Oh no not that song again!!!

By (un)popular request for all those of you who still can't remember the 7 waves of the electromagnetic spectrum, here is the link to You Tube for the now infamous Electromagnetic Song. Don't say I didn't warn you how annoying this is...
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=bjOGNVH3D4Y
For a more ethereal presentation try http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=uh3hH_Vu2tU

Polymerisation Madness

Recently Year 10 have been studying polymers. For your amusement again, here is the video now on You Tube.

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=gUUSPtyvdHk

Blog, wot blog?

While surfing around to day I found a really good site for those of you who like to look at other peoples' Powerpoints. It's called Slideshare and it's a free to join resource. While there I discovered that I hadn't thought about what sort of blog this is. After a quick read (of someone else's slide show on the subject) I discover that this is probably part Linkblog, part Reviewblog and part Repostblog.
To a newbie like me I think this means I'll post links up for you, you can do the same for anyone reading the blog through comments and replies, I can use my 'expertise' to review/comment on stuff you have done (work maybe??) and there are occasional bits of stuff I'll just whack in because I came across them elsewhere and thought some of you might find them interesting.
Phew!
Here's a link then http://www.slideshare.net/
enjoy

Woman gets 50,000 mile throat service!

This is the amazing story of how stem cell reaearch has led to a Colombian woman having replacement parts fitted that are a match for her own genes because they were grown from them! Imagine in a few years time what other parts of the body we could replace in this way. How about a new kidney, liver or lungs? Fancy a new brain? Would you be the same person if you had a new set of parts fitted? Throws up some interesting moral dilemmas.
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn16072-woman-receives-windpipe-built-from-her-stem-cells.html

Let's do that again...

Sometimes there isn't time to do it again in class. Here's where I'll put links to popular activities you might want to have another go at...
Recently we looked at rollercoaster physics.
try these two links to remind yourself...
A rollercoaster simulator is at http://www.funderstanding.com/k12/coaster/
Rollercoaster POV videos are at http://www.themeparkreview.com/
Enjoy!

What's in the News?

Blog followers may enjoy this occasional series. Now and then a weird science story grabs my attention.
This one is for all of you who think smoking just one isn't addictive.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/7548878.stm

Useful revision sites and course notes

''Where can I find a good site for revision?''This has to be the top question I am asked by students. You can surf around all day or you can have a look at some of my links below.

• For course notes on chemistry and physics GCSE try http://www.gcsescience.com/index.html
• For interactive revision try bbc bitesize (remember we are studying AQA GCSE core and additional science) http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesize/science/
• Like your science with mad animated cartoons? Go to brainpop and sign up for a five day free trial. You'll need an email address and FlashPlayer. It's a bit American but heh, it's good fun too. http://www.brainpop.com/
• Finally, if you like your science revision in an easy short question format then you might try SamLearning at http://www.samlearning.com/

How about a Science Blog?

OK so this is the first post on this blog and as I'm completely new to this stuff you'll see that it is likely to change quite rapidly for a while. Why did I start this up? For some time I've been thinking of ways to help students a little on their way. I had thought of producing a science website but time and lack of knowledge meant this never really got off the ground. In any case, if it's a general science resource that's wanted, we can all use the Internet to find out that sort of stuff so what would really be the point?
Then a number of students asked me about setting up a blog site. My first reaction was '' a what site?'' Then I spoke to my ICT-expert 13 year old who gave me a very detailed marketing spiel on the pros cons and how to's. Forty minutes later I was left thinking how difficult could it be then?
Well now I'm dipping my toe in to the great pond of cyber-space for the first time so here it goes...
I can already hear the shouts of ''Welcome to the 21st century, Sir!'' coming from the back row.

This blog will try to be what you want it to be. I'll do my best to add and delete stuff regularly but for now I thought best to get it started and see how it goes....