Science Pick of the Week

In today's issue of Science, a study led by Dr. Robert Benson of Cambridge University reveals the discovery of a pelvic bone from a tyrannosaur in southern Australia. What is so special about this particular discovery that makes it the pick of the week?

Well, first, this bone shows that a much smaller ancestor of Tyrranosaurus rex  roamed the Australian continent 110 million years ago -- thriving tens of millions of years before the much larger, dominant carnivore. Second, it disproves the previous theory that tyrannosaurs only lived and evolved in the northern hemisphere.

The bone of this smaller creature comes from the mid-Cretaceous period, when the super-continent Pangaea began to spread further apart and differences between the flora and fauna of the northern and southern continents became more prevalent. This was also a period of time when many new types of dinosaurs evolved. Though additional research and evidence is necessary, this discovery provides the first step in showing that tyrannosaurs existed worldwide. It also may provide links to the evolution of this particular group of dinosaurs, explaining why larger carnivores such as T. rex evolved primarily in the northern hemisphere.

(image copyright Dr. Robert Benson)

It's Ada Lovelace Day -- Celebrating "The Enchantress of Numbers"

During the Victorian Era, women were considered intellectually inferior to men in all areas except child-rearing and matters of the home. Women interested in science, mathematics, engineering and the like were quickly dismissed. Still, a few managed to educate themselves and have significant impacts on these disciplines as we know them today. Augusta Ada King, Countess of Loveless (1815-1852) was one such woman.

Often regarded as the world's first computer programmer, this daughter of Lord Byron and Anne Isabella Milbanke had a keen interest in mathematics from an early age. When she was twenty-seven, she took it upon herself to translate an article by Luigi Menabrea from Italian to English on Charles Babbage's proposed Analytical Engine. As she worked, Lovelace added ideas of her own -- longer than the original article itself -- including an algorithm encoded for processing by Babbage's machine. The method of calculating a sequence of Bernoulli numbers would have allowed the Analytical Engine to operate properly, had the machine ever been built. This thorough document remains the world's first computer program.

Today is Ada Lovelace Day, and we here at Visionlearning would like to tip our hats to all those individuals who, for one reason or another, faced obstacles in pursuing their love of STEM disciplines, but persevered regardless.

Some Great Apps for the Lab

It's exciting when new technologies are revealed -- many of us are just counting the days until we're able to get our hands on the new iPad. More than just the latest gadget, though, Apple's "i" series has provided us with tools to make our daily life just a bit easier (if not more fun).

There are Apps for socializing, Apps for tracking our caloric intake, Apps for playing guitar -- and a whole series of Apps to make science work easier. Below is a list of some Apps you might find very useful in the classroom or laboratory:

• Visionlearning Glossary -- a glossary of scientific terminology and biographies, available in English and Spanish.
• Lab timer -- has four separate timers, each with descriptions. Can be very helpful when you're juggling different projects at once.
• Measures Unit Converter -- always helpful when you're working with equations. This one is really great if you're working with different measurement systems, too.
• The Chemical Touch -- one of the best periodic table Apps available.
• Solutions -- just in case your memorization skills are lacking.
• Molecules -- lets you look at molecules in 3D, which can be very helpful in modeling.

Have other Apps you think are great? Share them below!

Scientist's Research Has Him Running Barefoot

Anyone who uses creativity in their work -- whether artist or scientist -- has moments when they question their process. A mental wall is hit where it seems like nothing new or original could possibly come out of the effort put forth. This is as true for the seasoned professional as it is for the newbie and, in times like these, often the best thing to do is ask yourself: "What are other people doing?"

Asking yourself this question is not about setting yourself up to copy others. It's about finding inspiration. Now, the journal Nature is helping educators, students, and professional researchers alike by offering up a series of  videos about the process of science. These short online videos are perfect for the classroom or coffee break, offering interviews with scientists of Nature articles about their research and process.

One interview we found particularly interesting is with Harvard professor David Lieberman, entitled The Barefoot Professor. In this interview, Dr. Lieberman discusses how he and his team decided to research the differences between running barefoot and running with shoes on. The results showed an important difference in foot-strike position (the way the foot hits the ground) and its effect on the body, which could potentially influence athletes of all skill levels and prevent injury.

Fact or Fiction? Helping Students Decide

Take a look at the two photographs shown here. Both are claimed to be deep sea creatures discovered by scientists in the last few years -- the Chupacabras Snail and the Blobfish. But only one of them is real. Can you tell which?

If you're feeling a little insecure on this one, you're not alone. Fact is often stranger than fiction and, unfortunately for the budding scientist, it can be hard to tell what is real and what is not by only looking at a photograph. This becomes particularly problematic when many of our students' first point of call in research is not the academic journal but the Internet.

