Science Tools from Trash.

I have a soft spot for rigged equipment and simple lab tools.  I use these ideas for science camps and home school labs.  The librarian where the Co-op meets is in touch with a child in a developing country, lacking access to expensive tools.  Toys from Trash is one of the best sites and has specifics topics outlined, such as 'Beginner's Biology'.  Look at the model of the eye!  Science Tools has loads of ideas, such as making a thermometer.  This DIY microscope is pretty cool and relatively inexpensive.  Look at Manu Prakash's $0.50 microscope.created with an LED and a button battery.  (Here is the website.

Science Resources with Little Equipment

Years ago, I had the opportunity to work with a group of science teachers from South Africa and had little access to technology or sophisticated equipment.  I organized a series of trainings through Project Wet, Wild, and Learning Tree.  Project Wild has free resources such as O Deer!  While browsing, I located another series of wildlife activity series with hands-on fun.  Try a sample!  The Greenworks Guide outlines how to manage a project.  I would try a specific activity, such as creating a model of a whale tail with chalk using these instructions. (Scroll down to locate the pattern.)  I use these for summer camps: The Incredible Journey, patterns, similar patterns which are clearer, and dice copies which can be purchased.  Try these!

Apologia Physics or Physical Science: Eye vs Camera

After the guys finished the Snell's Law Lab, they did an analogy comparing the eye with a camera.  First we had them brainstorm what they already knew about the eye and camera parts and then went over the analogy.

Apologia: Physics Snell's Law of Refraction

The Physics class is studying optics (Module 12 or 13, depending on the edition), specifically Snell's Law of refraction, using UVA's Home Lab 7.  It should have worked with the clear acrylic blocks.  The guys tried clear glass, too.  Finally, the jug of water worked with a laser.   Yeah!                       

Apologia Chemistry: Ionic Compounds

I ran across some resources that reference Claim-Evidence-Reasoning and correlate to ionic and covalent compounds, a basic concept in Chemistry: The Ionic vs Covalent Lab.  This is the section I use Flinn's Putting the Ions in Their Hands to teach kids how to write ionic compounds.  (Copy the cations or positive ions on to red card stock and the anions or negative ions on to blue card stock.  I often copy the ion reference sheet on to yellow card stock, too.). At this point I like to do Forming and Naming Ionic Compounds, too.  This lab, Ionic Compounds Properties Lab uses, salt, sugar, potassium chloride (salt substitute), magnesium sulfate (Epsom salts), and copper sulfate (easy to buy-even on Amazon).  The Virtual Lab Conductivity correlates well, too.  I think this lab would make a good assessment at the end of the lesson to predict if the substance is Ionic or covalent!

Apologia Science: Timelines

The Physics class is working on Optics.  As a teacher, I have encountered gaps in students' basic education.  One gap is creating timelines using a number line.  This earlier blog has examples my chemistry class drew.  Wiki How has a 12 step process which includes links between birth and death.  I suggest color-coding the different scientists.  I'm a stickler for using graph paper and correct scales on a number line.  A timeline is a graph.

The Physics class is going to create a timeline describing the development of quantum theory, which arise from research in Optics and Waves. (This site  outlines many of the major contributions and formulas. Here is more background about spectroscopy and its contribution to quantum theory.). Key contributors include the following scientists: J.J.  Balmer,  J.R. Rydberg, Max Plank, Albert Einstein, Neil's Bohr, Louis de Broglie, Erwin Shrodinger, Paul M. Dirac, Wolfgang Pauli, G.N. Lewis, Werner Heisenberg, Hideki Yukawa, Ernest Rutherford, many of whom are listed here.

Students will research each scientist's birth, death, and significant contributions to place in chronilogical order (to scale) on a timeline.  I can hear the screams now!

Apologia Chemistry: Microscale Lab

I'm in the middle of planning Chemistry for next year.  I know--we haven't finished class yet.  One tip I want to share ideas for adapting Micro scale Chemistry for home-school students.  One advantage is that the equipment is simple: Break-Type Pipet Holder or cassette case, toothpicks for stirrers, Reaction plates, and pipets instead of test tubes.  The second advantage is safety; smaller amounts are safer for students and cheaper!  I can make up 50 mL solutions instead of liters of chemicals.  For example, Micro scale titration substitutes for a conventual acid-base titration lab.  The conventual titration lab requires a buret and liters of acids and bases.  The microscale uses only drops to teach the same technique.  Here is one of my favorite small scale precipitate labs.  Home Science Tools sells these specialty chemicals in small quantities at affordable prices and ships to the home.  This precipitate lab is designed for Middle School students and can be adapted to small scale.  Just reduce the proportions.  This particular precipitate lab uses household chemicals.  Another worthwhile document is UNESCO Microscience , experiments developed for poor countries.  One last tip; this small scale lab series uses straws and blister packs from chewing gum.  The labs are still terrific.  Take a look!

