Short science articles

The website Popular Science has a section called Short Science Articles, which can be very useful as reading texts for lower level students. Each article is short enough to be less than one page on the screen, and range over many science topics (medicine, health, technology, physics, etc.).

http://www.popsci.com/category/tags/short-science-articles

Curiously, although other news articles on this website are current, the articles in the Short Science Articles section are dated from 2009. However, most of them are still newsworthy. Example headlines:

• "A squirt of stem cells gel heals brain injuries"
• "Website yields unexpected results in the business of artifacts"

and - my favorite - (headed "Science confirms the obvious"):

• "Parents and adult children: mutually irritating"

 In fact, there are other short articles headed "Science confirms the obvious," which could lead to some amusing ideas from the students for other articles in this series.

Combining robotics and teleconferencing

The AVA 500 is a video conferencing robot from the company iRobot, created with Cisco Systems, that allows a user to attend meetings, check up on colleagues, participate in projects, etc. from anywhere in the world. The website of iRobot says: "The robot blends together iRobot's autonomous navigation with Cisco's TelePresence to enable people working off-site to participate in meetings and presentations where movement and location spontaneity are important."

The section of iRobot's website with information about AVA 500 includes a promotional video:
http://www.irobot.com/us/learn/commercial/ava500.aspx

The video is 5:07 minutes long and explains and shows how the robot works. The narrator speaks slowly and clearly, so the video should be understandable to students at low-intermediate level and above.

The website includes information that could be used to have students describe the robot.

Applications: http://www.irobot.com/us/learn/commercial/ava500/Applications/Remote_Team_Collaboration.aspx

Features: http://www.irobot.com/us/learn/commercial/ava500/Features.aspx

For a longer text (to focus on textual language features), use iRobot's press release:

http://www.irobot.com/us/Company/Press_Center/Press_Releases/Press_Release.aspx?n=061013

The future of virtual instrumentation

From August 5-8, 2013, National Instruments held their annual Worldwide Graphical System Design Conference, NIWeek 2013, in Austin, Texas. The conference is described on the National Instruments website as delivering "technical networking and instruction with interactive sessions by NI R&D engineers and guest lecturers; targeted industry summits; hands-on workshops; exhibitions on the latest advancements in design, research, and test; and keynote presentations from leading technology thought leaders."

The keynote presentations are of particular interest because they are uploaded as videos, and are not too long for students to listen to (between 5 and 20 minutes).

http://www.ni.com/niweek/keynote-videos

The introduction keynote speech (time 19:29) was presented by Dr. James Truchard, President and CEO of National Instruments. The title is Expanding the Vision of Graphical System Design. Dr. Truchard talks about current and future products, after giving a brief overview of the evolution of instrumentation. He speaks clearly at a relaxed tempo, and there is a large projection screen behind him with the key words of his talk (including definitions of key concepts). This helps with understanding.

But if 20 minutes is too long for your students to listen to a speech, then you can focus specifically on a section of approximately 5 minutes in which he talks about "looking to the future" (from 10:49 to 15:21). He refers to the current state of technology as Industry 4.0 - the 4th Industrial Revolution, and reviews the developments of the first three revolutions. It would be interesting to have students brainstorm what they identify as these 3 revolutions (and when). Dr. Truchard describes them as:

1. (end of 18th century): Water and steam powered mechanical production;
2. (start of 20th century): Electric power and mass production;
3. (start of the 1970s): Electronics and IT automation;
4. (Today): Cyber-physical systems.

He says that cyber-physical systems "will transform industry" and describes their emerging infrastructures (eg., Intelligent Systems, Smart Factory, M2M, Big Analog Data(TM) Solutions, etc.). He then gives examples of cyber-physical systems across industries and applications:

• tumor treatment
• 6x6 MIMO OFDM Testbed
• advanced smart grid
• large telescope mirror control
• virtual test trains
• robotic rehabilitation
• rapid control prototyping

 He refers to these examples as "enabling the next generation of technology." This is where the recommended section ends (at 15:21).

This talk is not only interesting and informative, but it gives students practice in listening comprehension and could lead to further discussion about the impact of the future technology mentioned. These technology areas could include our students' future professional fields!

