All About Batteries – And How to Preserve Your Laptop’s Battery Life
This week TED-Ed published a new lesson that addresses a topic that just about everyone who owns a cell phone has wondered about at one time or another. That question is “why do phone batteries get worse over time?” Why Your Phone Battery Gets Worse Over Time explains how lithium ion batteries work, why they […]
Journey to Mars – A Collection of Resources for Teaching and Learning About Mars
Earlier this year SciShow Kids published a series of four videos all about Mars. To wrap-up that series SciShow Kids recently published a compilation of all of those videos in one video titled Journey to Mars. I’ve embedded that video below. The compilation video above doesn’t include an earlier SciShow Kids video about Mars. That […]
Why Wet Dogs Are Smelly – Another Lesson Inspired by My Daughters
Spring and summer so far have been exceptionally wet here in Maine. It’s starting to make us all a little nutty. Regardless of the weather, our dogs still need to run around and go for walks. A few days ago I took our dogs for a walk in the pouring rain. When I returned my […]
Food Science Lesson – What Makes Wings Spicy
Last week my post about the science of barbecue got some good traction on social media. To start this week I’ll continue the food science theme by sharing a PBS Learning Media lesson about the science of hot wings. Some Like It Hot is a PBS Learning Media lesson that features a Compact Science video […]
Why We Have to Wear Sunscreen – Another Lesson Inspired by My Daughters
A couple of days ago I shared 22 lessons that have been inspired by my daughters’ questions. Here’s another one that popped-up yesterday, “why do we have to wear sunscreen?” It’s the question both of my daughters asked when I told them they had to wear sunscreen to play outside yesterday afternoon. The answer of […]
Fahrenheit vs. Celsius – Another Lesson Inspired by My Daughters
On the way to school this morning my older daughter pointed out that it was 62 degrees Fahrenheit. Her younger sister responded by asking, “what’s Fahrenheit?” To that her older sister said, “it’s the temperatures we use in America.” The conversation between my daughters prompted me to point out that our Canadian friends and most […]
Designing a Mars Rover
A couple of weeks ago I published an all about Mars post that included a video from SciShowKids titled Meet the Mars Rovers! SciShow Kids has published a follow-up to that video. The follow-up is titled How to Design a Mars Rover! How to Design a Mars Rover! explains to elementary school students how scientists […]
Science, Math, and Philosophy Lessons for Valentine’s Day
Valentine’s Day is just a couple of days away. If you teach primary grades, your students may be excited about exchanging little cards and candies (my daughters have been talking about it for weeks). If you teach middle school or high school students, you’re probably bracing yourself for a few days filled with extra teenage […]
How Birds Stay Warm in Winter – And How to Help Them
For the last few days it has been exceptionally cold here in Maine. Birds and squirrels keep showing up at our bird feeders despite the cold or perhaps because of the cold. While looking at the birds at our feeders yesterday my youngest daughter asked how the birds stay warm enough to not freeze their […]
Two Lessons for a Wicked Cold Day
Over the next two days here in Maine we’re expecting some of the coldest temperatures and windchills of the last 50 years. As we say in Maine, it’s going to be wicked cold! It’s going to be so cold that kids will stay inside for recess and we’ll leave the water dripping in our faucets […]
Get Ready for Groundhog Day With These Short Lessons
Tomorrow is Groundhog Day! Those of you who teach pre-K or early elementary grades you may have some students who are as excited about it as my pre-K and Kindergarten daughters are. If that’s the case, you may be interested in watching the following videos that provide brief explanations of the origins of Groundhog Day. […]
Best of 2022 – Periodic Table of Videos
As I do at this time every year, I’m taking the week off to ski and play with my kids, shovel snow, and generally not think about work. I have some of the most popular posts of the year scheduled to republish this week. New posts will resume in the new year. For years I […]
The Common Cold Is Still Here! – Why Is It So Hard to Cure?
