Category: STEM Activities

STEM Activity: Solar Oven

10/6/2016

The question posed to my son was this:
Do you think the sun could be used to make cookies?

With that question sitting in his brain, and as he talked through his ideas...
"no bake cookies", "sugar cookies on a plate", "that oven you made this summer for the bread?".... I managed to find the post I saved on making a solar oven.

Grab up a pizza box, size doesn't really matter, these are mediums from the hot-n-ready from Little Caesar's. Cut a flap in the box. Have an extra, just saying, it might be helpful. :) Seeing how my son was cutting, gave me a chance to teach him proper cutting technique along with the WHY his way was incorrect, and the benefits of doing it correctly. It made the job go more quickly without injury.

The lad didn't like his first attempt, so we used another box.

Put aluminum soil over the flap, shiny side facing down into the box. Then cover the opening with a see through material (we used sarah wrap, you could also use a ziploc bag). This helps keep bugs out of the box. Helps, doesn't completely prevent. :)

Cover the bottom of the box with black paper to help hold in the heat. We found this worked best as a two man job.

Find a way to insulate the box. We had styrofoam so made use of it, you could also used rolled up newspapers, socks, material etc. Something that will fill up the space not used, and help concentrate the heat.

Put the assembled product out in the sun, propping the lid open so it catches the rays (the lad thought a straw would work nicely). We didn't have plates small enough to put in so we used some excess foil to make a plate. It was a coolish day so it took ALL DAY to make the cookies. You may find you need to move the box, depending on what happens with sun and shade.

I had thought of messing with my boy's brain and popping an egg in a small bowl for him to cook, but decided against it. :) But it's something to try eh?

Have you ever cooked outdoors? If So, what did you make?
If you made a solar oven before, did you do it differently then we did?

STEM: Sand Art

9/29/2016

The question is this: How is sand art STEM?

Science, Technology, Engineering and Math.

Science: Chromotography - figuring out how when some colours meet and mix, they combine to make a new colour.

Technology: The funnel this kit came with was a bit small...This required some problem solving. I used a homemade funnel made of paper, and my son used a skewer to help push the sand through the funnel. Also the sand art wand was next to useless so we needed to create a work around for that. Straws, toothpicks, careful shaking, and moving the funnel to direct the flow were our options.

Engineering: Each sand art jar was shaped differently, my son chose the bottle he did because it seemed to him the best bottle from which to learn how to layer sand.

Math: The sand particles shift and settle. This meant we needed to add more sand than we originally thought. It took careful shaking to get the sand to settle without messing up the design we so carefully created.

This is the kit we used. I don't know where I picked it up, but it came with four bottles, six colours of sand, a shaping wand, and four stoppers.

We learned quickly that putting the bags down on the table would result in leakage, so we found some cups to store them upright in. Here my son is demonstrating the use of the skewer to help the sand through the funnel.

Settling was an issue, how much more would it need? Far more than we thought it would. It seemed to always take just a wee bit more. The funnel seemed useless here.

Now.. the sand art wand was next to useless and it never glowed in the dark which was a tremendous disappointment to the lad, but we have a fun creating and thinking, and that's kinda the end point of it all. :)

Have you tried Sand Art as a STEM activity? Though I do suppose, that it includes the A as well eh? The "A" being for art... aren't they interesting once they are complete? Sand art also shows off our individual expression! :)

STEM Activity: Salt Water Spider

9/22/2016

We have a shelf in our main schooling area called a discover shelf. Once a week we grab something off it and we discover. :)

Two weeks ago my son grabbed this item off the shelf:

I have to admit, we made one of these a LONG time ago, but it was defective, but I got this one a really good deal and figured it would be worth a shot trying it again. :) The first one my lad was too young to make himself, so dad and I put it together, this one the lad did all on his own, except for the odd "mom, can you help file this down, mom, can you see if I am doing this right?"

The kit comes with two plastic piece sections, along with three bags with different pieces. Some of the pieces will require careful manipulation to remove and others require some filing to remove burrs. All pieces fit together just so, but we found it quite forgiving overall.

For the most part the lad found the instructions very clear, but occasionally he'd say "they could make this section better mom". That was usually the result if he put something in backwards, or not quite in the right places. In those places, better pictures would have help. Pictures later in the process showed where he had gone wrong, and the fix was easy to make. You'll notice the knife and scissors that were helpful in the removing of burrs.

