Stimulating Science Simulations

All good things must come to an end… and so it is that the end of Science in the Rockies 2011 has arrived.  This morning was magnetic, electrifying, and a real shot in the arm! I mean all of that very literally.  We took the Total challenge and found the iron.  Steve made us all Money Smoothies rich in iron  (ok – so we didn’t all get to have one but we watched him do it).  I learned that electric pickles are awesome; so I’ll be stopping by the grocery store before going to science camp this week.  All graffiti isn’t bad.  LED graffiti is cool. Having a game of tug-o-war at the family reunion will never be as entertaining as the potato gun fight at SITR11!! If you don’t believe me, then you’ll just have to see it for yourself.  Given the opportunity, spending time at a Steve Spangler event will exceed your every expectation.  You walk away with knowledge, experience, and “the stuff” you need to “do science” with your students.  I’ve ...

The school year is over and summer is here.  So that means the rush, rush of cleaning a classroom so the custodians can get in and do their thing.  I never seem to be able to do that as well as I'd like or as quickly as they'd like.  Alas, today I finished up even if it did mean just getting some stuff out of their way without really taking time to sort through it and get organized the way I wanted to. Now it's on to the beginning of summer and planning for our 1st science camp.  I've had 3 students register so far.  Some of my colleagues have volunteered to help out and it's time to start making definitive plans for how we will spend our time. On a side note, I had a visit from our district "Green Schools" intern along with some ladies from Ft. Bragg today.  One of them was a parent of a former student which was a delightful surprise!   Even better was the offer from our intern to come back by and drop off 2 watermelon plants for our student garde...