My name is Sarah Speight, and you guessed it, I have been running Science with Sarah at the Petawawa Public Library! I am a Geologist by trade and have spent the last 15+ years studying Science during my academic career. Recently, I successfully defended my Ph.D. thesis in Earth Sciences! Each week in Science with Sarah we have been running experiments and exploring different areas of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM). At this point, we have covered quite a few topics! Some of our favourites include rock and mineral identification, colour experiments, STEM building challenges, and number games. Check out our Space and Stars program below!
Exploring Space and Stars!
During this Science with Sarah session, we worked on a few different experiments to explore things found in space. We started by asking the question “what do you see in space?”. The children had a lot of different answers! The moon, stars, planets, darkness, spaceships, and the sun are a few things we talked about. We then worked on three experiments:
- Making moon craters
- Building constellations
- Galaxy (magic) milk experiment
Making Moon Craters
Setup on the floor was a tray of flour and ground, coloured chalk (brown and red). This was used to simulate the moon’s surface. Next, all the children lined up to take turns dropping different objects onto the “moon’s” surface! We used marbles, styrofoam balls, shells, beads and other objects of different sizes and weights. We even tallied up our results and measured each crater. Take a look at the pictures below to see some of our craters and results!
Building Constellations
While the kids waited to make their craters, a table was set up with supplies to make constellations! They used pipe cleaners to connect marshmallows. By looking at the different examples of constellations, they were able to make the same designs and some that were totally unique!
Galaxy (Magic) Milk Experiment
Lastly, the children were all set up with plates of milk and cream, food colouring, cotton swabs, and small bowls of dish soap. They started by slowly adding drops of food colouring all over their milk. Once they were happy with their design, the fun began! The children then dipped a cotton swab in dish soap and touched it to an area of milk to see the reaction. The food colouring immediately starts to swirl and move across the milk. Take a look at the images and short video below to see what happened next!
Resources
Are you interested in doing these experiments yourself? Follow the links below for some inspiration and instructions!
Making moon craters:
Building constellations:
Galaxy (magic) milk: