Before you buy an expensive, lab set, let’s see if we can pare the expenses. I think your best bet is to try and cannibalize a science kit for a pair of safety glasses, a digital scale, a glass thermometer, graduated cylinder, beakers, pipettes, and pH meter. Unless the kit is under $40, you may as well buy the equipment separately. Buy borosilicate (Pyrex or Kimax) glass. (You will likely end up with little bags of mystery items you have no idea how to use. I keep these in a box marked, check here for mini-kits.)
First, see if you can find a MEL Chemistry Starter kit used. The kit has safety classes, a stove, tubing, funnel, and a two pieces of glassware. Don’t spend more than around $25-30. The nice thing is that the little stoppers fit the glassware. You may want to just buy a camp stove and tea candles, instead.
Another useful item is a digital scale. Use cupcake liners or paper cups as weigh boats.
Scour eBay and Good Will for used glassware or kits with glassware. Generally, we use polypropylene cylinders and beakers.
Plan to use craft sticks, wood stir sticks, toothpicks, pipettes, etc, too. A set of test tubes and a rack are also very nice to use in Chemistry.
The news today is about the devastating double earthquake in Venezuela. Here is the WSJ article unlocked (for about one week). Articles like these are ideal for instant lessons—and opportunities to pray! USGS has this article about The Science of Earthquakes. This article dovetails well with Graham Cracker Plate Tectonics. Learn together. Pray for the people in Venezuela.
Are there good deals? Absolutely! However, search Prime Day deals and All Departments. Some of the best deals are available , but not part of the Prime Day promotions. Take a Look!
I love toys! They can teach, too! Let’s put together some instant lessons with science toys. These articles, ‘The Joy of Toys’, Chemecology, and ‘‘The History of Toys’ offer a bit of background. Here are several toy recipes. I tried to combine a fun lab or activity with an article and video. So many toys! So many lessons! So much fun!
Magic Sand: Here is a Magic Sand lab lesson. Here is a very old ChemMatters article about Magic Sand. Below is a Mystic Sand video from Flinn. Mystic sand and Magic Sand are the same.
Instant Snow: There are many, many brands of Instant Snow. Here is a lab lesson. This article about artificial snow is more related to snow than polymer snow. It’s still interesting.
Hand Boiler: Here are several ideas to try with the toy. Teaching with Toys explains both the Drinking Bird and the Hand Boiler-two toys with very short half-lives in any classroom.
Color Change Toys: The color changing duck contains thermochromic ink, ink which changes colors at different temperatures. Buy a toy; there is no easy thermochromic experiement.
Grow Creatures: Here is a Growing Toys lab. We like to use water beads. HST Water Beads has project ideas.
Mystical Tree: You can copy this toy with Crystal Trees and Gardens.Here is the original recipe with an explanation. The crystals grow in a few days.
Shrinky Dinks: These are #6 plastic. Here are instructions.
Silly Putty: Here is an easy to do DIY version of silly putty. Read all about The Science of Slime and watch this adorable video.
Self-Inflating Balloons: Here and here, and here are ACS lab lessons about self-inflating balloons with a video. They have similar content; one version is much more detailed; another is a presenter’s guide for demos.
Density Bottles: I had to order another Poly Density Bottle. Mine disappeared. I use the bottle to ask teens to explain why they separate and finally settle in the middle. It’s my intro to density. Here and here are DIY versions of the density bottle. The white beads are UV beads, with a different density than ordinary pony beads. What even more? Here is an ACS article, ‘The Dynamic Density Bottle.’ It is a deep dive into the Density Bottle.
Magic Rocks: Make Your Own Magic Rocks is expensive to make. Trust me I’ve priced this experiment. The rocks are salts in sodium silicate solution, also called water glass. MEL Artificial Sea Chemistry Kit has sodium silicate solution. Just buy a Magic Rocks or Artificial Sea kit unless you happen to have the required chloride salts.
The Diving Submarine and Squidy are still available. Here is Educational Innovations’ website with a description, explanation, and a video.
Are you teaching an anatomy or Advanced Biology class this fall? I bought a bunch of anatomical models from Good Will. (I have two heart models. Why? I bid on a heart model at Good Will because I forgot I bought one on Amazon.)
Additionally, I have a Tiny Tim skeleton, which was in a used eScience Anatomy Kit. Next to Tiny Tim is one of the cheap skeletons we used for various Anatomy in Clay units. We started with a skeleton, muscle, skull, or brain review at the beginning of each class. Tiny Tim was the model we used the most. Although the cheap mini skeletons proved worthwhile for the clay models.
Below are several models currently available at Good Will. Do a bit of research about each model before you bid. Add in the cost of shipping and compare prices on eBay, Walmart, and Amazon. For example, I bid on several skull models before I gave up and ordered one. Be sure to research the reviews for different brands of torso models. For example the Axis Scientific Models are significantly better than an 11 inch Human Body Model.
