Science experiment Archives - Page 12 of 14

Science Experiment for Kids- Floating or Sinking Eggs

March 22, 2014 By Deirdre

It is egg experiment time at my house. Maybe it is Easter and the desire to dye eggs that lead us down the path of experimenting with eggs. This is the first of a series of posts on science experiments for kids that focuses on eggs. Each experiment we do will have a printable instruction/ recording sheet.

This particular experiment tests out whether adding salt to a glass of water will help the egg float or if it will sink to the bottom. That is why we called this science experiment for kids Egg Experiment: Sinking or Floating Eggs.

We started the experiment by gathering together the materials list on the instruction sheet. It didn’t take long there are only four items needed to do this experiment.

Here is what we did:

We added warm water to tall clear drinking glass. ( You could use a clear jar or bowl in place of a glass.) We went with tall glass to make sure that we would be able to easily see the egg floating if it did indeed float. Having a lot of water in the glass would help us do that.

We then carefully placed the uncooked eggs in the glasses. We were careful for two reasons. The first reason was that the eggs were uncooked. The second reason was that we didn’t want to displace too much water. (Yes, this turned into a lesson on how objects like hands take up space and can push water up.)

The egg in the unsalty water floated to the bottom and sat there. The egg placed in the salty water bobbed a little and then hung in the water. It just floated happily in the cup.

We took time to talk about how the salt had changed the water and why this change made the egg float. We each tried to tap the egg and see if tapping it would cause it to descend into the water. The egg went down a little, but then it rose again.

Why not add some of the salt water to the clear water glass we decided. Some of the clear water was poured from the clear water glass and we replaced it with some of the salty water. (I had read this might work.) It didn’t make the egg in the clear glass start floating.

We were left with several questions when we finished this activity.

If we added more salt to the salty glass, would the egg float higher?
If we had more salt in the salty glass then added that water to the clear glass, would the egg have floated?
Would a cooked egg float if placed in salt water?

These questions will be answered on another day. Instead of exploring them we decided to work on the bottom of the activity sheet instead. JDaniel and I composed a sentence orally describing the activity and he wrote it down. Then he drew a picture illustrating what had happened during the experiment.

Click on the links below to get your own copies of the Egg Experiment: Sinking or Floating Eggs sheets.

Science Experiment for Kids- Floating or Sinking Eggs

We will continue our science experiments for kids focusing on eggs series next week. I hope you will stop by and check out our next activity.

Science Experiments for Kids: Coffee Can Catapult

March 20, 2014 By Deirdre

Homemade catapults like this coffee can catapult are great fun to explore and create science to use in experiments for kids. We have previous explored making homemade catapults by making a rolled paper catapult and an egg carton catapult. This homemade catapult continued our exploration of using recycled materials to create catapults.

The only drawback to using a recycled coffee can to create with is the smell. To eliminate the smell we had our coffee can sit in the sink with hot soapy water for half a day. The coffee grains scent had really permeated the plastic in the coffee can. When we had drained the can and dried it off, it smelled more like the lemony scented dish washing soap we had used. A lemony scented can smells much better than a coffee scented one.

The actual creation of the catapult itself took no time at all. We simply place two large rubber bands around the coffee can. Our coffee can had a ridge near the top of it that the rubber band easily slipped into. Then we placed a plastic spoon under the rubber band. We lucked out and had a coffee can that had curves on its sides so that coffee drinkers could easily pick up the container. We place a plastic spoon into one of those curves. The spoon was able to swing back into the curve after the catapult had launched the object in its bowl.

If you buy a different brand of coffee that comes in a can with a different design, you can still easily make this catapult. The brand of coffee that my husband likes just ended up working out really well for this project.

How to launch this catapult:

Place the object you want to send sailing through the air into the bowl of the spoon.
Pull back the bowl of the spoon as far back as you feel is necessary to get the object to fly.
Release the bowl of the spoon and watch the object fly.
Push or pull the spoon up higher or lower if you are not happy with how far the object flies.

Types of objects to send flying in the Homemade Coffee Can Catapult:

Tips

Heavy object fly farther ( We started with pom-poms and they didn’t fly very far.)
Small objects that fit in the bowl tend to fly farther too.

We tested:

Pom-Poms
Pennies
Pebbles
Marbles
Dried Beans

I hope you will try making this homemade coffee can catapult. Please let me know what object flew the best for you in this science experiment for kids.

Here are two other catapults we have made:

Egg Carton Catapult

Building a Paper Roll Catapult

Christmas Activity – Balancing Pom-Pom Tree

December 2, 2013 By Deirdre

Green colored craft sticks of various lengths glued symmetrically onto a green craft stick make a wonderful Christmas tree craft and a science experiment. Yes, a science experiment. We could have simply glued the stick together and then glued pom-poms on the trees branches. We could have, but we didn’t.

