I spent the morning digging out my car and shoveling the front sidewalk. I had a lot of help from my friend Ed. He came over with his snow blower and did most of the driveway. Thanks Ed. That saved my back and muscles. With the snow today, I would guess the total to be near 18-20 inches. Spring starts in three weeks – can’t wait.

The beginning of the video is filmed with my Cannon PowerShot SD1100 IS and at the end of the video I have a little video using my new Kodak Zi8. As you can see, the Kodak has less grain in the low light.

I put this together in iMovie in just a few minutes. I’m teaching myself Final Cut and I hope to use F C in the future. The learning curve is pretty steep but Final Cut is awesome.

It’s a fun project that all students can do. First, we begin by blowing up a balloon to about the size of 10 or 15 cm in diameter. Then, rip thin strips of  newspaper maybe one or 2 cm wide and 10 or 15 cm long. Dip the newspaper strips into the solution and wrap them around the balloon. The paper mache is made of water and glue. I have found in the past using this simple mixture makes great paper mache. It’s also easier to clean than using cornstarch or other powders.

By the second day, the students should have two or three coats of paper mache around their balloon. It’s best to have five or six coats of paper mache as this will give the eyeball strength. After the paper mache dries we paint the whole eyeball white, this represents the sclera. Next, they paint the iris color blue, green, brown, or turquoise in the classroom and the pupil is painted black. When this is done I test the students orally and by pointing out the different parts of the eye. I also asked them what are the part of the retina and what is their function. The two parts of the retina are the rods and cones. The rods detect lightness and darkness and the cones detect the color. Also, I ask why do we have a blind spot? The answer is that this is where the optic nerve is located.

This is a nice project for seventh grade science as it takes about three or four days to complete. The whole time they are making the eye, I am circulating around asking about the different parts and discussing how the eye works. The students enjoyed making it and they can take it home when they are done. Give it a try and let me know how it goes.

Today, I’ll show you how to make a magic science square. I’m also experimenting with using my new flash player from On2 technologies flash encoder. As you can see, I’m using the On2 B6/encoder in the demo mode. I’m very happy with the results, and I’ll be sending them $39 for the encoder.

I’m the coach of the MathCounts team, and I like to do some gifted activities with the students. This activity combines both mathematics and science and is a favorite with the students. I usually start with a scientist and try to make the outcome his birthday.

The outcome is quite unexpected, as the students are picking what seems like five random numbers. When the numbers are summed up, or added together, they will find they have a certain number that looks familiar. We learned about ten different scientists so far and the year they were born, so they will be amazed to see a birth year of a famous scientist.

To begin, download the PDF of the Magic science square and watch the video to see how I picked the numbers to sum to a specific date.  After you’ve summed the numbers, erase the numbers on the outside.

Give it a try and have fun.

Last month, I read an article on Pro-blogger by Jon about how speech recognition software is much better now and about how well it is working for him. I decided to give it a try and I ordered MacSpeech Dictate from Amazon.

I have many ideas for Siyensya using pictures, video and the traditional written post. But my problem is that I never learned to type and I just can’t seem to improve my typing skills. The ideas and creative flashes come very fast and I can’t take advantage of them because by the time I start typing, I’ve lost the ideas and focus. I don’t think I’ll ever be able to type very fast and actually, I don’t want to because of the possibility of getting a repetitive wrist injury.

This is my first post using the program. After going through a short process of voice training, the program seems to be working very well. I am impressed. MacSpeech types out everything I say, ever if I speak fast. I can see that this will be a new skill for me to learn – speaking out loud while trying to think ahead.

My goal, is to have three posts per week and to build up my website with lots of good content. MacSpeech will help me with this goal.

Some of the students also took turns going into the bag to experience the air pressure. It was quite an interesting day in science class.

The rockets are made with two, 2-liter bottles. The top bottle is where the astronaut egg is located. The goal is to keep the astronaut safe and secure by designing an enclosure around the egg so it doesn’t crack.  All types of materials are used and must be accounted for in the final cost.

The bottom bottle is the engine. We fill the bottle about half full with water and I pump it up with about 60-70 pounds of pressure. I have a specially designed rocket launcher that keeps the rocket set until I pull the pin. The students work in groups of two and this project takes about a week to complete.

I had some time to play with the Thesis theme and I just couldn’t load a header picture. A knowledge of css and programming is required to do this simple task. I have since switched over to the Headway theme and this theme is easier to work with. I hope to get back to posting about science and mathematics teaching. I think three times a week will be the goal as I have limited time and resources.

