HANDS-ON SCIENCE
A Teacher's Guide to Student-Built Experiments and the Exploratorium Science Snackbook
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Introduction
In 1987, two dozen middle and high school science teachers met at the Exploratorium in San Francisco to begin the three-year process of
writing the Exploratorium Science Snackbook. The Snackbook, written by teachers, for teachers, shows how to build exciting, hands-on
science exhibits for the classroom. This magazine features articles by elementary, middle, and high school teachers that tell how they
teach science using interactive materials from the Snackbook.
While Snackbook may seem an odd name for a publication about hands-on science, it's more apt than you might think. For many years, the
Exploratorium has published a series of Cookbooks that contain exhibit
"recipes"-instructions used by other museums to build duplicates of Exploratorium exhibits. The Snackbook contains exhibit recipes,
too-but not for the complex, full-sized exhibits designed for other museums. Snackbook "Snacks" are inexpensive, classroom-sized versions
of the same science exhibits we have here at the museum. You can make them yourself, or you can use them as student projects. Either way,
Snacks can help you and your students succeed in science-and have fun doing it.
Table of Contents
The Exploratorium Science Snackbook: what it is
and how you can use it.
by Paul Doherty
With middle school students as exhibit builders, you
can create a science museum in your classroom.
by Modesto Tamez as told to Mary Miller
Make a portable cloud in a bottle. Now you see it, now you don't!
What you see is often affected by what you expect to see.
Three high school teachers show how they use Snackbook
experiments: as laboratories, demonstrations, and tools for motivation. by Paul Doherty
What's your (electrical) sign?
A lens creates an image that hangs in mid air.
As motors go, this is about as simple as it gets.
Elementary school students create their own exhibits. by
Erainya Neirro
Now you can explain why the sky is blue and why the sunset is red.
Stare at a color and see it change.
©1996 The Exploratorium 3601 Lyon Street San Francisco, CA 94123