In: Uncategorized
26 Jan 2010
This article teaches kids about chemistry and is an excellent introduction to the totally fun activities in homeschool chemistry (including exothermic reactions, phase shifts, and acid indicators). It’s also good for boy scouts working on a badge, or for any kids that love science experiments. These experiments are part of a homeschool science program that I teach, and I promise your kids will love it.
Chemistry is an exciting subject for kids of any age, especially if you set up a natural discovery environment for them to safely explore in. Let’s find out how to do this with your own homeschool science learning environment.
At a university, one of the first things you will learn about in your chemistry class is the difference between physical and chemical changes. An example of a physical change happens when you change the shape of an object, like wadding up a piece of paper. If you light the paper wad on fire, you now have a chemical change. You are rearranging the atoms that used to be the molecules that made up the paper into other molecules, such as carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, ash, and so forth.
How can you tell the difference between physical and chemical changes? There’s an easy way to tell if you have a chemical change: if something changes color, gives off light (like the light sticks used around Halloween), heat is absorbed (gets cold) or produces heat (gets warm). Some quick examples of physical changes include tearing cloth, rolling dough, stretching rubber bands, eating a banana, or blowing bubbles.
Shopping List:
§ Rubbing alcohol (largest bottle)
§ Hydrogen peroxide (largest bottle)
§ Baking soda (largest box you can find)
§ Distilled white vinegar (largest size)
§ Washing soda (near the laundry soap)
§ Citric acid (optional, but nice to have)
§ One head of red cabbage
§ Clear ivory dish soap (small bottle)
§ Alum (check the spice section)
§ Single-use cold pack (not the gel kind)
§ Plastic zipper bags and old water bottles
§ Muffin cup baking tray (12 cups or more)
Let’s mix up chemicals that bubble, ooze, freeze, and change colors. Before we start, you’ll need to get these items together: a muffin cup baking tray, water, vinegar (acetic acid), baking soda (sodium bicarbonate), washing soda (sodium carbonate), rubbing alcohol, hydrogen peroxide, citric acid, ammonium chloride (don’t activate the cold pack, but instead cut open and empty the contents into a plastic bag and discard the water pouch inside), aluminum sulfate (“alum” in the spice section of the grocery store or drug store), a head of red cabbage and a clear liquid dish soap such as Ivory.
Cover your kitchen table with a plastic tablecloth (if you have small kids, put another tablecloth on the floor to catch the spills). Place your chemicals on the table. A set of muffin cups make for an excellent chemistry experiment lab. (Alternatively, you can use empty plastic ice cube trays.) You will mix in these cups. Leave enough space in the cups for your chemicals to mix and bubble up – don’t fill them all the way when you do your experiments!
Set out your liquid chemicals in easy-to-pour containers, such as water bottles (be sure to label them, as they all will look the same): alcohol, hydrogen peroxide, water, acetic acid, and dish soap (mixed with water). Set out small bowls (or zipper bags if you’re doing this with a crowd) of the powders with “scoopers” made of the tops of your water bottles. The small “scoopers” regulate the amounts you need for a muffin-sized reaction. Label the powders, as they all look the same.
Although these chemicals are not harmful to your skin, they can cause your skin to dry out and itch. Wear gloves (latex or similar) and eye protection (safety goggles), and if you’re not sure about an experiment or chemical, just don’t do it. (Skip the peroxide and cold pack if you have small kids.)
What about the red cabbage? Red cabbage juice has anthocyanin, which makes it an excellent indicator for these experiments. Anthocyanin is what gives leaves, stems, fruits, and flowers their colors. Did you know that certain flowers like hydrangeas turn blue in acidic soil and turn pink when transplanted to a basic soil? This next step of the experiment will help you understand why. You’ll need to get the anthocyanin out of the cabbage and into a more useful form, as a liquid “indicator”.
