Science experiment Archives - Page 4 of 14

STEM Pumpkin Printable Activity

September 7, 2017 By Deirdre

This STEM pumpkin printable my day four pumpkin activity. There will be a total of five sets of pumpkin activities shared by the end of this week. There are pumpkin themed printables for preschool and school-age children. Today’s activity could be done with younger or older children. Let me walk you through how to use this STEM pumpkin activity age with both age groups.

Pumpkin Printable Activity

Before You Start the Pumpkin Printable Activity

You will need to download a copy of the STEM Pumpkin Activites for Kids You will need one printable for each of your children.

Using the Pumpkin Printable with Younger Children

If you have preschool or kindergarteners, you will have them fill in the picture and colors of the pumpkin on their own. Then you could have them dictate the words they want to use to describe their pumpkin’s size, texture and look.

They may need help measuring the pumpkin’s height, weight and distance around. Some children may not need help with this.

They may have trouble coming up with words to describe their pumpkin’s look. You may need to prompt them with words like the following:

bumpy
smooth
slippery
speckled
rough
bruised

Using the Pumpkin Printable with Older Children

Your older children may feel like they will be able to fill out the pumpkin printable out on their own. It may help them to brainstorm words that describe the pumpkin’s size, texture and look with you before they fill out those areas of the pumpkin printables.

You may even want to display the brainstormed words on a chart. A chart of words spelled correctly might inspire your children to use longer or more descriptive words to describe their pumpkin.

If you like this STEM activity, here are so more STEM activities with printables that you will want to check out.

Little Miss Muffet Coding Activity and Printable

Apple Weight Loss STEM Activity

Sedimentary Rock Cookie Recipe and Activity

LEGO Algorithm STEM Activity

Shadow Puppets – Exploring the World of Shadows

August 21, 2017 By Deirdre

Outerspace is a dark, dark place. Your children can use space themed shadow puppets to explore the world of dark and the shadows created with a flashlight. This activity can is a wonderful way to explore the world of shadows. It might also help your children feel more comfortable in the dark.

Space Themed Shadow Puppets

My friend Dayna shared this activity in her new book The Super Kids Activity Guide to Conquering Every day. ( I love this book!) It is an activity she recommends to teach kids the science behind shadows. Taking the time to explore shadows she explains helps kids when they see strange shadows at night. Knowing that the shadows are created by a light source and an object in their room can also help them understand that their room is a safe place to go to sleep.

Dayna shared a rocket shadow puppet and a moon puppet in her book. I found clip art for those objects and a few more to make our shadow puppets. We made shadow puppets of a rocket, a shooting star, an astronaut, a star, and the moon.

Creating the Puppets

Finding the Clip Art

You will need to look for outlines of space-themed objects on your favorite search engine.

It is okay if the clip art has lots of details on it. You will be doing something a minute that will take care of that.

Copying and Pasting the Clip Art

When you have found clip art pictures that you want to use, you can copy and paste them into a Word or PowerPoint document.

Printing and Cutting Out the Pictures

Next, you will need to print out your clip art filled document onto plain white printer paper.

You will then paper clip the clip art on top of a piece of white cardstock.

Then you will cut out the space pictures on the paper and the cardstock at the same time. The cardstock cutouts will be just the outline of the object. They are what you will use to make the puppets.

Puppet Making

You will create the puppets by gluing or taping each of your space cardstock cut-outs onto a straw, chopstick or popsicle stick.

Exploring with the Shadow Puppets

During the day, find a dark corner of a room or unlit room to explore in. Your children will need a flashlight and all of your shadow puppets.

What can your children explore?

Your children can make the shadow of each of the puppets larger and larger.
They can try moving the flashlight closer and then farther always from the puppets.
Children can try creating a scene by holding two or more puppets in their hands at the same time.

Are you interested in more games, crafts, recipes, and tips? Purchase The Superkids Activity Guide to Conquering EverydayThe Superkids Activity Guide to Conquering Every Day: Awesome Games and Crafts to Master Your Moods, Boost Focus, Hack Mealtimes and Help Grownups Understand Why You Do the Things You Do for 75 ways to work through the challenging times of the day and gain the tools to focus on your children’s strengths during bedtime, transitions, mealtimes and more.

