Here’s a quick and easy experiment exploring density using 3 liquids. This simple experiment is suitable for preschool aged kids. It’s a simplified version of the density experiment conducted here: The density experiment – part II where we actually floated different objects the the layers.
Materials:
water
cooking oil
maple syrup
measuring cup
test tube or narrow, cylinder-shaped bud vase
Method:
Step 1: Pour water in the container until it’s one-third full.
Step 2: Pour an equal amount of maple syrup into the container
Step 3: Fill the remainder of the container with cooking oil.
Step 4: Observe and record results
We got the worksheet from Science With Me website. When you click on the Worksheets section on the left, click on Science Activity Sheets. It’s a free printable, but you need to register in order to view and print the pdf file.
Questions: Which layer has the maple syrup?
The bottom layer.
Which layer has the water?
The middle layer. Which layer contains the cooking oil?
The top layer
Why do the layers separate?
They liquids have different densities . Maple syrup is more dense than water and cooking oil, and it sinks to the bottom. Cooking oil is less dense than water and syrup, so it floats on top.
Here’s a really easy experiment you can try at home with your little ones.
Materials:
clear carbonated soda
raisins
clear tall glass, bud vase, etc
Method
Step 1. Pour clear the clear soda in the tall glass container.
Step 2. Add 4-6 raisins
What happened to the raisins?
They sink because they are more dense than the soda.
Step 3. Wait and observe
What happens next?
The bubbles of carbon dioxide from the carbonated soda attach to the wrinkles of the raisin and give the raisin lift and the raisin rises to the top. When it reaches the top, and the bubbles burst, the raisin falls back down.
Ivory soap is has some interesting characteristics that we can discover through some simple experiments.
When I get the chance, I’ll figure out how to upload a downloadable data recording sheet to go along with this experiment.
Experiment 1: Does soap sink or float?
Materials:
bar of Ivory Soap
2-3 different brands of soap, maybe even one that is a smallish sliver of soap.
large bowl or tub
water
paper towels
Method:
Step 1. Fill bowl or tub with tap water.
Step 2: If you have a kitchen scale, weigh each bar of soap. Record the results.
When we weighed our soaps, these were our results
Ivory (whole bar) – 4.5 oz.
Dial (whole bar) – 3.75 oz
Dial (sliver) – 0.75 oz
Dove (whole bar) – 2.25 oz
Step 3. Predict whether bars will float or sink
Step 4. Carefully, one at a time, add bars to water.
Step 5. Record observations What happens to the bar of Ivory Soap? It floats What happens to the other brands of soap? They don’t float
Brand 1
Brand 2
Brand 3 (large)
Brand 4 (small)
Brand soap
Ivory
Dove
Dial
Dial
Prediction
Float
Sink
Sink
Float
Actual
Float
Sink
Sink
Sink
Weight (oz)
4 ½
3 ¾
2 ¼
¾
Interestingly enough, the bar of Ivory soap was actually the HEAVIEST bar of soap, and yet it was the only one that floated.
Reason: In order for something to float in water, it must mean that it is less dense than water. Density is NOT the same as weight. Density has to do with how tightly packed the molecules are. In the soaps that sink, the soap molecules are densely packed. In the Ivory soap that floats, the soap molecules are less tightly packed.
So what is taking up the space if not soap molecules?
It turns out, in the manufacturing process, air is pumped into the soap as it is being made. It effect, the soap is whipped like whip cream before it is formed into bars. It’s the only bar on the market that floats.
In order for us to test this effect, we actually did another experiment in conjunction with the soap.
We actually WHIPPED cream to really see how if we could test this out.
Experiment 2: Making a solid less dense than a liquid
Materials:
Heavy whipping cream
bowl
whisk or electric beater
clear glass cup or bowl
water
small container for transferring (optional)
Method:
Step 1. Pour a small amount of un-whipped whipping cream into a clear bowl or cup containing tap water.
Step 2. Observe what happens
After a pretty swirling pattern occurs, the cream will eventually spread out to fill the container. (Eventually, if you wait long enough, the cream might rise to the top, but I’m not sure because we dumped it out before I thought to check that out, but for all intents and purposes, we deemed the cream to sink).
