Day 17 - Canoe Trip Physics

The Problem...

How can you use an understanding of physics to make a canoe trip more enjoyable and less work?

Why?

• Opportunity for students to use physics concepts to help plan for a canoe trip
• Opportunity to bring sustainability discussions into a Physics class
• Interdisciplinary math, science, biology, physics, ecology, geography

Check out this blog entry from a few years ago by @emnose.  Canoe tripping is awesome.  The planning, driving, paddling and portaging all pay off when your alone on a lake in the middle of Ontario enjoying the silence and the stars.

In a class...

I would only use this activity in a class if right opportunity presented itself:  if students were actually going on a canoe trip (I know a bunch of high schools that regular do canoe trips). Students working on their Duke of Edinburgh are actually required to do a trip so it would be a good opportunity for them to earn some of the requirements.  

The Physics...

Believe it or not, there is actually a ton of physics that can be found in canoe tripping.  Here are some examples:

1. Buoyancy and hydrodynamics

• What canoe shape, size, depth is appropriate for the trip.  Can study the drag/friction of the canoe in the water.
• Optimal weight and number of people per canoe.  Too heavy and the canoe will sit too low in the water and be inefficient to paddle!
• Number of canoes needed for the trip.
• Optimal paddle length and shape.  There is some statics involved in the best paddle length.  The shape has to do with hydrodynamics.
• This site has a whole bunch of canoe recommendations and images including the one below.  A good question may be which one would be most appropriate canoe profile for the trip.

2. Distance-time relationships

• Best route to a destination (connections to contours in geography and optimization in math).  Students would have to develop some criteria for what 'best' route entails.  Easiest? Quickest? Shortest travel time?  In the picture below, what would be the best route from the Three Legged Lake Access Point to Clear Lake? 

Map is of Massassauga Provincial Park.

Clear Lake is a route we've done a few times.

3. Statics

• What is the best way to pack a hiking pack in terms of physics.  Would it be better to pack the heavier stuff closer or further away from your body?  This can be interpreted as a simple statics problem (see below).  How does your body adapt if the centre of gravity of your pack is further away from your back.

Drawn in Penultimate

• Carrying a canoe - In terms of statics, is it better to carry a canoe with two people or one?  What are some advantages and disadvantages of each.  I've never had a problem with 1 person...

Canoes are designed to be carried by one

 person but at first it doesn't seem to make 

sense from a physics standpoint.

These are just a few examples of how to look at canoe tripping through a physics lens.  I'm sure there are plenty more though.

Transformative Environmental Education

As a Scout leader, I have the opportunity to fairly regularly organize and participate in trips with groups of Scouts.  It's something I think every high school student in Toronto should have a chance to experience.  We talk about Environmental Sustainability but sometimes we forget what we're actually trying to sustain.  Living in the city all year, I sometimes forget about my connection and dependance on nature.  

In an article I read at OISE for my cohort class (Global Citizenship and Sustainable Development), Julie Johnston stresses the importance of stepping outside the curriculum box by practicing Transformative Environmental Education.  She presents education as the primary source of social reproduction and thus where we must start the cycle of understanding, caring for and protecting our environment.  Two examples of Transformative Environmental Education she provides (that I could utilized in this Canoe Tripping activity) are:

• Sky Awareness - promoting the importance of just looking up! Talking about how the sun tracks across the sky and how you could navigate by the stars.  This is easily tied to physics (astronomy).
• Bioregion-Based Education - understanding your connection to your immediate environment.  Understanding the ecosystem in which you live.  This ties nicely into biology and ecology concepts.

21st Century...

Students will be using Real-World Problem Solving and Innovation to help them plan their trip.  Concepts from Physics and other courses can help make an actual trip more enjoyable and less laborious.  

The activity also has the potential to be fairly long term and Self-Regulated by students, culminating in the actual trip.  Journals kept by students during the trip could be used to self-assess the effectiveness of their plans.

Lastly, there would be few more interdependent activities than a canoe trip, which basically forces everyone to do their part in order for the group to get to a destination.  It's an excellent opportunity to demonstrate Collaboration.

