SCIENCE
FUN
Copyright 2005-2010 by The Adventures of Scuba Jack, Inc., All rights reserved.
AIR
Air is all around you. It is made up of many different gasses. The most important gas in
air is oxygen. Animals and people need oxygen to live. When you breathe, you are
breathing in air, and your body gets the oxygen that you need.
Air c an’t really be seen when you look around you, but there are ways to tell that it is
there.
Who has a bic yc le? What is in the tires that keeps them filled up so that you c an
ride the bike?
Have you seen a fish tank that has a toy inside that blows bubbles? The bubbles
are made by air being pushed into the water.
How about a balloon? How do I blow up a balloon? What goes inside the
balloon?
Let’s do an experiment. We’re going to blow up a balloon with air, but we aren’t going
to use our own breath.
EXPERIMENT
Put about a half c up of vinegar into a cup. You may want to put the c up inside of a
basin for easy c lean-up. Now add 1 tablespoon of baking soda. What happened?
The fizzing that you saw was a c hemic al reac tion. The c ombination of vinegar and
baking soda reac ted with eac h other and c reated a gas c alled c arbon dioxide.
Remember that air is made up of gasses.
Now put about an inc h of vinegar in the bottle of a small, c lean soda bottle.
Using a funnel, put 1 tablespoon of baking soda inside of a balloon.
Making sure that you do not flip the balloon over and dum p the baking soda into the
bottle, put the open end of the balloon over the top of the bottle.
What do you think will happen?
Now, while holding the balloon on the bottle sec urely, tip the balloon up and allow the
baking soda to fall into the bottle.
What happened?
The gas c reated by the c hemic al reac tion between the vinegar and baking soda filled
the balloon with air!
Copyright 2005-2010 by The Adventures of Scuba Jack, Inc., All rights reserved.
EXPERIMENT
Fill a tall, c lear glass 3/4 full of water.
Add 2 tablespoons of vinegar to the water. Do not stir.
Drop 1 raisin into the glass. Watc h the raisin drop to the bottom of the glass.
Add 1 teaspoon of baking soda to the glass. Do not stir.
Remember that vinegar and baking soda reac t with eac h other and c reate c arbon
dioxide. Watc h as the c arbon dioxide bubbles attac h themselves to the raisin and
raise it to the surfac e. When the bubbles get to the surfac e of the water, they pop and
let go of the raisin. The raisin then falls bac k to the bottom and starts c ollec ting
bubbles again. The raisin is danc ing in the glass!
Copyright 2005-2010 by The Adventures of Scuba Jack, Inc., All rights reserved.
HOT AIR BALLOON
Let’s make our own hot air balloon. Cut out the attac hed balloon and basket. Cut
the basket from brown c onstruc tion paper. Cut the balloon from white paper.
Glue your basket to a new piec e of blue c onstruc tion paper (the blue will be the sky).
Be sure to glue the basket towards the bottom of your paper.
Now glue the balloon to your paper about an inc h or two above the basket. Use a
c ouple piec es of yarn to make the c ables that attac h the balloon to the basket.
Hot air balloons are very brightly c olored. Many of them have pic tures, rainbows and
designs on them. Dec orate your balloon with bright c olors. You c an use tissue paper,
paints, c rayons, glitter, whatever you c hoose.
Copyright 2005-2010 by The Adventures of Scuba Jack, Inc., All rights reserved.
Copyright 2005-2010 by The Adventures of Scuba Jack, Inc., All rights reserved.
GRAVITY
All things on earth are pulled down towards the c enter of the earth. The forc e that
is pulling them is c alled gravity.
If I drop my book, will it fly up to the c eiling?
Gravity is what makes things fall down, instead of up.
A man named Sir Isaac Newton studied gravity. A story is told about him sitting
under an apple tree and being hit on the head by a falling apple. The story is
probably only partly true. He did observe an apple falling, but it probably did not
hit him on the head. After observing the apple, he began to think about it, and
thought that instead of just falling, that there was something that he c ould not see
pulling the apple to the ground. He c alled the something that he c ouldn’t see the
forc e of gravity.
Sir Isaac Newton studied gravity so muc h, that he was able to prove that it was
ac tually gravity that kept the moon in orbit around the earth.
Hold 2 identic al objec ts in your hands. If you drop them from exac tly the same
height, do you think they will hit the ground at the same time? (YES)
Now c hoose 2 different objec ts. Make sure one is smaller than the other. If you
drop them from the same height, do you think they will hit the ground at the same
time? (YES)
Gravity pulls on all objec ts with the same forc e, no matter how muc h they weigh.
They will always fall at the same speed.
Now if gravity is what holds us down and keeps us on the ground, what do you think
would happen if there was no gravity?