The lad was ecstatic when we reached this stage, it was quite fiddly up until this point.

"Look mom, I have her all together! Isn't she nice?"

When I asked him if he wanted to mix the salt water together to let her run, he said no. The plates that make it run degrade over time, and he wants to keep everything nice until he decides he has time to play with her for a really long time. So for now, we have a spider who sits with him as he does his school work, and nicely doesn't run away on him. :) And I have a happy boy. :)

STEM and More Fridays - let's do things differently

9/16/2016

Admittedly I have a few posts to get caught up on yet (namely our STEM Friday Projects) but I thought I'd let you know that we are being intentional this year. Taking time on Fridays to work through our books and boxes that we have lining these two shelves.

Kits to make soap, weather stations, wood burning, smithsonian projects and so much more. Books to make electric items using paper, using squares of paper and wood to build creations and more. It's fun learning! We have games to play and things to do.

But you know what happens? Sometimes this stuff gets forgotten, and this year, we don't want to forget to do them, or my .. oh my goodness... now 11 year old will outgrow them and who wants that? Not me, and definitely not him.

Last week we made this fellow:

She's a salt water spider (so you if put salt water in her, she'll move around). My lad has yet to put the salt water in as the plates only last four hours and he doesn't want to waste them. We learned though about how salt water is a conductor, and magnesium plates will degrade if in contact with salt. We had a chance to see what happens if you don't fit gears together properly, and the importance of not only READING the instructions, but looking at the accompanying pictures. She wasn't the easy build, but boy... is my lad happy with her. He did it on his own with the odd... mom... can you trim this down for me, it's not working for me.

Oh.. this sand art was more of a challenge than we anticipated. The funnel it came with was a bit on the small side, so I made a funnel of paper and my lad learned the fine use of a skewer to help the sand go through the funnel. My son laughed at my sand man, and I thought his design with layering quite interesting. We have two more to and now that we've worked out the kinks making these two my lad thinking he might try a slightly harder one next time.

Since we had it written in the planner to make a solar oven today my son and I tossed the math and English practice for the day and read instructions FOUND HERE for making the ovens.    We used styrofoam as our insulator instead of paper.   Last check the lad said they were cooking. :)

Fridays we do our learning a bit differently, as much as we can.

Do you have days of the week that you do things differently as well?   If so what?

Kiwi Crates Were a Hit on Vacation

9/1/2016

affiliate links are in this post, it does not affect you, it just hopefully provides a way for me to help my son get more crates to create!

I don't know about you when you go on vacation, but I always find myself packing along things to keep my lad busy on rainy days, before supper is made, or when it feels just TOO HOT to do anything else. :) When we went up to Grundy Lake for our annual camping trip, I did what I always do but this time instead of raiding the local Dollarama for some art supplies, I brought along some Kiwi Crates.

I have to admit, we've been enjoying these crates for a while now. You can get a variety of length of subscriptions. From month by month, three, six or twelve month subscriptions. Kiwi Crates is also associated with tinker, doodle, koala and cricket crates. A big part of me wishes I had met these crates AGES ago. :)

My lad ALMOST gave up with this challenge, he was SO frustrated by it but in the end, he got it to work. My finicky careful lad almost got out finickied. :) BUT did he learn a few things? For sure.
1. Patience wins out
2. it's actually really neat if you get it all to balance just so
3. magnets are pretty tricky to work with if you want them to work against each other.

Follow the instructions to put it together, tell mom SHE's WRONG (and be right) and have a ton of fun. Then put everything in a different spot and try it another way. My lad had SO much fun making this pinball machine and then playing with it. It continues to be a favourite item to play with.

OH boy oh boy.. this was the BEST kiwi crate EVER in your entire life!!!!! My son was so intrigued by this crate. The combination creation proved to a hard one to come up with until he decided to draw every spider he's ever owned plus a few extras just to mess with people. He would not let me take a picture of the actual combination and posed his lock very carefully so as not to give it all away. The Combination Lock was a totally awesome hit in my son's eyes. :)

Next week we'll be making another one... my lad is curious about it. Fun times ahead! :) Check out the video below to show persistence does pay off...

What else do we link about Kiwi Crates?

Clear concise directions, a booklet that gives you additional information and asks questions to help you figure out more ideas to think about. :)

All the supplies you need are provided. In the floating pencil we didn't even need to provide the pencil! My son loved the tiny crayons that were included, "Look mom! They are neat, see how they all fit together?" All the tiny pieces for the pinball were neatly bagged. The combination lock thankfully came with an extra wood circle as well.

