This fun and fascinating project is based on the traditional bobbing for apples game. This game has been a staple at Halloween parties. It is also popular at state fairs and other festive events.
NOTE: In this use, “bob” means to cause something to move up and down quickly, like these apples!
Clean bucket or other deep container
Tablecloth if working indoors
Water
3 apples (more if you want to use this project as a game)
1. Remove the stems from the apples.
2. Fill the bucket until it is almost full.
3. Without using your hands, pick up an apple with your teeth.
4. Notice what happens when you try to bite the apple.
Observation
You should have observed that when you attempted to bite the apple, you pushed it down. This made it difficult to bite before it popped back up. Why?
The Science
Density. The apples float because their molecules aren’t as tightly packed as the molecules in the water.
Just because something is heavy doesn't mean that it can't float! It's all about density and surface area.
Now you can play the traditional Bobbing for Apples game.
*If you want to take this project further to test it, try taking something else from your home to see if it floats. Check with a parent to see if using that item is okay.
When you use a match to light a candle, both give off heat and light. But where did that heat actually come from? This experiment will show that heat doesn't always need a flame and bright light. In fact, there is a little bit of stored energy, or potential heat, trapped inside pretty much everything around us. It’s just waiting to be set free.
Materials Needed
Fine steel wool with no soap
White Vinegar
Two disposable cups
Latex gloves & goggles
Copy paper
Hole puncher
Thermometer
Fold the paper in half and punch a hole as close to the middle as possible. Set it aside.
Put the gloves on. Separate some of the steel wool and place it in one of the cups.
Pour a few tablespoons of vinegar into the steel wool and let it soak in for about a minute.
After a minute, remove the steel wool, and shake out the vinegar over the sink.
5. Wrap the steel wool around the base of the thermometer and place it in the clean cup.
6. Place the paper over the cup, making sure the thermometer shows through the hole.
7. Take note of the temperature and then observe it for five minutes before recording the final temperature number.
Observation
What did you notice during those five minutes?
The Science
You should have observed the temperature rising and the steel wool starting to get rusty. Here’s what happened: Things like steel wool are held together by chemical bonds which need energy to stay together. But they are stored under some 'pressure,' like people having a tug-of-war.
The vinegar helps break some of those bonds, acting like a little helper to weaken the 'grip.' The iron atoms rush to combine with oxygen from the air. They form a highly stable new compound (rust). When the stored energy moves into this new, tighter arrangement, the 'extra' energy is released. This release is known as an exothermic reaction, which is why the temperature went up during our observation time.
Making America Healthy Again, here’s a health-conscious experiment that you can do at home!
Want to find out what happens to your heart rate when you run and get out of breath? Find out without the need of any expensive equipment!
How to Find Your Pulse
Turn one of your arms up. Then, run the index finger and middle finger of your other hand under your thumb to your wrist. This will lead you to the radial artery, which goes from your heart to your hands. This should allow you to feel the pulsing of the blood going to your hand.
Testing Your Heart Rate
1. While resting, take your pulse for ten seconds and write the result on the chart below.
2. Jog in place for 30 seconds, then take your pulse for 10 seconds. Write the result on the chart below.
3. Rest until your breathing is back to normal.
4. Jog in place for one minute, take your pulse for 10 seconds, and write the result on the chart.
5. Rest until your breathing is back to normal.
6. Jog in place for two minutes, take your pulse for ten seconds, and write the result on the chart. Hydrate!
Observations
What did you observe as you took your pulse?
You should have observed that your pulse rate rose as your activity increased.
The Science
The heart rate increases because as you move, your muscles need oxygen. The faster you move, the more oxygen your muscles need. This means the heart needs to pump more oxygen through the blood. It delivers oxygen to the muscles to give them the power they need to move.
Your pulse is a measure of the heartbeats or contractions that occur as the heart pumps blood through the body.
In the Bible’s Book of Genesis, God said, “Let there be light.” The universe we know and live in was created with a brilliant flash of light. Science also agrees that after light came color!
How can this be? Simple. First off, without light, there is no color. Wait, what? That’s right! When light hits an object, it is either absorbed or reflected. Absorbed light can generate heat, but reflected light creates color. How? Light is energy that vibrates in frequencies like different sounds. Our eyes and brain “see” these frequencies as colors!
The Great Prism Break!
Examine how a prism splits light into bands of color. That’s because the prism glass refracts light. This is very different from absorption or reflection. It involves forcing the light through a glass structure. This structure bounces the energy around to separate the frequencies. This is why light enters one side and exits as a pattern of colors on the other.
