We had the most fun science day with just a few ingredients from the kitchen cupboard. I have to confess, I am impatient and like no mess, no fuss, quick and easy experiments with ingredients you can find in your home. The moment you mention something you have to go to some special store to find you loose me… move on thank you!
Corrie jr. (8) LOVES science experiments so we decided to skip one crafts day and make it a science day. These are the things we made:
1.Kinetic Sand
Kinetic sand is a fun sensory activity that allows you to mould sand like clay. After a while, the mould will loose its shape due to the kinetic properties of the sand.
For this recipe you’ll need:
- 2,5 cups sand
- 3/4 cup corn starch
- 1/4 teaspoon dishwashing liquid
- 1/2 cup water
- 1/2 teaspoon Tea Tree Oil
Mix sand and corn starch and add a mix of the water and dishwashing liquid. Add Tea Tree Oil to make it anti-bacterial (believe me you don’t want to skip this step due to the terrible smell of the corn starch- and wet sand- mix). Store in a sealed container and enjoy!
We made a big batch because we are always on the lookout for good products to sell for entrepreneurship. Kinetic sand is really expensive in the shops, so since this recipe works out so cheap we put some in containers to sell.
After they made and played with the kinetic sand, we talked a bit about the interesting difference between Potential and Kinetic energy and watced this informative cartoon that describes it well
2. Diffusion
Heres a fun experiment to show the movement of water between glasses to explain diffusion in a very creative and visual way. I have to admit that I got a bit hasty and helped the water on… you’ll need a few hours for the water to travel properly between the glasses.
Just take a long piece of paper towel, roll it up and insert the same piece over three glasses with different colored water.
After the experiment we took out the paper towel and left it on the grass to dry. They liked it so much that we put more rolled paper towel in the leftover glasses to make weird looking snake skins!
3. Overnight Crystals
Crystals are not easy to make and inevitably sometimes fail. The best way to do it is to make it at night and leave undisturbed overnight but of course we did not have time for that so just made it in the day and it worked anyway. All you have to do is:
- Heat 1 cup of water in the microwave for 45 seconds only- you don’t want to overheat it
- Mix with 1 cup of Epsom Salts and a few drops of food coloring
- Stir for about 3 minutes
- Last but not least, add a few grains of sand- this impurity stimulates crystal growth
- Put the jar in the back of your refrigerator overnight (more than a day will yield better crystals- I left mine 3 days)
- Pour out extra liquid and put back in the refrigerator to seal properly or gently remove excess water with a paper towel
Now you can inspect your crystals with a magnifying glass… easy as that!
4. Magic Cosmic Milk
This activity is so much fun and so, so easy… I may do this for myself to relax even when the kids are not here! The movement of the colors in the milk is mesmerizing and actually makes you feel dizzy if you stare long enough. This baffles me… I have no idea why it does this and I would love for someone to explain!
I enjoyed it so much that I made a video, watch it here!
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