Last week the boys had a blast doing a variety of interesting science activities. We talked briefly about the difference between experiments and demonstrations. I tried to encourage them to work as a group to record their observations and reflections on the simple log I made, but they were a little too excited to get into the written component. We did a variety of activities exploring static electricity, air and movement, the amazing surface tension of water, the effect of salt on water density and freezing temperature, and more, but the award-winner for the day had to be the ivory soap in the microwave. Some of the activities flopped (like bending water), and some could have been better if I had realized I only had two straws left in my box of straws (oops), but the boys had a lot of fun overall. Here’s a document with the activities we did in case you want to revisit any of them. Please note the websites that I found them from. I didn’t come up with any of these on my own. Most of that document in fact is cut and pasted from other websites, (namely All for the Boys, Science-Sparks, Toys in the Dryer) so my apologies for the blatant plagiarism, but I wanted to put it in an easy format for us to use.
The boys had special permission to get up on the counter to watch the soap in the microwave. I doubt I could have stopped them anyhow!
Ivory soap after the microwave... I would definitely recommend the parchment paper.
We ended the gathering with a special treat. I don’t often have them fill up on sugar, but after watching ivory soap expand in the microwave, I felt it only appropriate to do the same thing with marshmallows. Each pair of boys got to make their own little dish of rice crispy treat goo to share. They loved it!
- How are marshmallows, similar to ivory soap? They are both made with a lot of air and react similarly in the microwave!
