Science Festival Student Guide

Transcription

1 Science Festival Student Guide

2 In a world filled with the products of scientific inquiry, scientific literacy has become a necessity for everyone. Everyone needs to use scientific information to make choices that arise every day. Everyone needs to be able to engage intelligently in public discourse and debate about important issues that involve science and technology. And everyone deserves to share in the excitement and personal fulfillment that can come from understanding and learning about the natural world. The National Science Education Standards Contact: Leslie Bailey, Solipsys Corporation,

3 The Stations 1 Bubble Station Recipe: 12 cups water, 1 cup Procter & Gamble Ivory Dish Soap or Ultra Dawn (other brands just aren t as good), 2 Tablespoons Glycerin (optional, but bubble last longer when moisturized) Activity 1: Body Bubbles Make bubbles with our bare hands? Yes! Some of the best bubbles are made with fingers, hands, and arms too, as long as they're wet with bubble solution. Cooperate with another bubbleologist to find ways to combine your bubbles on the table or in the air. Activity 2: Bubble Shapes By blowing clusters of bubbles on the table or in their hands, students can make bubbles that aren't round! A three-sided bubble, a four-sided bubble, a five-sided bubble, and more. By putting a wet straw into a bubble, students can blow a bubble in a bubble, or even a bubble in a bubble in a bubble. Before long, students will be making "slinky-bubbles," "caterpillars," and many of their own clever creations. Activity 3: Bubble Technology In this activity, students experiment to discover what objects can be used to blow bubbles, which make little bubbles, and which make big bubbles. Activity 4: Bubble Colors We've all enjoyed the beautiful colors swirling around on bubbles. In this activity, students get a chance to carefully observe those colors and

4 patterns. They can use their observations to tell how old a bubble is and even to predict when it will pop! Activity 5: Bubble Windows At this station, students make sheets of soap film by slowly raising straws and a loop of string out of a tub of bubble solution. Surface tension within the bubble film causes the sides of the apparatus to pull together. Students experiment with the flexible bubble film by blowing on it, pulling it though the air, waving it gently, or even twisting it. Students discover how to make one window intersect another, poke things through the windows without popping them, and how the world looks through a bubble window. Activity 6: Bubble Foam Students enjoy stirring up bubble solution and experimenting with the resulting foam. They discover that the suds are made of tiny bubbles. Can they count or estimate how many bubbles in a handful of foam? What does foam look like through a magnifying lens? Which makes better foam, a whisk or a beater? Can bubble foam be compressed? How much foam can you produce? 2 Material Property Station Activity 1: Crystal Growth Observation Recipe: heat one cup of water to boiling in a glass jar. Stir and add Borax until it stops dissolving. Suspend a pipe cleaner from string in solution overnight. In the morning you will have a long lasting crystal creation. At this station, students will use a magnifying class to observe crystal structures made from Borax, Salt, and Sugar. Try it yourself at home!

5 Activity 2: GAK Recipe: Mix half borax and half Elmer s glue with enough water to make the resulting polymer the consistency desired. Slimy but not sticky ooze - touch it? Yes! Students handle a batch of GAK made using the same borax used to make the crystals. Why are the properties so different? Where did the crystals go? Activity 3: Feel the heat In this activity students feel the heat. How does a metal knife feel after it has been placed in hot or cold water? What happens if we use a plastic knife instead? Can the black film be used to investigate heating and cooling? Activity 4: Generate heat

6 Felt the heat? Why not make the heat? The pump compresses the gas inside creating friction amongst the molecules. What close and push the plunger quickly. Did you see the cotton ignite and use up the oxygen? Add some air or a few strands of cotton and try again. Activity 5: It s a gas What happens when a solid mixes with a liquid? With vinegar and baking soda, the result is a gas. Students empty balloons filled with baking soda into bottles filled with vinegar and watch the balloon inflate. It s a gas. Activity 6: Density is a material thing Equal volume or equal weight? When density varies it s hard to tell by looking. Can you identify the materials? Activity 7: Floater and sinkers Rocks can float. Seeds can sink. Can you predict which items are floaters and which are sinkers? Whose boat can float the most pennies? 3 Optics Station Activity 1: Polarized Using polarized plastic similar to sunglass lens material, students are able to see stress in plastic as color. Students will be given a kit with two polarizing films, some clear plastic objects and a striped plastic sheet. Wow, where did the colors come from? What happens when the polarizing films are rotated? Where did the light go? Test your understanding, which lenses are polarized?

7 Activity 2: Lens Exploration Quiet, optical designers at work! Students are able to pick up lenses with various configurations. Which lenses would be good magnifiers? What happens when the students look through more than one lens? Can the students make an image focus, turn it upside down? Can the students design a telescope? Activity 3: Rainbow Colors Ever wondered where the colors in a rainbow come from? From white light of course! Students are given a kit with a color viewer and a light. What colors do the see? Where do the colors come from? What happens when electricity is applied to the clear LED? Activity 4: Mirror Mirrors Experiment with mirrors and prisms. Make kaleidoscopes or periscopes. Try following a maze with your finger by only looking at your refection don t cheat! Can you make infinite reflections? What time is it in the mirror? Try two mirrors. Read the mirrored message and write your own!

