Awesome Eclipse Video

Veritassium makes a lot of awesome science videos and this eclipse video is no exception.

Arctic Ice

Hey folks!

Here is a video of arctic ice over the past few years. What kind of conclusions can you draw from this video? Old ice has a lighter color than new ice which is darker. How might this affect future melting patterns?

Are you trying to find the assignments for your student in IB Biology or Physical Science?

You can find them below.

IB Biology Calendar Link

Physical Science 1st Hour
Physical Science 3rd Hour
Physical Science 6th Hour
Physical Science 8th Hour

If you are a teacher using Google Classroom here is a great video offering instruction on how to set up and share assignment calendars (that are already made through Google Classroom!) so that parents can access them outside the BVSD system. (Thanks to Jenn Scheffer at Burlington HS in New York for making this video.)

What do you think life will be like in 100 years?

Read this story by E M Forster entitled, The Machine Stops. He wrote this story in 1909, and a lot of what he describes is similar to the life we live today. At the time, it must have seemed like a complete fantasy, but it exists now. Ray Kurzweil thinks that we will soon be able to simulate the human brain and possibly be able to save all our memories virtually. Hear some of his thoughts in this video.

How do you imagine the world being different in 100 years? Do you think the internet could ever collapse as described in The Machine Stops? How would your life change if the internet did collapse? What do you think the future will be like? Write your own story about the future and share it. I'll give you extra credit if you share it in the comments.

Why does light slow down in glass?

The short answer is that light doesn't slow down in glass; it bumps into more stuff and doesn't take the shortest path through all that matter. If you looked at each individual photon, they are still going at the speed of light. We don't see individual photons though; we see A LOT of photons together. Here's a short explanation with more detail. If you think this explanation is too easy, here's a more in depth explanation that talks about the differences between how classical physics and quantum physics view the same situation in different ways.

What are protons and neutrons made of?

The CERN Large Hadron Collider officially verified their earlier findings of the Higgs-Boson particle. If you're interested in understanding more about antimatter and what protons are made of, you can check out CERN's education website. The power point presentations on this site relate protons, neutrons and electrons (which we are learning about now in class) to quarks, positrons and antimatter.

Jacob M. also informed me of some really cool youtube videos put together by physicists that work at CERN called 60 symbols . Anyone can write in to these scientists and they will do their best to answer the questions.

Advisory Link

Click this link for the ACT writing sample. http://www.actstudent.org/writing/sample/