Recently in Family Science Category

Fossils and the possibility of finding something prehistoric encased in soil or rock may excite students of all ages (and from an early age!). Whether your student's interest in fossils and paleontology and archaeology stems from a passion for dinosaurs or as an offshoot of fascination with King Tutankhamun, Mary Anning, as a female fossil hunter, is a great person in science history for students to know about. Introduce students to Mary Anning's story—and the world of fossils and paleontology— with books like these, many of which may be available at your school or local library:

Looking for books for older or adult readers? Consider The Fossil Hunter: Dinosaurs, Evolution, and the Woman Whose Discoveries Changed the World (Macmillan Science) (biography) or Tracy Chevalier's New York Times bestseller, Remarkable Creatures: A Novel (fictionalized account).

Hands-on Fossil Exploration

The new hands-on "Fantastic Fossilization! Discover the Conditions For Creating the Best Cast Fossils" geology project lets students explore "cast" fossils. Cast fossils are one of four types of fossils. As students will discover by doing the science experiment and making their own cast fossils using shells and plaster of Paris, certain types of soil are more suitable for preserving cast fossils than others. In addition to offering an excellent independent science project, this idea can be great for classes or family exploration!

Hands-on engineering doesn't always require high-tech materials. Armed with a stack of paper and the steps to folding a basic dart airplane, a volunteer leads a paper airplane station at a local science exposition and realizes, with surprise, that folding planes isn't something all kids know how to do! With guidance, paper airplane folding can lead to some far-flying—and fun—aerodynamics exploration.

Above top: Mary Raven demonstrates folding a basic dart paper airplane at a local Girls Inc. science fair. Bottom: Mary's daughter prepares to launch and test a different plane. How will it fly compared to a dart—and why?

Hands-on Science at Home, School, or After School!

Folding paper airplanes is a great way for students to experiment with core concepts like lift, drag, and thrust. The following science Project Ideas bundle hands-on aerodynamics exploration with paper airplane fun:

• How Far Will It Fly? Build & Test Paper Planes with Different Drag
• Why Winglets?
• Soaring Science: Test Paper Planes with Different Drag (family adaptation at Scientific American)

When Dr. Mary Raven, Microscopy Facility Director at the Neuroscience Research Institute and Neuroscience Research Institute & department of Molecular, Cellular & Developmental Biology, University of California, Santa Barbara, volunteered at her daughter's after-school program's annual science fair, she set up a paper airplane station so that the girls could experiment with the aerodynamics and physics of different plane designs. To get the most out of a hands-on comparative plane folding experiment, the kids folding the planes need to be comfortable with basic folding steps. Mary assumed most of the girls would have some history with paper airplanes. To her surprise, she discovered that folding paper airplanes was not something with which all the girls had experience. In the end, the girls that visited Mary's station at the Girls Inc. science fair got a crash course in basic folding, a fun dose of engineering, a nifty takeaway (paper airplane), and a great hands-on science experience.

Science After School

Mary's daughter, now in fourth grade, has been attending a local Girls Inc. after-school program since kindergarten, and Mary has been volunteering, each year, to lead a hands-on exploration with the girls at the science fair. According to Mary, science is typically part of the program schedule at Girls Inc., and when students request their top choice classes, engaging science-themed options like a Mad Scientist club are part of the available offering. But science really heats up with the yearly science expo when the girls get hands-on with a wide range of science and engineering activities.

"When you think science fair, you might think girls calmly presenting their projects" says Mary. "But the Girls Inc. science fair is more of a hands-on science show. Imagine 150 excited girls aged 5-12 running from station to station, and you have our Girls Inc. science fair."

At the science fair, various exploratory stations are set up for the girls to cycle through. This year, Mary says the stations included a math station, one focused on earthquakes, one on rocket launchers, one on hand washing (and visualizing germs with Glo Germ), a microscope-based station, and one featuring an iguana. The diverse offerings give the girls the chance to experience a number of different areas of science—who knows what might catch a young girl's imagination and spark lifelong interest—but as Mary can attest, 150 participants cycling through a hands-on science activity can be a challenge!

"I don't work with children for a living, and having one girl at home in no way prepares you for the experience of 150 excited girls asking every question imaginable," admits Mary. "I've tried several projects with the girls (prism optics, sun-prints, brain dissections), and I'm usually disappointed in my ability to share anything meaningful with a mass of swarming girls."

This year, Mary spotted a project at Science Buddies and thought it might be perfect for the science fair. "When I saw the experiment How Far Will It Fly? Build & Test Paper Planes with Different Drag posted on Science Buddies, I thought, 'hey, that looks like it might adapt to the wild of the Girls Inc. science fair.'"

Preparing for Hands-on Science with Kids

Having selected her activity for the fair, Mary spent time determining how best to convert the science "project" (something written with a single student performing a science experiment in mind) into a short-term hands-on activity that girls could do on the spot. When converting a full-scale project to an immediate and short-term activity, understanding both the audience and the main science concepts you want to get across is important. You want to craft the activity in such a way that the students are engaged and that there is a clear scientific takeaway.

Knowing in advance that girls would cycle through at varying times and that those at her station would all be in various stages of the activity at the same time, Mary planned ahead. She first made a poster that showed the basic steps for folding a simple dart plane. "I have learned the girls don't stop to read words," says Mary, "but I thought the examples might help."

She then gathered supplies: a stack of paper, a ruler, tape, scissors, and a clipboard for recording results. "I marked off the gym in 5 foot increments," says Mary, "and then with my poster board set up and papers at the ready, I waited for the girls to appear." Mary was ready, but she hadn't counted on the fact that not all of the girls had folded planes before. Even with the steps for folding a dart plane on the poster, folding the plane proved a challenge for some of the girls. "The first few girls trickled into the gym, and I quickly learned I was going to be walking the girls through folding the planes."

On the spot, Mary had to adapt and refocus her hands-on engineering activity. Testing multiple plane designs might not be possible; certainly, building three different planes with each girl was out of the question, says Mary. "I was a little surprised at how unfamiliar the girls were at folding paper. I was also a little disturbed to learn they called lengthwise folds 'hot dog' and widthwise folds 'hamburger,'" recalls Mary. Still, Mary and the girls stuck with it. "Some of the girls wanted me to fold [the plane] for them, but I think folding is a great 3D spatial skill, and using their own hands was important."

Despite the rocky start, "all the girls were able to fold a plane with help," says Mary. Not only were they able to fold a plane, but they were excited when they finished their planes. The immediate satisfaction of the project was evident for the girls who struggled through plane folding at Mary's station. "They were thrilled at how well the dart flew once it was complete."

Putting the Science in the Air

Rather than building multiple planes each, each girl flew her plane three times, and they took measurements and determined the average. Mary then guided the girls in modifying their original plane. "We added flaps in the back, and I asked the girls what they thought the flaps would do to the plane. None of the girls were certain what would happen, but when they tested the plane, they quickly realized the plane didn't fly well at all," says Mary. "They were able to deduce that the flaps were somehow blocking the airflow, and some girls realized that unfolding the flaps restored the plane's flying capability. I thought that was a great result!"

"I think making the planes was empowering for the girls," says Mary. "It gave them a tool to experiment with. They were excited to try flying it and to determine the best way to launch it. As much as I like the data collection and analysis part of the experiment, my favorite part was how the girls seemed to understand the manipulation. The concept of drag wasn't something they had heard of, and it isn't something they were likely to pick-up from a diagram. Still, after a couple of plane flights, they had a mental image."

And that's what it's all about, seeing the science in action, the cause and effect, the principles of science, like drag, and realizing that changing just one variable can make a dramatic difference. For Mary, this year's event was eye-opening, but she is happy with how it turned out and happy with the project she used as the basis for her activity. "I liked the aerodynamics (activity) because it is mostly hands-on interactive time, and the girls had something they could keep (the plane). Waiting is a killer in this format, and they love having something to take home."

"Overall, I'm very happy with the results although I still haven't achieved my vision of somehow ordering the disorder at my science fair table. If I had 4 volunteers, maybe?"

The Importance of a Single Volunteer and Role Model

We can't wait to see what Mary tries at next year's science fair, but we are sure that the girls who passed through her station this year benefited from having an interested adult take time to demonstrate, explain, guide, and encourage them to explore, question, and hypothesize.

"I think it is really important that the girls have contact with female scientist and engineers (or any scientist/engineer)," notes Mary. "Girls are very influenced by the female role models in their life. If you ask them why they are considering the career choice they are exploring, it is usually a female role model or relative that leads them to consider the option."

Note: After the fair, Mary suggested to the after-school program that enrichment programs in origami or in plane folding might be a great addition to the offerings. Do your kids and students fold paper airplanes now and again? If not, or if you are not sure, open up the basic dart instructions and grab a stack of paper. There are planes to be folded!

The above photos were taken during the creation of a geodesic dome as a family math and science activity over spring break. The dome resembles the dome created in the "Dome Sweet Dome" math Project Idea, but we used straws instead of newspaper, a different assembly process, and threw in some duct tape customization for visual effect.

A model dome like this can be made in any size (as long as you figure out the relative lengths of the struts). This one is pretty big! Getting it in the car was definitely a challenge. The dome didn't weather its time squooshed in the trunk very well—a reminder that inexpensive plastic straws bend and/or crack under too much stress. (Stress-testing the strength of geodesic dome was not really our ultimate goal.)

Building the dome was a great hands-on math exploration project, but it took a good bit of time to work through all the necessary steps to prepare the struts for assembly. Each of my kids enjoyed different aspects of the project, but watching it come together in the end was awesome!

What color flowers do you want this week? Nature produces a wide array of wonderful colors, but plant biology opens the way for a whimsical "choose your own color" flower experiment, perfect for home or the classroom.

April showers, May flowers, and Mother's Day... flowers may be out in abundance at your grocery or corner market, but not all flowers bundled and labeled for sale are straight from the garden.

This science mom's daughter was excited by the colorful flowers she saw at the store, including green carnations. Her mother took the moment of interest to talk about how plants get their nutrients—and how plant science is related to some of the "colors" of flowers for sale.

"I explained that many of the flowers she was seeing were not really like that in nature. So we talked about how flowers get nutrients and water, and then decided we'd try to make our own colored flowers. She actually came up with the idea of putting them in colored water after we talked about how plants drink and transport water!"

This mother/daughter discussion is a great reminder that a little science discussion can go a long way! Stopping to talk about what's going on and how science explains what has captured a kid's imagination helps kids make important connections between science and the real world and also encourages them to think about how that information can be used or tested. Sometimes your student might surprise you by assimilating the information and coming back with questions or suggestions, as this student did. She made the leap to wondering what would happen if they put flowers in colored water, and her mother took the next step—hands-on science at home.

"Of course, one color was not enough in our household. We needed to make a rainbow of colors... Seven seemed like a bit much to me so we compromised and did three."

Flower Science at Your House

Don't bypass those white carnations! They offer a wonderful opportunity for hands-on science with your kids. Will other white flowers work the same way? Give it a try and find out! The "Suck It Up: Capillary Action of Water in Plants" Project Idea will help guide your home experiment. For another version of this family project, see the Science Buddies "Staining Science: Capillary Action of Dyed Water in Plants" experiment at Scientific American.

What a great science activity to do this week with the kids in celebration of Mother's Day and Spring! The activity doesn't take much time or preparation, but the results may brighten up your kitchen table.

Getting girls inspired about engineering can be as simple as giving them the tools and a fun hands-on challenge to solve. Thanks to community support from Northrop Grumman, a group of Maryland middle school girls tested their marble run mettle —and had a great time doing it!

Whether using foam tubing or an assortment of found and recycled materials (as in the photo above), creating a marble run or marble roller coaster is great hands-on engineering for students of all ages! Throw in some duct tape to spice things up, and you've got a hard-to-resist creative engineering activity for today's DIY duct tape crowd. Bonus: you don't need a lot of supplies or a lot of space. Even a hallway will work!

As students explore construction challenges, design issues, principles of physics, and engineering problems while creating a marble run, they also intuitively put the engineering design process in action. They think creatively. They innovate. They prototype, test, and then make changes. And they have fun.

Fostering the Engineering Spirit

Thanks to volunteers from Northrop Grumman, students from Maryvale Preparatory Middle School were recently treated to a hands-on engineering activity and challenge. The girls were given thirty minutes to build a roller coaster out of two pieces of foam tubing, a roll of masking tape, and five plastic cups. The wall and bleachers in the gym where they were conducting the activity were also fair game. Points were to be awarded for incorporating different kinds of loops and spirals in the design as well as for having the marble land in a cup at the end of its run.

With the clock ticking, the challenge was on, and the girls quickly started taping and looping their tubing, experimenting with different elevations, and repeatedly dropping marbles through the tubing to test their in-progress designs. This engineering activity is one that lets students explore principles of physics and design through trial and error. If the marble flies out of the tubing rather than continuing down the track, something needs to be altered. Which variable is causing the problem? The exploration also encourages them to think creatively. With limited materials on hand, what options are available for stabilizing the marble run? What do you attach it to?

Supporting Science in the Community

For Laura Lam, senior quality engineer at Northrop Grumman, and Christina Lloyd, quality engineer at Northrop Grumman, time spent at the Brooklandville middle school was time spent giving back to the community in support of science, technology, engineering, and math literacy (STEM)—and in support of females in engineering. Lam and Lloyd visited Maryvale Preparatory as part of Northrop Grumman's DiscoverE program, a program that supports STEM education in local schools. Through DiscoverE, Northrop Grumman engineers visit community schools and lead hands-on classroom activities designed to inspire and excite students about engineering and technical career paths.

This was Lam's sixth year bringing a hands-on engineering activity to students at Maryvale Preparatory. Each year, Lam says she chooses a project that "highlights for the girls that they can be real problem solvers." Building confidence and giving students a good look at what engineering "means" is important, says Lam, who thinks students, both boys and girls, are sometimes scared of going into engineering. More exposure to the kinds of creative and fun problem solving at the heart of engineering helps students better understand what engineering is really all about. "Doing these projects each year is fun for them and also helps them see that they can solve real-life issues," Lam adds.

In years past, Lam has led students in building newspaper towers, developing boats from plastic wrap and straws, designing an environmentally friendly soda can holder, and constructing towers from dry spaghetti and gum drops. Each activity poses a challenge, uses common materials, invites collaboration, and lets students dive in as they race to find the best, fastest, most stable, or most innovative solution. Clear objectives for "winning" are given at the start, like this year's point system by which teams earned points for integrating specific design elements or successfully completing a specific task.

"Every year I am amazed at the creativity of these young girls," says Lam. "They are in 6th through 8th grade, but they come up with some really creative ideas, and they work really well together."

For Lam, visiting the school and helping excite and inspire students is one way she is actively helping to encourage young women to explore STEM fields. Like other female engineers, Lam recognizes the importance of girls having and meeting real-world role models. "When I was trying to decide what I wanted to major in when I was going to college, my Dad (who was also an engineer) took me to his place of employment and let me spend the day with some other female engineers," says Lam. "Seeing other women in the field helped me to solidify my decision to go into engineering... and I'm so glad I did."

Lam participates in DiscoverE to give young women in her community the same kind of support and encouragement. "I certainly hope that over the years that I have been doing this at least a couple girls have been inspired to go into the engineering field as a result."

Bring it to Your Community or Home

If you are inspired by the engineering activity Lam and Lloyd did with students at Maryvale Preparatory, consider doing a similar science or engineering activity with a group or class of students in your own area or at home! You might be surprised to find that local teachers would welcome the opportunity to have you come in and help with a hands-on science or engineering activity in class.

The following Project Ideas can easily be adapted for use in a short-term, hands-on engineering activity:

• Roller Coaster Marbles: How Much Height to Loop the Loop?: build a roller coaster for marbles using foam pipe insulation and experiment with the relationship between height and loops.
• The Leaning Tower of Pasta: make a strong, lightweight tower using only uncooked spaghetti and white glue.
• Circus-Trick Science: How to Balance Anything: use marshmallows and skewer sticks to learn about balance.
• The Effect of Bridge Design on Weight Bearing Capacity: explore the strength of different bridge designs by making (and breaking) bridges from wooden sticks and straws.
• Strength in Numbers?: experiment with materials and strength using dry spaghetti.
• Newspaper Tower *: how tall you can build a tower using only two sheets of newspaper and no glues, adhesives, or binding materials?
• Paper Bridge for Pennies *: with a few limited materials, build a bridge of a certain length that can support 100 pennies.

Remember, when you take a science project into the classroom, focus on what can be accomplished in a fixed amount of time—and on what the students can learn by putting the project in action.

For more insight and parent perspective on hands-on engineering activities, see "Roller Coaster Science: Marbles, Tubes, and Loops" and "Building Bridges."
.

Interest in student robotics continues to grow. Find out how to get your (and your kids') feet wet with hands-on robotics engineering projects and activities. From taking robotic steps with LEGO® to upcycling toothbrushes or recouping the innards of cast-off electronics, robotics projects can turn kids on to creative thinking and STEM tinkering! Start at the beginning with simple bots that require only a few parts, and then move on to increasingly more innovative and sophisticated designs, building know-how with each new bot. Watch your student's understanding of robotics engineering grow bot by bot!

"You did what with your brother's toothbrush?"

Nestled in between April showers and May flowers is something much less natural and more gritty, much more tech-savvy, sci-fi-inspired, and DIY oriented—National Robotics Week, April 6-14.

A growing wave of young tinkerers and builders are exploring robotics, often thanks to the availability of after-school robotics clubs and programs and summer science camps. Meeting the needs of both students interested in transforming their bot-building into school science projects and students and parents looking for guided home robotics challenges and explorations, the Science Buddies Robotics Area continues to expand, and there are more new K-12 robotics Project Ideas in development and coming soon!

Inspiring Young Engineers

Ben Finio, a scientist at Science Buddies, recently helped lead a group of kids in building awesome light-following Bristlebots at a Makerspace gathering in Ithaca, NY. Bristlebots, originally popularized by Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories, are DIY versions of vibrating robotic bugs. With a few simple components, possibly even upcycling a cast-off handheld device from the household junk drawer, kids and families can make their own vibrating bugs with toothbrush bristle bodies and legs. The upgraded model Finio invented and helped students build (shown in the video above) uses two motors and two light sensors to create a bot that will trail around after a light source. Talk about a cool tech spin on classic tag-along toys!

