Website: Candy Experiments

I've shared a number of candy-based learning opportunities this week, but I wanted to draw your attention to a website dedicated to this topic alone. 
You can find additional experiments at Candy Experiments, as well as some you've seen here (what can I say, great minds think alike!). 

In addition to several new experiment ideas, Loralee also has made instructional printables available would be great for setting up lab stations or party stations (and I LOVE the idea of handing them out along with the Halloween candy) and tips for running a successful candy experiment party.

Have fun exploring, and then playing!

Sand Collection

It's very simple to start a sand collection - every time you visit a beach or other sandy location, collect a small sample in a zip-top bag.  Ask your students to do the same on their travels, as well as colleagues and family members.  It won't take long and you'll have a variety of sand samples to compare and contrast. 

You can keep your samples in clear plastic bags and use a magnifying glass to observe, or if you've got the resources, you could store the samples in magnifier boxes.

The diversity of the samples will provide a variety of discussion points.  What is the sand made of?  Why is the sand the color that it is?  How large the grains of sand?  Why? 

For instance, the above sample was photographed (because one should never remove anything from a national park) at Acadia National Park.  You immediately notice, with the naked eye, that the sand is very coarse.  You'll notice that many of the pieces of sand look like crushed shells - for good reason, that's exactly what they are!  You'll also notice lots of different colors in the sand. 

I'm particularly fond of the blues, purples and greens.  The blue and purple pieces are crushed mussel shells.  The green "spikes" are bristles from a sea urchin. 


Along the same lines, retired science teacher Charles Lindgren has created the Science of Sand website.  He has solicited sand samples from across the country and world and photographed the sand at a 9X magnification. 

His samples are organized by state and country, and you're welcome to use the images for a virtual sand lab.  In fact, he's also included some lesson ideas. 

He's also always looking for new samples, so if you live or travel near sand, consider collecting a sample for him. 

And take a look at his site - the pictures are gorgeous, much better than mine!

Researching Biomes & Ecosystems

The Missouri Botanical Garden has a great website for researching the world's biomes and ecosystems.

When you visit the web page devoted to each biome/ecosystem, you will find lots of user-friendly information:

• description of the biome
• where the biome can be found
• plants found in the biome
• animals found in the biome

Clicking on an individual animal will provide you with lots of detailed information regarding the animal's size, diet, classification, and so on. 

The Missouri Botanical Garden site is a great place to allow students to explore and research on their own as part of your biome/habitat study. 

After students have collected their information, they could complete any number of projects or assignments with it. 

Some ideas:

• create a brochure to promote a visit to that biome
• create a board game incorporating facts about their biome
• give clues to other students to see if they can "Guess the Biome"
• create a food chain/web that would exist in that biome

Website: NASA Educator Materials

NASA has a nice selection of educator materials available online.  The guides are available in pdf format - individual activities can be printed, or a whole guide. 

I have not made it through the hundreds of activities, but I can say that I've found several great ideas in the Rockets Education Guide - specifically several ideas related to Newton's Laws.  Among other things, it includes directions for making your own Hero Engine and Newton Car.  Newton Cars are high on my list of projects, and when I get one made, I'll be sharing my experience.

Of course, NASA is also a great source of images, history and more.

End of School: Movie Time

When all else fails, you can always use a movie to fill a few class periods. 

As you already know, there are countless videos that can be connected to science curriculum.  Some featuring hard core science, others popular theater-run movies with science content.  And while not a substitute for hands-on learning and thinking, they do provide a nice way to change things up every so often. 

If/when you go with a movie, I highly recommend you check out Movie Sheets.  There you will find worksheets to accompany movies, created and uploaded by other science teachers. 

The films are sorted by science topic, which is useful if you're unsure what to show but want something to fit your curriculum. 

But, if you have a move-in-hand that you want to show, you can search for that title as well. 

Many films have more than one worksheet available, so you can choose the one that best suits your needs.  Or, you can choose the best part of each worksheet and create your own. 

The best part of the Movie Sheets database is that the list of movies runs the gamut: NOVA videos, Bill Nye videos, the Eyewitness video series, animated features and Hollywood action flicks.

