This is an extensive site with lots to see. I suggest going to the Movie room. They have archival footage from as early as 1935 about different topics like a tour of the 1st nuclear power plant to a a movie about vegetable oil as a biofuel. Also if you check out the Time Machine, you’ll get a history of energy source use. Click around on different objects on the home page and have fun!
Here a few fun roller coaster simulations. Some are very simple and others calculate g-forces, and velocity.
Have fun!
Coaster: This simulation lets you change the height of the hills, amount of gravity, speed, and friction. It will show you how the roller coaster car will run on the track and if you go too fast, the cart will fly off!
Rollercoaster Designer: This simulation allows you change the height and steepness of the hills. It measures the G-forces and the speed. There is also a little “South-Park”-like character in the corner that represents a passenger. It will show and tell you if the g-forces are too intense and you end up knocking out the passenger. As the levels progress, the design challenges are harder.
Discovery Kids Build your own roller coaster: This game is pretty simple. Add pre-designed features to create your own roller coaster. When you run it, you get to hear screaming sounds and there’s a “Fear-o-meter!”
Fantasy Rollercoaster: Okay, so this is just a game. You control the rollercoaster’s speed and you try not to kill you passengers. Not really physics, but kinda fun anyway.
“The Rollercoaster Ride” is a song by the Scottish indie pop band, Belle and Sebastian. Led by Stuart Murdoch, Belle and Sebastian are known for their folksy 60’s pop sound mixed with odd, sometimes disturbing lyrics.
Here’s the track:
“Blowin’ in the Wind” is protest song written by Bob Dylan. It was released in 1963 on his album, The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan. In the lyrics, he poses a series of questions about freedom, love, peace, and war.
From the wiki-
“In his sleeve notes for The Bootleg Series Volumes 1-3 (Rare & Unreleased) 1961-1991, John Bauldie writes that it was Pete Seeger who first identified the melody of “Blowin’ in the Wind” as Dylan’s adaptation of the old Negro spiritual “No More Auction Block”. According to Alan Lomax’s The Folk Songs of North America, the song originated in Canada and was sung by former slaves who fled there after Britain abolished slavery in 1833. In 1978, Dylan acknowledged the source when he told journalist Marc Rowland: “‘Blowin’ in the Wind’ has always been a spiritual. I took it off a song called ‘No More Auction Block’ — that’s a spiritual and ‘Blowin’ in the Wind’ follows the same feeling.”
There are lots of videos and explanations about the Drinking Bird on Youtube. Since we’ll talk about how the Drinking Bird works in class, I thought I would just share what somebody thought to do with these wonderful species.
This video features a catchy song to teach you about kinetic energy/ thermal energy and the movement of molecules. We’ll revisit this topic when we study Chemistry later on in the year. Enjoy!
The Thermals are an American indie/ punk pop band based in Portland, Oregon. This song is the title track from their latest album “Now We Can See.”
“Kinetics” is a song by DJ Krush from his album, Kakusei. This song features Sinista from the X-ecutioners, group of turntablists from New York.
From last.fm: “DJ Krush (Hideaki Ishii) was born in 1962 in Tokyo. At an early age, Ishii dropped out of school, and joined a local gang, and a few years later, Yakuza (the Japanese mafia). After watching the film ‘Wild Style’ in the early ’80s, he was inspired, bought some turntables, and started to learn the art of turntablism. In 1987, he formed the KRUSH POSSE which made numerous appearances as a group in late 1992 and gained him recognition by becoming the first DJ in Japan to perform with live musicians.”
Thank you all for participating in the beach clean up! As you heard in the presentation, our oceans are heavily polluted from chemicals, sewage and trash. The amount of plastic in the ocean is astounding and we’re still gathering data on the impact of plastic litter. Any work that we do to protect our oceans impact not only our ability to use the ocean and its resources, but it affects all the animals that depend on the ocean for food and shelter.
Chris Jordan is an amazing photographer who creates works of art that depict consumerism in the United States. Many of photographs are of garbage. He shows his interest and passion for the environment, conservations, and stewardship. He has been traveling with 5 other media artists to the Midway Atoll, a small stretch of sand and coral near the middle of the North Pacific to document the Pacific Gyre and the death of baby albatross birds. These baby birds are fed plastic by their parents who collect what looks like food to them to bring back to their babies. Each year, tens of thousands of albatross chicks die on the Midway from this plastic poisoning. See his work at this link. You can also follow their trip at www.midwayjourney.com. (Thanks to Bruce Cole for sending me the link!)
Here’s a video from their travels:
This documents Chris Jordan finding a dead albatross filled with plastic:
