In the 1800s, science struggled to find its place in schools. Mostly theoretical and minor, practical lessons were often optional and competed with sports.

🔗 https://www.nature.com/articles/013311a0

#EducationHistory #STEM #physics #HandsOnScience #learning

Physical Science in Schools - Nature

THE struggle which Physical Science has had to obtain a footing amongst the regular subjects of the school curriculum has not been altogether in vain, and the study of science now occupies a conspicuous place in the prospectus, at any rate, of many of our schools. But to those who, being behind the scenes, are acquainted with the real facts, the position which science occupies amongst other subjects, with a few honourable exceptions, is insignificant in the extreme. It is admitted as an axiom by all science teachers, that if the study of science is to be of any value, the student must, in some part at least of his work, be brought face to face with the facts of nature, and that unless this be the case the introduction of the subject into the school course is worse than useless; but how commonly does the so-called science-work of a school consist simply in the acquisition of so much “useful knowledge?” And even when in other respects the teaching is fairly satisfactory, the practical work is too often optional—an “extra,” or taken on half-holidays, and so ruined by the competition of cricket and football.

Nature

Amusing Experiments (after Martin Gardner) by Martin Gardner; M. Stoliar ; L. Fomin

 

SCIENCE READER FOR THE EIGHTH FORM OF SECONDARY SCHOOL

In this book you will find descriptions of amusing experiments which are based upon well-known scientific facts. You can easily carry out these experiments yourselves, and you will not need any special equipment. But if you wish to show the experiments to your friends, we advise you to practise them a few times before you demonstrate.
The experiments are not only amusing: after you have carried out each experiment and read the explanation, you will learn something interesting and important in such fields of science as mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology, astronomy and psychology.

The book will help you to learn a number of new English words which are connected with science. When you have learned them, it will be much easier for you to read scientific literature in English in the senior forms. At the end of the book you will find the vocabulary of the words which you may not know. Some of the terms are given in the footnotes. We hope that you will find the book interesting and easy to read, and that it will help you to become science-minded people.

You can get the book here and here.

Twitter: @MirTitles
Mastodon: @[email protected]
Mastodon: @[email protected]
Bluesky: mirtitles.bsky.social

CONTENTS

ASTRONOMY

Prove That the Sum of All the Angles of a Triangle Is 180°
You Can Push a Coin Through a Smaller Hole
How Long Is the Diagonal of a Square?
Short Bridges
The Pythagorean Theorem
How Many Matches Are There in Your Hand?
A Trick with Dice
The Wonderful Window
Quick Addition
An Interesting Way to Multiply Numbers
Strange Mathematics
Magic in Mathematics
PSYCHOLOGY

Hot or Cold?
“Moscow in the Spring”
It Is Easy to Remember Some Facts
PHYSICS

Watermarks
Spectrum on the Ceiling
A Device to Copy Pictures
An Experiment with a Box of Matches
The Forks Will Not Fall Down
How to Break a Strong Rope
A Lemonade-straw Can Go Through a Potato
Egg in the Bottle
A Three-kopek Coin Can Dance
The Magdeburg Glasses
Bernoulli’s Principle
Two Interesting Ways to Blow Out a Candle
An Experiment with a Table-tennis Ball
Cold Water Can Boil
The Button Which Does What You Tell It
An Automatic Siphon
You Can Get the Water out of the Glass
The Water Is in the Lower Glass
Pascal’s Law
Put the Cork in the Centre
An Experiment with a Cardboard Arrow
How You Can Demonstrate Inertia
The Egg and Friction
There Is No Magic
OPTICAL ILLUSIONS

A Funny Finger
Circles on the Card
A Missing Piece of Cake
An Optical Illusion with a Match
Moon Illusion
An Illusion with a Three-kopek Coin
You Can See Through Your Hand
The Third Coin
A Strange Spiral
Paper Films
A Turning Device
An Illusion with a Pencil
A Pendulum Which Moves in a Circle
The Stamp Which Disappears
The Two Sides of Your Face Are Different
You Haven’t Seen the Real Image of Your Face in the Mirror
Colour That Isn’t There
You Can Read a Secret Letter from Your Friend
You Can Make a Stroboscope
EXPERIMENTS WITH SOUND

