Active Learning Strategies and Examples

July 15, 2019 Ajax Scientific Ltd. Communication, Education and Outreach, Policy and Politics, Science in Society

Last post, we discussed what active learning is and some reasons why it is beneficial. Now, let’s dive into active learning strategies and examples for improvement in the classroom. In all probability, you are already are using some of them. Active learning encompasses everything from pausing for reflection to experimental site visits. We begin by […] The post Active Learning Strategies and Examples appeared first on Ajax Scientifc Ltd.

Innerspace of a nanoparticle

July 15, 2019 Maryse de la Giroday Science in Society, Technology and Engineering

A Jan. 3, 2019 news item on ScienceDaily touts a new means of transporting DNA-coated nanoparticles (DNA is deoxyribonucleic acid), This holiday season, scientists at the Center for Functional Nanomaterials (CFN) — a U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science User Facility at Brookhaven National Laboratory — have wrapped a box of a different kind. Using a one-step chemical synthesis method, they engineered hollow metallic nanosized boxes with cube-shaped pores at the corners and demonstrated…

2019 Canadian Science Policy Conference (Nov.13 – 16, 2019 in Ottawa, Canada) celebrates its 10th year

July 12, 2019 Maryse de la Giroday Science in Society, Technology and Engineering

Congratulations to the folks at the Canadian Science Policy Centre who’ve worked for 10 years to produce an annual, national Canadian Science Policy Conference! That’s a lot of blood, sweat, tears, and determination. Here are highlights from the 2019 programme as noted in a July 10, 2019 CSPC announcement (received via email), …Theme: Science and Policy Bringing the Social Sciences into New Policy Spaces: Solution-oriented case studies and dialogueOrganized by Natural Resources Canada Evidence in Practice:…

Science inspired by superheroes, Ant-Man and the Wasp

July 12, 2019 Maryse de la Giroday Science in Society, Technology and Engineering

It’s interesting to see scientists take science fiction and use it as inspiration; something which I think happens more often than we know. After all, when someone asks where you got an idea, it can be difficult to track down the thought process that started it all. Scientists at Virginia Tech (Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University) are looking for a new source of inspiration after offering a close examination of how insect-size superheroes, Ant-Man…

Ouchies no more! Not from bandages, anyway.

July 11, 2019 Maryse de la Giroday Science in Society, Technology and Engineering

An adhesive that US and Chinese scientists have developed shows great promise not just for bandages but wearable robotics too. From a December 14, 2018 news item on Nanowerk, Researchers from the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) and Xi’an Jiaotong University in China have developed a new type of adhesive that can strongly adhere wet materials — such as hydrogel and living tissue — and be easily detached with…

Memristors with better mimicry of synapses

July 10, 2019 Maryse de la Giroday Science in Society, Technology and Engineering

It seems to me it’s been quite a while since I’ve stumbled across a memristor story from the University of Micihigan but it was worth waiting for. (Much of the research around memristors has to do with their potential application in neuromorphic (brainlike) computers.) From a December 17, 2018 news item on ScienceDaily, A new electronic device developed at the University of Michigan can directly model the behaviors of a synapse, which is a connection…

Fields Centre for Quantitative Analysis and Modelling (CQAM) and ArtSci Salon: call for mathematical artworks

July 10, 2019 Maryse de la Giroday Science in Society, Technology and Engineering

Currently, the deadline is July 26, 2019. For information about the call, there’s a July 6, 2019 ArtSci Salon announcement (received via email) about the call). Note: Both the Art/Sci Salon and CQAM are located in Toronto, Ontario but this is not limited to Canadian artists as far as I can tell, Please, see this quick call!! this is for existing artworks: do you have any math-related digital work/photography/drawing/ in high res? please consider submitting!!!…

Two-dimensional material stacks into multiple layers to build a memory cell for longer lasting batteries

July 9, 2019 Maryse de la Giroday Science in Society, Technology and Engineering

This research comes from Purdue University (US) and the December announcement seemed particularly timely since battery-powered gifts are popular at Christmas but since it could be many years before this work is commercialized, you may want to tuck it away for future reference. Also, readers familiar with memristors might see a resemblance to the memory cells mentioned in the following excerpt. From a December 13, 2018 news item on Nanowerk, The more objects we make…

World’s smallest magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of a single atom

July 9, 2019 Maryse de la Giroday Science in Society, Technology and Engineering

While not science’s sleekest machine, this microscope was able to capture M.R.I. scans of single atoms. Credit: IBM Research Such a messy looking thing—it makes me feel better about my housekeeping. In any event, it’s fascinating to think this scanning tunneling microscope as seen in the above can actually act as an MRI device and create an image of a single atom. There’s a wonderful article in the New York Times about the work but…

Better performing solar cells with newly discovered property of pristine graphene

July 8, 2019 Maryse de la Giroday Science in Society, Technology and Engineering

Light-harvesting devices—I like that better than solar cells or the like but I think that the term serves as a category rather than a name/label for a specific device. Enough musing. A December 17, 2018 news item on Nanowerk describes the latest about graphene and light-harvesting devices (Note: A link has been removed, An international research team, co-led by a physicist at the University of California, Riverside, has discovered a new mechanism for ultra-efficient charge…

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