In this experiment, you’re looking for two different things:  first you’ll be dropping objects and making craters in a bowl of flour to see how energy is transformed from potential to kinetic, but you’ll also note that no matter how carefully you do the experiment, you’ll never get the same exact impact location twice.

To get started, you’ll need to gather your materials for this experiment. Here’s what you need:

Note: Do the pendulum experiment first, and when you’re done with the heavy nut from that activity, just use it in this experiment.

You can easily create one of these mystery toys out of an old baking powder can, a heavy rock, two paper clips, and a rubber band (at least 3″ x 1/4″).  It will keep small kids and cats busy for hours.

Are you curious about pulleys? This set of experiments will give you a good taste of what pulleys are, how to thread them up, and how you can use them to lift heavy things.

We’ll also learn how to take data with our setup and set the stage for doing the ultra-cool Pulley Lift experiments.

Are you ready?
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This experiment is for Advanced Students. For ages, people have been hurling rocks, sticks, and other objects through the air. The trebuchet came around during the Middle Ages as a way to break through the massive defenses of castles and cities. It’s basically a gigantic sling that uses a lever arm to quickly speed up the rocks before letting go. A trebuchet is typically more accurate than a catapult, and won’t knock your kid’s teeth out while they try to load it.

Trebuchets are really levers in action. You’ll find a fulcrum carefully positioned so that a small motion near the weight transforms into a huge swinging motion near the sling. Some mis-named trebuchets are really ‘torsion engines’, and you can tell the difference because the torsion engine uses the energy stored in twisted rope or twine (or animal sinew) to launch objects, whereas true trebuchets use heavy counterweights.

We’re going to practice measuring and calculating real life stuff (because science isn’t just in a textbook, is it?) When I taught engineering classes, most students had never analyzed real bridges or tools before – they only worked from the textbook. So let’s jump out of the words and into action, shall we? This experiment is for Advanced Students.

Before we start, make sure you’ve worked your way through this experiment first!

This experiment is for Advanced Students. We’re going to really get a good feel for energy and power as it shows up in real life. For this experiment, you need:

• Something that weighs about 100 grams or 4 ounces, or just grab an apple.
• A meter or yard stick

This might seem sort of silly but it’s a good way to get the feeling for what a Joule is and what work is.
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We’re going to use everyday objects to build a simple machine and learn how to take data. Sadly, most college students have trouble with these simple steps, so we’re getting you a head start here. The most complex science experiments all have these same steps that we’re about to do… just on a grander (and more expensive) scale. We’re going to break each piece down so you can really wrap your head around each step. Are you ready to put your new ideas to the test?

This experiment is for Advanced Students.

What’s an inclined plane? Jar lids, spiral staircases, light bulbs, and key rings. These are all examples of inclined planes that wind around themselves.  Some inclined planes are used to lower and raise things (like a jack or ramp), but they can also used to hold objects together (like jar lids or light bulb threads).

Here’s a quick experiment you can do to show yourself how something straight, like a ramp, is really the same as a spiral staircase.

This is a satisfyingly simple activity with surprising results. Take a tennis ball and place it on top of a basketball… then release both at the same time.

Instant ball launcher!

You’ll find the top ball rockets off skyward while the lower ball hit the floor flat (without bouncing much, if at all). Now why is that? It’s easier to explain than you think…

Remember momentum? Momentum can be defined as inertia in motion. Something must be moving to have momentum. Momentum is how hard it is to get something to stop or to change directions. A moving train has a whole lot of momentum. A moving ping pong ball does not. You can easily stop a ping pong ball, even at high speeds. It is difficult, however, to stop a train even at low speeds.

Mathematically, momentum is mass times velocity, or Momentum=mv.

One of the basic laws of the universe is the conservation of momentum.  When objects smack into each other, the momentum that both objects have after the collision, is equal to the amount of momentum the objects had before the crash. Once the two balls hit the ground, all the larger ball’s momentum transferred to the smaller ball (plus the smaller ball had its own momentum, too!) and thus the smaller ball goes zooming to the sky.