3 Types of Rocks Modeled With Crayons

August 16, 2017 By Deirdre

During Geology week a few weeks ago, I shared with you how to make igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic rock cookie and candy recipes to create with your kids. My son and I also created 3 types of rocks modeled with crayons that week. Since the other activities involved explorations that were edible, I set this activity aside to share with your late.

This week I am sharing STEM science experiments that use school supplies. Now seems to be the better time to share this 3 types of rocks activity with you.

Creating 3 Types of Rocks Activity

Let me warn you they hardest or rather the most tedious part of this activity is creating the crayon shavings. It takes a little time to get enough for this experiment. I worked on creating them while watching television one night.

Supplies

The links below are affiliate links.

Pencil Sharpener for Colored/Graphite Pencils and Crayons
silver foil bake cups
Spoons
Popsicle Sticks
Water
Large Cup or Bowl
Old Crayon Shavings

Creating the Sedimentary Rock

Of the 3 types of rocks, this is the easiest to put together. Your children will need to scoop several different colors of crayon shavings into a foil baking cup or cupcake liner.Then they will need to fold the liner in half. Next, they will need to hold it between their hands or sit on it.

The heat from their bodies will start to melt the shavings into each other. Then set the liner aside for a few minutes to cool. Sedimentary rock is formed when tiny particles are layered and then compressed.

Creating the Metamorphic Rocks

Metamorphic rocks are created when rocks are exposed to heat or pressure. This exploration uses hot that has come to boil. Children will need to have supervision while they create metamorphic rocks with the crayon shavings.

Your children will scoop a variety of different colors of shavings into a foil baking cup. Then they will set the cup into a bowl or cup filled with hot water.

They will need to leave the cup in the water for only about 15 seconds or until the shavings start to melt. Then lift the cup from the cup or bowl and set it on a flat surface. (You may need to this for your children if you are worried about them touching the water.)

If you want to you can have them fold the liner in half and compress the shavings to add pressure. We left ours as they melted.

Creating Igneous Rocks

Igneous rocks are formed when molten lava or magma hardened. This exploration also uses hot water that has come to a boil. Children will need to have supervision while they create igneous rocks with the crayon shavings.

Your children can scoop a variety of different shaving colors into the foil cups. Then they will place them in the hot water that has been poured into a cup or bowl.

They will leave the liner in the bowl for a full minute. Then the cup or liner can be removed.

Your children can then stir the mixture with a popsicle stick to make sure it is blended. Then set it aside to harden.

Your children are going to love making 3 kinds of rocks with crayons!

Apple Science- STEM Amazing Apple Weight Loss Exploration

August 9, 2017 By Deirdre

This STEM apple science exploration looks at ways an apple can lose weight. Before you start this apple science activity, you will want to brainstorm ways your children think the apple will lose weight. I am sure that they will come up with wonderfully creative ideas. Once you have recorded their responses, you will have even more ways to test out weigh loss. I think they will like looking at the two ways I am going to share below. They will love exploring their ideas when those explorations are done.

Apple Science Weight Loss Explorations

Before you start these scientific explorations, you will need to print out the STEM Apple Weight Loss Exploration. Then you will need to gather the following supplies.

Supplies

Links below are affiliate links.

Apples
Student Balance or Scale (This one isn’t the one we used but will do a great job.)
Apple Peeler (My mom used this one in her classroom for years!)
Wooden Cubes (I used these in my classroom.)

Starting the Apple Science Exploration

As I mentioned above, you will want your children to help you brainstorm ways they can make the apple lose weight. You may want to record their ideas to explore later.

Weighing the Apple with Skin

You will need to weigh the apple with its skin on. They can keep adding blocks to the side of the scale without the apple on it until both sides are balanced. Your children can record that number on their exploration sheet.

Removing the Skin

Your children may never have seen this type of peeler before. You may want to walk them through it various parts and how they work. Then you could have them take turns turning the handle. It will be fun to see if they can keep the peel in one long strip. It is okay if they don’t.

