Brain Tickling Science

Transcription

1 Item #3740 Adult Supervision Required Ages 6 and up Created By Brain Tickling Science When you want experiments that will really tickle your mind, you re looking for the Brain Tickling Science kit. Whether you re launching rings of fog, making a quicksand clock, or defying gravity with anti-gravity beads, you ll experience and engage with fantastic hands-on science in fun and creative ways. Your mind will be tingling with all of the awesome experiments and activities you ll learn with Brain Tickling Science. The experiments, over 20 in all, are guided by this instruction manual. Get your young scientists headed in the right direction with the Brain Tickling Science kit. From The Kit: Instruction book 3 Giant Plastic Test Tubes and lids 1 Plastic Test Tube rack 6 True Colors Fizzing Coloring Tablets 2-2 oz plastic cups 100 g (3.5 oz) of Quicksand Powder 3 plastic pipettes 1 Clear plastic straw 20 ft (6.08m) of Newton s Beads 10 g (0.35 oz) of Gravity Goo powder 1 Iron bar magnet You Get It: Potting soil Plant seeds Water Vegetable oil Rubber band Dish soap Red cabbage Orange juice Spoon Mixing tray Sandwich-sized zipper-lock bag Total cereal Measuring spoon Quarter Marker/pen Candle 9 oz opaque plastic cup WARNING: This product contains small magnets. Swallowed magnets can stick together across intestines causing serious infections and death. Seek immediate medical attention if magnet(s) are swallowed or inhaled. 1

2 Activity #1: Make Your Own Indicator Pipette, Red cabbage, Water, Adult helper Pick out a nice firm small red cabbage and take it home. (Be sure to pay for it!) Have your adult helper cut the red cabbage into about 4 pieces. Again using the adult helper, put one of the pieces of red cabbage into a small pot filled with water and put the lid on it. Put the pot on the stove and turn on the heat. Watch for the water in the pot to boil and, when it does, turn the heat down to low and let it simmer for about 15 minutes. Take the pan off the stove and let everything cool for about 30 minutes. Now look at the water in the pot. What color is it? It s a purple color and will now have some special properties that it didn t have before. It is now an acid-base indicator called Red Cabbage Indicator. How does it work? Some substances are classified as either an acid or a base. Think of acids and bases as opposites - acids have a low ph and bases have a high ph. For reference, water (a neutral) has a ph of 7 on a scale of Scientists can tell if a substance is an acid or a base by means of an indicator. An indicator is typically a chemical that changes color if it comes in contact with an acid or a base. Activity #2: Household Color-Changing Liquids Pipette, Red cabbage indicator liquid, Dish soap, Orange juice, Miscellaneous liquids from around your house To test your Red Cabbage Indicator, pour some into a large plastic cup (fill it about ½-full). Find some orange juice from the refrigerator and using the pipette from the kit, fill the pipette with orange juice and then squeeze it into the plastic cup with the Red Cabbage Indicator in it. What happens? The color changes because the orange juice is slightly acid and makes the indicator change colors. Now do the same thing to test for a base. Put some of the Red Cabbage Indicator into another large plastic cup (1/2-full). Make a soap solution of one squirt of dishwashing soap into ¼ cup of water. Stir it up. Now fill another pipette with the soap solution and squirt it into the Red Cabbage Indicator. What happens this time? The soap solution is a weak base and makes the indicator change into a different color. What other acids and bases can you find in your home? Try testing milk, cleaning solutions, and more! Activity #3: Acid-Base Rainbow Now that you ve tested a ton of liquids in your house to determine whether they re acids or bases, it s time to take it to another level. Grab a few clear cups that are all the same size. Fill the cups half-full with red cabbage indicator. Now, try to make an acid-base rainbow with what you found in the previous activity. How many different shades can you make? Activity #4: Make Quicksand Quicksand powder, Spoon, Water, Small objects to bury in the quicksand, Mixing tray (Approx. 