|
|
|
|
|
| Feature Articles |
6/1/2009 |
 |
| Grow a Crop of Young Scientists This Summer |
| Written by: |
|
Carol McGarrahan |
|
Summer is the ideal time to grow juicy, ripe tomatoes, but it’s also the perfect season for a different kind of crop — a bountiful yield of young scientists eager to learn about everything from crocodiles to chemistry. With the great outdoors (and indoors) as a laboratory, science can be hands-on fun beyond the boundaries of lectures and dull experiments.
Without ever setting foot in a classroom, children can learn about chemistry, physics, biology, ecology, meteorology, geology and more. A few minutes mixing common substances in the kitchen can result in anything from quicksand-like goop to invisible ink. And a short trip to nearby parks and museums can lead to adventures such as a fossil expedition, a bug-bingo nature hike or a close encounter with an alligator.
On a recent day at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences in Raleigh, wide-eyed children touched a baby alligator and learned from Sunny Allen, the exhibit hall programmer, that they have stripes for camouflage.
Katey Ahmann, coordinator of exhibit hall programs, remembers the first time she touched an alligator. “When I see the kids in the program and see their faces when they touch an alligator for the first time, I can relate because it was really cool,” she adds. The museum has a rotation of 30 Meet the Animals programs and includes story time once each day related to the topic.
The Museum of Life and Science in Durham also offers a wide variety of highly interactive indoor and outdoor exhibits. In July, the museum will have a Dinosaur Day at its new Fossil Dig Site where children can collect their own fossils.
Science in the community
Many Triangle parks offer fantastic, and often free, programs to help young naturalists learn about the environment. At the Eno River State Park, for example, children can engage in water bug hunts or butterfly expeditions. Or grab a kit with structured activities such as bug-bingo and take a walk in the park at your own pace.
Edith Tatum, who has been birding for nearly 20 years, also leads bird watching and dragonfly hikes at the Eno for children ages 12 and older.
“A large part of our mission is to provide programming in the hopes that it will increase a stewardship ethic as well as educate the public,” says Christopher Ammons, a park ranger and coordinator for interpretation and education at the Eno.
Lake Crabtree County Park in Morrisville also offers family-friendly birding walks as well as several other educational programs for families and children of all ages. June’s lineup, for example, includes an insect program for ages 5 to 12. Insects also take center stage this month at Harris Lake County Park in New Hill, where programs focus on butterflies, moths, cicadas, katydids, crickets and fireflies.
Two June programs at Raleigh’s Blue Jay County Park encourage kids to play in the dirt while learning about soil and composting. Kids and parents can explore nature with hands-on sessions at Stevens Nature Center and Hemlock Bluffs in Cary, some even at night.
Or turn your sights to the sky with the Morehead Planetarium’s sky-watching sessions at Jordan Lake State Park. Morehead is also partnering with GlaxoSmithKline to offer a free science program for elementary and middle school students at 20 local libraries. Contact your library to see if the program is offered there and to pre-register.
Some private businesses, like Science Safari in Cary, also offer science programs at minimal fees. Owner Sean O’ Neal offers hands-on science and nature-oriented classes for up to 10 students ($11 per student). Topics such as Life in the Food Chain, Pets in a Jar, and Blow it Up pique children’s interest.
Kitchen cupboard science
When stifling summer heat calls for an indoor activity at home, look no farther than the kitchen cupboard for fun with a scientific bent. Many Web sites provide easy instructions for kids’ experiments (see resource information below for some top sites), but if you prefer a book, try one of Janice VanCleave’s, such as 202 Oozing, Bubbling, Dripping and Bouncing Experiments or the Science Explorer series published by Henry Holt.
Here are two simple science-based activities to get kids hooked:
Quicksand-Like Slime
Supplies
Cornstarch, Water
Instructions
1. Mix 1 cup cornstarch with cup water. Stir with your hands. It’s fun!
2. Add a few drops of food coloring (if desired).
3. Move your hands through the goop and let it slide through your fingers. Does it move slowly or quickly? When do you get stuck the most?
The Science (Physics and Chemistry)
The cornstarch and water mixture is a suspension, or a mixture of both a solid and a liquid. When you press down on the mixture with your hand, it is like stepping into the sand near the water at the beach. Your hand sinks into the cornstarch mixture as if it is disappearing into quicksand.
What is quicksand? Quicksand acts like both a solid and a liquid. On the surface it appears to be a solid mass of sand, but it is actually so saturated with water that it will disperse and engulf anything that puts pressure on it.
While real quicksand can be difficult to get out of, it doesn’t really suck people under according to a September 2005 article in the journal Nature. It’s like a trap because it liquefies and then collapses, but humans cannot be completely submerged because they are less dense than quicksand. If you happen to get caught, slowly wiggle your arms and legs.
Tornado in a Bottle
Supplies
Two empty 2-liter soda bottles
Duct tape
Or a “cyclone tube” found at Amazon.com and other retail stores
Stopwatch
Instructions
1. Fill one bottle full with water.
2. Fasten the cyclone tube or use duct tape to secure the empty bottle on top of the full bottle. If using tape, be sure the spouts are lined up to prevent leaks.
