Cheap and Easy Chemistry: Metal Reactivity Labs

 Are you familiar with the Metal Reactivity Series?  Here is a lesson and Activity of Metals Lab we do in class.  However, AACT has this Virtual lesson, Metals in. Aqueous Solutions, with lessons, and Teacher Notes for this lab simulation.  You and your teens can do the simulation and decide whether the expense of the lab materials are worth an investment.  Lab simulations stretch your budget and allow more extension activities for your kids.  Treat the simulation like a lab and add it to your digital portfolio.

Biomolecules Introduction: Carbohydrates, Fats, Proteins, and Nucleic Acids

 Biomolecules are really one aspect of Biochemistry.  This is a tough unit.  Here is how I approach this material.  I do a crash course in Organic Chemistry with this packet (10.4 Answer Key and 10.7 Answer Key).  Here is a note summary about naming organic molecules.

Now that you are overwhelmed, let’s start again.  We start with this slideshow introduction and follow with this Biomolecules activity.  I ordered the two kits below from Amazon to review.  The kids will start Thursday building the molecules with the Labaids Molecules of Life kit.  I want to test the inexpensive kits to compare their quality with Labaids and more expensive molecular modeling kits.  I’ll update with results.

The kits were $6.95 and $11.68.

Orbeez Bead Lab Update

 The Bio class  soaked for two days in three solutions.

Cheap and Easy Biology: Cell Transport Labs

 Today, the Bio class did three labs about cell movement or transport.  The first is this Diffusion Lab. The questions are good for explaining the selective permeability of cell embraces.  Use the pix from Biology Place’s Diffusion Lab if you like step by step instructions.  You need iodine, cornstarch and baggies.  The cheapest baggies work best.  (Traditionally, dialysis tubing is used for this lab.  My colleague, Wendy, told me to use cheap baggies instead.)  Next we soaked growing spheres in three solutions to do the lab, Simulating Osmosis with Orbeez Water Beads.  Lastly the kids made Gel Beads, using these instructions and these to test yeast balls in hydrogen peroxide.  This last lab is more expensive and uses sodium alginate and calcium lactate.  It is also more of a pain to set up and conduct.  

Sodium Alginate and Calcium Lactate Gel Beads Lab

Diffusion lab

Water Beads

Make lab videos!

We make videos.  I make ‘how to’ videos, like those below, often.  My kids make videos, too.  It’s a good way to check to see if the kids understand a lab or a scientific concept.  If they can teach or explain, they understand.  You can add the video to your teen’s digital portfolio, while simultaneously assessing.  

Cheap and Easy Chemistry: Colorful Flames

Do you use colorful flame packets with your fire pit or fireplace?  The packets have a mix of chemical granules.  Here is a list of chemicals and the colors they produce in flames.  The link has common, household chemicals and their respective flame colors: Epsom salts, borax, etc.  The list suggest adding sugar, coffee creamer, flour, and iron filings for different effects—new ideas for me.  Your kids might mix up colorful flames into paper bags to decorate as presents.  Combine gift making into a science lesson!

Cell Membrane Bubble Lab

 The Co-op class did the Cell Membrane Bubble Lab in class today.  I did this lab for the first time with the Bio class I taught the year before last.  Kids like this lab!  It brings home properties of the cell membrane.  Be sure to follow the instructions carefully.  We tried thin cotton thread and polyester yarn for the activities.  We found you could connect the straws directly into a frame without stringing yarn through the straws.  Here are some pix.  BTW, I explained soap micelles and their properties after the lab.  

Safety

How can you conduct labs safely? If you use the Apologia science textbooks, most of the labs described are safe if you follow directions as written.  Teens should wear safety glasses during all labs.  I think about safety all the time. For years I taught in both private and public schools.  Some of my public school classes had 40 students, making labs potentially dangerous if a student violates lab safety rules.

Let me share several good safety resources.  The NSTA has a safety blog; there are articles about Safety Data Sheets (SDS), setting up lab spaces, even Halloween safety.  Here is the ACS’s publication, Safety in the Elementary Science Classroom. Did you know there are child-sized safety glasses?  I use these for out-reach events with young children.  Here is the ACS publication, ACS Guidelines and Recommendations for Teaching Middle School and High School Chemistry.  Here is the ACS website with more information and a free safety poster, R.A.M.P.  Flinn has four pages of free safety articles, like this Five-Minute Safety Inspection.  Here is a complete Middle School level safety lesson with links.

I haven’t had any real safety challenges teaching science with the local Co-op.  The teens follow all the lab instructions.  The Co-op lab space has safety equipment next to the utility sink: fire extinguisher, first-aid kit, and  eye wash bottle.  Additionally, we have a sharps container for any broken glass, thermometers, etc.  The kids use safety glasses and aprons during labs.  I do not tolerate any safety infractions.  Students who take off their safety glasses during lab have ‘volunteered’ to clean all of the lab stations for the entire class.  I keep my best threat in reserve—-spending the day reorganizing science equipment, kits, models, and possibly all of my Christmas decorations.  I have very supportive parents.

