My Lab Rats: Quick and EZ Defrost Tray Review

I have a MiracleThaw (or a knock-off that Tom picked up for me from a thrift store) that I demonstrate in class. It makes for a cool demonstration to show that the aluminum does a spectacular job of transferring heat to the ice and melting the ice far more quickly than students would expect - especially after they touch the MiracleThaw first and find that it feels absolutely cold in spite of it being firmly at room temperature. I also have a pair of Flinn Scientific's ice melting blocks which make for a nice comparison

Check out another couple of articles about the MiracleThaw that come in pretty digestible, bite-sized servings for you and your students...

• "Not Too Hot to Handle" from That's the Way the Cookie Crumbles by Joe Schwarcz
• Miracle Thaw - the Bogus Miracle from SkepticFriendsNetwork (and a follow-up letter)
• How does the Miracle Thaw work? and Utensil to thaw meat

Fun Science Demos

Dr George Mehler (and ASM Foundation Board member) has worked with Jared Hottenstein and other Central Bucks science teachers have put together a series of science demonstration videos. The videos are geared mostly toward middle school science concepts, but a number of the concepts are ones that I know first hand that some high school students struggle with.

Most of them, admittedly, aren't material science concepts, but they are certainly basic science concepts that material science students would need to know. I'll post a couple of videos that are directly material-science-related (heat conduction and thermal expansion), but there a whole bunch more videos on their YouTube channel, FunScienceDemos. Check 'em out...

And a big thanks to George who came to our Montana camp to record some feedback from our campers for another project that he is working on, promoting the summer teacher camps.