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Gravitational waves detected

Posted in Great Discoveries, Interviews with Scientific Leaders, Lasers and photonics, Materials Science & Engineering, Math, Uncategorized, tagged on February 19, 2016| Leave a Comment »

Gravitational waves detected

Reporter: Danut Dragoi, PhD

Article ID #202: Gravitational waves detected. Published on 2/19/2016

WordCloud Image Produced by Adam Tubman

Many physicists remember the general relativity classes and the Einstein equations, see link in here, whose solution gives us the wave vector and the wavelength. More on this topic can be found in here.

A famous physicist, Serban Titeica,  said on his classes, link in here, that a theory is good if it is supported by experiment, otherwise is null. Since the ripples of a gravitational perturbation were recently proved experimentally, see link in here, we are thinking like Titeica, asking ourselves, what is the benefit of General Relativity. Some business people will ask for how much profit they can get, of course they talk about monetary profit. The others, it depends were in the social field they work, will say the gravitational waves detected is a great result for education, for humanity knowledge, and for intellectual enlightenment.

In a public discussion, see the video link, a participant said the benefits are in the new technology that can be transferred to the industry. Now we cannot forget the benefits from space exploration by NASA that brought innovative solutions to many industries including computers and communications. The picture below taken from the previous video,. shows the essence of actual activity on gravitation research. On the lower right corner of the picture is the LIGO, Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory, which is a Michelson type of interferometer with two perpendicular arms, each having a length of about 4 Km. Two gravitational interferometers are operating on two different locations on US, one in Livingston, Louisiana State, the other in Hanford, Washington State. Both stations detected same signal with same characteristics.

Gravitational_Waves_Detections

Watch these videos

1st video is from youtube

and 2nd video from Caltech, California.

Stephen Hawking, a well known author and scientist on Time and Gravitation Theory and Black Holes,  congratulated LIGO team, watch video at this link in here.

Regarding the applications in medicine, I think all physical fields, including gravitation, have an influence on our life, on all living cells. It is well established that the electric field has a major effect on living cells, since all processes in the living cells are based on electric charge transfer from one molecule to another in a complex collective material interaction. Other physical fields, like electromagnetic fields have many applications in medicine starting with RF therapeutics, laser, and optical communication. We can include here NASA’s research tremendous contribution on non-medical industries and new technologies, but this in another posting.

Now, not only the physicists can enjoy the knowledge about recent results on gravitation, but also the engineers and anybody who is interested on the philosophy of the universe asking themselves what is the answer to crucial questions like why we live in this Universe, how the Universes influence us, etc.

Source

http://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2016/nsf-s-ligo-has-detected-gravitational-waves

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Einstein and General Theory of Relativity

Posted in Curation, Discovery process, Experimental validation, Explanatory, Great Discoveries, Historical relevance, Technology Advance Assessment of, tagged , , , , on November 25, 2015| Leave a Comment »

Einstein and General Theory of Relativity

Larry H. Bernstein, MD, FCAP, Curator

LPBI

 

 

General Relativity And The ‘Lone Genius’ Model Of Science

Chad Orzel

http://www.forbes.com/sites/chadorzel/2015/11/24/general-relativity-and-the-lone-genius-model-of-science/

 

(Credit: AP)

 

One hundred years ago this Wednesday, Albert Einstein gave the last of a series of presentations to the Prussian Academy of Sciences, which marks the official completion of his General Theory of Relativity. This anniversary is generating a good deal of press and various celebratory events, such as the premiere of a new documentary special. If you prefer your physics explanations in the plainest language possible, there’s even an “Up Goer Five” version (personally, I don’t find these all that illuminating, but lots of people seem to love it).

Einstein is, of course, the most iconic scientist in history, and much of the attention to this week’s centennial will center on the idea of his singular genius. Honestly, general relativity is esoteric enough that were it not for Einstein’s personal fame, there probably wouldn’t be all that much attention paid to this outside of the specialist science audience.

But, of course, while the notion of Einstein as a lone, unrecognized genius is a big part of his myth, he didn’t create relativity entirely on his own, asthis article in Nature News makes clear. The genesis of relativity is a single simple idea, but even in the early stages, when he developed Special Relativity while working as a patent clerk, he honed his ideas through frequent discussions with friends and colleagues. Most notable among these was probably Michele Besso, who Einstein later referred to as “the best sounding board in Europe.”

And most of the work on General Relativity came not when Einstein was toiling in obscurity, but after he had begun to climb the academic ladder in Europe. In the ten years between the Special and General theories, he went through a series of faculty jobs of increasing prestige. He also laboriously learned a great deal of mathematics in order to reach the final form of the theory, largely with the assistance of his friend Marcel Grossmann. The path to General Relativity was neither simple nor solitary, and the Nature piece documents both the mis-steps along the way and the various people who helped out.

While Einstein wasn’t working alone, though, the Nature piece also makes an indirect case for his status as a genius worth celebrating. Not because of the way he solved the problem, but through the choice of problem to solve. Einstein pursued a theory that would incorporate gravitation into relativity with dogged determination through those years, but he was one of a very few people working on it. There were a couple of other theories kicking around, particularly Gunnar Nordström’s, but these didn’t generate all that much attention. The mathematician David Hilbert nearly scooped Einstein with the final form of the field equations in November of 1915 (some say he did get there first), but Hilbert was a latecomer who only got interested in the problem of gravitation after hearing about it from Einstein, and his success was a matter of greater familiarity with the necessary math. One of the books I used when I taught a relativity class last year quoted Hilbert as saying that “every child in the streets of Göttingen knows more about four-dimensional geometry than Einstein,” but that Einstein’s physical insight got him to the theory before superior mathematicians.

