Science Museum on Wheels

Science Education Center of California provides school assemblies throughout California, Oregon, Washington, Nevada, Arizona, Utah and New Mexico. These science assemblies bring an entire natural history museum to a school site along with hands-on labs and activities that meet California Science Content Standards for California schools. Math content standards for California schools are addressed as well.

These grade-specific education programs are the educational arm of the Science Education Center of California and bring your field trip and assembly directly into the classroom. Free lesson plans are included with all school visits.

Your science adventure starts with a phone call (714) 292-6845 or an e-mail at krawitz@sprynet.com All presentations are conducted by Dan Krawitz who is the curator of the Science Education Center of California. Prices for all educational programs are heavily subsidized and accommodate budget conscious classrooms for every grade level.

School Assemblies

The Science Education Center has invested substantial time and capital in the acquisition of natural history specimens that go directly into the classroom. From petrified trees and giant ammonites in the fossil world to large gold specimens and meteorites in the mineral world, the museum items are available for all to see and touch. In addition to a traveling museum collection, the Science Education Center has developed and tested a wide range of physical and life science activities that target the K-12 level.

The Science Education Center of California’s presentations and labs are not all fun and games. Each presentation comes with a collection of laboratory activities that focus on a number of key themes in the physical and life sciences. These laboratory activities are designed to support the K-12 math and science standards and are adjusted to be grade (and skill) specific for a given group of students. All presentations are made by the curator of the Science Education Center, and have not been delegated to assistants or any third party personnel.

A summary of currently available laboratory activities and associated fees are listed below. Each laboratory activity is a complete math or science lesson with clearly defined objectives, creative modeling of lesson activities, checks for understanding, and provides an opportunity for guided practice and lesson closure.

Number of Students We Can Accommodate

Since the museum presentations and accompanying laboratory lessons require real academic work on the part of the students in a laboratory setting, the ideal classroom size should be around 30-35 students or less. With a maximum of about 4 - 5 presentations possible (50 minutes each) during the day, about 120-175 students can reasonably be accommodated. We encourage teachers to team up and allow us to present to more than one class so that we can reach the greatest number of students during the visit. For single subject teachers, I can accommodate the 5 period class day (5 presentations to each of your periods). In the multiple subject classrooms, teachers can team up and I can provide a presentation to two classes for the entire day or shorter presentations to several different groups of students in one or more classrooms. Regardless of how the arrangement is set up, the teachers will have presentations available for the entire school day.

School Visitation Fees

Our location in Orange County allows us to reach many school sites within a 60-minute drive. Our goal of providing universal school access means that we are willing to transport several hundred pounds of museum items and laboratory supplies to any school site within a few hours drive of our location in Orange County. The fees have been broken down by county to account for the added cost (extra fuel and time) of reaching school sites throughout the state.

The presentation fee is designed to cover the transportation costs for each school site and the time cost of spending an entire school day at a given school site. The laboratory fees are modest and the school will only be charged the out of pocket expenses for any materials used. These modest lab fees are listed at the end of each presentation activity and include the costs for items such as sugar, yeast, inexpensive containers, dry ice, balloons, etc. that are consumed during the course of the school presentation. The total fee for a school visit is the visitation fee plus the cost of any materials that are consumed on site. We should mention that a number of labs do not have any fee at all, since the materials used are owned by the Science Education Center and are not consumed in any laboratory setting. For a group of 150 students, the material fee generally runs about $50 dollars. Unused materials (extra sugar, yeast, balloons, containers, etc.) are given to teachers for future use.

School Visitation Fee (By County)

Southern California

$275 (Orange County)
$275 (Western Riverside and San Bernardino Counties)
$295 (Los Angeles County (south of the San Gabriel Mountains)
$295 (San Diego County)
$325 (Antelope Valley and Mojave Desert)
$325 (Ventura, Santa Barbara, Imperial and Kern Counties)

Central California

$495 (San Luis Obispo, Monterey, Kings, Tulare and Inyo Counties)
$495 (San Mateo, Santa Cruz, Santa Clara, Stanislaus, Madera and Fresno Counties

Northern California

$595 (San Francisco Bay Area)
$650 (Sacramento County)
$695 (All locations in California north of Sacramento)

Interior States

$450 (Las Vegas and Phoenix metro areas)
$995 (Any location in Utah)
$995 (Any location in New Mexico)

All other locations (Call for quote)

Scheduling a Visit

Teachers should give at least 2 weeks notice before scheduling a visit. To help prepare for the visit, the following information will be helpful:

We should note that since the fees are for an entire school day, I can make any combination of presentations that are possible within the allotted time frame. Since it takes about 90 minutes to set up the teacher or teachers should be available about 90 minutes prior to the start of the classroom presentations.

