Stimulating Science Simulations

Where to begin?  This has been an amazing trip!  My husbands sister and her family live in North Pole, Alaska.  We flew out here on July 6th and planned to stay for one week.  On the way to their house from the airport, we saw a moose crossing the road. They are HUGE! One of the first places we visited was the Alaskan Pipeline. The first three days we had beautiful weather and spent lots of time exploring the great outdoors of the Alaskan Interior.  They have two Rzrs (4 wheel ATVs) that were tons of fun for riding on the trails and playing in the big mud puddles. On one of our rides, we saw moose tracks and we even ran into some firefighters who were getting ready to make a cut line. Of course, I went into teacher mode and conducted an impromptu mini interview on the spot. Day three took a turn for the worse when our oldest son flipped a Rzr on its' side, resulting in a broken humerus and dislocated elbow. Two hours in surgery, two plates, and 8 scr...

    Today was spent experiencing the Niagara Falls Aquarium and the American side of the falls. Over the years, I've spent plenty of time at the falls.  It is always a great place to visit and a nice place to spend time with family. This time I wanted to get some pictures and video that could enhance my science lessons too. I wasn't disappointed.   We spent about an hour in the aquarium. (It isn't very big.) The turtles, anemones, poison frogs, penguins, seahorses and sea lions were a big hit.  I got some great shots that I can definitely use as discussion starters while meeting NC science essential standard   5.L.2 Understand the interdependence of plants and animals with their ecosystem. We headed over to the falls and walked around a little before deciding to splurge on a ride on "The Maid of the Mist."  As many times as I've been to the falls, this is something I have never done.  The pictures and video I got while riding the boat are...

Today, we had the opportunity to go to Corning Glass Museum in Corning, NY.  It is a great place to take the family for a day.  Kids up to age 19 get in free which is a really great deal! There are galleries and live demos available all day long. We spent about 3-4 hours there with our four kids who range in age from 7-18 and my parents. Some of the highlights were the Glass Lab.  Check out the glass eyes, human anatomy, and bombs. There is a video that shows how all of these items were made. There was a demonstration of glass breaking that showed the difference between safety glass, tempered glass, and bullet proof glass.  We watched the glass blower making a Christmas Tree that someone in the audience had drawn.  We were hoping that they would choose to make the drawing that John submitted. It was fun to watch anyway.  We watched the artist creating a delicate glass dog too. There was some really great history and information shared in the gallery....

As a part of the accountability to the Burroughs Wellcome Fund, I have been trying to find a way to track the download stats for things I offer on my Stimulating Science Simulations website. In particular, I wanted to be able to state the number of times a simulation unit has been downloaded in comparison to the number of feedback forms received. After several failed attempts, I finally came across a very simple method. It relies on the use of shortened URLs created with a free account at bit.ly Bit.ly tracks clicks on the shortened URLs and these are immediately available in the stats section. I am pretty excited about this and glad I haven't already added too many things that I will want to link in this way.  I only have a few items to re-link and a reliable method for linking from this point forward in order to collect trackable data. There may be other tools that provide even more detailed information, but for now I am satisfied. If you have another method that ...

Check out the latest resources bookmarked in Elementary STEM on diigo

I spent 4 days assisting in the facilitation of professional development for our district this past week.  I was assigned to the physical science strand which is really one of my favorites.  Students love the hands on physical changes that come with force and motion along with changes in matter. If you want to know what tools we're using for planning, click to read more. I don't think you'll be disappointed.

I can't imagine what my classroom would look like if I stayed in one place for more than 4 years.  That's because I never have. It seems that every couple of years I find myself either changing grade levels, schools, or classrooms. Sometimes it is by choice and sometimes it is out of necessity. This year is unique in that everyone in our building is relocating to a different school a few blocks away.