  There was a lot of information found in this infographic and it was also well organized.  It was visually fun to look at but my main comments to the artist was to cut down on the number of words to let your audience flow through the infographic.  Put some effort in summarizing each test so that your reader can get the main idea.  

Best Concept Map

Exhaustive and an all-encompassing concept map.  You want to know how all the key words are connected in the unit?  Look no further than this.  It is well planned,  visually laid out, and many interconnections between different concepts are present.  Absolutely spectacular work.    

Best use of Statistics - Showing what an Infographic Really Should Include (RESEARCH!)

See the full infographic here.  

There should have been some stats that you guys have researched about minerals.  ie:  What % of minerals have a hardness of 1?  What % of minerals are green?  Stats are integral aspect of an infographic - do some research and put it in there if you choose to do an infographic next round.  I encourage you to take look at this infographic and to see the interaction level of this artists' work.  

Math is Used to Explain the Universe...

 Math is always been abstract.  Then, at some point, science catches up and can often utilize that math to describe and predict the happenings of the universe.  For example, the imaginary numbers you learned about in Gr 11 math - I used it to partially describe electricity's behaviour while studying in university.

XKCD, a popular comic, compares math and science based on purity:

Math is a convenient tool to describe the things we can't really understand - like black holes.  In the latest news, the physicist, Mersini-Houghton, has just mathematically proven that black holes do not exist.  She has married two known sides of science - quantum physics with general relativity with her finding, which is a pretty big deal. We'll see if it stands up to the scrutiny of the other scientists.

The Alps, Like Never Presented Before

Hundreds of mountaineers got together for a tremendous photoshoot of the Alps.  The pictures are just breathtaking.

From the Bored Panda

Volcano

A volcano named Ontake San has suddenly erupted in Japan.  Check out this Volcano Cafe for two reasons- 1)  it has amalgamated the latest news and we can certainly learn from it and 2)  the posting would have scored pretty well on the rubric.  Can you spot which parts Volcano Cafe could improve upon?

It's also pleasing to read this quote isn't it?

"The base of the volcano is 17 km2 and the composition is mostly rhyolite but the upper parts also contain pyroxene and andesite. The longest lava flow that had been produced run 17 km."  

Photo Creds:  Gary Wolff

Warp Drive: 17 000 Year Flight Compressed into 5 Months

So, NASA has designed the exterior of the warp-drive space ship.  With this warp drive, we can theoretically travel 10 times faster than the speed of light by 'warping' the space around the vessel and jumping from one space to another, using Einstein's general relativity.

From IXS Enterprise Flickr - 1600 hour concept project

More Earth, Less Space. Did I Hear you Right, Donnie?

An awesome speech by DiCaprio.  He was much more efficient in delivering information that I was in my 45 minute double Powerpoint yesterday.

I issue a challenge to you, the people who lack listening endurance, to listen to DiCaprio for 4 minutes without getting distracted.  

This Probably Won't Work...

I do have people lined up to read your blogs.  I swear.

I'm actually trying to get more people to read your blogs.  However, my latest attempt probably won't be successful as I doubt telling people they're scientifically wrong will actually get them to click on AC's blog.

People just don't know that minerals such as diamonds can't be created by organic matter such as coal.  I guess they didn't take sarth and epace science.

What, can't I shameless plug my students' blogs?

Nvidia, a Graphics Card Designer, Disproves a Couple Conspiracy Theories

We now have the technology (commercially) now to create the whole moon landing scenario. Nvidia, a powerful graphics card company that powers the video that we see on our screens, takes us through their process of trying to render and simulate the whole landing scenario and 'proves' that the weird lighting conditions on the moon was due to the reflections and albedo (remember that word from gr 10 science?) of the moon and objects surrounding their camera, including their space suits.

Check it out here if you have some time.  

The First Formative Blog Awards

Thank you to all who have completed their very first blog post.  I understand there was some trepidation among some of you, but we all pretty much took the dive and started to write.  It was definitely interesting to read as I got to learn about your personalities and what interests you in this course.  I learned about many different things including the rarest mineral on Earth, that diamonds can be coloured, and the biggest star that we've discovered(it's huge).  I have feedback for each of you, and hopefully it will take you to the next level.

Another method of taking your blog to the next level is by reading your fellow classmates' work.

I'd like to take this moment to highlight some spectacular  blogs authored by some of our classmates. Many of you have worked hard to try to meet the expectations highlighted by the rubric and it's important to illustrate what they've done so that we may learn from it.

Best Overall Blog 
In Annieway, the attention to detail on the layout of the blog is especially apparent in her background choice. Not only does this background choice visually stunning, but it corresponds with her equally fantastic blog post regarding light pollution. She has posted a couple different things, demonstrating that she knows that she is to use this blog not only as an assignment posting medium, but also as an ideaboard for anything that she finds interesting earth and space wise.

Best Post
Earthy-Spacey is simultaneously informative as well as highly entertaining.  I had to reread many sentences to fully understand his many allusions and metaphors that showcase his interesting personality. Wow, just wow.    

Best Integration of Knowledge from Another Course
In Wandering Attention, AW asked an important question in class that I couldn't answer to her satisfaction.  She used her blog 20 time to explore the answer to that question and it led her to some chemistry concepts learned in grade 11 as well as some biology in grade 12.  Check it out!

