Posted by David Wetzel
Wordle in Science and Math
Wordle is a great program for generating “word clouds” from text that you provide.
The clouds give greater prominence to words that appear more frequently in the source text.
You can tweak your clouds with different fonts, layouts, and color schemes.
The images you create with Wordle are yours to use however you like. You can print them out, or save them to the Wordle gallery to share with your friends.
Education Applications
The Wordle front page will never feature images or links that are inappropriate for classroom use. Therefore, it’s possible to configure an institution’s “site-blocking” software to keep Wordle safe for classroom use.
Simply have your networking administrator block the following base URLs:
- http://www.wordle.net/gallery
- http://www.wordle.net/next
- http://www.wordle.net/random
and your users will not be inadvertently shown anything that’s not safe for classrooms.
Resources
40 Ways to Use Wordle in the Classroom
Posted by David Wetzel
Why is water such a good solvent?
Properties of Water
A water molecule is formed when two atoms of hydrogen bond covalently with an atom of oxygen.
In a covalent bond electrons are shared between atoms. In water the sharing is not equal. The oxygen atom attracts the electrons more strongly than the hydrogen. T
his gives water an asymmetrical distribution of charge. Molecules that have ends with partial negative and positive charges are known as polar molecules.
It is this polar property that allows water to separate polar solute molecules and explains why water can dissolve so many substances.
Water is a good solvent due to its polarity.
Properties of Water
The solvent properties of water are vital in biology, because many biochemical reactions take place only within aqueous solutions.
When an ionic or polar compound enters water, it is surrounded by water molecules. The relatively small size of water molecules typically allows many water molecules to surround one molecule of solute.
The partially negative dipoles of the water are attracted to positively charged components of the solute, and vice versa for the positive dipoles.
An example of an ionic solute is table salt.
Liquid water has a partially ordered structure in which hydrogen bonds are constantly being formed and breaking up.
The strong hydrogen bonds also give water a high cohesiveness and, consequently, surface tension. This is evident when small quantities of water are put onto a non-soluble surface and the water stays together as drops.
Resources
Chemistry Experiments Involving Density - water is used as a basis for the experiments.
Investigating the Water Cycle Through Modeling - students construct two different models to investigate how a molecule of water moves throughout the transformation of states of matter called the water cycle.
Posted by David Wetzel
Earth Science Week 2009
Earth Science Week 2009! Being held October 11-17, Earth Science Week 2009 will encourage people everywhere to explore the natural world and learn about the Geo-sciences.
“Understanding Climate,” the theme of Earth Science Week 2009, promotes scientific understanding of a timely, vital topic: Earth’s climate.
Earth Science Week Resources
American Geological Society - Newsletter
Earth Science Week Contests - Photography, Essay, & Visual Arts
United States Geological Survey - provides scientific information intended to help educate the public about natural resources, natural hazards, geo-spatial data, and issues that affect our quality of life through selected online resources, including lessons, data, maps, and more, to support teaching, learning, education (K-12), and university-level inquiry and research.
Creating a Nature Journal - students learn how to create and develop their own nature journal using technology and non-technology resources as they follow the tenants of inquiry-based learning.
Modeling the Composition of the Earth’s Atmosphere - a hands-on, minds-on approach to providing students with a concrete model of the earth’s atmosphere to visualize the gases that comprise the atmosphere.
Using Visual Arts to Stimulate Science Learning - integration of science with visual arts brings life back to dry science lessons and helps students develop a better understanding of scientific concepts.