Discrepant Events: Demos which make kids think

We did the Disappearing Beaker and Hide the Cookie in the Box in class.  Both of these activities are great examples of discrepant events.  I use these types of demos as part of inquiry based science education in all of my science classes.  Science World has loads of classic examples, such as the 'come-back can'.  The Exploratorium has two classics: Head Harps and flipsticks.  Try these!  Won't you have fun!

Apologia Physics: Index of Refraction or Disappearing Beaker and Ghost Crystals

I love discrepant events and even conducted seminars which included discrepant events as part of the program.  One of my favorite, Flinn's Disappearing Beaker, demonstrates index of refraction.  This lab has a good explanation.  Arbor Science's Phandom Crystals available from Educational Innovations as Ghost Crystals.  Today we did both demos.  Both make great thinkers for kids of any age.

Hide the Cookie in the Box: Basic Optics for Physics and Physical Science

'Hide the Cookie in the Box' is an optic activity I learned as a consultant for College Board.  Hide the Cookie in the Box demonstrates symmetry  and can be extended for other words such as cheek, bike, etc.  The lab activity uses simple materials  such as the paper strips, glass rods, test tubes, and clear tubes.  Ms. Kelly has instructions, too.  This lesson has even more extensions.  Here is a pretty good explanation from Dr. Math.  Here is a photo of the Physics class doing the activity.

Claim-Evidence-Reasoning:
In this activity, we took glass test tubes and looked through them at a paper strip with some text on it. The text was a mix of capital words and lowercase words of varying colors, and when viewed through the test tubes, only the lowercase words seemed to be inverted. It turns out that all of the words were being inverted, but because the capital letters are symmetrical vertically, they appear to stay the same. The letters that would work are H, I, D, C, O, K, E, B, X - Physics Class, Kolbe

Apologia Chemistry Flame Tests

The kids in the current Physics class hadn't performed this flame test lab.  Let me share the lab and follow up with a brief video next week.  Flinn Flame Test lab is here.  Home Science tools Offers a Flame test kit with good instructions.  The lab has the teacher instructions included.  FYI Flinn will only sell and ship lab materials to schools.  Home Science Tools happily supplies Science equipment and chemicals to homes, churches, and Co-ops. The Flame test kit offers useful details about the lab.

Follow-up:  Timmy took a video of spectrum.



Here are directions to make a homemade spectrometer using a piece from a CD as refraction grating and calibrating the spectroscope with an incandescent bulb and CFL.

Apologia Physics: Optics Experiments

The Physics class has performed a series of simple physics labs.  Take a look.

Apologia Physics: Springs (10.1 or 11.1) Experiment

Take a look at this lab report from the kids.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1kUMa58gzY9Psd1T3i07TiiymG6eLQcpY2vDIb7Um_1k/edit?usp=sharing

NSTA Reviews: Innovations in Everyday Technologies

'Innovations in Everyday Technologies'
Crabtree Publishers have introduced a new series called 'Innovations', with six titles: 'Innovations in Everyday Technologies', 'Innovations in Safety', 'Innovations in Health', 'Innovations in Communication', 'Innovations in Transportation', and Innovations in Entertainment'.  Each book has a similar format in terms of the design, contents, index and glossary.  At the beginning is a brief introduction describing inventors, innovators, and engineers.  At the end is an explanation of the 'Engineering Dsign Process' with a challenge called 'Thing Big!'  Moreover, there is a good balance between historic inventions and 'spot lights' on young inventors and innovators.

'Innovations in Everyday Technologies' by Larry Verstraete is my favorite in the series because I love gadgets and see loads of inspiration for inventors in ordinary innovations, such as 'selfie sticks'.  What's the first invention portrayed?  A dishwasher! (Pp4-5) Thank you Josephine Cochran, the inventor!  Who can't appreciate a dishwasher?  Aren't those pods pretty innovative?  'Innovations in Tech' includes Edison's light bulbs (pp 12-13) and explains how he tested over 6000 different materials to develop a long lasting filament (p.13).  Here's a testimony to perseverance.  But 'Innovations in Tech' is accessible; along with Elisha Otis' elevator invention (pp 24-25) is the humble pop top (pp 16-17).  Kids will like the 'Young Inventor Spotlight' about Abby Fleck, who invented the 'Makin' Bacon Cooking Dish as an eight year old. (p.11).

