July 10, 2010
by Ted Beyer
One of my favorite authors, Arthur C. Clark, once said, “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” This has been quoted, misquoted and reused for years. Of course, it’s perfectly true, and magicians have been using science as part of their acts for centuries. Things that we take for granted today were once bleeding edge technology. I remember in high school reading that sometime ‘soon’ (this was more than 30 years ago) there would be TVs that would be so thin that they would hang on the wall like pictures – impossible! A generation before, the concept of television itself was astonishing, and a generation before that, moving pictures of any kind were magical.
As I started to think about this, I suddenly realized that there are many products that we sell here at Educational Innovations that are used – currently – by magicians as ‘tricks’ in their act. Let’s take a look…. Read the rest of this entry »
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Chemistry, College level, Elementary level, experiments, High School level, Middle School level, Physics | Tagged: discrepant event, eddy currents, ice melting blocks, Lenz's Law, magic, magic snow, Newton's Nightmare, nitinol wire, PBL, phenomenon based learning, slush powder, snow polymer, sodium polyacrylate | 
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Posted by Tami O'Connor
June 13, 2010
by: Tami O’Connor
When two 1-pound, 2-inch diameter, chrome steel spheres are smashed together, enough heat is generated at the point of contact to burn a hole in ordinary paper! This dramatic demonstration has been a favorite of students in every grade for as long as I have been teaching!
There are a few considerations when allowing students (especially younger ones) to conduct this activity on their own… First, the spheres are pretty heavy, so if they were either dropped on a foot or onto a nice tile floor, the result would not be good. Also, be sure that the only thing between the spheres is paper or aluminum foil. Fingers caught between the colliding spheres would not be happy. Finally, all participants should wear safety glasses, as it is not unusual for a small piece of paper to fly off after the spheres collide.
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2 Comments | College level, Elementary level, energy, experiments, High School level, Middle School level, Physics | Tagged: awesome science experiment, discrepant event, F=MA, kinetic energy, PBL, phenomenon based learning, shock waves, smashing steel spheres, thermal energy, thermite reactions | Permalink
Posted by Tami O'Connor
May 27, 2010
by: Tami O’Connor
One of my all time favorite air pressure activities is an oldie and a goodie! It involves getting an egg into a classic, hard-to-find milk bottle, like the ones 
delivered to grandma’s door. Unfortunately, some students (and some teachers) still think an egg can actually be sucked into a bottle. As you probably know because the air pressure is greater outside of the bottle than inside, the better explanation is that the egg is literally pushed into the milk bottle.
Here is the explanation… The milk bottle and egg demo begins by placing two or three burning matches or a burning strip of paper into the empty bottle. Then a shelled, moistened hard-boiled egg is placed on the mouth of the bottle. The egg is clearly larger than the opening in the bottle. The air inside the bottle begins to heat up and subsequently expands. It is easy to notice the egg dancing around a bit as the air inside the bottle escapes around it.
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3 Comments | Chemistry, Elementary level, experiments, High School level, Middle School level, Physics | Tagged: air pressure, discrepant event, egg in the bottle trick, milk bottle, PBL, phenomenon based learning, science demonstration | Permalink
Posted by Tami O'Connor
May 14, 2010
by Ted Beyer
Ever since I was a kid, I have been fascinated with space. I would look up at the stars, and I just knew that other people were up there somewhere, looking back at our little point of light, and thinking the same kind of thoughts. On the day I turned seven, Neil and Buzz landed on the moon and I was sure that—somehow—when I grew up, I would get there, too.
Incidentally, that’s me in the red on the right in the picture below. And on the left? Well, that’s Buzz Aldrin!
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5 Comments | astronomy, Earth Science, Elementary level, High School level, life science, Middle School level | Tagged: apollo 11, astronomy, Buzz Aldrin, Campo del Cielo, chondrule, Ghubra meteorite, meteorites, parent friendly, PBL, restoring meteorites, Seymchan Pallasite, space, Tucson Gem and Mineral Show | Permalink
Posted by Tami O'Connor
