Experiment

scissors white paper coffee filter black marker (not permanent) water coffee cup or mug
Put some water in the cupenough to cover the bottom. Curl the paper circle so it fits Cut a circle out of the coffee inside the cup. Make sure the bottom of the circle is in the filter. (It doesn't have to be a perfect circle, just a round shape that's about as big as your spread-out hand.
water. Watch as the water flows up the paper. When it touches the black line, you'll start to see some different colors. Leave the paper in the water until the colors go all the way to
With the black marker, draw a line across the circle, about 1 inch up from the bottom.
the top edge. How many colors can you see? If you have another black marker, draw a line on a clean, dry coffee filter circle. Put the circle in some fresh water. Does this marker make different colors than the first one? Center Stage
Use a clean, dry coffee filter circle. Use your marker to draw a black spot in the center. Put the circle on a saucer, and put a few drops of water on the spot. In a few minutes you'll see rings of color that go out from the center of the circle to the edges. Our picture is in black and white, but when you do this, you'll see some amazing colors. your experiment) flows through a stationary substance (like your coffee filter). Since different ingredients in a mixture are carried along at different rates, they end up in different places. By examining where all the ingredients ended up, scientists can figure out what was combined to make the mixture. Chromatography is one of the most valuable techniques biochemists have for separating mixtures. It can be used to determine the ingredients that make up a particular flavor or scent, to analyze the components of pollutants, to find traces of drugs in urine, and to separate blood proteins in various species of animals (a technique that's used to
How does Black Magic work? Why do some black inks separate into many colors on a wet coffee filter? Most nonpermanent markers use inks that are made of colored pigments and water. On a coffee filter, the water in the ink carries the pigment onto the paper. When the ink dries, the pigment remains on the paper. When you dip the paper in water, the dried pigments dissolve. As the water travels up the paper, it carries the pigments along with it. Different-colored pigments are carried along at different rates;
some travel farther and faster than others. How fast each pigment travels depends on the size of the pigment molecule and on how strongly the pigment is attracted to the paper. Since the water carries the different pigments at different rates, the black ink separates to reveal the colors that were mixed to make it. In this experiment, you're using a technique called chromatography. The name comes from the Greek words chroma and graph for "color writing." The technique was developed in 1910 by Russian botanist Mikhail Tsvet. He used it for separating the pigments that made up plant dyes. There are many different types of chromatography. In all of them, a gas or liquid (like the water in
determine evolutionary relationships). Why does mixing many colors of ink make black? Ink and paint get their colors by absorbing some of the colors in white light and reflecting others. Green ink looks green because it reflects the green part of white light and absorbs all the other colors. Red ink looks red because it reflects red light and absorbs all the other colors. When you mix green, red, blue, and yellow ink, each ink that you add absorbs more light. That leaves less light to reflect to your eye. Since the mixture absorbs light of many colors and reflects very little, you end up with black.
Bouncing Eggs In Science

An AskERIC Lesson Plan
Submitted by: Rachel Peterson Endorsed by: Don Descy, Mankato State University Date: October 28, 1996 Grade Level: K-8
DESCRIPTION : A chicken's egg is enclosed by a shell that has a high calcium content. If a raw egg (shell still intact) is placed in a glass of vinegar, a reaction (RXN) takes place. The acetic acid in the vinegar will dissolve the eggshell and the egg will bounce. The reaction will begin immediately when the egg is placed in the vinegar but will not be complete for two or three days. After two or three days, the egg will survive a drop of four to five inches. BACKGROUND INFORMATION: This activity can be used to begin a lesson on states of matter. Be sure to completely cover the eggs with vinegar or hard shell will remain on those areas and quickly break the egg when it is dropped. Leave the eggs soaking in the vinegar for at least three days and be very gentle when removing them from the vinegar. GOAL: The students will observe the chemical reaction between calcium and vinegar. CONCEPTS: Students will be able to: 1. Set up and observe the chemical reaction between the calcium in a chicken egg to vinegar. 2. Test the effects of the chemical reaction by having a bouncing egg contest to see which egg withheld the most bounces. MATERIALS: Raw chicken eggs Vinegar Plastic spoon Clear plastic cups PROCEDURE: 1. Allow each of the children to place a raw egg into a clear plastic cup (this is so that students can observe the chemical reaction on the entire egg)
2. Completely cover each of the eggs with vinegar ( it is very important to completely cover the entire shell!) 3. Set the eggs in a placed where they can easily be observed without needing to be moved for at least three days. a) Have students carefully observe the chemical reaction on their egg. b) Keep a running journal on how much shell has disappeared. c) Have students write where the shell has gone and why they feel it disappeared. 4. VERY CAREFULLY remove the eggs with a plastic spoon. *There should be a thick waxy film on the egg. 5. One at a time, have students drop their egg ( about 4 to 5 inches) a) Have entire class watch and record how many times each students egg was dropped before breaking. ASSESSMENT:
1. Discuss students guesses about the happenings of the egg shell. 2. Discuss why one egg survived more drops than others. 3. Have students think of other items that calcium or vinegar would react with. *baking soda and fire *baking soda and vinegar
Colorful Bouquets
This lesson developed by Reach Out! Recommended Age: Preschool, Early and Later Elementary
Questions How do flowers conduct and absorb water? Can I change the color of a white flower?
What You Need 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 6 or more white carnations (Queen Anne's Lace works well too!) At least 2 small clear glasses or vases Water Food coloring Sharp knife Cutting board Spoon Large paper clips
What You Do 1. First, with the help of an adult, carefully cut the ends of your flowers. 2. Put some food coloring into one glass or vase. Put a different color of food coloring into the second glass or vase. Mix the food coloring and water together with a spoon. 3. Lay a carnation down on the cutting board. With the help of an adult, very carefully cut the stem in half length-wise. Go up to about two inches from the base of the flower.
4. Put the two glasses or vases next to each other. Put one half of the stem into one glass. Put the other half of the stem in the other glass. You may need to use a paper clip to keep the stems in their own glasses. 5. Watch what happens over a couple of hours. What Is Happening Stems of plants are important because they conduct water to the plant or flower. Your carnation's two stems are sucking up water from their own glass. Because the water is colored, it affects the white flower. Your are making two-colored flowers! Have fun and experiment with different color combinations. You could make a very unique bouquet!
Can I Make a Rain Cloud?

This lesson developed by Reach Out!
Recommended Age: Preschool and Early Elementary
Questions
What are clouds? What happens when it rains? What are rain clouds?
What You Need

Big Bowl Large sponge Water
What You Do
1. Dip the sponge into water. Let the sponge absorb lots of water. It will keep feeling more and more heavy as it is taking in more and more water. 2. Hold the sponge over the big bowl. The sponge is like a cloud that has become really filled and heavy with water it has absorbed. The bowl is like our earth. Move the sponge in the air and pretend it is a cloud floating above the earth or bowl. 3. When the sponge gets so heavy with water, it is like a rain cloud. It has to let go of some of the water when it gets so heavy. Gently squeeze the sponge and
watch the water drop into the bowl. This is like a rain cloud dropping water onto our earth.
What Is Happening
Clouds absorb the little water drops that are in the air. The air is absorbing water from the streams, lakes, oceans, puddles and rivers on the earth. Over time, clouds take in lots of water drops and become heavy with water. Then they have to let go some of the water. This is what happens when it rains or snows. Water is pretty neat. Every living creature must have water on our earth in order to live. Water recycles itself everyday. Water evaporates and goes into the air and water comes back down to the earth in the form of rain, snow, sleet and hail.
Eggs Don't Break?

This lesson developed by Michelle M. Recommended Ages: Preschool and Early Elementary
Questions When won't an egg break? Why doesn't the egg break?
What You Need 1. 2 Eggs without any cracks 2. Your hand! 3. A sink
What You Do 1. Pick up one egg. 2. Hold your hand over a sink just in case the egg breaks! 3. Place the egg in the center and palm of your hand. 4. Close your fingers around the egg. Squeeze the egg as hard as you can. What Is Happening When we break an egg, we usually tap it against a hard surface to crack the egg's shell. When you were squeezing the egg, the force and pressure of your squeeze was being spread out over the whole surface of the eggshell. The egg is designed so it won't easily break in the outdoors and the wild. The egg's shape and its shell are made so it will protect the baby growing inside until it is ready to hatch and come
out into the world. The egg is kind of like an arch with three dimensions. It is one of nature's strongest architectural designs!
nail (you'll also need a hammer if you use tin cans) two empty yogurt cups (you can also use two tin cans) scissors string bar of soap paper clips a friend
Use the nail to poke a hole in the center of the bottom of each yogurt cup. (If you use tin cans, have a grown-up make a hole with a hammer and the nail.)
With your scissors, cut a piece of string that's about 15
Wet the bar of soap. Rub one end of the string on the soap, then roll the string in your fingers so it's pointy. Poke the end of the string through the hole into the cup.
feet long.
Now you've got an Ear Reach into the cup with your fingers and pull the string a Guitar! Hold one cup up to your ear, and give the other cup to few inches. Tie the end of the your friend. Tell your friend to string to a paper clip. walk away from you until the string is tight, then hold his cup up to his own ear. When one of you plucks the string, both of you can hear the sound!
Do steps 3 and 4 again with the other cup and the other end of the string.
Is the sound you hear when you pluck the string different from the sound when your friend plucks the string? Does the sound change when the string is tighter or looser? Tell-a-Cup You can also use your Ear Guitar as a telephone! Have your friend walk away until the string is tight. Hold your cup up to your ear, and have your friend talk into her cup. Can you hear what she's saying?
How does the Ear Guitar work? When you pluck the string on an Ear Guitar, the string starts vibrating. The vibration in the string starts the bottom of the cup vibrating, which starts the air inside the cup vibrating. The cup helps channel those vibrating air molecules into your ear-so you hear the sound loud and clear. Your voice, like other sounds, is a vibration. (Put your hand on your throat as you talk and you'll feel the vibrations.) When you talk into one of the cups, the vibrations of your voice travel into the cup, then from the cup into the string, and then back into the other cup. The cup channels your voice into your friend's ear. Your yogurt-cup telephone works if the string between the two cups can vibrate freely. Pinch the string between the two cups, and your friend won't hear your voice as well. You may also discover that the string between the cups must be pulled tight, or your telephone won't work. If the string is loose, the sound vibrations die out before they reach the other cup.
Make a Flying Wing!

