Planning for Coronavirus - Part 1

Part 1

As if the situation wasn't scary enough already, memes like "anyone over age 60 is being left to die in Italy" is enough to give those of us over 60 the heebie-jeebies.  The real situation (they may not be given aggressive care/intubated - https://www.express.co.uk/news/world/1257852/Italy-coronavirus-intubating-elderly-pandemic-china-hospitals-Nadine-Dorries ) isn't terribly comforting.)

However...

(...you knew there had to be a 'however', right?) this doesn't mean we're helpless or doomed.  When I saw that state governors were calling for retired medical staff to step up and help in the fight against coronavirus (allowing them to be re-licensed easily) it occurred to me that although we might not be trained medical personnel, we could learn some basic nursing skills and do some basic preparation (just in case) so that if any of the people we care about become really ill, we can do something more than just fetch a wet towel and wring our hands.

Right?

And if you don't need it now, the planning and setup will still be helpful the next time someone gets sick (or breaks a bone or has another problem.)

Let's get to work, then.

There should be three categories of things you need - A place, some supplies, and a bit of knowledge.  This can be as elaborate (devoting a wing of your mansion to it and having your own servants) or as humble (a couch and a shoebox of first aid supplies) as you wish.

So... space.

1. It should be easy to get to (if things turn very serious and you need to get the patient to a hospital or EMS needs to transport them.)  
2. It should be easy to clean.  
3. It should allow some separation from others in the house.  A separate room is ideal, but if you don't have that, look at making a couch or comfortable chair into a nursing station.  If you're feeling whimsical, you can even make a pillow fort your nursing space: https://www.wikihow.com/Make-a-Pillow-Fort
4. It should be easy for the patient to eat and drink while nestled there (a small table nearby, access to entertainment (books, computer, phone, whatever)

These guidelines apply if you live by yourself -- if you need help, the place where you are resting should be easy to get at, easy to clean, and easy access to food and drink.


Make A Nursing Care Kit

You can use any convenient carry-all... a box, old purse, grocery bag, whatever.  Put it in an easy to reach place.  Fill it with

1. bandages/bandaids
2. analgesic and fever reliever of your choice
3. alcohol wipes (or cotton balls/pads with a bottle of alcohol or hydrogen peroxide)
4. Thermometer
5. Face masks (in case you or the person you're nursing has to go to a clinic)
6. note pad and pencil (pen ink can dry up at the worst of times.  Mechanical pencil is a good choice)  Make a record of when the illness started and what the symptoms are so you can discuss it more effectively with medical personnel.
7. cough medicine of your choice
8. Remedies for some common ailments (because if you get one of those, you really might not want to have to go to the drug store for them if you're feeling bad) -- anti-nausea pills, allergy medication, diuretic, stool softener, gentle laxative, sleep aid.
9. Optional:  heating pad or ice pack (or reusable methods of heat and cold)
10. Very optional - a scent of your choice (I like lavender but not always.)

The idea here is to have things quickly available for general illness (as well as for the coronavirus.)

Thinking About Food

This will be personal choices, but in general you should have something like Pedialite or Gatorade or other drink that hydrates and provides some electrolytes.  If you're not buying powder mixes, buy about two weeks' worth of drinks (something you like and something you will drink over the next 3 months... because these things don't keep forever.)

If you can drink them, consider buying some of the meal replacement shakes (particularly if you live alone.)   Food delivery service may be difficult to find in some cases and it's good to be prepared.

Contacts

Whether or not you live alone, let others on social media know if you're ill.


SYMPTOM COMPARISON

In the interests of NOT spreading panic, here's a graphic that gives a breakdown to answer the question "do I have COVID-19?"

Here's the probable timeline of COVID-19 infection:

(news article that sparked my idea https://www.newsweek.com/new-york-governor-asks-retired-doctors-nurses-sign-call-amid-coronavirus-crisis-1492825)

The Numbers Today

As of 3 pm, here's the numbers for Dallas County from Johns Hopkins:

Confirmed cases - 155
Deaths -4

From the Texas Tribune, here's the numbers for Texas (not just Dallas):

As of March 23 at noon, there were at least 373 coronavirus cases in Texas. There were 8 reported deaths. At least 10,055 people have been tested.


