Got a Question? Ask Dan.
Got any comments or questions about the experiments in Video Science? Please share them below!
Got any comments or questions about the experiments in Video Science? Please share them below!
Video Science is designed to inspire and excite kids of all ages, with very little setup time and using only low-cost materials. We provide science educators an easy and inexpensive way to add experiments into a science curricula. Let science scavenger "Dan Menelly" be your guide!
August 2nd, 2010 at 4:04 pm
I recently published a book of 46 science experiments that have been “kid tested” in my primary classroom. The title is “Scientist of the Day”. The book would be suitable for all elementary classrooms. The program that I developed to use these experiments in the classroom is described in the book. All necessary forms and letters to send home are included, ready to photocopy. It’s a “Ready to Go” unit for teachers that puts a lot of science into the classroom in an enjoyable way. Parents love it, too.
Once a week a student presents an experiment to the class, after having practiced it at home, following detailed instructions for the experiment chosen. The descriptions are “scripted” so he or she will know what to say and when to stop to ask classmates to predict, hypothesize about what will happen next and, at the end, discuss the possible causes for the reaction. When students “write up” the experiments in their notebooks, I developed a simple form for them to DRAW what they remembered about what they saw–beginning, middle, and end. The drawings may be labeled. Students really love to present to the class and to ask questions of their classmates. Students also generally enjoy doing the drawings, which are great intellectual exercises and much less tedious than the usual “follow up” activities.
Please see the web site to view sample pages. I hope this will be a book you’ll want to add to your book recommendation list.
Thank you.
Linda
June 12th, 2010 at 6:26 am
I love it!
May 12th, 2010 at 4:45 pm
I received an email from a teacher asking where the “understanding science” posters in the background of our videos come from. Thank you for your interest in our work. Regarding the posters, they are actually cover images from a science periodical titled (you guessed it) Understanding Science. The images in our segments appeared in the early 1960’s as cover illustrations of the classic British science magazine published by Purnell & Sons of London. The reason they are bright and unfaded they were preserved in a leatherette bound annual edition that seems to have been prepared for libraries and home collectors. I own about seven volumes of this periodical, and each several dozen issues of the magazine, which was published in the United Kingdom every Monday. The periodical was meant to be collected in special binders available through the publisher. When assembled together, the combined content of the magazine forms 50 complementary science courses consisting of articles related by theme. The articles fell into headings such as Hydrostatics, Medicine, Famous Scientists, Scientific Instruments. I purchased my copies for a few dollars at a library book sale in Connecticut 20 years ago, yet they were not part of the library’s collection. It seems that they were donated to the library and stored for many years until they were sold in an annual fundraiser booksale. I was immediately drawn to them because of the boldness and accuracy of the illustrations (there are several thousand vintage drawings of scientists, instruments and experiments that are extremely well preserved because they were bound into volumes and protected from sunlight). I see volumes of this science magazine and often others for sale in online auction sites and also in flea markets from time to time. You may be surprised by how inexpensive they are to purchase.
May 11th, 2010 at 7:04 pm
Hello Emily,
We are so pleased you enjoy our lab videos. We are not planning to release an embedding code, but there are several ways to access Video Science– you can view them here on the Science House website, and also via our applications for the iPhone, Ipod, and iPad!
If you decide to link to our videos on your website, please share it with us. We would love to put a link to your site on the Science House website as well. ~Science House
May 2nd, 2010 at 10:08 pm
I love the lab videos and would love to embed them on my class website I am designing for a hybrid class, but cannot find an embed code. Will one be available soon? or is there one? Thank you!
April 10th, 2010 at 6:20 pm
Please demonstrate SIPHON PUMP METERING. We know a siphon pump is a device consisting of a conduit bent and forming legs of unequal length, this conduit has an inline holding canister at it’s upper bend. The action of the pressure of the atmosphere forces liquid up the shorter leg of the conduit immersed in it, while the continued excess weight of the liquid in the longer branch causes a continuous flow. When the flow is stopped the properly sized small canister can empty a metered portion of it’s liquid contents and then be shut back air tight, the flow can then begin again to force all trapped air out of the system and through the long leg outlet to allow for further withdrawal of liquid from the canister. I have done this experiment with one inch clear plastic tubing with a footvalve at the inlet and a shut off valve at the siphon outlet with a small water filter canister inline at the crown. I first filled the system with water and primed it by laying the entire apparatus in a drum that was full of water and on a stand five feet high, and after the air was expelled I shut off the valve at the outlet and lifted it out and over the drum and placed it in a large round pale on the floor and opened it and it began to siphon and force any trapped air out purging it to run continually. I then lifted the canister crown up and positioned it above the source water on a step ladder, I stopped the siphon flow by closing the shutoff valve and emptied a cup of water from the canister to prove the concept and then placed the canister back on tight, I then opened the siphon flow valve and the weight of the water in the line refilled the canister, and I let it run long enough to push the trapped air on out the long leg and the system was ready for another withdrawal at the crown. Please demonstrate this useful concept here on Ask Dan.
April 7th, 2010 at 8:21 am
Hey Dan,
Thanks for such great videos, I just got an Ipad and I’ve been watching them on it. I love the slime one!
Quick question – I’m curious where you got your the “Understanding Science” framed pieces that are in the background of your segments. Are they covers of old textbooks or posters? I really like them and was wondering where I mightntry to hunt them down.
Thanks and keep up the good work.
Ken
February 19th, 2010 at 8:42 am
I’d say right now I’m most interested in materials science because it incorporates different aspects of physics, chemistry and biology, yet I can easily understand the appeal of physics on its own. We know more about the way students learn physics and recently many schools have changed the order in which we study science in high schools, teaching it to younger students than we did previously. I would attribute the shift in thinking to a boxer and cartoonist named Paul Hewitt. His story is pretty inspirational. He basically re-invented himself as a physics guru and master teacher at about the age of 28 and ultimately created a more holistic model of teaching physics through big ideas and descriptive themes. He published the famous text Conceptual Physics about 25 years ago, and many of my students who have chosen to study physics in college consider his work to be their portal into the discipline, and their inspiration. My father is a physicist and an inventor, and I suppose I would have chosen physics as a college major myself if I were born three years later (I graduated college the year Hewitt published Conceptual Physics – D’oh!). My high school and college physics texts looked nothing at all like Hewitt’s Conceptual Physics; They were imposing heavy volumes of formulas and endless sample problem sets that were used in a teaching technique our teachers called “Drill and Skill”, yet we students called “Drill and Kill” because we came to see physics as an endurance test for the math set. My friends copied the answers to the odd-numbered problems from the back of the text, and the answers to the even-numbered problems (these were not printed in the book) from our friends on the math team. Hewitt changed all of that by asking physics questions that students were actually interested in answering. If you haven’t yet done so, check him out at http://www.conceptualphysics.com/pghewitt.shtml.
Thanks for blogging, Megan.
February 17th, 2010 at 5:11 pm
Hi Dan! I love your show, always makes me smile and happy and excited about the world!
… a small request…can you dedicate some videos for ”reversing laundry disasters”? specifically
a. reversing wool (or other) shrinkage (i heard incubating in hair conditioner)…
b. reversing color bleeding (the ”pink socks” effect)…
it would be cool with a practical edge…!!!!
thank you!
February 16th, 2010 at 4:48 pm
Hey Dan!! Love all the videos. What is your favorite field of science and why? I sure hope it’s physics!!!