On Saturday, I had the privilege to share a share a platform with Nick Hood at the Scottish Science Education Conference at the Dunblane Hydro.  Our session went by the name “Using New Media in Science Education – Not Just for Twits”.  The aim was to share some of the online practice taking place both inside and outside the country’s science classrooms.

We spoke about blogging and walked the participants through the process of setting up a free blog.  Nick explained RSS and demonstrated why every teacher should use a RSS reader.  We also covered podcasting and use of a wiki.  For anyone interested in the links we used on the day, find a summary on my wiki.

During the session, we mentioned the lack of blogging Chemistry teachers. Word has reached us that Dr. Taylor has met our challenge head-on and started his own blog.  Great job, Dr. T.!

Unfortunately, the values on the screen were changing too quickly for us to see them clearly.

Luckily, someone suggested using the camera on their phone to take a photo of the screen.  It worked brilliantly.

Very quickly, everyone was able to record their own set of results on a phone and we quickly established that our equation worked.  Much better than guessing numbers on a flickering screen.

]]> http://blog.mrmackenzie.co.uk/2010/01/14/mobile-phones-save-the-learning-outcome/feed/ 2 0:10 We ran into some problems today during a piece of practical work. nbsp;The aim was to use our new energy meters to verify the equation [pmath]P=IV[/pmath] Unfortunately, ... We ran into some problems today during a piece of practical work. nbsp;The aim was to use our new energy meters to verify the equation [pmath]P=IV[/pmath] Unfortunately, the values on the screen were changing too quickly for us to see them clearly. Luckily, someone suggested using the camera on their phone to take a photo of the screen. nbsp;It worked brilliantly. Very quickly, everyone was able to record their own set of results on a phone and we quickly established that our equation worked. nbsp;Much better than guessing numbers on a flickering screen. handheld,learning Mr Mackenzie clean No http://blog.mrmackenzie.co.uk/2010/01/04/edutalk365-project/ http://blog.mrmackenzie.co.uk/2010/01/04/edutalk365-project/#comments Mon, 04 Jan 2010 23:47:25 +0000 sinclair http://blog.mrmackenzie.co.uk/?p=652 A great new project kicked off at EDUtalk this week.  John Johnston and David Noble have set the ambitious target of posting a piece of audio every day throughout 2010 as part of their EDUtalk365 project.  I think that their idea of educators sharing ideas on the changes sweeping through education is brilliant and the nature of the contributions makes it possible for busy people to dip in and out of the published audio as and when they have the time.  I have posted previously on the ease with which audio resources can be accessed while driving, walking the dog, washing the dishes, etc. and I think that David and John are on to a winner here.

To help them on their way towards 365 days of audio, I recorded a short piece on how I have been using Wordle in the classroom as an aid to literacy across learning.  You can listen to my contribution here. Better still, subscribe to their Posterous blog or add it to your iTunes podcasts so you’ll never miss an episode during 2010!

I hadn’t but then it’s been a while since I used Glow Meet.  So I logged in to Glow and, sure enough, it gave an error about halfway through the start-up process.  I did some digging and found Glow was not the only site experiencing problems with the Java update.

Unfortunately, Snow Leopard would not allow me to install java 1.5 for Leopard and I was to be left without a working Glow Meet until I found this site with instructions on how to reinstall the older version of Java that works with Glow Meet.

You need to run these commands from the terminal but I have tested the process and it does indeed fix the problem and allow Glow Meet to run once more.

I’ve been thinking recently about numeracy, literacy and where they fit within my subject area.  While these thoughts have been bouncing about in my head for a wee while now, it’s only after reading Bill Boyd’s excellent post on literacy for all that I thought I would try to write something down.

Numeracy in physics is unavoidable.  At all levels, pupils are expected to analyse information and solve a problem by performing one or more calculations. This is the familiar face of physics, the side that often results in people telling me that they can’t/couldn’t/didn’t take physics at school because they couldn’t do maths.

After discussions with my maths colleagues, I had to look at my classroom practice and adjust my methods so that pupils see a familiar approach to problem solving.  The examples provided in our new whole school numeracy policy booklet have been very helpful here.

