Hugo - Sense & Control

Over the holiday, we sat and watched Hugo. I'd forgotten that this film was based on the book by Brian Selznick, The Invention of Hugo Cabret. It is a stunning book being an amalgamation of text and images, not a graphic novel but not an illustrated book either. The film was an excellent re-telling of the story and I was especially taken with the automaton.

Scholastic (2007)  ISBN 978-1-407103-48-8

Later on, I started going over conversations that I've had with teachers who seem to be interested in teaching Control but ignore the importance of Sensing. This is where the automaton comes in, it was a beautiful example of control but this was a very limited machine. Add in the flexibility of it being able to respond to external stimuli and you've really got something - a robot. 

Automaton from the film - Hugo

I'd love to see a thoughtful, integrated scheme for Sense & Control across the curriculum.

I also got round to looking up Kodu from Microsoft. This visual programming language has come up increasingly when I've tried to engage teachers with Scratch. However, no-one has been able to tell me anything about it apart from it's a programming language suitable for children. I haven't had a go yet but will let you know how I get on and maybe make a comparison with Scratch.
I also need to sort out 2Simple NXT and Lego, and We-Do from Lego but need to get a fair bit more work to make these purchases viable.
Still, the future is always interesting and who knows what's around the corner.

Professor Munakata's British Museum Adventure

British Museum Press (2011) ISBN 978-0-7141-2465-0

Another great Christmas present. A graphic novel by the famous Japanese manga artist, Hoshino Yukinobu, about the treasures held by the British Museum. Using the issue of the repatriation of artefacts taken from other countries, the author weaves a thrilling tale of a 200 hundred year old promise incorporating Stonehenge, the Lewis Chessmen and the Rosetta Stone among others. An added bonus for me was the incorporation of the science of stealth airships and manipulation of large masses.
Well worth a read and, if you're wanting to raise an issue for discussion, why not that of our acquisition and continued retention of great works of art from other countries and civilizations?
Guess where I'm going on my next visit to London?

The Snowman's Overcoat and Concept Cartoons.

I subscribe to emails from the National STEM Centre in York which I'd recommend to you. (A visit is also worthwhile on one of their Saturday morning open days). In the latest email it mentioned the Snowman's  Overcoat. I've used a version of this with children in the past, based on Concept Cartoons* which, if you haven't come across, are well worth exploring. I also used to do Huddling Penguins as an alternative but, although I did the Penguins with data-loggers, I never got round to properly doing the Snowman investigation in that way. So I've now got two temperature sensors in water in the freezer. I'll then wrap one in bubble wrap (always around at Christmas) and put the other in a plastic bag. I'll use a third probe to measure ambient temperature.

Additional activity based on concept cartoons (ref below**)

I wish I was doing this with children and not pottering at home. 
I don't make New Year's resolutions but I promise to try get data-loggers used more in schools in 2013.

* Concept Cartoons in Science Education by S. Naylor and B. Keogh (2000) Millgate House Publishers ISBN 0 9527506 2 7
** The Snowman's Overcoat and other Science questions by S. Naylor and B. Keogh. Illustrated by Ged Mitchell.(More detail to follow) One of  series of four (?) books.

Alan Garner and his illustrators

I've just finished Boneland by Alan Garner (2012, Fourth Estate ISBN 978-0-00-746524-4). I enjoyed reading it but, maybe, it is too adult and literate for me. Boneland is the third part of a series  and appears 40 years after the first two volumes (The Weirdstone of Brisingamen (1960), The Moon of Gomrath (1963). The previous books were for children and I recall really enjoying them. Garner also wrote The Owl Service which was made into a rather unsettling 8-part television series way back in 1969. I remember reading my favourite book of his, Elidor. as it made the hairs stand up on the back of my neck. It is one of the few books I've read several times.

Book cover 

Elidor was illustrated by Charles Keeping. Charles Keeping grew to be my favourite illustrator, though his position has been threatened as my collection of illustrated books has blossomed. I will get round to a more detailed look at Keeping in a future blog but if your interest is piqued try and find David Martin's book on him "Charles Keeping : An Illustrator's Life".

Being obsessive, I then had to go through all the books I have by Alan Garner.  He has not been the most prolific of writers over the past 50 years and I only have paperbacks of some and then and not a complete collection. The other illustrators of his books that leap out are Michael Foreman and P. J. Lynch.
Foreman, like Keeping, is prolific with a distinctive style and has also written tales to his own illustrations.

Series of four books re-telling traditional tales

P.J. Lynch has a very different style from the lines of Keeping and watercolours of Foreman. His detailed paintings, obviously, take a long time to produce and the originals cost thousands of pounds.. 

