Minerals: Website and Resources

The Mineral Information Institute has many resources available for your mineral and mining instruction.  The above graphic is one such piece of fascinating information.  (Here's the printable baby.)

The information is based around the central theme that minerals and natural resources are necessary for life and in fact find their way into nearly every aspect of our lives.  A Bright Smile from Toothpaste & Minerals  and How Many Minerals Does it take to Make a Light Bulb? are great examples of minerals found in places your students might not expect. 

Head to the Individual Lessons and Graphics page and start clicking - you'll find many titles that catch your eye. 

Density: Sink or Float?

In its most basic form, preschool students can complete this activity, but it can be a worthwhile experience for elementary students and can be made a bit more challenging for middle school students.

Provide students with an assortment of objects (make sure some float and some sink - some good floaters are aluminum foil, ping pong balls, candles, eye droppers).

Students hypothesize which objects will float and which will sink.  Older students can write down their hypothesis, while younger students can simply divide the objects into two piles.

Students then test the objects in a tub of water.

Older students could be challenged to calculate the actual density of each object. 

Website: Steve Spangler Science

If you aren't familiar with Steve Spangler Science, you should check it out. 

It's a great place to go for science activities, tools and toys.  If you're doing science experiments at home, you can find lots of equipment: pipettes, beakers, flasks, balances, etc.  And then there's the fun stuff... oh my, is there a lot of fun stuff!

A few of my favorite products:


Baby Soda Bottle Test Tubes

UV Color Change Beads


Energy Ball

There is also a whole collection of science experiments.  Some of them require supplies available through the site, but many do not. 

There's also the blog and the teacher training opportunities to check out.  I'm hoping to some day find myself at the right time and place to attend one of the Hands-On Science Boot Camp Workshops - what fun they have!  And the Alaskan cruise filled with hands-on science doesn't sound too shabby either... :)

Head on over to Steve Spangler Science and see if it isn't worth your time to explore a bit!

Simple Machines: Balance a Lever

Place a pencil on the table.  This is your fulcrum.

Place a ruler on the pencil, so it balances at the 6 inch mark.  This is your lever.

Place 5 pennies on one end of the ruler.  Determine where you need to place another stack of 5 pennies so the ruler balances once again.

Clear the ruler.  Place 2 pennies 3 inches from the pencil.  Where do you need to place a stack of 3 pennies so that the ruler balances once again?

Continue playing with your ruler lever, coming up with as many equations as you can.

Examples, from above...
5 pennies x 6 inches = 5 pennies x 6 inches
2 pennies x 3 inches = 3 pennies x 2 inches.

With enough experimentation (some students will require more than others, some will grasp the idea immediately) students should come to the conclusion that if they multiply the number of pennies by the distance from the pencil, it will need to equal the number of pennies on the other side multiplied by the distance those pennies are from the pencil.

Natural Selection: Can you find me?

Mark off a 1 square meter (or yard) section of grass. Scatter a selection of colored toothpicks in the marked off area – you will want to count the number of toothpicks of each color before you scatter them.

Provide a group of students with ~15 seconds to pick up as many toothpicks as they can find. Count and record the number of each color that was collected. Repeat this exercise several more times.

After returning inside, students can graph the data. You should find that the green toothpicks were found in smaller numbers, especially in the early trials.

Solar System: The Planets to Scale: Part II

While planet size is out-of-whack in textbooks, it's nothing compared to the distances between planets.  Most textbook pictures look a little something like my picture above (except, of course, the planets all look much closer in size), the planets are all right next to each other.  The textbooks do it for the same reason that I did: it's the way to make all the planets fit. 

There's so much empty space in space that it's darn near impossible to show students both the planets and their orbits to scale.

But, if you want to give it a shot, pick up your props from last week's solar system and head out for a walk....

Start at the sun and walk 190 feet.  Place the peppercorn (Mercury).

Walk 170 feet.  Place the mini-marshmallow (Venus).

Walk 131 feet.  Place the Gobstopper (Earth).

Walk 263 feet.  Place the split pea (Mars).

Walk 601 yards (about 1/3 mile).  Place the soccer ball (Jupiter).

Walk 1/3 mile.  Place the melon (Saturn).

Walk 1 mile.  Place the baseball (Uranus).

Walk 1 mile. Place the small apple (Neptune).

Walk 1 mile.  Place the sprinkle (Pluto).

You've walked more than 3 1/2 miles from the sun to get to that tiny sprinkle of Pluto.  How much sun do you think Pluto sees?  Not much! 

Given that you probably don't want to walk your students out 3 1/2 miles (and then back 3 1/2 miles), you might want to have them walk the first 190 feet, to get an idea of the distance.  And, then you could determine where each of the other planets would fall, within your school and community.  For example, the Earth is at the cafeteria, or Uranus is at McDonalds. 

It's completely mind-boggling and a lot to think about!

Air Pressure: Penny in a Balloon

Place a penny inside an uninflated balloon.

Blow up the balloon, most but not all the way.  Tie the balloon.

Dip a pin or needle in some cooking oil.  Poke the pin into the balloon, into the end opposite the knot.  Remove the pin.

Hold the knot and twirl the balloon around, so the penny goes to the bottom.  Have the penny cover the hole made by the pin.

Turn the balloon over and observe the penny - it "sticks" to the top of the balloon. 

By inflating the balloon, you increased the air pressure.  The force of those air molecules is greater than the force of gravity, so the penny stays where it is.  (It doesn't take much of a force from your finger to overcome the force of those air molecules!)