Step 4. Take the remainder of the heavy cream and whip a very, long time. Observe the air bubbles being created by the process of whipping.
Be careful not to overwhip or you’ll make butter. If you overwhip the butter, you’ll have a mess.
Step 5. Take a dollop of whip cream and put it into a fresh cup or bowl of water and observe.
What happens?
The cream floats on top because we whipped air into the cream, making it less dense (there are less cream molecules because the air molecules, which are less dense than water, take up some of the spaces, giving the cream buoyancy).
(Optional step 6: Use the leftover whip cream for punkin’, apple or pecan pie.
Add cinnamon and honey to the rest of the whip cream and whip a little longer. You just made and make cinnamon honey butter)
Step 7: Now, break open the bar of soap.
Do you see the air pockets inside?
No.
So how can we tell this bar of soap is whipped?
Well, you can HEAT it up and see what happens.
Experiment 3: What happens when you heat Ivory soap in the microwave?
Caution: Kids, do NOT use a microwave without adult supervision.
Materials:
1 bar of ivory soap
glass plate
Microwave oven
Method:
Step 1: Place one bar of soap (or a cut up bar of soap) onto one glass plate.
Step 2: Set the microwave for 2 minutes. (note, stop it before the soap spills over the plate).
Step 3: Watch the magic happen
So what is happening?
When the soap is heated, the molecules of air in the soap move faster causing them to move far away from each other. This causes the soap to blow up like a balloon. Charles’ Law states that as the temperature of a gas increases so does its volume. Other brands of soap without whipped air tend to heat up and melt in the microwave.
For more information regarding Charles’ Law, click HERE.
For more information regarding density, click here to go to KidsGeo.com.
So, what can you do with the leftover Ivory soap after you blew it up?
Today we did a simple experiment to show convection currents. Convection is the movement of heat in a fluid, which can be a liquid or a gas, but not a solid.
Examples of convection currents:
in weather, when warm air and cold air meet – warm air rises, cool air falls.
in cooking liquids such as soup – soup on the bottom of the pan gets warm and rises, and at the top cooler soup falls
In order to see this movement of heat, you can do this simple experiment. Materials -
3. Place the cardboard over the mouth of the bottle of cold water, carefully flip over while holding the card onto the bottle of warm water.
4. Slowly pull the card out from between the bottles.
5. Observe. The hot water rises into the bottle containing the cold water.
What is happening?
Heated water is less dense than cold water, and therefore the warm water rises to the top while the cold water sinks to the bottom.
You can read more about heat energy and convection currents here by reading The Energy Story at Energy Quest an interactive educational website for kids sponsored by the California Energy Commission.
For the record, I hated dental visits as a kids, though I was extremely fortunate to never need braces and I only had 3 cavities in all my years until this year. I never liked them much as an adult either. My husband on the other hand has had years of dental work and braces and boy that was fun for him (not).
When it comes time to my kids teeth, I frequently worry excessively about them, and mostly just before I go to sleep. Mostly because I have three girls with nightly bruxism – tooth grinding and I have a small house and I HEAR them nightly. My oldest has done it so much her cuspids (canine) teeth have been ground down so they no longer have points, but instead are flat.
In October, I took my 7 year old daughter in for a consultation with the dentist because she lost one of her lateral incisors but there was no tooth coming through like her other teeth had. After about 3 weeks and still no tooth, I got worried that she had no permanent tooth there. I knew this was a definite possibility because I still have a baby tooth, with no adult tooth underneath (and I’m 39 years old).
Here’s a picture of what her teeth look like now with the space for her missing tooth on the left. On a positive note, her previously coming in very crooked central incisors are now straightened out beautifully (but with a gap due to missing lateral incisor on the left). And yes, her teeth are slightly yellowed, unfortunately because they were squished when they came in and it was VERY hard to get in there, even when mom and dad helped.
So, to resolve my paranoia that she had no tooth and so I could sleep at night, I asked the doctor to take an Xray of her teeth to see if there’s anything below the gumline we couldn’t see.
What I didn’t realize is that he had the capability of taking Xrays of all the teeth at once without those incredibly frustrating traditional tiny little Xrays. Instead of those, “open up and bite down on this” bad tasting, plasticy thing and having to do them many times in order to take the whole mouth.