Weighing the Apple without Skin

Now it is time to weigh the apple without its skin. If you kept the blocks on the scale from the last time you weighed the apple, you children will notice that they need to remove a few blocks. If you removed the blocks, you can add them one at a time until both sides are balanced. Then record the number of blocks you used on the recording sheet.

Weighing the Apple Later in the Day

Leave the apple and blocks on the scale for a few hours. Then look at the scale. Your children will notice that the two sides are not balanced anymore. The difference isn’t huge, but there is a difference. Count how many blocks lighter the apple is and have your children record it on the recording sheet.

We decided at my house that some of the juice from the apple evaporated. It will be fun to see if your children agree!

If you like this apple experiment, here are some more wonderful STEM explorations.

How to Sharks Float Activity

Do Crackers Make Good Pinhole Cameras?

Three Blind Mice LEGO Braille Activity

Rock Cycle Candy Recipe – Making Metamorphic Rock

August 5, 2017 By Deirdre

This is the second in a series of three rock cycle themed cooking projects to do with your kids. As with the sedimentary rock recipe, this recipe includes a printable that you can use with your children to create the recipe. The printable also has space to explore the ingredients and the finished product. There is also a space to reflect on the cooking challenges.

Rock Cycle Candy – Metamorphic Candy

Before Making the Metamorphic Rock

Before your children get started with this project, you may want to have them visit a site like Easy Science for Kids. It has several pictures of metamorphic rocks they can view. It also explains the way they are made and a has video on how to identify metamorphic rocks.

Actually Making the Rock Cycle Candy

Before they get started you will need to print out the Metamorphic Rock Themed Candy Recipe and Exploration page. It has the recipe and explorations for your children to do.

Ingredients

12 ounces of chocolate chips
12 ounces of almond bark*

*Do not substitute white chocolate chips for the almond bark. They don’t melt well and tend to get chalky.

Directions

The first thing you will need to do is trace the bottom of the pan you are going to use onto a piece of parchment paper.

Then you will cut out the shape you traced. (You will need to remove any pencil marks from the paper.)

Next place paper inside the pan with the side you traced on face down.

Then place the chocolate chips and the white almond bark into a microwave safe bowls.

You will then melt the bark and the chips in a microwave for 2 to 3 minutes. Please stir the contents of both bowls midways through that time.

You will need to stir the chocolate chips again and then pour the mixture into the pan with the parchment paper.

If your almond bark has any clumps in it, you will need to stir the mixture up a bit to remove them. Pour the melted almond bark into the pan.

You will need to swirl the bark into the chocolate with a spoon or popsicle stick. Do not blend it in.

Next, you will refrigerate the mixture until it is hard.

Then you can break off pieces of the candy to eat.

Exploring the Ingredients

The right side of the recipe printable has a section invites your children to explore the ingredients and the final product. First, they can draw what each of them looks like. Then they can choose a word or two describe how they look, taste and smell.

Sharing Cooking Challenges

There is a very small area in the bottom of the printable to share any challenges your children had while making the metamorphic candy.

If you like this activity, here are some more your children will enjoy.

STEM Chocolate Chip Cookie Excavating

Edible Rock Cycle

ABC’s of Binary Code

Do Crackers Make Good Pinhole Lens?

Three Blind Mice Activity with LEGO Braille Letters

Rock Candy Geodes

STEM Sedimentary Rock Cookie Recipe and Activity

August 4, 2017 By Deirdre

Years ago I copied a set of rock themed cookie recipes from teaching magazine. I wanted to make sedimentary rock, igneous rock, and metamorphic rock cookies with my students. Just this week I pulled out them out to make with my son. He has a wonderful time creating and test testing them. Your children will enjoy making them too. Today I am sharing the sedimentary rock cookie recipe. Watch for the other two cookie recipes to go up in the next few days.

Today I am sharing the sedimentary rock cookie recipe. Watch for the other two cookie recipes to go up in the next few days.