 

History: Einstein was no lone genius

Michel Janssen & Jürgen Renn   

16 November 2015 Corrected:   17 November 2015    Nature Nov 2015; 527(7578)

Lesser-known and junior colleagues helped the great physicist to piece together his general theory of relativity, explain Michel Janssen and Jürgen Renn.

http://www.nature.com/news/history-einstein-was-no-lone-genius-1.18793

 

http://www.nature.com/polopoly_fs/7.31357.1447429421!/image/Comment2.jpg_gen/derivatives/landscape_630/Comment2.jpg

Marcel Grossmann (left) and Michele Besso (right), university friends of Albert Einstein (centre), both made important contributions to general relativity.

 

A century ago, in November 1915, Albert Einstein published his general theory of relativity in four short papers in the proceedings of the Prussian Academy of Sciences in Berlin1. The landmark theory is often presented as the work of a lone genius. In fact, the physicist received a great deal of help from friends and colleagues, most of whom never rose to prominence and have been forgotten2, 3, 4, 5. (For full reference details of all Einstein texts mentioned in this piece, seeSupplementary Information.)

Here we tell the story of how their insights were woven into the final version of the theory. Two friends from Einstein’s student days — Marcel Grossmann and Michele Besso — were particularly important. Grossmann was a gifted mathematician and organized student who helped the more visionary and fanciful Einstein at crucial moments. Besso was an engineer, imaginative and somewhat disorganized, and a caring and lifelong friend to Einstein. A cast of others contributed too.

Einstein met Grossmann and Besso at the Swiss Federal Polytechnical School in Zurich6 — later renamed the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule; ETH) — where, between 1896 and 1900, he studied to become a school teacher in physics and mathematics. Einstein also met his future wife at the ETH, classmate Mileva Marić. Legend has it that Einstein often skipped class and relied on Grossmann’s notes to pass exams.

 

http://www.nature.com/polopoly_fs/7.31485.1447758022!/image/entanglement.jpg_gen/derivatives/fullsize/entanglement.jpg

 

Grossmann’s father helped Einstein to secure a position at the patent office in Berne in 1902, where Besso joined him two years later. Discussions between Besso and Einstein earned the former the sole acknowledgment in the most famous of Einstein’s 1905 papers, the one introducing the special theory of relativity. As well as publishing the papers that made 1905 his annus mirabilis, Einstein completed his dissertation that year to earn a PhD in physics from the University of Zurich.

In 1907, while still at the patent office, he started to think about extending the principle of relativity from uniform to arbitrary motion through a new theory of gravity. Presciently, Einstein wrote to his friend Conrad Habicht — whom he knew from a reading group in Berne mockingly called the Olympia Academy by its three members — saying that he hoped that this new theory would account for a discrepancy of about 43˝ (seconds of arc) per century between Newtonian predictions and observations of the motion of Mercury’s perihelion, the point of its orbit closest to the Sun.

Einstein started to work in earnest on this new theory only after he left the patent office in 1909, to take up professorships first at the University of Zurich and two years later at the Charles University in Prague. He realized that gravity must be incorporated into the structure of space-time, such that a particle subject to no other force would follow the straightest possible trajectory through a curved space-time.

In 1912, Einstein returned to Zurich and was reunited with Grossmann at the ETH. The pair joined forces to generate a fully fledged theory. The relevant mathematics was Gauss’s theory of curved surfaces, which Einstein probably learned from Grossmann’s notes. As we know from recollected conversations, Einstein told Grossmann7: “You must help me, or else I’ll go crazy.”

Their collaboration, recorded in Einstein’s ‘Zurich notebook‘, resulted in a joint paper published in June 1913, known as the Entwurf (‘outline’) paper. The main advance between this 1913 Entwurf theory and the general relativity theory of November 1915 are the field equations, which determine how matter curves space-time. The final field equations are ‘generally covariant’: they retain their form no matter what system of coordinates is chosen to express them. The covariance of the Entwurf field equations, by contrast, was severely limited.

 

http://www.nature.com/polopoly_fs/7.31488.1447759403!/image/einstein_lost.jpg_gen/derivatives/fullsize/einstein_lost.jpg

Einstein’s lost theory uncovered

 

Two Theories

In May 1913, as he and Grossmann put the finishing touches to their Entwurf paper, Einstein was asked to lecture at the annual meeting of the Society of German Natural Scientists and Physicians to be held that September in Vienna, an invitation that reflects the high esteem in which the 34-year-old was held by his peers.

In July 1913, Max Planck and Walther Nernst, two leading physicists from Berlin, came to Zurich to offer Einstein a well-paid and teaching-free position at the Prussian Academy of Sciences in Berlin, which he swiftly accepted and took up in March 1914. Gravity was not a pressing problem for Planck and Nernst; they were mainly interested in what Einstein could do for quantum physics.  (It was Walther Nernst who advised that Germany could not engage in WWI and win unless it was a short war).

Several new theories had been proposed in which gravity, like electromagnetism, was represented by a field in the flat space-time of special relativity. A particularly promising one came from the young Finnish physicist Gunnar Nordström. In his Vienna lecture, Einstein compared his own Entwurf theory to Nordström’s theory. Einstein worked on both theories between May and late August 1913, when he submitted the text of his lecture for publication in the proceedings of the 1913 Vienna meeting.

In the summer of 1913, Nordström visited Einstein in Zurich. Einstein convinced him that the source of the gravitational field in both their theories should be constructed out of the ‘energy–momentum tensor’: in pre-relativistic theories, the density and the flow of energy and momentum were represented by separate quantities; in relativity theory, they are combined into one quantity with ten different components.

 

http://www.nature.com/polopoly_fs/7.31358.1447420168!/image/Comment4.jpg_gen/derivatives/landscape_630/Comment4.jpg

ETH-Bibliothek Zürich, Bildarchiv

ETH Zurich, where Einstein met friends with whom he worked on general relativity.

