By Ted Beyer
You may be familiar with the game Battleship! The version most people recall includes two plastic folding boards (red and blue) plus two sets of grey plastic ships and pegs. It was released by Milton Bradley in 1967. I had a set myself—a birthday present in 1969 (yeah, I’m that old). The objective of the game is to sink your opponent’s ships.
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Posted by Donna Giachetti
By Priscilla Robinson
Snowflakes! They arrive in flurries, storms and blizzards, not to mention “Winter Bomb Cyclones!” I’ve always thought the science behind snowflakes is amazing.
A snowflake begins when a tiny dust or pollen particle comes into contact with water vapor high up in Earth’s atmosphere. The water vapor coats the tiny particle and then freezes into a tiny crystal of ice. This tiny crystal will be the “seed” from which a snowflake will grow. The process is called crystallization.
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Posted by Donna Giachetti
by Linda Dunnavant
The ZigZag Density Tumbler is an elegant desk “toy” and much more. Turn the tumbler over and watch two different colors of droplets float down in a relaxing zigzag pattern. I like to keep mine on my desk. I often pick it up and watch it while I clear my head. Not only is the tumbler a soothing, relaxing activity for busy adults, but it also provides so many possibilities for calming, inspiring, and teaching students. Read the rest of this entry »
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Posted by Donna Giachetti
by Nancy Foote
I’m in love with goldenrod paper. I’ve loved it for a long time. In my never-ending quest to emotionally entangle my students in the content of our science curriculum, Color-Changing Goldenrod Paper provides a long-lasting entanglement.
If you’ve never done the bloody handprint goldenrod paper demo with your students, you are truly missing out—and so are they)! This is the most engaging “engage” part of the 5 E’s I’ve ever experienced. I like to do the bloody handprint demo around Halloween, but we don’t do acid/base chemistry until February. That’s a long time to wonder, ponder and try to figure out exactly what is happening. But that’s for another blog post.
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Posted by Donna Giachetti
by Jen Donaldson
In my classroom, I’ve devised two new uses for Growing Spheres which help students have a better grasp on some otherwise complicated science concepts.
These small spheres are a wonderful way to make the invisible VISIBLE—in three dimensions!
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Posted by Donna Giachetti
