Family Science Nights are Fun for Everyone!
Young children 4 – 8 years bring a sense of wonder and curiosity about the world to everything they do. Whether they are watching frogs in a pond, blowing bubbles, using a flashlight to make shadows or exploring things that float or sink, children are engaged in finding out how the world works. This program taps into your child’s sense of wonder and bring the grown ups along for the ride! We start with a story and springboard into the world of science exploration!
Body Detectives
We started with a great story about a bear.
Our body detectives learn about the important science words of the night...the 5 senses.
We do lots of experiments to check out our sight...
hearing...
taste...
smell...
and touch.
Look at all of those taste buds!
Did you know your nose helps you taste things, too?
Our sense of smell is amazing!
We watched our eyes change in the light.
We learned one eye is usually stronger than the other.
Our two eyes work together to help us judge distance.
Our eyes are pretty cool!
Some of us just love looking at those amazing eyes.
We checked out some optical illusions on the computer.
Everyone thought those were interesting.
We always get to make something to take home. Can you guess what we made?
KAZOOS!
We tested our ears. Can you guess the sound?
We watch sound vibrate our model eardrum.
We learned two ears help us locate sound better.
Did you know the skin on your face is very sensitive?
So is the skin on our fingers. It can help us match things without looking!
Even our littlest body detectives learned a lot tonight!
Air, Air Everywhere!
We started with a story about air.
Space & pressure are important words for air science.
The scientists head off to learn about air.
We observed that air is really there.
We discovered that air can move things all by itself.
We can't blow up a balloon in a bottle because air is already there.
We CAN blow up the balloon if the bottle has a way for the air to escape!
Air takes up space in a bottle so water can't get in...
...but tip the bottle & you can see air! The water goes in the bottle as the air escapes.
Umbrellas are great to testing air resistance!
Air has mass. Balloons weigh more with air inside. Going down!
We can have fun with air.
We made our own paper helicopters!
We even got to test them out.
WOW...air resistance makes them twirl!
We set up a stomp rocket to test air pressure.
3, 2, 1...BLAST OFF!
Air can keep a feather up high.
Air can shoot our paper rockets up into the sky!
Air is strong. It can lift a little book...
...a big book...
...and a giant book!
Air is awesome!
Mirror Mirror, On the Wall
We learned a lot about mirrors!
Mirrors can reflect light.
Mirrors can make beautiful designs in kaleidoscopes!
You can use mirrors to change pictures.
Patterns change when you use pattern blocks with mirrors.
You can see a spy around a corner with two mirrors.
You can use mirrors to finish pictures.
Mirrors are so cool!
We Like to Move It!
We heard a great story about a ride down a hill.
Then we learned some cool new science words.
We tested gravity.
We tested the sled from the story on an inclined plane.
Then we went off to be scientists. What shape moves best?
We tested inclined planes at two different slopes.
Wow, the higher slope makes things go faster!
We made cool racers of our own.
Everyone had a different idea.
Then we tested them on an inclined plane.
We checked out a cool rubber road...
and gave it different inclined planes to see what happened.
Wow, we made it over this bridge!
We tried changing the direction of objects on inclined planes.
It was tricky, but we got the hang of it.
We used inclined planes to move balls around the room.
This took a LOT of cooperation!
We even got to check out books about inclined planes at the end!
Instructor: Maria Polhemus