Sedimentary Rock Cookie Recipe

Ingredients

1/2 cup of margarine

1 1/2 cups of graham cracker crumbs

1 can sweetened condensed milk

1 cup chocolate chips

1 1/3 cups of coconut

1 cup of chopped nuts (We used walnuts.)

Directions for Making the Sedimentary Cookies

Sedimentary rock has lots of layers. Most of the cookie creation process is going to adding layers of ingredients one at a time.

Preheat your over to 350 degrees.

Place the melted margarine in a 13″ by 9″ pan. Spread it with a spoon to make sure the whole bottom of the pan is covered.

Spread graham cracker crumbs on top of the margarine. Then you can use a spoon to make sure that the whole pan is covered with crumbs.

Now it is time to pour the can of sweetened condensed milk on top of the graham cracker crumbs. You can smooth it out with a spoon too.

Then add a layer of chocolate chips on top of the milk.

Next shower the coconut over the chocolate chips.

The final layer you will add is the chopped nuts. If you have children aren’t huge fans of nuts or have a nut allergy, you can leave them off. We only placed nuts on one side of our pan.

Then it is time to press the layers together with the back of a spoon. Once the layers have been compressed, you can bake the sedimentary cookie bars for 25 to 30 minutes.

Sedimentary Rock Cookie Printable

I created a Sedimentary Rock Themed Cookie Bar STEM Activity printable you can use with your kids that shares the recipe, creation directions, and an area to diagram the cookie. Your children can work on creating the diagram while the cookies are baking.

If you like this STEM activity, here are some more you will love sharing with your children.

STEM Chocolate Chip Cookie Excavating with Printable

Creating Cup Stacking Algorithms

ABC’s of Binary Code

Do Crackers Make Good Pinhole Lens?

Three Blind Mice STEM Activity with LEGO Braille Letters

Igneous Cookie Recipe and Rock Cycle Activity Printable

August 3, 2017 By Deirdre

I will be sharing with your metaphoric and sedimentary rock recipes later in the week. Today I have an igneous cookie recipe to share with you. Along with the cookie recipe, I have created a rock cycle activity printable that focuses on igneous rocks.

Rock Cycle Activity and Igneous Cookie Recipe

Before you start making the cookies with your children, you will need to download and print out the Igneous Rock Cookie Recipe and Exploration printable. It has the ingredient list and directions for making the igneous cookies.

Ingredients

3 Tbsp. of butter or margarine
10- ounce package of marshmallows
6 cups of rice cereal

Directions for Making the Cookies

Melt the margarine with the marshmallows in a sauce pan.
Stir in the rice cereal.
Form into balls.
Cool on parchment paper

Counting Activity

While you could simply count the cups of marshmallows as they are dumped into the sauce pan, it might be fun to count the number of marshmallows in each cup. It may turn out the each cup of marshmallow has the same number of marshmallows in it. Your children may find that there is only a small difference between the number of marshmallows in each cup. They might also find that one or more cups has several more than the others. It will be fun to find out.

Exploring Your Senses

The Igneous Rock Cookie Recipe and Exploration printable has a section for your children to share how the marshmallows, rice cereal, and igneous rock cookie taste, look and smell. There isn’t a lot of room to write down their insights. They may have to come up with a word or two to describe each food item.

Sharing a Challenge

The last area of the igneous rock printable invites children to share any challenges they had making the cookies.

If you like this rock cycle activity, here are some more you will enjoy.

Excavating a Chocolate Chip Cookie Activity with Printable

Exploring Rocks – Will Light Shine Through

Sorting and Classifying Rocks

STEM Chocolate Chip Cookie Excavation with Printable

August 1, 2017 By Deirdre

Whether you are studying geology or paleontology, this chocolate chip cookie excavation activity would be fun to do with your children. While they would have fun just picking out each of the chocolate chips, this activity will also let them work on a number of other learning concepts. The printable I created to go along with the chocolate chip excavation, that will invite them to work on mapping skills, predicting and counting skills.

Chocolate Chip Cookie Excavation Activity

Getting Ready

You will need to gather together a chocolate chip cookie, a toothpick, and the Chocolate Chip Cooke Excavating Activity Printable for each of your children.They will also need a paper plate, napkin or piece of wax paper to work on.