 

This energy–momentum tensor made its first appearance in 1907–8 in the special-relativistic reformulation of the theory of electrodynamics of James Clerk Maxwell and Hendrik Antoon Lorentz by Hermann Minkowski. It soon became clear that an energy–momentum tensor could be defined for physical systems other than electromagnetic fields. The tensor took centre stage in the new relativistic mechanics presented in the first textbook on special relativity, Das Relativitätsprinzip, written by Max Laue in 1911. In 1912, a young Viennese physicist, Friedrich Kottler, generalized Laue’s formalism from flat to curved space-time. Einstein and Grossmann relied on this generalization in their formulation of the Entwurf theory. During his Vienna lecture, Einstein called for Kottler to stand up and be recognized for this work8.

Einstein also worked with Besso that summer to investigate whether the Entwurf theory could account for the missing 43˝ per century for Mercury’s perihelion. Unfortunately, they found that it could only explain 18˝. Nordström’s theory, Besso checked later, gave 7˝ in the wrong direction. These calculations are preserved in the ‘Einstein–Besso manuscript‘ of 1913.

Besso contributed significantly to the calculations and raised interesting questions. He wondered, for instance, whether the Entwurf field equations have an unambiguous solution that uniquely determines the gravitational field of the Sun. Historical analysis of extant manuscripts suggests that this query gave Einstein the idea for an argument that reconciled him with the restricted covariance of the Entwurf equations. This ‘hole argument’ seemed to show that generally covariant field equations cannot uniquely determine the gravitational field and are therefore inadmissible9.

Einstein and Besso also checked whether the Entwurf equations hold in a rotating coordinate system. In that case the inertial forces of rotation, such as the centrifugal force we experience on a merry-go-round, can be interpreted as gravitational forces. The theory seemed to pass this test. In August 1913, however, Besso warned him that it did not. Einstein did not heed the warning, which would come back to haunt him.

 

http://www.nature.com/polopoly_fs/7.31486.1447758069!/image/integrity.jpg_gen/derivatives/fullsize/integrity.jpg

Scientific method: Defend the integrity of physics

 

In his lecture in Vienna in September 1913, Einstein concluded his comparison of the two theories with a call for experiment to decide. The Entwurf theory predicts that gravity bends light, whereas Nordström’s does not. It would take another five years to find out. Erwin Finlay Freundlich, a junior astronomer in Berlin with whom Einstein had been in touch since his days in Prague, travelled to Crimea for the solar eclipse of August 1914 to determine whether gravity bends light but was interned by the Russians just as the First World War broke out. Finally, in 1919, English astronomer Arthur Eddington confirmed Einstein’s prediction of light bending by observing the deflection of distant stars seen close to the Sun’s edge during another eclipse, making Einstein a household name10.

Back in Zurich, after the Vienna lecture, Einstein teamed up with another young physicist, Adriaan Fokker, a student of Lorentz, to reformulate the Nordström theory using the same kind of mathematics that he and Grossmann had used to formulate the Entwurf theory. Einstein and Fokker showed that in both theories the gravitational field can be incorporated into the structure of a curved space-time. This work also gave Einstein a clearer picture of the structure of the Entwurf theory, which helped him and Grossmann in a second joint paper on the theory. By the time it was published in May 1914, Einstein had left for Berlin.

 

http://www.nature.com/polopoly_fs/7.31489.1447761264!/image/Einstein_frontal_small.jpg_gen/derivatives/fullsize/Einstein_frontal_small.jpg

Snapshots explore Einstein’s unusual brain

 

The Breakup

Turmoil erupted soon after the move. Einstein’s marriage fell apart and Mileva moved back to Zurich with their two young sons. Albert renewed the affair he had started and broken off two years before with his cousin Elsa Löwenthal (née Einstein). The First World War began. Berlin’s scientific elite showed no interest in the Entwurf theory, although renowned colleagues elsewhere did, such as Lorentz and Paul Ehrenfest in Leiden, the Netherlands. Einstein soldiered on.

By the end of 1914, his confidence had grown enough to write a long exposition of the theory. But in the summer of 1915, after a series of his lectures in Göttingen had piqued the interest of the great mathematician David Hilbert, Einstein started to have serious doubts. He discovered to his dismay that the Entwurf theory does not make rotational motion relative. Besso was right. Einstein wrote to Freundlich for help: his “mind was in a deep rut”, so he hoped that the young astronomer as “a fellow human being with unspoiled brain matter” could tell him what he was doing wrong. Freundlich could not help him.

“Worried that Hilbert might beat him to the punch, Einstein rushed new equations into print.”

The problem, Einstein soon realized, lay with the Entwurf field equations. Worried that Hilbert might beat him to the punch, Einstein rushed new equations into print in early November 1915, modifying them the following week and again two weeks later in subsequent papers submitted to the Prussian Academy. The field equations were generally covariant at last.

In the first November paper, Einstein wrote that the theory was “a real triumph” of the mathematics of Carl Friedrich Gauss and Bernhard Riemann. He recalled in this paper that he and Grossmann had considered the same equations before, and suggested that if only they had allowed themselves to be guided by pure mathematics rather than physics, they would never have accepted equations of limited covariance in the first place.

Other passages in the first November paper, however, as well as his other papers and correspondence in 1913–15, tell a different story. It was thanks to the elaboration of the Entwurf theory, with the help of Grossmann, Besso, Nordström and Fokker, that Einstein saw how to solve the problems with the physical interpretation of these equations that had previously defeated him.

In setting out the generally covariant field equations in the second and fourth papers, he made no mention of the hole argument. Only when Besso and Ehrenfest pressed him a few weeks after the final paper, dated 25 November, did Einstein find a way out of this bind — by realizing that only coincident events and not coordinates have physical meaning. Besso had suggested a similar escape two years earlier, which Einstein had brusquely rejected2.