Prepare the indicator by coarsely chopping the head of red cabbage and boiling the pieces for five minutes on the stove in a pot full of water. Carefully strain out all the pieces (use a fine mesh strainer) and the reserved liquid is your indicator (it should be purple).
When you add this indicator to different substances, you will see a color range: hot pink, tangerine orange, sunshine yellow, emerald green, ocean blue, velvet purple, and everything in between. Test out the indicator by adding drops of cabbage juice to something acidic, such as lemon juice and see how different the color is when you add indicator to a base, like baking soda mixed with water.
Have your indicator in a bottle by itself. Old soy sauce bottles or other bottles with a built-in regulator that keeps the pouring to a drip is perfect. You can also use a bowl with a bulb syringe, but cross-contamination is a problem. Or not – depending if you want kids to see the effects of cross-contamination during their experiments. (The indicator bowl will continually turn different colors throughout the experiment.)
Your mission: To find the reactions that generate the most heat (exothermic), absorb the most heat (endothermic), and which are the most impressive in their reaction (the ohhhh-ahhhhh factor).
The Experiment: Start mixing it up! When I personally teach this class, let them have at all the chemicals at once (even the indicator), and of course, this leads to a chaotic mix of everything. When the chaos settles down, and they start asking good questions, I reveal a second batch of chemicals they can use. (I have two identical sets of chemicals, knowing that the first set will get used up very quickly.)
Tip for Testing Chemical Reactions: Periodically hold your hand under the muffin cups to test the temperature.
After the initial burst of enthusiasm, your homschool science students will intrinsically start asking better questions. They will want to know why their green goo is creeping onto the floor while someone else just bubbled up hot pink, seemingly mixed from the same stuff. Give them the change to figure out a more systematic approach, and ask if they need help before you jump in to assist.
Homeschool Science Teaching Tips: You can make this lab more advanced by adding a postage scale (to measure the solids in exact measurements), small beakers and pipettes for the liquid measurements, and data sheets to record temperature, reactivity, and acid/base indicator levels. Hint – make the data sheet like a matrix, to be sure you get all the possible combinations.
Use the indicator both before and after you mix up chemicals, and you will be surprised and dazzled by the results!
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As a teacher, homeschool science teacher, engineer and university instructor Aurora Lipper has been helping kids learn science for over a decade.
Want More Cool Homeschool Science Experiments and Activities?
Rocket-launch your kid?s education by downloading your FREE copy of the Homeschool Science Experiment Activity Guide from the Supercharged Science website: www.SuperchargedScience.com/freestuff.htm
In: Uncategorized
26 Jan 2010If you want people to buy, you gotta ask for the sale.
Truly, it is that simple. Yet I can’t tell you how many ads, Web sites, brochures, sales letters, etc. are floating around out there that aren’t asking.
So, what is a call to action? It’s telling people what action you want them to take. Typical calls to action include:
Hurry in today.
Buy now.
Call now.
Visit now.
Click here now.
Nothing terribly sexy, I agree. However, if you want to see an increase in your customers, leads, income, etc., this is an essential component.
But, you might be thinking, isn’t it obvious? Why else would you be running an ad if you didn’t want people to buy what you’re selling?
Good question. And it’s true, people do know (if they stop to think about it) that you would probably like them to buy from you.
However, the unfortunate truth is your potential customers aren’t going to spend that much time thinking about it. People have too much going on in their lives to spend very much time and energy on your business. If they do read your ad or promotional material and it doesn’t contain a call to action, they’ll likely say, “Oh, that’s nice” and go on to the next thing.
And even if they were interested in purchasing your offerings, they may not know what their next step should be. Do they pick up the phone? Go to a specific Web page? Visit a store? And if they don’t know what they should be doing, chances are they won’t do anything at all.
So you need to tell your potential customers what you want them to do. (Remember, people are busy, and if you don’t make doing business with you easy, they probably won’t do business with you at all.)