All in all, I am glad that we took the time on our vacation to do these kiwi crates. It gave my lad something to do while waiting for supper to cook, and on one of our cooler days. Looking forward to doing our next one and upgrading to the tinker crates. :)

Review: Build the Robot

5/17/2016

Do you have a child who likes robots, or even have a child you would like to inspire to like robots??? Build the Robot by Steve Parker might be just the kit for you. :)

A book with robots to build!

The first part of this book/kit is loaded with information about robots, from what they are to what they have been used for to possibilities for the future. The information gave us ample opportunity to discuss ideas such as what it would have been like to perform surgery from 3800 miles away using a robot...and therefore saving a person's life.

It gave me ideas for doing a class on robots with children for my co-op.. would just be fun to do some different things with them (making a robotic hand and what not)

At the close of the book there are three robots that one can make, a wiggle bot, a walk bot and a wave bot. All pieces are cut out heavy board that just needs to be punched out.

Three motors are included which unfortunately for us were not well labeled. The instructions called for motor A to be used, but the motors looked so similar to each other, we ended up using the wrong motor and had to take the whole thing apart again. (I would really recommend these motors be clearly labeled). It was a bit frustrating, but in the end we managed to get it to work.

Interestingly enough, since the robot tended to fall over abit, it got my lad to thinking (based on knowledge gained)... if we could give it a knee, do you think it would work better?   How do you think we could do that?   What if we made it have heavier feet so it was slower, think that would work?   What if it had to work harder? or we could slow it down???

We did manage to try out the following
1. adding weight to the feet... it was hard to secure and seemed to not make any difference.
2. running it on carpet (didn't work)

But it was a fun activity and got my lad talking and thinking, so I'd be calling this a successful book.

We have, as of yet, not found time to make the remaining two robots... perhaps next week when Dad is away for a few days.

The build a robot kit contains a 32 page book, three wind-up motors and the pieces to make three robots.

The material to make the robots is a very heavy cardstock? Bookboard? not quite sure what to call it, but it's quite sturdy and can take some abuse.   Some of the cutouts required the use of a toothpick to get the smallest pieces out.

We thoroughly enjoyed the end result of making this robot, my lad has brought it out a couple of times since making it to test it out. We've learned it runs best with NO cats around, on the hardwood floor in the living room, with a relatively clean running area.

He walks, he tumbles a bit, but we made him and it's all good. :)

Reviewed for Raincoast Books. A great book made by Steve Parker and published by Silver Dolphin Books. Get it, inspire your children to be creative and think more about robots... it'll be fun! :)

Social Media Links for Raincoast Books are as follows.

https://twitter.com/raincoastbooks
https://www.facebook.com/raincoastbooks
https://instagram.com/raincoastbooks/
https://www.pinterest.com/raincoastbooks/
http://raincoastbooks.tumblr.com/
https://plus.google.com/+raincoastbooks/

K'nex Wheels, Axles, Planes

10/29/2014

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So you start with one K'nex education kit and one boy child who goes hmpf.
You add one mother who builds the first model.
You add oh.. "what's that mom?" and interest follows.
Add frustration. "MOM!   it doesn't float!!!"
You add encouragement... so what do you think will make it float?
One receives "I don't know" as the answer.... to be responded to with "so, think on".

The next day a lad has thought on it and so tears off the top of the model (which he has deemed as useless and turn it upside down).    Tries that.. still doesn't float.

Then he breaks into our "build stuff with in bins" and pulls out a jar.. this might do it mom!

upside down and not floating...

What else to do what else to do.. the lad searches determinedly...

He comes across some foam.. think think.. will it float. Test out the foam first. YES!!! it floats!

Cut it to size and voila!

Mom! LOOK! It floats!

Now.. will the paddles work?

A wee bit but not much... hmm...what to do.
Together we did some problem solving. We saw pictures of what real paddle boats look like and how they move water...how can we do this using ONLY K'nex (I suggested using tape or paper but NO we were to use only K'nex).

The lad's solution

And it worked.
Our various efforts changed the forward motion of the boat from 1 inch active movement to about eight inches...with floating lasting a good half length of the bathtub. This was deemed a rousing success and promptly lead into a battle twix the birds and the pigs... The pigs ended up having better guns so they won.