Rural Exceptional Student Talent Opportunities, Resources, & Experiences

MYSTERIOUS SCIENCE

(gr. 3-6)

Easy science experiments that can be done with a little prep, although some require more prep. Read through to make sure you have the required time and materials before you begin. Could be used in WIN time, in a pullout program, or as enrichment before or after school!

Compare This!

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Comparing Images
It may be hard to imagine the difference between images seen with an electron microscope and an optical microscope. An optical microscope shines light through an object that rests on its stage. It can magnify small things like cells and insects up to about one thousand times. Electron microscopes use electrons to magnify images. They send a charge through small things to light them up for magnification. Because electrons have wavelengths that are much shorter than visible light waves, they can achieve magnification of up to one million times.

Materials
Optical microscope
Prepared slides of plant cells
Prepared slides of cheek cells
Photos from this book or the Internet of electron microscope images
Textbook, poster, or Internet resource

Procedure
1. Use your microscope to look at images of plant cells and cheek cells.
2. Try to identify the different parts of each cell and draw what you see.
3. Label your diagrams, using a textbook, poster, or Internet resource that helps you identify the parts of plant and human cells.

Now, look at the images from the electron microscope. You can do an Internet search for plant and cheek cell images using this type of microscope, or you can look at the images of the tobacco mosaic virus (TMV) that affects the cells of the tobacco plant or the rotavirus (RV) images. Remember that viruses cannot be seen with the naked eye. These viruses affect individual cells and are therefore unable to be seen with the microscope you are currently using.

Compare your diagrams of cells with the images of viruses that affect cells.

Beans, Beans, and More Beans

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Grafting Bean Plants
When a plant gets a cut, like a human, it will heal over in time. When a horticulturist grafts plants, he or she is taking advantage of the plants’ ability to heal themselves. Sometimes, grafting is used to create new species, and sometimes it is used to make a plant healthier by joining an unhealthy plant with a healthy one. In this activity, you will join two different bean species together and watch them grow into one plant.

Materials
Two different types of bean plants, each about a foot tall
Kitchen paring knife
Electrical tape
String

Procedure
1. Put the two plants next to each other and find a spot where their main stems touch comfortably.
2. Pare the stems at this point just enough to expose the inside of the stems.
3. Hold the stems together at their cuts and wrap tightly with electrical tape.
4. Tie some string around the stems right below and above the graft for added support.
5. Watch the plants closely, keeping them watered and pruned, for about a week. When you notice that they are both doing well, cut off the top of one plant and the bottom of the other.
6. Watch your plant for several more weeks. How is it doing?

Do the Locomotion with Me!

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Friction and Locomotion
Snakes are cool to watch. Whether you are repulsed by them or fascinated by them, it is difficult to tear your eyes away when a snake is moving nearby. Typically, people think of the sidewinding motion some snakes use to move. However, snakes move in other ways too. They move laterally when waves of muscle contractions move down their body, pushing them forward. Some move like an accordion in concertina motion. They pull themselves into folds (like the instrument) and straighten themselves out to move. Rectilinear motion is a straight movement that happens when large snakes use their belly scales to grip the ground and creep forward. Snakes also can climb, jump, and coil up and strike. They can use a corkscrew motion to swim.

However they move, all snakes use friction to move themselves forward. Friction allows their scales to grip the ground and use it to push off. They can move their scales one at a time to get a better grip on uneven surfaces, or they can move them as one using the force of all of their scales at the same time. If you have access to a pet snake, try watching it move across different surfaces—wood floors, tile, carpet, sand, plastic drop cloth, and so forth. See if you can figure out which surface would require the snake to use the most force to propel itself. If you can’t watch a real snake, try the following experiment to see which surface creates the most friction, therefore making it easier for a snake to cross.

Materials
Various surfaces to test (e.g., wood floors, ceramic tile, carpet, sand or sandpaper, plastic)
Small cardboard box
Thin rope
Scissors
Weights (e.g., books, blocks)
Spring scale

Procedure
1. Poke a hole in the box with the scissors.
2. Tie the rope around the box.
3. Fill the box with a few books or blocks to weigh it down.
4. Place the box on a wood floor.
5. Hook the spring scale to the end of the rope that is not tied to the box.
6. Pull the box across the floor, noting how much force is exerted by reading the spring scale.
7. Repeat this activity on all of the other surfaces.

Answer the following questions:
Which surfaces required more force? Why?
Would it be easier for a snake to move across a tile floor than carpet? Why?

Caterpillar Trails

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Tent Caterpillar Trails
Tent caterpillars have been extensively studied because of their interesting and social behavior. Although most caterpillars are solitary, tent caterpillars live in large colonies. They leave pheromone trails to signal food sources to other caterpillars in their colony. This behavior can easily be studied in the classroom or at home. First, though, you will need to go find some caterpillars and food for them.

Materials
Several tent caterpillars (Different species can be found in favorable weather conditions all over the country. Search the Internet to find species identification information or use a field guide for your area.)
Food (leaves) for your caterpillars from their host tree
Cardboard
Heavy-duty scissors
Bricks

Procedure
1. Cut your cardboard into a forked trail (one long corridor that branches off into three shorter ones).
2. Raise your maze by putting it up on four bricks standing upright—each supporting a corridor. (If you need more stability, place several bricks upright in the center of the corridors at regular intervals.)
3. Place the caterpillar’s food in one of the short corridors.
4. Put a caterpillar at the start of your maze—the beginning of the long corridor.
5. Watch it explore and locate the food.
6. Put the caterpillar back at the start of the maze. Did it find its food again? How quickly?
7. Place several additional caterpillars at the start of the maze. Did they need to explore, or were they able to find the food right away? Why do you think this happened?
8. How can this behavior help tent caterpillars in the wild?

