Teaching & Learning Page:
Web Pages:
https://www.nasa.gov/learning-resources/nasa-kids-club/
https://www.abc.net.au/education
https://www.fizzicseducation.com.au
Techie Tips:
Transfer any files with anyone on any platform with FilePizza
Open Camera app. Frame the text in the middle of the viewfinder - give the iPhone a
moment to "think."
A yellow frame appears around the text, and a new button appears in the bottom right of the viewfinder.
Tap this button, and iOS will cut out the selected text, and zoom in to focus.
Tap the "Translate" button that appears in the bottom left.
Wait a moment, and the text is replaced by your target language.
If you need to share that translated text, you can tap the translation to pull up a
Translate mini window.
Copy the translation so you can paste it wherever you'd like.
Sketches:
Everyone knows Everest is the highest mountain at a colossal 8,848m above sea level. But, depending on how you’re measuring, there are two other candidates for the tallest mountain.
Mauna Kea is a volcano on the Big Island of Hawaii. In fact, the whole island is made of a volcano, so, as a peak, it rises from the base of the Pacific Ocean to over 4,200m above sea level. Including the part of the mountain that rises from the seabed, it is over 10,000m tall.
Mt Chimborazo can also lay a claim to being the tallest mountain. The Earth is not a perfect sphere — it bulges around the Equator, meaning that points on the Equator are several kilometres further from the centre of the Earth than points further North or South. A bulge around the centre is a common shape for a spinning sphere due to the force exerted by the spinning. Sitting almost exactly on the Equator means that Chimborazo’s already enormous 6,263m from sea level makes its summit the furthest point on the Earth’s surface from the centre of the Earth.
I’m not totally sure if that means that at some point Chimborazo’s summit makes it the closest point to the sun, but it definitely sounds plausible!
Most people are familiar with topography, but lesser known is its underwater cousin, bathymetry.
Topography
Topography is the study of land elevation, the ups and downs, forms and features, relief and terrain.
The word topography comes from the Greek topos, meaning place, and graphia, meaning writing.
In its original sense, similar to ethnography, which is writing about people, topography means writing about a place.
Bathymetry
Bathymetry is like topography flipped upside down.
Bathymetry is the study of the ocean depths, underwater features and terrain. It's everything from the water's surface downwards rather than upwards.
The word bathymetry comes from the Greek bathy, meaning deep, and metron, meaning measure.
In case you were wondering, the highest peak shown is Mount Everest, at 8,848 m above sea level, drawn to scale alongside the Mariana Trench, which plunges nearly 11,000 m below sea level. Also visible: the typical depth of the Atlantic seafloor and the underwater peaks of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge.
Article:
How To Rekindle Your Love Of Reading
By Jancee Dunn
A recent report found that fewer people were reading for fun.The study found that the number of Americans who read for pleasure on a given day fell 40 per cent over the last two decades. The researchers speculated that the drop could be tied to the rise of digital media, among other things.
It’s a shame. Not only is it delicious to immerse yourself in a good book, but it’s also beneficial to your health to read. Research suggests that reading can keep your memory sharp and help you sleep better, and that reading fiction can increase empathy and improve well-being.
But it’s hard to stay in the habit. So I asked around for tips on how to read more
regularly.
Set Aside Regular Time
My librarians recommended taking a book with you whenever you go out and
reading it when you might otherwise reach for your phone — in a waiting room
or on the bus, for example.
And look for moments when you can turn reading into a ritual. Lately, I’ve been
dipping into a novel for a few minutes right after I wake up, and I find it’s a
gentle way to start the day before I plunge into the news.
Try choosing a designated reading spot — your porch or a cozy chair — and
pairing your pages with something else you enjoy, like a cup of tea.
Reread Something You Love
Start with an old favourite if you’re out of practice, said Alan Jacobs, a professor
of humanities at Baylor University and the author of “The Pleasures of Reading
in an Age of Distraction.” And don’t feel sheepish about it, he added: “Read the
same thing three times in a row if that gives you pleasure.”
Elizabeth A.L. Stine-Morrow, a professor emerita of educational psychology at
The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, said she used to be reluctant to read books — “because I wasn’t ‘making progress,’ whatever that was.”
But that was a mistake, she said; it’s often on the second reading that you can
really see the big picture of what the book is about.
Your perspective may have changed, too. I used to side with rebellious young
characters; now I often sympathise with their parents.
Listening Counts
Audiobooks are growing more popular every year, but some of us still wonder whether they’re somehow cheating.
Forget about that, the experts told me — listening is just another way to enjoy
literature. One study I reviewed found no significant difference in reading
comprehension and retention when subjects read physical books and listened to
audiobooks.
