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The science of homework: tips to engage students' brains

Neurologist Judy Willis explores what kinds of homework help students at different stages of development and just how long out-of-hours work should take

If you know a bit about the brain then you can plan homework to suit the needs of students as they develop.

During early school years, for example, the brain is focused on getting to grips with the world around us. Memories and understanding grow when new information can be linked to things we already know. Homework that helps with this recognition can build literacy and numeracy skills.

When students reach adolescence, they become more independent and self-directed. There is shift away from rote memorisation and single, correct responses. Learning goals are more likely to focus on reading for content and comprehension, revising, report writing, solving problems, investigating and independent or group work.

Well designed homework provides multiple ways for students to engage with what they are learning. They will then be able to use the facts they acquire to be creative and solve problems in class.

When to use online learning games for homework

Most teachers work hard to differentiate homework based on skill level, but with each new topic there may not be time to prepare individual tasks. Online games, in which pupils learn and test their factual knowledge, can be helpful when homework goals are about building a foundation of knowledge. This tends to be in the early years of school.

Computer-assisted learning cannot replace good teaching: it is only from teachers that students can experience rich interactive learning and build conceptual understanding.

But using online learning games for homework tasks lets students gain the necessary level of factual knowledge and learn procedures that need to be memorised. This allows them to then progress in class to the richer subject content. Relieving teachers of essentially being drill directors means students get more class time to understand concepts and apply what they have learned.

Online games also help students to build skills to an automatic level at an appropriate pace for them. For example, games could be helpful in learning multiplication tables, spelling, remembering dates, names of rivers, foreign language learning, or getting to grips with grammar rules. Well designed online skill games evaluate each student’s ability as the basis for the questions or problems given.

A good website for information about hundreds of availableprograms is graphite . You can browse by subject, grade level and skills, and see rankings of popularity with learners and teacher evaluations.

The importance of homework that students value

In later school years homework is more likely to focus on reading for understanding, revising and launching investigations.

When students know that the effort they put into homework will enhance their participation and enjoyment of classroom learning, they become more motivated. Pupils also put more effort into schoolwork or homework when they are engaged in something that is relevant to their studies.

For instance, if the class is studying how to calculate area, good maths homework may be to get students to measure parts of their room they want to change (eg walls to paint, windows for curtains, doors to cover with cork board for posting photos etc). Those who complete the homework will be able to make sketches to scale of their rooms on graph paper and determine area. Those who don’t do the homework will not be prepared for this activity and will have to solve less interesting worksheet problems.

If the assignment is to read a chapter in a social studies or history book for discussion the next day, teachers can inform them that there will be a short quiz of the main points. Students who score high enough to demonstrate that they did their reading will have the rewards, or do independent projects of their choice and move on to new challenges.

How much time should homework take?

The amount of time spent on homework will always vary depending on the age of students and what task you have set.

After about 15 minutes of learning and practising something - such as the Pythagorean theorem in maths - the regions of the brain activated in spatial-numerical learning get fatigued and need to rebuild the neurotransmitters, such as dopamine, that get depleted.

This is why teachers need to plan brain breaks in class time and for homework. It doesn’t mean the child needs to run around or play a game. It just means another part of the brain (or body) should be doing the activating while the other area rests. The restoration only takes a few minutes if the break is timely, but if they are pushed to stay with that same process for too long, stress builds, neurotransmitters drop way down and it will take twice as long to restore full efficiency to that area of the brain.

The good thing about getting students to do something that will enhance their classroom experience is that they are more likely to engage in it, so they don’t mind spending time on it.

Online games for learning basic knowledge usually have set timings. You can assign a specific amount of time to be spent on the skill building program for homework and confirm students’ compliance by checking the teachers’ pages.

Judy Willis is a neurologist and former teacher. She writes books and does international presentations about how the brain learns best .

Follow us on Twitter via @GuardianTeach . Join the Guardian Teacher Network for lesson resources, comment and job opportunities , direct to your inbox.

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Credit: August de Richelieu

Does homework still have value? A Johns Hopkins education expert weighs in

Joyce epstein, co-director of the center on school, family, and community partnerships, discusses why homework is essential, how to maximize its benefit to learners, and what the 'no-homework' approach gets wrong.

By Vicky Hallett

The necessity of homework has been a subject of debate since at least as far back as the 1890s, according to Joyce L. Epstein , co-director of the Center on School, Family, and Community Partnerships at Johns Hopkins University. "It's always been the case that parents, kids—and sometimes teachers, too—wonder if this is just busy work," Epstein says.

But after decades of researching how to improve schools, the professor in the Johns Hopkins School of Education remains certain that homework is essential—as long as the teachers have done their homework, too. The National Network of Partnership Schools , which she founded in 1995 to advise schools and districts on ways to improve comprehensive programs of family engagement, has developed hundreds of improved homework ideas through its Teachers Involve Parents in Schoolwork program. For an English class, a student might interview a parent on popular hairstyles from their youth and write about the differences between then and now. Or for science class, a family could identify forms of matter over the dinner table, labeling foods as liquids or solids. These innovative and interactive assignments not only reinforce concepts from the classroom but also foster creativity, spark discussions, and boost student motivation.

"We're not trying to eliminate homework procedures, but expand and enrich them," says Epstein, who is packing this research into a forthcoming book on the purposes and designs of homework. In the meantime, the Hub couldn't wait to ask her some questions:

What kind of homework training do teachers typically get?

Future teachers and administrators really have little formal training on how to design homework before they assign it. This means that most just repeat what their teachers did, or they follow textbook suggestions at the end of units. For example, future teachers are well prepared to teach reading and literacy skills at each grade level, and they continue to learn to improve their teaching of reading in ongoing in-service education. By contrast, most receive little or no training on the purposes and designs of homework in reading or other subjects. It is really important for future teachers to receive systematic training to understand that they have the power, opportunity, and obligation to design homework with a purpose.

Why do students need more interactive homework?

If homework assignments are always the same—10 math problems, six sentences with spelling words—homework can get boring and some kids just stop doing their assignments, especially in the middle and high school years. When we've asked teachers what's the best homework you've ever had or designed, invariably we hear examples of talking with a parent or grandparent or peer to share ideas. To be clear, parents should never be asked to "teach" seventh grade science or any other subject. Rather, teachers set up the homework assignments so that the student is in charge. It's always the student's homework. But a good activity can engage parents in a fun, collaborative way. Our data show that with "good" assignments, more kids finish their work, more kids interact with a family partner, and more parents say, "I learned what's happening in the curriculum." It all works around what the youngsters are learning.

Is family engagement really that important?

At Hopkins, I am part of the Center for Social Organization of Schools , a research center that studies how to improve many aspects of education to help all students do their best in school. One thing my colleagues and I realized was that we needed to look deeply into family and community engagement. There were so few references to this topic when we started that we had to build the field of study. When children go to school, their families "attend" with them whether a teacher can "see" the parents or not. So, family engagement is ever-present in the life of a school.

My daughter's elementary school doesn't assign homework until third grade. What's your take on "no homework" policies?

There are some parents, writers, and commentators who have argued against homework, especially for very young children. They suggest that children should have time to play after school. This, of course is true, but many kindergarten kids are excited to have homework like their older siblings. If they give homework, most teachers of young children make assignments very short—often following an informal rule of 10 minutes per grade level. "No homework" does not guarantee that all students will spend their free time in productive and imaginative play.

Some researchers and critics have consistently misinterpreted research findings. They have argued that homework should be assigned only at the high school level where data point to a strong connection of doing assignments with higher student achievement . However, as we discussed, some students stop doing homework. This leads, statistically, to results showing that doing homework or spending more minutes on homework is linked to higher student achievement. If slow or struggling students are not doing their assignments, they contribute to—or cause—this "result."

Teachers need to design homework that even struggling students want to do because it is interesting. Just about all students at any age level react positively to good assignments and will tell you so.

Did COVID change how schools and parents view homework?

