Money for Great Science Teachers!

Every science teacher I know is looking for money. After all, science can be an expensive endeavor. For those of you that fit into this category, you may want to take a look at Toyota’s TAPESTRY Grant for Science Teachers.

A partnership between Toyota Motor Sales, U.S.A. , Inc. and the National Science Teachers Association, the Toyota TAPESTRY Grants for Science Teachers program offers grants to K–12 science teachers for innovative projects that enhance science education in the school and/or school district. 50 large grants and a minimum of 20 mini-grants, totaling $550,000 in all, will be awarded this year.

The deadline for this year’s competition is 11:59 PM EST, Thursday, January 18, 2007. Somebody is going to win this grant. Why not you?

For more information about the TAPESTRY grant, go to www.nsta.org/pd/tapestry/.

Energy Conservation…It’s As Easy As Changing A Light Bulb

My wife and I recently bought a new home. Of course, that means that I am constantly going back and forth to the local hardware store for knicks and knacks. On my last trip, I picked up some very special items, 20 Compact Fluorescent Lamps (CFL). What is a CFL? You have probably seen them before. They are those strange looking spiral light bulbs. Here is the great thing about CFLs: When you compare them to incandescent light bulbs (the bulbs most people use), CFLs last longer (8,000 hours for CFL compared to 500 to 2000 hours for incandescent bulbs) and use less energy (CFLs use about a quarter of the power of incandescent bulbs). Of course, CFLs cost a bit more than incandescent bulbs. However, their long life and efficiency equate to huge savings in energy and money in the long run. You can find out more about CFLs here.

CFLs are getting a lot of attention on the net. For example, Mr. Luna, a science teacher from Long Island, New York, has started a nationwide campaign revolving around CFLs and ecology. His movement is known simply as Mr. Luna’s Bright idea. Here is a quick summary from his website (www.thebrightidea.blogspot.com):

This Blog is devoted to the plan that my students and I are undertaking to ask Oprah to help us give every child in America (PreK-12), just ONE Compact Fluorescent (CFL) bulb to plug into their favorite lamp. This will help fight global warming by reducing our carbon emissions from electric power plants, save Americans AT LEAST $2.3 BILLION in electricity costs, and help put America on the path to environmental sustainability. Most of all, it’s about our kids’ futures! So we hope you’ll join us!!

Energy Starhas also begun to encourage the use of CFLs as a part of its energy and environmental protection program. Energy Star is a joint program of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Department of Energy aimed at helping us save money and protect the environment through energy efficient products and practices. According to Energy Star:

The energy used in the average home can be responsible for more than twice the greenhouse gas emissions of the average car. When you use less energy at home, you reduce greenhouse gas emissions from power plants and help protect our environment from the risks of global climate change. If every American home changed out just five high-use light fixtures or the bulbs in them with ones that have earned the ENERGY STAR, each family would save about $60 every year in energy costs, and together we’d save about $6.5 billion each year in energy costs and prevent greenhouse gases equivalent to the emissions from more than 8 million cars.

CFLs create another great opportunity for science teachers and parents. They offer us a fantastic way to engage students in science that is real, relevant, and valuable to their lives. I encourage you to take advantage of this opportunity. Take a trip to the store to pick up some CFLs and change some bulbs in your home. Talk to your students about the adventureand encourage them to talk to their parents. Together, we can help turn something as small as changing a light bulb into a movement that will change our world.

The Science of Sound

Recently, I visited Spelman College in Atlanta, Georgia to work with some teachers on strategies for making science relevant to children. The topic of the day…SOUND! Unfortunately, many children (and adults) think of science as something you do in a class or laboratory. Exploring a concept, such as sound, gives them the opportunity to connect science to their everyday lived experiences. If science is relevant to your students, it is valuable to your students!

There are a number of great ways to explore the science concepts related to sound. The teachers from Spelman and I experimented with many of them (click on the link for instructions on each activity):

• Reed instruments (the straw cazoo)
• Talking strips
• Singing cups

However, the last activity of the day, the palm pipes, was definitely the class favorite. I first learned about palm pipes from Brian Jones from The Little Shop of Physics at Colorado State University. I immediately fell in love with this very simple activity, and I have been using it in my classes ever since. Palm pipes are simple to build, fun to play, and incredibly addictive!

Here’s What You Will Need

• 8 feet of 3/4 inch PVC pipe
• A hacksaw or PVC cutter
• A permanent marker
• Ruler

Here’s What You Will Do

Using the ruler and cutter (0r hacksaw), measure and cut the PVC pipe to the lengths given below:

• White (Note C – 32.77 cm)
• Red (Note D – 29.20 cm)
• Orange (Note E – 26.01 cm)
• Yellow (Note F – 24.55 cm)
• Green (Note G – 21.87 cm)
• Blue (Note A – 19.48 cm)
• Purple (Note B – 17.36 cm)
• Black (Note C – 16.38 cm)

As you cut each pipe, make sure you label it with the first letter(s) of the appropriate color (White, Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Purple, BLack). If you have colored markers, you may want to label the pipes with the actual color. If you are using a hacksaw, you may want to use some sandpaper to smooth the ends of your pipes. When you are finished, you should have eight different pipes. Now, you are ready to play!

Playing Your Pipes

Playing palm pipes is pretty simple. Grasp one pipe firmly in one hand. Open the other hand in front of you (palm up). Now, pound the open end of the pipe on the palm of your hand (not too hard). Did you hear that? Try a different pipe. Do you notice anything about the sound? If you have seven friends, you can give them each a pipe and, together, you can play the scale. If you want to play some actual music, you can (1) create some of your own OR (2) use the music I have included here: Music for Palm Pipes. There are a number of other things to do with the Palm Pipes, but I will allow you to discover them for yourself!

The Science Behind The Sound

The source of any sound is vibration. When you speak you force air over your vocal cords and cause them to vibrate. You can actually feel the vibration if you place your fingers on your neck (near your voice box) when you are speaking. Your vibrating vocal cords cause the air molecules around them to vibrate. Those molecules cause other air molecules to vibrate and so on and so on. As a result, the sound travels from your vocal cords to the outside world and, ultimately, to someone else’s ears. That leads us to the whole “tree falling in the woods and no one there to hear it” scenario (that’s another blog entirely).

Inside a palm pipe, there is a column of air. When you hit the bottom of the pipe, you cause the air molecules to vibrate. That vibration creates the sound you hear. The height of the column of air varies from pipe to pipe. As a result, the vibrating air molecules in each pipe create a slightly different sound.