The brand new "Racing BristleBots: On Your Mark. Get Set. Go!" robotics Project Idea helps students turn Bristlebot building into a comparative science project. In this project, students are guided in building a base-model Bristlebot and then investigate the impact of using different materials. How will different toothbrush bristle designs affect the speed of the bot? Students will build and compare two bots in the project, but the project can easily be extended as students make their way through the toothbrush aisle at the grocery store in a quest for the best head of bristles for bot building (as opposed to teeth cleaning!).

Finio will be bringing a version of his light-tracking Bristlebot to Science Buddies in the future, but parents and students can get started now with their first Bristlebots. What other enhancements can you make to a bristlebot to change the core design?

Where to Start with Robotics

As is often the case with engineering and tinkering-style projects, Finio assembled his Light-following Bristlebot from assorted parts. Knowing how and what to take from disparate places to enable a successful hands-on robotics exploration can be a stumbling block for many parents and teachers who want to give their kids and students robotics opportunities but are unsure where to begin and what to buy.

Finio encourages parents, especially those with younger kids, to look for robotics projects that involve only a few components and don't require complicated circuits, mechanisms, or programming. Bots like the Bristlebot or an Art Bot (which uses pens for legs), can be easy but engaging entry-level projects, ones that parents can assist with or that older kids can undertake as a launching point for getting started with robotics.

Books on Bots

You can find many blueprints for robotics projects online, and if you work with a system like LEGO® Mindstorms®, there are numerous project books for design inspiration. Here are a few other robotics titles you might explore at your local library or on a bookstore shelf as you search for inspiration and projects that fit you and your student's level of interest and expertise.

Robotics: Discover the Science and Technology of the Future with 20 Projects contains projects accessible even for new robot builders!

Robot Building for Beginners covers more advanced robotics engineering concepts.

Robot is part of the DK Eyewitness line of reference books for students.

Robots is another conceptual introduction to robotics for students.

My Robots: The Robotic Genius of Lady Regina Bonquers III is the invented history and sketchbook of a female robotics engineer. This one isn't just for girls but definitely has girl-power potential!

Other titles to investigate:

• Robot Builder's Bonanza, 4th Edition
• Absolute Beginner's Guide to Building Robots
• Making Things Move DIY Mechanisms for Inventors, Hobbyists, and Artists

Investing in a robotics platform like LEGO® Mindstorms® or VEX is another pathway parents might consider. With a platform, kids can use build dozens of robots using designs available online or in the many, many books full of step-by-step bot ideas. The kits themselves may require substantial initial investment, but these kits have high reuse value, can be extended with add-on components, and offer programmability as well.

Empowering Student Robotics Engineers

At Science Buddies, students interested in robotics, of any flavor, or students who already have experience with or access to a system like LEGO® Mindstorms®, can find robotics engineering challenges that can be used for home fun or as the basis for a more involved science or engineering project for school.

The following Robotics Project Ideas offer a sample of the kinds of explorations students can find in the Robotics Area at Science Buddies:

• "The Frightened Grasshopper: Explore Electronics & Solar Energy with a Solar-Powered Robot Bug": this entry-level robotics exploration uses a toy kit to guide students in an investigation of solar power.
• "Grasping with Straws: Make a Robot Hand Using Drinking Straws": challenges students to design and build an articulated robotic hand prototype from everyday materials.
• "Climb Every Mountain with Your Own LEGO® Cable Car *": using the given challenge, students design their own LEGO® Mindstorms® solution for a robot that can move along a suspended cable.
• "Robot Picasso: Building a Robot That Creates Art": use the VEX® system to design a robot that can draw a picture.
• "Stair Master: Build an All-Terrain Robot": students explore different kinds of "wheel" solutions as they build an all-terrain robot capable of moving over various surfaces and even climbing stairs.
• "Motorized Michelangelo: Building an Art Robot with Servo Motors *": incorporate a servo motor and Robot C programming to allow the bot's pen or brush to be both lowered to the paper and lifted back off.
• "Drawing Dalibot: Designing an Art Robot That Switches Colors *": extend the programming and design of an art bot to allow the use of multiple colors.

Why Robotics

With its combination of innovation, creative thinking, engineering, and electronics, robotics can be a wonderful way to help encourage your student's engineering design skills, as well as important troubleshooting and problem solving strategies. If something doesn't work, figuring out why and then evaluating what you can do about it are core concepts when working with bots of all sizes. Equally important is the reality that there are no right answers in terms of "how" to build or design a robot.

Finio says he likes robotics for students and for STEM education because it is interdisciplinary. "Robotics is a combination of math, physics, mechanical and electrical engineering, computer science, programming, and sometimes even chemistry and biology," says Finio. "So whether you like using your hands to build things or prefer working on a computer, you can probably find something within robotics that you think is fun. Designing robots really encourages tinkering, prototyping, and trial-and-error. Even professional engineers rarely design robots that work perfectly on the first try!"

Pictured above: participants making light-following Bristlebots at a hands-on robotics event with Ben Finio, Science Buddies.

For more information about National Robotics Week, visit www.nationalroboticsweek.org.

Finding the fun in April Fools' Day gags and pranks—and the science connections to capitalize on the fun!

Photo: Screenshot from Google Nose video.

It is April 1, and April 1 means April Fools' Day jokes and pranks from trickster friends and even companies. YouTube is coming to an end (and all the videos being deleted)? Did you hear about Google Nose Beta ("the new scentsation in search")? Twitter is apparently doing away with vowels, unless you pay for them. Maybe you spotted MAKE's headline about creating oranges from a 3D printer? Clever! (See the full write-up for some other smart April Fools'-inspired fictitious headlines.) Even the WeAreTeachers site got in on the April 1 fun with their write-up on the Standardized Multi-Systemic Technologically-Sound Fully-Differentiated Standard Central Academic School Standards, better known as the SMSTSFDSCASS. And the Elmer's Teachers Club shared a link to this video of a science teacher pranking his fifth grade class with a gravity hoax.

Hands-on April 1 Science History

April 1 also coincides with the birth date of Richard Zsigmondy, a Nobel Prize-winning chemist for research on colloids. If you have a preschooler—or ever were one—maybe you remember mixing up and messing with Oobleck? It's a classic example of a colloid, along with ketchup and quicksand, neither of which you probably want to squish around in your hands!

Tactile Oobleck, with its non-Newtonian fluid properties, seems right on track for an impromptu April Fools' Day hands-on science experiment either at school or at home. The ingredients for Oobleck are ones you probably already have in your kitchen cabinets. If you want to turn your Oobleck play into a more comparative science activity, you'll find directions for mixing up two additional solutions in the "Making Mixtures: How Do Colloids Size Up?" science Project Idea.

Fun Science Connections

Did you know Oobleck, the colloidal substance, gets its name from a Dr. Seuss title? Maybe you missed that one somewhere along the way? If so, you will want to check out Bartholomew and the Oobleck.

Suggestions for Playful April 1 Science

A few other suggestions for April Fools' Day science and conversations to capitalize on the prankster energy in the air:

• "Warped Words and the Stroop Effect": testing the Stroop effect is good for some mind-bending fun and laughs with kids.
• "Visual Illusions: When What You See Is... Not What's There?": share an award-winning visual illusion and talk about what the eyes see—or what the brain thinks it sees.
• "Now You See It, Now You Don't: A Chromatic Adaptation Project": investigate how chromatic adaptation can trick the brain's perception of an image.
• "Rubber Bands for Energy": if you have a pops-from-the-can gag on hand, this experiment offers great hands-on exploration (after the laughing stops).
• "That's a Real Smile! ...or is it?": curious about whether or not that smile is sincere after you've pranked your friend/sibling/family member? How good are you at telling the difference between genuine and fake smiles?

Before settling down to serious Easter egg-dyeing with her family, this cool science mom did the "How Does a Chick Breathe Inside Its Shell?" activity with her daughter (age 9) and her nephew (age 3). Eggs and three-year-olds can sometimes lead to a scrambled science experience, but with a few extra eggs on hand, the experiment was a success!

"Believe me, a three-year-old will introduce some experimental variation into the procedure," admits the mom. "It is tough to do before and after weights if a small boy has removed some of the shell!"

To put their family science experience into perspective, one egg out of five survived, but even that one gave both kids a chance to explore the science—and math—at hand. They weighed the eggs before and after boiling on a kitchen scale and recorded their data, which is great practice for keeping a science project lab notebook!

"In the end, my daughter disproved her hypothesis," says the science mom. But a hypothesis that doesn't hold up doesn't mean the experiment failed, it means something was learned—and they got to talk about why they observed what they did and puzzle through what the experiment demonstrated. Keeping in mind that firsthand exploration and learning is the goal of a family science activity and much more important than being right or having all the answers ahead of time is all part of doing science at home with kids. This mom did a great job!

In addition to the allure of the eggs themselves, using the magnifying glass to examine the pores in an egg shell was fun for both kids, says the mom. Not surprisingly, the younger student found his own side-exploration with the magnifying glass, too. "He used the magnifying glass to closely observe the large hole he made in a peeled egg he was eating!"

What a wonderful science activity with the kids to tie in with other eggy activities last week. Way to go!

When it comes to structural engineering, there is a lot to be learned from the shape of the mighty egg. At the same time, sitting on an egg doesn't always work out so well. From eggs to domes to bridges, there is family science at hand perfect for spring break exploration for young builders and engineers! Be prepared to be slimed by some breakages and dazzled by some shows of surprising strength!

Egg and Engineering: Over-easy Science

Eggs break easily when force is applied from a certain direction, but held or positioned differently, an egg can withstand a surprising amount of pressure! Put eggs—and structural engineering and design—to the test with your kids in fun hands-on engineering activities that will challenge them to think creatively, to innovative, and to experiment!

Unfortunately, in addition to being warm and smooth, eggs are also fragile. Elementary school students know this. Most of them have had plenty of experience cracking eggs in school and home kitchen science and baking projects. But despite what they "know"—that eggs crack—sometimes maybe there is an irrepressible need to goof around with an egg. Maybe that need is especially strong when you've just gathered it, warm and smooth. But when you joke around and pretend to sit on the egg as the chicken must have, chances are good you will end up with a pile of gelatinous goo, even if you are not really trying to sit with all of your weight, even if, really, you are just being silly.

That is what happened to us, and egghead excitement quickly turned to nine-year-old despair. A broken egg isn't nearly as much fun, and the chickens didn't care that his egg had cracked. The chicken was done for the day. There wasn't another egg ready and waiting to be found. These are sometimes hard lessons that go along with chicken care, egg gathering, and any kind of hands-on science.

Unexpected Connections

The incident with the egg was a reminder to us that eggs are fragile. We crack them to break them open when we want to cook or eat them. While looking at science project ideas in preparation for this week's focus on Easter and family and class egg boiling and dyeing activities, I ran across the "Fallen Arches: The Surprising Strength of Eggshells" materials science Project Idea.

As the title suggests, the project is all about the strength of the egg shape or, more specifically, of half an egg—an arch. This is a fun hands-on engineering experiment for even the youngest of student scientists. With three half eggs, sitting point-side up and arranged in an evenly-distributed triangle, how much weight will they hold before caving? You and your young scientists might be surprised!

If you keep a few eggs aside when you boil others for dyeing, you can engage your students with a great hands-on science activity that easily feeds into other questions and experiments about structures and building designs. As you and your students talk about arches as a structural element, you may find that there are examples in your neighborhood that can add even more relevance to your exploration and your student's understanding of arches in the real world. A small stone bridge walkway that crosses a favorite duck pond of ours is built using arch shapes. An arch bridge is a classic bridge design, in fact. (To extend your discussion, look up keystones!)

From Eggs to Engineering

The following hands-on engineering projects can easily be turned into fun family science activities, great for spring break, summer vacation, or a rainy day. Many of these projects involve some combination of physics, structural engineering, materials science, and math, which gives them great range and versatility. A lot depends on what questions you and your kids want to ask and explore. Why, after all, are the half eggshells arranged in a triangle in the "Fallen Arches" project?

That you can spend an afternoon assembling straws or rolls of newspaper and wind up with an awesome three-dimensional object worthy of display gives these projects added pizzazz for families that love DIY projects and the art that evolves from hands-on exploration. On the flip side, there are structural engineering projects where the goal is to build them so that you can break them. For some kids and families, that is exactly the ticket for thrilling science!

Check the following Project Ideas for more suggestions for families that love to build:

• "Dome Sweet Dome": build a geodesic dome using struts made from rolled-up newspaper. (You can do a similar activity with straws.)
• "Building the Tallest Tower": great for the younger crowd as long as no one gets upset when the tower tumbles!
• "The Effect of Bridge Design on Weight Bearing Capacity": test two different bridge designs, a Warren truss bridge from Popsicle sticks and a Howe truss bridge made from straws. This is a build and break project, so be prepared!
• "Can a Toilet Paper Tube Support Your Weight? *": how big would a tube need to be for you to stand on it without it caving in? How does the answer change if you fill the tube with various materials?
• "Newspaper Tower *": how tall of a tower can you build with two sheets of paper—and nothing else? What shape will it take to reach the greatest height and to maximize the paper and to make it stand?
• "Paper Bridge for Pennies *": a bridge made out of one sheet of paper, a few paper clips, and the challenge to have it support 100 pennies? Let your engineers loose and see what creative solutions they devise!

Cracking Family Science

In the end, eggs do break easily when force is applied from a certain direction. But held or positioned differently, an egg can withstand more pressure than you might expect. Put eggs—and other building designs—to the test with your kids, and let us know what you discover and what fun you have doing science together!

Great science activities and explorations for the kids to do at home can make surviving spring break a piece of cake!

Carefully-selected projects and science activities can be fun and engrossing, and we have plenty of ideas for cool science explorations that take minimal preparation, use easy-to-find materials, and are engaging for a range of ages. (See our initial "Finding the Science in Spring Break" post on Spring Break science.)

Top Picks for Spring Break Science

We are adding to this list all week long, so stay tuned! The full list is shown below:

• Skipping Science: An Experiment in Jump Rope Lengths: When it comes to jump ropes, one size may not fit all! If you want to score high jump numbers, what is the perfect jump rope length for you? Get hands-on and find out!
• Motion Mania: Applying Physics to Hula-Hooping: Hula-hooping is fun but not necessarily as easy as it might look! The size and weight of your hula hoop may have a lot to do with your success as a hula hooper. In this hands-on, backyard science project, kids can build their own hula hoops from tubing and investigate to find out how the size and weight matter. Don't forget the duct tape for personalizing your hoop!
• Make Monkeys Fly in the Blink of an Eye: With a screaming monkey (or another toy that can be launched from a rubber band) on hand, kids can explore the relationship between the stretch of the rubber band and the distance the monkey flies. What's going on? It's all about energy! Take some pictures. We want to see your monkeys fly!
• Rocketology: Baking Soda + Vinegar = Lift Off: You may have to dig to find a few old film canisters, but when you mix in a few kitchen ingredients, a plastic film canister can lead to explosive fun with chemical reactions. Kick up the classic volcano experiment as you launch mini rockets and figure out the best ratio of ingredients to get the highest flight. Remember: safety goggles, adult supervision, and a clear outdoor place where the mess won't matter!
• Turn Milk into Plastic!: Milk! Good for the body and, with the right chemical reaction, good for a hands-on creative activity. Experiment with the recipe for making milk-based plastic, and then use the plastic you make to create beads or small sculptures. This is a fun chemistry activity for kitchen scientists. What will you make with your milk plastic?
• Bottled-up Buoyancy: What makes a submarine sink or rise? In this hands-on hydrodynamics exploration, students build a model submarine from empty plastic bottles and then experiment with buoyancy by changing the amount of water "in" the submarine and seeing what happens. With a rubber-band propelled launch mechanism and a working propeller, this #science activity is lots of fun!
• Shaking Up Some Energy: create your own "shake it up" alternative energy, a la a "shake to light" flashlight, by making a simple generator and investigating the relationship between magnetism and the induction of electrical current. Wrapping 1,000-2,000 turns of wire around a plastic film canister will keep your tinkerer busy in this hands-on electronics project. But in the end, she will have a working example of battery-free power!

How did you fill spring break days? We would love to hear what science activities you did with your family. Snap and share your photos to put your family's science in the spotlight! (Email us at blog@sciencebuddies.org.)

If spring break is on the calendar, take advantage of the week to tackle some hands-on family science or set the kids up with STEM projects that offer a fun challenge and some focused exploration.

Great science activities and explorations for the kids to do at home can make surviving spring break a piece of cake!

Doing family science at home doesn't have to feel like reproducing a classroom lesson. There is no final exam and no research paper required, so relax and have fun with the process. It's okay to get messy and make mistakes! There are lots of options for family science that may tie in with angles of inquiry you and your kids already enjoy, that relate to a current area of interest, or that bridge the gap between art project and science experiment. The key is to find a project that sounds fun—for everyone.

Planning Family Science

After thinking through science, math, engineering, and technology projects that we might tackle this spring break in my house, I placed an order for some inexpensive supplies with an ambitious and creative hands-on math project in mind. In the week or so leading up to spring break, I tried to seed some anticipation and get the kids excited about what we will be doing. We talked about the general concept of the project, about the options we have for size and construction, about some real-world applications of the idea I've seen, and about the cool math at hand.

I have a few science activities planned for the kids this week, but this one is the biggest, and I selected it because it nicely spans their ages, fits with their interests, is entirely hands-on, will require focused involvement and time preparing our materials, and will be fun! Plus, in the end, we're going to end up with a giant "thing" as the result of our cooperative and collaborative math exploration. That I have tied in duct tape as part of the DIY activity will only add to the appeal of the process and of the product! I will be photographing our experience to share it here on the blog, so stay tuned!

Top Picks for Spring Break Science

We will be highlighting some great spring break science ideas all week at Science Buddies and, especially, at Facebook, Pinterest, and Twitter. Join us in one of those places to follow along! Many of these activities use everyday or easy-to-find materials, so once you and your kids decide on an experiment or science project to do, it can be easy to gather supplies for a great hands-on family science exploration.

To kick off our spring break science celebration, here are a few of our top picks to get you started thinking about ways to infuse spring break with hands-on science. Both of these science explorations blend craft and science and burn off some energy at the same time!

• Skipping Science: An Experiment in Jump Rope Lengths: When it comes to jump ropes, one size may not fit all! If you want to score high jump numbers, what is the perfect jump rope length for you? Get hands-on and find out!




