We have assembled a brilliant array of electricity products to help you explain the fundamentals of electricity to your students. We’ve got everything from Electric Paint to Plasma Globes.
Here’s what some of our customers are saying about our some of their favorite EI electricity teaching tools.
If you have a favorite Educational Innovations product, let us know! We’d love to share your review with your fellow teachers and science lovers.
Leave a Comment » | 
College level, electricity, Elementary level, energy, High School level, Middle School level | Tagged: customer, discrepant event, electricity, energy, experiments, fun experiments, hands-on activity, homeschool, parent friendly, PBL, phenomenon based learning, phenomenon-based science, reviews, science, variables | 
Permalink
Posted by Donna Giachetti
By: Donna Giachetti
Even babies understand the difference between ON and OFF. After mastering peek-a-boo, turning a switch on and off is one of a toddler’s favorite games. What will happen if I press here? Where did that light come from? Who made that noise? Something nearly always happens when a button is pushed, and it leaves children wanting to know more. At least that’s how it went in my house. My son wasn’t satisfied squeezing Tickle Me Elmo’s belly to hear the little guy giggle. He soon figured out how to switch Elmo on-off-on-off so rapidly that the poor fuzzball appeared to have a bad case of the hiccups.
Leave a Comment » | College level, electricity, Elementary level, energy, experiments, High School level, Middle School level | Tagged: Educational Innovations, electricity, experiments, hands-on activity, homeschool, parent friendly, PBL, phenomenon based learning, phenomenon-based science, science, variables | Permalink
Posted by Donna Giachetti
by Brandon DeBritz
When we talk about electricity and where it comes from in the Pacific Northwest, hydroelectric energy production is a key source and natural opportunity for teaching. Part of the curriculum used in the South Kitsap School District in Port Orchard, WA is SEPUP ‘Weathering and Erosion’. Students explore the Earth processes of weathering, erosion, and deposition all the while considering where to expand residential development in an expanding fictional town along the northwest coast.
This year, students at Cedar Heights Junior High were presented with a new factor to consider for this situation, ’should we build a dam on the town’s river to provide energy for the expanding electrical needs of the city?’ This new situation opened the door for a STEM unit, ‘The Energy of Moving Water’ from the National Energy Education Development (NEED) Project (free teacher and student curriculum guides are available from their website www.need.org).
From this platform, students were engaged in activities and research to explore: what electricity is and how it is created, the designs of a hydroelectric dam and how they work, as well as many of the environmental, economic, social, and political issues around the construction and use of dams. Through a school partnership with RB Industries and the PowerWheel, students explored the fundamental elements of creating electricity through the transfer of moving water.
Leave a Comment » | Earth Science, Elementary level, experiments, High School level, Middle School level | Tagged: electricity, green energy, hands-on activity, homeschool, hydroelectric, hydroelectric dams, hydropower, parent friendly, PBL, phenomenon based learning, phenomenon-based science, PowerWheel, rb industries, renewable energy, science, south kitsap school district, STEM | Permalink
Posted by Tami O'Connor
by: Janice VanCleave
As a teacher, I enjoyed having people visit my class. It brought out the “ham” in me and I did and said things that even surprised me. Rubbing a balloon on my hair and making my hair stand on ends was not unusual, but climbing on top of my desk sticking the charged balloon to the ceiling was a bit over the top.
What I disliked was the unscheduled visitor with an evaluation sheet in hand. But, I was always prepared. In fact, I had a box filled with materials for fun engaging activities. It was my “Emergency Experiment Box.” When the evaluator unexpectedly arrived, out came the box and the show began.
My teaching abilities were being evaluated during an unexpected visit, so I was prepared to show all my best qualities. I suggest you have an Emergency Experiment Box, and I do recommend including the Energy Ball.
Whatever you put in your box, make sure you know as much about the experiment as possible. The Energy Ball is great for teaching the scientific method. Too often kids memorize the steps of the scientific method, but do not use them on a daily bases. The scientific method is a set of problem solving tools—but every problem does not require using every instrument in the tool box.
I regress, let me get back to using the Energy Ball to fire up your students with or without unexpected guests.
7 Comments | Elementary level, energy, experiments, Middle School level | Tagged: closed circuits, electricity, open circuits, parent friendly, PBL, phenomenon based learning, phenomenon-based science, science | Permalink
Posted by Tami O'Connor
by: Bennett M. Harris
It never fails. I get the same reaction, whether I present to seasoned physicists, grade level science teachers or even from the most discerning audience I’ve had; a group of fifty – fourth grade students, jaws gape and sounds of oohs, aahs and wows issue forth.
I’ve been in rooms surrounded by hundreds of artificial light sources, from the simplest incandescent bulbs to the most advanced OLED displays, and even so, when a person closes that knife switch and current begins to flow and a simple piece of pencil lead held suspended inside a partially evacuated chamber starts to glow brighter, brighter, and finally white light illuminates the chamber, something happens in the person’s brain. At once they are connected with the wonders that Sir Humphry Davy, Swan, and Edison felt when they experimented with the world’s first electrical light sources. Questions start to form; How does that work? How could we make it last longer? What would happen if we changed the carbon for some other material? All at once, the passive viewer is thinking scientifically, asking questions, and yearning to do more.
2 Comments | College level, energy, experiments, High School level, Middle School level, Physics | Tagged: awesome demonstration, build your own light bulb, electricity, experiments, incandescence, phenomenon based learning, reinventing Edison, science kit, Sir Humphry Davy, STEM, Thomas Edison, Tungsten filament | Permalink
Posted by Tami O'Connor
