Wednesday, August 30, 2017

The making of a volcano

I love Live Science and I recently came across an animation they made of the making of Mount Etna and how it shaped the ground around it.  This would be great to show in class and the accompanying article can be made into a literacy activity.

You can check out the animation and read the article here.

Wednesday, August 23, 2017

A secure way to have students take tests and quizzes online

Microsoft has developed a super easy way to lock down students' computers so that they can also access the webpage that is hosting your online test. Student's won't be able to use the clipboard, go to another website or apps, share their screen or print anything.

All you need is the link to your online test (it doesn't have to be anything fancy; I use a form I created through Microsoft or Google) and a way to get the link out to the students. Students do need to be on a computer that is running Windows 10. I also recommend that they use the Edge browser as I haven't encountered any errors using it.

 The link that you need to share with the students is ms-edu-secureassessment:<URL>!enforceLockdown where you would replace <URL> with the url to the quiz. You want to make sure that there are no spaces in the address. I would also recommend that you set the link to display as a word or phrase so that students don't just copy and paste the quiz url instead of the whole long url. If you are not sure how to do this, leave a comment with how you are sending out the link and I will make a tutorial for you! If you want more information on the Take a Test app, you can read about it here.

This post also appears on my technology blog - The Tech Savvy Science Teacher

Wednesday, August 16, 2017

Physics Girl - physics, astronomy and science-related videos

As a female science teacher I always love to see girl involved in science.  I really love the Physics Girl YouTube Channel.  Diann Cowern is the physical girl and her channel is focuses on physics, astronomy and other science-related topics.  It includes DIY demos, research and interviews.

I've picked out a few videos from her channel that caught my eye, but I suggest you check out the other videos to see what you can use in your classroom.

     
Why outlets spark when unplugging - EMF & Inductors


5 Science Tricks with Explainations

Stacked Ball Drop

Seven Science Experiments with Surface Tension



Wednesday, August 9, 2017

Teachers on Twitter

I use a variety of social media, but mostly all for different purposes.  For me, I use Twitter to follow what is happening with education, edtech, science and local news.  I am always looking for new people to follow.  Classtools created a page called Teachers on Twitter as a way to connect follow educators on twitter.

The list is automated and updates itself automatically.  It searches for specific hashtags and uses what it finds to add people to a specific list based on what is written in the person's profile.  The image below shows you what hashtags are connected with each teacher group.  If you have any suggestions of other hashtags you can tweet @RusselTarr to make a suggestion.


This post also appeared on my EdTech blog The Tech Savvy Science Teacher

Thursday, August 3, 2017

Top 5 Posts of July

July has passed by and I am loving my summer.  I hope your is going as well as mine.  Of course I can never stop thinking about school even though I'm "on break."  If you are like me you'll want to check out some of the these posts that were popular last month.

Wednesday, August 2, 2017

Video Clips for your Electricity Lessons




I love showing short video clips in my class.  It breaks up the routine and also provides another learning modality for my students.  Below are some short, easy to understand videos about electricity.  If you have a video that you like to show about electricity, leave it in the comments below.




The science of static electricity - Anuradha Bhagwat - TedEd


Why Do Fluorescent Lights Make That Buzzing Noise? - BrainStuff - HowStuffWorks


The Power of Circuits #sciencegoals - SciShowKids