TV and Radio Guide w/c 20 May 2013

Genetically modified Pig 26 (Source: The Independent)

Another quiet week for Science TV and Radio, collated by @MrsDrSarah.

Sarah’s picks for this week are  Costing the Earth (on Tues and Wed) about GM technology which may be helpful for A level Biologists, and Map Man (on Sat) which tells the story of the first London A-Z. My picks are The Why Factor on Monday about why children lie as part of their development, and All in the Mind from last week which includes a piece on research into effective revision techniques.

This week’s video is via @Alby. Science@NASA produce many videos about the work NASA does; although recently funding decisions have required them to cut back on their educational output, hopefully this will be temporary. This video (http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/videogallery/index.html?collection_id=14483&media_id=163147311) describes the monitoring of meteor strikes on the moon, and an event in March this year that was as bright as a 4th magnitude star, easily seen without a telescope.

TV and Radio Guide w/c 13 May 2013

A slightly quieter week for Science TV and Radio this week, with a few repeats of recent programming. The Fantastic Mr Feynman is on again Tuesday night, and the daily natural history programme (BBC 1 4:15 Monday – Friday) finishes off Life in the Undergrowth and continues with Planet Earth. Heather Couper’s series on the development of astronomy Cosmic Quest continues also.

Sarah’s pick is the repeat of the Marie Curie documentary. I’ve still to catch this so I will make sure I watch it. My pick is the In Our Time discussion on Cosmic Rays. I’ll recommend it to my A Level Physicists, but I’m sure they’ll be far too busy revising! The Science of DIY on Sunday may be of assistance to them for their mechanics revision.

I’m going to repeat a video pick from a few weeks ago. It is exam season and if you haven’t shared these videos on www.my-gcsescience.com with your GCSE students do it tomorrow; they really help with revision.

TV and Radio Guide w/c 6 May 2013

Sorry it’s so late. The bank holiday weekend has caught me by surprise, and it’s  joint effort in collating next week’s TV and Radio for you (Sarah started, but is now in a field somewhere doing DoE with Y11).

Some really good programmes this week, ranging from cats and dogs, to the journey of sound waves, via the story of NASAs first trip to the moon, finding out if there’s life on Mars, with a grand finish: a repeat of The Challenger followed by a documentary about Richard Feynman on Sunday night. My pick of the week is a daily set of essays on Radio 3, which this week is looking at the inhabitants of Antarctica to mark the centenary of Roald Amundsen’s journey to the South Pole. I’ll be setting my podcast player to download these.

There are a couple more daily programmes this week: Life in the Undergrowth, Attenborough’s series on Invertebrates and Cosmic Quest (a 30 part Radio series by Heather Couper on the history of astronomy).

The most amazing video this week was A Boy and His Atom. This is officially the world’s smallest movie and was made by IBM researchers moving individual carbon monoxide molecules. The RI Channel has more information including a video about how the animated movie was made.

TV and Radio Guide w/c 29th April 2013

I’ve been enjoying a family get together this weekend so the guide has been posted a little later than normal. Sarah has collated this week’s links for you and her picks are Bang Goes the Theory on Air Pollution on Monday which might be useful for GCSE scientists as they do their revision and The Genius of Marie Curie for general scientific interest. My picks relate to the scientific endeavour starting with Kevin Fong’s tour of Mars in the search for water on Radio 4 on Monday and The Common Sense of Science on Radio 4 Extra on Sunday.

I found a great video on bigthink.com, an interview with Michio Kaku, the theoretical physicist. The first 2 minutes of this video are worth watching by themselves as they offer a great insight into why scientists do science. I also am going to use this video by Michio during my GCSE lessons on Nuclear Fusion.  

TV and Radio Guide w/c 22nd April 2013

A great week of science programming ahead this week with programmes for biology, chemistry and physics.

My picks of the week are Science Cafe interview with Michiu Kaku on Tuesday, Solar Max discussing the impact on increased solar activity on earth (also on Tuesday). I’ve also heard a lot of great things about this documentary by Bill Bailey on Alfred Russel Wallace, so catch the first part today or on iPlayer and the second part next Sunday.

Sarah picks are Bang Goes the Theory who are looking at personal medical technology and Costing the Earth which will support her GCSE biologists doing B3.

A quick video for you today - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o8TssbmY-GM from Commander Hadfield on the International Space Station demonstrating how the surface tension of water cause it to behave in a surprising way in freefall.

TV and Radio Guide w/c 15th April 2013

Firstly, a quick note about last week’s Science TV and Radio. There were some really good programmes last week which we’ve added to the guide in the on demand section, but I want to just highlight my pick from last week: POP! The Science of Bubbles. This was a brilliant programme, full of science that students won’t find in their normal school curriculum yet with explanations that were very accessible. Helen Czerski was an excellent and enthusiastic presenter, and I do recommend this to everyone. I also want to apologise for missing out Isaac Newton: The Last Magician. This is a historical documentary of the life of Newton seen through his writing and that of his contemporaries, definitely worth letting your students know about this. Also worth a watch is Horizon: Tomorrow’s World about the new science and technology that is going to shape our future.

Sarah’s pick of the week is the programme on memory: Maureen Lipman: If Memory Serves Me Right on Thursday and mine is Bang Goes the Theory on Monday. They’re looking at how we go about improving our aging infrastructure.

