My Science School

What you need:

A clean wooden stick, Water, Sugar, A clothespin, A tall, narrow glass jar, A pan, Food colour (optional), Paper towel

What to do:

Heat water in a pan. Bring it to a boil. Ask help from an adult for doing this. Keep adding in sugar to the boiling water one spoon at a time. Wait for one batch to dissolve before you add the next spoon. There will come a time when no more sugar can dissolve into the water. Stop adding the sugar then and allow the water to cool down.

Dip the wooden stick into the sugar solution and then roll it in some sugar (on a plate). Let it dry completely.

If you want, add food colour into the solution, the darker the better.

Pour the sugar water into the glass jar filling it almost to the top.

Clip the stick to the clothespin. Let the pin rest on the mouth of the jar as the stick is submerged into the sugar water. It should hang straight without touching the sides of the jar. Leave the jar undisturbed for a week. You can keep monitoring it though. Cover the top with a paper towel to keep dirt out.

What happens?

Sugar crystals start to grow on the stick. By the end of a week, you have candy on a stick! Why? You made a super saturated' solution when you mixed sugar into the water until it could hold no more. Heating the water added to its capacity of letting sugar dissolve. But once the water cooled, it could not hold that much sugar. So it started forming crystals again. More crystals form as the water evaporates.

The reason these crystals form on the stick is because the stick already had some sugar crystals on it which acted as 'grabbing points for the other crystals.

Picture Credit : Google

What you need:

An empty matchbox and matchsticks

What to do:

Poke the rear end of one of the matchsticks through the front of the empty matchbox to make it stand erect Make the second matchstick lean against the first one so that their tips are touching. Use a third match to set fire to the middle of the second one.

What happens?

From the centre of the second matchstick, the fire spreads upwards to its tip as well as downwards. As the tip of the first match catches fire, the second one starts to rise up. Blow out the flame and the second match stays suspended in mid-air!

Why?

The trick is to set fire to the centre of the second matchstick. When the flame starts spreading, it burns up most of the matchstick's weight, making it lighter.

When the flame reaches the tip of the leaning match and the erect match, both catch fire simultaneously and get fused together by the heat.

This fusion allows the erect stick to hold the almost minimal weight of the leaning one. That's how we get the levitating matchstick.

Picture Credit : Google

What you need:

Thick, smooth card paper or cardboard, a tub, water, liquid dishwashing soap and a toothpick.

What to do:

1. To make your boat, cut the card into the shape of a rectangle. Then diagonally trim off the upper corners to make a triangular head. To make the rear end, cut out a small triangle inside like the one shown in the figure:

2. Fill the tub with water.

3. Dip the toothpick into the liquid soap. Use the toothpick to delicately coat the sides of the rear triangle with the soap.

4. Now place the boat in the water.

What happens?

Once the boat touches the water, it shoots across the water for a few seconds.

Why?

The answer lies in surface tension.

Surface tension is the force that keeps the molecules of a liquid bound to each other at the surface of the liquid. This makes the top of a liquid act like an elastic sheet, one you need to push through if you want to go deeper into it. Try dipping your finger into water and you'll understand. Soap is a surfactant. A surfactant is a substance which can reduce the surface tension of a liquid. By that it means, that it can loosen the bond between the molecules at the surface of the liquid. That's exactly what the soap does.

Once the boat is put into the water, the soap on its rear end starts separating the surface molecules and reducing the surface tension. However, there is no soap on the front part of the boat. Which means a sort of difference is created in the surface tension between the front and back zones. The higher surface tension zone pulls the boat towards itself and the boat shoots forward! Once the soap spreads through the water, the surface tension equals out and the boat stops moving. To make it shoot forward again, you'll need a tub of fresh water.

Picture Credit : Google

What you need:

Gelatin (available at any general store), Corn flour (source from the kitchen or from a general store), water, light green food colour or poster colour (food colour makes the snot edible!), a pan, a fork, a cup to measure everything

What to do:

Pour half a cup of water in the pan. Bring it to a boil. Then remove it from over the heat.

Add three teaspoons of gelatin to the water. Add in a few drops of green colour.

Let the mixture sit for a minute so it softens up. Stir it with a fork then. Add in a quarter cup of com flour. Keep stirring the mixture with a fork.

What happens?

Using the fork, start ‘lifting’ the mixture. There should be strands formed as the mixture cools.

If the strands thicken too much as they cool, add some water to the mixture, a little at a time. If it's too thin, add more com flour.

Why?

Real mucus is made of sugars and protein. Both are polymers. A polymer is a large molecule made of repeating blocks of smaller molecules. That long, sticky, stretchy texture of mucus comes from its polymer composition.

For making fake snot, we use gelatin which is a protein and com starch which is sugar. When they are added to warm water, they link together to form a polymer, which makes it feel like the real thing.

Picture Credit : Google

This recipe shows how to make enough pizza for you and a friend!

You Will Need:

• 1 muffin, sliced in two halves
• 100 grams tomato sauce
• pizza toppings, such as green peppers, mushrooms, onions
• 56 grams mozzarella cheese, shredded

What To Do:

1. Ask an adult to help you preheat the oven to 200°C.

2. Wash your hands.

3. Place the muffin halves on a baking sheet. Spread tomato sauce on top of the muffins.

4. Layer your favourite toppings on top of the sauce.

5. Sprinkle cheese over the toppings.

6. Ask an adult to help you bake the pizza for five minutes, or until the cheese melts.

Picture Credit : Google

These healthy snacks are fun to make and eat with a friend!

