Who can make a kazoo?

We can, it's easy!

First get your cardboard tube like you find in the middle of the gladwrap roll. You will also need a thin rubber band, a pair of scissors, textas or stickers to decorate it and a six inch square of waxed paper.

Vibrations are responsible for all the sounds we hear. We can experience vibrations using several of our senses: we feel the vibrations in our throat when we hum music, and on our lips as we play their kazoos.

Objectives:

- Define the word vibration
- Show that vibrations make sound
- Recognize that vibrations can be changed to alter the pitch of a sound
- Determine that sound travels through solids as well as gases (air)

What causes the kazoo to vibrate? Place the back of your hand gently against your lips and hum the same way you did for the kazoo. Again, you feel vibrations. Where are those vibrations coming from? Put your fingers lightly on your throat and hum again. The vibrations are coming from your vocal cords in your throat.

Air from your lungs moving across the tight vocal cords causes them to vibrate. That causes the air in your throat and mouth to vibrate. The vibrations are transferred from the vibrating air to the paper of the kazoo.

The vibrating paper then causes the air around it to vibrate. Because the paper is flexible and loose, it distorts the vibrations, giving the kazoo its interesting sound.

Boom baby boom!

The Mentos effect

To explain the foamy geyser that results from Mentos and Coke being combined you need to think of Physics.

Sodas like Coke contain compressed carbon dioxide. It's the gradual expansion and release of this pressurized gas in the form of bubbles that makes the fizz in carbonated drinks. It's the surface tension of the liquid - the strong attraction that bonds its water molecules together, that prevents the gas from escaping all at once.

When Mentos are added, that surface tension is disrupted by the additives in the candy - gelatin and gum arabic, and the outside surfaces of the Mentos provide encourages the rapid formation of bubbles. When you drop Mentos into a carbonated beverage, it causes the sudden release of pressurized gas which blows up out of the narrow neck of the Coke bottle giving a fantastic fountain effect.

So drop some Mentos candies into a bottle of Coke, shake it up if you dare and MOVE away from it.

Oh, and do this outside. And guess what Ms S substituted for the Coke?

Look at the picture to see if you guessed correctly.

A terrarium - Mary, Mary quite contrary

How does your terrarium grow?

First get a glass jar, then one quarter fill it with soil and add some plants. You can use moss or plant a small potato, or some apple seeds or an attactive small weed from your garden.

Water it carefully without making it too moist and put on the lid. Keep your terrarium in a well-lit, warm place and watch how the plant grows in its own little environment.

We did two terrariums in our class. One had ventilation holes in the lid and one terrarium remained sealed.

We predicted the outcomes in the two terrariums, would one survive or would both? We wrote a word bank and researched the respiration rate of plants. We compared desert plants and their needs to tropical rainforest plants.

Fizz Whizz

Chemical reactions - Alkaline Versus Acid

We are going to use bicarbonate of soda to see what liquids, both alkaline and acid, react to it.

The acidic liquids will be vinegar, lemon juice and Coke.
The alkaline liquids will be milk, raspberry cordial and coffee.

We will predict what will occur when bicarbonate of soda is introduced into firstly the alkaline liquids, then into the acidic liquids.

Remember, for every action, there is a reaction.

How does this experiment work: Bicarbonate of Soda reacts with acids, releasing carbon dioxide which bubbles up through the solution. The more acidic a liquid is (like vinegar), the more fizz will be produced.

Mirror Writing

Mirror writing has been around for a long time. Over 500 years ago, Leonardo da Vinci used it to keep his inventions a secret.

It is writing that is the reverse of normal writing and has often been used as a code or cipher.

BUT the mirror doesn't always reverse everything.
Here is a verse which defies the power of the mirror. Print it out and try it for yourself.

M
Y

O
A
T
H

M
Y

V
O
W

M
Y

M
O
T
T
O

T
O
O

I

A
I
M

T
W
I
X
T

M
Y
T
H

T
O

O
U
T
W
I
T

Y
O
U

Balloon Busters!

