The Pitch Drop Experiment!

I was listening to the radio podcast "Radiolab" this weekend and they were talking about speed, how fast or slow things go. There is an experiment being conducted which has been considered the longest running experiment in history. Running for over 80 years now, the "Pitch Drop Experiment" was started in 1927 by Professor Thomas Parnell and involved the movement of tar through a funnel. So far it has dropped through the funnel nine times and is about to drop once more. Interestingly, in all of that time, no one has seen the drop. Go to the link if you want to watch it live. Maybe you'll be the one to watch it drop.

Classwork:
All students should work on creating their advertisement for their energy source.
Students should have at least one page of bulleted notes before they can work on their advertisement.
Students can use any of the modalities for creating a presentation used in the past (i.e. hand drawn, powerpoint, SlideRocket).
Advertisements need to have slogans, and are limited to one page.

BlogWork
Go to the following website: NationalGeographic.com

Pick one article from this page, read it, and write a one paragraph response to it.

Nuclear Power!

This week we will discuss the first non-fossil fuel related energy source. Nuclear energy is a way for us to get electricity without burning coal. In some ways, nuclear power is an extremely clean way to get electricity because there is no carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere. However, nuclear power comes with significant risks and challenges. Many people believe that it is definitely not worth it.

BlogWork

Watch the video below.  Write down 3-5 facts about nuclear power that you learned from the video. Then, write down a couple of sentences describing whether you think you support or oppose nuclear power. Give detail as to your reasons.

And/Or this one...