I’m also starting to discover where the literacy demands in physics are greatest. The closer I look, the more obvious it seems that literacy was an issue in Physics long before the Curriculum for Excellence ring binder appeared. Students who are confident in calculation-based tasks often find descriptions or explanations very challenging.

In my opinion there are two topics that stand out.  The electronics unit of Standard Grade and the Gas Laws in the Higher course are both particularly challenging in terms of the literacy demand placed on learners.  In each of these topics, pupils are often asked to explain behaviour of a system.  The skills needed to succeed in these tasks are outlined in the new literacy outcomes.

Learners require a command of the appropriate vocabulary

I can use a range of strategies and resources independently and ensure that my spelling, including specialist vocabulary, is accurate.  LIT 4-21a

and must be able to sequence the information (pupils often call this “cause and effect”)

I can convey information and describe events, explain processes or concepts, providing substantiating evidence, and synthesise ideas or opinions in different ways.  LIT 4-28a

So here are the strategies I have introduced so far with a view to enhancing literacy in physics.

• Create Wordle wall posters showing key vocabulary for the current unit. I’ve made these by copying text from the SQA documents and then blowing them up on the excellent Blockposters site.  I’ve mentioned this step before.

• Think-pair-share activities to encourage pupils to identify for themselves what is required.

• Pupils use the results of think-pair-share to gather together their agreed ideas of what makes a good description and generate a mind map

• Use the mind map as a starting point for additional descriptive work. These tasks can incorporate peer assessment to ensure all learners receive prompt feedback.  Use of peer feedback in pairs or trios ensures that pupils can compare their work and get a feel for quality.

I’ve trialled these approaches in S3-S5 and most pupils report that they find them to be helpful activities. Is it enough though?

Update: the above example relates to the electronics unit of Standard Grade Physics. I have posted a modified version for the Higher Physics gas laws topic on my classroom blog.

I was in Edinburgh on Wednesday for an event called Science and the Parliament at Dynamic Earth.  This is an annual meeting of Scottish scientists and politicians, designed to bring policy makers and innovators together for a day of seminars and networking.

The theme of this years gathering was the science of health and so it was quite appropriate that the day began with a keynote by Nicola Sturgeon MSP, Cabinet Secretary for Health & Well-being.  In what was a more interesting speech that I had expected, Ms Sturgeon spoke of the historic and current high regard in which the work of Scottish scientists is held and looked at the opportunities for Scotland to shape our future Health and Well-being, juxtaposing our internationally recognised scientific success with our reputation as the “sick man of Europe”.

Following her address, Ms Sturgeon presented awards for the highest placed candidates in the 2009 SQA Higher & Advanced Higher exams fro Biology, Chemistry and Physics.  This was the reason I attended the event.  One of my pupils scored 100% in the 2009 Higher Physics exam and was invited to attend to receive an award to mark his success.

After the awards ceremony, a more in-depth insight into the current work of Scottish scientists was presented by Prof. Anne Glover, Chief Scientific Advisor to the Scottish Government.  I was delighted that she named several life sciences companies from Dundee that I had bumped into during my previous career in a biotechnology spin-out company.

I was unable to stay for the full programme but there was time for one fun photo before we left.

On my way down to Dynamic Earth, I recorded my thoughts using the sound recorder on my phone and posted them to EDUtalk.  I’ve included the audio at the end of this post.

Sessions on the first day were booked up well in advance, with 1000 teachers and auxiliaries spending Tuesday at the festival.  I had planned to go along on the second day as the programme had more ICT and secondary sessions of interest to me.  However, that changed when I became a late addition to Wednesday’s schedule with a double slot to speak about the work I have been doing with blogging and iTunes in my classroom.

The numbers for my sessions were low on paper but two or three times as many people turned up each time.  I spoke briefly about running a blog before explaining how SMART Notebook software can be used to produce a videos that can be downloaded as podcasts with iTunes.  Then we looked at the ways in which everyday handheld devices such as mobile phones and iPods can be used for mobile learning.  I was genuinely surprised by the level of  interest shown and the number of questions I was asked during and after each session.

I was delighted when I managed to squeeze into Ollie Bray & Derek Robertson’s games-based learning session at 12.30 in between my own slots.  I’d met Derek before, he was one of the tutors from my PGCE course, but I had never met Ollie despite having exchanged tweets and interviewed him on Skype for a podcast.