1. Collaboration: entry - adoption - adaptation - infusion - transformation
3. Real-World Problem Solving & Innovation: entry - adoption - adaptation - infusion - transformation
5. Self-Regulation: entry - adoption - adaptation - infusion - transformation

Day 13 - String Tension

The Problem...

How much force is there on the neck of a guitar?

Why?

• Illustrate relationships between science, math and music
• Students learn to research and collect experimental data in a procedural way
• Connect the Forces unit to the Waves and Sound Unit of Grade 11 Physics

This is an activity I have done with some of my more science-inclined guitar students.  I simplified the problem for them however because I didn't want to take up too much lesson time.  We collected the data over several lessons and I put it in a spreadsheet that tallied the values and gave an answer for all the strings.  The sheet I gave my students looked like this:

In a Science Class...

If I was using this in a classroom, I would let the students come up with ways they could find out the tension in the strings.  I would give each group of students a different stringed instrument (based on what I had available or the music department would be able to provide): guitar, ukelele, bass guitar, mandolin, banjo etc.  Student's could even bring in their own instruments to analyze.  

First, I would have students write down an estimate of what they think the total tension would be.  Again, in problems such as these, its always a good idea to have some idea of what the answer will be before actually calculating it.

They would then work Collaboratively to figure out how they are going to measure the tension.  It's hard to measure string tension directly when the string is on an instrument but there are ways to indirectly find it (see picture above).  If they discover that formula, they will have to think about how are they going to collect data on:

• the length of the string - can be directly measured
• the fundamental pitch of the string - there are many free mobile device apps that will tell you the pitch of a string
• the unit weight of the string (kg/m) - could use the diameter of the string and the density of the string material.  Alternatively, could put a length of string on a scale.
• the diameter of the string - can be directly measured using callipers (diameters also tend to appear on string packages)
• the density of the string material - most likely this would be looked up on the internet

For some of the variables, internet research will suffice and for others, they will need to measure themselves.  They will have to decide themselves what is appropriate for their situation.

Alternatively, they may start by looking at a package of strings, which usually lists the tensions on the back of the pack.  But then they have to think about what they are presented with and read the fine print.  What assumptions are made?  Do those assumptions apply to their instrument?  Probably not.  Also, they may not actually know exactly what brand of strings are on the instrument.

Let them decide...

An important part of Knowledge Construction is to let the students decide how they are going to meet the success criteria.  Although some groups may end up doing more work than others, all groups can present their results back to the class so (hopefully) a variety of creative and innovative ways to measure the tension are covered.

Apply it...

Now that students would have an understanding of how string pitch, length, diameter and density are related, they could apply it by creating their own string instruments.  This could be turned into an interdisciplinary project between science and music or art.  They would have to answer some of the following questions (and more) before starting to build.

• How many strings?
• Will it have frets and will it be based on the Western 12-Tone Equal-Temperament scale like a guitar or a piano?
• What material will the strings be?
• How strong will the support of the strings have to be? (ie. what would the tension in the strings be)

Extend...

This is a cool video that I think would be good for a follow-up on exactly what a string does when it is plucked.  How come they look like that in the video?  Do they see that when they regularly pluck a string?

The curriculum...

This activity would be appropriate for a Grade 11 Physics class because it bridges between the Forces unit and the Waves and Sound unit.  Because of this, I think it would make an interesting culminating project for the course.

More critical...

My self-criticism for this idea is that although it may engage students and contains elements of the 21st Lesson Framework, I think it lacks any real critical analysis or underlying STSE issue; which I believe to be necessary for transformative pedagogy.    Maybe the instruments the students build could be made entirely of recycled materials to draw attention to the incredibly complex life cycle of manufactured goods we take for granted.  Anyways, it's something for me to think about for future entries.

21C...

1. Collaboration: entry - adoption - adaptation - infusion - transformation
2. Knowledge Construction: entry - adoption - adaptation - infusion - transformation
6. Use of ICT for Learning: entry - adoption - adaptation - infusion - transformation

Day 10 - Chris Hadfield - ISS (Is Somebody Singing)

The Problem...