You Will Need:

• thick slices or chunks of fruit such as pineapple, pear, and banana
• cubes of cheese
• chunks of cooked meat, such as chicken and ham
• raw vegetables, such as cucumber, courgette, lettuce and whole cherry tomatoes
• toothpicks or kebab sticks

What To Do:

1. Wash your hands.

2. Clean the fruit and vegetables. Then ask an adult to help you slice the fruit, cheeses, meat, and vegetables.

3. On a toothpick or kebab stick, put a combination of any of the foods listed here.

Which combination makes your mouth water?

Picture Credit : Google

Are you ready to try something new and good for you? Enjoy this tasty treat any day of the week!

You Will Need:

• 3 kinds of fresh fruit, such as sliced strawberries, blueberries, sliced peaches, sliced bananas, grapes, or sliced apples
• a bowl
• 1 small container low-fat or non-fat yoghurt, any flavour
• a spoon
• muesli
• raisins

What To Do:

1. Wash your hands.

2. Rinse the fruit and put it into the bowl. If you need to slice the fruit, ask an adult for help.

3. Spoon the yoghurt on top of the fruit.

4. Sprinkle on a little muesli.

5. Sprinkle on some raisins.

Eat. Yum!

Picture Credit : Google

Birthdays, holidays, and starting school are milestones on your journey through life. Losing pets and people who are close to you also are milestones. In between the milestones are other special times. A good way to remember your thoughts and feelings about special moments, people, and animals is to collect your memories in a book.

You Will Need:

• lightweight card
• a pencil or pen
• crayons or felt-tipped pens
• copies or scans of photographs
• souvenirs, such as programmes, brochures, ticket stubs, or stickers
• glue
• a fine-line marker
• a hole punch
• yarn, brass fasteners, or a ring binder

What To Do:

1. Gather photographs and souvenirs of the special moments you would like to remember. Get permission to use them first, or make copies or scans. Or draw your own pictures.

2. Arrange your pictures and souvenirs on the lightweight card. Then glue them in place.

3. Use a felt-tipped pen to write information about the pictures and objects. Include dates, places, and your feelings. Draw fancy borders, too. If you need help, ask an adult.

4. Make a cover for your book.

5. Put your pages in any order you like. Use the hole punch to make holes along one side of each page. Fasten the pages together using yarn or brass fasteners, or place them in a ring binder. If you use a binder, you can tape your cover to the front of the binder. Leave blank pages at the back so you can add more memories as you grow.

Share your book with friends and family.

Picture Credit : Google

Have fun sharing feelings with a friend. Get together with a friend. Then each of you make a puppet.

You Will Need:

• 4 paper plates
• 2 lollipop sticks
• glue or stickytape
• crayons or felt-tipped pens
• lightweight card
• yarn

What To Do:

1. On the front of one plate, use crayons or felt-tipped pens to draw a happy face. On the front of another plate, draw a sad face. You can glue yarn to the plates for hair. You can also add clothes and other decorations.

2. Glue or tape a lollipop stick to the back of one of the plates, as shown. This will be the handle for your puppet.

3. Glue the back sides of the two plates together.

4. With your friend, take turns saying things that make you happy or sad, such as, "going to the park" or "having an injection". Then hold up the side of the plate that shows how that thing makes you feel. Get the puppets to talk to each other about their feelings.

You can make many puppets with different feelings. Their faces can look angry, surprised, or scared.

Picture Credit : Google

Whether your family is large or small, there is always something new to tell each other. A newspaper is one way that people find out about things. You can get all kinds of important information from them. Make a family newspaper and share the news!

You Will Need:

• big sheets of plain
• paper (or small ones taped together)
• coloured pencils
• copies or scans of photographs or drawings of people in your family

What To Do:

1. Think of a name for your family newspaper. What will you call it? Ask an adult to help you write the name across the top of the front page of your newspaper. Use big letters.
2. Next, add news stories. What has happened to people in your family? Maybe a relative had a baby, someone graduated from college, or someone moved. You can write the stories yourself or ask someone to help you. You can also ask people in your family to write stories, and you can paste them on the paper. Try to include news about everyone including stepbrothers, stepsisters, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins. Don't forget to give your stories headlines, or titles.
3. Add pictures to some of the stories. You can draw pictures with crayons or felt-tipped pens. You can also paste on copies and printouts of pictures.

Share your newspaper with your family when you have finished. If any of your relatives live far away, you could send them a copy of your newspaper. They will be happy to hear the news!

Picture Credit : Google

Try these tests and find out. You need two or more people. One person is the tester. The others are the players.

You Will Need:

• a blindfold for each player
• spoons or forks for each player
• foods with different flavours, such as a lemon, salty crackers, butter, vinegar, raw apple, raw potato, onion, jam, honey, pudding

What To Do For Taste Tests:

1. Prepare a number of testers by placing different foods in bowls or on plates. Don't let the players see them.

2. Ask each player to put on a blindfold. Ask the players to pinch their noses and take a small taste of a food.

3. After every player has tasted the food, ask each one to name the taste. If no one can name it, let the players try it without pinching their noses.

4. Repeat with the different foods. Take turns being the tester.

Which foods were easiest to name? Which ones were more difficult?

You Will Need:

• a blindfold for each player
• 10 small jars with lids
• 10 different foods or spices that have strong odours, such as vanilla, peanut butter, onion, sage, cinnamon, and peppermint

What To Do For Smell Tests:

1. Prepare a number of different "smell" jars by placing a small bit of each food or spice in each jar. Don't let the players see them.

2. Get each player to put on a blindfold. Open a jar and allow each player to smell it pretty closely.

3. After every player has smelled the jar, ask each one to name the smell.

4. Repeat with the different smell jars. Take turns being the tester.

After the players have smelled all the jars, ask them which smells were easiest to name.

Picture Credit : Google