What I did ask JDaniel to do was to try to pick up tiny pom-pom is chopsticks that were strapped together with a rubber band. When a pom-pom was gripped between the chopsticks, I asked him to try to put a pom-pom on each branch.

Getting the pom-pom to balance on the sticks wasn’t easy. If you placed them down just a little bit off they fell onto the table. It took a lot fine motor work to pick up the pom-pom and release it onto just the area of each branch. We found if the pom-pom was held near the bottom of the chopsticks it had a shorter distance to fall to was more likely to stay on the branch. If the pom-pom was too far up, we risked having it bounce off the branch and onto the table.

Christmas Activity- Balancing Pom Poms

How did we make the tree?

Cut each of four color popsicle stick in descending lengths with a sharp tool.( I used a hand held pruning tool.) We had a 2 inch stick, a 3 inch stick, a 4 inch stick, and a five inch sticks.
The sticks were lined up on a full length stick horizontally.
When we thought they were symmetrical, the sticks were glued into place.
The tree was left to dry for a few minutes while we wrapped the rubber band around the chopsticks.
Small pom-poms were placed in a cup while the tree was drying.
Then we started the balancing activity. As I mentioned, this Christmas activity was a little tricky. It took a lot of focus and finger control to balance pom-poms on a tree. The branches sit on the fulcrum base and can wiggle.

Science Kids- Exploring Turkey Basters

November 24, 2013 By Deirdre

Playing with kitchen tools and water has been a favorite activity at my house for years. JDaniel used to play with a tub of water while I made dinner when he was little. Now that he has started school there hasn’t been as much time for it. Science is something we can talk and learn about while playing with water. Just last week JDaniel said he had some great ideas for exploring a turkey baster in a roasting pan filled with water. All I need to do was take pictures and listen to his ideas. “This would make a great blog post,” he told me. I decided he was right. I think your science kids will love exploring with turkey basters too.

There are many ways to press on the bulb and make water squirt out I was told. You can press your fist into the bulb with all your might and water will rocket out of the baster.

The bulb can be placed under your chin and squirt the water into the turkey baster. I tried this and found that I didn’t have strong neck muscles. (There must be some exercises I do to get better at this.) It was fun to try though.

This next exploration was fine for our house, but won’t work in a classroom. JDaniel put the tube of the baster in his mouth and blew through it. He was able to create tiny bubbles in the bulb.

When you fill the bulb with water and then squeeze, water will squirt wildly out of it. We found that pressing on the bulb with your thumbs causes the water to fire out the fastest. I also learned to stand back a little.

This was the most innovative turkey baster exploration. JDaniel stuck his thumb up into the bulb to see if water would still flow out of it.If you give your children the opportunity to explore water and fun tools to explore it with, they will come up with fun and innovative way to explore. My science kid loved exploring turkey basters.

You will find more science experiments for your science kids on my Early Learning- Science board on Pinterest. If you are looking for another Thanksgiving science activity, I think you will like our Thanksgiving Science Sink or Float activity.

Science Kids: Dyeing Corn Experiment

November 22, 2013 By Deirdre

We wondered if we dyed popcorn on the outside if the popcorn would be the same color as the outside of the kernel was or would it be white? We also wondered if the dye would seep into the inside of the kernel. These seemed like great questions to find answers to right before Thanksgiving. The pilgrims and Indians are said to have had corn at the first Thanksgiving. Popcorn is made from corn right?

Popcorn was placed into three bowls that already contained a little bit of vegetable oil. JDaniel used a measuring cup to add popcorn kernels to the bowl. Then he used a spoon to stir up the mixture and coat the corn.

When the kernels looked very well coated, JDaniel added food coloring to each cup. We were running low of the red food coloring so, that bowl didn’t get the same amount dye as the others. The mixture in each bowl was then stirred up.

The directions I had read for dyeing popcorn said to add white vinegar to the mixture. We added only a dash to each bowl. Neither of us had any idea what it would make the popped popcorn kernels smell like. We did know that the bowls smelled a little stinky. Maybe it would have been better to put the mixtures into a plastic zipper bag. The bag would have sealed the smell in.

The bowls were set aside overnight in a closed cabinet so, the smell would be contained. We ended up being busy the next day. The mixtures ended up sitting for twenty four hours before we took them out of the cabinet. When we took them out we noticed that the outsides of most of the popcorn kernel were tinted the color of the dye that had been soaking in.

