December 22, 2020
It’s a scene you don’t often see in a science class: 13- and 14-year-olds flailing their arms about wildly like crazy aliens. It’s only Day One of the activity and they’re hooked by the goofiness allowed. That’s just one of the reasons why I look forward to my Alien Fluids unit every year. It also really sharpens students’ investigative skills and calls on them to think critically and logically.
But how was I to conduct this days-long experimentation activity remotely this year?
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Posted by Donna Giachetti
October 9, 2020
Who doesn’t love things that glow? Around this time every year, we get a lot of questions about how to make various objects glow in the dark. Which products will glow longest? Which are best for mixing with liquids? How do they work? Fear not! The answers are here.
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Posted by Donna Giachetti
February 28, 2020
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
November 16, 2018
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
January 27, 2017
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
