Material

• 2 paper cups
• Pin or pin
• about 1.5m of string
• 2 paper clips

Method

Use a pin to make a hole in the bottom of each mug.

Pull the string through the holes through both cups. Make sure the bottoms of the cups are facing each other.

Tie a paper clip at each end of the string

Pull the string so hard with your friend that the paper clips hit the bottom of the mugs.

Take turns talking into the mug and listening by placing the mug over your ear.

Why

The sound travels through the air in waves. When you speak, the mug picks up sound waves, after which they move the string along with your friend’s mug.

This can also be done when several mugs are connected by string. Make another landline phone out of two mugs and tie the phones together to get a landline phone for four.

 

Supplies

• Bowl and spoon
• 200 mL warm water
• 5 Tbsp corn syrup (for thickness)
• Two tablespoons sugar (for crystallization)
• 5 Tbsp dish soap (for bubble formation)
• One straw
• One water or pop bottle
• modeling clay or playdough
• A day that is cold with no wind

How to Make Frozen Bubbles

For best bubble crystallization it needs to be at least -10C outside. We did this at -35C to -45C. The most important part is that there needs to be no wind.

Making the Special Frozen Bubble Juice Recipe

• Start by making the bubble juice in a container with a lid. Add the warm water first. We used tap water as warm as it would come out of the tap. Then stir in the corn syrup until the water is clear.
• Next add the sugar and stir until completely dissolved.
• Finally, add the dish soap and stir until combined. Do not get too enthusiastic about stirring at this stage or you will create a lot of bubbles. Stir enough to just combine the soap with the solution.
• This is why we leave the dish soap to last. The sugar and corn syrup require quite a bit of stirring to dissolve. We do not want to create bubbles in our solution now, we want to save them for later!
• Place a lid on the container and set it in the freezer or outside for about 30 minutes to chill the mixture. We do not want it to freeze! Just chill.

Making the Bubble Blaster

• While the juice is chilling, we need to make a special bubble blaster! For this you will need a water or pop bottle (500mL is a suitable size). Empty and dry the bottle.
• Take the cap and drill a hole in the cap that is just big enough to fit your straw. This step should be done only by a competent adult!
• Place the straw through the hole in the cap and secure it using modeling clay to create an airtight seal.
• If you do not have modeling clay (we prefer it because it stays pliable even in the cold and maintained the seal), you can try play dough or even a glue gun. The goal is to secure the straw and create a seal.

Freezing Bubbles

Now it is time to bundle up and head outside. Find a nice place, preferably with some fresh snow.

Using the bubble blaster, dip the end of the straw into the bubble juice, then squeeze the bottle to “blow” and create your bubble. Set the bubble on the snow and watch it crystallize. You can also drop the bubbles and watch them freeze but when they land, they are more likely to break.

Tricks to Make the Bubbles Freeze Without Breaking

Make sure your bubble juice is at least one inch deep. This allows the inside of the straw to be coated nice and high inside allowing you to create some good-sized bubbles.

The trick to making the bubbles freeze without breaking is to get them off the straw before they start to crystallize and freeze. So, blow the bubble, then release the bottle so the bubble detaches before it starts to freeze. The time you have will vary based on the temperature.

Try and set the bubble down gently. It is fun to watch them fall, but the force of the air can cause the frozen bubble to break and landing on the ground usually breaks the bubbles if falling does not do it. For best results blow the bubble onto some snow.

Make sure there is no breeze at all. This is critical. Find a sheltered spot and make sure the kids are not blowing or creating any breeze. This will cause the bubbles to shatter.

Have a nice soft-landing spot for the bubbles. We found a railing with a fresh layer of snow was perfect!

Building Frozen Bubble Towers

If you do everything right you can turn this into a fun challenge to see who can build the biggest frozen bubble tower, or who can make the longest line of bubbles, or ten bubbles in a row. Lots of opportunities for some fun, frozen competition!

The Science Behind Freezing Bubbles

After years of failures trying to get bubbles to freeze, I ended up learning a LOT about how to make this happen successfully.

