TomLough's blog

In April, I represented SEED at the annual conference of the National Science Teachers Association, held in San Antonio, Texas. Somewhere around 8,000 science teachers from elementary through university levels came together from all over the USA and from a good number of other countries for a week of sharing and professional growth. This was a real high point in my professional year!

Here in Kentucky, USA, where I live, we have four definite seasons of the year: spring, summer, fall, and winter. The seasons are each wonderful in their separate ways, but the transitions between seasons are particularly interesting. In the transition from winter to spring, we have several weeks with both cold and warm weather. During these days, I have found some interesting things going on.

Hello, everyone!

At about this time of year, people in many places become "itchy" about a certain day -- Valentine's Day!! Here's a way to "scratch" that itch! How about using Scratch [ http://scratch.mit.edu  ] to make a Valentine's Day greeting for your special someone?

Have you looked at our "Path of the Sun" activity lately? You can find it
at /laboratory/experiment-what-path-sun . Last year, I suggested to one of the teachers in our town that this might be an interesting activity to do with her third graders. So we reduced the activity to a single question:

Recently, I came across a very interesting video, and I invite you to take a look, using the link below.

http://news.sciencemag.org/sciencenow/2012/12/video-splash-cups-sow-seeds.html?ref=hp&utm_source=buffer&buffer_share=c50bd

Here in Kentucky, and in many other parts of the USA, we experience a great change at this time of year -- the transition from summer to winter. To me, it is amazing that the 20+ degree tilt of the earth's axis can produce the seasons of the year in many areas.

I have seen lots of rainbows in my life, but there are two that I remember very well. Both of these were rainbows that I observed from the air. Because I saw these rainbows from a vantage point above the earth, I saw their full form -- that of a circle! That's right! The typical rainbow we see arcing aross the sky is just part of a full circle of bands of color. The surface of the earth interrupts it if we are viewing it from the ground.

Anyhow, let me tell you about these two very special circular rainbows.

I love shadows! They make such interesting patterns, for one thing. When I see an interesting shadow pattern, I try to figure out what sort of an object made the shadow without looking at the object first. Try it sometime!

Hi, everyone,

I am Tom Lough, SEED educational consultant. I am opening this blog as a journal for theSEED workshops in Macae, May 26-27 and May 28-31. Today, May 18, I am working on some of the tools we will be using in the workshops. These include the GoGo Board, the Scratch software, and the SEED water testing kit.

My name is Tom Lough, educational consultant to SEED.

Do you have a special place? My special place is my home. It is special to me because my family is there. When I am at home, I feel surrounded by an atmosphere of love and comfort. My home gives me the peace of mind I need, so that I can face the tasks before me with calmness, patience, and focus.