What color does a flame turn when burning cadmium chloride?

What happens when you mix white glue, borax and water?

What are owl pellets?

These and many other questions are being explored this week by Concordia Parish teachers in the Vidalia High School science lab.

Like an old-fashioned &uot;show and tell,&uot; a group of elementary science teachers from across the parish are sharing their ideas and their science experiments as a way to help each other learn new ways to teach science.

During the school year, science teachers teach in a kind of vacuum, teacher Fran Nolan said. Other than their own experiments, teachers rarely have the chance to share ideas and explore other ways to teach science.

&uot;For the most part we are isolated from the other schools,&uot; Nolan said during the afternoon session Monday.

With the help of a Rural Education Achievement Project grant, the teachers have been able to get together to share what they do to make science fun.

&uot;We take the new ideas we glean from this and take them back to our classes,&uot; Nolan said.

So for the past four days each participant has brought her favorite science project to wow the other teachers.

Monday afternoon Sonya Caviness brought numerous projects to show off.

With high anticipation, each teacher giddily followed the hands on projects.

From burning cadmium chloride, which turns flames a deep red color, to discovering rat skeletons in owl pellets, to making slime out of glue, borax and water, each project was eagerly followed step by step.

&uot;I was just freaking out. I loved it,&uot; high school administrator and past science teacher Jana McNeely said Monday.

&uot;I wish I could have known this (when I was teaching) junior high,&uot; kindergarten teacher Teli Walker said.

The science show-and-tell workshop will continue through the week, highlighting such topics as weather, electricity and spilling your guts &045;&045; learning about human anatomy.