The Bigger Picture - Data from Google

Look at the jump in the numbers here in Texas in the last 2 days

	Texas cases (Google)	deaths
02/13/2020	1	first reported case, 15th in nation
02/27/2020
03/03/2020	69	1
03/05/2020		1
03/10/2020
03/13/2020
03/20/2020	435	5
03/21/20	417	5
03/22/20	334	6
03/23/20	719	7

Okay, BREATHE.... some of the jump is due to them getting more samples analyzed by more labs (labs may have been closed over the weekend)

Why doesn't the Google data match the Texas Tribune (Texas Health Department) numbers? 
* Google's numbers were taken later in the day
* Texas Tribune is only reporting data from the Texas Health Department.  They are only reporting numbers from the labs (positive tests.)
* Google's numbers seem to come from some hospitals in addition to the Texas Health Department numbers.

Which should I believe? 
Assume both are correct and both are about 2 days out of date.  Texas Health Department is only reporting on samples that have come into a lab for testing and from data sent back by the testing labs.  It's not easy or convenient to get tested (and many people are turned away at this point.)  The Texas Health Department's numbers are not an accurate measure of the current environment.

Google's numbers are better and a bit more up-to-the-minute... BUT... rely on busy medical personnel taking time to turn in the data.

What are the real numbers?
I have more confidence in Johns Hopkins' numbers, though it's still low.  These do rely on people coming in and saying "hey, I am sick with something" and being diagnosed... so there's folks out there who just aren't feeling well but didn't go see a doc.

What's the use of the numbers?

There's an old saying "you can't control what you don't measure."  We won't know when we're winning the fight with COVID-19 if we don't have some measures of who's got it and how it's impacting things.

What About The Data?

If you've been following the numbers for a bit, you may have noticed that they change in ways that are bizarre.  As an example, here's part of a spreadsheet I did that collected numbers for Texas from the Google display:

	cases (Google)	deaths
02/13/2020	1	first reported case, 15th in nation
02/27/2020
03/03/2020	69	1
03/05/2020		1
03/10/2020
03/13/2020
03/20/2020	435	5
03/21/20	417	5
03/22/20	334	6

Why did the numbers go from 435 to 417 to 334?  There was a change in the reporting -- Texas got official coronavirus test kits and instead of using hospital numbers they switched (over a 2 day period) to "official diagnosis via test kit" numbers.

The time of day that the numbers are being reported also changed.  A state might have 20 cases if you took the numbers at 10 am... but 24 cases if you took it at 10 pm.

This is problematic.  The original numbers seem to be those sent to the CDC from hospitals.  The "test kit" numbers are only given AFTER someone has gone through all the procedures to get approved to take the test AND the person has taken the test.  IF they have insurance and the ability to pay for the test and can get to a testing site (not everyone has a car and here in Texas nearly 22 percent of people are uninsured.  That translates to "at a minimum, 1/5th of all people in Texas will have trouble getting the test even if they're very sick with COVID-19. so their data won't show up in the 'official count'.") 

 According to the Texas Health Department (https://dshs.texas.gov/) the labs can currently only process 26 samples per day.  It can take up to a week to learn the results.

So the numbers we see are numbers from several days previously.  If I'm feeling generous, I'll say that the "current number" shown on the coronavirus info page of your choice is actually for two days ago.  If I'm not feeling generous, I'd say that it's a week out of date.  The truth lies somewhere in between.  At this point we're fairly early in the pandemic (only 2 months of data) and the real morbidity and mortality numbers won't show up for quite awhile.


Rate of Spread

A tweet just today (see below) from the head of the World Health Organization highlights something that I saw in my data last night -- the rate of spread is increasing.  Some of this is due to lack of data... no real testing, people only show up at hospitals when they're really really sick, critically ill people at home who are going out in search of treatment for their symptoms (going to a pharmacy to get cough medicine, for instance) so we can only guess at the numbers who are infected with the virus.  By the time they get to the attention of the medical monitors, they may have passed the virus along to dozens (or hundreds) of people -- and we're talking about a 2 week incubation period (our best guess.)



Feeling Helpless?

This is a big scary situation, and one that epidemiologists have been warning about for awhile.  But I'd rather not leave you with a message of fear because in these times we have things that we can do... positive things.

* write about your experiences.  Keep a blog and keep notes on what you're doing -- not only the medical prevention measures but blog about changes in work and socialization.  THIS TYPE OF PANDEMIC WILL COME AGAIN (and again, and again.)  The tips and tactics you write down now will help others when another novel virus rears its ugly head.
* keep checking on the vulnerable ones you know -- people with low income, elderly, immune compromised.
* understand that Scary Data shows trends but does not show an accurate to-the-second picture.