In his third November paper, Einstein returned to the perihelion motion of Mercury. Inserting the astronomical data supplied by Freundlich into the formula he derived using his new theory, Einstein arrived at the result of 43″ per century and could thus fully account for the difference between Newtonian theory and observation. “Congratulations on conquering the perihelion motion,” Hilbert wrote to him on 19 November. “If I could calculate as fast as you can,” he quipped, “the hydrogen atom would have to bring a note from home to be excused for not radiating.”

Einstein kept quiet on why he had been able to do the calculations so fast. They were minor variations on the ones he had done with Besso in 1913. He probably enjoyed giving Hilbert a taste of his own medicine: in a letter to Ehrenfest written in May 1916, Einstein characterized Hilbert’s style as “creating the impression of being superhuman by obfuscating one’s methods”.

Einstein emphasized that his general theory of relativity built on the work of Gauss and Riemann, giants of the mathematical world. But it also built on the work of towering figures in physics, such as Maxwell and Lorentz, and on the work of researchers of lesser stature, notably Grossmann, Besso, Freundlich, Kottler, Nordström and Fokker. As with many other major breakthroughs in the history of science, Einstein was standing on the shoulders of many scientists, not just the proverbial giants4.

 

http://www.nature.com/polopoly_fs/7.31375.1447420557!/image/cartoon.jpg_gen/derivatives/landscape_630/cartoon.jpg

Berlin’s physics elite (Fritz Haber, Walther Nernst, Heinrich Rubens, Max Planck) and Einstein’s old and new family (Mileva Einstein-Marić and heir sons Eduard and Hans Albert; Elsa Einstein-Löwenthal and her daughters Ilse and Margot) are watching as Einstein is pursuing his new theory of gravity and his idée fixeof generalizing the relativity principle while carried by giants of both physics and mathematics (Isaac Newton, James Clerk Maxwell, Carl Friedrich Gauss, Bernhard Riemann) and scientists of lesser stature (Marcel Grossmann, Gunnar Nordström, Erwin Finlay Freundlich, Michele Besso).

Nature 527, 298–300 (19 Nov 2015)       http://dx.doi.org:/10.1038/527298a

 

 

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Science Teaching in Math and Technology

Posted in Math, Uncategorized, tagged , , , , on September 25, 2015| Leave a Comment »

Science Teaching in Math and Technology

Larry H. Bernstein, MD, FCAP, Curator

LPBI

2015 Best High Schools for STEM Rankings Methodology

U.S. News looked at 500 public high schools to identify the best in math and science education.

By Robert Morse May 11, 2015

U.S. News & World Report’s Best High Schools for STEM rankings methodology is based on the key principle that students at the Best High Schools for STEM must participate in and pass a robust curriculum of college-level math and science courses. STEM stands for science, technology, engineering and math.

To be included in the U.S. News Best High Schools for STEM rankings, a public high school first had to be listed as a gold medal winner in the 2015 U.S. News Best High Schools rankings. That meant that the top 500 nationally ranked high schools were eligible for the STEM rankings.

Those eligible schools were next judged nationally on their level of math and science participation and success, using Advanced Placement STEM test data for 2013 graduates as the benchmark to conduct the analysis. The U.S. News Best High Schools for STEM rankings methodology does not rely on any data from the U.S. Department of Education.

AP is a College Board program that offers college-level courses at high schools across the country. College Board defines STEM Math as AP courses in Calculus AB, Calculus BC, Computer Science A and Statistics; and STEM Science as AP courses in Biology, Chemistry, Environmental Science, Physics B, Physics C: Electricity and Magnetism and Physics C: Mechanics.

Math and science success at the high school level was assessed by computing a STEM Achievement Index for each school that ranked in the top 500 of the 2015 Best High Schools. The index was based on the percentage of all the AP test-takers in a school’s 2013 graduating class who took and passed college-level AP STEM Math and AP STEM Science tests. The higher a high school scored on the STEM Achievement Index, the better it placed in the Best High Schools for STEM rankings.

The maximum STEM Achievement Index value is 100. No public high school evaluated achieved that top score. The highest index was 98.3.

The first step in the rankings process was to compute the STEM Math Achievement Index. It was derived from two variables. The first was the percentage of AP test-takers in the 2013 graduating class who took at least one AP STEM Math course during high school, which was weighted 25 percent. The second was the percentage of those AP STEM Math test-takers who passed at least one AP STEM Math test during high school, receiving an AP score of 3 or higher. This variable was weighted 75 percent.

The next step was to calculate a STEM Science Achievement Index. Much like the math index, it was derived from the percentage of AP test-takers in the 2013 graduating class who took at least one AP STEM Science course during high school – weighted 25 percent – and the percentage of those AP STEM Science test-takers who passed at least one AP STEM Science test during high school, receiving an AP score of 3 or higher – weighted 75 percent.

This means that the methodology weights students taking AP math and science STEM courses at the high school level at 25 percent and passing those same AP STEM courses at 75 percent. In other words, passing both AP math and science tests was three times as important in the rankings as simply taking AP math and science courses.

The final step in the rankings process was to calculate the overall STEM Achievement Index, a combination of the STEM Math Achievement Index and the STEM Science Achievement Index. Each index was weighted at 50 percent, and then added together to create a composite value that is the STEM Achievement Index score.

The STEM rankings were based on sorting the unrounded – to many decimal places – STEM Achievement Index in descending order, with the top-ranked schools having the highest index values. The STEM Achievement Index was then rounded to the nearest 10th for online publication.

The top 250 high schools that achieved a value of greater than or equal to 66.8 in their STEM Achievement Index scored high enough to be numerically ranked. That high index cutoff point was used since it meant that all the high schools in the STEM rankings had, on average, more than two-thirds of the AP test-takers in their 2013 graduating class take and pass at least one AP STEM Math and one AP STEM Science test.

AP® and Advanced Placement® are registered trademarks of the College Board. Used with permission.

