Beth Eisentraut
UMBC Grad School/HCPSS

Science Shorts: Making a Case for Camouflage

Sun, Oct 26, 2014 5:00 PM
Innovative, yet simple

This article discusses a great, fun way to demonstrate camouflage and the advantage it gives to animals. Dying 200 toothpicks four different colors and "hiding" them in the school yard is a great way to engage students' wonder and get them outside. I recommend this article to anyone in the elementary school teaching their animal adaptation unit.

The Polar Insulation Investigation

Wed, Oct 22, 2014 9:07 PM
Engaging and thought provoking

This is a great experiment idea on animal adaptation. Every child is enthralled with polar bears and penguins and this inquiry taps into that excitement. Having the students reflect on varied outcomes for the same adaptations (i.e. students that used feathers had different temperature changes) was a great way to get students to teach the need for experimental consistency. What a great idea.

How Do Scientists Work?

Tue, Sep 30, 2014 8:41 PM
Interesting ideas, but too simple

In my experience Science and Children usually share complex and tiered science experiments. STEM was engaged, but not to a level that I have found in other articles in this magazine. The students are definitely encouraged to higher level thinking, but I wished that the authors had included more follow-up activities.