My advice on masks:  Use one if you want (gloves, too) and don't feel embarrassed about it.  Be sure to clean (or dispose) of the mask after each use (ditto gloves.)  Likewise if you don't feel one is necessary, then don't use one... but don't shame the ones who do.  I will be using masks (and occasionally gloves) because my husband and I are in the high risk category and because he has diabetes and Parkinson's and minor health crises can escalate rapidly with those two conditions.

Notes and Sources:

"Morbidity and Mortality" is epidemiologist-speak for "too sick to go to work" and "dead", respectively.

You can read an overview of some of the problems Dallas had on the 2nd day of "drive up testing" here: https://www.dallasnews.com/news/public-health/2020/03/22/day-2-of-dallas-countys-coronavirus-mobile-testing-leaves-some-patients-frustrated-concerned/

Tweet from the head of the World Health Organization today:

Coronavirus Comments

I'm changing this blog over to my "Coronavirus In Texas" personal project.  I don't want to fuel my Facebook feed with all the things I read and research, but my mind still needs an outlet... so this blog will be my nattering space and data analysis space.

A number of folks on Facebook are also tracking this.

Resources used - Johns Hopkins ARCGIS:
https://www.arcgis.com/apps/opsdashboard/index.html#/bda7594740fd40299423467b48e9ecf6

Texas Tribune (presumed updated daily) https://www.texastribune.org/2020/03/02/coronavirus-texas-cases-latest-updates-san-antonio/


From the "Unintended Consequences of COVID-19 File" a quote from the Dallas County website: Dallas County is cancelling all jury trials for Dallas County Criminal Courts, Civil Courts and Justice of the Peace (J.P.) Courts through May 8, 2020. Dallas County citizens summoned to appear at the Frank Crowley Criminal Courthouse, at the George Allen Civil Courthouse, or a J.P. Court prior to May 8, 2020 should not report nor call to reschedule their service.

All Dallas County Tax Offices are closed to the public for face-to-face transactions until further notice. Please see the tax website for more information."

https://www.dallascounty.org/departments/dchhs/2019-novel-coronavirus.php 

Now https://www.arcgis.com/apps/opsdashboard/index.html#/bda7594740fd40299423467b48e9ecf6 is showing individual spots in Texas.  Most useful.

Dallas numbers are the highest in the state in spite of Houston being the first area where coronavirus was found.

Shrinky dinks and the Cricut mini die cutter

Sometimes you have a need to make a craft as a reward or prize for an activity -- and not go crazy in the process.  In my case, I needed to make some small charms for a party.  While shrinky-dinks were a good choice for the materials, what I did NOT want to do is go crazy cutting out the same shape again and again.  In an effort to be very clever about the whole thing (and, being logical, of course) I decided to use my Cricut mini die cutting machine and Shrinky Dinks, but the problem was that there weren't a lot of sites with instructions on how to do something like this (there may be YouTube videos on it, but honestly, guys, I can read instructions faster and skip to the basics.  The last thing I want is to sit through 5 minutes of a video of music and chat.)

So I decided I'd just have to figure out how to do it myself.  The material isn't that hard to cut.  What could possibly go wrong?

Happily, the answer is "not a whole lot."

I picked a photo that I'd taken, cropped and shrank it and played with the color enhancement in Gimp (you can use any photo editing software you like.)  I picked a final size and made sure the image would look fine with a white border (because I hate wasting ink colors.)  I saved that picture and then brought it into Microsoft Word (you can do this with any word processor) and simply repeated the picture in even rows and columns.

I knew I wanted the end "charm" to be about an inch high, so my image was two inches high.  Once I was happy with the setup, I printed the sheet out on plain paper.  Then came the issue of trying to set up the cut marks for my Cricut mini.  I placed the plain sheet of paper on my cutting mat, eyeballed where I thought the cuts should go, and cut a scrap piece of paper (not the one I had printed.) 

Then I pulled off the cutouts and held the sheet to the printed paper to see if the holes would make a perfect border around the images.  It took about an hour of printing, cutting, and tweaking but I finally got the thing to work.

I first printed out the patterns on a sheet of Shrinky-Dink for ink jet printers. 

Next, I prepped the Cricut's cutting mats (which were not new mats) by running a strip of Dryline adhesive on the edges where I was going to put the Shrinky-Dink paper -- because if the paper shifted at all during the cutting, I would have ruined the whole thing.

I used my regular blade in the Cricut Mini, setting the blade depth to 6 and the pressure to 5.  In the Cricut Craft Room, I set the cutting speed to 3 (medium) and the number of cuts to 2 and rubbed the paper hard on the mat for luck and told Cricut Craft Room to process the cut.