So, back to the above call to actions. Did you notice they all had something in common? The word “now” (or, in the case of the first one, “today”).
If people think they can buy from you anytime, they’ll say “oh, I can do this later.” And later rarely comes. You need to give them a reason to buy from you right now, while they’re interested. Adding the “now” or some other urgency or scarcity technique (maybe a limited time offer or few copies left statement) is a great way to push people into doing what you want them to do right now and not later.
While we’re on the topic of calls to action, I want to talk about one other type of advertising campaign where you rarely see calls to action. These are called branding campaigns. Typically they’re shown on national television by big corporations (MacDonald’s, Nike, Starbucks, Target). In those instances, the businesses are building a brand that will cause you think of that business first when you’re interested in purchasing their products. For instance, when you’re hungry, you think MacDonald’s. You need new athletic shoes, you think Nike. You’re dying for that cup of joe, so you think Starbucks, etc.
While there’s nothing wrong with branding campaigns, they are tougher to track than campaigns with a specific call to action (Sale ends Saturday, call before Friday to receive your free gift, etc.) Those campaigns are also called direct response because you’re asking the customer to respond directly. Direct response campaigns can be tested, so you have a good idea what’s working and what’s not (and can tweak the campaign accordingly). And, if the campaign doesn’t require getting a salesperson involved (i.e. if the call to action is for the customer to whip out his wallet right there) the campaign will just run itself (and make money all by itself).
(One note: You do need to do more than add a call to action to have a strong direct response campaign, but that doesn’t negate the power a call to action can bring to your campaigns.)
Branding campaigns are nearly impossible to test, track and tweak. They either appear to work or don’t appear to work. And if they don’t appear to work, it’s very difficult to start tweaking to improve the response rate.
However, branding is still very, very important. As a business owner, you need a good brand and you need to communicate that brand effectively. And sometimes it makes sense to run a branding campaign.
However, my advice for most situations is to combine branding and direct response. Your brand is clearly communicated in your ads and promotional materials, but you also take advantage of some direct response techniques at the same time.
If nothing else, make sure you don’t forget the call to action.
Creativity Resources — Write Your Call to Action
Want to include a call to action in your promotional materials but don’t know where to start? Here’s an easy step-by-step formula:
1. Figure out your purpose for the ad or promotional material. Why are you running this ad, creating this Web site, printing this brochure? (And no, an acceptable answer is NOT because everyone else has one.) Is it to generate leads? Get your name out there? Get people to buy? Or what?
2. Now write it down.
3. That’s it. That’s your call to action. Whatever the end result you want for the campaign is what you should be asking people to do.
In: Uncategorized
26 Jan 2010Cash flow from your business comes from smart and intense use of your skills. Profit comes from patient work and takes time to build and get going.
One of the most important keys to making your residual cash income is marketing. Your goal should be to build a good business to market and do a good job at it.
Marketing is available to you offline as well as online. Young people brought up in the Bill Gates computer decades will find this hard to believe.
You have many marketing ideas for income formulas available to you. The winning affiliate idea for you is to simply market your opportunity to other human beings.
Starting a home or office business and keeping it a secret, from everyone, will never let you sell e-books on eBay, club digital media from your web site or antiques from your store. If your budget is very low, start with passing out business cards and even posting hand written notices on bulletin boards.
Successful businesses market in different ways. Take your product and get at least a little excited about it. Share the story with others.
Something as simple as making up flyers and putting them on neighborhood doorknobs with rubber bands can get you started. I started this way myself.
Another possible beginning marketing strategy is to make up a catchy phrase for your business. For example, digital media solution, if you are dealing in digital media or electronic shopper if you are an eBay marketer.
Try to reflect your business and make it something easy to remember and recall. Doing this will make it hard to forget and easily reflects your business. Businesses do this all the time.
Even small businesses can make memorable campaign slogans and catchy phrases. Play with the idea of making your own catchy tune to it. This will be viral and others will hear it and start saying, humming or seeing it.