Have you ever seen pic tures of astronauts in outer space? Are they standing still or
floating in the air? They are floating bec ause there is no gravity in spac e.
Let’s go outside and try dropping some different objec ts and test to see if they do
fall at the same speed.
Copyright 2005-2010 by The Adventures of Scuba Jack, Inc., All rights reserved.
SIR ISAAC NEWTON’S APPLE TREE
We learned that Sir Isaac Newton first discovered gravity when he watched an apple falling
from a tree. Today we are going to make an apple tree with a falling apple to remind us of
his discovery.
Cut out the attached tree forms. Cut the trunk from brown paper and the top of the tree
from green.
Color and cut out the apple below.
Choose a new piece of colored paper for your background.
First, glue the trunk of your tree onto your paper. Be sure to keep it towards the bottom of
your paper.
Next glue the top of the tree to your paper, overlapping in with the trunk slightly.
Now glue the apple to your paper anywhere between the top of the tree and the bottom of
your paper so that it looks like it is falling to the ground.
If you would like, you can dip your finger into red paint and make more apples on your
apple tree.
Copyright 2005-2010 by The Adventures of Scuba Jack, Inc., All rights reserved.
Copyright 2005-2010 by The Adventures of Scuba Jack, Inc., All rights reserved.
LIGHT
Can you name some things that give us light? (Sun, stars, lights).
The sun is a natural sourc e of light. Without it there would be no life on earth. Plants
and trees need it to grow. Animals eat plants. People eat plants as well as animals
that eat plants. We would have no food if we had no sun. The sun also warms the
earth so that it will not be too c old for living things to survive.
Do you think that sunlight has c olor? What c olor do you think it is?
Sunlight is ac tually made up of the seven colors in the rainbow – red, orange, yellow,
green, blue, indigo and violet!
When you see a rainbow in the sky, it is probably raining and sunny at the same time.
The rainbow is ac tually sunlight that has been separated into each of its c olors by the
raindrops in the sky.
EXPERIMENT
Let’s do an experiment that will let us see the different c olors in sunlight.
Fill a c lear glass with water.
Plac e a mirror inside the glass at an angle. Just let it lean up against the side of the
glass making sure that the reflec tive side is fac ing up.
Turn the glass so that the mirror is fac ing into the sun.
Hold a piec e of white paper in front of the glass. Move it around and experiment with
angles until you c an see a rainbow on the paper. Moving the paper may help make
the c olors c learer once you do see the rainbow.
Copyright 2005-2010 by The Adventures of Scuba Jack, Inc., All rights reserved.
SHADOW PUPPETS
Light c an only travel in a straight line. It c annot go around objects. If you stand with
your bac k to the sun, your shadow will appear on the ground in front of you. That is
bec ause your body is bloc king the light. Look at your shadow, it is shaped just like you!
Let’s make some shadow puppets.
Cut out these animal shapes from sturdy, dark c olored paper. You m ay wish to poke a
hole where the eye is. Attac h a stic k or penc il to the bac k of the animal shape. Turn
out the lights. Sit fac ing a blank wall and hold your shadow puppet in front of you.
Shine a flashlight on your shadow puppet. Its shadow should appear on the wall. Put
on a performanc e with your puppets!
Copyright 2005-2010 by The Adventures of Scuba Jack, Inc., All rights reserved.
Copyright 2005-2010 by The Adventures of Scuba Jack, Inc., All rights reserved.
MAGNETS
Today we’re going to talk about something really interesting. Does anyone know what
these are? (magnets)
Magnets come in different sizes and shapes. Two magnets c an work together in many
different ways.
Demonstrate the following: They c an stic k together. One magnet c an pic k up another
magnet. Some magnets are stronger than others. Sometimes, magnets don’t stic k
together. Sometimes they push each other apart. It looks like one magnet is c hasing
the other!
Can you think of some plac es at home or here at sc hool where you use magnets?
Let’s take a few minutes to make our own magnet. Then we will look for different things
in our c lassroom that will stic k to it.
After exploring the c lassroom for a few minutes, disc uss what students found that did
and did not stic k to the magnets. Try and determine what the ones that did stic k had
in c ommon with eac h other.
Pull out a box of objec ts that you have prepared in advanc e with some items that will
be attrac ted to a magnet and some items that will not. Have two other empty boxes
ready – one labeled yes, and one labeled no. Hold up eac h objec t. Ask the c hildren
to predic t if it will stic k to the magnet or not. Sort the objec ts into the yes and no boxes.
After they have all been sorted, test the c hildren’s predic tions. Disc uss any errors they
may have made, why it did or did not stic k, etc .
