2. Uncle Tungsten: Memories of a Chemical Boyhood

RE: Classroom ideas about: "Uncle Tungsten: Memories of a chemical boyhood"

2017-05-01T17:25:16Z

Hi Robert,

With regard to your question, I began to read this book since I knew it in the Scientix competition. Also it encourage me to look for others books, which could be interesting as educational resources, especially I have searched Spanish publications, such as the book I commented in "RE:Forum", "Ciencia para Nicolás".
Another practical book to work in the classroom is: "Breakthroughs in Science" by Isaac Asimov, it contains abstracs about the biography of the most important scientist in history. In my classroom, a group of students have used this source to make a video report, recording some interviews with famous scientists; it is an enjoyable and fascinating report,which can be found on their youtebe channel of scientific outreach: Queirugersjm.

I leave here the link of the specific video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4gcY8cQ3huE

RE: "Uncle Tungsten" PROBLEM BASED STEM CLASS ACTIVITY

2017-04-30T23:02:37Z

Middle school 7th and 8th grade students

RE: "Uncle Tungsten" PROBLEM BASED STEM CLASS ACTIVITY

2017-04-30T22:57:53Z

Middle school 7th and 8th grade students

RE: UNCLE TUNGSTEN: MEMORIES OF A CHEMICAL BOYHOOD

2017-04-30T22:32:38Z

Electricity is an " run out " source, solar energy is one of the energies of the future. Using energy light bulbs, can reduce power consumption. Students can make an energy consumption analysis in some classrooms where are incandescent bulbs (with wolfram filament) and other classroom rooms where there are led bulbs for a period of one month. Economic Calculations.
Case studies, research, material search for bulbs.

RE: UNCLE TUNGSTEN: MEMORIES OF A CHEMICAL BOYHOOD

2017-04-30T17:43:00Z

Excellent! Thank you Erhan Sahin. It would be an interesting experiment to see how young students nowadays relate to scientists' conditions in the past. How old should the students be in order to participate in your lesson successfully?

RE: Classroom ideas about: "Uncle Tungsten: Memories of a chemical boyhood"

2017-04-30T17:38:48Z

Thank you Noelia, those are very interesting thoughts about the construction of scientific knowledge in relation to Uncle Tungsten!
Did you read the book before you heard about the Scientix competition, or did the competition encourage you to read it?

RE: UNCLE TUNGSTEN: MEMORIES OF A CHEMICAL BOYHOOD

2017-04-30T17:35:32Z

When I read this book(UNCLE TUNGSTEN) I had a very good problem based STEM class activity. Fiction or problem like this

"Now take yourselves to the end of the century and imagine that all the fossil fuels in the world are exhausted. As a YOUNG ENGINEER in the dark, your task is to design a system with solar energy, wind energy and a lamp. This task will shed light on billions of people who are struggling to survive without electricity, and will demonstrate the inevitability and importance of change. REMEMBER TO BE INSPIRED FROM UNCLE TUNGSTEN! It is necessary to develop solutions in a gradual way by using team, mathematics, science and technology to determine the subordinate problems of working with this difficulty. Test solution proposals at the end of the STEM CLASS ACTİVİTY, determine which solution is the best way to do the DESIGN APPLICATION!"

A wonderful STEM CLASS ACTİVİTY. What do you say?

"Uncle Tungsten" PROBLEM BASED STEM CLASS ACTIVITY

2017-04-30T17:32:54Z

Classroom ideas about: "Uncle Tungsten: Memories of a chemical boyhood".

2017-04-28T11:34:56Z

"Uncle Tungsten: Memories of a chemical boyhood".

