Curse you, Phil!

Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow this morning, predicting six more weeks of winter.







Maybe we'd get better luck with Punxsutawney Bill?


Seems they have records of the groundhog's shadow-seeking. It might be an interesting research project to compare temperatures in the years where Phil sees his shadow to the years when he doesn't.

Maybe the groundhog is the Willard Scott of the animal kingdom? (Though, we suppose, Willard Scott is technically the Willard Scott of the animal kingdom . . . .)

Science Gone Horribly Wrong!

We can certainly understand how the cold and the snow make you think weird things, but even we have limits.

The man mentioned in this article, left unnamed for his own good, apparently has no such limits.

We'll give you a second to read it.



In no particular order are our favorite snippets from the article:

The victim "had a reputation of doing crazy things at parties."

The victim had "been drinking prior to the accident."

The victim is a "62-year-old township man."


So what have we learned?

Someone's grandpa has some mad crazy Chemistry skills and not a whole lot of common sense. Oh, and he has a friend willing to "light a wick."

Toothpick Bridge Winner Announced

Super duper congratulations to Mrs. Wycoff’s fifth grade science class from A.L. Price Elementary School in Beaumont, Texas! They were selected as the winners of the First Teacher's Discovery Toothpick Bridge Building Contest.

The students' entry was chosen from more than 500 entries by high school, middle school, and elementary students.

For their efforts, Mrs. Wycoff's class can now select $500 worth of science supplies from Teacher's Discovery.

The contest was advertised in our catalog--$15 got the teacher and students an unlimited supply of toothpicks and glue. Run out mid-contest? We sent out more, free of charge.

Nick, our Science Division guru, says that because of the impressive interest in the contest, he's running it again in our Spring catalog, due to hit teacher's mailboxes everywhere in the next month or so.

If you would like to request a catalog, just to be sure you can be in the running for the next contest, drop us a line here.

Now, we're not sure if we're authorized to say anything until the catalog hits the street, but since we're the only ones with the blog password, we'll say this:

The next contest's prize is fully $1,000 in supplies.

That's a lot of toothpicks.

Good luck to future entrants, and congrats again to Mrs. Wycoff and her kids.

Science Division's Globe is World-Famous

Massive congratulations to our Science Division for landing on columnist Dave Barry's 2009 Holiday Gift Guide.

They also got featured in today's Detroit News. (Ahem, hello! Someone deserves a byline for that great photograph. It was difficult to get all of them to smile at the same time.)

Of course, the general demand for a Sperm Globe is fairly predicatable, so the influx of surprise orders caught with our pants down. Sadly, the globes are out of stock.

Without getting too detailed about the manufacturing process, we can say is that a new batch of globes will be ready to ship out in February.

Congrats to Nick, Gayann, and Sam--our Sceince Division. What will they think of next?

Pitch the Rock! Rocks and Minerals Baseball Takes the Field

Hello, everyone, from Teacher's Brunch HQ in suddenly-summer Auburn Hills, MI. We've all got sports fever around here now that our Teacher's Discovery Fantasy Football league is up and running (thanks, Adrian Peterson), and our hometown Detroit Tigers are in the pennant race.

Coincidentally, we've just released Rocks and Minerals Baseball, the latest installment in our series of games made for interactive whiteboards. Science teachers across the country will find the game in the catalog they should be receiving within the next day or two.



Give the game a try-out.

You can download a sample here for PC users, and Justin Long-ophiles can get their Mac fix here.



And to put you in the mood to root for your team. . . .

Blood, Sweat, and Tears! Our new forensics game is sure to be a hit

Gribbly bits of bone and blood are sure to please budding forensic scientists in your class.

Students answer questions covering biology, evidence gathering, psychology, and physics as they make their way around the crime scene.



Not for the faint of heart, but perfectly fine for high school students who are ready to learn about the practical, real-world applications of science.

Find out more about it here.

Play Ball! Two New Science Games

These two new gems just arrived to spice up Science classrooms everywhere.




The first baseball game covers micro-organisms and bacteria. Sure, it's a gribbly topic, but that's what makes it all the more fun!




Tornadoes, hurricanes, snowstorms, floods, earthquakes, tsunami, and a host of other insurance adjuster nightmares take center stage in our second new game, Natural Disasters Baseball.



Of course, both of these games are perfect for your new interactive whiteboard, but they work great on a regular wall, or a computer lab.

