Phil Parratore

With thirty-four successful years of teaching middle/junior high school math and science under my belt, my friends and family tell me I am still relatively sane. I have always enjoyed turning kids on to science, but at times I've felt that I had to be a performer at the level of a music video. Having poor dance skills (and a worse singing voice,) I decided to share my favorite "Wacky Science"experiments and hands-on activities with my science colleagues. You will notice a slight bias toward the physical sciences. However, one can extrapolate many of the activities to other areas of science, as well as other curriculum areas.

If science instructors want to get their students really excited about science concepts, the activities need to be simple, quick to understand, inexpensive to duplicate, and have a high "WOW" factor. The format used is ready to photocopy and hand out to students.

Most of these activities can be done at the primary and intermediate elementary level. If you are a reluctant elementary teacher, start with the simple experiments first. Try them at home, and pick and choose the experiments that fit your needs. You will be amazed at your students' positive reactions. You will even get the attention of your administrators (on second thought, forget that one.)