Art and Science Camp

Art and Science Camp

Hard to believe it's been a year since last year's science activities. This year I decided to hold a week long, 3 hour camp for my boys and some of their friends. The age range was 3-9. I held it at my new house, which was perfectly suited for 20 kids... except for all the mess!
(PS- just a disclaimer... if you didn't get to come or didn't know about it, it was only because it filled up to 20 kids before I could blink. I wasn't leaving you out intentionally!!!)

A huge passion of mine is the concept of combining SCIENCE and ART. Fundamentally, they have the same roots- exploration, observation and experimentation. This week, each day had a different theme of a specific science topic, with art projects (Ohhhh... so many projects) tied into the theme.

Most of my ideas came from my experience working at the Vancouver Aquarium, or of course, every mom and teacher's favourite resource, Pinterest.
Specifically, you can look here for most of my ideas. (My Pinterest Science Board)
or my Camp board as well.
While you're at it, my Kiddos board has lots of good stuff too.

DAY 1: Nature

We started with a mural and I made animal track prints for the kids to stamp. Super easy- just draw on craft foam, cut out and glue onto cardboard or styrofoam. The kids paint the stamps and then tell a story with their animal footprints.

I sent the kids out to the forest for a scavenger hunt, so we could use our found items for the stations we did next:

1. Leaf prints. Just paint the leaf and press onto paper.

2. Air dry clay. Start with a ball and press down onto your object.

3. Fossils! Here's how.

4. Painting crayon onto rocks. Put the rocks in the oven at 250' for 15 mins. The press the crayons onto the rocks in cool patterns.

Science Club number four- Chemistry!

This week Science Club was filled with lots of fun and mess!
We started out with a chemistry magic show...


1. Lighting a dollar bill on fire... but it didn't burn!

(It was soaked in a 50% alcohol solution)

2. Changing "water" into all kinds of colours with my magic potion (purple cabbage juice).

Left to right: water, vinegar, baking soda & water.
Just add water from boiling purple cabbage- nature's own acid-base indicator!

You can actually SEE it changing as a poured it in. Click on pic to enlarge.

3. Disappearing water trick

Poured water in one of the cups...which one was it?

They were all empty! 

Okay, there's no magic- it's all chemistry.

There was poly-acrylate power in one of the cups-
same stuff they put in diapers-
it turns the water to an instant gel and sticks to the inside of the styrofoam cup.
They were dumbfounded!!!

Our lame version of elephant's toothpaste. (on right)

Need 30% hydrogen peroxide to really make it go. See below:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=ezsur0L0L1c

 Making slime. 

 Green batch not as good as blue batch. Make sure to measure the ingredients.

Slime Recipe:
(a) mix 1/2 cup of white glue with 1 cup water, add a few drops of food colouring.
(b) mix 1/2 tsp. Borax with 1/2 cup water


Mix 1 cup of solution (a) with 1/3 cup of solution (b)
3:1 ratio, essentially.
Instant slime, just like the kind you would buy at the store.

Milk art. SO cool and so easy- it is a MUST TRY!
(Especially with that sitting-all-day-in-a-sippy-cup-so-I'm-going-to-pour-it-out milk.)

Pour whole milk into a plate with edges
Drop a few drops of food colouring
Dip a toothpick in dish soap, and touch the food colouring.

The fat in the milk does not mix with the water in the food colouring, and adding soap disperses the fat layer. 
The coolest part was that it kept moving and changing for several minutes. It almost looked like it was boiling. 


And that was chemistry day!

Science Club number 3- Flying Things

The theme this week was Flying Things.

I encouraged the kids to think about what makes things fly.
When building rockets and planes, what can they add to make their designs fly farther, faster, or straighter ?
I asked them to play with fin design and material, rocket length and other adaptations.
... but, mostly we just got caught up in the fun!

Our activities...

getting ready the night before...
all the activities in different bins! Helpful!

 1. Elastic "Fling" airplanes. They take about 30 seconds to make.

http://alittlelearningfortwo.blogspot.com/2010/10/elastic-aeroplanes.html
Wrap the folded paper around the elastic, pull back, and ZOOOOOOOM!

