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Kids Projects at Home

Simple Kids Crafts is a video blog dedicated to reviving the old art of handicrafts for people of all ages. How do oil spills affect aquatic plants? A Miniature Solar Panel Fire Water Balloon Make Clouds in a Bottle Secret Messages Make a Rocket Make a Hovercraft Make an Anemometer Make a Sundial Make a Radio Make an Electroscope Make a Stethoscope Make a Telescope Make a Periscope Make a Camera Bending a stream of water with a comb Lighting a bulb without electricity Simple Motor Cotton Ball Rocks? Salt-Absorbing Art and Science Color Changing Glue Art Baking Soda Clay Oil Sun Catcher Grow a Pineapple Plant! Bead Bowls Wow, what an Air-Gun Funny Diver ! Water boils without fire Ice with Boiling Water Water that boils instantly Water boils in a Paper Pot Soap-driven Boat Pulse Moves Pin Pretty Garden—without Plants Picture made by Fire Magic Pictures Dancing Doll Smoke Goes Down The Dancing Coupl The Umbrella Dance Magic Butterfly Colorful ...
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Landslides

Objectives/Goals The objective of my experiment was to determine which type of soil (sand, clay or sandy clay mixture) takes the least amount of water to landslide.  I believe that sand would take the least amount of water to become unstable because it is has less strength than clay or clayey soils.  Methods/Materials  Materials:  Stream table, sprinkling can, graduated cylinder, tare pan, water, soil, paper towels, scale, 30/60/90 triangle  Method:  1. Measure 1360.8 grams (3.0 lbs) of soil being studied  2 Add the measured soil to the 74-1/2 inch stream table. Add the soil to the middle third of the stream table (between 24 and 48 inches)  3. Tilt the stream table to an angle of 30 degrees from horizontal  4. Add water from a sprinkling can, 200ml at a time, at a constant rate, until the soil mass moves. Record amount of water added.  5. Wipe the stream table dry and repeat steps 1-4 two mo...
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The Fingerprints of Erosion

Objectives/Goals  The point of this project was to see if the style of jetty on barrier islands affected the amount of erosion on the beach. I modeled my project after barrier island, Plum Island, for this island tends to have heavy erosion problems. Lately, the island has become so thin it is threatening to wash over. I care about the erosion on Plum Island because I have a house there that is also threatened. I wanted to find out if the jetty had any part in how much erosion occurred.  Methods/Materials  I used an apparatus to test my question. I used wood for the base, Olympian sand for the landmass, a fish tank pump for the river, and a six gear motor connected to a plank for the wave maker. I tested each jetty in the experiment for thirty minutes. I first took a plank and pushed the sand to the sand starting line, and placed a sheet of tinfoil up to the edge of the sand.  Afterwards, I took a picture of the ending land mass and reco...
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The Greenhouse Effect

Objectives/Goals  My objective is to determine the effect of different gases on the greenhouse effect. I am doing this project because of the strong interest in the effect of gases like CO(2) and CH(4) on global temperature. Methods/Materials Materials: 1. Infrared test cell made up of PVC pipe containing a black-body absorber/radiator and closed off with polyethylene film. (Polyethylene was chosen because it is relatively transparent to IR.) 2. IR source (heat lamp) 3.Thermocouple for measuring temperature 4. CO(2) gas 5. Air Procedure: Purge test cell with air. Shine IR source into the cell for a fixed amount of time Measure temperature rise over time Purge test cell with CO(2) Shine IR source into the cell for the same amount of time Measure temperature rise over time Results   The temperature rise in the cell when filled with CO(2) was slightly higher than when the test cell was filled with air.  Conclusio...
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Seeing Through the Haze

Objectives/Goals  My objective was to find out how light of different wavelengths penetrates smoke. The hypotheses that I tested were that light penetration through smoke is independent of the a) type and b) amount of smoke it passes through.  Methods/Materials  Two different types of smoke were obtained by burning canola oil and juniper needles. A beam of white light was passed through the sample of smoke, and the amount of light at different wavelengths transmitted through the smoke was measured with a homemade spectrometer.  An attempt was made to control the amount of smoke (high, medium or low density) per sample.  Results  The two different types of smoke did not have the same pattern of light transmission. At high densities (Approx. 20% light transmitted) canola oil smoke allowed more light of blue wavelengths to pass through.  However at lower densities transmission of reds was equal to blue and yellow and gree...
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Chill Out

