Create your own volcanic eruption and investigate acid-base reactions.
(Note: a fun related art project is to create and paint your own volcano out of Plaster of Paris or paper-maché with a built-in well to hold the reagents.)
Provide paper towels to clean up the resulting eruption – it can be a fizzy mess. The lab’s reagents are harmless, but you should take care to avoid contact with your eyes.
Give your students a hands-on glacier lesson with this chilly activity that originally appeared on sciencekit.com.
Build your own cloud with this fun activity, which originally appeared as part of the Henry Ward’s Adventures in Science series developed for Ward’s Homeschool. The activity is also available in PDF format on wardsci.com.
Witness a meteorological phenomenon and create your own cloud.
Use caution when lighting matches and make sure there is adult supervision.
You just witnessed a cloud forming. This happens when the warm water heats the layer of air, and some of the water evaporates into the air forming water vapor that rises. The particles of smoke act as nuclei for water molecules to collect on in a process called condensation. Thus a cloud is born.
This fun, heart racing activity originally appeared as part of the Henry Ward’s Adventures in Science series developed for Ward’s Homeschool and is also available in PDF format.
Get your own heart racing with an exciting experiment to build your own stethoscope.
Notice the difference in heartbeat after exercise. The reason for the increased rate is the heart beating faster to pump more blood, and therefore oxygen, to the body for use while exerting energy.
Expand your own geological collections by growing crystals at home or in the classroom. This fun activity originally appeared as part of the Henry Ward’s Adventures in Science series developed for Ward’s Homeschool and is also available in PDF format.
Expand your own geological collections by growing crystals at home.
Avoid prolonged contact with the ammonia to avoid breathing in excess vapors.
Growing your own crystal garden can take from hours to days, but you will eventually see these crystals appear and grow, teaching your child about the nature of this substance. Crystals are atoms or molecules joined together in a repeated pattern. They grow by adding molecules or atoms to all its sides in the same pattern as those added before. Examine your crystal garden for evidence of this scientific fact.
As spring arrives with warmer weather, field trips and outdoor activities are once again possible. Enhance and enrich your biology curriculum through hands-on activities with live specimens found in your own environment. A well planned field experience can significantly improve student understanding and information retention while they have fun learning.
When capturing insects and other invertebrates, it is best to use a variety of collecting tools and techniques to find quality specimens. A sweeping or beating net can be used to collect a variety of insects – many of which may have gone unnoticed before being dislodged from their hiding places by the sweeping technique. You can also set simple insect traps – cans or jars buried in the ground, level with the soil surface – to catch ground-dwelling insects and other small arthropods. A bait of rotting fruit or meat will attract more specimens. Use a trowel to dig into rotting logs or the soil itself to find insect larvae, nematodes, and earthworms. Collect leaf litter and bring it back to the lab, then use a berlese funnel to separate the many small organisms in the material. You can collect the specimens live, or preserve them in alcohol in the collecting jar below the funnel.
And, each field experience can later be brought into the classroom. The fun begins when you bring your “catches” back to the lab for observation. Once in the lab, terraria, plastic cages, “bug dorms” or simple containers like jars with perforated lids can be used to house insects, spiders, and similar organisms. Ward’s Ant Nest is ideal for ants, and when filled with damp soil could also house earthworms or nematodes. Use collected earthworms in conjunction with a composting kit to study how these annelids aid in recycling materials.
Your students can put the assorted specimens collected into a plastic terrarium for observation. Collect some plants or plant parts from where you used the sweeping net to provide food and cover for your insect “zoo”. Insects can be kept in this manner until the semester ends; at which time they can be released back into their natural environment.
Continue reading ‘Bring ‘Em Back Alive - An insect collecting resource’