I was happy with the results.  The charms shrank properly in the oven and I saved both the Cricut cutting shapes and the document with the images in case I needed to run another set of them.  It was a lot of trouble to set up, but in the end, using the Cricut let me do twenty of the charms with less stress and hassle than if I'd tried to cut the things out by hand.

How to make smart health choices

It surprised me no end that NCBI has now hopped on the ebook/online book bandwagon and is offering free books online.  This one, in particular, is a good idea -- however, the people who could benefit from it most are probably going to fall out of the chair from boredom after trying to read it.http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK63638/

And that's a real problem.  The well educated can follow their logic and make a lot of use of their information (particularly interesting was their evaluation of research on diets and evaluating which one might be best) but the average person who has been trained by media to read in sound bytes and to "turn off" or "turn away" after the 300 word limit or so. 

And here we reach one the threads of my dissertation -- the information is out there and the "information rich" can find it.  The "information poor" can't access it directly (for example, some of the people I've worked with who have poor reading skills and poor memory retention.  The book is a real gem for "information source points" which can summarize and present it to the information poor.

The graphic at the beginning of Chapter 5 is one that really should be printed out and kept by everyone, asking critical questions such as "what will happen if I wait and watch?" and "How do the benefits and harms weigh up for me?" and "do I have enough information to make a choice" are listed as suggested steps in the process towards making a decision.  Scenarios and anecdotes in each section make this a thought-provoking read.

Recommended.

California’s latest trend -- not teaching science

Silicon Valley is going to be in trouble in ten years -- or, at least, more trouble than it's currently in. While they may have enough people writing English and able to give correct change for cash, they may have a staggering lack of scientists. According to a recent study by WestED, only 10 percent of students regularly receive quality science education -- something that has principals concerned, and something that should have parents concerned as well.

The numbers are not pleasant to look at. WestEd found that 40 percent of elementary school teachers spend less than an hour each week teaching science, and those who did teach it often had trouble managing time for adequate lessons. Personal education was another problem. According to the interviews, only 1/3 of them felt they were actually prepared to teach science subjects. Eighty-five percent said they hadn't received any kind of science training or continuing education in science in the past three years. Many teachers said that they didn't have funds or supplies to teach science even when they had the time and training.

Middle Schools play catch up?

There are several issues that compound the problem. California has recommended rules governing how much time teachers should spend on language arts and math. Other subjects, including science, aren't given any guidelines like this. In addition, some districts don't really push to teach science until students reach middle school, since science isn't covered on standardized tests in the elementary grades. This is a grave mistake, because much of the foundation for a good science education and the development of a healthy curiosity can be built in the early grades.

While educators and others are working to address the issue, in the short term there's very little science in the California education system.

http://www.whittierdailynews.com/rss/ci_19193167?source=rss

Videos for teachers: new chapters of "Chemistry Now"

The National Science Foundation (NSF)is teaming up with NBC Learn to launch a weekly series of online videos about the science of common objects and the changes they undergo every day and the chemists who study these things.

The videos, called "Chemistry Now" is a series of 32 lessons break down the chemistry behind things like as cheeseburgers, chocolate, plastics and soap-- and that's just for the first series.  Also featured on the NSF site this week is a video called 'Chemistry of Ocean Clean-Up,' which comes out on the one year anniversary of BP's capping well that created the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.  Focused lesson plans for this week are called "Top 10 Big Questions in Chemistry."

This weekly series will build on the 23 original "Chemistry Now" videos that were released during the spring school semester this year.  Best of all, it's available at no cost on the NBC Learn and nsf.gov websites and the NSTA blog.


NSF Home Page: http://www.nsf.gov

Science education? The earlier, the better!

Science education is sort of like the weather -- everyone discusses it but nobody seems to know what to do about it. From Ars Technica comes an article that says stressing science education in middle and high school is bad timing. What we really need to do is start educating them in kindergarten.

They're right on the mark when they say that even very young kids "figure out" how the world works -- and they're often wrong about it or confused about how things work. The direct method of teaching (where it's explained what's going on) is the best for the youngest kids when it comes to bringing concepts to them. But without the "magic" of the curiosity-inducing "discovery method" of teaching (where students devise, execute, and interpret their own experiments), some of the fundamentals can be lost.

And here teachers are sitting on the horns of a dilemma. It's pretty easy to outline a "direct" method of teaching (just lecture.) "Socratic methods" where you lead them through it with leading questions usually only work best for Socrates -- the rest of us end up with an audience who asks questions we don't expect. Discovery methods are very good -- but only once you've taught the kids how to do a proper experiment.

