How Big is Space? 4 Simulations to Show

Astronomy has always been a favorite topic of mine. From the time I was a child, I have loved learning about the planets, stars, other galaxies, black holes, supernovas, and more.

One thing that I have always struggled with though is grasping the actual scale of space. This is a common problem for most of us, and something that can really help our students better understand scientific concepts they are learning in school.

So how can we get a better understanding of the massive scale of the universe and the objects contained within it? One option is to use simulations that can help model space. Thankfully there are several excellent online, interactive simulations that can do just that.

See below for four of my favorite space simulation sites. Each approaches the concept of scale a little differently, so check each out to see which ones will work best with your students. And be sure to let me know of other scale simulations you have found that I can add to this list.

15+ Awesome Article Sites for Students

Current event and general interest articles are a wonderful resource for students. They can be used for researching a topic, staying informed on what's happening in the news, pleasure reading, and more.

In the past I have shared some creative ways to use online articles as part of technology activities for student creativity and reading comprehension. For example:

• Improve Reading Comprehension with Google Docs "Black Out" - Blog Post Link 
• Black Out Poetry with Google Docs - Blog Post Link 

Additionally Google recently added a new lesson to their Applied Digital Skills curriculum called "Annotate Text in Google Docs". This activity covers how to take an article, copy and paste it into Google Docs, and then make digital notes to understand the article using comments, highlighting, tables, and more.

One big question, however, is where to find good articles. Over the years I have come across many excellent resources for articles that are written specifically for students. See below for my current list of these sites.

Learning Music, Art, Science, Math and more with Chrome Music Lab

When I used to teach middle school math, one unit I always loved to do each year was my "Music and Math" unit. We explored lots of connections between music and math, while learning about fractions, exponents, prime factorization, and more. We even concluded the unit with a day of student performances called "Curtstock" or "Curtsapalooza" (depending on the year).

One of the great things about music is how connected it is to other disciplines. As mentioned above, music can tie into math through fractions (duration of notes), exponents (decibels), multiples (beat), and prime factorization (harmonizing notes). Likewise music can connect with science when exploring sound waves, frequencies, and more, as has influence and occurrence in history, literature, and art.

To help explore musical concepts and how they relate to other topics, Google has created the Chrome Music Lab. This is a collection of 13 interactive "experiments" (so far) that let users create, play, and learn with a wide range of music concepts. These activities are also cross-platform, working on laptops, tablets, and phones.

See below for an explanation of each of these engaging tools...

Play "Mystery Animal" with Google

"20 Questions" has been a tried and true game for my family to pass the time on long road trips or rainy afternoons. Over the years my kids have asked and answered many questions about a mystery animal, person, place, food, or such.

In addition to being a fun way to pass time, "20 Questions" actually helps build important skills including making good questions, communicating clearly, and critical thinking to narrow down the possibilities.

Now Google has provided a newfangled way to play this age-old game with the launch of their "Mystery Animal" activity. With this game you and your students speak aloud to ask Google questions to try to guess a mystery animal. See below for the details on how to access and play this fun and educational activity.

Equatio: Yes You Can Type Math and Science in Google Docs and Forms!

As a previous math teacher, I have a soft spot for the pains teachers and students can feel when trying to use math symbols and expressions in technology. The same thing can be said in science when typing chemical formulas. Technology seems to play best with normal letters and numbers, rather than exponents, subscripts, fractions, and such.

Although there are many tools to help address these issues, one I have often recommended has been g(Math). This is an add-on for Google Docs, Sheets, and Forms, that provides a variety of ways to enter and insert mathematical expressions into these files.

Recently I found out that g(Math) is getting an upgrade with a new name, new features, and new format! The new version is called Equatio and it makes it easier than ever to write with math and science symbols in Google Docs and Forms. Rather than being an add-on, this version of the tool is actually a Chrome extension, meaning eventually it will be able to work in many apps beyond just Docs and Forms.