How does the song I.S.S. (Is Somebody Singing) illustrate physics concepts and how has Chris Hadfield's stay on the ISS impact the way the public thinks about Canada's contribution to Science? 

Why?

• Exposure to seldom heard Canadian point of view on space exploration
• Illustrates how Science can directly impact Society
• Deepen understanding of physics concepts and address misconceptions

Chris Hadfield is a Canadian astronaut and has been the commander of the International Space Station (ISS) for the past few months.  From orbit, he has been taking stunning pictures of the Earth and tweeting them.  

Nice pic of Toronto in this tweet:

Tonight's Finale: Toronto, Ontario. Interesting the different things that become more visible at night. twitter.com/Cmdr_Hadfield/…

— Chris Hadfield (@Cmdr_Hadfield) April 16, 2013

Hadfield has drawn tons of media attention for the tweets and videos he has created.  This entry is inspired by the completion of Chris Hadfield's stay on the ISS (he returns to Earth tomorrow evening).  Have a safe journey home Chris!

The Song...

While on the ISS, Chris Hadfield co-wrote a song with Barenaked Lady Ed Robertson (who was on Earth).  The media attention has been surprising (I have heard the song on several different radio stations over the past week).  

I think it would be interesting to have a Science class examine some of the lyrics in the song to pick out and examine some of the concepts presented.  This blog entry contains some background information on the writing of the song as well as the lyrics and sheet music complete with guitar chords.   

To turn this into an in-class activity, I would flip the video to the class for homework and provide them with some questions to prompt them thinking about the physics concepts mentioned.  I would then provide them with the lyrics in class and would task groups of students with making the connections and checking the claims (and see how much creative license Hadrield and Robertson take!).  They could then present their results to the rest of the class to start discussions on the topic.  

This activity requires student-directed Knowledge Construction because essentially they have to generate their own questions and figure out how to solve them.  

Below I have identified some of the lyrics that may be used in class discussions:

"Pushed back in my seat/Look out my window/There goes home"

• At what point in the mission is Hadfield 'pushed back in his seat'?  What is he experiencing?  What is the physics behind that feeling? (an illustration of inertia and acceleration)
• What would he feel this while orbiting in the ISS?
• There is a common misconception about the lack of gravity an orbiting astronaut would experience.  Really there is gravity, the weightlessness is attributed to the fact that the ISS is actually in free-fall around the earth.

"I can hear your voices bouncing off the moon"

• This is more than just a metaphor! What is he referring to? 

 "All black and white just fades to grey/Where the sun rises sixteen times a day"

• Why does the sun rise 'sixteen times a day'?
• Why does the ISS not fall to earth?
• This is a good way to introduce the concept escape velocity
• This site contains interesting facts on the orbit of the ISS.

"Eighteen thousand miles an hour/fueled by science and solar power"

• This also relates to escape velocity and can be used to calculate kinetic energy of the ISS (see below)

"At half a thousand tons/Ninety minutes Moon to Sun/A bullet can't go half this fast"

• Check the validity of this statement! How fast do bullets generally travel?
• How much kinetic energy does the ISS have compared to a bullet?
• The ISS started a pieces on Earth.  How did we get the kinetic energy of the ISS to that value?

"What once was fueled by fear/Now has fifteen Nations orbiting together here" 

and...

"You can't make out borders from up here/Just a spinning ball within a tiny atmosphere"

• These quotes give us some perspective and are an opportunity to explore deeper questions about our place on the planet and in the universe and the role of science in our society

Curriculum...

This lesson is flexible because of the student-constructed knowledge aspect.  They ask the questions that they will answer.  Because of this, it could potentially be appropriate in any high school Science/Physics class.

There's some interdisciplinary opportunity here too.  Hatfield's Twitter pictures would be awesome to study in a physical geography class.  It could also potentially be an appropriate topic of discussion for a civics class.  The obvious connection is to a music class...

21st Century...

Students will have to use internet resources to answer their questions about the lyrics.  The fact that the material is presented as a song (and video) will appeal to a broad range of high school students.  It also models another possible medium that they can use to present material for assignments: through song! 

