Past “What’s New”
April 2021
April 29, 2021: In keeping with the theme of connecting ideas and skills, since Science Pickle involves quite a bit of data analysis and mathematical tools, the Math Connection page has been created to organize these activities and applications by mathematical topic. Bring some real-world connections into your explorations in math!
April 28, 2021: Reorganized and added five new web pages to the section, Sun-Earth Connection. Three main topics now organize the section:
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- Earth Illumination Patterns,
- Distribution of the Sun’s Energy on Earth, and
- Declination Circles, a tool to analyze the Sun’s position in the sky.
April 28, 2021: Added the web app, Rotate Horizon in Drawing Declination Circles to view the horizon and sky grids from changing perspectives. It is important to visualize how the Sun moves three-dimensionally across the sky when viewing declination circles in two dimensions.
April 22, 2021: Added the web app, Solar Declination, in Declination, Latitude, and Earth Illumination in Earth Systems. to explore the patterns of illumination between the northern and southern hemispheres throughout the year. The app has three types of activities:
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- Explore the connections between day, declination, and change in declination,
- Practice identifying these connections, and
- Quiz mode with less guidance to see how well you understand the connections.
April 21, 2021: To understand how Earth is illuminated by the Sun, start by viewing the Earth from space with the Earth-Illumination web app in Declination, Latitude, and Earth Illumination.
The app has four visualizations for each month of the year:
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- View the solar declination (shown in the animation above),
- View the astronomical seasons (solstices and equinoxes) and the solar declination,
- Compare the degree of illumination between the Northern and Southern Hemispheres, and
- Visualize which latitude experiences the Sun overhead at local noon.
April 9, 2021: A declination circle is the Sun’s apparent path across the sky, and the easiest one to draw is when viewing the Sun’s motion from exactly west looking east. The Sun’s path appears to move in a straight line, which is easy to draw with a ruler. Use the web app, Sun-Day Challenges on Declination, Latitude, and Earth Illumination, to interpret these declination circles to identify the date, the solar declination, and the latitude.
The app has three types of activities:
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- Explore how declination circles change as you select latitude and day.
- Practice identifying solar declination, day, and latitude for randomly generated declination circles. Visual and written feedback are provided with each response.
- Quiz mode with less guidance to see how well you understand the processes.
March 2021
March 28, 2021: Updated and improved both versions of the web app, State of Hal (laptop/tablet and smartphone versions) on Test Your Questioning Looking for Patterns in the Questioning section. See how well you identified the patterns in the US states that Hal likes and dislikes compared to those who have played before you. There are five game levels:
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- Absolute spelling relationships of the spelling of the US state names (ex: Likes state names with multiple “a”s).
- Relative spelling relationships of the spelling of the US state names (ex: Likes state names with more letters than the one he dislikes).
- Combined spelling relationships.
- Geographic relationships (ex: Likes states bordering Canada).
- Combined spelling and geographic relationships.
March 28, 2021: Updated and improved both versions of the web app, Suzie the Artist (laptop/tablet and smartphone versions) on Test Your Questioning Using Numerical Data in the Questioning section. See how well you identified the patterns in the numbers Suzie the Artists picks to use each day compared to those who have played before you. Plus, the levels of difficulty progressing more consistently, with Level 1 being the most straightforward to Level 6 for those who truly love numerical challenges.
March 19, 2021: Updated the Google Sheets-based water cycle models on Precipitation and the Water Cycle. The input to the models may be changed on a separate sheet labeled Create Dice, and probabilities are no longer needed – only the number of opportunities a water molecule may change to another reservoir while based on the current one. Graphs and tables are available on the sheet labeled Output.
March 16, 2021: Modified the logic web app, Logic Master, to include 24 levels of difficulty and allow winners to compare their performance to past online winners’ results. Try out the web apps for either desktops to tablets or for smartphones at Test Your Questioning Using Logic.
March 10, 2021: Since the concentration of sunlight on the ground depends on the angle of the sun above the horizon, a web app to calculate the timing and duration the sun is above a selected sun angle for a selected latitude was added to Sun Angle and Beam Concentration in the Sun-Earth Connection of Earth Systems. Try the app Times and Duration above Sun Angle to explore the seasonal variability of beam concentration for your location.
March 9, 2021: Added the webpage, Sunrise, Sunset, and Twilight in the Sun-Earth Connection of Earth Systems. There are three web apps to calculate and visualize the three stages of twilight and how the timing and duration change with the season and latitude.
March 5, 2021: Updated the overview page of the Sun-Earth Connection section in Earth Systems to include the web app, the Sun and Your Horizon. Explore the illumination patterns on Earth at different latitudes and times of the day throughout the year and for different locations with interactive visualizations.
