taking the fear out of and putting the fun into homeschool science
Centripetal force is fun to experiment with. It is the same force that makes a playground swing move and the moon orbit the Earth. I always thought it seemed to defy gravity – an amazing feat. Let’s try a simple, fun activity to demonstrate centripetal force and amaze your friends. Then, we will learn more about centripetal force and see how it really works. Centripetal
On our recent trip to the Gulf Shores, AL area, we noticed the beach in front of our rental house changed each day. The crest and face of the beach right in front of us varied in its slope. Some days, the crest was very apparent and others there was such a gradual slope into the ocean that we couldn’t tell where the crest was.
Help kids explore density with this beautiful Rainbow Science Experiment perfect for spring! When we study materials in science, we talk about it’s characteristics. These characteristics help us to describe a substance and compare and contrast it to other substances. Two of the first characteristics we learn about is how much something weighs (mass) or the size of something or how much space it takes
This post contains affiliate links. My kids are like most kids. They love to experiment, build, invent, and create. It’s nothing in our house to have an experiment going on in the kitchen, an engineering project going on in the living room, a building project going on in the basement, and an art project underway in the toy room….all at the same time! Keeping
Our family has always had a little fascination with demolition and wrecking balls. We love to watch demolition videos where they lay charges in just the right areas of one building making it fall straight down without touching the surrounding buildings. That is brilliant engineering with a firm grasp on physics. Video: Best Building Demos We, also, love to watch buildings being demolished by wrecking
Take advantage of the season with these Thanksgiving STEM activities. The supplies listed for these projects are probably already sitting around your house, waiting to be used. From making fresh butter in a jar to building candy corn catapults, you will have plenty to keep your kids busy, especially during Thanksgiving break. You could also set up an area for all of the kids on
*This post contains affiliate links. Learn more about the physics of sound with these simple sound experiments. You’ll investigate volume and pitch and what causes changes in their qualities The sounds we hear – voices, music, birds chirping, dogs barking – are all caused by vibrations. When objects vibrate, they transfer energy in the form of sound waves. These sound waves travel through the air and
*This post contains affiliate links. Convection is one of three main types of heat transfer. The other two being radiation and conduction. Convection is the transfer of heat by the movement of heated particles into an area of cooler particles. You can experience convection when you light a match. The air directly above the lit match is always hotter than the air around the match. This difference in
This post contains affiliate links. My daughter is working her way through Apologia’s Physical Science during her 9th grade year of homeschool. She loves Apologia for the readable style and the hands-on activities and experiments. Students really get to “do” science! Atoms are usually electrically neutral with an equal amount of protons (positively charged particles) and electrons (negatively charged particles). Sometimes, an atom loses an
Don’t be intimidated by scientific laws. They are simple rules that tell how the universe works. This Newton’s first law of motion experiment shows just how simple. This post contains affiliate links. Most people remember Sir Isaac Newton as the man who first explained gravity. Newton, also, gave us his three laws of motion. Newton’s first law of motion states that objects at rest tend
This post is part of the 5 Days of Engineering Challenges series, Check it out for more fun, engineering project ideas for your kids. I’ve always been fascinated by sail boats. Harnessing the power of the wind to move vessels small and large across the water is a science that I would love to learn more about. To explore the concept of sail size and
*This post contains affiliate links. As I said in yesterday’s Straw Rocket Engineering Challenge, my kids love things that they can launch and/or fly. In the past, we have made LOTS of paper airplanes. We have checked out every paper airplane plan book from our local library. (In hind sight, I should have just bought a book or two, we NEVER got those books back