A Musical Fork
Music from a Coat-hanger
A Musical Glass of Water
VOCABULARY

#childrenSScience #handsOnScience #popularScience #scienceExperiments #sovietLiterature

Thanks to everyone who followed along with us, we had the first clear day on Sunday June 29th, 5-11pm
The Open Air Astro Fair event Is Done!!! A huge thanks to everyone who joined us for astronomy activities. All funds raised will go to observatory repairs and summer operations.
A photo and video gallery for the event will be posted to the observatory website in the next week. As a reminder if any of you would like to revisit the observatory we will have smaller Wednesday tour events for free all year long after sunset at the observatory (free tickets can be found on the website). https://www.yorku.ca/science/observatory/
Thank you all for your support!

#AstroFair #AstronomyEvent #FamilyFun #ScienceFestival #YorkU #AllanICarswellObservatory #Stargazing #SolarViewing #Sunspots #Planetarium #HandsOnScience #ScienceOutreach #STEMEducation #TorontoEvents #ThingsToDoToronto #SpaceScience #AstronomyForEveryone #ObservatoryEvents #ClearSkies #TelescopeViews #ExploreTheUniverse #AstronomerLife #YorkUObservatory #AICO
Unfortunately, Astro Fair is NOT running tonight due to weather conditions. We’ll keep watching the skies and announce the next clear night soon. Your ticket is still valid, and you’ll receive another update by 9:00 AM tomorrow.
Stay tuned! Currently the best day looks to be Sunday June 29th
https://www.yorku.ca/science/observatory/astrofair/

#AstroFair #AstronomyEvent #FamilyFun #ScienceFestival #YorkU #AllanICarswellObservatory #Stargazing #SolarViewing #Sunspots #Planetarium #HandsOnScience #ScienceOutreach #STEMEducation #TorontoEvents #ThingsToDoToronto #SpaceScience #AstronomyForEveryone #ObservatoryEvents #ClearSkies #TelescopeViews #ExploreTheUniverse #AstronomerLife #YorkUObservatory #AICO
Unfortunately, Astro Fair is NOT running tonight due to weather conditions. We’ll keep watching the skies and announce the next clear night soon. Your ticket is still valid, and you’ll receive another update by 9:00 AM tomorrow.
Stay tuned! Currently the best day looks to be Sunday June 29th
https://www.yorku.ca/science/observatory/astrofair/

#AstroFair #AstronomyEvent #FamilyFun #ScienceFestival #YorkU #AllanICarswellObservatory #Stargazing #SolarViewing #Sunspots #Planetarium #HandsOnScience #ScienceOutreach #STEMEducation #TorontoEvents #ThingsToDoToronto #SpaceScience #AstronomyForEveryone #ObservatoryEvents #ClearSkies #TelescopeViews #ExploreTheUniverse #AstronomerLife #YorkUObservatory #AICO
Unfortunately, Astro Fair is NOT running tonight due to weather conditions. We’ll keep watching the skies and announce the next clear night soon. Your ticket is still valid, and you’ll receive another update by 9:00 AM tomorrow.
Stay tuned! Currently the best days look to be Saturday June 28th and Sunday June 29th
https://www.yorku.ca/science/observatory/astrofair/

#AstroFair #AstronomyEvent #FamilyFun #ScienceFestival #YorkU #AllanICarswellObservatory #Stargazing #SolarViewing #Sunspots #Planetarium #HandsOnScience #ScienceOutreach #STEMEducation #TorontoEvents #ThingsToDoToronto #SpaceScience #AstronomyForEveryone #ObservatoryEvents #ClearSkies #TelescopeViews #ExploreTheUniverse #AstronomerLife #YorkUObservatory #AICO
Unfortunately, Astro Fair is NOT running tonight due to weather conditions. We’ll keep watching the skies and announce the next clear night soon. Your ticket is still valid, and you’ll receive another update by 9:00 AM tomorrow.
Stay tuned!
https://www.yorku.ca/science/observatory/astrofair/