If you watched the video that I published on Wednesday you can hear me beginning to lose my voice. That’s because like everyone else in my house and seemingly everyone in my neighborhood, I had a cold last week. Thankfully, none of us had COVID-19. But it was a reminder that the common cold is […]
The Science of Pizza, Diets, and the Esophagus
Last week two of my favorite YouTube channels, TED-Ed and SciShow Kids, published new videos on the topics of food and weight loss. And those videos reminded me of the Reactions playlist of 76 videos about food science including Better Pizza Through Chemistry. Between the three videos there are lessons for elementary school, middle school, […]
Why Do We Get Dizzy? – Another Question from My Daughters
We’re going to Storyland today for the sixth or seventh time this summer (it’s one of our favorite family activities). My daughters love to go on a ride called the Turtle Twirl. I don’t love it because it makes me quite dizzy and feel a bit of nausea. I’ve seen many other parents gingerly walk […]
Double Rainbow Lessons!
My daughters love rainbows. They have rainbow dresses, rainbow bracelets, rainbow stickers, and anything else that can have a rainbow on it. So they were super excited last week when we saw a double rainbow from our front porch! (You can look on my Instagram for better pictures of it than the one in this […]
Unpoppable Bubbles – Another Fun Summer Science Lesson
Last week I shared a handful of resources for building solar ovens. The week before that I shared some at-home summer science lesson resources from Discovery and 3M. Today, I have another summer science lesson resource to share with you. Earlier this week SciShow Kids published a new video titled Unpoppable Bubbles. In the video […]
What Makes Us Itch? – A Science Lesson
Last weekend we had our first really nice summer-like day of the year. There was lots of sunshine, it was warm, and there was little wind. That little wind is a curse and a blessing in Maine at this time of year. It’s nice because it makes for easier bike riding. It’s bad because it’s […]
What is Lightning? – Another Question from My Daughter
On Saturday we had the first thunderstorm of the summer at our house. I made it back from a bike ride just as the thunder and lightning started to crack overhead. The storm prompted my five-year-old to ask, “what is lightning?” We tried to give my daughter a short explanation that lighting is electricity traveling […]
Pickles, Popcorn, and More Food Science
Like many four-year-old children, one of my daughters is a picky eater. Cucumbers are one of the only vegetables that she’ll eat these days. She’ll also eat pickles. In fact, she loves pickles! That’s why I was happy to see SciShow Kids release a new video all about pickles. What Are Pickles? is the latest […]
We’ve Got Worms! And More Questions from My Daughters
Earlier this week we had some relatively warm days and were able to do a little spring yard work. My daughters like to try to help with some of it. But like most four and five year old kids, they quickly get distracted. Such was the case when they discovered some worms under some leaves […]
The Mystery Pollinator!
This morning my local television news station broadcast a segment about hummingbirds and when to put out hummingbird feeders. We always put out a few hummingbird feeders every summer so I watched the segment with slightly more interest than some of the other filler stories they show every morning. One little aspect of the story […]
Understanding Negative Temperatures
It is a very cold day here in Maine. It’s not the coldest that I’ve experienced in Maine, but it’s still not a pleasant day outside. When I let my dogs out at 5am it was -9F and when I took my daughters to school it was -1F. It was on the way to school […]
What’s the Difference Between Snow, Sleet, and Freezing Rain?
Yesterday it started to sleet during my daughters’ skiing lessons. They didn’t mind and kept right on skiing. But I heard a lot of other parents saying things like, “what the heck? why isn’t this snow? it’s cold enough to be snow!” As an amateur meteorologist I knew the answer was that while the temperature […]
Whiskers and Transcripts
One of the many things that I love about being a dad to two little girls is all of the questions they ask me. Many of their questions are about things that I haven’t thought about in decades. For example, the other night my four-year-old asked about our cat’s whiskers. Specifically, she wanted to know […]
All About American Buffalo
I read Steven Rinella’s American Buffalo: In Search of a Lost Icon last week. It’s a fascinating book about the history of humans’ relationship with American buffalo (bison) in North America. The telling of the history is intermixed with Rinella’s own stories of finding a buffalo skull in Montana, visiting historic buffalo jumps, and hunting […]
Best of 2021 – The Science of Cake!
