Did you have your heart set on glass, graduated cylinders? Amazon has a nice set available. Personally, we use polypropylene, graduated cylinders. They don’t break. No, they aren’t quite as accurate. I do have one glass, borosilicate cylinder for diluting strong acids. Period.
Amazon Prime Day is featuring 3D printers on sale. What can you do with a 3D printer in a science class? Here are four ideas. Before you buy, try a 3D printer. Our local library system has several and trains anyone interested. My husband and I were ‘badged’ or trained. A 3D printer creating an object is like watching paint dry—for hours and hours! Your teen is dreaming about custom LEGO pieces. Download The Frog Dissection Kit from the Thingaverse to a thumb drive. Take your teen and the thumb drive to the library’s MakerSpace. I feel confident that once your teen invests several hours to produce an underwhelming toy, he won’t see the immediate need for a 3D printer.
Boy do the deals look tempting! Make a list of lab materials you want for science class in the fall. Include spot plates or a huge box of craft sticks to use as stir sticks. Are you making slime or polymers? Buy glue during Back to School sales. Do you need basic polypropylene labware? See if set go on sale during Prime Days. Now is the time to price goods before the sales. I look for things I know I’ll need for lab, such as water beads, and get a baseline price. Then I’m ready to take advantage of a good deal.
I buy lab equipment discounted frequently. I just bought two more sets of graduated cylinders from Walmart at $6.99 per set and placed an order at Home Science Tools. ( I have a large Chemistry class this Fall.) I keep an eye out for equipment at Good Will online. Good Will has beakers, microscope slides, flasks, and test tubes. When you search, try ‘Pyrex’, ‘science lab’, ‘lab equipment’, or specific terms, such as microscope slides. Check the shipping and compare prices on eBay, Home Science Tools, Amazon, and Walmart.
I shop for eScience kits and Labpaq kits, too. Do a search on eBay for ‘Labpaq chemistry’ to see sample listings. I look for digital scales, cylinders, thermometers, and labware, such as reaction plates. The micro scales retail for $10. Price the labware at Home Science Tools before you bid. I do not pay more than $30 including shipping for any kit from Good Will. Be sure to check Amazon. You can buy a set of plastic cylinders and beakers for $12. In this economy, finding a bargain is more important than ever!
Are you familiar with Material Science as a discipline? There is a foundation. Really! It’s ASM Materials Education Foundation. They have teacher resources, including this handbook of demos. One example is Nitinol Memory Wire, still sold by Educational Innovations. The demos are interesting: Paperclip Fatigue, Stress in Balloon Inflation, and Strengthen Ceramic Composites, in which the demonstrator smashes Corelle plates. If you’ve ever dropped a piece of Corelle which shattered, it’s an interesting demo. I joined a new group. I’ll keep you updated with random topics.
I have water beads (and spikes, cubes, and crystals) leftover from science camp. Check out the toy aisle at Walmart for water beads. If you have a plant nursery, see if they sell water absorbing crystals or Soil Moist crystals. You can put the beads in your garden or in your plants’ soil. I send home extra beads for the teens’ younger brothers and sisters.
I’m building better Chemistry lessons this year—more challenges and more analyses. I have come across loads of ideas! Let me share: Water Beads (Elementary level), Growing Spheres for 3D Modeling, (Secondary Level) Grow Spheres Help Students Absorb Scientific Principles (Secondary Level), HST Water Beads Lesson #1 and #2 (Elementary or Secondary Level), and Ghost Crystals (Elementary or Secondary Levels). I think I’ll make the water beads into a challenge using the HST lesson and these ideas for extensions from Educational Innovations.
One more round-up! Flinn has the Science Behind Fireworks, complete with activities, including Wood Splints Fame Tests. You can use colorful flame birthday candles with this lab from Beyond Benign, which promotes ‘green chemistry’. I like to look at green chemical labs because often they use household items, which are cheaper and safer. Here is a Chemmatters article about fireworks. Set aside these ideas for January or February to perk up class. Happy Fourth of July!
