Instructify

Kids enjoy science most when it’s a hands-on experience. Words like “experiments” and “laboratory” (preferably pronounced la-BORE-ah-tory) mean getting out of your seat and doing something, whether that entails imploding steel drums or launching water rockets.

TryScience knows the value of the hands-on approach. That’s why they boast fun experiments and games, as well as a guide to field-trip-worthy science centers around the world. For a fun class activity, have everyone create boats from aluminum foil and see how seaworthy they. Need to find a scientastic outing for your next field trip? Search by country and state to find a trip near you. If you can’t find anything nearby, TryScience has live webcams of exhibits at science centers all over the world, so you can take a look at human-sized soap bubbles in Japan, a Tyrannosaurus skeleton in Maryland, or the Butterfly Cam at the North Carolina Museum of Life and Science.

If you’re looking for a way to get your students interested in science, TryScience is a terrific place to start. Science is best experienced through action and investigation, and TryScience has both of these in bunches. Send your students there and start experementing. -BILL FERRIS

TryScience

Related Stuff:

Watch Thrilling Science Experiments with Doctor Doctor

Make Fun Science Projects by Reading Comics: Howtoons

It’s Not Like This is Rocket Science… Oh, Wait… It Is

I hope you’re all enjoying your summer vacation. Maybe you’ve got some plans for the Independence Day weekend. Then again, with gas prices shooting into the stratosphere, maybe you don’t.

In these days of pricey petrol, you’ve got to get a little creative to save money on gas. That’s why you should head over to SmartPlanet and read their post, Top 10 eco driving tips to beat fuel rises. These tips include common sense (car pooling), hypermiling (get into second and fourth gear quickly), and some tips that are actually more convenient than conventional wisdom (at high speeds, crank the A/C and keep those windows rolled up to reduce drag).

The list is packed with useful advice and charming Britishisms like motorway, lift, and complaints about how “unleaded’s now 112.6 pence per litre,” whatever that means. So don’t let high fuel prices keep you cooped up this holiday. Read this advice and hit the road! -BILL FERRIS

Top 10 eco driving tips to beat fuel rises via SmartPlanet

Related Stuff:

Turn Your Dirty Car into a Canvas: Scott Wade’s Dirty Car Art Gallery

If you or your students ever take a walk in the woods on a field trip, it’s a good idea to know the potential dangers. I’m not just talking about bears, either. You can find a lot of plants that can harm humans through ingestion, or even by simple touch.

Before heading into the wild, arm yourself by reading this list of the 20 Deadliest Plants on the Planet. You’ll find the usual suspects like hemlock and deadly nightshade [editor’s note: that’s a really cool name for a plant], some wolves in sheep’s clothing like the angel’s trumpet, plus a couple surprises - I knew poison ivy makes you itchy, but I had no idea if you burned it, the smoke can kill you if you breathe it in. Don’t miss the doll’s eyes plant, which looks a lot like what it sounds like. The berries are chock full of cardiogenic toxins which can give you a heart attack, but the fact that the berries look like eyeballs will probably be enough to dissuade even the most curious (or hungry) eaters. -BILL FERRIS

20 Deadliest Plants on the Planet via PurpleSlinky

Related Stuff:

Start the Cure for Nature Deficit Disorder with A Walk in the Woods
Who Knows What Evil Lurks in the Briny Deep? Monsters of the Deep Sea

The only specific memory I have of a field trip I took as a student was an elementary school trip to the local planetarium. Why? Because it was the first time I experienced astronaut ice cream. It tasted like regular ice cream…but…it was crunchy…??!! My mind was blown.

In retrospect, my teacher probably dreaded these trips at least a little bit – most of us students probably climbed back on the bus whirring with sugar buzzes. To reflect further, wouldn’t it be great it my most vivid school field trip memory wasn’t a fond reminiscence of something I’d encountered in a gift shop? Wouldn’t it be better if my mind had been blown by something that had actually happened inside the planetarium? Like, say, the notion of our lonely little planet spinning at the edge of the Milky Way galaxy, perhaps one galaxy of millions in the universe? Shouldn’t that be more intriguing than the idea that some guy in a food lab figured out how to dehydrate ice cream?

Your students deserve better than this. To help make sure you maximize the educational value of your trips outside the classroom walls, you’d be wise to read this Kidcast blog post about podcasting and field trips. The post offers eight excellent suggestions on how to use podcasting to engage your students in the learning process before, during, and after the field trip. Each one is a great application of podcasting that uses the technology to scaffold learning: having students create a quiz show about the field trip location, for example, or recording a public service announcement to advertise the site.

Many thanks to Kidcast for reminding us there’s more to field trip preparation than permission slips. -EMILY JACK

Kidcast 53 - Podcasting and Fieldtrips

Virtual Field Trips offers a bundle of web excursions - perfect if you want to break the ennui of concrete walls without actually having to go through the rigamarole of leaving school grounds. The trips are simply step-by-step web seminars designed to educate and fulfill the needs of taking an actual field trip without having to keep everyone in a single file line. There are several subject areas here to explore, including fine arts, science, foreign language, social studies and technology. Each subject has about thirty or so activities and lessons, complete with pictures and links to outside resources.

It’s no substitute for a real field trip, but if your class is tired of that trip to the farm where someone will inevitably lose a retainer or fall in the mud, you might stay indoors once in a while and get all the info from this site without any of the fuss. You can also suggest and create your own virtual field trip so that other teachers can benefit from your expertise. One of my favorite aspects of the site is that all of the lessons are consistent in design and flow, so there isn’t any need to re-program your brain to teach more than one of these lessons. The design isn’t the most aesthetically pleasing thing on the web, but hey, the content is great. –JEREMY S. GRIFFIN

Virtual Field Trips