The single disappointment for me was the way that the event finished so quickly in the afternoon.  My last slot was over by 2.30 and by then many of the exhibitors were packing up.  If the rumours are true and the event is run again next year, then I think I would try to spend more than just one day there to ensure I could take something from the event for my professional development.

As always, I was economic with slides but I have embedded them anyway. There’s also an audio recording of the morning session attached to this post.

I found a good spot, well away from lights.  If you have Google Earth download this file for the exact location.  I was amazed at just how many stars were visible once I was out of the glare of the town lights.

My finder scope alignment was not as good as I had thought and some small adjustments were necessary to find Jupiter in the eyepiece of the main scope.  I could not believe how bright Jupiter appeared though the scope and was even more impressed when I realised that the four Galilean moons were also present in my field of view.

Adjusting the telescope to track Jupiter gave me some problems due to the vibrations at each adjustment.  The vibrations also gave issues when I tried to capture video using my mobile phone.  I’m going to take the telescope to the local moonwatch events (pdf) at the end of the month to get some advice on how to set up the telescope to minimise vibration.

I tweeted about the experience this morning and mentioned seeing a meteor.  Drew Thomson reminded me that the annual Orionid shower had started a couple of nights ago, with peak activity next Wednesday (21st October), so it’s possible I also caught an early Orionid while I was out.  The cool thing about the Orionids is that they are caused by the Earth passing through the debris left by Halley’s Comet, so you are actually watching little fragments of the comet each time you observe a meteor – much easier than waiting for another 52 years!

Although they are nothing like the photos posted earlier today by Catherine Baker, I thought I would share my attempt at capturing my telescope view of Jupiter with a mobile phone.  I’m afraid it only picked up the planet itself, no moons.

The telescope did not arrive at my school until April, by which time the night sky was becoming quite light.  So, although the telescope was assembled, it has sat in a corner of my classroom for the past 6 months.  Now that the dark evenings have returned, I felt it was time to try out the telescope.

I took it home for the October holidays and have been waiting for a rain-free day to set it up outside.  Today was the first day with suitable weather and I set the telescope up in my front garden to align the finder scope as best as I could.  If the sky remains clear, I am planning to go out with the telescope tonight to have a look at Jupiter and the other few objects whose name I know.

I used my mobile phone to record the setting up process.  The video below isn’t great quality but I think it manages conveys some of the steps involved in aligning the telescope.

So who is Greg Whitby?

• He is the Executive Director of Schools and leads a system of approximately 80 Catholic schools serving the Catholic community of greater Western Sydney.
• In 2007, he was named the most innovative educator in Australia by the Bulletin Magazine in its annual SMART 100 awards.
• He was awarded an ACEL Presidential Citation for his contribution to Australian education.

Billed as Gregmeet, the event was a chance for the Scottish education community to hear his thoughts on where learning & teaching has to be in the 21st century.

His main points were;

• lack of relevance has resulted in most young people disengaging from education
• realising that the idea of personalised learning represents learners having a deeper & continuous learning rather than an individual education programme
• de-privatising of teacher practice: teachers can’t (and shouldn’t) work in isolation
• the power of technology to release us from the education timetable that is essentially set in stone at the time of our conception

Greg got his final point across with an equation

who learns what with who where & when

= anywhere, anytime, anything, any device  - time table

and suggested that the Scottish education establishment is moving in this direction with the rolling out of Glow across the 32 local authorities.

His point is valid.  Why is it that we still create a situation where learning can only take place in a classroom, with a teacher, during the day? In moving to an informal, anytime learning environment, pupils can learn when they are ready to do so.  Greg calls this “just in time” learning.

I found myself agreeing with his view that the laptop has lost its original impact in the classroom.  So often, technology in the home is far ahead of the facilities we can provide in schools.  Greg advocates switching to more flexible technology in the form of mobile phones, pointing out their accessibility, flexibility and cost advantages.  While this is a move that is actively resisted in many schools, Greg’s message is that we must learn from research and this shows that handheld devices bring enormous educational benefits.

Greg didn’t use slides but there is a video of the event’s flashmeeting here. Alternatively, I have attached the audio to this post so you can listen using the flash player below.

image of Greg by torres21

Physics teachers from across the Highlands got together for a CPD day last Saturday.  The event was hosted by Nick Forwood, our local Physics Teacher Network coordinator, at Fortrose Academy.