4 x 7 ) Cover the counter with an old newspaper. Making Quicksand can be very messy. Get a pitcher of room temperature water. Pour some of the Quicksand Powder (Corn Starch) into the mixing tray and begin adding the water a little at a time. Mix it up with the spoon or even your hands if you don t mind making a mess! Keep adding the Quicksand Powder (Corn Starch) and water until you have the consistency of honey. Skim your hand across the top of the glop. Sink your entire hand into the Quicksand and try to pull it up. Weird! Pick it up and squeeze it in your fist. Notice how the consistency changes. Why does the Quicksand act like a solid sometimes and a liquid at other times? Actually, your Quicksand is an example of what is called a Non-Newtonian Fluid a fluid that defies Sir Isaac Newton s law of viscosity. All fluids have this property. It is a fluid s measureable thickness or resistance to flow. Honey and ketchup are liquids that have a strong resistance to flow. Newton stated that the viscosity (rate of flow) of a fluid can be changed only by altering the fluid s temperature. Liquids would flow faster if they were warmer and slower when they are cold. A Non-Newtonian fluid has the same dependence on temperature, but its viscosity can also be changed by applying pressure. When you squeeze a handful of Quicksand, its viscosity increases so it acts like a solid for a few seconds. When you release the pressure, the Quicksand behaves just like a liquid again. 2

3 Activity #5: Sheering Science Quicksand Quicksand stretches in a most unusual way. If you try to stretch quicksand quickly, it will literally break in half. If you stretch the quicksand slowly, however, it will get longer and longer and longer. Why? Scientists consider quicksand to be a Non-Newtonian Fluid which means that it behaves like both a solid and a liquid at the same time. When you apply pressure, it turns into a solid (so to speak) and breaks apart. When you let quicksand flow like a liquid, it stretches with no problem. Activity #6: Quicksand Clock Quicksand, 1-liter bottle, box cutter knife, string or yarn, Adult helper Using a box cutter (or similar tool), ask your adult helper to cut the top off of a 1-liter bottle. Put the top of the bottle back on the bottle... upside down! With the top of the bottle in place, carefully pour in some quicksand. Time how long it takes for the quicksand to drip-drip-drip through the bottle s hole. Now you have a timer. To adjust how long the timer lasts, add more quicksand, or thicken the quicksand with more cornstarch. Activity #7: Melting Quicksand Balls Time is of the essence with this activity. You learned, earlier, that quicksand reacts in a very strange way when it encounters force. So grab a handful of quicksand and roll it between your hands. Keep rolling it until it turn into a ball. Weird! The substance that just looked completely liquid is now rolling around in a ball between your hands. Stop rolling! Almost instantly, the quicksand balls melt between your fingers. Activity #8: Nails for Breakfast Bar magnet, Sandwich-sized zipper-lock bag, 1/2 cup Total cereal Place a good-sized handful of iron-containing cereal, like Total, into a strong, re-closable plastic bag, and crush up all the flakes. Transfer the crushed flakes to the second bag, add enough water to make a cereal soup, and seal the bag. Let it sit for a few minutes. It should look like the soggy cereal you leave behind in your breakfast bowl. Hold the bag with the soggy cereal in one hand and move your magnet slowly back and forth across the part of the bag where the most cereal is. It may take you a few minutes to get it just right. Can you see what s following behind the magnet tiny iron filings! This is the government recommended amount of iron we should have in our daily diet! You re really eating iron for breakfast! Many breakfast cereals are fortified with food-grade iron particles (metallic iron) as a mineral supplement. Total cereal is the only major brand of cereal that claims to contain 100% of your recommended daily allowance of iron. The chemical symbol for iron is Fe. Metallic iron is digested in the stomach and eventually absorbed in the small intestine. If all of the iron from your body was extracted, you d have enough iron to make only two small nails. Iron is found in a very important component of your blood called hemoglobin. Hemoglobin is the compound in red blood cells that carries oxygen from your lungs so that it can be utilized by your body. It s the iron in hemoglobin that gives blood its red appearance. Activity #9: Straw Wrapper Inch Worm Straw, Pipette, Water Carefully rip the end of the straw wrapper. Rip the least amount you can. Gently slide the opened wrapper down the straw. By the end, the wrapper should resemble a spring or an accordion. Get some water in a pipette. Drop 1-3 drops of water onto the spring-like strong wrapper. WHOA! It looks just like a worm is coming out of the wrapper. 3