1. Collaboration: entry - adoption - adaptation - infusion - transformation
2. Knowledge Construction: entry - adoption - adaptation - infusion - transformation
5. Self-Regulation: entry - adoption - adaptation - infusion - transformation
6. Use of ICT for Learning: entry - adoption - adaptation - infusion - transformation

Future Lessons...

• Other internationally funded Science projects (Ex. The Large Hadron Collider)

More material...

Here's another Ed Robertson blog entry on Science and Songwriting. Awesome quote: "If you want to improve your songwriting, work on your math and science."  
Some trivia: the Barenaked Ladies do the theme song to Science-laden TV comedy Big Bang Theory.

This is another cool Hadfield video where he talks about how he takes the pictures from the ISS.

Day 9 - Crossing the Chasm

The problem... 

Experiment with designs and materials to build a structure that enables a truck to cross a chasm (between 2 desks).    

Why?

• Build an intuitive understanding of forces and load paths
• Make use of the engineering design process
• Encourage collaboration, knowledge construction and real-world problem solving

Ode to the Bridge Builder...

While reading this blog post, feel to play what I like to think of as the Anthem of Civil Engineers: Ode to the Bridge Builder by the awesome Kyle Gabler from the awesome game World of Goo (available for desktop, iOS, Wii and more)


Bridges are awesome (I use the word awesome a lot when I talk about Civil Engineering stuff because it is all awesome.  Big + heavy + awe-inspiring = awesome).  

The bridge building challenge has been a key go-to for physics and science teachers.  Usually it goes something like:  use the provided materials (toothpicks, spaghetti, balsa wood) to span the gap between two desks.  The team with the bridge that supports the most weight is the winner.  Its Collaborative nature also makes it a standard team-building exercise.  I want to pull this classic into the 21st Century by tweaking the challenge a bit.

Into the 21st Century...

The modifications I would make are as follows:

• Success Criteria: Bridge is able to support the weight of a (weighted toy) truck crossing over it while satisfying the constraints.  
• The usual challenge of building the bridge that supports the most weight isn't representative of Real-World Problem Solving.  Instead, if a teacher chooses to make it a competition, the winner may be the cheapest bridge (the ethics of the lowest bidder standard is a good discussion topic in classes!)
• Instead of providing the students with the materials to build the bridge, provide them with nothing.  They will have to experiment to find out what materials are best to use.
• Real constraints!  Set a material price limit.  I would set this very low (a few dollars?) to prevent them from using just a straight 2x4 or steel which would be acceptable based on the success criteria.
• Make the span huge.  Note: huge is a relative term.  It depends on how long you want students to spend on it!

Time to Play...
Students may want to dive straight into the building of the bridge but it should be stressed that they should do some research and planning before building.  This doesn't have to be boring research though.  It can be hands on and engaging.

Having the students decide what materials to use supports Knowledge Construction.  Students will have to experiment with a host of materials, taking into account their strength, weight, and cost.  They will also need to decide what to affix the members together (if it even ends up being constructed with multiple members).  

Physically experimenting with different designs can be time consuming, and time is money.  Student can experiments with different designs using simulations instead.  I say the more fun, the better.  Save the boring simulations for the pros (at least in younger grades).  Although World of Goo is not your typical physics simulation program, it helps develop an intuitive understanding of structural design (as long as they are reflecting on what they build and how they can improve their designs while playing).  Another (free) web-based game that is more specifically for bridge design is called Cargo Bridge.  Ultimately, the groups should decide what simulation program they would like to use.  

Screenshot from World of Goo

Curriculum Connections...

I see this activity as at the beginning of a physics course or at the beginning of a unit on forces.  It is a good formative assessment for a teacher to learn about students' preconceptions about forces and building.  During the design process, students can analyse the external forces in the structure, a part of the grade 12 physics curriculum.  If done at the beginning of the unit, the teacher can use it as context for the rest of the unit.  

1. Collaboration: entry - adoption - adaptation - infusion - transformation
2. Knowledge Construction: entry - adoption - adaptation - infusion - transformation
3. Real-World Problem Solving & Innovation: entry - adoption - adaptation - infusion - transformation
5. Self-Regulation: entry - adoption - adaptation - infusion - transformation
6. Use of ICT for Learning: entry - adoption - adaptation - infusion - transformation


Future blog topics...

