Exploding Sink

Science, Edtech, Photography

  • Education is not a Business

    In the latest issue of Newsweek, Jonathan Alter discusses education reform in an article entitled “Obama’s No Brainer on Education.” While making a few sound points (teachers should focus on student learning over job security, assessment can be effective and beneficial, etc), Alter suggests an oversimplified solution on how to fix education in the U.S….

  • Creativity in Science

    Recently, our school was fortunate to have a visit from Billy Collins – former poet laureate of the U.S. He read a few entries from Poetry 180 – a collection of poems for each of the 180 days of the school year (geared at high school students). You can see all of the poems here….

  • Is the Internet Making Us Stupid?

    While listening to NPR the other day, my ears perked up to a story from On the Media called “The Pleasure Principle.” In it, Ethan Zuckerman (blogger and internet theorist) described a condition called homophily, and its potential danger while using the internet. In short, homophily describes how we tend to flock together, seeking out…

  • Buy CFLs for Earth Day

    In our recent interview with Bill Nye, he reminded us that “the hardest thing for everyone to understand about the environment is that every single thing you do affects everybody in the whole world.” Inspired by his words, I decided to replace some lightbulbs in my house with CFLs (compact flourescent lightbulbs). While I have…

  • Grant Writing Tips

    With shrinking school budgets, educators might consider looking to grants for project funds. Here are some tips (from the links below and from personal experience) for you if you are thinking of applying for a grant. Preparation Make sure your idea fits the grant criteria (location, non-equipment, etc) Look for full grants and mini-grants too…

  • Student Discussion Boards

    My district has recently installed Microsoft Sharepoint.  This is a dynamic tool (albeit from the MotherShip) that allows me to create and control groups where users can collaborate though shared documents, discussions boards, blogs, and wikis (and many other features). My initial observations of Sharepoint made me realize that it has a distinct Microsoft footprint…