At my weekly science workshops, I was teaching the kids about simple machines. Last week we did a few experiments on levers. This week however, I wanted them to try out the Ramp Race. I tried it with my grade 8 class last year, and it worked like a charm. The idea behind it is to build a series of ramps with limited materials and limited time (1/2 hour works well) to make a marble take the longest rout to get from the top to the bottom of a big box. See the attached specification sheet for the Great Ramp Race if you want to replicate it at home or in your classroom.

Hydraulics and Pneumatics are great topics to teach children. First of all both words sound very impressive and when the children learn these words they will sound very important and knowledgeble if they use them. Also, hydraulics and pneumatics are used in many machines and in many everyday applications, therefore it is easy to show the importance of understanding these topics. One can easily show and explain the difference between hydraulics and pneumatics - a great "Compare and Contrast" analysis. Thirdly, there are many fun and impressive experiments that can be done with hydraulics and pneumatics in a very inexpensive way, with very accessible materials. And finally, since hydraulics and pneumatics is so useful, there can be multiple projects that children can actually build themselves. Thus weaker students and stronger science students can both do projects, yet with differing complexity.

I’m an amateur long distance runner and I’ve always found it surprising just how long it takes me to catch the slowpokes!

Here is an example: If I run twice as quickly as someone else and I give them a five minute head start, in my mind I expect to catch them in a few minutes. I am running twice as quickly as they are, after all, like a rabbit versus a tortoise! In fact, I will only catch them after running full speed for an additional five minutes.

Placing almost exclusive emphasis upon test-score improvement as a basis
for rewarding teachers is patently unfair and, when coupled with inadequate
performance-appraisal systems, drives teachers toward unethical behavior or
departure to other pursuits.

A primary reason the public has not been more supportive of higher funding
for education has been the poor relationship between better funding and
higher educational quality as revealed by a number of studies.

Use of an appraisal system based upon the following guidelines should go a
long way toward turning things around.

If you go to You Tube and type in "How to teach science" you get this video by Bruce Price that I would never promote here except that I want to criticize it. I don't know Bruce Price except from what he wrote about Science Education. He has a website on Improving Education in all areas and not just in Science. From his article and video on "Teaching Science" I assume he's not a scientist at all and he has no idea about educating children or young adults. How can he go through his whole article and not mention experiments or hands on learning.

While looking for a Science Olympics in Montreal, I came across another type of competition, called The Shalheveth Freier Physics Tournament.

I have never entered any students or teams into this competition, so I can't recommend it or comment on it too much, but from what I read about it, it seems very interesting. Here's the challenge:

This year, I have decided to try to start a Science Olympics in the West Island of Montreal.

I have taken a year off of "official" teaching at a school - I find that it's just too much work, and not enough time for creative thinking or doing. I have so many ideas, and with a full time workload, I could do nothing else but survive the school year. So I have decided to take some time off and see if all my ideas can come to fruition and I can accomplish something of value.

I went to see what's happening at www.mathfair.com and I found this cute little puzzle. Try to solve it yourself or see if your kids can do it faster than you:

The dragon of ignorance has three heads and three tails. However, you can slay it with the sword of knowledge by cutting off all its heads and tails. With one swipe of the sword you can cut off one head, two heads, one tail, or two tails.

But . . .

When you cut off one head, a new one grows in its place.

When you cut off one tail, two new tails replace it.

This morning I was listening to a radio show and the host was talking about a huge amount of kids dropping out of school in Quebec (something like 40% of boys don't graduate). I tried looking up the statistics, but I couldn't find such numbers (maybe I'll look later again and post them), but the idea (pushed by the radio host) of solving this problem was very much out-there, so I thought I would write about it, discuss it a bit, and see what other people and educators think.

Yesterday I went to a movie with my sons (2 and 4 year olds): Fly Me to the Moon.

I didn't have huge expectations, as I checked on www.imdb.com (my favorite reviewing site) and the reviews were aweful (5.4/10). However I did go, because it was the only kid movie playing and I really wanted to go to the movies on a cheap Tuesday night. Maybe because of my low expectations I was impressed with the movie, especially the value of it in the science classroom.