Cheap and Easy VSEPR

 VSEPR is a theory about the shapes of molecules in Chemistry.  There are any number of posts about creating models with balloons.  However, Tom Hoeffel has YouTube videos of VSEPR models using water bottles and balls.  Genius!  If you like the video, he published several about Molecular Geometry.

Personalized Stirring Rods

Personalized Stirring Rods is NOT an activity which is cheap, easy, or done at home.  However, this is an ideal activity to do with a local college.  Yes, setting up the event is a pain.  However, it’s a great way for a local college to show off its science department.  Ask for a tour.  Show the Admissions director this article.  Explain that you have a high school Co-op group interested in a tour and would like to make these stir sticks.  Encourage the Admissions director to talk it over with the Chemistry Chair.  I’ve scored and heat-sealed glass tubing with kids.  It requires careful supervision.  The kids love this activity. Most Chemistry departments will have the equipment on hand.  Give it a shot!  

Biology: Introduction to Cells

 My Co-op Biology class is starting Cells.  I have loads and loads of resources because this is a foundational topic for Biology.  Guess what?  My undergrad, elective classes were all about cells; Cytology, Microbiology, Histology, etc. I think the topic of Cells is essential to Biology.  Start here for an exceptional overview to Cells and Cell Transport from Simmons Science.  I’m using this slide deck, this coloring page, and this POGIL activity, Prokaryotic and Eukaryotic cells.  My kids are making cell models, experimenting with membranes, and learning about a host of cell processes.  Below is an image for the next lab, Cell Membrane Bubble Lab we’ll do next week.  Let’s get started!

Cheap and Easy Study Aid: Concept Maps

 Are you familiar with concept maps?  It’s a way to organize ideas.  I used this list of ecological terms and wrote them on to index cards.  The kids organize the cards into a map.  I ask kids to explain their maps.  With index cards, teens can make adjustments.  Basically, I want the kids to understand how things fit together or whether they understand the terms or relationships.  Below are a few examples.  Concept maps are a tool I use for assessment.

Hands-on Ecology

The Bio Co-op class is doing several follow-up activities today.  First they are graphing Lynx and Hare historical data, as a quiz following the Lynx and Hare lab.  I want to be sure they can graph in a spreadsheet.  

Next the kids are creating a food web for lynx and hare.  Here is the snow hare diet.  This is another assessment to be sure the kids can create a food web.

After the food web, I'm introducing concept maps.   I made vocabulary cards for the kid to use to create concept maps, which are another means of reviewing Ecology terms we discussed in this Ecology Slide presentation.  

Organize your class!

 This year, I’m teaching three classes for the Co-op.  I seem to be constantly addressing chaos: family emergencies, illness, and other conflicts.  I have a solid plan for Bio—my undergrad major.  What I lack is the means to punt when a kid needs to meet remotely at the last minute.  What is the solution?  Post everything in advance online as a question.  I can set up an online Google Meet at the last minute and have all of the links at my fingertips.  (The print versions are literally at my fingertips, too, because there are kids meeting in person.)  During class I toggle between a laptop and iPad.  We can focus the camera on the iPad directly on to class activities or labs.  Kids do the labs from home at the same time as the kids in class.  The kids talk to each other through Google Meet on an iPad.  Is this ideal?  Hardly.  However, chaos seems to be this year’s theme and I’m trying to adjust.

This is a screenshot from the Biology class in Google Classroom.  Below the numbered list are the links.

Most of these resources are already organized into folders in Google Classroom.

Cheap and Easy Bio Lab: Muscle Fatigue Lab

Matthew Simmons  just posted a Muscle Fatigue lab.  He is a member of the National Biology Teachers group on Facebook.  His posts are a compelling reason to join.  You need to see the graphics he draws and shares.  His lab worksheet is available to the group.  Here and here are similar labs.  You need a clothespin or test tube holder and a stopwatch for this lab.  Don’t buy a stopwatch; use the one on your cell phone.  Here is a slide deck about cellular respiration and the clothespin lab.  N.B. Cellular respiration is tricky.  The muscle fatigue lab is not.

Chemistry: Mole Day

 It’s October.  October 23rd in Mole Day!  That means if you teach Chemistry you should celebrate Mole Day!  Yes, National Mole Day is widely celebrated in Chemistry classrooms.  This year’s theme is Sherlock Molmes.  I can’t make these things up.  ACS, American Chemical Society, had Mole Day fun.  My Co-op sews moles with this pattern.  The winner gets a pack of tootsie-mole pops.  Here is a mole lab.  Here are mole day puns.  Lastly, here is a mole conversion worksheet.  Save work for another day.  Have fun!

Cheap and Easy Ecology Lab: The Lynx Eats the Hare

 Here is the sample data graph we use to teach the class how to graph data in a spreadsheet.  Here is one of the kid’s spreadsheet and graph.  Here is the historic data activity the kids are going to graph in a spreadsheet tomorrow as an assessment.  Lastly, the kids are making food webs for lynx and hare.  Here is a link with the snow hare’s diet to use with the food web.

