Place a lump of coal in bowl and sprinkle 1 Tbsp. salt over the coal. Carefully pour 2 Tbsp. water over salt. In the same manner, pour 2 Tbsp. of laundry bluing. Then add 2 or 3 drops of mercurochrome. Repeat with food coloring. After several days, you should have a colorful mosslike growth. If not, add a few more drops of water. This is something small children really enjoy!
By Robin from Washington, IA
This is a page about blowing up a balloon with baking soda and vinegar. The chemical reaction that takes place when you mix baking soda and vinegar can be used to blow up a balloon.
This is a page about watermelon dry ice explosion. Try this fun science experiment with your older children. It is sure to be a hit.
Here are the questions asked by community members. Read on to see the answers provided by the ThriftyFun community.
I'm looking for simple science projects for preschoolers.
Jean from Midway, PA
Preschoolers love to watch things grow. Take a zip type storage or freezer bag, put a moist paper towel inside and place a couple of the large lima beans in with the towel, Seal it and tape to a window or on a wall where the sun will shine on it. Watch it root.
Preschoolers love to watch things grow.
Place a moist paper towel in a zipper freezer bag with a few lima beans. seal it and place in a window or hang on a wall where the sun shines in and in a few days time it will begin to sprout.
Colored water in a clear glass conrainer with cut flowers (white or yellow work best) ... In a day or two they will start to streak with the colored water. Little kids love it!
Mine loved some of these hope they help:
Grow hair, have the parents send an egg to school, chip off some of the top fill with soil sprinkle with grass seed and place in egg carton that the top has been removed from have the kids put a face on the egg and wait the for the hair to grow.
tn.essortment.com/
www.suite101.com/
Here are a couple of places for more ideas. Have fun:)
One spring, we borrowed an old science fair project that was a chick incubator, got a dozen fertile eggs, and every day, took those eggs into our bathroom, without a window, turned out the lights, and "candled" the eggs, by shining a flashlight on the bottom of the eggs. For the first couple of weeks (chicks take 21 days) you can watch the developement of the circulatory system and then the first forming of the chick. After that, it is just a dark spot as the chick grows. We did this for our three little ones, and several of the preschoolers in the neighborhood who came every day to see the progress. We had half of the chicks hatch, and on that day, one or the other of the neighborhood children got to see the actual hatching of a chick. It must have really made SOME impact on us, because we moved to the country, and guess what our favorite pets are.....chickens!
Get an empty metal gas can if you can find one, warm it up with 1/4" boiling water in it so they can see steam emerging, then let it cool with the cap on tight, and they will be impressed watching the vacuum inside crush the can completely within like 20 minutes. I never forgot that one.
www.mainstreetmom.com/
Valerie
Grow a Carrot Forest
Cut the tops off some carrots (unpeeled)
Place a tissue folded, onto a saucer or plate
Wet the tissue
(note** tissue should be watered daily & kept
moist at all times)
Place the carrot tops on to the tissue
Put the saucer in a sunny window and
In a week or so, you'll have started to sprout
your very own carrot forest.
You can keep this project going for quite a while as long as you keep the tissue wet.
Making Raisins
Place an assorted variety of grapes on a plate in a sunny window, and within a week or two you will see how they turn into raisins.
Gooy Cornstarch Fun
Mix up a cup of cornstarch with a cup of water and some food colouring. Blend together well and pour into a shallow container. Let the Kids see how it settles into a "solid", but when they squish it with their hands, it becomes "liquid"....this is a fun project and an easy clean up.
Have Fun!
You could do some experiments with magnets. Have them go around discovering what else besides the fridge that magnets will stick to. Also they could do a search to see where there are magnets in the house -- ie frigde seal, cupboard latches, many toys, etc. Be sure they don't put the magnets on the tv screen or computer monitor. Magnets can also damage video and audio tapes, but it usually takes a very strong magnet.
Static electricity is nifty to experiment with. Rub a balloon on your hair, and stick the balloon to the wall. Create static on a nylon comb and then attract or repell little styrofoam balls or bits of paper. A nifty trick is to stick the paper sleeve from a plastic straw to the wall after you remove it from the straw.
You could make a "volcano" with baking soda and vinegar. Or you can put some vinegar in a pop bottle -- say 1/4 cup-- and a couple tablespoons of baking soda into a balloon. Pull the top of the balloon over the top of the bottle and the baking soda will fall into the vinegar. Shake or swirl it abit to dissolve the baking soda, and the balloon will "blow itself up" as the baking soda neutralizes in the vinegar and creates carbon dioxide.
Cooking is good science for kids too. Bake something with regular yeast, so the kids can see the yeast grow in the sugar and water solution. They can smell the yeast to find out that it is giving off gas, which is what will cause their bread to rise that they will bake with you!!! Growing yeast will also blow up a balloon, but it takes a little bit longer than the baking soda and vinegar.
Have fun.