• Formalize the engineering design process

Day 6 - The neXt Desk

The Problem...

What is the best way to move the neXt Desk?

Why?

• Opportunity for students to demonstrate real-world problem solving skills
• Illustrate the usefulness of several math concepts

I'm posting this a day late but it's because I was at the Connect 2013 conference yesterday and today. Great few days connecting with representatives from different school boards and vendors.  The neXt Desk is an art installation that is a symbol for the TCDSB's Project neXt and the neXt Lesson.  This is a picture of it set up at the Connect 2013 conference in Niagara Falls (which I'll definitely blog about later).

Ask the questions...

In an art class, students might critique the effectiveness of the piece in challenging how we normally look at desks but I thought it would be cool to turn the piece into a math problem as well. 

I would start by giving the students the picture.  Tell them they are the moving crew responsible for moving the sculpture! What might they want to know about it?  What if the only information they had was from the picture?  What would they want to know before agreeing to move the piece?  Students could work in groups and may come up with entirely different sets of questions.  Some examples may be as follows:

• How tall is the piece? 
• How much does the entire piece weigh? 
• The piece comes apart into sections.  How many sections should it come apart in for two people to be able to carry it? (I came up with this because I did this multiple times in the past few days)
• How much tension are in the cables?
• Would the piece stand if the cables weren't there?

How can we find the answers...

Then, in groups, students can discuss how are they going to solve the problem posed.  This may take some research and data collection.  Some possible methods are described below:

• How tall is the piece? They could scale the picture from the size of one desk that they measure in the school.  If they had access to the piece, they could just measure it.
• How much does the entire piece weigh? Students could estimate/measure the weight of one desk and multiply.  But then what is their method for weighing one desk?  Look it up or find a scale and somehow measure it?  What about hardware and connectors?  Does their contribution to the total weight matter?
• The piece comes apart into sections.  How many sections should it come apart in for two people to be able to carry it? They may ask questions such as: what is a reasonable weight that 2 people are able to carry? What are the size constraints such that it would fit through a regular door?  It takes more time to take it apart into more sections.  What is a good balance between weight and time to construct/deconstruct?
• How much tension are in the cables? This is hard!  At least I think so.  Even with a Civil Engineering degree.  I think it is still an interesting question to pose.  Students could try building a scale model and directly measuring tension (but this  brings into question problems with scaling up loads, one of the many causes of the Quebec Bridge Disaster of 1907).   They could also come up with a range of possible values based on the weight of the structure.  Another method would be to compare the different sets of cables: which ones would have the most/least tension and make some assumptions for them.  Another interesting method would be if the students had access to the sculpture, they could theoretically pluck the cables and measure the frequency of the vibration.  They could then calculate the tension using the length, density and diameter of the cable.  I have done this with my guitar students to find out how much compression their guitar neck is resisting.  Another topic for another day...
• Would the piece stand if the cables weren't there? They might look at the tension in the cables.  They might try (safely) experimenting with a desk in the classroom to see how strong it is.  If you are wondering, the answer is yes it does stand but it ain't pretty!

Educated guessing...

Before actually applying their calculations, students should hypothesize what their answers would be.  This is an important part of solving real-world problems.  Know the answer before you find the answer! This is one of 3 Engineering Tenants I learned in my undergrad (which I will dedicate another blog entry on problem-based learning to).

What I like about questions like this is that I (as the teacher) dont necessarily need to know the answer.  To move it, we took the sculpture apart into 4 segments of 5 desks to move it but maybe there is a better way!  


What if...

Once the students have a good understanding of the sculpture you can take it one step further by asking questions such as:

• Why might the artist have used 20 desks?
• How tall would the piece be if there were 10,25,30,50 desks?  What assumptions would you have to make?  This can turn it into a geometry (something I didn't explore but another good way to go with the sculpture) or even a calculus question (rate of change of perimeter to diameter).
• What are some limitations of increasing the number of desks?