As I do every year, I’m taking this week as a break from publishing new blog posts and will be republishing some of the most popular posts of the year. Here’s one from October. If you ask my five-year-old what she wants to be when she grows up she’ll say, “a cake maker!” She’s been […]
21 Activities and Lessons That Have a Winter Theme
Today is the first day of winter in the northern hemisphere. To mark the start of winter I’ve put together a list of twenty-one activities and lessons that have a winter theme. Snowy Outdoor ActivitiesI enjoy winter and my kids do too. We like to sled, ski, snowshoe, and just play outside in the snow. […]
All About Cats and Dogs – A SciShow Kids Compilation
SciShow Kids has produced a lot of fun and educational videos over the last six years. I’ve featured some of those videos in blog posts. Some of my favorite are the videos about animals including those about cats and dogs. In their latest release, SciShow Kids combined some of their previous videos to create one […]
Five Short Lessons About the Start of Winter
Even though it has been cold and snowy here in Maine for the last week or so, the start of winter is still eleven days away. The winter solstice is always welcomed as it does mean the shortest day of the year (in terms of amount of sunlight) will be behind us. If you’re looking […]
Why Do We Have Winter? – Another Question from My Daughters
Yesterday afternoon I was playing outside in the snow with my five-year-old daughter when she asked, “why do we have winter?” She didn’t ask in a complaining way (she loves playing the snow), but in a genuinely curious way. My short answer was that where we live on Earth is tilted away from the sun […]
Why the Moon Seems Brighter in Winter
We had our first coating of snow this week. (It’s unusual to go this late into fall without having a snowfall). As I was putting my daughters to bed last night my oldest asked why it was so bright outside. My short answer was that the snow reflected the street lights and the moon light. […]
A Science Lesson for Winter Application
Winter temperatures have arrived in Maine. There’s a light coating of snow on the ground. And my daughters and I are excited about the start of ski season! While we like all of these things about winter, there is one thing we don’t like. That thing is dealing with cracked, chapped, and dry lips. During […]
The Science of Cake! – And 83 Other Food Science Lessons
If you ask my five-year-old what she wants to be when she grows up she’ll say, “a cake maker!” She’s been helping decorate cookies and cakes since before her third birthday. She loves it when we let her watch clips of The Great British Baking Show. That’s why I was excited to come across an […]
The Physics of Riding Bicycles
Last Sunday afternoon something happened in my life that I will never forget. That event was my oldest daughter roding her bicycle down our driveway on her own! No training wheels, no Dad holding on to the back of her seat, completely on her own! It was awesome! She did it a few more times […]
Questions from My Daughters – Why Do We Sneeze?