Louise, Nipawin, SK, Canada
I remember in first grade growing bean seeds in little milk cartons. It was so fun watering and watching the beans grow. We got to take them home when they got big enough.
Freeze water in large containers. When solid, pop out of the container. Tint table salt with liquid water colors and dry thoroughly. Let kids sprinkle the colored salt on to the ice. The salt creates holes and the color allows the kids to see the melting process. You will definitely hear OOOHs and AHHHS!
If you live in an area with white flowers like Queen Anne's Lace you can demonstrate osmosis by putting them in colored water.
I'd be careful to give pre-schoolers anything but BIG magnets that they can't swallow.
We like to take cornstarch and water add food coloring to it and it become ooblick. My boys have had hours of fun playing with their dinosaurs in it.
Adopt a Manatee. Go to www.savethemanatee.org. They will send you a list and a description of the manatees that need to be adopted. The manatees are usually ones that were injured by blades from boats. Then you pick one and for a small fee they will send you a birth certificate and a picture of your new family member. Gary Dominicus
Cut open a diaper and pull out the fluffy stuff mix with water and you have diaper slime, its messy but kids love that and one diaper makes a ton!
I am looking for some good Science Fair project ideas.
By jazz
Not knowing your age or your mechanical ability this could be challenging. You can go chemical and build a volcano and use chemicals to make it explode. You can go electronic and make a crystal radio.
If your a programmer you can write a program that takes a set of numbers and gives you the character set equivalent I.E. here is a random phone number 626-8147 it could spell.
m a m t 1 g p
n b n u 1 h r
o c b v 1 i s
hmmm... doesn't spell anything, bad example but still a good idea.
You could make and explain a water clock.
You could make and explain a fulcrum and give examples of how fulcrums are used today.
Give me more details about you and the science fair and I can probably come up with a lot more ideas. I time period would help too.
Ooo. I just had a fun idea. If you are into military tactics you could build an example of the Roman Phalanx and write up how affective it was in combat situations for the Roman empire. Not purely science but there is science in it. If you want to see how effective it was watch the movie 300.
When I was in high school, these were my science fair projects.
One year, I showed how different chemical solutions would burn different colors in a flame. For example, a copper solution makes the flame green whereas another one (which I have long forgotten now) would turn it red or purple.
The next year, I created a hologram, using a laser and a sandbox on innertubes. That was pretty neat! I'm sure I got the plans and the supplies from my teacher in both instances.
If you are stuck, I would talk to your science teacher and see what he/she suggests. It would also be helpful to know what sort of science you are interested in: physics, biology, chemistry, etc.
Good luck!
I am not sure what age group you are taliking about. I saw a fun one at my daughter's school. This girl had used coffee filters and a vaccum hose to prove there is little difference between high and low nicotine cigarettes. The girl wanted to get her dad to quit smoking. Just an idea. :)
This may or may not be too low-tech for you, but should be okay whatever your age group, provided you're a month or so from your science fair. As I recall, most science fairs are in February or March, but that's been awhile ago; my youngest kid is 21.
How about planting two identical seeds in two identical pots. Put one in a sunny place and the other in the closet, cabinet, or other dark place. Otherwise, treat them the same (same amounts of water, fertilizer or plant food.) Notate the difference and explain why there were different results with the two plants.
Thanks for all the great ideas. Hope I can come up with something and I'm 17.
I am looking for a website that has quality, low cost (or free using stuff at home) easy science projects and/or experiments for a first or second grader. Any recommendations? Thanks.
By mindy
I would see if you can find a home school forum. There would probably be all kinds of projects for kids to do that are 1st and 2nd grade level.
When we were snowed in with a blizzard earlier this month, I was going through all our On Demand channels to try and keep us entertained. I found Activity TV. The projects they had through On Demand were pretty good, so I took a look at their website. They have many different sections, including Science. Here is a link to their science experiments:
www.activitytv.com/
I liked their Double Density experiment, and it's at a beginner level, so hopefully your 1st/2nd grader could do it. Hope you find something that works for you!
Is there a way to make a really cool thing to demonstrate how bread rises?
By Sarah from Ireland
A Yeast Bread lecture and demonstration preparing loaf bread, one of the classes of yeast breads with a lab having the students prepare their own Loaf Bread following the techniques and skills of bread making.