We should have set the kernel onto a paper towel and patted them dry. We didn’t do that. Instead JDaniel scooped up the kernels with a slotted spoon. Most of the liquid dripped off of the kernels, but enough was left on them to make the bag a little bit drippy and messy.

When the kernel had been fully loaded into the paper bag, we folded the top over twice and placed the bag into the microwave. The microwave was set for two minutes and thirty seconds. We watched and listened to bag of corn kernels as they rotated around in the bag.

After the buzzer on the microwave went off, I took out the bag. I thought it would be too hot for JDaniel. There was a slight pink tint on the walls of the microwave. I guess the red corn kernels decided to share their color with the walls. The wall cleaned up quickly with a wet sponge!
Popcorn Dyeing Experiment

The warm bag was placed into a bowl that JDaniel carried to the table. We were both excited to see what the contents of the bag would look like. Would the popcorn be red, green and blue?

I dumped the contents of the bag into the bowl. The puffy section of each kernel was white. The area the white puffs curl around in the center of the puff was still the color we had dyed it.

This led us into a wonderful discussion on surface area. We talked about how the surface area (the outside) of the popcorn pops open and the inside of the kernel becomes the outside. It was fun to see how this happens. Being able to see the remnants of the outer surfaces dyed color really helped JDaniel see that.

It also gave us a yummy afternoon snack tinged of vinegar flavor on it. We added melted margarine and some salt to cover that flavor a little bit.

Dyeing Popcorn turned about to be a wonderful pre-Thanksgiving science experiment. It would be fun to do any time of year I bet.

What book did we read before exploring this science kids dyeing corn experiment?

The Life and Times of Corn. Actually, we read and reread this book. JDaniel was fascinated by corn facts shared in the book.

The Life and Times of Corn cover everything you might want to know about corn. There is a diagram of the plant and all is sections. Different types and colors of corn from about the world. (Who knew there is pink corn!) Ways it was popped through out the years along with ways it is served around the world.

There are so many interesting facts and illustrations it is no wonder that we had to read it several times.

I have decided to ask you to link your posts to the Read.Explore.Learn. Facebook page instead of running a link up. I hope you will stop by and share your children’s book related activities there

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Thanksgiving Science Activity – Sink or Float

November 12, 2013 By Deirdre

There are so many fun objects associated with Thanksgiving. JDaniel and I took some outside to explore in his water table on a beautiful fall day last week. The focus of this Thanksgiving science activity was sink or float. “Which of these objects associated with Thanksgiving are going to float and which of them will sink?” I asked him.

What objects did we use for this science activity?

Turkey cookie cutter
wire whisk
pumpkin shaped silicone cup
plastic napkin rings
metal measuring cup
small squash
plastic measuring spoon

Thanksgiving Science Activity- Sink or Float

It was interesting to see what sank and what floated. One type of plastic napkin ring sank and one floated. The silicone cup without water in it floated. When it was filled with water, it sank. Several things we thought were the heaviest and would sink did. The metal measuring cup and squash sank right away as did the wire whisk.

He played for awhile and I just enjoyed watching him test out objects and enjoy water play.After giving JDaniel time to play with objects in the water, we talked more about his findings.

I asked him the following questions:

Did the color of the object matter?
Does material the object made off matter?
Did having a hole in an object help it float or sink?
Does it matter if the object is solid?
Will an object that allows water to follow through it sink or float?

Doing This Science Activity in Other Settings

While JDaniel and I were together for this experiment, I think that leaving the objects out at the water table as an invitation to learn would have been fun too. In a classroom setting I think children would talk amongst themselves about what they were finding. Exploring sinking and floating would be wonderful in a variety of settings.

My Insights

I love talking through science experiment outcomes with JDaniel. It helps him understand what he is understanding about science and his thoughts on what we are doing in general. There is just something wonderful that happens when we are together exploring concepts. This Thanksgiving science activity on sinking and floating allowed for that.

If you like this science activity, here are more science activities you will love:

Exploring Turkey Basters

Planting a Pumpkin in a Pumpkin

Recycled Planter on a String

Science Experiment- Keeping Balls Afloat In Puddles

July 31, 2013 By Deirdre

Saturday morning started with pouring rain that drenched the grass making it swamp like and creating a huge puddle in our driveway. This is not unusual for us this summer we have had many mornings, afternoons and evenings that have been filled with rain. Normally JDaniel just jumps around in the puddles. Last Saturday I decided we would do a science experiment called keeping balls afloat.

Science Experiment

We have lots of play ball in our garage. There are real golf balls, plastic golf balls, ball leftover from having a ball pit, rubber bouncy balls, and a small rubber basketball leftover from a baby game of JDaniel’s. I quickly went inside and grabbed a few of them.