Contaminated Water

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Groundwater Contamination
Groundwater fills the cracks and spaces between rocks, sand, and gravel in the ground. It is stored there, and moves as it is used by plants and animals. Wells can be dug to tap into this supply and bring fresh water to the surface for human use. Aquifers, the locations underground that store groundwater, can be replenished through precipitation. They also can be contaminated through human carelessness. When contamination occurs, the water becomes unsafe and cannot be used by humans and other organisms.

Materials
Clear plastic drinking cup
Aquarium gravel
Sand
A bottle of water
A spray bottle filled with water
Food coloring

Procedure
1. Fill the cup with gravel about a third of the way to the top.
2. Add sand to another third of the cup so that you are left with ⅓ gravel, ⅓ sand, and ⅓ space.
3. Pour water from the bottle slowly into the cup, observing the way in which the water fills in the spaces between gravel and sand particles. Fill the cup until the water is just below the sand layer. The top of the water is called the water table. The water below this is called the saturation zone.

Answer the following question:
Did the water move faster through the gravel or the sand? Why?

4. Sprinkle some food coloring on top of the sand to represent a contaminant.
5. Use your spray bottle to “rain” on top of the contaminated ground.

Answer the following questions:
What happens to your groundwater as rain pours onto the contaminated “Earth?”
Why is it so important for humans to be careful as they transport chemicals or other pollutants across the land?
How does this experiment demonstrate the possibilities of pesticide contamination?

Build Your Own Lamp!

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Construct a Simple Reading Lamp
Now it is your turn to solve the mystery of electrical circuitry. With this simple circuit and a few additional materials, you will be able to create a small book light to use the next time you read in bed at night!

Materials
Coated wire
3-volt watch battery
Small LED bulb
Small binder clip
Large binder clip
Wire hanger
Wire strippers
Wire cutters
Pliers
Hot glue gun
Book

Procedure
1. Prepare the bulb:
• Cut two pieces of wire, about 2 inches long.
• Use the wire strippers to strip a small amount of plastic from either end of each wire.
• Using your hot glue gun (adult supervision required), attach one end of one wire to the base of the bulb.
• Attach an end of the other wire to the side of the bulb with hot glue.
You now have a bulb with wires attached.

2. Prepare the battery:
• Hot glue one of the wires coming from the bulb to the positive side of the battery.

3. Prepare the hanger:
• Have an adult cut the hook off of the wire hanger.
• Have the adult use pliers to straighten the hanger.
• Using the pliers, have the adult pinch one end of the hanger around the handle of the large binder clip.
• Hot glue the hanger and binder clip together at a 90-degree angle so that they won’t slip apart. This may take a lot of hot glue.
• Bend the hanger at about a 45-degree angle on the other end.
• Attach the small binder clip to the other end of the hanger.

5. Put it all together:
• Clamp the large binder clip to a book so that the curve of the hanger is above the pages.
• Hold the unattached wire coming from the LED light to the negative end of the battery. The wires should be attached to each end of the battery, forming a circuit and making the bulb light up.
• Clamp the battery, wires, and light in the small binder clip so that the light hangs over your book.

All About Larvae

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Learning About Larvae
You may have encountered a mealworm before—in your kitchen! Mealworms are the larva of the darkling beetle and sometimes get into cereal boxes. They are common prey of rodents, reptiles, birds, and other beetles. Therefore, they often can be purchased at a local pet store relatively inexpensively. Get to know a mealworm and learn about its natural behaviors.

Materials
Mealworm(s)
Small container (e.g., jar with lid holes, plastic terrarium)
Oatmeal
Apple or potato chunk
Stopwatch
Flashlight
Vinegar
Flat toothpicks
Cotton swab
Straw
Paper towels—one damp, one dry
Paper

Procedure
1. Make a habitat for your mealworm(s) by filling your container half full of oatmeal. Put your apple or potato chunk on top of the oats. The oats will feed your mealworms and the potato or apple will provide them with water.

2. Observe a mealworm before putting it in its habitat.

3. Gently place the flat end of the toothpick under its legs so that it can grab onto it.

4. Lift the mealworm up. What does it look like? How many legs does it have?

5. Set your mealworm down on the paper.

6. Gently blow some air through the straw at your mealworm’s head. What does it do?

7. Use the toothpick to touch its antennae very gently. What does it do?

8. Dip your cotton swab in the vinegar and place it in front of your mealworm. What does it do?

9. Put the mealworm right next to the base of its terrarium. What does it do when it gets close to that edge?

10. Shine your flashlight on the front half of your mealworm. What does it do?

11. Put a damp paper towel next to a dry one. Put your mealworm on the line where they touch. What does it do?

12. Why do you think that your mealworm reacted the way it did each time? How could these reactions protect it from harm in the wild?

13. Place your mealworm on top of the oatmeal in its new home. What does it do? Does it stay on top or does it dig into the oatmeal? Why do you think it does this?

14. Observe your mealworm each day, noting any changes in its life cycle that you can. How long do you think it will take before your mealworm becomes an adult darkling beetle? How long did it actually take? Keep this habitat for as long as you like.

Blind Spot

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Blind Yourself
It is important for wildlife officers to be able to identify state wildlife species. An officer must be able to enforce trapping, hunting, and fishing laws. To do that, he must be able to look at a person’s catch and determine if he or she is within the law regarding the number of each species caught. Although you can’t go out and search a hunter’s, angler’s, or trapper’s bag, you can stake out wildlife in your own backyard or your schoolyard and learn to identify each species.