4 Paper of all types, including the straw wrapper, are made up of millions of individual fibers. When the straw wrapper is wrapped around the straw, these fibers are stretched out. As you crinkle the straw, these fibers are bent, curled, and crushed. Then you add the water! The addition of water into the mix hydrates the fibers, causing them to swell and stiffen with water. While the water rushes into the fibers, they continue to straighten into their original form, creating an incredible worm! Activity #10: Density Layer Straw Giant Test Tubes, Test tube rack, True Colors Fizzing Coloring Tablets, Straw, Water, Salt, Measuring spoons, Get your hands on six cups. They don t have to be the same size, and they don t need to be clear, but it will help add to the experience. In each of the three Giant Test Tubes, add one of six different amounts of salt. 1 tsp 2 tsp 3 tsp With the salt in each test tube, fill the rest of the test tubes with warm water. Stir the solution until all of the salt has dissolved. Using the coloring tablets, dye the solutions in each cup a different color. Grab the straw and, if you haven t already, remove it from its wrapper. Hold the straw near one end, wrapping your four fingers around the straw and placing your thumb over the straw s opening. With your thumb off of the straw s opening, dunk the opposite end of the straw into the 1 tsp solution. It should be 1/3-submerged in the water. Cap the straw with your thumb and remove the straw from the solution. Now that you have the first solution in the straw, dip the end of the straw into the 2 tsp solution. Dip the straw further, this time, than you did into the first solution. Once you ve dipped the straw, remove your thumb and quickly replace it. Remove the straw and you should have the first and second solutions in a stack inside of the straw. Continue the dipping process until you have all three solutions inside of the straw. It s a density column of salt water! Density is the measurement of how much stuff is packed into a specific space. That s how we get the equation for density. Density = Mass (stuff) Volume (space). Nearly every substance and material imaginable has a different density. This is especially the case for the solutions you make out of salt and water. By varying the amount of salt in the solution but keeping the water consistent at 9 oz, you create solutions that have different densities. The more salt is mixed into a water-based solution, the higher the density of that solution. So density explains why the liquids stack atop each other inside of the straw, but how do the liquids stay in the straw? That has to be water wizardry! You expect the solutions to pour out of the straw as you remove the straw from being submerged. However, thanks to cohesion (like molecules attracting each other) and adhesion (different molecules attracting each other), there is surface tension at the bottom of the straw. The surface tension is strong enough to hold the solutions in the straw as long as air pressure isn t added to the equation. That s why you need your thumb to cap the straw. Activity #11: Newton s Beads Newton s Beads, Glass container like a jar or glass This is the part you ll come to love... feeding the string of beads into the container. It s important to note that there s no shortcut to this process. Find one end of the string of beads and thread it into the container. Continue to feed the beads into the container being careful not to tangle the string until the entire strand is in the container. Hold the container up high with one hand while pulling the end of the string of beads over the edge of the container using a fast-pulling motion. Instantly, the beads will start to climb over the side of the container and land on the floor (or into a second container if you re really good). Watch as the fountain of beads flows from the container and onto the floor. As the speed picks up, the string will rise above the rim of the container due to the inertia of the moving bead. The science behind the fountain of beads centers around the principle of inertia. According to Isaac Newton, inertia is a tendency of all objects and matter in the universe to remain still, or, if moving, to continue moving in the same direction unless acted on by some outside force. Lifting the container high off the ground provided a source of potential energy. The initial tug that you gave to start the beads flowing was all that was needed to help turn the potential (stored) energy into kinetic energy (the energy of motion). 4