Materials:

• two balls, one significantly larger than the other

This experiment is for advanced students.It’s time for the last lesson of mechanics. After all this time, you now have a good working knowledge of the rules that govern almost all movement on this planet and beyond!! This lesson we get to learn about things crashing into one another!! Isn’t physics fun?! We are going to learn about impulse and momentum.
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Rockets shoot skyward with massive amounts of thrust, produced by chemical reaction or air pressure. Scientists create the thrust force by shoving a lot of gas (either air itself, or the gas left over from the combustion of a propellant) out small exit nozzles. This experiment and activity is for Grades 9-12.

According to the universal laws of motion, for every action, there is equal and opposite reaction. If flames shoot out of the rocket downwards, the rocket itself will soar upwards. It’s the same thing if you blow up a balloon and let it go—the air inside the balloon goes to the left, and the balloon zips off to the right (at least, initially, until the balloon neck turns into a thrust-vectored nozzle, but don’t be concerned about that just now).

This is a quick and easy demonstration of how to teach Newton’s laws with minimal fuss and materials. All you need is a wagon, a rock, and some friends. We’re going to do a few totally different experiments using the same materials, though, so keep up with the changes as you read through the experiment.

Remember that Newton covers a few different ideas. First, there’s the idea that objects in motion will stay going they way they’re headed, unless something gets in the way. Then there’s the resistance to motion (objects at rest tend to stay put), as well as force being proportional to how fast you can get something to move (acceleration). And lastly, there’s the idea that forces happen in pairs – if you shoot something one direction, you’re going to feel a kick in the opposite direction. Ready to see these ideas in action? Let’s go…

This is a recording of a recent live teleclass I did with thousands of kids from all over the world. I’ve included it here so you can participate and learn, too!

We’re going to cover energy and motion by building roller coasters and catapults! Kids build a working catapult while they learn about the physics of projectile motion and storing elastic potential energy. Let’s discover the mysterious forces at work behind the thrill ride of the world’s most monstrous roller coasters, as we twist, turn, loop and corkscrew our way through g-forces, velocity, acceleration, and believe it or not, move through orbital mechanics, like satellites. We’ll also learn how to throw objects across the room in the name of science… called projectile motion. Are you ready for a fast and furious physics class?

Hovercraft transport people and their stuff across ice, grass, swamp, water, and land. Also known as the Air Cushioned Vehicle (ACV), these machines use air to greatly reduce the sliding friction between the bottom of the vehicle (the skirt) and the ground. This is a great example of how lubrication works – most people think of oil as the only way to reduce sliding friction, but gases work well if done right.

In this case, the readily-available air is shoved downward by the hover motor and the skirt traps the air and keeps it inside, thus lifting the vehicle slightly. The thruster motor’s job is to propel the craft forward. Most hovercraft use either two motors (one on each side) for steering, or just one with a rudder that can deflect the flow (as your project does).

The first hovercraft were thought about in the 1800s, but it wasn’t until the 1950s that real ones were first tested. Today, the military use them for patrolling hard-to-drive areas, scientists use them for swamp research studies, and businesses use them to transport toys and food across rough and icy areas. Scientists are already planning future ACVs to use magnetic levitation in addition to the air power… but it’s still on the drawing board.

Are you ready to make your own? We have TWO different models to choose from. Click this link for the Easy Balloon-Powered Model, or keep reading below for the advanced version.
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Stand on a cookie sheet or cutting board which is placed on the floor (find a smooth floor with no carpet). Ask someone to gently push you across the floor. Notice how much friction they feel as they try to push you.

Want to make this job a bit easier?

Here’s what you need:

Friction is everywhere! Imagine what the world would be like without friction! Everything you do, from catching baseballs to eating hamburgers, to putting on shoes, friction is a part of it. If you take a quick look at friction, it is quite a simple concept of two things rubbing together.

However, when you take a closer look at it, it’s really quite complex. What kind of surfaces are rubbing together? How much of the surfaces are touching? And what’s the deal with this stick and slip thing anyway? Friction is a concept that’s many scientists are spending a lot of time on. Understanding friction is very important in making engines and machines run more efficiently and safely.

Here’s what you need:

Now let’s talk about the other ever present force on this Earth, and that’s friction. Friction is the force between one object rubbing against another object. Friction is what makes things slow down.

Without friction things would just keep moving unless they hit something else. Without friction, you would not be able to walk. Your feet would have nothing to push against and they would just slide backward all the time like you’re doing the moon walk.

