Wednesday, February 26, 2014

Sink Holes Explained CBS News

CBS News contributor Michio Kaku, a physics professor at City University of New York, talks to Charlie Rose and Norah O'Donnell about sinkholes - where and why they happen, and their warning . Great explanation! Link Here

Mythbusters Killer Quicksand

Good explanation of Quicksand

Killer Quicksand

What is quicksand? A colloid, solution or suspension? Why?

Sunday, February 23, 2014

Wednesday, February 19, 2014

Wednesday, February 5, 2014

Squishy Circuits

VAST Region 3 Conference-

One of my new favorite activities. Today we were learning about Ionic and Covalent bonds. Salt is an ionic bond and is a good conductor and sugar is a covalent bond and is not a good conductor.

LED lights and the connectors for 9v batteries are really inexpensive on Amazon. We are going to do this project again when we look at electricity but we will need way more LEDs, maybe 10 for each group. The dough stays fresh for a few days and one batch makes a lot. I used one batch of each for my classes and split them into groups of 2-4. The LED's rust after a few uses, so I am going to wipe them down next time.

Instructions here:
http://courseweb.stthomas.edu/apthomas/SquishyCircuits/index.htm

TED talks http://new.ted.com/talks/annmarie_thomas_squishy_circuits

Lenz Law




Great clip demonstrating Lenz's Law. Click here to see the practical application of it in recycling.

Monday, February 3, 2014

Ionic Bonding




Good video that explains Ionic Bonding. I had my students copy his notes.