The video of the week is actually a collection of videos. It is the final half term before the exams for our GCSE students and if you teach the AQA syllabus, this is an invaluable set of revision videos by teacher Kishore Vyas aka @mygcsescience.He has produced nearly 200 videos over the course of the last year covering Core and Additional Science as well as the start of Separate Science (Unit 3). They are well put together using SMARTBoard software and I’ve watched every one as he’s posted them. They are a fantastic resource and you can either refer your students to the youtube playlists or to my-gcsescience.com.

TV and Radio Guide w/c 8th April 2013

Bet you thought we had forgotten. Nope, just a slightly delayed TV and Radio guide this week collated by @MrsDrSarah. There is lots on and some real variety this week, but the post is short. Sorry, but I’ve got a busy day tomorrow helping my better half set up the first session of an outdoor playgroup.

Sarah’s pick of the week is a new show on Radio 4 Extra: Adventures in Science on Sunday which is all about alcohol and how it is processed by our bodies. Sarah hopes this may be useful for GCSE and A Level biologists. My pick of the week is POP! The Science of Bubbles for no other reason than it sounds like fun.

The video of the week is lovely little film by Derek Muller (Veritasium) called World’s Roundest Object. It’s great to use as part of the explanation about SI base units as the kilogram is now the only base unit still defined by a physical object. There is also a nice explanation as to why it is the only base unit to have a prefix (i.e. kilo).

TV and Radio Guide w/c 1st April 2013

Dear readers,

I’ve had a lovely weekend so far with my family and have been avoiding the Twitter as much as my addiction will allow in case my brain gets uploaded to the Great Intelligence. Even so I was feeling really bad that I’d not been able to collate all the TV and Radio programmes for next week. But then I looked and I’m sorry to say but there’s not much on.

There are of course repeats of Blue Planet, Africa, and Horizon as well as Attenborough’s First Life. But other than that the only things I can recommend are Material World’s visit to the Edinburgh Science Festival and Horizon on Thursday about what amazing things can be done with all the data that is being collected. Oh and Sky at Night late Sunday night is all about meteorites. Enjoy.

Normal service will resume next week but until then have a nice break.

TV and Radio Guide w/c 25th March 2013

William Hurt as Richard Feynman – catch it quick on BBC iPlayer (picture BBC.co.uk)

Firstly an apology: I missed The Challenger from the TV Guide last week. This was a brilliant drama based on the eminent physicist Richard Feynman’s key involvement in the investigating commission that looked into the cause of the fatal Challenger disaster in January 1986. William Hurt gave a fantastic portrayal of perhaps the greatest modern physicist (save for his broad New York accent). If you can catch the programme before it becomes unavailable on iPlayer it’s well worth a viewing. So, sorry for not spotting that fantastic programme, though I don’t often check the War and Disaster genre when compiling the Science TV and Radio Guide. To make up for this I have started a Scientists Collection in the Teaching Library and Richard is going start this off. It will contain books, videos, and anything else I can lay my hands on (when I get the chance – Easter holidays?)

While I’m in apology mode – I also forgot last week’s In Our Time (this doesn’t show up in the science section of the BBC programme listings either but I usually check it) which was about the work of Darwin’s contemporary (who independently conceived theory of evolution by natural selection) the biologist Alfred Russel Wallace.

@MrsDrSarah has collated this week’s guide so there shouldn’t be anything missing. It’s a lighter week this week, the BBC are clearing their schedules for all things Doctor Who I imagine (which starts next Saturday).  Sarah’s pick of the week is Horizon on Wednesday on the advances in transplants. She’s just taught this to her Year 11, and is going to point them towards this in the hope some will watch it and gain a wider perspective.

My pick of the week, aside from the plea that you catch  The Challenger before the programme is taken off iPlayer (sorry you have until Monday evening – why, BBC, was it not listed in the Science genre?), is Material World on Monday discussing the new findings of the Planck telescope. I saw Tim O’Brien (Associate Director of Jodrell Bank) give a public lecture in York on Wednesday evening and he finished with a teaser that there would be some exciting news in Thursday’s announcement. This turned out to be that Planck’s map of the cosmic microwave background radiation has allowed us to revise the age of the universe to 13.82 billion years and that the ratios of matter, dark matter and dark energy that make up the universe have changed from previous measurements. And one for the chemists (well everyone really if they can cope with 45 minutes chat on a single subject) is this week’s In Our Time about Water and what makes it so awesome (I’m trying to add some vim to IOT – I like it but it’s not for everyone).

Ok the video of the week: well I’ve just shared this one on twitter tonight but I’ll share with you all: SmarterEveryDay (aka Destin or @SmarterYouTube) produces some lovely science videos from his backyard (or off on his travels – including a lovely tour of Machu Picchu as well as helping out with some of the hi speed filming for Brady’s recent Periodic Videos) but this video absolutely floored me when I watched it today -  The Prince Rupert’s Drop. I’d never heard of this before but I was absolutely amazed and think it would be good for showing examples of tension or stored energy (a little bit like the Cobra Weave chain reaction). Check out the rest of Destin’s videos, he’s a smart guy who makes some smart videos!

Richard Feynman Collection

Richard Feynman at Fermilab

Richard Feynman (1918-1988)

Richard Feynman will be subject the first collection of resources held at the Science Teaching Library. I hope to collate links, books, videos etc to form a collection that people can refer to.

Biography

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Feynman#Biography

 

Films

The Challenger – BBC Films http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00zstkn (currently on iPlayer – March 2013)

 

More…

to follow over Easter break when I have time .