Edutainment: 3 Educational Science Experiments

These are three entertaining and educational science experiments you can use at home or in the classroom. You probably already have everything you will need in your kitchen.

I - OOBLECK

OObleckis both fun science as well as creative fun for kidlings from kindergarten to preteen youngsters. No worries with the clean up either, it's a cinch!

You will need;

1, Alarge bowl
2, A box of corn starch
3, About a quart of water

OObleck is made by combining equal parts of water and corn starch than blending it by hand. More water can be added as desired to keep the fun going as the oobleck dries a bit after a playing a while.

You can also add colors to your oobleck, just a few drops of food coloring makes the "goo" change colors. Plain white can be fun with no additions at all. When it leans towards liquid it draws long threads when the hands are swung in a arc, when it is more solid (less water) it becomes a strange tacky clay dough. It can be squeezed to an apparently dry lump in the hand, or allowed to ooze slowly through slightly open squeezing fingers, it all depends on how hard you squeeze it. It's hours worth of silky feeling fun in a bowl, just one box of corn starch can allow for a whole afternoon of fun indoors or out.

Out doors plants and lawns can be easily hosed down and are not effected at all by a puddle containing cornstarch at their roots. To clean up indoors just wait for it to dry and vacuum it away. It's a harmless white powder that is easily cleaned or brushed off of any common home surface, though I would not quite allow it in a room with a silk sofa, most common household fabrics are safe with it. It does not even effect your hair, just brush it out when it's dry. Clean up is amazingly painless for something that is so much wonderfully gooey fun.

II. Fire, how to put it out.

Another, easy to create, science project that I liked to do with my son and his friends was to demonstrate the three ways to extinguish fire. This one needs to have constant close supervision as long as the candle burns or as long as the matches are available.

You will need;

1, An old or inexpensive taper style candle about three or four inches long
2, A large tub
3, A large glass jar with a metal lid
4, An all metal scissor
5, Matches

Fire needs to breath.
To eliminate oxygen I used a candle and stood on the inside of a turned up lid of an old glass pickle large jar. I lit the candle and dripped a small puddle of wax in the center of the metal lid. Place the candle standing in the puddle. Allow the candle to get burning well, then put the glass jar down onto it's, still upside down lid. Screw the jar onto the lid keeping the jar upside down and the candle right side up.. After a few moments the oxygen in the jar will be burnt up, no new oxygen can get into the jar, the candle would go out by itself.

Fire needs to be kept warm.
To eliminate heat, relight the candle and set the burning candle, still on the jar lid, in a deep tub. Slowly fill the tub with water from the edge in order to remove the heat from the wax puddle atop the burning candle. When the water in the tub reached the base of the wick stop adding water. The candle will go out because the water takes the heat away from the fire.

Fire needs to be fed.
The third way to put out a fire is to remove it's fuel. This experiment ruins the candle so save it for last. Cut the candle so that it is only a quarter to a half of an inch tall. Place it on the jar lid that you used in the first experiment and light it. When all of the wax has been burnt off the candle will go out as it has no more fuel to burn.

III. Water is always fun, learning about viscosity makes it more fun.

A third experiment you might want to do with your children has to do with changing the viscosity of water and the changes effect on objects in the water. Viscosity refers to how 'liquid' the water is.

You will need;

1, A dish pan,
2, Aluminum foil
3, Liquid dish detergent
4. An old medicine dropper or a small squeeze dropper bottle

Allow them to fashion small (one or one and a half inch) boats from aluminum foil, boats with two tail fins on either side of the back will work best. Float the boats in a dish pan of water. When the boats are floating perfectly still, show them how just one drop of liquid detergent added directly behind the boat, between the fins will propel the boat forward. Once the water has soap added to it, you will need another fresh pan of water to repeat the experiment. Rinse the dishpan as well as the foil boats before you do it again. It is a game that can go on for quite a while if the garden hose is used to rinse and refill the dishpan.