Materials
Large cardboard appliance box
Sticks
Leaves
Hot glue
Craft knife
Bird, reptile, and mammal field guides for your area
Journal and pencil (optional)
Camera (optional)

Procedure
1. Find a spot in your backyard or your schoolyard that is frequently visited by local wildlife (e.g., a pond, a bird feeder, a clutch of trees).
2. Position your box so that it lies on its side with the bottom facing the wildlife area.
3. With the craft knife, cut a slit in the solid bottom of the box (the part pointing toward the wildlife area). This will be your window, so make it small enough that you won’t be visible to animals, but large enough that you can still see out of it.
4. Using a hot glue stick, attach leaves to the outside of the box to camouflage your blind. Throw a pillow or a blanket on the floor, and grab your journal (for writing about and sketching what you see), your camera (for photographing what you see), and your field guides. Get comfortable, and hang out for a while.
5. Notice what wildlife comes close to your hideout. Enjoy your close-up view of nature.

Build a Robotic Arm!

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Build a Robotic Arm
Robotics is changing the way we do things. From vacuum cleaners and lawn mowers that move themselves to surgeons performing complicated surgeries with the help of robotic arms, technology has an effect on almost all we do. In this activity, you will use common materials to design a model of a robotic arm that can actually pick up a packing peanut. This is an open-ended activity. Use trial and error and your own creativity to design your robotic arm. If something doesn’t work, try something else. If you discover another material that might work out, use it. The following materials list is really just a suggestion. Some of the greatest discoveries of our time have come about because someone was trying to design something else, or a person kept on trying—failure after failure. Look at any failed attempts you make critically. Why didn’t your arm work? What could have been done differently? Then, try again.

Materials
Styrofoam packing peanut
Cardboard strips
Binder clips
Brads
Craft sticks
Yarn
Metal hangers
Florist’s wire
Pencils
Paper clips
String
Foam scraps
Fabric scraps

Procedure
1. Gather the materials on the list or other materials that you think might work.
2. Work alone or with a partner to sketch out an idea for a robotic arm that can pick up a packing peanut.
3. Build your arm and test it out.
4. Share your invention with someone. Then, try to improve your design so that it can pick up something even heavier.

Now Write a Book!

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Write a Book
OK, so you have a lot of research about a topic. Now, how do you pull out the most interesting information and create a book? First, don’t worry about getting your draft perfect right off the bat. Writers write, and write, and write, and write some more. There is no such thing as a perfect first draft. You will need to go through your notes and find the nugget that makes the most interesting story, pull that out, and write.

Materials
Your research from the last activity
Writing materials
Book-binding materials

Procedure
1. Write the first draft of your nonfiction book. The key to remember about your initial draft is that, even though this is nonfiction, it should not be a list of facts. Think about how you can tell the story of your topic in a clear and entertaining way. Pull out the most interesting pieces from your research. Use those. If you need ideas for how to make nonfiction interesting, pick up Loree’s books: Tracking Trash and The Hive Detectives. Go to a library and ask the youth librarian to help you find interesting nonfiction books or articles to read. Pay special attention to how these books are written to tell a story.

2. Once your draft is written, put it aside for a few days. Then, pull it back out and look at it with fresh eyes. What could you do to make it better? Can you add or delete some information?

3. Next, get someone you trust to read through your manuscript and offer suggestions. Remember that no draft is perfect. Get a reader who will be honest with you—a teacher, a parent, or a friend. You don’t want a reader who will tell you that your draft is great in order to spare your feelings. You know that work needs to be done on it. You want a reader who will tell you what you can do to make the book better.

4. Take the suggestions and decide which you agree with and want to use, and which you want to discard. Revise your manuscript.

5. Now, type a final draft on the computer and print it out.

6. Use your book-binding materials to create a book. Design (or have an artistic friend design) a cover and illustrations for your book.

7. Share your finished product with someone.

Radiation, Conduction, Convection Oh My!

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Experiencing Radiation, Conduction, and Convection
Heat is important to humans. We are warm-blooded and need to maintain a healthy range in our body temperatures. In order to maintain our body temperatures, we need people who understand radiation, conduction, and convection, or heat transfer, to create heating and cooling systems for the places in which we live. In this activity, you will learn the basic differences between the ways in which heat is transferred.

Materials
An outside wall heated by the sun
Candle
Lighter or matches
Scissors
Paper
Tape
Yarn

Procedure
1. Stand outside in a shady location.
2. Think about how you feel. Is it hot? Cool? Do you feel your body absorbing heat from the sun?
3. Move to a sunny location near a wall.
4. Again, think about what you feel. Is it hot? Cool? Do you feel your body absorbing heat from the sun?

You are experiencing radiation. This is the method by which the sun’s energy reaches Earth. Energy travels in rays and we feel these rays touching our body as the rays warm our body’s surface.

5. Touch your cheeks with the palms of your hands.
6. How warm or cool do your hands feel on your cheeks?
7. Place your palms on the wall that has been heated in the sun. Keep them there until your palms have absorbed the heat and feel warmer than before.
8. Feel your cheeks again. What is the difference in temperature from when you rested your palms on your cheeks before? Colder? Warmer?

In this case, you were feeling conduction. This is the direct transfer of energy by collision. The heat energy that was in the wall collided with your hands and transferred heat to the palms, which you then transferred to your cheeks.

9. Now, cut your paper into a spiral.
10. Tape the yarn to the center of your paper spiral.
11. Carefully, and with adult supervision, light your candle and hold the paper spiral directly over the flame.
12. Hold the paper spiral as still as you can. After a few minutes, watch it spin.

This is convection. Heat energy moves up from the flame and displaces the air above it. This causes the paper spiral to spin.