After a keynote from Tom Balanowski, the SQA Principal Assessor for Advanced Higher Physics, we were able to choose up to three workshops from the list on the right, plus an additional option of learning how to configure the free telescope for schools supplied by The Society for Popular Astronomy.

I presented a session on using blogs, wikis and iTunes in the Physics classroom.  It was a demonstration of the resources I have built into my classroom blog, with an update on how using iTunes to push homework exercises and videos homework solutions out to pupils’ home computers had been received.

I also took the chance to show off some of the work that had been produced during the Building Glow Communities event for Science teachers earlier in the week.  I was surprised to find that questions were asked about my use of Voicethread and Animoto in the classroom.  People who are working on developing their CfE outcomes were interested in the opportunities these tools presented in terms of genuine pupil-focused creativity, digital evidence of their experiences and the chance to produce something other than powerpoint slides.

I was delighted to share my experience of using these sites with them and gave examples of how I had used them in my classroom.  The enthusiasm with which they were considering non-traditional activities shows that Curriculum for Excellence really is going to change the way our pupils experience science in the years ahead.

The text is all bunched up together and the layout does not let you easily identify the beginning and end of individual entries.  This is a shame because I thought I could pull in homework activities and their solutions in the same way that they are published to iTunes.

Luckily, there’s a very helpful Glow genius called Fraser who came to my rescue.  He has a black belt in XSL and was able to write some code that will allow anyone with a Wordpress blog to import their RSS feed into Glow.  This is a major breakthrough for my personal plan for using Glow with pupils and I am sure that there will be many blogging teachers around Scotland who will be eager to take advantage of this solution.

As a before & after activity, take a look at the structure that has been given to my blog feed in the following screenshots.

Notice how the embedded video player now sits neatly amongst the text. There are also clearly recognisable download links, making the feed much more useful.

I use my classroom blog to feed four different podcasts; Advanced Higher, Higher, Intermediate 2 and Standard Grade Physics.  Wordpress category feeds keep the posts in the correct podcast and Fraser has set up the code so I can feed any combination of Wordpress categories into Glow, essentially replicating the podcasting process I have been using.

This is a seriously useful piece of code to have for your Glow group.

There was a very broad range of Glow experience among the attendees, ranging from beginners like myself to teachers who use Glow daily in their classroom.  Over the 2 days, we learned about Glow Groups and how to use web parts to introduce content.  We worked in small groups to produce shared Glow groups on a range of diverse topics to support delivery of the science curriculum, including Advanced Higher Physics, Science transition from level 2 to level 3, Famous Scientists & The X-tra terrestrial Factor.

I’m particularly proud of the group my own team produced to support the outcome on considering the potential for life on other planets.  We created activities to…

consider the environmental factors affecting alien physiology
	build a model of the solar system
explore the Martian surface
	Find out about NASA’s mission to find habitable planets

The group building sessions were broken up by short introductions to new web parts & techniques, information about intellectual property rights, demonstrations on how to create content such as a Voki or Wordle and embed it in your group to make the group pages more visually appealing.

It was a great CPD opportunity and I’ve already started work on my own Glow groups for use in school when pupil logins are rolled out.

Just before the summer holidays, I thought I might create a series of classroom posters to help pupils identify key vocabulary for each unit of the Standard Grade Physics course, starting with the Using Electricity & Electronics topics for my new S3 & S4 sets respectively.

To generate the wordles, I copied the SQA arrangements for each unit and pasted them into the text box on the wordle site.  I showed the inital results to a test group from the new S3 class and they were not that impressed.

They identified several problems with the output;

• too many words on display (Wordle.net’s default setting is 150 words)
• the random vertical/horizontal word orientation was difficult to read
• words that protruded significantly from the main cloud were distracting
• unappealing colours – particularly so whenever a white background was in use

We started work on these issues by reducing the number of words on display.  The panel felt that 50 words was a good compromise and setting the output preferences to place all words horizontally was straightforward.  Similarly, the positioning of words to avoid any jutting meant remaking the Wordle until it was more pleasing to the eye.  Colour selection, however, was more subjective and it was difficult to achieve a consensus.  Eventually, it was agreed that we would create our own colour palette as agreement could not be reached with the selection provided.