January and February 2021
February 9, 2021: Due to the amount of spam being submitted in the comment section on most of our web pages, we disabled this feature to focus our time on creating and improving activities on our website.
February 3, 2021: Added two versions of the Water Cycle model that runs in Google Sheets in Precipitation and the Water Cycle. The models allow you to make changes to see how the water cycle changes, such as explore how the water cycle was like before animals and plants evolved, when the Earth is too warm for glaciers, or how humans are altering the water cycle.
January 21, 2021: Watch Matti’s video on the Mountain Rain Shadow Effect and how it creates distinct climate regions on the upwind and downwind sides of the mountains.
January 9, 2021: Drawings of declination circles, which map the Sun’s position in the sky for a given latitude and day of the year, contain the visual and numerical information to understand and predict the Sun’s motion across the sky. Not bad for something created with a ruler and a protractor!
In Interpreting Time on Declination Circles, learn how to accurately estimate the time of the Sun’s position on the declination circle, which involves applying the relationships of the sides of 30º-60º-90º and 45º-45º-90º triangles.
There are two web apps to help illustrate and practice using the Sun’s position to estimate time. The first, Time Declination Circle, illustrates how the Sun moves on a declination circle from different perspectives of the motion. The second, Sun Time Challenges, lets you practice and earn a certificate of completion. Use the unlimited randomly generated cases and the visual and written feedback to hone your skills. Certificates show what challenges you did, and when incorrect, what your answer was. A code is recorded that may be redeemed to open a higher-tier activity. For this topic, a navigation survival/rescue activity is being developed.
January 8, 2021: Revised and renamed a recent webpage (Beam Spread) and the associated web app: Sun Angle and Beam Concentration.
December 2020
December 17, 2020: To help visualize the steps when adding two or three vectors using the tail-to-tip method, the web app, Visually Adding Vectors, was added at Adding Vectors.
December 12, 2020: Updated the Vectors web app at Right Triangles and Vectors and the Adding Vectors web app at Adding Vectors to include new visualization options and improve the feedback when in the challenge modes.
December 5, 2020: Try the web app, Beam Spread, to explore how a beam of sunlight spreads out as it illuminates level ground as the sun’s angle above the horizon changes. This is an essential concept to apply in Beam Spread and Radiation Budgets in Sun-Earth Connection.
December 2, 2020: Added two webpages and activities to the Clouds section:
This page includes the web app, Convection, a simulation to explore a key mechanism that transports heat from the Earth’s surface warmed by sunlight into the atmosphere.
October 2020
October 17, 2020: Added two webpages and activities to the Observing section:
1) Data, Graphs, and Functions: Explore how graphs and functions help visualize and analyze patterns, trends, and relationships within and between sets of data.
2) Function Transformations: explore how any function is transformed by multiplying and adding coefficients to the function’s input and output to create a new function. The web app, Transformations, allows you to create a function, f(x), with a limited domain and range and then change a, b, h, and k to explore how g(x) = a f(b(x – h)) + k is affected. Use the nine activities to develop your understanding and skills around function transformations.
September 2020
September 26, 2020: Sabrina Sadique and I are long-time teaching colleagues, and over the years, we discussed so many aspects of learning, observing, and questioning both as learners and as teachers. She has contributed invaluable insights over the past year to improve this website, and she graciously offered to film a discussion about how we support students in their learning. The trimmed video was 48 minutes, but this was too long to be hosted on YouTube, so it was cut up into segments and placed on the website where they best supported the topic.
If you would like to follow the video segments in the order they were filmed, here are the links to the videos on YouTube and the supporting webpage in parentheses:
August 2020
August 20, 2020: Major upgrade to the Color Vectors web app on Color Vectors of Earth Systems. Interact with color vectors and their components by clicking on the color space, and earn certificates for identifying the resulting color when given its components and identifying the components when given a color.
August 12. 2020: Released the first mini-course! Assess your learning strengths and challenges, conduct experiments to see how the presence of people affects your ability to learn, measure how well you read for big ideas, and practice interpreting concept maps (a method that allows you to map your understanding of complex topics).
August 8, 2020: Updated the Survey on Questioning pdf and web app to help people reflect on their process of asking questions to others and to one’s self. Available at How Do You Ask Questions in Questioning.
August 2, 2020: Most students begin working with one-dimensional data, temperature, mass, or length. Use the updated Accuracy and Measurements app in the Observing section to view the effects of accuracy and precision on measurements made in one or two dimensions. Two versions of the app are available:
- Designed for a smartphone.
- Designed for a laptop and larger screens.
July 2020
July 28, 2020: Updated and expanded the Energy section in Earth Systems. Use the 13 webpages of content, activities, animations, software simulations, and experiments to support biology, chemistry, earth science, environmental science, and physics courses (in alphabetical order so as not to show a preference!).
