Date: March 30th 2009

Hi Again All,

In the late 90s I did a heap of work and reading about Science teaching in schools. One article I remember discussed, 'Not what Science was taught, but IF Science is taught'. Another article stated that many teachers need 'scaffolding' to help them increase their confidence in the area. I was also reading and trying to implement some of the ideas of Professor Harlen - Here is one of her Google books for you glance over http://tinyurl.com/d4ugs3

Ten years later I feel that not much has changed. My son is coming home today with craft activities that masquerade as Science & Technology :( in the same way students did ten years ago.

Enter Captain Curiosity!

The Captain and I have been making great use of Twitter, the telephone and face to face discussions about her Science teaching. She plans for the site to provide scaffolded science activities for teachers and students.

As The Captain's site is in its very early stages I would encourage you to have your students try out some of the activities and send her a message on your thoughts, student engagement, improvements... you know the drill.

Liquids - race of the super fast fish! - A fun and interactive way to learn about surface tenstion.

http://www.captaincuriosity.net/science-experiments-liquids/science-experiments-liquids-LQ05/science-experiments-liquids-LQ05.htm

Light - make a rainbow - A fun science experiment for even very young kids.

http://www.captaincuriosity.net/science-experiments-light/science-experiments-light-L04/light-science-experiments-L04.htm

Light - 3 ring light - Kids love to play with flashlights and this experiment puts them to good use!

http://www.captaincuriosity.net/science-experiments-light/science-experiments-light-L05/light-science-experiments-L05.htm

Air - the singing balloon - A very noisy experiment that is lots of fun and effective at helping students understand something they can't see - air.

http://www.captaincuriosity.net/science-experiments-air/science-experiments-air-02/air-science-experiment-A02.htm

Air - the amazing talking coin - This one always makes the kids talk too!

http://www.captaincuriosity.net/science-experiments-air/science-experiments-air-03/air-science-experiment-A03.htm

Cadet Challenge - the Big Build - Another hands on activity to build fantastic structures with simple newspaper and tape!

http://www.captaincuriosity.net/cadet-challenges-science-experiments/cadet-challenges-science-experiments-02/cadet_challenge_02.htm

Liquids - Silly String - Another way to look at surface tension.

http://www.captaincuriosity.net/science-experiments-liquids/science-experiments-liquids-LQ06/science-experiments-liquids-LQ06.htm

Science fun - the cola and mentos experiment gone wild!

Have a look at this video of an extreme version of this experiment - way beyond what most people would attempt at school!

http://captaincuriosity.net/teacher-lab/?p=138

Fabulous science in the classroom - A look at a school doing a great job with science!

http://captaincuriosity.net/teacher-lab/?p=141

Energy - heat absorption - An interesting investigation to begin understanding energy.

http://www.captaincuriosity.net/science-experiments-energy/energy-science-experiment-en01/science-experiments-energy-EN01.htm

Liquids - Capillary action - Just like a magic trick - water moves from one container to another without tipping them!

http://www.captaincuriosity.net/science-experiments-liquids/science-experiments-liquids-LQ07/science-experiments-liquids-LQ07.htm

Thanks Captain Curiosity

Adrian