• Motion Mania: Applying Physics to Hula-Hooping: Hula-hooping is fun but not necessarily as easy as it might look! The size and weight of your hula hoop may have a lot to do with your success as a hula hooper. In this hands-on, backyard science project, kids can build their own hula hoops from tubing and investigate to find out how the size and weight matter. Don't forget the duct tape for personalizing your hoop!

Egg science is fun at any time, but if you and your kids are planning to boil and dye eggs this week, don't miss out on the great opportunities for fun, colorful, and possibly smelly, family science!

Above: the results of our first attempt at using natural dyes for our eggs.

In the years that I have worked at Science Buddies, the tradition of dyeing Easter eggs has taken on new meaning and significance. Instead of simply being a requisite family craft activity, Easter egg preparations have become a conduit for a spring-themed boost of hands-on science with the kids. Really, in my house, the plastic eggs are where it's at. The plastic eggs are the ones that are hidden, found, and might be filled with something of sweet value. The real eggs are the ones decorated and then ushered to the climate-controlled sanctity of the fridge.

Our real eggs are pro forma, but we still dye a dozen or so each Easter just because, so we might as well make use of the opportunity to investigate what's going on with those shells, both inside and out.

Egg Science in Years Past

Our exploration of Easter eggs in the last few years has focused both on the boiling process and on the dyeing process, and we have learned a lot through trial and error and through comparing different approaches to each step. Particularly notable was the realization that hard boiled eggs really are not supposed to be grossly green on the inside! (I've been boiling eggs the way my grandmother taught me all my life!) But our heightened attention to the science at hand also led to interesting questions about pH levels and types of vinegar, and last year, we made our first attempt at using natural dyes.

That process, in and of itself, was beautiful and much more exciting than using the little plastic egg-shaped containers and grocery store dyeing tablets. Our series of mason jars filled with a rainbow of natural dye baths was stunning. If the eggs had turned out as vibrant as the waters themselves, the process would have been a home run for both kids and mom. Unfortunately, the final egg shades didn't live up to the colors at which their water jars hinted, and some colors (and ingredients) were more successful than others. Even so, the hands-on activity was fun, inspired lots of predictions from the kids, and gave us plenty of room to talk about how we might modify the process and our ingredients to enhance our results another year. Plus, in addition to the smell of hard boiled eggs in the air, we added a layer of boiled cabbage!

Bunny Steps with Egg Science

To get you in an egg-ready mood, read through my accounts of our previous explorations. My bunny-hop trail through the land of egg boiling and dyeing is, by and large, a cautionary tale of family science, but our experience might help you hone in on an angle of scientific inquiry to guide your family's egg-based activities this year:

• "Hard-Boiled Science: "I thought that sickly green layer to the yolk was simply... a fact of a hard-boiled egg. It's not!"
• "Putting Your Eggs All in One (Dye) Basket": "Underwhelmed by the sticker and glitter-approach to decorating eggs lining the shelves, I thought of the subtle tones of eggs dyed with natural ingredients and decided we should try it."

There are plenty of "egg"-centric projects at Science Buddies that you can modify for a home-based science activity with your kids. Even without an extra dozen eggs on hand for testing, these science project ideas can fuel family dinner discussions in preparation for Easter:

• "Egg-cellently Cooked Eggs: The Process of Soft-Boiling an Egg": Use the time suggestions in the procedure to create your own informal egg boiling experiment.
• "How Does a Chick Breathe Inside Its Shell?": A chicken egg shell has thousands of pores. What do these pores do? Check out the diagram to learn more about the anatomy of an egg and then investigate by weighing eggs before and after boiling.
• "Eggs and Hen's Diet: Can You Get Bigger Eggs for Peanuts?": What do chickens eat? What makes one chicken feed more nutritious than another? What nutritional value do eggs offer us and what is the relationship between the egg and what the chicken eats? If you tend chickens at home or at your school, experiment with the relationship between the size of the eggs laid and the amount of protein in the chicken feed.

It's the Doing that Counts!

Any of these explorations can be easily adapted as a fun science activity for parents with kids in the house or even for classroom exploration. For families, if you will be dyeing eggs the weekend before Easter, plan ahead and make a bit of extra time to experiment with your family's boiling or dyeing process and to talk about why your results will differ if you change one of your variables. Get a scratch notebook out and assign one of your young scientists the task of recording your experiment. Give another a camera to document the process! How many eggs are you starting with? What color are the eggs? How many eggs are you adding to the pot at once? When are you adding the eggs? How many minutes will you boil the water with the heat on? How long will the eggs sit in the water after you turn it off? Do you use a lid? How will you cool the eggs? And then, what will you do with the second batch? Remember, to compare your results and test a hypothesis, you want to change only one variable at a time!

Any of these questions can be turned into a science activity with your kids. You can come up with a list of questions related to the dyeing process, too! Pick one question that sounds fun, and turn your yearly Easter egg dyeing into a family science activity. You don't have to compare everything. Just pick something that you all agree sounds interesting and makes you "wonder." Talk about it: What do you already know about the dyeing process? What questions do you have?

Designer Dye Baths

If you are looking for something really different and looking to get as far from a "box" craft as you can, the solution may be tucked away in your closet (or found at a local thrift store). The new "Dye Eggs Using Silk Ties for Egg-cellent Colors" chemistry Project Idea explores the science behind a DIY dye approach popular in home and garden and craft magazines. You can create your own "tie"-dyed eggs worthy of Martha Stewart using silk ties. (This is not your rubber-band t-shirt tie dye!)

Following any ready-made directions for using silk ties to dye eggs, you can create an array of eggs sporting novel patterns and designs. But what's the key? What's the science behind the process? We've got a science procedure that lets students ask science questions and put the process to a scientific test! (For a family-friendly spin of the tie-dyed eggs experiment, see the version we posted at Scienctific American.)

Better understanding how the process works and what really makes the colors and patterns transfer best involves some hands-on testing. Be forewarned! To ensure you are only changing one variable in the testing, this science project starts with raw eggs, and only half of them will be boiled during the dyeing process. At the end, half of your eggs may be pretty, but they will still be raw! Be prepared to blow out the insides before you put them on display! And, remember, the silk tie dyes are not ones that are necessarily safe to eat. These are "for display only" eggs!

Successful Egg Science

Boiling and dyeing eggs is a wonderful chance for creative and scientific fun with your kids. How did you spruce up the science in your egg-dyeing this year? We would love to hear! Leave a comment below to tell us what you and your kids or students did.

A biotechnology kit from Bio-Rad Laboratories introduces young scientists to the world of biochemistry. In this fun science activity, kids can extract their own DNA, examine it without a microscope, and create a pendant containing their DNA—the ultimate item for cool-but-geeky show and tell!
By Kim Mullin

With a fun science kit from Bio-Rad Laboratories, you and your students can extract DNA—and then preserve it in a cool necklace. This is hands-on science that is sure to be a hit at the next show and tell!

You may know that DNA is found in almost every cell of your body, but did you know that it is possible to see your DNA without a microscope? You don't need to be in a fancy scientific lab to become a DNA detective! Exploring the fascinating world of DNA is simple and quick with Science Buddies' "Discovering DNA: Do Your Cheek Cells & a Strawberry Both Have DNA?" Project Idea and the Genes in a Bottle^TM kit from Bio-Rad Laboratories!

What is DNA?

DNA, or deoxyribonucleic acid, is the blueprint for everything that happens inside the cell of an organism, and each cell in an organism has a copy of the same set of instructions. The entire set of instructions that make you you is called your genome.

Scientists study DNA for many reasons. They can figure out how the instructions stored in DNA help your body to function properly. They can use DNA to decide what new medicines are needed to treat a disease. They can figure out the suspect of a crime. They can even use ancient DNA to reconstruct evolutionary histories!

See Your Own DNA!

How do scientists get DNA from a cell so that they can study it? They use a process called a DNA extraction. Although this may sound like something best left to professionals, DNA extraction is simple enough that you can try it out at home! Following the simple steps outlined in the Discovering DNA: Do Your Cheek Cells & a Strawberry Both Have DNA? Project Idea, you can extract DNA from your own cheek and take a look.

The Genes in a Bottle kit contains everything you need for this science activity. The kit also comes with a pendant and instructions for coloring your precipitated DNA. After you are finished with the extraction, you can make a unique helix keepsake filled with strands of your own DNA to show off to your friends and family—proof positive that even kids can be biochemists!

Where Else Can You Find DNA?

Once you see your own DNA, you may wonder about DNA and other living things. If your cells have DNA that provides the instructions for creating your eye and hair color, then what about the eye and fur color of other animals? Or the shapes and colors of leaves and plants? With a bit of human cheek DNA extraction experience hanging around your neck, you can move on to extracting DNA from a strawberry to see if plants also have DNA. Will the DNA appear the same?

Once you've analyzed the DNA from a strawberry, why stop? Check for DNA in other fruits, vegetables, and grains. An onion can be an eye-opening next step! Can you extract more DNA from some items than from others? With your new DNA detective skills, you can find out!

As the 2013 science fair season gets underway, get inspired by what's possible for student science—and science at home—with a recap of last year's posts about science projects, science news, and family science.

The New Year is underway, and even during the semester break, many students are working with zest, determination, and curiosity on their science fair projects. As we welcome in 2013 and the coming months of the science fair season, here is a brief look back at a few of our favorite Science Buddies blog posts from 2012. Some of these posts highlight science news and ideas for student investigation; others contain strategies and activities for families who want to make more time for science at home. Whether you are still looking for a science fair project or have resolved to make science a more routine part of your family's daily interaction, we recommend this collection of posts:

The above images link to the following blog entries:

• Galaxy Games
• Parent Perspective: Understanding Your Role in Your Student's Science Project
• The Science of Video Games
• Encouraging and Inspiring Female Student Engineers
• Science Fair Projects with Real-World Impact
• Teaching Good Science and Engineering Habits: Keeping a Lab Notebook
• Science and Art: Mutant Sunflowers
• Putty Science: Family Fun with Polymers
• Family Dinner: Serving Up Science
• High School Scientist Develops Cancer Screening Test
• Find a Feather, Pick It Up?
• The Wonder of Bioluminescence: Organisms that Glow
• Arsenic and Rice
• Putting Your Eggs All in One (Dye) Basket
• Licorice Root, Please
• Artificial Intelligence and Cancer Diagnosis: Meet the 2012 Google Science Fair Winner

We are also excited about all of the students who shared their science success stories with the Science Buddies community in 2012. You can reach their stories (and many more) in our Science Buddies in Action area. Are you doing a science project this year and want to share your experience? If so, email Science Buddies at blog@sciencebuddies.org.

(Image: Evan-Amos, Wikipedia)

With a bit of planning, you can turn a pile of Halloween loot into an engaging science activity!

After the sampling, divvying, trading, and general post-Halloween assessment, what can you do with all of the goodies that ended up in a trick or treat bag? With a bit of ingenuity, your trick or treaters can refocus their energies for some sweet science. Here are some starter ideas for home and class: Count some of it. Use some of it for a survival game. Investigate candy colors. Explore the relationship between candy shape and volume. Do some of your experimentation by the glow of a waning light-up stick and with the vestiges of your pumpkin patch playlist wafting in the background, and you've got the makings of post-Halloween science fun.

A Closer Look

Before the moon rises and skeletons rattle tonight, you can put a visual face on Halloween (beyond the flickering pumpkins) by carving your way through a Halloween-themed infographic or two. With the popularity of the infographic form, there are many floating around. These two, with their spill of numbers to ponder in relation to today's frightful festivities, caught my eye in the wee hours of morning, the pumpkin watching eerily from the kitchen counter, and the strains of the Monster Mash queued up and ready to go for the morning procession to school. (I Want Candy is somewhere in the mix, too.)

 
(Click either image to view full image.)

Keep in mind that anyone can make and post an infographic. Most contain sources so you can do your own checking and additional research.

From glow sticks and colored candies to haunted house-worthy music, there is plenty of Halloween science to uncover!

Tap in to student excitement about Halloween to make engaging connections to science. There is plenty to talk about in class—and plenty they can put to the test!

• Candy Chromatography
• Glow-in-the-dark Chemistry
• Trick-or-Treat Science
• Good Hand Washing? Turn on the Black Light!
• Vampire Bats and a Bat Detector
• Sounds Like Halloween
• Biodiversity at Halloween: A Spider Variety Show
• Zombie Preparedness

What is your favorite science project using leftover candy? We'd love to know! Email blog@sciencebuddies.org to share your story.

It takes a lot of talent, determination, conditioning, training, and dedication to make it to the Olympics. But every sport also involves points at which angles, trajectories, momentum, and laws of physics intersect with raw talent and the thrill of performance. Learn more about what goes into Olympic-caliber success by investigating the sports science involved in your favorite Olympic events.

Watching the Olympic Games together raises a number of exciting opportunities for sports science conversations with your family. We've got suggestions for sports science angles you can explore, at home, in between Olympic-coverage on television. Talking about some of these concepts can be a great way to blend favorite sports and some educational family science talk at dinner! (Image: Bigstock)

While thousands of spectators will file in to watch events in London, many of us will watch from home, including many young athletes for whom the 30th anniversary games may inspire the spark of a dream.

Watching the Games

Those who qualify to compete at the Olympics have amazing ability in their sport. In coming weeks, fans will hear and read many stories about these athletes, stories of their dedication, their rigorous training and demanding schedules, and, often, of their perseverance. These athletes are among the best, the fastest, the most flexible, and the strongest, in the world.

As you watch the games—and observe the differences in times, routines, and results—you might wonder what factors make a difference in performance. While there is no discounting talent, the more an athlete knows about the science of her sport, the more chance she has of standing on the podium and receiving a medal. From your spectator spot at home, you and your family can talk about some of the elements of sports science that relate to the sporting events you will be watching on television during this year's Olympics Games or to other favorite sports and athletic activities.

Winning Gold

The Olympics offer an exciting opportunity to think about what makes a difference between those who medal and those who don't. There may be exceptions. There may be displays of record-breaking talent in unexpected places, but there is plenty of science that underlies each sport. You and your family might have fun, in between favorite events, exploring some of these sports science questions and even putting some of them to the test at home.

Here are a few Science Buddies Project Ideas that can help you uncover kid-friendly science to talk about during the games or at dinner. While each of these projects can be conducted as a science fair entry, using the background information and general steps of the Experimental Procedure, you can turn these into family science explorations. If a casual family science experiment is the goal, you may find testing these concepts a lot of fun, and there's no need for multiple trials. Leave the multiple heats for the track and field participants!

• "Balancing Act: Finding Your Center of Gravity": Exceptional balance on the beam is important for gymnasts during their routines, but many sports require good balance. Walk through the steps of this project to learn more about your own center of gravity.
• "Drag Racing in the Water": Speed in a swimming race has a lot to do with how smoothly a swimmer's body passes through the water. This project helps you understand the importance of reducing drag in the water. You won't see swimmers wearing street clothes in the pool, but you might look at swimmer's gear with fresh understanding after experimenting at your local pool!
• "Speed Quest": Many Olympic sports are feats of speed. The fastest runners, swimmers, and cyclists will take home medals in the next two weeks, and you will see and hear plenty of speed measurements—world records, speeds for certain races, and speeds needed to qualify for final heats. Learn more about how to calculate and understand speed, and then put your own speed to the test! You'll also learn to compare speeds in races of different distances.
• "Jumping Distance": Do events that take place in the center arena of track and field keep you on the edge of your seat? If you have tried standing and running long jumps before, you know how amazing the distances Olympic track and field athletes jump can be. This project helps you investigate the importance of the "running" start in the running long jump and will give you a better understanding of the relationship between the starting distance, the speed, momentum, and the ultimate jump.
• "Jack and Jill Went Up a Hill and Came Biking Down After": Choosing the Best Gear Ratio for Speed": Learn more about how bicycle gears work, and what range of gears generate the most speed as a cyclist comes around a curve and into a straightaway.
• "Nothing But Net: The Science of Shooting Hoops": Grab a ball and experiment with your basketball shooting technique. If you are watching the Olympic Games, see if you can tell how the most successful players get off their shots!

The Olympic Spirit

Have fun watching the Games and making your own real-world connections at home as you uncover some of the science at work beneath the medal-winning performances. You might even find that the seed of a science project for the coming school year gets planted by your family exploration!

Get the kids together, build a simple vision protractor, and play a fun game of "now you see it, now you don't" while exploring the world of peripheral vision.

Have you ever joked with your kids that you have eyes in the back of your head—letting you see things even when you seem to not be looking? While you probably only have eyes in the front, your eyes do use two different kinds of vision processes. So even when you are paying attention to something in front of you, you can see things that appear to the sides of what you are focusing on. How far to each side can you see? Is the range of peripheral vision the same for everyone?

You and your family can explore by making a cool vision protractor from foam board. Forget about the chart with the big "E" as you measure what "else" you can see, even when you aren't trying to! (Image: Bigstock)

It's a Side Issue

You are reading an exciting mystery in your favorite chair and suddenly spy one of your kids sneaking into the room to scare you. You and your kids are throwing baseball in the backyard, and as you catch the ball, you notice a friend waving at you over the fence. What do these two activities have in common? Peripheral vision!

One Set of Eyes, Two Kinds of Vision

We are almost always using both central vision and peripheral vision. Central vision is what we use to focus our eyes on one particular thing, such as a few words in a sentence or a particular tree in the yard. At the same time, our peripheral vision fills in the surrounding information. For example, if you focus your eyes on a tree in the yard, your peripheral vision fills in the grass, fence, bushes, and sky that are around the tree. What you see with peripheral vision is less sharply focused.

Our peripheral vision is controlled by the rods and cones in our retinas. Cones are sensitive to color, whereas rods are sensitive to motion. Rod cells are also better at sensing objects in dim light than cone cells are and are responsible for detecting things moving toward you before you can focus on them. The placement of the rods and cones on our retinas controls our peripheral vision.

Test Your Peripheral Vision

Just as people have different running abilities, people also have differing peripheral vision abilities. Using foam board, string, and a few other simple materials, you and your kids can build a vision protractor to compare each other's peripheral vision. The "Now You See It, Now You Don't" project guides you through the process. Once complete, the vision protractor is a fun tool for exploring what we really can and can't see. Test each other by moving small objects in and out of your range of vision. But don't cheat! Always keep your eyes focused on a fixed object directly in front of you.

