Spangler Salutes Marti Clayton 9News Science Guy, Steve Spangler, Visits Frontier Valley Elementary email to friend
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As the science education reporter at 9NEWS, Steve Spangler is constantly searching for teachers who get kids excited about science. Marti Clayton is the science specialist at Frontier Valley Elementary in Parker, Colorado. Mrs. Clayton's students say that she comes up with the coolest science experiments and hands-on activities that get them to ask lots of questions. Today, she shares three easy science experiments all focused around the power of air.

Mrs. Clayton's class shared these cool experiments...

Windbags
How many breaths would it take to inflate a bag that is eight feet long and ten inches in diameter? You might guess 30 breaths... maybe 50. The students inflated the giant Windbag using only one single breath of air, but they knew an amazing science secret (and had a little help from the famous scientist, Bernoulli).

Squeeze Bottle Rockets
It's easy to turn a juice bottle into a rocket launcher. How? Grab a few straws, some modeling clay and an empty juice bottle to make a launcher that will send the straw rocket soaring across the room. Ok, you'll learn something about Newton's Third Law of Motion at the same time.

Frontier Valley Elementary has a dedicated science as one of the "specials" classes addressing the Douglas County science curriculum. "I have had the privilege of not only teaching, but exciting students from grades one through six with the mysteries of science for the past two years," says Marti Clayton.

Marti Clayton is an outstanding science teacher who brings real-world meaning to each of her science lessons. "I believe one way to make our students become critical thinkers is by providing them with hands-on science activities that are both engaging and authentic," according to Mrs. Clayton. "I feel this is especially important at the elementary school level. Children are naturally curious. Teaching science provides a means for continually building that curiosity within our students. I was fortunate to be able to attend the Science in the Rockies Conference in August 2007. This was a very motivating experience, providing me with numerous hands-on activities to make science come alive in my classroom."