My daughters ask me lots of questions that I haven’t thought about since I was their age (4 and 5). Many of those questions I write in a list titled Questions from My Daughters that I have saved on my phone via Google Keep. “Why do we sneeze?” is one of the questions that my […]
Superhero Science Lessons
Superhero Science is a playlist of science lessons published by TED-Ed. The lessons in the playlist feature explanations of what would happen in various scenarios if you had superhero powers like flight, strength, and speed. Each lessons explains the mathematics and science of scenarios frequently found in superhero stories. For example, in the lesson on […]
All About Rubber
Here in Maine we’ve had more rainy days than sunny days lately. That means we’ve been wearing our rainboots a lot. Yesterday, as I was trying to convince my daughters to wear their rainboots instead of sneakers my four-year-old asked “what’s rubber?” To which I replied that it’s a waterproof material used in boots to […]
How Seashells Are Made – A Lesson for Beachcombers
If your summer plans, like ours, include going to the ocean, you may be interested in this video from Reactions about how seashells are made. In How Seashells Are Made viewers learn that seashells are made of 95% calcium carbonate and 5% protein and sugar. The video doesn’t stop with just listing the components of seashells. […]
Short Lessons on the Science of Fireworks
Independence Day here in the United States is ten days away. Nothing says, “Happy Fourth of July” like a fireworks display. Watching Fourth of July fireworks displays is a quintessential part of the American experience in the summer. This year my daughters are just about old enough to stay up late enough to watch the […]
A Great Series About Redwoods
The Redwood National park is one of the natural wonders that I hope to share with my daughters in a few years. While the tall trees are the “stars of the show” there is much more to the redwood forest than just the trees. SciShow Kids recently released a series of videos that explain the […]
One of My Favorite Minute Physics Lessons
Flying is one of the things that I’ve missed a lot in the last year. I used to log more than 100,000 miles a year flying to speak at conferences and conduct in-person workshops at schools. (I hope to do that again whenever this pandemic ends). One of my favorite things to do at large […]
NASA ScienceCasts Explains the Harvest Moon – It’s Tonight!
Tonight is the night of the annual Harvest Moon in the northern hemisphere. The harvest moon comes on a different evening each year. If the weather is cooperative, tonight will be a great evening to get pictures of the moon rising. I hope that this year is the year I finally get a good one. […]
Resources for Teaching and Learning About the Colorful Leaves of Fall
Autumn is my favorite time of year. So much so that I wanted to name my younger daughter Autumn (vetoed by her mother). The crisp air, the smells of apple harvest, the colors of spawning brook trout, and the colors of leaves are just a few things that I enjoy about fall. All that to […]
Three Video Lessons That Are Full of Poop
SciShow Kids has long been one my favorite YouTube channels for elementary school science videos. It went on hiatus for a while then it came roaring back a few weeks ago. One of the new releases on SciShow Kids is all about dung beetles. That, of course, brought out the ten-year-old in me and I […]
Three Lessons on the Chemistry of Coffee
One of the things that I’ve missed the most over the last few months is going to my local coffee shop (Cafe Nomad) and having some of the excellent coffee that they brew. Try as I might, the coffee I brew at home just isn’t the same quality of what they make at the cafe. […]
Volcanoes 101 – Updated
A few years ago National Geographic published a video titled Volcanoes 101. Last month they published a new video with the same name. The new Volcanoes 101 explains the types of volcanoes, their shapes, common locations, and what causes volcanoes to erupt. On a related note, The BBC has a series of interactive guides that explain how […]
Cotton and the Life Cycle of a Tee Shirt
Last week TED-Ed published a new lesson titled Why Is Cotton In Everything? The lesson begins with an explanation of why cotton was used by the Inca in suits of armor. From there the lesson delves into the properties of cotton that make strong, soft, and flexible. The bulk of the lesson is then spent on […]
Why the Moon Seems Brighter in Winter
During lunch today one of my colleagues mentioned that he had trouble falling asleep a couple of nights ago because the moon was exceptionally bright. His comment reminded me of a great Minute Physics video that I found years ago. Why the Full Moon is Better in Winter explains how the combination of the position […]
The History of Corn – A TED-Ed Lesson
Pictures of corn like the one in this blog post have become symbols of fall harvest and Thanksgiving. Corn and many products made with it are a staple of the diets of many of us today. How did corn become a staple of our diets? What has enabled it to become one of the most […]
Thanksgiving Chemistry
