Sunday, October 21, 2007

Fun Monday - The Art of Science

This week's Fun Monday is being hosted by WT of A Dingo's Got My Barbie, he wants to see some clothing art. That's tee shirts, baseball caps, hoodies, sports uniforms or any bit of clothing that you or your kids own that has interesting, funny or artistic graphics.



As some of you know, my husband and I are science teachers. Daddy D teaches chemistry and physics to high school students, and I teach science to seventh graders, which are children aged 12 and 13. Many of our t-shirts display something cute or meaningful about science. Sometimes we will wear these fun shirts to emphasize an important idea or concept, or to generate good feelings about science.


This aqua t-shirt is from Beaner's, our favorite coffee shop. C8H10N4O2 is the chemical formula for caffiene.




Daddy D and I both participated in National Science Foundation institutes held at the University of Wisconsin. The badger acting as a chemistry teacher used to be the university mascot, Bucky the Badger.

This Albert Einstein picture glows in the dark. The Einstein quote says, "One feels as if one is dissolved into nature."


The quote next to the big cats says, "In the age before man, the earth lost one species every thousand years. Today we lose one every twenty minutes."

*This shirt may be my favorite.


In education and specifically in science education, educators will speak about hands on learning and authentic assessments. Both of those strategies are crucial in science instruction, but I believe that teacher-directed demonstrations are another important instructional tool. Daddy D and I have a variety of demonstrations about air pressure and other topics that we present to our science students. One of my favorite demonstrations is pushing an egg in a bottle with air pressure. Usually, students assist me with this feat, but these pictures were taken on Saturday.


First a hard-boiled egg is placed in the bottle opening. Students are asked how the hard-boiled egg can be pushed in the bottle using air pressure.



Second, the shell is removed.




Third, a flaming paper towel is placed in the bottle, and the egg is quickly placed back in the bottle opening.




Students might observe the egg bouncing up and down and then dropping in the bottle. Students are asked how the egg went into the bottle. Many will say, "The egg was s*cked into the bottle." Then, we will discuss the air being warmed by the flames and becoming less dense. The warm less dense air rises and causes the egg to be pushed up as the air escapes from the bottle. This in turn reduces air pressure in the bottle causing the greater air pressure to push the egg into the bottle.


Finally, students will ask how the egg is removed from the bottle. The answer is to increase the air pressure inside the bottle. Blowing air into the bottle will increase air in the bottle, and Voila the egg comes out. The students often exclaim, "Eeeww...gross.





*The quote at the bottom of the Science Never Sucks shirt proclaims, "it can push, it can pull, but it will never, ever suck, Nope, Nuh uh! Physically impossble. Ma nature won't let it happen. No sirree , No way. suckus impossibleus."

51 comments:

theotherbear said...

I've always wanted to do the egg in the bottle trick. It used to be on an ad for Cadbury chocolate. I don't get how you blow air into the bottle though.

Anonymous said...

Way cool. I wish you were my Science teacher.

Anonymous said...

Sweet!!! I'd be happy to wear any of those tee shirts (except maybe the Science sucks one, not my style).

I saw Julius Sumner Miller do that egg thing years ago, science really can be fun, which is just as well because life is science.

Anonymous said...

Molly, my favorite is the caffeine shirt from Beaner's! I need one of those!!

And look at you, finding a way to make a Fun Monday post educational...hat's off to you, m'lady :).

Unknown said...

Love all the shirts and the experiment. That is SO cool! :)

Margaret said...

I can tell by the shirts and the experiment that you are a fabulous science teacher. Very cool!

Pamela said...

There are many more numbers and letters in Caffeine than in Methane.

I had a fun science teacher in High School. In college, a physics teacher taught my chemistry class and he was a delight, too. I thought maybe he was lying about who he really was... not saying science teachers can't be fun.. or anything... back steps, ... uh.,uhh.. this toe tastes really yummy...

Anonymous said...

To the other bear

"You just put your lips together and… blow.”




Lauren Bacall

Beckie said...

Great post! I love the demo. My daughter is in the sixth grade and so far they have done a lot of reports and read a lot of articles, but no demos like that.

Oh, and I like the T-shirts, too (almost forgot to say that).

Have a great Monday!

Kaytabug said...

So Freakin' COOL!!! I tottaly need to get my hands on that coffee shirt!

Emma in Canada said...

Thanks for the science lesson! A little education never hurt. Love the last tshirt, though I must say that I was a huge proponent of the saying "Science does suck!" Now that I have 2 children that both excel in science I have a little more appreciation for it.

bichonpawz said...

I like the coffeeshop one the best! Caffeine is my drug of choice.

Anonymous said...

The Einstein one, *genius* !

Hootin Anni said...

LOVE THE EINSTEIN TEE!!! Just love it. Have a FUN MONDAY.

karisma said...

Now that was very entertaining. Its nice to see a "real teacher" once again. You know you are an almost extinct species don't you? A teacher who actually teaches the kids and makes it interesting as well. Can I adopt you please.