Other questions you might explore using the vision protractor include: Is it easier to see some colors than others? Are larger objects easier to see than smaller ones? What role does ambient lighting play in peripheral vision? What if the objects are moving? What if you didn't have peripheral vision? How would your life be different?

Build the protractor, test your vision, and see how fun family summer science can be!

A new app and site from Elmer's® Products can help you capture and organize all the sticky, amazing, robotic, solar-powered, glue-filled, and otherwise amazing and inspired moments of summer science camp. Help your kids preserve the excitement of summer science by snapping photos that record their hands-on camp experiences!

What did your student make at science camp today? We'd love to see! Try the 1st Day app, and share a photo with us.

Elmer's Products is making a product donation to the Kids in Need Foundation for every 1st Day app that is downloaded (up to 200,000 products). The free app is available for both iOS and Android users. To learn more, visit: 1st Day.

It is always great to hear, "Look what I made today!" But recording moments from summer camp can be a challenge for parents. You don't want to miss the moment or not pay enough attention to the examples of hands-on learning scattered on tables and shelves, but walking in at the end of the day for "pickup" can be a whirlwind. There are logistics to take care of to sign your child out and check in with the camp leader. Your child may be overflowing with stories and news from the day, and you also need to make sure you gather all of your camper's belongings. And then, as you navigate the routine of camp pickup and prepare to weave your way to the car, your student may drag you to one room or another to show off projects and creations from the day.

Snap a Photo

Taking photos throughout the days of camp helps you chronicle your child's experience, but with dozens of parents milling around and the general "time to go home" vibe at the end of the day, dragging in your regular camera for a perfect photo opp isn't always practical. Using your cell phone to take pictures is convenient and makes sharing photos with friends and family via social media networks or email a breeze. ("Look what she made today!")

Keep in mind that some things made at camp don't "come home" at the end of the day—or even at the end of the week! Depending on the subject and materials, many camp experiences are about the process and the hands-on learning, even if there is no tangible take-away. For instance, LEGO® camp participants often build new creations each day, tearing apart what was created the previous day to salvage and reuse the pieces. Don't be in too big of a hurry to get back to the car. Snapping photos at the end of each day as your child shows off what she built helps validate the science camp experience for your student! Plus, as your student shows off the project, you will get to hear her explain how it works or what it demonstrates while the science or subject is still most fresh in her mind.

Family-friendly Photo App

After a week of camp, you accumulate a number of photos on your phone. With each passing week, the collection grows. But what happens to those photos? Are you good about uploading them to your computer and cataloguing them for later user? Do you print your cell photos the same way you do photos from your other family camera?

A new service from Elmer's Products makes it even easier to organize, track, and put your phone photo captures to use. The 1st Day site is designed specifically with back-to-school in mind, but parents may find that the online photo site makes memory keeping easier—all year long. From the first day of school to the science fair to summer science camp, 1st Day gives you a new and convenient way to better manage your cell photos—and school and camp memories.

The next time you walk into robotics or LEGO camp, pick up a paint-splattered child who has been exploring the art of Jackson Pollock, or watch your child show off the roller coaster he built from foam tubes, snap a cell phone pic with the 1st Day app and upload it to your 1st Day account. At the end of summer, you'll have a collection of summer photos that showcase your child's unique summer experiences this year.

When it comes time for the proverbial "What I Did Over My Summer Break" report, your child will be all set!

Families and young engineers can get hands on exploring the ins and outs of tower building using LEGO®, spaghetti, or even newspaper. Have fun seeing who can build the tallest tower, but be prepared for some structural collapses along the way as they explore what works—and what doesn't.

The Skytree Tower in Japan, shown above, is currently the tallest tower in the world and ranks third on the list of tallest structures in the world. Exploring tower construction with everyday materials or toys lets young builders learn more about engineering principles. A giant tower built from LEGO or pasta might come crashing to the ground, but that's sometimes half the fun! (Image: Kakidai, Wikipedia)

The Tallest of Tall

A timeline of tallest towers, buildings, and structures chronicles a history of taller and taller structures as engineers conquer structural challenges and develop new ways to make materials like steel and concrete reach even higher. Today, the Tokyo Skytree, standing 2,080 feet tall, is listed as the tallest non-habitable tower in the world. The Burj Khalifa, a skyscraper in Dubai, holds the title of tallest man-made structure (of any kind) and rises more than 2,700 feet. Just last week, The Shard, a 95-story building in London, was named the tallest structure in Western Europe at 1,016 feet, but its regional claim to fame may be short lived. Already another tower is underway that is projected to out-climb it by year's end. That the Washington Monument stands just a bit more than 555 feet puts the sheer climb of these record-holding structures in vertical perspective. By comparison, Willis Tower (formerly the Sears Tower) in Chicago is the tallest building in the United States. Willis Tower stands 1,451 feet and held the "tallest in the world" title in 1973 and for almost a quarter century after. It lost the title to the Petronas Twin Towers in Kuala Lumpur.

Putting civil engineering to the side, another tower completed this year in South Korea also set a record—the record for the tallest tower built from LEGO blocks. Rising skyward 105 feet, and built by 4,000 children using more than 500,000 bricks, the celebratory tower topped the previous record-holding LEGO tower by inches.

Scaled to Size

Whether real-world towers or LEGO creations, looking at the history of tall structures and at current towers offers important clues about fundamental engineering and materials sciences concepts that go into tower construction. Even toddlers building towers with chunky plastic bricks run into predictable structural problems. Stack too many Duplo® blocks one on top of another, and the tower, ultimately, will begin to lean and fall. Similar issues arise with smaller LEGO bricks, but the greater variety of brick sizes lets kids experiment with more sophisticated structural design as they search for various ways to increase stability to support greater height. The "Building the Tallest Tower" project lets students explore tower construction and the relationship between height and stability—especially in the context of shaking.

Other questions your tower builders might ask and investigate with their tower creations include: Does a tower require a certain shape? Are certain shapes more stable at greater heights? What's the mathematical relationship between the size of the base and a stable height? How do you keep a tower from bending? Why might it bend and at what height? What forces, like wind, does a tower have to withstand?

Beyond Bricks

While brick-based building materials like LEGO offer widespread ground for exploration and innovation, young engineers can also pursue tower construction using other household or toy-based materials and supplies. Building a tower from newspaper, alone, poses a fun challenge in problem solving and creative thinking. Add a bit of tape or glue in the process, and see how much taller the structure can rise.

For something completely different, bring out the pasta and challenge your builders to see what kind of tower they can construct using uncooked spaghetti noodles and Emer's® glue. The "The Leaning Tower of Pasta" project can help you get started. While the project offers a procedure older students can use for a school assignment or science fair, parents can use the general information as a guideline for a fun family science activity. Bring out the glue and pasta! Make sure you have plenty of pasta on hand, and encourage an exploration of noodle length as part of the investigation. Other building materials you and your students might try include toothpicks, popsicle sticks, straws, or even sugar cubes.

How high can you go?

Creating a display of a science collection can be a wonderful exercise in observation and classification. Plus, your student will end up with a tactile visual reminder and keepsake.

Creating a foam board display of a science collection can be a fun summer science activity that ties together science and art. Searching for new and unusual samples can be turned into an exciting summer quest, and mounting and displaying samples (or photos of samples) gives the project lasting value. )

Science Collection in a Nutshell

1. Go with a high-interest theme. Even your backyard offers myriad directions for a science collection. Make suggestions, but let them choose what to collect.
2. Stock up on guide books. Check out plenty of reference books and field guides to inspire your student and to help with identification.

3. Plan seek-and-find adventures. Go out once a week, or more, with the goal being to find a few new samples.
4. Consider a photo display. Photographing findings can be a good way to get started, and a photo-based display opens up the collection to a broader range of topics. Interested in frogs? Birds? Rocks? Even if your collector gathers natural samples, like leaves, encourage photographing each one for a digital record.
5. Nurture nature drawing. Supplement the collection process by encouraging your students to make sketches, drawings, and annotations of the samples they find, both in habitat and once home. The act of drawing the shape or distinct features of a sample helps train your student's observation skills and increases the ability to see the differences between similar species.
6. Make it last. Your student's visual display can be hung on a wall, mounted in a poster frame, or displayed in some other way for year-round enjoyment. For the foundation, Elmer's offers foam board in many sizes and colors. Depending on the kind of collection your student will be mounting, the Elmer's "GlueGuide" app (for iOS) may be helpful for selecting an appropriate adhesive.
7. Label the collection. Use field guides to help identify what they find and encourage them to label each sample. This is a great chance to also talk about systems of classification!

Cataloging Science

In all fields, scientists are always on the lookout for new species, new discoveries, and evidence of evolution, hybrids, and more. More sophisticated forms of collection and documentation are often at the core of scientific cataloging. For more information, see "Desks Piled High, and Lizards for Lunch."

These kinds of collections inspire an appreciation for just how many species, in any domain, there really are. That there are more than 70,000 known species of flowering plants is a simple reminder that the natural world is much bigger than what you see in your own backyard. Visual displays of groups of natural objects, or of items related to a scientific theme, help viewers understand the scope and potential of certain areas, but they also make for interesting viewing. Harold Feinstein's photo collections, like One Hundred Butterflies and One Hundred Seashells, showcase difference, beauty, and variation in nature. As Fred Gagnon writes in the forward to One Hundred Butterflies, "butterfly collections and books are just some of the ways to tell people, 'Look what is out there in the world we live in every day. There is so much more than butterflies... yet look how many butterflies there are!'"

For those who appreciate the aesthetics of a grid or love even the hint of tessellation, visual displays can be both informative and artistic. Pheromone: The Insect Artwork of Christopher Marley, for example, shows a fascination with the beauty and diversity of insects, but Marley's work is also mesmerizing in its arrangement.

Cultivating a Collection

Scouring the backyard, local parks, or nearby beaches for items that fit a collection is a great way to encourage observation and increased awareness of local habitats and biospheres. Especially if the collection centers upon something in which the student is interested, this can be an excellent activity for summer months. Frogs? Leaves? Beetles? Collections don't come in a one-subject-fits-all format, but the quest for building, identifying, and showcasing a collection lets a student delve into an area of interest, with tangible and lasting results. You might even find that a collection project helps shape and guide some unexpected summer excursions and may feed a growing passion in a particular area of science!

Getting Started

While a collection of findings from the backyard may not be as elaborate or as nuanced as a collection from a field scientist, this kind of student project can turn into an exciting quest and generate greater awareness of local biodiversity. The "Making Species Maps" and "Finding Phyla" projects offer guidance for getting a better sense of what species are in a specific area or local habitat. While these projects don't focus on a single species, they may help you and your students pinpoint a topic for a collection by first assessing what is around you. Similarly, the "Bug Vacuums: Sucking up Biodiversity" project can help you get started in thinking about how students can build and track an investigation of a nearby space, but you don't have to limit your students to bugs, insects, and worms!

Build a Photo Display

As part of an informal science collection process and project, creating a tangible display encourages students to work systematically on the project over a period of time. Some collections are added to over a period of weeks, months, or even years. Some collectors cultivate lifelong collections. With a visual display and catalog in mind as the "goal" of the collection, you will need to think through strategies for displaying the samples, but you (or your student) may or may not feel comfortable with a collection of once-live specimens. A workaround may be as close as your family camera. A photo-based documentation of findings and sightings can be a good entry point for a young enthusiast—and might eliminate concerns you have about 'pinning' samples. Plus, photographing a collection makes it easier to display a collection of larger or dimension objects, like rocks, shells, or sea glass. With photos, your students can work on cultivating a science collection that can scale with their age, interest, and the time spent scavenging.

Scavenging for All Ages

A photo-based collection lets even the youngest of students observe their surroundings and search for new samples to record. For older students, collecting photo samples can be a building-block opportunity for learning more about photography, but even without an understanding of focal point or aperture, passing out disposable cameras to your kids at the start of a nature walk can yield surprising results. Giving them the keys to independently document and record their findings may or may not generate high-quality photos, but you may find that they are more enthusiastic about the scavenger hunt with their own camera in hand.

Display the Findings

Once your students have amassed a number of photos, or finished their disposable cameras, print or develop the pictures. If you are working with digital photos, you might print the photos in varying sizes. You might also encourage students to crop or trim prints to best showcase the subject at hand. With a pile of printed photos, your students can mount them on foam board. Using reference books or field guides, encourage (or help) them to look up and identify samples captured in the photos and then label the photos on the board. (Tip: check out a few field guides from the library at the start of the project so they have a sense of what they may find, how specimens may differ, and how to make initial steps in identification or classification. They might also create a "most wanted" bucket list of samples they'd like to find.)

Start Small

Be realistic about what your student might manage to collect or locate. Your student might enjoy the challenge of trying to find a certain number of samples a week, a month, or over the total summer. But emphasize that a good collection grows over time. You don't have to have "every" sample in hand to start gluing things onto a display board. The board can be added to as the collection grows! Even a budding collection display can be pretty cool propped on a bookshelf or ledge, a visual reminder of a natural interest and of time spent exploring.

What will you find next for your display board collection? You might be surprised! Happy collecting!

Do you have a science collection? If you or your students have a science collection, we would love to see! Share photos (and your science collection stories) by emailing them to amy@sciencebuddies.org.

Planes, trains, and automobiles... all great ways to get around. But when it comes to exploring cool travel, the hovercraft shines with its ability to effortlessly glide across land or water. Make one at home to explore the aerodynamics at work!

DIY hovercraft science is perfect for Star Wars fans or kids who love any kind of vehicle. With some very low-tech materials like paper plates, foam board, or old compact discs, your students can build their own and learn more about how a hovercraft works. Get some balloons and let your students experiment with design and aerodynamics principles, and then let your driveway hovercraft races begin!

If you get some great in-air photos, please share them with us. We would love to see your family science hovercraft exploration!

Touted as an environmentally friendly design—it travels mostly above the surface—hovercraft are often associated with water, in part because they have become linked with rescue vehicles. While they are amphibious, hovercraft are not limited to water. Instead, hovercraft are multi-terrain vehicles. The DiscoverHover website describes them as "boat-like vehicles, but they are much more than just a boat, because they can travel over not only water, but grass, ice, mud, sand, snow and swamp as well." The craft's ability to ride on a self-generated and self-maintained cushion of air as it transitions between different terrain is at the heart of the vehicle's innovative aerodynamic design. When hovering, the hull of the craft, which can also float, is lifted off the surface and propelled by a cushion of air that is trapped under the vehicle by a structural "skirt" element.

DIY Hovercraft

Exploring aeronautics principles and design issues related to hovercraft doesn't require a factory, heavy machinery, power tools, or a sophisticated motor. You don't even need wheels! Using materials you probably have around the house, your students can park the die-cast cars for the day and embark on an afternoon's worth of hovercraft racing with their own balloon-powered vehicles.

The simplest hovercraft model can be constructed from a paper plate and a balloon. This model offers a hands-on look at how the craft moves, but repeated travels will probably put a dent in the design. Using foam board instead of a paper plate may increase the longevity of the model. Though thicker than a paper plate, foam board is sturdier and yet still lightweight, an important factor in DIY hovercraft success. If you have a sheet of Elmer's foam board tucked away in a craft closet, your young engineers can experiment with the shape of the craft. Does a circular hovercraft fly farther than a rectangular one? What diameter of circle works best? What is the relationship between the size of the circle and the size of the balloon? Does a foam board hovercraft fly as far as one made from a paper plate? What kinds of modifications can you make to the center where the balloon is stationed?

Recycled compact discs can also be used to make hovercrafts. Pass over a few old CDs, an equal number of drinking bottle valves, some glue, and a pile of balloons in varying sizes, and let your young engineers loose! If you're ready for the races to begin, the "How Does a Hovercraft Work?" project has the blueprint for designing your own miniature hovercraft. You can find additional family-friendly guidance in the CD Hovercraft cartoon from Howtoons. Figuring out what makes the craft hover longer or cover more ground is part of the fun—and part of the science exploration! Make sure to have the video camera ready for some short film footage, just in case there's a finish that's too close to call!

Going Bigger

While building and testing miniature hovercrafts is a great summer activity, especially for elementary (and younger) students, more industrious models are certainly possible and can be excellent under-cover summer projects, perfect for tinkering in the garage. The "Riding on Air—Build a Real Hovercraft" project outlines one approach to creating a leaf-blower powered hovercraft. As part of your background reading, tune in to the DragonFly episode in which Rachel and Sara build their own hovercraft—and troubleshoot problems they encounter on grass. To see another life-size example, check out this video from Howtoons' Saul Griffith.

How well will your hovercraft glide? Put it to the test!

In a series of fun and accessible family science projects, Science Buddies and Scientific American make it easy to add family science to your together-time activities.

Each week, Scientific American posts a new family science activity at Bring Science Home. Designed to be engaging for students ages six to twelve, and easy for parents to lead, these science explorations help families explore the science around them. (Image: Bigstock)

Asking Questions; Finding Answers

Kids are naturally curious, and the best way to find out the answer to a question is often to put it to the test. The guided explorations available at Bring Science Home, many of which are family-friendly adaptations of Science Buddies Project Ideas, help parents investigate everyday science questions with their kids. Recent activities include:

• Shoreline Science: Exploring the Erosive Energy of Waves: investigate how beaches are formed and how different parts of a beach respond to the movement of waves. (full Science Buddies Project Idea)
• Spurting Science: Erupting Diet Coke with Mentos: explore the physical reaction that takes place when you drop a Mentos® candy into Diet Coke. (full Science Buddies Project Idea)
• Salty Science: How to Separate Soluble Solutions: mix sand and salt together and try to separate them again. Sound hopeless? A solvent can help! (full Science Buddies Project Idea)
• Skipping Science: An Experiment in Jump-Rope Lengths: figure out the relationship between the length of the rope and how quickly you can jump. (full Science Buddies Project Idea)
• Squirmy Science: Which Soil Types Do Earthworms Like Best?: earthworms do important tasks in helping to keep soil rich in nutrients. Find out what kind of soil they prefer. (full Science Buddies Project Idea)
• Dirty Science: What Makes Soil Become Dense?: soil that is too compacted can make it difficult for bugs, worms, plants, and other organisms to thrive. What factors contribute to how compacted an area of soil becomes? (full Science Buddies Project Idea)
• Hairy Science: Measuring Humidity with a Hair Hygrometer: a tool made from strands of hair can help you measure the amount of humidity in the air. (full Science Buddies Project Idea)
• Buoyant Science: How Metal "Boats" Float: steel boats might seem too heavy to float in water. Learn how the water pushes back to keep the boat afloat! (full Science Buddies Project Idea)
• Snappy Science: Stretched Rubber Bands Are Loaded with Potential Energy!: shoot some rubber bands to explore what the pullback stretch has to do with the "energy" in the rubber band—and how far the rubber band flies. (full Science Buddies Project Idea)
• Probability and the Birthday Paradox: as you learn more about mathematical probability, chances are that you will uncover two people who share a birthday, even out of a seemingly small group of people! (full Science Buddies Project Idea)
• Juice Box Geometry: how much juice does a juice box hold? The answer is in the geometry of the packaging and design. (full Science Buddies Project Idea)
• Rock Solid? How Particles Affect Porosity: when it comes to rocks, size can be deceptive. Investigate how different sized rocks can fit together to better understand how rocks have different porosities. (full Science Buddies Project Idea)
• Swinging with a Pendulum: a pendulum's swing is a result of gravity, but the time it takes a pendulum to swing from one side to the other and back has something to do with the length of the pendulum. What's the relationship? (full Science Buddies Project Idea)

For more information and a list of additional Science Buddies contributions to Bring Science Home, see: "Science Buddies Helps Scientific American Bring Science Home" (February, 2012).

