How big is an atom? This advanced chemistry video starts with Lee; a one-metre tall boy next to a tree, then zooms in with a magnification of 10 in a series of steps to smaller and smaller objects till we can SEE an individual atom.
On the way we encounter red blood cells, a bacterium, a virus, a DNA molecule, a sugar molecule, and finally a hydrogen atom. Then we delve further to see subatomic particles.
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About Atomic School:
Atomic School supports the teaching of Atomic Theory to primary school & science students .
We provide lesson plans, hands-on classroom resources, demonstration equipment, quizzes and a Teacher's Manual to primary school teachers. Animated videos that clearly explain the scientific ideas supports learning by both teachers and students. As a teacher, you don't have to look anywhere else to implement this program.
Our work has been verified by science education researchers at the University of Southern Queensland, Dr Jenny Donovan and Dr Carole Haeusler, who confirm that primary students are capable of learning much more complex scientific concepts than previously thought, and crucially, that they love it. Students run to class!
The program has been trialed in Australian schools as well as schools in the Philippines, Iran and India. It is conducted as holiday workshops at the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation, the Queensland Museum as well as the World Science Festival.
It has attracted wide media interest, including TV, radio and print, and the research data has been presented at prestigious American Education Research Association and Australian Science Education Research Association conferences.
Atomic Theory underlies all the other sciences- genetics, electronics, nanotechnology, engineering and astronomy- so an early understanding will set them up for a more successful learning sequence for all their science subjects, and support their mastery of mathematics as well. We also have extension programs that cover Biology, Physics and Astronomy to an equal depth.
About Ian Stuart (Email: ian.douglas.stuart@gmail.com):
The founder of Atomic School, Ian Stuart, taught Chemistry and Physics for 25 years at senior levels before he realized that his 8-year old son, Tom, could understand Atomic Theory at a much deeper level than he expected. After visiting Tom's class at school, he discovered that his peers could also grasp the abstract scientific concepts, as well as apply it usefully to the real world.
Ian then developed a program to teach the advanced concepts of high school Chemistry, Physics and Biology to students 10 years younger than they normally would. He found that this engaged their interest in modern science early, and sustained it through to high school and beyond. It also sets them up for future success in their academic and career paths.
Ian has a Bachelor's Degree in Chemistry from the University of Queensland and a Master's degree in Electrochemistry from the University of Melbourne.
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Video transcript:
In this video we'll first look at smaller and smaller objects in a series of steps. We'll start with this Oak tree which is 10 metres tall. Can you see the boy underneath the tree? We'll call him Lee, and Lee's height is about 1/10th of the tree's. That makes Lee 1 metre tall.
We'll now zoom in using a magnifying power of 10, and that will make Lee's image about the same height as the tree was on the screen before. In this video, we will continue to find smaller and smaller objects and zoom into them in a series of steps, until finally we can see an atom.
Now let's find something about a tenth of Lee's height- the distance between his eyebrows is about right. Let's zoom in to magnify this by 10 so it's bigger on the screen.
This distance must be a tenth of a metre wide. What's a tenth of this distance? - the width of Lee's iris- that's the coloured part of his eye. His iris is a 1/100 of a metre wide. A hundredth of a meter is also called a centimetre.
We're going to show you a trick here. 1/100 is the same as 1/102 because 100 is 102. Scientists often write this as 10-2 . That's like 10 squared, except that the 2 is has a minus in front. This minus is telling us that the squaring is on the bottom of the fraction instead of the top. The cool thing is that it's quicker to write 10-2 than 1/100.
And it gets better. 1/1,000 is the same as 1/103, so it can be shortened to 10-3. Notice that the -3 corresponds to 3 zeros on the bottom of the fraction. [18.2 What's 1 over a million? Hmm, a million has 6 zeros, so it's 10-6.] When there are lots more zeros, it gets a WAY quicker to write it this way.
16 сен 2014
