Kategori: English

Raft Design

Building a boat, raft, or other watercraft to safely transport items across water is a way for children to practice planning and decision-making skills. Gather your materials beforehand, and try the activity along with him!


Materials Required

    • A large bowl, tub, or other container filled with water – even a bathtub can work
    • A variety of materials for building a vessel, such as:
      • Sticks
      • Foil
      • Corks
      • Paper
      • Egg cartons
      • Tape
      • Glue
      • Rubber bands
    • Items to transport, such as coins, pens, small toy figures, etc.

Tips for Adults

  • As children begin to select materials to build their vessel, encourage them to try out ones they are unsure about. They can test the material in the water to see if it floats before deciding whether or not to incorporate it into their design.
  • Take the time to think and make a plan before diving into an activity, but it’s an important skill to practice. Planning is part of a suite of skills that helps children’s brains be ready to learn.
  • If children make mistakes or if their design doesn’t work, encourage them to learn from the failed attempt and to continue improving and adjusting their design. Ask questions like:
    • What could we change so it will work better next time?
    • What could you add to your design to help it travel across the water without anyone touching or pushing it?
    • What additions or changes can you make to your design to help it support even more weight?

https://youtu.be/NUolm-d9IeI

 

DIY Phone Speaker

Boost your tunes and learn some science! We’ll build a DIY phone speaker using common household items. This project is a fantastic way to learn about sound waves, amplification, and the basics of engineering design.

Supplies

  • 1 cardboard tube or paper towel roll
  • 2 paper cups or plastic cups (test the difference)
  • Scissors
  • Pencil
  • Washi tape (optional to decorate)
  • Smartphone

Make a DIY Phone Speaker

Prepare the Tube: Use a pair of scissors to cut a rectangular slit in the center of your paper towel tube. Use the bottom of your phone to trace the opening. This slit should be just large enough to hold your phone securely.

Prepare the Cups: Cut small circular holes in the sides of each cup, big enough for the ends of the tube to fit inside. Trace the end of the cardboard tube on the lower side of each cup to get the right fit. The cups will act as sound amplifiers.

Assemble the Speaker: Insert one end of the tube into the hole in the first cup and the other end into the second cup. Ensure a snug fit, and if needed, use masking or washi tape to secure the tube to the cups.

Test the Sound: Place the base of your phone in the slot on the tube, play some music, and listen! You should notice a significant increase in volume and clarity.

Sound Wave Science

Sound is created when something vibrates. These vibrations move through the air as waves. Think of a wave in the ocean moving up and down — like how sound waves travel, except they move through the air, not water.

When you play music on your smartphone, the speaker creates tiny vibrations that travel through the air in all directions. These sound waves are quite small and spread out quickly, which makes the sound seem quieter.

In this DIY speaker project, we focus on the sound waves by channeling them through paper towel tubes and cups. The tube helps guide the sound waves in one direction instead of letting them spread out. Then, the cups act like amplifiers by bouncing the sound waves inside, making them stronger. As the sound waves bounce and exit the cup, they come out more powerfully, which makes the music sound louder to our ears.

When you listen through your DIY speaker, you hear the sound waves more focused and amplified. This shows how engineers use materials and design to control sound and make it louder or clearer. This kind of science can be found in real speakers, headphones, and even large concert sound systems!

Extension Activities

  • Experiment with Different Sizes: Try using larger or smaller cups to see how the size affects sound amplification.
  • Add Decorations: Customize the speaker with washi tape, paint, or markers to make it uniquely yours while testing if the decorations affect the sound quality.
  • Explore Sound Science: Research different types of speakers and how professional speaker designs utilize similar principles for amplifying sound.

 

Idea taken from the blog LittleBinsforLittleHands

LEGO-Sudoku

Instructions for adults:

  • Print out the sudoku boards and laminate them if you wish.
  • Cut the papers in half so that each board is on its own A5 size paper.
  • There are three levels of difficulty in the main house sudoku: one star, two stars and three stars.
  • Watch the Häärämö YouTube channel to see how handy it is to guide your child to solve sudoku puzzles.

Guide for your child:

  • Count how many squares of each colour are on your game board. You need a total of four of each of the four colours.
  • For example, if you have three blue squares on your board, how many more do you need to make four blue squares in total? So take one blue Duplo piece.
  • Place the Duplo pieces you have taken above the board in the colour order you have chosen, so that one colour is always at the bottom (see picture above). For each Sudoku, you will need 1 to 3 of each colour.