Since the first moment when the book reached to me, I verified it is an interesting and naturally way to travel around the science´s history, which describes through the life of a child, named Oliver Sacks, the discovery of the world via the scientific knowledge, and its importance to understand the environment that surrounds us and to favour the development and evolution of society.This book, besides supposing a very interesting and entertaining reading, offers many educational resources to use in the STEM´s subjects. In short, I am using some abstracts from the book to support my lessons. For example, the narrative focussed on Marie Curie´s is a great article for working the role of women in science; as well as a chronological view of the different scientists mentioned, allows us to know how scientific knowledge is constructed, from observation, formulation of hypotheses, experimentation and collection of results, to the conclusions, which allows to write laws and theories, that are continually amplifying as the studies and researchs evolve (scientific method).
Moreover, the Sacks´ experiments are very striking, creative and interesting to motivate and take place with the students.To sum up, after working on this book, I certainly recomend it to my colleges teachers, looking for in its pages the great variety of educational resources, which it includes.

RE: Share your classroom ideas here

2017-04-27T12:12:06Z

Dear Robert!
I didn't find the book at the first bookshop, but in the second I looked for it (in the same shoping center) - there it was! I know, that in some libraries they don't have it in the shop, but they order it to the editor (some colegues are aleady in the way to read it...). I'm talking about the Portuguese version!
Yesterday I tried do buy "I, Robot" in its portuguese version and I was not so lucky - it woul take at least 15 days for the library to have it. So, I bought the english version! (Impressive, isn't it?!).
It's that I'll try to idealize a work for sutdents with the Azimov book! Not tha I like science fiction (To be true, I don't like!) - but, teachers have to do a lot of unpleasent work... (that after became nice, because of students, isn't it?)The funny thing is that Asimov was too a Chemist, and, like Oliver Sacks, with Russion origins...
Let´s see if I still have time to reead "I, Robot" until the end of the month...

RE: UNCLE TUNGSTEN: MEMORIES OF A CHEMICAL BOYHOOD

2017-04-27T11:44:43Z

Thank you Lidia. It is interesting that you see this book could be used for "Materials needed to realise the filament of the electric bulbs in order to reduce the degree of pollution and to reduce the electricity consumption."
A very interesting idea. Do you have an example of how this could be done in classroom practice?

RE: TECHNOLOGY BOOKS/ENDER'S GAME

2017-04-27T11:42:26Z

Thank you Lidia I am interested in knowing more about those presentations for each subjects and how they are linked to the book. Do you have more examples?
Please note, that you are posting this in a wrong discussion thread. This discussion is for the book "Uncle Tungsten". Please use the discussion thread for the Ender's Game if you want to participate in discussion about that book.

RE: Share your classroom ideas here

2017-04-27T11:39:09Z

Dear Teresa, thank you so much for reading about "Uncle Tungsten" and for sharing your ideas for activities based on the book. I realise that other teachers have created new threads for their ideas, but it is best to use this thread to share and discuss the ideas for this book in particular. I am very happy to hear that you enjoyed so much reading the book and that you found it useful - I was personally not aware of the book's relationship with other literature in the field of science, but it makes sense! Was it easy for you to find the book?

RE: Share your classroom ideas here

2017-04-26T16:19:14Z

Dear Robert, hello!
Yesterday I shared my opinion about Uncle Tungsten here, but, today I saw another coleague opinion about the same book in another "table"... Everything is ok with my submission or should I paste it to the other table?
Thank you,
Teresa Paiva

Share your classroom ideas

2017-04-26T00:51:48Z

Hello,
I'm Costantina I teach Chemistry, Biology and Natural scienze in secondary school ( Liceo scientifico)
I know A brief history of time and use it in my first class where I teach also astronomy. I'm using Cap 3 ( The Expanding Universe) whwn students work in group. Students are interested the originof the universe and the differet theories "The universe is expanding or deflation?"
I create groups with different parts and each group creates a Prezi or Padlet on differet theories. I m using the book to study the stars.
Best regards
Costantina

