Make Science Exciting in Your Classroom

If kids have a favorite question, it's probably "Why?'' One way to make science more exciting for your students is to encourage them to use their natural curiosity about the world to find out real answers for themselves. Much of science is investigating "why'': Why does a caterpillar form a chrysalis? Why do leaves have veins? Why do some paper airplanes fly better than others? Like scientists, students can sharpen their observation skills and learn to make and test hypotheses in order to discover the answers. And what better place to start than in the classroom?

Here are some ideas to get your students started exploring with science and discovering answers to their "why" questions:

• Make It Fizz.
Do exciting chemistry demonstrations with colorful and fizzy reactions that encourage class discussion! Go beyond a typical vinegar-and-baking-soda foaming experiment. Help elementary-age children make non-toxic polymer slime or homemade bouncy balls. These projects aren't just for kids - older students would enjoy investigating the unique properties of thermo-chromatic, non-Newtonian Thinking Putty.

• Find Out How Things Work.
Whether they want to be engineers or not, most kids are fascinated by how things work. To discover the scientific principles behind everyday technology, study such famous inventors as Thomas Edison and then do projects showing how their inventions work! (For an overview of famous scientists, with projects demonstrating their discoveries, you might like Janice VanCleave's Scientists Through the Ages.)

You can also help students demonstrate physics principles using household items: Can they figure out how to build a bridge out of popsicle sticks or even create a miniature roller coaster?

• Explore Technology & Renewable Energy.
With gas prices going up and down, now is a good time to get your junior high & high school students thinking about alternative and renewable energy sources, which could be fueling their futures. Get a complete kit to make your own Power House with solar, wind, electrochemical, and plant energy sources. The kit comes with a lab manual and provides enough activities for a semester of science.

Just need some quick solar energy projects instead? Help your students build a solar oven or make a solar water purifier.

• Watch It Grow.
How does a chick hatch? Are insects different as larvae than as adults? Do plants really sprout from tiny seeds? Students can find out by observing the fascinating development process of animals and plants! Ladybugs, mealworms (Darkling beetles), butterflies, quail, and tadpoles all have unique life cycles that are easy to study in the classroom.

To study plants with elementary students, Dunecraft plant kits are a good choice - these mini-greenhouse designs keep moisture in and help plants grow quickly, so your students can watch the whole process from seed to mature plant for an interesting variety of cacti, carnivorous plants, and herbs!

• Let's Be Practical.
What everyday issues affect - and interest - your students? From glow-in-the-dark germ demonstrations that can lead to ideas on keeping healthy to weather studies that increase knowledge of how the daily weather works, there are as many possible projects as days in the year!

• Get additional activity ideas from our Science Projects.
• Find more hands-on products in Science Teacher Supplies. Or, for convenient browsing, just request our Free Science Catalog.

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