The best solution seems to be to combine all three -- give a short lecture, ask leading questions, have them explore.

...of course, this assumes you've got a perfect class and that Rudy and Maxie will NOT decide to throw spitballs in the middle of the lesson just to see if they can annoy each other.

Desperately Seeking Science Education

Are in-school "special programs" starting to replace science education in this age of teacher and education cutbacks? A rash of "just in time for schol to start" articles about science education suggests that teachers and schools are turning to special programs to help interest kids in science and teach them some basic concepts. And it's no wonder -- if a recent study in California is any indication, students are getting less than 40 hours of science education for the entire school year!

Quantum Camp (is one of a number of programs designed to supplement this lack by bringing science education by science teachers into the classroom. They bridge the gap between education and entertainment and spark curiosity with interesting experiments and even by incorporating music and storytelling.


But -- as an ex-teacher, I have to ask just how effective this is. While it's better than nothing (20 hours per year), 30 minutes of excitement does not replace five hours of drilling and practice. While kids will become engaged with experiments like mentos and cokes, will they remember and understand the reasons why this process happened -- and will they be able to apply these scientific principles in the future. Can someone educated by science entertainment go beyond the simple and start asking the complex questions and making the sophisticated connections needed for good science research?

I have already seen how kids use videos on message boards to "make" a point without really understanding the background of the question and the material. It's a troubling idea when you consider the reports that we're falling behind on science education.

Quantum Camp: http://news.yahoo.com/science-education-takes-quantum-leap-silicon-valley-070408132.html

Guerilla Science music and science experience http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/science-with-moxie/2011/08/10/guerilla-science-blends-music-and-science-at-escape2ny/

Science storytelling http://www.scienceteller.com/

Direct Instruction -- time to rethink strategies?

I haven't been keeping up with all the latest buzz in the education field since I retired years ago, but I was aware of the trend in the past 20 years of "discovery learning" where kids were encouraged to explore and think on their own. This was something that I didn't have much of an opinion on, but seemed to be highly thought of by people who did a lot of home schooling. So I was surprised to find in a recently promoted National Science Teachers Association digest that kids learn better research skills if they're taught by "direct instruction" rather than "discovery learning."

Instruction versus exploration in science learning

http://www.teach-nology.com/teachers/methods/models/direct/

With the ongoing screams about how schools are failing to teach children, some are advocating a return to this kind of instruction. But today's society isn't quite as accepting of this method as it was in the past. The argument is that it's "canned teaching" and it's "not personal" and may not appeal to what the child wants to do.

Now, as someone who grew up under the Really Old School method of teaching, I'll admit I'm rather uncomfortable with some of today's teaching practices. When I was in school (along with the dinosaurs), we didn't work in groups, we had to sit still and keep quiet (and were punished for not being on task) -- and we hated it because it stressed drills and homework, but my generation still ended up being one of the most well educated generations in America (highest number of college graduates, etc.) This is still the method used in totalitarian countries.

Further googling turned up a very interesting op-ed piece on this by Jeff Lindsay, which includes summaries of some of the studies. http://www.jefflindsay.com/EducData.shtml

That's as far as I've gotten into this today and I need to go attend to other things -- but I want to go back into the material and review it and see if things in there can make me a better educator, both when speaking informally to the public as well as when I'm doing lessons for afterschool science.

 

 

--- Patricia Griffin

Pre-publication PDF of book: Framework for K-12 Science Education

A pre-publication copy of the PDF for the book,  A Framework for K-12 Science Education:Practices, Crosscutting Concepts, and Core Ideas  is available for download from the National Academies press. 

 The authoring organizations stress that science, engineering, and technology can provide answers to meeting many of humanity's great challenges, both present and future. This book is proposing a new approach to science at all grade levels that will capture students’ interest and provide them with the necessary foundational knowledge in the field.

To quote the press release:

Framework for K-12 Science Education outlines a broad set of expectations for students in science and engineering in grades K-12. These expectations will inform the development of new standards for K-12 science education and, subsequently, revisions to curriculum, instruction, assessment, and professional development for educators. This book identifies three dimensions that convey the disciplinary core ideas and practices around which science and engineering education in these grades should be built. These three dimensions are: cross-cutting concepts that unify the study of science and engineering through their common application across these fields; scientific and engineering practices; and core ideas in four disciplinary areas: physical sciences, life sciences, earth and space sciences, and engineering, technology, and the applications of science. The overarching goal is for all high school graduates to have sufficient knowledge of science and engineering to engage in public discussions on science-related issues; be careful consumers of scientific and technological information; and have the skills to enter the careers of their choice.

