Free In-Class Resource For Science Teachers

modernphysics writes "Canada's non-profit and independent Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics is now providing a free in-class, educational resource for high-school science teachers to help guide students through interesting topics in modern physics. The first module on 'The Mystery of Dark Matter' can be viewed online and features a 25-minute video, teacher's guide with hands-on demonstrations, and student activity sheets in Word format that can be edited to suit individual classes. This resource helps fulfill the number one request from the hundreds of high-school teachers who attend the popular EinsteinPlus Workshops on Modern Physics at PI each summer — to have access to enrichment materials for students in grades 11 and 12 in a flexible, comprehensive, and easy-to-use format that makes abstract ideas visual and shares the joys of research and discovery."

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[zappepcs]

Well, on the one hand, it's free so you can't complain too much and on the other hand is a glove... er, well, perhaps these very nice folks that donated their time and resources for this project might also come out with version 2 in ODF formats.

Can we get some volunteers to send them OpenOffice? and some training materials? Perhaps some of those that would just complain might put together a nice email with links or send them some CDs?

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[Lewrker]

So if someone gives you a free beer, except in a special proprietary container that can only be opened by a $300 opener it's okay, because everybody already has it anyway or has a free version of it that spills just a little bit on your pants and makes it smell funny.
Oh, and the next version might actually come in a regular bottle, stay tuned.

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[tubapro12]

Last time I checked, Microsoft opened up many of their Office formats [microsoft.com] to be implemented by third parties free of charge, including Word 97-2007. What's the issue?

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[hedwards]

That's true, my understanding though is that the word specification is quite complicated and rather time consuming to replicate even with the format information.

That being said, .doc should never be used in a situation where interoperability or even different computers are needing to open up the documents. Docs just weren't meant for that, we've had rtf for quite a while, and between the size and the lack of macros they are far better.

That being said, it would be nice if the people providing these resources

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[piojo]

That being said, .doc should never be used in a situation where interoperability or even different computers are needing to open up the documents. Docs just weren't meant for that, we've had rtf for quite a while, and between the size and the lack of macros they are far better.

Agreed--I can't even transfer certain types of documents between two versions of Microsoft Word, if they are saved as .doc ("a table in this document has become corrupted"). On the other hand, my resume, created in OpenOffice and saved as a .rtf, appears horribly messed up when opened in Word. I'm not convinced there is a current interoperable solution.

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[Shawn is an Asshole]

Agreed--I can't even transfer certain types of documents between two versions of Microsoft Word, if they are saved as .doc ("a table in this document has become corrupted"). On the other hand, my resume, created in OpenOffice and saved as a .rtf, appears horribly messed up when opened in Word. I'm not convinced there is a current interoperable solution.

You could install Sun's ODF Plugin [sun.com] for MS Word.

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[piojo]

Thanks for the link. I'll give it a try next time I need to get a document into Word format.

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[zappepcs]

Nice way to keep the mean spirited issue at hand. You piss me off. I'm thinking that anyone whose web site is powered by Joomla http://www.perimeterinstitute.ca/en/Joomla!_License_Guidelines/ [perimeterinstitute.ca] might actually take the hint if you kindly... KINDLY... ask them to produce the data in ODF formats.

Some of the people involved with this institution are well read and intelligent individuals. Talking like an asshat about them is not exactly an encouragement after all.

The content was put in a modifiable format, that's

Tufts Uni offers training fellowships for teachers

[SpaceWanderer]

The Wright Center for Innovative Science Education at Tufts University offers fellowship opportunities for teachers of elementary and high school science, workshops for teachers and free posters and curriculum materials on request by teachers. Some materials are available on-line for free download. Materials range from Space Science and Cosmic Evolution to the Physics of Music and Ben Franklin and Electrostatics. Visit http://www.tufts.edu/as/wright_center [tufts.edu] to learn more.

they try so hard

[oceaniv]

free? education? communists!!!

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[QuantumG]

Pretty-much everywhere in the world has recognized the importance of a free education, except the US.

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[QuantumG]

I can't say I've ever heard an American say anything good about public education. You get the feeling that they would rather it was abolished.

Re:they try so hard

[FooAtWFU]

America does a poor job of coupling teacher pay to teacher performance (they attach it instead almost exclusively to Seniority). This is not conducive to getting good teaching at schools. As government-related entities, moreover, there are (in various jurisdictions) a lot of regulations which (whatever else good they do or don't do) make it very difficult to get rid of bad teachers. My understanding is that New York City public schools are a particularly egregious example of this, and totally incompetent teachers can stick around for years and years.

Every now and again people attempt to throw money at the problem without actually fixing the problem. This is wasteful and stupid, and leads to some justified complaints. Then there are occasional budgetary cuts. These seldom correlate very well with the merits of the programs or teachers being funded. On a related note, exceptional students can find it difficult to thrive in the rather homogeneous academic environments you can find at many schools, particularly in smaller systems with fewer resources overall.

Many reasonable-sounding way to encourage better education have involved attempts to measure the education. This, however, tends to lead to more "test prep" learning and less learning learning.