More re-tellings from the tradition.

Akhenaten or Akhnaten - my favourite Egyptian

I discovered Akhnaten when I moved from teaching in London to teaching in the North East. I'd recorded the Philip Glass opera off the radio onto a cassette and played it on the long drive North. I fell in love with it even though opera is not really my thing. A year or two later, my wife bought tickets for a staging of the opera at ENO (English National Opera) in London for my birthday. It was magnificent. The set was of sand with troughs in it through which flowed water (the Nile). The sand was moulded into various outlines during the performance. The singing, especially that of the false soprano male lead, all decked out in false breasts, was unforgettable. One of the best presents ever.
I bought a programme, obviously, but also indulged in the libretto from a near-by music shop. I then read a lot about Akhnaten, the librettisist and the composer (Philip Glass). 

CBS Masterworks 

Akhnaten doesn't seem to appear much in books for children about Egypt but what a fascinating character and what an ego, to try to overturn thousands of years of a multitheistic religion into a monotheistic one.
My interest has diminished over the years but peaks every now and again, for example when I discovered the poem "Akhenaten" by Dorothy Porter (Serpent's Tail Books 1999 ISBN 1-85242-619-5). It is wonderful and I always wanted to read this passage out to a group of students :-

"I was little Horseface

with wheezing lungs

and the wet bed.

Amun threw me down

in drooling, pissing fits.

I was only a second son

and they thought I'd die.

Amun would climb

on my face

and spread his black bum

over my eyes and mouth

I thought he'd choke me"

Akhenaten is featured in Shuter's children's book "People who made history in Ancient Egypt", mentioned in a previous blog, but I'm not sure what else is available for this age group.

Cleopatra

I'm going in to talk to some staff about the Ancient Egyptians this afternoon. Besides all the usual stuff, I'll mention a book on Cleopatra that the children love because of the kissing (UGH!) and blood (YEAH!). It is the one below written and ilustrated by Polly Dunbar

Children's books for teaching about Cleopatra include:-
Cleopatra by P. Dunbar. Scholastic Books
Cleopatra by H. Middleton. Oxford (1997) ISBN 0-19-910193-0
Cleopatra by A. Geras. Kingfisher (2007) ISBN 978 0 7534 1359 3

She is also given a spread in "People who made history in Ancient Egypt" by J. Shuter (2000) Hodder Wayland ISBN 07502 2604 8

Space - in school

Normally, I do Space at the Civic & Learning Centre Eston with their fantastic resources. Today I took one of those resources, the Magic Planet, into school. I was a bit apprehensive because of timing and computer issues that might have arisen.
The children (and staff) were fantastic. They joined in, asked and answered questions. They managed to sit on the hard wooden floor for an age while I talked. Well done, children.

Example of Comic Life page on Space

The IT suffered a minor hiccup when the children had to suffer logos printed across their Comic Life work. However, they almost universally said how much they loved using Comic Life. Similarly, they really enjoyed seeing the Magic Planet.
Their evaluations made me smile and one was especially pleasing - 
"I think todays lesson was great and fun. I especially liked the magic planet and the fact that there was no work! Thank you"

The Great Fire of London

A colleague asked me what ideas and resources I had to teach about the Great Fire. Not many I'm afraid. 
She suggested that she'd be using 2Simple software with her Y1-2. I'd probably do the same. I'd get them to write a postcard with their own drawing or a modified imported image. 
If I was adventurous, I'd try them on animation which at this age is not easy. I produced the gif below by copying and modifying an image using 2Animate.

I'd also be tempted to try 2Create-a-Story. The example below is a gif rather than the Flash file 2Create-a-Story can generate.

As far as printed resources go, I've come across very little. The images above (and other references) come from various sources including:-

City of Fire by A. Gibbons Collins 1995 ISBN 0-00-301173-9

Horrible Histories Magazine 20 : Burning Boils : 18-21

TES Teacher November 11, 2005 (poster)

National Education Network image bank

Hope this helps someone.

Animation Club - update

The last meeting of the Animation Club, before the holidays, took place this week. Children were a bit excitable with all their preparations for Christmas but got stuck into their PowerPoint animations. They needed little help from me. The additional things I showed them revolved around making their presentation auto-run by removing mouse-clicks within and between slides.

The most impressive animation involved a dragon shooting out fire at a hut in the woods. The hut then caught fire and the flames grew larger.

They were also keen to add sound. I brought along a number of sound effects and a TASCAM voice recorder. The school's headphones, with built in microphones, had obviously taken a hammering over the years and were not all in working condition. What was interesting was how keen and motivated pupils were to write a script to record on the TASCAM and to put expression into their recordings. 

