Need science experiment ideas for the summer

[conuly]

Also, art projects that aren't all either "Uh, here are some supplies, get messy" or "These are the carefully cut out parts, please make yours exactly like mine". Gosh, I hate the latter. I want all teachers of young children to memorize the phrase "it's the process, not the product" and apply it religiously.

Anyway, trying to do some fun and lightly educational things over the summer to make up for forcing Eva to do - gasp! - math every day. (The math is not optional.)

Comments

[alatefeline]

There are a lot of techniques for clay that require teaching/learning a specific skill, but leave the product open to decide. Coil building is an easy place to start, and can be done with other moldable products than actual clay.

[archangelbeth]

Art projects... Crochet or knitting? (Or, y'know, both, and go with whatever "clicks.") One does not actually have to memorize a lot of lingo to make scarves and squares to form "afghan-quilts." (I can't follow the patterns. I spent all my "weird abbreviation" skill points on GURPS and In Nomine. DX, FP, HP, Move, M/VH... Yes, I can tell you what those are. But somewhere around the abbreviations for double stitch and slip stitch, my mind glazes over and I make another scarf or something with no pattern.)

[dine]

make apple head dolls? carving the face and seeing how it turns out once dried is cool, and then dressing it can be lots of fun. basic info on how to are online. this one takes some time for the carved apple to dry/cure, so its not instant gratification, but it might be a nice change from the usual

[kengr]

What level of "science" are we talking about? Crystal growing is an all ages thing, you just adjust *what* you are growing crystals on.

Sugar crystals (rock candy) are always popular. :-)

Also, what level of math is being studied. I may have a few tips on how to make it more interesting.

[conuly]

Sixth grade math. We homeschool, so we're just finishing up our curriculum. Unfortunately, we're about two months behind where we ought to be due to my mother's cancer. Fortunately, summer is two months long!

[alchemia]

is there a preference for areas of science.... eg, biology, physics, earth science etc? also the kids' interests/hobbies would be good to know as tailoring projects around that can make the lesson more fun and easier to learn / remember, as im sure u know.

[conuly]

No, the preference is "really easy and showy". We have one or two extra kids with Eva over the summer, and I don't know what they already know science-wise. I mostly just want them to have fun with the pretense of learning.

[kengr]

Well, at that age, there's a lot of chemistry she'd probably be safe messing around with if she's interested.

When I was in 6th grade (1966) they were trying the new math and what got me to look at math in a new light was messing with different number bases. I wound up drawing up addition, subtraction, multiplication and division "tables" for bases 1 thru 12. and discovered some interesting patterns.

Also, if you can track down copies, Isaac Asimov's "Realm of Numbers" clued me in on a lot of stuff they don't usually tell you about math.

His "Realm of Algebra" got me over the hurdles I was having with that.

[kengr]

Well, for "showy" there's always the Mentos/Diet Coke thing. :-)

Then you gety to have them try to explain what's going on, and experiment with different sodas and candies, ass well as a few household chemical like baking soda and vinegar.

Model rockets (if legal in your area) can teach a fair bit too.

I know a few experiments that it'd be best if *you* did, but are more than a bit surprising.

For example, it's not that hard to generate chlorine in a (plastic) 5 gallon bucket. Then you take a lit candle on a wire holder and lower it slowly into the bucket.

It'll keep burning, but the flame goes this weird red color and it's really sooty. That's because the carbon in the wax isn't burning, just the hydrogen.

[used_songs]

I used to teach robotics to middle schoolers and they enjoyed learning some basic electronics. You can pick up the materials fairly cheaply at a hardware/home improvement store and there are lots of tutorials online.

The most popular project I've done with kids is the leaf blower powered hovercraft - https://sciencebob.com/build-a-hovercraft-you-can-ride/

Arduinos are fun - https://www.arduino.cc/ - although then you would be spending more money. However, you can do a lot with an arduino.