Friction is a very complicated interaction between pressure and the type of materials that are touching one another. Let’s do a couple of experiments to get the hang of what friction is.
Here’s what you need:

You have just taken in a nice bunch of information about the wild world of gravity. This next section is for advanced students, who want to go even deeper. There’s a lot of great stuff here but there’s a lot of math as well. If you’re not a math person, feel free to pass this up. You’ll still have a nice understanding of the concept. However, I’d recommend giving it a try. There are some fun things to do and if you’re not careful, you might just end up enjoying it!

Here’s what you need:

This is a recording of a recent live teleclass I did with thousands of kids from all over the world. I’ve included it here so you can participate and learn, too!

Blast your imagination with this super-popular class on rocketry! Kids learn about fin design, hybrid and solid-state rocketry, and how rockets make it into space without falling out of orbit. This class is taught by a real live rocket scientist (me!). We’ll launch rockets during the class, too!

This is a recording of a recent live teleclass I did with thousands of kids from all over the world. I’ve included it here so you can participate and learn, too!

Soar, zoom, fly, twirl, and gyrate with these amazing hands-on classes which investigate the world of flight. Students created flying contraptions from paper airplanes and hangliders to kites! Topics we will cover include: air pressure, flight dynamics, and Bernoulli’s principle.

Materials:

• 5 sheets of 8.5×11” paper
• 2 index cards
• 2 straws
• 2 small paper clips
• Scissors, tape
• Optional: ping pong ball and a small funnel

This roof can support over 400 times its own weight, and you don’t need tape! One of the great things about net forces is that although the objects can be under tremendous force, nothing moves! For every push, there’s an equal and opposite pull (or set of pulls) that cancel each other out.

This barrel roof is an excellent example of how to the forces all cancel out and the roof stands strong (hopefully!) If you have trouble with this experiment, just use cardstock or other heavy weight paper instead of regular copy paper.

Here’s what you need:
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What keeps building from toppling over in the wind? Why are some earthquake-proof and others not? We’re going to look at how engineers design buildings and bridges while making our own.

Here’s what you need:
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This experiment is for advanced students.

Who gets to burn something today? YOU get to burn something today!

You will be working with Zinc (Zn). Other labs in this kit allow us to burn metal, but there is a bit of a twist this time. We will be burning a powder.

Why a powder instead of a solid ribbon or foil as in the other labs?  Have you heard of surface area being a factor in a chemical reaction? The more surface area there is to burn, the more dramatic the chemical change. So, with this fact in mind, a powder should burn faster or be more likely to burn than a large solid.

What state of matter is fire? Is it a liquid? I get that question a LOT, so let me clarify. The ancient scientists (Greek, Chinese… you name it) thought fire was a fundamental element. Earth, Air Water, and Fire (sometimes Space was added, and the Chinese actually omitted Air and substituted Wood and Metal instead) were thought to be the basic building blocks of everything, and named it an element. And it’s not a bad start, especially if you don’t have a microscope or access to the internet.

Today’s definition of an element comes from peeking inside the nucleus of an atom and counting up the protons. In a flame, there are lots of different molecules from NO, NO₂, NO₃, CO, CO₂, O₂, C… to name a few. So fire can’t be an element, because it’s made up of other elements. So, what is it?

No kidding! You’ll be able to show your friends this super-cool magic show chemistry trick with very little fuss (once you get the hang of it). This experiment is for advanced students. Before we start, here are a few notes about the setup to keep you safe and your nasal passages intact:

The chemicals required for this experiment are toxic! This is not an experiment to do with little kids or pets around, and you want to do the entire experiment outside or next to an open window for good ventilation, as the fumes from the sodium hydroxide/zinc solution should not be inhaled.

This experiment is not dangerous when you follow the steps I’ve outlined carefully. I’ll take you step by step and show you how to handle the chemicals, mix them properly, and dispose of the waste when you’re done.

Goggles and gloves are a MUST for this experiment, as the sodium hydroxide (in both liquid and solid form) is caustic and corrosive and will burn your skin on contact.

This experiment is for advanced students.

Ever use soap? Sodium hydroxide (NaOH) is the main component in lye soap. NaOH is mixed with some type of fat (vegetable, pig, cow, etc). Scent can be added for the ‘pretty’ factor and pumice or sand can be added for the manly “You’re coming off my hands and I’ll take no guff” factor. Lots of people still make their own soap and they enjoy doing it.