First, temperature is your friend and your enemy. You need to keep everything cold and that is why we needed to create our bubble blaster. The air in our lungs is too warm and the difference in temperature between the air outside and the air we blow out of our lungs is too great and leads to breaking. Remember warm air expands! So, when you blow into the bubble juice, what is that warm air going to do? Expand and break your bubble!

That is also why we want to chill our bubble juice, to bring it closer to the outside temperature.

You want nice strong bubbles to really make this experiment work. To freeze up nice and solid (some of our bubbles are still there days later!), you need a thick bubble juice. The corn syrup provides that nice thickness we need in our juice to make a strong bubble. After making our bubbles if we gently knocked them free, they would roll across the ground like marbles!

Those gorgeous crystal formations you see on the bubbles is the process of crystallization. This is caused by the freezing process but is helped along by the sugar. This gives us some gorgeous frozen bubbles.

Of course, the final ingredient is dish soap which helps create the bubbles!

 

Idea taken from STEAMpoweredFamily

If you want tips how to document it all look at: ”How to Shoot Frozen Soap Bubbles”

Play with the Christmas lights.

Material

• candles
• matches
• pitcher,
• vinegar
• bicarbonate (baking soda)

Instructions

• Step 1: Light the candle. Pour a few decilitres of vinegar into the jug.
• Step 2: Add a few teaspoons of baking soda and stir.
• Step 3: Gently tilt the jug towards the candle, without letting the liquid out. Do you manage to extinguish the candle?

What happened?

When you add the soda to the vinegar, a chemical reaction happens. The reaction forms water and carbon dioxide gas. The gas is heavier than air and sinks downwards. We can’t see the gas, which makes it look magical. When you tilt the jug towards the light, some of the gas comes out, because the gas is heavier than air it pushes the air down and smothers the flame. Carbon dioxide gas is a product of combustion, therefore carbon dioxide gas does not burn, but manages to extinguish the candle. Other gases, like oxygen, have a property of keeping the fire alive. For example, when you blow on a fire, it burns better because you add oxygen to the fire.

Air contains 21% oxygen and the air we breathe out contains 16% oxygen.

Idea from Heureka Experimentfabrik.

Step-1: Prepare some decorative stuff for your Rocket

Construct wings, a rocket or what you think is suitable out of construction paper to decorate the rocket with

Step-2: Preparing Rocket

We need a strong rocket, so I am going to layer it up with another cup.

Just cut the edge of the cup and insert it in another cup to make two layers.

Take a paper cup and put two holes by inserting a needle one point of the cups side to the opposite side of the cup. Such that the two holes remain quite opposite to each other.

Make sure you are keeping these holes near the brim of the paper cup mouth area. Repeat the same process of making hole on the other side of the cup. That means you are making four holes on the four sides of the paper cup.

Step-3: Inserting Bands

Pick two rubber bands and cut them at one point. Then, insert the line of rubber band into any two holes in opposite sides of the cup and tie its end part to keep a knot on both ends. Such that the inserted band will not slip out of the holes.

Repeat the same with the other line of band and keep tight knots into the other set of holes around the cup. Finally, after tying bands to the holes of the cup, you can see plus shape at the open side of paper cup mouth brim.

Step-4: Glue the Decorative Stuff

It is time to decorate our rocket launcher! Keep the paper cup which is referring to the rocket part, upside down.

Step-6: Flying Paper Cup Rocket

In this step, pick another paper cup and place it in reverse position such that the paper cup is in upside position. We are going to use this inverse paper cup as a base part or launcher for your space rocket.

Now place your rocket on top of the base cup but in upside down position. Make sure the base is also in inverse position. Then, give a gentle pressure just with the bear hands and push the rocket towards the base. After pushing it over the base part, release the pressure on the rocket part.

