October 2009 Archives

“Conservation of Momentum” is one of those laws we ask our students to believe in. Sure, we try to demonstrate it using air tracks and stuff, but the numbers never really add up. This video shows space tourist Richard Garriott trying to demonstrate conservation of momentum aboard the ISS - it’s not entirely convincing, because there are no measurements / data, but it looks much more impressive than an air track and he adds a little explanation of how the law applies to the practicalities of life aboard the space station.

If anyone reading this has a spare few million quid, I would LOVE to go up to the ISS and make a few demo films…

Measurement is at the heart of science - a point that we could probably do with reiterating to our students on a regular basis. This video, by the appropriately named Marshall Brain, founder of howstuffworks.com, contains some great ideas for easy-to-do activities which should be ideal for Year 7 (or even KS2 students). I don’t recommend showing the video to your students - this is one of those videos that’s worth watching to get ideas to do “for real” in the classroom.