When the Moon is in the Seventh House...

...and Jupiter aligns with Mars.... Okay, we'll spare you our singing. But what we won't spare you is the heads up that this is a great month, and a brilliant week in particular, for stargazing.

Throughout all of May, the eastern pre-dawn horizon will play host to Mercury, Venus, Mars and Jupiter clustered together in a patch of sky less than 10^o wide. During the half hour before sunrise, these four planets will be clearly visible in the sky (provided there isn't cloud cover). Venus and Jupiter, in particular, will be hard to miss with their bright luminosity.

On May 11th, the planets will be tightly clustered together, then as the month moves on, they will continually form new shapes in the sky. As the folks at NASA say, "The show comes to an end on May 30th when an exquisite crescent Moon joins the four planets for a Grand Finale--five heavenly lights dotting the eastern sky all at once"

If you manage to get out of bed early enough to see this spectacular celestial display, bring your camera and send us some pics through Facebook! 

Endeavor's Last Flight

As the Space Shuttle Endeavor prepares for its last voyage (scheduled for liftoff today), we would like to take a moment to wish the captain and crew of this voyage safe travels.

The Endeavor is a ship that has certainly lived up to its name over the years, and will do so again today. Named after the ship captained by James Cook in 1768, it was the first shuttle ever to be named by school-children through a national competition, has successfully captured a damaged satellite, housed medical experiments on the human body in space... Like its namesake, it will continue today to be the vessel for new scientific opportunities.

Cook's voyage successfully mapped Australia and New Zealand, documented new plant and animal species, and generally provided the evidence that scientists are great additions to expedition crew. Today's Endeavor crew will continue in this vein by carrying postage-sized stamps of graphene and carbon nanotubes (discoveries of which recently were awarded Nobel Prizes) into space to see how they respond to radiation. Typical materials used in computers (e.g silicon) are destroyed by the radiation. If the graphene and carbon nanotube composition holds well, this could bode well for significant advances in space exploration.

Are you using today's launch in classroom lessons? Let us know how!

Using Science to Teach English Grammar and Reading

It was a wonderful day when President Obama announced the National Math and Science Initiative, drawing attention to the reality that American students are lagging behind many first-world countries in math and science. It did none of us any good to ignore the fact that we ranked 19 out of 31 in math, and 14 out of 31 in science in the last assessment from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. So it has been great to see an emphasis in school systems across the country on increasing scientific and math literacy.

However, another important statistic seems to have been lost in all of these education changes. American students also ranked 15 out of 31 in reading -- an important part of the "scientific literacy" concept. Unfortunately, as the extensive budgets cuts in the education system nationally begin to take hold, preserving math and science has taken precedence over almost everything else. Including reading.

That is why it was heartening, recently, to receive an email from Dr. Roma Kriauciuniene at Vilnius University in Lithuania. While not working in the US school system, Dr. Kriauciuniene's classroom activities have taken "scientific literacy" to a whole new level. Using our Visionlearning module on States of Matter, she has devised a complete lesson on English grammar and comprehension.

In the lesson, students are asked (before reading the module) to define certain key words out of context, matching them to their Lithuanian translations. Other parts of the lesson include identifying the correct verb tense (in context), filling in the blanks, inserting omitted prepositions, and identifying proper headings for specific paragraphs.

What we love about Dr. Kriauciuniene's lesson is its interdisciplinary approach. She is teaching reading in general, English vocabulary and grammar, and science all at the same time. For those of us working in the US, building lessons like this could be an excellent way of helping our students bridge the language and literacy gaps that contribute to low science and math scores. (It might also help some of the English classes survive budget cuts...)

Do you use Visionlearning modules in a unique way? We would love to hear about it. Send us an email, or post a note on our Facebook page.

Now, where did I park the car again?

The workings of the human brain, particularly memory storage, have been a fascination of scientists and laypeople alike for centuries. For many of us with spotty memories, improving retention has been a somewhat Holy Grail -- we know there's a way. There has to be. But what is it? What could we possibly do to increase our ability to remember?

