Dinosaur Mania! Digging Fossils

May 6, 2012

by: Michelle Bertke

Both the young and old have a special fascination with dinosaurs.  From the small Nemicolopterus to the larger Sauroposeidon, dinosaurs were magnificent and majestic creatures.  This is a topic students want to learn and adults want to teach.  Luckily, there are many at-home experiments and activities that parents can do to foster their children’s love for dinosaurs.

Impression Fossils

Impression fossils are one way that animals and plants, which are long since gone from this world, leave their mark.  One easy way to show how imprint fossils are formed is with play dough and plastic creatures.  Students can use the play dough (which is easily homemade) as a medium in which to press the plastic creatures.  This will leave an impression with a certain amount of detail.  Have the students compare the fossil imprint with their creature or mix up the imprints and play a matching game.  Use this activity to illustrate what can be determined from an imprint fossil (size or texture) and what cannot be determined (color).

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Posted by Tami O'Connor

The Chemical Spill and the River

May 4, 2012

Brian Herrinby: Brian Herrin

One of the difficulties of modeling a flowing water system is the size of the system and the quickness of the flow.  This often makes demonstrations hard to visualize as things happen so quickly.  The model I designed uses large transparent plastic cups and clear tubing that connects them to easily demonstrate how a river can become contaminated by a toxic spill or dump and how the toxic material slowly works its way downstream creating devastation along the way.  In time, the river will eventually run clean, but the damage takes much longer to disappear, and some damage may be permanent.

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1 Comment | Biology, Earth Science, Elementary level, experiments, Middle School level | Tagged: , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Tami O'Connor

The Speed of the Bubble Apparatus

April 28, 2012

Cynthia Houseby: Cindy House

Bubbles in tubes offer many advantages over spheres on ramps for velocity and acceleration experiments:

  • The bubble stays in the tube! There are no escaped marbles to chase down.
  • The bubble moves more slowly than a marble, permitting more accurate determination of elapsed time.
  • Results are highly reproducible.
  • Many data points can be collected in a short period of time.

The Speed of the Bubble Apparatus | Educational Innovations

A Speed of the Bubble Apparatus to hold and protect the tube is easy to construct from scrap and/or inexpensive materials. It enables even very young students to obtain highly reproducible data quickly. It also protects the tubes from being damaged if dropped or bumped.  Plans and suggested materials are included in this blog. The following experiment is one I use with the elementary students in our after school science club. Read the rest of this entry »

5 Comments | Elementary level, experiments, High School level, Middle School level, Physics | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Tami O'Connor

Growing Spheres Help Students Absorb Scientific Principles

March 14, 2012

John Fedors, Educational Innovationsby:  John Fedors

Hydrophilic spheres from Educational Innovations offer a variety of interesting applications and opportunities for scientific inquiry. They come in a variety of sizes: regular, jumbo, & gigantic. For the following examples, I prefer the regular or #710 size. However, whichever size you choose, they will expand to about 300 times their original dehydrated size.

Growing SpheresAs they absorb the water, they become almost invisible, due to having the same refractive index as water. When placed in de-mineralized or distilled water and kept away from sunlight, they will dehydrate to their original size and can be re-used. Dehydration time will depend on air humidity.

Once enlarged, these clear spheres can be used to demonstrate:

* The lens of an eye (such as those of a shark, calf or sheep) that has the ability to magnify the print on a page. A thin slice may be used to mimic a cornea transplant.

* The suspension of small items such as a coin.

* Roots of a germinating seed.

Enlarged growing spheres can also help to observe the relationship of Surface Area (A=4pr2) to Volume (V=4/3pr3) mass in grams. They can be used to graph relationships. Read the rest of this entry »

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

A Brief History Of Educational Innovations

January 12, 2012

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

In 1994, Educational Innovations was founded by Ron Perkins, an award winning Chemistry Teacher from Greenwich High School. Along with a number of other awards, Ron was Connecticut’s first recipient of the President’s Award for Teaching.  He was not only a renowned educator, but Ron was also an incredibly creative presenter.  Ron’s passion for science and teaching took him around the globe, giving over 800 teacher workshops for teachers of elementary grades through college!  It was because of his impressive and dynamic presentations that Educational Innovations came to be.

When preparing for his classes and workshops, Ron would hatch ideas, gather materials, and then tinker in his basement.  His demonstrative presentations always generated Oooooooh’s and Aaaaaaaah’s from the people in attendance, whether young students or seasoned teachers.  When the smoke cleared and echoes stopped, teachers would crowd around him and ask where they could find the materials that he used to generate so much science excitement.

Responding to the needs of these other educators, Ron finally put together a two-page flier with the materials, and teachers would send checks or even cash through the mail, and Ron would send their packages.  In the early days, Ron would wait for the mailman to arrive, hoping for an order.  Now almost 20 years later, Educational Innovations supplies teachers, parents, schools, and workshop presenters from every state in the US and over 69 countries around the world!  We are proud to carry forward the spark that ignited interest in science for generations of students.

Ron Perkins Educational Innovations History

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Posted by Tami O'Connor

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