Because I try to have my students do as much hands-on learning as I possibly can while still covering all the material in the textbooks, one of my educational policies is to try to do every science experiment in the book. Having this policy has been great for me and for my students. They know that I've said that, and so they keep me accountable, and they expect us to do them. It's amazing how much more we learn, and how much better we understand the material when we actually do and see what happens rather than just read about it.
Our last experiment was to put chicken bones in vinegar. After only about five days, we could tie the chicken bones into knots; they were just like rubber, just like the book said they would be. It was way more fun to tie them in knots ourselves than to just look at the pictures of it in the book, even if it did make our hands a little stinky.