5 Activity #12: Gravi-Goo Gravity Goo Powder, 2 large plastic cups, Water, Measuring spoon Fill one large plastic cup almost full of room-temperature water. Fill the other cup with one teaspoon of Gravity Goo powder. Now, quickly pour the water from its cup into the cup with the powder. Keep pouring the liquid back and forth, from cup to cup. For the first 2-3 minutes you will need to carefully pour the liquid very quickly from cup to cup in order to avoid any clumping. NOTE: If clumping does occur, or powder material is stuck to the bottom of a cup, gently stir the mixture to loosen the polymer from the cup s bottom. If clumps are still present after stirring, let the mixture sit for 24 hours to allow the lumps to dissipate. After 2-3 minutes of pouring, the liquid should start to form strings of goo as you pour it back and forth. After the formation of the strings pour the liquid back and forth more slowly for an additional 5 minutes. Now, you need to be patient for more minutes while the liquid sits. NOTE: Make sure to let the liquid sit all in one cup. If it is separated between the two cups, you will end up with two separate sets of Gravity Goo. Once you re ready, just start pouring the liquid between the two cups again... After just a few pours back and forth, you will start to notice a very strange occurrence. You just can t stop it as the liquid crawls up and over the sides of the cup in a self-siphoning action. Make sure that you keep the cup you are pouring from is higher than the cup you are pouring into. As the Gravity Goo continues to flow, you will find that you hardly need to pour the liquid at all... it will climb up and out of the cup on its own! Gravity Goo is a unique type of polymer. When added to water, it acts both like a sponge to suck up the water and also links the molecules in a long chain. Gravity Goo is a combination of polyacrylamide and acrylic co-polymers. Think of Gravity Goo as a combination of a superabsorbent polymer which absorbs tons of water, and Slime, which bonds into long chains of molecules. Those are basically big words that mean that your Gravity Goo is going to soak up lots of water and you ll find that it is highly attracted to itself. Activity #13: Mini Air Cannon 9 oz plastic cup, Plastic wrap, Scissors, Rubber band, Quarter, Marker or pen, Adult helper Flip the cup upside down and trace the quarter onto the bottom of the plastic cup using the pen. Try to make the circle as close to the center of the cup as you can. Using the scissors or knife, cut out the circle you traced onto the bottom of the cup. (This might be a good activity for your adult helper.) Place a sheet of plastic wrap or a freezer bag on a flat surface. Trace the top of the plastic cup onto the plastic wrap or freezer bag. Use the circle you traced as a guide, but cut out a circle the is 1 to 2 wider than the circle you traced. This extra space will come in handy. (If you are using plastic wrap, you will need to do this twice to ensure that it is strong enough.) Stretch the piece of plastic you just cut out over the top of the cup. Keep the plastic in its place over the top of the cup using the rubber band. Now you re set! Hold the open end of the cup towards you and give the plastic wrap a POP. Did you feel the air? The ball of air that shoots out of the cannon is actually a flat vortex of air. A vortex is generated because the air exiting the bucket at the center of the hole is traveling faster than the air exiting around the edge of the hole. Activity #14: Fog Ring Launcher Mini Air Cannon, Dry ice, Warm water, Adult helper for helping with dry ice Pour 1 oz of warm (not hot) water into the cup. Pour the water into the quarter-sized hole you cut in the cup. Drop 1 or 2 pieces of dry ice (small enough to fit in the quarter sized hole) into the cup. Now your cup is smoking! Hold the cup with one hand and tilt it so that the plastic wrap is slightly downwards. With your other hand, lightly tap the plastic wrap. It may take a little bit of practice, but you ll be making picture perfect smoke rings in no time. 5