End of School: Surivivor Science

This week, I'm going to deviate a bit from my normal science activities and share some ideas for filling in that last week or two of school.  You know, those weeks when you're still responsible for educating your students, but they are so far done with being educated. 

ETA: As I'm putting together this series of posts, I've been looking up the original sources for some of my favorite end-of-the-school-year science activities and I'm noticing a common theme: The Science Spot.  I didn't set out to highlight everything Tracy's done - I just wanted to share things that have worked for me.  That so many of them come from the same spot is a testament to Tracy's great ideas and her willingness to share freely with everyone.  If you haven't already, please go explore The Science Spot. 

The first series of activities I want to share with you is Survivor Science, from The Science Spot. 

I found this to be a wonderful collection of activities that keep my students reviewing science concepts, and a brilliant theme that inspires competition and thus motivates the students to participate. 

There are very few supplies needed - perfect, as no one wants to be getting out all kinds of things while they're trying to pack up their classroom for the summer. 

I found that it could be very flexible, which was of great importance to me.  The last week or two of school were marked with crazy schedules, such that I rarely saw every class every day.  I scheduled the Survivor Science challenges in my plan book and then whichever classes I saw on a given day completed that day's challenge.  The other classes missed out on that challenge, but had their chances with other challenges.  All of my classes were participating, but I didn't have to worry about which class was on which challenge.  They weren't competing amongst classes, just amongst the teams within their own class, so it made no difference if one class had completed more challenges than another.

Website: Awesome Science Teacher Resources

I recently stumbled upon Awesome Science Teacher Resources and I have to say, Nancy Clark is an awesome science teacher! 

Several of the activities are things I have come across at various times in my constant quest to find exciting ways to convey science concepts, but many are new to me (which thrills me to no end - as much as I'm excited to find a single great activity, nothing is better than finding a whole collection of really great activities). 

I'm looking forward to working my way through her lists of activities (sorted by topic) and I'm sure you'll be hearing more about them from me! 

Website: cK-12 Flexbooks

cK-12.org is a website that contains free digital textbooks for science and math courses.  You can use the textbooks as is, or you can customize the books to your liking, incorporating text and pictures from various sources into one book.  The resultant book can be used as an ebook, or it can be made into a pdf document, which could be printed or shared as you would any pdf file.  The books are all open source, so you shouldn't run into copyright issues.  You can read more about the policies in the Frequently Asked Questions. 

In full disclosure, I have not spent a lot of time playing with the flexbooks, as I don't currently have need for a textbook.  But, I thought it a worthy resource to pass along for teachers looking to supplement their current texts and parents looking for resources for their students, especially in an economic climate where new textbooks may drop a step or to on the priority list. 

If you create your own flexbook (or have already done so), I'd love to hear about your experience and how valuable a tool you found this to be.  

Website: HowToSmile.org

I recently learned of a new (brand new to me, fairly new in general, I think) website filled with science (and math) activities: HowToSmile.org.

Currently, most of the activities on the site come from the collections of various hands-on science museums (The Exploratorium, Science Museum of Minnesota, Lawrence Hall of Science, etc.). 

I particularly like that you can create your own lists of activities - create one list of everything that looks interesting or create several lists and sort activities by topic, grade level, priority, etc.  Possibly even better than that, is the ability to search other people's lists.  I tend to find the most exciting ideas by looking at what other people have deemed worthy to add to their lists. 

Website: Middle School Science Yahoo Group UPDATE

A month or so ago, I told you about the Middle School Science Yahoo Group and since that time I've discovered another fabulous aspect of the group, which I had completely missed previously. 

If you've take some time to look at the group, you've realized that you can read the messages people post without being a member. 

But, you'll also notice there are some things reserved for Members Only.  One of those things is access to the Files. 

When you join the group, you'll magically gain access to those Files, and some other things as well. 

And once you're in, you'll find folders and folders willed with lessons, activities, templates and more that others have created and uploaded to share with anyone in the group. 

If you've been on the fence about whether to join or not, I highly recommend you do, both to access such a knowledgeable, supportive online community and the materials they're willing to share.  And maybe you've even got something you're willing to share with the group in return!

