Science Experiences

A Science Experience for Your Child 

Are you a parent that is stuck at home with your child due to the pandemic? Are you in search of a fun activity for your child, to keep them entertained, while providing an educational aspect? Well, look no further! This science experience gives your child an opportunity to have fun, while engaging their critical and deep thinking, their curiosity and wonderment. 

Step #1: Gathering the Materials 

For this experiment, you will need to assist your child in gathering: 

            1. Aluminum Foil: For this experience, the aluminium foil will be used as the surface to float objects on. For this material, your child can use their imagination to create their idea of a boat, that is sturdy enough to stay afloat on the surface of water. Your child may require your assistance, in tearing the aluminum foil into large pieces. 

 

  2. Loose Parts: If you remember from my last post, loose parts are objects that you can find anywhere around your house that has multi-purposes. For example, coins, pebbles, rocks, beads, or marbles. For this particular experience, it is important that your child chooses an object in which you have a quantity of 50 or more. In this example, I have chosen beads. However, rocks, pebbles or coins will also do the trick. Ensure that your child chooses objects that are not of sentimental value or that can easily get ruined with water, as there is a chance they will get wet! 

            3. Water

            4. A Container for the water: For this experience, you will need to assist your child in finding a container that can hold the water. Examples can include: a pail, a large container, the kitchen sink, or even the bath tub. It is important that you are monitoring your child if you choose to allow them to use the bath tub, to ensure that they remain safe. In this example, I have used a mop bucket. 

Step #2: Test your boat

For this step in the science experience, your child should test their boat, placing it in the water to see if it can stay upright, without any assistance. If you want to make this an educational learning experience for your child, you can ask him/her to predict what they think will happen, before placing the boat in the water. An example of a question would be: "Do you think that your boat is strong enough to stay on top of the water without falling over?" 

Step #3: Beginning the Experience

Now that your child has tested their boat, it is time for them to begin adding their chosen loose parts onto their boat. Before they begin, ask them to write down on a piece of paper, the number of beads (for example), that they think they can add to their boat before it sinks. In my example, I believed that 30 beads could be added to the boat before it sinks. The goal however, in this experience is to get all 50 of the object, on the boat without it sinking or tipping over. In order for this experience to be effective, ensure that your child is adding the object one at a time. While they are performing this step, ask them questions like: "What do you think will happen when you add another bead? Will it stay straight or will your boat sink?" These questions will get your child thinking and wondering about the outcome. 

Step #4: Continue Adding the Loose Parts

Continue to encourage your child too add more beads (for example), to their boat. This step continues until the boat either sinks to the bottom of the water, tilts over, or remains straight with 50 of the object on the boat. 

There is 15 beads in the boat, in this photo.

In this photo, there are 30 beads in the boat, showing that my prediction of 30 beads was wrong. 

Step #5: The Final Steps

Finally, at this point in the experience, your child must see, if they have infact successfully completed the experience, keeping their boat upright while holding the large quantity of loose parts, or if they were unsuccessful. If the end results prove to be unsuccessful, encourage your child to try rebuilding their boat, to become stronger and more durable, before trying the experience for a second time. 

           This photo shows, that I have successfully placed 50 beads into the boat, without it sinking.  

The Learning Outcomes of this Experience

There are many different branches of science that children are introduced to and studied in school. In this particular experience, your child will dive into the world of Physical Science. But, "What is Physical Science?" you may ask. "Physical science is the study of non-living things, including solid and liquid materials, and how those objects and materials change" (Faires, 2021, slide 15). Faires goes on to say that it allows children to explore "... changes and transformations in objects and materials and the motion of objects" (slide 15). Along with diving into the world of physical science, your child will engage their critical thinking skills and observational skills to make predictions as well as estimates on the results of this experience. Although their critical thinking is not put to use during the experience, they will use it when creating their boat out of aluminum foil. In order to create a boat that is sturdy enough and will stay afloat, your child must engage in their critical thinking to come up with a successful shape. 

How Does this Experience Support your Child's Curiosity? 

This particular experience will spark your child's curiosity in many ways. Firstly, this experience will have your children asking questions like: "Why do the beads make my boat sink?", "What kind of shape will cause the boat to stay upright?". These questions will force your child to dive deeper into the experience, trying to find answers to these questions. This sense of wonderment, may cause your child to retry the experiment with different objects, to see if the results are the same or if they differ, and if they differ, they will then try to figure out why. Secondly, this experience will give your child the opportunity to engage their imaginative thinking, when creating their boat. As tin foil has no shape when it first comes out of the box, they must be creative, in coming up with their own version of a boat. Thirdly, this experience will also encourage your child to use their imagination to create play experiences that relate back to what they have done today. These play experiences could include things like bath time play, sensory play, block play, etc. Lastly, this experience allows your child to observe the weight change that occurs, as they add their loose part to the boat. They will begin to explore and make predictions, about what it will take to make the boat sink. Overall, this experience will bring fun and enjoyment for your little one, an experience that will seem more like play and less like learning, which as well all know, children enjoy most. 

References

Faires, T. (2021, January 18). Math and science experiences. Algonquin College. {Powerpoint Slides}. https://www.brightspace.algonquincollege.com/d2l/le/content/315788/viewContent/5097245/View