Science Experiments For 2009-2010

We're doing at least one experiment per week. While many will coincide with our Combo-books/lapbooks, not necessarily. Most of the time we'll just be progressing through common types of science (earth studies, physics, astronomy, etc.) This will teach the kids to study, collect and report findings as well as understanding the scientific process.

Now, as a former scientist myself, I can tell you adults in the field use a 13 step scientific process -

1. Observe
2. Classify
3. Measure
4. Sequence Order
5. Infer
6. Predict
7. Communicate
8. Investigate
9. Control
10. Hypotheses
11. Interpreting
12. Defining
13. Formulating

For kids we shorten the process to only 5 steps:

1. Ask Questions
2. Observe
3. Compare
4. Contrast
5. Estimate

Using this process we'll perform the following experiments this coming year

Astronomy:

1. The Sun and Us
2. How Radar Works: Seeing inside a closed box
3. Day & Night Part 1: Simulating Day and Night
4. Day & Night Part 2: The differences between Day and Night
5. The Shape of the Earth
6. The Tides
7. Creating an Eclipse
8. Shadow Lines
9. Equinox
10. Star Tracker
11. Shrinking Sun
12. Sun Spots
13. Sunset in a box
14. Solar Oven
15. Different Moons (2 parts understand the moon's phases and observing them)
16. Your Weight On The Moon
17. Reflective & Refractive Telescope
18. Making a Parallax
19. Mapping the Night Sky
20. Your Age on Other Planets
21. Green House Effect
22. Rocket Launch
23. Satellites Part 1: Simulating Satellites
24. Satellites Part 2:Orbiting Satellites
25. Satellites Part 3: Signals & Satellites

Forces & Waves:

1. Splitting Light
2. Angled Light
3. Centrifugal Force
4. The Sun's Gravity Part 1: Demonstrating the pull of gravity
5. The Sun's Gravit Part 2: How a spacecraft can escape gravity to fly in space
6. Escaping Gravity
7. Watch Inertia
8. A Pendulum
9. Pull It Up: Using Levers
10. Turn It Up: Sound Amplification
11. Tinkling: See how sound vibrates
12. Echo, Echo
13. Water & Light Waves
14. Shadow Drawing
15. Rainbow Light
16. Refraction & Reflection
17. Turning to White - see how many colors make up white
18. Falling Over: Energy Transference
19. Bounce: Energy Transference part 2
20. The Swing of Things: Every Action has a Equal Reaction
21. Lifting Higher: Sideways Force
22. Jumping Up: Static Electricity
23. Ions in Action
24. Lemon Batteries
25. Magnetic Field
26. Double Magnetism
27. The Amazing Jumping Man: Relationship between electricity and magnets
28. Jar Magnet

Earth Science:

1. Salinity of the Oceans
2. Classifying Living Things
3. Breathing Plants: How plants obtain nutrients from the soil
4. Nocturnal Plants
5. Mini Greenhouse
6. Classifying Fruits & Vegetables
7. When is a Fruit a Berry
8. Making a Compost Bin
9. Tree & Plant Encyclopedia
10. Bird Encyclopedia
11. How does a Boat Float (It's full of air) Using a jar cap to show how a submarine floats or sinks.
12. High Tides: Water Volume

Anatomy & Physiology:

1. Balloon Lungs
2. At Home Stethoscope