Services
Welcome to your school page! We offer a wide range of programs for you to take advantage of. Keep in mind that we customize everything we do to fit your needs and requirements.
It is our believe that most students learn better by doing, seeing and participating! With this in mind, we emphasize hands on activities and experiments and balance this with lessons to be sure students have a good understanding of the activities. We try to bring an element of fun to everything we offer, but education is always our primary focus!
Classroom
This is where we feel we shine the brightest... working with kids in presenting classroom lessons and hands on activities and experiments for the students. This includes working closely with the teacher(s) to determine exactly what is needed, including following whichever standard is being followed, whether it is Next Generation Science, Colorado Academic Standards for Science, Common Core Science Standards or others.
One thing that is becoming more popular are holiday science events. We offer hands-on science demonstrations for many holidays, like Halloween, Christmas and end of the year celebrations. These focus a little more on fun, but always contain an educational component!
Demonstrations
We also do science demonstrations for large audiences. These work well for school assemblies or grade level gatherings. We have done these for upwards of 500 students and adults. This also includes hosting a science table for science night or for assemblies promoting science fairs or science week. Depending on the setting and time constraint, this can include hands on activities for students. Either way, most students will leave these shows saying "wow, that was cool" or "I did not see that coming... that was awesome"!
With the rising cost of transportation for field trips and other off-site excursions, "stay-cations" are becoming more popular at many schools. We can provide one to several science or technology stations for at-school field trips and events. These are usually hands on activities in which all students get to participate!
Clubs/Workshops
These are after schools events that kids participate in and which parents/guardians pay for. We host sessions in both science and technology. Note that any school that hosts us for one or more weekly clubs are eligible for free in-class sessions during school and demonstrations for assemblies and/or science fairs and science nights/days/weeks.
These clubs are generally broken up by age group to insure student engagement in the events. We generally breaks kids up into K-2, 3-5/6 and 5/6-8. This allows us to create lessons that are age specific for all students in the club.
In these clubs, we treat every kids like their our own. We are in close contact with parents to determine where kids are going after our clubs/events and making sure they get where they are going! We will wait as long as it takes for all kids to get where they are going!
Science
For science, we offer a wide range of services, including in-home fields trips and in-class lessons
Physical Science/Physics
Physics offers a lot of opportunities for hands on experiments and testing of principles for all ages. Below are the highlights, please ask about other subjects if you do not see something on our list.
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Motion
We explore Newton's Laws of Motion and discuss how important they are even today and how they affect our every day living! There are several lessons and activities for students to explore the laws and how they inter-act with their lives on a daily basis!
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Magnetism
Might be our favorite subject, along with electricity and electro-magnetism. All aspects of magnets are explored through lessons and hands on activities. This is great for all ages as all activities and lessons are age-specific!
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Electricity
So many fun activities and lessons here, from learning about the different types of electric charges (moving, static), learning how to harness static electricity to perform magic and finding out if our bodies are good conductors or insulators by exploring what a simple circuit is. Lessons are also available for the energy cycle and where electricity fits into the cycle and how we create electricity! Lots of other activities are available.
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Electro-Magnetism
How are magnetism and electricity closely related? How did we go from 5 known forces in the universe to 4? Students will create magnets using electricity and create electricity using magnets. Why is this relationship so important to our life today? These lessons touch on magnetism and electricity and their relationship. This subject is better for slightly older students, probably in 3rd grade and higher.
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Phases of Matter
Another fun lesson with both hands-on activities and demos. We demonstrate the difference between the solid, liquid and gas phases using ropes and the students, the demonstrate each of the phases using water, heat and liquid nitrogen and discuss the process(es) needed for changing phases, mainly the addition or subtraction of heat! For older students, discussions include the names of each of the phases changes, the real difference between solids (molecules are bonded) and liquids and gases and examine why liquids and gases are fluid and solids are not!
Chemistry
Chemistry is awesome for students of all ages because it lends itself to very simple activities for younger students to complex experiments and lessons for older students. We explore everything from the difference between chemical reactions and physical changes, performing simple to complicated chemical reactions, acid and bases to the Periodic Table. It is not uncommon for people to see Chemistry and think it must be high school material, but this is great for all ages!
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Periodic Table
This is where it all starts! We explore the Periodic Table and discuss just how much information it provides. This can include simple explanations or digging down to the atomic level and understanding how from bonds we go from Atoms to Molecules. This is more geared toward older students, probably starting in 5th or 6th grade and older.
