Scintillating Science or Marvelous Math Days

Review of Crazy Comets

2010-01-12T21:53:00.003-05:00

We had a large group for Crazy Comets, over half of which were middle school aged. We started outside where we drew huge chalk comets and their orbits on the driveway. We discussed comet anatomy, the three types of tails, and orbit shapes.

We then went inside to make a comet. Each participant made their own personal comet out of dry ice, water, ammonia, and various other relevant materials. The participant in the photo is holding her comet in a plastic bag with her gloves on (for safety of course, dry ice is quite chilly). No comet is complete without a trip near the Sun (i.e. a hairdryer) so sublimation can occur and create the tail we humans tend to see best here on Earth. It was tricky to get the right conditions, but happily the person holding the comet near the Sun had the absolute best view of the comet tail.

I read a comet myth and sent folks home with a piece of comet art to complete (if they wish). We had great fun. Join us and you will too!

Review of Colors and Chromatography

2009-12-01T07:14:00.003-05:00

We had one guest join us for Colors and Chromatography. Here were the activities we accomplished:

Light Mixing: Into a dark room armed with 3 flashlights and 4 color gels went the kids to explore light mixing. They created cyan, magenta, and yellow. What did they start with you ask? The primary colors of light: red, green, and blue. They had a yellow gel also, but it surprised them by not mixing to make new colors the way they are used to from painting. That's because light mixes additively.

Marker Mixing: Using regular washable markers and recycled white paper, we mixed and played with red, yellow, and blue to create other colors. Using a standard "kid marker" set, it is pretty hard to get colors which are pure enough to mix well but we did it.

Colored Pencil Mixing: Do colored pencils work just as well as markers for color mixing? Not unless you press really hard and get solid color over the area. If you color as I normally do with colored pencils, there are still white spots within the colored area which prevent your eyes from accomplishing the trick of mixing the colors.

Light Separation: Using a prism, we split light into its various colors, looked at the colors from various objects, and examined various light sources. Kids drew what they saw while using the prism (the bending or refraction of light created by the glass material of the prism)

Marker Separation: We drew pretty pictures on coffee filters with lots of colors and then separated them back out. How you ask? Dip the bottom end of the coffee filter in water and let the water wick up through the artwork. The water will carry the colors along with it. However, each color goes at a different speed. So the colors which make up each marker line are separated out into the primary color components. Try it and you will see and understand better :-)

Review of Small Numbers

2009-12-01T06:48:00.007-05:00

We had a great group for learning about Small Numbers before Thanksgiving. We started off outside on chalk drawn number lines. We played with positive and negative numbers with our feet on the number line. We stretched and hopped our way to number combinations in a twister sort of fashion. Put your left foot on -4, put your right foot on 0, now in one big hop put your left foot on -1 and your right foot on +3. You get the idea.

Then we talked about ways to write numbers. I wrote a collection of numbers on the driveway and the kids told me when I was writing "new" numbers. They caught me at 10². Yep I wrote the number 100 in a silly way they told me once I explained the number. We kept going and we discussed 3x10⁴ and they began to see the simplicity of exponential notation.

With those two concepts, we can proceed to Small Numbers. We broke the driveway into sections 10 meters long. Each child or team then divided their section up 10 pieces. I had a little worksheet to go along with this activity where they wrote down how many deci-driveways they made (10¹) and how much of their total driveway section was in each deci-driveway (10^-1). Then we took one deci-driveway and broke it onto 10 pieces - centi-driveways. Do you see how I introduced measurement, ratios, and SI unit prefixes? We went one step further to milli-driveways and that was hard enough to mark in thick sidewalk chalk.

At this point we stepped inside to the microscope, Powers of Ten movie clip, and a number ordering activity. We have a microscope with a magnification of up to 400x and lots of prepared slides. I also made available a scale bar (aka clear ruler with mm markings) so they could really see how big the microscope made things look. Those mm markings are huge through the objective lense! Powers of Ten is a famous (in physics circles) film which takes a couple picnicking by the lake in Chicago and changes the field of view by a power of ten every 4 seconds or so. The distance covered go larger than galaxies and smaller than the nucleus of an atom. This film showed the kids things they can't see in everyday normal life. The last activity was to arrange a set of cards with the numbers in order. There were 5 sets and the numbers got progressively more challenging to order because they got smaller and were written in exponential notation (which is larger 3x10^-2 or 3x10^-3?).

Review of Blast Off!

2009-11-09T06:57:00.002-05:00

Strangely enough, the folks who registered in advance for Blast Off! did not decide to join us on this lovely warm day. We still had the Maryland Independent join us however, so you can read about Blast Off! right here in their article.

Review of Big Numbers, Big World

2009-09-28T08:50:00.004-04:00

A smaller group joined us for Big Numbers, Big World than for the inaugural Bubble Fun. Is it because the topic was math? Anyway, we were mostly indoors this time due to the wet ground. We used the homemade Montessori bead materials to review small numbers, the decimal system, and powers of ten.

