Friday, June 28, 2013

Fringe Benefits for a Teacher



It's easy for teachers to get overweight, especially at the end of the year and we can't except monetary rewards...Very Tasty...

Tuesday, June 4, 2013

The Blog of Phyz: NGSS high school physical science breakdown: Take ...

The Blog of Phyz: NGSS high school physical science breakdown: Take ...: The Next Generation Science Standards  (NGSS) have now been finalized. I would be surprised if California did anything other than to adopt t...

Adding to Dean Baird's
informative post with regard Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS), Connecticut, in particular Seymour High School (SHS), is in the process of reviewing these Science Standards in all likelihood, will adopt them.  However, there will be some challenges that our department and other's will face.

For example, one thing that has not been  addressed yet is whether next year's 10th Graders will take the current Connecticut Academic Performance Test (CAPT) or simply wait until they are in 11th Grade and just take the new NGSS Test.

Also, because of additional content or Performance Expectations (i.e. Earth Science, Space Science, and Environmental Science which have been incorporated into Life Science and Earth and Space Science Core Ideas) significant changes in course offerings and/or course content will have to occur. This is not a bad thing, however, especially since Earth and Space Science are back after being removed by the wisdom of the CAPT originators.

We have finished comparing our current science course offerings with the Skills and Content of the NGSS in order to identify deficiencies.  Of course there were many areas which need modification and I am not sure how the robust nature of the Skills and Content will be addressed properly before the end of a student's Junior year in High School.

Stay tuned for more when ever we know more...





Saturday, June 1, 2013

Who Said Geography First

JUNE 2013


I’ve always liked Eratosthenes since I first heard about his accomplishments from Carl Sagan while watching Cosmos.  Eratosthenes was Greek scholar born in Cyrene (276 BC) which is located in present day Libya and died in Alexandria (194 BC), the capital of Egypt during this time.  He was educated in Athens and appointed as the third Chief Librarian of the Great Library of Alexandria in 240 BC.  While at the library he wrote a book about the world, called geography, and introduced the climatic concepts of torrid, temperate, and frigid zones.  He is most famous for calculating the circumference of the earth by comparing the angle of the shadow of the sun at summer solstice noon at Alexandria and Syene (directly south), and knowing the distance between the two, he calculated Earth is 250 000 stadia (~25 000 miles or 40 000 km).



(note: the diagram incorrectly lists 35 000 Miles)

Other claims of fame include calculating the tilt of Earth’s axis at 23.4ยบ and possibly the distance to the sun.  He also created the first world map incorporating latitude and longitude.  Finally, he along with his friend, Archimedes, made several contributions to mathematics including the Sieve of Eratosthenes which is a simple algorithm that determines prime numbers.  One of Eratosthenes philosophical beliefs was that there was good and bad in all nations and criticized Aristotle for arguing that Greeks are better and should keep themselves racially pure.

sources:
About: Eratosthenes