The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) emphasizes that washing your hands frequently helps stop the spread of germs, including the virus that causes swine flu. As every preschooler is taught, a quick rinse without soap does not equal a proper hand washing. Middle and high school students probably need a refresher on hand washing techniques, and can also benefit from understanding more about germs, the history of hand hygiene, and the role of hand sanitizers and antibacterial soaps in controlling the spread of disease.
The award-winning Lather Up! Hand Washing Activity Handbook from Terrific Science Press delivers a strong health message about hand hygiene and engaging science content in a teen-friendly, magazine style. The book is ideal for teen clubs or as an addition to the health or science classroom. Lather Up! features hands-on activities (using readily available materials), magazine-style readings, thought-provoking questions, and games and puzzles. Plus, the companion website at www.terrificscience.org/thrive/ offers free games, puzzles, and opportunities to learn more about the topic. Lather Up! is available on Amazon.com and at www.terrificscience.org/sciencestore/.
Lather Up! is part of the Strive to Thrive! series of student handbooks, winners of the 2008 National Health Information Gold Award for Health Promotion/Disease and Injury Prevention Information for the Family and the 2008 Teachers’ Choice Award for the Family, and a National Best Books 2007 Award, Young Adult Educational category. Recommendations include NSTA’s The Science Teacher: “should be a part of every science teacher’s classroom;” the Consumers Guide to Afterschool Science Resources: “science is accurate, compelling, and well scaffolded;” and Midwest Book Review, Reviewer’s Choice: “very strongly recommended for both school and community library collections.”
The Strive to Thrive! series was developed through a collaboration between Mickey Sarquis, Director of Miami University’s Terrific Science Press, and Mary Beth Genter, Associate Professor in the University of Cincinnati Department of Environmental Health. Development of the Strive to Thrive! series was supported by a Science Education Partnership Award (SEPA) from the National Center for Research Resources, National Institutes of Health and by Miami University.
The staff of Terrific Science is pleased to announce that our director, Mickey Sarquis, is the recipient of the 2009 Miami University Benjamin Harrison Medallion. The Harrison Medallion is named after U.S. President (1889-1893) and Miami graduate Benjamin Harrison and is awarded to Miami faculty members who have made outstanding national contributions to education. Learn more at http://www.miami.muohio.edu/news/article/view/11529
Earlychildhood NEWS, an online resource for teachers and parents of children from infants to age 8, has named the Big Science for Little Hands™ series from Terrific Science Press (Miami University) a Best Books pick, saying
“A whole wide wonderful world of exciting hands-on learning, exploration and discovery awaits young minds with these engaging texts. The activities featured are perfect for not only developing science skills such as observing, comparing and measuring and allowing children to work with everyday materials, they’re ideal for allowing kids to use prior knowledge and provide new information that can be applied to other areas of learning.”
Terrific Science Outreach can provide any group of early childhood educators with a workshop based on these Big Science for Little Hands titles:
Squishy, Squashy Sponges: Early Childhood Unit Teacher Guide (ISBN: 1-883822-36-X) features 16 engrossing activities with sponges. Children use their senses of sight, touch, hearing and smell to explore a variety of sponges, discover how sponges change in water, match sponge prints with the actual sponges, and discover that water in sponges can help make seeds grow.
Curious Crayons: Early Childhood Science In Living Color (ISBN: 978-1-883822-54-5) offers 19 hands-on activities with crayons, including melting, weighing and sorting. Children learn what crayons are made out of, how well crayons color on various types of paper, methods to remove the crayon wax from several materials and how solids become liquids. Additional activities include comparing the weights of different crayons, sorting crayon sets into smaller groups, and studying the water resistance of crayon marks.
Marvelous Moving Things: Early Childhood Science in Motion (ISBN: 978-1-883822-53-8) rolls out 22 adventures using common toys/play structures such as balls, seesaws and swings to encourage observation, comparison, measurement and communication. Children will delight in discovering how various objects slide down different ramp surfaces, learning how the forces of push and pull work on objects, and experiencing how various surfaces and situations affect the movement of balls. Other activities include observing and comparing how wheels move over different surfaces, using a balance and playground seesaw to learn about up and down motion, and creating a ramp ride.
“The Camp and Club Science Resource book is an excellent tool for leaders or instructors of after school programs. It is well conceived and has a flow that would make sense to an instructor who may not be familiar with science, but who is accustomed to the informal or afterschool education field. Although I am not a science teacher I felt very comfortable with this book and felt confident that I could implement the activities it describes with kids in the afterschool programs I oversee. I particularly like the way the topics are presented in a format that offers a running theme. Each of the activities has simple and easy to follow directions and the concepts addressed are thoughtful and relevant.” Click for more…
According to a new report from the National Research Council, “Learning Science in Informal Environments: People, Places, and Pursuits,” informal science experiences, such as visiting museums and aquariums, attending after-school programs, and watching television shows, can spark curiosity and interest in science and improve science learning outcomes for students and adults. The report identifies six “strands” of science learning that can be supported through informal science education and discusses how to broaden participation in science learning.
“Rarely does a curriculum present itself with as many attributes as Terrific Science Press’s Camp and Club Science Source Book: Leader Planning Guide for Science Outside School Leader Guide.” Read the full review below. [click to continue…]
Through a limited funding opportunity, Terrific Science is pleased to offer two HealthRICH online courses based on our award-winning Strive to Thrive! series of health science books. These distance-learning courses for teachers of grades 5 and up provide substantial science content tied to the National Science Education Standards. Courses include content readings, web searches, question and answer sessions, and lots of hands-on activities for use in the classroom or outreach programs. The courses (each providing 1 semester hour of tuition-free graduate credit in chemistry from Miami University) begin February 2, 2009. Open to all U.S. teachers of grades 5 and above. No face-to-face meetings required for this distance learning opportunity. Get all the details here.
The recent Olympics are just one reason why the American Chemical Society (ACS) has decided to make sports and chemistry the theme for National Chemistry Week this year. This year’s sports theme allows science teachers to combine forces with athletic departments and physical education teachers to foster a greater understanding of the materials, design, and safety improvements in sporting equipment made possible through chemistry. Terrific Science Outreach can bring an exciting, hands-on sports science event to your school, club, or company. Take a look at the sports science activities we offer. They are free to download at www.terrificscience.org/ncw/.
Terrific Science Director, Mickey Sarquis, received the American Chemical Society’s (ACS) 2008 Helen M. Free Award for Public Outreach. She was honored at the national meeting of the ACS – the world’s largest scientific society – in Philadelphia Aug. 19. Read more about Mickey receiving the award. Find out more about Helen Free.
Below is a narrated slide show of children enjoying the “Wash This Way” and “Colorful Lather Printing” hands-on activities at a Family Science Night event.
Instructions: Depending on your web browser, you may need to click anywhere on the presentation in order to activate it. Then to begin viewing the presentation, click on the black triangle (play symbol) located in the center of the first slide below.
With the expert choreography of a Broadway show and more energy than a thermite reaction, Lynn Hogue and Mickey Sarquis from Miami University of Ohio wowed the audience with a series of multi-sensory interactions, modeling, visualizations, and pop culture in their presentation… Their mission, accomplished through a series of fun, easy to do, inexpensive activities, was to show teachers how to make chemistry relevant and thoroughly enjoyable for students. — CHED Newsletter, Fall 2007
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Below is a narrated slide show of children enjoying the “Wash This Way” and “Colorful Lather Printing” hands-on activities at a Family Science Night event.
