Over the years, I've come up with some pretty good ideas for demonstrations to capture student interest and get a specific point across. I've been using them for so long that I don't remember exactly where they came from. Some I thought up, some I read about, and some I've even 'borrowed' from other teachers. Many of them are quite unconventional, but are part of my philosophy of teaching which is to 'Outcrazy the crazies'.

EARTHQUAKES: When I introduce the topic of earthquakes, the first thing I do is have every student in the room put their hands flat on their desks, and their feet firmly on the ground. I pick several students and send them out in the hall, down the hall, and to a couple of different places around the school. I tell them to be very quiet and still, to become 'one with the room'. I then pick up a very large boulder (the bigger the better), stand on a desk, hold it up in the air, and drop it on the floor. (You might want to put a piece of cardboard on the floor). The resulting 'earthquake' is pretty impressive. I discuss what the students felt, who felt it stronger, how far from my room was it felt, etc. This then leads to an introduction of seismic waves. Your students will end up talking about this for weeks to come, and you'll also get all sorts of strange looks from other teachers.

P and S waves: I have my whole class come out into the hall.  I hang three signs in the hall, different distances away from the end of the hall, with different city names on them.  I designate a student to be an S wave. They are only allowed to walk.  I am a P wave, and I run.  We stand together at one end of the hall, where another student is the earthquake focus.  When they drop a big rock on the floor, I start running, and the student S wave starts walking.  When I reach the first city, we both stop, and I have a student measure how many feet apart we are, and then we discuss why there is a difference.  We go back to the focus, and repeat the procedure two more times, with my stopping at the second city and then the third city.  When finished, everyone understands travel times, and how the difference in arrival time between the P and S waves can be used to calculate epicenter distance.

TOPOGRAPHIC MAPS: I've experimented with all sorts of ways to try and make topo maps understandable. The whole key is make a two dimensional map become three dimensional in the students mind. I've finally achieved this goal. Last year, McDonalds gave away a small plastic volcano in its Happy Meal. It was broken up into horizontal slices. I have students trace the outline of each slice in their notebooks. This gives them the ability to see the land, and make the map. I then give them a simple map I drew, some cardboard, scissors and glue, and have them turn the map into a model.

HEAT TRANSFER: One of the toughest things for me to have students remember has always been the difference between conduction, convection, and radiation. I thought about what they like the most and of course, food came to mind. So if you want to teach heat transfer, try making popcorn !! After a lecture on heat transfer, make some Jiffy Pop on a hot plate (conduction), throw a bag into the microwave (radiation) and find an old hot air popper (convection) Its fun, the whole school ends up smelling like popcorn, and the students actually remember it !

MINERAL PROPERTIES VS STRUCTURE: Diamonds and graphite are both made of carbon atoms, yet they have totally different properties. This is the classic mineral example that teachers use to stress the importance of mineral structure. I found the easiest way to drive home thiis point is to bring in some lego building pieces. Count out 16 blocks that are exactly the same shape and color. Give 8 to one student, and 8 to another. Ask them to build 'something'. When they are done, show them to rest of the class. Ask them why, if these two students started with the 'same stuff', they turned out so different. Of course the answer is obvious to everyone, the way they were put together

SIMULATED METAMORPHISM
Take a granola bar and examine the bar "before metamorphism" by cutting off one end of the bar and describing the noted grain orientation. The bar is then placed between two sheets of waxed paper and then between two pieces of plywood. Clamps are applied at three points, and pressure is applied evenly by turning each clamp a turn at a time until they cannot be turned BY HAND any further. At this point the clamps are removed and the bar reexamined.