My Science Box

http://www.newyorkscienceteacher.com/sci/movies/index.php

A great list by subject for videos, including worksheets! The Super Size Me worksheet even has before AND after questions.

Please click "Add Child Page" to recommend videos to show in a science classroom. Please include the following info: (and attach study guide please if you have it!)

 - Title

 - Distributor (PBS, National Geographic, etc.)

 - Where found (Berkeley Unified Digital Library, Explo Library, Blockbuster, Netflix, Etc.)

 - Science Concept Targeted (DNA ethics, volcanoes, Bad Science)

When I suddenly fall ill, or otherwise don't want to take 10 hours to plan a sub lesson, I usually go online to http://puzzlemaker.school.discovery.com/ and plug in some vocab words for some puzzles (they have some pre-made banks of words also!)

I make four puzzles using the exact same list of words. I usually start them with the word search (even non-readers can do this!) then go on to word scramble, then crossword. This because they need to know the words pretty well by the time they get to the crossword - also, the word search has the word bank on it.

In response to a question on ways to teach electron configuration to students, here's a model I used with my 8th graders. We had been using beans to represent and build 2D models of atoms (green lentils = electrons, white beans = protons, black beans = neutrons). I made a handout for them to help them understand the idea of where electrons like to go when they are added (download it at the bottom of this page).

Here's a great web resource:

http://wise.berkeley.edu 

******DRAFT*******

This is a test bed for posting to Irene's website. I'll be posting at least one full lesson as the semester progresses. My hope is to develop a series of ooey-gooey usshy-gusshies to provide visceral experiences as foundations for particle awareness.

 

Summary
What drives the motion of the Earth’s tectonic plates? Partly, it is convection, the process by which heat energy is transferred by currents in a liquid or gas. Convection currents within the mantle carry tectonic plates along with the slowly moving mantle like giant rafts carried along by a current in a river. To help students understand this idea, soapy water in a pie pan is heated from below and convections currents can be observed forming and moving in the soapy water. Several prelude demonstrations help students recognize that hot things rise and cold things sink.

Summary
Raising trout from eggs to fry in the classroom is a fabulous way for students to observe and study the life cycle of vertebrates and simultaneously learn about threatened species in local watersheds. Many states have programs where teachers and students raise trout in their classrooms in partnership with the Department of Fish and Wildlife for later release into a designated lake, creek or river. Described here is information for teachers on how to partner with state agencies, fish hatcheries, and local fly-fisher groups to raise rainbow trout in the classroom. A worksheet for the trout release field trip is provided. Best of all, many Trout in the Classroom Programs are fully supported by local fly-fisher groups and the California Department of Fish and Game (such as the California program that I participated in), and thus there is no materials cost to the teacher beyond the costs of organizing the trout release field trip at the end of the project.

Summary
Bubbling Yeast: Thanks to Ellen Loehman for creating this image.Yeast are a single celled fungi that are a great model organism for studying respiration in the classroom. The species Saccharomyces cerevisiae is commonly used for leavening bread and fermenting beer but other species such as Candida albicans are known to cause infections in humans (vaginal yeast infections and diaper rash being the most common). In this investigation, students fill the bulb of a disposable pipet (eyedropper) with yeast, then submerge the pipet in a test tube of water. They can then measure the rate of respiration by counting the number of bubbles of carbon dioxide gas that emerge from the tip of the pipet in a certain length of time. By varying the temperature and the nutrient source, students can discover what variables affect the rate of respiration in yeast. By submerging the pipet in bromthymol blue (see Colorful Respiration activity), students can identify the gas being produced as carbon dioxide.

Summary
Blow through a straw into bluish liquid and watch it turn green then yellow before your eyes. Put some plants into the yellow liquid, leave it in a sunny window, come back the next day and the liquid is green. What if you leave the plants in the dark? What if you put some pond snails in? What if you put both pond snails and plants? What’s going on?

The liquid is bromthymol blue (BTB) a non-toxic acid-base indicator that can be used to indirectly measure levels of dissolved carbon dioxide (CO₂). The amount of CO₂ in a solution changes the pH. An increase in CO₂ makes a solution more acidic (the pH gets lower). A decrease in CO₂ makes a solution more basic (the pH gets higher). The reason for this is that carbon dioxide that is dissolved in water is in equilibrium with carbonic acid (H₂CO₃).

CO₂ + H₂O ↔ H₂CO₃

In any solution, while the majority of CO₂ stays as CO₂, some of it is converted to H₂CO₃, turning the solution slightly acidic. If CO₂ is added to the water, the level of H₂CO₃ will rise and the solution will become more acidic. If CO₂ is removed from the water, the amount of H₂CO₃ falls and the solution becomes more basic. Thus, acid-base indicators such as BTB can indirectly measure the amount of CO₂ in a solution.

For more than you ever wanted to know about carbonic acid, see the Wikipedia article on carbonic acid. For the example lesson plans developed by Bob Culler through Access Excellence at the National Health Museum. For a great time lapse video showing BTB color changes using elodea and snails, see Activity C13 from Addison-Wesley’s Science 10 curriculum.

Materials

• Bromthymol blue (BTB can be ordered from any science supply company such as Flinn Scientific $9 for 1 liter 0.04% BTB solution).
• Several 2 liter soda bottles
• Test tubes
• 500 ml beakers or disposable plastic or paper cups
• Water (since the pH of tap water varies, you may wish to use distilled water for your master BTB solution)
• Drinking straws
• Plastic wrap
• Elodea
• Pond snails

Procedure

1. Before the lesson, the teacher should mix a master BTB solution in one or more 2 liter soda bottles. For each 2 liter bottle, mix 120 ml 0.04% BTB with 1800 ml water. The end result should be a medium blue master BTB solution, dilute enough to be safe for plants and snails but dark enough to see the color changes.
2. Pour 200 ml diluted BTB in a beaker or cup.
3. Take a deep breath then blow bubbles in the BTB solution through a drinking straw. What happened? Why?
4. Set up a test tube rack with 3 tubes. In tube #1 put unbubbled BTB solution (blue). In tube #2 put bubbled BTB solution (yellow). Tubes #1 and #2 will be your comparison tubes. In tube #3 you have a choice of what to do. Choose one option from each of the following columns:
   

   BTB solution	Living things	Light conditions
   bubbled BTB (yellow)	spring of Elodea	Sunny window/bright light
   unbubbled BTB (blue)	5 pond snails	Dark closet/drak heavy cloth
   	both Elodea and 5 pond snails

5. Make a hypothesis about what will happen to your tube.
6. After 24 hours, check the color of your tube. What happened? Why?

Going Further