No - not like that! Today we are working with bicarbonate of soda and vinegar. We want to see if we can blow up a balloon without using our breath.

You will need a glass bottle, a balloon, bicarbonate of soda and some vinegar. You can substitute baking soda for the bicarbonate of soda.

Now for the fun! Nervous people (like me) stand well back. What do you predict will happen? If you are very brave, you can fill the balloon with a larger amount of bicarbonate of soda, and use more vinegar. It should produce a better result.

Using a teaspoon, fill the balloon part way with bicarbonate of soda. Fill the bottle part way with vinegar. Without letting the bicarbonate of soda in the balloon drop into the bottle, place the balloon carefully over the top of the bottle. Now watch as the bicarbonate soda falls into the vinegar.

As the bicarbonate of soda mixes with the vinegar it forms carbon dioxide gas and blows up the balloon!

How does this happen?

The vinegar mixes with the bicarbonate of soda to create a chemical reaction that produces carbon dioxide gas. The gas then blows up the balloon.

Here are some word bank examples:

balloon, bicarbonate of soda, vinegar, bottle, explode, expand, burst, carbon dioxide, gas, reaction, chemical.

Staying Alive! Keeping a pet rock

Ah, ah , ah, ah staying alive, staying alive.

No, it's not a singing contest, this is an exercise in pet management. First read Daisy the Curly Cat. Her latest pet, as many of her other ones got 'deaded', is a pet rock. Now go to the pet rock store. You have $100. Work out the supplies you will need, and write out the bill you will receive for all your purchases. Write a full description of your pet in case it gets lost.

Investigate what type of rock your pet is. What are the three main types of rock? Discuss their characteristics and give examples of the different types.

Activities:

* glue eyes on the rock
* write out a word bank/haiku/pet journal
* organise for it to go to a class, e.g. dance class/gymnastics/playgroup/sports day
* send it for a sleepover
* write out a diet sheet for its food
* photograph it/blog about it
* make a scrapbook page about it
* write down its funniest sayings
* dress it up for a costume party
* send it on a holiday
* write it a bedtime story
* make it a form of transport/bed/play equipment/house (like you would make a dog house)
* give it a name
* give it a birthday party and a present
* take it for a walk in the park and document what you did with it
* have a picnic
* teach it a trick
* make an icanhascheezeburger with it




Questions to answer:
- does the rock have two or more colours?
- is the rock sandy?
- does it make marks on paper?
- does the rock float in water?
- does the rock have layers?
- is the rock heavy?
- is the rock smooth or rough?
- does your rock have a fossil in it?
- can you name a rock that will float?



Word Bank:

igneous, sedimentary, metamporphic
molten, magma, lava
chemical, organic
crystalline
sandstone, basalt, crystal, marble, quartz, limestone, granite
smooth, rough, layers, hard
geologist
clastic
fossil
rock

Now you can write a journal entry called "A Day in the Life of My Pet Rock". Have a look at my siamese Pyewacket's entry.

Morse Code

Double click on the image to make it larger.

Morse code uses a sequence of short and long elements to represent a message. The short and long elements can be formed by sounds, marks, or flashes with a flashlight and are commonly known as "dots" and "dashes" or "dits" and "dahs".

It was originally created for Samuel Morse's electric telegraph in the early 1840s, and Morse code was also extensively used for early radio communication beginning in the 1890s. For the first half of the twentieth century, the majority of high-speed international communication was conducted in Morse code, using telegraph lines, undersea cables, and radio circuits.

The most popular current use of Morse code is by amateur radio operators. Pilots and air traffic controllers are usually familiar with Morse code and need to have a basic understanding.

The book Swallows and Amazons, which you can get on DVD, has a group of children going camping on an island and using Morse code and also semaphore, to communicate with each other.

Hot enough to fry an egg

This is how hot it is in Australia's capital city right now. But, is it hot enough to fry an egg on the sidewalk?

