Have you ever gotten a shock from a doorknob after shuffling across a carpet? The term “static electricity” refers to the build-up of a positive or negative electrical charge on the surface of an object. In this case, the charged object is your body. You feel an electric shock as the charge you’ve collected from the carpet jumps from your hand to the metal doorknob.
Tiny particles called electrons have negative charges and can jump from object to object. When you rub a balloon on your hair, or a comb through it, many of these electrons are stripped from your hair and move to the balloon or comb giving it a negative charge (and often leaving your hair all positively charged and standing up as the strands try to avoid each other.)
The negatively charged balloon or comb then makes a great tool for making electrons jump around!
You can easily make a contraption called an electroscope using:
-a jar
-some thin aluminum foil or mylar (the shiny stuff balloons and candy wrappers are made from)
-cardboard
-a nail
-tape
-a balloon or comb.
from Kitchen Science Lab for Kids (Quarry Books 2014)
Cut the cardboard to fit over the mouth of the jar, poke the nail through the cardboard, tape on two long, thin strips of foil or mylar (see photo) and place the whole thing in the jar so the foil strips hang down, touching each other.
Electroscope from Kitchen Science Lab for Kids (Quarry Books 2014)
2. Charge your balloon or comb by rubbing it on your hair or clothing to give it a negative charge. Bring the charged object close to the nail head. You don’t even have to touch it!
From Kitchen Science Lab for Kids (Quarry Books 2014)
What happened? Some negatively-charged electrons jump from the comb to the nail and into the strips of foil. The negative charge on the comb will push electrons (which are also negatively charged) down to the foil/mylar and give both strips a negative charge. The two strips try to move away from one another as the like charges repelled each other.
What happens when you make the strips out of different materials like paper? Are there other charged objects you can use to make your foil strips “dance”?
You can also bend a thin stream of water from the faucet by holding your charged comb next to it. The water is uncharged and is pulled toward the negative charge of the comb.
Try making small pieces of tissue paper float or dance by holding a charged comb or balloon next to them! We filled an empty soda bottle with tiny pieces of foil and made them jump around with a charged comb held close to the bottle.
Our planet is buzzing with life, and over 90% of all the animals on Earth are invertebrates, including worms, insects and arachnids. From Earthworms to sow bugs and butterflies, your neighborhood is teeming with amazing creatures.
From Outdoor Science Lab for Kids (Quarry Books 2016)
Below are five science projects from my book Outdoor Science Lab for Kids ! Click on the experiments below for instructions, or order your copy (wherever books are sold) to find step-by-step instructions, how-to photos, science explanations and more outdoor science experiments!
Go find some caterpillars, gather some Milkweed and watch an incredible transformation. The second video in this post tells you how to spot Monarch eggs and caterpillars and how to raise them into butterflies!
“Kitchen Science Lab for Kids, Edible Edition” hits shelves just in time for summer fun! Have you ordered your copy? #kids #summer #activities #science #cookbook #edible #junior #baker #chef #kitchen #chemistry
When you step into your kitchen to cook or bake, you put science to work. Physics and chemistry come into play each time you simmer, steam, bake, freeze, boil, puree, saute, or ferment food.
Make boba smoothies to learn about tapioca science. (Image from Kitchen Science Lab for Kids: Edible Edition 2019)
Use steam pressure to make delicious popovers expand like balloons! (Image from Kitchen Science Lab for Kids: Edible Edition 2019)
Homemade pesto is a tasty emulsion! (Image from Kitchen Science Lab for Kids: Edible Edition 2019)
Simple freezer sorbet is a mouth-watering way to explore crystal formation in sweet syrups! (Image from Kitchen Science Lab for Kids: Edible Edition 2019)
Knowing something about the physics, biology, and chemistry of food will give you the basic tools to be the best chef you can be. The rest is up to you!
Love basketball? Think you’re pretty good? Try taping some coins to a basketball, or covering one eye and shooting the ball. The coins change the ball’s center of mass, making it harder to shoot, and covering one eye messes with your depth perception! Try it!
I had fun thinking up these new basketball experiments that we tested on TV this week. Can you come up with one of your own? What could you try?
It’s simple to make gorgeous marbled eggs using olive oil marbling. Simply dye your eggs with food coloring and then marble them with a darker color. (Epsom Salt Egg Geode instructions are at the bottom of this post.)
KitchenPantryScientist.com
Hint: Wear gloves to avoid staining your fingers.
You’ll need:
-2 cups of warm water in a bowl
-hard boiled eggs
-olive oil
-vinegar
-food coloring (We used Wilton Color Right food coloring: 2 drops blue mixed with one drop of yellow in about a cup of water to make robin’s egg colors, and brown for marbling.)
1. Make base dye by adding a few Tbs. vinegar to two cups of water. To this, add a few drops of food coloring. Lighter colors work best for the base.
2. Dye the hard boiled eggs in the base color until they are the desired shade. Let them dry.
3. To a small bowl, add 1/2 cup water, a Tbs. of vinegar, darker food coloring, and 1/2 tsp olive oil. Add more oil if you want less dark color when you marble. Oil shouldn’t cover the entire surface.
4. Swirl the oil with a toothpick or spoon and lower your egg into the water/oil mixture, swirling and spinning it. When you like the results, take it out and let it dry.
5.When the egg is dry, remove the excess oil with a paper towel.