The Thanksgiving Turkey Compilation from the Reactions YouTube channel explains two concepts related to the traditional Thanksgiving turkey. First, it explains how the deep-frying process works and how it helps to make a turkey more flavorful. Second, the video explains why turkey isn’t the primary culprit in making you drowsy after devouring your Thanksgiving meal. Applications for Education This […]
Fossils 101 – And How Scientists Know What Color Dinosaurs Were
National Geographic’s YouTube channel has a great series called 101 Videos. The series contains 115 videos that provide five minute introductions to a wide variety of science topics. Fossils 101 is one of the recent additions to the series. Fossils 101 explains to viewers what fossils are, fossil types, how fossils are formed, and what […]
Try This! – A Series of Hands-on Science Lessons for Kids
Try This! is a series of videos produced by National Geographic Kids. Each of the videos in the series presents a hands-on science lesson or experiment that elementary school and middle school kids will enjoy. Middle school students can probably do all of the experiments in the Try This! series on their own. Elementary school […]
What’s the Fastest Tire Pressure? – A Science Lesson
Global Cycling Network is a popular YouTube channel that produces high-quality videos about all aspects of bicycle riding. The videos are hosted by retired professional cyclists. The topics covered by GCN range from basics like picking a proper helmet to more nuanced topics like finding the tire pressure that will make you fastest on your […]
Lessons on the Science of Fireworks
The Fourth of July is Independence Day here in the United States. And nothing says, “Happy Fourth of July” like a fireworks display. Watching Fourth of July fireworks displays is a quintessential part of the American experience in the summer. I’m looking forward to the day when my daughters will be old enough to stay […]
66 Lessons on the Chemistry of Food and Beverages
Reactions is a YouTube channel that I’ve mentioned in a handful of posts in the past. The channel is produced by PBS Digital Studios and the American Chemical Society. All of the videos on the channel include chemistry lessons based on ordinary, everyday parts of life like food and beverages. In fact, Reactions has a […]
What Makes Birds Different Colors? – A Nice Lesson for Spring
The birds are starting to return here in northern New England. It’s always nice to hear the first birds of the spring chirping away early in the morning after a long winter of silence early in the morning. I always like seeing orioles return. Orioles bring a nice splash of color to what is otherwise […]
Six Good Lessons About Man’s Best Friend
As long-time readers of this blog know, I love dogs. Small dogs, big dogs, skinny dogs, and fat dogs, I love them all. And I have a particularly soft spot for older dogs in shelters (I’ve adopted three in the last decade). So it was with much interest that I watched the latest TED-Ed lesson […]
Short Lessons for the Arrival of Spring
The first chickadees and ducks of the spring have started to arrive in my neighborhood. Aside from the calendar, hearing the birds reminds us all that spring is almost here. If you’re tired of winter and looking for some spring-themed lesson ideas, take a look at the following resources. Last year The New York Times published an animated […]
A Handful of Resources and Ideas for Valentine’s Day Lessons
Valentine’s Day is only a couple of days away. If you’re looking for some last minute activities to do in your classroom, take a look at these resources. Why Do We Love? is a TED-Ed lesson that explores some philosophies on why people love. The lesson won’t provide you with any clear answers, but it […]
Colds, Flu, and Boogie Wipes – Timely Science Lessons
As anyone who has heard me speak this week can attest, I’m getting over a miserable cold. I’m not the only one as this cold has affected my kids and many others in our community. We’re going through a lot of boogie wipes in our house. Thankfully, none of us have had the flu. But […]
The History of Science
The History of Science is a Crash Course series that just came to my attention when I stumbled onto The Atomic Bomb: Crash Course History of Science #33. The entire series features videos hosted by Hank Green in which he explains how big questions in science were answered and how big breakthroughs were made. Like […]
Five Short Lessons About the Shortest Day of the Year
The winter solstice is about a week away. I always like to go outside to snowshoe or ski on the solstice just to say to the world that a lack of daylight isn’t going to ruin my fun. Not everyone feels the same way about the shortest day of the year. And if you’re looking […]
This TED-Ed Lesson Explains What Causes Heartburn – No, It’s Not Your Kids
At one time or another we’ve all suffered from a bout of heartburn. It usually happens to me if I drink soda pop (sometime the allure of a cold can of Coke on a hot day is too strong to resist). What else can cause heartburn? And what is actually happening in your body when […]
What are Spices and Herbs? – And What is Pumpkin Spice?
