Science Education Insights

Happy Birthday to... Max Planck

A host of famous scientific names celebrate their birthdays during Spring including radio pioneer Guglielmo Marconi, ‘father of the atomic bomb’ J Robert Oppenheimer, and molecular biologist James Watson, who discovered the structure of the DNA double helix along with Francis Crick and Maurice Wilkins.

The Physics & Chemistry of Art

Everybody knows that some paintings and archaeological artefacts can fetch astronomical sums of money in the auction rooms. But how do you know whether an ‘old master’ is a fake, or what it looked like originally, or perhaps whether there is an even earlier painting beneath it? The art world is increasingly turning to cutting-edge science to find out.

Fly Me To The Moon

Do you remember a time when the thought of sending men to the moon was almost unbelievable?  Some of us old enough to remember can recall being told how the massive Saturn 5 rocket would propel three men out of the clutches of Earth’s gravitational pull and enable the LEM (Lunar Excursion Module) to land softly on the moon.

It was the 1960s and space travel was new and exciting, the very stuff of adventure to small boys & girls everywhere.  And there we all were, unwittingly being introduced to classical mechanics and Newton’s three laws of motion.

Who Cares?

One of our best selling patient care manikins is featured at the "Who Cares?" exhibition currently being held at the Museum der Arbeit (Museum of Work) in Hamburg, Germany.

"Who Cares" is a work devised by the historian Isabel Atzl who also has 10 years of experience of working in hospitals as a Nurse.  The exhibition is designed to raise questions about the role of care-givers in hospitals "I want to create an awareness of this profession," says Atzl.  "The title is deliberately ambiguous", she says, "Who Cares? and Who Cares - these are important questions and statements." 

"Who Cares?" is a history of nursing over the last 200 years and is an interesting insight into the conditions nurses were expected to work in from 1800 through world wars and now with an array of technological advancements. Minor surgical procedures, wound dressing, medication, personal care and nutrition are all shown.

The contrast of past and present forms of nursing is evident throughout the exhibition and Atzl has been keen to demonstrate the hugely varied areas that nursing care influences: the OR, anesthesia, hygiene, case management, pediatrics, geriatrics etc.

Visitors to the exhibition can learn from stories and experiences of real nurses and their accounts of the physical and mental stresses they face daily whilst caring for patients.  The exbibition is accompanied by scientific lectures whilst exhibits are located in hospital-style corridors.

The "Who Cares?" exhibition takes place at the Museum der Arbeit in Hamburg, Germany, from May 1st to September 15th, 2013.

Click here to see our full range of Patient Care Simulators & Trainers

The Business of Bones

Here at 3B Scientific we supply replica skeletons to our clients in the medical and educational sectors. However, one of our customers has taken the business of bones to a whole new level…

When you see skeletons of people and other animals in class or a museum, they’re replicas, right? Well, yes… sometimes!

 

Some Like it Hot!

The laws of thermodynamics underpin some of the fundamental concepts of the universe. There are four of them but, in this article, we’re going to take a closer look at just two: the first and second laws.

The first law of thermodynamics concerns the conservation of energy, such that the total amount of energy in an isolated system remains constant over time. This energy includes the ‘internal energy’ that resides in the random motion and vibration of particles such as atoms and molecules, as well as heat or ‘thermal energy’. Finally, there is ‘work’, which is a transfer of mechanical energy such as when a gas is compressed. 

So, this law means that, in an isolated system, energy can change its location within that system, and it can change to a different type of energy: for instance chemical energy from a battery can become electricity which, in turn, can drive a motor to become kinetic energy. Importantly, however, that energy can neither be created nor destroyed. It remains constant.

English brewer and Physicist James Prescott Joule was one of the pioneers in this field and his experimental work led to the theory of conservation of energy, which in turn led to the development of the first law of thermodynamics. The SI derived unit of energy, the joule, is named after him.

In 1843 he carried out a series of experiments, the most famous of which involved what is now called the ‘Joule apparatus’. He built a gadget consisting of a descending weight attached to a string, which turned a paddle wheel immersed in water. By knowing the mass of the weight and the distance it descended, and also by monitoring the temperature of the water, he was able to show that the gravitational potential energy lost by the weight in descending was equal to the heat (thermal energy) gained by the water due to the friction caused by the rotating paddle.

Along with the second law of thermodynamics, the first law means that so-called ‘perpetual motion machines’ – ie ones that continue working indefinitely without any external source of energy – are impossible, despite many people having tried to invent them down the centuries.

So what’s the second law of thermodynamics all about? It says that heat flows naturally from an object at a higher temperature to an object at a lower temperature. Think of a cup of hot coffee left in a room: over time, it will cool to approach the temperature of the room (which itself will have increased slightly).

At the same time, heat doesn’t flow in the opposite direction of its own accord and this is again borne out by observation of our everyday environment. For instance, if we want to chill food in a warm environment we put it in a refrigerator, which needs electrical energy to function. Similarly, we keep ourselves cool in hot climates with air-conditioning, which also requires consumption of electrical energy.

The idea of ‘entropy’ is an essential concept in thermodynamics. Essentially it is a measure of disorder and randomness in the system. For instance, imagine a flask containing gas. If all the molecules stayed at one end of the flask, with a vacuum in the rest of the container, then they would be in a highly organised low state of entropy. As the particles move out to fill the rest of the container, entropy increases as they take up random positions within the flask.

Has your science class carried out any Thermodynamic experiments recently?  Our Advanced Thermodynamics Kit has 22 experiments that your students can try out.

3B Scientific Makes Waves With New Physics Education Kit

 

Young's Experiment with Ultrasonic Waves

Our 3B Scientific team in Germany were excited to have the opportunity to launch a brand new science education kit at the MNU Federal Congress which was held in Hamburg 24-28 March 2013.

 

Saddle up for Texas NSTA & Win Cowboy Stan!

It's time to saddle up and mozy on over to Texas!  We're heading off to San Antonio next week (April 11-14) for the NSTA 2013 National Conference.  And to celebrate the conference theme of Next Generation Science: Learning, Literacy and Living, we'll be giving away a full size 3B Scientific skeleton to one lucky winner!

Orbiting into Spring

After a winter of epic weather in the northern hemisphere, people’s thoughts are, this month, turning gratefully towards Spring. March is the month of the vernal equinox, recognised as the first day of Spring in the north; in the southern hemisphere it is the autumnal equinox, signalling the transition from summer into autumn.

So, why should we learn about refraction, the Great Sphinx of Giza and our solar system?

A Slice of Mathematical Pi

March 14 is a special day for geeks around the world. It’s Pi Day: the date is 3/14 – the first three digits of the constant ratio between the circumference of a circle to its diameter, which school kids everywhere know is approximated to 3.14159.

It also happens to be Einstein’s birthday, so there’s a double reason to celebrate!