stars

9-28-11 at about 945 we looked at Polaris, which was at 35 degrees, and Vega, which was at about 62 degrees.

for some reason this picture refused to post on the previous attempt.  it is the two cotton balls that are featured in the previous post.  the one in my hand in the alum infused cotton ball, the one that had to be thrown into the cup of water to prevent it from catching the world on fire is the non-alum cotton ball  :)

the first photo is a cotton ball i had used to apply alum to some of our tissue paper that had sat on our coffee table for like 3 days... the second was an un-alumed cotton ball.  the first one was able to have the flame held directly on it for a significant time with only slight singing, the second one however sort of looked at the flame and caught fire that spread over the entire surface in a matter of seconds. 

as for the ballloon i am working on getting a top put on a cylndrical balloon while sarah and isabel are working on the triangular design.  i also still have a secret scheme to try a gigantanormous geodesic dome.
the cylandar i am currently working on is going to have about 1.153 cubic feet of internal volume, from some of the resarch we have done it appears that approximatly one cf is the smallest volume that will produce functional lift.

the figuring for the tetrahedron a perfectly shaped one with all edges measuring 24 inches will have a volume of about 1.288 cf.  however our design should increase the volume some what.

the geodesic dome may prove to be somewhat of a problem.....  it turns out that to get 1.198 cf of volume it has to have a diameter of 16 inches.  which given some of our experiments with the dome may prove to be unable to support itself in the same fashion we have used for some of the designs so far.  i do however have the design drawn in a size that should give about a 20 inch diameter (it looks daunting though)

these are a few pics of our home experiments.  the pics of the candles are just for fun, but the dome was our first dome made of tissue paper.  it was a bit small and wasn't likely to produce much lift if any, it began to singe and the tape began melting before anything else was going on.

Candle powered motor

C

Candle drawings of DOOOOMM!!!! i dont remember if you really wanted these pictures but i figured id put them up anyhow. the second picture was after some extra melting had gone on.

Changing Education Paradigms

DISCUSSION FOR “CHANGING EDUCATION PARADIGMS”

Our candle burning inquiry group is: Isabel A Hees (secretary for brainstorm and discussion); Sarah A Shehab (group moderator and reflection design); and David L MacCornack (blog posting specialist). This blog discusses the video “Changing Education Paradigms”. We each contributed to the discussion in our brainstorm, during the discussion we agreed on what we wanted to say in our response. Isabel took notes and wrote out our answers, Sarah coordinated the discussion and designed the format for answering the questions, David took the information gathered and posted it for the group.

1. What did you think of the video? What were some of the main points?

The video was a very thorough analysis of the education system. The analysis of ADHD in regards to the education system was an interesting and accurate link but it did not mention anything about why we see more medicated children as we go east across the map. The idea about manufactured children as a way of educating them is an argument I have never heard of and it makes a powerful argument when you talk about educating children like manufacturing cars.

Main points: Public education reform (how do we educate our children); the current system was designed for a former generation (assumptions of social/economic structure based in Enlightenment); ADHD medication “plague” (medicate children to get them to pay attention); Aesthetic experience vs. Anesthetic experience; factory system of education (production line); divergent thinking (aspect of creativity) changing with age; genetics of education and the human capacity for learning.

2. What parts of this video do you agree with? Are they instances in your educational background or experience that were represented in his presentation?

We agree that there are disagreeable aspects of the education system. In terms of aesthetic experience age is less important but there are certain aspects of social skills that are probably best learned with people in your developmental group, which usually corresponds to age.


3. What part of this presentation to you disagree with or have some question?

It is really easy to agree with Sir Ken Robinson, and we do as a group, agree with the growing problems he mentioned but he fails to suggest a solution. This makes it difficult to agree with him fully when at the end of the presentation we are still left with our education system and with that in mind we are more inclined to discover the positive aspects of the system he leaves us with.

4. Did this video have any impact on you as a teacher and/or learner?

The argument is very well articulated and what had the greatest impact was the concept of manufacturing children into “production models” for a society that places emphasis on conformity. We also were very interested in the concept of divergent thinking as an aspect of creativity and how this is lost as students grow older because it is smothered by the linear model of education. The tendency of education systems to stagnate in one concept of the "correct" answer lends itself to the current neglect creativity receives.

5. Should we consider any part of this video in terms of structuring our learning and class framework?

In light of public education reform we should reconfigure the education system to correspond more with our era and not that of the enlightenment. Forming a more inclusive idea of what abilities and skills are important to society could not only help to establish programs to focus on more alternative programs, as well as not demanding that all students perform similarly or be judged as sub par in scholastic ability.

Activity Model

we began with making observations about candles in general, and decided to make a balloon.... and you said NO!!! so we decided to try a boat and you said ok. this was a process of defining the problem we were going to address. we then used the Internets to see what sort of boat candle extravaganzas could be found. we then considered the materials and what not that we would need. we then performed several preliminary attempts at creating the engine and eventually settled on a modified version of one of the examples we had found online. we are still working on the specifications for the body of the boat at this time.

Science cat. thanx to SAS!!

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