This quick and fun activity comes from Model Aviation Magazine and the Academy of Model Aeronautics. It was submitted to their June 1997 issue by Paul Billings of Niota, Tennessee, with original artwork by Julie Anne Visco. It is presented here with permission, in slightly modified form.
What You Need

The lid from a one-dozen-size styrofoam egg carton Wing template Scissors or razor knife Pen Penny White glue
NOTE: You'll need Acrobat Reader to print out this template. You can get it (free) here. Make sure Reader is NOT set to "Fit to Page" in print window, since this must print out at exactly the right size. Also, our Windows-using readers have advised us: When printing, specify "Print as image" as opposed to "Print as file."
What You Do
1. Cut out the wing template, including the hole in the center. 2. Place the template on the inside of the carton lid, with the hole fitting over the center hump. You will NOT cut out this hump! The hole in the template is just to allow it to fit over the hump, which will form the "cargo bay" of your flying wing. 3. Trace around the template with a pen. Then cut along that line. Note that the wingtips will curve with the lid edges. 4. Wedge a penny in the front of the
cargo bay (the side without the pointed protrusion). 5. Use a few drops of white glue to hold the penny in place and wait for it to dry.
Flying It!
Holding by the cargo bay with the penny in front, give it a good toss! Adjusting the speed and angle of your toss will allow different maneuvers. This wing flies really well, so allow lots of room!
Fun with Air!

This lesson developed by Leona Meeks Recommended Ages: Preschool and Early Elementary
Questions What is air? When can I tell air is around?
What You Need 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Your nose, mouth, lungs and air Several balloons of different shapes and sizes A fan A windy day A kite
What You Do Experiment #1- Checking Out Our Lungs 1. Lay out many different balloons on a table- long ones, round ones, oval ones, big ones and small skinny ones. 2. Is there air in these balloons? Why or why not? Our body's lungs are like balloons. When we inhale or take air in, we are blowing up our lungs. When we exhale, we are letting out the air from our lungs. Breathe in slowly and exhale slowly. Close your eyes. Think about your lungs taking in and letting out air just like balloons. Try taking in and letting out air through your mouth and through your nose. It's pretty neat we can breathe both ways!
Experiment #2- Balloon Fun 1. To see what our lungs are doing, blow up several balloons. Tie a knot at the end to keep the air in the balloons. 2. When our lungs fill up, they expand like the balloons and hold the air. Can we see air? We can tell when there is air like seeing the balloons we blew up- they are puffed up and filled up with air from our lungs! 3. What shape is air? Air takes up the shape it gets into. Look at the different sizes and shapes of balloons. Air took up the space and form that the balloons were. 4. Blow up another balloon. Hold the end together with your finger tips pinching it. Slowly release your pinch to let air come out slowly. Hold the balloon end near your cheek. Do you feel the air? Even though we can't see the air, we can feel it and know it is in the balloon and coming out!
Experiment #3- Evidence of Air on Windy Days 1. Look outside on a still and calm day. Are the trees bowing and moving around? Look at flags or laundry hanging on a clothesline. Look at long grass or weedy areas. On a still day, we know there is air all around us because nothing would live without air! But we can't see it! 2. Look outside and go outside on a windy day. What do you see? Can you see evidence that air is all around us and moving around? 3. Take a kite outside and try to fly it on a calm day. What happens? It can't get any "lift" because there is no wind! Try flying your kite on a windy day!
Experiment #4- Fan Fun 1. With an adult, plug in an electric fan. Hold your hand in front of the fan about a foot away. You don't want to get your fingers too close to the fan and its blades!!! 2. When the fan is turned "off" can you feel any air? 3. Turn the fan on "low" and feel the air. What is happening? Air is being moved by the fan- sort of like making wind! 4. Turn the fan on "medium" and "high" and feel the air. What is happening? As the fan blades rotate and move faster and faster, they push the air faster and faster. Turn the fan off. What happened to your wind? Where did it go?
What Is Happening Air is pretty neat. We can't see it or touch it. We can see evidence of air when we put air from our lungs into a balloon. The balloon swells up with the air we put inside of it. Air has no real shape of its own. But air will take the shape of whatev er container it gets put into. We could see that when we looked at different sizes and shapes of balloons. We can feel air when we let a balloon give off air against our cheek or when we put our hand up near our nose or mouth and feel air coming out of our lungs when we exhale. We can feel air when we go outside on a windy day! Air is fun to play with and very important- we can't live without air!
print-outs of the "Flipstick Cartoons", which you can click on in Step 1, or... white paper that you can use for tracing and black marker or dark pencil
scissors bright colored markers clear plastic tape file cards pencil, straw, or chopstick ruler
Print-out the "Flipstick Cartoons".Click Here to go to the Cartoon page, then carefully cut along the dotted lines.
Now tape the two cards back to back. Lay the second card over the first, picture side up. Tape the top and sides of both cards together.
Choose one set of cartoons-picture Aand picture B. You can color them if you want.
Tape each picture to a file card. Tape the bottom of each card to the pencil. You're going to twirl the pencil, so use plenty of tape--otherwise the cards might fly off.
Hold the pencil between the palms of your hands and twirl it. The picture changes! (You may need to play around with your twirling to find the best speed. Keep your thumbs flat against your fingers so they don't hit the card when you twirl.)
If a light is flashing on and off Turn the first file card over, more than thirty times a
so the picture is facedown. Put the pencil, straw, or chopstick in the center of the card, about 1 inch from the top, and tape it down.
second, you see it as a steady light--you don't notice the flickering. When you watch a movie, the screen is dark about half the time. But because the bright picture is flickering seventy-two times a second, you don't even notice the moments of darkeness between the pictures.
Use plenty of tape. (If you're using a straw, you may want to flatten it a little before you tape it down.)
Why does your Flipstick work? When you look at a picture, then quickly flip to another picture, your eye and brain remember the first picture for a fraction of a second, and blend it with the second picture. This visual ability, known as persistence of vision ,makes the pictures in movies appear to move. When you watch a movie, the light from the projector is flickering 72 times a second. Your eye and brain blend the flickering frames of the movie to make a single moving picture.
Lesson: Evaporation
Prerequisites:
The Water Cycle
Objectives:
1. To demonstrate the concept of evaporation
Materials:

Plates - styrofoam or plastic, not paper (enough for partners) one purple, orange, black crayon for each group Water Sponge Measuring cup Humidity Detector - optional
Introduction:
Teacher wipes a damp sponge across the chalkboard. The class should watch and make observations about what happens. They should notice the streak slowly disappear. Ask:"Where does the water on the board go? What happens to puddles after it rains? Where does the water go? Have you ever seen clothes hung out on a line to dry in the sun and wind? Where does the water from the wet clothes go?"
Body:
Demonstration: 1. Do this lesson on a dry day, not a rainy or a foggy day. Divide the class into partners. Each pair needs a plate and three different colored crayons. Each pair should make a shallow puddle of water on their plate. Then they should use a purple crayon to make a circle around their puddle of water. Have each pair choose different places in the room to place their plate (i.e. in the sun, in the shade, near a heat register, etc.). Let the plates sit for about an hour. During that time make some predictions about what will happen to the puddles of water. Ask:"If we leave our puddles of water in the spots we chose around the room, what do you think the puddles will look like in one hour? What will happen to the water? Will the puddle be the same size? Will it be larger or smaller?"
2. After about one hour has passed, have each pair check their puddles. Each pair should make a orange circle around their puddles if the puddles have changed any. (The puddles should shrink.) The different groups can compare puddles. Have each pair leave
their plates and puddles where they are for one more hour. During this time compare the predictions the children made about what they thought would have happened to what actually happened. Also discuss what the students think will happen to their puddles in the next hour. Ask:"What will your puddles look like in one hour? What will have happened to the water? Where does the water go? Do you think there will even be a puddle left? Why?"
3. After one hour, recheck the puddles. Each group should make a black circle around the new puddle. The groups can compare the puddles again. Have a discussion about what happened to the water. Some possible questions to ask are: If there are differences in how fast puddles in different parts of the room evaporated, discuss reasons for that:"Who's puddle shrunk, or evaporated faster? Why? (Relate this to the locations in the room). What happened to your puddles? Where did the water go? What types of places helps evaporation to happen faster?" The teacher will want to direct the students, if necessary, to the idea that water goes into the air and that we call this process evaporation. Have the students leave their plates where they are overnight, so that they can check them again in the morning. Ask : "What do you think the puddle will look like when you come back to school next time?" Analogy: 1. In front of the class, take a dry sponge and squeeze it to show that there is no water in the sponge. Ask: "How much water is in the sponge?" Holding the sponge in the air and using a tablespoon, slowly pour water onto the top of the sponge one tablespoon at a time. Have the students count aloud the number of spoonfuls you adding. While doing this ask: "What is happening to the water? Where is it going? What do you think is going to happen as I keep filling the sponge with water? Can I put water into this sponge forever? Will we be counting forever?" Keep adding water by the tablespoon until the sponge is saturated and starts to drip water. Ask: "What has happened to the sponge? Why is water dripping from the sponge? Pretend the sponge is air, what does the water dripping from the sponge act like? (rain or a cloud) Does anyone know another name which means something is full of water like the air or the sponge?" (If no student knows saturated, then explain: "When air is full of water like the sponge is full, we say the air or the sponge is saturated.) Record on the board : sponge full = ? spoonfuls of water. 2. Ask the students : "Can you tell me how many tablespoons of water I poured into the sponge when it was only halfway full of water?" Record on the board : sponge 1/2 full = ?/2 spoonfuls of water. Ask the students : "How many spoonfuls of water were in the sponge when the sponge was empty?" Record on the board : sponge empty = 0 spoonfuls of water. Ask the students : "How many tablespoons of water would be in the sponge if the sponge were nearly ready to rain or drip? How many tablespoons of water would be in the sponge if it were nearly empty but not totally empty?" Explain: We can now use our scale to measure how close our sponge is to raining. Weatherpeople can measure how close the air is to raining by using a humidity scale. Next to the scale for the sponge, make a corresponding scale for air labeled humidity. Write on the board dry air = 0; wet air = 100. Ask: "If the air almost ready to rain, what would the humidity scale say? If the air were nearly but not completely dry, what would the humidity scale say? If the air were halfway full of water or halfway saturated, what would the humidity be?" Data Analysis:
Introduce that weatherpeople can measure the amount of water in the air or the humidity using instruments called humidity detectors. If available, pass around a humidity detector for the students to examine otherwise bring in a picture to show the class. Ask the students : "Have any of you ever watched the news in the evening and heard the weatherperson give a value for the humidity?" Explain that the weatherperson may use an instrument like the humidity detector to determine the amount of water in the air or the humidity. Have the students record humidity values in their weather journals. The humidity values should be taken at the same time every day - afternoon works best. If available, measure the humidity using the humidity detectors, otherwise the values can be obtained from a radio or tv news program. <\OL>
Conclusion:
The next day, have pairs observe their plates and puddles. Ask : "What happened to the water? Where did the water go? What is the name for water going from liquid into the air? (evaporation) What is the name for water that is in the air? (humidity) How do we measure the amount of water in the air? (humidity detector)" Review how the air acts like a sponge to soak up water. Like the sponge, the air can hold only so much water. Ask : " What kind of weather would you expect to happen if there was a lot of water in the air or high humidity? What kind of weather would you expect to happen if there was very little water in the air or low humidity? What kind of humidity values would you see on cloudy or foggy days? What kind of humidity would you expect to find on a clear and sunny day? How would you dress or prepare for school on a high humidity day?"
Vocabulary Words:

