New year - New stuff

Wecome back to a new year - the "International Year of Astronomy" to be precise. To get you in the mood I gathered a couple of cool astronomy applications that work well projected - use a Wacom tablet or eBeam to manipulate them. Of course they are free!

Stelarium - A computer based planetarium. Very cool. Like all planetariums you are based on the ground looking up from Earth. Very much like a digital telescope but all simulated. (FLOSS - Win, Mac and Linux)

Microsoft Worldwide Telescope - Again a planetarium but this time incorporating updated imagery from telescopes around the world. (Freeware - Win only)

Celestia - Not a Planetarium but a space simulator - you can travel to planets, comets, distant galaxies. It's like having a warp ship to go exploring the universe.

Universe Sandbox - This is the ultimate in playing GOD. Create planets, solar systems, galaxies - and see how gravity effects them all. ($25 - not free but worth it)

Christmas Schlopping

Well I've just spent the afternoon Christmas shopping in the CBD of Perth. I'm always surprised how small Perth City CBD seems, yet it is fairly big compared to some of the cities I have lived and visited around the world.

So I got some of my Christmas shopping done, and picked up the latest Girl Talk album. Yes I still buy CD's on occasion - and this one has blown me away. As an old DJ it is like taking me back to the days behind the decks during the 90's. I've got my headphones on and smiling as he mixes a bit of grunge with club with hip hop with rap and old school rock all in one and it bloody works.

On a sad note George Oats lost her job with Fickr/Yahoo as part of some mass layoffs. George was responsible for the Flickr commons, where public photo collections from major museums and libraries were uploaded with a CC licence. This was a very worthwhile project as it allowed people to tag and make relevent a huge range of public images.

This effects eBeam to some degree as it has a link to Flickr content that is public domain or CC licenced. But the fact this project has now been effectively killed makes me sad.

It's biology man!

I have been asked several times for biology interactive software... I'm still looking. In the mean time I have found a couple of lists of interactive webpages.

edinformatics - lists of good biology and chem interactive animations and tutorials.

The University of Arizona - the Biology Project.

Biology in Motion - a small range of applets for lower secondary biology.

Lone Star College - a veritable motherload of interactive biology bits.

There you go - as always there is room for more so if you find something good send me a line.

Facebook a place to find stuff

Just on Facebook today and saw an add for this site. Now I don't usually click on ad's but this seemed like it was worth it... and it was.

The site aggregates videos from other sites into a more organised arragment
http://www.scholarspot.com/index.php

Have a look, at least it is better than trawling through youtube looking for something to watch.

Standing on the shoulders of giants

Sometimes you think you are the only one out there doing stuff - In my case collecting resources for teachers... Then you come across someone who has been doing it longer than you... far longer.

Here is a new site/blog to check out. Based in Canada The teacher List is a great multinational resource for teachers from k-12.

Here is a coupple of the links on his site

School WAX TV - Mini lessons both live action or animated

DOC COP - An anti plagerism service based in Melbourne, with a couple of free option to upload students work and find out if it was all or partly ripped off the net or a fellow student.

Teachers.tv - Documentaries, teaching ideas, forums and discussions - UK based this is a gold mine for teachers to expand their horizons.

Best online Docos - Name says it all really -

Shodor Interactivate - A huge amount of maths based activities from primary to secondary.

Go have a look and see what you find useful.

Alice

I take it many of you have heard about scratch - a visual programming environment for kids (and adults) that allows code without coding.

Well I have just come across it's bigger better brother - err sister Alice.

It looks like it takes that middle step between pictures and icon based programming and real coding and puting it in a 3D environment.

NASA Software

NASA is a strange beast... Kind of like a university where lots of departments are all interconnected but still work independently. They make great open source software too.

Here is a new one I've come across - GMAT General Mission Analysis Tool

The software is designed to work out trajectories and launch timings for space craft from earth.

So if you have ever wondered what it was like to be a rocket scientist here is your chance.