Curriculum...

Depending on the grade level and questions the students ask, the investigation can cover topics such as measurement, scaling, relationships between variables (weight of sculpture vs. number of desks, height of sculpture vs. number of desks).

21C...

Though it may not be a real-world problem that the students themselves face, it is one that we had to face moving it and the artist had to face when designing and building it!  Next time the neXt Desk needs to be moved from its location at the TCDSB headquarters to another conference, have some students test out some of their ideas!  (Only with adult supervision.  The piece is not the easiest or safest thing to move)  


1. Collaboration: entry - adoption - adaptation - infusion - transformation
3. Real-World Problem Solving & Innovation: entry - adoption - adaptation - infusion - transformation




A final point.  Obviously this is a TCDSB specific sculpture but the problems students are solving should be specific!  This problem may engage students from Cardinal Carter who walk by the sculpture every day but may not for a student who hasn't seen the piece before.  Teachers should seek out opportunities for investigations such as these in their own school communities.  Put on those math goggles and see what you can find.


Future Lesson Ideas:

• Guitar String Tension vs Pitch

Day 3 - How Many Lightbulbs?

The Problem...

How much energy do you regularly use?  How much of an impact will you have if you reduce your energy use?

Why?

• Students examine and visualize the extent of their regular energy use to get an intuitive sense of what energy really is
• Bring big sustainability topics into science classes

Visualizing Energy...

This is a video I found a while ago on TED-Ed:

This video is full of important Science, Math and Sustainable Development topics.  It helps students visualize energy use (hard to visualize by itself) in terms of lightbulbs (easier to visualize).  He discusses the fact that we need more substantial, systemic change than just 'eliminating plastic bags' to really make a difference in the world.  

The video has been flipped on TED-Ed, meaning that in addition to the video, it has questions and extra resources for students.  It is a good place to start a conversation on difficult topics such as sustainable power generation and personal energy use.  Today I will focus on the personal energy use aspect.  Flipped to a class, the questions given on TED-Ed can act as a homework check for a teacher as well as a formative assessment about their current understanding of the topic.

Personal Energy Audit

Watching the video, I was reminded of a project from third year where I had to perform a Personal Energy Audit by tracking my energy use over the course of a week.  We then had to analyze our results and create a plan to reduce our energy consumption.  Here are some of my results from that project:

The hardest part about collecting the data is figuring out the rate of consumption of each item.  Most of them require the application of Ohm's Law (V=I/R) to find out the current.  The natural gas can be found from utility bills and transportation can be approximated by mileage and gas consumption.  This is where a Google Spreadsheet would come in handy.  Each student could be assigned a different item and figure out how much energy it consumes for each hour/kilometre/month in operation and record the value and any assumptions. They could record their findings on the spreadsheet so the rest of the class would be able to see it.  They could then use their classmates' values to Collaboratively calculate their total energy consumption by just keeping track of approximately how long each appliance is running and multiplying it by the consumption.  The collaborative aspect of the task makes it much less laborious for each student while emphasizing the need for authentic and necessary collaboration. 

Be Critical...

After performing the analysis, they would be responsible for creating an Action Plan that they can use to figure out how to reduce their energy consumption which they will put into practice.  They should then compare their results to the number of lightbulbs given by the presenter in the video and critically analyze his assumptions.  As an extension, the whole class can look at the total energy consumption and find out how many lightbulbs that equates to.  Group discussions can be used to develop strategies for reducing power consumption as a school/community and educate their peers on the issue.

The investigation gives the students a great feel for the scale of their impact compared to the assumptions in the video.  They can validate the speakers assumptions based on their own data and determine whether their personal impact is worth the effort it may require.

Curriculum connections...

In terms of curriculum, the assignment requires appropriate research, unit conversions, energy conversions, record keeping and data management, and basic electricity and energy calculations.  Based on these expectations, Grade 11 or 12 Science would probably be appropriate.  I think an interesting application would be for students to start the project in Grade 9 (or earlier) and track their energy use until Grade 12.  This way they can evaluate and improve their own plans for reducing their energy consumption. 