Design It Better

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Design a Better …
Scientists solve problems by experimenting with materials. They use chemicals, minerals, and compounds, but they also use everyday materials. The program Odyssey of the Mind gives kids a chance to invent and test their inventions. (Check out the Odyssey of the Mind website to learn more about the program. You can find it at: http://www.odysseyofthemind.com). Odyssey of the Mind participants solve problems and try to come up with ways to make the world a better place. You can try this, too.

Come up with a problem to solve. Some suggestions include:

How to design boats that can hold incredible weights.
How to design a car that will protect passengers during a collision.
How to make houses safer during hurricanes.
How to build structurally sound buildings along fault lines.
Use materials that you can find around the house or classroom.

Examples include:

Tape
Straws
Craft sticks
Paper
Index cards
String
Foil
Yarn
Egg cartons
Boxes
Mousetraps

Procedure
1. Choose your problem.
2. Choose your materials.
3. Build your improved product prototype.
4. Test it. For example, if you are building a house that can withstand a hurricane, set up the house and direct a fan on it. Does it hold up?
Ask yourself, “How can I make my next one work even better?"
5. Try it again, tweaking your prototype.
6. Keep experimenting!

Frog Hearts

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Observing Blood Flow
Blood moves to and from the heart in a system called circulation. Blood flows into the heart to receive oxygen, and the oxygenated blood flows back into the body, bringing oxygen-saturated blood to the organs. This keeps the body’s temperature regulated and helps muscles work effectively. In this activity, you will be able to see how blood moves through capillaries, veins, and arteries.

Materials
Live frog
Wet cloth
Microscope

Procedure
1. Wrap a frog carefully in a wet cloth and hold it gently, but securely.
2. Place one of the frog’s hind feet on the stage of your microscope and spread its toes.
3. Turn the microscope’s light on.
4. Focus your eyepiece on the webbing between the frog’s toes.
5. You should be able to see the frog’s capillaries. Observe the flow of blood through those capillaries, veins, and arteries.

Heartbeats

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Heartbeats
Long ago, doctors would press their ears to their patients’ chests to listen to their heartbeats. In 1816, French doctor René Théophile Hyacinthe Laënnec experimented by using a paper tube to listen to a patient’s heartbeat. Using this tube, he realized that the sound of the heart could be isolated and amplified. This made heart and chest exams easier to interpret.

Modern stethoscopes have a bell-shaped device on the end with a plastic diaphragm connected to plastic tubing. The tubes lead to two earpieces. The bell is placed on a patient’s chest or back, and a doctor can listen through the earpieces to the amplified sound traveling through the tube.

Materials
Stethoscope
Alcohol
Cotton balls
Watch with a second hand

Procedure
1. Wipe the earpieces of your stethoscope with an alcohol-soaked cotton ball.
2. Place the earpieces in your ears.
3. Place the bell of the stethoscope onto a friend’s chest.
4. Listen for heart sounds.
5. Identify the first sound. This is the ventricular contraction, or systole.
6. Listen for the second sound. This is the ventricular relaxation, or diastole.

How much time passed between the two sounds?
Time the interval between the second sound and the next first sound.
After five of these intervals, you can estimate the average time the heart is at rest each minute.

Insulator Extraordinaire!

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What Is the Best Insulator?
Let's test water temperature in a different way. Most materials—from packed leaves to crumpled up pieces of paper—have some ability to slow heat flow. This is called insulation. How much does the material of an insulator affect the constancy of water temperature? Find out in this activity.

Materials
Several different materials to use as insulators:
Crumpled paper
Cloth scraps
Leaves
Sand or dirt
Sticks or wood scraps
Unbreakable thermometer, one for each insulator
Plastic cups with lids, one for each insulator
Lidded box slightly larger than the cups, one for each insulator
Clock/timer
Paper or journal for recording data
Pencil

Procedure
1. Make a hole in each box and cup lid just big enough for your thermometer to slide in and out easily.
2. Put a layer of each type of insulation in the bottom of each box.
3. Place a cup in the center of each box, on top of the insulation layer.
4. Pack insulation material tightly around the cup so that the box is filled.
5. Fill each cup with warm water.
6. Place the lid tightly on each cup.
7. Pack more insulation on top of each cup, being careful not to cover the thermometer hole.
8. Put the lid on the box and lower a thermometer through the hole in each box, through the hole in each cup, and into the water.
9. After 2–3 minutes, pull the thermometer out. Record the time and the temperature for each cup of water.
10. Put the thermometers back in each cup.
11. Continue checking the temperature of each cup of water every 15 minutes until the temperature stops changing. It has reached room temperature. (Note. Each cup may reach room temperature at a different time. Continue recording temperatures for each cup until all have reached room temperature.)

Answer the following questions:
Which cup took the longest to reach room temperature?
What material insulated that cup?
Why do you think that material insulated the water so well?
Which cup reached room temperature the quickest?
What material insulated that cup?
Why do you think that material was a poor insulator?

Pizza Garden

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Pizza Gardening
Now it is your turn to design and plant a beautiful and functional garden. For this activity, you will learn how to grow everything (well, almost everything!) to make a delicious pizza.

Materials
Large circular deck planter or ground plot in a sunny location
Potting soil
Seeds or seedlings: basil, oregano, parsley, thyme, Roma tomato, and pepper
Graph paper
Pencil
Yarn
Garden stakes
Permanent marker

Procedure
1. Draw your garden plan on a piece of graph paper.
2. Draw a circle and divide it into six wedges.
3. Decide what wedge will hold what plant. You may want to think about the color, texture, and size of your plants. Which order will look the best?
4. Using yarn, divide your plot or container into sixths.
5. Plant your seeds or seedlings in the pizza wedges, according to your design.
6. Follow your seed packet or garden center instructions for caring for your plants throughout their growing season.
7. When it is time to harvest your plants, make pizza according to the recipe below.

