The Ig Nobel Prizes

ACTIVITY - 4th ESO

The Ig Nobel Prizes honor achievements that first make people laugh, and then make them think. The prizes are intended to celebrate the unusual, honor the imaginative — and spur people's interest in science, medicine, and technology.

"Last, but not least, there are the Ig Nobel awards. These come with little cash, but much cachet, and reward those research projects that 'first make people laugh, and then make them think'" — Nature

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xAnVNXaa5oA&feature=player_embedded#!
http://improbable.com/ig/

ACTIVITIES:

Choose one of the prizes and explain it to your classmates.

Chemistry of Cooking. 4th ESO Group II

ACTIVITY
Watch the video, read the text and talk about the topic with Alec.
Extracted from: http://www.sciencedaily.com/videos/2009/0112-chemistry_of_cooking.htm

Chemistry Of Cooking
A Biochemist Explains The Chemistry Of Cooking

January 1, 2009 — A biochemist and cook explains that cooking is all about chemistry and knowing some facts can help chefs understand why recipes go wrong.  Because cooking is essentially a series of chemical reactions,   it is helpful to know some basics.

You love to cook, but have you whipped up some disasters? Even the best recipes can sometimes go terribly wrong. A nationally recognized scientist and chef says knowing a little chemistry could help.
Long before she was a cook, Shirley Corriher was a biochemist. She says science is the key to understanding what goes right and wrong in the kitchen.
"Cooking is chemistry," said Corriher. "It's essentially chemical reactions."
This kind of chemistry happens when you put chopped red cabbage into a hot pan. Heat breaks down the red anthocyanine pigment, changing it from an acid to alkaline and causing the color change. Add some vinegar to increase the acidity, and the cabbage is red again. Baking soda will change it back to blue.
Cooking vegetables like asparagus causes a different kind of reaction when tiny air cells on the surface hit boiling water.
"If we plunge them into boiling water, we pop these cells, and they suddenly become much brighter green," Corriher said.
Longer cooking is not so good. It causes the plant's cell walls to shrink and release acid.
"So as it starts gushing out of the cells, and with acid in the water, it turns cooked green vegetables into [a] yucky army drab," Corriher said.
And that pretty fruit bowl on your counter? "Literally, overnight you can go from [a] nice green banana to an overripe banana," Corriher said.
The culprit here is ethylene gas. Given off by apples and even the bananas themselves, it can ruin your perfect fruit bowl -- but put an apple in a paper bag with an unripe avocado, and ethylene gas will work for you overnight.
"We use this as a quick way to ripen," Corriher said. Corriher says understanding a little chemistry can help any cook.
"You may still mess up, but you know why," she said. When it works, this kind of chemistry can be downright delicious.

WHAT ARE ACIDS AND BASES? An acid is defined as a solution with more positive hydrogen ions than negative hydroxyl ions, which are made of one atom of oxygen and one of hydrogen. Acidity and basicity are measured on a scale called the pH scale. The value of freshly distilled water is seven, which indicates a neutral solution. A value of less than seven indicates an acid, and a value of more than seven indicates a base. Common acids include lemon juice and coffee, while common bases include ammonia and bleach.
WHY DOES FOOD SPOIL? Processing and improper storage practices can expose food items to heat or oxygen, which causes deterioration. In ancient times, salt was used to cure meats and fish to preserve them longer, while sugar was added to fruits to prevent spoilage. Certain herbs, spices and vinegar can also be used as preservatives, along with anti-oxidants, most notably Vitamins C and E. In processed foods, certain FDA-approved chemical additives also help extend shelf life.
This report has been  produced thanks to a generous grant from the Camille and Henry Dreyfus  Foundation, Inc

Units. 3 eso

Read the following articles and try to explain Alec what do they mean.
About units:
http://articles.cnn.com/1999-09-30/tech/9909_30_mars.metric.02_1_climate-orbiter-spacecraft-team-metric-system?_s=PM:TECH

About Nobel Prize in Chemistry:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/07/science/07nobel.html

Hungary Red Sludge Flood. 4th ESO Group 1

1. Watch the video and these links about the Hungarian red sludge and summarize them.
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LSFcZ4QgrCA
 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-11492387
http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/10/05/a-red-sludge-tsunami/


2. Find information about aluminum and its production.
http://www.redmud.org/home.html
http://www.rocksandminerals.com/aluminum/aluminum.htm
http://www.howstuffworks.com/


3. Aluminum industry in Galicia
http://www.alcoa.com/global/en/home.asp

4. After the class, you have to make a short presentation, in English, (10 min per group) about what you have learned about Aluminum. This presentation should be done in classroom. Ask to your teacher what you should include in the presentation.

Our new language assistant: Alec Weedom

Alec Weedom will be with us until May. He is going to help you to improve your oral skill.
Working in a reduced group, you should practise your speaking as much as you can.
The teacher will give you a topic as a starting point to begin to talk about. You and your group have to prepare a short introduction and then you should interact with your mates and with Alec.