Children's Books

As many school's do not have any sort of official science curriculum, it is our duty as teachers to find a way to incorporate this important subject matter into other content areas. Children's literature is a great way to do this. Many children's books are already focused on science and others are just waiting to have it pulled out of them. Here is a list and children's books and ways to connect them to science:

• I Saw a Bullfrog by Ellen Stern: This book is great play on words and shows what animals would look like if they actually were two animals mixed together. At the end of the book, there is real information about all the animals discussed throughout the book. A great follow up activity would be to have students create their own animal mixture. However, the features and facts about their animals would have to be accurate. 
• What Do You Do With a Tail Like This? by Steve Jenkins & Robin Page: This is a guessing book. It shows different parts of animals on each page and students would guess what animal the part belonged to. The answers follow each guessing page. This book could be used in discussing the five senses, animals biology, or environment (i.e. fish do not have ears because they live under water). 
• Sheep in a Jeep by Nancy Shaw: This book is great for teaching force and motion.
• Coyote and the Sky: How the Sun, Moon, and Stars Began by Emmett Garcia: A great book to accompany a moon lesson. It is written by a member of the Santa Ana tribe and tells the story of how their culture believes the sun, the moon, and the stars came to be. 

Forces and Motion

·         Anytime there is a change in motion, force is responsible. Force is a push and/or pull. If you were a ball sitting on a field and someone kicked you, a force would have acted on you. As a result, you would go bouncing down the field. Here is a formal lesson plan for forces and motion:

Force and Motion Experiment- Use a beanie baby and/or any stuffed animal to be the “sheep in the jeep”. Test different locations (carpet v. tile) and take into account the weight of the animals. List the different findings on the board and compare. This is a great experiment to discuss variables along with forces and motion.
 

Potential variables are friction, some cars go faster, the mass of the animals, position of the animals.

Students will measure the the distance that the "jeep and sheep" go. Then the students will reocrd their measurements on a chart. This can also help bring math into the lesson. 

Density

•       Marbles, salt, and water to teach density. First, fill a measuring container with marbles, then add in the salt. You can add roughly 130 ml of salt into the container of marbles. Then add 70 ml water. This shows how density works.
•      Density is how much matter is in a given space. It is a property of matter, not the matter. 

Density Experiment: Use a ball of clay and straws to create test tubes. Yellow= 2 cups of salt, green= 1 cup of salt and the red is pure water. Then just add food coloring to the mixtures. The salt creates the density. You can use alcohol to go on top of the fresh water.

 The long straw is the assessment. Have students correctly layer the colors.

As a follow up, have students turn their clay test tubes upside down before throwing out the straws. Discuss why the colors mix and do not stay separated.

Magnets

Magnets

·      Magnets only work on some metals. In general, these metals are iron. Steel is 90% iron.

·      A great example of magnets is a compass. The core of the earth is iron. Thus the magnet at the center of the compass will pull towards the center of the earth, north.

·      Opposites attract with magnets.

·      Lesson Activity: Total fortified with iron cereal for a science experiment. Crush the cereal and run a magnet over it and the iron is visible.

·      Cow Magnet- a magnet that is force-fed to a cow. This causes any metals that the cow may eat to stay in its first stomach and not pass on to the other stomach and rip up intestines. Cows eat just about anything. Lesson Grabber: put a cow magnet in each finger of a glove. Slap the glove on something metal and leave it hanging. Cow magnets can be found at any feed store (i.e. Tractor Supply).

Here is an activity to teach students exactly what a magnet will and will not attract:

Here is my lesson plan that I used in a kindergarten classroom:

Simple Machines

There are 6 simple machines or 7 if you include the gear. Here are the primary 6 that are generally refered to in refrence to simple machines.

Pulley

·      The movable decreases the amount of work needed by half. Moves with the load. As it moves, the distance of the string increases by double the amount of the object being moved.

Force through a distance equals work (work = force x distance). It takes two components to make work. Energy can be exerted, however if nothing moves, then work has not been done. Simple machines help work.

Lever

·      A lever needs a load and a fulcrum to work.

·      They change the direction of the force. They do not really give an advantage in terms of exerting less force, however the change in distance is an advantage.

·      A first class lever is similar to a seesaw that would be found on a playground or a walnut cracker. You push down on a first class. The fulcrum is in the middle.

·       A second-class lever is like a wheel barrel. The load is at the bottom and we lift it from the end. The wheel is the fulcrum. It is at the end.

·      A third class lever, the work is applied to the middle. The fulcrum is at the end and the load is at the opposite end. This is similar to a stapler or your arm or a spoon. The load is being lifted up.

Electrical Experiment for Students

From the current that is generated by hydroelectric dams and power stations to lightning, electricity is an amazing and awe-inspiring force. In order to gain a basic understanding of how electricity works, there are a number of safe experiments with static electricity that kids can do themselves. Static electricity involves no flow of current, so there is no danger of electrocution. At most, a tiny charge will be felt or hair will stand up, but that is part of the fun.

4 Easy and Safe Electricity Experiments: Experimenting with static electricity is a great way to learn the fundamentals of electrical charges and their reactions to each other. Since it involves no current, there is absolutely no danger with this kind of experimentation. Kids can have fun and learn about electricity this way.

Static Electric Balloon: All of these safe experiments are very simple and require little more than one or two tools. The first is known as the sticking static electric balloon. Blow up a balloon and tie off the end to seal it. Now rub the balloon vigorously against your sweater or something woolly. You can rub it against your head as well. Hold the balloon against the sweater and see how it sticks. This happens because rubbing it against the sweater charges the balloon. The balloon is charged one way while the sweater has the opposite charge. Opposites attract, so the balloon sticks to the sweater.

Bend in the Water: Another neat static electricity trick is called "Bend in the Water". All you will need is a comb, your head of hair and running tap water. Run the comb through your hair a dozen times to charge it. Turn the tap water on lightly. Hold the charged comb close to but not touching the water. Watch how the comb pulls the water towards it. Because the comb is charged and the water is not, the comb attracts it.

Resistance: Another fun experiment with balloons is called resistance. Blow up two balloons and tie them to separate pieces of string cut to the same length. Hang them from a door frame by taping the loose end of the strings to the frame. Make sure the balloons are just touching each other. Stand on a chair and rub the balloons against your sweater or your head an equal number of times and let them drop towards one another. See how they suddenly repel one another. They resist touching the other like similarly charged magnets. Because they have been identically charged on your sweater or head, the balloons now have the same charge and repel each other.

Floating Paper: One last static electricity trick is to cut up small pieces of tissue paper and lay them on a table or desk. Run a comb through your hair a dozen times and hold it over the paper. Like the water, the paper will be attracted to the charged comb and seem to float in the air. That is why this is called the floating paper experiment.

Read more: http://www.doityourself.com/stry/safe-electricity-experiments-for-kids#ixzz2sBja9Ly9

These are just a few of the safe science experiments kids can do at home or at school. Static electricity experiments teach kids about electrical charges, plus they are fun to do. Amaze your children with these experiments and others like them and you just might encourage a lifelong love of scientific experimentation.