Author: Roberta (Page 491 of 561)

Beach Science- Boats

To continue the theme of beach science from the last few weeks, today let’s investigate something else found at the beach.

boat

Boats!

Children are fascinated by boats and floating. You can do a lot of interesting science projects with boats, starting with some basic questions: How can huge pieces of heavy metal float? How are boats propelled? Can you really make a boat out of paper?

We already have covered some floating and boat topics in previous posts.

Why Things Float contains some experiments on floating and sinking.

The How long can a paper boat float? challenge, with the early results for paper boats challenge.
The yellow legal pad boats lasted five days.

boat

The Bathtub Buoyancy Challenge asked kids to find ways to propel boats across a bathtub without using their hands or electrical motors. The Bathtub Buoyancy results show several ways to propel toy boats.

It is always fun to build bathtub-sized boats. This video shows two handmade boats powered by battery packs and small electric motors that my son invented recently. A modified toy car powers the paddle boat; the air boat fan is a modified toy airplane propeller.

Why don’t you try inventing a boat?

For more ideas, try

A Simple Steam Boat at Curious Cat

Miniature Boats at HowStuffWorks

Hope you have fun and let us know what kind of boat you invent!

Edit: To check the rest of the posts on beach science, follow these links:

Sea Horses and Other Fish

Shore Birds

Tide Pool Invertebrates

Beach Science Algae

Beach Science-Sand

Beach Science-Seawater

Hands-On Biology

For those of you working with middle school or older children, I just found a website I had to share. It is the Serendip page at Bryn Mawr college. First of all their philosophy of science education mirrors mine :
SCIENCE IS AN EXPLORATION (AND FUN)

Click on K-12 for teachers link and you’ll find Hands-on Activities for Teaching Biology. Although some experiments assume you have basic scientific equipment at your disposal (the first yeast experiment asks for test tubes), often you can make do with things around the house (old spice jars).

Right underneath is Off the Shelf Chemistry, which is “for high school students, using consumer products for experiments and not requiring a lab and specialized equipment.”

Take a look around and hope you have some hands-on science fun!

Bug of the Week: Praying Mantis

This praying mantis has been a regular in our yard for the last few weeks.

praying mantis

praying mantis egg case

It might have hatched out of an egg case like this one.

Here’s a short video of a praying mantis hatching. As you can see, newly-hatched praying mantids look like miniature adults.

Edit:

Just found a cool new book recommended by the NSTA.

Praying Mantises: Hungry Insect Heroes (Insect World)
by Sandra Markle

So, mantises is the correct plural now? I had learned it as mantids…

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