Spreadsheet Activities for all Subjects

I had the opportunity to present the following webinar recently:

Holy Sheets! Google Sheets Activities for all Subjects
Google Sheets is not just a tool for crunching numbers. It is a powerful tool for learning, inquiry, exploration, and inspiration in any subject area. In this session we take a look at several practical activities for a wide range of content areas including random writing prompts, flash cards, educational games, student-created learning databases, art and creativity, conditional formatting feedback for students, task lists, and of course analyzing data to draw conclusions and make predictions.

In the training I covered lots of creative ways that Google Sheets can be used for student activities including:

📊 Analyzing Data

💡 Learning Databases

🕹️ Educational Games and Activities

🎲 Random Generator Activities

🖼️ Art Activities

✔️ Tasks Checklists

💬 Conditional Formatting Feedback

💻 Activities from Google's Applied Digital Skills

See below to view the full 1-hour recorded webinar, and access to all of the links, templates, and resources covered in the session.

Have Students Build Learning Databases with Google Sheets

Google Sheets is an amazingly flexible tool, allowing you to randomly generate writing prompts, create pixel art, and discover mathematical properties. Another great use for Google Sheets is for students to create interactive learning databases.

"What exactly is that?" you ask.

Here's the idea. While in your class, students have to process a large amount of data. Maybe it is:

• Characters in the novel they are reading
• Animals in their elementary science class
• Careers they are exploring in high school
• Countries of the world they are studying
• Artists and the works they created
• Properties of geometric shapes

Using Google Sheets your students can

• Collect important details as they are learning, and build their own database of information, either individually or collaboratively. 
• Once complete, students can use the sorting and filtering features in Sheets to answer questions about the content they have been learning.

See below for several examples from a variety of subject areas, as well as directions on how to build these spreadsheet learning databases and use the sorting and filtering tools.

5 Emoji Learning Activities with Google Docs

A while back I did a blog post on the "Emoji Random Writing Prompt Generator" I had created with Google Sheets. Basically the sheet randomly selected a set of emojis that the student could use as inspiration for writing a story, poem, or such. With a simple reload, a new random set would be produced. You can see the post and get your own copy of the template here: Emoji Random Writing Prompt Generator

In this post we are going to dive deeper into creative ways to use emojis in Google Docs beyond just writing prompts. As mentioned in my previous post, emojis are a great tool to use in student learning activities for many reasons:

• Since emojis are images, they can be used with students of any age, language, or reading ability.
• Also since they are images, they can provide and represent a wide range of ideas since each student will have their own interpretations of the pictures.
• Emojis are very popular with students, so they will likely have familiarity with the images.
• They are fun!

See below for details on how you can insert emojis into Google Docs, and five fun ideas for learning activities the involve emojis.

Note: Emojis appear differently on different operating systems. Because of this, the images may not look the same on every device. If you are using any modern computer or device (Chromebook, Android, iOS, Mac OS, Windows), the emojis should display well. However if you are using an older version of Windows earlier than Windows 8.1, the emojis do not appear in color and many may be missing.

Teach your Science Students about Sound with TwistedWave

Teaching the concept of sound, pitch, frequency, and amplitude can be a little abstract since sound waves can’t normally be seen. However with the help of technology, students can get a much more concrete understanding of these topics.

In Ohio, sound is part of the science curriculum in Kindergarten, Grade 5 and Grade 7. In each case the students are supposed to explore how changes to sound waves can affect the pitch and loudness of the sound. The Ohio model curriculum encourages teachers to use virtual tools to visualize or simulate these concepts.

A great tool to do this is the free Chrome Web App called TwistedWave. This is a free online tool that lets you record sound, play it back, see a live visualization of the sound waves, edit the sound (pitch, amplitude, etc), and see the effect those changes have.

See below for a video tutorial showing how to use this web app, then read through the rest of the blog post for more details on the tool as well as the Ohio science standards addressed.