Looking back, I have to agree that the white background is not particularly stimulating and a more inviting word cloud was obtained using a custom palette.  Setting up a custom palette gave a much more visually interesting word cloud, here is the final layout for the Using Electricity vocabulary.

I have to admit the preferring the colour scheme for the Electronics design – it may be the way that the scheme evokes memories of chocolate lime sweets.

I took each of the brightened up designs and uploaded them to a site called BlockPosters.  This site can produce large poster-sized pdf files of any image you upload.  I choose to blow up each image to a 5×2 array – spreading the picture out over 10 sheets of A4 paper.  The printed A4 sheets can then be taped together to create the poster.

So I have 2 posters on my classroom wall now.

They are easier to read than the initial 150 words designs and have colour schemes that appeal to the people intended to use them.  Most importantly, they are being used! When questioning the classes, I see eyes moving towards the posters during “thinking time”.  Not because the answer is on the wall but because pupils know that the vocabulary to scaffold their response will be.

So what was it all about?  I’m no astronomer, nor am I presumptuous enough to think I provide a decent explanation.  Basically, our planet just passed through the debris trail left by a comet called Swift-Tuttle.  You can find out more about the phenomenon here.  What I have found astonishing is the sheer number of non-astronomers (myself included) who have been following events and staying up late to view these blazing trails of light as they stream across the night sky.  How do I know that so many people have taken part? Well, that would be down to Twitter.

Many astronomers have seized the publicity available to them through the International Year of Astronomy 2009 to promote their work/research/hobby to people who have never had any dealing with astronomy before.  The 365 Days of Astronomy podcast dedicated an entire episode to the Perseids just before they arrived.  While these would have contributed to a raised awareness, they are not sufficiently mainstream to attract the unprecedented interest surrounding this year’s event – this is where Twitter comes in.

In the UK, a local astronomy group called Newbury Astronomical Society, who tweet from the @NewburyAS twitter account, seized the initiative by setting up the #meteorwatch hashtag for the Perseids event.  The tag caught on and hundreds of people shared their experiences during the shower by tweeting with that hashtag, taking it to 4th place in Twitter’s trending topics.  The organisation of the Newbury club even drew the attention of the BBC (click link on that page to see video footage) who visited “the bunker” during the first evening.

While the south of the UK enjoyed clear skies on the first evening, I was not so lucky.  As there was no way I could see the meteors, I tried to detect them using a very basic radio technique instead.  I connected an FM antenna to the back of an old Pioneer receiver unit and fed the output into a Griffin imic (with RCA to 3.5mm jack adapter) that was plugged into the usb port of a laptop.  The Griffin components were essential to convert the RCA HiFi electrical connections into a standard computer connection.

I tuned the radio to the lowest clear FM frequency available (87.5MHz) and used a virtual chart recorder package call Radio SkyPipe to record the data.  The recording software is quite straightforward and would be a good introduction to signals and measurement for senior pupils, such as those undertaking AH Physics investigations or the new Science Baccalaureate, as it requires several calibration & signal nulling steps before use.

Unfortunately I didn’t capture any exciting data although there was a curious low frequency amplitude modulation (see below) on the signal that I could not explain.

On the second night, I decided to leave the setting up of hardware for radio astronomy to the professionals and concentrated on looking for streamed data from the web.  I found this site broadcasting from Tavistock in Devon.  I downloaded the BS-Tuner application and pasted in the url of the broadcast site.  To my surprise I heard streaming FM static coming from the laptop.

Every now and then this static was pierced by an eerie scream as radio waves were reflected back down towards the Tavistock antenna by the ionised wake of each meteor.  The signals varied in volume, duration, clarity and complexity but due to their unpredictable nature it was difficult to record one.  However I have attached one of the sounds I captured and encourage you to play it using the flash player below.

I was disappointed to view just a single Perseid at around 2.30am last night, the weather just wasn’t right for it.  However, without those clouds I’d never have considered the potential for homemade radio astronomy.

A Nasa podcast on the Perseids is also available.

Over the day, several different strategies emerged.

• Biology using several “guest teachers” from healthcare professions
• Chemistry colleagues pulled out all the stops to provide stunningly visual experiments (see below)
• Physics went overboard with open-ended investigations.

