Weekly Review/Preview & Fun Website of the Week!

Since I've covered the big science story of the week in several other posts, I figured I'd combine the Review/Preview with the Fun Website of the Week this time out.

Week Two involved more review, and a greater understanding of the key elements of a controlled experiment, namely the manipulated and responding variables. REMEMBER: the manipulated variable is what the scientist changes, and the responding variable changes as a result. MORE

This week we will be reviewing metric measurement, and we will have homework on Monday and Wednesday. I also offered an extra opportunity to earn effort points - bring in a real-world example of the metric system in use! MORE

Topic: What do you think of the metric system? Should the US convert like Canada?


Fun Website of the Week:

Sandlot Science - lots of really cool optical illusions!

The Iceman - Today's "Cool" Topic!

In most classes today we watched a short video on Otzi, the 5,000 year old frozen body found in the Alps in 1991. The video focused on how scientists researched the Iceman and then inferred what his life was like.

A few interesting links:

The Iceman's Last Meal

Death of the Iceman

The Iceman (and other mummies)

Enjoy!

Pluto - Not a Planet at All?

In the wake of the news about redefining the word "planet" and changing the number of planets in our solar system, I thought it would be interesting to revisit an argument from about 4 years ago - that Pluto isn't really a planet at all!

Read this article about the old controversy and another revisiting it in light of the new controversy!

BTW - thanks to Naomi in 1st period and Gabby in 7th for bringing this to my attention in the first place - I've been so busy with the start of school that I haven't been keeping up with my space news!

Current Events in Science & Fun Website of the Week

The biggest news in science this week is the possible new definition for the term "planet" - this new definition would make our science books wrong by redefining our solar system as having 12 planets instead of 9. The additional planets include the asteroid Ceres, Pluto's moon Charon, and a recently discovered planet, 2003 UB313.

Read the Space.com article here.

See a photo gallery of the "12 Planets" here.

And, the fun website of the week is Brain Bashers:








BrainBashers: Brain Teasers and Games


Have fun with puzzles, brain teasers, and Sudoku!