Within 24 hours of the day school doors closed in March 2020, just about every school and district in the country figured out that teachers had to talk to and work with students' parents. This was not the same as homeschooling—teachers were still working hard to provide daily lessons. But if a child was learning at home in the living room, parents were more aware of what they were doing in school. One of the silver linings of COVID was that teachers reported that they gained a better understanding of their students' families. We collected wonderfully creative examples of activities from members of the National Network of Partnership Schools. I'm thinking of one art activity where every child talked with a parent about something that made their family unique. Then they drew their finding on a snowflake and returned it to share in class. In math, students talked with a parent about something the family liked so much that they could represent it 100 times. Conversations about schoolwork at home was the point.

How did you create so many homework activities via the Teachers Involve Parents in Schoolwork program?

We had several projects with educators to help them design interactive assignments, not just "do the next three examples on page 38." Teachers worked in teams to create TIPS activities, and then we turned their work into a standard TIPS format in math, reading/language arts, and science for grades K-8. Any teacher can use or adapt our prototypes to match their curricula.

Overall, we know that if future teachers and practicing educators were prepared to design homework assignments to meet specific purposes—including but not limited to interactive activities—more students would benefit from the important experience of doing their homework. And more parents would, indeed, be partners in education.

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How the Cold War Space Race Led to US Students Doing Tons of Homework

By: Dave Roos

Published: August 13, 2019

Middle-schoolers who trudge home each day with a 50-pound backpack and hours of homework would have had an easier time in 1901. That’s when the anti-homework movement was at its peak and the state of California actually banned all homework for grades below high school.

From the late 19th century through the Great Depression , homework was a popular punching bag of the progressive education movement, a “child-centered” approach championed by psychologist and reformer John Dewey . Not only was homework a waste of time, progressive educators believed, but it was detrimental to children’s health. 

By 1948, only 8 percent of American high school students reported studying for two or more hours each night. Homework might have remained in the educational doghouse if not for the arrival of the Cold War , and specifically, the Soviet Union’s launch of Sputnik in 1957.

To the horror of many Americans, the Space Race was being won by communist scientists from the Soviet Union.

“This elicited widespread fear that we were being undone by our schools,” says Steven Schlossman, a historian at Carnegie Mellon University. “How could it be that the Soviets had gotten there faster? They must have better schools that are training their kids to become scientists on a higher level. America now had to integrate schools into our thinking about national defense policy.”

As far as education was concerned, there was plenty of rethinking to do. Around the late 19th century, with the arrival of waves of immigrants, officials had begun shifting public education policies to best serve the rapidly changing face of America.

Until then, Schlossman says most schoolwork revolved around drill, memorization and recitation. Kids were expected to “say their lessons,” which meant memorizing long passages of history texts and poetry, drilling math problems, and reciting it all out loud in class. All of that memorization and recitation meant hours of practice at home every night. But as America and its students became more diverse, the rigidity of rote memorization seemed insufficient.

If schools were going to offer equal education opportunities for all students, they needed to do it scientifically, and the leading educational minds of the day were fascinated with the emerging fields of psychology and child development.

Progressive's Push Against Homework

Popular turn-of-the-century women’s magazines like The Ladies Home Journal published studies showing that drilling of spelling words didn’t improve children’s overall spelling ability, and its editors promoted more “natural” patterns of child learning and growth. These new ideas about what’s best for kids’ education were picked up by organizations like the National Congress of Mothers, a group formed in 1897 that would become the National Parent Teachers Association (PTA).

It didn’t take long for this increasingly vocal movement of child psychologists and concerned moms to identify public enemy number one.

“The first thing that had to be changed in schooling was this old-fashioned way of doing homework, which was antithetical to children’s natural growth qualities,” says Schlossman. “Homework took on a broader symbolic meaning for ‘out with the old and in with the new.’”

That’s why the California legislature voted in 1901 to abolish all homework for students 14 and younger, a move followed by dozens of large cities and school districts across the country.

The anti-homework argument of the progressive education movement further contended that hours of homework robbed children of outdoor play, considered essential to healthy physical and emotional development.

“For the elementary school child and the junior high school child,” concluded a 1930s study , homework was nothing less than “legalized criminality.” The American Child Health Association equated homework with child labor in 1930, claiming that both practices were “chief causes of the high death and morbidity rates from tuberculosis and heart disease among adolescents.”

By the 1940s, nightly homework levels had dropped to all-time lows.

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More Americans Finish High School During Great Depression

But then came World War II and another set of demographic and societal shifts that would again demand changes in American public education. Starting with the Great Depression when jobs were scarce, more American kids started staying in school through high school, and with the post-war baby boom , unprecedented numbers of students entered the nation’s school systems with expectations of reaching high school and beyond.

“High school was now for everybody,” says Schlossman. “This is really important. The idea of a high-school education as a ladder for success really takes root in post-World War II period.”

Even before Cold War anxieties kicked in in the 1950s, there was a growing sentiment among educators that the high-school curriculum needed an upgrade. Standards needed to be raised and teaching methods rethought. If more kids planned on going to college, homework would have to be part of the equation.

But no single event rocketed homework back into the national conversation quite like the launching of Sputnik 1, humankind’s first artificial satellite to reach Earth’s orbit. The response from the U.S. federal government was swift. In 1958, just a year after Sputnik, Congress passed the National Defense Education Act (NDEA), a $1-billion spending package to bolster high-quality teaching and learning in science, mathematics and foreign languages.

A report from the House of Representatives supporting passage of the NDEA read: “It is no exaggeration to say that America’s progress in many fields of endeavor in the years ahead—in fact, the very survival of our free country—may depend in large part upon the education we provide for our young people now.”

Funding from the NDEA helped develop ambitious new high school curriculums, including what became known as the “new math.” Top academics, scientists and educational psychologists teamed up to create a new American public education mandate that would later be called the “academic excellence” movement. And homework was front and center.

Just as the academic excellence movement promoted a deeper and more hands-on approach to math and science in the classroom, homework at all levels had to be more than memorization and mindless drills. It needed to promote creative problem-solving and analytical thinking.

The NDEA investment had immediate effects. By 1962, 23 percent of high-school juniors reported doing two or more hours of homework a night, nearly twice as many as in 1957, the year of Sputnik.

Still, the Sputnik homework bump didn’t last long. The counterculture movement of the late 1960s encouraged students to question authority, and nothing sticks it to “the man” quite like skipping your homework. By 1972, the percentage of high-schoolers doing two or more hours of homework a day dropped back below 10 percent.

Homework Drive Revived Under Reagan

There was another attempt in the early 1980s to revive homework as part of a second-wave academic excellence movement under the Reagan administration. A report called A Nation at Risk warned in Cold-War terms of the potential fallout from a failed education system.

“...[T]he educational foundations of our society are presently being eroded by a rising tide of mediocrity that threatens our very future as a Nation and a people,” wrote the report’s authors. 

Schlossman says that this second academic excellence push did little to move the needle significantly on homework, flattening out at around 12 percent of high-schoolers clocking two or more hours a day by the mid-1980s.

“The homework movement of the 1980s was cast as a character reform movement, almost like a moral enterprise,” says Schlossman. “It didn’t have the intellectual expectations of the 1950s and 1960s.”

In more recent times, a 2016 analysis by the National Center for Education Statistics found that U.S. high school students spent an average of 7.5 hours on homework each week—averaging about 1.5 hours per day. While that was up from an average of 6.6 hours in 2012, it remained an easier lift that what students took on during the heady days of the Cold War. 

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A science in the shadows

Controls on ‘gain of function’ experiments with supercharged pathogens have been undercut despite concerns about lab leaks.

A decade ago, scientists funded by the National Institutes of Health used ferrets to engineer a highly lethal flu virus. The purpose of the research — known as “gain of function” — was to better understand how viruses evolve and to help devise medicines to combat the potential disease threats.

It also came with a risk: A laboratory mishap could unleash a devastating pandemic.

The research, conducted in the Netherlands and at the University of Wisconsin, sparked an international controversy and led to new safeguards for such experiments. But over the past four years, NIH leaders and other U.S. officials have weakened key aspects of those controls, a Washington Post examination found.

