Where to buy supplies for physics (optics, classroom, science, teaching)

[Ivorytickler]

Hi,

I'm a new teacher this year. I'm teaching chemistry and physics without the benefit of a teacher to shadow (I'm it) and little useful from the previous teacher. I can't make heads or tails of half the stuff he has in the cabinets and I need to get labs planned.

I'm looking for places to purchase physics classroom supplies (preferrably cheap). Right now I need battery powered cars, preferrably with multiple speeds. I'm striking out at the toy stores.

Any suggestions?

Cindy

[ben52284]

OSA makes a nice cheap kit for basic optics experiments:
Edmund Optics - Optics Discovery Kit
However, I haven't seen much else in the way of cheap demos or labs. I would think about having the students build projects to save money and enhance understanding. Things like pendulums and tesla coils make for relatively easy projects. Scitoys offers many more suggestions for projects from scratch as well as basic kits. Science Toys

I hope that some of this was helpful.

[jps-teacher]

Originally Posted by Ivorytickler

Hi,

I'm a new teacher this year. I'm teaching chemistry and physics without the benefit of a teacher to shadow (I'm it) and little useful from the previous teacher. I can't make heads or tails of half the stuff he has in the cabinets and I need to get labs planned.

I'm looking for places to purchase physics classroom supplies (preferrably cheap). Right now I need battery powered cars, preferrably with multiple speeds. I'm striking out at the toy stores.

Any suggestions?

Cindy

Good luck, Cindy! Are you a member of any of the Physics teacher message boards or email lists? (Or Chem, for that matter?)

American Science & Surplus : Items Just Off the Truck has lots of cheap and sometimes useful stuff.

Arbor Scientific Online! - Science Education Supplies for Physics, Physical Science and Chemistry is fun, if less cheap.

And this is a good meta-site: Electronics surplus and science catalogs list, outlet stores and surplus supply websites

Not sure about the cars, sorry.

[akck]

Edmund Scientific is another possibility:

Edmund Scientific: educational toys, gifts, hobby supplies & science equipment

I didn't know the correct link, but a site had the link and a 10% off orders code:

EDMU710

[NJmmadude]

IvoryTickler,

I'm a HS physics and chemistry teacher. I have a ton of hands-on stuff for physics which you can use very basic materials for. PM me with your e-mail address and I'll send you stuff. I'll help you out any way I can.

Mark in NJ