DIY CSI!

 Okay, maybe you’re not excited about creating a camp.  Let’s plan a morning of science with CSI.  Start here with projects from Home Science Tools.  Have fun!

1.  Make a kit.  Here is a DIY kit from Education.  

2.  Dust for finger prints The kit includes cocoa powder.  Here are instructions to use cocoa powder to dust for finger prints.  Here is an article describing different types of finger prints.

3.  Invite a police officer.  Explain you are hosting a morning of science.  Ask him or her to help!  We invited a police officer who taught the kids how to investigate a crime scene and how to take finger prints.  The kids also asked loads of questions.  

4.  Test blood types.  This CSI Blood test lab uses milk, food coloring, and vinegar to simulate blood testing.  The activity is cheap and effective.  

5. Paper Chromatography.  This forensic lab is all about a note written in ink and left at the crime scene.  The lab specifies which ink pens will separate in alcohol.  Try the pens with both ethanol and isopropyl alcohol to see which lab works well.

6. Insects.  Here is background on Crime Solving Insects.

7.  Handwriting Analysis.  Here is a lesson on handwriting analysis.

Cardboard STEM

 I have camp projects on my brain.  I’m in the middle of planning VBS, Science Camp, and Faith Camp.  (Faith Camp is for kids who are behind in receiving the Sacraments.  VBS I’d for everyone.). I’m looking for fun activities, especially for kids 5-10 years old.  Cardboard is cheap.  KiwiCo has many interesting Cardboard projects.  Below are several ideas for cardboard STEM projects.

1. Spirograph.  Here is one version that just uses painter’s tape and cardboard.  Here is a cake pan Spirograph—similar to using a roll of painter’s tape.  This version is a bit more complicated and requires a hot glue gun.

2.  Spinners. Here are cardboard penny spinners. Use these templates.  Here are paper plate spinners with templates.  Take the same templates and make spinning tops or Spinner Toy or Crayola Paper Spinners.  BTW, a Benham’s Disk produces the illusion of color.

3. Claw.  The simple claw is this Articulated Grabber.  This one is similar and uses toothpicks instead of brass fasteners or paper fasteners.  This version has the option to make a grabber with craft sticks. Try this Robot hand.

4.  Automata.  Exploratorium’s Cardboard Automata has detailed instructions with several versions.  Science Buddies has this Cardboard Automata that’s a moving caterpillar.  Here is the Automaton Butterfly from Instructables.  

Biology Escape Room

 I had to share this idea, a Biology Escape Room.  The post is from a Co-op instructor.  Escape Rooms have become popular science instructional tools.  Here are instructions for making your own escape room.  Fun, right?

Earth Science Stuff

One unsung subject is Earth Science.  Let me round-up some resources.   NSF has these classroom worksheets; here is a sampler.  These are stand-alone lessons, such as the Thunderstorm activity with an aluminum pie plate or Soil Sleuth, a soil filtration lab.   Here are the top 17 Earth Science Experiments, including Orange Peel Plate Tectonics.  Try NASA Science at Home activities.  These are video lessons.  Take a look at Shadow Chasing.  Tap on the right for support materials.  This NASA page has several GLOBE activities: Seasons, Air Quality, Soils, and Earth System.  This same site has links to the Challenger Library, Astronomy Picture of the Day, and the Scientific Visualization Studio.  NASA has a plethora of resources, which like GLOBE can be hard to locate.  NASA Science at Home Activities seems to be a means of consolidating different educational  outreach initiatives.  Here is the NOVA collection of video.  Be sure to try a few edible, Earth Science labs: Edible Earth, Layers of the Earth Pudding Cups, Edible Rocks, Edible Aquifer, and Edible Plate Tectonics.  Do a combination of labs and videos.  If you are looking for a textbook, Apologia’s Young Explorers Series has this Elementary Earth Science Curriculum.  Here is a textbook and notebook sample. Here is a sample from the Junior Notebook.  The Young Explorer’s Series uses one textbook but has two levels of notebooks.  Please, try these resources at home!  If you add a few edible labs, you’ll develop very enthusiastic scientists.

Are you sure I can host a science camp?

I have had loads of experience hosting science camps, VBS, and various outreach events. In another life, I told teens to the local elementary school and spent the morning leading 150 kindergarten students through a dozen experiments.  But, many people are intimidated by the idea of planning an entire camp.  Let me share a few more tips.

1.  Don’t go it alone.  Enlist a team.  Our church in WV had a home-school Co-op which met for math and science.  Our church also hosted two Head Start classes in the Knights’ building behind the church.  The kids in the Co-op science classes helped plan quarterly outreach events.  We led 24 four year olds through five rotating stations.  There were ten kids helping, with the Head Start teachers on stand-by.  I don’t lead a station at events; instead I trouble-shoot to make sure things are moving along.  I always need help.  Ideally, I recruit adult help.  However teen help is often more available.  My husband partners in nearly all of these events.

