SUPER SCIENCE CAMP - Day 1

Each summer I host a science camp at my school for Kindergarten - Second Grade students.  Each day we focus on a different topic.  We do approximately 4 experiments daily and record results in our Super Science Journal.

DAY 1 - WONDERFUL WATER

 LAVA LAMPS

We discovered that oil is lighter than water and when you add a seltzer tablet piece, it sinks to the bottom.  When the tablet piece begins to dissolve it creates a gas.  As the gas bubbles rise, they take some of the colored water with them.  When the blob of water reaches the top, the gas escapes and down goes the water.

 

SHIP SHAPE

The students designed a boat using a piece of foil.  Then they tested the buoyancy of their boat by adding frog counters to see how much it will hold before the boat sinks.

 TRAVELING WATER

We made water travel to the cup by using a string.  We learned that adhesion keeps the water stuck to the string and cohesion keeps the water stuck to itself.  Together these forces keep the water flowing in a stream traveling down the string and to the cup.

  MUSICAL WATER

We learned that vibrations produce sounds.  We added different amounts of water to six glasses, then hit the glasses with a wooden spoon to cause the glass to vibrate.  When the glass vibrates it produces a sound.  The amount of water in the glass determines how much the glass will vibrate, causing the high and low sounds.

 

CHASE THE PEPPER

We discovered that soap weakens the water's surface tension and the pepper gets pulled to where the water's surface tension is stronger.