Pizza Garden Pizza

Note: this recipe requires adult assistance.

Ingredients
Store-bought whole wheat pizza crust
6–8 tomatoes
2 tablespoons of chopped basil
2 tablespoons of chopped oregano
1 tablespoon of thyme
2 tablespoons of parsley
1 clove of minced garlic
1 teaspoon of salt
½ teaspoon of pepper
Chopped pizza garden peppers
Mozzarella cheese

Directions
• Follow directions on the store-bought pizza crust to determine if pre-cooking is required.
• Put tomatoes in a pot of boiling water for 30 seconds, scoop them out with a slotted spoon, and drop into ice water.
• When the tomatoes are cool, use a paring knife to remove skins and cores.
• Cut the tomatoes in lengthwise quarters and remove the seeds; then chop them in a food processor.
• Put the chopped tomatoes, basil, oregano, thyme, parsley, garlic, salt, and pepper in a pot.
• Simmer the sauce over medium-low heat for half an hour.
• Spread the sauce on the pizza crust, put a thick layer of cheese over the sauce, and add chopped peppers.
• Bake your pizza according to the directions on the crust until cheese is bubbly and slightly browned.
• Enjoy!

Is That Breakable or Edible?

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Sugar glass is a prop for Hollywood stunts because it looks like real glass but is softer, and not as sharp. Try making your own sheet of sugar glass. You can make clear glass or experiment with some food coloring at the last minute. Mmmmm… edible stained glass windows!

Materials
Heavy, deep saucepan
2 cups of water
1 cup of corn syrup
3 ½ cups of sugar
¼ teaspoon of cream of tartar
Food coloring
Candy thermometer
Vegetable oil
Baking sheet with shallow sides
Butter knife or toothpick

Procedure
1. Oil your baking sheet completely. Make sure that you cover the bottom and the sides.
2. Bring the water, corn syrup, cream of tartar, and sugar to a rapid boil in the saucepan.
3. Continue boiling your mixture until the candy thermometer shows 300 degrees. (Note. This could take up to an hour, boiling most of the liquid off. Your mixture should be very thick by the time it reaches this temperature.)
4. Pour the mixture into your oiled baking pan.
5. If you want to, drop some food coloring into the mixture in the pan and swirl it around with a toothpick or butter knife.
6. Let cool completely.
7. Carefully pop the mixture out of the mold.

You now have a glass window—just like the kind that Hollywood stars fall through!

Get Baking!

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Let’s Bake!
Science is everywhere! Even in the kitchen when you bake a cake. Cakes bake because the heat of the oven causes a chemical reaction to occur between the ingredients in the batter. Each separate ingredient serves a purpose. The baking powder makes bubbles in the batter. This keeps your cake light and fluffy. Protein in eggs become hard when cooked, making your cake firm. Finally, the oil in the butter keeps your cake moist, so it doesn’t dry out. What do you think will happen when you bake four cakes—a control, and three more, each leaving out a key ingredient?

Materials
Four small cake or loaf pans
Cooking spray
Sugar
Butter
Eggs
Vanilla extract
Flour
Baking powder
Milk
Cake knife
Oven

Procedure
1. Prepare all four of your cake pans by spraying them with cooking spray.
2. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.
3. Prepare your Control Cake.
Cream together ½ cup of sugar and ¼ cup of butter.
Add 1 egg.
Add 1 teaspoon of vanilla.
Combine ¾ cup of all-purpose flour with 1 teaspoon of baking powder.
Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients slowly, stirring as you add.
Stir in ¼ cup of milk until your batter is smooth.
Pour the batter into your cake pan and bake for 20–30 minutes, or until the top of the cake springs back from your touch.
4. Prepare Test Cake One (no butter).
Cream together ½ cup of sugar and 1 egg.
Add 1 teaspoon of vanilla.
Combine ¾ cup of all-purpose flour with 1 teaspoon of baking powder.
Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients slowly, stirring as you add.
Stir in ¼ cup of milk until your batter is smooth.
Pour the batter into your cake pan and bake for 20–30 minutes, or until the top of the cake springs back from your touch.
5. Prepare Test Cake Two (no baking powder).
Cream together ½ cup of sugar and ¼ cup of butter.
Add 1 egg.
Add 1 teaspoon of vanilla.
Add ¾ cup of all-purpose flour to the wet ingredients slowly, stirring as you add.
Stir in ¼ cup of milk until your batter is smooth.
Pour the batter into your cake pan and bake for 20–30 minutes, or until the top of the cake springs back from your touch.
6. Prepare Test Cake Three (no egg).
Cream together ½ cup of sugar and ¼ cup of butter.
Add 1 teaspoon of vanilla.
Combine ¾ cup of all-purpose flour with 1 teaspoon of baking powder.
Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients slowly, stirring as you add.
Stir in ¼ cup of milk until your batter is smooth.
Pour the batter into your cake pan and bake for 20–30 minutes, or until the top of the cake springs back from your touch.
7. Let all four cakes cool.
8. Cut a slice from each cake and study them side-by-side. Answer the following questions:
Do they look different? How?
Do they feel different? How?
Do they taste different? How?
What conclusion can you draw about the importance of adding the proper ingredients to the recipes you make?

Piecing the Past

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Piecing Together the Past
When archaeologists return from the field, they bring with them the pieces, or artifacts, they find. They put these pieces together the best they can, like a puzzle, to rebuild what was left behind. In this way, they can learn about the people who lived and worked in a location in the past. Often, they find broken ceramics or pottery and piece together vases, tableware, and other things that people of the past used as decorations and tools. The archaeologists can then use these artifacts to learn how long ago the civilization whose people created them lived, how wealthy the civilization was, what types of people lived there, and what materials they had access to. The work can be challenging, but as you will see, once archaeologists hold a complete piece in their hands, very rewarding!