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Chemical Reactions
This is great for all ages! This can be as simple as just letting students perform some simple chemical reactions for the wow factor, to discussing the difference between a physical change and chemical reaction and performing both. Depending on the age, students will measure the amount of heat given off in the chemical reaction and determine what other effects they notice. Older students will perform more complicated reactions and have to predict and summarize the changes! So many possibilities and so much fun!
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Acids and Bases
- What is the difference between an Acid and a Base? Lessons and activities will focus on testing common things around us to determine how acidic or basic they are. We also have hands on activities of mixing acids and bases and so also touch on chemical reactions. This is good for all ages, but probably works best for 3rd grade and higher.
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Earth Science
Having been a Meteorologist for 24 years, this is obviously one of my favorite subjects! Believe it or not, there are some neat hands on activities and lessons that are available for Earth Science. Some of these we have built and created ourselves, from a portable stream table to an Augmented Reality (inter-active) sandbox similar to this one.
So many subjects and so much fun and learning!
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Processes that Shape the Earth
- This is a somewhat broad topic with lots of possibilities. Lessons on Plate Tectonics, Erosion, the Rock cycle, Water Cycle and Energy Cycle and how they are connected. Hands on activities using our portable stream table show the effects of water erosion and mobile "wind tunnel" show the effect of wind erosion. We can also bring our Augmented Reality (inter-active) sand box that is a favorite at most lessons and trade shows! There is also a very fun, edible hands-on lesson for younger students on plate tectonics! So many options and so little time!
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Weather
- Lessons for all ages, from simple discussions about "what is weather" for younger students, to learning about what causes weather and hands on activities where students learn about cold fronts and get to predict the weather! We also can cover different types of severe weather and discuss ways to mitigate severe weather events. For older students (and staff/parents) lessons on the difference between weather and climate and climate change/global warming are also available.
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Seaons
- Kinds of a break-off from weather, this covers what are the seasons and why we have them! This can include lessons on why the amount of daylight changes in Denver from summer to winter. These lessons can include some hands-on activities, including students getting to tinker with some software programs that allow them to investigate the seasons and how they change as the earth rotates around the sun and how the length of day changes for different cities around the world.
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Moon Phases
OK, this may be more of an Astronomy topic, but it also fits in well with Earth Science and the above two topics. We investigate the different phases of the moon and why they occur. There is also a fun, edible hands-on activity for younger students!
Astronomy
There are some fun and interesting lessons in Astronomy. These include comparing the relatives size of the planets using fruit, to comparing the distance of each planet from the sun using TP (yes, toilet paper). There are also lessons that compare the different aspects of each of the planets and we also have software that allows students to see all planets in the solar system orbiting at relative speeds. There are also fun programs that allow students to investigate the affect of gravity on planets orbiting a star, which is a great tool for self investigation by students.
Computer Coding/Technology
There are a lot of advantages to introducing students to computer coding. First and foremost, for all students, learning coding teaches students how to analyze problem and create solutions, skills that will be useful for students throughout their life and future careers. Coding also teaches students to be creative thinkers as most coding problems have several to many solutions, often with their own advantages and disadvantages. For older students, coding can be an introduction to a possible career path. At a minimum, many careers now have technological requirements that coding will assist students in meeting. It is not uncommon for some workers to have to create web pages or understand certain aspects of computers. Part of coding is learning how to make web pages and learn about the computers you are coding for.
Drag and Drop
This is primarily for younger students (K-5). There are a ton of different options for learning drag and drop programming. For the younger students (K-2), there are self guided puzzles that are awesome for introducing students to coding. For older students (3-5), we use SCRATCH which is a free-form drag and drop program where students can create games, animations or cartoons and other cool options. This is an awesome way to introduce students to the concepts of computer coding. Aspects learned here are used in almost all computer languages students might learn later in life!
HTML / Dynamic Web pages
This is a great starting point for students in 6-8 or 9-12 or as an advanced course for students in 3-5 after taking the Drag and Drop lessons. This is a multi-part concept. The first part is straight web page creation using HTML. The second part is creating dynamic web pages using Javascript. Web page creation and maintenance is a skill that can lead directly to a very well paying career after high school!
Python
This is for older students (6-8 and 9-12) and is an introduction to an actual computer programming language. Python is one of the most popular languages in which many jobs are available! This is where the rubber meets the road. Not only does this have all the advantages discussed earlier, this is a great start for students considering careers in computers and technology. This is especially true for students who may not be considering college as an option. There are 12 and 20 week boot camps students can attend after high school that will prepare them for jobs in the computer industry. Students who may never have considered a professional career because college was not an option will not have a path to a great future.