Hear Here: ASHA May 13, 2008
Posted by Jeff Giddens in : Audio, Health, Science , comments closed
The American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA), a professional, scientific, and credentialing association for audiologists, speech-language pathologists, and speech, language, and hearing scientists wants everyone to know that May is Better Hearing and Speech Month. If your pupils are studying sound and its properties, this would be a great time to research the mechanics of how humans hear. Have your students drop by the ASHA site and explore topics such as:
- how hearing and balance are related,
- causes of hearing loss in adults and children, and
- web-based resources pertaining to hearing conservation.
It Makes a Body Proud May 12, 2008
Posted by Jeff Giddens in : Health, Life Science, Science , comments closedContent developer Scott Sheffield is one busy fellow. Just drop by the site he’s building and you’ll see why. Scott is using 21 years of university level teaching experience to share his wealth of knowledge about human anatomy and physiology. In fact, he’s attempting to create a fully animated and interactive eBook about what comprises the human body and how it works. At GetBodySmart teachers, students, and other interested individuals can explore and discover intriguing information pertaining to the body’s subtle physiological interactions. Though the site isn’t completely finished, what resides there is very promising. Sheffield’s desire to compile and illustrate the human machine’s fascinating and important anatomical landmarks is sure to whet the appetite of many educators and their pupils. Keep up the great work, Scott!
One Step Away From Disaster May 2, 2008
Posted by Jeff Giddens in : Collaboration, Earth Science, Health, Maps, Science, Social Studies, Thinking , comments closedLearning doesn’t have to be a disaster if you allow your students to play with disasters using the Stop Disasters game. Thanks to the International Strategy for Disaster Reduction, students ages 9 and up can use technology (as well as content specific skills including but not limited to Language Arts, Science, Social Studies, and Mathematics) to learn about the risks posed by natural hazards such as earthquakes, floods, hurricanes, tsunamis, and wildfires. Although simulations may not do much for standardized test results, prevention and education increase a children’s chances for survival during real disasters. No matter where trouble strikes, be prepared!
Developing a Healthier View April 23, 2008
Posted by Jeff Giddens in : Health , comments closedIf you’re a school nurse or teacher who explores Health-related issues, you’ll want to check out Cure Hunter, the Visual Medical Dictionary. Although this useful site does not provide medical advice, it does an impressive job of delivering important medical information.
Not In My Backyard? April 11, 2008
Posted by Jeff Giddens in : Business, Earth Science, Economics, Government, Health, Life Science, Science , comments closedIf you teach Environmental Science or topics related to ecology, integrate a little technology by visiting Superfund365. Be warned–knowing what’s in the water we drink, the air we breathe, and the earth we walk upon can be frightening.
This powerful image via the ever-watchful cam.
Don’t Go Breaking My Heart February 14, 2008
Posted by Jeff Giddens in : Health, Life Science, Science , comments closed
Since it’s Valentine’s Day you’ll probably be hearing a lot of talk about hearts. Why not learn a little of its history and take a virtual tour of the ticker. The heart and circulatory system play a vital role in the body’s health. Take a few moments to explore activities to help your students better understand what the heart does for them or some of the other goodies from the National Health Museum’s nifty Access Excellence site (check out the Classic Collection while you’re there). If you or your pupils are curious about more anatomical exploration, MEDtropolis, home of the Virtual Body, is a good place to visit. Maybe your class will work up the courage to perform a heart transplant. Just make sure your learners know how to use a stethoscope via the Human Body Guide.
What’s on your Daily Plate? January 11, 2008
Posted by Daniel Rivera in : Health , comments closedThe new year is often full of resolutions to be healthier, and it’s sometimes difficult for people to keep up with. It’s also often troublesome to keep up with calories, nutrients, exercise patterns, and weight loss/gain. Wouldn’t it be nice to have something automatically track your diet and activities? Wouldn’t that be a powerful, hands-on tool for Health and Nutritional studies?