Framework for K-12 Science Education is the first step in a process that will inform state-level decisions and provide a research-grounded basis for improving science teaching and learning across the country. The book will guide standards developers, curriculum designers, assessment developers, teacher educators, state and district science administrators, teachers, and educators who work in informal science environments.

I find this interesting and exciting and have bookmarked the document to download and read later this week.  I'm glad someone is taking this approach but I fear that the statement, "will inform state level decisions" was made by someone who never dealt with Rick Perry and the Texas Board of Education.




Still, I'm eager to see what they've come up with and how it might be integrated in some of the things that I teach!   If you'd like to review it, it is currently available as a PREPRINT at this link (sidebar on left)

Heat Wave Science Notes

One of the more entertaining things I do is volunteer at the Trinity River Audubon Center in Dallas.  It's a beautiful place -- the more so considering that it's a Brownfield Remediation site (The Environmental Protection Agency defines a Brownfield as “a property on which expansion, redevelopment, or reuse may be complicated by the presence or potential presence of a hazardous substance, pollutant, or contaminant” -- and as it was the site of an illegal landfill, all of the above applied.)  Over the three years that I've been involved, I've seen the landscape change from the fairly raw-looking land (the center had just opened) to an area that looks like a preserved wild area to the untrained eye.

To the trained eye (such as a Texas Master Naturalist like myself) it's obvious that this is reclaimed land.  There's a lot of invasive plants, but we're seeing a rebound in native plant species and native wildlife.  Then came drought and the heat wave.

I teach environmental science to kids -- talking about adaptations and turtles (an easy species to love), taking them on turtle counting hikes and then talking about bugs (not quite so easy to love) and taking them on bug hikes.  One of the strategies to get them less afraid of "bugs" (which includes any creepy crawly thing and not just insects or insects of the order Hemiptera) is to take a hike with them and engage them in a game of "nature bingo."

I try to make the bingo squares something that everyone find easily.  On the list that I made this spring, I put a number of butterflies including "yellow butterfly" (the sulfurs, Phoebis sp) and "white butterfly" (Pieris rapae) as well Tiger Swallowtail, Pipevine butterfly, and Monarch.  The game was a hit with the kids and things rolled along pretty much as expected until one week they didn't find any butterflies at all.

That was interesting.  Then a second group made the same report.  And a third.  I decided to investigate.

I took a group of kids off to specifically look for butterflies one morning.  We walked for about 40 minutes in areas where I knew butterflies were common, but we only found two of them.  TRAC has its own butterfly garden with native plants and water to support butterflies.  It's a good spot to hang out to take butterfly pictures, so I headed there next.  The plants were in bloom, but there weren't any butterflies visiting them, though the bees were enjoying them.

So were they really gone, or were they somewhere else?  In spite of the hundred degree heat and drought conditions, I took an afternoon hike of the distant trails at TRAC.   During the hour's trek I only saw two sulfur butterflies -- and another butterfly that landed briefly and appeared to be one of the Nymphalinae.

So where are they?  When I asked, nobody else had seen butterflies recently -- but they hadn't stopped to wonder if that was peculiar.  Someone suggested that it was "too hot for them to fly," so I tested that idea by hiking at 8 am and 8 pm.   

There are plenty of nectar sources around.  There's water.  There's birds, of course, but surely they wouldn't have eaten every single one.  There's lots of host plants around, including the Partridge Pea (Chamaecrista cinerea.)  These particular butterflies should breed all summer long -- not in a single group and die out.

One thought that has been troubling me about the heat wave and the drought is that it is causing certain plants to die off and animal populations are shifting.  What happens when the drought ends?

Solar System

The teaching theme this week is the solar system. While I'm reasonably good with the mechanics of the system, way back when I learned about it (approximately the Jurassic era), things were quite different. For one thing, Pluto was still a planet. So I'm taking some time in this little blog and organizing notes and comments about the planet and some exercises I can do with the class.

Since I have a fairly difficult class (k-2nd grade... which means some of them can read, only one can tie knots, one has ADHD, all have short attention spans) and a fairly challenging class (interested in science, grades 4-5, most have parents who read or are in the tech field) I'm going to look up science activities and factoids for the classes. Some of the factoids I don't have to memorize, since their take-home is a puzzle cube that can be rotated to form pictures of the planets (along with facts about the planets.) This isn't a problem for the older group, but my younger group won't be able to make the cubes for a variety of reasons and many of them won't be able to read the information.