July 27, 2020: Matti Horne updated her research paper, An Introduction to the Origin of Life, to include the selective destruction of the precursor of complex organic molecules by the Sun’s ultraviolet radiation.
July 2, 2020: Sneak in some science while having fun: Make it rain in an auditorium filled with people! We recommend that you just use sound! Listen to a recording at Precipitation in Earth Systems.
June 2020
June 27, 2020: Added the Importance of Reading to the Learning section.
June 8, 2020: In coordination with Advanced Tools for e-Learning (ATeL)’s resources, added a new webpage, Vectors and Classical Mechanics, to Earth Systems.
May 2020
May 29, 2020: Expanded the Learning section, including adding You as a Learner.
May 11, 2020: Added a sample research paper, An Introduction to the Origin of Life by Matti Horne, to the Writing section in Learning. Explore how the paper evolved through two drafts before the final version.
May 7, 2020: Added a video that illustrates how to use notation to solve the spatial logic puzzle, the Numbrix Game. See the Writing webpage in Learning.
April 2020
April 4, 2020: Expanded the activities on Experiments in Visible and Near-Infrared Light in Earth Systems. Included a concept map that illustrates there are over 2300 experiments you can design with a digital camera(!).
April 1, 2020: Revised the activities on A Sundial as a Clock, Compass, and Calendar that supports Earth’s Coordinate System in Earth Systems.
March 2020
March 30, 2020: Added Matti Horne’s Concept Mapping Tutorial in the Learning section. Her work focuses on the benefit of concept mapping in exploring Earth Science, but she also explores the fundamental benefits of concept mapping in one’s learning.
Added a second activity to Reading for the Big Ideas section in the Learning section.
March 24, 2020: Upgraded the game to find patterns in numbers, Suzie the Artist, to include five levels of difficulty, improved hints, and an organization to explore patterns in series of numbers, between pairs of numbers, and between three numbers or triplets. There are two versions: one for larger screens (desktops to tablets) and one for smartphones. Both are available in Test Your Questioning with Numerical Data.
March 4, 2020: Upgraded the game, Logic Master (find the color, shape, and position of three unknown objects) to include 12 levels of difficulty, a skill ranking system, and score reset. There are two versions: one for larger screens (desktops to tablets) and one for smartphones. Both are available in Test Your Questioning.
February 2020
February 24, 2020: Upgraded the game, the State of Hal (find patterns in spelling or geography of the U.S. states Hal likes and dislikes) to include five levels of difficulty, a skill ranking system, and score reset. There are two versions: one for larger screens (desktops to tablets) and one for smartphones. Both are available in Test Your Questioning Looking for Patterns.
December 2019
December 28, 2019: The Sun rises east twice a year – at other times, it may be from quite a different direction! So how do shadows change throughout the day and year? How will the daily shadow patterns be different when you travel? Explore a vertical sundial’s shadows at any location, date, and time of day using the free web app, Sundial Shadows, and the supporting information, illustrations, and animations at Using Sundials.
December 8, 2019: Added the web app, Awning Design, to Using Declination Circles in Earth Systems.
November 2019
November 24, 2019: Expanded and added content, animations, and experiments to Precipitation in Earth Systems. Includes adding the web app, Water Cycle, to interactively explore how a water molecule moves between the 9 primary reservoirs.
November 18, 2019: Added Jaina Cipriano’s methods of observation to Improving Observational Skills. She is a set designer, creative director, and photographer.
November 14, 2019: Expanded and added content, animations, and experiments to Clouds in Earth Systems.
November 6, 2019: Added the interactive System Model, a predator-prey model involving grass, rabbits, dragons, and hunters, to Systems in Earth Systems.
Added screenshots for the 16 web apps and 5 desktop apps in Software.
October 2019
October 30, 2019: Expanded and added content, animations, and experiments to Radiation in Earth Systems.
October 23, 2019: Added Conduction Experiments simulations to Conduction in Earth Systems.
October 17, 2019: Added the Logic Master game in Test Your Questioning. Use your logical reasoning to find the secret colors, shapes, and positions of a number of objects.
October 12, 2019: Added The State of Hal game in Test Your Questioning. Find patterns in letters.
October 3, 2019: Expanded and added animations, challenge questions and answers to the Star-Planet Connection in Earth Systems.
September 2019
September 27, 2019: Added practice web apps “Adding Vectors” to Adding Vectors and “Balanced Forces” to Vectors and Laws of Motion in Earth Systems. Develop your skills working with vectors conceptually, visually, graphically, and mathematically.
September 20, 2019: Expanded and added animations, challenge questions and answers to the Sun-Earth Connection in Earth Systems.
September 16, 2019: Added challenge questions to Wind and Balanced Forces in Earth Systems.
September 15, 2019: Expanded and added an animation to the Coordinate System in Earth Systems.