This series belongs in every library, ideally positioned next to a Maker Space.  What a great tool for teachers who might read aloud a section or two before issuing a design challenge.  I could see a librarian or teacher bringing in a church key and can opener to show how cans were opened before pop tops were introduced after reading the section about pop tops, or other innovations like the safety pin (p26) or the coat hanger (p27).  The websites (p30) have more resources.  This timely series supports STEM and will be perfect right next to the local library's Maker Space.

NSTA Reviews: Innovation in Health

'Innovations in Health'
Crabtree Publishers have introduced a new series called 'Innovations', with six titles: 'Innovations in Everyday Technologies', 'Innovations in Safety', 'Innovations in Health', 'Innovations in Communication', 'Innovations in Transportation', and Innovations in Entertainment'.  Each book has a similar format in terms of the design, contents, index and glossary.  At the beginning is a brief introduction describing inventors, innovators, and engineers.  At the end is an explanation of the 'Engineering Dsign Process' with a challenge called 'Thing Big!'  Moreover, there is a good balance between historic inventions and 'spot lights' on young inventors and innovators.

'Innovations in Health' by L.E. Carmichael features historic health innovations such as Alexander Feming's discovery of penicillin (p19), or Edward Jenner's cowpox vaccination (p6) alongside Anuradhapura Ganesan's VAXXWAGON (p7), a portable fridge powered by a bike to keep vaccines cold in developing countries lacking the means to keep vaccines cold.  The photo of a hand covered in smallpox pustules (p6) hits home the significance of Jenner's vaccine.  'Innovations in Health' also include kid-centric inventions such as Band-aids (p16) and Boo Boo Goo (p17), the original idea of four year old, Kiowa Kavovit.  Her photo with her dad (p17) is from her successful pitch to TV's Shark Tank.  Here's what I find so compelling about this book.  The inventions, discoveries, and innovations are directed to kids as a challenge .  What can you do?  Near the end of 'Innovation in Health' are 'Now It's Your Turn!' (P28) and 'Think Big!'. (p29) Teachers and librarians can use this book as a springboard for serious STEM instruction.  The challenges posed include 'Protecting friends who have food allergies' and 'Patients who forget to take their medicine' (p29). Both challenges are sure to resonate with kids and provide a vehicle to understand the Engineering Design Process (p28).  For me, this series makes an outstanding addition to any STEM library.

NSTA Reviews: Innovations in Communications

'Innovations in Communication'
Crabtree Publishers have introduced a new series called 'Innovations', with six titles: 'Innovations in Everyday Technologies', 'Innovations in Safety', 'Innovations in Health', 'Innovations in Communication', 'Innovations in Transportation', and Innovations in Entertainment'.  Each book has a similar format in terms of the design, contents, index and glossary.  At the beginning is a brief introduction describing inventors, innovators, and engineers.  At the end is an explanation of the 'Engineering Dsign Process' with a challenge called 'Thing Big!'  Moreover, there is a good balance between historic inventions and 'spot lights' on young inventors and innovators.

'Innovations in Communication' by Cynthia O'Brien outlines the enormous advances made in communication, particularly in the past one hundred years. It's practically impossible for a child to imagine not being able to text mom or Skype Grandma.  'Innovations in Comm' rightfully illustrates one of the biggest innovation in communication: the Gutenberg printing press (pp6-7).  O'Brien makes Gutenberg relevant with the inclusion of Martin Hart's e-books digital library: Project Gutenberg (p7).  Part of the book's success is the juxtaposition of history, such as the invention of Braille by Charles Barbier de la Serre (p8) with the 'Young Inventor Spotlight' of Shubham Banerjee's inexpensive, Lego Braille printer (p9).  The author puts Antonio Meucci's (p12) contribution to the telegraph right next to Alexander Graham Bell and Elisha Gray (p13).  I'm a little disappointed the African American inventor, Granville T. Woods (often called, 'The Black Edison') isn't included here.  O'Brien does include a young African inventor, Joshua Nghaamwa's satellite booster to connect more people to the internet (p19).  These stories should spark fascinating discussions about new ways to communicate and the importance of STEM.  Imagine no cell phones!  I can hear the screams now!

NSTA Reviews: Innovations in Safety

'Innovations in Safety'
Crabtree Publishers have introduced a new series called 'Innovations', with six titles: 'Innovations in Everyday Technologies', 'Innovations in Safety', 'Innovations in Health', 'Innovations in Communication', 'Innovations in Transportation', and Innovations in Entertainment'.  Each book has a similar format in terms of the design, contents, index and glossary.  At the beginning is a brief introduction describing inventors, innovators, and engineers.  At the end is an explanation of the 'Engineering Dsign Process' with a challenge called 'Thing Big!'  Moreover, there is a good balance between historic inventions and 'spot lights' on young inventors and innovators.