Creating a batch of homemade putty puts polymers in the palm of your hand. This family science activity may inspire nostalgia, but your kids will have a blast exploring the tactile medium.

From slime-factor to elasticity to bounciness, homemade putty has all the ingredients for family science fun—and plenty of molecule chains! In this easy summer science activity your kids do a bit of literal hands-on mixing and, pop, out comes a wad a putty.

For more information about the (fascinating) history of Silly Putty, see: The Original Silly Putty.

What Came First

The story of Silly Putty is one with a take-to-heart moral for scientists and engineers of all ages: invention sometimes is the result of an accident or a failed experiment. Or, in science project terms, what you discover when your hypothesis is disproven might be even more exciting than what you were hoping to discover! The second-level moral surely has something to do with having one's eyes open to unexpected possibilities.

Silly Putty was first created during World War II by researchers who were trying to develop synthetic alternatives to rubber, an important commodity that was rationed during the war. While more than one researcher claims the initial discovery, Crayola lists James Wright, who worked for General Electric, as the inventor. What Wright (at GE) and another team (at Dow Corning) had separately discovered in their labs was that a combination of boric acid and silicone oil yielded a stretchy substance that bounced when dropped. Despite its unusual (and entertaining) properties, the putty wasn't a viable alternative to rubber. No good use for the putty was found, in fact, until a toy store owner saw it and realized its tactile potential—as a toy. The familiar egg-shaped container came later, along with more than a quarter million units sold in three days, and the rest, as they say, is history, although the putty's path from the lab into popular culture didn't happen overnight. Though Silly Putty didn't enjoy simple rocket-to-the-top success, it did shuttle to the moon with the crew of Apollo 8 in 1968. Today, the putty even has a spot at the Smithsonian Institute.

Making Connections

While Silly Putty, from the store, can be a fun and inexpensive diversion for the kids, putty is one of many DIY mediums you can mix at home for a quirky, crafty, scientific experience that's perfect for the family, spans a range of ages, and gives everyone something to play with afterwards. Other interesting tactile substances you can concoct at home include Ooblek and Gak. While different in nature, the three together make a powerful trio for summer fun and hands-on kid science. Be forewarned, however, that differences in printing and ink technologies may make it hard to replicate your childhood Sunday comics memories. The nostalgia you may have when working with the Elmer's® school glue, on the other hand, may more than make up for it. For your kids, you'll be highlighting some important science concepts that help explain how many materials we use every day are created. Plus, the outcome of the project is a wad of goo with a small amount of slime-factor that can stretch, bounce, and squoosh. For certain age groups, it doesn't get much better than that!

Silly Science

Substances like Silly Putty are part of a class of materials called polymers. Like other molecules, polymers are compounds, but they are large and may contain tens of thousands of atoms. Compare this, for example, to water, a compound of hydrogen and oxygen that contains three atoms. A good way to visual the difference between small molecules (like water) and polymers (also called macromolecules) is to think of the size difference between a crystal of salt (small) and a strand of spaghetti (larger and longer).* Like the strand of spaghetti, polymers are long chains of molecules strung together. These strands can also be tangled up to create a giant mess of polymer chains. Are you still envisioning a bowl of spaghetti?

Part of what makes polymers interesting is that each polymer has unique properties and behaviors defined by its molecules. Some polymers are stretchy. Some are sticky. Some are hard. Many familiar and commonly used polymers are synthetic, but there are also naturally occurring polymers, including cellulose, starch, proteins, silk, chitin, and rubber. What you want your putty-mixers to understand is that Silly Putty has its characteristic stretch and bounce because of the molecules from which it is made.

Bring on the Polymers

Using a combination of Elmer's white school glue, borax (a cleaner made from sodium tetraborate), and water, you can create a substance similar to Silly Putty. The polymer in DIY putty is not the same as in a commercially sold egg-container of Silly Putty, but glue and borax react to form a similar polymer structure. One of the ingredients in Elmer's glue is polyvinyl acetate—a polymer. When you combine Elmer's glue with borax, a chemical reaction occurs, and borax molecules create links between molecules of polyvinyl acetate in the glue. As more and more cross-linked molecules form, the polymer begins to take on new properties—and new substance. Since you wouldn't pick up and play with a handful of glue, you know that something has happened in the mixing because your putty isn't sticky like glue.

Figuring out the optimal ratio of glue to borax is a great science exploration for students. As you mix up separate batches with varying amounts of the two main ingredients, you can compare the differences in the resulting substances. If you want to focus on a single batch until you determine a formula that feels and works well, start with a single recipe from one of the sources below and add small amounts of the borax solution until you reach the desired consistency. Just be sure and work the borax into the glue solution well each time so that it mixes thoroughly before you add more! (Tip: have your students take the putty from the bag, feel it, stretch it, and manipulate it with their hands to evaluate the consistency. Is it too sticky? Is it too hard to squish? Does it break too easily?)

The following resources can help guide your exploration. The full Science Buddies Project Idea can be used during science fair season, but the general procedure gives you a blueprint for turning the project into an exciting family activity:

• Bouncy Polymer Chemistry
• Playing with Polymers (this adaptation of the Science Buddies Project Idea appears in Scientific American's Bring Home Science)

Squishy Fun

Be prepared for some experimental zaniness after the putty is mixed. Once students get past the initial sensation of how the putty "feels" in their hands, seeing what happens when you do "this" or "that" with the putty is part of the fun and part of the science-based observation the activity inspires. All you have to do to turn up the volume as they squish the putty around in their hands is ask: does it bounce?



Note: Dispose of your glue and borax waste in a trash bag, not down the sink.

^* Spaghetti analogy appears in Carnegie Mellon's Introduction to Polymers.

Building paths for marbles to race, climb, and loop brings physics to heart-pounding life—minus the admission fee, height requirement, and endless wait in line. A willingness to uncover principles of energy and laws of motion is required; cotton candy is optional.

Image: Bigstock

Roller coasters and marble runs offer an engaging platform for invention, engineering, and physics-based investigation. Get hands on exploring what kinds of loops are possible, how energy changes during a ride, and how the laws of motion come into play. Building a simple marble-run or tube-based coaster is only the beginning. Can you wire your track to add lights or sounds? Can you make your run motion sensitive or trigger an effect as the marble passes a certain point?

Try this at home!

Roller coaster science can be fun for the whole family and all ages! Younger students can learn about the laws of motion and centripetal force by using Jell-o, marbles, and paper cups to investigate how we stay in our seats when riding a roller coaster and going around loops. There is more at work than just the seat belt! This is a great—and jiggly—family science opportunity. If you give it a try, we would love to see a photo and hear how it went!

Having seeing how immersive this kind of building can be, I have often thought it would be amazing to line a hallway or bedroom wall with pegboard for this purpose at home. There are many ways to transform a household wall into a space for creativity, invention, and hands-on, perpetual discovery. At various points, I considered both magnetic and chalkboard walls, but marble runs may have more longevity in terms of kid interest. With their quirky and wide-ranging assortment of parts and components and anything-goes aplomb, run building , captivates and challenges both tape-happy younger students and older students with a developing thirst for structural finesse. Whether you take a DIY approach and put together your own wall-based, standalone, or travel-ready kit, or whether you invest in a ready-made marble run or rollercoaster building kit, these kinds of activities, an extension, maybe, of early fascination with brick and block building, are great for letting kids explore principles of physics and engineering.

The Roller Coaster Connection

While angles and trajectories are critical to a marble run's success, the path usually moves in one direction, top to bottom, and any quasi-lateral rolls probably still involve a bit of a decline. Roller coasters, on the other hand, often climb, drop, and climb again, which requires different energy and momentum. What makes a ride thrilling in person is often a combination of speed and stomach-lurching looping, a combination that relies upon and illustrates Newton's laws of motion and conservation of energy. Students who love to ride roller coasters can turn summer amusement park thrills into an informal physics exploration with a homemade vertical accelerometer using "The Chills and Thrills of Roller-Coaster Hills" project. Take the tool along for the ride and measure the g-force at different locations during the ride. Be prepared to ride several times in a row to gather data!

Using the DIY accelerometer to collect g-force measurements gives validity to riding "just one more time" at the amusement park, but once home again, there's plenty of thrilling science to recreate with a DIY roller coaster made from foam tubing. The "Roller Coaster Marbles: Converting Potential Energy to Kinetic Energy" physics project guides students through construction and the tracking of potential energy as it is converted to kinetic energy during a marble's path from start to finish. The same tubing can be used to investigate the math upon which coaster loops depend. The "Roller Coaster Marbles: How Much Height to Loop the Loop?" project explores the ratio between height and loop size. It wouldn't be much fun if you got halfway up the loop only to slip back to the base and stall, right?

Making Connections

Perfect for at-home exploration, marble runs and roller coaster experiments fall in line with bridge building, tower construction, and even exploration of simple machines. What will your students construct this summer?

Student "brain drain" during the summer is more than just media hype. Statistics on academic loss offer a cautionary tale, but taking steps to infuse summer fun with summer science can help keep critical skills in motion. Summer science might be just the synapse boost your student needs to bridge the days between school years!

Summer is a great time for students to engage in big and small science projects at home—no grades required! Doing science in the summer can help keep important academic skills fresh. Plus, summer science can be fun! What will your students question, discover, build, or explore this summer? (Image: Bigstock)

If you feel torn trying to sort out how to balance the need to pay tribute to the "break" of summer and still keep your kids' brains on track, you are not alone. Summer shakes up familiar routines and schedules. Bedtimes may get an extension, and TVs might get more airtime, but even as you give your kids some needed downtime, keep in mind that research shows that school-age children are at risk of losing up to two months of learning over the summer. It's a startling statistic, one that should be a motivator for parents. Letting your students get sucked into a summer daze can have repercussions in the coming school year, so take extra care in making sure that summer activities offer a nice balance of "just for fun" and "fun with an educational twist."

Science That Isn't for an Assignment

Creating opportunities throughout the summer that use important reading and math skills is important, and longer summer days and less structured schedules can add up to perfect opportunities for science exploration and exciting science activities that let your students have fun while putting cognitive and creative skills to use. With no "classroom" assignment to rein them in, summer gives students the chance to explore science questions and topics of their own choosing and without needing to juggle other homework. Summer science is about the science, not the grade, a simple reality that frees students up to explore—just because. With no project display board requirement and no research paper to turn in, students get to dive in and enjoy the fun part—the hands-on investigation.

Kickstart a Summer Science Exploration

During the school year, thousands of students use Science Buddies Project Ideas for class assignments and science fairs. Many of these projects are also great for at-home exploration, either solo or as a family activity. The following suggestions highlight a few summer-friendly science explorations from our library of Project Ideas:

• Shimmy Shimmy Soda Pop: Develop Your Own Soda Pop Recipe: Mix up and sample your own carbonated beverages while you explore the chemical reaction that occurs when you mix baking soda and citric acid. How much of each ingredient do you need to create the perfect drink? What happens to the drink when the amounts of each ingredients change? What does it mean for a soda to be flat? Can your bubbly soda be too bubbly? Have you ever dumped lemonade crystals into a bottle of carbonated water and had it bubble up and overflow the bottle? Have you twisted the lid off of a bottle of homemade seltzer and had the cap fly into the air? What's going on? This food science project is perfect for the aspiring chemist, the kitchen scientist, or even the chef-in-training.




• Build Your Own Crystal Radio: Get hands on in this electronics project and wire your own crystal radio to pick up AM stations without plugs or batteries. What stations can you tap in your neighborhood? This project is a great exploration for the budding electrician or electronics enthusiast. Turn things around, and you can make your own DIY transmitter to learn more about how radio stations are broadcast. Really ambitious? Go full circle and set up your own crystal radio to pick up your own transmissions!




• Rocketology: Baking Soda + Vinegar = Lift Off!: For some students, science fun in the sun is all about things that pop, boom, float, or fly. This chemistry project gives new zest—and combustion—to experiments with baking soda and vinegar. The volcanoes in the sand you remember from your preschool days were fun, but this project kicks things up a notch. What's not to love about blasting empty film canisters into the air? For more explosive fun, try Coke® & Mentos®—Nucleation Goes Nuclear!. What's the difference between a chemical reaction and a physical reaction? This soda geyser can help you find out.




• The Chemistry of Clean: Make Your Own Soap to Study Soap Synthesis: A great choice for the DIY-type, the aspiring chemist, or the soap enthusiast, this chemistry project explores the process of making soap—and how you "purify" soap using salt. If mixing up custom, non-edible concoctions is up your student's alley, you might also encourage making lip balm or exploring the art of making perfume.

  
  

• Veggie Power!: This energy-focused exploration of fruits and vegetables as power sources is excellent for the "green"-minded student and electronics fan. What kinds of foods generate the most power? Head to the produce aisle for an assortment of fruits and vegetables you can put to the test. What can you power with foods from the vegetable bin?




• Do You Have the Willpower to Taste Something Sour?: Mix up batches of lemonade and put your family and friend's sour power to the test. What trends can you spot? Combine this project with Shimmy, Shimmy Soda Pop (above) for added twist, or take it a step further with the "Do You Love the Taste of Food? Find Out if You're a Supertaster!" project. Put an end to dinner-table arguments about what's too salty, too spicy, or too sour by figuring out just how many taste buds you have. Is anyone in your family a supertaster? A bit of blue food coloring can reveal your tongue's papillae truth.




• Got video game?: If spending time playing one video game or another is how you plan to spend a large chunk of your summer, why not shake things up and create your own game? Put what you already know about what makes a game great into developing your own game for friends and family to try. Tools like GameMaker can help get you started, and younger designers can get a fun introduction to video game design basics by completing quests and building games in Gamestar Mechanic. For a more immersive summer video game design experience, check out Gamestar Mechanic's new four-week summer online learning program. Designed especially for students ages 10-14, the online course extends the Gamestar Mechanic experience and gives students the benefit of working with a professional game design mentor.




• 
  The Chills and Thrills of Roller-Coaster Hills: If you'll be hitting the coasters at an amusement park, this project will guide you in building and using a homemade accelerometer you can take along to learn more about acceleration and gravity on your favorite rides. Which rides are most thrilling—and why? For more hands-on fun exploring the science behind roller coasters, build an at-home marble run. Grab some foam tubing, and create your own monster marble ride! The potential energy is there, ready and waiting, for a super summer investigation!




• How Sweet It Is! Explore the Roles of Color and Sugar Content in Hummingbirds' Food Preferences.: For the backyard birder or budding zoologist, this project lets you turn your window-view into a simple zoology experiment. What happens if you offer different colors of food to hummingbirds? Is the color most important? Or is the amount of sugar what really counts? Set up some testing feeders and see what happens! You can also experiment with bird seed to learn more about the preferences of birds in your area.

Several of the Project Ideas listed above are available in kit format. Ordering a Science Buddies Kit makes it easy to hand over a box of science goodness to an older student. Everything you need (except perishable items) will arrive in the box!

Investigate a Hobby

If your students spend summer days pursuing a favorite pastime or sport, encourage them to explore, question, test, and think about the science at work behind their favorite activities.

Vacation Science
Taking a mini-trip? Have a family vacation scheduled? With a bit of planning, you can map out exciting science opportunities on trips of all sizes. Depending on where you are going, encourage students to learn more about local birds, wildlife, fauna, or terrain. Are there examples of bioluminescence in the area? There's plenty to explore while camping, too. From marshmallows, to crickets, to navigation, being out in the woods can boost your family science. (Make marshmallows at home before you head out and then experiment with s'mores techniques by the campfire.) See our blog round-up of campground science suggestions for more ideas. If car or plane travel is part of your vacation plan, carry along a box of science trivia cards to help pass the miles! Finally, no matter where you go, even if it's just to a corner park, encourage students to document sightings and record observations—or to sketch things they imagine—in a journal. (Image: Evan-Amos, Wikipedia.)

Summer Reading

As one of the two academic areas most at risk during the summer months, daily reading is a summer must. As you and your students scour the shelves and reading lists for summer choices, be sure and pepper the list with science-themed titles. From fiction with a science twist to accessible, engaging, and potentially mind-boggling non-fiction titles, there are great science choices for students of all ages. Stay tuned for our suggested summer reading list for older readers and for parents!

Science for All Ages

While you may want to encourage your older students to tackle independent summer science investigations, summer is a great time for family science activities that can be fun for all ages. Our list of Project Ideas for Home contains suggestions for easy-to-do projects that don't take a lot of preparation, don't take long to complete, and can be done with basic household materials you might already have on hand. Many of these are perfect for doing with younger students. You will also find family-centered adaptations of Science Buddies projects at Scientific American's Bring Science Home.

Stay Tuned

We will be highlighting other summer science ideas in the coming days and weeks! We would love to know what you try, what projects your family does, what science books you read, and how you and your students keep the science learning going all summer long. Share your stories by sending email to amy@sciencebuddies.org. Have a picture to go along with your summer science fun? We'd love to see!