evaporation saturation humidity
Evaluation:
Discuss: When we left our plates with puddles out overnight and came back the next day, what did we find? What had happened to the water? Do you think the humidity in the room changed overnight? How? Why? Do you think the humidity outside changes when you hang your wet clothes outside to dry? Why?
Activity 1 Overview Children will learn how sound is made--and how it travels--by creating and observing a vibrating "coat hanger clanger." Estimated Time and Age Level Advance Preparation: 10 minutes Activity: 30 minutes (Ages 7-11) Materials (Per child) 1 metal coat hanger 1 60-cm (2-foot) piece of cotton string Preparation Divide the group into pairs. Children will need chairs with backs against which to hit their hanger devices. They could also use the edge of a table. Cut one 60-cm (2-foot) piece of cotton string for each youngster. If you don't have enough metal hangers to go around, each team can share one hanger. However, since children will be holding one end of the string just inside their ears, they should change the string as they pass the device around. Set out the materials in a central location. Procedure Set the stage for the activity by asking the children what they think causes sound. They may suggest that sound is caused by talking, musical instruments, or electronic devices such as television sets. Write down their responses. After they do this activity, they can revise their ideas based on what they learn. Have the youngsters make their "hanger clangers" by tying one end of a piece of string around the hook part of a hanger. Then ask them to hold the other end of the string just inside one of their ears and let the hanger swing freely against the back of a chair. The children will hear a ringing tone that will last for several seconds. Now ask them again what they think causes sound. Give them time to confer with each other and to design new experiments to determine the cause and nature of the sound they hear, recording their observations after each experiment. For example, they might try:
Examining the hanger after it hits against the desk or chair. What is it doing? (Vibrating.) Trying to alter the sound by changing the experiment through longer or shorter swings of the hanger or changing the hanger's shape. Grabbing the hanger just after it hits the chair. What happens? (The hanger stops vibrating and the sound stops. By grabbing hold of the hanger, youngsters will be able to feel the vibrations as well as hear them.) Even if children don't use the word "vibrating," they should be able to conclude that sound has something to do with objects that move rapidly back and forth. Have them try out other vibrating sound makers, such as plucking a stretched rubber band. Ask them to propose and record some other ideas about what causes sound. They'll have a chance to build on these experiences and revise their hypotheses after the following two activities.
How Do Animals Protect Themselves?

This lesson developed by Jim and Leona Meeks Recommended Ages: Preschool and Elementary Questions How do animals protect themselves from getting eaten by other animals? What body parts help them hide, fight or get away from "predators?" What kinds of behavior do animals do to get away or hide from "predators?" What You Need 1. Posters or pictures of dinosaurs including a Stegosaurus, Triceratops, Tyrannosaurus Rex. 2. Posters or pictures of other animals that live near you like an eagle, robin, cat, dog, skunk, porcupine, turtle, raccoon, frog, fish, snake.... 3. You might want to go to a zoo, park, or wooded area 4. Craft materials like construction paper, glue, pipe cleaners, Styrofoam balls, scissors What You Do 1. Look at the pictures or posters of dinosaurs. Talk about the idea that critters eat other critters and introduce the idea of the "food web." 2. How do critters try to protect themselves from getting caught by a "predator" and eaten? Share the notion that many critters are designed with parts on their bodies to help them out and protect them. 3. Look at the dinosaur posters or pictures. What do we see? Spikes, horns, claws, big pointed teeth, huge tails.... 4. Examine the Stegosaurus. What is on its tail and back that it could use to defend itself from another dinosaur? We can see it has plates on its backthey wouldn't taste good and it would take very tough teeth to bite through them! 5. Look at the Tyrannosaurus and check out his huge teeth! Look at the Triceratops and see the horns and shield used for protection. 6. Teeth, horns, plates, shields, spikes, big tailsthese are all what we call an animal's "defenses." Some animals give off an odor and spray (like a skunk!) to defend themselves. Other animals are prickly like porcupines and sea urchins. 7. Animals also have behaviors they do to protect and defend themselves. Think about birds and how they can fly and perch on a tree to get away from a cat. Some animals play dead! Others can run really fast to get away from their attackers. Some hide like a turtle pulling in his head, tail and feet into his shell. Others hide in caves or holes in the ground like some bears and moles. 8. With paper and all the other craft stuff you have, make some animals or draw some animals and design them with physical features that could help them defend themselves. You can make real animals, or make some pretend ones. It's fun to design a combo animal like a dog with horns and a shell! 9. Go to a park, the woods or a zoo and look at animals, birds and fish. How do they protect themselves with physical traits and with their own behavior? What kinds of critters seem to be pretty defenseless? Which ones are really designed to defend themselves? What Is Happening
Critters are all part of a food chain or food web. There are other critters that would like to catch and eat them! Nature has a way of helping many critters defend themselves either by having
physical attributes and body parts or by knowing instinctively what to do like hide, run, and pretend to be dead. Think about where different critters live, too. Sometimes critters have places they can go to protect themselves, hide and get away from predators. Sometimes critters blend into their natural environment so they are hard to even see. This is called camouflage. What are our defenses against critters that could harm us? We have some natural ones and we have some human-made ones! What behaviors do we seem to instinctively have when it comes to being in contact with something that could be dangerous for us? How do we respond when we are face to face with critters that could harm us?
How to Make Bottle Pipes

Questions
How do you make bottle pipes? What makes a pitch sound high or low?
What You Need