The high-risk research has reemerged as a focal point because of speculation that such experiments in Wuhan, China, may have accidentally triggered the coronavirus pandemic. While Chinese virologists deny that their work is to blame, accidents have occurred on rare occasions in labs elsewhere in the world, leading to inadvertent releases of pathogens.

“The risks are absolutely real. They’re not intellectual constructs or hypotheticals,” said David A. Relman, a Stanford University physician and microbiologist who has advised NIH and other federal agencies on biosecurity. Eventually, he said, “something that you make or information that you release will result in an accident of some kind.”

Speculation about the work in Wuhan has focused new attention on gain-of-function research. This report details the U.S. support for such experiments and the secrecy undergirding them. It does not illuminate whether the coronavirus pandemic resulted from gain-of-function research.

In the United States, NIH Director Francis S. Collins and Anthony S. Fauci, director of the agency’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, have led the federal funding and oversight of gain-of-function research.

The term refers to techniques used to enhance aspects of a pathogen. This is usually done via a combination of gene editing and serial passage of the pathogen between animal hosts.

Experiments that increase the transmissibility or virulence of certain strains of flu and coronaviruses create high risk. If such a pathogen infected a scientist or otherwise escaped, a pandemic could result.

These techniques have a wide variety of uses, including tweaking mouse genes to limit fat deposits and creating mutations in pathogens to estimate future threats.

Eight years ago, Collins and Fauci helped put in place high-level reviews and other safeguards in response to concerns raised by Relman and aides to President Barack Obama, who were alarmed by what they saw as insufficient scrutiny of the research with ferrets. The NIH leaders and the Department of Health and Human Services pledged to subject the work to increased transparency and vetting. This included forming a review group of federal officials — known informally as a “Ferrets Committee” — to vet proposed projects for safety and worthiness.

However, Collins and Fauci in recent years have helped shape policy changes, directly and through their aides, that undercut the committee’s authority, according to federal documents, congressional testimony and interviews with dozens of present and former officials and science experts.

In 2017, a change made under their watch removed the committee’s power to block the projects, recasting the panel as strictly an advisory body.

Another change at that time redefined gain-of-function research, giving NIH leaders greater leeway to approve projects without referring them to the review committee. Some researchers had complained that far-reaching reviews would slow NIH approvals and scientific progress.

Since then, the experiments have continued to unfold amid secrecy, and HHS, which administers the review committee, has kept its work confidential: No agendas, meeting minutes or other records of its proceedings are public. Even the names of the federal officials assigned to serve on the committee, which has spanned the Obama, Trump and Biden administrations, are kept secret.

In an interview for this report, both Collins and Fauci and their senior aides disputed that the policy changes had weakened oversight of the research. Both NIH leaders pointed to safeguards that remain in place.

“Reasonable people do not all completely agree on the ideal way to frame the oversight of these very sensitive experiments,” Collins said, adding: “There are some who see the risks as greater and the benefits as less. And vice versa.”

Lab accidents, Collins said, “are certainly a concern. … You want to mitigate that by having the highest possible containment for any kind of experiment that might lead to trouble.”

Key figures

A physician-scientist whose institute funds “gain of function” research that increases the transmissibility or virulence of pathogens — work some fear could inadvertently cause a pandemic.

A physician-geneticist who, along with Fauci, says the benefits of gain-of-function research outweigh the risks because of its potential to help develop vaccines and therapeutics.

A physician and former Air Force officer with decades of biodefense policy experience who says that U.S.-funded gain-of-function research has not been adequately vetted.

As for loosening the controls in 2017, Collins and Fauci defended the resulting policy, which is formally known as the “Framework” for guiding gain-of-function research.

Collins lauded “the very intense, deliberative process” adhered to by NIH and other federal agencies that generated the changes. The policy was shepherded by Collins’s aides, who met with him and other participants in his personal office, he said.

Collins also said he is now open to making public the names of the review-committee officials to help achieve “the kind of transparency that the public expects.”

Fauci said that all of the research projects are first evaluated by expert managers within his institute, who check whether the work will be conducted by properly trained personnel within secure facilities. The experiments, he said, are “done with the highest degree of oversight.”

“To the extent that we can be transparent, that the system would allow us to be transparent, we go overboard to be transparent,” Fauci said.

‘Grading their own homework’

Officials at NIH declined to say how many gain-of-function projects they have funded since the controversy over the experiments with ferrets peaked in 2012, other than confirming grants for two projects in 2018.

Asked to provide the number of projects funded, Collins and Fauci suggested the answer would hinge on how the work was defined in a given year.

An agency spokesperson said that relevant information could be found in an agency database that archives tens of thousands of grants each year. But the database, NIH Reporter, does not designate which grants are for gain-of-function research.

The Post identified at least 18 projects that won funding from 2012 to 2020 that appeared to include gain-of-function experiments. Reporters examined research summaries in the database, along with articles published in scientific journals, and conducted interviews with experts.

Funding from NIH for the 18 projects totaled about $48.8 million and unfolded at 13 institutions. Eight were approved after the review committee’s power was weakened in 2017.

From 2017 to 2020, no more than “three or four” projects were forwarded to the review committee, said Robert Kadlec, who oversaw the panel and served as the Trump administration’s assistant HHS secretary for preparedness and response.

“They were grading their own homework,” Kadlec said.

Kadlec, a physician who earlier had held biodefense roles with the Pentagon, the White House and the Senate, said that the high-risk research has not been adequately vetted.

“Frankly, we didn’t have the scientific wherewithal,” Kadlec said of HHS, adding that the review committee’s capabilities were not “robust enough to make sure that bad things don’t happen.” (On June 7, Kadlec rejoined the Republican staff of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, where he said he will focus on biosecurity policy.)

At an NIH meeting last year, Christian Hassell, a senior aide to Kadlec at HHS, complained about how the research is vetted.

“We’ve only completed two reviews,” Hassell told members of NIH’s National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity on Jan. 23, 2020, adding that a third project had been received by the committee for review.

Hassell suggested the lack of reviews reflected how narrowly the revised policy defines gain-of-function research, according to a video of the meeting.

“I’ll just probably be more frank than may be appropriate — I think that’s too narrow,” Hassell said. “My view on this thing is, don’t use too fine a filter.”

Hassell continues to serve as a senior science adviser at HHS in the Biden administration. He declined to be interviewed for this report.

Relman and other scientists said the federal policy governing the research is opaque and needs strengthening.

“If you’re going to ask society to take on a higher-than-normal level of risk, then I think there’s got to be more openness,” said Michael J. Imperiale, a University of Michigan virologist who served from 2005 to 2012 on the biosecurity board and who now is editor in chief of mBio, a journal of the American Society for Microbiology.

Skeptics of gain-of-function research question whether it is worth the risk.

“Everyone on the planet now knows what a pandemic is, what that means for their families, their communities, their incomes,” said Richard H. Ebright, a professor of chemical biology at Rutgers University who has studied biosecurity risks. “This kind of research can give rise to a pandemic.”

New attention on research

The mystery of how the novel coronavirus emerged and triggered the worst pandemic in a century has refocused attention on gain-of-function research.

In May, President Biden directed U.S. intelligence agencies to “redouble their efforts” to investigate the pandemic’s origins , saying the agencies had “coalesced around two likely scenarios.” One of those possibilities is that the initial outbreak stemmed from human contact with an infected animal. The other possibility is that a lab accident in China released the culprit pathogen. The agencies provided a classified report to Biden on Tuesday, concluding it was not yet possible to pinpoint the source of the pandemic, according to officials familiar with the matter.

Some who suspect that the novel coronavirus jumped from an animal to humans note that this happened with two other coronaviruses — severe acute respiratory syndrome, SARS, in late 2002 and Middle East respiratory syndrome, MERS, 10 years later.

Other scientists question whether lab workers in Wuhan could have become infected while experimenting with the novel coronavirus and wound up spreading it.

[ Biden asks intelligence community to redouble efforts to determine definitive origin of coronavirus ]

Following the natural outbreak of SARS nearly two decades ago, three accidental releases of the virus have occurred, at labs in Singapore, in Taiwan and at China’s National Institute for Viral Disease Control and Prevention. The mishap in Beijing resulted in one confirmed death and the quarantining of at least 600 people, according to the World Health Organization.

