Here we go again. Another school year has rolled around. New students, new routines, new beginnings. Here’s our science challenge to you: DO science. We recently came across a quote we really like from venspired.com. It says, “Expecting a kid to learn only from a textbook is like asking them to look at a travel brochure and calling it a vacation.” So don’t just read science, have your students DO science. You’ll have more engaged students and they will learn while having fun.

But that’s too hard or time consuming you say? We’ve made it easy. Read the Quirkles® stories to teach the science concepts. Then try the experiments/activities we’ve provided in the books, Quirkles Teacher Guide, or More Quirkles Experiments book.

As an alphabet series, many begin their Quirkles year with Andy Acid and progress through the alphabet. That is absolutely fine. There is no set order to teach the Quirkles as each book is a stand- alone lesson. However, when we teach the Quirkles, we usually begin with Inquisitive Inman. This story centers on learning what a scientist does and the science process skills.

The very first activity we do?  We love to start with Inquisitive Inman’s Water Mystery. Talk about the “wow” factor. Kids love this! What a fun way to learn about the power of observation, solids and liquids and polymers too!

Best of luck as you head into your new school year. We’ll look forward to helping you have the best science year ever!

This summer as you head out on that last vacation and get ready to take off in that massive plane, ponder this. How is it that today’s airplanes, some of which have a take-off weight of a million pounds or more, are able to get off the ground and then around the globe high above the clouds.

Surprisingly, with today’s technological advances, airplanes use the same principles of aerodynamics used by the Wright brothers in 1903. In order to gain an understanding of flight, it is important to understand the forces of flight (lift, weight, drag, and thrust), the Bernoulli Principle, and Newton’s first and third laws of motion. The simple but awesome activity in our video focuses on one of those aspects: the Bernoulli Principle.                           

So what is the Bernoulli Principle? It states that as air moves around an object, it creates different pressures on that object. Faster air means less pressure. Slower air means more pressure. The key to flight is creating pressure upwards on a bird's wing or an airplane wing to keep it in the air.

The same principles that keep airplanes in the sky also apply to this month’s featured activity from our Jazzy Jet book. The main point is that moving air is at a lower pressure than still air. This is the Bernoulli Principle. In the case of the bottle in our video, the air that is blown towards the mouth is deflected around the sides of the bottle (very little moves past the piece of paper). This means that the air pressure in front of the ball of paper is lower than behind, and so the paper flies out rather than in, seemingly defying logic! Children will try this over and over!

After Jazzy Jet’s Huff and Puff Challenge, grab some paper, design different types of paper airplanes, and go outside to test them. What a great way to spend a summer day, having fun and learning about flight too!

Great scientists have to have good observation skills. We know that is one of the science process skills. Here's a fun way to test the power of observation and to learn about polymers too.

You won’t believe the outcome of this activity. It’s not magic; it’s science!