In this lab, we’re going to investigate the wonders of electrochemistry. Electrochemistry became a new branch of chemistry in 1832, founded by Michael Faraday. Michael Faraday is considered the “father of electrochemistry”. The knowledge gained from his work has filtered down to this lab. YOU will be like Michael Faraday. I imagined he would have been overjoyed to do this lab and see the results. You are soooo lucky to be able to take an active part in this experiment. Here’s what you’re going to do…

You will be “creating” metallic copper from a solution of copper sulfate and water, and depositing it on a negative electrode. Copper is one of our more interesting elements. Copper is a metal, and element 29 on your periodic table. It conducts heat and electricity very well.

Many things around you are made of copper. Copper wire is used in electrical wiring. It has been used for centuries in the form of pipes to distribute water and other fluids in homes and in industry. The Statue of Liberty is a wonderful example of how beautiful 180,000 pounds of copper can be. Yes, it is made of copper, and no, it doesn’t look like a penny…..on the surface. The green color is copper oxide, which forms on the surface of copper exposed to air and water. The oxide is formed on the surface and does not attack the bulk of the copper. You could say that copper oxide protects the copper.

If we don’t have salt, we die. It’s that simple. The chemical formula for salt is NaCl. Broken down, we have Na (sodium) and Cl (chlorine). Either one of these can be fatal in sufficient quantities. When chemically combined, these two deadly elements become table salt. What once could kill now keeps us alive. Isn’t chemistry awesome?

Chlorine, element 17, is called a halogen as are all the elements in the 17^th row. All halogens have similar chemical properties. They are highly reactive nonmetals, and react easily with most metals. Sodium is a metal, and is bonded with sodium in the table salt used in this lab. Besides being found in salt, chlorine has many uses in our world such as killing bacteria in our water, making plastic, cleaning products, and the list goes on. A very useful chemical, and is among the top ten chemicals produced in the United States. Ever since its discovery in 1774, chlorine has been very useful. It is found in nature in sodium chloride, but in very small concentrations. Seawater, the most abundant source of chlorine, has a concentration of only 19g of chlorine per liter.

Magnesium is one of the most common elements in the Earth’s crust. This alkaline earth metal is silvery white, and soft. As you perform this lab, think about why magnesium is used in emergency flares and fireworks. Farmers use it in fertilizers, pharmacists use it in laxatives and antacids, and engineers mix it with aluminum to create the BMW N52 6-cylinder magnesium engine block. Photographers used to use magnesium powder in the camera’s flash before xenon bulbs were available.

Most folks, however, equate magnesium with a burning white flame. Magnesium fires burn too hot to be extinguished using water, so most firefighters use sand or graphite.

We’re going to learn how to (safely) ignite a piece of magnesium in the first experiment, and next how to get energy from it by using it in a battery in the second experiment. Are you ready?

This experiment is for advanced students.

In industry, hydrogen peroxide is used in paper making to bleach the pulp before they form it into paper. Biologists, when preparing bones for display, use peroxide to whiten the bones.

At home, 3% peroxide combined with ammonium hydroxide is used to give dark-haired people their desired blonde moment. Peroxide is also used on wounds to clean them and remove dead tissue. Peroxide slows the flow from small blood vessels and oozing in wounds as well.

WARNING!! THIS EXPERIMENT IS PARTICULARLY DANGEROUS!! (No kidding.) This experiment is for advanced students.

We’ve created a video that shows you how to safely do this experiment, although if you’re nervous about doing this one, just watch the video and skip the actual experiment.

The gas you generate with this experiment is lethal in large doses, so you MUST do this experiment outdoors. We’ll be making a tiny amount to show how the chemical reactions of chlorine and hydrogen work.

WARNING!! THIS EXPERIMENT IS PARTICULARLY DANGEROUS!! (No kidding.) This experiment is for advanced students.

We’ve created a video that shows you how to safely do this experiment, although if you’re nervous about doing this one, just watch the video and skip the actual experiment.

Bromine is a particularly nasty chemical, so be sure to very carefully follow the steps we’ve outlined in the video. You MUST do this experiment outdoors. We’ll be making a tiny amount to show how the chemical reactions involving bromine work.

This experiment is for advanced students.

Zinc and Hydrogen are important elements for all of us. Zinc (Zn) metal is element #30 on the periodic table. Lack of zinc in our diets will delay growth of our bodies and can kill.

