I was quite impressed to spot, as a student in my class took an interminable amount of time to remove a pencil from her bag, that the science book she’s currently using was called “CSI“. An inspired piece of textbook titling, though I do wonder whether they should have used a slightly different font…
Anyway, also leading on from Dave Cosby’s latest post, there are a few science based web resources I’ve been meaning to share, but haven’t quite got round to yet.
What you might do with them in an EFL context, I leave up to you!
An Illustrated Visualisation of what can happen in a single second: a Maria Popova “Brain Pickings” post that reviews and contains illustrated excerpts from Steve Jenkins’ book “Just a Second”.
Leading on from what can happen in a single second, to “How far is a single second?” – from the MinutePhysics You Tube Channel. Some great RSA Animate style illustrated examples of aspects and issues within physics (and by extension the world). Somewhat fast paced and maybe not quite suitable for the lower level learner…
Here’s a BBC infographic on the history of cloning, another recent BBC article of note looks at colour perceptions and tries to work out why it might actually be imnpossible to agree what colour to paint the spare room…
If infographics are your thing, then take a look at the Nik Peachey curated “Pinterest” on Infographics.
But finally… two truly jaw dropping tools that are really the reasons for this post, both of which try to put a bit of perspective on humanity’s place in the universe:
ChronoZoom looks at the scale of time involved in the history of the universe – you can zoom in and out from the earliest known events to present day, or at least events from the modern human era. It’s a fantastic tool – if you can actually find the modern human era, it’s a bit small in comparison! (It’s easier to find if you navigate via the “threshold” markers in the scale across the top).
Size, physical size in this case, is what is compared at “The Scale of the Universe“. Your starting point is humanity and using your mouse or trackpad, you can zoom in to the see the smaller stuff – or out to see the larger stuff. Click on any image you see to get more information about it.
Two late additions to this post:
Larry Ferlazzo has just posted about “Pearls of the Planet” live webcams – these are webcams that are set up in various locations around the world, some wild places and some zoos, aquariums etc, where you and your classes can watch live streams of polar bears, pandas and the northern lights.
Richard Byrne has also just posted about Learners TV – a vast collection of video lectures on a wide range of subjects from psychology to dentistry to accounting from what appears to be a range of Universities and colleges, mostly from the USA. Well worth checking out for your ESP students.