Issue 4

Download Issue 4 as PDF [3.1 MB]

Editorial Events Feature article: Nadia Rosenthal Cutting-edge science Teaching activities Projects in science education Science topics Scientist profile Science in film Reviews Back in the staffroom

Editorial

• Welcome to the fourth issue of Science in School
  Once again, we are happy to offer you a wide range of articles written by teachers, scientists and others from nine different countries.
  In our feature article, Nadia Rosenthal, one of two stem-cell researchers to deliver the 2006 Howard Hughes Holiday Lectures on Science for high-school students, discusses the ethics of using stem cells and live animals in research....
  Read | PDF [360 KB]

Events

• Forthcoming events
  Read (frequently updated) | PDF [284 KB]
• Launch event of Cinema and Science (CISCI)
  Rafael Reyeros introduces an Internet database to help teachers use film clips.
  Read (English, Italian) | PDF [300 KB]

Feature article: Nadia Rosenthal

• Ethics in research
  Is it acceptable to use human embryonic stem cells in research? What about live animals? Professor Nadia Rosenthal talks about the ethics of her research.
  Read (English, Lithuanian, Spanish) | PDF [452 KB]

Cutting-edge science

• Silky, stretchy and stronger than steel!
  Giovanna Cicognani and Montserrat Capellas investigate whether spider silk could be the answer to medical and military challenges.
  Read (English, Czech/Slovak, Greek, Maltese, Polish, Spanish) | PDF [412 KB]
• How do muscles produce work? Using optical tweezers to study molecular machines
  Alexandre Lewalle pushes back the frontiers of our knowledge of motors - at the molecular level.
  Read (English, Greek, Portuguese) | PDF [368 KB]

Teaching activities

• Two hydrolytic enzymes and an epistemological-historical approach
  Why are enzymes so special? How do they differ from inorganic catalysts? Isabella Marini introduces a classroom protocol to enable students to answer these questions for themselves.
  Read (English, Bulgarian, Italian, Polish) | PDF [416 KB]
• Democs: a conversation card activity for teaching science and citizenship
  Karen Smith describes how to create a safe space for students to discuss sensitive topics like stem-cell research or genetically modified food.
  Read | PDF [352 KB]
• A fresh look at light: build your own spectrometer
  Take a CD and a cereal box, and what do you have? With a little help from Mark Tiele Westra, your very own spectrometer!
  Read (English, Bulgarian, Greek, Hungarian, Portuguese, Swedish) | PDF [520 KB]

Projects in science education

• Explor@mobile: using new technologies to teach science to teenagers
  Claire Le Moine elucidates the formula of the explor@mobile: two scientists, some computers and a gas-powered vehicle!
  Read | PDF [356 KB]
• Fair enough? Balanced considerations for future science-fair organisers
  Eva Amsen weighs up the pros and cons of science fairs, and offers tips for how teachers can get involved - or even organise their own science fair.
  Read | PDF [392 KB]
• The Faulkes Telescopes: real-time, remote-control astronomy for schools
  Using the Faulkes Telescopes, Rachel Dodds takes you and your students on a trip to the stars - without leaving the classroom!.
  Read (English, Greek) | PDF [480 KB]
• Scientists@work
  Sooike Stoops introduces a project in which school students experience for themselves what it is like to work in a laboratory.
  Read (English, Greek) | PDF [420 KB]

Science topics

• Plant hallucinogens as magic medicines
  Did witches once soar through the night sky on broomsticks? Angelika Börsch-Haubold considers the pharmacology of toxic plants - many of which are still used in medicine.
  Read (English, German, Polish) | PDF [796 KB]
• Is traditional engineering the right system with which to manipulate our world?
  We are relative newcomers on Earth and still have a lot to learn. Julian Vincent investigates some of the lessons we can learn from the living world.
  Read (English, Greek) | PDF [528 KB]
• Fusion in the Universe: we are all stardust
  Henri Boffin and Douglas Pierce-Price investigate our celestial ancestry.
  Read (English, Dutch, French, Greek, Hungarian, Italian, Polish, Spanish) | PDF [360 KB]

Scientist profile

• You're researching what? Toothpaste?
  Introducing Linda Sellou, a French PhD student and toothpaste researcher.
  Read (English, French, Greek) | PDF [380 KB]

Science in film

• Erin Brockovich
  Jenna Stevens provides a toolkit for using the film Erin Brockovich in chemistry and ecology lessons.
  Read (English, German, Italian) | PDF [300 KB]

Reviews

• The Molecular Biology of the Cell
  The Molecular Biology of the Cell: A Problems Approach
  Read (English, Romanian) | PDF [292 KB]
• The Third Man of the Double Helix
  Read (English, Italian) | PDF [288 KB]
• Rhythms of Life: The Biological Clocks That Control the Daily Lives of Every Living Thing
  Read | PDF [292 KB]

Back in the staffroom

• Design the cover for Science in School!
  Encourage your students to get out their paints and enter our competition. Or join in yourself!
  Read | PDF [332 KB]