Fun Science Lessons for Students and Parents to do This Summer

Today is the first day of June and even though it was only 44F when I woke up this morning, summer is on my mind. I'm sure it's on the minds of many of you, your students, and their parents as well. If you have students whose parents are asking for some things they can do to keep their kids engaged in learning this summer, Discovery Education and 3M have you covered. 

Discovery Education and 3M host the Young Scientist Lab in which you will find science experiments that students can complete at home with the help of their parents (older students may be able to do them on their own). The Young Scientist Lab includes a section for students. In that section are fourteen videos providing directions for science experiments as well as a set of ten online simulation activities. 

The parent section of the Young Scientist Lab contains nineteen PDFs that provide directions for at-home science activities for K-8 students. That collection is divided into five activities for grade K-2, six activities for grades 3-5, and eight activities for grades 6-8. There are also five online simulations available in the parent section of the Young Scientist Lab. 

Applications for Education
The at-home activities featured in the Young Scientist Lab are exactly the kind of thing that I would include in a letter, email, or classroom blog post for parents who want ideas for ways to keep their kids interested in learning throughout the summer break. In fact, I plan to try this kitchen chemistry activity (link opens a PDF) with my daughters when their school is on break at the end this month.

A Sweet Science Project

My daughters, like almost all children, love candy! So my daughters and I are going to attempt to make our own rock candy this weekend. They love doing little projects like this and I'm hoping that they'll like this one as well. The inspiration for doing this came from watching a recent SciShow Kids episode titled Make Your Own Rock Candy! 

The video above provides directions, but we'll be following written directions from Science Bob. I used the OneNote web clipper to save the directions as an easy-to-read PDF that I printed (I don't want my laptop anywhere near where we're working in the kitchen). 

Measure the Speed of Light With a Chocolate Bar and Microwave

A few years ago I wrote about Jefferson Lab's YouTube channel that includes a playlist titled Frostbite Theater.  Since the last time that I watched Frostbite Theater the playlist has expanded to 68 videos. The videos offer short lessons on chemistry and physics topics.

One of the Jefferson Lab videos that I watched this evening is titled Measure the Speed of Light - With Chocolate! The three minute video is a demonstration of an experiment in which students use a chocolate bar and a microwave to attempt to measure the speed of light. As Jefferson Lab pointed out in the comments, the experiment could also be used to attempt to confirm the microwave's frequency. The video is embedded below.

ScienceFix - Videos of Middle School Science Lessons

In March I shared 7 Useful YouTube Channels for Science Students and Teachers. This morning as I browsed YouTube I found ScienceFix. ScienceFix is the blog and YouTube channel of middle school science teacher Darren Fix. On both the blog and the YouTube channel you will find more than 100 videos demonstrating various science experiments, demonstrations, and middle school science lessons. Watch a sample below.



Applications for Education
If you're a middle school science teacher, ScienceFix could be a good source of ideas that you can apply to your classroom. If you use the ideas presented on ScienceFix, embed the corresponding video into your classroom blog to remind students of the lesson when they visit your blog.

Burning Money - A Science Lesson

I dropped by The Spangler Effect this week to see what kind fun science experiments Steve is showing off. This week's show demonstrates how water and alcohol can influence how something does or does not burn. Steve demonstrates this with rubbing alcohol, water, and paper money. The illusion is that when he holds a flame to a dollar bill you think he's going to burn money, but he doesn't. Watch the video below to see how he does it.

Applications for Education
The Spangler Effect is a nice series of videos in which you can find some science experiment demonstrations to use in your classroom. A complete run-down of all of the materials and steps in the experiments is available for each video. Here's the list for the money burning demonstration.

Science is Fun - Home Experiments

Scifun.org, written by a University of Wisconsin chemistry professor, features twenty-five fun and safe science experiments that can be performed with household items. The experiments introduce students to basic chemistry concepts through fun, hands-on activity.

Applications for Education
The experiments on Science is Fun are probably most appropriate for use with students in the fourth through ninth grade. In addition to providing detailed directions for conducting each experiment, Science is Fun provides an explanation of the chemistry at work in each experiment. Complementing the experiments are easy-to-understand explanations of many chemicals and elements on the periodic table.