Best suited for ages 5 to 10
- Build a windmill
- Mystery phrase
- Make invisible ink
- Growing sugar crystals
- What's happening
- Natural dyes
- Germs away
Build a windmill
Natural Resources Canada
A fan uses electricity to produce wind, but a wind turbine uses the wind to produce electricity. As long as the wind continues to blow, wind energy can be produced.
Materials
- 20-centimetre square of paper
- Plasticine
- sharp pencils, rulers and scissors
- paper fasteners
- beads (with centre holes wide enough to slide onto the paper fastener)
- drinking straws
Generate your own wind power!
It's easy. Just follow these steps:
- Fold your paper in half diagonally. Press along the crease. Unfold it. Fold itacross the other diagonal and press along the crease. Flatten it out again.
- From the centre where the creases meet, measure 4 centimetres (cm) alongeach crease line and make a dot with your pencil. Cut from the outside corneralong the crease to the dot. Don't cut all the way to the middle.
- Roll some plasticine into a ball. Place it under the centre spot of your paper.Use a sharp pencil to make a small hole in the centre of your paper. Using theplasticine again, make a hole on the left side of each corner so you have fivesmall holes.
- Fold each corner toward the centre so the holes line up with the hole in themiddle. Push a paper fastener through all five holes.
- Thread a bead onto the back of the paper fastener. This will make it spin better.
- Measure down 2 cm from the top of your straw. Make a small hole through bothsides of the straw with a sharp pencil.
- Push the paper fastener through the holes and fold the ends back to hold yourwindmill together.
Mystery phrase
Natural Resources Canada
Everywhere the sun shines, there is solar energy. We take advantage of this energy in simple ways - by opening the curtains in winter to help heat the air or by filling our pool before we want to swim so the water has a chance to warm up.
Scientists rely on all their creative powers to come up with ways to capture and use the sun's power.
Now it's your turn to solve a mystery! Use the following table - each symbol represents two letters. Use the following codes to find the mystery phrase.
^ @ : ! % % ! % % & : ? ^ ^ % % %
# : % ! ! ! ! $ % % ! %< ! @ : %
Legend
! = A N
@ = B O
# = C P
$ = D Q
% = E R
^ = F S
& = G T
0 = H U
? = I V
< = J W
> = K X
: = L Y
[ = M Z
Make invisible ink
National Research Council Canada
Invisible ink is used to write messages that are undetectableto the naked eye. Discover your inner "secret agent" by creating and revealing your own hidden messages in this fun and simple chemistry experiment.
Materials
- Baking soda
- Water
- Bowl
- Spoon
- Toothpick, cotton swab, paintbrush or other tool for writing
- White paper
- Purple grape juice
Instructions
- Add equal parts baking soda and water to bowl; stir with spoon. Make sure thebaking soda dissolves well so as not to be too powdery.
- Dip toothpick, cotton swab or other writing tool into the "ink"; write a messageon the paper.
- Allow the ink to dry completely until it is invisible.
- Paint over the paper with purple grape juice to reveal your message.
What just happened?
This is a classic example of an acid-base chemical reaction. The acid in the grape juice is neutralized by the baking soda (the base), producing a colour change on the paper to reveal your message.
Growing sugar crystals
National Research Council Canada
Crystals form in different manners. Snow crystals grow directly from moist air - i.e. from water vapour. Growing other crystals from liquid solutions is easy to do with your children or students.
Materials
- 250 ml Distilled water (with no impurities)
- 375 - 500 ml White, granulated sugar
- 1 Paper clip
- 1 P opsicle stick
- String
- 1 Tall, thin glass jar
- Small saucepan
- Food colouring (optional)
Instructions
- Pour the water into a saucepan and carefully bring to a boil. Remove it from thestove.
- Gradually stir the sugar into the hot water, a spoonful at a time, stirring aftereach spoonful to dissolve. Keep adding sugar to hot water until no more willdissolve (you have made a "supersaturated" solution).
- Pour your solution into the tall, thin jar.
- Cut a piece of string that is about two mm shorter than the height of the jar. Tieone end to the centre of the Popsicle stick and attach a paper clip to the otherend.
- Rub a few grains of sugar along the string.
- Slowly lower the string into the solution, making sure that the paper clip does not touch the bottom of the jar. Rest the popsicle stick across the rim of the jar.
- Let the solution cool and allow it to rest for about five days.
What happens?
Sugar crystals should start to grow along the string after several days. The grains of sugar on the string act as the seeds on which crystals dissolved in the water are deposited. The longer the solution remains undisturbed, the larger the crystals grow. If you add food colouring when you prepare the solution, then the sugar crystals will be lightly coloured.
What's happening
Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada
First Nations people were acutely aware that nature's life cycles must adjust to many variables. In this activity, students will have an opportunity to observe changes in nature by examining a portion of their playground. It will allow students to draw conclusions about the seasonal change in a habitat over a period of time.