We then moved on to the largest numbers participants knew. We wrote them down, counted the zeroes, and named the numbers. Exponential notation was introduced here - the exponent on the ten is just the number of zeroes! There were signs up around the room, one for each family of big numbers (millions, quadrillions, etc). On the signs were a number, how many zeroes it has, the number written in exponential notation, and the number family it belongs to. The bottom of the sign then gave at least four (4) "things" which were that large. Examples:

1
no zeroes
units
10**0 (this is the exponential notation)
1 moon and 1 sun above us
5 fingers on most human hands
You are probably wearing one pair of underwear!
$3 or $4 is the cost of a box of cereal

100, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000
Quintillion [Europe=trillion]
18 zeros
10**18
Almost a quintillion cells in the human body
5 x 10**18 kilograms is the mass of Earth’s atmosphere
We are 240 quintillion meters away from the center of the Milky Way
10 key strokes on a standard keyboard yields 6 x 10**19 permutations

Then we tried to count as high as we could. We took a sheet of paper prepared with little squares on it and colored in one square for each ten "things" the child had done. It they scratched their nose, ten times, that was one square colored in or outlined (hands got tired!). If a child jumped 10 times, another square. Their papers went home with them to continue filling in. How high can they go?

The video clip Powers of Ten was available for viewing, but the young ones who joined us for this program were more interested in moving their bodies outside than sitting, so another time ...

Review of Bubble Fun

2009-09-14T22:15:00.008-04:00

We had great fun at Bubble Fun, this fall's first science activity day. The nearly 30 attendees were checked in by my professional office staff (my 10 and 6 year old children).

Each person selected and labeled their straw, I went through and explained the six different stations which were set up. We captured bubbles on paper using paint-y bubble solution.

We blew bubbles in between two sheets of plastic and watched the movement, shapes, and other fun bubble properties. We created, mixed, and tested to make each person's best bubble solution. Recipes were posted to our board for all to see and try.

Every 30 minutes or so, I did one of the bubble related demonstrations with the help of my professional assistants. In the first demonstration, we burnt bubbles.

The second demonstration we froze bubbles using dry ice. After the frozen bubble demo, we continued to play with bubbles and dry ice until we were able to make bubbles that we could not see through. What you see in this glass bowl here is one of those way cool opaque bubbles filled with carbon dioxide gas.

Crazy Comets

2009-07-27T21:55:00.000-04:00

Date/Time: December 11, 2009 from 2 to 4 pm

Comets are cool. Really! Frozen actually. We are going to build a comet and experiment with it. We will also experience elliptical orbits and comet tails. While we rap about comets, you can make a durable comet to take home. Oh, and of course we need to discover comets in the sky. History of science, women in science, phase changes, how astronomers determine chemical compositions, trajectories, and solar wind can all be discussed today.

Small Numbers

2009-07-27T21:49:00.000-04:00

Date/Time: November 20, 2009 from 2 to 4 pm

We explored numbers on the largest scales, now we go to the teeny tiny realm. See the difference between micro and nano, experience exponential notation with negative exponents, and play with tiny numbers. A microscope will be used.

Colors and Chromatography

2009-07-27T21:07:00.000-04:00

Date/Time: November 13, 2009 from 2-4 pm

Colors are beautiful. Let's combine them, separate them, and study them. Did you know that light color mixtures work differently than paint color mixtures? How do you give color to things like fire and candy? Relevant topics include chromatography, refraction, electron excitation, electromagnetic radiation spectrum, and many other exciting areas.

Base 2 and Beyond

2009-07-27T21:04:00.000-04:00

Date/time: October 23, 2009 from 2-4 pm

We are going to think like a computer - in base 2! To think like a computer, you need to read right to left, tell the difference between base 2 numbers and "regular" (base 10) numbers, and learn how to count again (with our fingers!). You will probably want to know how to convert from computer brain (base 2) to human brain (base 10) and back so your life is easier. Exponents go along with working in base 2, so a simple introduction will be available to those who wish it. If you are ready to go further, you can move onto octal numbers (base 8).

Blast Off

2009-07-27T15:14:00.001-04:00

Date/Time: October 9, 2009 from 2-4 pm

Let's Rock! I mean Rock-et! Join a real Rocket Scientist to create and set off all sorts of different flying objects. From simple baking soda and vinegar pop rockets to more sophisticated match rockets and rockets which release spend fuel containers, we will have it all. Of course we will explore why these rockets work, measure how far the rockets go, make graphs, and have a blast!

Big Numbers, Big World

2009-07-27T15:00:00.001-04:00

Date/Time: September 25, 2009 from 2-4 pm

What comes after a million? How many zillions of friends do you have? How many stars are there in the universe? I want to be a trillionaire! Sound familiar?

Come play with big numbers. Learn the names of the number families, discover the simplicity of exponential notation, compare all the big numbers we can think of, and more!

Bubble Fun

2009-07-27T14:12:00.000-04:00

Date/time: September 4, 2009 from 2-4 pm

We are going to play with bubbles. The amazing world of bubbles can lead to learning about thin films, the color spectrum, refraction of light, density of air and other gasses, air pressure, surface tension, and more! We, of course, will blow and chase bubbles. Do you already know how to catch a bubble without breaking it (and why it works)? We will attempt to create bubbles out of various liquids and with variously shaped devices. Ever made a non-spherical bubble? Come try to! Last but not least, join us while we freeze bubbles and make bubbles that burn and explode.