Let us know what you think of them by emailing us at teachersbrunch at teachersdiscovery dot com.

Foreign Language is Twittering!

We were a little harsh on the Twitter device recently, but to promote the Spanish/French/German folks of Teacher's Discovery, we'll kindly ignore it.

So here goes. . . .

Hey, everyone, from Teacher's Brunch HQ in sitting-in-sun-but-watching-storm-clouds Auburn Hills, MI.

Just a little note for Spanish, French, and German teachers.

Our brothers and sisters in the Teacher's Discovery Foreign Language division recently started posting to Twitter.

They promised us that if we help them get 100 followers, we'd all get cookies.

We love cookies.

So give them a look see, if you care to. They're working on some really great projects for FL teachers, from high tech downloadable and streaming stuff, to great good old-fashioned craft kits. They'll also be tweeting about new projects in the other divisions, too, so Science, Social Studies, and English teachers don't need to feel left out.

You can find their Twitter feed here.

Pluto Takes Another Hit!

After the attempt by some people to strip it of its planet status, it seems the icy chunk of space rock known as Pluto is facing another loss.

The lady who as a little girl named Pluto has passed away.

It's What's Inside That Counts: Anatomy Challenge Has Arrived!

Our newest game from our Challenge series is for Science teachers everywhere: Anatomy Challenge.

Like all our Challenge games, we made this to work perfectly with your interactive whiteboard, but there's other ways to use the game, too. In a lab, projected on the wall, on your classroom computer-whatever machine you use, the game is always fun, and students are always learning!





Here's the link to a sample for PC users: right here!

Folks more inclined toward Macs can find a sample to download over here: linky link!

What Should We Make Next?

Regards and salutations from Final Four-obsessed Auburn Hills, MI, just a jaunt down the highway from Detroit, home of men's college basketball's championship this weekend.

We had a product development meeting today--one of the many steps of the process that eventually results in the creation of great stuff we hope helps you in the classroom.

After the meeting, we were sitting in the TB HQ office thinking about some of the ideas that were floated around, and we thought it might be great to turn the process over to you, dear readers.

So. What can we make for you, English teacher? Science teacher? Social Studies teacher? Spanish teacher? French teacher? German teacher?

What do you need? How can we help?

Feel free to drop a line in the comments section, or email teachersbrunch at teachersdiscovery dot com.

Keep doing all the wonderful things you're doing!

Periodic Table of Inventors

In this post I write about our then-new Periodic Table of Scientists.

Now we have the Periodic Table of Inventors.



It's every bit as fun and informative as its sister chart.



We also have a special two-fer set. You can buy both charts at once and save money!

As always, we welcome your suggestions and success stories.

We think these charts are perfect for research paper brainstorming, class projects, "Scientist (or Inventor) of the Day" activities, or discussion starters.

Plus, they look great.

How will you use yours?

Periodic Table of Scientists

We blogged a little while ago about a periodic table we made.

We have several of them actually. We have one here, too.



We've finally made our first periodic table for use in an actual science classroom. Of course, it's not your usual periodic table.

Instead of elements, this chart features over 100 famous, and not-so-famous, scientists, arranged by their field of research.


Science teachers will love it, because it looks great on the wall, and is an awesome way to kick-start writing across the curriculum.


Students will love it because it has Chuck Berry--which is our way of saying, we're doing what we can to make science fun.

That's A Big Fish!

We saw this story about scientists catching (and releasing!) a record-setting stingray.

Science can be so cool.

Edison Patents

This website has files for all of Thomas Edison's patents. It's pretty cool.

Below is the diagram included in the paperwork for Edison's first patent, a voting machine.

(insert politically aware joke here)

Our Favorite Things We've Made! (part one)

Here is the first part in an ongoing series, highlighting the teacher stuff we've made that we think came out the coolest!

Stephanie writes the following about her favorite game, "Forensics Challenge:"


"I love the dramatic images that are in the Forensics Challenge. Its suspenseful while waiting to see the next image. I really like the questions about real crimes. They help me remember some of the major crimes from the past. The concepts in this game help me see what it would be like to solve an actual crime. "



Like all of our Challenge games, Stephanie made this to work perfectly on an interactive whiteboard, or projected just using a regular wall. It would also be fun to use in a computer lab or on a stand alone machine.



You can see some more preview pictures, and buy the game, here.

Here's a link to download a PC-friendly trial.

And if you're Mac-ish, here you go.

Tell us what you think. Did Steph do a good job?