Which is which? The Christian Science Monitor recently posted a slide show on their website, celebrating the 20 weirdest fish in the ocean.  This photo of a Blobfish is one of them. Yes, it's a real creature that lives in the deep seas off of Australia and is under threat from fishing.

The Chupacabras Snail, however, is the conception of Takeshi Yamada, a “visual anthropologist” living in Brooklyn, NY, whose artistic creations have included such items as mermaid fossils, giant sea dragons and vampire monkeys.

So, how do we help our students decide what is real and what is not?  As with any form of research, students should always consider their sources first and foremost. Who has written the material they are considering? Is is a scientist, an academic, a lay-person? When was it written and what sources are cited? If they can't answer these questions, that should ring some bells of doubt.

Taking the Chupacabras snail above as an example, a quick Google search brings up plenty of image sources and articles -- but they come from sites with terms like "hoax" and "paranormal" in the title. They don't provide credible sources to the information about the creature, and some are not dated. Conversely, the Blobfish generates results from prominent newspapers, scientific magazines, and journals with traceable sources that are timely and credible.

We should also remember to help our students draw on their common sense and knowledge base. What do we know about snails? They are invertebrates, so have an external skeleton. Does it make sense, then, that a snail would have a claw? Snails have one large, muscular foot that they contract and extend in a rippling motion. Why would the soft body have six distinct appendages? Compared to other deep sea snails, does the shell look right, or does it more resemble that of a land snail? Does this snail look as though it would be able to stand the water pressure of deep sea life?

By taking it back to the basics, we can help our students start their research off on the right foot. Questions that cannot be readily answered then provide a starting point for research. What are the physical requirements of living 800 meters below sea level? Are there examples of invertebrates that also have internal structures, such as claws? How many different types of deep sea snails are known and what are their similarities? Helping our students build their knowledge base through thoughtful investigation will better prepare them for a future of independent thinking and stronger science.

For more information on research and investigation, visit Visionlearning's Process of Science Modules and Understanding Science's Evaluating Scientific Messages.

Have some tips and tricks for teaching evaluation in the classroom? Share them with us here!

Google Pushing the Way Forward for Public Access

According to the Wall Street Journal, Google’s efforts to digitalize books outside of the US have not been hampered in any way by the court proceedings taking place on US soil – they recently announced partnerships with national governments throughout Europe to digitalize out-of-copyright texts. These latest endeavors include scanning approximately one million books held in libraries in Florence and Rome, including texts by significant historical figures like Galileo Galilei.

We think this could have interesting consequences on providing public access to educational and research materials. A similar effort, in terms of making scholarly research material public, has been underway through the Committee on Science and Technology, US House of Representatives. As educators, we understand how important it is to have free, accurate, and historically significant resources at the disposal. Should the efforts of the Committee and Google be fruitful, it could usher in a new paradigm of learning – particularly in the sciences. We can only "stand on the shoulders of giants" if we have access to a stepladder.

Using Free Multimedia in the Classroom

In the last decade, the term “multimedia” has become a buzz-word in teaching circles. For some, it’s come to be an umbrella for the incorporation of everything and anything electronic into the classroom; for others, synonymous with expensive equipment and additional training.  We hope, though, that the majority of educators have come to see multimedia in the barest sense of the word – the integration of sound, text, graphics, animations, and video, in any combination – and its potential uses in the classroom.

Recent research suggests that while matching teaching style to particular learning styles may not have significant effects, matching the teaching style (and multimedia form) to the content can help learners of all kinds. Some topics naturally lend themselves to specific multimedia forms – a lecture on animal cell structure, for example, could be supplemented with an interactive animation (see image).  Audio recordings of interviews with researchers – or better yet, live interviews via programs like Skype – could help better engage students with understanding the process of scientific discovery.

For many educators, the abundance of new media formats has been both a blessing and a curse. A blessing because they offer exciting new opportunities for teaching; a curse because it’s hard to keep track of all of them and some are quite costly.  The important thing to remember is that it’s not always necessary to run out and get the latest gadgets or software for the classroom in order to teach effectively with multimedia. There are plenty of free, useful materials at the disposal. Here are some of our favorites:

• Visionlearning, for free, interactive animations, simulations and graphics in the science disciplines.
• Lab Out Loud, for interviews with scientists and media presenters like Bill Nye.  
• On the Cutting Edge, for teaching resources in the geosciences. 
• The ChemCollective, for online laboratory activities. 
• PhET at the University of Boulder, for free simulations in physics. 

Tell us about your favorite multimedia resources. What do you find most helpful in the classroom?