Has The Swine Flu Affected Your School? | Glo Germ Lotion

November 16, 2009

Tami O'Connor, Educational Innovationsby: Tami O’Connor

Is swine flu spreading like wildfire in your community? In my hometown of Redding, Connecticut, the high school’s homecoming dance and the Halloween parties at the elementary school were both canceled. The middle school social was also postponed until flu season is officially behind us.

What better time than now to teach your students about the benefits of proper hand washing techniques and how diseases are actually transmitted from one person to another? Educational Innovations carries a full line of products designed to help you educate your students about germ transmission and how best to reduce the spread of harmful microbes. Let Educational Innovations help you to keep your students more mindful of easy things they can do to stay healthy.

Glo GermGlo Germ is a fantastic product which safely and graphically demonstrates to students and adults alike how germs are spread.

Used throughout the United States in schools, hospitals and food services, Glo Germ consists of an odorless lotion or powder which glows brightly when exposed to ultraviolet light. This product is perfect for your health curriculum. Read the rest of this entry »

Leave a Comment » | Biology, Elementary level, Middle School level | Tagged: , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Tami O'Connor

Chemistry of Ultraviolet Detecting Beads with Video

November 13, 2009

Ron Perkins, Educational Innovationsby: Ron Perkins

Ultraviolet detecting beads contain pigments that change color when exposed to ultraviolet light from the sun or certain other UV sources. The electromagnetic radiation needed to affect change is between 360 and 300 nm in wavelength. This includes the high-energy part of UV Type A (400-320 nm) and the low energy part of UV Type B (320-280 nm). Long wave fluorescent type black lights work well; incandescent black lights and UV-C lamps will not change the color of the beads.

The dye molecules consist of two large, planar, conjugated systems that are orthogonal to one another. No resonance occurs between two orthogonal parts of a molecule. Imagine two planes at right angles to one another, connected by a carbon atom. When high energy UV light excites the central carbon atom, the two smaller planar conjugated parts form one large conjugated planar molecule. Read the rest of this entry »

5 Comments | Chemistry, energy, High School level | Tagged: , | Permalink
Posted by Tami O'Connor

Ammonite, The Fibonacci Fossil!

November 12, 2009

Sarah Brandtby: Sara Brandt

Ammonite was once thought to be the petrified remains of snakes! Modern science, however, tells us that these fascinating fossils are actually the remains of an ancient aquatic mollusk.  A mollusk is an invertebrate with a soft, unsegmented body.  The soft body of an ammonite was protected by a hard outer shell. The shells of ammonites ranged from an inch to nine feet! Each shell is divided into many different chambers. The walls of each chamber are called septa. The septa were penetrated by the ammonite’s siphuncle, a tube-like structure that allowed the ammonite to control the air pressure inside its shell. Ammonites were aquatic creatures, and being able to control the air pressure inside their shells meant being able to control their buoyancy.

What is the Fibonacci sequence?

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2 Comments | Biology, College level, Earth Science, Elementary level, experiments, High School level, Middle School level | Tagged: , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Tami O'Connor