The following materials will be needed:
- camera
- fencing/rope
- waterproof sign (laminated cardboard or wood and paint)
- rain gauge
Preparation:
Get permission from the school to fence off a small grassy or wooded area in the playground (approximately 10 square metres) for an entire school year. This may be done by the students. Assist the children in preparing a sign that says "PLEASE DO NOT DISTURB. SCIENTIFIC EXPERIMENT IN PROGRESS. DO NOT WATER, MOW OR FERTILIZE THIS AREA."
Method:
Designate a day and time each week to collect data. Depending on how sophisticated you wish to make the activity, students may record the following:
- a photograph of the plot, taken from the same place. Date each picture, so that changes can beseen over time.
- temperature and other weather conditions
- amount of water in the rain gauge. This may be done after every rain or snow instead of once aweek
- number and kinds of plants and insects in the plot
You might also have the children draw a weekly journal entry. Each drawing should include observations on plant growth, colour changes, and insect and animal activity. At the end of the year, the children can make a display of their charts and photographs to share with other people.
Natural dyes
Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada
Colours are significant to many First Nations. For example, red, black, yellow and white are the colours of the Medicine Wheel, a vital teaching tool among many First Nations. Many First Nations decorate their clothing, hunting implements and other objects with natural colours through embroidery using dyed moose or caribou hair, beads made from coloured shells or dyed porcupine quills.
Purpose:
This activity will help students understand how some colours are extracted from nature to be used as dyes.
With the following materials, students can create natural dyes in the classroom:
- Spinach or moss - green
- Sunflowers or onion skins - yellow
- Beets and wild berries* - red, purple, blue
*Wild berries are a good source of colour. Ask the students to bring in a variety of berries suchas strawberries, blueberries, cranberries, salmonberries, raspberries, gooseberries, blackberries, thimbleberries, huckleberries, and red and black currants. After pressing the berries, have the students compare the different reds, purples and blues extracted from the various berries.
Method:
Ask students to bring these items to class. Have them soak the items in water and then press them to produce coloured dyes to use in their artwork. Use the resulting dyes to paint on rocks or paper.
Extension:
Show students pictures or illustrations of First Nations traditional clothing. Many pieces of clothing are decorated extensively with brightly coloured beads and moose hair embroidery. Ask students why they think traditional First Nations clothing is decorated with colours. Ask students if the clothes they wear - running shoes, caps, sport jackets and other apparel - are decorated in any way with bright colours.Ask students the importance of these colours to the decorations.
Germs away
Public Health Agency of Canada
Infectious diseases account for millions of lost school days each year. It's not surprising when you think about it because school is all about sharing: desks, books, pens, bathrooms, doorknobs, water fountains, computers and...germs. From colds...to the flu...to skin infections. Students share close contact with other students and teachers all day, every day. Students and staff can bring illnesses home with them and can unknowingly infect family members.
Clean hands are critical. One of the most common ways people catch colds is by rubbing their nose or eyes after touching someone or something that is contaminated with the cold or rhinovirus virus.
Here are some great tips to keep the germs away!
- Cover your mouth and nose with a tissue when you cough or sneeze.
- Cough or sneeze into your upper sleeve, not your hands.
- Put your used tissue into the wastebasket.
We've shown you HOW to cover a cough or sneeze. But should you cover your cough? Let's do an experiment to find out WHY!
What you will need:
- Three hula-hoops
- Two round balloons
- 100 pieces of confetti split into two piles of 50 pieces (idea: use a hole puncher)
- One tack
- One piece of 8" X 11" paper
- One broom and dustpan
What to do:
- Lay the three hula-hoops end to end to end to make a line.
- Fill each deflated balloon with 50 pieces of confetti.
- Blow up each balloon and tie with a knot.
- Have someone stand at the outside edge of the first hula-hoop with one filledballoon in hand.
- Pop the balloon with the tack.
- Count the number of confetti pieces that land in each of the 3 hula-hoops andrecord them on the chart below under balloon #1.
- Sweep up the confetti.
- Repeat numbers 1 through 4.
- Have someone hold the piece of paper in front of the second filled balloon sothe paper is between the balloon and the hula hoops
- Pop the balloon with the tack.
- Count the number of confetti pieces that land in each of the 3 hula-hoops and mark it down in the chart below under balloon #2.
- Sweep up the confetti.
Balloon #1
No paper used
- Number of confetti pieces in hula-hoop #1:
- Number of confetti pieces in hula-hoop #2:
- Number of confetti pieces in hula-hoop #3:
Balloon #2
Paper used
- Number of confetti pieces in hula-hoop #1:
- Number of confetti pieces in hula-hoop #2:
- Number of confetti pieces in hula-hoop #3:
What does it mean?
Imagine each piece of confetti is a germ. See how easily it spreads? Imagine the piece of paper is a tissue, or your sleeve. How did the "germs" spread differently?
What other ways can you reduce the spread of...GERMS?