On the 21st Century Continuum...

Depending on how far a teacher wants to go with this project, I think it has the potential to be transformative in all dimensions of the 21C framework.  The best part of it is that they can put self-constructed knowledge to good use with their Action Plans and set a good example for friends and family members by implementing them.


1. Collaboration: entry - adoption - adaptation - infusion - transformation
2. Knowledge Construction: entry - adoption - adaptation - infusion - transformation
3. Real-World Problem Solving & Innovation: entry - adoption - adaptation - infusion - transformation


4. Skilled Communication: entry - adoption - adaptation - infusion - transformation
5. Self-Regulation: entry - adoption - adaptation - infusion - transformation
6. Use of ICT for Learning: entry - adoption - adaptation - infusion - transformation





D2L

Today I attended a D2L training session.  D2L would provide students doing an Energy Audit with the tools to collect the data, discuss the results and share the results with each other.  They would also be able to share their results across schools and boards and track their progress over the years.  

Future Lesson Ideas

• Nuclear Power Generation and Energy Return on Investment (EROI)
• Analyse carbon footprint/GHG emissions
• Embodied energy and life-cycle analysis

Day 2 - We Stopped Dreaming

Neil deGrasse Tyson is a one of my favourite astrophysicists (as well as subject of the fairly popular meme below from http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/neil-degrasse-tyson-reaction).

A lesson I developed for the Space Exploration Unit in grade 9 Science for one of my classes at OISE involved the following video based on Neil deGrasse Tyson audio clips:

The discussion...

In the lesson, the video was meant to stimulate discussion on the ethics of funding space exploration. For that lesson, I kept the discussion centred around the ethics of space exploration but it could easily broadened into a discussion about science funding in general.  It can also be used as a starting point for Digital Citizenship conversations about reliable sources online and bias.  Some interdisciplinary (Science, Math, Civics, History and Politics) discussion topics are:

• Bias in the video
• Funding space exploration with tax dollars
• Ethical issues with funding of science and scientific research in general
• What sources should we use to verify Neil's claims about NASA funding?
• Verify Neil's claim about cutting 4/10ths of 1% into the dollar bill
• How has the funding changed since the video was made?
• How does the funding of Canada's version of NASA, the Canadian Space Agency compare to NASA funding?
• What cultural impact has Chris Hadfield had with his tweets from the ISS?

In a class...

I think a good way to use the video is to flip it to the class for homework using something such as TED-Ed where you can add multiple choice and discussion questions and have students answer them at home before a class discussion.  The questions can prompt Knowledge Construction where students to explore their preconceived notions about the topic and how their opinion may change after watching the video.  The teacher receives the results and can structure activities and discussion prompts based on those opinions.

STSE

Space exploration funding is that it is a great example of an STSE issue (science, technology, society and the environment) that aligns with the [Grade 9 Science] curriculum and is also a good entry point for the implementation of the 21C framework.  What I like about the secondary Science curriculum is that it stresses STSE issues (the ordering of expectations used to be skills then concepts then STSE but is now reversed to STSE then concepts then skills).  This provides Science teachers with an opportunity to ask more open-ended and critical questions.  [I actually think the extremely dense math curriculum could benefit from a similar structure]

On the 21C Continuum...

By no means does the idea reach the transformative end of the continuum by itself but it does start to get students' brains critically thinking about media and provides an opportunity for a great discussion in subjects that do not traditionally present such opportunities (Science).  The is an opportunity for students to exhibit Skilled Communication, both in classroom discussions and in online discussion questions on TED-Ed, D2L or other platform.  It also opens the doors to larger discussions on the Nature of Science and the impact of Science on culture.

2. Knowledge Construction: entry - adoption - adaptation - infusion - transformation
4. Skilled Communication: entry - adoption - adaptation - infusion - transformation

Neil deGrasse Tyson Extras

• More videos on the topic can be found at: http://www.penny4nasa.org/category/videos/
• This is an interesting link to a Neil deGrasse Tyson interview with Jian Ghomeshi on Q: http://www.cbc.ca/q/blog/2012/03/28/neil-degrasse-tyson-on-q/