The science behind the fun: Food coloring is an acid dye, so the vinegar (acetic acid) helps it bond to the egg shell. Oil is less dense than water and floats on top. When you put the egg in the oil-colored water mixture, the oil coats part of the egg, preventing it from being stained.
Epsom Salt Crystal Egg Geodes:
Have an adult cut a raw egg in half lengthwise, using a serrated knife. Wash the shell and dry it. Dye if desired.
Use a glue gun or school glue to coat the inside of the egg. Sprinkle in Epsom salt crystals and allow to harden or dry.
(Warning: Hot liquids require adult supervision.) To make the Epsom Salt crystals, dissolve 3 cups of Epsom salts in 2 cups of water by heating and stirring until no more crystals are visible. This creates a supersaturated solution. Allow the solution to cool slightly. Fill each half eggshell with Epsom salt solution. When long, needle-like crystals have formed, dump out the excess liquid and break the thin layer of crystals on top to reveal the ones in the shell.
Homemade pop rocks aren’t as fizzy as the ones you buy at the store, but they’re mighty tasty! Citric acid combines with baking soda to make carbon dioxide gas bubbles that get trapped in the candy. Adding extra citric acid and baking soda to the surface of the candy gives some extra fizz when you put them in your mouth. Trick your friends by adding a flavor that doesn’t match the color!
Leprechaun Pop Rocks (KitchenPantryScientist.com)
Warning: Ages 8 and up only. Extremely hot candy syrup. Adult supervision required.
You’ll need:
2 cups sugar
1/4 cup water
1/2 cup corn syrup
candy thermometer
baking sheet
corn starch
a few drops of food coloring
1 tsp flavoring, like orange or cherry
1/4 cup citric acid + 1 tsp to sprinkle on in final step
1 tsp baking soda plus some to sprinkle on the candy
Step 1. Coat a the bottom of an inverted baking sheet with cornstarch.
Step 2. Boil sugar, corn syrup, and water, stirring until it reaches 300 degrees F.
Step 3. Remove the hot, melted candy from heat. Stir in food coloring, flavoring, 1/4 cup citric acid and 1 tsp baking soda.
Step 4. Very carefully, pour the mixture onto the baking sheet. Do not touch!!! Sprinkle 1 tsp. citric acid evenly over the surface of the candy.
Step 5. Let the mixture cool for at least 30 minutes and the break it into small pieces. Put some of the fragments in a plastic zip lock bag and use a hammer or rolling pin to crush them into tiny pieces or powder.
Step 6. Sprinkle on a little more baking soda and shake up in the bag.
You can dye a rainbow of streaks in your hair using Kool-Aid drink mix. Practice on yarn first to perfect your technique!
Sheep’s wool and human hair are both made up of proteins called keratins, which can be dyed using chemical mixtures called acid dyes. These dyes are used to dye wool and alpaca, and some of the non-toxic ones can be used to dye human hair. Despite their name, they don’t actually contain acids. Instead, they require mild acid, such as citric acid or vinegar to be present in order for them to attach to proteins.
Kool-Aid drink mixes contain acid dyes that are perfect for dying keratin, and the color will wash away in a few washes. The mixes usually contain citric acid, but it helps to add vinegar as well to create an acidic solution. Colors will be most visible on lighter-toned hair or hair that has been chemically lightened, but you can dye dark hair too, by using more Kool-Aid mix.
Remember, Kool-Aid stains skin, fabric and other surfaces!
To dye yarn you’ll need:
100% wool yarn (white or cream, not cotton or synthetic fiber)
Kool-Aid drink mixes (powdered or liquid concentrate)
vinegar
scissors
Cut yarn into desired length and tie into bundles.
2. Soak yarn in warm water for 30 minutes.
3. In small containers, add enough vinegar to cover yarn and enough Kool-Aid to create intense colors.
4. After 30 minutes, put the wet yarn in the vinegar.
5. Soak for 30 minutes to overnight.
6. Remove yarn from dye, rinse well with cold water and hang to dry.
7. To make multi-colored yarn, soak yarn in vinegar and then squirt dye directly onto yarn. Let sit, rinse out and dry.
To dye streaks or the tips of your hair, shampoo and dry your hair. Skip the conditioner and put on an old shirt that can be stained.
Add the desired shade of Kool-Aid to vinegar in a bowl and soak the portions of your hair that you want dyed in the Kool-Aid mix for half an hour or so.
Rinse ends several times and dry. Remember that if your hair gets wet, it may transfer color to your clothes!
It’s fun to make model microbes using sculpting clay and play dough! Put them in test tubes or other small clear containers glued to a clear frame to create a microbe zoo.
Bacteria can be shaped as spheres, rods and spirals. Some types of bacteria exist as single cells, but others form chains or clump together like grapes. Viruses are smaller than bacteria and come in lots of amazing, geometrical shapes too. Certain complex viruses look a lot like space ships.
Microbe Zoo (KitchenPantryScientist.com)
Hang the zoo by your bathroom sink to remind everyone to wash their hands!
2. Soak yarn in warm water for 30 minutes.
3. In small containers, add enough vinegar to cover yarn and enough Kool-Aid to create intense colors.
5. Soak for 30 minutes to overnight.
7. To make multi-colored yarn, soak yarn in vinegar and then squirt dye directly onto yarn. Let sit, rinse out and dry.
