World Cup Fever

Everyone's on about it now, and I'm just waiting for the semis where I actually WILL be able to watch something on telly in the comfort of my own home. Yeah, I'm one of those sad ones who doesn't have SCV. Ha ha.

Oh, but it reminded me of this throw-in article I read recently. Have you encountered projectile motion before? We were taught that the maximum range of a projectile occurs when the object is projected at an angle of 45 degrees above the horizontal.

In real life, however, it doesn't happen quite that way, because when a player does a throw-in (for those who are clueless, that's what happens when the ball goes out of play), the body muscles and posture come into play. Apparently you get better range at 30 degrees. Read it here! (although you can't get access to the full article for free...)

And while we all lament on the loss of Argentina, have a laugh at Neil Humphrey's article on Weekend Today, Singapore here.

I had a good laugh, but I still won't deny a soft spot for England. Ha ha.

Boing

Just got back from Perth on Sunday, hence the lack of updates!

Popping by today with a photo - not of me, but almost there!

Texting Mentors

I like this. Kinda embraces technology and uses it for education. The way things should be!

Rainbows!

Check this out, really cool video!

http://mitworld.mit.edu/video/33/

A bit long, but it's worth it. I didn't manage to watch the whole thing before I received a streaming error. Oh well, erm, maybe I should pick up a textbook to read now then...

This guy's a great lecturer, by the way. I've seen his lecture on The Sounds of Music, and it was really interesting!

I like the last bit of that where he speaks with a mickey mouse voice when he inhaled helium...

Gathering Information...

Ah, it's been a while since my last post! The days have been passing decently fast, and I've been busy (this despite me always telling people I'm "free"... It's all relative, I say!) with running some test cases on the computer programme I'm going to hand over at the end of my one year research attachment.

I've been trying to make the programme more user friendly, but ran into several problems trying to do that. Oh well, that's research for you. *grunt*

Anyway, I've recently joined my institute's (that is the Institute of Materials Research and Engineering, IMRE) outreach group which focusses on JC students. I'm a bit dry on ideas, so I thought I might as well ask here, to see if anyone out there has any fancy ideas.

We're thinking of ways to reach out to JC students, to teach them science and get them interested. And also to improve upon existing programmes, like short vacation attachment programmes that are currently going on.

So if you're a student out there (and I know there's this JC guy who reads my blog, I just didn't reply that comment. I'll do better at being responsive comments-wise!), drop me ideas in the comments box. It could be simple things like what interests you, what type of projects you like to do, what you like or not about the education system and all that.

Any feedback is welcome, and I'll make sure I reply comments this time! I'm sure I can do better at that! :)