Reading a Triple Beam Balance

A teammate called me this week wanting to obtain a triple beam balance for her students to use.  Since they are in another part of storage, I was unable to help her at the moment.

I did however recommend that she use the tutorial with the projector to have them work as a class reading the scales.

The tutorial from Ohaus is great practice for students to learn to add and read the numbers used on a triple-beam balance.   (Click on triple beam)

I have used the tutorial on an interactive board as well as I have had my students practice individually on a singular computer.

My teammate told me later in the day her students LOVED the activity.

If you are teaching students on how to measure with a triple-beam balance this is a great tutorial!  One more thing, it is FREE!

Earth Science Link Up

"Earth Science Week" 

Linky Party

Earth Science Week is October 9-15.

I thought I would host my first  linky party.  The topic is Earth Science.  Please link any resources that you feel might benefit teachers.  You can link blog posts, Internet resources you found helpful, etc.  Please link resources for all grade levels.

Guidelines:
1.  If linking to a blog post please link directly to the post.
2.  All posts should deal with Earth Science.

If you don't have a blog, you can still participate.  You can leave comments explaining your ideas and you can participate in the linky party by linking to resources you have found helpful!

Thanks for sharing your ideas and resources!

Orange Goo? What is it?

Do you have a guess what it is and where it is?  

Well, it has been washing ashore in a remote village in Alaska.  Did that change your guess?

Learn more about this and many other things at Go Go News, Big News for Little People.  

One more thing, you can get a daily news article sent to your mailbox.  Did I mention it was FREE!!!!!!!!!  This is a great way to add some nonfiction reading for your students with no cost.  

Another neat thing about this site, is has a read to me option for each of the short articles.  A great way to help those that struggle with reading learn some fun things.  Shucks, I think some of the articles are interesting.  :0)

Magnetic Silly Putty

I noticed that many of you have been going back and looking at this post, so I thought I would repost it so it would be easier to find and so  my new blogging friends can learn about magnetic silly putty.

Watch this video.    Yes, silly putty, the stuff inside the egg shaped toy.  If you teach magnets, this would be an awesome attention getter.  I know it would get my attention.




Have you seen this DIY project or tried it?  If you have, please share your experience in the comment section. 

I think it looks like great fun.  Wouldn't it be a blast to watch the students in your rooms faces when it starts moving or when it "swallows" the magnet.    Got to love it!!!!!!  Click the picture below to go to the DIY project.

Science Safety

Science Stuff has an article today about safety in Science, and I thought I would share some things I learned about science safety in an elementary classroom.

I attended a conference a few years ago and learned that as an elementary teacher that I am held to the same guidelines as the high school teachers.

I was told I need  to teach safety, everyone had to take a safety test and get a score of 100%, and I had to have a safety contract signed by the parents and the student.  If I didn't have those things on file prior to something happening,  I was opening myself up legally should someone get hurt, even a simple cut.

I asked about the 100% score and was asked if I thought a child only need to act safely 90% of the time. That was why it has to be a perfect score, to show that you expect them to be safe 100% of the time.

Did you know that if you have baking soda and common kitchen ingredients in your room to use with Science, those are considered chemicals and need to be stored according to safety guidelines?  If you do experiments of any kind in your room, it is a lab.

Many elementary teachers have told me that they thought it was stupid, they didn't teach high school science and they would not waste their time.  I never understood how teaching safety and protecting myself legally was a waste of time.

I for one would rather error on the side of protecting myself  legally, especially since the director of Science education for the state was the one who told me when I was having a conversation with her.  I was totally unaware of the issues.

It was also recommended that there not be a class pet that might bite because again the liability was totally mine as the teacher.  It popped into my mind, the parent that had to be called the week before because our class' pet hamster had bit her son, because he was being mean to the hamster.  Thank goodness the mom's reply was, " I hope he learned a lesson about his choices. He deserved to be bit."

In this time of lawsuits galore, can we ever be too careful with the amount of liability we assume?  I am not a lawyer, I am just sharing the information I received.  Liability may vary from state to state.

Here is a link to the article from Science Stuff about her high school class.

Science: Endangered Life

Science: Endangered Life

ARKive: Images of Life on Earthhosts thousands of video clips and photos of animals and plants from around the world. You'll find grade leveled lesson plans ranging from Guess Zoo (classification) to Design a Species (adaptation). But the wonder of ARKive is its easily searchable collection of digital images by talented professionals. ARKive is an initiative of Wildscreen, a UK-based charity that provides images of life to build environmental awareness and bolster the prospects of endangered species. You're welcome to use any of the media for educational purposes.

This came from the weekly MiddleWeb's weekly e-newsletter.  They have newsletters for free from other subjects as well.  They are a good resource.

Here is a link if you would like to subscribe.

Welcome to MiddleWeb's weekly e-newsletter, featuring web-based resources of interest to


 middle grades educators and others who support the success of young adolescents.                


 Visit MiddleWeb.

Special Butterfly Born

Only 0.01 per cent of hatching butterflies are born as gynandromorphs, which is the scientific term for these half and half butterflies.

To read the short paragraph about this half male and half female butterfly click on the picture.  It also says that there are some other animals that can be born as gynandromorphs.

I found this at GoGo Planet News.  Big News for Little People in their articles for today.  They have all kind of articles on a lot of different things. 

I am hoping to use some of their articles this year since we don't have funds to order the subscription weekly reader type magazines.  I also thought they could be used for short summaries, important details, main idea, etc.  Plus, it is a way to help my students learn about the things in the world and current events without any cost.

Magnetic Silly Putty

Watch this video.    Yes, silly putty, the stuff inside the egg shaped toy.  If you teach magnets, this would be an awesome attention getter.  I know it would get my attention.




Have you seen this DIY project or tried it?  If you have, please share your experience in the comment section. 

I think it looks like great fun.  Wouldn't it be a blast to watch the students in your rooms faces when it starts moving or when it "swallows" the magnet.    Got to love it!!!!!!  Click the picture below to go to the DIY project.

Glow In The Dark-- DIY project

Check out this project at Precious Perks. What fun!   Now to figure out how to work this in at school!  In a room with no windows, this will be great fun for all of us!