Materials
A plastic or paper bag containing the pieces of a broken ceramic plate or mug
A roll of masking tape
Thick newspaper or plastic to cover your workspace

Procedure
1. Cover a desk, table, or other workstation with thick layers of newspaper or plastic.
2. Spread the contents of your bag on your workstation.
3. Carefully piece together the broken mug or plate. Be careful and pay attention to any rough or sharp edges.
4. Use the masking tape to secure the pieces.
5. When you have finished, display your mug or plate. Was this task easy? Hard? Why?

Laws of Thermodynamics

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Thermodynamic Treats
Did you know that it takes science to make ice cream? Doug uses thermodynamics in his job of designing heating and cooling systems in buildings. In this activity, you will use thermodynamics to make yourself a tasty treat! How? Heat energy from the milk mixture will flow into the ice and salt mixture, and vice versa, until the two are similar in temperature. By adding the salt to the ice, you lower the freezing point of the ice.

The second law of thermodynamics, the Law of Entropy, explains why your milk mixture becomes similar in temperature to the ice brine. This law explains that energy from objects in the universe will disperse, or spread out, if it is not kept from doing so. The nature of energy is to eventually even out with other energy molecules around it. So, a pan eventually cools when taken off a heat source, and its fast-moving energy slows to the same speed as the energy moving in the room-temperature air. Like that pan, the energy in the cold ice-brine mixture speeds up, while the molecules in the milk mixture slow down, until they reach the same speed—milk mixture and ice-brine—and are the same temperature.

Materials
1 cup of milk
1 cup of half and half
½ a cup of sugar
1 teaspoon of vanilla
1 large zip-top baggie
1 small zip-top baggie
Ice
Rock salt
Spoon
Toppings

Procedure
1. Mix the milk, half and half, sugar, and vanilla in the small ziptop bag.
2. Place the small zip-top bag inside the large zip-top bag.
3. Put ½ to 1 cup of rock salt in the large zip-top bag next to the small zip-top bag and fill with ice.
4. Make sure both bags are tightly sealed.
5. Shake the bags as hard as you can for 10–15 minutes.
6. Pull the small bag out of the large bag.
7. Toss some sprinkles or chopped up cookies into the small bag, and dig in with a spoon! A plastic baggie sundae. Yum!

Finders Keepers?

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Who Found It?
Can you solve this puzzle?:

Nadia, Trixie, Benjamin, and Bob are archaeologists. They are each on a different dig (homestead, farmstead, fort, and castle). Each of the archaeologists found an artifact (an arrowhead, a pot, a yoke, and a goblet).

Match each archaeologist with his or her dig and the artifact found.

• When Trixie was on a castle dig, she knew someone who found a goblet. Now, Trixie is on a different dig.
• Nadia is on a dig that may have protected Benjamin’s location.
• Benjamin and Bob both like finding arrowheads, but they didn’t find one this time.
• Trixie has watched people on her dig find horseshoes.
• Nadia’s location was less peaceful than Bob’s.
• Benjamin can imagine rulers.
• A goblet was found at either the farmstead or castle.
• Benjamin and Trixie have both found arrowheads in the past, but have not found any this time.
• A yoke was used to guide cattle, and found at either the castle or farmstead.
• Bob found a pot.
• A goblet was found at either the castle or homestead.

Research That Book!

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Research a Nonfiction Book
Some people say that you should write what you know. Others suggest that you should write what you want to know. Good nonfiction writers do a little of both. They start with a nugget of information that they heard or remember from their past. Then, they research the topic further . . . and further . . . and still further, until they have more information than they will need. Think about something that you know a little bit about, may want to learn more about, and could turn into an interesting nonfiction book. Then, hit the Internet and library and talk to local experts. Find out all you can about your topic.

Materials
Research materials
Expert mentors

Procedure
Decide on a topic, and narrow it down to something specific. For example, if you are interested in coral reefs, then maybe you want to learn about reefs, coral polyps, and threats to the reefs. You may then decide to focus on natural threats to the reef, such as the crown-of-thorns starfish, because there is already a lot out there about human threats to the reef.

Pull together resources: books, magazine articles, websites, and expert interviews. Maybe you could e-mail the head marine biology instructor at a university in Florida and ask her for information. If you live near a reef, go snorkeling with an adult. Go to an aquarium to observe the animals of the reef.

Take notes in whatever way makes the most sense to you. Some writers like to organize their notes on index cards, organized by topic. Others like to outline. Still others just take continuous notes on paper and go back to organize these notes later.

File your notes away to be pulled out in the next activity.

Ground Water

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Groundwater and the Water Cycle
Remember that groundwater is extremely important to life and to the water cycle. All plants need water to grow. All animals—including humans—need water to live. The water supply on Earth is constantly reestablishing itself through the water cycle. Water from the world’s oceans, lakes, rivers, and other water sources evaporates as a result of heat from the sun and rises into the air, condensing into clouds, then falls back down to the Earth as precipitation; is absorbed into the soil as groundwater, which is used by plants and animals; evaporates and condenses into more clouds, then falls again to the Earth as precipitation. Create your own groundwater/water cycle model now.