8 glass pop or soda bottles (use the same kind of bottle!) Water Empty and clean gallon plastic milk jug or a pitcher Teaspoon
What You Do
1. Line up the pop bottles in a line. 2. Fill your milk jug or pitcher with water. 3. Pour a little water into the first bottle. Pour a little more water into the second bottle. Keep going, pouring a little more water into each bottle until the last bottle is nearly full. 4. Lean down close to the bottles. Take a deep breath and blow air across the very top of each bottle. You should make a sound from each bottle. Be sure you dont blow down into bottles, it wont make any sound! 5. See if you can play a scale like do, re, mi, fa, so, la, ti, do. You may have to adjust your water levels in the bottles to make it sound just right. 6. Instead of blowing on the bottles, take the teaspoon and gently strike or tap the bottles. Can you make the same sounds as you did when you were
blowing across the top of the bottles? What do you think makes the difference in the pitches and sounds you hear?
What Is Happening
The bottles make sounds because there is air inside of them. The air vibrates when you blow across the top of the bottles. The more air that is inside the bottle, the more air that can vibrate and so make a lower sounding sound or pitch. Bottles wi th more water in them have less air in them. So, when you blow across them, there is less air inside to vibrate and we hear a higher sounding pitch.
Magnet Fun
This lesson developed by Reach Out! Recommended Ages: Elementary
Questions What are magnets? How do they act with other magnets and with other objects? What You Need 1. 2 bar magnets 2. Earth globe 3. Paper clip 4. Pencil 5. Drinking glass 6. Thumbtack 7. Piece of aluminum foil 8. Piece of wire 9. Sock 10. Pebble or small stone
What You Do What to do for Experiment #1 - How do magnets act with another magnet? 1. All magnets have a North Pole and a South Pole. Take a look at the earth globe. You can see the North and South Poles. The poles of a magnet point in their own direction. 2. Try matching up the two South Pole ends of the two magnets. What happens? 3. Try matching up the two North Pole ends of the two magnets. What happens? 4. Try matching up a magnet's North Pole with another magnet's South Pole. What happens?
Experiment #2- Which objects will be attracted to or cling to a magnet? 1. Set out all the little objects from paper clips, coins, pencils, socks, stones, thumbtacks to pieces of aluminum foil and wire. 2. See which objects will be attracted to a magnet.
What Is Happening Magnets are typically made of a metal we call iron. Many things we see and use that are magnetized are made out of steel or have iron in them. One of the metals in steel is iron. Iron, like everything else, is made of little building blocks we cannot see that we call atoms. In things that are not magnetized, the little atoms are all mixed up and pointing in many different directions. In a magnet, the atoms get lined up in straight rows with their north ends pointing towards the North Pole and their south ends pointing towards the South Pole. [This is over-simplified for younger children. Atoms function like tiny electromagnets; in a magnet, all the atoms have their electrons spinning about their nuclei in the same direction.] Magnets attract and stick to other objects that are magnetized, or have their atoms all lined up in rows facing North and South Poles. Magnets have magnetism or the power to pull other objects to them. They also can be used to push away other magnets. There is a story about how we came up with the word "magnet." Supposedly there was a shepherd tending his sheep long ago on an island called Magnesia. This island was part of the Greek Islands. The shepherd put a piece of iron on the bottom of his walking stick so it wouldn't get worn out so fast. He saw that some stones seemed to stick to the bottom of his walking stick. These stones were natural magnets called "lodestones." The shepherd had to pick these little black stones off of his stick because they seemed to be stuck! Magnets are lots of fun to play with. Have you ever played with a toy Woolly Willie, which is a completely bald head and face that you can add hair to by using a magnetic "pencil" or stylus? The face is covered by a clear plastic enclosure that holds iron shavings, which are attracted by the stylus. We use magnets for many different purposes. Try to think of some of the ways in which we use magnets. What about magnets you might have at home on your fridge? A refrigerator is made out of steel. So if you have a magnet on the fridge, it is pulling on the little atoms of steel in the door.
You can make some iron or steel objects act like a magnet for a little while by lining up their atoms. Take a nail and rub it over and over in the same direction with the end or pole of a bar magnet. Lift the magnet up each time your stroke gets to the end of the nail, and start again at the same place with each new stroke. Do this about 40 times. For a while, the nail will be magnetized because its atoms are all lined up. Try using it as a magnet: see if it will attract a paper clip or thumbtack.
Want to Do More? If you want to experiment further, find out by experimenting that substances that can be magnetized are not transparent to magnetism. If something is transparent to magnetism, that means the magnetic waves can pass right through it. For example, magnetism passes through glass, plastic, cloth, and the human body. Get an empty "tin" can (which is really an iron-containing steel), remove both ends, and flatten it. Then put it in between a magnet and some nails or other magnetizable objects. You will no longer be able to pick up the nails with the magnet. Now, think about the consequences: a magnetic compass would be no use at all to submariners, because the earth's magnetic waves cannot pass through the sub's steel walls to get to it.
IT FLOATS!
We don't usually stop to wonder why a big cruise ship can float as well as a feather. This activity helps to explain.
What you'll need
1 solid wood building block 1 plastic cap from a bottle 2 pieces of aluminum foil (heavy duty if you have it) 1 chunk of clay Grown-up alert! 1 pair of pliers 1 bathtub (or sink) filled with water Your science journal
What to do 1. Hold the wood block in one hand and the plastic cap in the other hand.
Which one feels heavier? Do you think the wooden block will float, or will it sink? Will the plastic cap float, or sink?
2. Put both of them on the water to test your predictions. What happens? Put both of them under the water. What happens now? 3. Take a piece of aluminum foil and squeeze it into a solid ball with the pliers. Drop it in the water. Does it float or sink? 4. Get another piece the same size and shape it into a little boat. Place it on top of the water. Does it float now? 5. Try the same experiment with clay. Make a ball and drop it in the water. What happens? 6. Shape the clay into a boat and put it on the water. Does it float now?
The clay and foil balls sink because they are squeezed into small shapes, and only a small amount of water is trying to hold up the weight. When you spread out the clay or foil, it floats because the weight is supported by a lot more water.
Making a Pondscope
This lesson developed by U of M Center for Great Lakes and Aquatic Sciences Recommended Ages: Preschool and Elementary
Questions Can I make a pondscope? Oh, what is a pondscope you ask? Read on.....
What You Need 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. A gallon sized tin can or a #10 sized can Black paint Paint Brush Newspaper Clear and large sized plastic bag Scissors Big rubber band or waterproof tape Pond, river, stream or lake
What You Do 1. First, a pondscope is something you can use to look down into water to see critters, green plants, bugs and stuff under the surface! 2. Ask an adult to remove the lid and bottom of the can. 3. Put newspaper down on an area where you are allowed to paint. 4. Put the can on the newspaper. Paint the inside of the can black. 5. Let the paint dry for a few hours.
6. Cut a piece of plastic from a large plastic bag big enough to go around one end of the can. 7. Place the plastic on an end of the can. Use a rubber band or waterproof tape to keep the clear plastic in place. 8. Go to a pond, river, stream or lake with an adult. Wade in and hold your pondviewer with the open side down into the water a few inches. 9. Look through the clear plastic top. You should be able to see what is growing and moving in the water and on the bottom. What Is Happening Our eyes cannot easily see down into the water of streams, ponds, rivers and lakes. There is often reflection from the sun hitting the surface of the water. The dark bottom of these water bodies also make it hard to see. By using a pondscope, you can m ore easily look d water and see what is under the surface!
Make a Spectroscope
This lesson developed by Reach Out! Recommended Age: Later Elementary
What You Need 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Paper towel tube Aluminum foil One edged razor blade (use with an adult!) Rubber band Diffraction grating mounted in a square piece of cardboard (You have to buy these from a hobby or science store) 6. Glue 7. Lamp with removeable shade or a candle 8. Tape
What You Do 1. First, glue the diffraction grating to one end of the paper towel tube. 2. Take a small piece of aluminum foil and mold or cover up the other end of the tube. Don't glue it down as you will be moving the foil around the end of the tube in the experiment. 3. With the blade, carefully make a narrow slit in the middle of the piece of aluminum foil. YOu have made a simple spectroscope! 4. Turn on the lamp and remove the shade. Or, carefully light a candle. 5. Hold your spectroscope so the slit in the foil is close to the light source.
6. Look at the light through the diffraction grating. Turn the aluminum foil a little
bit until you see what looks like a rainbow.
What Is Happening We look at light from a light bulb or candle and we assume the light is white. But it really isn't! White light is really made up of many colors that our human eyes just don't detect or see by themselves. Most will see seven colors through their spectroscope- violet, indigo, blue, green, yellow, orange, and red. The diffraction grating has tons of little skinny lines drawn on it. These little lines pick up and break the white light into the many colors of the spectrum.
Making a Wind Sock

This lesson developed by Reach Out! Recommended Age: Later Elementary
Question Can I make a workable wind sock?
What You Need 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. Pant leg or shirt sleeve Scissors Wire snips 40cm lightweight wire Sewing needle and thread 1m string Tape measurer Fabric paint A weight or stone
What You Do 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Measure the circumference (outer circle) of your shirt sleeve or pant leg. Measure this same amount of wire. Snip the wire to the desired length. Bend the wire into a circle. Put one end of the sleeve or pant leg over the wire circle. Thread your needle. Sew the material edge every couple of inches with a few stitches so the wire stays inside. Each time you sew a few stitches, be sure to tie a good knot in the thread before you cut it. Tie a know at the end of the
thread each time before you start to sew so the thread doesn't just pull right out and through the material! 6. Tuck the stone or weight into the material around the wire. Sew it in place. 7. Measure and cut off a 4 or 5 foot piece of string. 8. Opposite where you sewed in the weight, tie an end of the string onto the circle. 9. Use your fabric paint to decorate your wind sock! 10. Take your wind sock outside. Find a tree branch, clothes line, or the top rung of a swing set or monkey bars. Tie the other end of the string to this object. The weight you sewed into the material should hold the mouth of your wind sock facing into the wind. When there is some wind, you should see your wind sock in action!
What Is Happening Wind socks are often seen at airports. Why? They show us the direction and stength of wind. Your wind sock should work, too!
Making Your Own Paper

This lesson developed by Jim and Leona Meeks Recommended Ages: Preschool and Elementary
Question Can I make my own paper?
What You Need 1. Newspaper 2. Scissors 3. Plastic wash pans 4. Stirring spoon 5. Bleach 6. Strawberries or blueberries 7. Small mixing bowls 8. Ladle 9. Spatula 10. Water 11. 10 by 10 inch square frame 12. 12 by 12 inch piece of screen 13. Staple gun with staples
What You Do 1. With an adult, make a wooden 10 by 10 inch frame. Or you might buy one at a hobby and craft store. 2. With an adult, lay the piece of screen on top of the frame so that equal amounts of the screen are overlapping the frame on all sides.
3. With an adult, use a staple gun to staple the screen in place on all four sides. 4. With scissors, cut long and narrow strips of paper from the newspapers. A good size is six inches long and one half inch wide. 5. Put about three inches of water in the plastic wash pans. 6. Lay your newspaper strips into the wash pans. Make sure they are covered with water. 7. Let the newspaper soak for 2 to 4 days until it becomes like a paste texture. Stir the paper mixture everyday. 8. If you want to make different colors of paper, put a few strawberries or blueberries in a small mixing bowl. Smish and smash the berries with a fork and spoon until they are like a sauce. With the fork, lift out and pitch the skins and meaty parts so all you have left is the red or blue juice. 9. Pour the juice of the berries into a mixing bowl. Add a few ladles of the newspaper paste. Mix together well. 10. If you want to make whiter paper, put a little clothes bleach into a mixing bowl. Add a few ladles of the newspaper paste. Mix together well. 11. Place the wooden frame into a wash pan to collect the excess water that will drip off of the newspaper paste mix. 12. Ladle some newspaper paste onto the top of the screen area of the wooden frame. (Do one color at a time!) Use your hand or a spatula to smooth out the paste evenly across the surface of the screen. 13. Leave the frame and the paste alone for a few days until things dry out and you have paper! You can hurry things along by having a fan blow onto the screen. 14. Carefully strip off the piece of paper you have made. You can clean things up and do another piece of paper that you have dyed. 15. You can write a poem or letter or draw a picture on your paper!
What Is Happening Paper is made from shavings and "pulp" of a tree. What you did was to recycle newspaper into drawing or letter writing paper! You can have fun making many different textures of paper using different sources like construction paper, paper toweling, newsprint, etc. You can make imprints and pictures by ladling on different dyed pastes onto the screen in particular designs and shapes.
Making Mold
This lesson developed by Reach Out! Recommended Age: Early and later Elementary
Questions
What is mold? Can I grow mold?
What you need:

