'Story with Global Warming not on the syllabus?

The nice thing about Global Warming is that it that it may very well wipe us out as a species in the next couple of hundred years.
It is the single greatest catastrophe to hit human-kind EVER.

And in the grand scheme of things we couldn't say we didn't deserve it, or that we haven't been warned.

Because it's effects are not affecting us directly at this moment in time we just choose to bury our heads in the sand.
It's like the story of the frog in the pot:
If you throw a frog into a pot of boiling water, it will jump out instantly.
Yet, if you were to place it in a pot of cool water and slowly raise the temperature to boiling point, the frog will unsuspectingly meet its fatal demise.

You want to know what the Junior Cert Science syllabus has to say about this calamity?
Consider the following.
Junior Cert Biology:
Consider and discuss how human activity affects the environment, both positively and negatively (two examples in each case).

Junior Cert Physics:
List the advantages and disadvantages of different energy sources of energy, including nuclear sources of energy, as part of the solution to national energy needs.

Actually scratch that last one.
Apparently we only need to look at energy in terms of out national energy needs, not in terms of the fact that we are the single worst thing to ever happen this planet.
So that's allright then.

Junior Cert Chemistry:
Nada.
Faic.
Not a cracker.

So how about the Leaving Cert?
Well let's see.
There's nothing in Biology (hopefully somebody will prove me wrong here) and nothing in Leaving Cert Physics.
Leaving Cert Chemistry does go into it in some detail (for the small percentage of students who do it at this level):
The greenhouse effect and the influence of human activity on it,
and later;
Possible implications of the increased greenhouse effect.

Well here's one Possible effect of the greenhouse effect for you;
Your children may very well be the last generation to live what we now regard as a 'normal' life, and it may very well be too late for us to do anything about it now even if we did want to.
And let's face it; with the current demand for chelsea tractors in this country, anything we do will amount to little more than lip-service.

And we can't even say we didn't deserve it.

Sweet dreams!

No more to say, at the end of the day

http://dingo.care2.com/cards/flash/5409/galaxy.swf

Says it all, really

No evolution in Junior Cert? Say it ain't so!

Okay, let's get one thing straight.
The greatest single idea that mankind has ever - and I mean ever - come up with is The Theory of Evolution.
It is the greatest idea in the history of the universe, and even comes ahead of the idea of the origin of the universe itself. And I say this as a physics graduate.
It's not on the Junior Cert Science syllabus.
see for yourself

Now I do believe there is a general outcry that not enough students are taking science subjects at Leaving Cert level, and indeed this revised syllabus was designed partly to address this.
Indeed the 'Introduction and Rationale' section of the syllabus states:
"Arising out of their experiences in the junior cycle, it is hoped that many students will be encouraged to study one of the subjects in the senior cycle, thus preparing themselves for further study or work in this area".

So why would you leave out the most incredible, stupendous, unbelievable (almost!), bizarre, wonderful, horrible, exciting, humbling, uplifting, emotional and awe-inspiring idea that the students could ever possible come across in thier lives, never mind in their school experience?

And here's the kick.
Every so often the media here grab hold of the fact that the U.S. education system is having difficultity keeping evolution in their syllabus, and we think to ourselves "oh those silly yanks".
Meanwhile we remain in ignorant bliss that we never had it on our syllabus in the first place.
Of course, the percentage of the school-going public that take Biology at leaving cert level do come across this, but for the rest of us there is nothing.
At least not in their science education.

Interestingly, while I don't see a mention of it in the Junior Cert Religion syllabus (now there's another missed opportunity! Imagine being able to make religion interesting?), it does make an appearance in the Leaving Cert Religion syllabus (check it out here - it's first mentioned on page 103 of 110 in the pdf document).
Here's part of what it says:
"Outline Darwin's Theory of Evolution and highlight the major areas of conflict with religion"
Now there's one to get your teeth into.

This section also delves into the origins of the universe, along with concepts like Heisenberg's uncertainty principle. I reckon there'll be some serious nervous religion teachers going in to class that day.

The fact that there's nothing about The Big Bang or origin of the universe in the Junior Cert or Leaving Cert physics syllabus is for another day . . .

Progress steady but slow

Okay, I would apologise about delay if I thought anyone was reading it, maybe I should do something to publicise it, but then I reckon there's no point in doing that untill I know I am going to stick with it.

Anyway.

