Techgab1415
Monday, April 27, 2015
Toy Theater
Chasing Tornados
From an outsider's perspective, storm chasing might appear to involve hours and hours of boredom, accentuated by a few moments of unimaginable excitement—or terror—depending on one's love or fear of tornadoes. But to tornado researchers, the effort and expense they expend in search of a single tornado-producing storm reflect the importance of these events in terms of their impact on lives and property. This video segment adapted from NOVA follows some of the scientists who study these violent storms and highlights what they've learned about the storms and what they still want to know about the conditions that cause them.
Link: http://www.pbslearningmedia.org/resource/ess05.sci.ess.watcyc.chasing/chasing-tornadoes/
Tornado Damage Interactive
To judge a tornado's force after it strikes, the U.S. National Weather Service uses a rating system it adopted in 1973 called the Fujita Scale. Devised by meteorologist Theodore Fujita in 1970, the F-scale enables experts to estimate a tornado's maximum wind speed in relation to the single most destructive thing it did. In this interactive, use the F-scale to examine and rate the destruction caused by several recent tornadoes.
1928 Tornado and Teacher Heroism
Tornado forecasting did not exist on September 13, 1928, and the only warning systems people had were the informal ones that have always been present in small farming communities. There were no severe weather outlooks, tornado watches, amateur radio or spotter networks, community sirens, commercial television or radio alerts, or awareness programs in northeastern Nebraska in 1928. There were only people who watched the skies and were ready to risk their own lives to help a neighbor. The heroism displayed by Dale Larson and Eugene Keyser is similar to that shown by countless people during the past century across the Great Plains.
Link: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/earth/killer-tornado-1928.html
Deadliest Season
In 2011, the worst tornado season in decades left a trail of destruction across the U.S., killing more than 550 people. Why was there such an extreme outbreak? How do such outbreaks form? With modern warning systems, why did so many die? Is our weather getting more extreme - and if so how bad will it get? In this NOVA special, we meet scientists striving to understand the forces at work behind last year's outbreak. Could their work improve tornado prediction in the future? We also meet people whose lives have been upended by these extreme weather events and and learn how we all can protect ourselves and our communities for the future.
Link: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/earth/deadliest-tornadoes.html
Hidden Heroes
Hidden Heroes is a fascinating interactive site that allows the user to create an exhibit of "ordinary" objects from among 40+ items available. Once items have been selected for an exhibit, the user can examine the items chosen to learn about their origins, unusual uses, and often about how they have been altered or improved upon over time. These "hidden heroes" run the gamut from chopsticks to lipsticks, and from flip-flops to bottle caps. It's fun to learn quirky facts about these everyday items, as well as learning about their inventors. Once students learn about the backgrounds of these simple objects, they might be challenged to come up with simple solutions to everyday 21st century problems.
Do You Speak American?
The following curriculum has been designed to support Do You Speak American? for high school and college students and includes five units based on the three-hour program. The resources provided on this Web site are available free of charge; each unit of study provides strategies for integratingvideo segments from the program, other resources on the Do You Speak American? Web site and Web-based resources found elsewhere on the Internet. Each unit features instructional tools, discussion questions, student activities, and a bibliography. DYSA? is closed captioned for the hearing impaired.
Origin and Evolution of Words
Want to know more about a word or phrase? Search theTrack That Worddatabase to discover the origins and evolution of hundreds of words and expressions.
Creating New Words
Experts weigh in on the American penchant for creating new words and expressions. Are we lowering our standards? Can we control language change? The answers may surprise you.
Regional Dialects
Most Americans are well aware that English sounds different in different parts of the country. They may assert that people in other places speak with a drawl or a twang or that they sound nasal. In some places, people are said to speak fast; in others, slowly. The existence of regional speech differences is indisputable, but the differences have contributed to widely held stereotypes.
Link: http://www.pbs.org/speak/education/curriculum/college/regional/