We are in full-blown pumpkin spice season here in New England. Everywhere you look stores are selling pumpkin spice coffee, donuts, cakes, candles, and anything else that spice can be crammed into. This, of course, begs the question “what is pumpkin spice?” That’s the question that is addressed in the latest episode of SciShow Kids. […]
A Science, Math, and History Lesson in One Short Video
Reactions is a YouTube channel produced by the American Chemical Society and PBS Digital Studios. The videos in the channel focus on explaining how chemistry concepts as they relate to things we see every day or to interesting “what if” scenarios. Recently, Reactions published a video to explain how much tea it would take to […]
Frostbite Theater – 87 Science Experiment Video Lessons
Jefferson Lab’s YouTube channel includes a playlist titled Frostbite Theater. The first time I looked at the playlist a few years ago it had about fifty videos. The playlist has now expanded to 87 videos. The playlist features videos of science demonstrations and experiments. Many of the demonstrations involve the use of liquid nitrogen. You’ll also find […]
A Good Resource for Learning About the Science of Food
Foodskey is a site produced by The University of Nottingham who also produces the Periodic Table of Videos. Foodskey is a set of fourteen videos about the science of food. The videos cover topics like nutrition, food security, and crop technology. I’ve embedded the video about broccoli below. Applications for Education Foodskey isn’t terribly in-depth […]
The Process of Plastic Bottle Recycling
I have t-shirts made from recycled plastic bottles and I bet that your students do too. How did those bottles become the material for t-shirts? Why didn’t the recycling company just make more bottles out of the recycled bottles? And why are those numbers on the bottom of the bottle important? Those questions and more […]
A Science Lesson for Dog Owners
As regular readers of this blog know, I love dogs. But as much as I love them there is one habit that I wish “man’s best friend” would kick. That habit is eating poop. Whether its from a deer, a moose, a horse, or any other mammal, my dogs have had time not scooping up […]
How Submarines Work
SciShow Kids is one of my favorite YouTube channels for kids. SciShow Kids publishes a steady stream of science lessons for elementary school students. The latest video lesson from SciShow Kids is all about how submarines work. The video does a nice job of covering the basics of how submarines are sunk and how they […]
How Does Air Conditioning Work? – A Lesson for the Dog Days of Summer
Here in northern New England we don’t handle hot and humid weather well. The first heat wave of the summer always sends people scrambling to buy the few air conditioners that are in stock at Home Depot or Walmart. In fact, I was one of those scramblers a couple of weeks ago. This leads me […]
SciShow Kids Answers “Why Do Animals Have Tails?”