In cooking terms, an egg needs a temperature of 158F to cook, and most sidewalks do not get up to that temperature. The egg, when cracked open on the cement, cools it down. Black macadam sidewalks are hotter than gray ones, and using metal as well, can raise the temperature. So you could try using aluminium foil on top of the sidewalk surface.

And lastly, you can place a pane of glass under a frypan, on top of the sidewalk or cement. For good measure, you can place another pane of glass on top of egg in the frypan.

Now, another way to try to cook an egg, is on the bonnet of a car that has been outside on a very hot day. Don't use a teacher's car, you're likely to get detention.

Stalactites hold tight!

I was looking at the icicles on my friend Gerry's porch Torch Lake Views when I thought that this would make a great science experiment.



So here's how to make stalactites and stalagmites.

Collect two glass jars, two fishing sinkers, epsom salts, string and a small plate. Fill the glass jars with hot water from the tap and stir in as much epsom salts as will dissolve. Wet a piece of 18 inch long string, tie a sinker to either end and hang it in the solution as shown in the diagram. Leave it undisturbed in a warm place for a week, then come back daily and check it out.

Here's a handy saying to help you remember which is which:

Stalactites have to hold on tight to stay on the ceiling of the cave. Stalagmites have to be mighty to stand up on the floor of the cave.

* You can also try this with baking soda, salt or sugar. And hey - add some food coloring just for fun!

Try looking at your crystals through a magnifying glass. What shape can you see?

Word Bank
week, salt, soda, cave, warm, add, epsom salts, magnifying, crystals, diagram, ceiling

Lost in Space

Do you ever feel like you want to get lost in space? Well now you can when you make your own balloon rocket.

The scientific principles involved are the uses of pressure to cause movement. In other words, you are learning how to make a rocket fly.

Materials:

- a balloon
- a paper bag
- string
- a straw
- sticky tape
- a tape measure

Procedure:

Decorate your paper bag so that it looks like a rocket. Attach the paper bag to a straw. Put the straw through the string that is stretched tight across the room. Put the balloon in the bag and blow it up.

Ready? Let it go!

What is Happening?

This balloon rocket experiment uses the pressure difference between the gas inside the balloon to that outside the balloon. The gas inside moves towards the area of lower pressure. The gas pressures are moving towards an equal state; technically this is called moving toward equilibrium.
This experiment is a good demonstration of the ability of pressurized air to make an object move.

Can you get an Egg into a Bottle?

Is it really possible to get an egg into a bottle? It is, and here is how you do it.

Drop three lit matches into a glass bottle that has a narrow neck (a 600 mL bottle works well.)

Quickly put a peeled, hard-boiled egg on the mouth of the bottle.
The egg should squeeze its way through the mouth of the bottle and get inside it.

What happens you may ask? The lit matches heat the air inside the bottle. When air is heated it expands and takes up more room. As the heated air expands, some of it escapes out the bottle. When the matches go out, the air inside the bottle cools and contracts (and takes up less room), and this makes the pressure inside the bottle less than the pressure outside. The greater pressure outside the bottle forces the egg into the bottle.

STOP PRESS! It's snowing in Canberra!

Wrap up tight in that pashmina, Ms S. It's snowing on the Science website in cool Canberra.

Can you make your own snow? Here's a fun link if you want to give it a try.

Seahorses have a secret...

And the secret is that the male carries the eggs.

Seahorses live in small compacted places. They like to eat shrimp and lots of other small kinds of fish. The eggs are in the male's pouch for nine days then they hatch. Some Seahorses hatch 2,000 to 3,000 eggs.

There are 32 different species of seahorses. They live from three to five years in the wild.

The Latin name for a seahorse is Hippocampus. You can also read more about seahorses here. The one in the picture lived a very long and happy life.

