Hands on Science - Saves time in the long run

Answering questions and addressing fears:

Yes, this is all FREE for you and your school, and we deliver and pick up so as to not disrupt your teaching and planning time as much as possible. All you have to do is plan your classes to include labs, those that can, and request it from us. We will do the rest! The worksheets come with most.

People ask me a lot, 'is this is to good to be true?', and why do you do this?' but our reward is as per our mission 'to promote hands on'. We get a lot of reward from seeing that happen, trust me. And yes it is true, and totally free.
It does require extra effort on the part of the teachers, to plan the lesson to include labs, and MAKE A REQUEST online at www.sarasotascience.org

I know that sounds almost funny and too easy, but we are aware of the 'fear' of having students do experiments in the classroom, especially when the teacher can hardly remember doing that lab themselves, or in some cases have not ever done so.
We understand this, and so we go through it with you when we deliver and setup, so that you feel familiar and comfortable on how the equipment works.

The other factor is the 'return on investment' of time taken to have your class do an experiment, vs just teach them with literature. Considering the primary goal of passing FCAT and making the grade requirements, teachers are reluctant to do time intensive labs. Weigh up 'hands on' education, against 'teach the questions and answers' to see which will have better test results.

If you believe in teaching the fundamental process of Science, discovery, and it's true value which 'asks the question' opposed to answering questions, and how discovery can stimulate students.
The result is it becomes fun, and learning takes place with understanding.
It could be said that in the long run, time is saved in education through the 'hands on experience' because of this.
But who am I to say.

Sean Connors
DIR Sarasota Science

Moodle.SarasotaScience.org

Moodle has become a wonderful tool for teachers. What I like the most about it is that it facilitates teachers networking, even across schools about class design.

SSI is planning having all the Labs on it's new hosted site: Moodle.sarasotascience.org

Science Lending Library Concept

Hands on Experiments and Discovery

These are the ideas that we are working on;-

• We teach students to retain and release information. Learn for the exam. The FCAT drives our education! (What is FCAT? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FCAT )
  
• Science is about 'why the world is the way it is' and it takes 'hands on' experimentation to discover it.
• Discovery and invention is not 'done' or 'over'. Our students think so!
• Why are our hero's Musicians, Sportsmen and Actors?
• How this works;
  "the scientific process of testing, revising and discarding of hypothesis, and the construction of theories which fit the known facts, and the modification or abandonment of these as and when new facts emerge, in short produces results, results of which are testable, verifiable, falsifiable, and from which predictions can be made". Quote from 'The Great Scientists'
  
  
  

Hands On Science

Understanding that the way to make true discovery of the world that surrounds us, is to fundamentally experiment 'Hands On'. This means actually doing the science. Study and research is required to formulate your 'questions' but an experiment produces results, (no such thing as a wrong or right outcome) results which add to our expanding pool of human knowledge.

An effective way of promoting 'Hands on Science', is to provide access to Science experimentation equipment, or 'labs'. Enter; the 'Free Lending Library' concept, a library of Science Instruments or Labs, from Sarasota Scientific Instruments, in Florida USA.

Sarasota Science a not for profit organization, founded by Dr. Fritz Faulhaber, see http://www.sarasotascience.org/ do so using the SSI Library, built to make available, for free lending, quality science labs.