Today’s disaster death tolls are falling – U.N. report
24 May 2011 18:12
Triple A Learning IB Blogs
May 25, 2011
Saving the World – One Worm at a Time
If you were of a like mind to one of the myriad organizations trying to address the problem of education in the developing world, you’d probably start by making a list of all the things preventing kids from succeeding. Maybe you’d build new schools, train better teachers, start school lunch programs, or dig latrines so female students had a safe place to go to the bathroom. All of these have been attempted over the years with some modicum of success but considering the amount of money spent compared to gains in GDP, graduation rates, test scores or any of a number of quality of life indices, you’d have to agree there hasn’t been much bang for the buck.
Many developing countries are certain to fall well short of the UN Millenium Development Goals for universal education which are set for 2015. 
Minerals in the diet – Phosphorous
Phosphorous makes up less than 1% of a persons body weight, yet it is found in every cell 1.
In the body, it is found as phosphate, PO43-.
May 24, 2011
Minerals in our food – Calcium
Yesterday, I posted a question asking for (bones aside) two uses of calcium in the body. Well, we need it for teeth but also for muscle contraction (especially in the heart) and the release of neurotransmitters. So if you got these as your answers, award yourself 100 points.
Image kindly reproduced according to the licence at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Lower_wisdom_tooth.jpg
May 23, 2011
An excellent website
http://eoedu.belspo.be/en/profs/vgt.asp?section=1
Satellite Earth Observation – Educational initiatives of Belgian Science Policy
Lots of interesting articles – available in PDF on a wide variety of Global issues with some good satellite imagery.
Theatre Practitioners
In a speech by Brecht to Danish working class actors on the ‘Art of Observation’ he said:
‘In order to observe
Food Chemistry – The Minerals
This weeks blog postings will continue to focus on Option F, Food Chemistry. The last couple of weeks have dealt with the vitamins and we will now embark a study of some of the essential minerals in our diet.
We will strat, tomorrow with Calcium. Other minerals will include Phosphorus, Iron, Magnesium, Zinc, Iodine, Potassium, Selenium, Copper, Manganese and Chromium.
Isometric paper
Have you ever used isometric paper in your classes?
It can be a wonderful help when trying to draw three dimensional shapes.
May 22, 2011
PS to disappointing the doomsday cult: prediction
After what I said yesterday, I can’t resist passing on a link to this blog, Speculation on what Rapture believers will say this week. It presents quite a different kind of prediction from the one that Harold Camping made that the world would end yesterday. It’s a prediction not about how God will act but how people will act; it’s held with a much lighter degree of psychological conviction in calling itself “speculation”; and it is grounded in quite a different kind of justification. When I ended yesterday’s posting, I was wondering what explanations the doom believers will give for the End of the World NOT happening. Author Don Browne gives a few possibilities: “here is what Camping and others might explain as to just why the world end didn’t realize exactly as promised.”
Doomsday prophecies do catch people’s attention — and could activate student minds to look critically at the nature of justifications. After all, we make predictions all the time and live our daily lives with expectations of the future. Examining the kinds of predictions we make about the future provides some great comparisons between our areas of knowledge in the kinds of predictions they make and the kinds of justifications they provide. It also provides a way into thinking about the influence of our own cultural and personal backgrounds on our inclinations to accept some kinds of knowledge claims. And yes — I’d also say it brings in our own temperaments. Me, I’m inclined to be an optimist. And you?
Eileen Dombrowski
Abnormal Psychology and Stigmatization
Students, like members of the public, often harbor various negative steroetypes about people who suffer from psychologial disorders. This video Breaking the Stigma of Mental Illness is an effective way to challenge these beliefs and misconceptions about mental health.
A more powerful message is presented by Glenn Close of Hollywood fame. Her PSA Bring Change 2 Mind – Glenn and Jessie Close is an excellent discussion starter. On the site there are stories of the people who appear in the video. She has also written on the topic of Hollywood’s betrayal of mental disorders. Mental Illness: The Stigma of Silence.