My daughters and my dogs’ tails have a close relationship. Sometimes that relationship is tested by a quick grab of a tail and sometimes tested by a swishing tail to the face. But no matter what, my dogs always wag their tails when we come home. That, of course, begs the question, “why do animals […]
Soft Fruit, Mold, and Sour Milk – A Lesson on Food Safety
At one time or another we’ve all opened a milk container and noticed that something wasn’t quite right or picked up a piece of fruit that was just a little too soft. Reactions, one of my favorite YouTube channels, has a video that answers whether or not you can eat that soft fruit, moldy bread, […]
Why Sheep Don’t Shrink in the Rain
It’s a rainy day here in Maine and after a little trail run with my dogs, my feet were soaked! My Smartwool socks keep my feet relatively warm, but do nothing to keep them dry. This scenario always makes we wonder about two things. First, why don’t my Smartwool socks shrink when I wash and […]
A Lesson for Beachcombers – How Seashells Are Made
If your summer plans include going to the beach, you may be interested in a new video from Reactions about how seashells are made. In How Seashells Are Made viewers learn that seashells are made of 95% calcium carbonate and 5% protein and sugar. The video doesn’t stop with just listing the components of seashells. […]
DIY Solar Updraft Tower – A Hands-on Elementary Science Lesson
SciShow Kids has a playlist of videos titled Super Simple Machines. The videos in that playlist feature explanations and demonstrations of simple machines that students could make in your classroom. One of those videos is Spin a Wheel With Sunlight. By watching Spin a Wheel With Sunlight students can learn how solar energy can be […]
Seven Good Resources to Help Students Learn the Periodic Table
Learning the periodic table of the elements is not one of my fondest memories of high school, but it was a necessary experience to get through chemistry. My classmates and I memorized all of the elements, at least temporarily, by using flashcards to drill each other. Today, students have more options at their disposal. Here are […]
Making Maple Syrup – A Science and Math Lesson
The days are getting warmer here in Maine, the sun is shining a bit longer each day, and the snow is starting to melt. That means that two of a Mainer’s favorite seasons are starting; mud season and maple syrup season. My friend Gardner Waldeier AKA Bus Huxley on YouTube collects maple sap to make maple […]
How Snow Is Made Naturally and by Humans
Every skier knows that natural snow is better than man-made snow. But there will be plenty of both at the Winter Olympics. So what is the difference? And how is snow made? Those questions are answered in the following videos. How to Make Snow (If You’re Not Elsa) is a short video produced by SciShow […]
10 More Videos About the Science of the Winter Olympics
On Tuesday I shared a playlist of 16 videos about the science of the Winter Olympics. Those videos were created by the National Science Foundation to coincide with the 2010 Winter Olympics. In 2014 the NSF released another batch of videos about the science of the Winter Olympics. Some of the things that viewers can […]
Videos and Google Earth File for Learning About Glaciers
SciShow Kids recently published a new video that explains to children how glaciers are formed and how they change over time. SciShow Kids is intended for early elementary school grades and this video about glaciers not an exception to that pattern. For older students you might want to take a look at How Do Glaciers […]
How the Human Body Processes Medicine
As some of you may have seen on Instagram, I injured my right hand on Friday evening. After looking at the cuts on my hand, the emergency room doctor prescribed a round of antibiotics and a mild pain reliever. So it was with some extra interest that I watched a new TED-Ed lesson titled How […]
Kitchen Science – Let’s Make Butter
SciShow Kids recently released a new video titled Let’s Make Butter. The video provides directions for making butter in your kitchen then goes on to explain the science of what happens in the process of making butter. Applications for Education Rainy days like the one we’re having here in Maine are perfect for kitchen science […]
The PeriodicTable of Videos – An Update from the Archive
Earlier this week an email from a reader prompted me to take a look back through my archives for chemistry-related resources. The Periodic Table of Videos is one that popped-up that I hadn’t thought about in years. In fact, it has been nine years since I wrote about it. In that time a lot of […]
How Trees Survive The Winter
It was a crisp -10F at my house this morning. When it’s that cold everything seems crisp, brittle, and well…frozen. It makes you wonder how anything survives for long outside. I know that I’m always amazed when my lilac and blueberry bushes bounce back to life every spring. How do they do that? The answer […]
What’s in Dry-Erase Markers? – How Do They Work?