Families who gather around the table to eat turn off the electronics, put down their books, pass the salt, salad, or main course, and tune in to one another. With busy schedules carving out the hours of the days for both students and parents, the minutes shared over a meal give everyone a moment to slow down, regroup, and refocus. Working a bit of science into your dinner table talk can be easy—and rewarding for everyone involved.

Compelling dinner discussion isn't always spontaneous! In her cookbook, The Family Dinner: Great Ways to Connect with Your Kids, One Meal at a Time, and on her blog, Laurie David includes numerous suggestions for table talk, and the Huffington Post runs a weekly dinner topic column that highlights an engaging news story for family discussion. News and human interest stories can certainly springboard your family's dinner conversation, but with a bit of planning, you can spice up your mealtime talk even more by adding a dash of brain-boosting or awe-inspiring science. You might just increase your family's science, technology, engineering, and math literacy (STEM) one meal at a time.

For years, the media has depicted family mealtime as a mark of a "happy" family, and nutritionist and child education experts alike have chimed in on the importance of the family meal. Proponents of eating together cite studies that show long-term benefits ranging from academic achievement to healthier eating and better social choices among teenagers. In an age where the family dinner could run the risk of seeming old-fashioned, the idea appears to be alive and well, a reality boosted by the fact that President Obama and his family, too, observe a family meal. Despite busy schedules and the ongoing proliferation of fast food places, many families do have a routine of shared meals, expect members of the family to be home and at the table for dinner most nights, and view dinner as a cornerstone of family interaction.

Steering Table Talk

What families discuss over dinner varies table to table. Some families share stories of school, the team, friends, extended family, or the day at the office. Some families talk about headline news. Some families share a "high" and a "low" for the day. Some dinner conversations are simply free-form or free-for-all. Part of what time together at the table offers is a window for family members to talk to each other. But what happens when conversation wanes? If you want your family dinners to succeed, being prepared with ideas for "table talk" can be as important as deciding what to serve.

Luckily, with a bit of forethought, it can be easy to uplevel dinner table talk into something meaningful beyond, "what's the green stuff in my pasta?" While your meals shouldn't turn into a classroom lecture, family dinner can provide a perfect opportunity to spend an extra five minutes talking about science with your kids. It doesn't take much preparation to bring a wholesome nugget of science or engineering to the table. Do it subtly, as moms do, and your kids might not even recognize that you're charted new territory at the dinner table, squeezing a bit of chemistry or engineering trivia in between the school gossip and the talk of weekend plans.

Pass the Science, Please

These tips can help you find easy ways to increase the neurons firing around the table. Go ahead and share "highs" and "lows." It's important to check in with your kids—and yourself. But with just a bit of a stretch, you can turn "pass the salt" into something that might generate an aha moment, might raise a question about how the world works, might inspire further research or experimentation, or might let your student show off something learned this year. You might even find that science talk leads to some very funny and exciting conversations!

• Dish Up a Simple Fact: Often all it takes to kickstart a good conversation is a morsel of knowledge you can toss into the air and see where it falls. Our "Today in Science History" posts (at Facebook) are perfect examples of the kinds of bite-sized trivia you can share with your kids at the table. The fact itself may be finite: "this person was born on this day in x year and is best known for y and z." But the discussion can be much more open ended. Often, I tell my kids something about what I learned about a famous inventor or scientist that I've researched to write the science history tidbit for the day. Sometimes, I tell them simply to highlight an interesting biography so that they hear about all kinds of different careers and about people who made discoveries and inventions even as teens or tweens. Did you know that Mary Anning found her first full skeleton when she was only 12? Did you know that Philo Farnsworth was a teen when he first hypothesized the "television"—and he got his inspiration from looking at a field!

  
  Sometimes, you may find that your students already know a bit about the person or fact you bring to the table. That's great! When I brought up Richter's birthday and asked my boys if they knew what he developed, my fifth grader had his own question. Did you know that Richter got the credit for the Richter scale but someone else actually worked with him? The nice thing about the science history blurbs is that they are short and compact, and yet they highlight a potentially cool person, an area of science, and something of historical significance.




• Make It a Game: Turning science trivia into a table game can be a lot of fun, especially if you are a game-oriented family or your kids respond enthusiastically to friendly competition and the chance to show off what they know. Dust off the box of Trivial Pursuit cards lurking on the top shelf of your closet and put them to use! Or, try a set of science-themed flash or trivia cards like Prof. Noggin's Wonders of Science. These cards can be perfect for dinner, but be careful if you think you'll just do one or two a day. Your kids might enjoy the game of it and zip through a bunch of cards before asking for seconds. (Note: cards like these may not offer any explanatory info—just trivia.)

  Keeping a book of "must know" science facts on hand can also offer a fresh flow of information. Check out books like 101 Things Everyone Should Know About Science (2006) or Scientific American's Ask the Experts: Answers to The Most Puzzling and Mind-Blowing Science Questions (2003). The Instant Physicist: An Illustrated Guide takes a slightly different, non-Q&A approach, but each statement (and accompanying illustration) is sized just right for raising family conversation. Which books will work for your family may depend on the ages of your students and your family interests, but books like these often pose a question or fact—and then offer a detailed answer or explanation. This approach may work better than simple trivia questions for younger students.

  If science, in general, feels too broad to get you started, consider focusing on a theme, like the Periodic Table. Grab a guide like The Elements: A Visual Exploration of Every Known Atom in the Universe, or the related deck of Periodic Table cards, and start exploring. For kids that like to memorize facts, there are a bunch of angles to master, from the organization of the table to element symbols, numbers, and identifying details. What to do: gather trivia sources, just be careful to look for current sources (or be on the lookout for things that may have changed). For example, a book or game card that still cites Pluto as a planet is worthy of an out-of-this-world dessert discussion. Your kids may even be entertained by hearing about the mnemonic device you learned in school for memorizing the order of the planets—back when there were nine pizzas to serve! Talking about mnemonic devices is a perfect add-on dinner topic! If you have older kids, try having each be responsible for scrounging up an interesting or "new-to-me" science fact on a certain night of the week.




• Headline News: Make room in your own newspaper reading, news watching, or social media following to stay in sync with science news, events, and discoveries. Knowing that the Venus Transit is coming before it happens lets you talk about it and make a plan for safe viewing. (There's some math to figure, too. How old will you be before it comes again?) When news about arsenic levels in brown rice hit the papers, it was a perfect time to talk not only about the science at hand but about the history of arsenic. Filling your kids in on the notable history of arsenic could prove to be an eye-opening meal starter! What to do: add key science media streams to your social media spots, like Facebook or Twitter, including National Geographic, NASA, Discovery, Scientific American, and Science Buddies. Depending on where you live, be sure and add local sources, too, like KQED QUEST in the Bay Area. Still read the paper paper? Clip interesting tidbits and bring them to dinner!




• Read Science Writing: Science writers help open up the world of science in ways that illuminate and explain all the nooks and crannies of science. These writers translate and transform research coming from the labs and science headlines from around the world into stories for the general reader. Whether the subject of the story is frightening, awe inspiring, cautionary, or revolutionary, even sharing an opening passage to a well-crafted and engaging science essay can open up all kinds of discussion (and maybe even a vocabulary lesson or two!). Try essays from NY Times Science writers like Carl Zimmer or Carol Kaesuk Yoon, or blog posts from Scientific American, to get a taste of dazzling prose that brings science to life. What to do: print out a paragraph or two, bring it to the table, and have someone read it. See what conversations evolve.

  
  

• Encourage Inventive Thinking: In addition to talking about experiments and results, mix things up a bit sometimes by posing a hypothetical problem. For example, you might ask, What could we create that would take care of "this" problem? Being able to act on the idea isn't a requirement. Just brainstorm what might work and why. Think about what went into coming up with using PET bottles as a way to disinfect water using the power of the sun. It was an inventive solution—and one that can be used to help improve drinking water around the world. Your family challenge discussions can be smaller-scale. A recent Science Buddies success story highlights a fifth-grade student who wanted to create a video game to share with his grandmother, who is blind. Another story features a student who wondered what kind of reusable water bottle she should use to reduce her exposure to germs. Ryan Patterson, one of the science fair success legends profiled in Science Fair Season,developed a robotic glove to help deaf people have more privacy in conversations. Nutshell stories like these can help inspire creative thinking and problem solving, but try tossing out a new challenge. How can we solve this? How could this be improved? What to do: come up with a stash of challenges that require assimilation of knowledge and creative problem solving.




• Surprise Them: Sometimes the best way to generate discussion is to shock your students with a science fact that seems hard to believe or even impossible. For example, did you know a polar bear's fur is transparent? Or, go really far out: Did you know that a thimbleful of a neutron would weigh as much as a skyscraper? (You might also find this fact written in terms of a number of elephants, which may be more fun to ponder!) What to do: search for fun or odd-but-true science facts you can dole out at dinner. The Library of Congress' Everyday Mysteries section can launch you in the direction of the unexpected when you need to kickstart the science conversation.




• Know Your Family: Putting more science on the menu doesn't mean you have to be limited to classroom facts and trivia. One way to make science engaging for you and your children as a topic of conversation is to talk about the science involved in their areas of interest or hobbies. An Angry Birds obsession can yield an interesting discussion of video games and physics, and news of a camera body made out of LEGO gives both the photographer and the builder something to ponder. Whether they fly RC helicopters, play the piano, veg out with video games, love detective books, or are amazing visual artists, there are science facts and science angles you can talk about—which will help them learn to find and explore the science that underwrites everything they do! What to do: talk about what they already love, but ask questions that encourage thinking about how things work and why.
  

Your Own Recipe

The above suggestions are just a few ideas to get you going. There are many, many more ways you can weave science talk into your meals. In a Washington Post article earlier this year, Casey Seidenberg suggests creating a "jar" of dinner table conversation starters. This would be a great way to stay ahead of your family meals and create your own custom blend of science topics gathered from some of the above sources. After a few science game nights, bring out the jar and pull out a science talk starter. Or make pulling a topic the way you kick off each meal.

Whether you are already a family that eats together or think it's worth a try, we know that with a bit of experimentation, you'll find your own perfect recipe for dinner table science success! We would enjoy hearing about your family discussions, what you try, what books and games you find that help keep your dinner talk educational, science-minded, and entertaining. Send your suggestions and stories to: amy@sciencebuddies.org.

The Venus Transit offers a wonderful opportunity for family summer science and an easy DIY science activity—making a pinhole viewer. From parallax to exoplanets, tomorrow's transit raises plenty of talking points for students and their families, but a safe viewing strategy is a must.

During the Venus Transit, Venus will appear as a dark spot crossing the face of the Sun. Safe viewing is a must, but families can witness this event, which won't happen again until 2117, using a simple pinhole viewer. It's a great opportunity for summer science! Image: Jan Herold, Wikipedia

Pinhole Planning

In preparation for the coming transit, I spent time talking with Terik Daly, Staff Scientist at Science Buddies and a doctoral student studying planetary science at Brown University. In part, I wanted to know how off-base we had been with our viewer attempt last month.

After reading through my account of our viewer, Daly confirms, much to my relief, that in theory what we tried should have worked. Something went wrong, but the concept was sound—and we were able to cast the Sun during the afternoon, just not later during the actual eclipse. (I still think the heavy winds at the top of the hill didn't help us—or our taped-together cardboard tubes, which seemed even more flimsy when held up into the wind.) Daly did note that aluminum foil, because it is opaque and highly reflective, might have increased our chances of success.

What's the Big Deal?

The Venus Transit is a 243-year cycle, arriving in pairs, eight years apart, separated by first 121.5 years and then by 105.5 years. The last Venus Transit was on June 8, 2004, making tomorrow's transit the second in this transit cycle. The next Venus Transit won't be until 2117. Those numbers alone are important, but as noted in recent Scientific American coverage of the coming transit, this year's transit will be one of a small handful of transits that have been recorded: "Only six transits have been observed in history: in 1639; 1761 and 1769; 1874 and 1882; and 2004."

Beyond the fact that you may only get one or two chances to see a Venus Transit in your lifetime, the coming transit is a big deal for astronomers. Historically, transits helped astronomers gauge the size of our solar system. "Until the 20th century it was the only way to determine the distance from Earth to the Sun," reports Jay Pasachoff. As Summer Ash explains in a post on Scientific American's Budding Scientist blog, astronomers used the principles of parallax to determine the distance of the Sun from the earth. Using measurements from two viewers at different locations, the distance from the sun can be triangulated. With that measurement in hand, the "distances to all the other planets known at the time could be derived." Based on calculations made during the Venus Transit of 1882, Ash notes, astronomers concluded that the Sun is 93 million miles away.

A Model for Exoplanet Research

According to Daly, transits continue to offer astronomers useful information, particularly because transits can reveal exoplanets. "Transiting is one of the major ways that astronomers detect extrasolar planets," says Daly. "NASA's Kepler mission, for example, has identified over 2300 exoplanet candidates (with 61 confirmed exoplanets) using transit techniques."

The Venus Transit, he explains, offers the general viewer a better understanding of how transits work, which in turn helps explain how astronomers are able to use transits to detect exoplanets near other stars. Those watching the Venus Transit will see a decrease in light from the Sun as Venus crosses in front of it. In the same way, astronomers observe and track the light from other stars. "Decreases in the amount of light detected from a star indicate that something is blocking that light, and if those decreases are periodic, it suggests the object doing the blocking is orbiting the star—a planet," says Daly. "Of course, detecting extrasolar planets is more complicated than that," he adds. But "this transit is a fantastic opportunity to conceptually understand 'transit timing,' an important method of exoplanet detection, the method used by NASA's Kepler spacecraft."

Venus Transit as a Benchmark

In addition to helping demystify the search for—and discovery of—exoplanets, Daly notes that the transit offers additional information about Venus, including more data regarding the composition of Venus' atmosphere. "While we have other ways to study Venus' atmosphere, transits are one of the very few sources of information about the composition of exoplanet atmospheres," explains Daly. "The Venus Transit is a chance for scientists to test their methods for using the light from exoplanet transits to understand the atmosphere of the transiting planet." In other words, studying Venus' atmosphere via the Venus Transit—and comparing that information to other known data—helps astronomers corroborate the approach of drawing conclusions about an exoplanet's atmosphere based on its transit.

Making Connections

Students and families who will be observing the Venus Transit can learn more about how the transit helped astronomers understand our solar system by learning more about how parallax works. The "A Puzzling Parallax" project is an introductory project that can help families better understand the relationship between distance and viewing perspective. For an immediate example, close one eye and hold a pencil out in front of you, lining it up with an option in the distance (a light switch, a tree, etc.). Now switch eyes. This distant object is no longer lined up with the pencil; it will appear to have shifted . This shift based on the difference in viewing perspective is central to parallax. Using hula hoops and a ruler, you and your family can explore further! For a more advanced study of parallax, see "Similar Triangles: Using Parallax to Measure Distance." (The project is more difficult, but the introductory material may be perfect for better understanding the concept of parallax and talking about it with your students.)

In addition to studying parallax, building a pinhole viewer gives you and your family a chance to build a simple scientific apparatus. The following Projects Ideas and resources can springboard some fun exploration of pinhole cameras:

• Digital Pinhole Camera
• Point, Click, Shoot! Photography with a Pinhole Camera
• Pinholes, Light and Aperture Size
• Form and Function: A LEGO Camera

Sources Referenced Above for Additional Reading:

• Venus Transit: Last Chance of the Century (Science Buddies Blog)
• Safely Viewing the Upcoming Transit (Sky & Telescope)
• Venus transit may boost hunt for other worlds
• The Transit of Venus: Viewing Tips from an Astronomer
• Crossing the Sun: The Last Transit of Venus until 2117
• How to View an Eclipse
• Make a Pinhole Projector for Eclipse Viewing

Note: A safe viewing method is required for watching the transit. Do not look directly at the Sun.

Watching kids trying to create super bubbles reinforces the importance of hands-on learning for this science mom—and reminds her that parents should watch but not take over.

Image: Bigstock.

A trip to the science museum strikes a chord for a science mom contemplating her role as a parent supporting her son as he tackles his first school science project. Interested in exploring bubble science with your students? Blow the Best Bubbles from Scientific American's Bring Science Home section features a family-friendly version of the Bubble-ology Science Buddies Project Idea.

Time and time again, as I watched, kids swished their rings around in the liquid, lifted, and pulled, hoping to drag a ring full of solution from the tray and release an amazing bubble into the air. From where I sat, it was easy to see when someone was pulling too quickly or at the wrong angle. There's definitely a try and try-again mentality needed to figure out what works and what doesn't. As an adult, I felt certain I could have gone over, swirled a ring in the liquid, and pulled up a giant bubble. I probably couldn't have, but I'm sure other parents watching over their children's shoulders felt the same thing. I could see it in their faces. Some of them clearly wanted to step in, to put their own hands on the rings, to guide the process to an exciting conclusion—a beautiful bubble.

But for the student, the hands-on process of interacting with the bubble solution, maneuvering the metal rings, and experimenting with the timing and angle of their movements to find the balance necessary to successfully lift a ring full of the solution from the table and create a bubble is a wonderful learning opportunity. Left to explore, to troubleshoot what was happening when the bubbles popped instantly or when none of the liquid stayed on the rings, gave them the chance to question, to problem solve, to hypothesize (even in their heads), to test (try again), and to learn (whether they realized it or not). Stepping in and creating a wonderful bubble for them might garner some oohs and ahhs, but it wouldn't offer the same moment of experiential learning.

An Important Reminder for Parents

Sitting there and watching the maneuverings at the bubble table was a wonderful diversion. I leaned forward many times, breath held, hoping for a bubble to succeed, and when one of my sons took his place at the table, I watched as he tried several times. I watched, too, as he stopped and watched another kid, a few years older, who was successfully creating some spectacular glycerin displays. My son watched, and then tried again, clearly trying to deduce the difference between that student's technique and his own. From my vantage, it seemed the difference might have something to do with where they were positioned around the table—and possibly from which direction air might have been circulating. I did try and get his attention to suggest he move around the table when another spot opened up, but otherwise, I just watched, enjoyed the momentary pit stop on the bench, and thought about how important it is for parents to support the scientific process without taking over.