Our Co-op science classes write four formal lab reports each year. Why four? We are a Catholic Co-op; many of the kids subscribe to various online home study schools. These schools require a minimum total of four, formally written, lab reports. Here is my lab rubric. (Our kids submit observation reports, complete lab analysis with spreadsheets, and do various calculations, too.) There are many options for writing lab reports. Here is How to Write a Lab Report by Sherri Seligson, an Apologia author.
You may want to keep a lab notebook. Getting Nerdy’s Free Lab Notes can be glued into a composition notebook. Have you tried Storyboarding? Here is a Mentos and Coke Storyboard, part of this lesson. I’m thinking about doing more Modeling Chemical Reactions, beginning with Reaction in a Bag. Another technique is to let your kids explain the lab in a video, like this one I made for Measure a Molecule. Sometimes, my kids do calculations instead of a lab report, such as the energy calculations in Flinn’s Flame Test Lab. Instead of a lab report for Flame Tests, you might substitute a lab quiz with Color Flame Candles—especially if the kids do this lab first. (Scroll down to the answers. There are several correct answers for the colors.). I let the kids use their lab notes. I let the lab dictate the type of report. For example, my kids hate the Stoichiometry lab and hate writing formal, lab reports. So, the kids write report for their least favorite labs. Don’t worry. Next Fall, I’ll start,posting loads of samples.
One of the best science supply companies is Flinn Scientific. Here are a bunch of free science activities and challenges, such as this Measurement Challenge or this Chromatography Challenge. The upcoming Chemistry class took Bio this past year. I did spinach and paper chromatography labs with them. Chemistry has a paper chromatography lab, too. I plan to issue this Challenge instead of using a traditional lab, which they’ve already done. The same goes for density as a topic. I want to use this Density Challenge along with the Test Tube Challenge. Yes, I’ll be posting ideas for Fall all summer.
What can you do with pennies? Do you have a large jar of coins? First, compare the Densities of Pennies. Sort the Pennie’s into to groups: pre-1982 and post 1982. (Here is an article about the 1982 penny. The coin changed from copper to zinc with a copper cost.). Here are the masses for the old and new pennies. Have you dropped water on to a penny?
Here is a lab from ACS; the lab reacts new pennies with vinegar and salt. You can extend a lab with iron nails and lemon juice. Here is the half-life of pennies lab. You’ll need 100 and a shoe box. Do you have a digital scale? Here is a penny statistics lab. I plan to do similar labs to teach my kids how to use Excel or Google Sheets. (Okay, my husband, Rob, will teach the kids how to use spreadsheets.). Here is Flipping Coins, another stats lab. Here are instructions for a coin battery. Most of these labs are suitable for middle school students in Physical Science. But, if you have a group of kids who haven’t tried these activities, age isn’t important. See why we save coins for lab? The coins are in a recycled yogurt container. How is that for frugal?
How much time to you set aside for Biology or Chemistry? Our Co-op meets 1 1/2 hours twice a week. The teens are expected to read, complete labs, work on projects, problems, and even some tests at home. Generally, we budget two more hours each week for outside assignments. I have been reading on social media that many Co-ops meet for an hour each week to do Bio or Chem labs. Huh. You could complete the labs in the Apologia textbook with a lab schedule of one hour weekly. From experience, you need three hours weekly face to face to teach either course—provided the kids work outside class! Why? I use labs to launch instruction. For example, here is a post about Reaction in a Bag. The kids do the lab and then discuss evidence for chemical change.Do the same thing with labs from the textbook! Experiment 1 is Density of Liquids. Do the lab and then explain density. I am passionate about teaching science and want it to be fun—not a chore. Talk among the parents in your home-school group. Who wants to teach Chem or Bio? Who has the background? Who is willing to add a few fun labs? Are the families willing to meet longer to do the class well? Yes, you can meet with friends and do the labs from the book once a week for an hour. But, see if there is a friend, retired teacher, or parent who would get excited to teach Chem or Bio.
