It's been a great but crazy year! I can not wait to see you again in the fall. This is my last post. But fear not! I've listed some of my favorite sites for finding activities for students. Remember, science is all around you!
And YES! I will continue to send the patches to Sunol Glen Students if you keep doing science experiments over the summer. I will reward you for completing ANY 10 or 20 science experiments, even if you did not find them on my blog. Just have your parent send me an email letting me know you're done - do not forget to include your address so I can send your patch. Have a GREAT Summer! Great Science Websites:
And don't forget this great resource:
0 Comments
Today's engineering project does not have a challenge - just instructions on how to build it. It's a fun way to make a card special as you are thinking of making cards for Teachers, Coaches, and others as the school year comes to a close. When they open the card a butterfly will come fluttering out adding to your surprise (see a fun video here). If you want to add a little biology to this project, take a look at actual butterflies and try to make yours resemble one of them.
We all know it is important to stay fit to be healthy. A big part of what you are doing when you exercise is working your heart - which is a muscle. In today's activity we will see how your heart rate - the number of heart beats per minute - varies under different conditions. Make a hypothesis (the fancy scientific word for "guess") about what you think will happen. Even better, make a guess about why you think it happens. Then try it out.
We all know that we breathe using our lungs. And most of us think we understand the physics of why air leaves our lungs as we exhale - we can feel our rib cage contracting and we know that when you squeeze a balloon or a ball, air will come out if there is a hole. But most of us don't know actually why air goes into our lungs - we just know it does. In this activity you will make a model of your lungs that shows how they work.
This activity gets 3 Mendall family "Wow"s! I tried it an said "Wow" which made my kids call from the other room to find out what I was doing. They both really like it too. It is super easy and only requires a regular sheet of paper. And yes, it will make it really look like you have a hole in your hand. Give it a try!
This is an oldie but a goodie. It's an experiment everyone should do at least once. And if you've already done it you can take it to the next level. Today, you're going to dye flowers. Now I know most flowers are a pretty color already, but if you have boring white flowers around, you will be able to jazz them up with this activity.
Since I do a long of hiking, I took a wilderness survival course. They taught us how to get fresh water to drink from trees - which is exactly what you'll do in today's activity. If you use a clean bag, the water will be pure and drinkable but it does take a little while to get enough to satisfy your thirst!
We've all seen pinecones - both open ones and closed ones. Ever wonder what makes a pinecone open? I never had until I decided to try a craft online that would lace pinecones with chemicals to make a campfire's flames change colors (you can find a link to that craft here). In doing that experiment, I collected a bunch of open pinecones from under a tree in a nearby park. As I followed the instructions I discovered that my pinecones closed up! I was not expecting this because I had never thought about what makes a pinecone open. You'll find out in today's experiment.
One of my favorite things to dissect is a flower. Yes! Really! It's spring so hopefully you have a ready supply of "specimens" in your garden. Any flower will do, but the bigger, the better, as the parts are easier to see. Flowers are actually very complex and have multiple parts - in this activity you will try to identify them. Nature has designed flowers to attract pollinators (bees, butterflies, hummingbirds, etc.) so that the pollen can be transferred from one flower to another. As you dissect your flower, be sure to look for things that might attract pollinators - like bright colors, darker patterns, sweet scents, etc.
By now you know if you are left-handed or right-handed. Whichever hand you write with is your dominant hand. But did you also know that you have a dominant foot, eye, and ear? And they are often not all on the same side. There are quick and easy ways to find out what your dominant sides are for each of these and it often runs in families - so if you want to take this activity further, do these tests on your family too!
|
You Can Continue to Earn the Patches over the SUmmer!
welcome!
Every school day I will post a new experiment for you to try at home. Some may be familiar to you - as they are my favorites from class - but most will be experiments I found on the web that have readily available materials. Happy Sciencing! Earn a Patch
Sunol Glen Students - Complete an additional 10 experiments (20 total) from this site and I will send you this patch: Parents - just email me when students have completed a challenge, no proof required. Categories |