We ran out of time to transfer all of the recordings to their PCs but the potential was obvious.

The power of ANIMATION is universal.

After the holiday, it will be Pivot Stick Figure for one or two weeks before really getting down to the hard work - proper stop-go animation*. How they'll respond to the self-discipline needed to produce animations of quality will be fun to watch.

* This reminds me - where am I getting webcams from, what software is available, where do we store all the sets and materials. Headache coming on.

Up-and-coming - 2013

Jus thought I'd post about two events in 2013.

STARGAZING LIVE - runs from 8th -10th January and resources for schools should be available sometime this month.

500 WORDS - a literacy competition for under 13's organised by the BBC will also have resources available in January 2013.

PS Don't forget Climate Week 4th - 10th March

Education and Evolution

I've just seen an article called "Education & Evolution" in the latest edition of the Biologist 59 (5) : 13  and it got me thinking. I've just done my Science lecture and thought I'd not want to repeat the experience, however, I'm in the process of changing my mind.
During lunch on the day of my lecture, I had the most remarkable conversation with a young girl (about 10). She initiated a chat about being a Catholic but not believing in God. She was so lucid and seemed to have thought quite deeply about the issues that I wanted to talk further and wanted to give her Richard Dawkin's "Letter to Juliet" to read.
When I did Space on Friday, a young lad asked me if I thought that, after our Sun went supernova and destroyed the Earth, God would recreate the Earth and  populate it with all the people in Heaven. I don't think I handled that conversation as well as the previous one.
The upshot of these three events is that I'd like to give another Science lecture to primary children on Evolution. Most people I talk to want to shy away from the issues but, as one of my hero's is Thomas Henry Huxley who took evolution to the masses in Victorian London, I'm feeling up for the challenge.

Anyone up for it with me?

Is it me? What do you think?

I've ranted in a number of blogs about bad Science writing for children. I've just given a talk about how wonderful our brains are and then I invest in book called Little Genius : Brains.*

Good Brain Juice

Bad Brain Juice

What do you think of these two pages? I'm not going to pass comment this time. But if you'd like to add comments to my blog I'd be very interested to read them.

* Little Genius : Brains by K. Lennard (2006) Hutchinson ISBN 978-0-091-89344-6

Space, Magic Planet & Immersive Room

What a week. Freezing in the igloo, delivering a sense-ational lecture and finally, having all of Space as my remit. Wow! Does life get any better than this?

Today I used the Magic Planet at Inspire 2 Learn to help revise with a Middlesbrough school. They have just finished their Space topic and had the opportunity to show me what they'd learned and to ask me questions. I loved the questions and struggled to answer some of them, being a biologist. 
Their imaginations were engaged by the Immersive Room with its screens of shuttles taking off, planetary data, hair being cut, poetry, music and jokes.
They also learned how to use Comic Life software and started putting together their own tours of the Solar System.

My favourite image of the Sun 

I think I was over tired from the previous four days which earned the following comments on pupil evaluation sheets:-
"You are crazy and fun"
"You were a great host but crazy. I learned a lot"
"You are MINT!"
Thanks children I will sleep well tonight.

Sense-ational Science Christmas Lecture

Today (Thursday) was the day of my Christmas Science Lecture. It was not the all-singing, dancing and whistle-blowing event I'd envisaged 6 months ago but, hopefully, it engaged and challenged a few young minds in the audience.
The basic idea was to question the commonly taught idea that we have 5 senses. I don't know exactly how many we have, because it depends upon definition, but it is definitely NOT 5. Good scientist question things and seek PROOF!

Made with GIFPAL

The slideshow above gives a flavour of the lecture though some slides might be misunderstood without the accompanying chat.
What a brilliant day! These children were wonderful - polite, interested and up for the event. After sitting through the lecture, devouring my tin of Roses, singing along to the Skin song and deciding on at least 13 senses, they did four workshops. They looked at animation (fooling the eyes), why we have two eyes and two ears and used video microscopes. The fourth workshop involved them, exploring a whole host of exhibits from periscopes to zoetropes.
Thanks to all the staff who supported the event and made it such a success (despite the weather).

I survive Pingu's Igloo

Yes, I've survived the cold and the dark of Pingu's Igloo to emerge with a much better understanding and a little more confidence with teaching Early Years. 
As the story developed over the sessions, there was one bit I really looked forward to. It wasn't the elves snoring in the bedroom but a polar bear. When polar bears wake up they are grumpy and bad tempered. They have a mouth full of big, sharp teeth. They have sharp claws at the ends of their paws and when noisy children wake them up they have an almighty ROAR!!. 