Robot helps firefighters

The website Design News has a short article about a semi-autonomous robot that was developed at the University of California at San Diego to help firefighters. The article includes a short video about the robot.

http://www.designnews.com/author.asp?section_id=1386&doc_id=265071&itc=dn_analysis_element& 

The robot, called Firefighting Robot (FFR), rolls on two wheels like a Segway, and enters burning buildings to take temperature readings and map out the area before firefighters enter.

This is another interesting example of robots being used for search and rescue work. Fortunately I have the summer off, but next semester I plan to use the information about various robots for a lesson on innovation in our lives. Maybe my students will be creative enough to come up with more ideas about how robots can be used in this way. We can also compare the robots that have been developed for various types of rescue work and discuss their advantages and disadvantages.

Impact of failed satellites

An article on the website BBC Future asks “what would happen if all satellites stopped working?”

http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20130609-the-day-without-satellites

The author, Richard Hollingham, writes a scenario of what could possibly happen throughout the day – at 8:00, 11:00, 16:00 and 22:00. The way it is written is a classic impact analysis; that is, a step-by-step description of the domino effect started by such an event.

At my university, we like to teach engineering students impact analysis so that they can be more aware of the possible impacts of their future work. So I will definitely use this article next semester.

Students can be asked to brainstorm the effects of all satellites no longer working, and then compare their ideas in a class discussion. In small groups, they could put their in chronological order, or in the order that each would impact the others, and from this decide how they would write their list as an impact analysis.

The article presents each possible scenario written in the past and past progressive tenses, as if the effects are being reported after they happen. For extra language work, students can change some of these sentences into a form of the conditional. For example: A pilot squadron lost contact with the armed drones they were flying over the Middle East would be changed to A pilot squadron would lose contact with the armed drones they were flying over the Middle East.

Finally, at the end of the article, readers are asked: “Do you agree with Richard? If you would like to comment on this story or anything else you have seen on Future, head over to our Facebook page or message us on Twitter.” Instead, students can write their comment in class or as a follow-up homework assignment. A message for Twitter would be particularly interesting, because they would have to limit their comment to no more than 140 characters (which requires a clear focus on word choices).

Readlang: a website to help learn vocabulary

Readlang is a website created by Steve Ridout that helps you learn foreign languages (35 languages possible!) by reading and translating words you don't know.

http://readlang.com/ 

There is also a video to see how it works. It is said to be now out of date, but more information is on the website.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qabaf3QumB8&feature=youtu.be 

On the website, first you set your native language, then set the language you’re learning. Then insert a text. A text can be cut and pasted onto the website, or a link can be uploaded. You can even upload an entire novel. I tried it with the first paragraph of an article I used with my students this past semester (see my last blog post, Self-parking automobiles), marking German as “my language” and English as the language I’m learning.

When the text is on Readlang, you can put your cursor on a word, and it is translated into your own language. The only problem I had with this is that you can only translate one word – not a lexical chunk (like “according to”) or idiomatic phrases (“just around the corner”). And, as we all know, one-to-one translation doesn’t always work very well. But for a fast and easy vocabulary check, my students will probably like to use this.

A useful feature is that all the words that you have chosen to translate are then stored in the area called “Learn”, where you can test yourself (like using flash cards). There’s also an area called “Words”, which gives more information about each of the words chosen. The text itself is stored in “Library.”

The site also has a blog where Steve Ridout gives more information about how to use the site, and gives further updates on the site’s progress.

The blog: http://blog.readlang.com/

Self-parking automobiles

There was an interesting article in The Economist last week about Volvo’s new feature that allows a car to park itself.

Link to article:
http://www.economist.com/news/science-and-technology/21580134-autonomous-vehicles-are-arriving-piecemeal-more-and-more-driving-tasks-are

My students are usually interested in anything to do with cars, so the topic would catch their attention. Information about innovation is always useful in lessons, and this article also compares this innovative feature to other car-parking systems. Students can discuss the pros and cons of each one. 

