The Powers of Ten
As I have been preparing my next lesson for my pre-service elementary teachers, I decided to focus on the Powers of Ten. Every science educator has his or her favourite topic or resource. For me, the original 1977 movie by Charles and Ray Eames is The resource. There are many modern versions of the movie, but none of them in my view capture your imagination and makes you feel the magnitude of our universe as well as the original idea. There are lots of interesting things you can do with the powers of ten and you can certainly modify the activity for different ages, but helping students gain appreciation of the world we live in through “feeling” the size of different objects we deal with directly or indirectly is something I feel is very important. I was even happier when I found out that Ray Eames was a woman – a wife of Charles Eames and these amazing people were inventors, designers and very creative people. What an interesting link between art and science!
Enjoy!