Tides in a glass
A very simple experiment to show how waves can travel around an ocean basin. I wrote these instructions for a book project that I was lucky enough to get involved…
Month: October 2014
Assessing participation
One example of how to give grades for participation. One of the most difficult tasks as a teacher is to actually assess how much people have learned, along with give them a…
Sun dogs
More refraction of light. Recently I found myself on the ferry from Kiel to Gothenburg, watching the sun rise. Next to the sun, I noticed a piece of a rainbow.…
Awesome fountain Birmingham
Because water is endlessly fascinating. As those of you who know me in person are acutely aware – I am traveling too much right now. Hence the content on this…
On purpose and aim of hands-on experiments.
Why it is important to make clear the purpose of experiments in teaching. As you all know by now, I am a big fan of hands-on experiments in teaching. One…
Balls balancing on water jets
Water is just endlessly fascinating. When I was recently at the ThinkTank science museum in Birmingham, UK, they had water fountains that you could balance balls on, like so: Even though it…
Trajectories of a projectile
And you know me – it had to be a projectile made of water. The shopping mall where I live has some really nice water features that I always get…
All learning is relearning
Where did the concept of “elicit, confront, resolve” come from? We often imagine that ideal learning happens the same way we often imagine ideal teaching*: We enter a room, students are…
Ice cubes melting at the bottom of the beakers
Because surely there is one more post in this topic? ;-) For those of you who haven’t heard about the “melting ice cube” obsession of mine, please check out the…
Lighthouses and Fresnel lenses
Or more reasons for why I want to live in a lighthouse. I have always been fascinated by lighthouses. Always. Usually because they are built in the most wonderful places…
Kolb’s learning cycle
A very brief history of learning theories. Discussing a paper on learning theories with a friend last week, I realized how far I have come from when I first started reading those…
Why folic acid might be good for people, but not so good for tank experiments
I had to do the complete series of experiments, of course… The other day I mentioned that I had used salt from my kitchen for the “ice cubes melting in…
Melting ice cubes, again
Somehow I am stuck on this demonstration! I can’t let go of this experiment. Last time I posted about it, someone (Hallo Papa!) complained about the background and how I…
Conducting experiments at EMSEA14
Kristin’s and my workshop at EMSEA14. As I mentioned before, Kristin Richter and I are running the workshop “Conducting oceanographic experiments in a conventional classroom anywhere” at the European Marine Science…
Development of student attention over time
Do we really know how student attention develops over time? One thing that is shown over and over again in teachers’ trainings is the curve of how student attention peaks…