Starting the Chocolate Chip Cookie Excavation

Predicting the Number of Chips

The first thing your children will need to do is look the cookie over carefully on the top and the bottom. Then they will need to predict just how many chips are on each of the sides. They will need to record their prediction on the activity printable.

Mapping the Chips

Next, they will need to create a top view picture or map and bottom view picture or map of the cookie. It will help your children remember what the cookie looked like before it was excavated.

Excavating the Chips

Now it is time to excavate the chips. Children can start at the top of the cookie or on the bottom. When they have finished one side or the other, they will need to record how many chips they found on that side.

Then they can start excavating on the other side. When they have all the chips from that side of the chocolate chip cookie they can record that number too.

Drawing Conclusions

There is a space on the activity printable to record their conclusions. There are a number of things they could write about. They could share how accurate their predictions are. Children could explain why one side had more chips than the other. Children could share the hardest or easiest part of this STEM activity.

If you like this STEM activity, here are some more you will love:

Coding for Beginners

Creating Cup Stacking Algorithms

ABC’s of Binary Code

Do Crackers Make Good Pinhole Lens?

STEM Sunscreen Experiment- Spray vs. Lotion

How to Make Egg Geodes

STEM Challenge- Sedimentary Rock Model

STEM Shark Activities for Kids – How Do Sharks Float?

July 15, 2017 By Deirdre

Every year I try to come up with a couple activities to do during Shark Week at the end of July. There was a shark hockey game, a paper plate shark mask, and a shark made from a pool noodle! This year I have a shark Nerf target and some STEM shark activities for kids.

STEM Shark Activities for Kids

Fish have a gas-filled swim bladder that keeps them afloat in the water. Sharks stay afloat or stay buoyant due to an oily liver and some fat. The oil in a shark’s liver is lighter than water. It gives a shark some buoyancy. The oil is still heavier than water and if the shark doesn’t keep moving it will sink. will sink.

Getting Ready

Making the Sharks

Before you can start the shark activities for kids, you will need to cut two sharks out of a plastic blue file folder. You will need to find a shark online or in a book. Then we traced it onto the front of the file folder. Finally, we cut shark traced onto the folder out while holding the back of the folder to the front of the folder. That allowed us to cut out two sharks at the same time.

Gather Materials

Now that you have the sharks ready you will need to gather a few more materials.

You will need:

Two Strong Ziplock Plastic Bags
Vegetable Oil
Water
Large Plastic Tub or Box

Filling the Bags and the Tub

You will need to fill the tub almost up to the top with water. Don’t feel it all the way the top! When you children place their hands in the tub, they will displace some of the water! It may then spill out of the tub!

One of the plastic bags will need to be filled about 2/3 of the way with water. The other bag needs to be filled 2/3 of the way with vegetable.

Then you will need to place a shark into each of the bags. If you want to place duct tape over the top of the bag to keep the liquids in you totally can.

Activity One – Adding the Bags Vertically

Have your children place each of the bags into the water vertically. Watch what happens to the bags. The bag with the oil will probably flip on its side. The bag with the water in it will probably sink down a little.

Activity Two – Adding the Bag Horizontally

Have your children place each of the bags into the water horizontally. They may find that both of the bags float at first. The bag with the water in it may sink a little after a short time.

Activity Three – Pushing Down the Bags

Children will place both of the bags in the plastic tub or box horizontally. Then they will place on hand on each bag and try to push it down.

If you like this activity, here are some more shark activities you will love.

How to Draw a Shark with an Algorithm

How to Make a Pool Noodle Shark

Pool Noodle Shark with Rubberband Launcher

If you try these activities, please share a picture with me on Facebook.

STEM Activity- Do Crackers Make Good Pinhole Lens?

June 26, 2017 By Deirdre

Last week I share with you how to make a pinhole camera made from an oatmeal container and a camera obscura out of a cereal box.While I was researching eclipse activities, I came across a wonderful set of activities on a blog called El Navagate . One of the ideas was to have children look at the world through the holes of a cracker as they would pinhole lens.

