You Said It! Fossils and Dinosaurs Product Reviews


You Said It! Product Reviews - Educational Innovations NewsletterEven the youngest learners love fossils and dinosaurs!  Talking about prehistoric life is a wonderful way to introduce your students to many areas of science:  biology, earth science, geology, evolution, and more.  Read on to hear what our customers are saying about our some of their favorite EI teaching tools.

If you have a favorite Educational Innovations product related to fossils and dinosaurs, we invite you to send us a comment below.  We’d love to share your review with your fellow teachers and science lovers.

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Tabletop Fossil Safari: Science Camp in a Box!


Priscilla Robinson, Educational InnovationsTabletop Fossil Safari: Science Camp in a Box! Educational Innovations Blogby Priscilla Robinson

Dinosaurs inspire curiosity and wonder in scientists of all ages.  With the help of Educational InnovationsHome Science Lab: Tabletop Fossil Safari, young learners can conduct investigations at home to dynamically discover how fossils were created millions of years ago, and to better understand how they continue to be unearthed by paleontologists today.  Everything you need comes in the nifty Home Science Lab box: six activities organized in a booklet filled with easy-to-follow instructions, whimsical illustrations and photographs, assorted chemicals, household items, and of course, real fossils!

It’s so easy, even a grandmother can do it.  Seriously!

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The Sun Is Pretty Hot Stuff!


Ted Beyer, Educational Innovations

by Ted Beyer

The sun is, on average, about 93,000,000 miles (149,668,992 kilometers) away from us.  That’s pretty darn far.  In fact, if the sun went out right now, we would not know about it for about eight minutes.  Not to worry, that’s not going to be a thing to fret about for quite a while—a couple of billion years last time I checked.

That huge (try 109 times as big as Earth) ball of fusion reactor up in our sky is arguably responsible for all of the energy we use on Earth.  Not just solar power, but all of it.  Fossil fuels (oil, coal, and natural gas) were created from ancient plant and animal matter—which all lived because of the sun.

The Sun Is Pretty Hot Stuff! Educational Innovations Blog

  Image source: Stanford Solar Center

Hydropower is only possible because of the water cycle (best look that one up on your own, they won’t let me make these posts too long).  Wind power relies on, well, wind—and that is a byproduct of the warming and cooling of the atmosphere—and that’s the sun doing that warming too.  Atomic power uses heavy elements like Uranium, which was created in the hearts of suns.

I could go on and on, but I think you get the idea.

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Tips for Using the Private Eye Loupes


inman_liz_photoby Liz Inman

I first discovered The Private Eye Loupes when I borrowed a class set from a professor friend at the University of Kentucky.  I fell in love with them and so did my biology students!

Here are some tips I discovered while using the loupes. Read the rest of this entry »


Teaching Disease Prevention with White-Nose Syndrome in Bats


Priscilla Robinson, Educational InnovationsBy Priscilla Robinson

Teaching Disease Prevention

This summer, during a visit to Mammoth Cave National Park in Kentucky, I had an experience that reminded me of why teachers and parents should emphasize good hygiene and disease prevention habits to our children.  Whether fungal, bacterial, or viral, pathogens can be real threats to humans—and to wildlife.  Preventing the spread of infectious disease is something we can ALL do, if we are taught the proper steps.

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