Manga Guides & Comics in Education
This tweet from the IB World Magazine links to an interesting article:
https://twitter.com/IBWorldmag/status/271885799644078080
It also reminded me of these Manga Guides to Physics, Statistics, Biochemistry, Mathematics by NoStarch, which were shared recently by Frank Noschese and Dr Tae. They’re translated from Japanese, and written in the Manga style by artists and experts in their field.
You can see some sample pages on Scribd:
They are funny, with some clear explainers and a narrative context for the content. You could recreate some of the situations or experiments in class, and use pages as a discussion (in a similar way to concept cartoons).
I do have some concern that the common thread through the books is of a young girl who doesn’t ‘get it’ and so needs the help of an “explaining male*” (typically nerdy, with glasses) to be able to understand – and the motivation seems to be to save grades or achieve romance. Does this reinforce gender stereotypes, or would high school students see through it as part of the narrative gimmick? Being in Japan, I often see my students and other young adults on trains reading comic books with similar artwork and, I assume, storylines. The style is commonplace here, but I do wonder how girls in other countries would react to the imagery.
I can see it being recommended as a supplement to differentiate the presentation of content for students who are into the comic book/ manga genres, rather than as a class text.
SampleQ from Manga Guide to Physics – similar to Concept Cartoons.
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* Mother Jones article: the problem with men explaining things
GoogleTrends: Exploring Patterns in Search Data [DBQs & Inquiry]
GoogleTrends allows you to plot the popularity of search terms (since 2004), by geographical region or worldwide. This could be a great way to launch inquiry on a topic in science that has seasonal trends or patterns, and could be used to set up simple DBQ practice. It is limited in the linear presentation of data, and the data are search frequencies rather than scientific data, but as the patterns raise questions, they could be followed-up with searches for more valid sources and explanations.
In the example below, Frank Swain (@SciencePunk) had put in the search term “morning after pill” for the UK and found a peak every Sunday. An interesting pattern that could set up some discussion in class based on reproduction, behaviour, risk management, ethics, hormonal control or more.
“Morning After Pill” search term on GoogleTrends http://www.google.com/trends/
This could lead to a quick (though basic) way to set up some simple data-based questions or stimulus for exploration. Here is a plot for the search term “vaccine”. Think of the questions it might raise in discussion.
GoogleTrend Worldwide since 2004: “Vaccine” What DBQ’s could you ask?
What questions does it raise and how would it lead to further exploration? Here are some examples:
- Why does it peak each October?
- Why was traffic so high in 2009-10?
- What do you predict for the coming year?
This leads into discussion of sources of information, accessing databases and the reasons for vaccines.
One neat feature is that you can add other search terms to the graph in the same time period, though it will normalise the data. Another is the ‘headlines’ feature that shows some popular news headlines near peaks. Yet another is the ‘predict’ feature that will model the coming year based on trends and patterns. “Predict” is often asked in DBQ’s, so this might make for some good questions. Here’s what happens when we add “flu vaccine”, headlines and the forecast:
GoogleTrends: “Vaccine” and “Flu vaccine”, worldwide, 2004-present.
From this exploration, you could move onto looking at flu trends, and GoogleTrends has special sections for tracking flu and dengue fever:
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This next one is a neat demonstration of what happens when you change the scale of the y-axis. In this case, the second dataset is added, compared to the original and the original becomes much less noticeable as a result. How many times do we tell our students to set appropriate scales on the axes and make use of the space to be able to see trends and patterns?
For another bit of fun, here’s one on “Genome”:
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Summary:
- A quick, easy launching pad for inquiry
- Develop simple DBQs easily
- Does need to be supported by inquiry into more valid sources for the topic
- Each graph is ‘normalised’ which could lead into useful discussion of the effect of scales on data presentation
Inheritance: a short history of sex, genes and DNA
This week was the first episode of Dara O’Briain’s Science Club from the BBC. The theme: Genetics. Here’s their introductory animated clip, which gives a neat condensed history of sex, genes and DNA:
I’m looking forward to seeing the series!
How do trees move all that water all that way up? [Veritasium]
This is a great video from Derek at Veritasium on why and how trees are able to move water up 100m. It might not be the answer you think…
Links to AHL 9.2 Transport
Quick Tips for Socrative Space Race
Try out Socrative!
Update Feb 2014: Added cards for beta.socrative.com space races.
I really like the Socrative Space Races and quizzes as a formative or pre-assessment tool. When set up and managed well, they lead to competition with a spirit of collaboration. It is the most user-friendly free clicker-type system I have tried so far.
These labels might help organise the races in your class and to avoid issues with confusion over who is controlling the rocket (sometimes there are clashes). You could hand out the cards to groups of students, make stands for tables with the rockets on, use them as stickers for a shared iPad or have multiple sets printed and laminated to be handed out as a ‘flexible grouping‘ tool.
If you can’t access the GoogleSlides presentation above, here are the cards as images:
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Update Feb 2014: Added cards for beta.socrative.com space races.
Forces & Motion
As our G10 class get working on the Forces and Change in Motion unit, I thought it was time to update the resources to take advantage of the Stratos jump and try out GoogleDocs* and presentations embedded into WordPress.
This task was designed based on student feedback from the last unit test. Some students wanted more (!) test-like situations and practice with the criterion, so I put this together. Prior to this lesson we had some short discussion on prior knowledge on forces (based on sports day situations) and free body diagrams. The rest they were learning as they went along. It was more engaging than I expected – lots of reaching for whiteboards, cooperative arguments and research.
The presentation for the unit is first, with the stimulus video next and the task below.
Note: interestingly the GPresentation embedded fine, but the embedded GDoc lost its formatting.
Hank blossoms with Plant Science
Crash Course & SciShow Hanks’s last couple of videos have been on Plant Science: transport and reproduction. Head on over to the main Plant Science AHL page for the topic for the presentations and resources.
Red Bull Stratos – Jumping from the Edge of Space
Felix Baumgartner is ready to jump! Follow the live feed below, or on the Red Bull Stratos website. His aim is to jump from the edge of space, breaking the sound barrier in freefall. Whoo!
Here’s a CGI simulation of what’s expected:
i-Biology 