CHEMISTRY
Making Ice Cream: Students discover how to lower the freezing point of water enough so that their sample of ice cream becomes a solid.
Secret Message: Students discover that ordinary yellow paper can do extraordinary things. They draw on it with household ammonia, baking soda mix, and vinegar to develop a way to send secret messages.
LIFE SCIENCE
Disease Spreading: Students discover how quickly a disease can spread through their unicorns and then they try to determine which unicorn had the disease first.
ELECTRICITY
An Electrifying Experience: Students discover what happens when colored Xmas tree light bulbs are hooked up in series and in parallel. They also check a wide variety of materials to see if they are conductors.
MAGNETISM
Magnetic Creatures: Students discover all the weird things that magnets can do. Students make their own weird creature that moves magnetically through the habitat they create.
Scientific Method
Objects the Same: Three groups of ten objects each are presented with one overriding characteristic in common. The students eventually discover that characteristic.
Slow Fall: Students discover what shape of paper will take the longest time to hit the ground from seven feet.
Weird Water: Students make water flow uphill with no power added, they make water stay in a jar that is upside down, and they discover how to make a musical instrument from a tube and some water.
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FLIGHT
Gigantic Bubbles: Students make bubbles in their hands, on the tabletop, and outdoors. We also create a bubble tube large enough for a student to stand inside.
Helium Balloons: Students discover how to make neutrally buoyant helium balloons maneuver through suspended hula-hoops and they will see what keeps airplanes up in the air.
SIMPLE MACHINES
Balance: Students discover that the center of gravity for an object can be way off to one end of the object or even off the object altogether! Students make their own gravity-defying butterfly.
Sampson's Columns: Students decide which structural shapes are the strongest by forming paper to see how many books they can support with one sheet of ordinary paper. The record is 152 pounds!
Roller Coasters: Students work in groups to make a roller coaster with split foam tubes, marbles and tape. They discover amazing ways to get as many energy conversions as possible. Watch a video of a fifth-grade class doing this lesson.
Roller Coasters Lesson
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