Endless Summer, Riding Giants–There have been some great movies that explore the Earth’s oceans and their giant waves.  But, few have provided their audience with an understanding of the science of these waves AND do so using 3D.  The new movie “The Ultimate Wave: Tahiti 3D” follows nine-time world surfing champion Kelly Slater on a surfing trip to Tahiti.

“The film explores the hidden forces at work shaping the waves and the islands that lie in their path,” as described on the movie’s website. “In stylized animated segments, the audience is propelled into the cosmos to discover the sources of a wave’s energy; and then back to Earth to witness the swirling dance of the atmosphere that will transfer energy deep into the ocean and shape a wave’s long journey across thousands of miles of open Pacific.”

The Ultimate Wave is playing at IMAX theaters at major science museums across the country including the California Science Center in Los Angeles and New England Aquarium in Boston.  (Here’s a listing of current and upcoming theater venues.)

Once students have seen the movie, educators can take advantage of a free teacher’s guide on the movie’s website.  It also includes a gallery of videos that could be great to show in class.

Photo: Perfect Wave Productions, Inc.

The 2010 TED Conference just wrapped up in Long Beach, Ca over the weekend.  TED began in 1984 as a small conference to bring together stakeholders in the fields of Technology, Enterntainment and Design.  These days, it’s a full-blown organization aimed at “giving millions of knowledge-seekers around the globe direct access to the world’s greatest thinkers and teachers.”

They have a good video library featuring some of the best innovators and problem solvers out there including this great video of world-renowned chemist and Harvard professor George Whiteside discussing how he is helping develop medical diagnostic tools such as the “lab-on-a-chip” with the mission of providing extremely inexpensive healthcare solutions to developing countries.  The video is a part of their “Tales of Invention” series which can be viewed from their website.  They also have a YouTube channel.

photos: dfa.org

With the 2010 Winter Olympic Games just days away, many students will be tuning in to marvel at the speed of the alpine skiers and gravity-defying tricks of the snowboarders.  The games also present excellent opportunities to show students STEM in action.

The official Olympics website features a “project showcase” of classroom activities submitted by educators around the US and Canada.  You can search the resource by grade, school subject and sport.

NBC Learn has a library of videos that explore the “Science of Olympic Winter Games.”  They also have lesson plans and activities if you sign up for a free trial of their “NBC News On-Demand” service.

So, what ideas do you have on how to connect STEM and the Olympic Games?  Submit your ideas as a comment below.  We’d love to hear from you!

(Photo from Reuters)

As of 2008, only 25 percent of the IT workforce were women.  Not only that, but the number of women in computer-related occupations has been steadily declining since 1991, when it peaked at a meager 36 percent. That is according to the Women in IT: The Facts report published by the National Center for Women & Information Technology (NCWIT).

NCWIT along with organizations like  The Anita Borg Institute for Women in Technology (ABI) are working to address this issue through a number of different avenues such as community services, outreach programs and achievement awards.

Just this past week, it was announced that The Anita Borg Institute, NCWIT along with the ACM Women’s Council (ACM-W) received a grant from the National Science Foundation “to broaden women’s participation in computing by sponsoring regional conferences across the country.”  The “Grace Hopper Regional Consortium” aims to show women the opportunities available to them in IT fields.

There has been a lot of research done and ideas developed on how to encourage young women to pursue STEM-related careers. What have your experiences been with regard to motivating female students when it comes to STEM?  Do you think progress is being made and, if so, how?

(photo: North Eugene High School)

Since the release of Apple’s iPad last week, there has been some interesting discussion generated within the online education community about the effect this new technology may have on the classroom. Some see it as a fantastic new advance that may represent the future of technology tools for students and teachers, while others view it as just another piece of hardware.

Check out some of the buzz about the iPad and let us know what you think.  What place do you think the iPad will have in education, if any?  And, do you think it will have any benefits to STEM education?

ISTE Connects – Apple iPad and Education: Teacher’s Aid or Student Learning Tool

THE Journal - Measuring the iPad’s Potential for Education

Campus Technology – Apple’s iPad: The Future of Mobile Computing in Education

PBS Teacherline – How Will the iPad Change Education?

(photo: Apple)

Shortly after the release of The Abyss, director James Cameron visited Jaime Escalante’s math classroom for an episode of the popular PBS series: Futures with Jaime Escalante.

What’s remarkable is that though STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering & Math) was not a buzzword 20 years ago, Cameron’s message to students could be repeated word-for-word today and be just as relevant.

Check out the clip:

The longest running citizen science research project began 110 years ago, when an ornithologist named Frank Chapman proposed that instead of going out and competing with family and friends to see who could shoot the most birds–an actual holiday tradition in the late 1800’s–people should instead count the birds and send their tallies to the recently-formed Audubon Society.  (It’s with some dark humor that I imagine more than a few people asked, “So do we count ‘em before we shoot ‘em or after?”)  But of course the answer was to not shoot them at all, just count them.  And so began Audubon’s Christmas Bird Count. It’s happened every year since.

- Learn all about the Christmas Bird Count here.

- Edutopia has a comprehensive article about citizen science and various projects to participate in–written with K-12 in mind.

- Wetlands along the U.S. Gulf Coast provide winter habitat for millions of ducks and geese.  Here’s a HUGE flock of snow geese wintering in Texas.

The Futures Channel is developing a series of engineer video profiles designed to give young people a behind-the-scenes look at a wide variety of professional engineers.  We want to help answer the question: Who are engineers and what do they do?

Here’s another pre-release screening of one of the profiles.  (View Profile 1.)  It features Maria Bualat, a project manager and robotic engineer at NASA Ames Research Center.

We’d love to get your feedback.  Let us know what you think via the “Contact” tab at the top of this page or in the “Comments” section below.

It’s the busy season on our southernmost continent as scientists, researchers and staff converge on Antarctica’s research stations to take advantage of the warmer weather and 24-hour sunlight.  (Of course, “warmer weather” is relative… average summer temp at the South Pole Station is -18 F.)

View a live image from the South Pole Station webcam.

The Antarctic Connection web site features a click-able map with profiles of Antarctica’s research stations and information about all the different types of research conducted on the continent.

PolarTREC (Teachers and Researchers Exploring and Collaborating in the Arctic and Antarctic) is a program in which K-12 teachers participate in polar research, working closely with scientists as a pathway to improving science education.

The Antarctic Sun web site is the official online news site for the United States Antarctic Program. The site provides news articles and features about polar science and life in the Antarctic.

And here’s a mesmerizing time lapse video of a year in Antarctica.

(South Pole Station image credit: Scot Jackson & National Science Foundation)

TOYchallenge 2010

TOYchallenge is a national toy design competition for teams of girls and boys in 5th-8th grades created and run by Sally Ride Science in partnership with the US Patent and Trademark Office.

Teams have until February 12, 2010 to submit their entry but must register by this Friday, November 20th.

Visit:
http://www.sallyridescience.com/toychallenge

NASA’s Water Recycling System Design Challenge

Just because there’s water on the moon doesn’t mean future astronauts won’t have to worry about conserving and recycling it.  (It doesn’t matter how much fun it would be, we aren’t going to see a water balloon fight on the moon anytime soon.)

Students in grades 5 – 8 can join NASA’s waste limitation management and recycling design challenge and create a sustainable water recycling system for the moon. Read the rest of this entry »