RE: Share your classroom ideas here

2017-04-25T22:55:55Z

Today is holiday in Portugal – we celebrate our “Carnation Revolution”, and, I just received from a former student the link to a TV news: Thomas Pesquet, the youngest ESA Astronaut, took some pictures to Portugal from the ISS – very nice! http://sicnoticias.sapo.pt/pais/2017-04-25-Astronauta-frances-fotografa-Portugal-para-assinalar-o-25-de-Abril
I spent my holiday reading “Uncle Tungsten: Memories of a Chemical Boyhood.” – very nice, too!
When I started my reading, last week, I immediately realized it was a great book, and I regret I didn´t read it before! Even, because, the only long term work I’ve done before, with students, in 2011/12, based on a Portuguese science literature book, named “Haja Luz! – Uma História da Química Através de Tudo” (“Let there be light! One History of Chemistry Through Everything” – my translation…), was written by a Chemist and Art Critic, Prof. Jorge Calado. Of course, “Oncle Tungsten” has a lot of similarities with “Haja Luz!”, it’s cited often there, and, very curious, Roald Hoffmann, the Nobel Chemist 1981 Prize, who offered Oliver Sacks a piece of tungsten in 1997, had invited before, in 1982, Prof. Jorge Calado to teach at Cornell University the new topic “The Art of Science”! By the way, Roald Hoffmann wrote with Carl Djerassi, the theater play “Oxygen”, a fictional narrative about the discovery of the vital gas by Lavoisier, Priestley and Sheele.( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TY5vdv-NJqs – a link to a Portuguese adaptation of “Oxygen”)
Only by reading the first chapter of the book, I started to do, as a teacher, a short term work: I immediately recommended it to some former students, I used to prepare for Physics and Chemistry Olympiads, and I advertised it to some colleagues at a professional Facebook groups.
With my actual students I’ll do a middle term work: I’ll start my lessons next week, about the Periodic Table, reading some texts of the book, to do some “abstracts” of the topic studied before – there’s a nice literary text, where Bohr structure of the electrons in the atom, is related with the position of the element at the Periodic Table and the reactivity of the elementary substance… and another one about the “geography” of the Table. I’ll make some of my next questions, for written tests, using little texts from all over the book. For example, there’s a very funny story about acid-base reactions, when uncle Dave makes Oliver drink salty water after mixing HCl and NaHO… But, the book is full of other great episodes about a lot of Physics and Chemistry topics… Another work could be, a more experimental one, of reproducing some of the experiments the little Oliver has done, not so common, like producing solutions with a density much higher than water where metals don’t sink!
Finally, I hope I can do a long term Project Work, with secondary students next year. In fact, according to me, the Portuguese version of the book looks like a little bit heavy for most of the students until 13 years old. To older students, I would recommend the entire book. After reading it I would suggest each group of students, to choose a Scientist to do a work about its personality, bringing some humanity to Science! Maybe, for motivation, I would recommend to the students the coming soon National Geographic episodes about Einstein Life “Genius” http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/genius/ (National Geographic pictures also inspired Oliver Sacks, the boy, for photography J). My idea is, using the profession of Oliver Sacks, and its great interest in different people, referred in the book, try to relate Physics and Chemistry with Neurosciences (the fashion research topic of the moment) and Scientists character.
Reading “Uncle Tungsten”, was a pleasure, and already a great “training course” as it touches almost all the topics I have to teach. Exploiting the book with students will bring me, for sure, “the freedom and the joy” science brought to Mendleev, so admired by Oliver Sacks.

TECHNOLOGY BOOKS/ENDER'S GAME

2017-04-25T13:18:06Z

For this summary presentation some possible subjects:Flora and fauna / Factors contributing to the reduction of plant and animal species / experimentsResearch / Discovery space/ create video game.

UNCLE TUNGSTEN: MEMORIES OF A CHEMICAL BOYHOOD

2017-04-24T17:39:41Z

Looks like an interesting book and for this a subject that can be put in practice:
Materials needed to realise the filament of the electric bulbs in order to reduce the degree of pollution and to reduce the electricity consumption.

Research, Internet Investigation

Selection of necessary materials
Choosing a beneficial solution.

Share your classroom ideas here

2017-04-23T08:43:48Z

Share your classroom ideas here inspired by Uncle Tungsten: Memories of a Chemical Boyhood by Oliver Sacks. Looking forward to hearing your ideas!