Mad Science Camp: Stem Challenges!

 My friend, Christine, sponsors ‘Cousins Day’.  She plans these mega-events for her family.  Christine suggested STEM Challenges.  (These are from Frugal Fun for Boys and Girls—always a great website for ideas.). Christine mentioned ‘Minute to Win It Games’ for fun competitions.  Here is one of my tips for hosting a science camp.  Include fun games.  I always plan time for recess outside after snack.  Make STEM challenges into a brief competition.  Celebrate with a round of applause.  Send home bags with cups, craft sticks and blocks for the kids to replicate the STEM challenges at home.  That is another tip; send home something with the kids.  It build excitement for the next day.

Mad Science Camp: Snow Globes

 Did you see the Photo Glitter Globes DIY at A Beautiful Mess using small, plastic snow globes? These use glycerin and glitter.   I’m hosting a science camp in June.   We’ll use benzoic acid instead.    The boys are all 12 years old.  The girls attending are around seven or eight.  I think all the kids will enjoy Benzoic Acid Blizzard in a Jar.  But, I think the girls will like making snow globes.  Here is another DIY snow globe with a photo inside.  The photo is waterproofed by sealing it with a self laminating sheet.  The easiest snow globe is a mason jar snow globe.  We hot-glue Pokémon creatures to the lid.  This is exactly the types of fun camp ideas I like to include.

Kinetic Sand

 I’m planning Mad Science Camp.  So, science toys are popping up on my social media feeds.  Did you know Buddy Valastro, the Cake Boss, is a kinetic creator?  Who know?  I need to see if I have enough Kinetic Sand on hand for Science Camp.

Toy Microscopes

 One of my Biology students asked me randomly if I wanted  more microscopes.  His dad had successfully bid on a lot of sixty microscopes.  I asked for two more.  Tuesday, A. brought them in to class.  What a surprise!  The microscopes are fantastic!  Another student, R, helped take photos with her cell phone of the slides as seen under the microscope.  Here is the brand, LabDuo-Scope Microscope.  Don’t pay more than $30.  Below are microscope images captured with a cell phone: planarian, a cross section of an earthworm, and a housefly mouth.  There is an image of the lens attachment R used to capture the images and the microscope.  BTW, the microscope images were clear; it was hard to keep the lens focused.

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Mad Science Camp!

 Two years ago I mapped out Mad Science Camp for a local group of ten year olds.  Then COVID hit.  Our community was completely locked down for months.  My friend, Jen, asked about reviving Science Camp.  We picked a week in June.  I’m in the process of revising all my materials. (Here is a post about planning your own science camp.  I’m hitting my basement next!). The kids are two years older. Too many of my plans work well for younger kids—not pre-teens.  (Here is the blog post about the Joy of Toys! camp theme with links for younger kids.). Here is the spreadsheet with notes.  Be patient!  This spreadsheet is being revised all the time!  I’m looking for Middle School Challenges which are fun.  A few of the little girls are six or seven.  My plan is to have fun activities, like Rotocopters, for the girls to do while the older kids work on an extended project, such as paper marble roller coasters.  

My husband, Rob, and I landed on Chemistry and Physics for the theme.  We consider projects from vastly different perspectives.  I looked at Marble Roller Coasters and thought about the materials and time required.  I want to see if the kids think the idea is fun.  My husband, Rob, studies the activity and considers the underlying Physics lesson—which isn’t even on my radar.  If the topic is Physics, I assume Rob can handle the science.  Truthfully, my science answers depend on the child.  I tell kids optical illusions trick your brain.  Period.  I’ll be updating the lists on the spreadsheet.  No, we won’t do every experiment.  The list is longer than one week.  I never know how long kids will spend on a given activity or project.  I want to be ready!

More Invertebrates

Here are more resources for invertebrates.  The kids are doing microscope work, paper dissections of the planarian, and several coloring pages.  Pictured below is the completed paper dissection of the planarian and a microscope slide image.  Hope these are useful!

Echinoderms Coloring

Planarian Paper Dissection

Cnidaria Coloring

Sponge Coloring

More sponge coloring

Invertebrates

 My kids are starting Kingdom Animalia tomorrow.  I want to finish the animal modules before we dissect.  The Biology Co-op groups likes to cut and paste study guides.  I assembled a set of resources for the kids to use to compare different phyla of invertebrate animals.  Here is a comparison chart.  Here is a packet to compare invertebrates.  The kids can cut the examples for their guides.  Here is a chart comparing several phyla for you to use as an answer key.  Here is the slideshow I’m using tomorrow.

Family Science: Sculpey and Shrinky Dinks!

 My knowledge of popular culture is scant.  The croc charms are called jibbitz.  Who know?  Here is another link with more instructions using shrinky dinks.  Here is an article about the science of shrinky dinks.  They are polymers, too.  Here is the link for DIY shrinky dinks with recycled plastic.

Did you see the Croc Charms DIY at A Beautiful Mess?  Let’s make this this a science project!  Here and here are science articles about polymer clay.  I’m adding liquid and solid polymer clay to my summer camp files.  The kids can build models with the Lab aid kits I have.  (See photo for an example of a polymer model.). Yes, fun Croc charms count as science.

Tie-dyed Easter Eggs

 Is is science?  Is it art?  Here is the link to the instructions to make tie-dyed Easter eggs from Better Homes and Gardens.  Go all out and tie-dye cotton shirts to wear after Church.  My favorite dyes are from Dharma Dyes.  

Fungi

 My kids are wrapping up Plants before we tackle Animals and do a series of dissections.  I added a brief Fungus unit.  Here is the worksheet.  Here is the mushroom dissection we are using.  My kids like dissections.  So, I’m going to see what mushrooms are available at Walmart. I took pix of the dissection.  The kids labeled the parts of the mushroom.

Wrapping up Plants….

My Bio Co-op class is finishing Plants before Easter.  Here is the dichotomous key for leaves quiz we used today.  Thursday, the kids are labeling the parts of a flower, as another quiz.  I don’t like to have labeling on a test.  The kids spend too much time memorizing the diagrams to the detriment of the remainder of the test.  

I assembled packets for the kids, with Monocots and Dicots, Plant Cell Steuctures, Coloring pages and a free TPT activity about plant Plant Tropisms.

Here and here are vocabulary lists for Modules 14 and 15.  Finally, here is the slideshow with pix for Module 14.  I’m finishing Module 15 and adding those slides to this presentation.  Note, the links for the images are under the slide notes.  You may find that helpful when looking for more information.  Hope this helps!