co mm e n ta ry & pa r e n t i n g
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dear teacher
Summer Science Activities for Children Making the Most of Summer Vacation Children learn best when instruction is continuous. We'll help you keep your children in the learning mode this summer by offering science activities that you can do with them every week while they are away from school...All of the experiments will be based on scientific principles that also let them see the fun side of science.
Experiment No. 4: How
Parents: Children learn best when instruction is continuous. We'll help you keep your children in the learning mode this summer by offering science activities that you can do with them every week while they are away from school. They will be asked a question and then do an experiment to f ind the answer. All of the experiments will be based on scientif ic principles that also let them see the fun side of science. Make sure that the ones that your children do are age-appropriate and safe. As they do these experiments, they may also be practicing their reading, writing, math and thinking skills.
hard is your heart work i ng ? Ta ke your pulse lying down, and then after doing these exercises: sitting, stand ing and jumping 10 times. Rest between each a c t iv it y. Do e s your pulse rate change with what you do?
Experiment No. 1:
Experiment No. 5:
around it at its widest point (circumference). Next, turn on a lamp and hold the balloon above it for 2 to 3 m i nutes. Then mea su re the d istance around the ba l loon's c i rc u m ference again. What happened to the size of the balloon?
Mash a ripe banana and put it into a bottle. Then place a balloon over the mouth of the bottle, and put the bottle in a warm, sunny place. Measure how far the balloon inf lates each day for a few days. Do the same thing with other fruit, such as grapes, apples and oranges to answer the Ask experiment question. your children if they think that it is possible to stick a pin in a balloon without Is one eye better than two? You'll popping it. Blow up a latex need an eye patch and a fairly small ball for this experiment. balloon until it is about Two children should stand several feet apart and toss the ball three-quarters full of air back and forth 10 times. Older children should catch the ball and tie off the end. Next, with one hand. Then one child should put on an eye patch. cut seven pieces of strong, Again, the children should toss the ball to each other. Total sticky tape and secure each how many times the child caught the ball with and without one f irmly to the outside the eye patch. Then have the other child use the eye patch. of the ba l loon. Tr y to space them evenly. Then carefully stick a straight pin Is your skin the same everywhere? through the middle of each Make a big black area of about 3 inches by rubbing a soft pencil on a sheet of paper. Put a finger on the spot until it picks
Experiment No. 6:
Experiment No. 2:
Experiment No. 3:
30 INDY’S CHILD * JULY 2010
piece of tape. Why didn't the balloon burst? (The sticky tape forms a seal around the pin.)
Experiment No. 7: Help your children f ind out if warm
or cool air takes up more room? Help or supervise younger children with this experiment as hot water is used. Have your children f ind a large plastic bottle, like a 1-gallon milk bottle. Hot tap water should be poured into the bottle until it is about half-full and then swished around in the bottle for about a minute. Pour the water out of the bottle, and immediately screw the cap on tightly. Watch the bottle collapse.
What has happened is that the air in the bottle was warmed by putting the hot water in the bottle. When the bottle was capped, this warm air quickly cooled. Cool air takes up less room than warm air. The bottle collapsed to f ill the space. It was pushed in by the outside air pressure on all surfaces of the bottle.
Experiment No. 8:
Gravity causes all objects to be pulled toward each other. Because Earth is the biggest object around, it has the strongest pull of gravity. How does gravity work? Place a marble in a bottle. Turn the bottle over. What happens? Again, place a marble in a bottle. Move the bottle so the marble starts going around inside it. Keep moving the bottle and gradually turn the bottle on its side and then upside down. Did the marble fall out of the bottle? It shouldn't have. Centrifugal force should have Does air pulled the marble away from the bottle neck and overcome expand when it the gravity that would cause it to fall out. is heated? Blow up a ba l loon Parents should send questions to dearteacher@ and m e a s u r e dearteacher.com or ask them on the columnists’ Web site at the d i s t a n c e www.dearteacher.com.
Perhaps this summer's work will turn a few of your children into future scientists. If they become hooked on science, there are so many Web sites offering more experiments. Three good choices are: exploratorium.edu/ explore/handson.html, sciencemadesimple. com/projects.html and http://pbskids.org/ zoom/activities/sci. Also, you will f ind many additional experiments on our Web site in Resources under Activities.
Which fruit decays the fastest? This is fun because your children will see the fruit blow up a balloon. When fruit decays, bacteria multiply as they eat up the fruit. In processing the food, the bacteria give off gas.
up a big smudge. Then pick up the smudge from your f inger with a piece of Scotch tape and press it onto a piece of white paper. Do the same with other parts of your body. Did your skin prints differ?