Science Teaching tips from Lee Trampleasure

August 17, 2026

Setting up a buggy lab track

For the constant velocity buggy lab, I’m lucky enough to have a pathway behind our physics rooms that is locked off to the general student community. When we run the buggy lab, students work back here. Last year I had papers taped in various places to help students determine their starting position and direction…and they had problems figuring this out....

Kinematics/Modeling Comments: 0

August 13, 2026

Making your slow buggy go slow

A unique way to replace one of the batteries in a physics constant velocity buggy lab.

Kinematics/Modeling Comment: 1

March 23, 2026

Waves in a Spring: A Lab That Helps Students Figure Out What Really Controls Wave Speed

This lab engages students in an evidence‑based investigation of what determines wave speed in a spring, emphasizing experimental control and quantitative reasoning. By systematically varying amplitude, tension, distance traveled, and wave type, students test common misconceptions and use measured data to decide which variables meaningfully affect wave speed. The activity is designed to support sensemaking around wave–medium interactions while reinforcing core scientific practices such as controlling variables, analyzing uncertainty, and justifying claims with numerical evidence.

9th grade physcis/Physics

March 23, 2026

Waves in a Spring: Teacher supplements as generated by Copilot AI.

Main post can be found here I had Copilot generate a quick key, list of common misconceptions, and CA NGSS alignment. I did a quick scan, and it looks pretty good, but use at your own risk. 1) Teacher Key / Expected Trends (by experiment) Context from the lab: Students investigate wave speed on a spring using four experiments (amplitude,...

9th grade physcis/Physics/Waves Comments: 0

May 14, 2025

Calorimetry: Measuring energy in foods.

Many chemistry teachers lead a lab in which students burn food and capture much of the energy in water in an aluminum can. Since so much of the energy is not absorbed by the water in the can (so much just passes around the can and rises into the classroom), this lab is more about practicing lab skills, including: I’m...

Chemistry Comments: 0

October 16, 2023

The importance of the non-breaking space in science writing

As a science teacher, I write a lot of documents that have numbers with units (e.g. 3.6 m/s). When readers see a number at the end of a line without units immediately following them, it is harder for them to keep the numbers and units. The 50 second video below shows the difference between regular spaces (what you get when you click...

Science Education/Tech tips Comments: 0

September 27, 2023

Average vs trends: “Who should pack your parachute?”

This question focuses on the traditional grading system were all scores count the same, and a students’ final grade is based on the average of all the scores. The alternative presented is to look at trends in a student’s scores…looking for growth and allowing for early mistakes/low scores to not have as great an impact.

Grading/Science Education Comments: 0

February 4, 2023

Ionic bonding pies

Here’s a great ionic bonding activity shared on the National Chemistry Teachers Facebook page. Students are exposed to valance electrons and matching for 1:1 ionic compounds. Two sizes are provided: One full page pies, and one with six pies on a page. Here is the PDF template.

Bonding/Chemistry Comments: 0

January 20, 2023

Yolo Bypass flooding-January 2023

I’ve collecting photos of the Yolo Bypass during the January 2023 flooding. Photo location is at the east end of the bypass, on the north side along the bike path. I’ll be adding more photos as I take them over the next few weeks. Looking westbound from West Sacramento Click on the forward/back buttons on the side of each image...

Geology/Earth Science Comments: 0

October 13, 2021

Introducing forces using bowling balls & brooms

n Modeling Instruction lessons, most units start with a ‘paradigm lab’ that initiates development of a conceptual model for the unit (‘concepts before math’). When introducing forces, the model presented here develops the relationship between ‘pushes’ and changes in motion. This post explains the procedures and pedagogical rationale for this activity.

General Comments: 0