Why is north always at the top of a map?

We work with directions in physics; in fact, we work with it a lot of times. Have you ever wondered why north is at the top of our maps? What if we have maps where Australia is not "down under" anymore, as shown below?

(C) http://america.aljazeera.com

Here is an article that discusses this interesting phenomenon.

Criminals can even steal your information via your USB ports

Not checking your USB ports or using flash drives from untrusted sources could be a disaster for you. The possibility exists that somebody can steal your passwords via you USB ports. See this interesting article.

Would it not be wonderful if we can live in a world of honesty and integrity? Nothing of this sort of thing would happen.

Newsletter 2017(2)

Newsletter two of this year is available. Click here to go to the Newsletter page and download from there. You are welcome to give feedback in the comment section.

TABSA Workshop for Free State Teachers Part 3

To read more about the TABSA workshop
Click here to read part one.
Click here to read part two.

Space for videos are limited, but here are some:

Balloon car: Click here to download a 2,5 MB video

Water is polar: Click here to download a 2 MB video

Hydrogen explosion: Click here to download a 1,2 MB video

TABSA Workshop for Free State Teachers Part 2

To read more about the TABSA workshop; click here to read part one.

First day: on the way to the workshop!

The group in front of Tsoseletso - ready for action!

The TABSA facilitators welcome our Free State teachers.

Top from left to right: Dr Rick Jones and Dr Veronica Ledoux 

Let the games begin; lots of electrostatics ...

TABSA Workshop for Free State Teachers Part 1

From today, 17 July 2017, to the 21st of July, 100 physical science and 100 mathematics teachers of the Free State have the opportunity to attend a TABSA workshop.

TABSA stands for Teachers Across Borders South Africa. It is a volunteer professional development project for mathematics, science and technology teachers and sponsored by the Punahou School in Hawai, USA and the Cassim Peer Trust in South Africa. 

TABSA facilitators will share content, methodology and pedagogy with our teachers, and the approach will be to show teachers how to teach with minimal resources and still be effective. 

Travelling and accommodation (dinner, bed and breakfast) are paid for by the Free State Department of Education. Teachers are staying at Oranje Primary and the workshop takes place at Tsoseletso High School in Mangaung.

Arrival on Sunday, 16 July, entertainment and time to rest.

There is a lot of musical talent among our physical science teachers!

Click to see and hear (3MB) 

New WhatsApp features

WhatsApp is busy rolling out new features globally.

Picture from https://mybroadband.co.za

One of this is improved file-sharing capabilities. Users can now send any type of file up to 100MB, for example, MSWord, Excel, etc. The full article about this is available here.

Becky wants her school demolished

Becky phones for help to have her school demolished. Click here to listen (mp4 file; 2MB)

Can cellphones help learners to learn better?

Time to read this article again in view of a comment that was received. The article appeared for the first time on 28 February 2016.

(C) http://www.sabc.co.za

I have just listened to a very interesting programme on RSG (Radio Sonder Grense; 100-104 FM) about "mobile reading" (mobiele lees). It is also called digital reading and online reading.

Dr Donovan Lawrence of the Department of Afrikaans at the University of Johannesburg talked about mobile reading and how this phenomenon can motivate learners to read more

(C) http://marketingland.com/
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 and how it can assist better learning. Those of you who understand Afrikaans can download the podcast here and listen to it. 

We know data is still very expensive in South Africa, but everybody also knows that people are using their cellphones more and more as the other functions of cellphones, apart from calling and sending text messages (sms), become available. We have to take notice of this. Dr Lawrence has pointed out the following:

• There are more cellphones and active sim cards than people in South Africa.
• People are reading more and more on their cellphones.
• Even in the most remote areas of our country people have cellphones.
• Cellphones get people in contact with knowledge where libraries, books and magazines cannot.
• Researchers have found that when learners read online on cellphones, tablets and computers, they are more motivated to read.
• Learners' attitudes are better when they read online; why don't we utilise this opportunity to avail educational material on cellphones, etc.?
• The mobility of cellphones make it possible to learn anywhere and anytime.

This brings me back to my requests in the past, also during our most recent round of start-up meetings, to make our documents available to learners on their cellphones; documents such as the examination guidelines, question papers, etc.

I am so interested to know whom of the teachers have started to do it? Does it work? What have you made available? What did learners download themselves? Do they know about this blog and where they can download the examination guidelines, etc? What percentage of learners have cellphones who can display pdf files? Have you created material that learners can access through their cellphones?

It would be so nice if you comment on this in the comment section below. Let us know where it works and - especially - what type of problems and obstacles you have.

Intelligent life outside Earth

On a lighter note ...

The picture is from a Facebook post by Dan Williams.

IBP June 2017 holiday programme

The IBP programme for the June 2017 holidays is available.

A selection of the June 2017 grade 12 examination papers for physical sciences will DV be discussed with learners on the 4th of July from 10:30.

Click here to view/download the full programme with the dates for all subjects.