Just leave me in peace, please.

I didn't mean to frighten that little girl. The children were much more frightening than me. 
It was a lovely experience and, though my initial painful attempts at story-telling were not the best, by the time I'd finished...well, I was quite happy with how I'd developed. Thanks children.

PS One big mistake was to think the children would have heard about Hobbits. In version 2 of the story, Bilbo was replaced by a bright blue Smurf.

Pingu's Igloo - shivering in the Immersive Room

Three days  this week you'll find me shivering in the Antarctic. I will be helping Early Years children find out  where the naughty elves might have stashed a clue to Santa's Stolen Sack. Somewhere in Pingu's home is the clue but who else is hiding in there to pass on Christmas good wishes?

Pingu's Home - BBC production

 This event will take place in the Immersive Room which was set up, at the then City Learning Centre, some 2-3 years ago. It consists of 6 projectors, three walls of screens and surround-sound. Pupils come to be immersed in a topic. The most popular session involves a trip into Space to collect data on the planets. Other experiences that I have been involved with include exploration of the Rainforest, Victorians, World War 2, and Japan.

Mine is a small part of an event organised by Inspire2Learn which promises to get children (and adults) into the spirit of the season. 

Inspire2Learn can be contacted at The Civic & Learning Centre, Normanby Road, South Bank, Middlesbrough, TS6 9AE.

Pee and Poo - some noteworthy books

I taught Healthy Living a couple of weeks ago and it is always fun to talk to children about pee and poo. I don't do this lightly, seeking to start to overcome their natural reticence to talk about intimate body parts and functions. I can't stress how important I think it is for young children to understand how their body is built and how it works. 

Walker Books (2007) ISBN  978-1-4063-0095-6

When I was in Sunderland (see prev blog), the students were very keen to teach general heath issues from a basis of good knowledge and with sensitivity to children's feelings. One group took "nits" at their themes and listening to them prepare their talk was very interesting and informative. This reference above is specially for them but links nicely with Pee and Poo as it is by the same author and illustrator as Poo - A natural history of the unmentionable.

Walker Books (2004) ISBN 0-7445-8634-8

I actually have a book review of this from the TES Teacher which says "This book has child appeal by the bucketful..". I'd agree with that though I'd query the maker of the smallest poo (nit-picking again).
Here are some other tasty texts:-

Etram Books (Australia) (2003) ISBN 0-958-18780-0

Did you know that poo in Australia is refered to as Goobies?

No details at the moment, can't find the book.

Roman toilets from the book Spending A Penny (details to add)

Children like this Disgusting Digestion book because it has "fart" stickers.

Detail to add

Grossology has a textured vomit cover. I enjoyed it but wasn't taken as much by the follow up Animal Grossology (Price Stern Sloan Books (1996) ISBN 0-8431-1011-2)

Finally, a lift-the-flap book with a magnifying glass about Fleas.

Tango Books (1996) ISBN 1-85707-173-5

ASE Cheese and Wine Durham

This was the meeting postponed because of the first floods. The cold weather and work load kept some students away but those that turned up were given an introduction to the ASE's work and benefits of membership. They were informed also of the Primary Science Quality Mark, something I hope they will get involved with in the future. I also gave a "short" talk on teaching Space through IT. 

Slide showing the Magic Planet

Earth slide from presentation

Thanks to all those who turned up and Durham University for hosting the event.

Thank you Sunderland

On Friday, I was to spend the day with students from the University looking at Science and IT. After a sleepless night, I made the long trip to be confronted by 50 students. I needn't have worried. They were welcoming and willing to take me as I am. They warmed to the day, got involved in the task and, from their evaluations, went away happy. Their tutor supplied me with copious coffee and many supportive comments.

Title slide of my talk

My talk covered the hardware, software and approaches that I used in my 10 years working for Redcar & Cleveland such as:-
Software - The 2Simple Collection, Comic Life, Crazy Talk, Kar2ouche, Audacity and Photostory in addition to M/S Office and Adobe products
Hardware - PCs, Macs, iPods, iPads, video cameras, data-loggers, video microscopes etc
Approaches - 3D content, animation, video and the Immersive Room (future blog)

One of my example ppt slides

The students used PowerPoint to make a presentation based on a set of criteria and my example. The did a really good job, managing in a relatively short time to produce an engaging and knowledgeable talk, often with a real challenge to understanding, delivered with enthusiasm, wit and humour.
Thanks to everyone. Look out for the "Pee and Poo" post in the next day or so, keep in touch and all the best for the future.