The possibility of a lab origin was initially dismissed by many scientists assessing the ongoing pandemic. But the absence of evidence tying the novel coronavirus to infected animals, along with the Chinese government’s refusal to provide international inspectors access to lab notebooks and virus samples, has helped fuel suspicions.

The Wuhan Institute of Virology has come under scrutiny because the lab complex is in the city where serious illness from the strain was first reported in late 2019. The institute has conducted gain-of-function research on bat-borne coronaviruses, according to a journal article co-authored by Chinese researchers there.

The lead Chinese virologist in Wuhan, Shi Zhengli, and one of her NIH-funded partners, a New York City-based nonprofit group called EcoHealth Alliance, have disputed the possibility of a lab release, as has the Chinese government. EcoHealth’s president, Peter Daszak, has also publicly denied that his organization participated in gain-of-function research in Wuhan. (Zhengli and Daszak did not respond to emails seeking their comment.)

The research can involve techniques that combine genetic material from different pathogens to create a new, lab-generated “chimeric” virus.

In the United States, such experiments are typically funded by NIH, the nation’s primary steward for biomedical research. All but one of the 18 projects identified by The Post have been funded by Fauci’s infectious-disease institute.

Fauci and Collins have served as gatekeepers to the work.

Both are iconic figures in American health and medicine: Collins helped lead the government’s mapping of the human genome, and Fauci has counseled presidents and congressional leaders for four decades on health crises from AIDS to covid-19. Fauci also serves as Biden’s chief medical adviser.

Fauci and Collins have long defended the research, saying that the knowledge gained could aid the development of vaccines and therapeutic drugs.

“There’s disagreement as to the scientific and/or public health value of these experiments,” Fauci said at a gathering of international researchers invited to NIH on Dec. 17, 2012, according to video of the session. “But I believe the people who feel that they shouldn’t be conducted are in the minority.”

By then, NIH leaders were grappling with the firestorm ignited by two gain-of-function projects.

The Rotterdam research

The experiments, conducted separately at the Erasmus Medical Center in Rotterdam and at the University of Wisconsin, had altered a strain of highly virulent, bird-carried flu in a way that enabled it for the first time to cause airborne infections among mammals.

In fall 2011, manuscripts describing the confidential results of the research had been submitted to separate scientific journals. Relman, serving as a peer reviewer for one of the journals, became alarmed, fearing that the details, if published, could provide a recipe for terrorists.

He privately notified a White House biosecurity official, biologist Lawrence D. Kerr, who warned others in the Obama administration and contacted the NIH director’s office, according to scientists familiar with the previously unreported details.

Collins’s staff assigned the agency’s biosecurity board to assess the risk. The board advises NIH regarding how to mitigate public health and other biosecurity risks posed by some research. In consultation with the secretary of health and human services, Collins appoints the board members, and his office administers their functions.

“We had never seen any papers like this with the gain-of-function idea,” said Lynn W. Enquist, who was then a member of the biosecurity board and editor in chief of the Journal of Virology. “The idea of increasing virulence, or increasing transmissibility, was not really something that most scientists had ever thought about doing. It was a concern.”

The research involved the H5N1 strain of avian influenza, which had a fatality rate of about 60 percent, compared with less than 1 percent for seasonal flu. Those stricken were typically Southeast Asian poultry farmers who contracted it from their birds. The strain was not known for human transmission.

Flu is a contagious respiratory illness caused by influenza viruses that infect the nose, throat and sometimes the lungs. It can cause mild to severe illness and at times can lead to death.

The novel coronavirus, which causes the disease covid-19, is spread when people breathe air contaminated by respiratory droplets or small airborne particles. The virus is highly transmissible — infected people can spread it without displaying symptoms — and has proved most deadly among the elderly and those with compromised immune systems.

One of the NIH-funded researchers, Ron Fouchier in Rotterdam, had altered H5N1 to make it more dangerous — so that it spread through respiratory droplets among caged ferrets, mammals that were the best simulation for humans’ susceptibility. Fouchier and his counterpart in Wisconsin, Yoshihiro Kawaoka, were seeking to learn more about the H5N1 strain, especially how it mutated.

Paul Keim, a Northern Arizona University geneticist who was then chairman of the NIH biosecurity board, recalled that his colleagues were concerned about the risk of publishing.

“We were saying, ‘Wow — it’s highly transmissible with a 60 percent mortality rate,’ ” Keim said. “You could kill 4 billion people in a flash, because these viruses go around the world.”

On Nov. 30, 2011, the board unanimously recommended that key research methodologies should be withheld from publication.

The board’s vote directly challenged the stewardship of Fauci and Collins, because the pathogen-altering research had been approved by NIH with no external review or publicity.

“They had made the decision to fund this work,” said Imperiale, who was on the board at that time. “It was awkward for them.”

[ From 2011: Federal panel asks journals to censor reports of lab-created ‘bird flu’ ]

Fauci and Collins responded by working privately to reverse the biosecurity board’s recommendation — while publicly defending the need for the research, according to interviews and records.

Publicly, Fauci and Collins, along with a third NIH official, co-authored an essay, published by The Post on Dec. 30, 2011, concluding that the risks of the Rotterdam and Wisconsin experiments were worth taking.

The three men wrote that “important information and insights can come from generating a potentially dangerous virus in the laboratory.” The experiments with ferrets, they said, were aimed at filling “important gaps in knowledge” regarding human transmissibility.

Many influenza researchers in the United States and abroad, who depend on the sharing of information about shifting strains of seasonal flu, supported the NIH leaders’ position. Some bristled at government intrusion on scientific decision-making.

Privately, the biosecurity board reconvened behind closed doors on March 29 and 30, 2012, amid what participants described as tense circumstances: Fauci and Collins attended and reiterated their support of the research and its publication. The board members were required to sign a nondisclosure agreement, according to those who participated.

The board reversed its earlier recommendation , voting 12 to 6 in favor of publishing the research led by Fouchier, and the members unanimously backed publishing the separate results from Wisconsin. There are no public records of the meeting. Fouchier and Kawaoka have defended their work as responsible and worthwhile.

The papers summarizing the research results were published in separate scientific journals, and none of the controversial details were redacted.

[ From 2012: Biosecurity advisory board reverses decision on ‘engineered bird flu’ papers ]

In interviews, six scientists who served on the biosecurity board said concerns surrounding the research should have been aired before NIH approved funding for the Rotterdam and Wisconsin experiments.

“Why didn’t someone in NIH, when these grants were being reviewed, look at them and say, ‘Hey wait — there’s a potential problem here,’ ” Imperiale said.

Fauci continued in 2012 and beyond to marshal support for NIH’s handling of the experiments with the H5N1 strain and for other gain-of-function projects.

He wrote that fall in the journal mBio that “all decisions regarding such research must be made in a transparent manner.”

The ‘Ferrets Committee’

Following the controversy over the flu experiments, the Obama administration on Feb. 21, 2013, created the HHS committee to review other proposed high-risk research projects before NIH approved them. The policy at first applied only to H5N1 — it would be expanded the next year to include other flu strains and coronaviruses.

The policy also gave the committee the authority to veto research proposals referred to it by NIH. It was Collins who privately dubbed the HHS review panel the “Ferrets Committee.”

“The department-level review will determine the appropriate risk-mitigation measures and whether a given proposal is acceptable for HHS funding,” Fauci, Collins and three other officials wrote in an article published online that day.

From the outset, however, the committee struggled to obtain adequate information from the NIH director’s office about projects, said an Obama administration science policy official.

The scientist, who still holds a government position and spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of that role, recalled receiving incomplete details from NIH, adding that “we would not be aware of the final decision that was made” about the grant proposals in question.

Meanwhile, a series of dangerous blunders began unfolding at elite U.S. research institutions — ultimately shaking the Obama White House’s confidence in the ongoing gain-of-function research.