The dentist took a panoramic view of her entire jaw with the Kodak 8000 Dental Digital Imaging System. It was non-invasive and quick and showed an really neat view of what was going on in her mouth. When the dentist showed me her Xray image, and I asked if I could borrow it to show it to my girls and learn from it, he told me I could keep it because it’s stored digitally in his computer system.
So of course, I had to upload them and show them off.
You can even see her earring studs on the above shot.
And here’s a closeup of her teeth -
If you look carefully, you can see the gap in the upper jaw where the tooth is missing and see that there is a tooth above it, trying mightily to come through but it’s very snug there. There’s also two squished molars to the left of it. The doctor projects that if she has a growth spurt within the next six months her jaw ought to grow and make room for those teeth to erupt. If not, THEN we have to go for an orthodontic consultation.
What I also thought was cool is now we can see on the jaw below, the other teeth waiting to erupt, nice and clear and in little “pockets”.
Fascinating stuff.
I found an interesting little interactive tooth game for kids at
I just needed an excuse to post more gorgeous pictures of fall colors. I think the kids are beginning to think I live with the camera around my neck because I need to bring it every time we step outside.
I spent all summer trying to capture a butterfly to no avail. I am getting into the habit of bringing my camera whenever I step out of the house as I always seem to find something to take a picture of on the way back home from dropping the girls off from school.
Not only was I able to take these gorgeous photographs, I have 3 minutes of video footage of this little butterfly trying to tenaciously cling to those flowers while the wind was blowing. It is pure awesomeness!
We had one sunny 70 degree day in the middle of a few weeks of cold and rainy days. We took advantage of the beautiful day to go on a nature walk, snap some pictures, and collect some leaves.
We found red berries on our first tree.
Beautiful green, yellow and red leaves on our second tree
These were the leaves from the above tree
orange- colored leaves on our third tree
This low tree/bush was both green and red with berries
Leaves from the above tree
I just love the golden and rust color of this tree in the middle of two green trees.
Tree sap from a tree I forgot to take a picture of. The tree was mostly devoid of leaves and we were pleasantly surprised to see the tree sap. We were also surprised that it was hard and not sticky at all. It must have been there for a while and dried on the bark. We were able to take some home with us.
Two of the girls are pretending to pick apples off an apple tree
It’s been a while since we actually did any science experiments, but recently I bought a magnet science kit that was only $7 (at a Tuesday Morning store). It was called Power of Magnets from Think Box so we decided to play with it last night.
I try really hard not to buy science kits unless I think they are worthwhile. This kit contained 3 ring magnets and a stand for them, a horseshoe magnet and a bar magnet, a metal bar and copper wire, a compass and a small toy ball maze and a ruler and piece of felt.
We first played with the ring magnets on the stand. Depending on which way you stack the rings, they either stick together (because opposite charges attract) or float on top of each other (because like charges repel each other).
After the girls played with the different magnets for a while and doing some of the simple magnet tricks, I decided to make an electromagnet. An electromagnet is a type of magnet which is created only by the flow of electric current that is applied to it. Because the copper wires connected to the battery got really hot, and sometimes created a spark if they shifted off, I decided to make this one simply a demonstration for them.
It’s a lot easier than I thought it would be. The hardest part was keeping the wires attached to the battery. The tape didn’t hold very well.
We took the metal bar that came with the kit, wrapped the copper wire tightly around it and attached each end of the wire to each end of a C-battery with tape
It was pretty cool to see that it worked.
According to Wikipedia
A wire with an electric current passing through it, generates a magnetic field around it, this is a simple electromagnet. The strength of magnetic field generated is proportional to the amount of current.
Current (I) through a wire produces a magnetic field (B). The field is oriented according to the right-hand rule.
In order to concentrate the magnetic field generated by a wire, it is commonly wound into a coil, where many turns of wire sit side by side. The magnetic field of all the turns of wire passes through the center of the coil.
The main advantage of an electromagnet over a permanent magnet is that the magnetic field can be rapidly manipulated over a wide range by controlling the amount of electric current. However, a continuous supply of electrical energy is required to maintain the field.
Would you like to make your own electromagnet? There’s some easy instructions for an electromagnet over at Science Bob’s website using a battery, thin-coated copper wire, and a steel nail and some paper clips.