Top 50 Science Teacher Blogs

Bringing the subject of science to life for students is the challenge shared by the teachers who author these 50 amazing and insightful science education blogs. Sharing narratives set within and beyond the classroom walls, these next generation educators embrace technology but are never so dazzled by it that they lose sight of their common goal.

Action-Reaction
Physics Teacher Frank Noschese discusses science education topics like whether Khan Academy is effective at teaching physics, applying Angry Birds in physics lessons, and the idea of pseudoteaching.

Teaching High School Psychology
Teaching High School Psychology is a joint collaboration that explores the deeper lesson of the Stanford Prison Experiment, Gamification and its implications as a behavioral motivator, and opportunities for teaching Operant Conditioning with TV’s Big Bang Theory.

Little Miss Hypothesis
Inspiring Kindergarten scientists and giving a too-often neglected subject its due is the aim of Little Miss Hypothesis, where Mrs. Coe chronicles activities with growing brains, harvesting Spirit Garden salads and the development of science centers in a classroom that is home to Bluebonnet the Betta fish and the crab shack’s resident hermits.

Science for Kids
Sue Cahalane shares her passion for teaching science to elementary students in grades PK-4 on Science for Kids with ideas for classroom experiments, tutorials for science lessons, updates on science education news, and photos of students engaged in science activities.

Science Education on the Edge
Chris Ludwig, a high school science teacher from Colorado, writes about improving assessment and instruction in science and education technology.

Teach Science for All
Kirk Robbins shares helpful resources and tools for science teachers including reports, useful websites, and online tools.

Teaching | chemistry
Ellena Bethea, a high school chemistry teacher, writes about grading practices, online tools, and lab activities.

Adventures with the Lower Level
Tracie Schroeder shares her experiences teaching science, teaching methods, and thoughts on learning.

Physics in Flux
Dan Fullerton provides a resource for teachers with details of his successes and failures, technology guides, and physics book reviews.

Think Thank Thunk
On his blog, Think Thank Thunk, Shawn Cornally celebrates the Merlin within every teacher, the need for repackaging education, the debate surrounding Standards Based Grading and the dread of being dull as he chronicles his plight as an educator.

nashworld
Marine biology teacher Sean Nash gets inspired by WordFoto and invites educators to appreciate and aim for “Whoa” moments on his blog, nashworld.

Science Teacher
A science teacher and former pediatrican finds an exemplary model in Dr. Seuss, challenges technophiles to understand deeply, and explains why he has made a tradition of culminating each school year with a field trip to watch horseshoe crabs in the throes of romance.

Teach Science
At Teach Science, Ed Hitchcock muses on the DNA shared by Socrates and explains why science’s greatest appeal is the unexpected.

Quantum Progress
At Quantum Progress, 9th grade Atlanta physics teacher John Burk relives a childhood tradition at Physics Teacher Camp, promotes blogging as a tool for professional development, and ponders why physics buildings never win campus beauty contests.

Pedagogue Padawan
At Pedagogue Padawan, Geoff Schmit shares innovative ideas for using Sudoku to teach Circuit Analysis, Angry Birds as a lesson in holography, and wikispaces as a tool for science projects.

Re:thinking
Re:thinking blends personal reflection with a challenge to rethink school culture and policy as 9th grade teacher Ben Wildeboer finds teachable moments in events like the Japanese quake and explains the importance of “hard fun” for students.

Journey in Technology
At Journey in Technology a Dallas Physics teacher discusses implementing Khan Academy, discovering community and deep connections at Educon, and transforming the pseudoteaching of “cookbook” lab projects into real learning in the classroom.

Always Formative
Jason Buell is a middle school science teacher from California who writes about standards-based grading, education conferences, education books and more.

Stretching Forward
At Stretching Forward, Earth science teacher Janelle Wilson shares experiences from the Space Academy for Educators, discusses class blogging, and shares thoughts on engaging students and parents in science.

Tearing Down Walls
Derrick Willard teaches AP Environmental Science and discusses using social media and online tools to extend lessons outside the walls of the physical classroom.

Teaching Computer Science
Alfred Thompson is a former high school computer science teacher who currently works at Microsoft and writes about computer science education and resources.

A+ Computer Science Blog
High school computer science teacher Stacey Armstrong discusses why computer science is cool, game programming, career options in computer science, and computer science resources.

Teaching CS in Dallas
Kathleen Weaver writes about teaching robotics, Android development, and computer science education topics on her blog.

In Need of a Base Case
This blog discusses the need for change in computer science education, computer science project ideas, and the value of learning computer science.

Hélène Martin
Hélène Martin muses on the power of childhood playthings to fuel tech career ambitions and describes how lost airport luggage is a reminder to look for ways to leverage computing to solve real-life problems in this blog from the perspective of a computer science teacher.

Garth’s CS Education Blog
A computer science and programming teacher at a private school writes about teaching fun and important concepts and preparing students for computer science careers.

The Blog of Phyz
The Blog of Phyz is California teacher Dean Baird’s platform for debunking “Magnet Boys” and magic wristbands, and touting a 75 cent investment guaranteed to wow even the most cynical student.

Mr. Gonzalez’s Classroom
An Olympic Odyssey customarily culminates the academic year for middle school teacher Alfonso Gonzalez, who explores the challenge of giving terms like “on-task” and “structured learning” 21st century relevance on his blog, Mr. Gonzalez’s Classroom.

Free/Libre Open Source Science Education
Pseudoteaching and trends like the “reverse lecture” are hot topics on Free/Libre Open Source Science Education, where Steve Dickie shares his own innovative methods, including cartooning with GoAnimate and creating his own textbooks.

The Science Classroom
Oklahoma physics teacher Jody Bowie reports on the thrill of seeing students connect classroom lessons in everyday life, explains why everyone needs a whetstone to hone their thinking and divulges his identification with the Wizard in Wicked on The Science Classroom blog.