In March 2014, a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention worker sent a small container of what was presumed to be a nonlethal influenza strain from Atlanta to an Agriculture Department counterpart who was conducting research with chickens at a federal lab in Athens, Ga. After the birds began dying unexpectedly, officials discovered that the CDC had shipped material contaminated by a virulent strain.

Then on June 5 of that year, CDC researchers working in high-level biocontainment to refine techniques for detecting anthrax accidentally sent active samples of the bacterium to another CDC lab in Atlanta that was equipped to handle only nonlethal material. Forty-one CDC workers who might have been exposed underwent antibiotic treatment.

And on July 1, federal workers discovered 12 long-abandoned cardboard boxes in a cold room at NIH’s main campus in Bethesda, Md. Of the more than 300 vials of infectious agents found in the boxes, six contained variola virus, the source of smallpox , a scourge that had been eradicated worldwide as of 1979. The samples, used decades earlier by a Food and Drug Administration researcher, were supposed to have been destroyed or stored in a high-level biocontainment facility at the CDC.

[ From 2014: Smallpox vials, decades old, found in storage room at NIH campus in Bethesda ]

Lisa Monaco, Obama’s deputy national security adviser, and John Holdren, director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, urged all federal and nonfederal labs on Aug. 28, 2014, to conduct a “Safety Stand-Down” to “review laboratory biosafety and biosecurity best practices and protocols.”

In mid-October — citing the “recent biosafety incidents at Federal research facilities” — the Office of Science and Technology Policy and HHS jointly announced a “pause” in funding for any newly proposed gain-of-function experiments with influenza and the feared coronavirus strains MERS and SARS.

The announcement also encouraged “those currently conducting this type of work, whether federally funded or not, to voluntarily pause their research while risks and benefits are being reassessed.”

The research resumes

The increased federal scrutiny triggered pushback from some virologists, including coronavirus researchers Ralph S. Baric of the University of North Carolina and Mark R. Denison of Vanderbilt University.

“We argue that it is premature to include the emerging coronaviruses under these restrictions, as scientific dialogue that seriously argues the biology, pros, cons, likely risks to the public, and ethics of [gain-of-function research] have not been discussed in a serious forum,” Baric and Denison wrote to the biosecurity board on Nov. 12, 2014.

Referring more broadly to highly pathogenic flu and coronavirus strains, their letter added: “The pandemic potential of these viruses is clear, but they also are vulnerable in the early stages of an outbreak to public health intervention methods. . . . GOF [gain of function] experiments are a documented, powerful tool.”

Within weeks, NIH officials informed Baric and an undetermined number of other researchers that their work had been exempted from the pause.

Baric is a recognized leader in studying how coronaviruses can leap from bats to other mammals, including humans. His research has sought to identify which strains pose the biggest threats and approaches that might lead to the development of vaccines or therapeutics. The research has been funded with about $11.9 million in NIH grants, records show.

Neither Baric nor Denison, whom Collins appointed to the NIH biosecurity board in November 2016, responded to written questions about their work.

Baric has collaborated with another leading coronavirus researcher — Zhengli, of the Wuhan Institute of Virology, whose prominence in the field garnered her a nickname: China’s “Bat Woman.” Zhengli provided genetic sequences and DNA molecules derived from horseshoe bats in China, and Baric designed the experiments, conducted at his lab in Chapel Hill, N.C.

Baric, Zhengli and other co-authors summarized their respective roles in a December 2015 article in the journal Nature Medicine titled, “A SARS-like cluster of circulating bat coronaviruses show potential for human emergence.”

The article described techniques that were hallmarks of gain-of-function research, including the use of reverse genetics to create a chimeric virus derived from bats and implanted in laboratory mice.

By 2016, the prospect of more gain-of-function research projects was generating concern among some federal scientists, according to interviews and previously unpublicized government emails.

On April 17, 2016, Kerr, the biologist who had sounded an alarm about the first gain-of-function experiments while serving in the Obama White House, emailed six federal colleagues, warning of a boomlet of high-risk research with coronavirus strains.

Kerr, who by that time was a senior biosecurity official at HHS, cited MERS, the coronavirus that had emerged in 2012 and that over the next seven years would kill 866 people abroad.

“The continuing nature of MERS outbreaks has brought scientists back into the corona-biology world and more are using genetically-synthesized infectious viruses in their work,” Kerr wrote. “GOF work on MERS is not a pretty subject to consider.”

The Post obtained a copy of the email.

An HHS spokeswoman did not respond to The Post’s request to interview Kerr, who has headed the department’s Pandemics and Emerging Threats Office since 2016.

The potential danger of a lab-altered coronavirus strain was also foreshadowed by an April 2016 consulting firm’s report, commissioned by NIH. The 1,016-page report by Gryphon Scientific warned that increasing the transmissibility of coronaviruses could lead to a pandemic and increase the risk of deaths by “several orders of magnitude.”

Away from the spotlight, officials from NIH, elsewhere within HHS and other federal departments conferred from 2015 to 2017 about how to revise the policy for gain-of-function research, and when to lift the pause. The efforts were guided by Collins, who held sole authority to grant exemptions from the pause for NIH projects, and his chief of staff, according to those familiar with what unfolded. At Collins’s behest, the biosecurity board also convened several public meetings regarding gain-of-function research policy.

The private meetings included White House officials from the Office of Science and Technology Policy and the National Security Council, along with Collins, his aides and other federal staffers, those familiar with the sessions said.

This obscure interagency process created the two changes that gave NIH officials greater discretion to fund gain-of-function research projects.

In addition to stripping the HHS committee of its power to veto proposed projects administered by NIH, the revised policy also limited the scope of projects the committee would review.

As established in October 2014, the policy had required NIH to forward for the committee’s review experiments expected to generate certain flu and coronaviruses that would be “transmissible among mammals” and that might accidentally cause human infections.

But in December 2017, the policy was narrowed to cover only altered pathogens “likely capable of wide and uncontrollable spread in human populations.” The sweeping reference to mammals was eliminated. A review by the committee was not required, the policy said, unless the pathogen to be constructed is “reasonably judged” by NIH “to be a credible source of a potential future human pandemic.”

In written responses to The Post, NIH and HHS media representatives said the policy changes were based on an extensive process that took into account comments from government experts and others.

As to why the reference to mammals was deleted, NIH said the revised policy identified “the subset of research” that could pose the greatest pandemic risk for humans.

Collins, pressed on why the change was made, said that he was “not able to fully reconstruct” the details but added that agency staffers evaluate the research proposals “from the most sophisticated perspective.”

Baric, meanwhile, ultimately broke ranks with other proponents of gain-of-function research who for more than a year rejected the possibility that a lab accident led to the pandemic.

In a letter published on May 14 by the journal Science, Baric, along with Relman and 16 other scientists, called for a rigorous investigation of the pandemic’s origin: “Theories of accidental release from a lab and [natural] spillover both remain viable.”

Muller is a recent graduate of Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism and a fellow with the Medill Investigative Lab. Alice Crites contributed to this report.

About this story

Design and development by Frank Hulley-Jones . Photo editing by Karly Domb-Sadof . Editing by David Fallis , Jeff Leen and Julie Vitkovskaya . Copy editing by J.J. Evans.

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Homework makes the grade.

Class performance slipped for physics students who copied

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By Laura Sanders

March 26, 2010 at 3:07 pm

A detailed study of college-level physics courses confirms students’ deepest fears: Homework really is important. Students who regularly copied problem sets earned lower grades and were three times as likely to fail the class, the study found.

“Homework copying is severely impeding students’ learning, and teachers don’t take it seriously enough,” says study coauthor David Pritchard, a physicist at MIT. “It’s a killer for the grades and a killer for the students.” The study appeared March 18 in Physical Review Special Topics–Physics Education Research .

Students at MIT and other universities commonly complete homework using an online system, giving Pritchard and his colleagues a wealth of data to analyze. The team tracked homework for four terms of introductory, calculus-based physics, a requirement for all MIT undergraduates. Since all of the students’ entries were time-stamped, Pritchard and his colleagues knew how quickly the problems were completed once the question appeared on the screen.

