by Lisa Hegdahl

Recently, I was setting up a series of labs for Open House.  I became aware of how many labs have evolved over the years and how I’ve made changes to better suit my teaching situation. For example, I never prepared the Destroying Water Lab because I had only seen it using a huge battery, large beakers, and wires.  After attending a workshop at the California Science Teachers Conference, though, I started preparing the Destroying Water Lab using a small 9V battery, metal thumb tacks, 2 test tubes, and a 3 ounce condiment cup.  This lab has amazed my students every year since. Below, I offer some other lab variations for you to try.  I am sure there are countless other lab material options out there – you can add your favorites to the comment section below this article. (more…)

by Lisa Hegdahl

If you are like me, you are being asked to begin implementing the Common Core Standards in my science classroom.  With the help of district trainings, and a curriculum coach to observe delivery of my literacy instruction, I have managed to do so.  Although the lessons have been reasonably successful, I realized I tended to move quickly back to science processes where students are doing science – asking questions, making predictions, and testing hypothesizes.  This past week, though, I had the opportunity to visit a literacy lesson taught by the 8^th grade science team at Rancho Medanos Junior High in Pittsburgh, California.  I ended the day knowing it’s possible to combine science processes with reading literacy in a way I had not considered before.  (more…)

by Amanda L. Smith

What do natural disasters, national holidays, international wars, and bizarre events all have in common?  These can all be incorporated into your classroom as “teachable moments.”  A teachable moment is not something that you can typically plan for, and often may cause you to digress from your original lesson plan; however, it provides an organic way to maximize “the moment”, which in turn, captivates the interest of the students in ways that pre-planned lessons might not.

One of my favorite ways to incorporate teachable moments in the classroom is to start with my current events bulletin board.  Each week, I bring in articles about current topics within the scientific community. These are often brief articles, such as one on a new fossil organism that was discovered, or perhaps an explanation on a large solar magnetic storm coming up. Students can borrow the articles to read during silent reading and free time, and it gives them a great opening to ask questions and inquire about the world around us. (more…)

by Jeff Orlinsky

In September’s e-CCS, I introduced a lab about salinization and seed germination and one of the concepts illustrated was osmosis.  This month’s lab focuses on osmosis and soft drinks. (more…)

by Lisa Hegdahl

Even though I received this lab from my Master Teacher 22 years ago, I’ve never seen it presented at any conference or seminar I’ve attended.  The lab itself is a little long for a full write up here, but with the basics, you can develop an activity to suit your needs. This lab uses the skill that we all learned as kids: picking up liquids with a straw.  However, in this activity students pick up two different liquids to check relative density.  In a nutshell:

• Prepare four solutions of different densities with varying amounts of saturated saltwater and tap water.  One container has only saturated saltwater, one container has only water, one container has half of each, and the last container has ¼ saltwater and ¾ tap water.
• Color the liquids so they can be identified easily.  (TIP: If you use yellow and blue as two of your colors, don’t use green.  I use red, blue, yellow, and I leave one clear.)

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by Judith Aguilar

My favorite aspect of attending the CSTA Conference is getting new ideas from practicing teachers. My all-time favorite lesson that I picked up as a new teacher was for Kitchen Chemistry.  (more…)

by Sean Timmons

Summary:
Activities involving dry ice and root beer help students understand the chemical and physical changes that occur in matter. Students will investigate evidence (more…)

by Valerie Joyner

What better way to start the school year than with a science investigation?  It’s a great tool to set the tone for a year full of science and at the same time help students get to know each other.  One of my favorite first day of school science (more…)

by Amanda L. Smith

Gardener’s: Linguistic; Visual-Spatial; Bodily-Kinesthetic; Interpersonal; Logical-Mathematical
Bloom’s: Knowledge; Comprehension; Application

CA State Standards:
Investigation and Experimentation (Middle School grades 6-8)

Anticipatory Set/Objective:

• Students will be able to: State the values of and abbreviations for each of the prefixes used in the metric system.
• Students will be able to: Convert from one subunit to another subunit within a given unit of the metric system.

(more…)

by Heather Marshall

I feel that all students should be required to take an earth sciences course as a high school graduation requirement. (more…)

Courtesy of the California Academy of Sciences

Abstract

In this activity, students will learn that carbon is an extremely common element on the earth which can be found in many forms, in both living and non-living things.

Objectives

In this activity, students will:

1. learn that carbon is an extremely common element on the earth.
2. learn that carbon can be found in many forms, in both living and non-living things. (more…)

by Jeff Bradbury and Patricia Buchanan

Name ____________________

Date _____________________

Partners’ Name ____________

Question: When using materials to clean our house, are the products used usually acidic or basic, Why do you think so?

Purpose: To determine the importance of acids and bases while measuring the pH of different substances.

Part 1 Introduction:

In this lab you will be working in groups of two.

Acids were first recognized as substances that taste sour (The sour taste of lemons and limes is due to citric acid), will dissolve certain metals, and will dissolve some types of rocks.

Bases were characterized by their bitter taste and slippery feel (Hand soaps and toothpastes, for example).

A neutral solution is neither basic nor acidic.  Acids and bases will react together to form neutral solutions.  One can say that an acid will neutralize a base and vice-versa.

Indicators are substances that change color depending on whether they are in an acidic or basic solution.

In today’s lab you will observe some characteristic chemical and physical properties of acids and bases.

Measuring pH with pH (Universal indicator) paper:

In your spot plate, obtain a sample (half-fill the wells) of each of the solutions shown in the table below.  Dip a small (1cm) piece of Universal Indicator paper into each well.  Record the color of the paper and match the color to the pH scale on the tube of paper.

Measuring pH with cabbage juice:

Make sure there is no Universal Indicator paper in the solution wells.  Obtain a piece of purple cabbage (one leaf) from the reagent bench.  Break it up into small pieces and boil it in about 150 ml of de-ionized water in a 250 ml beaker.  Add 15 drops of the cabbage juice extract to each of the wells of your spot plate.  Make sure you add the same amount of extract to each well.  Record the color of each solution.

Complete the table that compares the colors of each pH indicator at each pH

Table 1: Chemicals and their pH

Compare your results with others in your group. Re-test those that are different.

Dispose of all solutions into the sink.

Complete the table showing the color of cabbage juice at each pH. 1-14.

Acid Base Notes

Questions and Answers:

1.       Which substances had different pH’s than you expected?

2.       Why are acids and bases important?

3.       Were the household cleaners basic or acidic or both?

4.       What does pH mean to you now?

Jeff Bradbury is a professor of chemistry at Cerritos College in Norwalk and is community college director for CSTA; Patricia Buchanan is the Cal Grip Grant Project Assistant at Cerritos College. The original idea for this activity came from the Los Angeles County Office of Education 15 years ago, which the authors modified.