Space Math!

As we live in a climate of, "Teach to the standards," the difficulties in teaching now tend towards engaging students in curriculum that is not, in itself, engaging.  This week, I come to you from the Goddard Space Center, near DC, where I am participating in a STEM teachers' conference.  Today, I find myself in a lecture with Dr. Sten Odenwald, NASA's man for all things in space math education.

While I sit here drowning in a sea of Greek characters and hypothetical quantities, you benefit, as I am able to bring you SpaceMath@NASA.

Consider how fascinated your students are by black holes and the search for life on other planets and apply that to teaching your math standards.  It's all there in fantastic, FREE booklets with questions that you can work through with your students.  I'm talking to you too, Elementary School Teachers!  He has something for everyone!  You can download whole PDF books of problems by clicking on the "Problem Books" tab at the top.

And, if you like what you see here, you can also get some great astronomy books and other useful tools by Dr. Odenwald for reasonable prices at the astronomy cafe.  

The push for technology in education is hard right now, and science equipment is so expensive!  Here's a great alternative to thousands of dollars worth of digital microscopes.

Moticam X

From Motic, where the best science stuff is born, comes the best digital camera yet.  A small (approx. 4" square) box fits over any monocular scope and transmits the image to any wireless device with the free app.  The applications for this are endless and, for the price of one digital scope, now any scope can be not only digital, but wireless!

                       Moticam X