Our Planet is a groundbreaking, four-year collaboration between Netflix, Silverback Films and WWF. It explores the rich natural wonders, iconic species and wildlife spectacles that still remain, and reveals the key issues that urgently threaten their existence. Today, we have become the greatest threat to the health of our planet.
Our joint mission is to inspire people over the world to understand our planet - and the challenges it faces. If we can truly understand why nature matters to us all, and what we can do to save it, then we can create a future where nature and people thrive.
It is very BBC Planet Earth-esque in many ways: stunning wildlife photography accompanied by a David Attenborough narration. But in it's storytelling, it does describe human impact. There are times when that impact is beneficial, but more often it is detrimental. Appallingly detrimental.
But no part of the series is "pollution porn". No images of filth being pumped into waterways or oil-covered birds struggling amid the sludge.
By and large it is a celebration of nature as it remains and an assurance that, given the opportunity, the extent to which it can recover. And photography tools and techniques have advanced significantly since Planet Earth was made.
There are disturbing vignettes. The fungus that bursts forth from the corpse of an ant whose dying behavior it commandeered, the successful orca hunt of an outmatched penguin, and "the walrus scene". The walrus scene will likely stay with me for a very long time. It should be noted that the entire eight-episode series is rated TV-G.
I may never have need or cause to direct my own students to watch this series. But others might. It seems very much in line with the NGSS three-course model's "The Living Earth". But I know I'm unwilling to use expository video resources without an accompanying set of questions. For long-form videos such as each episode of Our Planet, a sequence of surface-level questions can keep students focused on the narrative.
So I spent a significant portion of spring break preparing video question sets that teachers could use with students while watching any or all episodes of the series. For me, that requires first screening the episode as a passive audience member. Next I go through the process of watching and listening and pausing while I allow the text of the narration to suggest possible questions.
Fill-in-the-blanks are simple and can be effective. Sometimes. But not when the key word or phrase is something like "Rub' al Khali" or name of any exotic place or organism. Multiple choice can be deployed here, but it's key to develop distractors of such quality that even a clever student would be attracted to a wrong answer if they were not paying attention.
There are occasions in which multi-select checklists are appropriate. Rarely, it is even possible to create a matching sequence.
Often the producers of such programs will develop deep and expansive curriculum through which an instructor could make a semester or yearlong course based on the documentary series. And the producers of Our Planet have produced a companion book for the series.
For now, my own classroom interests have never risen to that level of ambition. Not even for The Mechanical Universe. I prefer to incorporate the resources rather than to be incorporated by them.
If you know someone who might want to replace their use of Planet Earth with something a little more environmentally conscious, send them this post. Our planet is stunningly gorgeous, as is Our Planet.
I should probably ad a subject tag of "better late than never". Maybe later.
Somehow this article got past me last year. My absentminded/aloof game is apparently too strong sometimes. So I apologize if you already knew about this item from Neuroscience News ages ago, but...
I've been developing "skepticism in the classroom" resources for quite a while. I've posted a bunch of them to The Lessons off Phyz at Teachers Pay Teachers. I drop them into my curriculum throughput the year, when the moment is right. Sometimes they are assigned as "YouTube Homework".
YouTube Skepticism: Baloney Detection Kit
This activity engages students as they watch a 14-minute video on a so-called "Baloney Detection Kit". It's a structured implementation of Carl Sagan's quote, "Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence, and acts as a filter when students are confronted with claims.
YouTube Skepticism: The First Moon Office
This activity compares the science of meteors and apparent weightlessness with how those phenomena are represented in a Federal Express television advertisement.
YouTube Skepticism: Power Balance
Power Balance bracelets burst onto the scene a few years ago and enjoyed explosive success. There were "knock-offs," fakes, and the company gathered so much cash it bough the naming rights to sports and entertainment complex in Sacramento: what had been ARCO Arena became Power Balance Pavilion. The activity brings students through the claims and the tests of those claims. Power Balance has since declared bankruptcy, but similar products (targeted toward baseball players) persist. There will always be such products, I hope my students do not buy them.
YouTube Skepticism: Magnet Boys
This activity allows students to consider several cases of so-called "magnet boys" that swarmed the Internet a few years ago. The cases pose interesting questions, and magician and skeptic, James Randi, has an idea of what might be going on.
