Ich kann doch gar nicht programmieren…

… aber ich tue es natürlich trotzdem. Und zwar mit DrScheme, wie bereits erwähnt. Ich habe mich nochmal im Web umgesehen, weil das Thema jetzt im ITG-Unterricht aktuell geworden ist, und bin auf einige interessante Ressourcen gestoßen, die speziell auch für (ahnungslose ) Lehrer geeignet sind:

• Bei DrScheme selbst gibt es eine Seit zum Thema Learning mit einigen Links.
• The Teach Scheme! Project. “The curriculum is in use at hundreds of high schools and universities on nearly every continent.” You can read their textbook online for free.
• Dorai Sitaram: Teach yourself Scheme in Fixnum days.
• Das Projekt Dein Programm – Programmieren “arbeitet an der Einführung von Programmieren als Basiskompetenz im Schulunterricht. Programmieren ist eine konstruktive und kreative Auseinandersetzung mit Mathematik und fördert besonders die Abstraktions- und Modellierungsfähigkeiten der Schülerinnen und Schüler”.
• Und last but not least gibt/gab es an der Uni München eine Vorlesung Funktionales Programmieren in Gymnasialunterricht. Das Skript kann man als PDF, DVI oder PS herunterladen. Die auf der Seite angegebenen Links funktionieren wegen eines Fehlers im Quellcode nicht; funktionierende Links finden sich beim Dozenten Helmut Schwichtenberg. Oder direkt hier: PDF.

Getting close to the big three-oh

Yesterday was my birthday, and I spent most of it in bed because of the wonderful cold I got on Thursday. The dinner we had planned for yesterday got postponed, but today I already feel much better. Anyways, I got some beautiful flowers yesterday, and André baked a birthday cake (recipe in German).

Thanks for the birthday wishes, Susan, Hal, Garret and Sam!

Venus Transit

Yay, I saw the Venus transit this morning. At the solar eclipse five years ago it was so cloudy in Bonn that we were not able to see a thing, but this time around the weather was beautiful. The Venus was visible as a small black circle in front of the sun, and of course I had to go outside with my students so they could all take a look. We talked about the event in yesterday’s physics lesson, and the students were even interested in how you can figure out the distance between the sun and the earth during a Venus transit. In fact, this is probably the main reason why people were so interested in watching the transits in past centuries. (Nowadays you can measure the distance by radar.)

Lacking proper equipment, I didn’t take any photos of the event, so you’ll have to use your imagination or look at some photos here; links to more photos are here. Or check out the links in this MetaFilter thread.

Wireless internet

Several people (Scott, Hal, Jörg have commented on the new AirPort Express. I have to admit that it a piece of hardware that makes my inner geek drool quite a bit – and it looks like just the right thing for our new apartment (we’re moving in August) to avoid ethernet cables between living room and office. Websurfing on the balcony? Sounds good to me!

Mathematics

It looks like I need to take a closer look at those Hexa–Hexa–Flexagons. I’m a big fan of fun mathematics, especially if origami is involved. Some more info and at least another good link here (MetaFilter thread).

Community

Lots of birthdays and anniversaries… A very belated happy birthday to Audrey (Hal’s wife), and not quite so belated to Susan! The day before Susan’s birthday was David and Diane Singer’s 27th wedding anniversary – congratulations!

Long weekend

Sunset, May 30, 2004, on the Autobahn A6 near Dreieck Hockenheim, on the way home after a weekend trip to Stuttgart and Heilbronn.

(It’s been ages since I posted a sunrise/sunset photo here…)

Khöömei – Harmonic Singing

This week i re-read Tuva or Bust!, Ralph Leighton’s book about his interest in a little-known country near Mongolia (see Friends of Tuva). Among other peculiarites about the country the book describes the traditional throat singing of the Tuvinians. This sounded so intriguing that I started searching the web for examples of harmonic or throat singing, sometimes also called overtone singing.

Khoomei.com is Steve Sklar’s site about harmonic singing. It includes many examples here (Quicktime movies) and on a page about the different types of harmonic singing. Listen to Kombu (mp3), which “demonstrates perfectly the characteristic sound of the Xorekteer voice, with its hard, bright tone, and [Kaigal-ool of Huun-Huur-Tu] uses it as a launching pad to sing khoomei, sygyt, and kargyraa”. Sklar even offers online khoomei lessons, but you have to pay for them.

Marc van Tongeren’s site about harmonic singing is called Fusica. Check out his demonstration of the five basic techniques.

I also found an article from the Scientific American that explains how throat-singing works: The Throat Singers of Tuva (September 20, 1999).

Throatsinging.co.nz is a bit outdated (see the events section, for example), but includes a very good how-to on throat-singing and also features a few famous throat-singers.

MCLD throatsinging has audio samples of different styles of throat-singing along with graphs that show the frequencies of the produced sounds.

You can also read an explanatory article about the singing technique with pictures of the laryngeal movements: Observation of Laryngeal Movements for Throat Singing –
vibrations of two pairs of folds in the human larynx.

Famous throat-singing musicians include Kongar-ol Ondar, Huun-Huur-Tu, Genghis Blues, and Sainkho, one of the few female throat-singers.

For more information check out the Friends of Tuva website, the Wikipedia entry on throat singing or the members of the Tuva webring. There even is a livejournal on Tuvan Throat Singing with a good link list (scroll down a bit).

Anne Frank

Am 12. Juni 2004 wäre Anne Frank 75 Jahre alt geworden. Aus diesem Anlass bietet das Amos-Comenius-Gymnasium in Bonn – Bad Godesberg Raum für ein Projekt zum 75. Geburtstag der Anne Frank, unter der Schirmherrschaft des ehemaligen Bundesaußenministers Hans-Dietrich Genscher. Eine Programmübersicht gibt es hier, und weitere Informationen erhält man auch beim Anne Frank Zentrum Berlin, welches die gezeigte Wanderausstellung zur Verfügung stellt.

Diese Woche in der Zeit

Kindermarketing: Habe alles, bekomme mehr. “Kinder leben in einer mit Marken vollgestopften Welt – und der Überfluss nimmt zu. Unternehmen benutzen vor allem die Eltern, um das Verhalten der künftigen Konsumenten zu prägen.” Von Götz Hamann.

Kindermarketing: Die Schlacht auf dem Schulhof. “Weltweit sammeln Kinder die Spielkarten des japanischen Konami-Konzerns – ein am Reißbrett geplantes Milliardengeschäft.” Von Carolyn Braun.

Interview: Schokolade überall. “Verbraucherministerin Renate Künast über dicke Kinder und strengere Regeln für Lebensmittel-Werbung.”

Bildung: Glanz und Jammer. “Eine neue Schulstudie belegt: Auf den Lehrer kommt es an.” Von Martin Spiewak.

Geologie: Fontäne unter Verschluss. “Unter einer Rheininsel in Andernach schlummert der größte Kaltwassergeysir der Welt. Niemand darf das einzigartige Naturschauspiel besuchen, denn es liegt mitten in einem Vogelschutzgebiet.” Von Stefan Schmitt.

Schule: Eltern sind das Volk. “Eltern werden ruhig gestellt, Schüler sitzen gelassen, und die Lehrer hocken in goldenen Käfigen – ein Gespräch mit Renate Hendricks über 25 Jahre Elternarbeit.”