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How to get free teacher PD from Fizzics Education

science teachers workshop from Dissection Connection

science teachers workshop from Dissection Connection

Teaching science can be a tough gig.  There seems to be no end to the cool experiment ideas on the internet that you can try in the classroom.  But you don’t always have time or the confidence to check it out first and there is nothing worse than a science lesson that falls flat because the internet lied to you.

What if you didn’t have to ‘squeeze science in’?  What if you knew how to make science part of every lesson?

Fizzics Education offers a free teacher PD workshop for schools that book school workshops.   This is not a powerpoint presentation; it’s a bunch of experiments demonstrated to your staff that have been classroom tested.
We can also arrange this via video conference if time does not allow us to present this on the day of your school visit.

Miss Vivi has seen the difference even a quick one hour workshop can make to a teacher that wasn’t sure where to start with a specimen.  Let Dissection Connection and Fizzics Education give you a set of skills that will make you the best teacher you can be when it comes to delivering science in and out of the classroom.

Pop over and have a look at all the gory bits on their website and while you are there check out the other FREE resources they have for teachers.

Fizzics Education also currently deliver in-person science workshops into Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Gold Coast, Sunshine Coast and also do Regional Visits.

Fizzics-Title-10-years

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Top Tip: How to use live semen with digital microscopes and SmartBoards

microscope image of live boar semen

This Top Tip comes from Tamara Daus, Science Operations Officer at Kingston State High School, in August 2013.  Thank you, Tamara!  This is a specimen we don’t see enough of in schools and the collective wisdom of lab techs is the best source of info for others to learn from.
microscope image of live boar semen microscope image of live boar semen
images courtesy T Daus

Semen from Dissection Connection, new digital microscope… Movies worked really well too

I’m taking the semen into the first Year 8 classes tomorrow. We’ll be able to have the digital microscope up the front with the image on the SmartBoard for the whole class to see, and then the groups will be able to use their own microscopes to focus and check out their own slides.

Thanks Miss Vivi J

Got a Top Tip you are willing to share with other techs? Have a squeal to Miss Vivi and see your name in lights.

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Top Tip: How to defrost brains for dissection in 1 hour

sheep brain for dissection

This Top Tip comes from Patricia Hugman, Senior Laboratory Technician at St Joseph’s College Toowoomba.  Thank you, Patricia!  This is something we get asked all the time and the collective wisdom of lab techs is the best source of info.

sheep brain for dissection mmmm...... brains!

Have you ever wondered how long it would take to defrost … brains for dissection?

I found the following method for defrosting brains to be very effective & efficient

To defrost brains ‘al dente’ in 1hr

1.       Straight from freezer

2.       Place brains in packet in suitable container & cover with water (4 litre icecream container works well) sitting ‘flat’ not ‘end on’

1pkt/ container defrosts faster that 2 in one container

3.       @20min – Change water

4.       @40min – discard water, remove brains from packet, sprinkle liberally with salt, just cover with water

5.       @50min – gently separate brains, being careful of brainstem/medulla

6.       @60min – carefully remove individual brains, pat dry with paper towel and ‘serve’ to students!

On a nice summer’s day (25deg C) this timing worked a treat. Producing brains that were still firm but not icy.

Sitting on the bench (in air) produced irregular defrosting >4hr

Got a Top Tip you are willing to share with other techs?  Have a squeal to Miss Vivi and see your name in lights.

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No Chemical Preservatives

Dissection Connection 100% Chemical Free specimens

Dissection Connection 100% Chemical Free specimens

We believe Lab Technicians and science Teachers are subjected to enough chemical exposure during their career as it is.  Students, too, deserve to learn in an environment that limits their chemical exposure to those experiments that require the use of chemicals in a controlled and safe manner.

The specimens supplied by Dissection Connection are 100% chemical preservative free.  No formalin, no glycol, no nothing.  The exception are the small intestines which are packaged in a solution of sterile 0.9% saline to prevent dehydration of the specimen.

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