We hired Sheila Rae from Educational Assembly to come to our school. She is going to do a cooking show that actually ties all areas of curriculum into cooking. Math of course is an easy tie in along with science but she also ties in English (if a child can read directions and produce a product they actually understand what they are reading) history (she ties it up with food heritage and cultural differences, art (food involves all the principles art from color, texture and so on) health of course the nutritional base (which with all the health issues this will be a great tie to what we are doing to improve our students health). We are actually doing this as a fundraiser and family fun night. She gave us ideas on how to get the community involved as sponsors. We think this will be the largest fundraiser we have ever done with the least amount of work.
We have done science night at our school for years--- Work with your Science teacher if you have 1... I can scan in some of the fliers we've used on Science night and add them to the file exchange-- But some had to do with using photo canisters, put a piece of dry ice into the canister and some water, cover the canister with the cap and watch what happens-- the top flies off- kids loved this one-- get a parent helper to put the piece of dry ice in-- since you have to wear gloves-- another is there was a table with different tracks of animals and you had to write down which animal it was--- you had choices-- another area set-up was microscopes with slides you could look at-- and the final experiment where the kids would get a candy treat-- each child would take a balloon filled with helium, tie a cup onto the bottom of it and add smarties to the cup to see if you could keep the helium filled balloon down-- then eat the smarties when done.
There was one more that had to do with wrapign an egg, then dropping it 10 feet off the floor, does it break or did you protect it enough-- kids loved this one too.
I have a whole bunch, and you can find them online easily enough. They're all matter related:
1. Ooblik - not only does the student mix the ingredients and make the substance, but then gets to see how it reacts to different factors, such as heat. Is it a liquid or a solid?
2. Mentos experiment - Using a 2 liter bottle of diet soda the student, with parental/teacher guidnace, submerges mentos candy into it. The reaction between the CO2 and the candy creates a fountain of soda. The students can then look at the candy under a microscope and see how there are tiny pits in the candy which provided a perfect place for the CO2 bubbles to form, along with the weight of the candy which forces the candy to the bottom, creating a bigger reaction.
3. Rock Candy - Easy enough, water and sugar mixed together. Tie a piece of string to a pencil and have it submerged in the mizture for a few days. The candy will form. Can discus reasons, form, etc.
4. Dancing Raisins - Using a clear soda (sprite) drop a raisin in. The raisin will sink to the bottom, but them rise to the top, just to drop back down continuously. Note how the COs bubbles are forming on the raisin providing the lift. Have the student flatten the raisin and see if it reacts the same way (faster or slower).
5. Heat Experiment - Take 4 cups of heated water. One cup is left open. Another cup is wrapped in newspaper. Another in a towel. The last is placed and tied in a plastic bag. Wait some time and see which is the hottest, discuss why.
6. Does Gas Have Weight? - Take two bottles of soda and tie the to a leverage bar so that the weight is evenly distributed to either side. Crack one of the bottled open so that there is a slight escaping of CO2 gas. Wait some time and see if the leverage bar changes (one side goes down).
That should give you some to work with. Good luck.
We are planning a Math and Science day at our grade school (PreK - 5). Does anyone have some simple science experiments we can try. We will have 6 hands on stations set up for the students to visit. The experiements can't be ellaborate because they only have 30 minutes to visit the 6 stations.