3 glass jars with lids Mixing spoon Mixing bowl Measuring spoons Measuring cup White bread (with the crust cut off) Water Cooking oil Table salt Flour
What to do:
1. Measure and put 2 cups of flour, 1 cup of salt, 1 tablespoon of oil and 3/4 cup of water into your mixing bowl. 2. Mix these ingredients until they make a dough. 3. Put the mixture in a covered jar until you use it. It will dry fast if left uncovered. 4. Rub your hands in some oil. 5. Pick up a piece of bread. Rub your hands on both sides of the bread. 6. Put the bread in a covered jar. Put the jar near a window so it gets some sunlight.
7. Take a chunk of the dough you made. Rub your hands on the dough. 8. Put the blob of dough in a covered jar. 9. Put the jar next to the one with bread in it on the windowsill or table. 10. Every day, check out what is happening to the bread and the dough.
What is happening?
You should see mold growing on the bread. Is there mold growing on your dough ball? Why isn't mold growing on the dough? What is different between the bread and the dough? Mold needs certain conditions in order to grow. See if you can guess what these are from this experiment. Look up mold in an encyclopedia. You might like to find out about cheese-it needs mold to grow! Also, check out what penicillin is made from. Molds can look disgusting to us, but they are often pretty useful little things! Try repeating this experiment and put jars in a darker place. What happens? Why?
A clear container with a lid. (Big glass jars and clear plastic containers work great, but you'll have to throw away the container when you're through, so check with a grown-up about what you can use.) Adhesive tape Water Some leftover food (you can use whatever is in your refrigerator), such as bread, fruit (like oranges, lemons, or grapes), vegetables (like broccoli, zucchini, or green pepper), cheese, and cookies or cake
This Is Important! DO NOT use anything with meat or fish in itafter a few days, these foods would start to smell very, very bad. Ask a grown-up for four or five different pieces of leftover food. If the food is smalla grape or one section of an orangeuse the whole thing. Cut bigger foods such as bread or cheese into 1-inch chunks.
Dip each piece of food into some water and put it into your container. If you use a big jar, lay it on its side. Try to spread the pieces out so that they are close to each other, but not all in a heap.
Put the lid on the container. Tape around the edge of the lid to seal it. Put the container in a place where no one will knock it over or throw it away. You may want to label it "Mold Terrarium." Every day, look at the food in your Mold Terrarium. For the first two or three days, you probably won't see much. But soon you should see blue or green or white fuzzy stuff growing on some of the pieces of food. After a few more days, some of the food in your mold terrarium may start to rot and look really gross. You can watch
When most foods get moldy, it means they aren't good to eat any more. But some cheeses are eaten only after they become moldy! Blue cheese gets its flavor from the veins of blue-green mold in it. When a blue cheese is formed into a wheel, holes are poked through it with thin skewers. Air gets into these holes, and a very special kind of mold grows there as the cheese ripens.
how the mold spreads and how things rot for about two weeks. After that, it'll get boring, because not much more will happen. Here are some things to notice in your mold terrarium:

What food started getting moldy first? What color is the mold? How many different colors do you see? What texture is the moldflat, fuzzy, bumpy? Does everything in your Mold Terrarium get moldy? Does mold spread from one piece of food to another? Do different kinds of mold grow on different types of food? DANGER! When you're through with your Mold Terrarium, throw it in the garbage. Don't reuse the container. Don't even open the lid! Mold is not a good thing for some people to smell or breathe.
What is mold, anyway? That fuzzy stuff growing on the food in your mold terrarium is mold, a kind of fungus. Mushrooms are one kind of fungus; molds are another. Unlike plants, molds don't grow from seeds. They grow from tiny spores that float around in the air. When some of these spores fall onto a piece of damp food or other materials, they grow into molds. Plants contain a chemical compound called chlorophyll. Chlorophyll makes it possible for plants to capture the energy of sunlight and use it to make food (sugars and starches) from air and water. Unlike plants, molds and other fungi have no chlorophyll and can't make their own food. The molds that grow in your mold terrarium feed on the bread,
cheese, and other foods. A mold produces chemicals that make the food break down and start to rot. As the food is broken down into small, simple parts, the mold absorbs them and grows. Ick! Who wants this stuff around? It can be annoying to find moldy food in your refrigerator. But in nature, mold is a very useful thing. Mold helps food and other materials rot, which is an icky but necessary thing. In a natural environment, rotting things return to the soil, providing nutrients for other living things. Mold is a natural recycler. Why does the mold on different foods look different? There are thousands of different kinds of molds. One mold that grows on lemons looks like a blue-green powder. A mold that grows on strawberries is a grayish-white fuzz. A common mold that grows on bread looks like white cottony fuzz at first. If you watch that mold for a few days, it will turn black. The tiny black dots are its spores, which can grow to produce more mold. Why didn't some foods get moldy? If you used foods that contain preservatives, mold may not have grown very well on them. If you want to experiment more with mold, you can make one mold terrarium using food with preservatives (like a packaged cupcake) and another using food that doesn't have preservatives (like a slice of homemade cake). Which one grows more mold? You can also experiment with natural preservatives such as vinegar and salt. If you do more experimenting, let us know what you discover!
Rubber Eggs
What You Need 1. 2. 3. 4. 3 raw eggs 3 clear drinking glasses or beakers Vinegar Measuring cup
What You Do 1. Put an egg in the bottom of each glass or beaker. 2. Pour vinegar into the measuring cup. 3. Pour the vinegar from the measuring cup into the glasses until the eggs are completely covered by vinegar. 4. Watch the eggs for 3 or 4 days.
What Is Happening You may see little bubbles come off of the eggs. The color of the eggshells may change as well as the texture. On day 3 or 4, carefully pour of the vinegar into a sink. Now, gently remove the eggs from the glasses or beakers. Feel them. Carefully squ eeze them. The hard eggshells have totally changed into a soft and rubbery material. Eggshells are made of lots of calcium. The calcium makes the shells hard. Vinegar has what we call acid in it. Acid breaks down and eventually disolves the calcium in the eggshells. Over time, the shells become soft and rubbery feeling. We need calciu m
in our diets everyday for our bones to stay nice and dense and hard. When people don't get enough calcium in their diet, their bones become brittle and break more easily. Sometimes people can tell they need calcium when they find their nails get soft, too. To see that bones are made up of calcium, you can get some chicken bones and put them into a glass of vinegar for a few days. What you will find is similar to the eggs, you have rubbery and soft chicken bones! So, to keep your bones hard and strong, get lots of calcium from drinking milk and eating dairy products!
empty soda can blown-up balloon your hair
Put the can on its side on a table or the floor -anyplace that's flat and smooth. Hold it with your finger until it stays still.
Move the balloon away from the can -slowly -and the can will follow the balloon.
Rub the balloon back and forth on your hair really fast. If you move the balloon to the other side of the can, the can will roll in the other direction.
Hold the balloon about an inch in front of the can. The can will start to roll, even though you're not touching it!
How fast will the can roll? How far can you roll it before the can stops? Will it roll uphill? If you have some friends with cans and balloons, you can have a race across the room or down the sidewalk.
Turn on the faucet in your bathroom or kitchen. Don't run the water too hard, but more than a little trickle. Now rub a balloon on your head and hold the balloon near the water. The stream of water will bend toward the balloon! Rub the balloon on your head, then pull it away. Your hair will stick out and look really funny. (This can also happen when you comb your hair with a plastic comb.) What if you hold the balloon near your arm? Can you feel the hairs on your arm move? Will it work on doll hair? How about animal fur? Once you've rubbed the balloon on your head, it will stick to other things -- with
no glue. You can stick it to the wall, to the TV, or even to your face!
Why does the soda can roll? With Remote Control Roller, basically, you pile up electrons on one thing and use them to attract the protons in something else. When you rub a balloon on your hair, it ends up loaded with electrons. Those electrons can attract the protons in a soda can, the protons in a trickle of water, the protons in your hair, or the protons in a wall. Why do clothes stick together in the dryer? The attraction between protons and electrons can also make clothes stick together in the dryer. When you dry clothes in the dryer, different fabrics rub together, and electrons from a cotton sock (for instance) may rub off onto a polyester shirt. That's why clothes sometimes stick together and make sparks when you pull them apart. You may have used antistatic sheets in your dryer. As these sheets bounce around with your clothes, they add a uniform antistatic coating to the fabric. Rather than cotton rubbing against polyester, you've got the antistatic coating on the cotton rubbing against the antistatic coating on the polyester. No electrons rub off-and you don't get any static cling.
A Xerox machine uses static electricity to make copies. When you rub a balloon on your head, the balloon is charged with electricity. Inside a Xerox machine is a plastic drum that is also charged. When you put a piece of paper on the glass, a copy of it goes onto the drum. Where there were dark places on the paper, the static charge on the drum attracts the black plastic toner powder. Then the powdered places go onto a blank piece of paper, and the paper is heated. The toner melts and makes black letters on the new piece of paper.
Silly Straw Glider

This lesson developed by Reach Out! Recommended Age: Preschool and Early Elementary
Question Can I make a glider that will fly out of a straw and paper?
What You Need 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. Straw Construction paper Scissors Tape Pencil Ruler
What You Do 1. First, lay a piece of construction paper down on your table. With your ruler, measure and mark with your pencil a strip that is 1 inch wide and 8 inches long. Then carefully cut out this strip. 2. With your ruler and pencil, measure and mark a second strip of paper that is 1/2 inch wide and 6 inches long. Cut this strip out of the paper. 3. Take the longer strip and form a circle or loop. Tape the two ends together. 4. Take the shorter strip of paper and form a circle or loop. Tape the two ends together. 5. Put the longer strip on one end of your straw. Tape it in place.
6. Put the shorter strip on the other end of your straw. Tape it in place. 7. Try sailing or flying your straw glider. Try sailing it with the smaller loop at the front; try sailing it with the bigger loop at the front. What happens? 8. You might try adding some more loops or wings to the straw. Or try making a glider with two straws taped together. Or try twisting paper strips to see if that makes a difference. What Is Happening The paper rings or loops are like wings. The air pressure that is on top and below the loops create what we call "lift." This lift makes it possible for the object or straw glider to sail in the air.
Seeing Air
This lesson developed by Reach Out! Recommended Age: Preschool, Early Elementary
Question Can you see air?
What You Need 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Large mixing bowl Paper/Styrofoam Coffee Cup Water Ballon Water
What You Do Experiment #1 1. Fill the big mixing bowl 3/4 full with water. 2. Hold the coffee cup so the open side is facing down. Push the cup straight down into the water until it rests on the bottom of the bowl. 3. Tip the cup's edge a little bit. What do you see going on?
Experiment #2 1. Look at your balloon. What is it like right now?
2. Blow up the balloon. Hold the end so it doesn't deflate. 3. What does the balloon look like now? What is the difference from the balloon at first and the balloon now? 4. Hold one hand up in front of the end of the balloon. Slowly release your grip on the balloon's tip. What do you feel coming out on your other hand?
What Is Happening We can't see air but it is all around us all the time. Living things can't make it without air! When you put the cup down into the bowl of water, it had air in it. When you tipped the cup's side, did you see air bubbles? The air that was caught inside the cup was trying to get out when you tipped the cup. As the air left, water seeped into the cup. An empty balloon is just a piece of plastic or rubbery material. When you blow into a balloon, the air from your lungs goes into the balloon. A filled up balloon is filled up with.....you guessed it, air! When you let some air come out of the balloon, could you feel the air on the other hand? Each time we inhale, we are taking in air from around us into our body's lungs. When we exhale or breathe out, we are releasing or getting rid of the air in our lungs. Our lungs are a lot like balloons- they are constantly filling up and letting go of a ir.
Spin Eggs, Spin!