Jacobs Physics
On his blog Greg Jacobs calls course evaluations brutal but vital and bucks a few trends by advocating daily work and disparaging summer assignments in favor of starting each year “from the ground up”.

New Physics Modeler
Bryan Battaglia explains the appeal of professional conferences, the career changing power of blogging, and reflects that teachers gain as many lessons by year’s end as their students.

Just Call Me Ms Frizzle
Becky offers a distinctive first-year teacher perspective on Just Call Me Ms Frizzle, contrasting the low of leaving the room in frustration with the high of a Friday classroom on its best behavior, along with the challenge of teaching a non-traditional class.

And Yet it Moves
On his blog, And Yet it Moves, Ben Chun explains why problem-solving skills trump smarts, tackles the debate over doing away with honors classes, and challenges the AP curriculum.

Reflections of a Science Teacher
Sandra McCarron dismisses the notion of a rubric for thinking, believes that a successful classroom starts out with a vision and ponders the merits of science fairs that have been sacrificed to make way for education reforms on her blog, Reflections of a Science Teacher.

Hurricane Maine
A veteran teacher discusses ideas in education and technology, interesting articles, and how to make school more like play rather than work.

The Physics of Learning
Doug Smith authors this physics education blog that discusses topics like whether to use iPads in the classroom, the myths of merit pay, and scientific literacy.

Room 611
Mr. Young teaches Earth science and other subjects in Canada and provides insights into class by outlining what is covered in class almost every school day.

Using Blogs in Science Education
Stacey Baker is a high school biology teacher and writes about how to use classroom blogs to help students learn science.

Physics! Blog!
Physics! Blog! shares results of The No Homework Experiment and discusses standards based grading, the goal of testing, and teaching students how to learn from mistakes.

Ideas for Teaching Computer Technology to Kids
A blog sharing ideas and resources for teaching computer technology including robots for computer science education, programming resources, and computer science teaching tools.

MrReid.org
A physics teacher shares interesting science articles like Nobel prize winning sentences, things from movies that cannot exist, and cool science videos.

Teach. Brian. Teach.
Brian discusses what makes for a good science conversation, reflects on teaching, shares observations of students, and explains why it is important to point out when students are having fun doing science.

The Skeptical Teacher
A high school physics teacher discusses science education and promotes critical thinking on his blog.

Physics & Physical Science Demos, Labs, & Projects for High School Teachers
A physics teacher provides a resource for science teachers to share ideas for labs and demonstrations and commentary on what works.

The Art of Teaching Science
Jack Hassard is a professor of science education and explores issues in teaching science, shares resources for science teachers, and discusses why teaching science is important.

SuperFly Physics
At SuperFly Physics, Andy Rundquist shares ideas for teaching physics, fun science experiments, and interesting physics problems.

Newton’s Minions
A physics blog sharing student work, anecdotes from the classroom, thoughts on student assessment, and ideas for teaching complex physics lessons.

Mr. Barlow’s Blog
Mr. Barlow is a high school science teacher and podcaster from Melbourne, Australia who shares interesting science studies, cool science news, and optical illusions at his blog.

http://www.teachercertificationdegrees.com/top-blogs/science-teacher/

What is JASON?

We are a non-profit organization that connects students, in the classroom and out, to real science and exploration to inspire and motivate them to study and pursue careers in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM).

We embed exciting STEM professionals and cutting-edge research into award-winning, standards-aligned in and out-of-school curricula. Live webcasts connect students with inspirational STEM role models. Student materials include reading selections with read-to-me functionality, inquiry-based labs, videos, and online games. For teachers and informal educators, we provide lesson plans, assessments, and comprehensive professional development programs.

http://www.jason.org/sites/default/files/images/rotators/website%20klein%20feature.jpg

Ten Websites for Science Teachers

Originally Published: February 7, 2012 | Updated: October 10, 2014

www.nsta.org/about/awards.aspx

http://www.edutopia.org/sites/default/files/styles/feature_image_breakpoints_theme_edutopia_desktop_1x/public/slates/Science_Teachers_0.jpg?itok=i6yFGrRK

We all know that the web is full of excellent web resources for science teachers and students. However, unless you live on the web, finding the best websites can become quite a challenge. This isn’t a “Top Ten” list — instead, it is a list of websites that I either use on a regular basis or just find interesting. From teaching resources for the nature of science and authentic field journals to wacky videos about numbers, I am sure that you will find something in the following list the works for you!

1) Understanding Science

UC Berkeley’s Understanding Science website is a “must use” for all science teachers. It is a great resource for learning more about the process of science. The resource goes much deeper than the standard “PHEOC” model of the scientific method by emphasizing peer review, the testing of ideas, a science flowchart and “what is science?” checklist. Understanding Science also provides a variety of teaching resources including case studies of scientific discoveries and lesson plans for every grade level.

2) Field Research Journals

The Field Book Project from the National Museum of Natural History and the Smithsonian Institution Archives intends to create a “one stop” archive for field research journals and other documentation. You can find plenty of examples from actual field research journals for your classes.

3) Evolution

Berkeley’s Understanding Evolution website is the precursor to their Understanding Science efforts. The Understanding Evolution website provides a plethora of resources, news items and lessons for teaching about evolution. Lessons provide appropriate “building blocks” to help students at any grade level work towards a deeper understanding of evolution. The Evo 101 tutorial provides a great overview of the science behind evolution and the multiple lines of evidence that support the theory.

4) PhET Simulations

PhET from the University of Colorado provides dozens of fantastic simulations for physics, chemistry and biology. The website also includes a collection of teacher contributed activities, lab experiences, homework assignments and conceptual questions that can be used with the simulations.

5) Earth Exploration

The Earth Exploration Toolbook provides a series of activities, tools and case studies for using data sets with your students.

6) EdHead Interactives

Edheads is an organization that provides engaging web simulations and activities for kids. Current activities focus on simulated surgical procedures, cell phone design (with market research), simple and compound machines, and weather prediction.