'Innovations in Safety' by Cynthia O'Brien is a terrific vehicle for STEM instruction, especially for kids.  I love each entry in the Innovations series; 'Innovation in Health' includes loads of examples of innovations kids encounter everyday: smoke detectors (p6), fluorescent clothes (p11), modern seat belts (p14), and traffic lights (p18).  I'm confident the 'Young Inventor Spotlight' about the Hot Seat Alarm (p15) invented by Alissa Chavez will resonate with kids.  Alissa Chavez invented the alarm after hearing about children accidentally left in hot cars.  A librarian or teacher could use such a few excerpts like this one before issuing a design challenge to her students using the Engineering Design Process (p28) and a safety challenge such as 'Tripping hazard at home or school' (p29).  Likely, the kids can brainstorm existing hazards at school.  'Innovations in Safety' affords excellent opportunities to understand how STEM impacts us every day.

NSTA Reviews: Innovations in Transportation

'Innovations in Transportation'
Crabtree Publishers have introduced a new series called 'Innovations', with six titles: 'Innovations in Everyday Technologies', 'Innovations in Safety', 'Innovations in Health', 'Innovations in Communication', 'Innovations in Transportation', and Innovations in Entertainment'.  Each book has a similar format in terms of the design, contents, index and glossary.  At the beginning is a brief introduction describing inventors, innovators, and engineers.  At the end is an explanation of the 'Engineering Dsign Process' with a challenge called 'Thing Big!'  Moreover, there is a good balance between historic inventions and 'spot lights' on young inventors and innovators.

'Innovations in Transportation' by Larry Verstraete will appeal to kids.  The photos of kids racing solar cars (p5), roller blades (p7), the hovercraft (p18), and the hoverboard (p26) are certain to spark discussions.  I can see kids wanting to built simple balloon hovercrafts or launch rockets after reading this book.  The images carry this book, especially Duru's Omni hoverboard (p27) as Duru flies!  The challenges at the back of the book under 'Think Big!' (P 29) are less inspired.  I think kids are more apt to want to design a hoverboard than to solve a problem 'Helping seniors cross busy streets safely or Shielding bicyclists from rain or snow.' (p29).   Aside from needing livelier challenges, the book reinforces STEM in society.  I think a teacher or librarian could use a few excerpts to introduce an interesting design challenge making hovercrafts from balloons and CDs.  Those are my plans!

NSTA Reviews: Innovations in Entertainment

'Innovations in Entertainment'
Crabtree Publishers have introduced a new series called 'Innovations', with six titles: 'Innovations in Everyday Technologies', 'Innovations in Safety', 'Innovations in Health', 'Innovations in Communication', 'Innovations in Transportation', and Innovations in Entertainment'.  Each book has a similar format in terms of the design, contents, index and glossary.  At the beginning is a brief introduction describing inventors, innovators, and engineers.  At the end is an explanation of the 'Engineering Dsign Process' with a challenge called 'Thing Big!'  Moreover, there is a good balance between historic inventions and 'spot lights' on young inventors and innovators.

'Innovations in Entertainment' by L.E. Carmichael is terrific!  Makers, STEM instructors, and kid inventors can find inspiration here.  Have you ever considered how innovative a Lego brick is?  Anyone who has seen a Lego display or attended BrickFair can attest how Lego fuel an imagination.  Entertainment provides any number of inventions or innovations relevant to kids: crayons (pp 10-11), Monopoly (p 12), frisbees (pp 14-15), and Legos (p26).  The 'Young Inventor Spotlight' features Robert Patch, a six year old who invented and patented a transformer truck. (p13).  Who knew?  'Innovations in Entertainment' has fabulous photos.  My favorite is George Nissan with a kangaroo on his invention, the trampoline (p16).  Another young inventor highlighted is eleven year old Richie Stachowski.  He created and marketed Water talkies, underwater walkie-talkies.  What a genius idea!  Did you know the same man who invented video consoles, Ralph Baer (pp24-25), also created the electronic game, Simon?  Kids will love this book!  I like the challenges for kids under the 'Think Big' section (p29): 'A new board or video game' or 'A new sport for rainy days'.  These design ideas are perfect!  The librarian could position this book along side of a Lego table.  The classroom teacher might save this book for a dreary Friday afternoon to inspire kids to design their own board game.  'Innovations in Entertainment' drives home to kids STEM is creative, original, and fun! Perfect!