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Category: Fun Science Activity (Page 49 of 112)

25 Items for a Hands-On Physical Science Activity Box

May 21, 2012 / / 0 Comments

Are you prepared for some hands-on science at home? Summer is a great time for informal science and now is the time to get ready.

From experience, I recommend that you gather items and put together a box for children to use to explore physical sciences whenever the mood strikes. The items you supply don’t have to be big or expensive. but if you have it on hand and gathered together, it won’t take a minute to get started.

Here are some tried-and-true suggestions that will be sure to ignite your child’s inner investigator. Have multiples of each item, and a set for each child you are working with. (Note:  These suggestions are for ages 3+ and always keep safety in mind.)

1. Paper and scissors – for paper airplanes, helicopters, bridges, drawing designs, recording data, etc., etc.

2. Plastic drinking straws to make into kazoos, atomizers, droppers, bridges, you name it

3. Paper towel tubes to make marble towers, airplanes

4. Manila file folders to make ramps, airplanes, etc.

5. Plastic garbage bags or cloth, bits of yarn or string, and action figures to make parachutes (parachute activity)

6. Wheels to make cars and/or toy cars to roll down ramps (inclined planes)

7. Marbles and small balls for marble towers, study what happens when two objects collide by playing marbles (relationships of mass and force)

8. Balloons to make cars, hover craft, drums, etc. (Suggestions for activities with balloons)

9. Magnets, a variety of kinds plus items to test, such as paper clips of different types, coins, the rocks below (Edit: magnet science activities)

10. Stop watch, watch with second hand, or other timing device

11. Flashlight – important tool for investigating shadows, light, how batteries work, etc.

12. Thermometer– alcohol or electronic/digital (for safety, do not use a mercury-based one)

13. Magnifying lenses to study surfaces of rocks, magnets

14. Prisms to investigate light (we got a very inexpensive crystal pendent that works to separate visible light into rainbows)

15. Aluminum foil – great for building boats or make a Leyden jar to study static electricity

16. Building blocks

17. Ruler – both for measuring and to use as a ramp (inclined plane), support, etc.

18. Toy boats to study buoyancy

19. Modeling clay to study floating and sinking, make fossils

20. Clean tin cans with all sharp edges removed (for tin can science)

21. Tape – all kinds, glue

22. Plastic soda or water bottles to make boats, cover with balloon and place in very warm water

23. Pencils, chop sticks, wooden skewers, dowels and/or craft sticks

24. Spools, pulleys

25. Some cool rocks or pebbles can become loads for cars and boats or be an introduction to geology

Pennies make good weights for the front of file-folder airplanes.

More advanced items to make or buy pre-made:

  • Inexpensive kites (often available in grocery stores for just a dollar or two), or balsa wood, string, tape and paper to make kites
  • Electrical circuit kits (may be available used or at discount stores that sell returned/discontinued items)
  • Inexpensive kitchen scale (garage sales) or materials to make a homemade scale
  • Plastic tubing (an aquarium supply) to learn about siphons, investigate propulsion
  • Make a trebuchet or catapult

If you have any other ideas for items to include for physical science activities, please let us know. Also, if you need further suggestions or instructions, my “engineer” and I would be glad to help.

Stay tuned for suggestions for a chemistry activity box and a biology activity box.

Solar Eclipse May 20, 2012 and Beyond

May 19, 2012 / / 0 Comments


Just a quick reminder that people in certain regions of the western United States will likely be able to see an annular solar eclipse tomorrow May 20, 2012.

A solar eclipse occurs when moon passes between the sun and the Earth, causing a shadow to fall on the the surface of the Earth. The photograph at the right is a solar eclipse for 2008 (Image from NASA).

Of course, you should never look at the sun directly. The Stanford Solar Center has information on how to make a “pinhole camera” or solar projector to view the sun indirectly.

If you miss this one, don’t worry. You can check NASA for future eclipses. There will be a total solar eclipse passing over the middle of the United States in 2017.

I’d love to hear from you if you get a chance to view it. Do you see any of the shadows they show in the video? We’ll probably be able to see a partial eclipse where we live.

Weekend Science Fun: Whose Egg Is This?

May 4, 2012 / / 2 Comments

Our science activities today are inspired by a lively guessing book, Whose Egg Is This? by Lisa J. Amstutz.