7) Plant Mentors

Do you teach about plants? Check out Planting Science to connect your middle or high school students to science mentors and a collaborative inquiry project. From the project:

Planting Science is a learning and research resource, bringing together students, plant scientists, and teachers from across the nation. Students engage in hands-on plant investigations, working with peers and scientist mentors to build collaborations and to improve their understanding of science.

8) Periodic Table of Videos

Check out The Periodic Table of Videos for a wide array of videos about the elements and other chemistry topics.

9) More Videos!

Students can read and watch video about 21 Smithsonian scientistsincluding a volcano watcher, fossil hunter, art scientist, germinator and zoo vet.

10) Even More Videos!

How many videos were watched on YouTube in 2010? If you said 22 billion, you are sort of correct… Those 22 billion views only represent the number of times education videos were watched! In addition to this list of science and math YouTube channels, here are two of my favorites:

  • SciShow is all about teaching scientific concepts in an accessible and easy-to-understand manner. This channel includes a variety of short (3 minute) and long (10 minute) videos. New videos are released weekly.
  • Former BBC journalist Brady Haran is crazy about math and science. If you love numbers, you will love his Numberphile channel, dedicated to exploring the stories behind numbers.
  • And let’s close with a particularly good SciShow on Climate Change:

https://youtu.be/M2Jxs7lR8ZI

Best High Schools

http://www.usnews.com/education/best-high-schools/national-rankings

 School for the Talented and Gifted

1201 EAST EIGHTH ST

DALLAS, TX 75203

Dallas Independent School District

GOLD Medal

 15:1

Near National Avg

253 Students

17 Teachers

 100.0

Above National Avg

100% Tested (AP®)

100% Passed (AP®)
#2 BASIS Scottsdale

11440 NORTH 136TH ST

SCOTTSDALE, AZ 85259

BASIS Schools Inc.

GOLD Medal

 N/A

N/A

698 Students

N/A Teachers

 100.0

Above National Avg

100% Tested (AP®)

100% Passed (AP®)
#3 Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology

6560 BRADDOCK RD

ALEXANDRIA, VA 22312

Fairfax County Public Schools

GOLD Medal

 17:1

Near National Avg

1,846 Students

111 Teachers

 100.0

Above National Avg

100% Tested (AP®)

100% Passed (AP®)
#4 Gwinnett School of Mathematics, Science and Technology

970 MCELVANEY LN

LAWRENCEVILLE, GA 30044

Gwinnett County Public Schools

GOLD Medal

 18:1

Near National Avg

851 Students

48 Teachers

 100.0

Above National Avg

100% Tested (AP®)

100% Passed (AP®)
 

School of Science and Engineering Magnet

1201 EAST EIGHTH ST

DALLAS, TX 75203

Dallas Independent School District

GOLD Medal

  

 

16:1

Near National Avg

386 Students

24 Teachers

  

100.0

Above National Avg

100% Tested (AP®)

100% Passed (AP®)
#6 Carnegie Vanguard High School

1501 TAFT

HOUSTON, TX 77019

Houston Independent School District

GOLD Medal

 17:1

Near National Avg

590 Students

34 Teachers

 100.0

Above National Avg

100% Tested (AP®)

100% Passed (AP®)
#7 Academic Magnet High School

5109A WEST ENTERPRISE ST

NORTH CHARLESTON, SC 29405

Charleston County School District

GOLD Medal

 14:1

Near National Avg

610 Students

44 Teachers

 100.0

Above National Avg

100% Tested (AP®)

100% Passed (AP®)
#8 University High School

9419 WEST VAN BUREN ST

TOLLESON, AZ 85353

Tolleson Union High School District

GOLD Medal

 34:1

Larger than National Avg

460 Students

14 Teachers

 100.0

Above National Avg

100% Tested (AP®)

100% Passed (AP®)
#9 Lamar Academy

1009 NORTH 10TH ST

MCALLEN, TX 78501

Mcallen Independent School District

GOLD Medal

 6:1

Smaller than National Avg

106 Students

19 Teachers

 100.0

Above National Avg

100% Tested (IB)

100% Passed (IB)
#10 Gilbert Classical Academy High School

55 NORTH GREENFIELD RD

GILBERT, AZ 85234

Gilbert Unified District

GOLD Medal

 11:1

Smaller than National Avg

220 Students

20 Teachers

 100.0

Above National Avg

100% Tested (AP®)

100% Passed (AP®)
#11 The High School of American Studies at Lehman College

2925 GOULDEN AVE

BRONX, NY 10468

New York City Public Schools

GOLD Medal

 16:1

Near National Avg

393 Students

25 Teachers

 100.0

Above National Avg

100% Tested (AP®)

100% Passed (AP®)
#12 American Indian Public High School

3637 MAGEE AVE

OAKLAND, CA 94619

Oakland Unf

GOLD Medal

 19:1

Larger than National Avg

243 Students

13 Teachers

 100.0

Above National Avg

100% Tested (AP®)

100% Passed (AP®)
#13 International Studies Charter High School

2480 SW 8TH ST

MIAMI, FL 33135

Miami-Dade County Public Schools

GOLD Medal

 13:1

Near National Avg

359 Students

27 Teachers

 100.0

Above National Avg

100% Tested (AP®)

100% Passed (AP®)
#14 High School for Dual Language and Asian Studies

350 GRAND ST

NEW YORK, NY 10002

New York City Public Schools

GOLD Medal

 16:1

Near National Avg

392 Students

25 Teachers

 100.0

Above National Avg

100% Tested (AP®)

100% Passed (AP®)
#15 Northside College Preparatory High School

5501 NORTH KEDZIE AVE

CHICAGO, IL 60625

Chicago Public Schools

GOLD Medal

 14:1

Near National Avg

1,069 Students

74 Teachers

 99.7

Above National Avg

100% Tested (AP®)