September 13, 2019: Added the questioning questionnaire web app to How Do You Ask Questions? in Questioning. This is an efficient way to take the survey and save your answers to your computer.
September 8, 2019: To limit the number of big ideas on a page, the original Earth, Wind, and Forces page in Earth Systems. was expanded to 6 pages. Animations toggled questions and answers were added to help explore how four basic forces shape Earth’s winds.
September 3, 2019: To limit the number of big ideas on a page, several webpages were created from the original Vectors and Forces page in Earth Systems. Animations and illustrated practice problems were added to help spatial reasoning while working with vectors.
September 1, 2019: To limit the number of big ideas on a page, several webpages were created from the original Atmosphere page in Earth Systems.
August 2019
August 21, 2019: Added a new section, Questioning. Includes a survey that explores your questioning abilities and a game to test them. Also, significantly revised the home page to expand the importance of questioning in learning and creative thinking.
August 10, 2019: Improved Vision Speed web app by changing the viewing time based on each correct answer compared to the earlier versions’ requirement of three correct answers in a row. Also, the choice of background color takes into account the test object’s color.
Improved Color Change web app so the first color viewed is either pure black or pure white before color changes are applied. Originally, the pure color was part of the instruction view.
August 1, 2019: Improved web app displays to work better on wide but short computer screens and tall but narrow tablet screens.
July 2019
July 30, 2019: Add Color Vectors webpage and web app. Continue exploration of vectors while also learning about two worlds of color: Red-Green-Blue (RGB) and Cyan-Magenta-Yellow (CMY). Each color space has unique applications in how we detect and use color.
July 17, 2019: Added Vectors, a web app, to Vectors and Forces. It is a simulation app since the vector responds to changing variables. It is also a practice app with unlimited problems that provide visual, written, numerical, and mathematical feedback based on your answers.
July 2, 2019: Improved performance feedback for Color Differences and Color Changes web apps in Color Vision.
June 2019
June 26, 2019: Added animated gifs to improve clarity on what causes Earth’s night/day cycles, seasons, and climate regimes (Sun-Earth Connection).
June 21, 2019: Added Vision Speed web app to measure how quickly you can detect the shape and color of an object that briefly appears on the computer screen. Also, reorganized the Observing section.
June 4, 2019: Added Pixel Resolution web app to explore how eyes and image processing in our brains help us identify objects with varying degrees of spatial resolution (number and size of pixels used to display the image). The app is available in Vision Spatial Resolution.
May 2019
May 18, 2019: Updated Color Change web app so results may be saved to a tab-delimited text file that may be used in spreadsheet programs. Also added the Color Difference app that tests your ability to see the color difference between objects. Both are available in Color Vision.
May 15, 2019: Updated web app to measure your sensitivity to color change to eliminate pop-up windows for incorrect answers (available in Our Senses and Brain).
May 11, 2019: Updated web app to measure your color sensitivity so now may save results for different tests (available in Our Senses and Brain).
May 7, 2019: Added activities on Observing, including my first web app that measures your sensitivity to color (available in Our Senses and Brain).
January to April 2019
April 9-16, 2019: Switched to WordPress and revised existing content on the website.
March 31, 2019: Added three new pages to Earth Systems: Atmosphere, Clouds, and Precipitation and posted Atmosphere, Clouds, Precipitation software.
January 28, 2019: Added section on feedback processes in Systems and posted the final version of the Earth, Wind, and Forces software.
January 17, 2019: Added two new pages to Earth Systems: Vectors and Forces and Earth, Wind, and Forces. Included with these two pages is software to conceptually and mathematically explore vectors, forces, and how the wind is created and modified by a pressure gradient, Coriolis, friction, and centrifugal forces.
September to December 2018
November 1, 2018: Added a new page to Earth Systems: the Star-Planet Connection which includes software to explore how the energy budgets of planets respond to changes in the orbital parameters: obliquity, eccentricity, and precession. Explore why Earth has been having cyclical Ice Ages and which exoplanets being discovered may support life.
Also, created significant additions to Earth Systems Energy page: activities and experiments for exploring conduction, radiation, advection, convection, and latent heat.
October 21, 2018: Earth Systems BlackBodyRadiationV1-1 software with an improved interface that gives more room for supporting text for each tab. Available on the Earth Systems Energy page.
Updated Earth Systems Sun-Earth ConnectionV1-1 software with an improved interface, added new challenges questions that tie together the big ideas of the activities, and embedded support materials and additional challenge questions in the menu bar.
October 10, 2018: Added a time-lapse movie of an awning test created by Isabelle Stromberg and Nicky Longo. Their work supports the awning design section of the Sun-Earth Connection software. Both are available on the Earth Systems Sun-Earth Connection page.
September 9, 2018: The site released to the public.
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