Wednesday – Post number two: Revision

Video from Tyler Dewitt on Youtube – Writing formulae for ionic compounds. Visit his channel for more useful Chemistry videos.

Wednesday – 2 posts. One amazing. One revision

IBM have made the World’s Smallest Movie  by pushing carbon atoms around with a scanning tunnelling microscope. It’s called ‘A boy and his atom’ and here it is:

Wednesday – The sharp end of the year

With the exams approaching, you can expect to see more revision themed posts from me. And I was intending to start that trend about now; however, a couple of really interesting stories in the news caught my eye and I was distracted:

Via the BBC – Wildlife experts are due to discuss the reintroduction of bears (once a native species) into the Scottish Highlands. Click the pic for a full story.

From New Scientist – A miracle material that looks like a liquid yet shatters like glass and happens to be called Oobleck! Once again a quick click takes you to the full story.

And finally, bringing things back to revision, feel free to tweet me (@MFEbden) with any questions about your exam prep.

Wednesday – Who could’ve predicted this…

A Mr WillIam, who I’m reliably informed is a musician of some kind, has pledged £500,000 towards Science education via the Prince’s Trust. Just a click on this generous and clearly very wise man will take you to the full story courtesy of the Beeb:

Tuesday – All’s well so far…

The events with Felicity last week were a fantastic success! Lots of inspirational thoughts and ideas…

There’s lots more going on this week, including a debate on wind power and a Primary school Science Challenge. All kindly supported by EDF and London Array.

And topically, London Array have now officially become the world’s largest offshore wind farm. Massive congratulations to them!

Monday – Felicity Aston visiting SLC on Thursday

World-famous polar explorer, meteorologist, travel writer, film maker and Thanet local Felicity Aston will be giving a talk this Thursday (7th March) evening:

 

Felicity is a truly inspirational lady, who has completed some totally astonishing feats of endurance. Her talk begins at 7pm and members of the public are welcome to come along – just see the details on the poster above and email boxoffice@slcuk.com to book your place.

Thursday – Happy… Thursday!

Good thing my new year’s resolution wasn’t to produce more blog posts! I would’ve failed miserably. Lots of revision on the cards from here on in though and I intend to use this blog and my Twitter as much as possible to help out with that.
Starting today with a video that should give you A-level chemists a few hints on how to determine shapes of molecules:

The star of the video is an American scientist and teacher called Tyler Dewitt. He’s got lots more great videos on various topics on his Youtube channel.

Tuesday – I’ve been a bit busy…

Very sorry, as usual, for not posting too frequently. Lots going on and v little time to blog so to speak…

We went to London and saw this man:

Professor Lord Robert Winston

And we also went to the University of Greenwich to use their extremely expensive chemistry equipment – massive thanks to them!

A really amazing campus, great people and impressive labs

Saturday – A little late but… Welcome back!

After a busy festive season (mostly spent stuffing my face with unhealthy foodstuffs) I’m back and it’s back to business as usual here in school.

I’m reading a great book at the moment: Bad Science by Dr Ben Goldacre. Find it and read it if you can.

Pic from ‘Explorative Life Blog’

Dr Ben deals with evidence – how to collect it with properly designed experiments and how to use it sensibly. This story (from the BBC) is all about a really great experiment carried out a Newcastle University that’s shed some light on one of the great mysteries of science:

Why do our fingers end up looking like prunes when we spend too long in the bath?!

 

 

Friday – The best thing I’ve seen in ages!!

Another good website for you and this one’s awesome!

 

…is a site where users can log on and help researchers identify animals caught on camera traps over a massive area in Tanzania. You’ll be looking at pictures like this:

Or maybe this:

And telling the researchers what animals you think you’ve seen. It’s a bit like being on safari from the comfort of your sofa. I’ve spent a few hours already but I’m not too worried seeing as I know it’s productive! Get involved!