Ask a Scientist

I asked a scientist, What happens if a person starts to outlive the one hundred billion brain cells they are born with? (Bryson, 2008). I am curious if people who start to get Alzheimer’s disease are starting to outlive their brain cells. It seems to me that most people who live up into their eighties and nineties end up with Alzheimer’s. I also wonder, what causes people to lose their brain cells at different rates. Bryson says that some people lose five hundred brain cells in an hour (2008). Do people who lose one thousand brain cells an hour develop Alzheimer’s disease earlier in life than a people who lose only four hundred brain cells an hour?

I was not able to find an answer to my question in the “Ask a Scientist” archives and I have not received and feedback from my question yet.

I think that students would enjoy using this site to find answers to their questions.  There are so many answers to questions that other students have asked already, I think my students would have some luck finding some of their answers here.  I also think my students would be thrilled if they were able to email a scientist their question and they actually received an email back with an answer to their question.  However, it would probably be disappointing to first graders if they did not receive an answer to their question in a timely manner.

Reference:

Bryson, B. (2008). A really short history of nearly everything. New York, NY: Delacourte Press.

Online Presentation Tools

I played with two presentation tools this week. 

Prezi.com

I really liked this tool, and best of all it is free.  It is easy to use.  After viewing the tutorial, the website walked me through creating a simple prezi to practice my skills before making my own.  I would recommend using this for our course project because it has many multi-media capabilities that will be engaging for learners.  I am excited to start using prezi.com to motivate my students to learn. 

Prezentit.com

I was not a big fan of this tool.  It too is free, but it was not very easy to use.  When I typed in my words on the page and clicked off of them I could not see them.  I was not able to figure out how to see them again, although I could still see them on the little slide on the left side of the screen.  Also, I tried to upload a photo, but was unsuccessful.  I waited a couple of minutes and eventually gave up because it was taking a long time.  I would not recommend using this tool for our course project because it is not user friendly and it seems slow.