You may have seen the recent commercials showing a child raising flags representing America’s standing in school ranking world-wide. I came across an article for the same campaign that shared some striking, but unfortunately not surprising, statistics. According to the “One Nation Left Behind” program, 20 countries outscore the US in science education and 93% of US middle school teachers have little or no science training.
As standardized testing becomes key in schools nation-wide, the decline in science education becomes widely apparent. The Strong American Schools Website offers more staggering statistics and eye-opening quizzes that help drive home the point that our children are not receiving enough science education. Check it out and be prepared for some shocking results.
However, the One Nation Left Behind campaign is committed to creating awareness about the growing education problem in America… from science, to math, to English.. and offers opportunities to get involved in your community.
When we invited our customers to show us their Summer Science Camps with You Tube videos, Cheryl Purdum when above and beyond the call. Any teacher who is willing to dress up as a Mad Scientist to win a gift certificate to our website clearly deserved that winning title.
Cheryl followed up with us later in the summer to let us know that her summer camp was a huge success. Her pictures were such a treat… I loved looking at the kids’ facial expressions and to truly see a sense of wonder. The color mixing activities looked like they were a big hit, and the cornstarch walk was a riot. Just the look on their faces tells the whole story!
I can’t think of anyone who could have put the gift certificate to better use. Thanks so much, Cheryl, for your enthusiasm for teaching science and for all that you do to create experiences for kids that they’ll never forget.
Over the years, the exploding pumpkin demo is right up there at the top of my short list for my all time favorite, crowd-pleasing science demonstration. But who wants to wait a whole year just to do the demo again? That’s why we’re working on the fine art of watermelon carving… with the aid of a tiny chemical reaction… okay, it’s an explosion. We just substituted a big, juicy watermelon in place of the pumpkin and pulled the trigger. Since the walls of a watermelon are not necessarily as strong as a pumpkin, sometimes the whole darn thing explodes… but that adds to the fun. Check out the video. (If the video doesn’t play, click on Exploding Watermelon Experiment.)
There is a waiting list for parents who want to enroll their children in the Henny Penny Preschool, and there is a good reason for that:Amy Dolley has created one of the best preschool environments I’ve ever seen!Amy doesn’t even have to advertise… word of mouth is what sells the Henny Penny Preschool.
Amy wasn’t comfortable with the kind of preschool her own children had attended, so she decided to create a livelier, more “hands-on” environment when she quit her Kindergarten and 1st grade teaching job and started her own preschool right in her home.
She knew she could do it, too.After all, as the Story Lady, she had built her “clientele” from five children –three of which were her own – to over fifty kids!Obviously, Amy knew how to reach and teach small children, and with her own school, she knew she would get to do “what she wants, how she wants.”And what Amy wanted to do was create an environment that allowed small children to run and play, to get muddy and wet, and to
