A New Endeavor

In case you hadn't noticed (and how could you not have???) this blog hasn't had anything new to share with the world in quite some time.

If you made it here, I hope that you can find something useful to you. At the same time, I would like to extend an invitation to you to check out my newest endeavor: Science Matters. I'm trying my hand at some science education consulting. And, as part of that, I've started a new blog, which is full of science-y goodness. On a regular basis! Please, come check it out - it'll be worth your effort!

Daryl Science

Here's another site that takes some sorting through, but has some treasures to be found. I was fortunate enough to attend a couple of workshops presented by Daryl, which were loaded with great demo ideas for science classes. He's a high school physics teacher, so the bulk of his things are geared to that set, but many are appropriate/adaptable to younger students and he's tried to add some demos for other branches of science. In order to get to the demos, you have to do a bit of navigating on the site... on the top left of the home page, click on "Professional Stuff", then on "Science Teacher Demos". There's a lot of other good stuff to look through while you're at the site, so spend some time there.

When I've had questions about some of his demos - things I saw in person or found on the site - I found Daryl to be very responsive to emails (his address can be found on the site). That said, I'm not sure if he's regularly updating his site anymore and if that's still the case, but I suspect that if he gets your question, he'll answer it to the best of his ability.

A warning of sorts.... he's got a sense of humor... some of us appreciate it, others have to wade through it. Regardless of whether or not you find him funny, he knows physics and has solid activities.

Access Excellence

I have found several great activities in the Fellows Collection at Access Excellence. These activities were designed by high school biology teachers, so they may need some tweaking before most of this group can use them (and some others just aren't appropriate for the younger age group), but that shouldn't stop you from looking. I like to use the Chromosome Shuffle to illustrate mitosis and meiosis - always a tough subject, plus it gets the kids up and moving and participating in the process. That particular activity takes some prep work to get the props ready, but once you've done it, you've got them forever and you just have to pull them out the next year. Who Dirtied the Water is totally adaptable to middle school students and even the elementary set. While you're at the site, check out the other activities found at the Activities Exchange.

Science-Class.net

Here's another site chock full of ideas... science-class.net. Have that ink cartridge and ream of paper ready!

On another note, I'm working on getting a bunch of other things ready to post shortly... I hope. The summer has snuck away on me - hope yours has been good!

Also, I'll return to the original Iron Science format this fall. Anyone want to share any ideas for "ingredients"? I'd appreciate the input - leave it as a comment or email me at adventures-in-science@gmail.com.

Middle School Science

Did you check out the Science Spot? What did you think? Good stuff, huh?

Here's another website loaded with goodies: MiddleSchoolScience.Com. In order to get to the good stuff, click on the links just below the banner: Chemistry, Earth Science, Life Science, Physics. In addition to the wealth of activities, you might enjoy the information Liz provides regarding her students' lab notebooks. She's also recently added new interactive/online labs and activities for each curriculum area.

Happy searching and printing!

The Science Spot

If you aren't already familiar with the Science Spot, you MUST spend some time perusing it this summer. Tracy Trimpe has created this amazing website (and has been kind enough to share some of her great ideas with us on this very site) and I can't get enough of it. I have used so many of Tracy's ideas in my classroom, that I can't even begin to list them here.

Start by checking out The Science Classroom. There you will find not only ideas to use in your classroom, but also the student handouts, teacher notes, and any other paperwork that goes with the lesson. Just be forewarned... you'll want to make sure you have a ream of paper and a fairly fresh ink cartridge on hand... and a few binders or folders to put your papers in wouldn't hurt. You'll be printing that much... it's that good! I promise! I'm also fond of the Survivor Science section and have used it with my classes during the last week or so of the school year with only a few minor adjustments. Fun stuff.

I hope you check it out! Let me know how it goes and what you find. And don't forget to add it to your saved bookmarks!

ikeepbookmarks - An Assignment

You've been giving assignments for the last 10 months - now it's your turn to be on the receiving end!

If you're like me, you perform an online search, eventually find exactly what you're looking for, but then go on to something else and can never find that perfect site again. So, you tell me I'm a moron, I just need to create a bookmark or a favorite. True enough, but even when I'm conscientious enough to do just that, it never fails that the next time I'm looking for said website, I'm at a different computer than I was initially and I can't access my bookmark/favorite.

I'm planning to share several excellent websites with you over the next couple of weeks and I want to make sure you're able to find those sites whenever and wherever you are. So, before we delve into science websites, I want to introduce you to www.ikeepbookmarks.com If you create an account on this website, you can save your list of favorite websites there and access that list while online on any computer simply by visiting this site. You can even create a public account, in which you create a list of links to websites that can be accessed using just the account name (no password needed to access the list, only to add to it). Can you see the possibilities for your classroom and students as well as your personal life?

So, your assignment is to check out: www.ikeepbookmarks.com and set up your own account (if you don't have one already). Then you'll be all set when I start sharing some other sites with you in a few days!