#AstroFair #AstronomyEvent #FamilyFun #ScienceFestival #YorkU #AllanICarswellObservatory #Stargazing #SolarViewing #Sunspots #Planetarium #HandsOnScience #ScienceOutreach #STEMEducation #TorontoEvents #ThingsToDoToronto #SpaceScience #AstronomyForEveryone #ObservatoryEvents #ClearSkies #TelescopeViews #ExploreTheUniverse #AstronomerLife #YorkUObservatory #AICO
Unfortunately, Astro Fair is NOT running tonight due to weather conditions. We’ll keep watching the skies and announce the next clear night soon. Your ticket is still valid, and you’ll receive another update by 9:00 AM tomorrow.
Stay tuned!
https://www.yorku.ca/science/observatory/astrofair/

#AstroFair #AstronomyEvent #FamilyFun #ScienceFestival #YorkU #AllanICarswellObservatory #Stargazing #SolarViewing #Sunspots #Planetarium #HandsOnScience #ScienceOutreach #STEMEducation #TorontoEvents #ThingsToDoToronto #SpaceScience #AstronomyForEveryone #ObservatoryEvents #ClearSkies #TelescopeViews #ExploreTheUniverse #AstronomerLife #YorkUObservatory #AICO
Who doesn't love space? It captures our imaginations and makes us wonder if we are truly alone.
Join us for a fair of astronomical proportions at York University with the Allan I Carswell Observatory and our event partners. A single ticket will get you entry to booths, activities, telescopes, and the Astronomy in Action Planetarium.
This exciting event is running as a FIRST CLEAR DAY event as it will be outdoors and under the open air between June 24 - July 4. The event will happen only once on the first clear day, and all ticket holders will see a go or no-go update (depending on the weather) both on the event website and via their registration email by 9am each day.
We are excited to welcome you to walk through the solar system, investigate sundials, and interact with both science and games in this event. All areas are suitable for ages 5 and up, but younger children should be accompanied by an adult.
For tickets and information see: https://www.yorku.ca/science/observatory/astrofair/

Curious about what makes Astro Fair so special? Check out our spotlight in YFile!
https://www.yorku.ca/yfile/2025/06/18/open-air-astro-fair-fosters-learning-local-support-for-york-u-observatory/

#AstroFair #AstronomyEvent #FamilyFun #ScienceFestival #YorkU #AllanICarswellObservatory #Stargazing #SolarViewing #Sunspots #Planetarium #HandsOnScience #ScienceOutreach #STEMEducation #TorontoEvents #ThingsToDoToronto #SpaceScience #AstronomyForEveryone #ObservatoryEvents #ClearSkies #TelescopeViews #ExploreTheUniverse #AstronomerLife #YorkUObservatory #AICO
Who doesn't love space? It captures our imaginations and makes us wonder if we are truly alone.
Join us for a fair of astronomical proportions at York University with the Allan I Carswell Observatory and our event partners. A single ticket will get you entry to booths, activities, telescopes, and the Astronomy in Action Planetarium.
This exciting event is running as a FIRST CLEAR DAY event as it will be outdoors and under the open air between June 24 - July 4. The event will happen only once on the first clear day, and all ticket holders will see a go or no-go update (depending on the weather) both on the event website and via their registration email by 9am each day.
We are excited to welcome you to walk through the solar system, investigate sundials, and interact with both science and games in this event. All areas are suitable for ages 5 and up, but younger children should be accompanied by an adult.
For tickets and information see: https://www.yorku.ca/science/observatory/astrofair/

Curious about what makes Astro Fair so special? Check out our spotlight in YFile!
https://www.yorku.ca/yfile/2025/06/18/open-air-astro-fair-fosters-learning-local-support-for-york-u-observatory/

#AstroFair #AstronomyEvent #FamilyFun #ScienceFestival #YorkU #AllanICarswellObservatory #Stargazing #SolarViewing #Sunspots #Planetarium #HandsOnScience #ScienceOutreach #STEMEducation #TorontoEvents #ThingsToDoToronto #SpaceScience #AstronomyForEveryone #ObservatoryEvents #ClearSkies #TelescopeViews #ExploreTheUniverse #AstronomerLife #YorkUObservatory #AICO