science140
Posted by Peter Board on Monday, April 23, 2012
Under: teaching methods
I've started twittering in earnest for my business; a mix of science, education, and North London networking tweets and retweets.
Anyway, I came across science140.org. Their project involves contributors tweeting scientific explanations - therefore keeping them to 140 characters!
I've contributed a few - its good fun, but actually also really good discipline! Trying to condense an idea into so few characters really makes you think hard about the essence of what you are trying to explain. I decided to also start using it as a teaching tool, and discussed it with my sister-in-law, who is an English teacher. She could see uses for her subject too.
As regards classroom teaching, it might make a really nice starter or plenary.
On a lighter note, one of the first #science140 tweets I did was quite short and to the point, and I noticed it almost followed the syllable pattern of a haiku* A bit of tweaking, and we had a true cross curricular tweet! Literacy in science!
Go on, have a go! Today's theme is science jokes.......
* Disclaimer: Anyone who actually reads the full haiku definition will note that my haiku only fulfills the 5-7-5 syllable requirement, and even that isn't technically exactly right......oh well, I still had fun!
Anyway, I came across science140.org. Their project involves contributors tweeting scientific explanations - therefore keeping them to 140 characters!
I've contributed a few - its good fun, but actually also really good discipline! Trying to condense an idea into so few characters really makes you think hard about the essence of what you are trying to explain. I decided to also start using it as a teaching tool, and discussed it with my sister-in-law, who is an English teacher. She could see uses for her subject too.
As regards classroom teaching, it might make a really nice starter or plenary.
On a lighter note, one of the first #science140 tweets I did was quite short and to the point, and I noticed it almost followed the syllable pattern of a haiku* A bit of tweaking, and we had a true cross curricular tweet! Literacy in science!
Go on, have a go! Today's theme is science jokes.......
* Disclaimer: Anyone who actually reads the full haiku definition will note that my haiku only fulfills the 5-7-5 syllable requirement, and even that isn't technically exactly right......oh well, I still had fun!
In : teaching methods