Science Night

Hands-on science activities are always a huge hit with the girls, so once or twice a year we hold a science themed night which we use as a challenge towards the Science and Technology Explore-a-Challenge badge.

Credit: Girl Guides Australia

For this meeting, I organised a round robin of science activities and the girls worked as a Patrol moving from station to station. Each station included an information card with challenge instructions, discussion questions and an explanation of the science they were encountering.


Station One: Build a Tower

Station One: Build a Tower information card

 Structures in progress:

Outcome: A huge success, after all, who doesn't like playing with their food?!

The girls each had different approaches to building and it was amazing to watch and listen as they discussed and created their models. One of the patrols chose to work in pairs creating structures and then join their final products together. I was very impressed with their designs and teamwork. We will definitely doing this activity again!


Station Two: Dry Ice

Dry ice is -78 degrees celcius and a few seconds of contact can cause serious frostbite, so it is important that Leader's be vigilant when working with this substance. Dry ice is frozen carbon dioxide and turns from the gas to a solid through a process called sublimation.

Tip: Dry ice can be difficult to find. BOC Gas sells it for $10/kg but call ahead first because not every store has it on hand. Remember to take an esky or styrofoam box to carry it in. Beware though, my esky did get bent out of shape after having the ice inside it all day.

Dry ice activities (click the links, there are some great videos that are much more interesting to watch than reading my play-by-play!):

• Discussion: safety and what is dry ice.
• Make fog from dry ice - great intro, lots of "Ooooohs" and "Aaaaahs" from the Brownies.
• Inflating balloon - hot water not necessary, we used cold. Will eventually blow up balloon but takes a while.
• Crystal ball - Each girl had their own glass or mug, so that everybody could participate and create their own crystal ball.

Crystall ball from dry ice and bubble solution

Outcome: The girls did a great job of discussing the processes they saw occurring, making predictions and coming to conclusions. It was great to see their minds hard at work!

They were all in awe of the crystal ball, and although many were fearful at first (they took the safety discussion VERY seriously!) they each had a go creating their own crystal ball and then didn't want to stop!


Station Three: Cooking Popcorn over a Tea Light

Station Three: Cooking Popcorn information card

Outcome: This activity requires a LOT of patience. The popcorn doesn't begin popping until about the 7 minute mark.


Station Four: Bubbles

Station Four: Giant Bubbles information card

Note: The information for creating the giant bubbles and the bubble wand is courtesy of Happy Hooligans fantastic blog. The recipe worked perfectly and it's true that the more you use the mixture the stronger it becomes! For the dishwashing detergent I used the 99c home brand option which worked successfully! Much more affordable than the brand names for the quantities I was making.

Station Four: Cube Bubbles information card

Note: The information and tutorial for the creating cube bubble is directly from Steve Spangler's website, which is filled with wonderful experiments to get kids interested in science. Take some time to check out the great videos.

Due to time constraints, I had created multiple bubble makers for the girls to experiment. They were made from: 1) pipe cleaners 2) hot glue and q-tips 3) pipe cleaners and straws. The third option seemed to hold its shape best after multiple uses.

  

A cube bubble in action

Outcome: I was pleasantly surprised that the girls persevered when creating the cube bubbles. They aren't the easiest thing to make successfully, but they did it!

I definitely think we need to make the giant bubbles again, in a giant field or park. The photos of Guides running with huge bubbles trailing behind them would be awesome.

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So overall, another successful science themed night! 
Now to start planning for the next one. Any suggestions??