In the team’s analysis, three clusters emerged: One group of students solved the problems about 10 minutes after the problem first popped up, another answered a day or two later, and a third typically answered correctly in about a minute. Because the online system presents problems one at a time, it precludes working out all of the answers ahead of time and entering them all at once.

“Our first reaction was “Wow, we must have some geniuses at MIT’,” Pritchard says. The team soon realized that the answers in this quick-solving group were entered faster than the time it takes students to read the question, raising suspicions that these students had a cheat sheet of copied answers.

Equating speedy answers with copying, the team concluded that about 10 percent of the students copied more than half of their homework, about 40 percent copied 10 to 50 percent of their homework, and about half the students copied less than 10 percent of their homework. By the end of the semester, students who copied 50 percent or more homework earned almost two letter grades below students who didn’t copy very much, the team found. Heavy copiers were also three times more likely to fail the course.

Other patterns emerged from the data as well. Students who copied were much more likely to put off the majority of their homework until the last minute. And copying rates increased dramatically after the first midterm.

In the study, the heaviest copiers were male, and although most of the students in the classes were freshmen and had yet to declare a major, subsequent analyses turned up an interesting trend: “Copying homework is a leading indicator of becoming a business major,” Pritchard says.

Pritchard’s team was able to reduce the copying level fourfold by changing the format of the classes and explicitly warning students that copying homework can damage grades.

While the study is interesting, it probably won’t change the way most teachers view homework because many teachers already know how valuable homework problems are, says David M. Cook, who is president of the American Association of Physics Teachers and taught physics for 43 years at Lawrence University in Appleton, Wisc.

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May 2, 2024

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Kids study in overheated slum as Philippines shuts schools

by Cecil MORELLA

Fourth-grader Ella Araza sat on a tiny plastic box in her Manila slum home, trying to finish her homework before the afternoon sun sent temperatures soaring to unbearable levels.

The Philippines shut down more than 47,000 schools nationwide from Monday, as the temperature in Manila crossed a record high, clocking 38.8 degrees Celsius (101.4 degrees Fahrenheit) at the weekend.

Over 7,000 were still closed on Thursday, including 10-year-old Ella's elementary school in the capital.

Many schools in the tropical country have no air conditioning and students must sweat it out in poorly ventilated classrooms but conditions at Baseco, Manila's infamous docklands slum, are even more desperate.

"The heat makes her lazy. Sometimes she fails to do her online homework," Ella's mother Cindella Manabat, 29, told AFP from the slum community that houses 65,000 residents inside half a square kilometer (124 acres).

In their tiny one-room dwelling, Ella squints at her mother's cell phone to decipher the day's lesson, which her teacher posts online.

The apartment, which has no running water , must be kept dark because Ella's younger brother, Prince, suffers from cerebral palsy and could be hit by an epileptic seizure.

Several doors down, sixth-grader Jalian Mangampo and her younger brother Sherwin lie on their shared single bed and try to finish their schoolwork on mobile phones.

More days of extreme heat

The online lessons do not come cheap—the siblings have to drop five pesos (nine US cents) into a neighbor's WiFi vending machine to gain three hours of internet access.

Their widowed mother, shopkeeper Richel Mangampo, 43, took on a high-interest loan to buy them an 8,500-peso ($148) mobile phone. A stranger earlier gifted the siblings another phone.

"The heat is terrible because the ceiling is so low," the mother said, pointing to the corrugated iron roofing that she has partly covered with a scrap of plywood to keep the heat at bay.

"We have to step outside from time to time just to be able to breathe."

But she does not allow her children to stay out too long because the blazing sun is not the only danger in Baseco.

"Out of nowhere youths armed with broken bottles would be going at each other after getting high sniffing glue," she said.

The state weather service has warned the extreme heat will persist for the next two weeks at least, meaning the students could be mostly stuck at home before the school year ends on May 31.

'Prickly heat rash'

Mangampo said she has her children bathe twice daily, once in the morning and a second before bedtime.

"It's so hot they have difficulty falling asleep," Mangampo said.

Manabat said Ella often complains because the family has just one electric fan that must be shared at night.

The mother and her three kids, including a year-old baby, sleep on the bed while her boyfriend, a house decorator, sleeps in his boxers on the floor. The front door stays open for ventilation.

"She (daughter) gets prickly heat rash at times," Manabat said, adding the irritation distracts Ella from her schoolwork.

But Mangampo, whose children also get rashes, avoids taking them to the doctor as it is too expensive.

"We bathe at sea on Sundays instead. The boils disappear in no time," she said, referring to nearby Manila Bay, declared by the government a "no swimming zone" years earlier due to extreme pollution.

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72 Easy Science Experiments Using Materials You Already Have On Hand

Because science doesn’t have to be complicated.

If there is one thing that is guaranteed to get your students excited, it’s a good science experiment! While some experiments require expensive lab equipment or dangerous chemicals, there are plenty of cool projects you can do with regular household items. We’ve rounded up a big collection of easy science experiments that anybody can try, and kids are going to love them!

Easy Chemistry Science Experiments

Easy physics science experiments, easy biology and environmental science experiments, easy engineering experiments and stem challenges.

1. Taste the Rainbow

Teach your students about diffusion while creating a beautiful and tasty rainbow! Tip: Have extra Skittles on hand so your class can eat a few!

Learn more: Skittles Diffusion

2. Crystallize sweet treats

Crystal science experiments teach kids about supersaturated solutions. This one is easy to do at home, and the results are absolutely delicious!

Learn more: Candy Crystals

3. Make a volcano erupt

This classic experiment demonstrates a chemical reaction between baking soda (sodium bicarbonate) and vinegar (acetic acid), which produces carbon dioxide gas, water, and sodium acetate.

Learn more: Best Volcano Experiments

4. Make elephant toothpaste

This fun project uses yeast and a hydrogen peroxide solution to create overflowing “elephant toothpaste.” Tip: Add an extra fun layer by having kids create toothpaste wrappers for plastic bottles.

5. Blow the biggest bubbles you can

Add a few simple ingredients to dish soap solution to create the largest bubbles you’ve ever seen! Kids learn about surface tension as they engineer these bubble-blowing wands.

Learn more: Giant Soap Bubbles

6. Demonstrate the “magic” leakproof bag

All you need is a zip-top plastic bag, sharp pencils, and water to blow your kids’ minds. Once they’re suitably impressed, teach them how the “trick” works by explaining the chemistry of polymers.

Learn more: Leakproof Bag

7. Use apple slices to learn about oxidation

Have students make predictions about what will happen to apple slices when immersed in different liquids, then put those predictions to the test. Have them record their observations.

Learn more: Apple Oxidation

8. Float a marker man

Their eyes will pop out of their heads when you “levitate” a stick figure right off the table! This experiment works due to the insolubility of dry-erase marker ink in water, combined with the lighter density of the ink.

Learn more: Floating Marker Man

9. Discover density with hot and cold water

There are a lot of easy science experiments you can do with density. This one is extremely simple, involving only hot and cold water and food coloring, but the visuals make it appealing and fun.

Learn more: Layered Water

10. Layer more liquids

This density demo is a little more complicated, but the effects are spectacular. Slowly layer liquids like honey, dish soap, water, and rubbing alcohol in a glass. Kids will be amazed when the liquids float one on top of the other like magic (except it is really science).

Learn more: Layered Liquids

11. Grow a carbon sugar snake

Easy science experiments can still have impressive results! This eye-popping chemical reaction demonstration only requires simple supplies like sugar, baking soda, and sand.

Learn more: Carbon Sugar Snake

12. Mix up some slime

Tell kids you’re going to make slime at home, and watch their eyes light up! There are a variety of ways to make slime, so try a few different recipes to find the one you like best.

13. Make homemade bouncy balls

These homemade bouncy balls are easy to make since all you need is glue, food coloring, borax powder, cornstarch, and warm water. You’ll want to store them inside a container like a plastic egg because they will flatten out over time.

