Before & Beyond Splash

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Before & Beyond Splash

April 10, 2015

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Explore at home

We often say you can bring the Children’s Museum of South Dakota with you wherever you go! Following are some ideas and activities to explore, either before coming to the museum or after your visit.

The bubbles in the Splash exhibit create lots of interesting combinations of light and shadow. Here is an idea to experiment with light and shadow in order to tell time.

Sundial

What You’ll Need:

  • Stick
  • Rocks
  • 1 cup of playdough (optional)
  • Watch or clock

Set-Up:

Collect supplies and select an area of sidewalk or concrete that is in the sun.

What to Do:

  1. Find a sunny spot in a lawn or even on a sidewalk.
  2. Put the stick in the ground. If it is a sidewalk, put the stick in the playdough and use that to hold the stick upright on cement.
  3. Throughout the day, place a rock, or mark with chalk for each hour indicating where the shadow falls at that time. Depending on your time, you may have to place rocks over a couple of days before your sundial is complete.

Ideas for More:

  • Use chalk and a ruler to draw in the shadow lines, instead of placing rocks on the hour.
  • Journal the length of the shadows at a certain hour each day. Check to see if the measurements are the same each day.
  • Use a piece of chalk to trace yourself and see how it changes with the sun.
  • Look to see what objects around you have shadows.

Length of Activity:

Set Up – 5 minutes if supplies and space are readily available
Building the Sundial – 10 minutes
Using the Sundial – For full experiment, one day or more or as long as you would like to use it

Resource: Read more at Science Kids at Home. 

Additional Resources:
Burnie, David. Light. New York: Dorling Kindersley, 1992. Print.
Murphy, Bryan. Experiment with Light. Minneapolis: Lerner Publications, 1991. Print.
Orii, Eiji, Masako Orii, and Kimimaro Yoshida. Simple Science Experiments with Light. Milwaukee, WI: Gareth Stevens, 1989. Print.

Playing in our Splash exhibit is a great way to explore water!
Playing in our Splash exhibit is a great way to explore water!
The Splash exhibit is all about using water pressure, creating water currents, and using directional flow.
The Splash exhibit is all about using water pressure, creating water currents, and using directional flow.

Simple Experiments with Water

The Splash exhibit is all about moving water in different ways, using water pressure, creating water currents, and using directional flow. These simple experiments will provide opportunities to move water in different ways.

Heat-Underwater Eruption

What You’ll Need:

  • 2 soda pop bottles
  • Water
  • Food coloring
  • Paper

Set-Up:

Collect supplies and clear a workspace.

What to Do:

  1. In a sink or outdoors, add food coloring to a bottle filled with very warm water. Shake.
  2. Hold a paper square over the mouth of a bottle filled with cold water. Turn the bottle upside down.
  3. Carefully rest the bottle’s neck on the neck of the warm bottle. Holding the necks tightly, pull the paper away.
  4. Result The colored warm water rises into the cold water when the two meet. Molecules pull away from each other in warm water, making it lighter than cold water.

Length of Activity:

Set Up – 5 minutes if supplies are readily available
Executing the Experiment- 15 to 20 minutes

Resource:
Fiarotta, Noel, and Phyllis Fiarotta. Water Science, Water Fun: Great Things to Do with H?O. New York: Sterling Pub., 1996. Print.

Additional Resources:
Potter, Jean. Science in Seconds for Kids: over 100 Experiments You Can Do in Ten Minutes or Less. New York: Wiley, 1995. Print.
Mayes, Susan. Starting Point Science. London: Usborne Pub., 2006. Print.

Find more ways to play in our water room:

Explore the Splash! exhibit