Quicksand, Cornstarch, and the world's cheapest movie monster(Non-Newtonian Fluids)

Materials:

Water

Cornstarch

Something to stir the mixture with

Some plan to not make a mess

Container to store solution in (for the kids to take home)

Bonus: Loose speaker (I'll explain this one when I get there)

Time Required: 15minutes - As long as the kids can play with the creation

Procedures:

1. Cover the work area with something that will help ensure that there is not a mess everywhere.

2. In a bowl, start with 2 parts corn starch, and SLOWLY add up to 1 part water.  

3. Stir while you add, the mixture should resemble a thick batter, when stirred.

4. Once the desired consistency has been reached, have the kids start exploring the properties of this liquid.

Bonus:

5. If desired, take an open speaker(or hold a metal sheet/tray on a sub-woofer), and place some of the pre-mixed solution on the surface. 

6.  Turn on the speaker, and, if necessary, agitate the center slightly.  You should see a rolling mass of the semi-solid goo dancing on the speaker.

Discussion:

Once the kids have spent some time getting to understand how this solution feels, ask them if it is a solid or a liquid.  Challenge either answer by asking them to defend how it can be one, but act like the other.  Then Ask them if they can think of anything else that behaves this way.  One very good example that acts almost exactly the same is quicksand.  Quicksand is a liquid, and when you step on it, you sink.  When you exert pressure on it, to get out, it becomes more like a solid, and you cannot escape.  Ask the kids about how knowing about this can help them escape quicksand. 

Classroom Experiment - Paper Chromatography

Today we are going to start a blog series to give some classroom activities to help kids understand some simple concepts of science.  In addition to the worksheet, supporting materials will be added to our main site at http://www.HekkoEducation.com.

Paper Chromatography -
Materials Needed:
Paper Towels or Coffee Filters,
Scissors
Tape
Plastic Cups
Water
Food Coloring or Water Soluble Markers

Time for Experiment: 15-30 Minutes for main activity, around 1 hour to let sit. Overnight to allow the paper to dry

How it Works:
1) Students need to cut paper towels into strips
2) Students should choose a few markers/colors of food coloring (note: having students choose a combination of primary and secondary colors works well for this)
3) Have the students draw a line with the markers across the paper towels approximately one inch from the bottom of the strip(or if using food coloring, put a single drop thereabouts)
4) Fill the plastic cups with water about half way
5) Have the students suspend the paper towel so that the ink mark is not touching the water.
6) Leave the experiment to sit for about an hour
7) Have the students take the paper out of the paper, and let sit overnight.
8) Look at the slips the next day, and have a discussion about what colors have appeared from the slips.


Discussion:
After completing the Experiment, take some time to discuss what was happening during the experiment.  Talk about how the paper towels sucked up the water (like a plant does), as well as the colors that did or did not separate into more than one color during the experiment.  Have the kids suggest ideas about what they think is the reason for the colors separating, and where they could use the information in real life.  One example that could be prepared before class is to take a packet of Kool-Aid (lemon-line perhaps), and prepare it in the same way as the class.  From the colors that separate out in the paper, ask the kids if someone that is allergic to blue dye could drink it.

A New Science Experiment will be posted next week, and until then, don't forget to check out our website at www.HekkoEducation.com to download other support materials, and in the near future, support materials to go along with this lesson!

Static Worksheet Extravaganza

New Section on the site: Static Worksheets.  

(www.hekkoeducation.com/worksheets/staticworksheets.aspx) 

And to kick things off, we have 25 static worksheets already built and added to that section.  Let us know what else to make, because most of these we can get built much more quickly than the code based flash worksheets.

New Worksheets

This just in!  We have added a missing symbols worksheet to the mix.  You can create problems that are missing the operator for students to decide what type of problem fulfills the equation.  Also, we have built a Hekko Education Toolbar.  Adding this will give you fast access to all of our  tools, as well as an education only search field.  A great tool for any teacher or person who is looking for a way to get quick access to educational materials.  This week we should have a big addition of static worksheets, And we can make the exact ones you are looking for.  Just shoot us an email from our contact link on the website.  Moreover, we will soon have a really really cool tool for working with timelines, and I think everyone will really like it. All for now, check back later for more updates.

New Year, New Site

I'm sure you have noticed that things have been quiet here at Hekko Education for the past few months.  Have no fear, we have not slid quietly into the internet ether, but rather have been quietly working on some huge upgrades on the whole Hekko Education experience.  We have been working on a number cool additions for the website, and we will be starting to roll out these features later this week.  This first feature is a cool new design for the site.  We are just about ready to roll out the new look, and you can expect the site to have a new style before the end of the week.
    But the new features are not just cosmetic.  First off, the new design was rewritten from the ground up, which should make the page load a bit faster, and more consistently between different browsers.  Also, as we keep adding content, we are building a way for you to keep track of your favorite tools, making them easier to find and use on the site.  And there are a few more tricks we have up our sleeves that I cannot talk about quite yet.  What I will say is that you should keep checking back, because the new site is going to be much more useful than the old site, and we will be able to make new content faster than before, and keep track of what users want much more effectively.  Basically, the new features will be awesome.  Oh, and the blog and donation pages will be getting a cosmetic overhaul to match the rest of the site.  Just sayin.

A little brain food for lunch breaks

Thinking about this week, I was having a hard time trying to decide about things that I wanted to say.  Finally, I decided to let other people do the talking, because these are some people who know stuff, and I think it is the stuff that can be connected easily to education.

First:  Sugata Mitra Showing how education can be a self generated system.  

Ever wonder what kids can do without any good formal education?   This is the type of learning that was studied in India.  It is about a 20 minute video, but very interesting for thinking about the ability kids have to teach themselves. 

http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/sugata_mitra_shows_how_kids_teach_themselves.html

Next up, Ken Robinson says that schools kill creativity.  Not much for me to say here, but this is a fantastic talk about how the school systems in the world are formed, with a question or two about how well formed they are.  

http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/ken_robinson_says_schools_kill_creativity.html

Following that, math can actually be cool.

http://www.ted.com/talks/arthur_benjamin_does_mathemagic.html

And last, Benjamin Zander on Music and Passion.  Piano piece with an interesting discussion about how we all actually love classical music.  

http://www.ted.com/talks/benjamin_zander_on_music_and_passion.html

There's a few things that are nice and interesting, some real interesting things coming from me as we progress

We are starting to get everything in order

So we have been live for a week now, and I have heard about a couple of bugs that are in the current code.  We will be fixing them soon.  Right now, we are getting a few more worksheet programs built, which we should have all ready to go by next post.  One of them is Clock Reading, one of them is Currency, and the third is... well I haven't exactly figured out an elegant way to describe it yet, but it is another one.

I am going to be brief this week, because I have yet to figure out a few other things to get more visibility to us, including the small problem that is google not yet giving www.hekkoeducation.com in the search results yet.  So if you are telling people about the site, tell them to go to the site, not to search it, because I cannot make google work any faster.

By next week, I plan to start moving off of just talking about what is going on with the tech, and instead I plan on bringing up some actual topics of education that should be more thought provoking.  Until then, just keep using the worksheets on the site, and keep letting me know what else we should make.  Added to our list is a multiples sheet, which should be useful for more directed things relating to learning multiplication, and we are open to figuring out what the next thing should be.