Learn more: Make Your Own Bouncy Balls

14. Create eggshell chalk

Eggshells contain calcium, the same material that makes chalk. Grind them up and mix them with flour, water, and food coloring to make your very own sidewalk chalk.

Learn more: Eggshell Chalk

15. Make naked eggs

This is so cool! Use vinegar to dissolve the calcium carbonate in an eggshell to discover the membrane underneath that holds the egg together. Then, use the “naked” egg for another easy science experiment that demonstrates osmosis .

Learn more: Naked Egg Experiment

16. Turn milk into plastic

This sounds a lot more complicated than it is, but don’t be afraid to give it a try. Use simple kitchen supplies to create plastic polymers from plain old milk. Sculpt them into cool shapes when you’re done!

17. Test pH using cabbage

Teach kids about acids and bases without needing pH test strips! Simply boil some red cabbage and use the resulting water to test various substances—acids turn red and bases turn green.

Learn more: Cabbage pH

18. Clean some old coins

Use common household items to make old oxidized coins clean and shiny again in this simple chemistry experiment. Ask kids to predict (hypothesize) which will work best, then expand the learning by doing some research to explain the results.

Learn more: Cleaning Coins

19. Pull an egg into a bottle

This classic easy science experiment never fails to delight. Use the power of air pressure to suck a hard-boiled egg into a jar, no hands required.

Learn more: Egg in a Bottle

20. Blow up a balloon (without blowing)

Chances are good you probably did easy science experiments like this when you were in school. The baking soda and vinegar balloon experiment demonstrates the reactions between acids and bases when you fill a bottle with vinegar and a balloon with baking soda.

21 Assemble a DIY lava lamp

This 1970s trend is back—as an easy science experiment! This activity combines acid-base reactions with density for a totally groovy result.

22. Explore how sugary drinks affect teeth

The calcium content of eggshells makes them a great stand-in for teeth. Use eggs to explore how soda and juice can stain teeth and wear down the enamel. Expand your learning by trying different toothpaste-and-toothbrush combinations to see how effective they are.

Learn more: Sugar and Teeth Experiment

23. Mummify a hot dog

If your kids are fascinated by the Egyptians, they’ll love learning to mummify a hot dog! No need for canopic jars , just grab some baking soda and get started.

24. Extinguish flames with carbon dioxide

This is a fiery twist on acid-base experiments. Light a candle and talk about what fire needs in order to survive. Then, create an acid-base reaction and “pour” the carbon dioxide to extinguish the flame. The CO2 gas acts like a liquid, suffocating the fire.

25. Send secret messages with invisible ink

Turn your kids into secret agents! Write messages with a paintbrush dipped in lemon juice, then hold the paper over a heat source and watch the invisible become visible as oxidation goes to work.

Learn more: Invisible Ink

26. Create dancing popcorn

This is a fun version of the classic baking soda and vinegar experiment, perfect for the younger crowd. The bubbly mixture causes popcorn to dance around in the water.

27. Shoot a soda geyser sky-high

You’ve always wondered if this really works, so it’s time to find out for yourself! Kids will marvel at the chemical reaction that sends diet soda shooting high in the air when Mentos are added.

Learn more: Soda Explosion

28. Send a teabag flying

Hot air rises, and this experiment can prove it! You’ll want to supervise kids with fire, of course. For more safety, try this one outside.

Learn more: Flying Tea Bags

29. Create magic milk

This fun and easy science experiment demonstrates principles related to surface tension, molecular interactions, and fluid dynamics.

Learn more: Magic Milk Experiment

30. Watch the water rise

Learn about Charles’s Law with this simple experiment. As the candle burns, using up oxygen and heating the air in the glass, the water rises as if by magic.

Learn more: Rising Water

31. Learn about capillary action

Kids will be amazed as they watch the colored water move from glass to glass, and you’ll love the easy and inexpensive setup. Gather some water, paper towels, and food coloring to teach the scientific magic of capillary action.

Learn more: Capillary Action

32. Give a balloon a beard

Equally educational and fun, this experiment will teach kids about static electricity using everyday materials. Kids will undoubtedly get a kick out of creating beards on their balloon person!

Learn more: Static Electricity

33. Find your way with a DIY compass

Here’s an old classic that never fails to impress. Magnetize a needle, float it on the water’s surface, and it will always point north.

Learn more: DIY Compass

34. Crush a can using air pressure

Sure, it’s easy to crush a soda can with your bare hands, but what if you could do it without touching it at all? That’s the power of air pressure!

35. Tell time using the sun

While people use clocks or even phones to tell time today, there was a time when a sundial was the best means to do that. Kids will certainly get a kick out of creating their own sundials using everyday materials like cardboard and pencils.

Learn more: Make Your Own Sundial

36. Launch a balloon rocket

Grab balloons, string, straws, and tape, and launch rockets to learn about the laws of motion.

37. Make sparks with steel wool

All you need is steel wool and a 9-volt battery to perform this science demo that’s bound to make their eyes light up! Kids learn about chain reactions, chemical changes, and more.

Learn more: Steel Wool Electricity

38. Levitate a Ping-Pong ball

Kids will get a kick out of this experiment, which is really all about Bernoulli’s principle. You only need plastic bottles, bendy straws, and Ping-Pong balls to make the science magic happen.

39. Whip up a tornado in a bottle

There are plenty of versions of this classic experiment out there, but we love this one because it sparkles! Kids learn about a vortex and what it takes to create one.

Learn more: Tornado in a Bottle

40. Monitor air pressure with a DIY barometer

This simple but effective DIY science project teaches kids about air pressure and meteorology. They’ll have fun tracking and predicting the weather with their very own barometer.

Learn more: DIY Barometer

41. Peer through an ice magnifying glass

Students will certainly get a thrill out of seeing how an everyday object like a piece of ice can be used as a magnifying glass. Be sure to use purified or distilled water since tap water will have impurities in it that will cause distortion.

Learn more: Ice Magnifying Glass

42. String up some sticky ice

Can you lift an ice cube using just a piece of string? This quick experiment teaches you how. Use a little salt to melt the ice and then refreeze the ice with the string attached.

Learn more: Sticky Ice

43. “Flip” a drawing with water

Light refraction causes some really cool effects, and there are multiple easy science experiments you can do with it. This one uses refraction to “flip” a drawing; you can also try the famous “disappearing penny” trick .

Learn more: Light Refraction With Water

44. Color some flowers

We love how simple this project is to re-create since all you’ll need are some white carnations, food coloring, glasses, and water. The end result is just so beautiful!

45. Use glitter to fight germs

Everyone knows that glitter is just like germs—it gets everywhere and is so hard to get rid of! Use that to your advantage and show kids how soap fights glitter and germs.

Learn more: Glitter Germs

46. Re-create the water cycle in a bag

You can do so many easy science experiments with a simple zip-top bag. Fill one partway with water and set it on a sunny windowsill to see how the water evaporates up and eventually “rains” down.

Learn more: Water Cycle

47. Learn about plant transpiration

Your backyard is a terrific place for easy science experiments. Grab a plastic bag and rubber band to learn how plants get rid of excess water they don’t need, a process known as transpiration.

Learn more: Plant Transpiration

48. Clean up an oil spill

Before conducting this experiment, teach your students about engineers who solve environmental problems like oil spills. Then, have your students use provided materials to clean the oil spill from their oceans.

Learn more: Oil Spill

49. Construct a pair of model lungs

Kids get a better understanding of the respiratory system when they build model lungs using a plastic water bottle and some balloons. You can modify the experiment to demonstrate the effects of smoking too.

Learn more: Model Lungs

50. Experiment with limestone rocks

Kids  love to collect rocks, and there are plenty of easy science experiments you can do with them. In this one, pour vinegar over a rock to see if it bubbles. If it does, you’ve found limestone!

Learn more: Limestone Experiments

51. Turn a bottle into a rain gauge

All you need is a plastic bottle, a ruler, and a permanent marker to make your own rain gauge. Monitor your measurements and see how they stack up against meteorology reports in your area.

Learn more: DIY Rain Gauge

52. Build up towel mountains

This clever demonstration helps kids understand how some landforms are created. Use layers of towels to represent rock layers and boxes for continents. Then pu-u-u-sh and see what happens!

