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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I love Halloween. One of my favorite activities is to “carve” pumpkins using a simple reation inside the fruit. First, you carve the face then carefully replace pieces. After creating a reaction by generating a gas inside and igniting it (ask your local chemistry teacher for the details) the face pieces are blown off with a small explosion.

Halloween is more than 100 days away and I just couldn’t wait. So I initiated the new weather anchor at the local Denver television station by introducing her to carving watermelons. The problem was, we didn’t really carve the watermelon, it exploded. Watch the Video to see how we skipped right over the carving and went straight to exploding.

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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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