6 Where does the smoke come from? When you drop a piece of dry ice into the hot water, the gas that you see is a combination of carbon dioxide and water vapor. So, the gas that you see is actually a cloud of tiny water droplets in the shape of a vortex.this activity demonstrates that air occupies space... and the flying smoke rings are an added bonus. Activity #15: Candle Cannon Mini Air Cannon, Candle, Lighter, Adult helper Put your Mini Air Cannon to the test! Ask your adult helper to use a lighter to light a candle. Once you think you re ready, launch a vortex from your Mini Air Cannon at the candle flame. If you aimed correctly, you ll put it out! From how far back can you put the candle out? Activity #16: Jumbo Air Cannon 5 gallon bucket, Plastic shower curtain or thick plastic sheet, bungee cord It s easy to make your own air blaster using materials that you can find at the hardware store. Start with a 5 gallon plastic bucket (about $3 in any hardware store). Carefully cut a 2 to 3 inch hole in the bottom center of the bucket. Stretch a membrane across the top of the bucket. Believe it or not, a piece of clear plastic shower curtain works great. Just stretch a piece of the shower curtain over the top of the bucket and secure it in place using a bungee-type cord. Lightly hit the shower curtain with your hand or the end of a stick. An invisible blast of air shoots out of the hole. Just aim the air cannon at someone or something across the room and send a blast of air their way with a whack of the membrane. The Jumbo Air Cannon works just like the Mini Air Cannon... only on a much larger scale!the proper name for the air cannon device is vortex generator. The ball of air that shoots out of the cannon is actually a flat vortex of air, similar to rings of smoke blown by a talented cigar smoker. A vortex is generated because the air exiting the bucket at the center of the hole is traveling faster than the air exiting around the edge of the hole. That swirling or vortex motion can be observed if a little smoke is blown into the bucket just before giving the rubber membrane a gentle push. Activity #17: Roots with a View Giant Test Tubes, Test Tube rack, Pipette, Water, Potting soil, Seeds of a fast starting plant (grass, radishes, or beans) Add potting soil until the Giant Test Tube is almost full. The potting soil should be relatively loose, so don t pack it in too tightly. Plant some of the fast-starting plant seeds in the soil. Use the seed packet instructions to determine the depth that the seeds should be planted. Screw the Giant Test Tube lid on tightly, place in the test tube rack where it can get enough sunlight, and then. wait. Remember to add a bit of water with the pipette every once in a while. Keep a daily watch on your test tubes. What do you see? Record the progress and any observations you have in your notebook. This is exactly what people from countries all over the world do during drought conditions to conserve water and save their crops It might seem out of place to grow plants in a test tube, but they have everything they need! The potting soil provides the nutrients the plant needs to grow from a seed. The water moves through the soil to keep the seed and plant hydrated. Finally, you put the plants in sunlight, right? Then those seeds are going to be plants in no time! The cool part about growing plants in a test tube is that you re often able to catch a glimpse of the roots beneath the soil s surface. How awesome is that? If you want to take this experiment a step further, ask a parent or other adult to buy some Water Absorbing Crystals. When mixed with soil, these magical polymer crystals reduce the amount of watering you need to perform, and will enable an even better view of the plant s roots. Activity #18: Wave in a Bottle Giant Test Tube and lid, True Colors Fizzing Coloring Tablets, Vegetable oil, Water Fill a Giant Test Tube 3/4-full with vegetable oil. Fill the remainder of the test tube with water, leaving a small amount of space at the top. Don t put the lid on yet! You 6

7 should see the water turn into blobs within the vegetable oil and sink to the bottom. Carefully drop a coloring tablet (you choose the color) into the test tube with the vegetable oil and water. The tablet will also sink to the bottom of the test tube. When the tablet reaches the pool of water at the bottom of the test tube, it will begin to fizz and bubble. See where we get the name? This fizzing releases the tablet s colored pigments into the test tube. Wait... it only colors the water! Once the fizzing tablet stops... well... fizzing, tightly close the test tube with its lid. Now you re ready for waves of fun. Tilt the test tube back and forth and you ve got waves in a bottle. You confirmed what you just proved... oil and water do not mix. The