This page is under construction. In the mean time, here are some hints about sources of equipment and materials at little or no cost.

There are many companies that sell science equipment or even complete kits for schools. They are exhorbitantly expensive and unnecessary. Most of the equipment needed for these experiments was obtained free or at minimal expense. The trick is to plan ahead and allow youself some time to collect the items you need or get a good price on them at a local discout store. If school purchase regualtions get in the way, have a parent buy the items and arrange for the school to pay them back. Or, if several parents are involved, each one might be willing to spend a few dollars of their own.

Another very important incentive for using improvised equipment it that the kids realize they can do their own investigations at home because they don't need any special equipment.

Store the materials in the boxes from photocopy paper. Try to put everything needed for one experiment in a box. More than one experiment may be in a box to save space. Label the box with the names of the experiments as well as listing the specific equipment. The boxes can then be stored under a table or even in a corner of the classroom if there is no storage closet available.

The recycle bin is one of my favorite sources of science equipment. Clear, 2 liter plastic soda bottles are one of the best items. If you cut the bottle in two about 1/3 of the way from the top, you will have a funnel and a beaker . . . for no cost. Not only that but you help to save the earth by reusing some "trash".

Save 16 oz. water bottles and their lids. They are used in some of the experiments as specific equipment. To ease the costs and logistics for other experiments that use liquids, buy the large size bottle and transfer it into the water bottles. The bottles are plastic so they won't break, they are easy for small hands to hold, and you can fill several bottles - maybe even one for each team. Be sure and label the bottles clearly with what's in them!

Another very useful container to save is the wide-mouth plastic jars that deli salad or take-out soup come in.

Plastic film cans filled with sand make good weights. They also make excellent containers to keep small objects like push pins or paper clips in. The film cans are collected at photo developing shops. They throw them out or recycle them so all you have to do is ask to get a limitless supply.

You can get all of the plastic spoons and forks you want for free: save them from your school's cafeteria. Did you know they can be washed in a dishwasher?

Measuring cups can be purchased for $0.50 on a good day at a "dollar" store compared to several dollars in school supply catalogs. Straws, pipe cleaners, foil pans are other useful items that these stores sometimes carry.

Magnets may be purchased less expensively at craft stores or at Radio Shack than from school supply houses.

Some items only cost a few dollars but those dollars add up when you are trying to equip a whole program. However, an area business may be willing to provide the item since it only costs them a few dollars. For example, if you need alcohol wipes, ask a local pharmacy or doctor to donate them.

You might be able to get electrical wire for free from your local telephone company. A few cable scraps from them provide more than enough wire for your class.

There are some items that it's hard to improvise. These include compasses, thermometers and gears. However, you can save a good deal of money by obtaining these items from nontraditional sources and by shopping around. For example, aquarium thermonmeters were less expensive and more durable that the normal metal-backed school thermometers. A gear construction toy porvided gears that were much less expensive that gear kits aimed at schools. Compasses were one of the few things that I ended up buying from a school supply catalog. But I found a wide range of prices in different catalogs so it paid to check out several.

Find a place in your school where you can post a list of what you need. We all have access to different resources and it's likely that another teacher or parent has just what you're looking for.