Bernoulli’s Principle: a Lesson or Two Made Out of Thin Air

November 25, 2012

Tami O'Connor, Educational Innovationsby:  Tami O’Connor

A few weeks ago my daughter, a new fifth grade teacher, asked me to come into her school to present a hands-on science lesson on Bernoulli’s Principle.  Nothing delights me more than working with kids in a classroom.  After 16 years of teaching, it’s hard to be away from it.  At first I was unsure what I was going to bring in.  I have so many really neat activities at my disposal that it is difficult to select just one.  I finally narrowed it down to activities dealing with air pressure, which is part of their curriculum (always a plus!).

BernoulliAs I rummaged through the office, I unearthed my supply of funnels, flex straws, and ping pong balls and decided that Daniel Bernoulli would be my guest of honor that day.  When I started my lesson, I blew up a balloon and talked about air and its properties.  Inviting comments, I discovered that they had some very interesting background knowledge, and most of it was correct… Read the rest of this entry »

4 Comments | Elementary level, experiments, Middle School level, Physics | Tagged: , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Tami O'Connor

Energize Your Class With The Energy Ball

August 1, 2012

Janice Van Cleave

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.

Read the rest of this entry »

7 Comments | Elementary level, energy, experiments, Middle School level | Tagged: , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Tami O'Connor

Micro LEDs and Motion

July 21, 2012

Bruce Yearnyby: Bruce Yeany

The micro LED lights  known as Rave lights have become popular with students at dances and parties.   With the  lights turned down, kids have these lights on their hands or in gloves, and the results are totally awesome when they wave their hands around.  Watching this phenomenon takes me back to the era of the disco ball and laser light shows.  It became apparent to me that these little lights would be fantastic when incorporated into the study of motion. Using these lights and a digital camera, it would be fairly easy to record the motion of moving objects for closer study.  Rolling, spinning , swinging, falling, projectile motion, etc. can all be captured using a camera and these little lights.

Can you figure out how these were done?

Micro LEDs and Motion - Educational Innovations Blog

Micro LEDs and Motion - Educational Innovations Blog Read the rest of this entry »

Leave a Comment » | Elementary level, High School level, Middle School level, Physics | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Tami O'Connor

The Science of Sound Waves

June 9, 2012

by:  Michelle Bertke

Sound can be a difficult concept to portray because the sound waves cannot be seen or touched.  Luckily, there are several at home experiments that demonstrate the properties of sound waves.

Water tank to show ‘Sound Waves’

You can use a fish tank half filled with water to give a visual demonstration The Science of Sound Waves - Educational Innovations Blogof ‘sound waves’.  Water is a perfect medium to show the propagation of waves. This demonstrates how sound waves travel though the air.  There are two ways to display this activity.  One way is to simply press your hands onto the top of the water and allow the waves to be made by the pressure of your hand.  This allows students to see how waves travel though a medium.  You can also use this to point out the aspects of a wave such as frequency and amplitude.  Another way to show waves is to place a speaker next to the tank and allow the sound to produce the waves.  This can show that sound is a form of pressure just like your hand. Read the rest of this entry »

Leave a Comment » | Elementary level, energy, experiments | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Tami O'Connor

The Speed of the Bubble Apparatus

April 28, 2012

Cynthia Houseby: Cindy House

Bubbles in tubes offer many advantages over spheres on ramps for velocity and acceleration experiments:

  • The bubble stays in the tube! There are no escaped marbles to chase down.
  • The bubble moves more slowly than a marble, permitting more accurate determination of elapsed time.
  • Results are highly reproducible.
  • Many data points can be collected in a short period of time.

The Speed of the Bubble Apparatus | Educational Innovations

A Speed of the Bubble Apparatus to hold and protect the tube is easy to construct from scrap and/or inexpensive materials. It enables even very young students to obtain highly reproducible data quickly. It also protects the tubes from being damaged if dropped or bumped.  Plans and suggested materials are included in this blog. The following experiment is one I use with the elementary students in our after school science club. Read the rest of this entry »

5 Comments | Elementary level, experiments, High School level, Middle School level, Physics | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Tami O'Connor

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