molecules of water do not like to mix with the molecules of oil. Even if you try to shake up the bottle, the water breaks up into small little drops, but the oil doesn t mix with the water. This is a result of the differing densities of oil and water. You may have also noticed that the tablet only mixes with water, not the oil. Since they don t mix, tipping the Giant Test Tube back and forth creates an incredible wave effect in the test tube Activity #19: Test Tube Magnifier Giant Test Tube and lid, Water Fill a Giant Test Tube to the very top with water. Seal the test tube with a cap. Seriously, that s all you need in your test tube this time. Hold the water-filled test tube up to a book or newspaper and roll it over the print. The Giant Test Tube magically magnifies the letters! The truth is, it s not magic at all. The Giant Test Tube is magnifying the letters in the same way a magnifying glass does, through the refraction of light. Magnifying glasses are made of two convex lenses. That s what you made by filling the test tube with water. Since the Giant Test Tube is round, looking through it means you must look through two convex surfaces at once. If you look at the letters that are closer to the test tube s edge, you ll see that they are stretched or distorted. This is because the combination of water and plastic in these areas doesn t focus the letters. Activity #20: Crazy Eyes Giant Test Tube and lid, Water Fill a Giant Test Tube to the very top with water. Seal the test tube with a cap. Seriously, that s all you need in your test tube this time. Ask a friend to hold the test tube up to their eyes. Whoa! Those are some crazy looking eyes. Now you do it! Can you see through the tube? Does your friend think your eyes look bonkers? Don t worry. Holding the test tube up to your eyes doesn t actually change them. The light is just being refracted as it passes through the layers of plastic and water. All of the refraction distorts your eyes to the point that they look super crazy! Activity #21: Pet Tornado Giant Test Tube and lid, Water, Dish soap Fill a Giant Test Tube 3/4-full with water. Add a few drops of dish soap to the water-filled test tube. Tightly seal the Giant Test Tube with a cap. You ll be jostling the test tube around quite a bit. Twist the sealed test tube quickly around in a circle. When you stop twisting and turning your Giant Test Tube, you ll see that the soap and water combine to make a swirling vortex of bubbles. It s like your very own pet tornado. If you ve ever seen a dust devil on a windy day or watched the water drain from the bathtub, you ve seen a vortex. A vortex is a type of motion that causes liquids and gases to travel in spirals around a center line. A vortex is created when the liquid is rotated at a rapid rate and stopped abruptly. The dish soap creates bubbles that help you observe this terrifying twister in action. 7

8 Activity #22: Color Mixing Test Tubes Giant Test Tubes and lids, True Colors Fizzing Coloring Tablets, Giant Test Tube rack, Water, Rubber band Fill two or three Giant Test Tubes to the top (with just a little space) with room temperature water. Add a different color of fizzing tablet to each of the test tubes. After the fizzing stops, cap the test tubes and make sure that the lids are screwed on tightly. You ll be moving the test tubes around a lot, and you don t want to make a huge mess. Hold one of the test tubes up to your eyes and look at a light (or look out of a window if the sun is shining). What do you see? You see the color in the tube! Now hold a different colored test tube up to your eyes and look at the light. Now you see that color! Now for a little color mixing! Put the two test tubes together in the shape of an X and hold them up to your eyes. Look at the light. What color do you see? Wow! Your color tablets dissolved. That means that the water pulled them into tiny, tiny pieces and surrounded each little piece so that you can t see them. Even though you can t see the pieces of tablet anymore, they re still there. How do you know that? Because the water changed color! Scientists would say that you dissolved the tablet or made a color solution. When you looked through the test tubes, you saw the colors. The solutions seem to have changed color when you looked through two test tubes at the same time. Did the water really change color? No, but the color of the light did as it traveled through the colored water. Wow! You mixed colors of light! Copyright 2014 Be Amazing! Toys All Rights Reserved Be Amazing! Toys (