In the March 17 issue of Nature, scientists from Duke University Medical Center help to answer this question. It's about synapses in the brain and the length of time they occur. According to the authors, the length of the biochemical signaling process determines the strength of the connection in the brain, and leads to long-term memory storage. The researchers have found "a cascade of signaling molecules that allows a usually very brief signal to last for tens of minutes, providing the brain framework for stronger connections (synapses) that can summon a memory for a period of months or even years."

This discovery is likely to have significant bearing on the research into Alzheimer's disease, autism, and other conditions of the brain. For more information about the research, visit DukeHealth.org.

Need a Virtual Nerd?

There are times when even the most math-savvy of us can't figure out how to solve a problem. Other times, we struggle to grasp math concepts that are important to our research and studies. Now the folks at Quantile have brought us Math@Home to get us through.

Math@Home is the most recent addition to the Virtual Nerd system and was created to provide assistance to students struggling in math. While it's catered toward students in K through 12, it can be helpful to students of all ages and grades. Parents can create an account for children, specifying the state they live in to make sure the tutoring coincides with state curriculum, or students can create accounts for themselves. It allows you to enter textbook titles, then provides resources to augment the in-class learning (including instructional videos). The system also allows for quantile measurement, so you can track learning progress.

Have you used Virtual Nerd or Math@Home? Let us know your thoughts.

Who are you calling a hagfish?

Myxine glutinosa: the name (almost) says it all. The Atlantic Hagfish is well known for its ability to excrete a sticky, glutinous substance from its skin -- hence its more widely known moniker, "slime eel." The hagfish can excrete enough of this strong, fibrous slime at one time to fill a milk jug, giving it excellent protection against predators. (Imagine trying to wipe a gallon of super glue off your gills.)

But it seems the skin of the hagfish isn't just about excreting. Researchers at McMaster University in Hamilton, Canada have recently learned that absorption is going on, too. More specifically, as the hagfish burrows into a carcass to feed, it takes in nutrients through its mouth AND through its skin and gills. Who would have thought?

While this has been seen in invertebrate fishes, it's the first documentation of such an system in an animal so close to modern fishes and invertebrates (hagfish have a notochord, not an actual backbone). This reseasrch isn't just about nutrients, however. As a sea creature, hagfish also have to deal with saline levels (which can affect cell osmosis) and temperature changes. How their skin can handle these, as well as nutrient transfer, could lead to some interesting and important applications.

This "nasty creature of the sea" might not be so nasty after all! Read more about this new discovery here.

Mobile Technology in the Classroom

Mineral identification app for the iPad

It's pretty hard not to notice how ubiquitous mobile media consumption has become in the last 2 to 3 years. Comscore's 2010 US Digital Year in Review reports that "nearly 47 percent of mobile subscribers [are] connected media users" -- accessing information through browsers, apps, etc. Some institutions, like Long Island University, have started iPad Projects to assess the effect of new media technology on learning. At Visionlearning, our yearly assessment showed a remarkable increase in users accessing our site through mobile devices like iPads and smart phones.

So with this in mind, it begs the question: is mobile access the way of the future? If so, how does this change the way we (educators) disseminate information both within and outwith the classroom? And where is the content for use on these devices coming from?

There is currently a noticeable dearth of materials out there for educators and students to access. Most educational publishers seem to be going the route of exporting their textbooks into ePub and PDF format for use through apps like Stanza and iBooks. At the end of the day, though, how different is reading a book on a screen from reading it in paper format? It may be easier to carry, but in terms of its effect on learning...reading is reading.

There are many wonderful apps out there, as well -- everything from conversion tools to homework helpers. Though, again, these are created more toward revision and providing support (just like a calculator) than expanding the learning process. We can't help but feel that there is something more that these devices can be doing. Is the way forward about creating more interactive experiences? And if so, how will these experiences differ from those a student might get in the classroom or lab?  What are the benefits?

You can see there are a lot of questions, but not so many answers. Part of that may simply be that it is up to each of us to define how we use these devices and why. A significant part, though, may be that we aren't necessarily sure, yet, how the devices can enhance learning in a truly effective way -- at least not in a way that isn't already being tried with Multiple Intelligence/Learning Style theory.

What do you think? Is iPad, etc., usage in the classroom just another fad? How would you like to use these devices in teaching and/or learning?