Brand new semester and kicking it off with a brand new idea for a chemistry take home lab. Ever wonder what the actual cost in dollars was for a single shower? Whether you are a high school student or a curious at home learner, it's time to get your thermochemistry off to a great start with an activity that helps to learn about specific heat capacity, practical skills about household technology, and a deeper understanding of the power and cost of taking a shower.

Returned to my lab the other day to find my lucky bamboo in horrifying condition. Sometimes plants go weird on me, not enough water, not enough sunlight, got knocked over, got eaten by animals, but this time, it totally baffled me. This cute little plant had been sitting around my desk for years now, only requiring the occasional refill on water and then suddenly I find it with every stalk dead. But I won't give up that easily, commence operation save the lucky bamboo.

I had the distinct pleasure of heading outside today and shovelling myself out. Every time I do this I can't help but calculate the total volume of snow that I'm moving and wondering just how many tons of materials I've actually displaced. The site has seen a lot of updates in the last couple weeks and I've been very pleased with the progress. Our Facebook page is live and will be updating as new resources are added to the site. Feel free to follow us.

It's been a super productive break over the holidays and I was able to create a whole bunch of new worksheets. Found all sorts of new JavaScript challenges which kept me busy but I loved every moment of it. Check out some of the details on the latest additions found in the Resources section.

My worksheet that got things rolling. I had originally created this motion worksheet in Scratch as a complement to an activity that my students were working on where they had to have Scratch solve a math problem. After a bit of tweaking I decided it would be more fun to write the worksheet to run in a web page instead of the Scratch application, and here's the result.

Every once in a while my students do me the pleasure of bringing in a random find. This large cocoon about 3.5 inches long turned more than a few heads. Of course once something like this arrives in the classroom we have no choice but to figure out what we have.

Check out the latest collection of wave worksheets designed for the Physics 11 curriculum. Periods, frequencies and velocities, oh my!

With only limited to no experience with Scratch programming and a Makey Makey kit you can engage your students by having them create an interactive poster board. This project works for a variety of cross curricular situations and I've seen it used for students ranging from grades 4-12.