2.  Create a team of moms.  Is this your first time trying to host a science camp?  Get a few mom friends together.  Go over the activities.  Have a list of materials required.  See who already has some of the materials.  Ask each mom to help with camp and lead an activity. 

3. Keep Camp limited the first time.  Do a few trials.  Right now I’m constrained by space.  I’m limiting Science Camp to ten kids because we’re using my basement and backyard. Try a morning of science or a one day camp.  This will help you gauge how long activities take.  BTW many times you need more activities than you expect.  

4. Prep with your volunteers.  Encourage volunteers to arrive 15 minutes early.  For me that means having the teens over to review all of the activities. I show them where supplies are.  Ideally we make samples: Cartesian diver, vortex tube, etc.  The kids know to help themselves to supplies. Each morning we make sure we have everything ready.  Volunteers stay to help clean up and sort supplies each day after Camp.

5. How old are your campers?  I’m comfortable having kids ages 4–12 as campers.   Usually kids ten and up are teen helpers.  It depends on the child’s leadership qualities.  In one case, Pia, eight led kids in her group who were ten and eleven who just wanted to participate.  The first time, it’s prudent to target kids ages five to ten.  Children under five might not be ready.

Try it!  You and two other families try a morning of science.  Pop a bowl of popcorn for Snack.  Look over Joy of Toys.  See what you have on hand and do those activities.  Get feed-back from the moms and kids.  What worked?  What was just too hard?  Use this experience to boost your confidence.  

Science Camp Tips

 I have some experience hosting science camps.  Originally, I held summer, science camps at private schools where I taught.  The children were from wealthy families.  I made sure the experiments worked and were fun.  Later, some of my home-school friends asked me to host a science scamp after VBS at our church.  The pastor gave us the green light, provided any interested child could attend.  Science Camp proved to be very popular; unlike private school camps, I needed new themes every year.  Here are a few tips.

1.  Save loads of recycled goods.  I keep a crate for aluminum soda cans for Can Crush.  This is an emergency lab, in case everything I planned took only ten minutes.  I look for labs which use plastic bottles, such as water bottles for Bubble Snakes or 1 L or 2 L bottles for vortex tubes or Cartesian divers or Condiment Diver.  You’ll need many, many containers to make slime, chalk, etc.  Wash out yogurt containers.  

2.  Enlist help.  I rely on teens and retired friends because moms are counting on Science Camp for a break. See who can lend a hand.  Two teens per group of ten is ideal.  Each team needs a captain.  The captain assigns jobs to the kids: cheer-leader, pass out materials, collect materials, clean-up, get snack, etc.  Teen captains should rotate jobs.  We go outside in lines.  There is a different line-leader and door-holder every day.  Give your teens these tips in advance.  

3. Box things up.  You can see boxes lining the wall below.  Go through every activity and put goods into boxes as kits.  Mark the box in large letters.  I shove the boxes under the table, sorted by day.  I also keep a table organized with general equipment: craft sticks, recycled containers, paper, scissors, etc.  Keep household chemicals together in one box and grocery bags in another box.  Bins and shoeboxes are useful, too.  Each activity can be sorted in a bin or shoebox and assigned to each team.  

4.  Plan Start-up activities.  Day One of Camp the kids make giant posters with team names, mascots, and cheers. Below is a photo of the Bubble Monkeys and their posters.  It adds to the fun.  The kids arrive at different times—some  are there ready for Camp when you arrive: Head Harps, Secret Bells, Spinning Penny, Bee Hummer, Science Coloring pages,or Paper Spinners.  Select easy activities. My chief management strategy is to keep kids busy.  Have ten extra activities for the kids to do as start-up or if they finish early.  Give them choices whether to do another Start-up activity, color, or help a friend with their project.  

5.  Plan games, chants, cheers, and songs.  Science Camp is supposed to be fun.  Teach them Tom the Toad or There’s a Hole in the Bottom of the Sea.  We are partial to Herman the Worm.  Kids love hand motions, too.  We start and close Camp with songs, chants, and cheers.

6.  Say Grace.  Here are fun Graces to say.  (Superstition says that Johnny Appleseed brings rain.  Just saying.). We do a Star Wars Grace.  Here is a Star Wars Lunch Prayer.  We do a different Grace everyday.

7.  Collect newspapers and plastic covers for tables.  We save loads of time and simply roll up the table cloth and pitch the whole mess into the garbage.  One of my favorite families volunteered to help clean up after VBS and Science Camp.  Enlist help!  