Audiobooks also leave your hands free. Chinelo Okparanta, an associate
professor of English literature at Swarthmore College and the author of the
novel “Harry Sylvester Bird,” will sometimes go back and forth between an
audiobook and a physical copy, so she can keep following a story while she’s
washing dishes or driving to the grocery store.
This lets her fit more books into her life, she said, adding that a good narrator’s
voice can “give even more character to the world of the story.”
For me, listening to fiction brings back the cozy feeling of childhood, when someone read me a story.
Know When To Move On
You don’t have to slog through an entire book just because you started it, the
experts said. One of my librarians uses the Rule of 50, developed by Nancy
Pearl, the author of “Book Lust.”
Ms Pearl said that if you’re under 50, you should give every book about 50
pages before you quit. If you’re older than that, subtract your age from 100 to
see how many pages to read before setting it aside.
“Books are not to be ‘gotten through,’” said Dr Jacobs. “Books are to be
delighted in.”
Seek Inspiration In Different Places
If you need book ideas, the New York Public Library’s blog has inventive
recommendations, like the books that inspired the 2025 Emmy nominees. And my colleagues at the Book Review have made this interactive tool to find your
next book.
Ms Okparanta follows the longlists for various literary awards for inspiration,
like the Booker Prize, the New American Voices Award and the Nigeria Prize for
Literature.
And browse the shelves of your library — or ask your librarian. “Libraries are
great places to find things that no algorithm would ever suggest to you,” Dr
Jacobs said, adding: “Libraries are serendipity vendors.”
When I asked my librarians for advice, they produced six pages of handwritten
notes for me. I wanted to call them out by name here to credit them, but they
asked me not to. They told me they were just doing this to foster a love of
reading. Me, too.
Book Recommendation:
Man's Search for Meaning:
October 2014 by Viktor E. Frankl (Author)
The bestselling Holocaust memoir about finding purpose and strength in times of despair—selected as a Library of Congress “10 Most Influential Books in America”
This stunning edition of “one of the great books of our time” (Harold S. Kushner) features new photos, endpapers, and Frankl’s never-before-published speeches and letters.
Hailed as “an enduring work of survival literature” by the New York Times, Viktor Frankl’s account of his time in the Nazi concentration camps—and his insights into our ability to find meaning despite great adversity—has offered solace and guidance to generations of readers since it was first published in 1946.
At the heart of Frankl’s theory of logotherapy (from the Greek word for “meaning”) is a conviction that the primary human drive is not pleasure, as Freud maintained, but rather the discovery and pursuit of what the individual finds meaningful.
Today, as new generations face new challenges and an ever more complex and uncertain world, Frankl’s classic work continues to inspire us to find significance in the very act of living, despite all obstacles.
With more than 16 million copies sold in over 50 languages, this timeless masterpiece is “one of the outstanding contributions to psychological thought” (Carl Rogers). It offers inspiration for coping with suffering and finding your purpose.
Rule Makers, Rule Breakers: Tight and Loose Cultures and the Secret Signals That Direct Our Lives
August 2019 by Michele Gelfand
A celebrated social psychologist offers a radical new perspective on cultural differences, revealing why some countries, cultures, and individuals take rules more seriously and how following the rules shapes how we think and act.
In Rule Makers, Rule Breakers, Michele Gelfand, “an engaging writer with intellectual range” (The New York Times Book Review), takes us on an epic journey through human cultures, offering a startling new view of the world and ourselves. With a mix of brilliantly conceived studies and surprising on-the-ground discoveries, she shows that much of the diversity in how we think and act stems from a key difference—how tightly or loosely we adhere to social norms. Just as DNA affects everything from eye colour to height, our tight-loose social coding influences much of what we do.
Why are clocks in Germany so accurate while those in Brazil are frequently wrong? Why do New Zealand’s women have the highest number of sexual partners? Why are red and blue states really so divided? Why was the Daimler-Chrysler merger ill-fated from the start? Why is the driver of a Jaguar more likely to run a red light than the driver of a plumber’s van? Why does one spouse prize running a tight ship while the other refuses to sweat the small stuff?
In search of a common answer, Gelfand spent two decades conducting research in more than fifty countries. Across all age groups, family variations, social classes, businesses, states, and nationalities, she has identified a primal pattern that can trigger cooperation or conflict. Her fascinating conclusion: behaviour is highly influenced by the perception of threat.
“A useful and engaging take on human behavior” (Kirkus Reviews) with an approach that is consistently riveting, Rule Makers, Ruler Breakers thrusts many of the puzzling attitudes and actions we observe into sudden and surprising clarity.