Wednesday, April 10, 2024

SUPER SIMPLE SCIENCE EXPERIMENTS

I know it's a challenge to come up with science experiments with your different teaching situations, but here are a few simple ones that should spark children's interest wherever they are.
Note! These would also be good for the parents to repeat at home.

Dancing Rice
Materials: uncooked rice, water, food coloring, baking soda, white vinegar, clear glass

Directions: Put about 1/4 cup of uncooked rice in a clear glass. Add water. Add a few drops of food coloring and a TB of baking soda. Mix. Add 2 TB white vinegar and watch the dance party!
What happened? Why?



Shiny Pennies
Materials: old pennies, vinegar, salt, cup and spoon

Directions: Put ½ cup of vinegar in the cup. Add 1 TB salt and mix to dissolve. Drop the pennies in the cup and stir them around while you count to 25. Take the pennies out of the cup and rinse them off in water. Taaa Daaa! What happened to the pennies? What made them shiny?

*Experiment shining pennies with ketchup or lemon juice.


In the Bag
Materials: zip sandwich bag, sharp pencil

Directions: Fill the sandwich bag with water. Hold the pencil and say, “What do you think will happen if I stab this pencil in the bag?” Take the pencil and quickly insert it through the bag. What happened? Why? 



Pepper Scatter

Materials: clear bowl
pepper
liquid detergent

Directions: Fill the bowl with water. Sprinkle the pepper on top. Squirt a drop of detergent in the middle of the bowl. Observe what the pepper does. What makes the pepper scatter?


Milk Explosion

Materials: pie pan
whole milk (room temperature)
food coloring
liquid detergent (Dawn works best.)

        

Directions: Place a cup of milk in the pie pan. (It must be whole milk and room temperature.) Put several drops from each bottle of food coloring down the sides of the pie pan at different intervals. Now, squirt a few drops of the detergent in the middle of the pan. Patiently observe and the colors will explode in the pan. 


Happy Face Balloon
Materials: balloon (Use a large balloon and blow it up first to make sure
it will inflate easily.)
permanent marker, empty bottle
vinegar, baking soda
spoon, funnel

Directions: Blow up the balloon and draw a happy face on it with the marker.
Put ½ cup of vinegar in the bottle. Put several spoonfuls of baking soda in the balloon using the funnel. Insert the end of the balloon over the mouth of the bottle. Hold up the balloon so the baking soda falls in the bottle and watch what happens. What made the balloon blow up? Have children draw pictures in sequential order of how this experiment was conducted.