Questions Do all eggs spin the same? What happens to a hard boiled egg when it spins?
What You Need 1. 1 hard boiled egg 2. 1 raw egg 3. 2 dinner plates or a pie pans
What You Do 1. Put the hard boiled egg in the middle of one of the plates or pie pans. 2. Spin the egg around like a top. 3. Put the raw egg in the middle of the other plate or pie pan. 4. Spin the egg around like a top. 5. Watch the two eggs. What do you see? Is one egg spinning around? Is one egg struggling to spin? What Is Happening The hard boiled egg spins around easily because it is a solid. The insides of the egg
have been cooked- it is not a liquid inside. A solid object has what we call a "fixed balance point." The raw egg is liquid inside. The liquid is slashing (sp?) aoun d as it moves- there is no balance point in it. This makes it hard for them to spin. For fun you could pretend you are doing some magic with friends. Get several raw eggs and one hard boiled egg. Get a large pizza pan. Tell your friends that one of the eggs is hard boiled and that you can tell which one it is. Let them take a look at the eggs to see they all are eggs and that none of them is marked. They all look the same. Put the 3 or 4 raw eggs and the 1 hard boiled egg on the pizza pan. Get all of them spinning. You can pick out the egg that spins the best and lift it up and te ll your friends, "this is the hard boiled egg." Break the eggshell open and show them the inside. They won't know how you could tell!
A glass jar or clear drinking glass Vegetable oil Salt Water Food coloring (if you want) DANGER! Don't forget to be careful with glass.
Pour about 3 inches of water into the jar. Pour about 1/3 cup of vegetable oil into the jar. When everything settles, is the oil on top of the water or underneath it? If you want, add one drop of food coloring to the jar. What happens? Is the drop in the oil or in the water? Does the color spread?
Shake salt on top of the oil while you count slowly to 5. Wow! What happens to the food coloring?
Lava Lites are lamps that were invented by an English man named Craven Walker in 1964. They are basically tall thin glass jars filled with liquid and a special kind of colored wax, set on top of a base with a light bulb. When the bulb is turned on, the lamp glows, the liquid heats up, and the wax begins to melt. Blobs of wax rise to the top of the lamp, then cool and sink back down--over and over again.
What happens to the salt? Add more salt to keep the action going for as long as you want.
Six-year-old Nina Gumkowsky shared this activity with the other students in her firstgrade class. Everyone loved it! They did it over and over again and kept trying to touch the layers. It was messy, but it was fun!
Why does the oil float on the water? Oil floats on water because a drop of oil is lighter than a drop of water the same size. Another way of saying this is to say that water is denser than oil. Density is a measurement of how much a given volume of something weighs. Things that are less dense than water will float in water. Things that are more dense than water will sink. Even though oil and water are both liquids, they are what chemists call immiscible liquids. That's a fancy word that means they don't mix. What happens when I pour salt on the oil? Salt is heavier than water, so when you pour salt on the oil, it sinks to the bottom of the mixture, carrying a blob of oil with it. In the water, the salt starts to dissolve. As it dissolves, the salt releases the oil, which floats back up to the top of the water. This looks like a Lava Lite. How does a Lava Lite work? Like your oil and water, the "lava" in a Lava Lite doesn't mix with the liquid that surrounds it. When it's cool, the "lava" is a little bit denser than the liquid surrounding it. When the "lava" rests on the bottom of the Lava Lite, the light bulb in the lamp warms it up. As it warms up, the "lava" expands a little. When it expands, the "lava" stays the same weight but it takes up more space-so it's less dense. When it's warm enough, the "lava" is less
dense than the surrounding liquid, and so it rises up to the top to float. At the top of the lamp, it cools down, becomes more dense, and sinks once again. This cycle repeats over and over as the "lava" warms up and rises, then cools down and sinks. Where did this experiment come from, anyway? Exploratorium Teacher-in-Residence Eric Muller created this activity while playing with his food in a Chinese restaurant.
scissors string wire hanger table (or a wall, or a door) metal spoon
fork potato peeler metal spatula cake rack
With your scissors, cut a piece of string about 3 feet long. (Grown-ups should cut a piece about 4 feet long.)
Hold the two ends of the string in one hand. The rest of the string will make a loop. Lay the loop over the hook part of the hanger. Push the two ends through the loop, and pull them all the way through the other side. (This is easier to undo than a knot.)
Wrap the loose ends of the string two or three times around the first fingers on each hand.
Wow! Now what does it sound like? Church bells? Chimes? Swing the hanger so it gently bumps against the leg of a table, Want to hear what a spoon or against a door. What did it sound like? Probably not much. sounds like? Unwrap your fingers, then pull on the loop end of the string. The whole string will come off the hanger, Now put your hands over the and you can reloop it around the openings of your ears. (Don't spoon. put your fingers in your ears!) Hold your hands tight to the sides of your head. Lean over Try this with other things from and gently bump the hanger your kitchen. again.
What's going on when I hear a sound? You hear sounds when vibrations get inside your ears and stimulate your nerves to send electrical signals to your brain. Suppose, for instance, that you are
Why can you hear the music of the Head Harp only when the string is around your head? How do the Secret Bells work? When you pluck on the string that's wrapped around your friend's head, the string starts vibrating. To
pounding on a drum. The drumhead starts vibrating. As the drumhead vibrates, it bumps into air molecules and starts them bouncing to and fro. Those bouncing air molecules bump into other air molecules and start them moving. This chain reaction of moving air molecules carries sound through the air in a series of pulsating pressure waves that we call sound. Sound waves carry vibrations from the drum into your ears. Inside your ear, moving air molecules push on your eardrum and start it vibrating. Your eardrum, in turn, pushes on the bones of your middle ear, the tiniest bones in your body. These bones act like a set of levers, pushing against the thin membrane that covers the opening to your inner ear.
reach your ears, the vibrations in the string must push on the air molecules to make sound waves that travel through the air. But the string isn't very large and it doesn't push on very many air molecules. So sound vibrations don't travel easily from the string into the air. When the string is around your own head, the sound can take a more direct route to your ears. Rather than traveling through the air, the vibrations can travel through your hands and through the bone of your skull directly to the fluid inside your cochlea in your inner ear. Instead of traveling from solid to air and back to solid, the vibrations move from one solid (the string) to another (your bones), and then into the fluid of your cochlea. As a result, the sound you hear is much louder and richer. The same thing happens with Secret Bells. When you put your hands over your ears, you provide a path that lets more of the vibrations reach your ears. When your hands aren't over your ears, you hear a faint, high-pitched, tinny sound. When you put your hands over your ears, you hear deep, resonant, bell-like tones. The hanger makes the same sound in both situations, but in one you provide a path that lets more of the sound reach your ears.
The movement of this membrane makes pressure waves in the fluid inside the cochlea, where cells with tiny sensing hairs transform the waves into electrical signals. These electrical signals travel along the auditory nerve to your brain. When these electrical signals reach your brain, you hear
a sound-the beat of a drum.
paper ruler
scissors crayons or markers (if you want)
Cut a strip of paper about 6 to 8 inches long and 1 /2 inch wide.
Cut halfway across the strip about 1 /2 inch from one end. That's it! You've made a Turn the strip around and do Spinning Blimp. Hold the blimp the same thing on the other end. You'll end up with a strip high over your head and drop it. It'll spin like mad on its way to that looks like this: the ground.
Slip the slot at one end into the slot at the other end. You'll make something that looks like a little fish
Now you have a blimp that spins through the air. It's really simple to make more blimps and experiment with changes in the basic blimp design. See if you can make a blimp that spins faster or stays up for a longer time. It's best if you make just one change at a time. Here are some things you can try:
Learning to experiment The Spinning Blimp is a great toy to experiment with. Change a little something and see what happens. Your blimp probably flies fine-but maybe a blimp with a shorter tail would spin even better. We've suggested some ways to modify your blimp, but our suggestions are just the beginning. What other modifications can you and your kids come up with? While you're experimenting, it may look like you're just fooling around. And you are fooling around-but you're also paying attention to what happens when you change your blimp. By making changes and noticing what happens, you're following in the footsteps of many scientists. Many scientific discoveries have come about because someone was "just fooling around." When you're fooling around, some of the things you try won't work very well. Maybe you make a change in your Spinning Blimp and it takes a nosedive. That's okay. In fact, that's great. You've learned something about what doesn't work, which is important to know. And maybe sometime you'll want to make a blimp that divesand you'll know how. Another part of fooling around scientifically is keeping track of
Make the paper strip longer or shorter. Make the paper strip wider or narrower. Make the tails longer or shorter. Cut the ends of the tails so they're pointy. Try using different kinds of paper.
You can also color your paper strip before you fold it into a blimp. That won't make it spin better, but it's fun to watch patterns and colors spin through the air.
your results. What works well? What doesn't work at all? Keep track of experiments that you try. If you come up with a new design that you like, tell us about it. We'd like to try it, too!
Activity 2 Overview Youngsters will explore how sound travels by conducting a range of experiments with paper cup telephones. Estimated Time and Age Level Advance Preparation: 20 minutes Activity: One 40-minute session (Ages 8-12) Materials (Per Team) 2 paper cups 6 meters (20 feet) of waxed dental floss or colored fishing line 2 paper clips paper and pencil Preparation Divide the group into teams of two children each. Make sure that the area where youngsters will test their phones is fairly quiet. Cut the floss or line into roughly 6-meter (20-foot) sections. If the children are younger than eight, you might want to provide assistance where appropriate as they assemble their paper cup telephones. Set out the materials in a central location. Procedure Set the stage for the activity by asking children how they think sound is traveling from your mouth to their ears. If (following from their experiences with Activity 1) they suggest that some kind of sound vibration is moving through the air, ask them to consider how sound vibrations could do this. Suggest that they explore how sound moves by conducting some simple experiments with a classic paper cup telephone. To begin their experiments, children should create a "baseline" by standing a measured distance (six meters or 20 feet) from their partners and whispering into their cups. Can their partners distinguish the words? Ask them to keep track of their findings by recording their observations. Children should begin making their telephones by using a pencil to poke a hole in the bottom of a cup. (They should stick the pencil right through.) Then they can tie one end of the floss or fishing line around a paper clip. The inner "loop" of the paper clip should then be inserted
through the hole from the outside of the cup so that it is clipped securely to the circular bottom of the cup. Have children repeat this process using the other end of the line and the second cup. Now youngsters should return to their "baseline" distance. Each child can take turns placing the cup against one ear while his or her partner whispers into the cup at the other end of the line, always making sure that the line remains taut. Youngsters should now be able to hear their partners' voices resonating in the cups against their ears. Ask them to describe their results and to follow up with their own questions (and possible explanations) about what happened. For example: How are the sound vibrations getting from one cup to the other? (They travel through the line.) After the vibrations get to the cup at the end of the line, what might they be doing to the bottom of the cup? (They cause it to vibrate, moving the air inside the cup in the same pattern that was created by the original sound.) Now challenge the youngsters to think of different experiments to try with their telephones. For example, they might find out whether or not their telephones will work when their lines are stretched through a closed door, or when their fingers are pressed against the bottom of the cup. Before they try an experiment, you might want to have them write down the procedure and the expected results. After trying the experiment, they can record their results and try to explain why or why not their prediction came true. Bring students back to the original question. Ask them how they can use what they've learned with the paper cup telephone to explain how sound travels through air. If necessary, move the discussion along by giving children this hint: When people talk to each other, the space between them is not empty; it's filled with air. Air is a substance just as the dental floss or fishing line between the cups is a substance. What does this suggest about how sound travels? (Sound needs a substance through which to travel.) Relate the talking-in-space anecdote, if you like. Assessment To see how well your young scientists are understanding the properties of sound, challenge them to explore the properties of their paper cup telephones further by designing new experiments. If they get stuck, suggest the following: Try using your telephone with a sagging line between the cups. Does it work? Why or why not? (It won't, because the pulling and pushing action of the diaphragm--the cup bottom--in response to your voice's sound waves will not transmit efficiently along a sagging line.) Might it work if you used copper wire instead of fishing line or dental floss? Try using your telephone with someone holding the line in the middle. Does it work? If not, where are the vibrations going? (It doesn't work because the vibrations are partly diverted by the person holding the line, weakening the signal that reaches the "receiving" paper cup.)
Extension Older students could use their paper cup telephones to explore another important quality of sound--that it travels at different speeds through different media. All they'll need to do is replace the line between their cups with one that's three times as long. Then ask them to stand as far as the line will allow, again making sure that the line is taut. As one partner puts the cup to one ear, the other can shout while holding the cup on the other end of the line about six inches in front of his or her mouth. The "receiver" should hear the shout first through the ear covered by the telephone and then--an instant later--through the other ear. Leave it to them to hypothesize why the shout reached one ear before the other. (Sound travels faster through solids than through gases.)
What do plants need in order to live?