Tearing Tape

When we moved to the Tinkering Studio where the kids build marble runs by connecting a variety of odds-and-ends to a peg board, my involvement was needed by one of my sons. He needed me to stand nearby and tear masking tape. That was all. With a marble run, you can test as you add each new element and make adjustments to ensure the marble drops through, finds the next tube, funnel, or railway, and continues to the next step. When something doesn't work out, you move it, alter the angle, change the distance, tighten the tape or holding pegs, or you try another arrangement. He didn't need me to solve what wasn't working. What he needed was a person who could tear tape. The design, the learning, the ultimate vision, and the invention of steps necessary to bring the marble run to fruition were his tasks—and he was up to the challenge.

A Take-Away Lesson

An afternoon at the science museum is always fun for them. Whether they spend time at favorite exhibits or try new ones, they always find plenty to excite and inspire them. They always touch, feel, see, observe, and, most importantly, ask questions. But our afternoon in the giant repurposed airplane hangar where the museum sits was important for me as well. My oldest student is doing his very first school science project this year. For the first time, I am a parent overseeing my own student's science project, most of which needs to be completed at home. On paper, I know the boundaries. I know where to draw the line. I know how the process should go. But when it's your own student, the entire issue of parent involvement takes on new life, and the stumbling blocks seem very clear.

Being the parent supporting and shepherding a student's science project is an interesting position, but it can be a difficult one for parents because it's far too easy to be too involved or too controlling. It's also easy to expect too much, and it can be tempting, sometimes, to try and guide a student's interest during the selection process into an area of parental interest (or expertise). In reality, when a student chooses a project that is about something in which she is interested, and chooses a project that is appropriate for her grade level, skill set, and assignment, she should be able to do most of the project on her own. She may need you to sign the credit card slip for supplies or chauffer her around for materials or a research trip to the library. She may need help with safety steps and with planning. But mostly, her science project should be one she can do independently. Even if a parent itches to be more involved, really, the best thing to do might be to stand back and tear the tape.

A Focus on Hands-on Science

With all of the national attention on science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) education in recent months, chances are higher than ever before that your K-12 student will be required to do a science project, most of which will be conducted out of the classroom. Given the importance of engaging in hands-on science exploration, this is a wonderful opportunity for students to investigate a scientific question, formulate a hypothesis, run an experiment, and see what happens. As Courtney Corda, Science Buddies Vice President and "Science Mom" recently wrote in an article on parent involvement for PBS Parents, "When your child works on a science project, she is putting the scientific method into action and learning more about how to actively understand the world around her. Her assignment is clear, but as a parent, how involved should you be?"

Science Buddies' Helping at the Right Level at Every Step chart is designed to help parents better understand how to successfully support and encourage a student's science project without stepping over the line and being "too" involved. We've all seen examples of projects (in every academic area) where it is clear that a parent has been heavily involved. Don't be that parent. Know that by letting your student do the work, your student will learn more and will, hopefully, enjoy the process. Don't worry that your student's project, done by your student, might not look as accomplished as another project for which an adult has taken the lead. Science projects shouldn't turn into a competition between parents! Trust that your student's teacher can evaluate your student's project in terms of the assignment and grade-appropriate expectations. The results might not be as perfect as if you'd done the project yourself. That's to be expected. The display board might not look like a professional designer put it together. That's to be expected. The hypothesis might not have been proven true. That happens, and it's absolutely okay! And the project might not be worthy of Nobel attention. Most aren't.

Understand the End Goal

Keep in mind what the K-12 science project is all about. Often the end result of a science project is a small measurable result or confirmation of a single scientific principle. The size of the outcome isn't what's important. Instead, the value comes from seeing the science unfold, putting a question to the test, and examining and interpreting the results. The motor a student makes as a first electronics project may not power a household appliance, but it will teach her about fundamental electronics principles, ones she might use as a launching point for her next experiment or invention.

So, tear the tape if it's needed, help with the procurement of supplies, be available as a sounding board and to help with suggestions when troubleshooting might be required, realize that you may need to assist your student in learning how to pace the stages of the project between the assignment and due dates, and certainly be prepared to join in at any aha moments or when something particularly cool happens in the experiment. But don't take over. It's not your science project. It's your student's. And remember, throughout the process, you get to do something amazing: you get to watch and enjoy seeing your student engage in the scientific process with enthusiasm and confidence. It may be a sideline job, but it's an important one!

(Please see Courtney's full article at PBS Parents: "How to Help Children with Science Projects Without Doing It for Them.")

Many beaches and waters glow blue or green thanks to marine organisms that create their own light as a result of a biochemical reaction.

The above photo, taken by photographer August Bach at Grayton Beach, shows "waves" of glowing blue light cast by bioluminescent organisms along the Florida shore.

The image below shows the startling bioluminescence of the Panellus Stipticus fungus.

Visitors to the American Museum of Natural History in New York City can see firsthand photos of bioluminescence in the "Creatures of Light: Nature's Bioluminescence" exhibit, which includes amazing photographs of bioluminescence taken by Japanese photographer Tsuneaki Hiramatsu. (Images: Grayton Beach, courtesy of August Bach. Fungus, Wikipedia. )

Today, though I'm no longer landlocked, I still haven't been anywhere with glowing waters, and my fascination with photos of glowing coastlines—and amazing spectral displays—remains strong. I am sure the aura of wonder that surrounds bioluminescence partly explains my response to the wonder of Pandora in the Avatar movie. How can you watch such a beautiful, luminous, natural terrain and biosphere and not catch your breath? Though Pandora in the Avatar is fictional, real hotbeds of bioluminescence can be found around the world. Bioluminescent (or "Mosquito") Bay in Vieques, Puerto Rico and Vaadhoo Island in the Maldives, are two notable destinations for viewing marine bioluminescence. In the continental U.S., pools of bioluminescence can be found on both coasts.

I haven't been in the right place at the right time to walk across a glowing stretch of sand, but you may not have to travel far to find examples of bioluminescent organisms. My fifth grade student recently participated in a fieldtrip to NatureBridge at Golden Gate (formerly the Marin Headlands Institute), and a nighttime beach exploration gave him a firsthand appreciation of bioluminescence and phytoplankton.

Self-Contained Systems

What's going on when you see organisms that glow, blink, or appear to light up? Bioluminescence.

Bioluminescence is the production and emission of light by a living organism. A bioluminescent organism is one that lights up by virtue of a biochemical process. An example of chemiluminescence, bioluminescence occurs when a chemical reaction takes place between an organic substrate, luciferin, and an enzyme, a luciferase, which serves as a catalyst. The oxidation of the luciferin by the luciferase results in an inactive oxyluciferin and a visible light. Remove the oxygen, and the light goes out. In some organisms, the luciferin and a catalyzing enzyme (the equivalent of the luciferase) are bound together, along with oxygen, into what is called a photoprotein. The addition of ions, often calcium, turns 'on' the photoprotein. In all cases, the light is considered a cold light as it doesn't produce heat. And, colors of bioluminescence vary by organism. Green and blue are common, but many organisms produce other colors of light.

While marine-based organisms that glow often steal the show when it comes to photos like the ones featured in this National Geographic photo collection, many types of organisms bioluminesce, including single cell organisms, bacteria, fungi, earthworms, beetles, fish, jellyfish, and even squid. If fireflies, or "lightning bugs," are common in your area, then you've seen bioluminescence in action as the insects rise from the grasses at dusk, appearing to blink on and off like small lights as they drift through the night.

Making Connections

Students curious about bioluminescence can find many different questions to ask and angles to explore. Why do these organisms bioluminesce? Are the chemical reactions cyclical? Are they triggered in response to something? How long does the glow last? Are there conditions that negatively or positively influence the biochemical process?

During firefly season, students not near a bioluminescent beach, may be able to develop a custom science project to turn the timeless pastime of catching lightning bugs in a jar into a novel science investigation of bioluminescence. But another approach to studying bioluminescence, independent of your geographic location, is to use marine dinoflagellates. Dinoflagellates are single-cell organisms that use whip-like tails for movement. Many dinoflagellates are bioluminescent. By cultivating dinoflagellates at home, you can conduct your own first-hand studies of marine bioluminescence. In the Bioluminescence: Investigating Glow-in-the-Dark Dinoflagellates biotechnology Project Idea, students can study culture samples of marine dinoflagellates, either Pyrocystis lunula or Pyrocystis fusiformis, to examine the relationship between light and dark and the organism's bioluminescence.

April showers bring May flowers, or so the saying goes. But if you look closely, you'll find that April showers also bring creepers, slimers, wrigglers, and crawlers out in force. Every student's and every parent's tolerance level for organisms like insects, arthropods, annelids, and isopods varies. But the simple fact is "bugs" are everywhere—and some of them, like many kinds of worms, play an important role in habitat webs and biospheres.

Students can learn a lot about by observing worms and the roles worms play in local habitats. Image: Holding worm, Bigstock.

Taking a Closer Look

Most classrooms encourage hands-on observation and interaction with different classes of bugs, worms, and insects, a process of acclimation that begins early. Younger students often watch the development of butterflies or cheer on their favorite isopods in ad hoc sow and pill bug races across their tables or through small mazes they've constructed to see how these bugs deal with obstacles. For many students, learning about biology, zoology, ecology, and the environment begins with early bug exploration and bug-based science projects—both in the classroom and at home.

I was at the Exploratorium in San Francisco recently, and an encased biosphere equipped with external viewing scopes encouraged kids to take a closer look at the "microcosm" at play. Whether peering directly through the glass or through a scope, viewers were invited to observe what is really going on in the soil, in the water, and in and around various plants. A casual look didn't immediately reveal anything other than the terrain of the habitat. An impatient viewer might even have said the dome was "empty" when, in fact, it was thriving with life.

If you continued to look, you might suddenly see the dirt in front of you differently and spot, first, a single insect or two. Then, newly aware of the nuances of the habitat, your eyes zoom in on another location, and you see that the habitat is teeming with different kinds of organisms. There were hundreds, or even thousands, of small multi-legged organisms in one section that I was looking at, all visible to the naked eye. I didn't spot them right away even though they were writhing right in front of me. Sometimes all you have to do is really stop and look.

Warming Up to Worms

This April, rain or shine, make time to really look in the natural spaces around your house or at a local park. Turn over a rock or a log. What do you see? Go out in the early morning after a rain and look at the ground. Find anything interesting? There are plenty of buggy projects you can explore with your family to get a better understanding of your local biosphere, but there's a lot to learn by taking an especially close look at worms.

Wiggly worms perform important tasks that are critical to the health and survival of other organisms. Chiefly, many worms are "decomposers." By eating dead plants, worms process the debris and return important nutrients to the soil. At the same time, by tunneling their way through soil, they keep the soil aerated, which allows water and air to enter. Thanks to worms, your plants and vegetables have a better chance of success!

The following Project Ideas offer a number of ways in which you can turn worm hunting into worm observation and informal scientific testing with your kids and students:

• Squirmy Wormy: Which Soil Type Do Earthworms Like Best?: Learn more about the kinds of soil that earthworms prefer.
• Feeding Earthworms: Do Different Diets Affect Them and the Soil They Enrich?: Investigate how "what" worms eat affects the soil in which they live.

• Going Green as You Clean: Are 'Green' Detergents Less Toxic Than Conventional Detergents?: Using grey water to water plants is a popular conservation strategy, but the environmental safety of grey water depends, in part, on the cleaning supplies that are used where the water is sourced. Test various dishwashing detergents in this project to gauge the environmental impact of "green" detergents compared to traditional ones.
• Worm Hunt: Isolating Soil Nematodes from Your Backyard: The worms in this project may not be ones you would normally pull up when you casually dig through the dirt. As this zoology project shows, however, they are common in most soil types, but which do they prefer? Safely set up a plate of E.coli surrounded by various soil types and watch the nematodes emerge!
• How Much Worm Is a Worm?: This project is not for the faint of heart, but the fact is... worms can regenerate body parts. Students can explore regeneration and think about "how" this process works and "how" it is controlled.
• Get Rid of Those Leftovers: How Much Organic Waste Can Composting Worms Eat?*: Most of us are familiar with the "green can," and responsible composting strategies are taught early in many school and home settings. But organic waste, too, creates environmental concerns. Certain kinds of worms can make a difference in the processing of organic waste.

Share Your Own Tips for Family Science!

Earth Day is coming up this month. While any day is a great day to talk about ecology and the environment with your students and kids, we especially encourage a bit of extra attention in April. If you do something bug-oriented with your students, we'd love to hear how it went, what you observed, what they learned, and what made it fun. Share your stories by emailing a short summary of your experience to scibuddy@sciencebuddies.org. We may feature your story, activity, or idea in an upcoming newsletter!

A year after an egg-based impromptu family science exploration, this science mom prepares for the next phase of her family's hard-boiled egg and dye bath testing: natural dyes.

The process of hard-boiling and dyeing eggs offers a great chance for informal, at-home, science exploration. The eggs shown above were dyed using an assortment of natural ingredients and showcase a range of colors that can be achieved by experimenting with fruits, plants, and spices. Image: Emily Weaver Brown, used with permission.

A More Natural Approach

Studying the boxes on the display in front of me, I recalled my excursion into depths of egg boiling last year—and a photo I used of beautiful eggs dyed with natural ingredients like beets and tumeric. Underwhelmed by the sticker and glitter-approach to decorating eggs lining the shelves, I thought, with rising conviction, of the deep, rich, natural tones of the eggs I spotted last year and decided we should try it.

I picked up a slimmed down set of cups and tablets, just in case. But it doesn't take much searching to realize that there is a lot of potential in natural dyeing. The Martha Stewart site has a short list of favorite ingredients for natural dyeing, from onions to coffee. The Better Homes and Gardens site contains an extensive flower-, fruit-, spice-, and vegetable-based list of All-Natural Easter Egg Dye Recipes. Finally, for the visual-minded (like me), the photos in this blog post show the sheer range of wonderful tone and hue possible with natural dyeing. The post also dives into the science behind the dyeing, with particular attention to the pH of the ingredients and dye baths, which is critical to the uptake of the dye and the intensity of color you'll see (even with commercial tablets).

(I forgot to get white vinegar. I think they really should put it next to the dye packs for convenience!)

A Lifetime of Icky Green Hard-boiled Eggs

In the course of a year, we don't boil that many eggs. Deviled eggs and egg salad aren't foods commonly found in our fridge or on the table. Basically, once a year, I'm faced with the task of boiling a few dozen eggs for Easter—hoping they don't crack and ooze in the process.

Last year I documented our initial impromptu investigation and our quest for the perfect technique for hard-boiling an egg. We defined the golden chalice of our search as eggs that were not cracked, were yellow inside instead of sickly green, and were, on the whole, less stinky. We then moved from testing hard-boiling techniques to exploring the role of vinegar (and acidity) in the dyeing process. I chronicled the story of our eggs, and our informal scientific study, on the Science Buddies blog. After all, moments and activities like these are wonderful opportunities for family science. And now, here it is, egg-dyeing time again.

Last year's blog post gives me a roadmap for repeating and extending our testing this year with my young scientists. If I can gather the ingredients, I think we'll try the natural dyeing approach this time around, too. And then, we'll stack the eggs in a bowl—leaving them out for no more than two hours—and enjoy filling, hiding, and re-hiding plastic ones. We basically dye a dozen or so "just because"!

Making Connections

If your family will be dyeing or boiling eggs this month, there are a number of related questions you might ask and experiments you might consider. The following project ideas and resources give you additional chickenfeed as you build a stockpile of egg-related topics of conversation, perfect for talking over while you wait for the eggs to take on rich color:

• Egg-cellently Cooked Eggs: The Process of Soft-Boiling an Egg: What's the best way to soft-boil an egg? (Note: this project offers an excellent procedural blueprint for doing a more formal investigation of hard-boiling techniques.)

• Egg Substitutes: What role does an egg play in cooking? Can artificial eggs work equally well?

• Eggs and Hen's Diet: Can You Get Bigger Eggs for Peanuts?: Is there a relationship between what goes into the chickenfeed you use and the size of the eggs produced? What additives make a positive difference in egg size?
  

Image: Wikipedia.

The following Science Buddies activities appear as part of Scientific American's Bring Science Home:

• Starch Power: Generating Gooey Gels (full Project Idea)
• Earthquake-Proof Engineering for Skyscrapers (full Project Idea)
• Cabbage Chemistry--Finding Acids and Bases (full Project Idea)
• Fight Slippage with Friction (full Project Idea)
• Playing with Polymers (full Project Idea)
• How Animals Stay Warm with Blubber (full Project Idea)
• Block Radio Waves (full Project Idea)
• How Preference Affects Quick Choices (full Project Idea)
• Blow the Best Bubbles (full Project Idea)
• Measure Wind Speed with Your Own Wind Meter (full Project Idea)
• Heavy Lifting with a Lever (full Project Idea)
• Keep Your Candy Cool with Physics (full Project Idea)
• Find the Hidden Colors of Autumn Leaves (full Project Idea)

A Focus on Family Science

Scientific American first launched Bring Science Home in May 2011 as a series of daily activities, a month-long celebration of family science. In response to the overwhelming success of the series, Scientific American began expanding Bring Science Home in October 2011 with new installments added each week.

Every Thursday, Bring Science Home offers a new family-centered science idea, replete with accessible introductory and explanatory material and a guided, hands-on experiment. With topics ranging from pigmentation in fall leaves to whale blubber to static electricity, the activities posted at Bring Science Home take core science concepts and package them for parents in activities that are easy to follow, fun, and use common household materials, natural objects (e.g., leaves), or even toys. Some of these activities are classic experiments that can help users understand important science principles. Concocting a stretchable substance like Silly Putty, for example, offers a perfect—and tactile—look at polymers. Plus, you can have fun testing the putty on the Sunday comics! Similarly, using cabbage to make an indicator solution with which you can test the pH of liquids around the house makes learning about acids and bases a fun and colorful experience—although maybe a bit smelly!

Whether parents are looking to incorporate more science into their family's routine days, or whether they are looking for accessible explanations that can help them talk about and explore science questions that arise (e.g., "Why did my hair crackle when I pulled off my sweater today?"), Bring Science Home invites parents to dive in and investigate science with their families—and to have fun doing so.

