Kategori: English

Draw and cut out a rocket and the rectangle that you roll to put the straw in.

Roll the rectangle the long way with the fold line on the top. You can roll it around a pencil to get it tight. Tape it along the sides to secure it. Fold it over at the top. Secure the fold with tape to keep it down.

Tape the rolled piece to the back of the rocket body.

Insert a straw and blow the rocket up into the air. Do not push the straw very hard into the rocket. You want it to be loosely placed on top. Then when you blow, give it one fast and hard blow to make it fly high!

Try blowing it at different angles and at a different trajectory to see if you can get it to fly higher or farther. The wind and air resistance will make a difference here, too.

The Science Behind It:

Add a learning component to it, too! Talk about physics and the force of air. When you blow into the straw, the big puff of air gets stopped at the top and pushes back down. The force pushing it back down causes the rocket to fly! This is Newton’s third law of motion- action and reaction!

This is also a lesson on gravity, as the rocket will always land!

This is a great STEM activity. Test a few variables, like adding a paper clip for weight, trying a wide straw instead of a skinny one, changing the angle of the launch, etc. Get out a measuring tape to see which one will fly farther.

 

Idea taken from TechBesideMe

A lot of different surface formations and patterns are found in nature.

What does moss look like when you enlarge it?

Let the child search and explore different natural materials and look through the loupe on the details. A digital microscope can be used to examine, videotape and take pictures, and magnifications can be viewed on a tablet.

Later, the images can be discussed and possibly draw off with the image as a model.

You need:

• A stack of books, 4-6 inches tall
• A sturdy ruler (or another long, fast, flat object)
• A round, heavy object like an orange, paper weight, or ball

Make an inclined plane

1. Prop the ruler up on the books so that one end rests on the top of the books and the other on the ground.
2. Ask your child to use two fingers to pinch the object and lift it to the top of the stack of books.
3. Ask your child to use two fingers to roll or slide the object up the inclined plane.

Is it easier or more difficult to lift the object than to roll it up the ramp?

It requires less force over a longer distance to roll the object up the ramp, but some kids might say that it’s easier to lift the object. Ask them if their answer would change if the object were very heavy and the height to which they were lifting it was very high.

You need:

• En smörkniv eller en gaffel (välj ett verktyg som du är trygg med att barnen kan hantera
• Bröd, lera, eller ett äpple (något som barnen kan dela)

See How a Wedge Works

1. With your child, try splitting or cutting the object in half without using the wedge.
2. Identify which part of the utensil is the wedge.
3. Use the wedge to split or cut the object in half.

Were you able to split or cut the object without the wedge? Was it harder to do? Why? Why would you use different wedges for different tasks? Would you use a fork to cut something and a knife to pick up something to eat? Why or why not?

You need

• A sturdy ruler (or another long, fast, flat object)
• A pencil
• A pile of books

Make a Lever

1. Ask your child to use both hands to lift a stack of books up two inches.
2. Ask if they could lift the books with just two fingers.
3. Slide about two inches of the ruler under the stack of books.
4. Slide a pencil perpendicular to and under the ruler, close to the stack of books but not under it.
5. Hold the pencil in place and ask your child to push down on the ruler with two hands, then with two fingers, and then with one finger.

How many hands or fingers does your child need to lift the stack of books when using the ruler and pencil as a lever?

Does it feel easier or harder to lift the stack of books when using the ruler as a lever instead of lifting them straight up?

Warm up

1) Mirror game

• Two students, forming a pair, stand opposite each other. One moves slowly and the other follows its movements in reverse. The roles can be changed without pause, so that the movements are kept as smooth as possible.
• Try to make faster and faster role changes, after which it will be possible to find a common flow mode, where neither the student controls or follows, but where the movement is created together.
• Calm music (with a slow tempo!) in the background can be helpful.

