Monday, March 31, 2014

The Great Barrier Reef: An Obituary




I was reading Ed Yong's blog, Not Exactly Rocket Science, and came across a post he made of a number of links he was sharing


One of them was to a great resource on the Great Barrier Reef, titled... The Great Barrier Reef: An Obituary.

The interactive web page combines amazing photos with informational text as well as video clips from experts and people that live in this area talking about the reef, its history, and its future.

The project goes over the reef's discovery as well talking about the people that have made the reef home for hundreds of years. The resource also talks about how tourism and development have effected the area, and changed it over the years.

This is a great example of human impact on an ecosystem. The piece goes into how tourism, agriculture, and climate change are damaging the reef and threatening its future. It is a great site to use with students exploring human impact on biomes and the environment.





Friday, March 28, 2014

Can changing your font save you money?

You would think this would have been something we had heard about long ago, but apparently there is a huge savings to be had by using more efficient fonts when we print. This savings is small, but when applied to printing budgets as large as the US governments it can add up.

This idea was pursued by Suvir Mirchandani as a topic for his science fair project. He enlarged and printed of examples of different fonts on card stock and weighed them to find the difference in ink they required. His findings were that the Garamond font used about 24% less ink and if his school district switched to it, they could save up to $21,000 dollars annually!


He was encouraged by his teacher to get his findings published in the Journal for Emerging Investigators (JEI), which is a publication founded by Harvard grad students. They were so impressed that they challenged Savir to see if he could calculate the potential savings on a larger scale.

He repeated his experiment using sample documents from state and federal websites. The federal government has a 1.8 million dollar annual printing budget, and of that sum, $467 million is spent on ink. He calculated that switching all printing to the Garamond font could result in a 30% savings or about $136 million a year. An additional $234 million could be saved if state governments got on board the project as well.

I find it amazing that this much money could be saved simply by switching the font used for printing. Even more amazing that this experiments was thought up and executed by a 14 year old for a science fair project!

It makes me wonder how much of a savings we could all make by switching fonts at work and at home. It will definitely make me think twice the next time I format something in bold text...


Here is a link to the CNN article I originally found this story:
http://www.cnn.com/2014/03/27/living/student-money-saving-typeface-garamond-schools/index.html?hpt=hp_t2







14-year-old Suvir Mirchandani began studying fonts as part of a science fair project.

Thursday, March 27, 2014

Eat, PREY, Love... Tales of Parasites and Mind Control

Ok... I apologize for the pun in the title. It is from a great TED Talk from science writer Ed Yong titled "Suicidal crickets, zombie roaches, and other parasite tales." In this talk he discusses the ways that parasites control the behavior of their hosts in order to further their own agendas.




One example is the toxoplasmosis microbe, affectionately referred to as "Toxo". Not only does this parasite cause expectant fathers around the world to get stuck changing the litter box, but it can change the brain of a mouse so that it removes its instinctual fear of its predator, the cat.




 Instead of fearing cats and fleeing to safety, the rodent is attracted to the cat and if it comes across any sign of one, it seeks it out. The reason for this is that, while "Toxo" can live inside any mammal, it can only reproduce inside of a feline host. So... Toxo hijacks the mouse and tries to get him eaten, so it can get inside of a cat to mate. Eat, Prey, Love... get it? ;-)


The talk describes some other parasitic horror stories that exist in nature and introduces the idea of whether or not the behavior of humans could possibly be affected like many other creatures.

To be on the safe side... I would probably hold off on watching this until some time has passed since your last meal.



If you enjoyed Mr. Yong's talk here is his blog, Not Exactly Rocket Science.

Wednesday, March 12, 2014

Google Add-Ons! (NEW)


I have to give credit to Leah Grady at QHS for turning me on to the Google Add-Ons that have just recently been added to Google Docs and Sheets. I had not noticed them until she showed them to me, and I am glad she did!

They are pretty awesome! The Add-on allows you to connect a number of web based tools directly into your Google Doc. By clicking on the Add-ons menu you can open a tool palette to a number of useful tools like EasyBib, LucidChart, and many more. There are tools that can give you pre-made templates to use, help you with making labels or a mail merge, and even add an official digital signature to documents you make and share online.


Now it is very easy to access things you make in another tool and directly add it to your document. For instance if you created a cool diagram or organizer in Lucidchart, you can open the Add-on and easily add it to your document. There is even an icon to click to take you right to the editing mode of Lucidchart if you want to make changes to your organizer before adding it.


The EasyBib Add-on is also really cool. It can allow you to search for your resurces, choose the citation format and have it add the citation right into your documnet. Here is Richard Byrne on his FreeTech4Teachers Blog as we demonstrates how to create a bibliography in a Google Doc using the EasyBib Add-On.


There is a quick video below from Google outlining the new Add-on tool.


Monday, March 10, 2014

Paper Microscopes - TED Talk with Manu Prakash on Foldscopes

Manu Prakash and some of his students have come up with a great idea to help make microscopes more accessible to students and people in developing countries. Their origami based microscope is estimated to cost about 50 cents each, and can be assembled by anyone and easily carried into the field where a normal microscope cannot easily go.

This idea was inspired by the fact that there are still 1 million people that are killed every year by microorganisms and a billion people at risk of this happening as well. All because they either do not have access to a microscope or the skills needed to operate one. Without them, they are unable to see the microorganisms that might be making them sick.

This fact inspired them to create the Foldscope which is incredibly durable and can be carried anywhere. Multiple scopes can be carried that have different viewing strengths and are designed for viewing different things.

The goal of the Foldscope is to educate people all around the world about the use of microscopes and how they can help them explore the world that is too small for the eye to see.


While these microscopes are not being marketed and sold yet, there is a program being offered that is looking for 10,000 people to try them out. Here is the link: 10,000 Micrsoscope Beta Tester Sign Up

Here is the link to the website: Foldscope Website


TED Talk with Manu Prakash: A 50 Cent Microscope that Folds Like Origami