We are honored to periodically host the Carnival of Education. Hats off to our good friend Jane Goodwin for all of her work on the latest Carnival. - editor

It’s time to put on our thinking caps and experience the 190th Carnival of Education, right here at Steve Spangler’s blog!

All learning is scientific, you know.  The world is a giant laboratory, and every day, we are all, regardless of our ages, making discoveries never before known to mankind.

Perhaps some of you will make some discoveries right here at the Carnival of Education!

Remember now, we don’t all necessarily have to agree on everything to appreciate it, or realize that it has a value.

Let’s begin with some Games for the Brain.  That will make us alert and ready for some educational action.

Over at Three Standard Deviations to the Left, there is some discussion about low expectations.  Mr. IB lets us know, in no uncertain terms, that HIS expectations are high. Read the rest of this entry »

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Every once in a while I stumble across a new resource or website and say, “Why didn’t I know about this before now?” If you’re a teacher and you don’t know about The Carnival of Education, check it out! As I understand it, the Carnival of Education is hosted on a new education site each week, and it has an amazing readership. Brew a second pot of coffee because once you start reading, you’ll get roped in for a few hours (each time you check it out).

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Just stick your head above the crowd and someone will shoot at it. One Colorado elementary teacher is getting hit in the head with flying film canisters powered by water and Alka-Seltzer… and the kids are being praised. Colorado Association of Science Teachers selected Shannon Koppenfafer as the Science Teacher of the Year for the state’s elementary school teachers. She was nominated by John McConnell, the Grand Valley’s version of Mr. Science who runs the Western Colorado Math and Science Center.

Here’s a secret that I learned years ago… constantly seek out amazing teachers. Read about them… watch them in action… study their writings… find out what makes them tick. As teachers, we all benefit when one of our own receives this type of well-deserved recognition. Read the rest of this entry »

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Our week-long salute to amazing science teachers wraps up with a visit to Heritage High School in Littleton, Colorado, where chemistry teacher Wally Keesecker gets students fired up about science. Wally is well-known for his attention-grabbing science demos that introduce students to real-world connections to everyday chemistry.

Video: The Steve Spangler Mad Scientist Tour finishes the week with a bang at Heritage High School. 6 a.m. October 7, 2005.
This is an especially fun visit for Steve since Wally Keesecker was his 8th grade science teacher in the Littleton Public Schools. “People like me make the decision to go into education after being inspired by an amazing teacher. While I didn’t exactly know that I would one day become a science teacher, I knew that I wanted to do something in education after experiencing someone as amazing as Wally Keesecker,” says Steve Spangler who is like a kid in a candy store whenever he pays a visit to his former science teacher.

Wally and his teaching colleagues dazzled us with two demonstrations centered around a Halloween theme. The first demo illustrated a chemical reaction that oozed from the eyes and mouth of a carved pumpkin. Because of safety reasons, Mr. Keesecker did not share his secret recipe for the reaction he featured on television, but we learned that a similar effect can be achieved by placing a glass of hot water in the carved out pumpkin, add a squirt of Dawn dish soap to the water and drop in a chunk of dry ice. Bubbles filled with carbon dioxide gas will ooze from front of the pumpkin - very cool! Here are more Halloween Science demos you can try with dry ice.

 

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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.

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