The Science Education Center of California can be reached through the “contact us” portion of the web site. While everything can be done by e-mail, a quick discussion by phone always seems to work best.

Earth Science (Physical science) Presentations

The class will be exposed to metallic elements that are both very heavy (gold, silver, copper and tungsten for example) and very light (aluminum). I will introduce them to the concept of density and how to calculate the density of an object. A class set of density bars will be provided and students will calculate the density of an unknown metal and use that value to identify the composition of the bar. After each lab group (2 to 3 students) calculates the density of the unknown bars, the result will be written on the board. Students will be asked to see if there are any patterns in the data. For instance, copper has a density of 8.9 grams/cm3. The lab results may be 8.7, 9.1, 17.8, 8.8, 9.0 and 0.89. The average of the four groups closest to the actual value is 8.9 grams/cm3. The remaining results 17.8 and 0.9 may be due to a multiplication error (17.8 is double 8.9) and a place value error (0.89 is one tenth the value of 8.9)

This is a lab that works well with several groups whose quantitative results can be compared to each other for both accuracy and precision. Younger students (who have not mastered multiplication and division) can make qualitative comparisons between light bars (aluminum) and heavier bars (copper and silver).

A demonstration of the conductivity of silver, copper, gold, nickel and aluminum will be provided to show how elements that are metallic tend to conduct heat rather well.

Example: A 100 troy ounce silver bar will be quickly frozen to –78.5 degrees centigrade on a block of dry ice while a similarly shaped block of stone will only have a small change in temperature. This insulating effect of rock will help explain why the interior of the earth is still rather hot. We should note that as the metallic bars reach sub-freezing temperatures, moisture will tend to form around the bars and condense as water and then ice. Large quantities of ice that have formed under these conditions can be weighed and used for class discussion. Questions such as the following may be useful for group discussion:

Note: A 10 pound block of dry ice can be used until it sublimates away, and can also be used to supply the dry ice for the solid-gas phase change laboratory.

This laboratory explores the dynamics of solid-gas phase changes in matter, and more specifically explores what happens when solid carbon dioxide (dry ice) is allowed to change into a gas within a closed system. In this laboratory, pieces of dry ice will be placed in a small container partially filled with water. Balloons will be placed over the containers (one for each student), and will expand as they become filled with carbon dioxide gas. The filled balloons will be compared with similar balloons filled with air in various buoyancy activities. Finally, the carbon dioxide gas will be allowed to fill containers on sensitive scales to illustrate that carbon dioxide gas is indeed heavier than air. Questions for laboratory discussion could include the following:

The group will observe minerals that fluoresce (change color under ultraviolet light) and phosphoresce (stay glowing even after the light source is removed). Changes in the intensity of the ultraviolet light will determine the level of brightness of the fluorescing minerals. Students will use colored pencils to draw the minerals (glowing bright red, green and purple) when illuminated in both short and long wave ultraviolet light. For older students, a graph can be made with mineral brightness on the Y-axis and distance from the fluorescent light source on the X-axis.

In this laboratory activity, the classes will be given a magnet, a dry-wipe board and a pile of iron filings. After placing the magnet under the dry-wipe board, and sprinkling iron filings over the board’s surface, students will discover that there is indeed regularity and patterns in the natural world. The iron filings will trace out the otherwise invisible magnetic field that emanates from the magnets.

This lab is designed to demonstrate how we can use indirect observation to understand one of the large forces in nature; namely magnetism. By changing the orientation of the magnet under the wipe board and adding additional magnets, the magnetic field will change in appearance. Sketches will be made of the magnetic field that is generated from the strong ceramic magnets that are placed beneath the dry-wipe boards. These sketches will be compared for their similarities both within and between lab groups.

This laboratory is also great fun (especially the younger students) and can be combined with a magnetic separation activity discussed below. For added fun, a 50-pound magnet is also available for view and analysis.

This is a great lab for the outdoors. All that is needed are several aluminum trays, a pile of pennies and enough foil for several foil boats. Everything is provided at no extra charge. The pieces of aluminum foil will be folded into small boats, which will be placed in aluminum trays full of water. One by one, the pennies will be stacked into the boats until the boats sink. The lab groups will keep careful record of the number of pennies that each boat holds before it sinks. Each person will record their best reading (boat that held the greatest number of pennies) and the readings will be recorded on the board at the end of the activity. A histogram will be constructed (yes statistics for grade school students) with the available data. On the Y-axis, relative frequency will be the unit of measure, and on the X-axis, number of pennies held by the boats will be the unit of measure. In past labs there have been both normal distributions and bimodal distributions of weight loads that were held by the foil boats. The following skills are developed in this laboratory: Water displacement, mathematical averages, graphing, and basic statistical analysis. These higher order skills are presented in a way that 3rd – 8th graders can understand.

