2 October 2011 Earth Science Sites of the Week

Editor’s Picks: 1) **The Scientific Guide to Global Warming Skepticism, 2) Star Life Cycle, 3) Neave Point and Click Planetarium, *4) The Scale of the Universe?  ***5) Science360 News Service, 6) A list of some of the Responses to the Smithsonian’s Holiday Party.



Geosphere
Site Name
The World’s Largest Dinosaurs
Site URL
Site Author
American Museum of Natural History
Suggested By
Julie
Description
“A site for a museum exhibition that features cutting-edge research on sauropods, the most massive animals that ever walked the Earth. Explore new insights into how their colossal bodies functioned, and examine life-sized bones, muscles, internal organs, and more to discover the amazing anatomy of these massive creatures. The site contains an educator’s guide providing information about these dinosaurs.”

Site Name
Geographers Had Predicted Osama's Possible Whereabouts
Site URL
Site Author
Sara Reardon
Suggested By
Bin Li
Description
“An undergraduate class on remote sensing gave clues about Osama’s hiding. Based on information from satellites and other remote sensing systems, and reports on his movements since his last known location, students created a probabilistic model of where he was likely to be. Their prediction of a town was based on a geographical theory called “island biogeography. Descriptive details are available here.”

Water
Site Name
Flash Flood in Toowoomba, Australia On January 10, 2011
Site URL
Site Author
You Tube
Suggested By
Bill Dicks
Description
This is awesome, not necessarily in a good way.   It should be required viewing for anyone who ever dares to enter a flooded area over here.

Weather
Site Name
NASA's Fermi Catches Thunderstorms Hurling Antimatter into Space
Site URL
Site Author
NASA
Suggested By
Peter Sir
Description
“Scientists using NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope have detected beams of antimatter produced above thunderstorms on Earth, a phenomenon never seen before. This. Terrestrial gamma ray source is great topic for meteorology.”

Site Name
The Scientific Guide to Global Warming Skepticism
Site URL
Site Author
John Cook
Suggested By
Don Duggan-Haas
Description
“The Scientific Guide to Global Warming Skepticism is a free 16 page easy-to-read and well-illustrated handbook geared toward high school students and their teachers.  This guide looks at both the evidence that human activity is causing global warming and the ways that climate ‘skeptic’ arguments can mislead by presenting only small pieces of the puzzle rather than the full picture.”

Site Name
CLEAN Climate Literacy and Energy Awareness Network
Site URL
Site Author
National Science Foundation
Suggested By
Peter Saracino
Description
“The CLEAN project, a part of the National Science Digital Library, provides a reviewed collection of resources coupled with the tools to enable an online community to share and discuss teaching about climate and energy science.”

Space
Site Name
Star Life Cycle
Site URL
Site Author
University of Utah
Suggested By
Anthony Feig
Description
“Some stars are just beginning to form in nebulae, others are enjoying middle age along the main sequence, and some have begun to die. The life cycle of a star can be compared to the life cycle of humans. On this site you can find out what stage you would be in if you were a star. An interactive lab is available.”

Site Name
Space School Musical
Site URL
Site Author
Kellee McQuinn
Suggested By
Peter Saricino
Description
“A dancing educational video where you can join Hannah on a trip through the solar system in this ultra-cool edu-tainment “hip-hopera” that is out of this world!  Move and groove along with the planets, moons, meteors, comets, asteroids and even some rockin’ scientists as they sing, dance and serve up the freshest facts in the galaxy.”

Site Name
Neave Point and Click Planetarium
Site URL
Site Author
Paul Neave
Suggested by
Description
“Point to a star or planet to find all the facts about that particular object. Make it so you can see the sky from any point in the world.”

General
Site Name
The Scale of the Universe
Site URL
Site Author
Cary Huang
Suggested by
Emmanuel James Eagleson
Description
“A visual graphic which uses a scroll bar to progress in scale from quantum foam up to universe expansion. It helps a person understand the true size of the universe while showing where things as large as galaxies and as small as wavelengths belong in relation to size.”

Site Name
Science360 News Service
Site URL
Site Author
NSF
Suggested by
Nancy V. Ridenour
Description
“We gather news from wherever science is happening, including directly from scientists, college and university press offices, popular and peer-reviewed journals, dozens of National Science Foundation science and engineering centers, and funding sources that include government agencies, not-for-profit organizations and private industry.
You can:
Access the Science360 Web site for breaking news and in-depth reports.
Use Science360 RSS feeds to view news in your RSS reader or display news on your Web site or blog.
Subscribe to a daily email blast for a one-stop shop source of science news.
Sponsored by the National Science Foundation, Science360 is an up-to-date view of breaking science news from around the world.”