The premise of the book is to guess who laid the eggs in the large, colorful photograph on the left page by matching them with one of the four animals in photographs on the right page. Fortunately, each page comes with plenty of helpful hints, so even if the child doesn’t recognize the egg, he or she will likely be able to figure it out. Answers are also provided in the back.

This is a great format for a children’s book. It encourages children to observe closely and it engages their curiosity. It is fast-paced and fun. It is sure to inspire more activities and experiments like these:

Activity 1. Who is oviparous?

Oviparous means an animal that lays eggs. (Technically, lays eggs without further development of the embryo while it is in the mother.)

Brainstorm to create a list of different animal groups with egg-laying females.

Birds are probably the first to come to mind. They are the only animal group where all the members lay eggs.

What other vertebrates lay eggs?

What about

  • reptiles?
  • amphibians?
  • fish?

Can you find any exceptions, like snakes that give birth rather than lay eggs?

Turtles and tortoises lay eggs.

What about mammals? Mammals that lay eggs are in the group called monotremes, which include the platypus and echidnas.

Do any invertebrates lay eggs?

At least some species of

  • Insects
  • Spiders
  • Crustaceans, like lobsters
  • Some molluscs, like snails
  • Flatworms
  • Earthworms
  • etc.

Can you think of any others?

Activity 2. Compare and contrast the eggs of various animals.

Look at photographs of different types of eggs.

How are eggs that are laid in the water different from those laid on land?

Are all eggs covered with a hard, rigid shell?

Are they all the same size?

What about color?

Do you know whose eggs were in the photographs? (Answers at bottom of post).

3. Investigate egg anatomy

Surprisingly, an egg can be quite complex inside. There are multiple layers and structures.

(Illustration by Horst Frank at Wikimedia)

Schematic of a chicken egg:
1.    Eggshell
2.    Outer membrane
3.    Inner membrane
4.    Chalaza
5.    Exterior albumen (outer thin albumen)
6.    Middle albumen (inner thick albumen)
7.    Vitelline membrane
8.    Nucleus of pander
9.    Germinal disk (blastoderm)
10.    Yellow yolk
11.    White yolk
12.    Internal albumen
13.    Chalaza
14.    Air cell
15.    Cuticula

The Exploratorium has a series of egg-vestigations for looking inside an egg, including

4. The Color of Bird Eggs – In the News

Birds eggs come is an astonishing array of colors.

Poster of bird eggs – (Note:  This poster does have stylistic diagram of a bird’s internal reproductive organs, in case you aren’t ready to go there )

Scientists have begun to realize that the color of bird eggs may be about more than just camouflage and there has been a recent burst of studies examining various aspects of color and speckling patterns.

For example, speckling may add structural support to the shell and as well as protection from direct exposure to the sun. The speckles may protect against ultraviolet rays while allowing enough light it so the chick inside can adjust its internal clock. Or the speckles may absorb heat and help maintain temperatures when the incubating parents are away from the nest.

Ornithologists (scientists that study birds) have found that species that are the target of nest parasites, like cowbirds, are sometimes better able to recognize the color patterns of their own eggs than species that aren’t as susceptible.

It seems likely that how egg color works will differ between different species of birds and may serve more than one purpose. Sounds like some great potential for science fair projects.

To study bird egg speckles with youngsters, try this craft to make artificial speckled eggs. See if eggs with speckles or without are easier to find when hidden in the grass.

If you are interested in participating in a citizen science project, Caren Cooper put out a call for photographs of the eggs in house sparrow nests last year. The speckling of house sparrow eggs varies quite a bit. The instructions ask that you include  a white piece of paper and a penny in the photograph for scale.

References:

Wired magazine has a popular science article “Debate Over Purpose of Bird-Egg Coloration Continues”

For a scientific review, see CHERRY, M. I. and GOSLER, A. G. (2010), Avian eggshell coloration: new perspectives on adaptive explanations. Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, 100: 753–762. available online

If you have early elementary-aged children, be sure to take a look at Whose Egg Is This? by Lisa J. Amstutz.

Paperback: 32 pages
Publisher: Capstone Press (January 1, 2012)
ISBN-10: 1429678542
ISBN-13: 978-1429678544

This book was provided by the publisher for review purposes.

(Affiliate link)

(The eggs in photographs are frog eggs and snail eggs.)

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