Did a bit of work yesterday with sound files for leaving certs - seems to have gone down well, but again time will tell.
Had already done some files for Junior Certs here.

Put up some revision notes for Applied Maths.

We had the Lab-in-a-Lorry visit today which first and second years seemed to really enjoy, more of the same tomorrow. Hopefully I will have time to take the camcorder out and record some clips to put on the website.

The site does offer more ideas on an almost daily basis. I had a student today who couldn't take a test because he wasn't going to be in school, and wanted a copy of it to do later. I couldn't do this because i couldn't be sure that the test would remain confidential, but I was able to put it up on the home page temporarily, so that it could be downloaded.

We had a memorial service for our school chaplain today. Bob Whiteside died last week after a long illness, and if there's a more positive, cheerful character out there I have yet to meet him.
It was nice to see many of the past pupils return for the service and catch up.

Hopefully I will get around to putting up an archive where we can keep track of who went where, and what the various undergraduates have to say about their courses, so that Leaving Cert students can get a flavour of what's involved with each course.

Stay tuned

Off to the U S of A!

Mid-term is nigh.
I'm off to the Big Apple with she-who-must-be-obeyed for the week. I foresee tantrums in shopping malls as I tend to get cranky after six hours looking at guchi whatyoumacallems and jimmychouchous.
However there is always The New York Hall of Science to keep me busy. I'm bringing the camcorder to tape some of the interactive exhibits, and hopefully put them online. I've contacted the museum and they're okay to allow this.
Stay tuned.

Cool transition year project

"The Way Things Go" is a wonderful short film of a chain reaction put together in some large warehouse.
You can see a short clip of it here
Anyways, I show this to the troops any time I need to kill ten minutes or maybe at the end of term. I usually end up having to pry them out of teh classroom.

At some stage I was asked 'why can't we do that'?, and I thought 'Well why not'?
So recently I gave the task to my transition years, and they have taken to it like no other project or experiment they have ever done (in physics at least).
They have to come up with their own design, use their own resources, it can be as simple or as complex as they wish.
In fact as an engineering project it is very useful because those who initially wanted everything in it, quickly realised how unpractical this is.
There is also serious teamwork involved, and whose who plan in advance tend to do best.

The most successful so far have been the teams who go for short simple parts.
They can they put the final project together inside teh lab or outside in a field. We video it, and they vote for the best project.

I used to be uncomfortable with this, primarily because I was handing over the class to the students, and therefore I had less control, but now I can see so many benifits that I would be very upset if I couldn't use this any more.

So for any other physics teachers out there (and there's no reason why it has to be just physics) why not give it a go?

We could always compare projects and have an inter-school challenge!
You don't need any equipment, budget, or even much preparation on your part; it is, as they say, a win-win situation.

A strange thing happened last week.
I was teaching transition year physics when I got into a row with a student over something petty.
I was in bad form to begin with, chasing my tail to get experiments in order for the various classes.
The student in question waisn't doing a whole lot wrong, just playing with a broken spring.
Anyway, long story short, I had a go at him about breaking equipment which wasn't his. He claimed it was broken to begin with, but because this gentleman didn't exactly have an exemplary reputation I chose not to believe him and continued to give out to him.

Previous to this there had been a nice atmosphere in the class, but afterwards there was a noticeable tension.
Anyway, halfway through the class, while they were working on their experiment, I had a think about it and realised that I was way out of order.
The student in all probability did nothing wrong.

I figured that because I had given out to him in public, I had to apologise in public, so I stopped the class right there and then and apologised.
Know what happened?
The class gave me a round of applause.
It was rather touching, and I suspect that the student in question doesn't get many apologies from teachers in the course of his school day.
All in all, an interesting experience.

I love my job.

I teach Physics and Science in a private second level school in Dublin.
It's a good school to work in.

I couldn't imagine myself doing anything else; I like students, I like helping people.
I am not particularly clever but I know enough to realise that we are living in extraordinory times.
And I get to combine all this in one job.

I have classes in Physics and Applied Maths at leaving cert and fifth year, and they are all a joy to teach.

It's always bugged me that we teachers are a very closeted group. We close the door to our classroom and we become kings of our own kingdom. This causes all sort of problems.


Anyway, this is an attempt to address this in some small way.
I hope this to be a very honest description of my job, warts and all.
Time will tell.

I have a website, but due to lack of expertise it's progressing very slowly.

One day at a time.