Five Fun Science Experiments You Can Do at Home With Your Kids
You have already set off on a summer trip, it is too hot outside and the children are tired of the library. This is the perfect time for home science experiments. These five experiments are fun even if you don’t have children, but if you have them, you have even more reasons to devote the day to studying science.
Travel by water
In this experiment, water moves from one cup to another along a string. It’s fun to watch, but it takes a steady hand, so you’ll probably want to try it outdoors or over the sink.
What you need
- Two cups
- Scissors
- Colored water
- A thread
- ribbon
What to do: Use food coloring to color the water so it is visible. Cut the rope, dampen it, and squeeze out excess water. Glue a string to the bottom of one empty cup, then fill the other cup with water and hold the string inside the edge of the filled cup. Holding the filled cup over the empty cup at an angle (and with the string taut), slowly pour the water along the string into the empty cup.
How it works: Cohesion is like molecules sticking together through intermolecular attraction and forming a bond. Since the string is already wet, the water molecules on the string stick to the water molecules in the water. These molecules bind, causing water to stick to the water on the string as it travels down the string.
Gas fueled skateboard
Yes, this is an old Mentos-and-Coke trick, but with a fun update. Instead of just watching it all explode, which is still pretty cool, you add a skateboard to the picture. Very good.
What you need
- Small skateboard
- Mentos
- Roll of tape
- Cola bottle
What to do: Cut a small hole in the cola bottle and turn the Mentos wrap into a “loading mechanism” so that it all fits inside the cola bottle. Attach the bottle to your skateboard, then remove the cap. Quickly toss the Mentos into the bottle, screw the cap down, put the skateboard down and watch it go away.
How it works: The carbon dioxide in Coca-Cola triggers a physical reaction when you add Mentos to your shot. Carbon dioxide is already in a hurry to leave the soda as it is released under pressure, but tiny pits in the uneven surface of the menthos provide nucleation points where carbon dioxide can bubble. This creates a mass of bubbles that tend to slip away without having a lot of room to do so. As the gas bubbles rush out of the small hole, the pressure pushes the skateboard forward.
Colors changing color
This experiment takes some time, but it is easy and quick to set up. Bonus: upon completion, you will receive a bouquet of bright flowers.
What you need:
- Glasses filled with water
- Cut white flowers (such as carnations or chamomile)
- Food coloring
What to do: Add food coloring to the water, then add flowers. Leave them on overnight and you will see them change color. For even more visual appeal, you can split the stem of one flower, place it in two different glasses of water, and watch it take on two different colors.
How it works: capillary action . It is the ability of water to flow through a narrow space, like a tube, despite the force of gravity. This is due to intermolecular forces between the liquid and the surface. Simply put, the liquid sticks to the surface of space. Capillary action is how water moves inside a plant . Coloring the water allows you to see this process in action. As the colored water rises up the stem of the flower to the petals, the dye allows you to see how the water reaches these surfaces.
DIY electromagnet
This is a classic science experiment, and if you haven’t shown it to your kids yet, it’s time. They can create their own magnet from several things that are likely in your home.
What you need
- Iron nail
- Battery
- Metal paper clip or staple for testing
- The wire
What to do : Wrap the wire around your nail in one direction. If you wrap it in opposite directions, you have electric currents creating magnetic fields that run in opposite directions, fight and possibly cancel each other out. The more wire you wind around the nail, the stronger the field will be. Leave a couple of inches from either end of the wire, then attach those ends of the wire to either end of the battery (be careful, it can get hot). From there, you can test the magnetism of the nail by using a paperclip or staple. In fact, the nail will retain a little magnetism even after you charge it (albeit briefly). You can turn it off and still use it like a magnet for a short time.
How it works :Electromagnets are magnets that are powered by electrical current, and unlike a permanent magnet, “an electromagnet requires a continuous supply of current to maintain a magnetic field.” In other words, they can be “turned on” and “turned off” through a source of electricity. When an electric current passes through a wire, it creates a magnetic field.
According to Jefferson’s lab , the movement of electrical charges creates this field, and it travels the entire length of the wire. So when there is an iron nail in the center of that wire (and its accompanying magnetic field), the iron acts like a magnet.
Make instant ice
It’s really simple, but pretty impressive at the same time. Indeed, all you need is a bottle of water. Cool him down and watch all the fun things he can do.
What you need:
- Distilled water bottle (video uses PureFlo )
- Freezer
- Ice
What to do : Place your water bottle in the freezer for a couple of hours – you want it to be below freezing but still runny. It should have a small amount or layer of ice floating in it. From here, you can hit the table with the bottle and watch everything turn to ice. You can also pour it onto an ice tray and watch the water immediately crystallize into ice towers.
How it works: In this experiment, you supercool the water, which means that the water reaches sub-zero temperatures but remains in liquid form rather than completely turning into ice. If the water is distilled, it should be free of any impurities, which means that the ice crystals lack the nucleation point needed to form quickly at this temperature, so most of the bottle is still liquid. However, you can have a few ice crystals and then hit it fast enough to force the molecules to move and form more crystals quickly . From there, the rest of the water in the bottle joins and forms longer crystal chains until all of the water in the entire bottle is frozen.
Summer is still a few weeks away, so if kids are bored and looking for something to do, these experiments are a fun way to pass the time. Better yet, they will see science in action.