Strawberry Patch Science

July 23, 2021
Educational Innovations Blog

By Jared Hottenstein

Science really is everywhere – even in a strawberry patch! But I’m getting ahead of myself. Let’s start at the beginning.

I’m afraid of lunch ladies.  They’re intimidating.  I guess you need to be if you’re dealing with hundreds of hungry kids in a small cafeteria.  As a kid, I usually kept my head down and brown-bagged it (unless it was pizza day).  I didn’t want to do anything to upset the ladies who ran the lunchroom.  I carried that fear with me even after I became a teacher. 

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Leave a Comment » | Elementary level, engineering, experiments, life science, Middle School level | Tagged: , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Donna Giachetti

Plastic Egg Genetics

April 10, 2020
Donna Giachetti, Educational Innovations

By Donna Giachetti

Never doubt our slogan, Teachers Serving Teachers®.  It’s the reason we come to work every day, and it’s certainly the reason for this blog.  On any given day, we actively search the Internet for nifty, new science gizmos, exciting new science discoveries, and as-yet-undiscovered (by us) teachers in the trenches of today’s classrooms.  We love exploring other teachers’ science blogs, videos, and lessons—and we send fan mail applauding their work more often than you might imagine. 

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Leave a Comment » | About Us, Biology, Elementary level, High School level, life science, Middle School level | Tagged: , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Donna Giachetti

Frog Competition Chaos

February 7, 2020

By Julie Pollard

“When am I going to ever use this?”  “Why do I even need to know this?”  These questions are the bane of the science teacher’s existence—or at least of mine.  Even though science is woven into every aspect of every day of our lives, my middle schoolers just can’t seem to make that leap.  They’re like frogs who don’t know how to jump. They still think of science as something done by nerds in white coats in labs.

During our unit on ecosystems and competition, my students seem to struggle with the concept of competition for abiotic factors.  They have no problem relating to the predator-and-prey, competition-for-food aspect of competition—which makes sense, if you’ve ever watched eighth grade boys racing for the last slice of pizza.

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8 Comments | Biology, College level, Earth Science, High School level, life science, Middle School level | Tagged: , , , | Permalink
Posted by Donna Giachetti

Neuroscience in a Box

December 27, 2019

Ted Beyer, Educational InnovationsBy Ted Beyer

Though they are buzzwords, STEM and STEAM have a real purpose.  We all want to get this cross-discipline learning into our classrooms as soon as possible.  Yet we often run into a trade off between the desire for MORE and the reality of budgets.

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Posted by Donna Giachetti

Neuroscience, Wow! Record Electrical Signals from your Heart, Brain and Eyes

October 11, 2019

by Will Wharton

At Backyard Brains, our goal is to make advanced science simple!  We develop low-cost versions of high-tech devices to make entry-level neuroscience and human physiology experiments available to everyone.

New to Educational Innovations is Backyard Brains’ Heart and Brain SpikerBox.  This simple device makes it easy for teachers and students to record electrical signals from your heart, brain, and eyes—making previously “advanced” science experiments much more accessible for all. Read the rest of this entry »

Leave a Comment » | Biology, College level, electricity, High School level, life science, Middle School level | Tagged: , , , | Permalink
Posted by Donna Giachetti

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