Science behind How Paper Cup Rocket Fly

What Newton’s Third Law of Motion says? It says; “every action has an equal and opposite reaction”. Satisfying the newton’s third law, the rocket part when you push downwards over the base part and release, it flies into the air. That means the amount of pressure you give on the rocket makes it fly with the same amount of energy and force upwards after releasing the pressure.

Idea taken from the GoScienceGirls-blog

Each student selects an animal and searches for information about it to compile an animal card:

Which animal?
Height:
Mass:
Tail length:
Life span:
Speed:
Color:
Conservation status:

Examine together the different characteristics of the animals by standing in a line or in a queue in order of size according to a certain characteristic.

Survey questions

• Height: Which of the animals is the tallest? Or the lowest?
• Lifespan: Which of the animals can live the longest? What is the middle value among the life expectancies (so-called median)?
• Speed: Which of the animals is the fastest? Or the slowest? What is the most common speed among animals (so-called typical value)?
• Conservation status: What is the most common conservation status?

Extra

Carry out additional research based on frequencies:
categorise the animals according to their lifespan into categories 1-5 years, 6-10 years, 11-15 years, etc.
Examine the frequencies in the different categories.

Suggestion

1. Produce pieces of paper in different colors on which you write the central concepts, such as median, type value, minimum value and maximum value. Hand out the notes next to the various survey questions to the right people to clarify the correct answer.
2. You can also take pictures of the different trails you create, so that the examples can be visually examined afterwards as well.

 

Idea from Lumatikka’s material.

• Create a circle on the floor and divide it in half into two parts – A and B. Ten children are allowed to move freely within the circle to the beat of the music. When the music is turned off, check how many children are on the A side and how many are on the B side. That way you get two ten buddies!
• Ten children stand on the A side of the circle. The teacher gives a number between 0 and 10. The children move so that x children go to the B-side. The children then count how many children were left on the A side. The result is a pair of ten buddies.

Idea from Lumatikka’s material.

• Half of the pupils stand in a line in the yard or in the gymnasium and create a series of different body positions.
• The other half of the students continue the line by creating a new, similar series.
• The task can be made more difficult by asking about the length of the series or by asking participants to create a series that has a certain length.

Idea from Lumatikka’s material.

Are you keeping your balance?

Step 1: Stand with your side against the wall, with one shoulder and your foot close to the wall.

Step 2: Now try to lift the other foot, i.e. the one that is not close to the wall.

What happened?

It is impossible to lift the foot without falling. The foot that is close to the wall cannot have all the force and mass on it without changing position. You will notice this if you stand freely and lift one leg. Your centre of gravity changes. When you stand against the wall and try to shift your centre of gravity, the wall won’t let you do it. It is in the way of a change of centre of gravity that makes you stand a little crooked.

Your centre of gravity is determined by the shape of your body and by its mass. When standing upright, a person’s centre of gravity is somewhere in the middle of the stomach. You can maintain your balance with all your body parts as well as your arms and legs, by moving them. You need a support surface, such as your feet when standing upright (or on your hands if you are standing on your hands), to keep your balance. The vertical projection of the centre of gravity (i.e. the place above which the centre of gravity is located) should be inside the support surface in order to keep your balance (or somewhere between the support surfaces if there are several of them, e.g. when standing on two legs).

Idea from Heurekas Experimentfabrik

6 ways to complete an in-depth puddle investigation-

1. How deep is the puddle?

• March right in and measure with your feet/legs/boots
• Use a nature measuring stick (learn how to easily make your own)
• Use conventional measurement tools like rulers, metric sticks
• Record your results

2. How big is the puddle?

• Use a ruler, yard stick or metric stick to measure the length of your puddle
• Use a long string to form an outline of the puddle and then measure it to find the circumference of your puddle
• Record you results.
  It is fun to track the differences in the puddle stats over time so keep a record of daily or hourly changes.

3. What shape is the puddle?

• If your puddle is on a hard surface like a sidewalk or driveway you can draw around the puddle with chalk, but if your puddle is in dirt or mud, use a stick to draw around the shape of the puddle
• Look at your puddle from above, from beside and from inside the puddle
• Draw the shape of your puddle in your journal
• Use words to describe your puddle’s shape
  Keep checking & drawing your puddle shape. Does the shape change over time? What does it look like when water is gone? Will a puddle form here again?