Best Blog Incorporating Pop Culture
AF blogged about the possibility of a double sun as seen in Star Wars.  He explains what we, the common audience, understands - the single sun solar system.  He naturally transitions to a recent finding of the Hubble Space telescope, the binary star system and explain what he has learned about it.  Although I'd like to have seen some more scientific detail or exploration, AF takes home the best blog incorporating pop culture by successfully balancing pop culture and science content.  
 
By the way, there is such a thing as blog awards for some countries.  Here's Singapore's big blog award gala event as well as Ireland's. It's pretty serious. 

Science or Pseudoscience?

Most probably pseudoscience.

There's probably still many things wrong with this .gif.   (ie:  our star can't turn into a black hole and our solar system would probably die by the time we get into contact with a black hole) but it's still somewhat entertaining.

                                                                                              Credit:  https://twitter.com/SciencePorn

Trending on Reddit - Some Uncommon Images from the Apollo Program

Below are some amazing images from the Apollo Program 50+ years ago.  You may find the rest on imgur.  Take a look as it's just much more impressive full screen, but probably not as impressive live. Please, Elon Musk, work faster and make space travel available within my lifetime.

If you scroll the comments, you will find some people doubting the validity of the photos, as well as the actual mission itself.  These are always important questions.  I encourage you to delve further into the topic during your blog time if you're interested.

I've highlighted two comments below.  Can you answer them?

1)  Why are some of the pictures involving Earth upside down?
2)  Why is the resolution of the photos so high?

Art and Physics

I know this isn't earth and space related, but it is science related.

It's truly mesmerizing.  I encourage you to watch her perform her art and the absolute concentration and body control that this requires.

Scientifically, for those who studied gr 12 physics & understand torque (gr 12), just imagine the free body diagram that this situation creates.

Its true beauty is emphasized in the end.

Lab Fail...for Now.

Behold, the lab that both Mr. McCumber and Mr. Shin set up & tried ahead of time.  Alas, no students chose to perform the lab or do any observations. We set it up, but didn't sell it well as a worthwhile option.

Well, it was at least fun.  Maybe we'll incorporate it in the next unit.

The Latest on Rosetta

After ten years, Rosetta finally caught up with its target - comet.  Upon arrival, the ESA reported that finding a landing site for its rover, Philae,  was proving difficult because of its irregular shape.  Now, after orbiting for ten days and trying to find the optimal landing site, Philae has finally chosen  the "J" landing site.

Potential landing spots for Philae - courtesy of New Scientist
http://sci.esa.int/rosetta/54643-j-marks-the-spot-for-rosettas-lander/

The only comparison I can draw is when my friend drove up from Windsor on a four hour trek to get to Pacific Mall only to spend an additional 25 minutes trying to get a parking spot.  Even that proportional comparison is off by almost four orders of magnitude.

Things are getting exciting as the comet seems to be releasing the building blocks of life - water, methane, methanol, ammonia, and carbon dioxide.  Anyways, here's a closer look at the landing spot and Rosetta's measurements of the comet, courtesy of ESA's very own Rosetta page.

The Best Selfie Ever

While working to find a landing spot for its rover, ESA's Rosetta's rover, Philae, snaps a selfie with the comet 67P/C-G in the background.  

First Lab - Covering up Mistakes with Another Mistake is a Severe Mistake

So, I decided to trust my mature grade 12 students and do a "free for all" lab.  Rather than giving step by step instructions, I gave them a question and let them make the procedure.  The theory goes that they learn more with less help.

"Help students by helping them less" Or more popularly, Dan Meyer's "Be less helpful".   There's a reason why teachers rarely do this.

Things go wrong.  Chaos ensues.  Confusion reigns.  It's messy learning.  Apparently, real learning occurs through mistakes.  Let's analyze these mistakes:

Mistake #1:  Broken Glass
To find the volume of the rock, some of my smarter students placed and slid rocks inside graduated cylinders. However, other students dropped rocks into the graduated cylinders.  It doesn't seem so bad unless I tell you that the graduated cylinders were made of glass.

A broken graduated cylinder is no problem.  Usually what happens is that the student tells the teacher.  The teacher turns this accident into a learning moment by getting the attention of the class and telling people not to drop rocks in glass.  The teacher can make sure the area is clean of all the glass and most importantly, the mistake won't be repeated again.  But nope, this process didn't occur because another mistake was made.

                                     I'm not going to cry over spilled milk.  Or broken glass. Photo Credit: Creative Commons

Mistake #2:  Covering up a Mistake
Not telling your teacher and pretending the graduated cylinder didn't break can make things worse. Other students can slice their finger open.  The unreported broken glass is left around the area and can hurt the 8 year old students that come here for Chinese school at night.  All of this could happen because someone wanted to save their ego and not face the consequence of a broken graduated cylinder.  Sigh.

Mistake #3:  Broken Glass Redux
For an airplane to crash, it's been analyzed in Gladwell's book Outliers that about seven seemingly small sequential wrong mistakes lead up to the huge accident.  Thank goodness we're only at mistake #3.  Because we as a class didn't get to reflect on our mistake, person #2 dropped another rock into a graduated cylinder, breaking a second graduated cylinder.  Or worse, the second set of broken glass occurred because of person #1.

Summary

What's interesting is that the root of the problem is me.

I realized this when cleaning up afterwards.  I was looking in my prized box of 75 rocks and minerals and realized that they were all placed upside down and out of order.  I spent an extra 15 minutes combing the area for any broken glass.  I cleaned up the water by the sink.

It's one thing to let the students make their own procedure.  It's quite another to not set the proper tone of the lab to be one of respect for the learning environment and its materials.

"Being less helpful" doesn't have to mean "be less respectful."