Mad Science Monday: Community Helpers Edition

Scientists are one of my favorite community helpers, and in the spirit of Mad Science Monday and our current theme, we are becoming scientists today with a series of great community helper themed experiments! I hope you'll join in with us and feel free to choose one or even a few of the activities below to engage your little one's scientific mind!

Architect Themed Science: Building Bridges Experiment

You will need:

• a collection of blocks to build the base of your bridge (we used Magnetiles)
• a collection of small objects to use as weights (we used glass gems)
• a variety of bridge surfaces to test, all prepared/cut to the same size (we used construction paper, card-stock, and corrugated cardboard)

Remember that to make your results most reliable, you'll want to change only one factor of your building each trial. For this experiment, you'll want to build your base in the same way each time and use the same material as a weight. You could use pennies or glass stones or even Legos (so long as you use a collection all the same size). I encourage you to make and even record your predictions about which surface material will be the strongest (i.e.: hold the most weight). Test and observe your results and discuss which materials and strongest and why. Architects must use science when they plan and build bridges, buildings and other structures to ensure they are strong enough to withstand the pressure of weight, weather and time!

Baker Themed Science: Observing the Science of Yeast

As part of learning about bakers and chefs, and our letter of the week Yy, we made a chart of foods my son thinks are "yummy" and those he thinks are "yucky." At the table, we generally encourage him to use language like "that's not my favorite" in lieu of the word yucky, but it's a great letter Yy word, nonetheless. Yeast is another great word that begins with the letter Yy and anyone who has ever baked bread knows that there is a science to it! My son helps me bake challah regularly and I always explain that yeast is what makes the bread dough rise so our challah is soft and fluffy after baking it. With this experiment, you can see how yeast works!


You will need:

• 2 empty bottles or jars of the same size
• warm water (determine the amount you will use so that the same amount is used in each bottle)
• sugar (determine the amount you will use so that the same amount is used in each bottle)
• 2 balloons
• 1 packet or 2 1/4 teaspoons active dry yeast

Add equal amounts of water and sugar to each bottle/jar. One container will be your control sample and to the other one, you will add your yeast. As an adult assists in stretching a balloon over the top of each, encourage your young scientist to predict what will happen inside each container and what will happen to the balloon. In just minutes, you should be able to observe that as yeast (which are a tiny fungi) eat the sugar, they release a gas (carbon dioxide) that makes bubbles and inflates the balloon! 

Florist and Botanist Themed Science: Study and Observe the Parts of a Flower

A botanist is a scientist who studies plants of all kinds. We recently did flower dissections as part of our Tu B'Shevat theme and my son still talks about this activity on a regular basis.

You Will Need:

• a small collection of flowers or greenery--you can pick weeds from outside, use flowers that are ready for the compost pile from your dining room table (like we did) or purchase some on discount at your local nursery. Some garden nurseries or florists might even have damaged plants or flowers they are getting rid of and would be happy to donate to a botanist in training!
• child-safe scissors
• tweezers
• magnifying glass or microscope (if you have one) for observing more closely

Let your young botanist experiment with cutting and plucking and pulling apart the flowers and plants. He or she can observe the different parts of the plant, the textures, aromas and structure. You may want to choose particularly pretty leaves or petals to press and dry for later use.

Fireman & Fire Safety Themed Science

What does fire need to continue burning? Fires and flames need oxygen to continue burning. To demonstrate this to enthusiastic young firefighters (and to help show an important aspect of fire safety) you will need:

• three tea light candles
• matches or a lighter*
• two glasses or jars, one larger and one smaller

*An adult must assist with this experiment and be present at all times! Have an adult light all three tea lights. Talk about how fires need oxygen to burn. What would happen if there were no more oxygen? Could a flame continue to burn? You will cover two of the tea lights with a glass or jar. Predict with your young scientist what you think will happen? Will the flames beneath the jars stay lit or burn out? Which might burn out first, the larger jar or the smaller one? Observe the results and make sure to extinguish any remaining flames before leaving the area!

For some more hands-on fun, make your own fizzy "fires" using baking soda and vinegar. For our version of the experiment, we like to begin with a simple baking soda dough:

You will need:

• about 1 cup baking soda
• about 1/4 cup water
• a few drops each of red and yellow food coloring to create your fire colors

Your junior scientist can dig right in with his/her hands to form a crumbly dough that is able to molded into a solid ball (or even more than one). For dough that is too crumbly, add more water; for dough that is not solid enough, add a bit more baking soda.

For your fizzy fire chemical reaction, you will need:

• white vinegar
• an empty condiment bottle or pipettes for squirting

Allow your little one to squeeze vinegar onto the baking soda dough and observe the fizzy "fire" that results. You may just want to include some plastic toy firefighters and fire trucks to the scene!

Police Officer Themed Science: Observing Our Fingerprints

You will need:

• a washable ink pad
• paper (you can print out the template pictured below by clicking this link)
• baby wipes or a wet washcloth close by for inky hands!
• a magnifying glass for observing

Many children love dipping their fingers or whole hands in ink pads to make prints, but did they also know that each of us has different and unique fingerprints? Police officers use fingerprints to help solve crimes and identify people. Instruct your young officer in training to dip one finger at a time in the ink and slowly roll it from one side to the other in the appropriate space on your template. You may wish to model this and assist younger children with the process. Once you have recorded each of your fingerprints, you can use a magnifying glass to observe the unique lines in each of our fingerprints.

You can check out this template along with other ideas for exploring fingerprints at this website

Through a day (or many days) of science exploration, you can see how many professions rely on science and the work of scientists to perform their jobs. Hope you will have as much fun with this as we have! 

Happy Playing!