[learning on screen - york 2008]

Yay the National Science Learning Centre in York has wifi...and it's working!

I'll be blogging throughout the two-day conference when things of interest arise.

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Simon Campbell-Jones, former Editor Horizon
BBC Horizon - History of a Science Television Programme

• importance of beginnings
• how do you fill 50minutes of lecture...without being boring when science is basically *boring* (at least in the mid 60s)
• "medicine is not a science"
• showed an early clip from Horizon dealing with "continental drift" (for all you geologists out there) - this programme led to further programmes on plate techtonics
  
• interestingly, Simon says he had to first understand the geology before being able to make a film about it, conceptual learning
• Horizon did the first test-tube baby film, first "Whisper from Space," first film on absetosis, first programme on hot-blooded dinosaurs and first film on aids but these were not just educational films but these were dramatic and visual
• need to challenge ideas
• question on why people *hate* maths - because it's taught like *gospel,* about abstract ideas because "2 and 3 make 5." Interesting clip of video of a teacher asking a little girl (looks about 6) to add 63 plus 7 and she writes it out and adds it up, correctly. But, when asked why the number 7 is placed under the number 3 and not under the number 6, the little girl, after some thought, explained "that's how my teacher does it."
• "explanation, interpretation, application, implication...."
• every observation is like a detective story, science (and learning in general) should be exciting