Website: ide@s

ide@s is a collection of classroom tested lessons, sponsored by the University of Wisconsin Extension and the University of Wisconsin System.  You can search for lessons in all curriculum areas, which will interest those of you who teach more than just science. 

For the purposes of this blog (and my own interests), I'll direct you to Science CAP portion.  I haven't counted, but the site claims (and I have no reason to doubt it) over 2000 pages of activities, assessments and resources for teaching middle school science.  Like most things, many of these activities can be adapted up or down to meet students in other grade levels.  In a week or so, I'll provide you with more details about one of the activities from this collection that I've successfully used. 

A few more interesting things about ide@s...

If you currently teach in Wisconsin (any grade, pre-K through 12), you can apply to be part of the ide@s research team. As part of the team, you will test 2 resources per month in your classroom and then provide feedback on the resrouces' effectiveness.  I do not have any first-hand experience with this program, but I think it could be interesting to look into.  For me, it would probably depend upon how extensive the feedback process was and how much time was required to complete it. 

ide@s also offers a nice collection of copyright-free digital images for educators to use for free within their classroom.

Several resources in one place - you can't go wrong with that!

This post is linked up with:

Website: Middle School Science Yahoo Group

Consider joining the Middle School Science Yahoo Group.  It's a very active discussion group founded by Liz LaRosa of middleschoolscience.com.  From the group description:

Need a place to bounce ideas around or have questions that need to be answered? This is the place where science teachers can communicate with each other and exchange ideas or give that much needed support. If you are a 6th, 7th, or 8th grade science teacher, this is the place for you. Join our new community where people will understand you when you start talking about Newton's Laws, atomic mass, or golgi apparatus!

It's really an enjoyable group to follow.  You can read the messages on the website, get daily emails containing the whole day's messages sent to you, or get the individual messages sent to your email.  In order to reply to messages or ask questions of your own, you'll need to have a Yahoo id/email.  If you just want to read the messages on the site, you don't need to - it's a public group. 

Technically, I've been a member of this group for a long time, but admittedly, for most of that time I never even opened the emails, they just accumulated in my inbox.  Recently I've become a regular reader of the email digests and have already scored several great ideas.  So, I'm kicking myself for everything I've missed out on because it sat in my email forever until it was deleted because my inbox was too full.  Oh well... I can always search the archives. 

There are also Yahoo groups for high school science, elementary school science (FYI: the Science Matters group was not founded by myself, nor do I have anything to do with running or moderating it), and lots of homeschooling topics.

This post is part of:

Body Systems: Cardiovascular System: Heart Mold

It's probably too late to use this idea for this year, but it's always okay to start planning for next year. 

Educational Innovations (more on them coming up in the near future) makes this heart mold to be used in constructing a gelatin heart.  It includes instructions for making a hear the same size, shape, mass and color as an adult human heart. 

A little disturbing, a lot cool!


PS If you like this sort of thing, they also make a brain mold...

PPS Amazon sells a similar heart mold and brain mold.  They are less expensive, but I'm not sure how the size compares and I don't believe they include the instructions for getting the proper mass and color.

Website: Educational Innovations

Educational Innovations has a great catalog of science toys, supplies, novelties and activities.  It reminds me a bit of Steve Spangler Science.  (That said, I don't know which company came first, or even, which one I knew or first.  Nor do I know how they feel about one another.  I like them both.  'Nuf said.)

I've purchased from them in person, while at the New Jersey Science Convention. 

I'm particularly fond of some of the fun items that add some whimsy to my classroom:

The Einstein Action Figure

 Some of the products that have a greater educational purpose include:

The Mirage

Boomwackers


And of course, there are the basics, like lenses, magnets, spring scales, etc.

There's a whole lot there - you'll want to spend some time exploring.

Website: Marcia's Science Teaching Ideas

Marcia Krech's website, Marcia's Science Teaching Ideas, is filled with a lot of ideas for teaching Earth science.  There are many files that you can print off and use as long as you keep her copyright in tact.  Many of the activities are paper-based: worksheets, flashcards, etc.  There are some labs and some kinesthetic activities mixed in as well. 

For those of you who don't teach Earth science topics, you might find the sections on the metric system and experimental design helpful. 

