Friday, April 25, 2014

Top Ten Household Items #6

#6 on the Top Ten List of Household Items to Use in Your Science Classroom is:

Index Cards

To be honest, I didn't even consider index cards in my initial list of possible items.  But there are so many ways to use them, beyond just flashcards!

Flatten an Index Card
Index Card Slides
Step Through an Index Card
An Index Card and a Cup of Water
A Penny for Your Finger
Mystery Jars
Penny in a Cup
Layered Water
Mitosis Line-Up
Boat Races
Photosynthesis Races
Flip an Arrow
Water Drop Microscope
Jumping Frog

Comment on this post to be entered to win a prize box containing most of the Top Ten Items.  And remember, if your comment contains an additional use (not mentioned above) for index cards in the science classroom, you'll receive a bonus entry!



Thursday, April 24, 2014

Top Ten Household Items #7


#7 on the Top Ten List of Household Items to Use in Your Science Classroom is:

Sugar

Granulated sugar can find its way into plenty of science activities, but I find that sugar cubes lend themselves to even more possibilities.  And, you can always crush the cubes to get granulated sugar!

Sugar Cube Rock Cycle
Sugar Cube Solubility
Sugar Density Column
How Much Sugar in a Can of Soda?
Sugar Cubes in a Flask
The Floating Letter
The Big Green Mixing Bowl

Comment on this post to be entered to win a prize box containing most of the Top Ten Items.  And remember, if your comment contains an additional use (not mentioned above) for sugar in the science classroom, you'll receive a bonus entry!


Wednesday, April 23, 2014

Top Ten Household Items #8


#8 on the Top Ten List of Household Items to Use in Your Science Classroom is:

Play Doh

Play Doh gets bonus points because you can easily make your own in the colors and quantities you desire, with minimal materials and effort!

After you've got it made, try out some of these ideas:

Color Mixing
Earth vs. Moon Volume Comparison
Make a Topographic Map
A Look Inside Folds and Faults
What's Inside?

Comment on this post to be entered to win a prize box containing most of the Top Ten Items.  And remember, if your comment contains an additional use (not mentioned above) for Play Doh in the science classroom, you'll receive a bonus entry!

Tuesday, April 22, 2014

Top Ten Household Items #9


#9 on the Top Ten List of Household Items to Use in Your Science Classroom is:

Dried Beans

I love having a stash of a few different kinds of dried beans/peas/lentils on hand.  Try out these activities:

Seed Germination
Semipermeable Membrane Demonstration
Dissect a Seed
The Geologists' Dilemma
Renewable vs. Non-Renewable Resources

Comment on this post to be entered to win a prize box containing most of the Top Ten Items.  And remember, if your comment contains an additional use (not mentioned above) for dried beans in the science classroom, you'll receive a bonus entry!

Monday, April 21, 2014

Top Ten Household Items #10

#10 on the Top Ten List of Household Items to Use in Your Science Classroom is:

Aluminum Foil

Here are a few ways to use aluminum foil in your classroom:

Clean Your Silver
Penny Boats
Sugar Cube Rock Cycle

I really thought I'd find more uses for it included in the Science Matters archives, as it seems like I use it more often just a few times per year.  Regardless, I think it still makes the Top Ten.  In addition, to the activities included, it's great to have on hand when you're talking about the elements on the periodic table and it's fun to throw a ball of it in with items to test with a magnet.

Comment on this post to be entered to win a prize box containing most of the Top Ten Items.  And remember, if your comment contains an additional use (not mentioned above) for aluminum foil in the science classroom, you'll receive a bonus entry!  I can't wait to hear your ideas!

Wednesday, April 16, 2014

Coming Next Week: Top 10 Household Products to Use in Your Classroom



I'm jumping back into the blogging world with a special-two-week event and a contest!

I've always proclaimed myself to be a hands-on science teacher who relies heavily on readily available household items to carry out experiments.

These are items that are always kept close at hand, because as soon as they get put away, they're needed again.  Sometimes it's for a planned lesson, other times you pull them out to help answer a question as it comes up.

At various times throughout my time authoring this blog, I've debated which of those items I'd place at the very top of my list.

So, this week I'm going to do a Top 5 list.  Each day I'll reveal a favorite product and I'll share links to a plethora of activities/experiments you can carry out using said product.

If you leave a comment, you'll be entered to win a prize pack containing most of the Top 10 items (one or two of them may not be appropriate to ship...).  You'll get a bonus entry if your comment includes another way to use the item in a science classroom!

I'll see you on Monday for #10!


Tuesday, January 7, 2014

Nursery Rhyme Science: Hot Cross Buns

Hot cross buns!
Hot cross buns!
One a penny, two a penny,
Hot cross buns!
Give them to your daughters.
Give them to your sons.
One a penny, two a penny,
Hot cross buns!

Activity 1: Rising Up
Hot cross buns are a type of yeast bread.  Yeast is a living organism (a fungus to be exact), that is used to make bread dough rise.  If you didn't use yeast, your bread would be small, flat and hard as a rock.

When you open a package of yeast and pour some out, it doesn't look like much.  It certainly doesn't seem to do anything.  The yeast is in a dormant state - it's still alive but it's not actually doing anything; kind of like being asleep.

To get the yeast going you'll need to do two things:
1 - warm up the yeast so that it "wakes" up
2 - give the yeast something to eat

Put the yeast in a flask or small-neck bottle.  Add some warm water (to wake up the yeast) and some sugar (to feed the yeast).

Stretch a balloon over the top of the flask/bottle and allow it to sit somewhere where everyone can keep an eye on it for the next hour or two.

As time passes, you'll notice the balloon filling up.  It's catching the carbon dioxide the yeast is releasing.  When you make bread, the yeast does the same thing, creating small pockets of air within the bread!


Activity 2: Does "Hot" Always Feel the Same?
 Temperature can be a funny thing.... A 60 degree day in March feels fabulously warm and wonderful.  That same temperature, in the middle of July, feels frigid.  The temperature is the same, but the way in which it feels can vary depending upon our perspective.

Here's a way you can actually feel that principle at work in a matter of minutes.

You'll need three bowls:
--Fill one bowl with water and allow it to sit for about 5 minutes (or more) to reach room temperature.
--Fill the next bowl with water and add several ice cubes.  Stir.
--Fill the final bowl with warm tap water.  Aim for something that just feels warm on your wrist - you don't water so hot that it'll hurt you.

Arrange the bowls on the table so that the room temperature water is in the middle and the hot and cold water are on either side of it.


Place one hand in the warm water and the other hand in the cold water.  Leave them there for about 20 seconds. 

Remove your hands from the bowls and place them both in the middle (room temperature) bowl.  How do they feel?

Even though they are now in the same water, the hand that was in the cold water feels warm and the hand that had been in the warm water feels cold.

The explanation....
You placed your hand in warm water.  The energy (heat) moved from the water, which was hotter than your hand, to your hand, making it feel warm.  Then you placed it in water that was colder than your (now warmed) hand.  The energy (heat) left your hand and flowed into the water, leaving your hand feeling cold.

You placed your other hand in cold water.  The energy (heat) moved from your hand into the cold water.  When you placed that hand, with a reduced amount of heat energy, in the room temperature water, energy (heat) flowed from that water to you hand because there was more energy in the water than your hand.