2. Loop Airplanes.
/http://www.instructables.com/id/The-Two-Loop---Paper-Airplane/

3. Straw Rockets.

Wrap paper around straw and tape. (Don't tape to the straw).  Fold over top and secure with tape. Add fins. Blow through the straw!

4. Straw and balloon rockets

1. Put straw through string, tie string to 2 posts.
2. Blow up balloon but don't tie it (keep pinching it!)
3. Tape balloon to straw (one strip to underside of straw works well)
4. Let go of balloon and watch it zoom!

How did we end up with 15 blonde kids?

I absolutely love the stairs as a teaching spot!

Lukey- wants to be teaching like his mama.

5. Marshmallow poppers. Again, so easy and so fun!

1. Cut bottom out of cup (but leave bottom ring intact or cup will lose its shape).
2. Cut top off balloon and tie a knot in the... the... part where you usually tie the knot :)
3. Open balloon where you cut it and stretch it over the bottom of the cup. Secure with masking tape.
4. Put a marshmallow or other object in the cup, pull on the knotted part (see above) and BOOM!

6. Alka Seltzer Rockets. Am I allowed to say it again... ? So easy and so fun!

 1. Go to your local film processing place and ask for some clear film canisters. They have to be the ones that seal completely with the top fitting inside the canister. (They will look at you, smile, and say, "Alka Seltzer is in Aisle 8.")
2. Build a tube around the canister and tape it to the canister (but don't let any hang over where the lid snaps in). The canister part is the bottom of your rocket.

3. Making the cone: draw a circle, make a cut from  the edge to the middle. 

Fold one piece over the other. Ta-da! Attach it to the top of your rocket. 

4. Next, add fins for stabilizing. Experiment with size, shape and materials. Decorate if you like!

5. Put an Alka Seltzer tablet in the canister (or half- it still works) and fill 1/2 way with water. Quickly snap on the top and stand up your rocket.

Wait for it... 

POP!

Some hints for building the rockets via Julie...

1. Short tube works best for getting height. (less weight)

2. Wrap a few more pieces of tape around the bottom to keep the water from ruining your rocket.

3. Re-use your Alka Seltzer a few times.

My friend Julie:
"Okay, you have to take a picture of your table, because
it looks like some serious science happened here!"

7. I also found these at our local dollar store...



You blow up the balloon and let 'em fly!

Science Club number 2- Candy Experiments

One of the first things we learn in teacher training is to try out your lessons before you do them. I somehow got lazy and thought I'd just wing it... and almost all of our candy experiments bombed. Nevertheless, the kids had a great time and made sure they sampled everything we tried!!!

Nice shirt... fitting!!!

Every idea I got was from www.candyexperiments.com

Super cool website- and the thing I like most is their spirit of experimentation. They never cease to ask "What if..." or "What can I do with this?" Some great lessons by just looking at the thinking behind their experiments. Nice.

Probably the most simplistic, yet effective experiment was testing different candy to see if it would sink or float. They had to predict first too. Almost everything sank, but we had lots of interesting discussion. Pop rocks let off bubbles. Some tiny sprinkle shapes sank or floated, depending on how they were put in the bowl.

We tried some individually wrapped Werther's candies still in the package, which floated, but sank once we unwrapped them. Hmmmm....

 

Recording results on the Sink or Float T-chart

testing pop rocks

Dissolving M&M's and Skittles... the printed M's and S's actually
peel off and float to the top. Didn't work every time, but if you
try it enough times, you may get a letter intact.

Epic Fail #1: Skittles Density Rainbow.  Dissolve 2 red, 4 orange, 6 yellow etc.
(more skittles= more sugar/density)
Cool idea, just didn't separate them properly. Ended up with browny-purple sludge.

this is the beautiful example I was trying to make

Epic Fail #2: How did the Coke and Mentos thing not work???
Too small of bottle, not enough in the bottle...? 

Cold water currents - Ice on one side of the dish in room temp. water.
Pushed the wateraway from the ice (colours just show the currents).
Very interesting AND pretty!

Epic Fail #3: M&M chromatography (colour separation).
I tried my own version but not so exciting. Whatever!

Making our own gummy candies from a kit. Bit of a sell-out but I needed a WIN!

All in all, it was super fun and the kids learned some great lessons. I learned mine too!!!!