Marcia also sells CDs of materials for a variety of topics, if that is something that is of interest to you.  Many of the CDs include PowerPoint presentations related to the topic as well as materials you can print off.  I don't have any first hand knowledge of the materials (just what's listed on her page), as I've only ever perused the free materials. 

Another source to add to your growing list...

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. 

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!

Snowflake Bentley

These are some great resources to pair with Sparkly Snowflakes. 

If you study weather and snow, or are just looking to do something seasonal, check out some of these resources.

Wilson Bentley was the first man to photograph individual snowflakes, in 1885.  He's the person who determined that no two snowflakes are exactly the same.  A fascinating man, indeed.

Start your research at the Official Website of Wilson A. Bentley.  You'll find a brief biography there, and some wonderful, printable images of his photographs. I printed out the collection and laminated them for my students to look at and admire. 

For a more thorough biography, and one to share with your students, check out Snowflake Bentley.  It's a picture book intended for children.  The biography is written as a story, with a lot of factual information in the margins - you can decide how much to share based on your students.


For your own knowledge, you may want to read The Snowflake Man: A Biography of Wilson A. Bentley.  I haven't read the whole book, but have read an excerpt.  You can probably get it through your library system. 

Two other books that look interesting are Snowflakes in Photographs and Snow Crystals. I'm not familiar with either book, but they are both collections of Bentley's images.  Again, it might be worth looking for these at the library before investing. 

Website/Book: Invitations to Inquiry

 I have found what looks to be the ultimate treasure trove of science demonstrations and activities for elementary and middle school students. 

Tik Liem published a book called Invitations to Science Inquiry.  It's downright difficult to find a copy of this book today, and if you can, it'll cost you plenty.  But, ERIC* has the complete second edition available for free.  That's 400 discrepant events** for you and your students, for FREE!!!  And they cover every branch of science. 

In the abstract, Liem writes:

In the teaching of a science concept, it is important for the teacher to arouse the student's curiosity.  Once curiosity is aroused, the students will learn much more on their own than the teacher can ever teach them.  The use of discrepant events in the teaching science is one of the best methods to arouse this curiosity.  This book is a collection of thoroughly tested discrepant events.  They can be used to initiate or sustain a lesson in virtually any topic of science at the upper elementary or intermediate level.  They can be used as reinforcement activities or as challenging problems for further inquiry. 

Seriously... I think I've been channeling Tik Liem for the past 8 years without even knowing of his existence.  I've been trying to learn a bit more about him and his experiences, but have yet to come up with anything beyond this publication.  

In the meantime, I'm figuring out how I want to print this massive document because I think I need to have it in hard copy - there are just too many high quality demonstrations I need to try out.

I"m familiar with several of the discrepant events in this book (and you are too, if you've been reading my blog), and they are demonstrations that easy to set-up and come through for me every time.  I'm looking forward to finding more of these as I work my way through the book.  And I thought I might run out of material for this blog... I'm good for a while now!  (Although I won't be doing much of anything in his chemistry section, as they all require chemicals and safety equipment that I just don't have at home).

Do yourself a favor and go check out Invitations to Science Inquiry NOW!  

*ERIC is the Education Resources Information Center run by the US Department of Education - a very legitimate site.  My past experience with it came in grad school - it has lots of journal articles and research papers.  I still think that's the majority of the content, but after learning of Invitations to Inquiry, I might have to explore a bit more and see if there are other treasures lurking about.

**Discrepant events are things that counter-intuitive.  You need to look closer at the science involved to understand what's happening.

AIMS: Magazine and Lessons

AIMS Education Foundation is an organization aimed at giving students a solid understanding of math and science. 

For awhile I maintained a subscription to their magazine.  It's a beautiful, high-quality publication.  I did let my subscription lapse... I found it to be a bit expensive and I felt like there were more lessons geared toward math than science in the editions I received (that may have just been a function of that particular year, or just something I imagined, but regardless, it just wasn't meeting my expectations).  However, I do know that they have produced some great activities, that I've come across through other resources (and thus my interest in the magazine). 

Even if you're not interested in the AIMS publications... head to their website - they have several of the activities available as free samples.  There aren't a lot, but you might find something of use to you.

There are also some downloadable activities that are available for a dollar or two each.