Tools and Techniques

© Tawesit Werawattanachai.
Introduction to science laboratory tools, techniques and best practices. Specific safety instructions, when needed, are provided with each activity.
-
Calculating Exponential Growth
Lesson
Students read an essay, "It's All in the Numbers," about the rapid spread of HIV particles in the body, and learn how to calculate exponential growth using pennies to model HIV particles.
-
Designing Your Investigation
Lesson
Students learn about professional scientific procedures that must be followed when conducting open-ended experiments in the classroom.
-
How Can We Find Out What Is in Water?
Lesson
Students use simple paper chromatography to investigate a mystery liquid.
-
How to Build a Butterfly Habitat
Lesson
Instructions for how to build inexpensive butterfly habitats to study butterflies.
-
How to Build an Ant Habitat
Lesson
Instructions for building a small, inexpensive habitat to study ant behavior.
-
Inserting Seeds into Media-Prepared Flasks
Lesson
Demonstration for inserting plant seeds into media-prepared flasks or bottles for experiments.
-
Making a White-Light Seed Growth Chamber
Lesson
Students learn how to build a small, white-light controlled growth chamber for plant experiments.
-
Metric Madness
Lesson
Students apply the skills of estimation, measurement, and data analysis as they rotate through six activity stations based on the metric system.
-
Naturalist Journals
Lesson
Have your students follow in the footsteps of John Audubon or Leonardo da Vinci by keeping journals of their investigations and observations.
-
Preparing Plant Growth Media and Flasks
Lesson
Students learn how to prepare plant growth media (agar agar and gelatin) and transfer it to experiment flasks.
-
Scientific Image Processing
Lesson
Students learn how to obtain and use ImageJ image processing software (free) to enhance subtle details in photos of an organism or experiment sample.
-
Tools of Magnification
Lesson
Students explore magnification using water drops and hand lenses, and learn about the light microscope.
-
What Is a One Part Per Million Solution?
Lesson
Students make a solution of food coloring with a concentration of one part per million.