Question and questions.. Some kids have this amazing knack to keep you on your toes.. It’s a good thing you say. It’s a great thing we say!! Encourage that curiosity even in the shy ones. My daughter has often asked, ‘Where does the sun go when it is dark?’, and while I started with a silly story when she was younger, it eventually evolved into a full blown explanation as she got older. To be honest, kids are inherently curious and always on the lookout — remember when you had you little one try to put a finger in the electric socket or wear your shoe? Cute!
We thought of gathering some of the most creative, fun, easy but less messy science experiments to help kids figure out the ‘stuff that happens around them’ – that too the DIY stuff. Check it out:
1. “Oobleck”
Things Required:
Medium-sized dish
Water (1 cup)
Cornstarch (1.5 cups)
Food coloring
Small- to medium-sized plastic bag
Spatula
Directions:
- Add a few drops of food color and water to a mixing bowl – Mix it well.
- Now add the cornstarch and thicken the mixture by stirring with the spatula.
- The mixture will look ready when it will settle on the surface but will still be runny; After you’re done with the oobleck, put it in a sealed bag to save it for later.
What kids will learn:
Oobleck is known as a “pressure-dependent substance,” or a substance whose properties are changed by pressure, not by temperature. In the event that you put a considerable amount of pressure on the mixture, or try to grab it, you’ll see that it feels hard. This happens mainly on account of the weight is driving the cornstarch particles together. But, the off chance that you move your hand gradually through the blend, you’ll see that it feels like water; that is on the grounds that moving gradually enables the particles to move far from each other.
Have fun with the Oobleck:
Simply take it out with your hands and have a ton of fun kneading it, hitting it, moving it up into a little ball, giving it a chance to trickle from your hands into the bowl, and trim it into different shapes.
- “Celery Osmosis”
Things Required:
2 celery stalks with leaves
Food coloring
2 clear glasses
Water
Directions:
Place the celery stalks in the glasses and add water and food colors to them. You can use different colors to make it look even more attractive. Also, do not forget to check in on their progress in an hour or so.
What kids will learn:
As per the United States Geological Survey , plants “drink” water through a procedure called “transpiration”. The water is ingested through their roots and carried through the plant’s bodies by method for their vessels, otherwise called “xylem.” (Xylem are the modest gaps in the base of the stalk.)
The plants ingest the supplements they require from the water as it moves along their xylem. Once the water makes it up to the highest points of the plants, it transforms into water vapor and vanishes through pores in the underside of the leaves, called “stomata.” Food shading particles are sufficiently little that they can go through the celery’s vessels with the water. That way, we can without much of a stretch watch transpiration in real life!
- “Eggs in Space”
Things Required:
Fresh (tap) water
Regular salt
Three large clear glasses (at least 16 oz)
1 raw egg, right out of the fridge, still in the shell
Food coloring (optional)
Directions:
- Make a solution of salt water by blending 2 tablespoons of salt into 8 ounces of water in a glass. Include a couple of drops of food colors. Now very carefully put the egg in the glass and notice that it skims. (On the off chance that it sinks, add more salt.)
- Fill another glass somewhat less than most of the way with regular water. Add a couple of drops of an alternate color – Move the egg from the salt water to the freshwater and watch it sink.
- Set the egg aside and gradually pour the freshwater over the salt water. Tilt the glass of salt water as you pour with the goal that the saltwater and freshwater water don’t mix.
- Gradually drop the egg into the glass and look as it falls through the layer of new water and stops over the salt water.
What kids will learn:
Now that you are seeing Density in action i.e. the thickness is the measure of matter (the science word for stuff) that you can pack into a specific measure of room, you will notice that the things that are denser than water sink; things that are less thick buoy. Adding salt to water makes it denser. The egg floats between the two layers in light of the fact that the egg is less thick than the salt water however more thick than the fresh water. Have you heard the conundrum, “Which measures more, a pound of quills or a pound of blocks?” They both measure the same: a pound! Yet, a pound of quills would consume up more room than a pound of blocks. That is on account of blocks are denser than quills.