The Bio Co-op class did the Mark-Recapture lab just as described in the blog post.  The point is to learn that more trials yield better data.  We worked on The Lynx Eats the Hare lab with this data table.  Print several copies of the Lynx and hare if you have a large Co-op.  Every time I do this simulation, I need to read each step aloud.  The data table helps enormously.  The key is to remember each lynx needs three hares, in total to survive.  To determine how many lynx survive each round or generation, count the total number of lynx.  The lynx will share hare kills with offspring.  We used a ruler to drop the lynx and hare from the same point each time.  My kids are going to graph their data in a spreadsheet.  Here is a set of sample data.  Hear the slideshow I use to discuss lynx and hare.  I’ll post graphs when they finish.

Hydroponics

 Years ago, I bought a hydroponics tower for my husband, Rob, and Paul.  I thought Rob would love it.  Ha!  He loathed the hydroponic tower intensely. We donated the system to a teacher, who was thrilled. I had kept a similar system in my classroom when I taught in public school. (Yes, I did a huge number of projects with my teens.)  I bought the tower as part of a grant program and raised lettuce for the school’s salad bar.  The teens did all of the work to set up the tower, plant lettuce, watch the nutrient levels, test the nutrient solution, and harvest the lettuce.  We kept the system on a timer.

I’m working with a Montessori school writing grants.  The school wants projects their students can research and maintain themselves, like an indoor hydroponic tower.   Hydroponics can be a family or Co-op project.  I recommend a tower kit with soil and commercial nutrients.  However, there are many DIY hydroponics systems which are cheaper.  

When I started the hydroponics program originally, we tried a table-top system.  It leaked and I gave the system to a student, who was doing most of the work maintaining our school hydroponic system and wanted to try it at home.  I do not see starting another hydroponic system with my Co-op class.  However, I don’t mind helping the Montessori school set one up.  Below are the towers I bought for my home and the one at my school.

Projects Aquatic, Wet, Wild, and Learning Tree

 In another life I did a great deal of programming.  For example, each summer I led a science campfire a week VBS at our church.  As an educator, I wanted to learn about different resources.  I took part in a number of trainings: Project Wet, Project Wild, and  Project Learning Tree.  Aquatic Wild is a subset of Project Wild. Usually, the local educator at your local Soil and Water Conservation District will know how you can get training.  These programs are usually free.  The group supplies the manuals at the training session—typically one day, often on the weekend.  Let me share some sample activities to see if they might work for your family or your Co-op.  Here is The Incredible Journey, the water cycle, including the ‘dice’ for the activity.  The kids roll the dice to move to different stations, such as glaciers or clouds.  I’ve used this at science camp.  Here is Thicket Game from Project Wild.  Make Your Own Paper is from Project Learning Tree.  (I did made paper once.  That experiment failed.  You may have better luck.). Look at PLT’s Home Tweet Home and try Edible Birds’ Nests.  Some guides such as Biodiversity, are available without any training or risk of copyright infringement.  I might use the Biodiversity guide as a platform to discuss alien species.  (Not all alien species are invasive.  However, species such as Tree of Heaven or Ailanthus, and Kudzu are both alien and invasive. Garden vegetables are nonnative and noninvasive.  Here is a good explanation from the Parks Service.)  Long, long experience with these agencies has taught me to use any resources judiciously and to edit out any aspect I find to be political.  For example, if I use The Incredible Journey, it’s just for the water cycle.  We laugh if a group gets stuck in a glacier.  Look at every activity based on  its merit.  Ask yourself how you could use it with your lessons.

Cheap and Easy Berlese Funnel

Make a Berlese Funnel .  You take leaf litter and capture insects to sort.  Here is a version using 2-liter bottles and a gooseneck lamp.  The lamp draws out bugs which drop into the alcohol in the base.  Here  and here are bug guide to help identify the insects and soil macroinvertebrates.   I haven’t made a Berlese funnel since I was an undergrad.  However, two of my Bio kids are naturalists.  I think they’ll like this lab.  Whenever we study insects, I’ll post pix.

SOLE: Inquiry Technique

I ran across an unfamiliar term for inquiry-based instruction: SOLE or Self-Organized Learning Environments.   Here is an article from Edutopia about SOLE.  Here  is a fact sheet from the Naval Postgraduate School.  

There are three parts: question, investigation, and review.  It is simpler than Project-Based Learning, which is usually a big theme with a series of activities, labs, and field trips.  How does SOLE work?  Take owl pellets.  What do owls eat?  Next do an owl pellet dissection.  What type of rodents and birds are in the pellets?  Do a review.  Summarize the lab.  Create a food web based on the types of rodents and birds owls eat.  

I like to use an activity to teach. For example, Tuesday, the kids are learning about Mark-Recapture.  I’ll start with a bit of Ecology and ask the kids if we have a deer problem.  Next, I’ll ask how DNR counts deer or deer herds.  We’ll go into the two lab activities.  After the labs, we can talk about the results.  My teens will put the results in a spreadsheet, to become more familiar with managing spreadsheets for data.  We could create a food web about deer, read an article, or explore deer management locally, based on student interest.  I’m betting you already use this process and didn’t know there was a term for it.