Thousands of science teachers found their way to St. Louis for the 2007 National Science Teachers Association convention, and we wanted to make sure they had something to take back to their students. So, we loaded our trucks with experiments and products from the website along with 5,000 rolls of MENTOS stuffed into plastic test tubes and headed for the Gateway City. We were fortunate to have 14 teacher ambassadors from the Hands-on Science Institute join us in the booth to each share their favorite science activities. Aside from 500 bottles of Diet Coke and a mountain of MENTOS, all eyes were on the 18 foot tall soda eruption chamber. We were demonstrating the new Geyser Tube by triggering a MENTOS geyser as fast as we could set-up a launch (about every 2-3 minutes for 3 full days). At the end of the convention, the soda was gone, the rolls of MENTOS were in the hands of 5,000 teachers, the truck was cleaned out… and we all had a blast. It’s back to the classroom for the 14 ambassadors to start working on cool stuff for next year’s NSTA in Boston.

Popularity: 81% [?]

Ninety-nine elementary teachers were called into action July 27-28, 2005, at the Hands-on Science Boot Camp to explore new and creative science integration strategies for making science education come alive in their classrooms. Named Operation Just Do Science, the intensive two-day, hands-on science training targeted early childhood through third grade teachers who wanted to make science more fun and meaningful in this classrooms. Read the rest of this entry »

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I overheard a group of teachers on the elevator this afternoon talking about calling in “sick” in order to attend this amazing conference (NAEYC 2004 - see previous blog entries). Why? Because their school administrators don’t support this type of continuing education. And we wonder why our education system is failing! How is a teacher supposed to learn new teaching strategies and techniques without surrounding him or herself with other professionals who are experts in their field? In other words, teachers need to attend conference and professional development seminars just as doctors, lawyers and other professionals do. Let me go out on a limb here and guess that your doctor, dentist or lawyer doesn’t have to lie to anyone in order to attend a conference. Professionals don’t have to lie to further their education in order to better serve their clients. Hmmm? Maybe we might want to start treating teachers like professionals and stop complaining when they ask to attend a conference.

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If your child’s teacher is out sick this week, think twice. She just might be in California with 25,000 other early childhood teachers at the largest conference of its kind in the world. Anaheim, California is host to the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) annual conference. The doors flew open at noon today and the exhibit hall looked like a life-size ant farm with thousands of people scrambling for every free thing they could find. It didn’t take long for science hungry teachers to find our booth and cash in on the free Tornado Tube offer for the first 1,000 teachers. This year we’re fortunate to have 6 teacher Ambassadors from our Hands-on Science Institute behind the booth to share their teaching ideas that are guaranteed to make science fun.

Popularity: 3% [?]