2) Trio formations

• Try different ways to make touch contact with each other: for example, you can shake hands, keep one hand on your friend’s forehead, or hold your knees, foreheads or fingertips together.
• Try out the different ways you can create touch contact in groups of three. Which formation is your favorite? Show it to the rest of the class, too.
• Discuss together the trio formations created by the different groups. What characteristics did they have (small-large, down-up, feet-hands-hips-nose tips, etc., number of points of contact).
• Do you notice that quite a few of the formations are symmetrical, even though there was no mention of symmetry in the job description?

TASK

1) Rotational symmetry

• Divide into groups of six people (4-8 people also work if needed). Start by sitting or standing opposite each other in a circle and holding hands. What kind of symmetrical shapes can you create with the group? Try creating different shapes. Everyone in the group can take turns coming up with a position for others to follow, so that the rotational symmetry is preserved.
• What are your favorite shapes? How can you as a group move when you switch between shapes? What mathematical shapes can you see in your formations?
• Calm music in the background can be helpful. In this task, it’s best to use music that lacks a clear rhythm or melody.

2) Symmetry dance

• Keep the same group division and create a dance series of your favorite forms. What order should the shapes be in, and how should the group move? Memorize the order that you have agreed on. Also discuss how the dance begins and ends. Practice the symmetry dance a few times.
• After that, all groups will perform their dances in front of the rest of the class. The dances can also be recorded on video. Ideally, the videos should be recorded straight or slightly obliquely from above.
• Calm music in the background can be helpful. In this task, it’s best to use music that lacks a clear rhythm or melody.

ENDING

• Look at pictures of snowflakes. Are they similar to the dances you just created?
• Watch the videos of your dances. What are the different elements that can be found in the dances? What are the similarities and differences between them?
• If the dances were created in groups with different numbers of students, you can also discuss whether there were differences between the dances.

You can continue to create more rotational symmetries by drawing mandalas or mirror images (one student draws the first part and the second should continue the image so that it is symmetrical) or create symmetrical images in the sand on a game board.

 

Idea taken from Lumatikka’s Math in Motion

Supplies

• Shallow dish (we used a pie plate)
• Small dish (just big enough to hold some dish soap)
• Q-Tip cotton swab
• Milk (try a variety of different fat content milks and creams to see how it affects your reactions)
• Dish Soap (we used Dawn)
• Food Colouring (ensure it is liquid food colouring, gel food coloring will not work)

Directions

Fill your dish with milk until is it about 1 – 2 cm deep.

Add some dish soap to your small dish and set it to the side.

Next add drops of food colouring around the plate. We used a variety of blues, a purple and a drop of yellow (to make stars and make it more like pictures of nebulas we have seen). We find it best to do this in random circle like patterns around the centre point.

Now it’s time for the big reaction!

Dip the Q-Tip into the dish soap. Then place it into the centre of the dish and watch the reaction! You can remove the Q-Tip after a couple of seconds so you can enjoy the explosions of colours.

As the reaction continues you can add more dish soap or more food colouring.

Which Kinds of Milk are Perfect?

As we learned with our previous Magic Milk study, the answer to this question depends on the reaction you want to see. At first we tried this experiment with 2% milk, but the reaction was very rapid and didn’t last as long. So the second time we added a bit of cream. We didn’t want to only use cream because we knew that would result in fractals and we wouldn’t get the spread of colour we were looking for to create our Galaxy inspired look. Adding just a bit of cream was perfect and gave us some really cool colour spreads. Whole milk gave a similar result.

Ready to learn more about the science behind Magic Milk and how the fat content of milk affects the results? Let’s dig in!

The Science Behind a Milk and Dish Soap Reaction

With our Magic Milk Science Fair Project we were able to study the effect fat content had on the movement of colour when a drop of dish soap is added. Keep in mind that milk is made up of minerals, proteins and fats. Proteins and fats are susceptible to changes, as we see in this reaction.

