This post contains aff. links. As Halloween approaches, you are likely wondering what you can do to help your students stay on task, but integrate a little bit of the Halloween spirit into the classroom. I’m sure you know that around this time of the year, students start focusing a… Continue Reading »
Growing Your Own Crystal Garden
One thing that I love to have my students do when I teach my rocks and minerals unit, is to create a crystal garden. This is a very easy activity that yields excitement and quick results. This activity creates the engagement and motivation for science that I’m always trying to produce.… Continue Reading »
Why does Diet Coke Float and Regular Coke Sink?
When my kids were younger we were always looking for ways to “entertain” them. One way we did this was through an exciting science experiment or two. The messier they could get, or the more we could amaze them – the better the day went! Our students aren’t much different!… Continue Reading »
Teaching Density with Lava Lamps
I love science experiments! It doesn’t matter what area of science – physical, life, or earth – we are working on, I try to find a way to get something concrete into the students’ hands, especially with abstract concepts such as density! We talk a little about density… Continue Reading »
Can YOU Stop Erosion?
Erosion. It’s a natural process of the Earth that is unstoppable, right? Why not find out! The best way to find out is to set up an experiment. I set up my classroom with two different stations. One station represented a beach scene with houses that live along… Continue Reading »
Do you Fault on Teaching Earthquakes?
I absolutely love earth science and I want to share some of the fun, interactive, hands-on activities that I do every year while teaching earthquakes in my classroom to help students understand these concepts. My state science standards requires me to teach my students about changes to the Earth’s surface.… Continue Reading »
Teaching the Scientific Method
It’s hard to believe that it’s time to get back into the swing of things and start planning for the new school year. It’s always an exciting time of the year when you gain a new group of students. It’s also a fresh start and if you are like me,… Continue Reading »
Earthquake Simulation
One of my favorite activities to simulate with students when discussing the slow and fast changes of the earth is this earthquake simulation. I just love how it illustrates the effects of earthquakes! This activity (and more) can be found in my Earth Science Unit. In this activity, I use… Continue Reading »
Earthquake Experiments
One thing I like to put emphasis on during our earth changes unit is helping my students understand just how destructive earthquakes can be along fault lines. I use this activity here from my Earthquake Science Tabbed Booklet: In this activity I take two strips of cloth (representing two different… Continue Reading »
Zoooooming with Force and Motion!
One of my favorite things about being a teacher is watching how excited kids get when something just “clicks” in their heads. I love that moment. While it happens often in the classroom from just everyday lessons, there is something even more exciting about it when it happens from a… Continue Reading »