Hydrogen gas (H) is element #1 on the periodic table. Hydrogen was discovered in the 1500s. In a pure state, hydrogen combustion (in small quantities) is interesting. In large amounts, mixed with oxygen, the explosion can be devastating.

This experiment shows how a battery works using electrochemistry. The copper electrons are chemically reacting with the lemon juice, which is a weak acid, to form copper ions (cathode, or positive electrode) and bubbles of hydrogen.

These copper ions interact with the zinc electrode (negative electrode, or anode) to form zinc ions. The difference in electrical charge (potential) on these two plates causes a voltage.

Materials:

• one zinc and copper strip
• two alligator wires
• digital multimeter
• one fresh large lemon or other fruit

When an atom (like hydrogen) or molecule (like water) loses an electron (negative charge), it becomes an ion and takes on a positive charge. When an atom (or molecule) gains an electron, it becomes a negative ion. An electrolyte is any substance (like salt) that becomes a conductor of electricity when dissolved in a solvent (like water).

This type of conductor is called an ‘ionic conductor’ because once the salt is in the water, it helps along the flow of electrons from one clip lead terminal to the other so that there is a continuous flow of electricity.

This experiment is an extension of the Conductivity Tester experiment, only in this case we’re using water as a holder for different substances, like sugar and salt. You can use orange juice, lemon juice, vinegar, baking powder, baking soda, spices, cornstarch, flour, oil, soap, shampoo, and anything else you have around. Don’t forget to test out plain water for your ‘control’ in the experiment!

This experiment is just for advanced students. If you guessed that this has to do with electricity and chemistry, you’re right! But you might wonder how they work together. Back in 1800, William Nicholson and Johann Ritter were the first ones to split water into hydrogen and oxygen using electrolysis. (Soon afterward, Ritter went on to figure out electroplating.) They added energy in the form of an electric current into a cup of water and captured the bubbles forming into two separate cups, one for hydrogen and other for oxygen.

This experiment is not an easy one, so feel free to skip it if you need to. You don’t need to do this to get the concepts of this lesson but it’s such a neat and classical experiment (my students love it) so you can give it a try if you want to. The reason I like this is because what you are really doing in this experiment is ripping molecules apart and then later crashing them back together.

Have fun and please follow the directions carefully. This could be dangerous if you’re not careful. The image shown here is using graphite from two pencils sharpened on both ends, but the instructions below use wire.  Feel free to try both to see which types of electrodes provide the best results.

Electricity. Chemistry. Nothing in common, have nothing to do with each other. Wrong! Electrochemistry has been a fact since 1774. Once electricity was applied to particular solutions, changes occurred that scientists of the time did not expect.

In this lab, we will discover some of the same things that Farraday found over 300 years ago. We will be there as things tear apart, particles rush about, and the power of attraction is very strong. We’re not talking about dancing, we’re talking about something much more important and interesting….we’re talking about ELECTROCHEMISTRY!

Ammonia has been used by doctors, farmers, chemists, alchemists, weightlifters, and our families since Roman times. Doctors revive unconscious patients, farmers use it in fertilizer, alchemists tried to use it to make gold, weightlifters sniff it into their lungs to invigorate their respiratory system and clear their heads prior to lifting tremendous loads. At home, ammonia is used to clean up the ketchup you spilled on the floor and never cleaned up.

The ammonia molecule (NH₃) is a colorless gas with a strong odor – it’s the smell of freshly cleaned floors and windows. Mom is not cleaning with straight ammonia (it’s gas at room temperature because it boils at -28^oF, so the stuff she cleans with is actually ammonium hydroxide, a solution of ammonia and water). Ammonia is found when plants and animals decompose, and it’s also in rainwater, volcanoes, your kidneys (to neutralize excess acid), in the ocean, some fertilizers, in Jupiter’s lower cloud decks, and trace amounts are found in our own atmosphere (it’s lighter than air).

This is a recording of a recent live teleclass I did with thousands of kids from all over the world. I’ve included it here so you can participate and learn, too!