Learn more: Towel Mountains

53. Take a play dough core sample

Learn about the layers of the earth by building them out of Play-Doh, then take a core sample with a straw. ( Love Play-Doh? Get more learning ideas here. )

Learn more: Play Dough Core Sampling

54. Project the stars on your ceiling

Use the video lesson in the link below to learn why stars are only visible at night. Then create a DIY star projector to explore the concept hands-on.

Learn more: DIY Star Projector

55. Make it rain

Use shaving cream and food coloring to simulate clouds and rain. This is an easy science experiment little ones will beg to do over and over.

Learn more: Shaving Cream Rain

56. Blow up your fingerprint

This is such a cool (and easy!) way to look at fingerprint patterns. Inflate a balloon a bit, use some ink to put a fingerprint on it, then blow it up big to see your fingerprint in detail.

57. Snack on a DNA model

Twizzlers, gumdrops, and a few toothpicks are all you need to make this super-fun (and yummy!) DNA model.

Learn more: Edible DNA Model

58. Dissect a flower

Take a nature walk and find a flower or two. Then bring them home and take them apart to discover all the different parts of flowers.

59. Craft smartphone speakers

No Bluetooth speaker? No problem! Put together your own from paper cups and toilet paper tubes.

Learn more: Smartphone Speakers

60. Race a balloon-powered car

Kids will be amazed when they learn they can put together this awesome racer using cardboard and bottle-cap wheels. The balloon-powered “engine” is so much fun too.

Learn more: Balloon-Powered Car

61. Build a Ferris wheel

You’ve probably ridden on a Ferris wheel, but can you build one? Stock up on wood craft sticks and find out! Play around with different designs to see which one works best.

Learn more: Craft Stick Ferris Wheel

62. Design a phone stand

There are lots of ways to craft a DIY phone stand, which makes this a perfect creative-thinking STEM challenge.

63. Conduct an egg drop

Put all their engineering skills to the test with an egg drop! Challenge kids to build a container from stuff they find around the house that will protect an egg from a long fall (this is especially fun to do from upper-story windows).

Learn more: Egg Drop Challenge Ideas

64. Engineer a drinking-straw roller coaster

STEM challenges are always a hit with kids. We love this one, which only requires basic supplies like drinking straws.

Learn more: Straw Roller Coaster

65. Build a solar oven

Explore the power of the sun when you build your own solar ovens and use them to cook some yummy treats. This experiment takes a little more time and effort, but the results are always impressive. The link below has complete instructions.

Learn more: Solar Oven

66. Build a Da Vinci bridge

There are plenty of bridge-building experiments out there, but this one is unique. It’s inspired by Leonardo da Vinci’s 500-year-old self-supporting wooden bridge. Learn how to build it at the link, and expand your learning by exploring more about Da Vinci himself.

Learn more: Da Vinci Bridge

67. Step through an index card

This is one easy science experiment that never fails to astonish. With carefully placed scissor cuts on an index card, you can make a loop large enough to fit a (small) human body through! Kids will be wowed as they learn about surface area.

68. Stand on a pile of paper cups

Combine physics and engineering and challenge kids to create a paper cup structure that can support their weight. This is a cool project for aspiring architects.

Learn more: Paper Cup Stack

69. Test out parachutes

Gather a variety of materials (try tissues, handkerchiefs, plastic bags, etc.) and see which ones make the best parachutes. You can also find out how they’re affected by windy days or find out which ones work in the rain.

Learn more: Parachute Drop

70. Recycle newspapers into an engineering challenge

It’s amazing how a stack of newspapers can spark such creative engineering. Challenge kids to build a tower, support a book, or even build a chair using only newspaper and tape!

Learn more: Newspaper STEM Challenge

71. Use rubber bands to sound out acoustics

Explore the ways that sound waves are affected by what’s around them using a simple rubber band “guitar.” (Kids absolutely love playing with these!)

Learn more: Rubber Band Guitar

72. Assemble a better umbrella

Challenge students to engineer the best possible umbrella from various household supplies. Encourage them to plan, draw blueprints, and test their creations using the scientific method.

Learn more: Umbrella STEM Challenge

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Welcome To Mrs. Owen’s Science Class

My goal is for my students to learn solid science principles in a Christian environment. This will be accomplished by exposing my students to a variety of exciting hands on laboratory experiments while encouraging critical and analytical thinking skills.  During these courses of study, students conduct field and laboratory investigations, using scientific methods during investigations and making informed decisions.  

Each science course is a lecture and laboratory oriented setup designed to further enhance a student’s understanding of an ever-changing world, giving the student necessary skills to succeed in a college setting. All science courses give the student a view of the majesty, power, and order that God has brought into existence through creation. Since God has granted us such a wonderful universe to live within, it is imperative that we seek to learn more about this universe of His glory.

Students learn that everything we do is to glorify God. Therefore, we should be both spiritually and academically sound. My prayers are that I can help develop my students into academically strong Christian leaders in an exciting laboratory environment.

My class motto is:

“F ailure is not an option”   Gene Kranz

How Science Shapes Student Success and Discovery

In the world of academia, where knowledge is ever-expanding and the quest for personal and professional growth never ceases, science plays a pivotal role in shaping the success and discovery experiences of students. From elementary school through college, scientific principles and methodologies influence how knowledge is acquired, understood, and applied. This influence is particularly significant in developing critical thinking skills, fostering innovation, and nurturing a curiosity that drives lifelong learning.

For many students juggling assignments, school responsibilities, and personal life, the ability to efficiently manage academic demands is crucial. In their quest for support and guidance, phrases like “ write my discussion post for me ” often echo through the halls of academic forums and study groups, highlighting the challenges students face in maintaining academic integrity while seeking help.

The Role of Science in Learning and Education

Enhancing Cognitive Skills

Science contributes significantly to the educational landscape by enhancing cognitive skills such as problem-solving, analytical thinking, and logical reasoning. These skills are essential for students as they tackle complex subjects and challenging assignments. The scientific approach encourages a systematic exploration of problems, promoting a deeper understanding and retention of material, which is crucial in subjects ranging from mathematics to the humanities.

Fostering Innovative Thinking

Innovation is at the heart of scientific inquiry, and by integrating scientific methods into learning, students are encouraged to think outside the box and explore novel solutions. This mindset is invaluable not only in science-related fields but also in everyday life, where creative problem-solving can lead to better outcomes in various situations.

Applying Scientific Principles to Studying and Homework

Effective Study Techniques

Science has revolutionized the way students approach studying and homework. Techniques such as spaced repetition, active recall, and the use of interdisciplinary approaches are all backed by scientific research to help improve learning efficiency. Implementing these techniques can transform the way students handle their study sessions and assignments, leading to better performance and less stress.

The Impact of Technology in Education

Technology, a byproduct of scientific advancement, has dramatically transformed the educational landscape. Tools such as educational apps, online courses, and digital libraries make learning more accessible and engaging. This integration of technology in education not only supports traditional learning methods but also introduces new avenues for discovery and innovation.

Cultivating a Scientific Mindset Among Students

Encouraging Curiosity and Inquiry

A key aspect of science is the cultivation of curiosity and the continuous quest for knowledge. Schools and colleges can nurture this by encouraging students to ask questions, conduct experiments, and engage in discussions. This active participation helps in cementing knowledge and stimulates a genuine interest in learning.

Building Resilience Through Scientific Methods

The scientific method teaches students about trial and error, hypothesis testing, and the iterative process of learning. These experiences are invaluable as they teach resilience and the importance of persistence in the face of challenges. Learning to view failures as stepping stones rather than setbacks is a crucial life skill that science helps develop.

In the digital age, where information is abundant and academic pressures are high, students often seek resources like the best research paper writing services to excel in their studies. However, the real key to lasting academic success lies in embracing the scientific principles of inquiry, rational thinking, and systematic problem-solving. By integrating these principles into their daily learning routines, students can not only achieve academic excellence but also foster a spirit of discovery that lasts a lifetime.