Viscosity experiment for kids

Viscosity experiment for kids.

This would be awfully messy to do at home, in school or as STEM, but isn’t science supposed to be messy and fun?

In the blog, different home-found liquids were used to test their viscosity in a simple ramp race. They used oil, water, passata, corn syrup, treacle and ice cream sauce. I love those options! I might change passata for ketchup and try other table sauces, too, even possibly different brands of one table sauce. Just to stretch the STEM Club into thinking a bit harder! It’ll be just as messy as the syrup one we currently do (syrup at room temperature, from the fridge and warmed in boiling water), but maybe a little bit less sticky. Plus, table sauces come in squeezy bottles and are relatively cheap for all of the waste that will come with it!

Does Aspirin Help Plants Grow? | Education.com

Does Aspirin Help Plants Grow? | Education.com.

I found this on a random google search where I was actually looking for something else and I know that I have found a few plant growth topics, but this one is a bit different.

The standard practice in schools to test plant growth is to use nutrient deficient solutions on already grown plants, or on cress, and we often find that we don’t get amazing results. Through mainly pinterest, I have found “at home” versions where you use water, salt water, sugar water, vinegar, etc – common household liquids. Obviously, if you’re trying to teach the science behind the nutrients themselves that are needed, the “at home” versions won’t help.

If, however, you just want to introduce how plants grow rather than what they need nutrient-wise to grow, then this newly found solution can easily be added on: aspirin!

Apparently there is loads of research into how aspirin can help tomato plants, but this “science fair” topic is about testing aspirin to see if helps plants grow. This would be a lovely add on to the other household liquids that cress seeds could be grown with.

You just have to be careful with the aspirin when it comes to children. Definitely one to add on to the to-do list!

Scibermonkey

This is a pretty nifty, colourful little collection of resources.

Resources are separated into different age ranges: 5-7, 7-11, 11-14, 14-16 and teachers with all of the ranges having different topics to select.

For example, using the teacher section, there are 3 drop down menus for age of student, theme and then topic. This is the same structure if you went on the 11-14 page, but far less colourful!

Scibermonkey itself is very colourful and fun looking, especially to entice those younger into having a look, but then all of the resources are links to elsewhere – games, animations, BBC Bitesize information, diagrams to label. They are all interesting and useful, but each resource could be from a different website that isn’t quite as fun and colourful as the Sciber Monkey site. It is very easily searchable by keywords though, which is always a good positive!

Different Ways of Breathing

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A gif I just found in my inbox, showing the different ways that humans, birds and grasshoppers breathe. I can remember loving my comparative Biology and Physiology unit at University, studying about diving mechanisms and reproduction. Oddly, I don’t like animal biology, but I do when it’s in comparison to humans! So this gif is right up my street!

Isn’t it amazing just how different those three animals are?