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Archive for March, 2011

Magic Beads Once Again

Thursday, March 31st, 2011

I kept thinking about the beads and I thought that it is a new nice way to show how refraction happens… And then I thought about rainbows … This is another possibility… Ok, I have to switch to another subject. Luckily nobody is probably reading it anyways 🙂

A Physics Lab in Stevenston-London High school in Richmond

Thursday, March 31st, 2011

Yesterday I had an opportunity to visit a high school in Richmond: Steveston-London Secondary School. I was invited by a physics teachers in that school (Mr. S. Clements) to see his physics lab. It is a school break now, the school is empty. What an amazing experience. I had no idea that a public high […]

How Superabsorbent Polymer Crystals Work

Tuesday, March 29th, 2011

As I kept thinking about the water crystal pearls, I realized that I am ready to the next step – to try and understand how these superabsorbent polymers work. My first stop for information was an article in  Wikipedia (thanks to the people who wrote it!). Here is what I found there: Superabsorbent polymers (SAP) […]

More Pearls = More Science Fun

Monday, March 28th, 2011

It was interesting to see how this coin got stuck in “mid-air” – actually it was mid-water… You can do lots of interesting experiments with this simple equipment.

Canadian Teens Do Not Like Science or Do They?

Sunday, March 27th, 2011

Today a Newsletter from the Perimeter Institute happened to cross my desk (I should have said crossed my Desktop). With a great interest I read an article by Dr. Greg Dick who is one of Perimeter Institute Outreach Managers involved in Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics Outreach events. In his note, Dr. Dick discusses the […]

Attracting Girls to Physics: A Canadian perspective

Sunday, March 27th, 2011

In a few short days I will be flying to Cape Town, South Africa to attend the 4h International Conference on Women in Physics organized by the International Union of Pure and Applied Physics. It is a very special opportunity for me as I was chosen to be a member of the Canadian delegation with […]

Geiger Counter in Action

Friday, March 25th, 2011

Many years ago, I lived in the Ukraine… In  1986 (April 26) Chernobyl nuclear disaster happened and even though we lived 500 km East from the disaster, we were able to detect increased levels of radiation… I was 16 then and I remember how my grandfather brought Geiger Counter home to show me how it […]

A Tribute to My Grandfather: Lev I. Bolotin

Friday, March 25th, 2011

Dedushka L’ova (that is how we called him, however his full name was Lev Iosifovich Bolotin or L.I.) was a real experimental physicist. He was my maternal grandfather and he worked in a very exciting place – Laboratory number 1 in the Ukrainian Physical-Technical Institute (UFTI) in Kharkov, Ukraine. My grandmother (who was an engineer […]

A Cool Science Demo for 1 Canadian Dollar

Friday, March 25th, 2011

Being a physics teachers changes you. I think even when you are not teaching, somewhere in the back of your mind, you keep thinking about it. It became apparent to me when I entered a dollar store (a place frequently visited by teachers) and noticed very cool beads. They are sold as handmade 4D Crystal […]

ActiveTextbook: Adding interactivity to your materials

Tuesday, March 22nd, 2011

Today I had a chance to preview a very interesting software produced by the Evident Point software company right here in Vancouver. The software is called ActiveTextbook. It allows a teacher to convert his or her materials into interactive courses while retaining everything that has been created already. For example, if you have lecture notes […]

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