Make it remind everyone of your business and product. Do not sweat it but rather have fun working on and developing it.
Make it help customers to relate to the business and develop a loyalty to the product. Make it simple and creative.
It may take some time to come up with but once you find it you will be pleased with how it helps to develop your marketing program.
Online marketing is difficult to develop until you find the right buttons to push. In time, the buttons will change but this is how life goes.
Marketing online is usually difficult. The inter net is a virtually infinite place. To find a marketing niche is difficult until you learn how to catch the eyes and ears of your target market audience.
You the business owner now need to search for your desired target market. It may be something as simple as dogs, embroidery or everything like an instant language translation software that can be world wide by many millions of people.
For a large audience, if you do not mind being an affiliate, a universal affiliate product like language translation software can be sold to leads world wide. This is an example of a giant market.
Another new product on the market the last couple years is digital media that can be transferred to ipods, mp3 players and other media. Digital media, like the translation software above, can be marketed to a large audience.
The blind can hear Moby Dick, Main Street or the life, to date, of Bill Gates or other innumerable written materials that can be translated from the written to spoken word. Students can learn unlimited subjects while they rest.
Keep your eyes, mind and ears open for unlimited items like this that have a giant and perpetual market to be sold to. Think niche market to sell to. If it is a giant niche with unlimited potential that is okay also.
Imagine the type of person that will want and need your product. Your next step is to advertise to online and offline markets where your target market is.
This makes it easier to catch their attention and sell to them. The combination of a cool slogan and target market will equal a good marketing campaign. It takes a little more to make your business a success though.
The last segment of a marketing campaign is measuring the results. You want to know how your marketing plan is working so you can tweak it for better results.
It is a waste of your money to advertise anywhere that is not producing results. Many online programs allow you to precisely track your marketing efforts.
Making a marketing campaign and having a clearly defined target market are essential to successful marketing and monitoring if a business owner is to successfully earn residual cash income.
Each segment of your marketing game plan is important. You, as the business owner must ensure that each part is being done properly.
Monitor long term ads in progress. Mistakes by marketing agencies through misunderstandings are always made. Correct mistakes quickly.
Marketing can seem like a difficult challenge, but with this three part formula it is easy. Like anything in life, once you start doing it, you get steadily better at it
In: Uncategorized
25 Jan 2010Mazda North American Operations (MNAO) is the maker of the MX-5 Miata – the best-selling convertible sports car in the planet, and the only optional power-retractable hard top that consumes no trunk space. It celebrates the mark of the unofficial start of summer driving through offering some driving tips for the season to assure convertible drivers all over the United States safely enjoy their vehicles.
Very different from other authorized organizations, their tips encompass humans as the subject and not the car.
Their recommended daily routine with the car are as follows:
• For the human skin, at least SPF 15 sunscreen rating should be applied. A sun exposure of 15 minutes per day is tantamount to 90 hours per year of incidental sun exposure.
• While driving or riding in a convertible, always pony your hair to prevent wind damage and dry hair. You may also wrap your hair in a bun or use a hat. Also, make sure to always bring extra hair products – hairpins, butterfly clamps or rubber bands.
• Wearing sunglasses will help prevent too much of the sun’s heat from entering your eyes. Always wear them also to protect your eyes from airborne debris.
• When driving with top down or low windows, avoid leaving loose sheets of papers, pieces of light clothing, or plastics. These things will surely be driven by the wind. In effect, you are adding to the deterioration of the ecosystem.
• If you want to leave the roof down, do not park near trees to pave way for the birds’ resting area.
• Before opening or closing the top, pull over and have a complete stop. Aside from an unsafe distraction, the parts that control the top may be damaged by the wind.
• To avoid dryness or dehydration, drinking plenty of water is recommended. A moisturizer and a lip balm can also be a remedy.
• And above all, always ensure safety regardless of the length of the trip.