I don't think anyone seriously advocates "no public education" per se. Much of it is just undirected complaint. However, advocating massive restructuring involving a system of school vouchers (or even minor restructuring and the introduction of similar vouchers) such that private educational institutions can receive some portion of public funds (since they're no longer attending public schools) is not uncommon, particularly by those with Libertarian sympathies.

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[beaverbrother]

The teachers' union imposes many of those rules. Ironically, while many teachers care much about their students and want them to learn better, their own union is causing many of the problems. Abolishing the unions and changing the rules to allow the dismissal of teachers without severe legal penalties, will change the outcome of their students greatly. It is absolutely ridiculous to be forced to offer the same salary to everyone and not be able to get rid of employees. No company would function well lik

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[maxume]

You don't even need to abolish the unions. All you need to do is to allow hiring outside the union contract, or at least under terms equal to or better than the union contract.

I wonder how seriously a judge would take the argument that union contracts represent a misappropriation of public funds by school boards.

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[sumdumass]

Unions tend to take non union compensation as a base for their own and ask for more. If you allow nonunion employment and paid them more based on their abilities, it would more or less turn into a bargaining chip for the next contract talks in which they will hold out for more pay then non union employees and effectively enticing them to join the union defeating the purpose of non union employees.

In the end it would wash and probably just cause more funds to be going to payroll. It is a difficult job to eva

coupling teacher pay to a test is just as bad

[Joe The Dragon]

coupling teacher pay to a test is just as bad as they will just teach the test like how it is with No Child Left Behind.

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[The Mighty Buzzard]

Could be but seniority as a metric for pay is meaningless if you're unable to fire a teacher who's complete shit. The solution isn't to keep the worthless teachers along with the good, it's to make the tests broad enough in scope that "teaching the test" at least means the students have a baseline understanding of the material in question.

The better solution would be to go with my grandparent poster's idea and abolish teachers unions. With that, the teachers can teach however they desire and be shitcaned

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[sumdumass]

Please explain this to me a little more. If the teachers don't know the questions and answers on the test, and the tests are supposed to measure grade level performance in subjects the state claims the student's need to learn, then how is teaching to the test not the same as teaching the subject to the levels the state says the students should be at?

And if the state says we need students to be at this level in these subjects by this grade, and the students aren't there because the teachers are teaching some

"teach the test" and No Child Left Behind are good

[r00t]

Why would you want teachers to waste time (their time, student's time, money, etc.) on stuff that is not of use?

Perhaps you believe that the test doesn't cover things? If so, then place your blame on the test **content** rather than on the **usage** of tests. The tests **must** cover all the stuff we expect students to learn, no more and no less. (of course, on test day one may get some random sample of the total test questions, such as 200 out of a million possible questions)

No Child Left Behind is good. E

Measuring teacher performance is *hard*

[curri]

I think most (all?) countries do 'a poor job of coupling teacher pay to teacher performance', because measuring teacher performance is really hard. Many teachers suck at some things and are great at others. Most teachers will improve over time, but the cycle is yearly, which means it will take a few years before they have worked out their bugs and have encountered enough variety of kids so they know what works for each.

Well, how do you measure teacher performance ? You can do class visits, but they won't te

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[Profane MuthaFucka]

I'm an American and I'm a firm believer in public education. I believe that it's a moral value which all Americans share. Our fault is that we respond too quickly to the emotion of fear, thus we spend our treasure on the military. It's an inversion of our moral priorities, and it's gotten so bad that it threatens the future of our country.

Yes, I believe that education should be a higher priority than war? Isn't it ironic that on Slashdot I play a depraved sexual deviant, yet my sense of morality is superior

You have now heard.

[curri]

I am an American, and I think our public education is great. So there.

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[sumdumass]

Maybe that is because people in the US are smart enough to know that it isn't free. Someone has to pay for it. It either be you when going or you when paying taxes over your lifetime. The big differences is that when you pay when you are going, you are only paying for yourself. When you pay as part of your taxes, you end up paying your tuition many times over in an effort to educate people not even related to you.

So the question is, do you save money or spend your money on other people? In America, we have

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[coppro]

I'd like to see how they do the chapter on anti-matter. 'Now John, don't drop that containment unit of' BOOM! There goes Toronto.

Diagnosis: too much Dan Brown.

Remedy: See 'Free In-Class Resource for Science Teachers

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[ildon]

Isn't he the guy with the cooking show?

my contribution

[ILuvRamen]

This has been around for longer than you might think. See I learned how to do this [youtube.com] in chemistry class and made an educational video and ummmm...well the grass never grew back :-P That's an added lesson. I say put this baby on during science class.
Oh and on a more serious note, this rocks cuz I was in high school just 3 year ago and most of the vids we watched were seriously still VHS. The teacher would often update us on corrections due to recent breakthroughs after some videos were done. And we were

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[gardyloo]

Oh and on a more serious note, this rocks cuz I was in high school just 3 year ago and most of the vids we watched were seriously still VHS.

Gosh, I'd never have guessed.

      I keed, I keed.

It's so easy.

[shawn(at)fsu]

The bible.

Thanks I'll be here all night,

Scientific breakthrough

[SigmundFloyd]

Hands on demonstration on dark matter? That's it, I'm moving to Canada.