September 19, 2018
STEM education (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) is a curriculum driven by problem solving, exploration, and discovery while incorporating technology and engineering into the teaching of science and mathematics.
Educational Innovations carries a number of products like astronomy and space science tools that fit perfectly into the STEM classroom. These materials promote exploratory learning, and require students to actively engage themselves to discover the solution to the situation or problem at hand.
If you have a favorite STEM experiment or product, please let us know in the comments section below!
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Elementary level, High School level, Middle School level, STEM | Tagged: awesome science experiment, DIY, Educational Innovations, electricity, energy, experiments, force and motion, fun experiments, hands-on activity, hands-on science, homeschool, kinetic energy, light, newton, Newton's First Law, Newton's Second Law, Newton's Third Law, parent friendly, phenomenon based learning, phenomenon-based science, Physics, physics demonstration apparatus, science, STEM | 
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Posted by Donna Giachetti
June 2, 2017
By Jeremy Johnson
In my 13 years of classroom teaching experience, I’ve learned a few tricks to keep my students from becoming overwhelmed—or bored—by their science textbooks. One of my favorite tricks is to get my kids up on their feet, doing science instead of reading about it.
When I teach about gravity and center of mass, for example, I like to shake things up by turning our classroom into an impromptu biokinetics lab. I challenge my students to perform a series of seemingly simple physical tests, described below. Lift a chair? Raise your leg? Pick up a quarter? No problem! (Or so they think…)
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5 Comments | College level, Elementary level, experiments, High School level, Middle School level, Physics | Tagged: discrepant event, DIY, Educational Innovations, experiments, force and motion, fun experiments, hands-on activity, homeschool, newton, parent friendly, PBL, PhBL, PhenoBL, phenomenon based learning, Physics, science, variables | Permalink
Posted by Donna Giachetti
April 4, 2017
Through the years, we’ve seen teaching trends come and go… but one thing hasn’t changed: students LOVE anything related to balloons and rockets. (So do we.) And when you’re talking about rockets, you’re talking about forces and motion!
Take a look at this free lesson on forces and motion. We’re using balloons as our rocket “engines” to power these simple cars. The activity is basic enough to work with younger students, and can easily be augmented for a more advanced group. This lesson invites all kinds of variations. You might say the sky’s the limit!
Click on the image below for a full-size, full-color PDF of this easy-to-implement forces and motion lesson. Enjoy!
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1 Comment | College level, Elementary level, energy, High School level, Middle School level, Physics | Tagged: Educational Innovations, energy, force, force and motion, homeschool, kinetic energy, newton, Newton's First Law, Newton's Second Law, Newton's Third Law, parent friendly, PBL, PhBL, PhenoBL, phenomenon based learning, Physics, science, STEM | Permalink
Posted by Donna Giachetti
April 4, 2017
Forces and motion are all around us. You might even say they make the world go ’round. In 1687 Isaac Newton attempted to explain the movements of everything in the universe—from a pea rolling on a plate to the position of the planets. It’s staggering to think about how much of our daily life involves some aspect of Newton’s Laws of Motion.
This is one science topic that can be easily approached by using examples from our collective life experiences. Starting a discussion about forces and motion with your students is easy. All you have to do is drop a feather… nudge a toy car forward… pull open a door.
We’ve put together a collection of interesting topics and interactive games that you can use to get a conversation going with your students. Let us know what you think in the comments below!
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Leave a Comment » | College level, Elementary level, energy, High School level, Middle School level, Physics | Tagged: Educational Innovations, energy, force, force and motion, homeschool, kinetic energy, newton, Newton's First Law, Newton's Second Law, Newton's Third Law, parent friendly, PBL, PhBL, PhenoBL, phenomenon based learning, Physics, science, STEM | Permalink
Posted by Donna Giachetti
April 4, 2017
No matter what grade you teach, at some point you will surely need to introduce your students to the three Laws of Motion developed by Sir Isaac Newton in 1687. His Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica took Newton two years to write and was the culmination of more than 20 years of thinking.
That was more than 300 years ago. Today, we live in the YouTube era. Videos allow us to quickly summarize important scientific concepts like forces and motion in dramatic ways that your students will understand and remember. We’ve gathered some excellent examples here. Enjoy!
If you find a video on forces and motion that you’d like to share with us, please leave a comment!
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Leave a Comment » | College level, Elementary level, energy, High School level, Middle School level, Physics | Tagged: Educational Innovations, energy, force, force and motion, homeschool, kinetic energy, newton, Newton's First Law, Newton's Second Law, Newton's Third Law, parent friendly, PBL, PhBL, PhenoBL, phenomenon based learning, Physics, science, STEM | Permalink
Posted by Donna Giachetti