Copyright 2005-2010 by The Adventures of Scuba Jack, Inc., All rights reserved.
Attach strips of magnetic tape to the magnet below and use to
test different objects to see if they are attracted to the magnet
or not.
Copyright 2005-2010 by The Adventures of Scuba Jack, Inc., All rights reserved.
MAGNET PAINTING
Let’s paint a pic ture using magnets. Remember we talked about how one magnet
c an c hase another one? You are going to dip a magnet in paint, and c hase it ac ross
your paper using a sec ond magnet.
Use many different c olors to make your pic ture exc iting!
Variation:
Plac e a piece of Plexiglas ac ross two c hairs, benc hes or bloc ks so there is enough
open space in between for your arm to move freely under the Plexiglas.
Tape a piec e of paper on top of Plexiglas.
Dip washers and other metal objec ts in paint and plac e them on the paper.
Hold a magnet under the Plexiglas and begin moving it magnet. The magnet will
begin m oving the metal objec ts around the paper to c reate a pic ture.
Copyright 2005-2010 by The Adventures of Scuba Jack, Inc., All rights reserved.
WATER
We use water every day. We need to drink water to live. We cook with water, we clean with
water. How often do we really think about water though?
Look at this cup of water. How can you describe it? (wet, clear, cold, warm, etc.)
Will changing the temperature change how the water looks? If I put the cup of water into the
freezer and leave it there for a while, what will happen? (Becomes ice) So did the cold
temperature in the freezer cause the water to change?
If I take the ice from the freezer and leave it in the sun, what will happen to it? (melts) So did
the warm temperature cause the ice to change?
When you boil water, can you see a cloud or what looks like smoke above the pot? Have you
been in the bathroom right after someone takes a hot shower? Does it seem cloudy in there?
The clouds that you see above boiling water, or in the bathroom after a hot shower are steam.
When water is heated, it becomes steam or vapor.
Temperature changes make the way water looks change. Water can take the form of a solid
(ice), a liquid (water), or a gas (steam/vapor).
Think about a pond or a puddle outside. What happens to the pond or puddle in the winter
when it is very cold outside?
What happens to the pond or puddle when the sun comes out and it warms up?
What are some things that people do to melt ice outside their homes during the winter? What
do the trucks spread on the roads when they are slippery? (salt)
We’re going to experiment with melting ice and talk about what we are seeing.
EXPERIMENT
Put 3 pie pans on a table. Put an ice cube in each pan.
What do you think will melt an ice cube the fastest – salt, water or both? Make a graph of
children’s predictions.
Put salt on the ice cube in the first pan.
Add water to the second pan to almost cover the ice cube.
In the third pan, put salt on the ice cube and add water to almost cover the ice cube.
Watch the ice cubes as they begin to melt. Which one is melting faster? Do the ice cubes look
different from one another? Write down your observations.
Copyright 2005-2010 by The Adventures of Scuba Jack, Inc., All rights reserved.
EXPERIMENT
Fill a glass with water. Add an ic e c ube.
Lay a piec e of string ac ross the ic e c ube. Do you think it will stic k? Pic k up the string
and see if you c an pic k up the ic e with it.
Now lay the string ac ross the ic e again, and sprinkle salt over the string and ic e c ube.
Do you think the string will stic k this time? Why?
Count to ten slowly and then lift the string. The ic e c ube should be stuc k to the string.
Copyright 2005-2010 by The Adventures of Scuba Jack, Inc., All rights reserved.
WATER
We learned that water c an appear in different states. It c an be solid (snow or ic e),
liquid (rain), or vapor (steam or c louds).
Let’s make a projec t that shows the different ways that we c an see water in our world.
Cut out the attac hed c loud shape from white paper.
Cut out the rain drop from blue paper.
You will need white pac king foam to represent snow and/or ic e.
Choose a c olored piec e of bac kground paper.
c olum ns when you open it bac k up.
Fold it so that you have three
Cut out the words solid, liquid and vapor. Glue the word solid at the top of the first
c olum n, liquid at the top of the middle colum n and vapor at the top of the last
c olum n.
Cut out the words snow, rain and c louds. Glue the word snow at the bottom of the first
c olum n, rain at the bottom of the c enter colum n and steam at the bottom of the last
c olum n.
Glue pieces of pac king foam in the c enter of the first c olum n.
Glue the raindrop in the c enter of the middle c olum n.
Glue the c loud in the middle of the last c olum n.
Copyright 2005-2010 by The Adventures of Scuba Jack, Inc., All rights reserved.
SOLID
SNOW
LIQUID
RAIN
VAPOR
CLOUD
Copyright 2005-2010 by The Adventures of Scuba Jack, Inc., All rights reserved.