So what makes a planet? It has to have enough gravity to pull it into a round shape, it has to be orbiting the sun (not another planet) and has to have "cleared its orbital path" of other objects. Everything else is something else.

Take "Plutoids," for instance. We have four: Pluto, Eris (formerly known as "Xena"), Makemake, and Haumea. However, there are other celestial objects which meets almost all those requirements but aren't "Plutoids". These include Quaoar, Sedna, (once hailed as the 10th planet), the "asteroid", Ceres, and a newly discovered body called "Orchis." Large enough that it has a rounded shape, it is now classified as a "dwarf planet."

The others are also classified as "Plutinos", a very new classification of Kuyper Body Objects -- objects that orbit twice for every three orbits of Neptunes. And then there's "Centauroids." But explaining this to a pack of elementary school students is going to be mind numbingly dull and terribly complex, so telling them that these are "in an asteroid belt far away beyond Neptune" is the best solution.

So, a game of "how far away is everything" is in order.

Millions of Miles from the Sun:

30.........................Mercury
60.........................Venus
90.........................Earth
140.......................Mars
480......................Jupiter
880......................Saturn
1780....................Uranus
2790....................Neptune
3660....................Pluto
Sedna is three times further away than Pluto!

Citizen Science -- The Moon Zoo

Citizens, scientists want YOU!

Yes, that's right -- one of the most valuable tools for any scientist is the help of informed and interested people; people who can be places where the scientist isn't and who can provide extra eyes and hands to help with research. Now a newly-launched sister site of Galaxy Zoo is looking for people who are interested in helping scientists search the surface of the Moon.

The Moon Zoo website takes advantage of lessons learned from the very successful Galaxy Zoo website. Researchers placed millions of high resolution images from the NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera (LROC) on the website. After going through a series of pages explaining how to classify objects, Moon Zoo asks volunteers to classify and measure different kinds of features found on the moon's surface. Things that they are particularly interested in is the number and size of craters in each area, locating lava channels, crater chains, volcanoes, lava floods from meteor impacts, and boulders found at the edge of impact craters. Moon Zoo volunteers also help identify recent changes on the moon by comparing photos from the Apollo missions and from the LRO cameras. They also hope to locate space mission hardware -- not only the famous Apollo landing modules and Lunar rovers, but European lunar probe mission hardware and probes sent to the moon by the Chinese. To date, over a million images have been processed by volunteers -- less than 6 months' worth of photographs.

For the curious novice, the site has many pages to delight you with fascinating information -- from a page about the Moon's atmosphere (yes, it does have one but it's almost nonexistent: http://www.moonzoo.org/Lunar_Atmosphere) to the Planetary Science page (http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/planets/moonpage.html), there's something for everyone here on this site.

And then there are the photos -- confirmed landing sites (http://forum.moonzoo.org/index.php?topic=174.0 -- the hardware is very small, and you have to look closely to really observe one), crater chains (http://forum.moonzoo.org/index.php?topic=107.0) , and more.

The one downside to me is that the Moon is monochromatic for the most part, and I miss some of the beautiful colors of the galaxies in Galaxy Zoo. But there's plenty of interesting photos on both sites and a real need for interested people to learn to classify objects. All in all, it's a great evening hobby for an armchair scientist!

Nuts and bolts relay race

Before class, get a set of MATCHING nuts and bolts of 3-4 different sizes.

Disassemble them.

Put 20 nuts and bolts in a bowl for each team and set out a paper plate next to the bowl. Each team member has to put together one nut and one bolt and then run back and tag the next person. First team to empty their bowl wins.

Reggie Robot variant:

Blindfold kid, have the "controller" have them pick one object out of 4 or 5 on the table.

Fender's Parts
Uh-oh Fender has lost his parts!
Rodney can repair him, but all of the parts must be found.
He needs sensors, motors, motherboard, arms, legs, bolts, nuts, screws.
Print up a label with each of the needed parts.
Put "robot parts" on a table, with only the back side of the paper showing.
Divide the class up.
Team members run up and grab a part (no turning them over) then run back to see what they have.

Static electricity

Some activities to add to the "electricity module", taken from here:
http://www.mos.org/sln/toe/staticintro.html

Best Balloon Friends Forever

Materials:

• Balloons
• String
• Felt-tip markers (permanent)
• Adhesive tape
• Wool cloth

Blow up a balloon, draw a face on it, hang it on something high. Rub a piece of wool cloth on the face side of the balloon. Walk toward the balloon. It should face you. Tell them that balloons like mad scientists!

Explain about static electricity. Ask them how we would figure out:

• How far away you can get.
  
