Archive for December, 2011
How does Santa do it? Science of course!
by Tony on Dec.21, 2011, under manned spaceflight, outreach ideas
All those presents, all those kids, how does Santa do it? North Carolina State University’s Dr. Larry Silverberg, a professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering let’s in on Santa’s secrets to getting what seems impossible done in one night.
According to Dr. Silverberg, Santa uses nanotechnology to miniaturize the presents (solving the problem of the bulk) along with what he calls “relativity clouds” which bend time and space to allow Santa the needed time to visit all those homes. What seems like a blink of the eye to us outside the cloud, is months to Santa and his trusty team of reindeer.
Still, reindeer are equipped with jet packs to increase their speed. Dr. Silverberg is a aerospace engineer after all. The naughty vs. nice tracking is done with a powerful listening network.
Read more in the reasearchers blog here
or read the NC State news release
Dont forget, NORAD will get in on the Santa business again this year with their Santa Tracker. I’m going to tag this with “manned spaceflight” for obvious reasons.
chemistry crayons
by Tony on Dec.15, 2011, under outreach ideas
So many attempts to get kids exposed to chemistry early on focus around the periodic table, it’s neat to see a different approach that gets some concepts right into their hands. The labels go right on a crayon set and includes a guide to pick the right color to go with the right compound. Colors are key’d to the compound itself or a reaction it produces.
North Carolina History Museum offers hands-on kits for teachers
by Tony on Dec.11, 2011, under outreach ideas
The North Carolina Museum of History offers kits with background materials, reproduction artifacts, lessons, and activities that tie North Carolina history with language arts, science, and math tied directly to the NC Course of Study objectives. Each is available for a 3 week loan and costs you only shipping charges (Triangle teachers can pick them up at the museum to save on that).
Subjects include North Carolina’s rich pottery history, the state’s role in WWII and the Civil War, the three distinct regions of North Carolina geography,
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NASA Image of the Day
Curiosity at 'Cumberland'
NASA's Mars rover Curiosity used its front left Hazard-Avoidance Camera for this image of the rover's arm over the drilling target "Cumberland" during the 275th Martian day, or sol, of the rover's work on Mars (May 15, 2013). The rover team plans to use Curiosity's drill to collect a powdered sample from the interior of the rock for analysis by laboratory instruments inside the rover. This is the mission's second rock-drilling target. The rover drove from its position beside the first drilling target, "John Klein," to its position beside Cumberland with drives of 121 inches (308 centimeters) on Sol 273 (May 13) and 26.6 inches (67.5 centimeters) on Sol 275. Curiosity's total odometry on Mars is now 2,385 feet (727 meters). Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
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