Now, for the cool part. The prism’s full rainbow only shows up on white paper or a white wall. This is because white bounces every color back to your eyes. “Let there be light”, really means “Let there be all colors!” If you point that prism at a red piece of paper, you’ll only see the red. This is because red light is reflected, and the other colors get absorbed!
CRAZY FACT!
Here’s the craziest part: black isn’t really a color at all! It’s what we see when no light bounces back—everything gets absorbed. No wonder the dark feels a little spooky!
History in Color
After that ancient explosion of light, the universe began to form elements and compounds quickly. Each reflected certain colors. Some absorbed all light! As part of this creation, humans are wired to perceive these colors. They have spent thousands of years painting and studying them. People appreciate their beauty and unravel their secrets. This is why there is an age-old fascination with colors.
Colors define us and help things stand out! For example, in Ancient Egypt, Egyptians used minerals to create colors like blues and greens. These colors were very popular. They reminded people of the Nile River that gave them water and life. In ancient Rome, the color purple was taken from sea snails. Because it was super rare and expensive, purple was used for royalty and important leaders.
“Space: the final frontier,”is a quote from the opening of the iconic Star Trek television series. When the show came out in the 1960s, it seemed that much of the world had been explored and mapped. Yet, outer space was still waiting to be explored. It looked like the last place humans would explore. You know this if you're a fan of that TV show. The same applies if you watched the many Star Trek versions to follow. The show explores just as much about the unknown area inside us as it explored space.
Science & Fiction
This fascinating observation is clear in human nature. It means how we as humans think and react. We’ve been combining inner and outer space for as long as there have been humans!
CHECK THIS SPACE!
Every time a telescope looks at a star, there is a human eye at the other end. That eye isn’t just seeing light; it’s seeing wonder, or fear, or a sense of home. You can’t separate the star from the person looking at it. That means you!
From Myth to Math, to Mystery!
Before we had rockets, we had imagination. For thousands of years, humans looked at the night sky. They saw a reflection of their own stories. They named the stars after their greatest heroes and deepest fears. This “Inner Space” dictated how we saw the “Outer Space.” But as the industrial age dawned, the telescope began to turn myths into math. This shift birthed a new kind of storyteller. Visionaries like Jules Verne realized that a voyage to the Moon wasn’t just a technical challenge. It was a way to test the limits of human courage and curiosity.
Jules Verne, a novelist in the 1800s, explored this very “space” in his story, From the Earth to the Moon. It’s about a club that wants to launch a giant projectile from a gigantic cannon into space! Eventually, a person volunteers to be in it and ends up orbiting the Moon!
It’s a hopeful story of human ingenuity seeking answers in the unknown. In Verne’s sequel, Around the Moon, characters launched into space experienced various adventures and challenges, before falling back to Earth. These stories talked about the necessary teamwork. They also reminded us of how much about space we don’t know! So, why does it matter that Jules Verne “dreamed” the Moon landing a century before it happened? Because it proves that Inner Space is where all outer discovery starts.
The "Final Frontier" is a mindset. It's not just a place you go, whether you're a Captain on a starship or a writer in the 1800s!
This year, instead of just “tasting the rainbow” with all of that sugar and artificial stuff, let’s learn from it!
Materials Needed
Package of the “Taste the Rainbow,” fruit-flavored, sugar-coated candy
Shallow round white dish
Warm water (not boiling)
Steps: 1. Arrange the candies alternating colors so they are touching or close to touching.
2. Slowly and gently pour the warm water into the middle until the bottom half of the candies are covered. (Covering the candies may cause them to float, and that will destroy the pattern and the project.)
Observation
After a few minutes, you should have seen the colors spreading and even heading to the middle of the dish.
The Science
The first thing you probably observed was the colors in the sugar coating. They dissolve into the water next to the candies. That’s called dissolution. It occurred after the warm water began to dissolve the water-soluble sugar coating. This causes the water around the candies to become more concentrated.
This caused a second reaction, known as diffusion. The diffusion involves the movement of the highly concentrated water near the candies. It moves to the area in the dish with a lower concentration of sugar, the center. This is a natural reaction to balance the density throughout the water.
The dense sugar-water traveled to the middle of the dish. You should have also seen that the colors didn’t mix. That’s because the colored water was more concentrated than the plain water.
Who knew science be so colorful? Yeah, we know, sweet! Right?