YouTube Skepticism: Cell Phone Popcorn
This activity has students observe and investigate a set of viral videos that took YouTube by storm a few years ago: ordinary people were using their cell phones to pop popcorn. The videos leas students into a revealing investigation.
The Secrets of the Psychics
Nova's Secrets of the Psychics. Magician and skeptic, James "The Amazing" Randi, exposes so-called psychics at home and abroad. It's a serious topic, but there are a great many laughs to be had.
Merchants of Doubt
Question set and answer key to accompany Merchants of Doubt (Sony Classic Pictures). This documentary exposes the parallels of the tactics used by the tobacco industry and climate change deniers, among others.
When we study magnetism, we learn that certain animals have awareness of magnetic fields and can use it for navigation. Certain birds are known to have magnetite in their skulls. Here's a nice update of recent findings regarding magnetoception in birds.
Humans do not seem to have this capability. But that doesn't mean our brains are entirely oblivious to magnetic fields.
Veritasium's Derek Muller dons a sensor-laden shower cap of science to test his brain's awareness of the magnetic field it's immersed in. Could it be that the brain senses magnetic fields but doesn't share the information with our consciousness? Take a look.
What I always love about Jearl Walker's work is that it looks at the world, sees something peculiar, and says "why is that?" And proceeds to investigate.
We often hear, "Everything happens for a reason." What we should also hear is, "And that reason is physics."
So it is with The Cheerios Effect. Watch and learn.
Here's the latest Phyz playlist, an idea I got from fellow Phyz blogger, Dan Burns.
The topic this time is waves and sound.
Curiosities: An alphabetical listing is dominated by the Ws. A chronological listing is dominated by songs released in the past five years.
Left behind: The list would be longer if not for careful curation. Apple Music search results tagged with an E (explicit) are not included. We fire up the playlist (at an Office Space "reasonable volume") during lab activities. You do not want to fill your classroom with expletives, no matter how mellifluous the tones. Because that will be followed by a conversation with your principal that you really do not want to have.
In any case, on to the list. If I missed a gem, let me know in the comments. I like that the alpha list begins with "Catch a Wave" and ends with "Waving Goodbye".
The Waves and Sound Playlist of Phyz
SONG
ARTIST
YEAR
Catch a Wave
Beach Boys
1963
Don't Make Waves
Brand X
1979
Every Breaking Wave
U2
2014
I Like the Sound of That
Rascal Flatts
2014
Salt Water Sound
Zero 7
2002
Sound
Daniela Andrade
2016
Sound
James
1998
Sound & Color
Alabama Shakes
2016
The Sound
The 1975
2015
The Sound of Silence
Simon & Garfunkel
1966
Veering From the Wave
Jennifer Kimball
1998
Walking on Sunshine
Katrina & the Waves
1985
Warm Sound
Zero 7
2004
Wave (Instrumental)
Antônio Carlos Jobim
1967
Wave (English)
Sinatra & Jobim
1967
Wave (Portuguese)
João Gilberto
1977
Wave
Beck
2014
Wave
Brooke Butler
2017
Wave
Jvck James
2018
Wave
The Midnight
2018
Wave (feat. Kali Uchis)
Major Lazer
2015
Wave (feat. Masego)
Abir
2016
Wavelength
Van Morrison
1978
Wavelength
Lastings
2015
Waves
Mr. Probz
2014
Waves
Blondfire
2014
Waves
Dean Lewis
2016
Waving
The Bevis Frond
2016
Waving
Blackfield
2011
Waving
The Delilahs
1995
Waving
Jami Lula
2002
Waving
Rich Whiteley
2009
Waving
Tamas
2017
Waving
Tiny Desserts
2019
Waving Goodbye
Sia
2016
Click the "playlist" label below to see more Playlists of Phyz. As of this post, there are playlists up for Electricity and Magnetism.
If your curriculum visits light and color, here's a nice tangent worth traveling. Not sharks with fricken lasers, but mice with night vision.
Scientists have figured out how to confer a superpower, like those wielded by the mythical X-Men, at least to mice. Using nanoparticles that convert infrared (IR) light to visible light, researchers have given mice the ability to see in the dark. If the same technique works in humans, it could offer soldiers night vision without the need for goggles and possibly counter ailments that cause patients to gradually lose their sight.
As a veteran of titling blog posts and lab activities, and as a long-time fan of progressive-era Genesis, "All in a Mouse's Night" quickly came to mind. Trust me, this gift is as much a curse as it is a blessing.