One such tool is the Daily Plate. With a free Daily Plate account, you can track your caloric intake by simply searching for normal food you eat and clicking “I ate that” – it even has common food items from restaurants! You can set current weight and weight goals, specify how much you want to lose (or gain) and how quickly you want to do it, and even get a total of nutritional information for the foods you are eating. You can even group common foods into “meals” and save them for easy retrieval later.
Imagine using this in a health class with your students. Discussion could start with setting reasonable dietary goals, from losing a few pounds to cutting down on sodium or eating more fiber. Each student could then track their progress to their goal and get progression charts and detailed information of their journey. This could facilitate meaningful discussion about what foods they eat, how much exercise plays a role in their lives, and so on.
Bon Appetit!
I’ve Got You Under My Skin: Argosy Visible Body December 10, 2007
Posted by Jeff Giddens in : Emerging Tech, Health, Innovation, Life Science, Reference, Science, Software, Teaching & Learning, Technology , comments closedScience/Health teachers:
For a while now, researchers have been discussing what might happen if there was an application similar to Google Earth that was designed to explore the human body. Such a program would allow students, educators, doctors, and others to visualize health care in an entirely new way. Being able to fly to any location within a three dimensional model of the body would create new perspectives for efficiently and effectively understanding how the body works. Well, Argosy Publishing Inc., famed for its educational content, has just released something like it. Called, the Visible Body, this tool for inquiry is a stunning 3D anatomic visualization system. Although the Visible Body requires the installation of an ActiveX controller and suggests that it’s best viewed using Internet Explorer, users can access the resource by opening up an IE tab in Firefox. Whether you use this resource for reinforcing your own understanding of the human body or make it available for pupils, it’s sure to engage attention and elicit a sense of wonder.
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Food for Thought: Foodpairing November 30, 2007
Posted by Jeff Giddens in : Health , comments closed
Have students who are exploring food-related topics? If so, consider sending them over to FoodPairing. This tasty site visualizes a list of food products with unique flavor combinations. Visitors select a food product and get a graphic organizer with the chosen food in the center of the image. The tasty morsel is surrounded by other foods that, according to research, compliment or enhance the flavor of the central item. After that, students can take one of the other food products and try to make a new recipe by combining them. The more flavors food products have in common the shorter the distance between the food products. Imagine combining the power of FoodPairing with the World’s Healthiest Foods, where visitors find all kind of useful nutritional information about the healthiest snacks on the planet. Yummy!
Keepon Keepin’ On November 15, 2007
Posted by Daniel Rivera in : Arts, Collaboration, Emerging Tech, Health, Humor, Innovation, Music, Physical Science, Science , comments closed
This small and cute little guy is a robot, and he dances. It’s a simple dance at first glance, but what is so remarkable about him is that he doesn’t have a pre-programmed dance. Marek Michalowski of Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, US, and Hideki Kozima of the National Institute of Communications Technology (NICT) in Kyoto, Japan, programmed the squishy, yellow robot, called “Keepon”, to pick out the beat in a piece of music and move along in time. It can also track the rhythmic motion of a person or another object and move in time to that.
One goal of the research is to better program robots to interact realistically with humans. Something as simple as nodding along in conversation is a huge step in making robots more engaging. They argue that human social behavior shares much in common with dance, and that humans use body movement and speech in rhythmic ways during normal interactions. Check out the official site: http://beatbots.org for more info.
What’s interesting to me about this is the kind of work that these scientists are doing. More and more, scientists in one field are teaming with experts in very different fields. For example, scientists working with robotics may team with those from behavioral psychology (programming robot AI) to entymology (researching swarm behavior for robots). Our REAL science is becoming even more multi-disciplinary and requires unprecedented collaboration, sharing, and teamwork. Where is this in our science classrooms? Where is the experimentation and play? Where is the joy?
Watch some videos of this little robot in action below. The last one is an official music video for Spoon’s Don’t You Evah – that’s right, it stars in a music video! Note that we are hosting the files here on SEGATech because YouTube (their original location) is often blocked in school systems…