I will be coming back tomorrow to show your experiment to the kids.

Bravo!

daddy d said...

MJD does science teaching the way it should be done: demos and more demos. Students get way enough work sheets in math and other subjects. Doing the real physical action is the best way to instruct and have fun in doing of science.

katy said...

i bet science never sucks with you as a teacher, i love the Albert Eintstein tee shirt

laurie said...

no way. no way. i'd like to get the egg IN the bottle, but there it would stay.

i love those sciency shirts. my brother the math professor would like the einstein one, i think.

kitten said...

Okay! I want your shirts!!!! My son has been begging me for us to do that science project with the egg, but we are doing the human body. Since Friday's here are crafts, labs and others fun hands on lerning, I may just do that one Friday.
I really do love your shirts!!!!

Jen said...

I loved the egg in a bottle trick when I was in school. You sound a lot like my Grade Nine gifted class science teacher!

The T-shirts are great, but I think my fave of the lot are the Einstein and the coffe T.

Katie McKenna said...

Cool trick!

I like the wildcat t-shirt! I love all the big cats.

I was Indiana a few times throughout my life - generally on a ride or passing through ( last time 3 1/2 years ago )...the long john shirt in my blog is from some years ago

Alix said...

Great experiment (wish I'd learnt science like that!) and great t-shirts.
Happy Fun Monday

Retrohipster said...

I love the shirt from Beaners!!! I hope they have a website?!!!

LIBSMOM said...

I have a 13 year old who actually LOVES science and his science teacher is his favorite one! Science teachers rock!
Thanks for taking good care of our future.

Sayre said...

I want an Einstein shirt! I LOVE THAT! And the egg thing? I've gotta show that to my son - he will think it's the coolest thing ever.

Karina said...

I love that you incorporated a science expirement into your post! So cool!

LOVE the coffee tee!

Anonymous said...

That was a great Fun Monday. I was throughly entertained by the experiment. And the shirts were cool, too!

Sandy said...

Ewww - gross. And fascinating! I will try this with my grandson later today. Thanks for sharing.

Oh, and love the caffeine shirt!

Jenni said...

I LOVE C8H10N4O2, and I love your first and last shirts! We've done the egg experiment several times, but I never thought of getting it back out of the bottle.

alisonwonderland said...

great science shirts - and fabulous demo! we need more teachers like you!

Debs said...

I love your post!!!!! I need a caffeine shirt!

Anonymous said...

That is really cool. I love how you have theme t-shirts and I am so glad you showed the egg experiment. We home school, and the kids will find this quite fascinating. Okay, as a food scientist I find it fascinating. but they will like it too, or else.

Anonymous said...

I'm sending my kids this link, they'll get a kick out of seeing the experiment. Love all the T's!

Anonymous said...

I think you have the best T's of all!

When I think of science teachers I always zone out, just like I did in high school...I could barely stay awake my teacher was so awful. If only I had a teacher like YOU!

ChrisB said...

I love that experiment, it's years since I've seen it.
I think you have a wonderful collection of t-shirts.

Robin M said...

Thanks for the science lesson...will have to try that. Love the shirts by the way...would love to have any one of them.

My fm is up on my blog now..got a late start.

Robin at mytwoblessings

Nessa said...

Very fun science. I want to be in your class.

Unknown said...

I wish I'd had you for a science teacher. I might've actually paid attention more! Thanks for the lesson. I need to do one of those!

Junebug said...

I really like that caffeine shirt. My brother has taught high school physics for 30 years in Missouri. He is retiring this year.

my4kids said...

The glow in the dark Einstein shirt is way cool!
I like the egg experiment. I will have to remember that with my 7th grade homeschooler.

Robocop said...

So, are you into science? Tell us how you really feel.

Tiggerlane said...

How incredibly COOL!!! How did I miss that you both were teachers??? So, got any good science project ideas? The kiddo won the overall 7th grade science fair last year with her project on the "red eye effect," but she only worked on it with enthusiasm b/c it involved photography...

She got in the top three in sixth grade, but I think it was b/c her project was so professional looking (she did it all on the computer)...I know who to ask about projects now!

Anonymous said...

You are such a cool science teacher!

Hayden said...

great shirts and I love the egg trick!

Anonymous said...

Love the science shirts. I especially like the caffeine chemical makeup.

Anonymous said...

That's more science than I've done in 15 years lol

debi said...

Wonderful post but eeewww,gross. Your class must love you.

Kerith Collins said...

i love the einstein one...i would have done better in science if my physics teacher was more like you!

Tink said...

MJD the Science Gal! Great demo.

Alta said...

I think this is an awesome Science project that will really peak the interest of our 3 boys. I think I am having as much fun with Science as they are.
I would love to see more fun projects like this one.
Also, you have an awesome blog!

Beccy said...

I think I would have loved science if you'd been my teacher!