Forces and Motion in the News


latino-professor-newspaperYou can’t talk about forces and motion without talking about Isaac Newton.  His three Laws of Motion were published more than 300 years ago, and yet their basic concepts—inertia, acceleration, momentum, and mass—are still the standard for how we discuss forces and motion today.  The laws may have been refined over the years (most famously by Einstein) but they still reign as incontrovertible scientific laws.  We couldn’t send the Hubble Space Telescope into orbit without Newton.

While there may not be much NEW about Newton’s Laws, there is still plenty to say about how they affect the world around us.  Read on for some interesting news reports related to forces and motion.  Let us know if you find an article you’d like us to post!

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Engaging Students with Electrochemistry… and Goldenrod Paper


Educational Innovations Blogby Nancy Foote

I’m in love with goldenrod paper.  I’ve loved it for a long time.  In my never-ending quest to emotionally entangle my students in the content of our science curriculum, Color-Changing Goldenrod Paper provides a long-lasting entanglement.

If you’ve never done the bloody handprint goldenrod paper demo with your students, you are truly missing out—and so are they)!  This is the most engaging “engage” part of the 5 E’s I’ve ever experienced.  I like to do the bloody handprint demo around Halloween, but we don’t do acid/base chemistry until February.  That’s a long time to wonder, ponder and try to figure out exactly what is happening.  But that’s for another blog post.

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Five Things to Teach Our Students (and Ourselves) about Electricity


Roy Bentley, Educational InnovationsBy Roy Bentley and Ken Crawford

You’ve probably heard the expression, “A journey of 1,000 miles begins with a single step.”  That’s certainly true of Educational Innovations‘ Transparent Alternator Kit.  It’s a hands-on kit that visually (and vividly) demonstrates how electricity is created—the single step that has launched humankind into the technological age!  Show your students the start of this fascinating path and they will begin their own journey.

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Having a Blast with Articulating Stomp Rockets


Articulating Stomp Rockets - Educational Innovations Blog

by Paul Reyna

Have you ever had a science activity or demonstration that you really liked to do with your students, but then were told you could not do it anymore—or it did not fit your curriculum?

That is exactly what happened to me a few years ago.

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Tips for Using the Private Eye Loupes


inman_liz_photoby Liz Inman

I first discovered The Private Eye Loupes when I borrowed a class set from a professor friend at the University of Kentucky.  I fell in love with them and so did my biology students!

Here are some tips I discovered while using the loupes. Read the rest of this entry »