December 1, 2009
by Tami O’Connor
Invented in 1945 by Miles Sullivan, the “drinking bird” has been a favorite of science teachers in every classroom from kindergarten through college. This amazing device is made of two glass bulbs (one representing the head and the other representing the body) joined by a glass tube (representing the neck). Between the two bulbs, attached to the glass tube, is a metal fulcrum upon which the bird pivots. The air has been removed from this closed device, and the bottom ball is filled with a colored liquid that has a high vapor pressure (methylene chloride). The rest of the bird’s body and head is filled with the vapor form of methylene chloride.
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1 Comment | 
Chemistry, College level, Elementary level, energy, experiments, High School level, Middle School level, Physics | Tagged: drinking bird, evaporation, parent friendly, perpetual motion, phenomenon based learning, thermal energy, vapor pressure | 
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Posted by Tami O'Connor
November 12, 2009
by: 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: ammonite, Fibonacci, fossils, golden ratio, nature | Permalink
Posted by Tami O'Connor
October 1, 2009
by: Ron Perkins
Color changing goldenrod paper has been exciting students of all ages for decades to the wonders of chemistry! Imagine the enthusiasm of the first student or teacher who spilled a few drops of ammonia on a piece of yellow paper and observed it turn bright red! One can only image them exclaiming: “Super, Wow, Neat!!!”
Place the paper in a solution of household baking soda and the paper turns red; immerse it in vinegar and the red turns back to yellow! This goldenrod paper is colored with a dye that is an acid/base indicator: red in base and yellow in acid. The paper is similar to litmus paper that is blue in base and red in acid. Read the rest of this entry »
5 Comments | Chemistry, College level, Elementary level, experiments, High School level, Middle School level | Tagged: acid, bases, color-changing paper, goldenrod paper, pH, tumeric | Permalink
Posted by Tami O'Connor
September 8, 2009
by: Tami O’Connor
Though I am no longer in a traditional classroom, the end of each August still fills me with that feeling of eager anticipation and yes, even a bit of anxiety…. Then I remember, I’m not going to be facing a room filled with bright new faces nor will I need to develop the plethora of creative lesson ideas necessary to engage and stimulate young minds. But still, I enjoy sharing some of the school experiments that my students and I enjoyed.
One school activity I used to teach the scientific method required the use of an old favorite; Sodium Polyacrylate. This is the chemical powder found in disposable baby diapers. I would start my lesson with a 3 Cup Monty game in which I used 3 opaque cups that were identical in every way except that two of the cups were empty and in the third I placed about 3 tablespoons of the water lock powder.
My shtick started with me talking about the importance of observation skills. I would explain the necessity of having a keen eye. Shortly after my speech I would pour about 1/2 of a cup of water into one of the empty cups. While encouraging my students to carefully watch the cup with the water in it, I would move the cups around fairly slowly, knowing they would be able to follow the water filled cup easily, until the three cups ended in a line across my desk. Read the rest of this entry »
1 Comment | Chemistry, Elementary level, experiments, High School level, Middle School level | Tagged: baby diaper experiment, back to school, instant snow, phenomenon based learning, polymers, sodium polyacrylate, water lock | Permalink
Posted by Tami O'Connor
July 31, 2009
by: Norman Barstow
When the National Research Council produced the National Science Standards in 1995, they did so without including sets of lesson plans nor did they design them as part of a standard curriculum package. They were written to be used as goals for our students’ achievement in science.
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2 Comments | Elementary level, energy, experiments, Middle School level, Physics | Tagged: ballons, compressed air, experiments, force and motion, manipulating variables, National Science Standards, phenomenon based learning, scientific method, STEM | Permalink
Posted by Tami O'Connor
