We just wrapped up the final leg of our teacher boot camp tour with workshops in Pittsburgh and New York. While everyone on the team is exhausted, the one thing that keeps the energy high is meeting other teachers who are truly making a difference. I met teachers in both cities who paid to come to boot camp on their own - no funding from their schools or the district. I asked the same question you’re probably asking, “Why did you do it?” One self-funded teacher in the Pittsburgh workshop described answered with this…

I’m a professional who believes that training is important. I think that teachers who isolate themselves to their classroom never grow. I really enjoy teaching science and I came to the workshop to find new ways to get my kids fired up. Once my Principal sees the results, she’ll support more and more. I know it.

It’s tough to believe that we work in a profession where our leaders don’t believe in or support professional staff development, but I can’t help but be inspired by her dedication to teaching and to her students.

I also met these two amazing teachers… Penny Hampshire and Kim Carpenter, teachers at Clawson B.E.S.T. Pre-K. I’ve learned over the years to pay particular attention to the teachers who sit in the front row at my workshops. They either don’t know any better (and they’re going to get soaked in flying soda) or they’re extremely enthusiastic. Penny and Kim were both! Here are two teachers that do more solid science with their Pre-K children than some kids get during their entire elementary school experience. I could go on and on, but just check out the Claswson website - Science Thursdays and enjoy watching master teachers at work.

As always, I invite teachers who attend my workshops to share their comments and take-aways on the blog. Any thoughts from Pittsburgh?

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Brandt Callahan and Jackson Bartlett, who go to Parkview Intermediate School in Bedford, Indiana, took the Experiment of the Week and won FIRST PRIZE in the third grade division of the Science Fair!

In fact, Brandt and Jackson added a little OOMPH to the experiment by using several different kinds of cereal instead of just one, and using a blender instead of a baggie and their hands. The boys admit that most of the cereals they used just didn’t seem to have any iron in them, in spite of what their labels claimed.

Next time, they’re going to use Life cereal, because they want to SEE the little black dots of iron! They’ve also decided that there definitely won’t be any raisins involved - the ICK factor was just too high with raisins.

Brandt and Jackson are in the third grade, and they learned about this experiment from their teacher. Jackson had won First Prize in first grade, and Brandt had never entered a science fair before, so they decided they’d be perfect partners!

Both Brandt and Jackson love science, but since Brandt’s mom is a math teacher, he added that math is his favorite subject. GOOD ANSWER, Brandt!

While the boys confessed that science is a lot more fun when they can get up and put their hands in it, they also said that experiments seem to go more smoothly when they’ve done a little reading about it beforehand.

Congratulations to Brandt and Jackson! Science Fairs can be loads of fun, and it takes a lot of dedication and hard work to win First Prize.

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I’ve posted socially redeeming information about bubble wrap in the past, but don’t expect that high level of content with this. It’s just fun… and that’s not all bad. Go ahead and click on the bubble wrap. You probably can’t control your urge to pop a bubble - do it!

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Who wouldn’t love yet another slow motion video of the Mentos Geyser experiment. Robert Woodhead (I guess I need to learn more about this guy) used the flying soda as the test subject for his Casio EX-F1 camera. The result is some amazing slow motion photography (1200 fps).

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Hey, you know, just because schools’s almost out doesn’t mean your kid’s interest in science is over! The Experiment of the Week can keep the kids interested, motivated, and busy during the summer, too! More than a million television viewers tune in each week to see what science activity is in the spotlight - now you can watch the streaming video on your computer and get the how-to secrets each week. Our weekly e-mails are packed with cool science experiments, teaching ideas, streaming videos and something guaranteed to make you laugh. This week’s Experiment of the Week - Eating Nails for Breakfast

Listen carefully, you have our personal guarantee that neither your name nor your e-mail address will be shared with anyone or any company. Our mailing lists are not for sale, rent, loan, lease or barter to anyone. Ever.

Sign up now for the Experiment of the Week!

Oh yes, if you sign up for Experiment of the Week, you get 5% off your next order from the Steve Spangler Science store!

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The winning honeybee is number 5! And yes… I’m in disguise… as a honeybee. There are those people in our office who say it looks just like me… if I were a honeybee. The only thing the bee would have to do is to drink five cups of coffee, run around the office, buzz ideas and cause something to explode. Thanks to everyone who participated in our honeybee contest. If you guessed the winning number (that would be #5), we’ll have an electronic gift certificate e-mailed to you later today. Most importantly, thanks to HelptheHoneyBees.com and Haagen-Dazs for raising awareness around this issue.