Jim O’Sullivan, President and CEO of MNAO, said that the MX-5 Miata is the most sold convertible sports car all over the world with over 800,000 units sold. And according to him only Mazda has the authority “to speak on behalf of top-down, wind-in-your-hair, and sun-on-your’s-face driving fun”. Summer road trips will be seen any time from now. With this, O’Sullivan said everyone must keep those road tips in mind.
With top of the line Mazda engine, MX-5 Miata pricing starts at $20,435 (MSRP). This convertible has up to 30 mpg on the highway and an open-top motor with minimal wind turbulence in the cabin.
An aero-board wind deflator is found between the seat backs. This guides forward flowing air to go upward. This deflator was invented by Mazda on the 1987 RX-7 Convertible but is now common on modern convertibles.
Aside form the MX-5 Miata convertible, Mazda builds other vehicles that offer optional sunroofs. These vehicles are the RX-8 sports car, MAZDA3, MAZDA5, MAZDA6, CX-7, CX-9 and the Tribute.
O’Sullivan added that driving a Mazda means a wonderful trip.
About Mazda North American Operations
Toyo Kogyo entered the entire United States automotive market in 1970 with a single car, the RX-2.
Mazda North American Operations, which is headquartered in Irvine, California, supervises the sales, marketing, and customer service support of Mazda vehicles in the United States, Canada, Mexico and Puerto Rico. This is realized through about 900 dealers.
Kraig Johanssen is a native of Connecticut and holds a degree in Software Engineering. He now works at a software development firm in Alabama. His love for writing and great interest on cars makes him a proficient contributing author to various automotive magazines.
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25 Jan 2010No matter what the economy may be doing, people always have needs to be met. When you connect with those needs, your sales will explode! But if you keep working with the traditional model – your results are only going to get worse… The problem is that most of us business people simply cannot understand why these customers cannot get how much they need our products! After all – it is glaringly obvious to us how much better their lives will be once they just get on and buy our ebook / course / fill in the blank – so why can’t they see it! Of course – that approach to the conversation tends to create resistance from our customer – now they are looking for ways to avoid buying our product and they are getting further and further away from being sold on the prospect. The second part of the problem is that we are all being bombarded every day with more such sales tips. People are pitching us everywhere we go – from our first breakfast radio show to the last commercial break at night – it seems that everything and everyone is trying to convince us how much greater their product is than everyone elses’. The problem is – that’s simply not what our customer is looking for. Let’s take an example that hits a huge percentage of the population – let’s consider weight loss. Now if ever there was an easy product to sell – weight loss is it? Everyone you meet – even those who are not overweight – seems to be concerned about their weight, their health and how they look. So all you have to do is produce your catologue and they’ll be handing over their credit card in no time! Not quite. The problem is that fried chicken and doughnuts simply taste a lot better than a healthy alternative. So that killer sales pitch you have, all about the amount of nutrition in your products, how much healthier they are going to be and how incredible economical it actually is to be on these products – is really going nowhere, because all the time they are thinking how much better fried chicken tastes. The good news though is that your customer does still have a need. In this case – they still need to lose weight and improve their health. So the trick is for you to connect with that person – to help them in some way towards their goal, without ever even mentioning that you have a product to sell. Show them how to exercise, how to plan better meals, how to fry chicken in a less calorie-laden way – something that gives them some value and establishes that you understand their situation and you want and are able to help. Now when they are thinking about the results they have already gotten with your help, and they want to continue that weight loss path – they will give you a call, because you are their trusted expert. This really is incredibly simple. The reason why most people miss it is that we are all about instant gratification on the internet! And there are some demon sales types out there who can just jump in and make money right away. But the best chance for the average person in this industry is to start building some relationships with prospective customers – help them achieve their goals, just forgetting about sales for now. Build your business this way and you will have an incredibly strong foundation for financial freedom in the future!
For more information on building relationships with customers, and creating massive business in the process – check out this free video series