“Corrosion” is a general term in which uncombined metals change over to compounds. In the special case of iron, the process of corrosion is called rusting. Rust appears to be a hydrated ferric oxide with a chemical composition that corresponds approximately to 2Fe₂O₃ with the addition of three molecules of water. We can create oxidized iron quickly by taking finely divided iron (steel wool) and placing it in water and air. The steel wool will show significant rust accumulation by the end of the day. We can also ignite the steel wool in air and watch it in a few seconds change over to ferric oxide. This is an exothermic reaction, which can be enhanced with a blast of warm air from a hair dryer.

Life Science Presentations

The definition of what is living and what is not will be explored in this laboratory. Students will be given dry yeast and asked if it is living or non-living. Sugar will be added and hot water as well. The groups will be able to determine if the fermenting yeast is actually alive. After a few minutes of fermentation, the yeast will expand so much that the lids will pop off the containers and the contents will ooze out. An enjoyable lab for all ages. We should note that this laboratory activity works best outside and on a grassy surface. After completion of the lab, the containers can be placed in a trash receptacle, and cleanup is completed. The smelly nature of the lab (fermentation of yeast) dictates an outdoor activity.

Heat island and global warming activity. This lab is in the science lab booklet (written by Dan Krawitz) and illustrates how dark artificial surfaces (such as asphalt) absorb more heat than lighter natural surfaces (such as grass). This lab also looks into the concept of global warming as well.

Each group will be given a centigrade thermometer, a piece of paper to cover the thermometer (this will avoid the risk of exposing the thermometer to direct sunlight and causing the data to be biased), and a laboratory notebook to record temperature readings in. Even numbered groups will be measuring grassy surfaces and odd numbered groups will be measuring asphalt surfaces.

Grassy surface groups: If you are measuring grassy surfaces, your group should place the thermometer on a grassy spot (you should cover the bulb of the thermometer with paper), and take a temperature reading. Take the average of several nearby readings for more accurate results.

Asphalt Surface Groups: If you are measuring asphalt surfaces, your group should place the thermometer on an asphalt spot (you should cover the bulb of the thermometer with paper), and take a temperature reading. Take the average of several nearby readings for more accurate results.

The temperature readings will be made each hour for a few minutes and recorded in the class summary table. When each group returns to the classroom they should record their group averages onto the blackboard.

Temperature will be plotted on the Y-axis and time will be plotted on the X-axis. Every hour the lab groups will go out and measure either grassy surfaces or asphalt surfaces. These values will be plotted over time and on a sunny day, a pattern will emerge. The pattern is not random and suggests that natural grassy surfaces heat much differently than artificial dark surfaces.

Each child will be given a 100 million-year-old ammonite slice to study. They will be asked to determine the number of chambers in the ammonite. They will then draw the growing pattern of the spiral by placing the ammonite on a piece of paper and continuing the pattern of the ammonite on paper after the actual ammonite spiral has ended. The class will find the area of the ammonite and determine the area of the ammonite for 10 chambers, 20 chambers, etc, and plot chamber quantity Vs area on graph paper. This will help to illustrate whether the pattern of growth is linear or non-linear.

Traveling Natural History Museum Collection
Observation and Inquiry

Students will observe museum items and will try to answer the following questions prior to an official explanation of what the museum items are and what causes their formation:

Examples of museum items that will be available for viewing, touching and discussion are petrified trees, giant ammonites, large gold and copper specimens, meteorites (an 85 pound specimen is in the collection) and a host of well-crystallized minerals that form the basis of gemstones. Many of the museum items on the web site will be available for classroom use and discussion. Additional museum quality items that are not on the web site will also be available during presentations. For a detailed description of some of the museum specimens, click onto the minerals, fossils and gems sections and have a look.

In the museum inquiry portion of the presentation, it is the student who discovers what the answers are. Instead of just telling the class what a meteorite is for instance, we have them figure out for themselves what the items are. My job is just to help guide them to where they should be going. The museum inquiry activity helps to bring some of the finest natural wonders of the world into the classroom in a way that was not possible before.

Science Education Center of California

Science Assemblies

Science Education Programs