Objectives/Goals To study if distance between warm bodies placed together and then apart affects their cooling rate.  Methods/Materials   I studied the cooling rate of one warm body with respect to the cooling rate of two bodies and then three bodies touching the maximum surface area.  Then I studied if placing the warm bodies at a distance from one another would affect their cooling rate and what that affect would be.  Glass bottles of equally warm water were used to simulate the warm body and temperatures of the bottles were taken over time at equal intervals (2-10min.).  MATERIALS LIST   # Three glass bottles of exactly the same size and shape;  # Three laboratory thermometers scaled up to 200°F;  # Metal Pot;  # Stove Top;  # Plastic Wrap;  # One Timer;  # Measuring cup;  # Grid sheet with intervals of one(1) inch;  # Towel;  # Oven Mitts.  ...
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Wireless Devices and Plant Growth

I have heard on TV and from other people, that cellphones and wireless for computers are bad for your health and can cause diseases and cancer, and that they are bad for the environment. For my project, I wanted to find out if the kinds of wireless things I have in my house were causing an effect. I decided to test on plants that are growing, because it would be too hard to measure changes in humans. Background Research To find out why people think cell phones and wireless devices are a risk to living things, I read about it on the Internet. I discovered that these devices use radio frequencies which are called RF for short. RF is a  type of radiation that has a low frequency and it is part of the electromagnetic field. Many people think that the radiation has a harmful effect on cells of people, plants and animals and can hurt growth and health of cells. There is especially a lot of concern about the wireless devices we use everyday like cellular phones and wireless comp...
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A Dying Star

Objectives/Goals  This study was conducted with the primary objective of determining which Solar System object(s) would be most viable during various stages of stellar evolution. Another goal of the research was analyzing the procedure to gauge feasibility in extrasolar planetary research.  Methods/Materials  The objects selected have evidence pointing toward the surface existence of presently frozen or liquid organic compounds or water [Wong, Rivkin, Morrison]. Using the Evolve ZAMS software, the raw outputs of solar luminosities were used to calculate equilibrium temperatures on selected objects in the following manner:  The temperature variable in the Stefan-Boltzmann equation was solved given the object's albedo, radius, and semimajor axis length [Zeilik].  From this, the ability of the surface substances to be gravitationally bound to the object was determined using statistical analysis of the RMS speed when compared to the escape ...
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Grow a Gummy Bear

This is a neat and easy science project for younger children. All you need is a package of gummy bears, some small see-through containers, water, and a marker. The time frame for this project can vary depending on how much time your child is given for the project. The project can be done in as little as a week (7 days) or it can be stretched out over a couple of months. Here are the basics: Take the small containers and the marker. Label the containers for the number of days your child is going to do the project. (Day 1, Day 2, Day 3, etc.) I recommend empty baby food jars with lids since the day can be written on the lid. Fill the containers about half full of water – cold or room temperature, not hot. For each day of the project, drop a single gummy bear into one jar and close the lid. I sorted my gummies by color, but this is optional.) Store containers in a cool space so that the water in the container does not get too warm and melt the gummy bear. (I stored the...
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Fooling Your Brain with a Mirror

Aim: To prove that what we see is often affected by what we expect to see with the help of the mirror image experiment. Materials required: 1. Mirrors – 2 in number, square in shape, 12 inches (30 cm) a side, could be either made out of plastic or glass. 2. Epoxy glue and duct tapes. 3. Wooden dowels – 2 in number with diameter as 1 inch (2.5 cm) and 12 inches (30 cm) long. Procedure: 1.      Stick the mirrors together by pasting their backs. If you have a glass mirror then for safety, tape their edges using the duct tapes to seal the sharp edges. Take the two wooden dowels and paste them right in the centre of the mirrors vertically. 2.      Hold the dowels with each hand and as you look at one side of the mirror move the hand which is on the other side. What do you actually see? What happens? Your brain expects the image in the mirror to move as it is fooled to believe that the image it sees is actually your othe...
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The Mathematics of Sympathetic Vibrations

Objectives/Goals  Which notes on a piano can induce sympathetic vibrations on an open string? Mathematical relationships between test note and open string frequencies will be used to predict which notes cause sympathetic vibrations. I predict the three test notes in my sample that are harmonics of the open string will resonate the longest. Methods/Materials  Materials used were: a piano, a stopwatch, a frequency chart, and a helper. I depressed a piano key, the damper lifted and the string was "open," or free to vibrate. I played all the notes in one octave higher than the open string. My helper timed the durations of the tone coming from the open string. I averaged and graphed the results.  Results  The thirteen test keys in each sample caused the open string to resonate. Seven test keys caused brief resonance; the vibration inside the sound box caused the open strings to produce a tone.  Three test keys produced tones of intermedi...
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