Teaching
Site Name
Selected Long-term Project/Science Fair/Extra Credit Possibilities
Site URL
Site Author
The Earth to Class
Suggested By
Michael Passow
Description
“Suggestions for projects from teachers and organizations. This site has over 500 fully searchable and categorized science fair projects, with full instructions and explanations. You can search for ideas for your projects by simply entering a keyword on whatever interests you.”

Environment
Site Name
Trash Inc. The Secret Life of Garbage
Site URL
Site Author
CNBC
Suggested by
Mike Nolan
Description
“Interesting video regarding garbage and the way it is handled. Quite a bit about NY.”

Demo
Title
Surface Area Lab
Contributor
Robert M. DeMarco
Description
“I do this with "Ice Breakers" mints. Half of the class chews the mint three times, and the other half of the class does not bite the mint at all. Then... they actively "weather" the mints in their mouths. Each minute, I poll the class for a quick show of hands... "Chewers" then "Non-Chewers" and I mark a tally on the board. We graph the results and talk about the surface area together.

I think there about 30 mints in each tin... I usually buy both sugar free and regular, and a few flavors. This way any allergies to aspartame or whatever can be avoided. I also bring up that the differences in the flavors and full sugar vs. sugar free could be sources for error.”


Humor
Site Name
A list of some of the Responses to the Smithsonian’s Holiday party
Suggested by
Tim Wozniak
Description
-Michelson and Morley said they encountered a little interference on the way.
-Coulomb said he was all charged up and ready to go.
-Tesla recoiled at the idea.
-Enrico Fermi and Leo Szilard responded that they had a pile of work to attend to.
Fulton was steamed that he was not invited.
-Benjamin Franklin told them to go fly a kite.
-Avagrado RSVP’s that he would attend if his number came up.
-Jane Goodall went ape over the invite.
-Columbus said that he was setting sail today.
-Galileo had scoped things out and replied that things were looking up.
-Van Leeuwenhoek said that he would look into it while Robert Hooke told them to put a cork into it.
-Adam and Eve said they would be arriving in new designer jeans.
-Murphy said he would be there if nothing went wrong.
-Gregor Mendal declined saying that he would be praying for whorled peas.
-Pasteur said that things were heating up.
-Hwang Woo-suk said he would bring the baloney.
-Archimedes replied at once describing in detail his buoyant expectations.
-Ampere was worried that he was not current.
-Boyle said he was under too much pressure.
-Charles Darwin was excited that he was naturally selected and worried that he would be fit enough to survive the journey.
-Descartes thought about it for a while, said I am.
-Dr. Jekyll declined – he had not been feeling himself lately and had gone into Hydeing.
-Edison thought it would be illuminating.
-Einstein theorized that it would be relatively easy to attend.
-Gauss was asked to attend because of his magnetic personality.
-Hawking tried to string enough time together to make space in his schedule.
-Heisenberg was uncertain that he could make it.
-Hertz said in the future he planned to attend with greater frequency.
-Morse’s reply: “I’ll be there on the dot. Can’t stop now, must dash.”
-Issac Newton calculated that he could drop in.
-Ohm resisted the idea.
-Pavlov was drooling at the idea.
-Pierre and Marie Curie were radiating with enthusiasm at attending.
-Schrodinger had to take his cat to the vet, or did he?
-Stephenson thought the whole idea was loco.
-Volta was electrified at the invitation.
-Watt reckoned it would be a good way to let off steam.
-Wilbur Wright accepted, provided he an Orwell could get a flight!
-Guttenburg printed out his reply in triplicate.
-Liu Xiaobo replied that he was barred this year from attending.
-Henry Ford said he would drive down after assembling his gear.
-Richard Dawkins arrived late and blamed his watchmaker.
-Johannes Kepler said he would be there if the planets were in line.
-James Watson RSVP’d and said he would show everyone how to twist.
-Alfred Wegener agreed to drift on over, in time.
-Sigmund  Freud’s response, “In your dreams!”
-B.F. Skinner was excited to come and observe the animal behavior.
-Alfred Kinsey’s reply has been  (CENSORED)

Computer Tips
Site Name
Instant Audience Feedback – Gather Audience Feedback
Site URL
Site Author
Poll Everywhere
Suggested by
Chris Leece
Description
Poll Everywhere replaces expensive proprietary audience response hardware with standard web technology. It's the easiest way to gather live responses in any venue: conferences, presentations, classrooms, radio, TV, print — anywhere. It lets you create simple text polls that students can send messages into. Students text in an answer to an open ended question, but you can do multiple choice and surveys too.”

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