Neither the blogger of El Navagate or I am suggesting that children view an eclipse through a cracker. What I think we both thought would be cool was to have your children try to look through the holes in crackers to view the world as they would pinhole lens.

Do Crackers Make Good Pinhole Lens? STEM Activity

Your children will probably find that some crackers make better pinhole lens than others. They can also find that some crackers for the same box make better pinhole lens than others. We did find that one type of cracker worked best for us time after time. It will be interesting to see if your children have the same results.

Supplies

Round Crackers Like Ritz
Square Crackers Like Saltines
Rectangular Crackers Like Club Crackers
STEM Activity – Do Crackers Make Good Pinhole Lens? Printable

Getting the Pinhole Lens Experiment Started

The first thing you will need to do is print out the Do Crackers Make Good Pinhole Lens? Printable and place a few of each of the types of crackers in bags, cups or bowls for your children or students.

Then you will need to decide where you want your children to do their observations. We took our crackers outside to observe some of the plants and bushes in the yard. You may want your children to observe objects in your classroom or your kitchen. They could try to read a book through the pinholes if you want them too.

After trying out of each of the types of cracker pinhole lens, your children will need to rank the crackers from easiest to view through to the hardest on the printable. They will also need to explain why the cracker that was the easiest to view through worked the best. This will give them a chance to work on the high-level thinking skills of analysis and evaluation.

If you like this pinhole lens activity, here are some more STEM activities your children or students will enjoy:

STEM Sunscreen Spray vs. Sunscreen Lotion Experiment with Printable

Exploring Braille with LEGO (Recording Printable is available)

Building Houses for the Three Pigs (Recording Printable is available)

Building a House for a Hermit Crab with Blocks

Pumpkin Printable Activity

Before You Start the Pumpkin Printable Activity

Using the Pumpkin Printable with Younger Children

Using the Pumpkin Printable with Older Children

Space Themed Shadow Puppets

Creating the Puppets

Finding the Clip Art

Copying and Pasting the Clip Art

Printing and Cutting Out the Pictures

Puppet Making

Exploring with the Shadow Puppets

Creating 3 Types of Rocks Activity

Supplies

Creating the Sedimentary Rock

Creating the Metamorphic Rocks

Creating Igneous Rocks

Apple Science Weight Loss Explorations

Supplies

Starting the Apple Science Exploration

Weighing the Apple with Skin

Removing the Skin

Weighing the Apple without Skin

Weighing the Apple Later in the Day

If you like this apple experiment, here are some more wonderful STEM explorations.

Rock Cycle Candy – Metamorphic Candy

Before Making the Metamorphic Rock

Actually Making the Rock Cycle Candy

Ingredients

Directions

Exploring the Ingredients

Sharing Cooking Challenges

If you like this activity, here are some more your children will enjoy.

Sedimentary Rock Cookie Recipe

Ingredients

Directions for Making the Sedimentary Cookies

Sedimentary Rock Cookie Printable

If you like this STEM activity, here are some more you will love sharing with your children.

Rock Cycle Activity and Igneous Cookie Recipe

Ingredients

Directions for Making the Cookies

Counting Activity

Exploring Your Senses

Sharing a Challenge

If you like this rock cycle activity, here are some more you will enjoy.

Chocolate Chip Cookie Excavation Activity

Getting Ready

Starting the Chocolate Chip Cookie Excavation

Predicting the Number of Chips

Mapping the Chips

Excavating the Chips

Drawing Conclusions

If you like this STEM activity, here are some more you will love:

STEM Shark Activities for Kids

Getting Ready

Making the Sharks

Gather Materials

Filling the Bags and the Tub

Activity One – Adding the Bags Vertically

Activity Two – Adding the Bag Horizontally

Activity Three – Pushing Down the Bags

If you like this activity, here are some more shark activities you will love.

Do Crackers Make Good Pinhole Lens? STEM Activity

Supplies

Getting the Pinhole Lens Experiment Started

If you like this pinhole lens activity, here are some more STEM activities your children or students will enjoy:

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