"As a kid, I often spent an afternoon after a big rain storm with my brothers tromping down to a local drainage stream to see what the water had washed in," wrote Katherine Harmon, associate editor for Scientific American, in her introduction to Bring Science Home last spring. "And it wasn't unusual to find us sitting around the kitchen table with our hands coated in a green, oozy cornstarch-and-water mixture, wondering at its weird properties. My parents aren't scientists or university professors, and my brothers and I didn't think of these diversions as science. But they were—and these simple activities, along with the questions and conversations they prompted, have stuck with me into adulthood."

With quality, hands-on and engaging content from partners like Science Buddies, Bring Science Home makes these kinds of science experiences and adventures easy for families to adopt and incorporate—no previous science experience required!

Informal Science Exploration

Dr. Teisha Rowland, a staff scientist at Science Buddies, has worked on the weekly activities that Science Buddies has contributed to Bring Science Home. For Rowland, the positive impact of home-centered science is far-reaching. "Bringing science home lets students see that science is not just something that is confined to the classroom setting. Instead, science is something they can explore and investigate on their own, outside of school. This helps students and parents see how science is important in their daily lives, and how it's around them all the time."

Each activity Rowland has prepared for Scientific American has origins in a longer Science Buddies Project Idea. Selecting projects from the Science Buddies library of more than 1000 Project Ideas and rewriting them as engaging activities of high interest to families and students ages 6-12 requires creatively rethinking the experiments, especially in terms of time. "The Scientific American activities are created to be quicker and easier to do than the Science Buddies Project Ideas on which they are based," explains Rowland. "This allows busy families to do a science activity without having to do much planning."

Science Around Us

The bottom line: science is everywhere, and science can be fun. Making parents more comfortable with science, however, and with their ability to integrate science at home, is a critical step in the process of increasing science literacy. For Science Buddies, activities selected to be a part of Bring Science Home are specifically chosen because they start where families are—at home—and focus on what families might be doing anyway, whether it's cooking in the kitchen, blowing bubbles in the backyard, taking a nature walk, or playing with certain kinds of toys.

"The Project Ideas selected to be made into Scientific American activities," says Rowland, "are particularly focused on exposing children and their families to tangible science that takes place around them all the time, such as how leaves change color in the fall and how a remote control sends signals to a radio-controlled car. This helps them see how relevant science is to their daily lives."

Turning science into an a la carte experience may make it as easy to explore friction or building design as it is to do an arts and crafts project, something many families routinely do together. When a LEGO tower can become the basis of a science or engineering discussion, the learning can happen even while the bricks are being snapped together and even amid the shrieks that are bound to accompany the tower's collapse.

"Scientific American's Bring Science Home is a forward-looking initiative that address a very real need in the area of K-12 science education today," says Rowland. "Science Buddies is excited to be a part of helping address this need for students and their families."



Bring Science Home is part of Scientific American's commitment to Change the Equation and the White House's Educate to Innovate campaign.

The feathers showcased in the photo accompany a recent essay in Audubon Magazine (screenshot above) are breathtaking to look at. But how safe are feathers to pick up?

The bags all emptied out, we're heading around the perimeter of the lake, a path that will take us past a small tunnel made of branches and twigs that they can just barely crawl through, across a bridge (see the keystone?), along the lower level of the tiered paths that wind around the small mountain to a beautify city lookout at the top, past the Japanese pagoda and the waterfall, around the boathouse (which no longer sells ice cream treats), and back to the car.

They run ahead, footsteps kicking up dry dirt and rock as they move along the path, pausing now and again to peer at a treasure on the ground, a shiny rock ("a crystal"), a perfect stick, a dandelion, a squirrel jumping away with a foraged scrap, a Steller's jay that has jumped from the ground to a branch above with a loud squawk.

They run ahead as I take photos from behind, of them, of branches, of light on the water.

Lowering my camera, I focus in on what has now captured one's attention.

"Don't pick that up!"

It's a feather.

He pauses and looks up at me, his fingers inches from the feather.

"Don't pick that up. They can carry disease."

Back in the Day

I remember when feathers could be picked up, when feathers were magical and marvelous, when you could run your finger along the edge of a feather and be amazed by the softness. I remember the impossible discovery of a peacock feather.

Many years have intervened between then and now. Many years, two children, and a host of frightening flus that have lingered in public—and parental—consciousness. The residue of those years and those flus has accumulated into a frothy, sticky, mostly unfounded, squeamish sign of my age, one that comes oozing over the sides of the admonishment: "Don't pick that up. It's dirty!"

Needless to say, while we have small collections of rocks, broken shells, shark's teeth, and other treasure we've accumulated through various walks and expeditions, there are no feather collections in our house. Not even one.

All of that came rushing home when I saw a photo by Robert Clark highlighting a feature essay by Thor Hanson in Audubon Magazine. The photo is an 'almost' grid of forty-seven feathers, brightly colored, samples of bird plumage from species of birds I've no doubt never seen. These are not your ordinary, everyday pigeon feathers, the ones I am most tempted to disallow my kids pick up and handle. These are feathers that remind us of the beauty and wonder of birds, the exotic free-flying nature of birds, and the sheer diversity of birds. But this is a reminder from a new angle. Feathers.

The photo is a stunning visual entrée into an equally captivating essay underscoring the beauty, novelty, and incomparable nature of features. No matter what your relationship with birds, or whether or not you would or would not have picked up (or let your children pick up) a feather on the street yesterday, Hanson's high-flying essay on feathers may sweep you away. Hanson's essay weaves together the scientific and the aesthetic, the personal and the historic, the pragmatic and the mystical, and emerges as a beautiful and inspiring exposé on feathers, a distinguishing feature of birds, one that is unique to birds, one at which you may not have stopped before to marvel or think about too deeply. After reading this essay, I think you will. I think you'll pick up a favorite blanket or winter vest and think differently about the realities of feathers. You might even look up a photo of a golden-crowned kinglet so that you can have an image to pair with Hanson's story of a night spent in sub-zero weather—and the realities of the small golden-crowned kinglet sleeping somewhere in the open air, relying on its feathers alone for warmth.

Making Connections

"On any given day, up to four hundred billion individual birds may be found flying, soaring, swimming, hopping, or otherwise flitting above the earth. That's more than 50 birds for every human being, 800 birds per dog, and at least a half-million birds for every living elephant. It's about four times the number of McDonald's hamburgers that have ever been sold. Like the robin, each of those birds maintains an intricate coat of feathers—roughly one thousand on a ruby-throated hummingbird to more than twenty-five thousand for a tundra swan. Lined up end on end, the feathers of the world would stretch past the moon and past the sun to some more distant celestial body." ~ Thor Hanson

Hanson's essay is thought-provoking and eye-opening, and for students with an interest in birds, or even an interest in paleontology, there is plenty of potential for inspiring and inspired science projects that may find a launching point in an essay on feathers. One path students might follow involves considering the question: where did feathers come from? And why do birds, alone, have them? A project looking at the history of feather formation will take students back to the age of dinosaurs. That's right, scientists now label birds as a living form of dinosaur, a fact students can investigate further in the "BLAST into the Past to Identify T. Rex's Closest Living Relative" genomics Project Idea.

A Shift in Perspective

After reading "The Multiple Miracles of Bird Feathers," I found myself wondering about the weight of "don't touch that" fear I've somehow picked up along the way, part of the baggage of socially-induced paranoia that many parents carry around, especially when and if we are too busy to stop, question, and get the facts. If faced with the kinds of delicate, diverse, exotic, breathtaking, and mesmerizing feathers shown in the Clark's photo, I doubt I could insist we leave the feather where it lay. That's why we carry anti-bacterial hand gel, right? But can I let go of my concern about the ordinary feathers we're more likely to discover in our regular outdoor excursions? After all, while there is a wonderful plethora of natural terrain in and around the Bay Area, we're still in a city. Hawks perch on the streetlights in front of my house and nest in the trees out back, but there are also thousands upon thousands of pigeons and starlings and blackbirds, even in the parking lots of the grocery stores.

Questioning my own concern, I talked with our Lead Staff Scientist, someone who has gotten used to the fact that I approach many of my science stories from a non-scientific starting point. I didn't simply ask are feathers safe. Instead, I asked, how feasible is it for students to do a project in which they investigate either the kinds of bacteria that might linger on bird feathers collected in a local area or what approach one might take to best ensure the safety of bird feathers if one wanted to collect them. (Before I asked, I did a quick search engine search and read just enough to know that, most likely, the parental baggage I was carrying around was unjustified, far-fetched, and should be shelved—in favor of a rekindling of the magic, beauty, and scientifically-amazing properties of feathers.)

Our lead staff scientist confirmed that while it's "possible" to get a disease from bird feathers, the probability is very slim. Still, there is a question that can be asked, and so there are projects that can be designed and procedures that can be put in place to explore how "safe" found feathers might be. Is a parent who says, "Don't touch!" right—or just over-protective?

Putting Feathers to the Test

There are three kinds of health hazards that can be carried on a feather: parasites, bacteria, and viruses. Of the three classes of possible health problems one might trace back to feathers, culturing bacteria from feathers and analyzing the bacteria colonies that grow is the most likely course of investigation for student research. Students interested in developing an experimental procedure that could be used for a microbiology-based study of feathers might find the procedure used in the Germ Invasion Project Idea a helpful starting point. Is exposure to UV light a helpful strategy?

Safety Considerations and Guidelines

Because there are many rules, regulations, and safety guidelines that have to be followed for student science investigations that deal with microorganisms, devising an independent course of study examining microorganisms and feathers requires careful attention to safety guidelines, awareness of any local fair rules, as well as ISEF regulations, and may require the supervision of a teacher or mentor or access to a specific kind of lab. In addition, your project may require pre-approval from fair officials.

For more information about safety considerations when working with bacteria, and about related ISEF rules and regulations, visit the Microorganisms Safety Guide and the Projects Involving Potentially Hazardous Biological Agents resource.

Got students who are interested in video games? There's science and engineering to be discovered and leveraged—even as they rack up points and level up! The December 2011 issue of the Science Buddies newsletter focused on video and computer game design projects.

The National STEM Video Game Challenge is underway! Deadline for entries: March 12, 2012. More information and guidelines...

I remember when one of my boys wanted to be a firefighter. That may well be a rite of passage for many toddlers, right along with an interest in cars, trucks, and every form of construction vehicle you can possibly pass on the road. I don't know exactly when the shift occurred or how much overlap there was, but it seems as if he has "always" wanted to "be a game designer." The firefighter costume and hat ended up in a pile of castoffs, but the allure of being a "game designer" has persisted—no costume required. His younger brother's genes didn't fall far from the tree, and he, too, at seven, wants to work on video game development, although I've often heard him clarify that he wants to 'test' video games, which I think he interprets as more 'playing' and less 'working'!

Plugged In

We really are a 'gaming' household. It is something that other parents often don't agree with or understand. That's not to say we're not well-rounded. We are. We do academics. We play sports. We read lots. We build LEGO. We specialize in paper airplanes. We have strong art interests and hobbies. But we do play video games—lots of them.

Sparking Interest

When I started working on this month's issue of the Science Buddies newsletter, a special issue on video and computer game projects and their relationship to science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) education, it was exciting to be reminded that while my immediate parent community on the play yard after school may not be embracing video games en masse, there is, in fact, a strong push for viewing gaming as a foundation upon which to teach, build, and apply STEM skills.

As part of my research for the newsletter, I watched AMD's Changing the Game video. I watched a video of winners from the 2010 National STEM Challenge and checked out this year's competition. I took a look at the video game design category in the 2012 Scholastic Art & Writing Awards.

I looked more closely at the information on our Kid-Friendly Programming Languages page. And, one by one, I started visiting many video and computer gaming sites and resources sponsored and developed by AMD Changing the Game, the AMD Foundation, and its partners, sites like Level Up!, Ludo Dojo, and Activate!. As I jumped from site to site, I was amazed and excited by the glitzy, glossy, fun, energetic, and very 'clued-in' world of support and engaging content available for K-12 students who are interested in designing their own computer and video games. A wealth of materials is available on these sites for teachers and families, too, making it easier for adults to help support these projects both in the classroom and at home.

The message on all these sites is clear—video game projects can help engage kids on an academic and STEM level. By supporting game development projects, research, and investigation, we can encourage and empower students to turn an activity they enjoy into a platform for learning, creative thinking, and problem solving.

Responding to the Challenge

The team at Science Buddies has developed a number of new video and computer game Project Ideas and resources to support video and computer game science and engineering projects. Many students begin their exploration of "programming" using the free Scratch environment, developed by MIT. There is much to like about Scratch's drag-and-drop interface and approach to learning the "logic" of programming, and Science Buddies has Project Ideas and resources to help jumpstart student exploration.

Our Scratch-based Project Ideas let lets students explore animation and computer program design and logic in interesting ways, like customizing a drum-set, controlling a pinwheel, making a greeting card, or creating a simple game of dog chases cat.

More recently, a number of Project Ideas have been added to our growing Video and Computer Game area that involve game creation using GameMaker. In these Project Ideas, students can explore an exciting array of video game design topics, including the importance of physics engines, procedural music, and even issues related to accessibility. Students can also explore video games as a way to help educate others and spread the word about important issues or environmental concerns.

Gamestar Mechanic

On the list of sites I visited during my survey of video and computer game development sites was Gamestar Mechanic. As soon as I realized that Gamestar Mechanic "is" a game, I knew it was something we had to explore! Created by the Institute of Play and E-line Media, Gamestar Mechanic is an online game development environment that revolves around a "game" that teaches some of the fundamentals of video game design. As players work through the on-screen comic book storyline and solve the "quests" presented, they earn sprites (characters), backgrounds, music, colors, and other game elements that can be used in games they design. Some of the quests involve "fixing" existing games, for example, making changes in gameplay or layout to make the games work properly. Players are, in other words, "mechanics" in this virtual storyline. By working through the quests, players earn the ability to create their own games.

I logged both of my kids in at Gamestar Mechanic one evening, just to see how they would respond to the interface—and to see if it really was as cool as it seemed like it might be. They sat side by side at different computers, each going through the story, and the excitement and enthusiasm was palpable. They loved it! As I moved around doing other things, I was hearing talk about "platform" games and "top down" games and "oh, I'm going to change the gravity this time!"

Gamestar Mechanic was a total hit. They worked through all the free content in a short amount of time, but they were completely engaged in the process—and definitely wanted more. (Note: there are a limited number of quests available for the free membership; a paid membership contains a larger number of challenges, more elements available for use in games your student creates, and access to special game content. My review is based solely on their exploration of the free membership.) Parents can find out more about Gamestar Mechanic here.

Making Connections

My work on the December 2011 newsletter, sponsored by AMD Changing the Game, was inspiring on many levels. I can't wait to see what kinds of games my students develop in the next few years.

See Also

Is your family techy or video-game oriented like mine? You might enjoy these previous posts:

• Blow: From Marshmallows to Microbes
• Slingshot Science: The Physics in Angry Birds
• Visual Illusions: When What You See Is... Not What's There?
• Programming a Logo
• From Storyboard to Computer Design

"Glowing" germs let students test their hand washing techniques, evaluate areas of the hand, and investigate germ transmission! Image source: Glo Germ, used with permission.

With its emphasis on creepy, crawly, nighttime fun, Halloween is a perfect time for things that glow, from the flickering lights inside carved pumpkins to neon sticks. Last week, we took a look at the chemical reaction that happens when you snap open a glow stick—and a great chemistry project that lets students put their electronics-knowhow to use to measure the power of a glow stick's chemiluminescence.

'Glow' can be fun, but 'glow' can also be used to detect things otherwise invisible to the naked eye. Many things glow under a black or ultraviolet light, and casting a black light around a crime scene is a familiar part of a forensics investigation. A black light and a specially formulated hand "lotion" can even help students better visualize the lasting power of germs!

Healthy Hands

As the pumpkins on the stoop cave in and find their way to compost, the shifting seasons—and the 'flu shot' banners hanging in many pharmacies—bring winter colds to mind. Good hand washing is always important, and you can catch a cold at any time—not only in fall and winter months. But with Halloween over, a heightened awareness of "flu season" kicks into gear.

You may have heard that you should wash your hands for a full twenty seconds—a length of time you can approximate by singing "Happy Birthday" twice. If you wash for twenty seconds, odds are that you'll have gotten most of the germs. Right?

It depends. Are some areas of the hand harder to clean than others?

Putting It to the Test

In the Spread the Soap, Not the Germs microbiology project, students can investigate hand washing and explore questions related to length of time, parts of the hand, and even temperature of the water used for washing. Using Glo Germ, students add glow-ready germs to their hands and then wash them. After washing hands, they can use an ultraviolet light to see whether they "got" all the germs or not.

If germs always glowed, healthy hand washing habits might be a lot easier to instill!

Taking It Further

If you're interested in exploring germs—either the spread of germs or efforts to get rid of germs—you can find many ways to customize or alter the Spread the Soap, Not the Germs project. Do you use a no-wash antibacterial hand sanitizer? Put it to the Glo Germ test! Or, take a completely different approach and explore the way germs travel during typical school interactions. Get the germ train rolling by planting some Glo Germ either in a central (or much-touched) location or on someone's hands. How many students in a class will pick up the germs by the end of the day?

Wath the Glo Germ Dragonfly video with this project to see how Jordan and Sydney put Glo Germ to the test to investigate the spread of germs—and the best way to prevent germs from spreading when you sneeze!

Brightly colored candies in your Halloween bag might be the key to your next science investigation! Image: Wikipedia.

You might just find that your next science project is lurking there at the bottom of your bag!

Candy Appeal

Beyond the sugar, part of the fun of a candy is how it looks. It may taste great, but the success of a candy also depends on features like shape, color, and size. Food developers really have to think about the appearance of the candy. Will it catch your attention? If it does, you might choose it over another candy, which is what candy marketers want.

Many candies have brightly colored shells or coatings. Even if they all taste the same, a handful of a single kind of candy might contain a number of different colored exteriors. Those bright colors are made up of various dyes. Your favorite candies may melt in your mouth and not in your hand, but with a bit of science, you can figure out what dyes were used for each color.

Chromatography is a technique used to separate a mixture or solution into its individual components. So instead of seeing just the end result (the sum of all components), you can backtrack to find out what ingredients were used to make up the final solution—the color, in this case.

In the Candy Chromatography: What Makes Those Colors? food science project, you can experiment with paper chromatography to investigate the colorful exteriors of favorite candies. Once you have a bit of practice analyzing colors of a single brand of candy, try comparing two favorite coated candies. Are the reds the same?