Love and Chemistry
This ad spot is from the German chemical company BASF (Badische Anilin- und Soda-Fabrik or “Baden Aniline and Soda Factory”).
Love and Chemistry
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VideoThe LEGO Movie
I just saw The LEGO Movie with my son Alton and everything is awesome!!! It is The LEGO Group’s first feature-length comedy adventure film, although they have come out with other, shorter LEGO films before this one, covering such subjects as Bionicle, Hero Factory, Clutch Powers, Indiana Jones, and Star Wars. The LEGO Movie is directed and co-written by Phil Lord and Chris Miller and is distributed by Warner Brothers Pictures.
The movie is about Emmet Brickowski, an ordinary construction worker with no special qualities. He builds things with the aid of instruction manuals, and even uses one to manage his daily life. He meets Wyldstyle, a woman who is searching for the Piece of Resistance, an object capable of stopping a doomsday superweapon called the Kragle. Wyldstyle takes Emmet to Vitruvius, a wizard who explains that he and Wyldstyle are Master Builders capable of building anything they need, both with great speed and without instruction manuals.
The ability of these LEGO characters to manipulate their own LEGO universe offers the adult viewer some ontological questions that is in part what makes this movie clever and funny. The conflicting worldviews between conformist building (do not deviate from the instructions) and creative building (construct your desires from anything available) are expressed throughout the movie and remind me of how different people treat LEGO bricks.
Also, several websites come to mind. LEGO Education is the part of The LEGO Group that offers several STEM building kits for students to explore and to work hands-on through practical experience and demonstration.
LEGOengineering is a website developed by the Tufts University Center for Engineering Education and Outreach with the support of LEGO Education to inspire and support teachers in bringing LEGO-based engineering to all students.
Besides the obvious use of using LEGO building materials for design and construction, LEGO bricks can also be used to provide an analogy for atoms, molecules, and their reactions. Scott Halpern at ChemistryUnderstood.com has used LEGO bricks to explain atomic theory.
Texas Tech University’s GK-12 Building Bridges program participants Arla Jo Anderton Gideon, John Como, and Jennifer Hortman (a high school chemistry teacher, a science PhD candidate, and a master’s candidate in math, respectively) developed a lesson module for using LEGO bricks to teach balancing chemical equations.
Along those lines, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Edgerton Center offers a Chemical Reactions lesson that introduces to students molecules, atoms, chemical notation, and chemical compounds through an engaging hands-on wet lab and LEGO brick models of atoms.
Remember, LEGO is not only from the Danish phrase leg godt which means play well, it is also Latin for I study or I put together.
CAST 2011
I went to Dallas for this year’s Conference for the Advancement of Science Teaching (CAST), the annual statewide meeting of the Science Teachers Association of Texas (STAT).
It was fun and exciting to see the vendor booths, attend informative sessions, and to meet and talk with science teachers from all over Texas. I learned a lot from both experienced and novice teachers as they shared with me their various ideas and tips that they took from their teaching toolboxes.
I also attended a luncheon hosted by the Associated Chemistry Teachers of Texas (ACT2), the chemistry affiliate of STAT. They acted as hosts to Jonathan Bergmann, their guest speaker. Bergmann talked about how he, along with fellow Colorado chemistry teacher Aaron Sams, flipped his chemistry classroom in order to provide more class time for student help and less for lecture.
Jonathan Bergmann
Aaron Sams
Paul Simon’s The Boy In The Bubble
This is the opening track on Paul Simon’s Graceland album. He immersed himself in the music of South Africa before his 1985 trip, and came across a song by the Lesotho group Tau Ea Matsekha. Simon wanted to meet them, especially the songwriter and leader Forere Motloheloa, who played the piano accordion. When Simon arrived at Ovation Studios in Johannesburg, he started recording with the group, reworking their song.
In the song, Simon seems to be exploring the dual nature of science and of humanity. We live in a world where we are doing amazing things with medicine and technology, but we are also creating sophisticated weapons at the same time. The developed world is in a bubble of comfort and self-absorption, while the developing world ekes by in the dry wind and dead sand. It is almost impossible for modern global society to make sense of it all: “these are the days of miracle and wonder”.
Genki Sudo’s World Order
World Order “World Order”
World Order is a Japanese music group produced and directed by retired mixed martial arts fighter Genki Sudo (Sudō Genki, 須藤 元気). Genki Sudo is also the lead vocalist as well as a member of the group along with six other dancers.
World Order “Boy Meets Girl”
World Order is known for their synchronized choreography that reminds me of clockwork or an assembly line (see my post on the Algorithm March).
World Order “Machine Civilization”
When you watch the music videos, notice how the people around them react to the group and to the camera. Apparently, World Order will choose a public space to film their performance with no control of the surroundings. People will go about their business around them. Most will ignore the group, but some will try to avoid disrupting the filming, take their own pictures of the performance, or even try to participate with the group!
World Order
Boy Meets Girl
Machine Civilization