We’re going to be mixing up dinosaur toothpaste, doing experiments with catalysts, discovering the 5 states of matter, and building your own chemistry lab station as we cover chemical kinetics, phase shifts, the states of matter, atoms, molecules, elements, chemical reactions, and much more. We’re also going to turn liquid polymers into glowing putty so you can amaze your friends when it totally glows in the dark. AND make liquids freeze by heating them up (no kidding) using a scientific principle called supercooling,

Materials:

• Chemistry Worksheet
• Aluminum pie plate
• Bowl
• Clear glue or white glue
• Disposable cups
• Goggles & gloves
• Hydrogen peroxide
• OPTIONAL: Instant reusable hand warmer (containing sodium acetate )
• Liquid soap
• Popsicle sticks
• Scissors or pliers
• Sodium tetraborate (also called “Borax”)
• Water bottle
• Yeast
• Yellow highlighter
• Optional: If you want to see your experiments glow in the dark, you’ll need a fluorescent UV black light (about $10 from the pet store – look in cleaning supplies under “Urine-Off” for a fluorescent UV light). UV flashlights and UV LEDs will not work.

This is a recording of a recent live teleclass I did with thousands of kids from all over the world. I’ve included it here so you can participate and learn, too!

We’re ready to deal with the topic you’ve all been waiting for! Join me as we find out what happens to stars that wander too close, how black holes collide, how we can detect super-massive black holes in the centers of galaxies, and wrestle with question: what’s down there, inside a black hole?

Materials:

• marble
• metal ball (like a ball bearing) or a magnetic marble
• strong magnet
• small bouncy ball
• tennis ball and/or basketball
• two balloons
• bowl
• 10 pennies
• saran wrap (or cup open a plastic shopping bag so it lays flat)
• aluminum foil (you’ll need to wrap inflated balloons with the foil, so make sure you have plenty of foil)
• scissors

This is a recording of a recent live teleclass I did with thousands of kids from all over the world. I’ve included it here so you can participate and learn, too

Our solar system includes rocky terrestrial planets (Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars), gas giants (Jupiter and Saturn), ice giants (Uranus and Neptune), and assorted chunks of ice and dust that make up various comets and asteroids.

Did you know you can take an intergalactic star tour without leaving your seat? To get you started on your astronomy adventure, I have a front-row seat for you in a planetarium-style star show. I usually give this presentation at sunset during my live workshops, so I inserted slides along with my talk so you could see the pictures better. This video below is long, so I highly recommend doing this with friends and a big bowl of popcorn. Ready?
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This is a recording of a recent live class I did with an entire high school astronomy class. I’ve included it here so you can participate and learn, too!

Light is energy that can travel through space. How much energy light has determines what kind of wave it is. It can be visible light, x-ray, radio, microwave, gamma or ultraviolet. The electromagnetic spectrum shows the different energies of light and how the energy relates to different frequencies, and that’s exactly what we’re going to cover in class. We’re going to talk about light, what it is, how it moves, and it’s generated, and learn how astronomers study the differences in light to tell a star’s atmosphere from  millions of miles away.

I usually give this presentation at sunset during my live workshops, so I inserted slides along with my talk so you could see the pictures better. This video below is long, so I highly recommend doing this with friends and a big bowl of popcorn. Ready?

This is a beefier-version of the Electric Eye that will be be able to turn on a buzzer instead of a LED by increasing the voltage in the circuit. This type of circuit is a light-actuated circuit. When a beam of light hits the sensor (the “eye”), a buzzer sounds. Use this to indicate when a door closes or drawer closes… your suspect will never know what got triggered.
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Today you get to concentrate light, specifically the heat, from the Sun into a very small area. Normally, the sunlight would have filled up the entire area of the lens, but you’re shrinking this down to the size of the dot.

Magnifying lenses, telescopes, and microscopes use this idea to make objects appear different sizes by bending the light. When light passes through a different medium (from air to glass, water, a lens…) it changes speed and usually the angle at which it’s traveling. A prism splits incoming light into a rainbow because the light bends as it moves through the prism. A pair of eyeglasses will bend the light to magnify the image.

Materials

• Sunlight
•  Glass jar
• Nail that fits in the jar
•   12” thread
•   Hair from your head
• 12” string
• 12” fishing line
• 12” yarn
•  Paperclip
• Magnifying glass
•  Fire extinguisher
•  Adult help

This is a recording of a recent live class I did with an entire high school astronomy class. I’ve included it here so you can participate and learn, too!