Tight-rope walking

I'm just about to deliver my Christmas lecture on Sensational Science where I challenge the notion that we have only five senses. While killing time in Saltburn, I came across a book called "Mirette on the High Wire" by Emily McCully. It was awarded the Caldecott Medal in the US and so I had to buy it. It's the short tale of a tight-rope walker, who's lost his nerve, and a young girl. It ties in beautifully with talking about our sense of balance which is an additional one to the supposed "five" and an added sensory function of our ears.

Putnam (1992) ISBN 0-399-22130-1

I'll blog more about the senses after I've delivered my lecture. It'll be something to look over during the festive season.

Here's a photo of a useful teaching toy - my balancing eagle. 

A balancing eagle - my poor photo

And this is what you can do for balance with Pivot Stick Figure ( a free download):-

I think I made this  - looks amateurish enough to be mine

Upcoming of interest

Cosmic Comics
Planet Science are keen for input into their Cosmic Comics initiative. The closing date for comments is the 1st Dec. I've mentioned comics a fair amount in my blog through the use of Comic Life and I recently bought a lovely book from TK Maxx called "Classic Children's Comics" edited by Art Spiegelman* and Francoise Mouly. In the introduction there is a very sobering photo of the mass burning of comics in the US in 1949 because they "corrupt young minds".

Abrams, new York (2009) ISBN 978-0-8109-5730-5

The introduction is by Jon Scieszka. Coincidentally, I picked up his take on "The House that Jack Built" - "The Book that Jack Wrote". The illustrations are excellent and by a chap I'd not come across before, Daniel Adel.

If you don't subscribe to the Planet Science newsletter then I'd recommend it as useful links and ideas often appear.

http://www.planet-science.com/categories/extras/cosmic-comics.aspx

* Art Spiegelman produced the fantastic graphic novel "Maus" which is well worth looking out for if don't know it. I can also recommend "In the Shadow of No Towers" by him.

National Climate Week
Although this is some way off, 4th-10th March 2013, it might be worthwhile subscribing to their emails and downloading the resources from their site. They are also keen for organisation to set up Swap Events to highlight awareness. How about setting up an event in your school?

http://www.climateweek.com/

Children's Books - Nit-picking

As I said in my last blog, I get most of my books from charity shops. What I've noticed in some "science" books for young children are flaws that annoy me. I've talked to several people and can't decide whether I'm just being precious or pedantic. Basically, if you impart incorrect knowledge at a young age does that really hinder future understanding or does it provide a challenge which, when overcome, leads to understanding?

My friend Richard, however, says "Why teach something that is wrong in the first place?". 

Here's an example:-

This isn't a good analogy because if you just take the stick away shape is maintained. The loss of shape is due to melting and the resulting "splodge" really should be a puddle.
And another:-

I'd prefer "holes" to be called "spaces" because of the actual microscopic structure of bone. Holes cannot be spongy and I'd like to have an alternative to red jelly. I wish cells had been discussed in the introduction to make explanations easier.

These two examples are taken from Little Genius : Bones by K. Lennard (2007) 

Red Fox ISBN 978-0-099-45163-1. This book does provide information in an engaging and fun way but I'd like to see reviews of books like this done by the Primary Team at the ASE (Association for Science Education). 

I talked about this problem in a previous blog, "Science & Imagination" hoping to encourage comment. I'll continue to produce examples from time to time. The next one will involve a favourite book about POO!

Landscapes - a hands on day

Today I braved the floods to support an event in Saltburn. I was drafted in to record the activities undertaken during the day. I spent the first hour or more in a flustered state, having found that my camera's battery was not half charged as I thought but one third charged. Using the flash rapidly exhausted the battery and I would have been floundering but for my iPad. 

Felt-making - SLR photo

Pupils were introduced to a variety of crafty ways to show off their local landscape - sea, beach, cliffs, fields, pier etc. Felt-making went down very well followed by proggy mats and wool-winding. The event was for parents/carers and their children. If I hadn't been so flustered, I'd have got into the swing of things more and really appreciated the interactions taking place. I hope I get the opportunity to do this again.

Felt-making - iPad

Proggy Mat - iPad

Tissue paper glued to canvas - iPad

I did managed to take a fair few photographs and video clips. I also had time to cobbled together a preliminary "comic" on the iPad using Comic Life. 

Comic Life for iPad

Comic Life for iPad

At the end of the day, carers and children went into the corridor to see a display of their work and photographs of the day. The surprise at what they'd achieved took my mind off worrying about getting home and made me appreciate how lucky I was to be invited to work with such a gifted team of people.

Felts, proggy mats, tissue paper landscapes and wool-windings on display