Homemade spacecraft

I love this story/video/idea for 2 reasons:

1) It uses cutting edge technology to give the DIY'er a chance to be NASA
2) It uses age old ingenuity and, what some might consider "obsolete", technology

It merges the old and new to literally take us to a place we've never been. New tech is great, but never underestimate the analog brilliance of ingenuity, helium, and some latex...

This is a video a local father and son made. They wanted to see what space looked like so they create their own spacecraft and set off for the stars.

No, the father and son were not on their homemade spacecraft, they put a video camer on it to record the journey and an iPhone so they could use the cell-GPS to locate the camera when it returned to earth.

If it a great example of the fun, homemade science projects you can create. A little imagination and some help from parents can get you your own images of space. And the trip up and back.

Enjoy the video. For my 3rd-5th graders, does it inspire you in any way for your own Science Fair project?

Homemade Spacecraft from Luke Geissbuhler on Vimeo.

Cross posted on Mr. Casal's Computer Lab blog for my students...

The big picture...

This is something I've posted on my class blog as well.

The power of online tools becomes more and more evident every day. Astronauts up in space are taking photos and posting them online. They are publicizing this via Twitter. The power of the internet never ceases to amaze me, and this is definitely a power being used for good...

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As we start a new school year I thought it would be nice to step back and look at the big picture, take in the full view so to speak...

New York City from space

NASA Astronaut Douglas H. Wheelock has been photographing the Earth from space and posting the pictures online.

This is a picture of New York City, at night.  It might be a bit confusing at first because it is backwards.  From Astronaut Wheelock's position in space Long Island appears on the left side of the picture. The very bright center of the picture if Brooklyn, Queens, Manhattan, and parts of New Jersey.  If you look very close you can see the tiny sliver of light, surrounded by darkness, that is the island of Manhattan.

Click here http://twitpic.com/2izl9u/full and the picture will be big enough for you to see the dark area that is Central Park as well as the 2 dark areas in Brooklyn, Prospect Park and Greenwood Cemetery.

Follow all of Astronaut Wheelock's pictures from space here:
http://twitter.com/Astro_Wheels

Enjoy the pictures and think about just how much is out there beyond our school, neighborhood, and city.

Welcome back to school...

Their there they're...

I found this article and study interesting. It was done in England but I think it has plenty of relevance here. Even at the elementary school level some of these words, spelled right or wrong, occur quite often in the student's experience.

For the words above the k-5 vocabulary I don't think it's a bad idea to use this list as a way to make students aware of common erros through the spectrum, it might just help them become better spellers.

Is is the fault of spell-check so many common words are misspelt? Possibly. Should it matter that we have spell-check at our disposal? No, not in my opinion. Having a solid vocabulary should be a core tenet of any students education. Digital or otherwise, knowing how to spell correctly is a valuable skill.

20 Words you should make sure you know how to spell:

1. Separate
2. Definitely
3. Manoeuvre/Maneuver
4. Embarrass
5. Occurrence
6. Consensus
7. Unnecessary
8. Acceptable
9. Broccoli
10. Referred
11. Bureaucracy
12. Supersede
13. Questionnaire
14. Connoisseur
15. A lot
16. Entrepreneur
17. Particularly
18. Liquify
19. Conscience
20. Parallel

These are the 20 most misspelt words in the English language, according to a new British study.

It's all about who you know

That age old expression is true, it really is all about who you know. However that doesn't always have to mean a better job or Super Bowl tickets...

...One of my closest friends friends from college is a guy by the name of Craig Rittenbaum. Craig works for Dreamworks Animation. Yes, that Dreamworks. Most recently he was the Production Manager on the film "How to Train Your Dragon."

Craig was nice enough to participate in my class blog and answer my student's questions about the making of an animated movie.

To that point my students knew me and that I had a website. They might have known someone else with a website. They've seen movies. But through this assignment, and Craig's generosity, they were able to correspond on a website with someone who was directly responsible for making a movie they were all planning on seeing.

To be able to make that connection for my students was quite the experience. Craig expressed his enjoyment of it as well. It's not every day the Production Manager of an animated film gets to talk daily and directly with the very audience he is creating for.

It was a great assignment and I hope to have Craig collaborate again on a future blog post.

Science of the Olympic Winter Games

This is an amazing site:

http://www.nsf.gov/news/special_reports/olympics/index.jsp

It has 16 short videos explaining, in fairly simple language, the science of the Winter Olympics. How a skater makes a jump, how skis are designed, what roll friction plays in competition, and more.

Using site like this is one of my favorite thing to do. They are timely, engaging, and mix the old and new, the web and traditional scientific explanation.

My students had to watch some of the videos and comment on them as part of a Winter Break assignment on my lab blog here...

What is The Casal OS?

Welcome to The Casal Operating System (OS).

What is The Casal OS? This blog is about my profession and how I view and shape the job I do and love,teaching; my experiences in the classroom, within the school, and general musings and observation regarding the educational field overall.

As I write this I am in my 8th year as a Computer teacher for the New York City Department of Education. I have taught both middle and elementary school. From a SURR (corrective action) school in Bed-Stuy to an A-rated school in Park Slope. I have a Masters in Educational Administration (School Based Leader), and Masters in Instructional Technology, as well as a Masters of Science in Teaching (MST) Grades K-6.

Between the various degrees, diverse school and neighborhood settings, countless students & colleagues, and all the things in between I have decided to document how I've gotten to where I am, the things that keep me going and push me to move forward, and the way I see education in this this era.

I've had a class website for years. My students have been involved in my site, classroom blog and wiki page as part of things work in my lab. Everything I've done online to this point has been for my students. This is the first time I've created a space for me, about my craft.

This is what makes me tick. This is what makes me run. This is my operating system.

This is The Casal OS...