8 Activity 5: Glow Rocks Students enjoy looking at rock collections and observing which ones are crystals. What happens when the rocks are put inside a dark box with a black UV light? Why do some rocks glow? What happens when the students draw on their hands with a highlighter and put their hands in the same box? Activity 6: Do our eyes deceive us? Here is a slide show guaranteed to deceive you. Each topics presents an illusions. The first section contains hidden messages. Can you find the camouflage reader? The next section uses two different colored filters on each eye to make flat pictures look 3D. Can you make 3D glasses? View the introduction to polarized 3D movies and then view the illusions. Can you see Jesus? Can you find both the old and young women? Can you count 9 people? Do the other pictures make you head spin? Tired of the slide show? See Bugs Alive! using the Stereography glasses. 4 Motion Station Activity 1: Lazy Button This activity is a simple version of the magician s trick of pulling the table cloth out from under a set table without disturbing anything. Students of all ages can practice pulling a cardboard our from under a button and see it drop straight down into a bottle. Well, sometimes. Fun for all. Activity 2: In a Spin

9 Every wonder why people don t fall out of their seats on loop the loop roller coasters? It isn t the seat belts. Fill cups with loose objects and twirl be careful not to hit anyone. Was there a spill? Activity 3: Race against Friction Welcome to a day at the races! Using a slant board and blocks of identical size, shape and weight races are held testing different materials under the bocks. Examine the surfaces and choose the fastest block. Choose the slowest. Can the students put the blocks in order from fastest to slowest? Activity 4: Egyptian Cart How did the Egyptians move the heavy blocks for the pyramids? Try pulling an empty cart and one filled with heavy rocks. Next try rolling the cart on pencils. Do the students notice a difference? Watch out, cart in motion. Activity 5: Whirling Discs Try spinning a disk on a string. Pretty wobbly. Next, try spinning the disk around its axis before spinning the disk on the string. Take hold of a bicycle wheel while a friend spins. Try to turn it on its side. What s happening? Activity 6: Pendulum In this activity students swing a washer on a string. How long will the washer swing without adding another push? How fast does the pendulum swing back and forth? What happens when the string is made shorter or longer?

10 Activity 7: Newton s Cradle The physics toy and demo sold as "Newton's cradle" is also called "colliding balls", "Newton's spheres", "counting balls", "impact balls", "ball-chain", the "executive pacifier", and even, believe it or not, "Newton's balls." Students interact with a fun physics demonstration. If one ball is pulled, one swings. What happens when we pull 2 or 3 or 4 balls? Activity 8: Happy/ Unhappy Balls Balls with attitude? In this activity students will be surprised by the properties of two seemingly identical balls. Which bounces higher? Can the student predict the outcome? Can the student guess why there is a difference? Activity 9: Mouse Trap Game Turn the gear to make the boot kick the ball. How many transfers of energy can you count? How much work was required to catch the mice? Where the mice caught every time? Can you build a better mouse trap? Activity 10: Cycloid Ramps Can you let two balls go at the same time? If you can, the balls will reach the bottom at the same time even if they start at very different heights on the ramp. Another mystery, a straight line is not the fastest route between to points on the ramp. Try it!

11 5 Sound Station Activity 1: Slinky Waves For this activity a slinky is stretched over a broom pole. The edge of the slinky is thumped to create a wave. Students love to create competing waves from each end. The most important observation is that the wave travels, but the slinky does not travel. (Yes, it moves, but only around the pole) Activity 2: Cup Telephone Sound travels in waves as in the slinky demonstration. The simplest voice transfer device is the cup (or can) and string phone. Even if only one student is present the cup can be held to one ear and the string pulled taunt and scratched. The scratching sound will travel back to the student s ear. Activity 3: Frog s Croak Ever been kept up at night by frogs at Kokee? The vibration of the frogs head is an important component to the sound. This carved wood frog makes a realistic sound when a stick is rubbed across up its back. Why is the sound different when the stick is rubbed down the back? What happens when the stick hole is plugged with fingers? How about when the mouth is held shut? Activity 4: Mystery sounds what s in the eggs?

12 Our brains are wired to remember sounds and the objects that made them. In a quite room we know that we have heard a pin drop. Can you tell what common items are in each egg? Activity 5: Feel the Vibes Feel the sound vibration by talking with lips on a balloon. See the sound vibration by tapping a cookie sheet with a spoon above a homemade drum with sand on top. Hold a bell. What happens to the sound of the clapper? Activity 6: Singing Goblet Run a wet finger around a goblet. What happens? Where does the sound come from? Activity 7: Perfect Pitch Strike the tuning forks on the block. What do you hear? What happens when you touch the tines? Which fork makes the highest pitch sound? Can you match your voice pitch to the fork pitch? 6 Magnet Station Activity 1: Simple Attraction At every age magnets seem magical. Which items will the magnet attract? Some will surprise you. Can you make paper clips fly? Activity 2: Repulsion Students will play with pairs of magnets, finding orientations where the magnets attract each other and orientations where the magnets repel each other.

13 Activity 3: See the Field Students experiment with attracting iron filing suspended in oil with various magnets. Can the students see the pattern of the filings in the oil? What shape does it have? Activity 4: Levitation Some magicians use mirrors to levitate objects. In this activity the student will use magnets. Does the magnetic field pass through paper, plastic or other materials? How can we use these properties to hide the magnets? Activity 5: Building with Magnets Nothings more fun than a barrel full of magnetic marbles! Students will have fun trying to control these rambunctious marbles to build simple structures. Activity 6: Drawing with Magnets How does a MagneDoodle toy work? Studens will have fun drawing pictures and testing theories. Activity 7: Fishing Who can catch the most fish with one drop of a magnet? What s the most fish a magnet can hold? Are bigger magnets always more powerful?

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