Changing seasons, fall colors, and a fun holiday make for many teachable moments during October.

This month watch as Chloe, our budding young scientist, and  Ms. Terri show you an activity called Gilbert Gas’s Oozing Bubbles. We love Halloween so we offer a spooky twist (Ghost Bubbles) but if you don’t celebrate the holiday, you can simply teach about states of matter. Our video shows a little more dramatic variation, but you can make the same point with a tall cylinder or glass, water, some dishwashing liquid, and the secret ingredient—dry ice (carbon dioxide in solid form).  Kids love this really cool demonstration.  

Want more ideas? Take a look at some of our other October videos from the past. These include Zany Science Zeke’s lesson on polymers. We’ve “Halloweened” it up by calling it Wanda the Melting Witch. It’s pretty cool regardless of what you name it! There’s also a variation of Vinnie Volcano’s Volcano (chemical reactions) we’ve modified to make a spewing pumpkin. Finally, try Ollie Oxygen’s Fun Foam (exothermic reaction) to make a Halloween or fall potion.

Fall and science just go together. Enjoy the season and the ideas we offer to make it full of fun, robust, and memorable learning.

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!

Dry ice (carbon dioxide in solid form) not only helps reinforce the concept of states of matter but adds an element of fun to any fall party.

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.