Have extra activities just in case the kids run through everything planned in ten minutes.  Have extra games, songs, cheers, etc, just in case.  If it’s raining, it is not cheating to run a Veggie Tale video after Snack for 15 minutes or so.  We keep Snack simple—leftovers from VBS, water, and lemonade.  Really.  We have huge bowls of popcorn and pretzels for Snack.  Leave room for ideas from the kids.  Kids are always bringing in something they want to share with Camp.  Have at it!  Here’s hoping your Camp is amazing.

Science Camp: Joy of Toys!

Update: I’m adding to the plans whenever I think of another idea, such as Seek and Find Bottles.  The plans in the spreadsheet are a work in progress.

One of my favorite Camp themes is the Joy of Toys.  There are loads of science toys who can make.  I usually have a big mix of fun activities with inexpensive toys, such as mini-copters and balancing birds.  Here is the link with plans and loads of activities.  Joy of Toys was the theme for National Chemistry Week.  Here is the page with electronic resources, many of which are still live: Science Toy Maker, Creative Chemistry, and Chymist.  Celebrating Chemistry: The Joy of Toys has plans for Air Rockets, Zippy, Zappy Boats, It’s a Gas, Cartesian divers and Bouncing Ball.  Here are science toys from Flinn and Educational Innovations to use for more ideas.  

The plans have a $250 budget for 25 children.  The budget should give you an idea about supplies needed for Camp.  Start saving recycling materials.   You’ll need yogurt cups to mix experiments, bottles (1 or 2 liter bottles work well.) for Cartesian divers and vortex tubes, recycled containers (#6) for shrinky dinks, paper rolls, styrofoam plates, cups, jars for snow globes, plastic bags (to send home materials), CDs or DVDs for spinners, etc.  (Ask the thrift store to save CDs for you.). This camp requires household goods such as shaving cream, tape, straws, and toothpicks.  Start looking at the activities to see what you need, such as tennis balls or 35 mm film cartridges for the Alka-Seltzer rockets. See what you have on hand, such as scrap wood to make balance boards or stomp catapults.  Have a blast!  This is going to be the best summer yet! 

Spinach Photosynthesis Lab

 I’m in the home stretch this month finishing Biology.  One of the last labs is the Photosynthetic Flotation and here or here, the lab we’re using.  The most popular online schools in which the kids are,enrolled, require four formal lab reports.  We need just one more.

Okay!  Today was a bit of a mess.  The kids and I spent an hour and a half doing the lab.  By that I mean trouble-shooting the lab.  Arrrrrgggggggh!  After we spent 30 minutes trying different combinations of solutions of baking soda and detergent, the problem was with the disks.  One, we used spinach, fresh from the store yesterday.  The key is to remove any oxygen or air in the disks.  Use the syringe and gently push the leaf disks back and forth in the syringe until they clump to the bottom.  This lab won’t work if they are floating.  You want to have the disks on the bottom and float to the top under a light.  BTW I use an incandescent bulb in a goose-neck lamp.  It is getting harder and harder to locate incandescent bulbs.  Other bulbs take longer.  Incandescent bulbs take about five minutes.  I just needed one more good lab.  Sigh.

Petri Dish Electrolysis

 Since my husband, Rob, had the Petri dishes out, it reminded me of another lab, Petri Dish Electrolysis.  I keep pencil lead with the Petri dishes and Jello just for this lab.  This is a more complicated lab.  But, you might want something different to try.  The Flinn video for the lab is below, too.  Nope, I didn’t realize how many videos Flinn had posted over the years, either.

Laser Jello

 We do many, many science experiments here.  My husband, Rob, teaches Physics.  He’s teaching optics right now.  The las he’s doing is the Exploratorium’s Laser Jello.  Use the Jello Jigglers recipe.  Rob used about 1/4 cup of jello powder with 1/4 cup of boiling water to fill two Petri dishes.  The lab calls for red, blue, clear, Knox gelatin, red and green laser pointers, and a protractor.  Rob does the Disappearing Beaker lab when he teaches optics, too; the Flinn video for the Disappearing Beaker is below the pix.

MEL Science Kits

 Good Will has MEL Chemistry Kits available.  I like to buy these kits in lots.  Good Will has several individual kits available, too; the bid and shipping can run over $25 per kit.  eBay has kits for as little as $10, a much better deal.  Good Will has Starter kits listed, too.  Use this site as comparison.  Does the kit look complete?  (Here is a blog post about different burners.  The starter kit has an emergency camp stove, which works with tea candles.). A MEL bundle is useful as a supplement for Chemistry labs.  I bought a dozen individual kits for my Chemistry class to try at the end of the course.  The labs are fun and typically outside the normal curriculum.  BTW we didn’t use the VR headset or lens.  We just wanted to play with the labs.  You can buy an individual kit and use the QR code.  Google Cardboard is a similar VR headset.  Cell phones lens clip over the camera’s lens on the cell phone or tablet.  Any digital microscope works if you want a close-up of the experiment.