Also from things I have done with middle schoolers that were popular:

Book making: http://www.makingbooks.com/freeprojects.shtml

Making backpacks: http://www.sewcanshe.com/blog/2015/3/27/easy-peasy-drawstring-backpack-free-sewing-tutorial

art idea

[redbird]

I haven't tried this one, I ran across it in a mystery novel, and the author said it went back to the Surrealists. Take some blank pieces of white paper. Hold them near a flame, so parts of the paper turn brown. Use those random-ish shapes as the basis for a drawing on that sheet of paper. In the story, the teacher was working with students around Eva's age, and charred the paper ahead of time rather than having them do their own. She used matches, but a Bic lighter would also work, I think.

This definitely feels like an "it's the process" thing, and you could even have the kids prepare their own sheets of paper, and throw in a bit of a science lesson on how the lower temperature colors the paper but doesn't set it on fire.

[james]

You could make oobleck!

[gingicat]

For math, you can generally build word problems into your day. One way to do this is to multiply or divide recipe amounts. Does she like to cook?

And I find myself needing to calculate percentages and do estimations all the time, but that's fifth grade math. Hmm. Will consider.

[zesty_pinto]

Outdoors okay? Bottle rockets. Nothing but bottle rockets.

Mentos and diet coke? Baking soda and vinegar? pressurized CO2? Lots to go with in terms of figuring out how to make these babies run. Plus you might be able to experiment on a particular formula to figure out how to maximize the results (chemistry + physics + math because it's exactly rocket science).

Maybe you can have her raise a tadpole? You can add chemistry to it since aquaria is all about understanding chemistry.

You can visit a hardware store, get some wire, batteries, and lights or whatnot and teach her how circuits work too.

Although this is high school level and you live in NYC, if you can get access to an area below that doesn't see much traffic, then you can see if she can pull off some "drop" experiments to see how air resistance works. If it's a really clear area, then I'd even consider showing her how to safely drop an egg to the ground.

In terms of art projects, I remember a math teacher once showing me tessellations. I hated it as a kid, but if she's creative then maybe she can see about making her own patterns.

You could also "make your own Mad covers" in terms of art projects where you accordion the pieces into one image and then have her figure out how to draw something else out of it. Just remember to mark where you want the things put together since I can see this being very confusing.

[larryhammer]

Don't have a lot to offer here: we're still at the make-oobleck-and-play-with-it stage (with a side order of adjusting adding a little more starch or water to see what happens) and the color-or-paint-things-as-big-scribbles stage.

[conuly]

Bottle rockets might not be legal in NYC, in fact, I'm fairly certain nothing explosive is. But mentos and diet coke, yes.

Tessellations now, that's art and math.

[conuly]

No, we're going to keep plugging away at her textbook until we complete it.

Re: art idea

[conuly]

That's not a half bad idea. Come to think, we could do lemon juice messages as well. (I say, because I have a cryptography book here on my desk.)

[conuly]

Robots, why didn't I think of that?

[conuly]

I would do that, but I have a fear of inviting bugs into my home via that method :(

[conuly]

I could have my mom teach them crochet. That's always useful, and we could use up some of our endless hoards of yarn.

[zesty_pinto]

Bah, mentos and coke are technically an explosive too!

You might be confusing it with the other colloquialism for those fireworks that are usually launched from a bottle. I'm talking about a literal plastic bottle given air pressure and launched. If they banned those, then I'm genuinely surprised since they're kind of hard to weaponize. Plus, you can see if she can try playing around with different chemical formulas to see how much farther it can go.

[zesty_pinto]

Oh, some random ideas:

-Playing with surface tension by using a tub and making boats out of materials that don't traditionally float by themselves? Maybe get some Archimedes' Principle along the way.

-If I can think of stuff to do with it, you can also make it work another way with corn starch and water. If you had a ton of the stuff and space for it, I'd try a pool of it to play with.

-I just saw an episode of Clarence that discussed pH litmus tests, which reminded me of how you might be able to make a day with some pH testing supplies and maybe have her figure out the pH of different liquids, combine them, etc.

-There's also molecular gastronomy...

[conuly]

I didn't know about this sort of bottle rocket at all!

[zesty_pinto]

Whew! And to think I was ready to make a remark on how illegal it was in NYC because most people made them with 2 liter soda bottles, ha!