Materials
Clear plastic cup
Plastic wrap
Aquarium gravel
Potting soil
Spray bottle
Water
Cress or other quick-growing seeds
Rubber band
Tape

Procedure
1. Fill your spray bottle with water.
2. Place an inch to an inch and a half of gravel at the bottom of your cup.
3. Fill the cup with potting soil, leaving an inch of space at the top.
4. Plant your seeds in the soil according to the seed packet’s instructions.
5. Water liberally by spraying the spray bottle into the cup, on the soil, and on the inner sides of the cup.
6. Watch through the outer sides of the cup as the water trickles down through the soil and into the gravel. This water is your groundwater. The groundwater will be used by the seeds as they grow.
7. Cover the cup tightly with plastic wrap, securing with either a rubber band or tape.
8. Place the cup in a window that gets a lot of sunlight.
9. Watch the water cycle over the next few days—the sides of your cup will get foggy as the water evaporates and condenses. This fogginess represents the “clouds” we see in the sky. As the clouds become heavy with water, they will “rain” back down into the soil and become groundwater again for your seeds.

Spidey Sense

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Spiders are fascinating to watch. Whether they are spinning webs or lying in wait for a tasty meal, they are cool creatures. This activity will work best if you have a spider to watch for a few days. You can find one on a window to observe, locate one outside in a sheltered location, or capture one for a pet. The instructions below include the details you need to capture your own spider. If you decide to watch a spider in its natural habitat, skip to the observation steps.

Materials
Plastic or glass terrarium or large jar with air holes drilled in the lid
Potting soil
Sticks, dead leaves, plants (live or artificial), stones
Small water dish (a yogurt container lid will work)
Prey (crickets from a pet store or insects from pesticide-free locations outside)

Procedure
Prepare your spider’s home by layering potting soil on the bottom of your terrarium. Place a water dish in a corner and fill with a small amount of water. Decorate the terrarium with sticks, stones, and plants to provide climbing, hiding, and web-building structures for your spider.
Catch your spider by gently coaxing it into a small jar using the lid. Carry your jar to your terrarium and drop your pet inside. (Note. You should have an adult with you as you hunt for your pet. Some spider species may bite.)

Capture or purchase prey insects to feed your spider once or twice a week. When you are ready to feed your spider (either your pet, or one you are watching in its natural habitat), take one of the prey insects and carefully place it in the spider’s web.

What does your spider do? Does it eat the insect immediately? Does it wrap it and save it for later? (If your spider is hungry, it may eat right away. It will do this by injecting its prey with enzymes that dissolve the insect’s insides. The spiders then drink the liquefied “bug soup.” If the spider is not hungry, it will bite its prey to paralyze it, wrap it in silk, and put it aside for later.)

Snake Skin

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Snake Skin
Snakes shed layers of their skin as they grow. As they don’t have arms and legs, they must rub up against objects to help get the dead skin off. How difficult do you think this is? Try the activity below to see how good you would be at shedding your skin if you were a snake. Make it more fun by getting a few friends together and having a competition. See who can shed their snakeskin the quickest—and who would make the best snake!

Materials
Pantyhose (tight-fitting, knee-high)

Procedure
1. Pull the knee-high pantyhose onto your arm as high as it will go. Make sure it fits snugly.
2. Try to get your “skin” off without using your other hand. Like a snake in the wild, you may want to rub up against something to help you.

Answer the following questions:
How difficult was this task?
Why might it be easier for other reptiles like lizards to shed their skin?

Forensics

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Extracting DNA
Your body gets its instructions for growth from the DNA that is present in the nucleus of every cell. Chromosomes are formed from DNA. These contain the information for building more cells. DNA determines a person’s hair color, height, eye color, and just about everything about his or her body. Every living thing has DNA that tells it how to grow. In this activity, you will learn how to extract DNA from a living thing—a bean.

Materials
Blender
Strainer
Glass bowl
Glass baby food jars
Rubbing alcohol
Dried pinto beans
Salt
Cold water
Dish detergent
Meat tenderizer
Wooden toothpick
Wooden spoon
Wooden craft stick

Procedure
1. Put ½ a cup of beans, ⅛ teaspoon of salt, and 1 cup of cold water into the blender. Blend on high for 30 seconds so that the bean cells are separated.
2. Pour your bean mixture through a strainer into your glass bowl.
3. Mix in 2 tablespoons of dish detergent with the spoon and let sit for 15 minutes. This separates the cell membrane from the nucleus where DNA is found.
4. Pour your mixture into your baby food jars, each only about ¼ to ⅓ full.
5. Add a small pinch of tenderizer to each jar and stir with a craft stick. The tenderizer is an enzyme and will cut the protein that binds and protects the DNA in the nucleus of the cell.
6. Pick up a baby food jar, tilt it, and slowly add rubbing alcohol so it forms a layer on the top of the bean mixture. Your alcohol layer should be about as thick as your bean mixture.
7. Look closely at where the mixture and alcohol meet. You should see a white stringy substance. The substance is tangled clumps of bean DNA. Normally, DNA stays dissolved in water, but the salt you added to your mixture makes it show up when it comes into contact with the alcohol.
If you want, you can pull the bean DNA out with a wooden toothpick.

Water Conservation

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How Much Water Do You Use?
Collecting real data is a great way to see how science applies to your own life. Conservation is important in today’s ecological climate. In this activity, you will use an Excel spreadsheet to collect and analyze data about the water you use in a day. Is it a lot? A little? How good are you at conserving water?

Materials
Computer with Excel
Internet access
Notebook and pencil

Procedure
1. On a piece of paper in your notebook, write the following categories:
Baths
Showers
Teeth brushing
Hand and face washing
Shaving
Dishwasher
Dish washing by hand
Laundry
Toilet flushes
Glasses of water

2. For one day, keep your notebook and pencil with you from the time you wake up until you go to bed.
Record each time you do one of the things on your list.