I asked JDaniel to drop all of them at the same time to see what would happen. He announced that they would all be pulled down by gravity. ( My husband has done several gravity activities with him.) “Beyond being pulled down,” I asked him.

We both watched as the balls make big and small splashes into the puddle. The heavier balls like the golf ball made a large splash. The lighter ball like the ball pit ball barely made a splash. “Well, they made a splash!” he announced.

“Beyond a splash,” I asked him. We kept our eyes on the balls and noticed that the golf ball was slightly submerged. Several of the others stayed afloat and started to float away from the landing spot.

“Can you keep them moving by jumping near them?” I asked JDaniel. “Let’s see!” he said. Sure enough, they all moved little and some moved a lot.

Can you keep them moving by running through the puddle?” I asked JDaniel. “Wow! I made a big current!” he announced.

“Did the balls that were floating continue to float or did they start to sink?” I asked him. “They continued to stay afloat and ran into the grass!” he commented.

We didn’t look at what would make the ball sink or push them under the water. We did talk about the weight of each ball and whether it was solid or air filled. I love talking science with JDaniel.

This science experiment looking at keeping balls afloat wasn’t planned. It was just a learning moment that came to mind as I watched JDaniel stomping through our wet yard. Sometimes unplanned lessons turn out to be really fun and filled with teachable moments.

What lessons are you learning this week?This post is linked to Alphabe Thursday.

A Rainy Day: Science Experiments

July 12, 2013 By Deirdre

A rainy day is perfect for science experiments and reading books about rain. We recently read several rainy day books and several rainy day. (We have had over ten days of rain.) You will find some of the other books with a rain theme that we read shared on the Who Likes the Rain? (Exploring the Elements)

We like rain at my house. JDaniel loves to jump in puddles and dance in the rain. I love to dance right along with him. We have had more than share lately as I mentioned. With all that rain came tons of questions about rain.

Rainy Day Questions like:

What do raindrops look like before they land on me?
Where do puddles come from?
Why do plants need rain?
How do snails get their shells?
Why does the air smell different after the rain?

These questions and several more are answered in this wonderful flap book for early readers. I learned a lot from reading this book with JDaniel and he understands a lot more about rain. We are going to have to look for other books in this series. The text is easy to understand and the questions are ones that my son loved knowing the answers to.

Science Experiments We Did to Explore This Book

Art-Related Science Experiment

A Rainy Day: Science Experiments -Who Likes Rain?

JDaniel and I decorated a construction paper umbrella with several different kinds of drawing tools. Chalk, magic markers, crayons, and a bingo marker were each used to decorate an umbrella.

The umbrellas were set in a broiler pan and then placed outside on a bench on our deck to wait for the rain. At first, there was only a small shower. I headed out to take pictures of our results and then left them outside to dry.

Then it rained again. This time it was a downpour. The artwork drastically changed after the downpour. The designs on all the umbrellas smeared and in some cases ran off. I need to disclose that I didn’t leave them out in the downpour for long after only a couple of minutes I scrambled outside to bring them in.

It was interesting to see what effect each type of rain had on the artwork.

Baking Ingredient Science Experiment

This experiment was done during a rainy day using the two storms on that day as the art-related science experiment. Several different baking ingredients from our pantry were placed into a silicone muffin tin.

We placed them on the same bench on the deck as the art project to save us from running all over the deck.

After the short shower, most of the ingredients looked a little damp and the colored sugar had started to run. The heavy rain caused a physical change to most of the ingredients. The Italian seasoning got puffed up a bit. The salt had absorbed the water. The cinnamon changed colors. The flour had craters in it from the raindrops. The sugar had gotten a little syrupy. The salt was a little puffier and didn’t display much water. The color sugar had a puddle of green in its cup.

JDaniel tasted them each and said the sugar tasted sweeter as did the colored sugar. The salt was still salty. He wasn’t willing to try the Italian season or the flour.

This experiment was wonderful for talking about physical and chemical changes that can happen to materials and ingredients when they come in contact with water.

While we were ready for some days of sunshine, some science experiments on a rainy day were fun.

How did you explore books this week? If you have a post you would like to share, please link it up below. Once you have added your post, please visit at least three others.

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4th of July Butterfly Count Activities for Kids

June 28, 2013 By Deirdre

I didn’t realize that there were locations around the United States that hold an annual butterfly site count on of the 4th of July at until we read the book Butterfly Count by Sneed Collard III (2002-03-01). Butterfly Count is the story of a little girl named Amy and how she and her mom participate in a butterfly count.