Yeast Bread Study Sheet
Information of Yeast Breads
Cool Rise White Bread
Lab Planning SheetYeast Bread Recipes
Bread Home Assignment
Ingredients needed for demonstration and for each unit to prepare Cool Rise White Bread:
3 1/2 cups flour
1 tbs. yeast
1/2 tsp. sugar
1/4 cup warm water
7/8 cup milk
1 tbs. sugar
1 1/2 tsp. salt
1 1/2 tbs. margarine or shortening
cooking oil
masking tape
Ingredients for yeast experiment:
3 small custard cups
3 tbs. yeast
3 tsp. sugar
hot water
warm water
cold water with ice cubes
Attachments
Lab_Planning_Sheet.jpg
Yeast_Bread_Study_Sheet.doc
Yeast_Bread_Study_Sheet_Key.doc
Information_on_Yeast_Breads.doc
Cool_Rise_White_Bread.doc
Yeast_Bread_Recipes.doc
Home_Assignment_Form.doc
Lab_Planning_Sheet.pdf
Yeast_Bread_Study_Sheet.pdf
Yeast_Bread_Study_Sheet_KEY.pdf
Information_on_Yeast_Breads.pdf
Cool_Rise_White_Bread.pdf
Yeast_Bread_Recipes.pdf
Home_Assignment_Form.pdf
Background For Teachers:
The teacher needs to have a basic understanding about yeast breads; the characteristics that identify them; how to prepare them using different methods; identify and know how to prepare the three classes of yeast breads - loafs, rolls, and deep-fat fried; identify the basic ingredients and their functions; know words like leavening, proofing, rising, ripe test, carbon dioxide as they pertain to yeast breads.
This demonstration and lab will take the students through all of the steps during class to prepare a loaf of bread as the bread rises in the refrigerator for up to 48 hours. It is baked the following class period.
Because it is a cool rise bread, it contains more yeast than a regular bread recipe for one loaf of bread. Some of the students may think this bread tastes a little yeasty, but they will devour it anyway. It is an excellent recipe for the students to see how to make loaf bread during a class period.
You will need to watch the time very closely to lecture, demonstrate and have the students complete their lab. It could be done in two days.
Student Prior Knowledge:
The student needs to know what yeast breads are and how they differ from quick breads. They should know how to prepare different yeast breads using different methods and what ingredients are used in the making of yeast breads.
Intended Learning Outcomes:
The student should be able to identify the characteristics and ingredients used in yeast breads from quick breads, and how to prepare them as rolls, loaf breads or deep-fat fried.
Instructional Procedures:
Hand out the Bread Home Assignment and the Yeast Bread Recipes. The recipes contain several bread recipes that may be used for their home assignment. Some of the other recipes are my favorites and some will be used in later labs.
There will be two home assignments for this yeast bread unit. One will be to prepare some homemade bread at home and the other to prepare rolls that will be given at a later date. The students can prepare one of the recipes in the packet or one that their family prefers. The student needs to bring the paper signed, identify the recipe used and attach a slice of bread for credit. It will be due the day of the test.
Go over the recipes in the packet to identify the ingredients, time it takes to prepare and how many loaves each recipe will make. I tell the students that they need to prepare the bread at home and not use a bread machine. I want them to mix the ingredients together, knead the dough, let it rise, shape the bread in a bread pan, let it rise again and bake it for credit.
Hand out the Yeast Bread Study Sheet, Information on Yeast Breads and recipe for Cool Rise White Bread.
Lecture on Yeast Breads as you demonstrate preparing the Cool Rise White Bread for the class. Use the study sheet as a guide.
Talk about the differences between Quick Breads and Yeast Breads.
What is yeast? Show the importance of the temperature of the water through an experiment. Have three custard cups on the countertop with three different temperatures of water - Warm water, cold water that has had ice cubes in it and hot water that has been heated in the microwave. Sprinkle in some yeast and sugar, stir and have the students observe during the lab the changes that occur. Discuss these with the class on the importance of the temperature of the water.
Demonstration: Prepare the recipe for the Cool Rise White Bread explaining and going through the steps. While kneading the dough, talk about the ingredients, their functions, the nutritional value of bread, classes, etc. After the dough is kneaded sufficiently, let the dough rest.
Lab: The students will quickly prepare the recipe for the Cool Rise White Bread as it was demonstrated in class. When they are kneading the dough, I like every student to have an opportunity to practice kneading the dough. If there are four students in the unit, each student needs to knead the dough for 2 - 2 1/2 minutes each. After their dough is kneaded, let it rest.
Demonstration: Have the students watch how you shape the dough while their dough is resting. If the students want to make Cinnamon Swirl with their dough I will show them how to do it. Once the dough is rolled out into a rectangle, lightly spread some water on the top, sprinkle with sugar and cinnamon. Continue to shape according to directions. Put shaped loaf into bread pan. Brush oil on the top and cover with saran wrap and label dough.
Lab: Students will go back to their units and shape their dough. Put it in the bread pan, cover with saran wrap and labeled and put in the refrigerator to rise until next class period.
Allow enough time for the students to complete lab and demonstration. Make sure the units are clean before they leave, especially the countertops. Good luck.
Hello, How about this? Hollow out a loaf of already baked bread and then insert a balloon. ( I would use an oblong balloon) The middle of the loaf will fall just a little, but you can insert the balloon and blow it up to demonstrate how the process works? Good luck, this was just a thought.
Baking soda and vinegar make a dramatic foaming volcano to make with your kids. Save a party hat for the classic cone shape or make one yourself.
This is a page about mysteries of makeup science project. An interesting project for a school science fair can be created focusing on makeup, its science, a bit of history, safety standards, and more.