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During a break at the Anaheim Hands-on Science Boot Camp, I met a real-world Miss Frizzle (so to speak). Denise Goodman is a science evangelist of sorts who travels to some 50 schools each year throughout the state in an effort to bring new science experiences to students and teachers who might not otherwise get this opportunity. Imagine a forty foot trailer rolling up to the school filled with the coolest science experiments, gadgets, microscopes… even a portable planetarium. I pulled Denise away during a short break in the workshop to ask her some questions about the students and teachers she sees and her thoughts on some of the greatest challenges our schools face today with regard to science education.

 

 Denise Goodman Boot Camp: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

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You might think that we’re just physical science people, but we do have a soft spot in our hearts for living things… especially honeybees. There’s a huge honeybee problem and Haagen-Dazs has done a great job with their HelptheHoneyBees.com website to help raise awareness around this issue. Some of the fine people who find employment at SteveSpanglerScience.com have gotten hooked on making their own honeybee using the Haagen-Dazs site.

So, we’ve created a little contest for our blog readers. Below you’ll find 16 people who work on the web team at SteveSpanglerScience.com… and I’m included in the mix. If you can correctly identify my number, you’ll win a $10 gift certificate from SteveSpanglerScience.com. Just post your comment below with your first name and real e-mail address (your e-mail will not be visible on the comment) and we’ll post the winning number on Friday morning (May 2, 2008). Hey, no cheating allowed - it’s for the honeybees. Oh, one more thing… since this is my contest, I’m allowed to be in disguise (very sneaky)! Go ahead… place your guess.

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Honeybees do a lot more than make honey! For thousands of years, honeybees have been important for honey, yes, but mostly for the incredible job they do of pollinating flowers and crops. Without the honeybees, there would be no more flowers. . . no more crops. . . no more blossoms of any kind.

When you put that glowing golden honey on your toast, look at it closely and consider that a honeybee had to visit hundreds of thousands of blossoms to get that tablespoon of honey you’re going to eat. Think about the ingredients in your bread. Think about the milk you’re drinking; without honeybees, there would be nothing for the cow to eat, and then there would be no milk, no hamburgers, no ice cream, and no cheese.

Without honeybees, there would soon be very little for people to eat. Think about that! Think very hard, because the collapse of honeybee colonies is a phenomenon that has recently been occurring all over the world at an alarmingly increasing rate, and nobody knows why.

What can you do about this? For starters, you can plant some of the flowers that honeybees love; this might attract the honeybees to your yard! Honeybees love sunflowers, violets, jasmine, lavender, coreopsis, trumpet flowers, cosmos, coneflowers, and thyme. All of these flowers smell wonderful! When the honeybees come to feast on the pollen, leave them alone. Don’t chase them, or step on them. Just watch them do their job, buzzing from flower to flower, and listen to them hum as they work!

If you go to the Haagen-Dazs website, you can learn more about the honeybees.

What do honeybees actually do all day? We have exclusive, hidden video showing their secret activity. Okay… I’m lying. It’s just a video of a guy with bees, but it’s pretty darn interesting.

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Here’s the video of the latest record. I didn’t realize that the guys at Eepybird were involved. Hats off to Stephan and Fritz - nice job! Is there any other video floating around?

Teachers have been doing this experiment for several years, but with the advent of YouTube and the advantages of the internet, more and more kids are learning about it, and experiencing the sheer fun of science in their back yards and classrooms alike. But what do students actually learn from this experiment?

They learn that the scientific laws and theories in their textbooks came about because somebody made a mess in his/her back yard or classroom. They learn that science is not dry (sometimes it’s really WET!) but actually fascinating. They learn about actions and reactions. They learn that there is beauty in a scientific experiment. They learn that they have the power to prove or disprove a theory. They learn that science is all about exploring and wondering, and sometimes it’s really sticky or messy. They learn that when everyone drops the mint into the diet coke at precisely the same moment and in the exact same way, the results of the experiment are more fair. (Using the Geyser Tube helps with that problem!) They also learn that good science appeals to people of all ages.

The entire experiment is outlined right HERE.

Oh, and one more thing: Not only will the students learn all the above things, they will also learn WHY. And they will remember.

We always remember things that made us happy, and made us laugh, and made us really, really dirty.

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