Questions
What do plants need in order to live and grow?
What you need:

4 potted plants that are the same kind and size. Water Place that is dark to put a plant. Place that gets lots of sunlight to put a plant.
Experiment #1 - What to do:
1. Do you think plants need sunlight in order to live and grow? We can test this out by doing an experiment. Put one plant in a dark place like a closet. 2. Put one plant in a place where it will get plenty of sunlight. 3. Take a look at both plants for a few days.
What is happening?
Most plants must have light in order to grow. If they go for very long without light, they lose their green color, quit growing, and seem to wilt.
Experiment #2 - What to do:
1. We know that plants need light in order to live and grow from our first experiment. Now, let's see if they need water or not. Put two healthy plants in a place where they get plenty of sunlight. 2. Pick one plant to water every few days as it's soil dries out and it needs it. Pick one plant to leave alone- put no water in the soil of this plant. 3. Watch the two plants over a few days or a couple of weeks.
What is happening?
Plants need water. If a plant doesn't get water, it will eventually wilt and die.
What is air?
This lesson developed by Reach Out! Recommended Age: Early and later Elementary
Questions What is air? Can I see it? Does it take up space? What you need:

2 round balloons 2 oblong balloons Your lungs' air! What to do:
1. Blow up one of the round balloons. Look at the blown-up balloon and the one that is not blown up. What is the difference in them? You filled up one balloon with air from inside your lungs. This is proof that air is in the balloon, and that air takes up space. Air filled up and pushed and pressed inside of the ballon to change its shape. The more air you blow in the balloon, the bigger it gets. 2. Blow up the oblong balloon. Look at the difference between this balloon and the oblong balloon you did not blow up. We can see the same thing as beforeair takes up space and, when we blow air into the balloon, it has to expand to hold it. 3. Look at the two blown-up balloons. Why are they different shapes? We can see that air doesn't care what shape of balloon it goes into. Air will take the shape of whatever is holding it. What is happening?
We can't really see air. Air is a mix of different gases. Air will take on the shape of whatever thing it gets a chance to go into. Air has weight. Air goes in and out of our lungs everyday.
scissors Styrofoam tray from your supermarket (ask at the meat or bakery counter for a clean, unused tray) masking tape aluminum pie tin
Cut a piece off one corner of the Styrofoam tray, as the picture shows. You'll have a long bent piece that looks a little like a hockey stick. Tape the bent piece to the center of the pie tin. Now you have a handle!
Now--very slowly--touch the tip of your finger to the pie tin. Wow! What a spark! (Be careful. DON'T touch the Styrofoam tray. If you do, you won't get a spark.)
Use the handle to pick up the pie tin again. Touch the tin with the tip of your finger. Wow! You get another great spark.
Rub the bottom of the Stryofoam tray on your hair. Rub it all over, really fast.
Drop the pie tin onto the Styrofoam tray again. Touch the pie tin. Another spark! Use the handle to pick up the pie tin. More sparks!
Put the tray upside down on a table or on the floor.
You can do this over and over for a long time. If the pie tin stops giving you a spark, just rub the Styrofoam tray on your head again, and start over.
Use the handle to pick up the pie tin. Hold it about a foot over the Styrofoam tray and drop it.
Try using your Super Sparker in the dark. Can you see the tiny lightning bolts you make? What color are they?
What makes the Super Sparker spark?
When you rub Styrofoam on your hair, you pull electrons off your hair and pile them up on the Styrofoam. When you put an aluminum pie tin on the Styrofoam, the electrons on the Styrofoam pull on the electrons. Some of the electrons in metals are free electrons --they can move around inside the metal. These free electrons try to move as far away from the Styrofoam as they can. When you touch the pie tin, those free electrons leap to your hand, making a spark. After the electrons jump to your hand, the pie tin is short some electrons. When you lift the pie tin away from the Styrofoam plate, you've got a pie tin that attracts any and all nearby electrons. If you hold your finger close to the metal, electrons jump from your finger back to the pie tin, making another spark. When you put the pie tin back on the Styrofoam plate, you start the whole process over again. What does all this have to do with lightning? The lightning bolt is a dramatic example of static electricity in action. You see lightning when a spark of moving electrons races up or down between a cloud and the ground (or between two clouds). The moving electrons bump into air molecules along the way, heating them to a temperature five times hotter than the surface of the sun. This hot air expands as a supersonic shock wave, which you hear as thunder.
What Is Mud?
Questions What is mud? How do puddles form?
What You Need 1. Large plastic tub (like a dishwashing tub) 2. Bag of potting soil or a bucket of gardening dirt 3. Pitcher of water
What You Do 1. Fill your plastic tub about 1/2 full with soil. 2. With the palm of your hand, press down a few places in the soil to make some dents or holes where water can go to make puddles. 3. Carefully sprinkle or drip water from the pitcher onto your soil. Keep going untill the soil has abosrbed or taken all the water it can into itself. 4. Then add some more water.
What Is Happening Your soil can take in and hold certain amounts of water. When it is what we called "saturated," it just can't hold any more water. Then the water starts to stand on top of the soil. Where we pressed down on the soil, we made little pockets where the wa
ter could collect and stand on top of the soil. These are like puddles we see after a rainstorm. Think about how the soil looked when it was dry and then how it looks after it absorbs water. Its texture and feel is very different. You can try this again but this time mix your dry potting soil with gravel or with clay. See what happens when you add water. There are different kinds of soil. Some, like clay, will not absorb water very well. Gravel and stones definitely don't take in much water. What kind of soil do we want around our houses? Why? Where have you seen flooding and mud puddles after a rain? Why?
What is Water?
Questions
What is water? What is the shape of water?
What You Need
Many clear plastic or glass containers that hold about the same amount of water Water
What You Do
1. Pour water into one of the containers. Can you see the water? What shape is the water? What color is the water? How does the water smell? 2. Pour water into the rest of the containers.
What Is Happening
We can see that water is wet, it doesn't have any real color, and it doesn't have any real smell to it. And, we have different shapes and sizes of containers. Water doesn't have any shape of its own. It will fill up and take on the shape of whatever co ntainer it goes into. Think some more about water. It is the most common substance on our planet. Every living thing and animal or creature needs water in order to live. Water comes onto our earth in the form of rain, sleet, snow, and hail. Water moves around our earth by way of rivers, streams and creeks, ponds, oceans, lakes. Water also sinks into the earth and is what we call ground water.
What Shape Is Water?