In addition, there are a number of interesting language features. For example: 

• Use of adverbs, including slowly, steadily, recently, completely, easily, conversely, fully, highly, etc. (there are 13 different ones, and 5 are repeated twice)
• Use of comparatives and superlatives
• Conditional clauses
• Linking/transition words
• Relative clauses 
• And many phrases indicating future change, for example: 

• …are just around the corner 
• …car will arrive 
• …five to ten years from commercial deployment 
• That, too, is coming. 
• A number of carmakers are developing… 
• …expects to see…from around 2020.

Exercises focusing on any of these features could be part of the lesson, or given for homework.

Pizza vending machine

How about an innovation about pizza to catch students’ attention? A new vending machine, Let’s Pizza, has been developed to completely create a pizza while you wait. Inside the machine the process starts with flour and water to make the dough, it kneads the dough, puts on the chosen toppings, and bakes the pizza – in less than 3 minutes. If the ingredients are not used after 24 hours, the machine disposes of them so that the pizza is always fresh. Among the innovative features of this vending machine are “technical solutions to guarantee” that the food would be safe and hygienic.

Link to Design News:

http://www.designnews.com/document.asp?doc_id=247072

The article about this innovation is rather short, but there is also a video showing the process. Students can discuss the technical aspects of this machine, and consider whether they would want to try this pizza (can you really trust food made in a vending machine?). The CEO of A1 Concepts, the distributor, says he “wouldn't be surprised if the Let's Pizza's success spawns imitators.” Students could brainstorm other food items they could imagine being made from scratch in a vending machine.

The plan is to have Let's Pizza where food vending machines are usually found: at train stations, airports, schools and universities. The article (written in July 2012) says that "the machine has been available in Europe since 2009," but I haven’t seen one yet. Maybe this summer I'll come across one on my travels. It would be fun to see how it works, but I'm not sure I want to try one.

Anti-theft technology for cars

There is a lot of interesting visual material on the australianscreen website: http://aso.gov.au/

It is operated by Australia's National Film and Sound Archive (NFSA), which is "the national audiovisual archive, collecting, preserving and sharing the nation's moving image and recorded sound heritage."

A video clip I used with my students is "Four Corners: Car Wars" (2:09 min).
 http://aso.gov.au/titles/tv/four-corners-car-wars/clip2/

This viedo shows a technological innovation from DataDot Technology that was developed to prevent car theft. This innovation involves spraying microdots over various parts of a new car. In the video, the innovation is described, and there is a chronological explanation of the development and use of these microdots.

The site includes "Education notes" which give background information and statistics on the car-theft problem in Australia (this can be compared to the students' own country).

One example of the information in these notes is a list of other types of anti-theft devices, including keypad immobilisers, alarms with motioin sensors, and automatic anti-hijacking door locking.

After discussing information from the video, students had the assignment (in groups) to find out more information about each of these other devices, and then in class we had a "panel discussion" comparing and contrasting their merits. Each group tried to persuade the rest of the class to "vote" for the device they had researched.

Another idea is to start a brainstorming session where students think of their own ideas for future technological innovations to prevent car theft.

Future shock or Coping with the future

In this BBC video, economist and futurist Robin Hanson presents ideas related to living as long as we can. He asks, "If any of our visions of technological revolution come true, then how will humans cope?"

Video: How to survive the future (4:04 minutes)
http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20121219-how-to-survive-the-future


Questions I asked students before viewing the video:

• How long would you want to live?
• What do you think would be the best way(s) to live longer?
• What problems do you think there would be with a longer life?
• What current and future technologies do you think will help us to live longer?
• What skills or characteristics do you think you would need in order to cope with living far in the future?

Students had very different responses to the first question, ranging from only wanting what is now considered a "normal" life span, to wanting to live to over a hundred -- if they could be healthy and active. Their ideas for living longer focused on diet, exercise and healthy lifestyle.

But when we started to discuss technological innovations for prolonging our life-span, they became very creative, and their focus depended on which type of engineering they were studying.

The ideas in the video mainly focus on cryogenics and on artificial intelligence. But Robin Hanson also talks about how he imagines preparing for a coping with life far in the future.

While we watched the video, the students took notes and afterward discussed Robin Hanson's ideas. This led to quite a lively discussion rating the pros and cons of each idea.