3. Turn the bottles over so the filled bottle is on top. Swirl the bottles rapidly in a circular motion. The water will begin to swirl into the bottom bottle.
The Science (Physics): Swirling the bottle creates a vortex, which is a spinning turbulent flow of fluid around a center. When the bottle is swirled, the water pushes against the bottle and leaves a space filled with air. The water then flows from one bottle to the other. This type of water movement is called a whirlpool, which is basically a tornado in the water. This experiment really should be called “Whirlpool in a Bottle.”
Backyard Science Adventures
Try these outdoor activities on a sunny day to kick off some scientific fun in your own yard. Both experiments are excerpted from www.exploratorium.edu.
Grow Your Own Crystals
Supplies
Black construction paper
Scissors
A pie pan, cake pan, or shallow bowl
Warm water
Epsom salt (near the health products in the grocery store)
A sunny day
Instructions
1. Cut the black paper so it will fit in the bottom of your pie pan.
2. Add 1 tablespoon of Epsom salt to 1/4 cup of warm water. Stir until the salt dissolves.
3. Pour the salty water onto the black paper in the pie pan.
4. Put the pie pan out into the sun. When the water evaporates, you'll see lots of crystal spikes on the black paper!
5. Check the crystals out with a magnifying glass or under a microscope
The Science (Chemistry)
The Epsom salt dissolves in the water. The black paper absorbs the heat of the sun, which causes the water to evaporate. The salt forms crystals shaped like long needles. If you tried this experiment with table salt instead of Epsom salt, you wouldn't get crystal spikes, because table salt and Epsom salt are chemically different, so they make different types of crystals.
Rainbows from Reflected Light
Supplies
A compact disc or CD
A piece of white paper
Sunshine
Instructions
1. Hold the CD in the sunshine. If it is cloudy outside, turn out the lights in a room and shine your flashlight at the CD.
2. Hold your piece of white paper so that the light reflecting off the CD shines onto the paper. The reflected light will make fabulous rainbow colors on your paper.
NOTE: Don’t reflect the light into your eyes. This can cause injury.
The Science (Physics): Like water drops in falling rain, the CD separates white light into all of the colors. The colors you see reflecting from a CD are interference colors, like the shifting colors on a soap bubble or an oil slick.
Light is made up of waves that reflect off of the CD and overlap and interfere with each other. Sometimes the waves are added together, making certain colors brighter, and sometimes they cancel each other, taking certain colors away.
One of the best things about growing a summer scientist is there are an infinite number of subjects to explore. The threat of boredom, that summer nemesis, is essentially nil, and activities can be geared to a child’s interests, whether it is rocket launching, playing with slime, catching butterflies or taking a birding hike.
Carol McGarrahan is a Triangle-area health writer who likes nothing better than doing some wacky and weird science experiments with kids, indoors or out, and thinks baby alligators feel a lot less slimy, and bumpier, than expected!
Family-Friendly Local Programs
Several area museums, parks and nature centers have periodic or ongoing programs for families and children that focus on hands-on science and nature fun. The following are a few places to look into. Many require registration, and some have a fee, so check details.
Morehead Planetarium
250 E. Franklin St., Chapel Hill
919-962-1236, www.moreheadplanetarium.org
Museum of Life and Science
433 Murray Ave., Durham
919-220-5429, www.ncmls.org
North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences
11 W. Jones St., Raleigh
919-733-7450, www.naturalsciences.org
Agape Center for Environmental Education
1369 Tyler Dewar Ln., Fuquay-Varina
919-552-9421, www.agapekurebeach.org
Bass Lake Park
900 Bass Lake Rd., Holly Springs
919-557-2906, www.hollyspringsnc.us
Eno River State Park
6101 Cole Mill Rd., Durham
919-383-1686, www.ncparks.gov
North Carolina Botanical Garden
Old Mason Farm Rd., Chapel Hill
919-962-0522, www.ncbg.unc.edu
Stevens Nature Center/Hemlock Bluffs
2616 Kildaire Farm Rd., Cary
919-387-5980, www.townofcary.org
Wake County Parks
www.wakegov.com/parks
Find a variety of family-friendly programs at www.ncparks.gov and in the Carolina Parent print and online calendar of family events at www.carolinaparent.com.
More At-Home Science Activities
* Build a stomp rocket.
* Grow special corn for popping.
* Make ice cream in a bag.
* Build a toothpick bridge.
* Make (or buy) your own mini-butterfly house.
* Make invisible ink.
Cool Science Web Sites
www.exploratorium.edu/science_explorer
www.pbskids.org/zoom/activities/sci
www.science.howstuffworks.com
www.coolscience.org
www.kidzone.ws/science
www.stevespanglerscience.com/category/science-fun (includes retail products)
www.hometrainingtools.com (includes retail products)
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|