This lesson developed by Leona and Jim Meeks Recommended Age: Preschool
Question What shape is water?
What You Need 1. Water 2. Many clear glass or plastic containers 3. Pitcher
What You Do 1. Collect many different sizes and shapes of clear glass or plastic containers. 2. Pour water into the containers using a pitcher. 3. Check it out- what shape is water?
What Is Happening Water does not have its own distinct and constant shape. The glasses, bowls, vases, freezer containers and other containers we used have their own distinct and constant shape- but not water! When we poured water into all these different kinds and shapes of containers, the water took on the shape of the containers it was put into! Empty one container. Pour water from another container into this one. What
happens? The very same water that may have taken on the shape of a tall and skinny rosebud vase w ill take on the shape of a squatty and low container! Water is so important for our planet Earth! Living creatures, plants and treeseverything that is alive needs some amount of water. Water is fun to learn about and play with, too!
Blubber Glove
How do Antarctic animals stay warm in bone-chilling water?

1. Discuss how quickly our bodies are chilled in cold water. What do we do to stay warm? (move around, wear insulating wetsuits, get out of the water). 2. Ask students to list ways in which animals are able to stay warm in cold water (blubber, air in feathers, oil on fur, low surface area to volume ratio). 3. Have the students cover one hand with a plastic bag. 4. Put a generous amount of solid shortening into another bag. Have the student put the plastic-covered hand into the bag with the shortening. Knead the shortening to make sure the hand is completely surrounded by shortening. 5. Wrap duct tape around the portion of the bag covering your wrist to seal the bag (optional). 6. Cover the other hand with two plastic bags (without shortening). This is the "control." 7. Place both hands simultaneously into a bucket of cold water. 8. Have a student time how long each hand remains underwater. 9. Whales, Weddell seals, and penguins all have blubber.
Discuss how the solid shortening is like the blubber that these Antarctic animals have. 10. Discuss what other advantages blubber gives marine animals besides warmth. (buoyancy) 11. Remove the bags from the students' hands and seal the bags so water won't get in. Attach weights to the outer bag of each "glove." 12. Put the bags into the bucket of water. How much weight can each bag hold before it sinks to the bottom of the bucket?
Blubber as a food reserve
Once penguins have laid their egg, the parents take turns incubating it. The parent that stays on the nest keeps the egg warm while the other is off feeding on krill and fish. Adelie penguins trade off every two weeks, while Gentoo penguins switch every day. How are the Adelie penguins able to survive for so long while sitting on the nest? How are the Gentoo penguins able to find enough food to sustain themselves while remaining relatively close to shore? What strategies for nesting and incubating do other penguins species undertake?
Materials
four large, resealable, clear plastic bags, one pound of solid vegetable shortening (such as Crisco), duct tape, a bucket of cold water with ice cubes, a watch with a second hand or a stop watch, weights (stones or weights used on a balance)
tin cans (you'll need at least 3 cans of the same size can opener sturdy tape (masking tape is okay, but plastic packing tape or duct tape works best) towel wooden spoon pencil
Tips on Cans:
Bonkos made from cans of different sizes will all sound different. Try making Bonkos from little cans (like soup), bigger cans (like dog food), or really big cans (like tomato juice or Hawaiian Punch). With a set of Bonkos, your whole family can make some interesting music together. You can plan ahead and save your cans as you use them. Or you can do what the Fowler family did--plan a special dinner of canned foods and create your Bonkos after you eat. Make sure that your cans have flat bottoms that you can cut off with a can opener. Cans with rounded bottoms won't work.
Ask a grown-up to use the can opener to cut off the bottoms of all of the cansexcept one. Leave the bottom on that one. (If you're using different sizes of cans, make sure one can of each size has a bottom.)
Put the next can on top of the other two, and tape it to them. Now you have a Bonko that's three cans long, with one closed end and one open end. (You can also make a four- or five-can Bonko if you have enough cans.) Put a towel down on your kitchen floor. Hold your Bonko open end up, and bonk it up and down on the towel. Try making different sounds. You can make your own rhythms by bonking faster or slower, softer or harder. If you hold your hand over the opening as you bonk, does that change the sound?
Wash the insides of the cans and let them dry. (Be careful of the cut edges: They might be sharp.)
Take a can that still has a bottom and put it on the counter, open end up. Put another can of the same size on top of it. Tape them together.
Why does a long Bonko make a deeper sound than a short Bonko? Compare two Bonkos that are made of cans of the same size. You'll find
that the longer Bonko makes a lower-pitched sound than the shorter Bonko. Rather than talking about pitch, scientists sometimes talk about a sound's frequency. Every sound begins with a vibration, and a sound's frequency is the rate of vibration-the number of times something vibrates in a unit of time. Something that's vibrating very fast-like the steam rushing out of a whistling teakettle or the metal of a tiny bell-makes a high-pitched, highfrequency sound. Something that's vibrating more slowly-like the drumhead of a bass drum or the metal of a big bell-makes a low-pitched, lowfrequency sound. When air inside a Bonko vibrates, it makes a sound that contains many different frequencies. This complex sound bounces around inside the metal tube. Sometimes vibrations of the same frequency overlap and add together. When that happens, sounds with that frequency get louder. The length of the Bonko helps determine which sounds get louder. Long Bonkos amplify low-frequency (low-pitched) sounds; short Bonkos amplify high-frequency (high-pitched) sounds.
Have you ever seen an instrument like the Bonko? Maybe not in America. But all over the world-- from Africa to South America-- people use objects just like your Bonko for dances and special ceremonies. Some of these tubes are only about a foot long, but others are as tall as a grown-up man. People who study music call them all stamping tubes.Each culture has its own name for this instrument.
In Venzuela, they are called quitiplasand are made out of cane or hollow wood.
In Kenya and Tanzania, they are called bazaras. They are made out of bamboo, sometimes with slits cut in the sides. People pound them on the ground, but they also hit them with sticks to make a different sound.
In the islands of West Java, they are called kendang awi. These are made of bamboo, and two of them-one large, one small-- are played together.
In Borneo, pieces of dried fruit are put into tubes of bamboo so that the tubes will also rattle when they hit the ground.
Carrot Root Fun

This lesson developed by Jim and Leona Meeks Recommended Ages: Preschool and Early Elementary
Question What can I learn about roots from experimenting with a carrot?
What You Need 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 3 Carrots Sharp knife Cutting board Glass Water Red food coloring
What You Do Experiment #1 1. Fill a glass half full with water. 2. Cut the end tip off of a carrot. Ask an adult to help you! 3. Put the carrot in the glass of water. 4. Put the glass near a window that lets in sunshine. 5. Watch the carrot for a few days.
What Is Happening
The carrot itself is really what we call a "taproot." This is a big and main root that grows straight down into the ground. Along its sides, little roots grow, too. Some trees, plants and bushes have a major taproot; others do not. Roots are really important! They hold a plant in place when it is windy. They keep soil around the plant . And most of all, roots conduct water from the soil up to the plant.
Experiment #2 1. Repeat the first experiment with a new carrot. 2. But this time put 10 drops of red food coloring into the glass of water. 3. Put the carrot in the water for several days. 4. Put the carrot on the cutting board and with the help of an adult, cut the carrot in half. Look inside. You will see red coloring in the tubes of the carrot that go from the bottom to the top of it. This shows you that water was being absorbed by the bottom or tip of the carrot and traveling up the inside of the carrot. This is how plants and trees get water from their roots. 5. You can repeat this same experiment but this time cut the carrot in a cross section. Then you can look at how the carrot is structured from that point of view.
What Is Happening Radishes, beets, turnips and parsnips are also taproots. You might want to get some of these and cut them to see how they are made. It also is interesting that we eat many taproots! Try steaming, baking or eating these taproots raw! As you think about plants that we eat, check out which veggies we eat that are the stem parts, the leaves, or the flowering part of the plant. Mmmmmm. Some plants, stems, roots, taproots and flowers are delicious!

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scissors white paper coffee filter black marker (not permanent) water coffee cup or mug

Bouncing Eggs In Science

Can I Make a Rain Cloud?

Recommended Age: Preschool and Early Elementary

What You Need

Big Bowl Large sponge Water

Eggs Don't Break?

With your scissors, cut a piece of string that's about 15

Make a Flying Wing!

What You Need

Fun with Air!

Questions What is air? When can I tell air is around?

evaporation saturation humidity

How Do Animals Protect Themselves?

How to Make Bottle Pipes

Recommended Age: Preschool and Early Elementary

What You Need

bit until you see what looks like a rainbow.

Making a Wind Sock

Question Can I make a workable wind sock?

Making Your Own Paper

Question Can I make my own paper?

What is mold? Can I grow mold?

What you need:

empty soda can blown-up balloon your hair

Silly Straw Glider

Question Can you see air?

Experiment #2 1. Look at your balloon. What is it like right now?

Spin Eggs, Spin!

fork potato peeler metal spatula cake rack

a sound-the beat of a drum.

scissors crayons or markers (if you want)

Cut a strip of paper about 6 to 8 inches long and 1 /2 inch wide.

What do plants need in order to live?

What do plants need in order to live and grow?

What you need:

Experiment #1 - What to do:

Experiment #2 - What to do:

2 round balloons 2 oblong balloons Your lungs' air! What to do:

Put the tray upside down on a table or on the floor.

What makes the Super Sparker spark?

Questions What is mud? How do puddles form?

Recommended Age: Preschool and Early Elementary

What You Need

What Shape Is Water?

Question What shape is water?

How do Antarctic animals stay warm in bone-chilling water?

Carrot Root Fun

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