Apr 04 2009
travel broadens the mind
I’ve clocked up quite a few miles lot in the past few weeks. The trip to Perth for TeachMeet Physics (see earlier post), a day trip to Aberdeen to help write resources for science teachers to assist with the new optoelectronics CfE outcomes and then, after 2 days of Easter study school, I headed south for a check-up with my NHS dentist (one filling, btw) and let off some steam in Glasgow.
One thing I like about these long drives south (and back again) is the opportunity to fill my iPod with podcasts that I’ve just not had time to listen to during the typical school week. With such patchy radio reception on the A9, it makes sense to have something else on standby for entertainment. My “binge listening” habit has been commented on previously.
This last trip was accompanied by the 365 days of astronomy podcast, a project to celebrate 2009 as the International Year of Astronomy. The individual podcast episodes are very easy to listen to, with a maximum length of 10 minutes per day. Clearly, several weeks of podcasts are necessary for the 5 hour drive to Glasgow. The topics discussed each day are diverse and I enjoyed learning Swedish astronomy nouns, hearing various speakers talking about our debt to Galileo, different views on Pluto’s reclassification as a dwarf planet and the answer to the question “What would happen if the moon didn’t exist?”
I’m currently looking at the astronomy outcome with my S2 class and one of the ideas they have put forward is the need for any colony to be sustainable. It just so happens that one of the earlier podcasts in the 365 days talks about the space beer brewed from barley grown on the International Space Station. So here we have an example of an arable crop being grown in space. This is just the point my class were making – at some point you have to start growing your own crops if a space colony is going to survive. The people behind the 365 days of astronomy podcast allow the audio to be reproduced, so here is the space beer episode.
January 9: The Link Between Beer and Space Settlement [10:06m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (40)
