Using different kinds of forces is a natural part of our daily life. This is why you can make many interesting experiments and activities a part of your homeschool science class. Here we talk about the different types of forces that a child is likely to be familiar with. These include gravity, friction, and fluid dynamics. Given here are activities that can help you introduce these concepts of force to a young child who may be unfamiliar with these more technical sounding terms. After the basic concept has been introduced you can add more complex experiments that may deal with measuring the force or using it in a productive manner to accomplish a set objective or goal.
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Gravity
Keep in mind that while the formal definition of these different types of forces will be covered in their written assignments, what you are trying to do is show them how these forces work in the real world. Gravity is simple to demonstrate. Just let them drop something from a height. It could be merely holding up a pencil and letting it drop down or climbing up to the roof of a house and dropping a tennis ball down into the garden.
Friction
One of the easiest ways to demonstrate friction is to have a marble race. Use two tracks of the same length but of different textures for almost identical marbles to race over. One of the tracks can be made of smooth card paper, while you could use glue and sand on the second track to make it a rougher ride. Adding a couple of high bumps along the way will also work as a source of friction. Don’t be surprised if the kids want to race the marbles more than once to make sure that the marble on the smooth track comes first.
Fluid Dynamics
Get them into the bathroom with a variety of implements and let them have fun with water. A straw can be used to blow bubbles, a boat can be used to show the direction of the flow of water and you can even have submersible and floating toys in the bath tub. There’s a lot of fun ways to introduce fluid dynamics to your young homeschool science students.
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