4. Who uses the puddle?

• Predict what critters might use your puddle
• What would they use the puddle for? (drinking, bathing, splashing fun?)
• Keep an observation guide to record which critters were in or near the puddle and how they were using the puddle

5. Does the puddle have a current?
   Make a boat from bark, nuts & other natural materials, create a foil boat or make one from recycled plastic

• Sail your boat in the puddle
• Can you get it to sail from one side of the puddle to the other?
• Observe the natural boat movements (without humans touching the sailboat)
• What forces make the boat move?

6. Problem Solving: How can you get water out of the puddle?
   Let learners brainstorm and figure out a way to get the water out of the puddle-

• Have some materials handy in case learners need it for their plan (sponges, cups, pipettes & a variety of materials for exploration)
• Rubber boots and stomping is a really fun way to get the water out!

Nature-based Stick Rulers

1. Find a nice straight stick (a straight stick is best for measuring)
2. Line up your stick next to your ruler and use clippers to cut the stick 12 inches long
3. Add lines at each of the inch (and if you would like half inch) marks with a permanent marker or by carving notches into it using a ruler as a guide

Get your child excited about measuring!

Take your child on a hike with their new ruler stick and let them stop and measure things along the way (build those math skills!). Perhaps even add some literacy to their hike by bringing a notebook and recording all their measurements.

Idéa taken from Puddle Scientist — Learning withOutdoors

1a) Own numberrythms

• Divide into groups. Each group is assigned a different number (3, 4, 5 or 6).
• The groups are tasked with planning their own clapping series based on their numbers. The group’s number indicates how many claps the series should consist of, but the claps may hit the thigh, abdomen, head, etc. in any order. The only rule is that the last clapping should be a regular clapping with your hands.
• The members of each group practice clapping through their series smoothly one after the other. For example, the members of group 5 should clap like this: 1-2-3-4-5-1-2-3-4-5-1-2-3-4-5, etc. Make sure that there is no break between fifth and first clap and that the clapping rhythm continues without interruption. Practice should be carried out until all groups know their clapping series by heart and can complete it without interruption.

1b) Ready-made rhythms (alternative arrangement)

• If the time reserved for the task is limited, you can simply skip the part where the groups come up with their own clapping series. Instead, ready-made series can be used.
• 3 pats: thigh – thigh – hands
• 5 pats: thigh – thigh – chest – ribcage – hands
• Students get to practice both series.
• The class is divided into two groups: one prepares to perform the series of three clapping, the other the series of five clapping.

2) Clap together

• Two groups are selected, for example groups 3 and 5. The groups must carry out their clapping series at the same time. Both groups should start clapping at the same time and stick to the same pace.
• What kind of rhythm is formed by the clapping of the groups? Does the last clapping of hands occur at the same time or at different times in different groups? It may be noted that the last clap often occur at different times, but sometimes they occur at the same time.
• After how many claps do the last claps with the hands occur again at the same time? The teacher can help and call out the first clapping (immediately after the first simultaneous clapping). Everyone counts together and concludes that the correct answer is 15, which is the lowest common multiple for the numbers 3 and 5.
• Try two other groups. What numbers do you come up with as the lowest common multiples for these two numbers? Which rhythm sounds the most fun? What happens if three or four groups clap at the same time?

3) Draw the rhythms

• Start by drawing 15 horizontal lines next to each other on the board. Ask group 3 to come up to the board and draw a tower above every third line. When they are finished, ask group 5 to draw a slightly taller tower above every fifth line.

• At which line do the towers first appear above the same line? (Group 5 can also draw their towers behind the towers of Group 3.)
• Try clapping the rhythms using the picture created on the board.
• Is it easier now?
• Draw out other rhythms in the same way.

 

The idea is taken from Lumatikka’s material.