Go to the U.S. Geological Survey website (https://water.usgs.gov/edu/activity-percapita.html) and use the water science questionnaire to calculate how much water you used.

3. Record the amount in each category in your notebook.

4. Create an Excel spreadsheet and enter your data.

5. Using Excel, graph your total water usage, what percentage each category uses, and determine if and where you can cut back.

6. Share your results with your family and challenge them to keep track of their own water usage for a day. If they take you up on that challenge, collect their data using Excel and create a graph displaying your family’s total water usage. Have a meeting to discuss where your family uses the most water. Make a plan for cutting back.

What Do Bugs Know?

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Can Insects Learn?
Insect behavior is fun to study, in part because so many people find them offensive and are repulsed by them. Perhaps one of the most offensive to people is the cockroach. Giant cockroaches make excellent lab specimens because of their size, their availability, and their “ick” factor. They tend to flee from people by scurrying on their legs rather than flying, so they are easier to keep track of during experiments than other insects. In this activity, you will discover whether or not cockroaches can learn their way through a maze. After you have finished with this experiment, enjoy your cockroach as a pet, donate it to a classroom for study, or try designing other experiments and activities for your cockroach to participate in. These are fascinating insects!

Materials
Giant cockroach with habitat, food, and water - or other bug
Foam board
Clear packing tape
Clear plastic sheet
Small cardboard box with a door cut out
Craft knife
Stopwatch

Procedure
1. Build two mazes using foam board. One should look like a Y and the other like an X.
2. With an adult’s help, cut a base from the foam board in the shape of each maze. (Note. It works best to use a craft knife to cut through the top layer of the board. Turn the board over, gently bend it up to make a fold, and cut through on the fold.)
3. Using the same method, cut sides for your maze out of the board.
4. Use clear packing tape to secure your sides to the base and each other.
5. Place the cardboard “house” in one arm of your Y maze.
6. Gently place your cockroach in the bottom of the Y.
7. Cover the top of the maze with the plastic sheet so that you can observe, but your cockroach cannot escape.
8. Watch the cockroach explore the maze until it finds the covered house and hides.
9. Remove the cockroach from its hideout, and return it to the start of the maze.
10. Repeat these steps 5–10 times, depending on how much time you have.

You may want to use a stopwatch to time each trial, recording your data to see if the cockroach gets to its hideout more quickly with each trial.

Repeat these steps with the X maze, choosing one arm of the X as a starting point and another as the hideout arm where you will place your cardboard house.

Answer the following questions:
1. Did your cockroach seem to learn its way through the mazes?
2. Why do you think it did or did not learn?
3. What evidence did you note that supports your findings?
4. How can its ability to learn new things help insects like the cockroach survive in the wild?
5. If you want, save your mazes and try this activity with other insects. You could try having food at the end of your mazes for insects like ants that may be more motivated by food than shade. Compare the results between the different insect species.

What's in the Water?

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Studying Pond Water
Pond water is a cool thing to study. Every drop has the potential to contain lots of different organisms. In this study, you will collect pond water samples to observe the organisms present and discover if they vary by location. Ideally, a teacher, several adults, or several students can collect three or four pond water samples from different locations. If it is not possible to collect water from different locations, an adult may collect water from different depths, at different times of the day, or you may stretch this activity through different seasons and collect one sample per season to compare results.

Note to teacher or other adult. If there is a pond on your school grounds or nearby, consider taking your students to collect samples themselves. Discuss water safety and the importance of collecting samples at the edge of the water so as not to fall in. Having students collect their own water samples adds to the authenticity of the activity and gives them ownership of the experiment.

Materials
Thermometers
1-liter bottle per location for water collection
Pond water, preferably from different locations
Hand lens
Microscope
Concave microscope slides
Pipette
Baby food jars or Petri dishes

Procedure
1. Collect pond water samples.
2. Take the temperature of the water at each location.
3. Write the location, time collected, and temperature on the 1-liter container that each sample will be collected in.
4. Dip your container into the water, collecting any algae or other nearby plant material. Pull the container through the water quickly so that the organisms do not escape. Do this at each location.
5. Once you are back in the classroom, observe your samples.
6. Identify and record the type and number of any visible organisms using a hand lens. (To make identification easier, use a pipette to pull individual organisms and a bit of water into a Petri dish or baby food jar placed on white paper.)
7. Once all visible organisms have been identified, transfer smaller organisms or water drops to concave slides and observe the slides under a microscope.
8. Repeat the steps above for each location.
9. Make a chart or graph showing the number of different organisms that you found at each location.
10. Compare the charts.

What Are You Drinking?

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Drinking Water Quality
Water breaks apart into hydrogen and hydroxide ions and then comes together again. Many other substances also have hydrogen and hydroxide ions. If something has more hydrogen ions than hydroxide ions, it is called an acid. Acids taste sour. Have you ever tasted lemon juice? It is an acid! Substances with more hydroxide ions are called basic or alkaline. These are bitter. Baking soda is one example of a bitter alkaline. You can measure the pH of water to determine its acidity. When water is pure—the number of hydrogen ions is equal to the number of hydroxide ions—it is called neutral. It has a pH of 7. Water that is too acidic or alkaline may harm us.

Materials
Several clean glass jars
Tap water
Bottled spring water
Distilled water
Rainwater (if possible)
Pond water
pH test strips (litmus paper)

Procedure
1. Set the water samples in labeled jars out where they can be tested.
2. Dip a fresh pH test strip in each sample.
3. Remove the test strip immediately and hold it level for several seconds.
4. Compare the pH strip to the color chart that came with the strips.
5. Record the pH of each sample.

Answer the following questions:
1. Which is closest to neutral?
2. Which samples are safe to drink?
3. Which are not?

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