Solve the sudoku:

  • Find the row with only one colour missing.
  • When you can no longer find rows with only one colour missing, look at the large square (2 x 2 square). Which colour is missing? In addition to the previous solution strategies, take aside the two colours that are missing from the row or the large square. Decide from the horizontal and vertical lines where the colours belong.
  • Only put a colour in place if you are sure that it belongs there. If you think a colour can be placed in two different squares on the same row, don’t place it yet.

Sudoku boards: Lego-sudoku Eng (PDF, 117 kB)

Magnet Painting

Supplies Needed 

  • Magnet wand 
  • Various metal items like ball bearings, springs & screws 
  • Various non-metal items like marbles 
  • Paper 
  • Plastic tray or box (I used an old 9″ x 13″ food container) 
  • Tempera paint. 
  • Cups or palette to dip the metal pieces in 
  • Spoons to get the painted covered pieces into the tray. 

Magnet Painting How-To 

To begin painting, pour your paint into something deep enough to drop your metal pieces into.  An egg carton works well. Then cut your paper to fit your tray and place a piece inside. Now it’s time to paint! Dip a metal piece in paint and drop it into the tray. Then take the magnet wand and move it around under the plastic tray as this keeps the metal pieces rolling smoothly. 

Time for Experimentation 

One of the best parts of this project is that kids can learn a little science while painting. You can use all metal pieces, or you can throw in some things that the magnet can’t move like glass marbles. Even different metal pieces move differently. 

 

The idea is taken from the blog LeftBrainCraftBrain

Math-duel

Games to train number, addition and number buddies.

Print two sets per deck of the cards. Cut them out before you can play. For higher durability, please laminate

  • Choose four cards to be in front of the players
  • The students stand or sit opposite each other. They put their hands in front of them on the table.
  • It is also possible to play the game lying on their stomachs with the cards lying slightly in front of the players, who in this way have to lift their upper body and arms to reach the cards.

For variants and ready sets with cards: Math-duel (PDF, 96kB)

Friction Science Experiment

Materials Needed:

  • A round cake pan
  • A marble
  • Construction paper
  • Felt or a similar fabric
  • Craft foam
  • Sand paper

Implementation

Step 1: Tap the marble so that it rolls around the perimeter of the cake pan. Kids will want to try this several times before getting serious about the experiment because it’s fun to do!

Practice launching the marble with an equal amount of force each time. Then count how many times it travels around the pan before it stops. We found that it worked well to start the marble next to the hole in our pan’s rim. That made it easy to count revolutions. Each time the marble went past the hole, we counted another trip around.

Step 2: Now test different surfaces to see how the amount of friction affects the marble. The cake pan itself has very little friction.

Try a piece of construction paper first. Trace the bottom of the pan on a sheet of construction paper and cut it out. Then lay the construction paper circle in the bottom of the pan. Launch your marble around the pan again. How many times around did it travel this time?

We tested construction paper, felt, and craft foam. Sand paper is also a great surface to test! Use what you have around the house. Any fabric will work if you don’t have felt.

Theory and Questions to Discuss

Newton’s first law of motion says that an object in motion will stay in motion unless acted on by an outside force. Friction is a force which slows down motion by preventing objects from sliding past each other.

  • Which surface had the most friction in your experiment?
  • Which one slowed the marble down the fastest?

How Far Can Your Sneeze Go?

Introduction

Do you cover your coughs and sneezes? How far do you think the droplets can travel if you do not cover them? Why is this important to help prevent the spread of diseases like COVID-19? Try this activity to find out!

Materials

  • Spray bottle filled with water
  • Newspaper

Procedure

  • Cover the floor with newspaper.
  • Hold the spray bottle above the newspaper.
  • Question: How far do you think the water droplets will travel when you spray?
  • Squeeze the handle a few times.
  • Can you see how far the droplets go?
  • Continue spraying water until the newspaper is visibly damp.
    Does your ”sneeze” go as far as you expected it to?

Try to stop the sneeze from spreading.

What happens if you cover the bottle’s nozzle with a tissue or your elbow?

Why do you think the CDC recommends staying at least 6 feet away from someone who is coughing or sneezing?

What Happened?

If you only spray the bottle a few times, you might not think the water travels that far. The mist created by the bottle is very fine, and hard to see in the air. A small amount of water also does not get the newspaper very wet. However, as you spray more and more water, the newspaper will start to get soaked, and turn a darker gray. Once the newspaper gets wet enough, you can see that the droplets of water actually travel several feet!