Even in the most tech-laden schools you can still walk into almost any classroom and find a dry-erase marker and whiteboard. Whether it’s to write a reminder for your students or to spell out a key term, it’s quick and easy to scribble on whiteboard. But what is in those dry-erase markers we use? And […]
4 Fun Facts About Reindeer
Thanks in part to Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer some children don’t believe that reindeer (caribou) are real animals. SciShow Kids seeks to remedy that in their latest video 4 Facts to Know About Reindeer. Through the video kids can learn why reindeer are called caribou in North America. The lesson also teaches students how reindeer […]
What Are Owl Pellets? – Learn by Watching and Doing
One of the cool things about living where I do, essentially the middle of nowhere by most standards, is getting to see lots of cool wildlife on a regular basis. That includes occasionally seeing owls when I’m walking my dogs at dawn and dusk. With owls come owl pellets that are fun to pick up […]
A Handful of Lessons on the Water Cycle
SciShow Kids is quickly becoming one of my favorite YouTube channels for educational videos for kids. The most recent video released on SciShow Kids is a concise explanation of the water cycle. The video, titled Where Does Water Come From?, explains how clouds are formed and why water is released from clouds. The video also […]
Ingredients – A New Series About the “Stuff Inside Your Stuff”
Ingredients is the title of a new National Geographic video series about the ingredients that go into creating common products like toothpaste, nail polish, and chewing gum. The videos feature George Zaidan examining and explaining the functions of the ingredients. After the explanation of the ingredients George attempts to create the product himself in a […]
MIT + K12 = Science Videos for K-12 Students
MIT + K12 is an MIT project that features MIT students explaining math and science concepts for K-12 students. The website isn’t a collection of Khan Academy-style videos, it’s a place where you will find videos featuring real MIT students explaining concepts while showing them as hands-on demonstrations or experiments. Watch one of the featured […]
A New TED-Ed Lesson Explains Why There Are So Many Types of Apples
It is apple picking season here in New England. Take a stroll through a local orchard and you’re likely to see a bunch of different types of apples. In fact, you might even find a type of apple that you haven’t previously seen. The reason for this is explained in a new TED-Ed lesson titled […]
Fun and Short Smithsonian Videos
Ask Smithsonian is a fun video series featured on the Smithsonian Magazine website. All of the videos in the series are less than two minutes long. Each video tackles a fun topic in science. Some of the videos address questions that are less serious topics than others. For example, on the first page of Ask Smithsonian […]
The Sights, Sounds, and Science of Autumn
This morning I woke up to a chill in the air. As I walked my dogs I spotted a bunch of fallen, red leaves. In just over a week from now the autumnal equinox will be here in the northern hemisphere. Here are some resources for teaching and learning about the sights and sounds of […]
How Does a Canyon Become Grand? – And Other Lessons on the Shaping of North America
Earlier this month TED-Ed published a new lesson about how the physical geography of North America has changed over time. The lesson, titled How North America Got Its Shape, includes brief explanations of the roles of shifting tectonic plates, erosion, and volcanic activity in shaping North America. The lesson includes the Grand Canyon as an […]
How Fireworks Work
Fireworks are popping around my little town of Woodstock, Maine this evening. To my dogs the sounds of fireworks are the sounds of the sky falling. The upside of hearing the amateur fireworks displays is that it reminded me of a couple of videos about the science of fireworks. If you or your children are […]
Ten Good Video Channels for Science Students – Best of 2015-16 School Year
All of this week I am on the road working with teachers in Texas, Kansas, and Arizona. Rather than scrambling to write blog posts at the end of each day, I’m taking this time to feature some of the most popular posts and new tools of the 2015-2016 school year. On Sunday evening I shared […]
How Much Energy is Consuming by Watching a Video?
There are a lot of things that we do every day that consume more energy than we realize. One of those things is watching videos on the Internet. I did not know that until last week when I watched a Minute Earth video titled, This Video Has Consumed “X Amount” of Energy. The “x amount” […]
12 Lessons on How the Human Body Works
Last winter I started a playlist of TED-Ed video lessons about how the human body works. I started the playlist because I wanted a list that was a bit more refined than what I was finding on the TED-Ed website. The playlist started with five videos and with today’s addition of the lesson on carbohydrates […]
Ten Good Video Sources for Science Teachers and Students
On Sunday evening I shared a list of ten good sources of social studies videos. To keep the video source series going I’ve created a list of sources for educational science videos. Here are ten good sources of science videos for students and teachers. On his website and YouTube channel Montana’s 2011 Teacher of the […]