Experimenting With Kids

I found a book several years ago on clearance at Barnes & Noble called 365 Science Projects and Activities . For several summers I invited different friends to join us once a week for "Science Summer." I would do 5-10 of the experiments and teach the concept behind what we were doing.

After we moved to Colorado, I never got around to doing Science Summer, and I have to admit, I didn't do much of anything regarding Science for a couple of years, other than what they learned on Brainpop.com. This school year I wanted to add something fun to our school day and I remembered our past Science Summers. I gathered together my trusty Science Activity book and designated Monday afternoons to be our Science Experiment days. The kids have loved them!

The interesting thing I have discovered in teaching my kids, is that I often learn concepts that I must have been taught at some point, but somehow they never stuck. I have enjoyed really understanding Density, pH, Air Pressure and Calories in a whole new and interesting light.

All the kids have their own Science Notebooks. We set up the experiment and then I ask them to each form their own hypothesis of what they think will happen. They write it down and then we see what in fact will happen. Sometimes they guess right and sometimes they are surprised to be wrong. They were shocked, for instance, that the room was 10 degrees warmer by the ceiling than by the floor.

Sometimes I am even surprised by an experiment. I was amazed that you could heat a can of water with a burning nut and discover how many calories the nut has by the temperature change in the water. Walnuts have more calories than Almonds, which makes sense, since they are fattier.

I have many favorite experiments, but my all-time favorite experiment has to do with purple cabbage. If you boil it for 30 minutes and pour the juice into several cups they will act as a pH indicator. When you add something to the liquid it will turn the juice a new shade. The more pinkish it becomes indicates that it is an acid. The more bluish it turns means it is a base. I find it absolutely fascinating.


The biggest surprise for me was to learn that dishwasher soap is a strong base. Who would have thought? What I enjoy the most though, are the conversations that spring up from these experiments, sometimes even months later.....and the smiles on their faces.