Amy and her mother find a wonderful variety of butterflies during their butterfly site count. They even find a very rare butterfly that many had thought was no longer in the area. What a wonderful way to spend the 4th of July.

This wonderful story teaches children how to attract and identify butterflies where they live. It also gives you information on finding 4th of July Butterfly Site Count sites near you hosted by the North American Butterfly Association. I wasn’t able to find one near us maybe you will be able to find one near you.

Butterfly County Extension Activities

Butterfly Wing Experiment

This experiment using several layers of tissue paper, construction paper and a balloon was to explore how static electricity stored in a balloon can be transferred to tissue paper. During the transfer of electricity, the wings of the tissue paper butterfly would flap just like a real butterfly.

We started by cutting the outline of a butterfly out of tissue paper that had been layered to give us several layers of tissue to flap when the balloon was stroked over it.

{4th of July} Butterfly Site Count- Read.Explore.Learn.

The tissue layers were then stapled to a piece of construction paper.( Next time I think we will staple our butterflies to cardboard. It would give them some more support.)

We started the experiment with six layers of tissue we soon learned that that was way too many layers. Only the top two layers of wings flapped. We pulled some of the tissue butterflies of the stack. The remaining butterfly layers flapped or lifted up more easily when we rubbed a balloon over the tissue. Rubbing the balloon on your head and then the tissue butterflies really helped the wings to flap. We had a great time exploring electricity with this experiment.

Butterfly Sight Word Match

We are still working on sight words here. We probably will be working on them all summer. I wrote some of JDaniel’s sight words onto butterfly cutouts and on a piece of large white paper.

I asked him to read me the word on each butterfly and then find its match on the paper. When he had found all the matches, I had him remove each word butterfly and read it to me.

Butterfly Number Count

This was so easy to put together. I just placed the butterfly outline from the first activity under a piece of copy paper. Then I wrote groups of number JDaniel has trouble with in the butterfly shape on the white copy paper.

I put various colors of bingo markers on cards featuring each number. JDaniel was to use that stamp to place dots on that number to create a beautiful butterfly. After or before stamping each number, JDaniel read me that number. Yes, it was a lot of repetition, but he sometimes he forgets what these numbers are. I was hoping to put them into muscle, visual and auditory memory.

Here are some more butterfly activities:

Blue Morpho Finger Play and Craft

Making a Butterfly Bento Lunch

How did you explore books this week? If you have a post you would like to share, please link it up below. Once you have added your post, please visit at least three others.

Bald Eagle Craft and Science Activity

June 19, 2013 By Deirdre

We have started to talk about the symbols of our country leading up to Independence Day on the 4th of July. I thought a wonderful symbol to start with is the bald eagle. The idea I came up with was that we would create a bald eagle craft and see if we could get him to fly as a science project.

Before I tell you what we did to create our eagle and how experiment went, I want to give thanks to those that disagreed with Benjamin Franklin about what our national bird should be. Benjamin wanted the national bird to be a turkey. He felt an eagle was far more respectable and less of a scoundrel than the bald eagle. For my part I am thankful that I didn’t have to try to help JDaniel create a flying turkey for this experiment. (JDaniel was a little surprised to hear that the turkey had even been considered.)The book we are going to Read, Explore, and Learn on Friday is called Red, White and Boom. While trying to decide on activities we could do to explore this book I came across a really cool picture of an eagle in the book. The eagle shown in the parade and being flown at the beach looked really fun. I tried to copy the it freehand onto newspaper. It looks close to the illustration by Huy Voun Lee, but not exactly like it. Hers is much better.

Making the Bald Eagle Craft

I decided on newspaper as my painting surface because it is light weight and I hoped it would allow the bald eagle to fly better. If you look closely at the picture, you will see that the newspaper I used is from a grocery store circular.

JDaniel helped me attach bamboo chopsticks in the shape of an X to the back of the bald eagle craft. When we took him outside and JDaniel through him in the air. Our bald eagle creation crashed quickly to the ground into slumping pile.

As you can see in the picture the bald eagle’s head and wings need some support. We took him back in and taped an additional chopstick to each side of the bald eagle to give him a little more stability.

Then we took the bald eagle to our deck. The eagle took off well when he was thrown off the deck on the back of our house. He drifted a few feet and then plummeted to the ground. We were able to work on lift on our model of the the bald eagle it seems , but not draft. It looks like we will need to do some research on keeping flying crafts in the air. Maybe we will need to adjust his wings or add a tail.

We will have to keep working on it. I would like the bald eagle to really fly before Independence Day.

Do you have any ideas of how we can make our bald eagle craft fly like an eagle?

This post is linked to Mrs. Matlock’s Alphabe Thursday.