As part of the Science at Sea experience, I talked about the many benefit of teachers who blog as part of their classroom experience. At one end of the spectrum you have teachers who are using their school sponsored blogs as a way to effectively communicate with parents or to share classroom assignments with students. On the other end you have very teachers who have found ways to use their blog as a catalyst to get their students (and parents) engaged in the learning process outside of classroom time.
Lisa Heaton uses her blog (www.lisaheaton.com) during her integrated unit on rocketry and literature as her 5th grade GT students read Rocket Boys by Homer Hickham. Lisa found that her students write almost twice as much when they are blogging versus using conventional writing practices. By their very nature, blogs are an interactive forum that encourage students to become engaged in the thoughts and ideas presented by other students in their class. Instead of students merely “pushing” ideas to a teacher to grade, blog posts become a great way for students to agree, disagree
I first told you about the Kids’ Science Challenge back in January, and now we have some winners. We first got involved in the planning stages of the project when Jim Metzner, Executive Producer of Pulse of the Planet, contacted me to discuss the initial plans for the Kids’ Science Challenge and how we might get involved with the development of the science activity kits.
The Kids’ Science Challenge is a NSF-sponsored competition designed to stimulate interest in science in third to sixth graders. The competition launched back in October 2008. The winners have been announced. Here’s the information from the official press release…
Lindsay Carnes
5th Grader
Our Lady of Mercy School
Lewisville, NC
Lindsay will be working with the skateboarders to see what would happen if you used balls for the wheels like on a Dyson vacuum. Skateboard engineer Michael Bream says “I’ve never seen anything quite like it in skateboarding before. There are several aspects that would need to be tested, including the size, position and composition of the ball. One of the main reasons we decided on Lindsay’s idea is that it’s one that would yield a
You don’t just go to someone and say, “Hey, can I borrow your $45,000 Bed of Nail exhibit. No, seriously, I promise to bring it back.” But that’s exactly what happened…
The closing stunt on my last appearance on the Ellen Show was the Bed of Nails. Up to this point, I’ve never really been that excited about the traditional Bed of Nails demo because of the way you have to get the person on the nails. Normally, the volunteer gently sits down on the end and the lays their head on the pillow. As soon as the audience sees that the nails didn’t impale the volunteer’s bottom, the rest is boring.
We thought about various ways of making the Bed of Nails more exciting, but nothing hit home… until we found the ultimate Bed of Nails at the Arizona Science Center. The manufacturer is a company called Hands-On! out of Florida and these guys produce some of the best science exhibits you’ve ever seen. If you’ve ever visited a science center, you’ve probably experienced their work. In preparation for this
As part of the Science at Sea experience, I talked about the many benefit of teachers who blog as part of their classroom experience. At one end of the spectrum you have teachers who are using their school sponsored blogs as a way to effectively communicate with parents or to share classroom assignments with students. On the other end you have very teachers who have found ways to use their blog as a catalyst to get their students (and parents) engaged in the learning process outside of classroom time.