100% Passed (AP®)
#16 Oxford Academy

5172 ORANGE AVE

CYPRESS, CA 90630

Anaheim Union High

GOLD Medal

 30:1

Larger than National Avg

1,152 Students

38 Teachers

 99.5

Above National Avg

100% Tested (AP®)

99% Passed (AP®)
#17 University High School

421 NORTH ARCADIA BLVD

TUCSON, AZ 85711

Tucson Unified School District

GOLD Medal

 21:1

Larger than National Avg

934 Students

44 Teachers

 99.3

Above National Avg

100% Tested (AP®)

99% Passed (AP®)
#18 Pacific Collegiate School

255 SWIFT ST

SANTA CRUZ, CA 95060

Santa Cruz County Office Of Education

GOLD Medal

 19:1

Larger than National Avg

515 Students

28 Teachers

 99.1

Above National Avg

100% Tested (AP®)

99% Passed (AP®)
#19 Biotechnology High School

5000 KOZLOSKI RD

FREEHOLD, NJ 07728

Monmouth County Vocational School District

GOLD Medal

 14:1

Near National Avg

311 Students

23 Teachers

 99.1

Above National Avg

100% Tested (IB)

99% Passed (IB)
#20 High Technology High School

765 NEWMAN SPRINGS RD

LINCROFT, NJ 07738

Monmouth County Vocational School District

GOLD Medal

 13:1

Near National Avg

280 Students

22 Teachers

 98.5

Above National Avg

99% Tested (AP®)

99% Passed (AP®)

The United States has developed as a global leader, in large part, through the genius and hard work of its scientists, engineers, and innovators. In a world that’s becoming increasingly complex, where success is driven not only by what you know, but by what youcan do with what you know, it’s more important than ever for our youth to be equipped with the knowledge and skills to solve tough problems, gather and evaluate evidence, and make sense of information. These are the types of skills that students learn by studying science, technology, engineering, and math—subjects collectively known as STEM.

Yet today, few American students pursue expertise in STEM fields—and we have an inadequate pipeline of teachers skilled in those subjects. That’s why President Obama has set a priority of increasing the number of students and teachers who are proficient in these vital fields.

stem-infographic

http://www.ed.gov/sites/default/files/stem-infographic.jpg

The need

All young people should be prepared to think deeply and to think well so that they have the chance to become the innovators, educators, researchers, and leaders who can solve the most pressing challenges facing our nation and our world, both today and tomorrow. But, right now, not enough of our youth have access to quality STEM learning opportunities and too few students see these disciplines as springboards for their careers.expand/collapse

The goals

President Obama has articulated a clear priority for STEM education: within a decade, American students must “move from the middle to the top of the pack in science and math.” The Obama Administration also is working toward the goal of fairness between places, where an equitable distribution of quality STEM learning opportunities and talented teachers can ensure that all students have the chance to study and be inspired by science, technology, engineering, and math—and have the chance to reach their full potential.expand/collapse

The plan

The Committee on STEM Education (CoSTEM), comprised of 13 agencies—including all of the mission-science agencies and the Department of Education—are facilitating a cohesive national strategy, with new and repurposed funds, to increase the impact of federal investments in five areas: 1.) improving STEM instruction in preschool through 12th grade; 2.) increasing and sustaining public and youth engagement with STEM; 3.) improving the STEM experience for undergraduate students; 4.) better serving groups historically underrepresented in STEM fields; and 5.) designing graduate education for tomorrow’s STEM workforce.expand/collapse

Supporting Teachers and Students in STEM

At the Department of Education, we share the President’s commitment to supporting and improving STEM education. Ensuring that all students have access to high-quality learning opportunities in STEM subjects is a priority, demonstrated by the fact that dozens of federal programs have made teaching and learning in science, technology, engineering, and math a critical component of competitiveness for grant funding. Just this year, for the very first time, the Department announced that its Ready-to-Learn Television grant competition would include a priority to promote the development of television and digital media focused on science.

The Department’s Race to the Top-District program supports educators in providing students with more personalized learning—in which the pace of and approach to instruction are uniquely tailored to meet students’ individual needs and interests—often supported by innovative technologies. STEM teachers across the country also are receiving resources, support, training, and development through programs like Investing in Innovation (i3), the Teacher Incentive Fund, the Math and Science Partnershipsprogram, Teachers for a Competitive Tomorrow, and the Teacher Quality Partnerships program.

Because we know that learning happens everywhere—both inside and outside of formal school settings—the Department’s 21st Century Community Learning Centers program is collaborating with NASA, the National Park Service, and the Institute of Museum and Library Services to bring high-quality STEM content and experiences to students from low-income, high-need schools. This initiative has made a commitment to Native-American students, providing about 350 young people at 11 sites across six states with out-of-school STEM courses focused on science and the environment.

And in higher education, the Hispanic-Serving Institutions-STEM program is helping to increase the number of Hispanic students attaining degrees in STEM subjects.

This sampling of programs represents some of the ways in which federal resources are helping to assist educators in implementing effective approaches for improving STEM teaching and learning; facilitating the dissemination and adoption of effective STEM instructional practices nationwide; and promoting STEM education experiences that prioritize hands-on learning to increase student engagement and achievement.

Learn more

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seri_scores

seri_scores

http://i.livescience.com/images/i/000/017/835/i02/seri_scores.png?1310070712

A new ranking of how well the United States’ schools are preparing students for science and engineering careers shows that although there’s a small number of high performers, most states are doing a poor job of educating students in these subjects.

According to the ranking of schools teaching kindergarten through 12th grade, Massachusetts leads the pack with a score of 4.82 on a scale of 1 to 5, while Mississippi trails behind as “worst in the United States” with a 1.11 score. Twenty-one states in total, including California, earned what the ranking classified as “below average” or “far below average” scores, and only 10 states earned scores above the national average of 2.82.

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