Each approach has challenges;

• can we get repeat NHS visits to prevent a “school hall” address to S1?
• do the non-Chemists have the confidence/skills to attempt the more demanding reactions with pupils? What CPD is required?
• convincing Biologists & Chemists that they can do Physics? CPD !!

We’ve now identified which outcomes each of the 9 week courses will be designed to meet.  The plan is to provide some form of assessment, possibly in the 10th week.

We saw these subject-specific “minicourses” as focused introductions to each of the sciences addressing questions like “What’s Chemistry / Physics / Biology?” as S2 pupils struggle to complete choice forms for S3 and beyond.

We pinned our suggested S1 courses on the new “learning wall” outside the school’s main office area.

Over the day, the wall was populated with similar information from each of the curricular areas.   Here you can see one of the Maths staff (Mr. Bell) looking for spelling mistakes in the Physics outcomes.

The last activity for the day was a series of demonstrations from the Chemistry folks.  This was a short CPD session where we looked at two different reactions that can be used to create a volcano in the classroom.

The first of these involves aluminium powder and iodine crystals, catalysed by addition of a drop of water.

The reaction must take place in a fume hood as the funky purple smoke is iodine gas, which is bad for you.  Since we are were all moved into new classrooms this year, the session included a briefing on how to use the new portable fume hoods.  A couple of teaching points we discovered here were;

• iodine sublimes (iodine changes directly from solid state to gas)
• this is an example of a gas denser than air (if the extraction in the hood is switched off, a purple cloud builds up from the base of the work bench)

Then we looked at a different reaction that produced a similar effect, this was the burning of ammonium dichromate, an orange solid, to leave a green/black residue of chromium oxide behind.  This reaction does not require a fume hood, so I got close and filmed it.

ammonium dichromate volcano from mr mackenzie on Vimeo.

As a faculty, we’ve recently had a series of sessions looking at what CfE might mean for us.  The opinions expressed in these meetings are diverse and I have been genuinely surprised by just how radical some of my colleagues have been thinking when presented with a blank sheet of paper.

That’s radical as in

• no jotters
• current S1 notes sent to paper recycling skip
• staff issued with magnets to display pupils’ work on our (steel) classroom walls
• pupils to get scrap book and A3 portfolio pouch to store their work
• consensus that records/evidence of pupils achieving new science outcomes might not be written or paper-based artefacts (Flip camera?!)

We have a CfE inset coming up that may allow us the time to hang some further details on this set of ideas.

I think animoto is a brilliant way to share photos.  Why not try using it outside of the classroom too?

I’m in the middle of putting together my requisition for next session and, while I was thinking more about ensuring we had what would be required to tackle the Curriculum for Excellence science outcomes, I’m now having to consider whether we have sufficient apparatus to offer up to 15 different, independent and appropriate AH investigations.

One of the things I spotted in the Rapid online catalogue was a spring made from a smart alloy.  I’d previously seen the alloy demonstrated as a wire in a model robotic arm developed by Gregor Steele of SSERC but had not known about the spring.  I had the idea of using the smart spring for an investigation based around magnetism and self-inductance.  I’m not sure whether this would work but, combined with a hall sensor, I think there might be adequate opportunity to produce graphs and determine uncertainties.  Given the need for a third experiment on the theme, I though about looking at mechanical properties, based around the hysteresis of the smart alloy.  The investigation would therefore explore aspects of units 1 & 2 of the AH course.

I made some notes on my board to bounce off a colleague tomorrow but I’d be interested in hearing what other physics teachers think.  Data sheet for the spring is here.

Animoto stickers lying dormant in our office. Tweet @ us why you want some, and we’ll DM you to ask where you’d like your stickers sent.

I replied and asked for one for each of the members of my S2 science class who had been working with animoto as part of our curriculum for excellence trial.  The stickers arrived today and generated a lot of interest in the staffroom.  For me, and I know this might sound daft, the coolest thing was the handwritten envelope, sealed with a sticker, and the handwritten note inside.  It was just so different from the mail-merged post I normally receive at school.  The class don’t know about the stickers yet, it’s a surprise I’m keeping for Monday morning.  

Here’s what came in the envelope.