Surface Tension

Liquids have something called surface tension. Water, milk, and cream are made up of molecules that have positive and negative charges on their surface. Just like magnets these charges allow them to attract and repel other molecules. When milk or cream is by itself, it’s molecules are surrounded by the same type of molecules, creating a nicely balanced push and pull. The exception is the top which is exposed to air which pushes down on the liquid, creating surface tension on the top of the liquid. This surface tension of the milk affects our explosion of color.

Surfactant

There is a substance that affects a liquid’s surface tension, it’s called a surfactant. Dish soap is mostly comprised of surfactants. It has a hydrophilic part that is attracted to the water and a hydrophobic part that wants to interact with the fat molecules and repels water.

The pushing and pulling of the fat and water molecules in the milk separates them, resulting in a decrease of the surface tension.

Impact of Ratios

We see a big difference between our various fat content milks due to the different ratios of fat to water in the liquids. The higher fat content milk is much thicker. We can see this before adding the dish soap if we just look at the food colouring drops. The food colouring spreads significantly in 2%, spreads a little in 18% and doesn’t move at all in 33%.

This means, in our 33% cream, there is less water for the hydrophilic part to attract, and way too much fat for the hydrophobic part to ineract with. The surfactant (dish soap), has very limited effect on the surface tension, which remains quite a viscous, stable liquid. This leads to the fractal style, very limited spread of colour we see in the high fat milk.

In the 2% milk we have lots of water and some fat, allowing the surface tension to be affected easily. This results in a dramatic dance of color but it doesn’t last as long.

 

The idea is taken from SteamPoweredFamily.com

LEGO SYMMETRY

Try this fun symmetry challenge! Set up half a baseplate with an abstract image and have your kiddo complete it using the principles of symmetry!

LEGO Parachute

The mini-figs get to have all the fun! The challenge is to build a parachute from simple supplies that will see them safely land. Can you do it?

LEGO Balloon Car

Build a balloon powered car that really goes! Race your car and see how far to can travel.

LEGO Catapult

Build an awesome LEGO catapult using basic bricks for an easy STEM and physics activity. This fun homemade catapult just about everyone will want to make!

LEGO Marble Maze

Build your own LEGO marble maze. Can you make it all the way through the maze from one end to the other?

All ideas taken from the LittleBinsForLittleHands.com blog.

 

 

If you are working with pattern blocks have I found a good material for training copying patterns and awaraness of the different shapes and colours.

It is a free resource from pre-kpages.com where you also can find a lot of more interesting material.

Patterns block (PDF, 2MB)

For our STEM project, we wanted to try building all three types of the Three Little Pigs’ houses. Their goal was to make the house that can stand up best to mom’s “wolf blowing”. But you could also pull out a hair dryer for blowing.

Supplies needed for this project:

Straws, popsicle sticks, wooden blocks, string, masking tape, and rubber bands.

STRAW HOUSES:

For the first part of our Three Little Pigs STEM project, we made the straw houses. We made straw houses out of plastic straws. You could do this with paper or plastic straws~ whichever you prefer.  I started by just giving them string and rubber bands and straws. My son had no trouble with this, but my girls begged for tape, so we added that into the supplies.

STICK HOUSES:

Next, we made our stick houses.  These we did out of popsicle sticks and masking tape. IF you want to make it harder on them, make them collect sticks and tie them together with twine.

BRICK HOUSES:

We did our brick houses out of wooden blocks. Another fun option would be LEGO Bricks. This was the quickest and the easiest house to build. We thought that was funny because in the story of the Three Little Pigs, it’s the opposite.

The Results of Our Three Little Pigs STEM Project

The straw houses were the easiest to blow.  The stick houses were second. Some of them did not even move!  The bricks houses were not moveable, just like the story. However, the length of time building them was the opposite. It took my kids a lot longer to build the straw houses than any of the others.

Three Little Pigs STEM Project for Kids – Teach Beside Me