Month: December 2009

This exercise is a repeat of the previous one, but this time we are going to do the problem using a spreadsheet program.  Many people use spreadsheets as simple tables, formatting textual information neatly so it looks good for display. While you can certainly use a spreadsheet for that purpose, its overkill.  Your word processor …

WeatherBug Exercise 1 (Computer): Temperature Statistics: Max, Min, Range, Median, MeanRead More

This has been one of my pet peeves for a while, and my kids can already point out the things I’m going to whine about as we drive along the BQE (Brooklyn-Queens Expressway) coming home from Queens.  There are several of these video billboards along the road.  I have always found it ironic that there …

Light Pollution from Digital/Video BillboardsRead More

I first saw the reference to the Elements of Humanity web site in Physics Today although I subscribe to MAKE Magazine who made the site.  Elements of Humanity is a set of interviews with 12 scientist and engineers who talk about what inspired them to choose their careers.  Some of them are fascinating for teachers, …

Elements of HumanityRead More

Okay, that’s a mouthful.  I first read about this a month ago and put it on my list of things to look into.  What I was hoping for was something that might be applicable for participation by middle school students.  NALTA is a cosmic-ray detection experiment which requires fairly simple equipment which is placed on …

NALTA: North America Large-area Time-coincidence ArraysRead More

I’ve been advocating the use of WeatherBug data in normal classroom exercise for a while.  I’m not sure that it’s caught on, so I decided to start putting together some sample exercises.  This section is that, the examples.  As example, they are “fully worked” meaning I ask questions and then provide answers.  Of course, in …

WeatherBug Example ExercisesRead More

The process of calculating an average is not hard, but it can be tedious. So, in math class, the children are often given a set of made-up numbers that make the process easier. In this exercise, you don’t get a break; we’re going to use real data from the WeatherBug at P.S. 102 for December …

WeatherBug Exercise 1 (Math): Temperature Statistics: Max, Min, Range, Median, MeanRead More