Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

My 6-year old loves science and has asked to have a Science birthday party in September. Obviously, I want to encourage this interest.

I am looking for 5-6 experiments with great "WOW" factor to perform with/for his buddies. I would like to incorporate different areas of science. Inexpensive, easy to find ingredients/tools would be best.

I may have the kids start "Rock Candy" as a take home experiment/ party favor. Is this a good idea? I have several methods on the internet -- is one more successful than another????

Any other idea would be appreciate. Magnets? Plants? Chemistry?

Thank you!

My 6-year old loves science and has asked to have a Science birthday party in September. Obviously, I want to encourage this interest.

I am looking for 5-6 experiments with great "WOW" factor to perform with/for his buddies. I would like to incorporate different areas of science. Inexpensive, easy to find ingredients/tools would be best.

Any other idea would be appreciate. Magnets? Plants? Chemistry?

Some sites for ideas (many are having end of season sales):
http://www.teachersource.com/
http://sciencekit.com/
http://www.swe.org (look under K-12 PROGRAMS: Resources -- several links & neat ideas)
http://www.carolinabiological.com/ (they have experiment instructions typically too).

Tornado tubes are cheap and fun. Magnets are easy. You can ask them to figure out how strong a magnet is (use paper clips, sheets of paper). Parafoils out of tissue paper, string, and a spool are easy. Egg drop packaging might be feasible too.

If by chance you are in the Bay Area of Northern California, the Resource Area for Teachers (RAFT) off of Brokaw has many ideas for this age group that can be made with very simple materials.

Last, if you look on the Johns Hopkins site, specifically
http://www.jhu.edu/~gifted/summer/docs/ ... SCEN_2.pdf

you will find a syllabus on Science & Engineering (for 5-6 grades), BUT on page 11 is a list of books you could find at local bookstores that would have ideas also. (I wrote this syllabus for Johns Hopkins, enjoy!)

Hope these ideas help!

Ceal Craig
Ask an Expert Forum
Science Buddies

It struck me that at a child's birthday party, one usually as party balloons. These may be used to demonstrate several interesting princples:

1) Blow up a balloon then let it go... it becomes a rocket ! This demonstrates action and reaction. This one is loads of fun for the kids!

2) Rub a filled balloon on various objects then see if they are attracted to other objects... demonstrates triboelectrically induced static electric charge.

Good luck !

One thing that was fun for our kids was some simple acid-base chemistry. You can make a great acid-base indicator by boiling some red cabbage leaves in water. Placing a base in the water like sodium bicarbonate solution or chlorine bleach will turn the water bluish purple. Adding an acid like vinegar or lemon juice will turn it red.