Ask A Scientist

 Fellow Candidates:

As of this date I have not received to my question from "Ask A Scientist."  My question is "Within the chrysalis what changes take place at the cellular level when the caterpillar changes to a butterfly?" 

Since I did not know how long the response would take, I researched the question myself.  Some interesting insights were discovered.  Newly hatched caterpillars have the same of cells whether they are newly hatched or ready to pupate. Humans on the other hand, cells increase as we grow.  Caterpillar have imaginal discs that will develop into various parts of the butterfly when inside the chrysalis.

http://www.enchantedlearning.com/subjects/butterfly/anatomy/Caterpillar.shtml

The "Ask A Scientist" site could be used by the students to ask questions of  anactual scientist in just about any science discipline. The knowledge gained from a student might provide a deeper understanding of a concept  or even spark more curiosity and lead to more investigation by the student. When my students study the monarch butterflies there is a page on a website that ask questions of a scientist of an entomologist specializing in monarchs.

 http://www.learner.org/jnorth/tm/monarch/ExpertIntro.html 

Web 2.0 Presentation Tools

PREZI
The first Web 2.0 presentation tool that I viewed was Prezi.  Prezi creates drawings, PDF, images, etc. in a non-linear way.  Prezi creates a presentation on a canvas like a whiteboard. Using what I like to call a "brainstorming mind map" you can arrange your work allowing it to flow in a natural way.  You can zoom in to emphasis key elements or zoom out to understand the "whole picture." Video and pictures can be embedded into the presentation as well.  You can spatially rearrange slides by select panning and group them by topic to avoid disorientation of the viewers.
Prezi supports browsers on Internet Explorer, Safari and Firefox. The following operating systems are supported by Prezi: Window XP, Vista , 7 and MAC OS X.  Prezi has student/teacher licenses available. For 500 mb of storage space on Prezi you  are able to create a presentation online. present it offline, make your content private and place on logo on the presentation.  Easy to use, step-by-step video tutorials, a condensed "cheat sheet," and  a tutorial guide are available online for users who are experiencing difficulty in any aspect of Prezi. 
Two special features caught my attention. First you have the ability to import slides from a PowerPoint presentation that you have already created into Prezi and create your own presentation.  The second feature is you can reuse elements from selected Prezi presentations under a tab labeled "Prezi Reusables.". Presenters can  modify or delete  the  different Prezi's  to suit their own needs.
After navigating and exploring the different presentations Prezi is  seriously being considered using Prezi for my course project on the brook trout.  Prezi has been used my principal at staff meetings and staff in-services. She stated it took her awhile to navigate and learn the  various different functions. It allows for many different ways to present a topic or presentation.


280 Slides
A second presentation tool that I toured and explored is 280 Slides. Taking the tour of this program reminds for an upscale version of PowerPoint. 280 Slides supports the major browsers like Safari, Firefox and Internet Explorer and is easily accessible from any computer. When finished you can save  the document in Powerpoint 2007.
Special features include  built in media support called "Media Inspector" where you can upload your own images or search for ones on the web. 280 Slides allows you to share your presentation in three ways: publish to SlideShare.net, email the document as an attachment and create a permanent link and embed your presentation.
It would be a web tool worth considering for the project as the setup is very similar to PowerPoint.