Don Cameron is Mad About Science
Steve Spangler visits Don Cameron's classroom at Lakewood High School
Tag - great teachers or mad about science or science teacher extraordinaire
October 24, 2008
The chemistry students at Lakewood High School in Lakewood, Colorado set their alarm clocks just a little earlier than normal today to join us on live TV for our Mad About Science tribute to Don Cameron. Mr. Cameron is described by his students as a ‘really great teacher who tells lots of jokes.’ While Mr. Cameron does lots of great demos, what impressed me most about him was how he was able to use these great science demos to build real-world connections to the science content. As you watch the video, you’ll see how the students demonstrated an experiment with dry ice that shows how global warming makes the oceans more acidic. They also used a Tesla Coil to demonstrate what …
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October 15, 2008
Tom Andrews is Mad About Science
Any teacher who can inspire a group of students to get up at 4:30 AM in order to be on live television is an amazing person. But it didn’t take long to see why his students like him so much… “He’s just a cool teacher who makes coming to class fun,” says one of his students as she launches a rubber bug across the room. Mad About Science is a television news series that we created at 9News KUSA-TV in Denver almost ten years ago as a way to recognize science teachers in Colorado who are getting their students excited about learning science. Tom Andrews hits the mark as an amazing science teacher at Goddard Middle School in Littleton, Colorado. When you visit Mr. Andrews’ classroom, you can see that he practices what he preaches. “Science needs to be hands-on and engaging …
February 28, 2008
Hose Burst Test on Live TV - Spangler Visits Gates Labs
All this week on TV, I had the opportunity to get a behind the scenes look at Denver-based companies who each have a cool science twist to their business. The scientists at Gates Corporation invited our cameras on a tour of the hydraulic testing labs at Gates where they demonstrated how engineers test high pressure rubber hoses for commercial use. During the segment, Joel Edwards, Vice President of Fluid Technology & Product Development and Larry Kachinski, Senior Lab Engineer pressurized a hose rated to 6,000 psi with a safety factor of 4:1. The loud burst produced a perfect rupture at nearly 28,000 psi!
Anything that goes bang is fun, but… I was most impressed to speak with Joel Edwards, VP of Product Development, and his engineers who all share the same passion for getting students K-12 excited about careers in science and engineering. For more information about Gates Corporation, visit www.gates.com
October 6, 2005
Mad About Science Week - Emily Pringle
The next stop on our week-long tour was Hamilton Middle School in the Denver Public Schools to shine the spotlight on Ms. Emily Pringle, science teacher extraordinaire. Emily Pringle has taught there for eight years and uses the scientific method to make the light bulbs come on in her bright, young eager students. She and the kids showed us her candle lab experiment, also known as the “composition of air” demonstration. Here’s the concept… A candle sits in the bottom of a dish full of colored water. The candle is lighted and covered with a test tube or jar. When the candle burns out (because of the lack of oxygen), the water rises in the test tube. Data is gathered as to the volume of water that displaces the air in the tube. Ms. Pringle’s class concluded from the experiment that 21% of the air that we breathe is oxygen (and the students are correct!). Read more. Video: On Day 4 of Mad Scientist Week Steve Spangler visits an enlightened science class at Hamilton Middle School. 6 a.m. October 6, 2005.
October 5, 2005
Mad About Science Week - Pam Schmidt
When it comes to doing science, I’ll volunteer for anything - fear is not a factor for me. Then I visited Pam Schmidt’s class at Thunder Ridge Middle School in Centennial, Colorado… and 49 of her pet snakes! That’s right, at 5:30 in the morning, I was greeted by a room full of enthusiastic kids all holding snakes - big snakes. Each snake has a name - there’s Phantom, a 12′ 11″ Albino Burmese Python and Jazira, a 16″ Blotched King snake. Pam loves snakes, and shares that passion with all her students who learn plenty about their biology, habitat and eating habits. Read more. Video: Day three of the Steve Spangler Mad Scientist Tour slithers to Thunder Ridge Middle School for a reptilian experience. 6 a.m. October 5, 2005.