Of course my Montana-sized ego compels me to at least attempt to sourgrapes this awesomeness. Not an easy lift, but here goes:
It's a good thing Kari Byron wasn't one of my students, because if she were, I'd be about 15 years into a forehead tattoo reading "I was Kari Byron's Physics Teacher!" If we're being honest, that would only serve to ostracize me from family, friends, students, and colleagues. And I don't think Ms. Byron would ever speak to me again. So... whew: dodged that bullet!
In any case, I hope Kari will keep us all laughing and thinking, and that Dan will continue to share his pearls wisdom with readers of this blog. The world could always use more people like these two.
1. Dodge Nitro Jump
This activity engages students with a practical problem. A motorist is trying to revive his broken-down car. A second motorist offers assistance. When a jump-start is arranged, things take an unexpected turn in the parking lot at Beachs. An understanding of algebraic kinematics is required here. Certainly appropriate for AP Physics 1.
2. Tavurvur Erupts!
This activity engages students with a dramatic video that captures the initial moments of a volcanic eruption. An adiabatic expansion cloud appears and disappears, a shock wave shocks observers capturing the video, and huge boulders trace graceful arc through the air, taking many seconds to eventually crash back into the ocean. Careful analysis of the video and knowledge of physics, and the use of PhET's Flash-based "Projectile Motion" sim allows students to determine the distance to the volcano and the launch speed of those boulders. How safe were the people filming the eruption?
Add this to your mix of classroom demonstrations and lab activities to thoroughly teach the topic at hand. I developed this activity for use with my own students.
3. Inertia
This activity engages students with a few popular inertia related videos found on YouTube. Video addresses are given in the document. Since such addresses can sometimes go bad, search terms are used as titles. Examples here include "Shopping Cart Fail," "Unloading Bamboo Like a Boss," "Car Bowling Fail," and "BMW Tablecloth Trick XXXL". A Mythbusters video is also employed, as is a hilarious clip from a pair of charming German child actors.
4. Car Crash Safety
This activity engages students with Griff Jones' classic, Understsanding Car Crashes: It's Basic Physics. I use this as a review of mechanics. The activity then goes on to have students find the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety's rating of vehicles they drive or are passengers in. Or aspire to own. The activity finishes with a pair or head-on collision tests showing that vehicle safety regulations have demonstrable, positive effects on vehicle design. Students are very interested in cars, so they find this activity very engaging.
5. Rolling Through Roundabouts in a Reliant Robin
This activity engages students with an amusing vignette from Britain's Top Gear automobile-themed program. It addresses a considerable design flaw in the three-wheeled Reliant Robin automobile. As is customary on Top Gear, the flaw is highlighted mercilessly, hilariously, and a solution is implemented. The activity is even more fun when the optional background research is done.
6. Backyard Water Slide
This activity engages students with a practical problem. A video shows a backyard water slide enthusiast who slides down a formidable incline that bends into a jump. The enthusiast overshoots the intended landing point. Onlookers burst into laughter. Students work through the physics of why things turned out as they did, even if reasonable precautions were taken. An understanding of rotational kinetic energy in rolling is required here. Appropriate for AP Physics 1.
7. Victoria Phyz Falls
This activity engages students fairly deeply with a thrill-seeking stunt I performed when I visited Victoria Falls on the border between Zambia and Zimbabwe in 2014. Bungee jumping is an activity rich with physics. And this jump, filmed at the Victoria Falls Bridge, does not disappoint. Six pages of analysis interrogate the mechanics of the jump quite thoroughly. Multiple representations are implemented. An understanding of harmonic motion and Hooke's Law is required here. Appropriate for AP Physics 1.
8. Color Mixing
This activity engages students with two videos that relate to color mixing. One from Science Friday shows the amazing camouflage capabilities of cephalopods via biological pixels called chromatophores. The other from the Royal Institution tells the story of how the brain and the receptors in our eyes "invent" magenta.
9. Polarized + Blue
This activity engages students with two videos: Physics Girl explores optical polarization in "Only Some Humans Can See This Type of Light" and KQED goes for a deep dive into on structural color in "Magnificent Blue".
And I'm tinkering with the notion of a bundle, hence: YouTube Physics BUNDLE. All nine lessons at a discount.
