Tag - experiments

Larry’s Lab Polymer Science Kit – 12 Days of Wonder

By Blog Editor Susan Wells

We have reached Day #6, our halfway point in our 12 Days of Wonder. Today’s spotlight science toy is Larry’s Lab Polymer Science Kit.

Steve Spangler Science is celebrating the 12 Days of Wonder and highlighting our top 12 science toys and kits that are perfect to put under the tree. As blog editor, social media coordinator and mom of two budding scientists, I will share my review of each product. Steve Spangler Science also found 12 respected, popular mom bloggers to each test and review one of our 12 science gifts. I will include a link to their blogs and their honest reviews of each gift idea at the bottom of this post. Today, Liz from The Kitchen Pantry Scientist shares her review. The kit is also the Deal of the Day. So check our blog every day for the next few weeks to learn all about our 12 Days of Wonder.

Day 6 of the 12 Days of Wonder features the Larry’s Lab Polymer Science Kit.

Today only, this kit is our DEAL of the Day for $26.99. Regular price is $44.99.

My
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500 Soda Geysers at NSTA Convention

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
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Teacher evaluations – the great dinner table experiment

During my first year in teaching, my first evaluation revealed I wasn’t as terrible a teacher as I thought. My principal said: “I notice when I come into the room you go into performance mode. It makes learning so much fun but I am not sure if it is transferred to the kids though. Can they remember when you are not there?”?

She said if you create an experience that gets kids talking about it at the dinner table and that transfers to the parents who come back and say the kids tonight were floating and sinking bowling balls in the bathtub, then you have truly made an impact. Well, that was a huge call for me.

So I started creating activities and lessons that I knew kids would go home and do. Like making cans of soda float and sink and challenging mom and dad to identify whether the soft drink is diet or regular. Or bending a spoon (try that in a restaurant) or, my favorite, setting the table and then yanking the tablecloth from underneath!

Create experiences that truly translate back to the real world, as kids share their experiences at night at the dinner table.