Insanitek

What Makes Magnets Work? The Spinning Electrons of Magnetics

Magnets just work, right? If so, why doesn’t any piece of metal stick to the refrigerator? Now, what makes a magnet a magnet, not just a piece of metal? The answer lies in the spinning of electrons in each atom that makes up the metal. Any time electrons are in play, we also need to talk about electricity. Wait. What? Electricity? Yes. Magnets are a side effect of electricity. Ever wonder why it…

What does it take to be a torchbearer of scientific knowledge?

Being a torchbearer of knowledge, especially scientific knowledge, is a fun journey. You learn so many useful, life changing things. There are so many ways to take any situation and come up with solutions that make life better. And yet, there is the potential to be misunderstood when you share the knowledge. Or worse, the subject you share being misused and abused for crimes against humanity…

Lake Overturn: A Rare and Silent Killer

On August 26, 1986, the normally tranquil, blue water of Lake Nyos in the West Africa country of Cameroon unexpectedly turned deadly. Late that night, according to the few people who survived to tell the tale, a low, rumbling sound emitted from the lake. The residents of the three villages on the shores of the lake stepped outside to investigate and saw a tall plume of water from Lake Nyos. What…

Schooling, Swarming, and Murmuration: Animal Synchronicity

It is a mesmerizing natural phenomenon—murmuration. This is when a huge flock of starlings all fly in a synchronized manner, creating fascinating patterns in the sky. Just watch some of the YouTube videos of murmuration and you’ll be amazed. Just why do starlings do this and how do they know which direction to turn when the whole flock is flying? The instinctive mechanism that triggers…

Values needed to be a torchbearer of scientific knowledge

Sharing knowledge seems like it would be a very easy thing. After all, people share knowledge without much training to varying degrees of success. Look at YouTubers that specialise in tutorials, educators, parents, colleagues and literally anyone around you. We all assist others through life by sharing what knowledge we can. If you’re serious about being a torchbearer of scientific knowledge,…

Mini Science Idea Journal

These are the first three pages in our much larger journal with prompts. It’s designed to be used with open-ended experiments to help students explore ideas they are passionate about. We’ve been using them at the beginning of PBL sections so the students could dabble in their ideas and see if they want to go further.   The journal prompts are: – What I’m curious about and why – This is how…

What does it mean to be a torchbearer of scientific knowledge?

Let’s go back in time a moment and look at the beginning of science. I imagine it started with an obstinant child looking for an easier way to do chores so they could go play. Or even a businessman looking for a way to increase the ease of an aspect of his business. The earliest written accounts of science relate to exploring an aspect of the world fully, continuing to ask why things were. How…

What Is Your Color Made Of? An Exploration of Chromatography

Pick up a marker, and you’re writing in colour. The word “chromatography” is descriptive as it translates to “colour writing” from the Greek roots. But a simple marker is not as simple as you think. The primary colours are, but what about that orange marker? The purple? The green? That’s where things start getting interesting. Primary colours to a whole rainbow To understand chromatography, you…

Need some help? Grace, the CEO of Insanitek, love to spread knowledge. She specialises in hands on science and making math a little less of a chore. [CP_APP_HOUR_BOOKING id=”3″]

Secrets of the Ice: Thermodynamics of Why Salt Melts Ice

Winter is a time for removing snow, and one fail safe go to is ice. Every winter the road crews bring out the ice trucks to help make driving conditions safer. Homeowners, as well, may salt their drives and sidewalks to prevent injury and accidents on their properties. Sure, we could dust the road and sidewalks with sand to help add grit and friction, but it doesn’t get rid of the dangerous ice…

Career Prep: Communication for the Workplace

Modules: Each interactive module takes about 30 – 50 minutes, working at your own speed. Each module ends with a test for mastery of the material presented, and you must pass with 100% to move to the next module. This guarantees that you have the skills down and have bragging rights to each finely tuned skill in communication. At the end of this class you will get a completion certificate and a…

Sometimes we just need to get feedback on a project while we’re actively working on it. Yet a Zoom meeting gets awkward as we work on things in real time. I mean, what if you want to take a moment to cuddle your pet or yell at your kids to stop harassing each other? That’s where Voxer Chats come in. Voxer is a walkie talkie app which makes it less awkward for you to work on a project while life…

Black Friday Cyber Monday Sales Resources

This is a new one for me, but I have had a lot of requests over the years to keep an eye out for this or that on sale from the products and services we use. If this is something you’ve been wanting, here you go. Here’s a list of classes, products, and services we’ve used over the year that are having sales for the holidays. Quick disclaimer: Some of these use affiliate links. Some do not. If…

How A pH Indicator Works

How doesa pH indicator work? Every one of us has come across a pH based experiment. My first one was the cabbage pH colour change when I was at a nerdy friend’s birthday party in 3rd grade. Most of us, though, are directed to dip the pH indicator strip into a liquid to see what colour the paper changed in middle school. Yet, if you’re like me you never asked this question until you were either…

Hands on Science: Pupil Membership

Library of hands on science workshops demonstrations and live workshop replays. One demonstration, one live is added per month in this library.

All workshops will have a printable that has step by step directions, blank (dot grid or graph) pages for a notebook, and ideas to make more experiments to fill up your interactive journal. For each workshop there is the ability to interact with the…

Pond in a Jar

A pond in a jar is a fun biology project to see what kind of life you might find in a pond. It’s a small sample of the vegetation, mud, microscopic and small critters.

Supplies:

A jar with a well fitting lid. I used a candle jar, but feel free to use a pickle jar or other.

A shovel or trowel

A water bottle

A magnifying glass or digital microscope.

The rest you should be able to find from around…