Somewhere over the rainbow

What you need to make a jello rainbow:

Measuring jug
Boiling water 125 mls
Cold water 125 mls
Packets of different colored jello

Directions:

1. Empty jelly crystals into a measuring jug.
2. Add half a cup of boiling water. Get an adult to do this.
3. When it is stirred together, add a half cup of cold water.
4. Stir until the jelly crystals are completely dissolved.
5. Pour into a container and refrigerate until it is almost set.
6. Do steps one to five several times using different colors of jello.
7. Use a glass container to layer the many colors of jello to make a rainbow effect. Refrigerate until it is set hard.

Questions:

Did you ever drink unset jello? Try it, you might like it!
Did you ever try to make a jello sculpture?

Facts:

- In 1845, industrialist Peter Cooper (who built the first American steam-powered locomotive, the Tom Thumb), obtained a patent for making powdered gelatin.
- Some discontinued flavors are: Italian salad, pickle and bubble gum.

The lyrics for the Aeroplane Jelly Song:

I like Aeroplane Jelly, Aeroplane Jelly for me.
I like it for dinner, I like it for tea,
A little each day is a good recipe!
The quality's high, as the name will imply,
It's made from pure fruit - one more good reason why
I like Aeroplane Jelly, Aeroplane Jelly for me!

Supersize me!

The kitchen is the best place to do science experiments! Today, we are going to make pancakes!
Did you know, baked goods are like balloons and need gas to rise? Rising agents like baking powder and baking soda produce carbon dioxide, and trapped air and steam are additional sources of gas. The protein in eggs and flour provide a stretchy structure that traps the gas as it expands due to heat, causing the batter to rise.

If you like pancakes and want to make some then follow these instructions.

Ingredients:
1 cup self-raising flour
1 cup milk
1 egg

Method:
1. Pre-heat a large non-stick frying pan.
2. Add all ingredients into a bowl and mix until combined.
3. Lightly grease the pan with butter or cooking spray.
4. Cook large spoonfuls of batter until bubbles burst on top and the edges start to go dry.
5. Turn and cook other side until golden.

Delicious toppings:
Maple syrup, lemon juice and sugar, jam.

Stun your friends with a playdough sculpture

Ingredients:

half a cup of salt
1 cup of plain flour
2 tablespoons cream of tartar
1 cup of water
1 tablespoon of oil
food colouring

What to do:

1. Mix all the ingredients together in a bowl.


2. Knead it until the dough is pliable.


3. Store it in a well sealed plastic bag or a container.

Things you can make and even bake:

An ashtray, Christmas ornaments, a pendant for a necklace, animals, or a sculpture.

FACTS:

Salt is used as a preservative.

Salt is the most common food seasoning.

Over consumption of salt can lead to high blood pressure.

Salt is bad for plants and can kill them.

Bread Making Word Bank

bread, yeast, breadmaker, flour, water, loaf, crust, ingredients, dough, knead

Bread Making

What You Need

Water
Flour
Yeast
Butter

Here is a link to make bread at your home. Breadmaking

How to Make A Solar Oven

Equipment and Material

• 1 pizza box
• newspapers
• scissors
• tape
• black construction paper
• clear plastic wrap
• aluminum foil
• ruler

Method

1. Draw an 8 1/2 inch x 11 inch square in the
lid of the assembled box.
2. Cut out three sides of the square, and fold
the flap back along the uncut edge.
3. Cover the inside of this flap with aluminum
foil, using tape to hold the edges securely.
4. Line the inside bottom of the box with black
construction paper. Use tape to hold the edges down.
5. Create insulation by rolling up some newspaper (about 1 1/2
inch thick) and fitting it around the inside edges of the box.
6. Tape one piece of plastic wrap (stretched tightly) to the underside
of the lid opening, to cover. Tape another piece on the top of the lid opening, to create a layer of
insulation that will help hold the heat in the box.
7. Prop the box at an angle facing the sun. Use a ruler to prop the flap open.

On a hot, sunny day the temperature can reach 200°°F in
your oven! Use it to make smores, or to warm some muffins.