I also have some new ideas I would like to try. Being a Graduate Gemologist from the GIA, I have some jewelry that I would like to sell on Siyensya. Also, my Bisaya lessons are still ongoing and I hope to continue to the full 60 lessons. I’ve changed lots of diapers lately and I’ve have had some sleepless nights with my son, but I have a new theme that works pretty good so far and the posts will be coming.

My wife and I continue to wait for the birth of our son any day now. Meanwhile, It’s summer vacation and I continue to take language lessons in the Philippine language of Bisaya. My Bisaya lesson went well on Tuesday night. We usually start around 8:30 pm EST, which is 8:30 am Philippine time. Usually by this time I’m a little tired, but I look forward to my lesson as this is my time to learn. Bebe, my teacher, uses Skype and this works reasonable well. We turn off the video and this seems to help with the audio. A few time we will get disconnected, but we make the connection again and continue.

Our past lesson was about using Ig-unsa, and  there are four cases that need to be considered. Ig-unsa describes how one person is related to another. There are also 22 new vocabulary words to learn and some of them are challenging to remember. Word like kamagulangan, oldest child, and ginikanan, parents, and kinamanghuran, youngest child, are difficult for me to remember. I hope to get these words in my head in a few days now that I’m home during the day with some time to study.

To help me learn from my teacher, I downloaded and tested a new feature for Skype called Call Recorder.  I paid $14.95 and I think it will be worth it. I tried it out on a few other Skype calls and it works very well. This add-on to Skype will record both audio and video. I’ll use it for the first time with my next lesson with Bebe and then I will be able to review the lesson the next day with a cup of coffee (kape).

I am also thinking on just what is the best way to learn a foreign language over the internet. As you can see from the picture above, I have over 350 index cards with vocabulary words. I separate the verbs from all the others. I also separate out the newest words and I keep a stack of words to review that I have a hard time remembering. My goal is to keep reviewing all the past lessons and vocabulary words on a daily basis so I don’t forget them.

Something that has helped me greatly is rewriting my notes from the last lesson. Usually I do this the next day. I print out the Skype conservation and circle any grammar rules and write them down. Then I write out each example Bebe gave me and write them under the rule. I keep separate the different grammar rules on separate pieces of paper. I think this and using the audio recorder will help me with this language.

I’m at the point now that I need to set aside time each day to review or I’ll start to fall behind. The biggest obstacle so far is to find and listen to someone speaking the language. With the Recorder, I hope it helps.

Check July ‘08, Dec ‘08, and May ‘09 for my other posts on learning Bisaya.

Alray and I asked around and a local fisherman said he would take us there for 200 pesos. We got into the banka and we were off. It took about a half hour to get to the port of Santa Cruz. As we walked up the hill I noticed lots of kids on their way to school. Santa Cruz National High School was just up the road. Being a teacher, I decided to go for a visit and talk to the local teachers about their school and education in general.

When we got to the entrance to the school, I asked the security officer if I could speak to the principal for a few minutes. He said sure sir, and took us to the school office. While waiting in the outer office, I spoke to many of the teachers there and they were very interested to know about my teaching experience and school in Pennsylvania. I spoke to them and found out that this school doesn’t have electrical power until about 4pm. I even tried a little (gamay kaayo) of my Bisaya. They also only have one computer for the entire school. Even though this school had very little technology and other resources, the staff was friendly and professional. All this happened before class time. When the bell rang, classes started and it was our time to leave.

On the way back to the boat -banka, I thought, in the future, I would like to come back for another visit and see how they are doing. Maybe they would have some more electricity and a few more computers to help educate the students for the 21st century.

Before leaving Talicud, we visited a small resort, Clarita Beach Resort, located on the edge of the town. The beach was nice and clean and the water warm and clear. Only problem is that it’s way off the beaten path. They also have rooms to rent on the beach for about 500 pesos per night.

On the way back to Digos, we stopped at the Philippine Eagle Center outside of Davao. While on this trip, I brought my Canon camera which is capable of video and my cell phone which which can also record video but at much less resolution. I see now that I have to make a greater effort to hold the camera still, but this is difficult when recording from a small camera. That is why I think it’s best to keep these videos short. I hope to improve in future posts.

Talicud island from Kevin Smith on Vimeo.