• Does a piece of paper interfere with it?
  
• Can you make the balloon follow you round and round in a circle?
• How will it react to a second balloon.

How it works:

A balloon rubbed with a wool cloth becomes negatively charged. When a charged balloon is held close to certain items, the items become positively charged by induction and cling to the balloon. After several minutes, some of the electrons may drain off the balloon onto the items and they'll drop off the balloon and back to the table. They may then transfer their excess electrons to the table after a few minutes and once again leap toward the balloon.

Things it works with: bits of paper, styrofoam bits, loose tea, pepper. Use paper or styrofoam because few are allergic to this.


Styrofoam peas or mylar bits tubes (possible take-home)

• Set up one corner of the room in which students will come to make their static tubes in small groups.
• Give each student a clear plastic tube and end cap.
• Place all of the Styrofoam peas (better than mylar, but mylar's easy to get) inside a large container such as a bowl, shoe box, or can. Challenge the students to get about two capfulls inside their static tubes through the end that they have left uncapped. This is not always easy, because the plastic tubes take on a charge with minimal handling and will attract and repel the Styrofoam peas.
• When the students have placed their peas inside the tube, have them insert the other end cap, and remove any Styrofoam clinging to the exterior of the tube with a cupped hand. Rub the exterior of each tube with the wool cloth.
• Let the students experiment with their closed static tubes. Can they pour all of the peas from one end to the other? How can they move any peas along that seem to be stuck? Using terms they have learned through other activities, such as attract, repel, static charge, and induction, can they describe what happens when they bring a finger close to the outside of the tube?

Freeze Dance game

A new one for me, but it can be used in situations where you need a change in activity. You need a radio (suggestion was to tune to Radio Disney) or an MP3 player (more control) and speakers. Start the music and have them do different kinds of dances (dance like a chicken, dance like a robot, dance like a bear, dance like a cat, dance like a moose, dance like a worm (etc))... and they freeze when you pause the music.

If they need to work off energy, tell them "fastdance in one spot!" and let them wear themselves out.

A note on music: Use music without any words. Disco music works well, as does anything peppy.

'quick notes: classroom games for Science Teachers

Two quick classroom games -- one for the younger set, one for the older set
Simon Says variant -- use commands relating to robots or any other science activity:

Space:
* "walk on the moon"
* "fly a spaceship"
* "float in the space lab"

Robots:
* "crank up your robot"
* "open robot claw"
* "robot spin"
* "robot wave arms"

Squiggle balls can provide interesting lessons in graphing and physics and randomness, particularly when talking about "Random Walks". Case in point -- set off a squiggle ball for each group and have them record its position at regular intervals (10 seconds... longer times for younger students). Compare plots.

magic and science

magic

magic - trick with water and ice. How did I do that?
Trick with predicting a card. How did I do that?
Magic and science.
disappearing rabbit trick. Make something a kid has disappear. have them bark like a dog. Clap.
How does this work?
The trick thumb. Make a piece of paper vanish. Make a handkerchief appear.
kid lie on floor, hold arms over head, explain sensation. slowly lower kid's arms... tell me to stop when you think it will touch the floor.

Magic floating arm.
hydrophobic sand (can do with matches)... you can use baby powder to do this at hime.

3 cup monte with hydrophilic gel. Dissect a diaper.

Ninja popsicle sticks
====
Pick a number, any two digit number will do.

Add the two digits together and then subtract the total from the original number.

The result will always be a multiple of nine, so adding the digits of your answer will always result in the number nine.

38=11=27/3(first number)=9
96=15=81/8=9
This trick begins with a stacked deck! Separate the Aces and Kings from an ordinary poker deck. Place the 4 Aces on top of the other cards. Place the Kings on top of the Aces. Kings are now uppermost in the deck.

Find a volunteer and say something like: "You look like you can deal out a mean hand of cards! Please take this pack and deal out two piles, alternating cards."

Let them deal about half of the deck and then say: "You may stop anytime you wish". Take the undealt deck of cards and place them aside.

Say to your volunteer: "Now, please pick up one of those two piles and deal it into two smaller piles. Do the same with the other pile so that we will end up with 4 piles of cards."
At this point there will be a king on the top of every deck.

"Turn up the top of any pile. Oh....that's a king. Turn over another - another king! Coincidence. Yet another and another."

Once the volunteer has turned up all 4 kings discard them.

"Anyone here a poker player? What beats four kings? Why.....four ACES, right"

Make some magical passes of your hand over the four piles. Turn up the top card of each pile to reveal ACES