AVATAR Bonus Exercise

I'd like my students to draw their concepts of marine life in Pandora. (Scanned drawings to be submitted in Dropbox). They have to consider the existing themes shown in the movie. This will be equivalent to 1 exercise. I am just curious as to what Pandoran marine life would be. Would the Navi be able to bond with them as well?

AVATAR

Watched Avatar in 3D last night. This is the 2nd time I've watched this , the first time was not in 3D. Interesting to see how the details came alive in this viewing experience. Just wondering what the thought process was in creating the creatures. I'd like to say more but perhaps I'll wait until my students turn in their homework due on 01 Feb 2010. The task is for them to view avatar and answer the following questions by means of 60-100 word essays:

1.) Briefly state the philosophy of RDA ( Resource Development Authority, Earth) and critique its strengths and weaknesses.

2.) Briefly state the philosophy of the Navi and critique its strengths and weaknesses.

3.) Are the two worldviews reconcilable? Discuss any possible ways of reconciling the 2 worldviews.

4.) Critique the Wildlife and Foliage of Pandora? What do you think are the inspirations for creating these creatures, in our world.

5.) Discuss your own ideas for creatures that should be there. Any ideas on Pandoran, aquatic life?

My NATSCA2 students are expected to submit this at the above mentioned date, before 245pm at the dropbox location sent previously.

Sustainable Development Seminars

The College of Saint Benilde School of Design and Arts and the Alliance Francaise de Manille will be hosting Seminars on Sustainable Development. These will be on 11 Feb 2010 1:30-5:30 at the Museum for Contemporary Art and Design, DLS-CSB School of Design and Arts Bldg, P.Ocampo St (Vito Cruz), Malate, Manila. Seminars will be as follows:

Sustainable Development and Community Planning
Speaker: Hon. Ma. Lourdes C. Fernando, Mayor, City of Marikina

Green is in the details - Sustainable Development in the 21st Century
Speaker: Arch't Liza Morales-Crespo, AIA, LEED AP

Benilde MMA students taking NATSCA2 are required to attend. Each seminar will be one seminar point. Students in my section DMA2 will be required to write a 1 page reaction paper for each topic. This should be uploaded on the DMA2 Dropbox folder not later than Feb 15, 245pm.

Great to be Back!

Its been a while since I last wrote in this blog. I was so focused in energy in the past that my entries were mostly in my Reanergy blog. With my move back to the academe 6 months ago as well as some email problems with my Benilde students last term, I decided to update this blog. I intend to use this as a vehicle to document my ramblings in Art and Science, as well as, communicate to my NATSCA2 and Physics Lab students in Benildge and DLSU respectively. Here I put videos or articles of interest to support a more dynamic model for learning. On this page, you will get the most informative articles on the Earth, Sustainability, Physics and the fusion of Art and Science. Happy Reading!

Get your kids an Ant Mine this Christmas!

A friend recently gave my kids an ant mine kit as a present. Upon getting it my kids got so excited that they wanted me to put it together immediately. So the following night, I set to work. The first task was to make the plaster of paris nest. I followed the instructions the best I could but ended up breaking the thing. It broke my little boy's heart. Yesterday, I bought new plaster of paris so I could continue the work. My second attempt was another failure. I put too much plaster into the water making it too viscous. The third attempt was just right.
After 45 minutes, I took extra-care in taking the nest out of the mold. And set it out to dry overnight.

This morning, my son bugged me to finish the work. Together with my daughter, we attach the plastic face and tube on to the nest. After doing so, we started catching ants. I didn't realize catching ants and putting them into the ant mine was so difficult! They ran so fast! I had to catch 1 or 2 at a time with a spoon and put them into the feeding hole. After getting about 25, my kids finally had the pleasure of looking at their new pets.

This toy makes a perfect gift for kids and kids-at-heart. It makes you appreciate the complexity of the ants' biome and teaches us about the reality of a living planet. Ants also make low maintenance pets compared to fish or dogs!

The kit is part of a series of interconnected biome kits from Treetoys.

photo taken from www.fizzicseducation.com.au

Is Climate Change Real?

I recently had a discussion with my wife about climate change. She was testing whether or not I accepted the validity of the problem as a mere result of Al Gore's movie. She wanted to know if I went through the data and formed my conclusions from it. Fortunately my background in Physics, compelled me to that previously.

Why do I believe that Climate Change is real? The empirical data shows it. Since the middle of last century, an increase of atmospheric CO2 has been recorded. This has been correlated to an increase in global average temperature in the same period. Current computational studies have concluded this as due to human induced greenhouse gas emissions. This is stated in the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

Some say correlation doesn't mean anything but rather a scientific way to say its a coincidence. Having worked in the semiconductor industry, I've considered statistical signals as trigger conditions for action. When we see violations of the rules of statistical process control, we jump and work on finding root cause. We would then work on establishing cause or effect by an experiment using DOE or Taguchi techniques. Ultimately, this leads to finding an effective solution. The climate and CO2 data have definitely violated the 7 point rule a long time ago.

Establishing root cause is a bit more difficult than a typical engineering problem. The system under consideration is a complex one. I encounter blogs that conclude global warming is a hoax because of the absence of a deterministic equation relating CO2 and Global Mean Temperature. If I had a purely engineering background I would also make the same conclusion. This is where physics kicks in.

Complex systems do not follow simple equations but rather the physics of chaotic sytems. A good example would be fractals where you find repeating order in the midst of what appears to be random. Chaotic systems move toward attractor equations rather than being governed by simple equations . By understanding the attractors of a system, one can do the variable variations needed to study a phenomenon numerically. The resulting model is then calibrated with empirical data. Once a model is developed, it is published and reviewed by experts all over the world to see if the scientific process was followed regardless of the results. This is the check and balance culture intrisic in the scientific community.

The reports of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change is the work of people from 130 countries. It involves 450 lead authors, 800 contributing authors and 2500 technical reviewers. I have talked to a member of the panel and learned the high level of conservativeness in reporting the data and making conclusions. As an example, their models do not include the impact of land based ice sheets to sea level rise. To accuse this work as consipiracy would be naive.

To end this blog, I would like you to consider your own views on Climate Change. If you find it difficult to accept, ask yourself why? Is it really because of the science or is it because it threatens your current way of life. You can always deny something but it will never affect its validity.

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