JoinMeet the expert in teaching physics and chemistry cost effectively
By Debra Shapiro
Posted on 2009-03-21
 Ted Koehn of Lincoln East High School in Lincoln, Nebraska, holds a homemade inclined plane he uses in a variety of physics lessons. With humor and insight into teachers’ struggles during this troubled economic time, Koehn told a packed room of budget-conscious teachers how to do more than 60 chemistry and physics labs with low- or no-cost supplies and equipment. |
| While he’s a pro at saving money, he generously provided each attendee with a thick folder filled with instructions for labs and constructing one’s own equipment from such common items as juice cans, old curtain rods, used golf balls, and discarded pieces of wood. For example, he showed how to make a catapult from wood sticks and a plastic spoon. His students use it to launch marshmallows and measure the trajectories. The audience cracked up when he said his students then “eat the marshmallows at their own risk.” Koehn concluded the session by calling the numbers he had written on the teachers’ folders. When a number was called, the lucky teacher could choose which of Koehn’s equipment and supplies he or she could take home. I told Koehn I was impressed by his cleverness in avoiding the need to schlep home all of the materials and by his generosity to his fellow teachers! |
 Francis Ayissi of Washington, D.C., was one of the teachers who was grateful for Koehn’s suggestions. “The value of a workshop like this one will improve the way I’m teaching, and it will also enhance the quality of my labs,” he explained. “In this current economic climate, I believe it’s very, very, very important to see how you can save money by using common materials like those items we find in our homes, kitchens, in the neighborhoods where we live.” |