Light is energy that can travel through space. How much energy light has determines what kind of wave it is. It can be visible light, x-ray, radio, microwave, gamma or ultraviolet. The electromagnetic spectrum shows the different energies of light and how the energy relates to different frequencies, and that’s exactly what we’re going to cover in class. We’re going to talk about light, what it is, how it moves, and it’s generated, and learn how astronomers study the differences in light to tell a star’s atmosphere from  millions of miles away.

I usually give this presentation at sunset during my live workshops, so I inserted slides along with my talk so you could see the pictures better. This video below is long, so I highly recommend doing this with friends and a big bowl of popcorn. Ready?

This is a recording of a recent live teleclass I did with thousands of kids from all over the world. I’ve included it here so you can participate and learn, too!

This class is all about Light Waves, Lasers and Holograms! This is a newly updated version of the older Light Waves and Lasers teleclass here.

We’re going to learn about the wild world of light that has baffled scientists for over a century. You’ll be twisting and bending light as we learn about refraction, reflection, absorption, and transmission using lenses, lasers, mirrors, and optical filters with everyday stuff like gummy bears, paperclips, pencils and water!

We’re going to learn how to build a projection hologram out of piece of old plastic, make a laser microscope so you can see tiny little microscopic creatures, bend laser light to follow any path you want without using mirrors, and finally understand how glow in the dark toys really work on the subatomic level. Are you ready?

Materials:

• Pencil
• Paper
• Clothespin
• Paperclip
• Rubber band
• Gummy bears
• Red laser
• Flashlight
• Old CD
• Scissors
• Pliers
• Glass of water
• Clear Plastic Film

This is a recording of a recent live teleclass I did with thousands of kids from all over the world. I’ve included it here so you can participate and learn, too!

You’ll discover how to boil water at room temperature, heat up ice to freeze it, make a fire water balloon, and build a real working steam boat as you learn about heat energy. You’ll also learn about thermal energy, heat capacity, and the laws of thermodynamics.

Materials:

• cup of ice water
• cup of room temperature water
• cup of hot water (not scalding or boiling!)
• tea light candle and lighter (with adult help)
• balloon (not inflated)
• syringe (without the needle)
• block of foam
• copper tubing (¼” diameter and 12” long)
• bathtub or sink
• scissors or razor
• fat marker (to be used to wrap things around, not for writing)

As you walk around your neighborhood, you probably see many other people, as well as some birds flying around, maybe some fish swimming down a local stream, and perhaps even a lizard darting behind a bush or a frog sitting contently on top of a pond. Most likely, you know that all of these living things are animals, but they are even more closely related than that.

Unsurprisingly, often the most interesting critters found in soil are the hardest to find! They’re small, fast, and used to avoiding things that search for them. So, how do we find and study these tiny insects? With a Berlese Funnel (Also called the Tullgren funnel)!

Some insects are just too small! Even if we try to carefully pick them up with forceps, they either escape or are crushed. What to do?

Answer: Make an insect aspirator! An insect aspirator is a simple tool scientists use to collect bugs and insects that are too small to be picked up manually. Basically it’s a mini bug vacuum!

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The way animals and plants behave is so complicated because it not only depends on climate, water availability, competition for resources, nutrients available, and disease presence but also having the patience and ability to study them close-up.

We’re going to build an eco-system where you’ll farm prey stock for the predators so you’ll be able to view their behavior. You’ll also get a chance to watch both of them feed, hatch, molt, and more! You’ll observe closely the two different organisms and learn all about the way they live, eat, and are eaten.

How does salt affect plant growth, like when we use salt to de-ice snowy winter roads? How does adding fertilizer to the soil help or hurt the plants? What type of soil best purifies the water? All these questions and more can be answered by building a terrarium-aquarium system to discover how these systems are connected together.

Mass and energy are conserved. This means you can’t create or destroy them, but you can change their location or form.

Most people don’t understand that the E energy term means all the energy transformations, not just the nuclear energy.

The energy could be burning gasoline, fusion reactions (like in the sun), metabolizing your lunch, elastic energy in a stretched rubber band… every kind of energy stored in the mass is what E stands for.

For example, if I were to stretch a rubber band and somehow weigh it in the stretched position, I would find it weighed slightly more than in the unstretched position.

Why? How can this be? I didn’t add any more particles to the system – I simply stretched the rubber band. I added energy to the system, which was stored in the electromagnetic forces inside the rubber band, which add to the mass of the object (albeit very slightly). Read more about this in Unit 7: Lesson 3.